Google shows off Blocks, a 3D modeling tool made for VR

Google wants to simplify content creation in VR so that people have more pretty things to look at and build.

The company’s VR painting app Tilt Brush has been one of their most-finessed successes and today Google is launching a new app that allows users to create 3D objects using tools built especially for the virtual reality medium.

Blocks, which is available now for free for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift (no dice for Daydream users), takes the simplicity of Tilt Brush and injects it into 3D object modeling, letting users build, export and share cool little blocky creations to the web with ease.

One of the biggest complaints people have about VR titles is their lack of visual fidelity given the processing power needed to handle even the most rudimentary experiences. Blocks plays off these restraints to its benefit, allowing developers the chance to build simple polygonal objects quickly and export them into the AR of VR apps that they’re building.

The app seems to be going for a lower level of realism than apps like Oculus’s Medium sculpting tool aspires to be. Here the focus seems to be resting more strongly on developers and novices rather than full-blown artists, something that might make the tool a bit less intimidating than many have found Medium to be.