NeosVR Lets You Build Virtual Worlds With Others, Remotely And In Real Time
Tomas “Frooxius” Mariancik released the first of a series of dev vlogs highlighting NeosVR, a multi-user virtual reality “world building engine” that's designed to help creators build VR environments from within a VR environment. Mariancik describes NeosVR as a combination of the Unity VR editor and the collaborative features of Google Docs. In his first vlog, the developer highlighted several of NeosVR’s features.
Virtual reality games are impressive on their own, but there’s nothing quite like standing HMD-to-HMD in a multiplayer VR experience. AltspaceVR was one of the first multiplayer VR experiences, but these days, there are multiple ways to meet in VR. You can get together for a round of pool in Pool Nation VR, pretend to be at war with your buddies in Onward, or race wheel-to-wheel in Project Cars. Soon, you’ll even be able to draw in Tilt Brush with other live players, but one developer is taking the idea of VR collaboration to a much more practical level.
NeosVR allows multiple people to connect to the same 3D environment and edit it together in real-time. NeosVR synchronizes all data across the network, so when someone makes a change, it is quickly updated for everyone else, too.
NeosVR features a selection of design tools, including freehand drawing, the ability to spawn items and shapes, and a “material gun” that allows you to change the substance of any object with the click of a button. NeosVR also features a glue function that allows you to combine multiple objects into one. The glue “dries” over a period of a few seconds, but it won’t set until you stop manipulating it.
NeosVR supports importing any 3D model or 3D scan into the scene, and the process couldn’t be easier. It even lets you import pre-rigged models that you can manipulate as you see fit. To import a file, remove the HMD and access the folder that contains the model you want to import, copy the file with the CTRL+C command, click on the NeosVR window, and press Ctrl + Alt + V to paste the model into the scene. It will instantly appear and start to replicate to everyone else in the environment.
Mariancik intends to release regular dev vlogs in which he will discuss the various features and the development progress of NeosVR. “No more developing in silence from now on!” said Mariancik. The clip below is a short preview of NeosVR alpha. You can find the full hour-long dev vlog here.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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wifiburger meh, sounds good on paper and in theory no way it will be implemented properly and accessible to the mass = big failReply -
anbello262 'Accessible to the mass' has no meaning when speaking about current VR, so I don't really understand your point. The same would apply to each and every VR game/app.Reply
And once headsets become mainstream, it would only be as hard as a normal simulator (as the mentioned Second Life, which was a huge success). -
catbox well that settles it. wifiburger says it won't work. hahaha. Which Best buy geed squad do you work at?Reply -
JakeWearingKhakis These kinds of apps are pretty much not going to go anywhere if you ask me. The features they create might be adapted into other programs/games, but no way is any of this efficient for real life designing.Reply -
Jeff Fx This sort of thing will be huge.Reply
Putting a mesh together can be a hassle on a screen, since you need to use multiple views to manipulate the object from each side, but in 3D, modeling will be so much easier, as we move around the object to make adjustments that we can immediately perceive in 3D. -
anbello262 I agree with the Khakis guy: Most likely this particular app will not be extremely successful, but I expect to see some app based on this becoming a big hit.Reply