User:Tohline/Appendix/Ramblings/VirtualReality

Virtual Reality and 3D Printing

[Circa August 2019] I am once again considering whether steady improvements in certain digital technologies over the past half-a-dozen years can be straightforwardly called upon to display to a broad audience the three-dimensional characteristics of rapidly rotating fluid systems. Two specific technologies come to mind: (1) 3D printing; and (2) XR (virtual reality). A cursory online investigation suggests that we may be able to import OBJ-formatted files into the software algorithms that drive these two technologies. In addition, the popular Unity design tool may serve us well in our efforts to build/view/export such files.

See Also

• Four most common 3D printer file formats in 2019.
• STL:
  File Format Simply Explained.
  As of today, STL is the undisputed champion among 3D printer file formats. STL’s history goes back to the invention of 3D printing itself. The first 3D printer was invented by Chuck Hull in 1987 at 3D Systems. The same guy was behind the STL file format. If you are primarily printing with a single material and in a single color, STL will do the job. But the moment you move to multicolor printing, you have to ditch STL because it is simply not capable of storing colors.
  There are many repositories, marketplaces and search engines on the web containing literally millions of free STL files. Thingiverse is probably the largest STL file repository on the internet – so check it out. You can also refer to our regularly updated list: Best Sites for Free STL Files & 3D Printer Models.
  STL File Viewers

• OBJ: Format developed by Wavefront; note that a number of the above-referenced STL viewers will also view OBJ files.
• AMF
• 3MF
• Unity
• See especially the Products page which briefly refers to …
• Platforms: Build once, deploy anywhere to reach the largest possible audience on our industry-leading platform; 25+ platforms across mobile, desktop, console, TV, VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and the Web.
• XR: Powering over two-thirds of VR and AR experiences; Unity is the preferred development tool for the majority of XR creators.
• vtk has vtkOBJExporter as well as vtkOBJReader

© 2014 - 2021 by Joel E. Tohline |   H_Book Home   |   YouTube   | Appendices: | Equations | Variables | References | Ramblings | Images | myphys.lsu | ADS | Recommended citation:   Tohline, Joel E. (2021), The Structure, Stability, & Dynamics of Self-Gravitating Fluids, a (MediaWiki-based) Vistrails.org publication, https://www.vistrails.org/index.php/User:Tohline/citation