Google’s new Blocks app lets anyone create 3D models for VR (VIDEO)
Google’s latest virtual reality app lets users build colorful 3D models in VR, and it’s out today for free on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Google Blocks is supposed to be intuitive enough for newcomers to use, but full-featured enough to support making artistically compelling models, like the ones Google has collected in an online gallery. Users can export objects and make them viewable online, or they can put them in 3D scenes inside and outside virtual reality. On Google’s site, visitors can even spin objects around to create downloadable animated GIFs.
Blocks is the latest of several design tools that work inside VR. It’s similar to Oculus’ sculpting app Medium, and complementary to Google’s popular Tilt Brush 3D painting tool. Since you can export art from both Tilt Brush and Blocks, you can even use them together. The art style looks very different, though. Where Tilt Brush gives the illusion of sculpting with light and paint, Blocks seems to fit best with the colorful low-poly art style that Google uses in its Daydream VR interface.
Unfortunately for Google Daydream users, Blocks is currently limited to high-end headsets, which have sophisticated hand controls and let you walk around creations. But with Google pushing all-in-one Daydream headsets that could match the Rift and Vive’s feature set, that may not always be the case.
