[RELEASED] Open Source VR Unity plug-in

MindPort is excited to announce that VR Builder - the free and open source VR Unity plug-in is now available on the Unity Asset Store!


Your Benefits:

• Save enormous amount of development time
• Easily implement proven best practices for VR
• Extend the code and customize the software to your needs

Creating better VR content faster has never been easier!


Product Highlights:


Setup Wizard: Get everything setup in a few clicks. Select your supported hardware and the wizard will take care of preparing your scene to work in VR.




Snap Zone Generator: Create feedback for positioning objects automatically with consistent appearance and while maintaining flexibility. Get a working snap zone for your "snappable" object with a single click.




GUI to Design Processes: Design and manage complex processes easily with our graphical user interface. Define guiding elements and VR interactions for each step.




Integrated Text-To-Speech-Engine: Guide your users intuitively with synthesized audio instructions in VR. Choose one of the preconfigured text-to-speech engines from Microsoft (SAPI), Google, or IBM Watson, or connect your own TTS provider.




Professional VR Interactions for Objects: Our already pre-configured VR interactions can be implemented within seconds. They make it easy for you to follow best practices for Virtual Reality, which ensures an intuitive and comfortable experience for your users in VR.




Extensibility: Do you want to customize your applications? Flexibly adapt the code to your needs.


Good to know:


We've also created onboarding material to help you get up and running with VR Builder fast. Check out our tutorial on setting up VR Builder, teleporting, and grabbing objects in VR.

Let’s create better VR content faster and download VR Builder for free from the Unity Asset Store!


Helpful Links:

• Discover in-depth product highlights and features
• Join our Lead User Group and get early access to our latest features
• Join our community on Discord for support and product announcements
• Learn more about our company - MindPort
• Contact our support directly in case you have any questions or issues

We’d love to get your feedback, both positive and constructive. By sharing your feedback you help us improve your experience - thank you in advance! Let’s build something extraordinary together!

 

This looks great, thanks for sharing. Can you use this package for AR experiences as well?

 

We're definitely interested in AR and we'd like to offer something in the future, but right now we are focusing on delivering a solid base product that works in VR.
That said, nothing stops the user from writing/extending the necessary conditions, behaviors, and configurations, it should work fine.

 

We are excited to announce publishing a new version of VR Builder! VR Builder Demo v0.4.0 now lets you download the core from openupm via a package manager registry. We are aiming to make setting everything up for you even more convenient with this change. Talking of convenience: VR Builder Core v0.3.0 has a new structure for behaviors and conditions so that you can find faster what you are looking for. In case you have ideas or recommendations on how to make VR Builder even more convenient to you, please let us know in the VR Builder Community on Discord or in the comments below!

 

We just uploaded VR Builder Demo v0.4.1 and VR Builder Core v0.3.1. This minor version fixes some bugs that have been reported by our users and makes the setup a little bit smoother. We hope you enjoy it!

 

You can now download VR Builder Demo v0.4.2b and VR Builder v0.4.0. With this release, we fixed the Newtonsoft bug that occurred with Unity 2020.3.18+. We also improved the usability: You can open the workflow editor now from the toolbar:



And you can create steps faster by just dragging a step exit node into the void.

 

Today we have released VR Builder v0.5.0! If you're using Unity 2020+, you can now select OpenXR in the course creation wizard. Additionally, we now download version 4.5.0 of the Windows XR plugin, as the latest one was causing problems with one of our WMR headsets. If you had trouble with WMR recently, this might be your fix!

 

Together with Interhaptics, we developed an integration of VR Interaction Essentials and VR Builder, which empowers you to create fully-functional VR applications and enhance them with haptics. By using both products simultaneously, you can reduce significant development time and create more immersive experiences. The integration is now live on the Unity Asset Store! And to celebrate this milestone with you, Interhaptics offers a 50% discount!

Feature Highlights:

1. Automatic setup: Configure your Unity project and VR hardware in 3 steps.
2. Define the workflow in VR with a graphical user interface: Create and manage steps of your VR app with a simple drag n drop behavior.VR-ready interactions: Create professional VR interactions in seconds and according to best practices for VR.
3. Text-to-speech-audio: Simply type text to create synthesized audio instructions
4. Access a manifold of ready-made interaction prefabs: More than 10 different categories that fit into diverse scenarios for your VR application.
5. Implement sophisticated hand tracking interactions: Add a unique layer to VR applications by precise interactions, such as two-hand interactions, grasping, and snapping.
6. Haptic feedback embedded interactions: Most of the interactions included in the integration include haptic feedback in the form of vibrations, textures, or stiffness. Users will sense the haptic feedback depending on the hardware in use.
7. Cross-platform device compatibility: Deploy your VR application on both Oculus and steamVR based devices.

Helpful links:

• Watch the teaser on YouTube
• Try out the integration in VR on SideQuest or itch.io.
• Learn more about the integration in our blog post
• Download VR Builder - it’s FREE and open source
• Download VR Interaction Essentials (currently at 50% discount to celebrate this milestone with our users)
• Get immediate support from the VR Builder Community on Discord

 

Now the Track & Measure add-on for VR Builder is released! The Track & Measure add-on lets you evaluate user performance in VR by keeping score and tracking time. This provides great added value, especially for VR training applications.

• Benefits for Unity developers: Implement time and score tracking capabilities within seconds, without writing a single line of code. Moreover, the Track & Measure add-on is extensible via code, providing greater flexibility and customization options.

• Benefits for VR users: Gamification elements such as tracking time and counting points or time make the VR experience more intuitive, fun, and engaging. This increases the learning effect and user satisfaction.

• Benefits for VR trainers: Use the included data display prefabs to create a final scoreboard that visualizes the user's performance in VR. On the one hand, this allows the user to review their performance. On the other hand, VR trainers can give the user instructions for future improvements.

​

How to get started:

• Check out the tutorial on making a simple ball game in VR with Track & Measure
• Contact us in the VR Builder Community for feedback, questions, and help
• Download Track & Measure from the Unity Asset Store

 

VR Builder v.1.0 is finally available on the Unity Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/vr-builder-201913 Join our Discord server for support: http://community.mindport.co

 

Just this week, we released VR Builder version 1.1, providing you with another behavior free of charge: The change parenting behavior. It's especially helpful together with our Animations add-on. You can learn more about the change parenting behavior and the Animations add-on in our tutorial.

 

After several weeks of intensive work, we have finally released the VR Builder Learning Path - a collection of tutorials for getting started with VR Builder, VR Builder add-ons, and partner integrations. The tutorials include:

1. Essentials: getting started quickly with VR Builder
2. Interactions: letting users interact with virtual objects
3. Guidance: user guidance in VR
4. Timing & sequencing: creating timed effects in VR
5. Add-ons & Integrations: getting started with our paid offering

Currently, there are 14 tutorials - more content is in the pipeline!
https://www.mindport.co/tutorials-unity-vr-development

 

A new add-on is available on the Unity Asset Store: States & Data The States & Data add-on provides you with maximum flexibility in designing workflows in VR!



Product Features:

• Variables in processes: Process variables of type Float, Bool, String and Enum. For example, use Boolean values to set triggers or use numbers to track quantities or as loop counters.
  
  
• Value-dependent conditions: Trigger steps based on the value of a variable or by comparing two variables with each other.
  
  
• Mathematical operations: Modify number properties by performing operations on them or by using other variables. Operations supported at this time are Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Min and Max.
  
  
• Set and read states on objects: Write your own logic and link it to VR Builder. Interact with your scene by changing and reading states as enums through variables. This way you can keep your project lean and focus on the actual logical steps.
  
  
• Code access: Variables can be easily read and modified in code. It is also possible to register for events that report when a variable is changed or reset.
  
  
• Easy logging: Easily debug variables in your process - simply check a box in the logging settings and all value changes will be clearly logged in the console.

⭐️ Benefits for Developers: Write code in Unity and link it to VR Builder to make it work. If you have an existing scene with logic, you can link it to VR Builder and use the states in your existing scene.

⭐️ Benefits for VR users: Process variables make the user experience richer and more fun. Multiple scenarios and more sophisticated interactions lead to higher learning and user engagement.

How to get started:

• Documentation
• Tutorials
• Download States & Data

 

Today we have released VR Builder version 2.0! You benefit from the following advantages when upgrading to the new version:

• VR Builder now includes everything in the Unity Asset Store package, making setup much easier.
• VR Builder now uses version 2.0 of the Unity XR Interaction Toolkit as the default interaction system.
• Better compatibility when working with VR Builder on iOS devices.

We welcome your feedback on the new improvements we made!

When upgrading to VR Builder 2.0, please follow this guide

 

Today we've introduced a major upgrade to the GUI to make it even more powerful. With the new GUI, you can:

- Rename nodes by double-clicking on them
- Select and drag multiple nodes at once
- Bulk-edit, e.g. copy & paste several steps at once
- Zoom in and out of the graph; Panning can be done with the mouse wheel instead of right click, according to common Unity UI standards
- Much more

Also, transitions now display the node they lead to on the graph.

The new GUI requires VR Builder 2.1