Google Open Sources Tilt Brush, Leaving Its Future to VR Community

Google's Tilt Brush, easily among the best VR applications made so far, is now available in open source... but it comes with a hell of a qualifier from Google:

As we continue to build helpful and immersive AR experiences, we want to continue supporting the artists using Tilt Brush by putting it in your hands. This means open sourcing Tilt Brush, allowing everyone to learn how we built the project, and encouraging them to take it in directions that are near and dear to them... Please note that it is not an actively developed product, and no pull requests will be accepted. You can use, distrAibute, and modify the Tilt Brush code in accordance with the Apache 2.0 License under which it is released.

I.E., Tilt Brush fans, you're on your own from here. The open source announcement has generated a lot of excitement among creators who use the software, but its viable future also faces some serious challenges.

"I really don't understand why the Tilt Brush artists are happy," as VR developer Blair Renaud put it on Twitter. "They assume that some magic programmers that don't like money are going to start working on Tilt Brush Xtreme edition or something? Highly unlikely."

"There would need to be a creative developer fund set up," AR/VR engineer Jasmine Roberts tells me. "Similar to the Tilt Brush Artist program but for both artists developers. Since they are not diametrically opposed."

Sean Whiting of Rec Room, which has seen impressive user growth in recent quarters, just put out an open call for Tilt Brush creators to bring their works into his virtual world, adding that Rec Room "[is] planning to pay out over $1M to our creators this year as creator payments spin up."

Hopefully social VR companies like his can get more actively involved in funding Tilt Brush's future:

"There's a long list of features that the community wished to be added," Tilt Brush artist Rosie Summers tells me, "such as multiplayer support and even more brushes, we'll now be free to add whatever we want! Personally I'm really looking forward to native LIV integration for my mixed reality work, and we'll also be able to add support for the community-created replacement for Poly, called Icosa Gallery."

 

Meantime, put a pin in Tilt Brush and let's check back on its evolution (if any) in a few months.

 

Comments

[joe root]

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