The latest trends in technology are in the fields of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. While it is nice to have the latest gadget or mobile app on your iPhone, these technological developments don’t have the potential for changing our lives as much as virtual reality. Some of the VR being created in Silicon Valley is so realistic, it is inadvertently scaring people.
One of the most advanced technologists (among other things) is a man by the name of Kevin Kelly. On the Tim Ferriss podcast, he shared his views on virtual reality and how important it is going to be for the future moving forward.
Luckily, we are in the midst of the virtual reality technological explosion, which means there are plenty of software tools that you can learn how to create new things, hone skills, and learn something for free with Techacrobat that you could use for future projects.
Learning Virtual Reality
The process of learning how to create virtual reality comes with many nuances. After all, it isn’t like just creating a new song or video. This has to be similar to the real world with three dimensions and plenty of details. With the following tools, you can get started within the realm of virtual reality.
Unreal Engine – this has been a popular tool within the gaming community for many years and it is now becoming a great place to start for virtual reality training. The engine has a marketplace with several paid add-ons, but it is free software you can use to create gaming worlds.
The community for Unreal Engine is huge, which means there is plenty of tutorials and inspiration to help build and educate yourself about these topics.
Unity 3D – this upstart startup was a niche gaming development software until it grew into real competition for Unreal Engine. Now, with the first virtual reality headset being released, Unity is allowing users to build virtual reality environments.
The best part about Unity 3D is the ease of use. While experience with the engine is welcome, one can create a 3D virtual world with no prior experience.
Modeling Software Options
Now that you have a couple of options for creating your virtual reality world, there are characters, features, and figures that must go within it. If you want to put default characters in your three-dimensional world, that is your prerogative, but as you get more advanced, finding modeling software options will be even better.
Blender – this software tool doesn’t have the robust nature of some virtual reality engines we mentioned above, but it can help you to create every specific model that you’d like to incorporate in your virtual world. This platform is open-source and is robust and powerful enough to be used by many of the professionals who are currently creating virtual reality worlds.
Compared to the alternative free modeling software (Sculptris), the Blender engine is far more robust and allows you to create far better end products.
Why Get Involved with Virtual Reality
Imagine yourself in the early days of iPhone app development. When few people were making technology applications, those who were producing great things made a lot of money. The ability to code in iOS a few years ago could have been life-changing. The same can be said for virtual reality now. There are no virtual reality experts according to Kevin Kelly and it’s possible to make yourself one with the tools we have outlined.
Kelly talks about a world of mixed reality and virtual reality where some people already exist. People have already made millions of dollars selling virtual items on games like Second Life. Many Silicon Valley executives are using smart drugs like modafinil to get ahead, but now they can enter a virtual world where they are smart enough, strong enough, and wealthy enough that they leave supplements behind.
Although anyone interested and learning virtual reality is in a final frontier with less guidance and support, the rewards for learning this type of development will be far greater. Because virtual reality is one of the most important technologies of the future, Kelly predicts that understanding how to develop VR is going to be a big business.