Google Introduces Poly, A New AR/VR Development Tool

Poly joins Tilt Brush and Blocks in Google's efforts to make 3D creation and utilization as easy as possible for developers.

Aardvark the Forgetful Editor

November 1, 2017 3:25 PM

Tilt Brush and Blocks put creative power at your fingertips by allowing the creation of 3D landscapes, structures, and more in virtual reality. This empowers artists and developers to make a diverse collection of assets and objects to use in virtual and augmented experiences, but getting your digital hands on them could be a chore. Today, Google is simplifying the search for 3D objects and scenes for use in apps with their program Poly.

To help those who build for VR and AR, we’ve created Poly: one place to browse, discover and download 3D objects → https://t.co/u3P8VOziCN pic.twitter.com/GExWsLEs4V
— Google (@Google) November 1, 2017

Objects can be viewed in VR, on mobile browsers, or desktop browsers. In a smart move, Google is promoting this to ARKit developers even while they have their own ARCore for development. Poly will include a database of free models ranging from flowers to robots with an option to edit by importing into Tilt Brush or Blocks. Whenever you publish the remade object, the original creator will be credited automatically.

This is a useful tool that will be advantageous to AR and VR development, especially for mobile and standalone VR platforms. Creators will be able to find exactly what they need quickly and modify them to fit their needs but, hopefully, Google will monitor asset flippers who aim to cash in on mass-produced games that just use pre-made objects. Poly is live now so go check out some of the incredible creations there and get inspired.