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What I think virtual reality would be immediately useful right now: for anyone working on 3D modeling/animating/CAD. It is very finicky to view and manipulate 3

What I think virtual reality would be immediately useful right now: for anyone working on 3D modeling/animating/CAD. It is very finicky to view and manipulate 3d data on a flat 2d monitor, VR headsets and manipulation devices should be a godsend to those professions. (Also, they have a lot more money to throw than ordinary consumers, they would be willing to pay thousands on a superior workflow.) If VR software developers would focus on those programs first, I would see VR being a must-buy for certain niche groups of people (which would be a solid foundation for the VR industry.) Too bad that many of the VR developers are tunnel-visioned and only care about flashy games/entertainment, where the real gold might be somewhere else.

fyfy18 7y ago
I will admit that I am not a professional, but in my spare time I have designed some parts in CAD software (Fusion 360) which I've then 3D printed. My experience was once I understood the key bindings to manipulate the view, it was very easy to spacially understand what was going on, even with parts that had layers hidden below other layers (you just turn off the layers you don't care about). I'm not really sure how a VR headset would have helped in my case, but as I said, maybe this is just because the work I was doing was simple.
- samatman 7y ago
  Back in the ol' cyberpunk 90s, the vision of VR always included gloves for fine-grained manipulation of the virtual space. I still believe that the combination of VR goggles and gloves (can't forget the wrist keyboard!) with the right software would lead to a quantum leap in 3D modeling. Guess we'll see what happens.
gmueckl 7y ago
I currently hack together a mini mesh modelling tool in VR for very specific reasons. I find that creating a UI for something moderately complex isn't all that easy. The common idiom is to treat your controllers as laser pointers, but precision is limited. So you need big UI elements to have easy to hit targets. With the number of simultaneous UI elements thus limited, you need to create hierarchies and menus fast, making interaction cumbersome. Also, using VR controllers in thin air for a prolonged time becomes a workout. The human body isn't quite made for keeping arms in these poses for extended periods of time. However, being able to view and manipulate a virtual object directly in 3d space is pretty darn sweet. Just bending your head or moving your hand beats manipulating virtual canera perspectives and gizmos for precision 3d interaction on a screen. I nearly forgot: the Unreal Engine editor has a VR mode that brings in the nornal 2D GUI as floating windows. I didn't like that very much, but people seem to be OK with it. I don't know any other DCC software that has VR support.
- l33tman 7y ago
  I'm going to get the Valve Index with the new knuckles controllers, and do some UI experiments with these. It's pretty cool if you can use the individual finger movements to extend hand gestures. I'm also sure it will take years until the UI converges to something optimal..
- jkestner 7y ago
  Good observations. CAD users typically have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse or 3D mouse. If you took out the mouse-screen translation and directly manipulated the object/scene with your mouse hand, I think you'd have the best of old and new. This calls for mixed reality, or visibility of your keyboard in VR.

fyfy18 7y ago

I will admit that I am not a professional, but in my spare time I have designed some parts in CAD software (Fusion 360) which I've then 3D printed. My experience was once I understood the key bindings to manipulate the view, it was very easy to spacially understand what was going on, even with parts that had layers hidden below other layers (you just turn off the layers you don't care about). I'm not really sure how a VR headset would have helped in my case, but as I said, maybe this is just because the work I was doing was simple.

samatman 7y ago
Back in the ol' cyberpunk 90s, the vision of VR always included gloves for fine-grained manipulation of the virtual space. I still believe that the combination of VR goggles and gloves (can't forget the wrist keyboard!) with the right software would lead to a quantum leap in 3D modeling. Guess we'll see what happens.

gmueckl 7y ago

I currently hack together a mini mesh modelling tool in VR for very specific reasons. I find that creating a UI for something moderately complex isn't all that easy. The common idiom is to treat your controllers as laser pointers, but precision is limited. So you need big UI elements to have easy to hit targets. With the number of simultaneous UI elements thus limited, you need to create hierarchies and menus fast, making interaction cumbersome. Also, using VR controllers in thin air for a prolonged time becomes a workout. The human body isn't quite made for keeping arms in these poses for extended periods of time. However, being able to view and manipulate a virtual object directly in 3d space is pretty darn sweet. Just bending your head or moving your hand beats manipulating virtual canera perspectives and gizmos for precision 3d interaction on a screen. I nearly forgot: the Unreal Engine editor has a VR mode that brings in the nornal 2D GUI as floating windows. I didn't like that very much, but people seem to be OK with it. I don't know any other DCC software that has VR support.

l33tman 7y ago
I'm going to get the Valve Index with the new knuckles controllers, and do some UI experiments with these. It's pretty cool if you can use the individual finger movements to extend hand gestures. I'm also sure it will take years until the UI converges to something optimal..
jkestner 7y ago
Good observations. CAD users typically have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse or 3D mouse. If you took out the mouse-screen translation and directly manipulated the object/scene with your mouse hand, I think you'd have the best of old and new. This calls for mixed reality, or visibility of your keyboard in VR.