‘Medium’ Update Lets You Sculpt in VR With Friends

Oculus Medium lets you sculpt virtual models in VR, but until now you’ve had to do it all alone. A new update to the program brings multiplayer functionality, allowing you and a friend to create and collaborate together.

Version 1.2 of Medium, now available, adds the Studio Share feature which lets you connect with a friend so that you can talk and see each other’s creations as you work on them. As far as we can tell, the multiplayer functionality is limited to two users at a time, and you can’t sculpt the same model together, but you can at least sculpt your own models separately. Still, each user is able to see the other user’s model and see the sculpting happening in real-time, as well as communicate as you build.

The update makes Medium the first of the major VR art tools (Quill, Tilt Brush, and Blocks being the others) to offer multiplayer functionality; Tilt Brush had teased the feature many months ago but we’ve yet to see it launch as an update to the program.

Medium version 1.2 also comes with set of new tools to make artist’s lives easier:

  • Move Tool—Grab and adjust parts of your sculpt without sacrificing fine detail
  • Reference Meshes—Import 3D meshes for reference or use our preloaded samples
  • Color Picker Eyedropper and Palettes—Use the eyedropper to select the exact color you want from a reference image, and explore our new color palettes
  • Manipulators—Rotate and scale objects and layers precisely along axes
  • Sculpt Origin—Set your sculpt’s position, orientation, and size for consistent exporting

Medium is free for Oculus Touch owners.

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Studio Share Brings Cooperative Sculpting To Oculus Medium

Studio Share Brings Cooperative Sculpting To Oculus Medium

Oculus Medium is a creative platform that enables users to create amazingly detailed digital sculptures using the power of VR with their Oculus Rift and Touch controllers. It launched with the Touch controllers back in December of 2016 but the platform has since evolved and is now getting a big, new feature that lets you bring along a buddy for some creative expression: Studio Share.

The Oculus team took to their official blog to share the news that Studio Share is on the way and currently in beta. With Studio Share, you and a friend can share the same creative space in Oculus Medium. It offers an opportunity for creative collaboration, but that’s not all.

Studio Share can be used as a means to receive real-time feedback on your creation or exchange feedback as you and a friend work on two separate projects. That added friend gives an extra pair of eyes in a creative platform where you have to execute from every angle. Better yet, it can be used as a tool for efficient education as the teacher instructs the student on better practices during the creation process rather than after the fact.

The blog details a handful of other features introduced in the latest update such as a move tool that lets you maneuver the sculpture without messing up any features on it, a featured artist section that’s being added to the Oculus Medium homepage, and more tools to make the creation and export process easier.

Interested in immersive creative platforms? Check out our guide to becoming a VR artist and some of the featured VR artwork we try to highlight each week.

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VR and AR Get a Place in Silicon Valley’s Tech Museum

For many emerging new technologies, the introduction of a permanent exhibit for that technology at the Tech Museum in Silicon Valley is a sign that the technology in question has ‘made it’. Though by most metrics virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are still in their infancy, they too have received the honour of a permanent exhibit at the Tech Museum showing off many of the cutting-edge technologies available right now.

The new exhibit was built using help from industry partners who provided much of the hardware on display. The exhibit opened on 26th March, 2017 and features a host of software and hardware from the AR and VR industries, which the museum has grouped under the label of XR.

Most of the VR experiences at the exhibit are limited to visitors ages 13 and over. Among the experiences available are Birdly, an immersive experience that includes laying on a wing-like board while wind from a strong fan blows in your face to more accurately simulate what is is like to be a bird.

Also available is Google’s TiltBrush, a popular room-scale VR experience that allows users to paint using VR motion controllers. In a similar vein is Medium on the Oculus Rift, which allows users to create ornate sculptures in VR without the need to buy expensive materials, or worry too much about making a mistake. 360-degree videos are also included, with a 360-degree walkthrough of the new Nvidia corporate headquarters. AR is covered in a display that shows how various area of the internet are connected and users can see how ‘close’ each area is, such as Facebook relative to Twitter.

The exhibit has been titled Reboot Reality and can be found at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, which is open daily from 10am until 5pm.

VRFocus will continue to report on developments in VR and AR technology.

Oculus ‘Medium’ 1.1 Update Brings Major Improvements

On April 12th, Oculus Medium received the 1.1 ‘Large’ update, which added several highly-requested features, including the ability to import reference images. Medium is Oculus’ flagship creative tool for the Touch motion controllers, recognised for its intuitive sculpting and modelling features.

Debuted at Oculus Connect 2 in September 2015, and bundled free with Oculus Touch controllers at the hardware launch in December 2016, Medium achieved its goal of delivering an accessible 3D modelling tool for the masses by emulating real-world clay sculpting, being more intuitive and approachable than professional software like ZBrush. But Medium also appealed to the pros, keen to integrate the tool with their workflow, resulting in a long list of feature requests.

The Oculus Medium “Large Update” is here! Dive in for reference images, Home screen redesign, 2D video, mesh reduction, Oculus avatar integration, and new tutorials!

Publié par Oculus Medium sur mercredi 12 avril 2017

Since the December release, the Medium team has addressed bugs and improved features in several smaller updates, such as the sharing functionality and the layer UI, but 1.1 represents the most substantial changes. The software now includes a collection of common reference images, with shapes, anatomy, guides and stickers, and you can import your own images easily. You can surround yourself with images or set them to ‘move with sculpt’, ideal for tracing and filling out basic proportions of a model. This feature alone is seen as a game-changer, making the tool much more practical for many creators.

In addition, the homescreen has been re-designed, with asset support on the Medium Newsfeed, allowing users to view and download sculpts within the headset. Improved menus allow for easier file browsing, feature discoverability, and usability, and new tutorials running within VR demonstrate sculpting techniques and tool use, with more planned in the future.

2D videos can now be recorded without having to leave VR, which show your movements represented by your Oculus Avatar, which has now been integrated. There are also new stamp collections, including bones, household objects, fruits and traditional clay tools. Other improvements include mesh reduction (the ability to export a reduced-poly-count mesh with the colours in a texture map), layer naming, and revised smoothing tools that provide more granular control beyond the analogue trigger.

On April 6th, renowned artist Steve Lord previewed the 1.1 update during a Facebook livestream, which remains one of the best demonstrations of the changes. During the stream, the team responded to questions and requests from the live chat, indicating that many more improvements are planned.

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