VR and AR are some of the most exciting and promising technological fields that offer businesses ample opportunities. The largest technology companies are now investing heavily in the VR and AR market. Businesses worldwide are rushing to provide their users with interactive content. However, the scarcity of developers operating in this field and the need to meet the demand for VR and AR solutions drives companies to consider outsourcing.
Many of the US and Western European companies have chosen Ukraine as the most attractive offshoring and nearshoring outsourcing destination. The country offers the most reasonable prices for high-quality services on the Eastern European market. Thus more and more innovative solutions are created by Ukrainian VR developers which enable businesses to deliver VR and AR content directly to customers within the web browser or a mobile app. This unmatched user experience has the power to attract more new customers and retain the existing ones, generating additional revenue streams for businesses. Let’s have a look at the VR and AR solutions created by Ukrainian software engineers.
1.jDome BikeAround™
N-iX development team cooperated with the Swedish healthcare provider Brighter on enhancement of jDome BikeAround™. jDome® is a hemispherical display solution which offers virtual 3D experiences that can stimulate users to do cardiac and mental training in a safe and secure way. It is mainly used for managing anxiety and panic disorder of elderly people. This solution is targeted at senior people care homes to contribute to better qualitative activities for both users and personnel.
jDome BikeAround™ offers the patients a unique experience where the patient is offered to take a ride on a training bike in front of the hemispherical jDome screen. The picture shows the realistic layout of the streets integrated with Google map service Google Street View. The patient can turn the handlebar and the picture can simultaneously change to a more familiar neighbourhood. This app is already available on Google Play.
Moreover, Brighter is planning to add an audio to enhance the experience. The team is also working on linking connected services to jDome BikeAround™ via The Benefit Loop to collect, process, analyze and return data in the processing chain.
2. Africa
Africa is a VR solution created by Ukrainian VR developers from N-iX for the Drummer Agency. This demo VR project is developed for Samsung Gear VR. With the help of this app, the user can discover African slum areas and explore the life of local communities as well as virtually interact with the surrounding environment. Additionally, the user can watch a video, improve the environment, and even find out how people’s donations can change it.
N-iX VR team made the demo as realistic as possible and delivered it in a very short time. The demo contains photo-realistic characters, elements of video VR and realistic interactive assets. While creating the assets and characters, N-iX developers used photos of real locations and people. The team paid special attention to lighting and other effects like flying pieces of sand and dust. Ukrainian studio and the Drummer Agency have continued their cooperation and currently work on other virtual reality projects.
3. Virtually Unlimited
The Ukrainian team developed a VR solution for Contiki Holidays to provide the users with a VR experience where they can see the destinations they would like to visit. The main aim of the solution is to offer an eye-opening travel experience to young people from around the world with Samsung Gear VR and connected to Samsung Note.
Ciklum development team built a virtual reality application for the Android platform and upgraded it for Samsung Note 6. The application takes the potential client on a virtual journey to the destinations they haven’t visited before like New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and others. This solution features interaction points where the user chooses different routes with the help of a simple navigation system. Also, it enables smooth transitions between 360-degree videos and object targeting. Currently, Contiki Holidays uses the VR application as a sales tool and continues working on additional features.
4. ARKTIKA.1
ARKTIKA.1 is an immersive, action-packed, first-person shooter designed by 4A games team. Ukrainian team developed this virtual reality game for Oculus Touch. This game is a post-apocalyptic vision of the future in full VR where the user can be a saviour. He or she can protect the colony in the wastelands from raiders, marauders, and strange creatures. The development team used the newest version of the 4A Engine for creating ARKTIKA.1. As a result, the solution delivers realistic visuals along with the immersion and world building in full VR.
5. Mobile 3D Car Interior
The team made an experiment using 3D and mobile web in combination with VR for creating a demo of a Mobile 3D Car Interior. Their main goal was to create a solution that would not be just a promo but could become a convenient solution for car manufacturers. In order to make the exploration process more natural, Eleks developers did not provide any intermediary buttons or controls. The interaction is only limited to tapping, dragging or other gestures. For retaining realism and smoothness of the solution, the team had to bake normal maps in Blender and Maya. To avoid using large textures, the developers picked their minimum size where the loss of quality was still insignificant.
The car interior preview on the mobile website can be easily integrated into an existing website of an automotive brand as a multiscreen experience. Alternatively, it can work as a separate mobile website, with its short link printed on outdoor advertising or embedded in a QR code.
6. AR Indoor Navigation Platform
Augmented Pixels team realized that it is very difficult for an ordinary person to manage drones in narrow spaces and decided to simplify this process. They created a solution for navigating the drones based on AR. By using simultaneous localization and mapping as well as additional sensors they changed drone navigation to “point and fly” mode. With the help of their solution, users no longer have to use levers or delve into the physics of flight. Moreover, it is now possible to program the drone to automatically fly around the premises and land by itself. This technology can significantly reduce accident rates by minimizing the “human factor.” Additionally, you may use it to inspect the premise for security, creating 360 tours, etc.
VR and AR are now reaching into virtually every segment of every market. Despite the fact that the number of virtual reality developers worldwide is not that big, the interest towards this sphere is rising and the market is experiencing explosive growth. Therefore, companies that want to integrate this technology into their business models hunt the talent wherever they can find it. Ukrainian IT industry is especially rich in skilled 3D artists and modellers, virtual reality developers and software engineers. Thus many companies choose to cooperate with Ukrainian VR developers on immersive VR games and experiences. So if you are interested in this sphere, this market is definitely worth your attention.
