AR+: Altered Reality + alpha in development

Altered Reality + is a 3D visual tool, designed to mirror basic functionality of traditional VJ software but built with pure 3D visuals in mind, no video, all real time, open source and modular.

The idea came about while I was nosing about the VJ scene seeing if there was some way I could possibly work some of my visual experiments out of a computer and onto some big screens for others to enjoy. I realized that the software that was available wasn’t going to do what I wanted it to do so I started to cobble together some common elements from traditional VJ software like Resolume, Modul8 and VDMX into 3D environment built on the robust Unity 3D engine.

The result so far has been promising with the first test run of the pre-alpha software getting a run at Strawberry Fields Festival used for live mixed visuals as well as for an interactive installation setup. Having learnt a few things from it’s first outing and having found another programmer who is interested in helping build the project, Tom Carscallen (VJ Tofu/Grapheme) we now have a solid plan for the future of the software.

Planned features include:
- 4 Layers of real time visuals
- 60 band FFT audio analysis with beat detection (Currently via Processing which is a little messy, Unity 3.5 is meant to have mic/line in support)
- OSC & MIDI Controls so you can control the system via your portable device of choice
- Lighting controls – colour, movement, positioning
- Basic Transitions – alpha/scale
- Real time material and HSB colour space controls, with automation for hue, saturation, brightness and alpha
- Support for Kinect and Prime Sense depth cameras
- Interactive modules with VJ triggerable objects
- Basic cube and spherical projection mapping tools

The software will be released with a few example modules to help people up and going so they can build their own to use with the platform.

We have no solid time line as yet, but will be posting updates here as they come through.