CoSpace – Do It Yourself Has Reached Virtual Reality
CoSpaces is one of the first tools that is making it possible for anyone to create VR content. Soon users will be able to dive into their own creations using their mobile devices. All they need to do is download the free CoSpaces App that is coming by the end of April.
Google was the pioneer, once again. With its Cardboard – the VR viewer that comes as a papercraft – the company showed that Do it yourself and Virtual Reality work well together. Creativity, however, doesn’t have to stop once you’ve folded your headset.
Building VR From Toy Blocks
Delightex, a startup based in Munich and St. Petersburg, has made it their business to expand the DIY hype to Virtual Reality – with a tool called CoSpaces. It’s a platform to create VR environments, aimed at people without programming or design skills. A basic understanding of digital technology is enough to be a VR creator. Like that, even a ten year old can create Virtual Reality experiences.
The tool works with preset items: geometrical objects as well as figures, animals or text boxes. These can be arranged on a stage, customized or put together in order to create new objects. It’s pretty much an advanced version of creating something with building blocks. But of course, it’s also much more than that: CoSpaces makes it possible to step into your own toy block world. And not in the way you step into that lego creation on the floor when it’s dark.
Stepping Into Your Own VR Worlds
This is where the CoSpaces App, submitted to the App Store and Google Play Store on April 21st, comes in. Combined with a VR compatible mobile device, it’s all you need to explore your homemade virtual worlds or dive into creations that others have shared with you.
For the full experience, users simply insert their smartphone into a VR headset – such as the Google cardboard. For those without VR glasses, exploring virtual spaces is also possible by tilting and turning their smartphone or tablet in the gyroscope mode – pretty much like watching a frozen 360° movie.
The content created with CoSpaces will automatically sync across multiple devices in real time. Like this, it’s even possible to explore a space in VR on your phone while someone else is still changing the environment you’re in – for example while being signed into your account at a laptop.
Nothing like homemade
DIY Virtual Reality is similar to other areas of Do it yourself construction: Someone with more experience can probably do it better. But there’s nothing like having it done yourself! This applies when you create VR content for fun – just to try out what it’s like to enter a world you created. Or to surprise someone else with a very personal 360° birthday card.
When you consider the professional use case, the statement has to be changed: Someone with more experience might do it better – but also for a lot more money. Hiring a VR agency is usually a costly business. The DIY approach of CoSpaces can be a good alternative when it comes to quick prototyping or smaller VR projects. At the moment, Delightex is running an Early Access Program to collect feedback. Anyone interested can sign up and get their first Do it yourself VR experience.
