From creativity toolsets to innovative games, more than 180 entries are vying for $75,000 in cash and prizes in hand-tracking company Leap Motion’s 3D Jam competition.
Voting is underway through December 22 and will be counted alongside the ratings from official judges who are looking at the apps based on innovation and execution. Winners will be announced in January. We looked through the entries for interesting ideas and found a wide range of tools and creativity apps exploring how to interact with software using finger and hand movements, like a hand capture plug-in, an education app to explore chemistry and a Metaverse-like app to connect different VR experiences.
This post highlights a wide variety of the tools, utilities and creativity apps entered in the 3D Jam. In a separate post, we’ll dive into the innovative games and toys entered in the competition. The links throughout this post go to the page for each entry so you can download and try many of the apps if you have compatible hardware, including the Leap Motion hand tracker. If you don’t have the hardware, the videos embedded below should help visualize the projects.
Making music
The apps Lyra, Pensato and VR Guitar show three different approaches to making music in VR with your hands.
Lyra shows a way of connecting musical sequences in VR that float in the air in front of you. Pensato provides a more DJ-like control station that visualizes the music on the floor around you. VR Guitar opts for a stringed instrument that can be strummed in mid-air with the index finger on one hand while the index finger on the other selects tools.
Check each of them out in these videos:
Creating scenes, objects and houses
Neos: The Origin and Superstruct both showcase intriguing toolsets for creating large scenes while in VR. Neos lets a person place an object in the scene and then see it grow to fruition while Superstruct creates meshes and then shrinks the player down to explore those creations.
Check them out:
The app PotelRVR offers a serene landscape in which to enjoy a pottery simulator.
Check it out:
ArchyTech walks a person through the creation of a house using a fingertip.
Check it out:
Cool VR utilities
3DUI features simple effective dials and switches that can be operated by hand while vrwm offers a terminal and browser showing potential for working in VR. VRTheatre is based on VLC and offers hand-based controls for finding a movie to play and changing its settings.
Check them out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBRNPBGySDw
