2021 demonstrated that sales of Virtual Reality (VR) products for those wishing to explore this rapidly developing technology on a modest budget remains alive and kicking – with over 10 million Meta Quest 2 headsets sold throughout the year as one example. VR is set to make a splash in 2022 with the launch of the both the Playstation VR2 and the Meta Quest Pro some time later in the year. The Meta Quest 3 will likely arrive next year, whilst the lightweight ultra-portable Vive Flow glasses are currently attracting some interest with their recent release. From a designer’s perspective, Vive, Meta (formerly Facebook) have enabled designers and artists to develop an interest and skillset in VR by providing the following experiences:
- Drawing in three dimensions using apps such as Google Tilt Brush. A variety of brushes and shapes can be used to build room sized 3D drawings animated using camera paths and audio reactive brushes. In 2021 Google released the source data for Tilt Brush. This has led to the development of multi-user drawing experiences and a selection of new brushes.
- Painting on canvas with Painting VR. No mess or tidy up to deal with in the real world but a whole bundle of creative endeavours with paint and canvases in VR. This app is still in Beta.
- Sculpting using Adobe Medium. All the fun of virtual clay and character modelling within an environment with a professional interface. This processing-power-hungry app is difficult to master but when used to its full potential the results are quite spectacular.
- Designing with Gravity Sketch’s excellent 3D modelling tools. The ability to create objects including vehicles, household objects and even architectural models is enhanced by the intuitive way that Gravity Sketch facilitates the creation and manipulation of surfaces.
Hopes for the Future of VR
Here are my hopes as a designer for VR in the near future:
- Augmented Reality (AR) will form a key component of any future headset from Meta (formerly Facebook). We have played games, designed and interacted with others within a completely virtual environment. The next step is to design, play and interact within our own environment using AR. As an example, as a designer I hope that the new generation of experiences will allow the user to view their own living or working spaces in high resolution whilst also being able to interact with objects or people within that environment. This approach has the potential to allow for collaborative design development on an office table, or even kicking a virtual football against the lounge wall at home. The industry standard Microsoft Hololens is currently leading the way in this type of Mixed Reality but it comes at a industry leading price of around £3000 ($3500) for a basic unit.
- Lighter, more portable headsets to reduce the burden in size and weight of the product on your face. This is a real sticking point for some new users as the size and weight remains an annoyance. This issue can often detract from the overall VR experience, especially when the headset cannot be made to fit with at least a degree of comfort (the Meta Quest 2 original strap being a great example).
- Increased resolution within the apps to create more realistic drawings and environments – the resolution of headsets is improving and the screen door effect has been reduced significantly in the past couple of years with improved OLED headset screen design. There are rumours of an even higher resolution uLED technology coming to products in 2022 – 2023.
- Improved workflow when designing with surfaces or solids to allow greater efficiency in the workflow between applications, 3D printers or rendering programs such as 3D Studio as a few examples.
