VR/AR/XR Resources

Terms and Abbreviations

VR: Virtual Reality, which refers to an immersive, simulated 3D experience.
AR: Augmented Reality, which refers to a real-world experience enhanced by computer-generated objects and interactions.
XR: A catch-all term for VR, AR, and other spatial computing experiences. For brevity, this page will use XR unless referring to a specific type of XR experience such as VR or AR.
HMD: A Head-Mounted Display such as an Oculus Quest or HTC Vive.

Campus XR Resources

If you are interested in using XR technologies in teaching and research there are resources available to you both in ETIS and across campus.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) has a tip sheet for teaching with XR.

The Centre for Extended Learning (CEL) maintains a resource with background material, academic literature, useful links, as well as several other resources related to using XR in the workplace and higher education.

CTE and CEL also work together to coordinate the XR Community of Practice, which is a great resource for anyone interested in XR technology on campus.

ETIS XR Resources

ETIS can provide support or direction for XR projects related to teaching and research. If you have ideas or questions related to using XR in your teaching or research, please reach out to James McCarthy. Below you will find examples of XR projects we have been involved with, along with a list of resources that may be useful for you in integrating XR into your teaching, research, or other work.

Examples of XR in the Environment Classroom

Spongy Bog Virtual Field Trip

Using a combination of 360 degree photography, open web development technologies, and Esri Story Maps, MAD and the Ecology Lab worked with CTE and CEL to create a virtual Spongy Bog field trip. This field trip is part of the ENVS 200 course, and the VR version has enabled students to visit the property without travelling. While nothing replaces actually visiting a field site, the virtual version of the field trip has a number of benefits:

Enabling students with mobility or accessibility issues to be immersed in a field site they otherwise would not be able to visit.
Allowing students who attended the in-person field trip to review what they saw, increasing knowledge retention and aiding in studying.
Acting as an alternative way of visiting the site during the COVID pandemic when restrictions did not allow students to visit the site.

You can read more about the field trip on the Open Environment page. Or you can view the field trip in your browser or HMD.

GP487 Creator AVR Activity

In the Winter 2020 term, students in GEOG/PLAN 487 (Management Issues in GIS) were guided through an exercise using Creator AVR (now the EON-XR platform) to visualize and collaborate with geospatial data. They were taken through the process of using standard geospatial data formats and converting them to the format used by EON’s software. They were then given the opportunity to use the collaborative features of the software with their classmates. Students were surveyed on their experiences, and the results are available here:

XR Demos

ETIS maintains a number of XR demonstration applications that are suitable for classroom use. They are mostly constructed using the A-Frame library and can be accessed via HMD or web browser. Reach out to James McCarthy if you would like to use or customize one of these demos for your classroom or research, or if you have other ideas for what you may find useful.

XR Resources by Topic

Software Development

A-Frame is a web framework for building XR experiences using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

AR.js is a lightweight JavaScript library for building Augmented Reality experiences. These can be marker-based, location-based, or image-based.

Check out our XR demonstration applications for examples of A-Frame and AR.js in action.

Data Visualization

Flow Immersive is a web-based data visualization framework for building interactive data storytelling experiences. It is currently in an invite-only beta phase.

Geospatial

FME AR is an iOS and Android application that can visualize geospatial data exported from FME.

ArcGIS 360 VR is driven by Esri’s ArcGIS Online and CityEngine tools. You can read more about it on this Esri blog post.

The Cesium platform supports the creation of 3D geospatial content on the web, including XR content through its Unreal Engine plugin.

Asset Creation

Blender is free and open source software for editing and creating 3D object models and animations, useful for populating XR spaces.

Trimble’s Sketchup software is easy to use 3D design software. A Sketchup VR app, useful for viewing Sketchup creations in VR, is also part of their software suite.

Virtual Meetings and Lectures

Microsoft’s AltSpace is one of the most popular platforms for hosting events in a 3D environment. AltSpace, which is free to use, supports participation through Windows software as well as HMDs. It owes its popularity to the high quality host controls, making it easier than most platforms to manage events in VR.

Mozilla Hubs is a free, browser-based platform for multi-user 3D experiences. Rooms can be created without an account, and participants can join via a web browser on their desktop, mobile devices, or HMD. No application installs are necessary. Hubs has the lowest barrier to entry for getting participants into a 3D experience, but does not support as many concurrent users as dedicated applications such as AltSpace.

Spatial is aimed largely at collaboration through the browser, mobile device, or HMD. Unlike Hubs, users need to have accounts to use this platform, and it doesn’t support as much customization as Hubs. However, the controls and functionality are well suited to collaboration within small groups.

If you have any questions about which tool may be best for your use case, do not hesitate to reach out! There are many social VR tools out there, these are just the ones we have the most experience with.