VANCOUVER — WorldViz recently released Vizard 6, a new version of its Python-based VR development platform. WorldViz has focused its development in three main areas: new third-party VR headset and peripheral support, an easier art workflow with support for the 3D model format GLTF, and broader avatar support through Adobe’s Fuse CC. Interested users can get started today for free at www.worldviz.com/vizard, or contact WorldViz to get a demo of Vizard 6 at SIGGRAPH 2018 in Vancouver.
With its unique adaptability and extensibility, Vizard is a robust development environment for scientific-grade VR, and has long been the chosen engine within the R&D community, whether in university or business settings. It allows researchers and innovators to build precise and complex simulations that connect to VR headsets, CAVEs and Powerwalls, head/hand trackers and motion capture systems, and speciality devices such as eye trackers, haptic feedback devices, and biophysiological sensors such as EEGs, EKGs and GSRs. And with an embedded Python interface, the user experience is friendly, straightforward, and open, which means users don't have to be a computer programmer to get started. The release of Vizard 6 builds on this foundation with features that cater directly to its core audience of researchers and innovators.
In the area of hardware, Vizard 6 now has support for all Windows Mixed Reality headsets and a number of new peripherals, including the Manus VR Gloves, and Tobii eye-tracking hardware. These new devices have been added to HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and the 150 + peripherals, trackers, biofeedback monitors, and display types (including headsets and CAVES) that Vizard currently supports with its unique, proprietary and fully integrated VizConnect software tool.
On the graphics side, Vizard embraced the new 3D model format GLTF, which improves graphics rendering and provides new and simplified workflows out of Revit, Solidworks, Maya, Blender, SketchUp, Substance Painter, Modo, and more, as well as access to over 150,000 models in Sketchfab’s library.
In the past, Vizard users were given a predefined set of avatars from which to choose. While those avatars are still supported, WorldViz has now included support for avatars created in Adobe Fuse CC. Fuse offers users an easy way to customize avatars that can then be imported into Vizard with all of the associated data (such as skeletons, etc) attached.