Oculus RIft (3D viewing)

Are there any updates on rhino/rift? Any API, guides or similar?

@jeff : have you guys had any luck with the Oculus? After playing with a demo (like the original low-rez ones you guys have), I had a better feel for how it might work, but also had a feeling it might be tough to integrate. Not so hard for viewing, but maybe tricky (impossible?) to work into a working environment? Hopefully you are more clever than I am. :wink:

Nothing really done at all on this yet… However, the latest SDK looks a lot more promising… Everything is now event driven…meaning, at the very least the goggles can be used like any other pointing device.

I think I may have mentioned this in an email somewhere…but I’ll mention it again here…

If there are 3D viewers out there that support these devices, then I’m pretty sure Rhino can export to whatever format they support…which means you at least use them for viewing/touring your scenes… I’m really not too sure how well modeling with these devices will work…or what the ā€œworkflowā€ would really be…but then, I haven’t really given much thought to it…yet.

-J

1 Like

Thanks for the update Jeff. :slight_smile: Yeah, I figured the least we could do is view models in other viewers (hopefully we can just open 3DM files directly, if not, no biggie). Not sure what modeling in that format would be like… but it could be interesting. :slight_smile:

I see them as a really nice tool for evaluating architecture. I don’t see then in modelling yet, as being able to see your keyboard is important. But they could evolve into sketching with hand gestures in the future, but I can not see that it would benefit Rhino to follow that path right now. But for evaluating design I think it would strengthen Rhino a lot. This would be like a mini cave at a low cost. I would buy one in a heart beat if rhino would support this. And then Rhino would need to support a ground geometry to find the propper eye-heigh.

I don’t know how you guys use Rhino but I had the list of command aliases well maintained and memorized one year after I started working with it. That was five years ago. Now virtually all commands are under my left hand, left side of the keyboard and the commands…, how to put it, flow automatically from my brain into the keyboard. I love Rhino for this. As a consequence I got rid of ALL command icons and normally work on a completely empty screen in full screen mode. My left hand knows very well what to do so only occasionally I turn on the command window (F2 for me), the object properties (F3) or layers (F4). I tried that with AutoCad before but editing the acad.pgp to assign aliases was just too silly. In Rhino making shortcuts is so easy!
So I don’t look at the keyboard at all. I also don’t use command icons or other windows than right-click windows that appear under the mouse anyway. My eyes and mouse is ALWAYS where the action is. In my point of view the other modes of working (menues, icons, command line) are for beginners or occasional users. After a year or two of everyday use you should be able to work without any user interface other than left hand short cuts. Heck, I don’t even know anymore how I start any command, my left hand knows that for me :slight_smile: . I have to admit that there also are some commands I scripted myself to further strengthen my approach. distances are shown under the mouse via a pop up window, curve lengths as well. I have some tricks to put objects on layers etc. that appear under the mouse pointer too. All to liberate myself from the clutter on the screen. It’s just about the geometry and me.
I guess it’s obvious from this that I would be the oculus’ greatest fan. There is no other 3D software that can be configured into such a free working mode. Coming from there I strongly believe that Rhino is the one 3D software that is prepared best for the ocolus rift.
Now here my last punch: McNeel is famous for spending no money on marketing which is nice as the product speaks for itself. It quietly became an industry standard with it’s no bullshit and hands on approach. If McNeel would go the little extra mile to make Rhino+Rift work and demonstrate the ā€œuser interface freeā€ workflow in this environment only once then this would be a very cheap and effective marketing stunt. If this workflow is demonstrated well I have no doubt that quite a number of people will go buy rifts and memorize shortcuts.

Michael

(geometry generation R&D. five years @ zaha hadids office to manage complex facades, now @ permasteelisa to do even more crazy things)

2 Likes

I just got my rift this week and have tried out the 3d body scans demo. This experience now has me learning Unity because I want to at least view my rendered rhino models in amazing 3d. This capability, of viewing rendered ā€œmock upsā€ in rhino with the OR is what needs to be done. Designing yachts, this tool would improve the concept design process invaluably.

At first, the resolution of the OR seemed as if it would not be sufficient to comfortably build complex models using rhino but, after viewing the 3d scan demo I realized that rhino’s proper zoom and view movement might allow you to zoom infinitely into your work, revealing otherwise unrealized detail.

Please mcneel, immerse me in the space and realize that this needs focused development.

Imagine your virtual tool pallet always hovering at your hands as you walk around the model and sculpt with haptic feedback.

1 Like

YES please, I want a fully immersive 3d environment for modeling in Rhino!
I still need to see the keyboard for those long span key command combinations, but I can imagine some cool function in later versions that allow a quick peek down to the keyboard. I’m thinking of a small camera pointing down that can show a ghosted view of the hands in the display, full time or temporarily with the correct head nod down.

First Let Me say this: ā€œThis is without a doubt the future of 3D digital design!ā€, please McNeel embrace this like there is no tomorrow!

This can solve a lot of the concerns posted in this thread, plus I Just love Jeri and want to support Her. It’s also very interesting as it relates to digital imaging Interview with Jeri Ellsworth about Her castAR technology

As an experiment I tried a voice recognition program called VAC with Rhino and assigned it to all the most common commands(I think about 25) and I sit there and talk to Rhino with a 3D mouse in My left hand and a regular mouse in My right and the experience is beyond words! A VR hood of any sort would be just fine with Me no keyboard needed…AHHhhhh the possibilities, I can’t WAIT!

Hi all,

I’ve successfully connected the Oculus Rift to Rhino via OpenTrack and Grasshopper:

There’s some info in the ā€˜about’ section of the youtube link. If there’s interest, I’ll try to clean up my code/patches and can post it online.

Although the lack of spherical distortion throws things off a bit, and having to size the viewports manually is tricky – It’s still pretty incredible to look around and to get a real sense of scale. Scale and distance are immediate. While wearing the rift, I scale1Ded an object vertically, and found my jaw dropping as a small box turned into what felt like a 100’ tall skyscraper, and I had to crane my head upwards to squint up at the top…

This is an experiment, and will pale in comparison to any native implementation that McNeel may do. However, it’s surprisingly responsive, and incredibly effective.

8 Likes

Please share! I am sure we can benefit from any hacky version now before (/if) McNeel comes out with support for this.

And I know that a lot of architects would love to be able to evaluate their design from the inside, so I really hope McNeel will work on supporting this.

Thanks for showing this.

-JĆørgen

1 Like

Oh man, this would be awesome, seeing my models ā€œirlā€ā€¦

Thanks! I’ve written up a how-to and posted the files here, rather than in this forum, since it’s Grasshopper-based, after all.
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/oculus-rift-grasshopper-w-opentrack

Cheers,
Dan

2 Likes

More immersion for the oculus? Add this thing which I came across in a different topic.

Nice. There it recognizes hands.

You should see leap motion. Finger for finger :wink:

Hi everyone!

If you are interested in this, i want to show you our work.
We have worked a lot on it, even before the oculus hype :slight_smile:

We are Architects and want to develop enviroments that help to better understand and communicate big and complex projects. We love Freeforms and such stuff, so thats the easyest way to make someone understand this forms: Go there and look at it, as you need it.

So we ATM have a powerful DX11 Gameenigne with Ipad APP to control the enviroment. We built some Grasshopper scripts that help us to import even BIG BIG BIG scale parametric projects in our 3D realtime Engine.

Here you see a mockup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjHUM6Rtv68

We are Rhino-Fans. Our Workflow is Rhino -> Our Scripts -> RealtimeEngine
We love it, to experience our Projects that way :slight_smile: With the ipad app connected to the realtimeengine you can even change textures, time of day and stuff like that.
Tell your friends :wink: We need a job :stuck_out_tongue:

If any of you is interested in working with us on such stuff, please feel free to contact me! f.chiaramonte@block3.de
I really would enjoy a nice chat about this kind of stuff!

Soo… for me its a MUST to have the oculus running in the Perview window :slight_smile: …

can anyone tell me how to embed the youtube video in my post?

Go to youtube. copy the link. Paste it on a new row. :slight_smile:

Btw. Walking around like that looks great :stuck_out_tongue:

just uploaded some feed i had of a project we made.

Rhino+Vray for the Floorplans and Renderings, 3D Print as modell and the VR experience as the eyecandy :stuck_out_tongue:

later that day the room totally exploded and was full of people ^^

We tryed different types of Navigation :smiley:

Why is your set of goggles so much smaller then the oculus, what are the differences?