Tilt Brush

• Name — Tilt Brush • Developer — Google • Operating System — Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 • Released — April 5, 2016

• Illustration — Demonstration of Tilt Brush at Google Cloud Next 2017 The application is designed for 6DoF motion interfaces in virtual reality. There is also a keyboard and mouse version, but this is not publicly available and is used only for development purposes. Users are presented with a virtual palette from which they can select a variety of brush types and colors. Movement of the handheld controller in 3D space creates brush strokes that follow in the virtual environment. Users can export their creations of room-scale VR pieces in.gltf,.fbx,.obj,.usd,.wrl,.stl and a native.json format. They can also capture snapshots, animated GIF images,.mpeg videos, or render 360 degree videos.

Tilt Brush was developed by Skillman & Hackett, and was in 2014 nominated for four Proto Awards (namely: "Best Interaction Design", "Most Innovative", "Best Overall Virtual Reality Application", and "Best GUI"), of which it won the "Best GUI" award. Google acquired Tilt Brush in 2015, as announced April 16, 2015. Tilt Brush was released for the HTC Vive at its launch on April 5, 2016, at no cost when pre-ordering the HTC Vive. On February 24, 2017, Tilt VR announced it is now available on both Oculus Rift and Vive. In the Fast Company article about Tilt Brush, one of the creators said that the idea of drawing in 3D space came from a chess game prototype: “There was a happy accident. Tilt Brush came out of an experiment with a virtual reality chess prototype, where we accidentally started painting the chess pieces in the air, and it was incredible”. In the earlier versions of Tilt Brush, it was only possible to draw on two-dimensional planes. On January 26, 2021, Google released the source code of the application under the Apache 2.0 license on GitHub.

Since Google open-sourced the code multiple companies and individuals have contributed to its further development: • A community-led project has continued development under the name "Open Brush" which remains free and open-source • Rendever released a paid, multiuser version for the Oculus Quest which they called "Multibrush" • The developer known as m₂ released a WebXR port called "Silk Brush" • The augmented reality app Figmin has added large portions of Tilt Brush functionality