Hello,
The next major version of VR Sketch, version 19, is available. It should be particularly interesting for users of the new Quest 3 headset, but also comes with other improvements and fixes.
Are you interested in Rhino 7 for Windows instead of Sketchup? You may be interested in learning that we now also have a Rhino plugin to let you view models with VR Sketch 19, running either on PC VR or on a standalone headset (Quest 2/3/Pro or PicoNeo3. Note: you need version 19 on the Quest/Neo3!). The plugin is available on Food4Rhino. It is a beta version! It just sends the model to VR once when you click the button; there are no updates (yet) in either direction for now. Still an interesting way to look at and walk around your models, using VR Sketch and its highly-optimized rendering techniques that can handle very large models.
What’s new between versions 18.0.4 and 19.0.0:
-
Major performance improvement on the Quest 3. On previous releases of VR Sketch,
the Quest 2 performed better than the Quest 3; now it is the other way around, with
the Quest 3 at least 50% faster than the Quest 2—as expected from the better GPU.
(Note: this is about the standalone mode only. In PC VR with Oculus Link, the
performance depends essentially on which GPU your PC is equipped with and not
which headset you are using.) -
The section plane was not working on standalone Quest/Neo3 in version 18. Fixed.
-
On Quest, the passthrough mode is now available even in the tethered mode (with
a PC and Oculus Link). The option is in the Settings dialog box, Rendering page;
be sure to read the instructions next to that option. -
Real edges: an option controlling how edges are drawn. In VR Sketch 17, edges were
always drawn in one (precise) way on PC and another (faster) way on Quest.
Starting in VR Sketch 18, the faster but less precise way was used everywhere.
This new release reintroduces the precise way, and lets you pick which one you prefer,
both on PC and on standalone headsets. Moreover, in the precise mode, you can
enable a see-through option for edges behind faces. -
Multiplayer modes: added a “rally” command to the Teleport tool’s context menu.
It teleports all the other avatars near your own position. Useful when presenting
something to one or more people that are not used to VR. -
Tweak to the trigger detection logic on Quest: if you press down the trigger at
100%, then release it even a tiny amount, it would release the button and, say,
accidentally confirm the teleport while you are still trying to aim. Moreover,
if the amount actually oscillates between 99% and 100% you end up with several
“presses” in short succession. This should be improved now. -
Small change for the Knuckles controllers: the touchpad has been disabled
to prevent accidental usage. Use the joystick instead. -
Recent versions of Sketchup let you pick inches or feets as your length unit
even with the general “decimal” unit setting. Now VR Sketch follows the choice
of length unit instead of the general unit setting. (VR Sketch still assumes a
single unit, e.g. you can’t use square meters for area and cubic feet for
volumes…) -
In the Components page of the settings, the per-component menu now contains
“select instances” and “replace selected”, working like they do in Sketchup. -
Added an option to the Sketchup’s “Extension -> VR Sketch” menu to continuously
record the position of the headset(s) into a CSV file (at around 10 entries per
second). -
When using VR Sketch in modes where editing is not possible (e.g. viewing
cloud models, or using the Rhino plugin), the editing tools are now more explicitly
disabled.
Armin Rigo