Plenty of mainstream companies have shown an interest in virtual reality technology as of late. That is rather remarkable, considering this industry is still in the early stages. Amazon is one of the bigger names to gamble on VR and AR to take off in the coming years. Their new Sumerian software tools will help coders build better VR an AR apps. An interesting development that may finally entice more consumers to pay attention to these emerging technologies.
Amazon Wants to Help Build VR and AR Apps
It is commendable to see an entity such as Amazon acknowledge something needs to change in the world of virtual and augmented reality. While these technologies are somewhat popular as niche products among gamers, the rest of the world isn’t paying too much attention. This is mainly because neither VR nor AR has an official “killer app”, as the technology sector likes to call it. That will all change in time, but for now, there is no indication anyone has successfully cracked the code. Amazon wants to extend a helping hand in this regard.
The company recently unveiled their Amazon Sumerian software toolkit. It is designed to help coders build more and better VR and AR applications using 3D computer graphics. It seems these creations will run on a variety of headsets, including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and soon Google’s AR hardware. It is evident we need more developers to show an interest in both VR and AR to make sure the industry can survive.
The Sumerian app itself looks like most photo editing tools people have grown accustomed to. It has a decent click, drag, and drop interface to build powerful applications and games. There is also an option to create native digital environments from scratch, which is pretty interesting. It almost feels as if this app is a proper gaming engine for VR and AR creators, although it is still somewhat basic in terms of what can be created with it. At the same time, there are a lot of opportunities to be explored, and interesting creations may come to market in the end.
It appears the new Amazon Sumerian service will become accessible to developers all over the world in the next few weeks. Whether or not there is a genuine demand for such a service, remains to be seen. It is evident a lot of companies hope to see big things for VR and AR in the next few years.We are still at a very early stage in the world of virtual reality development, and things will certainly improve given enough time.
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