2021 Prototyping Tool Exploration: Introduction & vvvv
At the end of 2020 we put together a shortlist of tools we want to explore in the upcoming year. The focus for each will be on its potential for prototyping, the tool’s features and capabilities to push the bounds of our normal work, and how easy it is to get started and become comfortable with it. Here’s what made the cut:
This first article in the series will focus on vvvv. But before we dive in, let’s look at why we’re exploring these tools and what our goals are for this exploration.
Potential for Prototyping
Prototyping is an integral part of Bluecadet projects as well as our R&D. When we’re exploring potential concepts in strategy, testing and proving a concept, or investigating technical feasibility, we always try to integrate rapid prototyping. We have a few tools that as a studio we’re quite handy with, but it’s always helpful to keep adding to that toolkit.
R&D at Bluecadet often involves producing, low-fidelity experiments to evaluate if an idea is worth pursuing. It’s often this interesting experimental work that clients see and are inspired by for their own projects with us. Exploring a wider set of tools here allows us to keep pushing the boundaries of our work and experiments.
Pushing the Boundaries of our Work
Bluecadet has created some really exciting digital and physical experiences throughout the years. We’ve expanded from websites to digital touchscreens to large-scale environmental experiences. We always want to continue to push that work to be bigger and better experiences. This has led us into spaces like VR, AR, physical LED installations, and digital experiences involving real world objects. As we explore these new tools, we’ll be looking for the potential doorways that open up as a result of this experimenting.
With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at vvvv.
vvvv
vvvv (often pronounced four vee or vee four) is a hybrid visual/textual live-programming environment for easy prototyping and development. Coming personally from a traditional development background, and more recently a bit of work with TouchDesigner, vvvv’s hybrid environment felt like a great place to start my explorations.
When Should I Use vvvv?
If you look at the vvvv showcase video, you can see it being used for projects like large-scale projection mapping and light shows, virtual reality and augmented reality, digital art experiences, interactive installations, and physical computing. The possibilities are immense for vvvv. I think the versatility of vvvv and the range of mediums you can work with is one of its biggest strengths.
vvvv also has a lot of potential as a tool for rapid prototyping. The visual programming component of the vvvv environment can make iterations on projects fairly quickly. Additionally, the ability to create projects without any traditional code might make vvvv a good option for designers who want to be closely involved in the prototyping process.
vvvv comes with some core libraries (including 2D/3D collision detection, 2D drawing with SVG and PDF export, async File IO, among other core features), 3D rendering (based on Stride 3D Engine), VR output, as well as low-level shader based workflow. There is also support for devices like the Kinect, Leap Motion controller, and TheEyeTribe Eyetracker, to name a few. Additionally, outside of the standard vvvv library, there are add ons called packs. These offer additional functionality for your vvvv projects.
vvvv Beta
Currently, there are two versions of vvvv: vvvv gamma and vvvv beta. Both are similar but have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
vvvv beta is the older of the two versions. While this may seem like a drawback, at the time of writing I have found it to be better documented than vvvv gamma. The sample projects and the online community posting their own vvvv Beta work is much more extensive.
vvvv Gamma
vvvv Gamma, which was released in April 2020, is newer. In general I found vvvv Gamma a little bit more intuitive than vvvv Beta on the surface. However, the lack of samples and documentation (at least compared to vvvv Beta) did make it a little bit challenging to pick up. As I ran through some older tutorials on vvvv Beta, I was able to find similar features in vvvv Gamma once I figured where they were and how to use them. vvvv Gamma feels like the better choice going forward with the caveat to reference vvvv Beta for a more extensive body of work.
Personal Experiences
If you’re coming from a more traditional programming background, you may find vvvv’s potential exciting, but a little frustrating to pick up. The learning curve can feel a bit steep at times. In my experience, there were quite a few things that seemed very easy to do right out of the box, while I found myself struggling to do things I would consider simple in a more traditional programming environment. The tutorials that come with vvvv are good to get started, but if you want to achieve the larger potential of vvvv, it’s important to understand some of the fundamental concepts and workings of the tool. I found that a lot of these foundations of vvvv are similar to more traditional programming tools, but structured just differently enough that it’s not totally obvious and takes some time to understand.
Findings & Takeaways
Generally vvvv feels like a very powerful tool for those who are able to take the time to learn how to use it. During the time I was experimenting with it, I never felt totally comfortable with it as a tool, but its potential feels very in line with a lot of the work Bluecadet does. I think with more experience and learning, vvvv will be a good tool for us, especially for rapid prototyping.
vvvv Samples & Resources
I wanted to share some samples and resources I came across in my research.
RGB Hunt - A small room physical interactive where users interact with projected objects on the walls of the space.
EleBook Prototype - A physical book projection interactive where each page offers a different set of interactions.
Manchester Digital Laboratory / Omniversity of Manchester Press Tutorial -I found this tutorial for vvvv Beta really helpful.
