How to create custom Environments

Virtual Desktop comes with an Environment Editor which lets you create custom environments from various types of assets. To launch the Environment Editor, go to the Virtual Desktop install folder (usually C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Virtual Desktop\) and double click "Environment Editor.exe". (Note: publishing an environment to the workshop is only possible through the Environment Editor on Steam)

Models

These are the most compelling environments in Virtual Desktop. They are fully rendered 3D scenes with the ability to display the desktop on a physical mesh. Model environments will require a model file in .FBX, .OBJ or other common formats[assimp.org]. Many modeling applications like 3DS Max, Maya or Blender can create these files. Here are the requirements:

• Textures must have lights baked in
  
• Textures must be saved as separate files (not embedded)
  
• The mesh for the screen must be named "Screen" (not case sensitive)
  
• User head will be at (0,0,0)
  
• If positional tracking doesn't seem to work, try setting the scale of the model to 0.01

Cubemaps

Cubemaps are .dds files with 6 textures (1 for each face of a cube). High resolutions are recommended here (a minimum of 2k x 2k per face is recommended).

Stereo Cubemaps

Those are generated from tools such as OTOY or 3DS Max and consist of a strip of 12 images laid out horizontally. Png or jpg are the recommended formats here. A good resolution for those is typically 18k x 1.5k.

Panoramas

Panoramas are created from equirectangular images captured from cameras such as the Ricoh Theta[theta360.com]. Those types of images are widely available online. High resolution images here are recommended. The best panoramas will be using 8k images.

This is only a first draft

[AFurryVR2018]

@ggodin theres nothing in my enviroment im trying to make a 3d enviroment and its mnot showing anything even the screen isnt working plz help

[AFurryVR2018]

i fixed the error but my enviroment is a void

[ggodin]

If you don't provide any information about your error, we can't help you @AFurryVR2018

[AFurryVR2018]

hi im getting error when using editor plz help

[Agterbosch]

" (Note: publishing an environment to the workshop is only possible through the Environment Editor on Steam)" Which environment editor on steam? The environment editor in the Virtual Desktop steam folder? Because that doesn't have an upload option.. And every other page here just leads to another page that leads to another page, with none of the pages explaining how to upload custom environments as a workshop item. This one is the most concrete but again doesn't really explain how what or where, unless it's the environment editor in the VD folder, in which case that's not an option... I'm extremely confused on how to upload a custom VD environment. Could someone maybe point me in the right direction?

[pstuddy]

how do we reference the textures? i have the baked textures saved as a separate file and placed in the same location as the obj file but everything is just white. same thing with fbx. using blender

[ggodin]

Not with videos, but you can animate geometry like many custom environments do. See those examples:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2765342417
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866751985

[I <3 Trash Pandas]

Hi ggodin, Thanks for making this editor available! Is it possible to make animated environments? I'm looking to do something like was mentioned in the previous thread using a video, like the apartment at night has for traffic...thanks for any suggestions

[Balkhubam]

Hi,

I would like to create a custom environment on PC, though I can’t add a video ( to simulate a city landscape ) .

Who has a solution or an example?

Thank you for your help

[luca.74]

Hi,
I have a texture with alpha transparency. It's a .png file. It display correctly with the Windows 3D viewer, but when I import the enviroment in Virtual Desktop (it's a model environment exported as fbx) what should be transparent is actually black. I activated transparent blending in the importer with no luck. Any suggestion?
Thanks