VRoxel

VRoxel is an immersive design environment for the assembly of large amounts of discrete objects in space. It is part of a body of work done for the PhD of Jan Philipp Drude. Based on virtual reality, designers are virtually present in the design space, shaping aggregations through a sculpting methodology. Wielding three-dimensional brushed, they can additively and subtractively draw an assembly in space. The discrete building blocks in VRoxel are arranged in recurring patterns or lattices. Reliance on such patterns, keeps the structure intact and enables aggregations consisting of up to 2 million individually addressable building blocks, which can be edited in real-time, without experiencing lag. VRoxel provides multiple different discrete systems, such as Lego bricks, or the Great Invention Kit, developed by researchers around Neil Gershenfeld at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms.

VRoxel establishes context through several import pipelines, including FBX and OBJ for mesh geometry, XYZRGB for 3D-scan point clouds and FBX for motion capture animations, which can be mapped on customizable avatars, to resemble specific persons. Context can be managed and edited, to be integrated with discrete assemblies, enabling high-resolution architectural design from small building blocks, reacting to specific spaces and performative human actions.

We would be very grateful for suggestions for further digital materials to be integrated into VRoxel. Please feel free to contact us to initiate a co-operation in this direction. Discrete systems for use in VRoxel only require geometry data and one or more possible three-dimensional assembly patterns.

Please contact us at drude@iat.uni-hannover.de.

Project Leader:

• Jan Philipp Drude

Project Partners:

• Prof. Mirco Becker

Associated Classes:

• Bachelor Thesis – Place of a Million Parts 
  (Summer Semester 2022)
   
• Bachelor Thesis – Hyper Context Café
  (Winter Semester 2022/23)
• Seminar – VRoxel
  (Winter Semester 2022/23)
   
• Bachelor Thesis – Hyper-Ergonomic Living 
  (Summer Semester 2023)
• Studio Project – Voxel Living
  (Summer Semester 2023)
• Seminar – VRoxel
  (Summer Semester 2023)
   
• Bachelor Thesis – Environmental Education Center (Winter Semester 2023/24)
• Seminar – VRoxel
  (Winter Semester 2023/24)
   
• Bachelor Thesis – Slow Transformation
  (Summer Semester 2024)
• Seminar – VRoxel
  (Summer Semester 2024)
   
• Lecturer at Uni Kassel
• Modular Design in Virtual Reality
  (Winter Semester 2022/23)
• Modular Design in Virtual Reality
  (Winter Semester 2023/24)

Links:

• Download VRoxel
• License