Leap Motion’s ‘3D Jam’ is a developer competition sponsored by IndieCade, and centers around the popular 3D motion controller, Leap Motion. With contestants vying for $75,000 in prizes, you can imagine that the competition to produce interactive environments that play well with the Oculus Rift-mountable sensor is pretty stiff. Previews are out and the finish line is near, with the competition is set to close on December 1st. Among them, we take a look at two crazy-awesome submissions in particular that have caught our attention here at Road to VR – Soundscape VR and Weightless.
Jamming with Soundscape VR
Soundscape VR was created by Sander Sneek, and blends an interesting amount of the familiar with something downright alien. No really—you’re literally DJ’ing in an alien landscape. A semi-transparent virtual display functions as a tap-friendly grid sequencer, which Sneek created with Unity and Cinema 4D. You can snap your android fingers to the drum machine’s beat and style your very own polyphonic tracks as the surrounding geometric landscape changes colors to reflect the spontaneity of your new grooves.
The Leap Motion provides great way to add touchscreen-like ability to a 3D environment, and it’s really cool to see someone take advantage of this powerful tool in such a unique and interesting way.
Floating Weightless
Weightless, a creation from Martin Schubert programmed in Unity and C#, puts you aboard the panoramic observation deck of a spaceship in low-Earth orbit. In the zen-like serenity of it all, Schubert releases a flurry of real world objects for you to manipulate and swat around the microgravity environment of the cabin. The concept comes from the creator’s initial desire to fully utilize VR’s unique ability to engender a sense of spatial awareness in the player, which “led to investigating a weightless environment that allowed freedom of movement in any direction.”
Although not up for download yet, the cognitive shift that takes place from the video alone is astounding and really gives us a peek into the sort of presence that the VR community has been pining for. Weightless’ addition of lifelike objects and textures, and realistic hands from Leap Motion’s new Hand Viewer, makes this a submission one to watch out for.
The contest will announce winners on December 20th, so may the best man or woman (or android) win!