Software

Also consider spending time to browse this list of Open Source, Experimental, and tiny tools, collected by Everest Pipkin.

When it comes to virtual teaching/remote work, resources are collected here and here.

A non-exhaustive list of tools for creating VR/AR content. In no particular order. Any editorialization to be taken with a grain of salt.

Backups / File Management

• Backblaze - Cloud backups

• Syncthing - Open source folder syncing/backup

• WinDirStat - Disk usage viewer, helpful for cleanup. Alternatives for mac

Game Engines

• Unity - Free to use, C#

• Unreal Engine - Free to use, Blueprints/C++

• Godot - Free, Open Source, GDScript, C#, C++

• Amazon Lumberyard

• PlayCanvas - HTML5/WebVR

• LÖVR - Open source, lua

  WebVR Frameworks

• A-Frame

• Primrose

• React 360

• Argon.js

  3D Modeling (Desktop)

• Blender - Free, Open Source

• Maya - Paid

• 3DSMax - Paid

• Cinema4D - Paid

• Sketchup - Paid

• MeshMixer - Free

• MagicaVoxel - Free, voxel-based, very easy to use.

• Spritestack.io - Free, Premium Tier

• AssetForge - Paid

• MakeHuman - Free

• ProBuilder (in Unity) - Free

• Rhino3D - Paid

• Figuro - Free, in browser

  3D Modeling (In VR)

• Google Blocks - Free

• Oculus Medium - Free

• Microsoft Maquette - Free

• Gravity Sketch - Paid

• Mesh Maker VR - Free

• Kodon - Paid

• Masterpiece VR - Paid

• VoxVR - Free

  3D Modeling (Sculpting Workflow)

• zBrush - Paid

• PolyBrush (in Unity) - Free

• Desktop Software: Blender, Cinema4D, and Maya have built in sculpting workflow tools.

• VR Software: Medium, Kodon, and Masterpiece VR primarily use sculpting workflows.

  Painting/Animation in VR

• Quill - Free, Oculus

• Tilt Brush - Paid, Cross Platform

  Digital Painting programs

• JSPaint - MSPaint in the browser

• Krita

• GIMP

  Vector Art

• Adobe Illustrator

• Dotgrid

• Inkscape

  3D Modeling Utility/Processing/Converting

• MeshLab - Free.

• fSpy - Free. Calibrate camera to reference images.

• fSpy Blender Add-On - Open Source

• Meshmixer - Free

  Image Editing

• Adobe Photoshop - Paid, Recurring subscription

• Affinity Photo - Paid, One Time

• GIMP - Free, Open source

• Glimpse - Fork of GIMP with better UI

• Paint.NET - Free, Windows Only

• Pixelmator - Paid, Mac/iPad Only

• Snapseed - Free, Mobile/Android

  Image Viewer

• Irfanview - Free, fast. Can zoom in and proof easier than built into windows.

• DJV - Free, Open Source. Lets you preview an image sequence as a movie.

  Texture Map Creation (Procedural)

• Substance Designer - Paid. Industry standard.

• Material Maker - Free, Open Source

• Quixel Mixer - Free: Quixel was recently bought by Epic, use Epic Games account to log in.

  Texture Map Creation (From Images/Utilities)

• Materialize - Free

• ShaderMap - Paid/Free versions

• CrazyBump - Paid

• AwesomeBump - Free, Open Source

• xNormal - Free (highPoly -> lowPoly Models)

• Laigter (normals for 2D sprites) - Free (pay what you want)

• Normal Map Online - Free, online, open source

• HME - Height Map Editor

  3D Model Auto-Rigging

• Mixamo - Free (Adobe account required)

• Auto-Rig Pro (Blender) - Paid

  Photogrammetry

• Agisoft Metashape - Paid

• Autodesk Reality Capture - Paid

• PhotoModeler - Paid

• MeshRoom - Free, Open Source

  Video Editing

  • Adobe Premiere Pro - Paid, subscription.

  • DaVinci Resolve - Free, fully featured. Color grading is particularly top-tier. There’s no catch: Blackmagic Design makes money from hardware sales.

  • Shotcut - Free, Open Source.

  Video Utility

• MpegStreamclip - Video converter, Free

• LiceCap - Gif From Screen Section, Free

  AR Creation and Editing

• Spark AR by Facebook

• Adobe Aero (ios)

• Lens Studio by Snapchat

  Audio Editing (non-music focused)

• Audacity - Free, Open Source

• Pro Tools - Paid, Free version

• Adobe Audition - Paid

• Wave Shop - Free, Open Source

  Multimedia Programming/Processing

• PureData

• Cycling74 Max - Paid

  Sound Effect Creation

• BFXR - Free

• SFXR - Free

• rFXGen - Free, based on sfxr

• LabChirp - Free

• Explodomatica - Free

• rFXGen - Free

• ChipTone - Free

  Music Composition

• Bosca Ceoil

• Aria Maestosa

• Ribs

• Hydrogen

• Best

Screen Capture

• ShareX - Open Source, Capture animated Gifs/movies, OCR

• LiceCap - Quick screen portion to gif

Note Taking

I recommend plaintext for digital notes. More generally, any open format that isn’t tied to a particular piece of software of workflow. Notes should last forever. Which is longer than software usually lasts.

• Obsidian - Notes in plaintext and markdown formatting. Notable support of backlinks and a graph view of linked notes, custom themes, voice memos, daily notes/templates, and keyboard only support. Sync thrugh git plugin or paid upgrade (not released yet at time of writing).

• Simplenote - Simple plaintext/markdwown notes with universal platform support and very competent syncing and backups. Great simple upgrade to a phones notes app.

• Standard Notes - Free, Open source, encrypted plaintext notes with syncing.

• Workflowy - Infinite Hierarchy/nested document structure. Extremely flexible with capable power features. Great for notes, todos, organization, mood boards, and more.

• Dynalist - Workflowly competitor. Better-but-still-not-great support for inline images. Pro version has automatic daily backup.

• Joplin - Free, Open Source, cloud sync through dropbox or oneDrive. Well supported API and means wide compatibility for import/export and app optind.

• Milanote - Free teir, then $10/mo. Very visual. Highly featured board/tasks/project organization. Teams support. Cloud based for easy syncing to mobile app/web.

Study Aids (Flash cards)

• Quizlet - Mobile apps/sync, public cards, various learning strategies.

• Mochi - Markdown syntax, Syncing, mobile/web. Clean design.

• Anchi - A longstanding robust solution with a variety of features.

• RemNote - Supports hierarchial and linked structures for taking notes in, and can generate the flash cards from this knowledge base.

  Text Editors

• Textreme - Distracted plaintext writing

• Left - Minimalist plaintext writing

• Markdeep - Markdown writing full of extra features

• Mark Text - Simple, fast, markdown editor

  Code Editing IDE’s with Plugin/Package Support

• Jetbrains Rider - Paid, Free for Students, exceptional Unity features/support

• VS Code - Free, cross platform

• Atom - Free, cross platform

• Sublime Text - “Free”, Paid with unlimted free trial

• Notepad++ - Free. Notably lightweight on system resources

• Geany - Free, lightweight

• Microsoft Visual Studio - Free. Not VS Code… more like it’s “big brother”. Often installed, it helps manage C/C++/C# compiling/support libraries/build chains.

• CLion - Basically Rider but for C and C++ (i.e.: Unreal). Paid, Free for students.

  Color Themes for IDE’s

• Rainglow (My personal favorite, earthsung, is in this collection).

• Dracula (Also check out fan-favoriate, Darcula. a darker version of this theme)

• Grubbox. Original is for VIM, Been ported to Jetbrains Rider/CLion, VSCode, Sublime, etc. Just search for it

  Git Graphical Interfaces

• Fork - Free

• Kraken - Free, pro version available

• GitHub Desktop - Free

• SourceTree - Free

• GitFiend - Free

• Sublime Merge - Paid with unlimited free trial

  VR Third-Party Software/Support TOols

• SideQuest - Install games onto the quest from .apk files, plus an unofficial storefront

• Itch.io - Indie Game Storefront, has some VR titles