So after the Zoom call with Joanna Popper, I made a Twitter account and started following more XR developers.
From there I got in touch with Steve Lukas, Head of Developer Relations Engineering at Magic Leap.
With the power of technology, we chatted over Zoom on July 15, 2020!
First of all, it’s always great to find fellow XR developers in the San Diego area. San Diego isn’t much of a VR town, but hopefully that will change in the near future.
Steve gave me a lot to think about since our call.
1. New way of thinking about XR tech
I’ve mostly thought about XR development from the bottom up, so to speak. In other words, I think about what game engine I’m going to use and what headset I’ll be building for, just to name a few things.
But Steve gave me a pretty near AR example.
Let’s say you own a pair of AR glasses. Once you put those glasses on, what if you were able to close your left eye, and see thermal vision in your right eye?
Now, what if you closed your right eye… and see night vision in your left eye?
I thought that was enlightening because XR is supposed to enable new ways of interacting with technology. To make the human experience move more seamlessly with tech.
2. MRTK and Unity
Steve also suggested I look into this Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Toolkit.
It also seems like Unity is the better game engine to use for XR development at the moment. There’s a lot more support for this stuff.
3. Inspired to learn object oriented programming (OOP)
Thus far and for the most part of my life, I have learned C#, C, C++ through trial and error.
I’ve come to realize that I should actually take the time to learn the basics of OOP from the very beginning.
I have decided to learn OOP through Zybooks. I have used Zybooks in the past, but it was to learn MATLAB. I like the format of Zybooks because I can go at my own pace.
Roselynn Conrady 