About Reality Labs at IU

• Overview
• Benefits and features
• Locations and access
• Use a Reality Station
  • Use cases
  • Available software
• Acknowledge AVL resources

Overview

Reality Labs are advanced classroom or lab spaces featuring virtual reality workstations called Reality Stations, developed by the UITS Advanced Visualization Lab in partnership with other UITS and departmental IT groups. Currently, 14 Reality Labs containing more than 42 Reality Stations are available to all members of the IU community on multiple campuses, including IU Bloomington, IUPUI, IU East, IU Northwest, IU South Bend, and IU Southeast, with additional Reality Labs under development or consideration. Access rules may apply differently at each location; see Locations and access.

Reality Labs are used for a wide variety of disciplines and activities where immersion in virtual worlds, simulations, or data visualizations are important. All installations feature PC-attached virtual reality systems, including the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift VR systems. A variety of virtual reality applications are installed, and more are available with the Steam video game distribution platform.

View a photo album of various Reality Labs in use.

Benefits and features

• PC VR System: Explore data smoothly with a 90 frame per second refresh rate and stereoscopic rendering.
• High performance tracking: Six degrees of freedom hand and head tracking, three meter² play spaces
• Run any desktop or web app: Because of underlying high-end Windows PCs, Reality Stations run almost every Windows app or web-based content for VR or for desktop workstation environments.
• ADS login: Those who can authenticate at IU can access any public Reality Station. Log in as you normally would in Windows; access is subject to room schedule and usage policies.
• Multi-user: All Reality Stations are connected on the IU network and support multi-user or multi-player virtual reality applications.
• Portability: Reality Stations are not portable. Those who require portable VR equipment are encouraged to purchase the latest consumer level headset (for example, the Meta Quest 2).

Locations and access

There are 16 Reality Lab sites on six different IU campuses. Some are in public locations, while others are in classroom areas and limited-access research labs; access to these depends on the location. The public and semi-public Reality Labs are:

Use a Reality Station

Using a Reality Station is much like using any Windows computer, just with a virtual reality headset attached. Reality Stations function like powerful workstations, but also with the ability to operate desktop and web VR applications in the virtual reality headset.

If you have an IU username and passphrase, you can log into an available Reality Station. If it's your first time at that particular equipment, the login process may take a few minutes while the computer prepares your account.

Installed virtual reality applications will be available from Steam. You may log into Steam with your personal account and install VR applications, or you may use the automatic Steam login application to access provided VR applications. To find the Steam login application, navigate to C:\AVL, or search the Start menu for STCSteamAccountLogin.

After launching Steam, the Reality Station may require you to perform a new room setup. See the video tutorial Set up VIVE for Room-scale from the manufacturer to complete the setup process.

Use cases

Activities on a Reality Station generally fall into one of three types:

• Type 1: Use existing applications and sample data (for example, view geo-spatial data with Google Earth VR or understand complex mathematical concepts with CalcFlow).
• Type 2: Capture or create your own data, and use existing applications to view or present it (for example, use YouTube VR to view 360 immersive video).
• Type 3: Use authoring or other programming tools to create your own environment or application to view your data (for example, create a virtual environment with Unity or a web-based data visualization with WebVR).

The following table lists examples of each of these types of activities.

Available software

Commonly available software includes:

• Office productivity:
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Word
• Media playback and editing: Adobe Creative Cloud applications
• Creative VR:
  • Blocks by Google
  • Microsoft Maquette
  • Mindshow
• Simulations:
  • The Body VR
  • InOrbit
  • Short Circuit VR
  • Speech Trainer
  • Calcflow
• VR viewers:
  • YouTubeVR (360 video)
  • Strata InStudio VR (3D models)
  • Witoo VR photo viewer
  • Hyper Visualizer (generic data)
  • SYMMETRY alpha (Sketchup models)
  • Supermedium (VR web browser)
• Immersive narrative:
  • Age of Sail
  • Greenland Melting
  • After Solitary
• Social and collaboration:
  • AltspaceVR
• Geospatial mapping and information: Google Earth VR
• Other content:
  • Vintage VR
  • The Night Cafe
  • Edmersiv

Also, see Virtual reality (VR) demos.

To discuss installing unique or custom software for your needs, contact the AVL.

Acknowledge AVL resources