MakerShades

MakerShades is a simple tool using for previewing 3d objects in your hand in a virtual reality environment. Its interface will enable both VR and on-screen use with deep UE4 integration on VR touch and physics to produce high-fidelity 3d print preview

Overview

As 3d modeling and printing have become more widespread, there is a greater need for tools to help prototype and evaluate content before printing. Virtual reality (VR) offers highly unique ‘immersive’ experiences that are useful for analysis of 3d models and environments and we want to leverage that to solve this challenge.

Key objectives of this project include providing an immersive VR experience that leverages real-time touch controls to allow translation, rotation, and scaling of meshes in a 3d environment. Reach goals include implementing customizable materials and environments, and for more entertainment value, enabling simple physics on objects.

Vision

For users, MakerShades aims to provide

• A simple to use tool to load and play around with meshes obtained elsewhere.
• The best form of such a tool in all of Steam. None exist today.

Some stakes in the ground:

• There should be no/minimal UI. The interface should be entirely native to touch-enabled, room-scale VR available on HTC Vive.
• It should look awesome. There is a relatively small amount of content being displayed. Thus, we should take advantage of this to maximize visual fidelity.

For me (xndr), with this project, I would like to:

• Learn the fundamentals of development on the Unreal engine
• Gain an early understanding of VR and build a foothold in the VR application market.
• Create a useful tool for me and many other 3d printers.

Discussion

Current tools for 3d printers are simplified extensions of 3d modeling/manufacturing tools. They offer a virtualized view of the build place and the object to be printed, allowing for adjustment prior to printing. While effective, this could be much better with a “print preview” in VR.

By creating a more robust VR print preview, I believe we can provide delight and great benefit to 3d printers and 3d modelers looking to better visualize their work leveraging the capabilities of the Unreal engine. The key of this application will be it’s simplicity and bare functions of showcasing the object via VR only, ideally leveraging touch controllers.

Engine features needed

Leveraging the Unreal engine will allow many of the engine’s built in features to be made use of for free. Technically, this is a fairly simple application; it (may) converts a file format, and then loads a file into the engine to be displayed.

Where possible, we will use base-engine functionality for key features, including:

• Rendering of content
• Handling of the game-loop
• Physics (if enabled)
• Networking (for multiplayer modes)
• Interactivity/Controls (including, hopefully, VR)

New functionality needed include:

• File conversion (STL->OBJ)
• Representing the stage and the mesh with appropriate VR interactivity.

Development Primary Documentation: https://goo.gl/BRNGEQ Github: https://github.com/skyrien/MakerShades