This article was 1st published on our sister Site, Digital World Native.
Online creativity keeps taking on new dimensions with every passing day. This new virtual reality (VR) app, for example, lets you paint in 3D space by selecting virtual colors & brushes & by waving your hands around. You move around the room & step around, in, & through your drawings as you make your digital creations. The app is available on the HTC Vive VR headset, on the Steam gaming platform.
A lot of noise has been heard of late regarding VR & its great promise as a revolutionary new computing paradigm, but the lack of a killer app so far means less than massive public acceptance. Now, though, if you buy an HTC Vive, you get the Tilt Brush app for free, & from what analysts are saying, this may go a long way toward capturing people’s imagination, especially among the creative types.
Not only can you create 3D paintings (virtual sculptures anyone?) by moving around the room while wearing a headset & waving 2 precisely tracked handheld controllers & tracking beacons, you can even use materials like fires, stars, smoke or snowflakes for your palette.
Check out this video
In all, the app’s brushstroke palette has 24 stroke types, for which you can change properties like the texture, intensity & shading, so you can make your creations look like shiny pieces of paper, add splotches of paint or twisted lit up wires. However, it’s not at all easy to fill in the strokes, so you’ll have to keep making brush strokes all around your 3D image until that’s done. The app also has a built-in camera that gives you a virtual preview as if you had a 3D smartphone on the palm of your hand. & a Spirograph tool to draw swirling, spinning lines, as well a bunch of other features.
The minimum system requirements are: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or later or Windows 10, with CPU: Intel i5-4590, AMD FX 8350 equivalent or better, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or better. The Vive headset can be ordered for US $799, & comes with the Tilt Brush as well as 2 wireless controllers, & base stations, a link box & earbuds as well as 2 other titles: Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption.
You can also buy the Tilt Brush separate from the Vive headset, for € 27.99.
Image Credit: HTC
•Share This•
