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Building Builders - Google Blocks and Unity3D

Cederik Haverbeke

Google published a new tool to create stuff in VR. It's called blocks and we think it's really cool.

I wanted to write a quick blog post that shows you how you can use this amazing tool for your Unity3D creations, and if you're an Edorble Creator, to enhance your world.

First of all let's go get some models! Google made it super easy to explore the content created by other users. Just go to the Google Blocks website and start picking some.

You do this by clicking a creation of your liking and hitting 'download'. It will download a file in a format that Unity 3D will understand without any extra effort from your side. After unzipping the file you can drag it into your Unity Project. Unity 3D will do some magic and then you can drag the model rightinto your scene. 

I decided I felt like adding Breakfast made by Jarlan Perez. He's already done some amazing MadeWithBlocks stuff, make sure you check out the rest of his work

This video show what I'm talking about:

 

And that's all there is to it! Some tips and tricks at the bottom of this post.

Kudo's to Google. With Tiltbrush first and now Blocks, they're really making a difference in the VR Creator space.

In this post we focused on using blocks created by others, and of course if you have a VR set try making some of yourself! On the main blocks site, hit the button 'Make your own' and there's an excellent tutorial.

The bonus part of this video is where I used our Edorble creator tool, to publish my Unity3D scene in my Edorble world. You can check it out here if you want to learn more.

Enjoy! Need any help? Tweet us @edorble or @chaverbeke #buildingbuilders

Tips & Tricks

For Blocks

  • On the left top there is a hamburger menu (3 horizontal bars), if you click it you get a list of categories which you can use to explore the different creations more easily.

For Unity

  • I would rename the folder and the model, to keep things clear
  • Make a seperate folder where you drop your imported blocks models, keeps things clear
  • If you're gonna do anything commercial with the models, make sure you check with the creators