Google is ending the development of the virtual reality painting application Tilt Brush – one of the most popular virtual reality applications – and making it open source. The Tilt Brush was acquired by Google in 2015 after the launch of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and was soon included in the company’s largest virtual reality plans, such as its Google Cardboard and Daydream headsets.
The main feature of Tilt Brush is three-dimensional VR painting, but the app received interesting updates throughout its management at Google, including multiplayer support and an open source toolkit that offered the ability to export Tilt Brush drawings for use in animation. With this latest announcement, development is coming to an end and future support for the Tilt Brush is in the hands of the community that still uses it.
The Tilt Brush code can be accessed on GitHub now, but Google says that some features had to be removed from the open source release due to licensing restrictions. If you want to try to tinker with the open source Tilt Brush, the company is providing detailed instructions on how to rebuild the missing features in the app. In addition, the Tilt Brush will still be available for download at all major virtual reality app stores.
Tilt Brush is just the latest in a series of discontinued Google VR projects. Daydream VR headsets were discontinued close to the release of Pixel 4, Google Cardboard received a similar open source shipment in 2019, the Jump video camera and service were disabled in the same year, and VR Expeditions field travel software was launched at sunset in 2020. Its surviving projects include VR versions of YouTube and Google Earth, as well as the game development studio Owlchemy Labs.
Google and Alphabet are no strangers to killing ex-darlings and other people’s current ones. (Look no further than Loon for a strange and exciting project that was recently closed.) But changing things to open source seems like a significant commitment for people who still use these products every day. Without Google resources, what’s next for the Tilt Brush is still a long way off, but it is good that the cemetery has been spared a new headstone.