Hover UI Kit: v2.0-Alpha Release

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zachkinstner 2016-11-18 14:18:16 UTC #1

Hover UI Kit is a tool for creating beautiful, customizable, dynamic user interfaces. All interface interactions utilize a simple and consistent mechanism -- the "hover" -- which users can perform with any 3D input device. These interfaces are designed specifically for VR/AR applications, addressing the complex UX challenges of these immersive environments.

The Hovercast hand menu is now provided as an "interface module".

For the past year, the Hover UI Kit project has been slowly and quietly building up to this... the v2.0-Alpha release! I'd love to get feedback from you on this release (and its documentation) via email or this GitHub issue.

There are several significant changes in v2.0, including a better architecture, built-in layout systems, more plug-in modules, no scripts within DLLs, and better support for customization. The cursors, items, and interfaces are now visible and modifiable at editor-time (via Unity), instead of only at run-time. Unfortunately, these changes are not backwards-compatible with v1.x.

Check out the Hover UI Kit wiki pages to learn how to get started. You can try some tutorials, discover the latest concepts, and dig into the details.

This release includes support for Leap Motion hands (both Orion and pre-Orion) and for Vive controllers. More input modules are coming soon!

Each "Getting Started" tutorial provides an animated visual guide.

Hover-VR-Interface-Kit

Use hands to move character in Unity

UserInterface - Implementations

The UI gets deactivated when the title changes from HOVERCAST to something else

zachkinstner 2016-11-18 14:29:17 UTC #2

Here is a video (from v1.x in Jan 2015) of the Hovercast interface:

This interface looks and functions largely the same in v2.0 as it was in v1.0. (There is a new "open/close" button added, and a new "flash" effect upon successful selection.) The changes in v2.0 are primarily with the internal structure and architecture of the project. It is now much easier to build new interfaces, create automatic layouts, customize items, etc.

As mentioned above, the wiki pages are the best place to start. I have written extensive documentation for the project, including nine (currently) tutorials with instructions and GIF animations. I created most recent two tutorials based on requests from developers, so don't be shy to send me your feedback!

zachkinstner 2016-12-07 17:16:26 UTC #3

I've been working on a demo to show some of the Hover UI capabilities. The demo includes an interactive, force-directed graph. You can use various Hover UI interfaces/selectors to control the graph, its physics, and individual nodes. And of course, use the Leap Motion hands to bounce the graph's nodes (spheres) around the scene!

Here's a development video:

zachkinstner 2016-12-12 23:04:24 UTC #4

And here's the next video in the series, which includes an improved UI (the whole thing attaches to your hand) and sound effects. There's also a downloadable demo (for both Vive and Oculus).