I will update this entry as I go and learn more about these tools.

I spent some time playing with the design tools ShapesXR, Tools within Horizon, and Gravity. There are plenty of other industry-specific tools for things like architecture but for now, I’m going to focus on what I think are the broad overarching tools that will persist in the medium-term.

This is an obvious place to start because well Meta runs Occulus and Horizon so the tools for this platform are not going anywhere and are likely to become the gold standard for now. Future tools are likely to reference Horizon features and copy or improve upon them. A 10M fund to help onboard developers is a significant push.

https://uploadvr.com/meta-offers-training-500000-in-rewards-to-horizon-worlds-creators/

I jumped in Horizon briefly and plan to give a full deep dive of my first impressions but from what I gathered this is where you would build a “world” and bring all together with the aspects of your world. It’s a one-stop-shop and no other tools are needed *but I suspect more tools will be needed to create next-level experiences. Similar to how a video editor uses Cinema 4d for animations and Adobe Premier for cutting/editing, a meta designer likely will use Horizon to make worlds but rely on other tools to build finer points. In this scenario, Horizon is like Premiere and these tools below are like Cinema 4D.

Looks like for now you can not import any elements into horizon worlds.. Disappointing but I anticipate this to change as the platform matures.

These worlds are built of fairly easy-to-code scripts, though I’m not sure writing scripts in a headset is better than the ‘old-fashion way’. I will dive more into this later.

Potential deliverables/things to learn

• Build a world in Horizon with Scripts

• Set up Occulus Development tools on CP and Headset

• Create App

• join the Occulus Start program to become a “Builder” and receive funding and training to learn more about VR development

I have little to no experience in this realm so I’m going to cautiously avoid this wormhole for now BUT important to recognize these two industry-standard tools. From what I have heard, Unity seems like the veteran of yesterday, and Unreal Engine 4 is the next wave. Unity seems easier to pick up for an amateur (like me) where Unreal Engine seems like something you learn if you are moving into the specialized career of high-end game development.

Potential deliverables/things to learn (for me)

• Become familiar with unity without pressure to become an expert

• Build a few simple things in unity and learn how to export to existing tools

These tools are similar in that they give more tools to build detail-oriented objects/scenes or prototypes to be viewed in the VR medium. However, these tools do not build “worlds like Unity or Horizon” so this should be used as a (low-barrier to the entry) companion to the world makes.

Deciding between the two -- leaning more towards ShapesXR for now

Generally, I like the ShapesXR over Gravity because of the interface better, the tutorials offered, plugs into Unity easily, and offers the shapes.app to store files and export which I liked better than gravity’s gravity lab platform (though they basically do the same thing import, export, create/join collaboration spaces.). ShapesXR also seemed to have a better library of pre-rendered items which is a big plus.

I saved dummy files to each to play around with both tools.

Shapes XR Potential deliverables/things to learn

• Set up Shapes.app and become familiar, look into pre-rendered libraries for common objects -- Done already

• Build a few simple things in unity and export it to Shapes XR

• Export shapesXR item into horizon world if possible

• Re-build my ME logo in ShapesXR

• Set up a shapesXR meeting and learn -

https://calendly.com/jeremy-shapesxr/shapesxr-onboarding?month=2022-04

More Tools to look into (adding here as I go)

• ARKIO - Build neighborhood layouts and spatial design with AR

I will update this entry as I go and learn more about these tools.

I spent some time playing with the design tools ShapesXR, Tools within Horizon, and Gravity. There are plenty of other industry-specific tools for things like architecture but for now, I’m going to focus on what I think are the broad overarching tools that will persist in the medium-term.

This is an obvious place to start because well Meta runs Occulus and Horizon so the tools for this platform are not going anywhere and are likely to become the gold standard for now. Future tools are likely to reference Horizon features and copy or improve upon them. A 10M fund to help onboard developers is a significant push.

https://uploadvr.com/meta-offers-training-500000-in-rewards-to-horizon-worlds-creators/

I jumped in Horizon briefly and plan to give a full deep dive of my first impressions but from what I gathered this is where you would build a “world” and bring all together with the aspects of your world. It’s a one-stop-shop and no other tools are needed *but I suspect more tools will be needed to create next-level experiences. Similar to how a video editor uses Cinema 4d for animations and Adobe Premier for cutting/editing, a meta designer likely will use Horizon to make worlds but rely on other tools to build finer points. In this scenario, Horizon is like Premiere and these tools below are like Cinema 4D.

Looks like for now you can not import any elements into horizon worlds.. Disappointing but I anticipate this to change as the platform matures.

These worlds are built of fairly easy-to-code scripts, though I’m not sure writing scripts in a headset is better than the ‘old-fashion way’. I will dive more into this later.

Potential deliverables/things to learn

• Build a world in Horizon with Scripts

• Set up Occulus Development tools on CP and Headset

• Create App

• join the Occulus Start program to become a “Builder” and receive funding and training to learn more about VR development

I have little to no experience in this realm so I’m going to cautiously avoid this wormhole for now BUT important to recognize these two industry-standard tools. From what I have heard, Unity seems like the veteran of yesterday, and Unreal Engine 4 is the next wave. Unity seems easier to pick up for an amateur (like me) where Unreal Engine seems like something you learn if you are moving into the specialized career of high-end game development.

Potential deliverables/things to learn (for me)

• Become familiar with unity without pressure to become an expert

• Build a few simple things in unity and learn how to export to existing tools

These tools are similar in that they give more tools to build detail-oriented objects/scenes or prototypes to be viewed in the VR medium. However, these tools do not build “worlds like Unity or Horizon” so this should be used as a (low-barrier to the entry) companion to the world makes.

Deciding between the two -- leaning more towards ShapesXR for now

Generally, I like the ShapesXR over Gravity because of the interface better, the tutorials offered, plugs into Unity easily, and offers the shapes.app to store files and export which I liked better than gravity’s gravity lab platform (though they basically do the same thing import, export, create/join collaboration spaces.). ShapesXR also seemed to have a better library of pre-rendered items which is a big plus.

I saved dummy files to each to play around with both tools.

Shapes XR Potential deliverables/things to learn

• Set up Shapes.app and become familiar, look into pre-rendered libraries for common objects -- Done already

• Build a few simple things in unity and export it to Shapes XR

• Export shapesXR item into horizon world if possible

• Re-build my ME logo in ShapesXR

• Set up a shapesXR meeting and learn -

https://calendly.com/jeremy-shapesxr/shapesxr-onboarding?month=2022-04

More Tools to look into (adding here as I go)

• ARKIO - Build neighborhood layouts and spatial design with AR