When it comes to creating spatial content, currently the problem is that you need to go back and forth between using 3D creation tools like Unity® Editor on a flat monitor and seeing your creation come to life through a headset. Instead of just introducing new tools, we wanted to enable bringing existing 3D creation tools into the immersive world with customizable virtual monitors that let you use the same applications you normally would – all in a photorealistic 3D environment.

This way, instead of needing to learn to use new software applications, you can use your decades-long mastery of your favorite design tool – be it CAD, a game engine, or a 3D graphics suite. As always in CAD, you need to be able to operate complex commands from your keyboard, and Varjo’s XR-1 Developer Edition is the only product that also lets you see the keyboard.

See the Changes You Make in Real Time

Using the XR-1 Developer Edition and Varjo Workspace, you no longer need switch back and forth between 2D and 3D worlds to experience and modify your 3D models. Now you can be immersed in your design in VR or XR, while also seeing your CAD suite inside the model that you are working on, or right next to you in mixed reality. And you do all of this while also being able to access infinitely-adjustable monitors from the size of your normal screen all the way to a video wall. This gives you a whole new perspective on your designs and reduces the friction from VR visualization, making it part of the normal design process.

For example, you can modify a 3D model using existing CAD and visualization tools like Autodesk® VRED™, Unity™ or Unreal™ and immediately see the changes you make come to life around you in real time. This can be done either in full virtual reality mode or in mixed reality mode, where you see the virtual content augmented on top of the real world around you.

Mix Realities in Groundbreaking Ways

All this is made possible by XR-1 Developer Edition and its video pass-through technology. We are already seeing incredible innovation around our XR-1 Developer Edition from companies like Bohemia Interactive Simulations, Volvo, Flight Safety, and CAE, all of whom are introducing a paradigm shift in the simulation and training space, mixing the real and the virtual in completely groundbreaking ways. Varjo’s XR-1 headsets are already utilized in simulators, car development sites, and training facilities, where training can now be done more cost-effectively than with traditional setups such as domes.

The next step is to make this technology personal, allowing you to decide when, where and how you want to use it with your favorite design or development tools. The complete freedom to move naturally between virtual, mixed and traditional realities creates endless new possibilities and allows you to reach entirely new creative heights.

Next Steps

As with XR-1, Varjo Workspace is a developer edition, meaning that it’s still early days and we’re still exploring the vast potential of this new computing paradigm. We’ll continue working on the many aspects of Workspace during 2020, collaborating with our partners and customers to deepen the integration with professional design, engineering and simulation tools and to make the Dimensional Interface part of everyday work.

Our vision hasn’t changed since we founded Varjo: We are creating a new kind of immersive computing, where virtual, augmented and traditional realities become one. One where you can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is virtual. To this end, we are working on perfecting the light, shadows and reflections – making them exact replicas of the world around you. You can see this in the adjacent video – it’s the current state of the art, working in any XR-1 powered 3D model already today.

We’re seeing today how the promise of spatial computing is already turning into reality with the XR-1 Developer Edition. Next these devices will become personal, lighter, more approachable, and fully connected. Ultimately, spatial computing will become an everyday experience for professionals and consumers alike, ending the era of Desktop PCs as we know them. Today, that future is closer than ever.