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Tweets Can Now Launch Into VR Via Sketchfab

Tweets Can Now Launch Into VR Via Sketchfab

We’ve been covering Sketchfab a fair bit lately, but as CEO Alban Denoyel points out when I tell him that, it could be because we are seeing “momentum” from the startup.

To his point, the company is pretty much alone in being the best place for VR creators to put up their stuff. That is, people creating things in apps like Google’s Tilt Brush don’t have a convenient way of sharing those creations with the world — except for Sketchfab. We are also at the cusp of the release of Oculus Touch too, which is likely to turn every buyer of the tracked hand controllers into a 3D creator to join the legions learning to use Tilt Brush and SculptrVR with the HTC Vive.

The bottom line is if you upload a 3D model, scene or world to Sketchfab you end up with a link that’s pretty much the same as a YouTube link. It is something you can trust people will be able to open across all devices. The creation can be embedded too, making it easy to add Sketchfab-hosted content to a blog or website.

The latest feature from Sketchfab means that 3D models will even load embedded on Twitter. With one click, people can explore the model in their web browser. Assuming you have a WebVR compatible browser — and Chrome, Firefox and Edge are moving to support this — this 3D scene can be loaded up in a headset like a Vive or a Rift attached to the computer with just one more click of the “VR” button. All this can happen from inside a single tweet.

Here is Adidas using Sketchfab to promote a new shoe. I was able to embed the shoe on this webpage just by grabbing the Twitter embed code.

And here is a model of U.S. President Barack Obama:


The link up with Twitter is just one more bit of added convenience that makes sharing VR content easier. YouTube and Facebook are finding ways to stream 360-degree videos more efficiently across a variety of devices. 3D models are a bit different, though, and neither Google nor Facebook has publicly announced an effort that might match Sketchfab’s convenience for hosting things people create in VR. With major announcements ahead for VR’s biggest players over the next few weeks, we’ll be watching for new ways these companies intend to let you share something made in VR. Brian Sharp, the director of Oculus Medium, said on Twitter “don’t worry, you’ll have a place to put your sculpts online.”

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