VIRTUOSO SDK (VSDK) is a free, open-source software development kit for prototyping and deploying extended reality (XR) experiences—from games, to training simulations, to experimental research trials.
VSDK is available free on GitHub as a complete project with no outside dependencies.
VSDK Featured Media
Developing XR experiences is challenging
Developing experiences for XR—which includes augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR)—has historically been expensive and time-consuming. Custom assets, scenarios, and interaction methods must be created by expert XR developers, and when new devices and systems become available, they are not immediately interoperable with existing systems.
VSDK offers a solution
Charles River Analytics created VSDK to address these challenges. VSDK expedites the development of novel XR experiences while minimizing the associated risks. Originally built under the US Army VIRTUOSO project to create VR training for combat medics, VSDK can be used to rapidly prototype and deploy any immersive XR experience, including dynamic training scenarios that combine the immersive capabilities of VR with time- and event-based scripts.
Key features and capabilities
- Ease of Use: Any developer can rapidly and consistently build XR experiences; no need to be an XR expert. VSDK incorporates XR best practices and provides software components that address the hardest XR development challenges.
- Device Agnostic: Developers can take advantage of the unique benefits of different hardware platforms, without being bound to a particular platform.
- Modular System: VSDK offers fully separable modules for device interoperability, characters, and interactions.
VSDK for simulation-based training and more
When a training experience maps real-world interactions to a keyboard or mouse, the skills being learned are not physically reinforced; the learner must not just learn a skill, but also translate the training experience to real-world actions. A system with a naturalistic user interface can be used to create more effective virtual training experiences. The flexible haptic, gesture, and speech control libraries in VSDK can improve training results and enhance other XR applications.
At Charles River, we use VSDK in several of our own projects:
Device agnosticism makes VSDK resilient
Because VSDK seamlessly incorporates so many leading commercial control and display peripherals, it can support training with the equipment best suited to a training task.
Simulations built using VSDK are also resilient to future technology advances; Charles River collaborates with leading AR/VR companies so that VSDK simulations can support the most cutting-edge haptic feedback devices as soon as they are released to market.
Currently supported devices and systems include:
- SteamVR (HTC Vive, WindowsMR HMDs)
- Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest)
- Leap Motion
- ManusVR
- Sense Glove
- bHaptics TactSuit
Try VSDK for yourself
VSDK is available free on GitHub, as a complete project with no outside dependencies.
Learn More
• Visit the VSDK YouTube Channel for tutorial videos.
• Find documentation and project-focused tutorials on the
VSDK GitHub Wiki.
• Download our VSDK brochure
VSDK has been awarded a MegaGrant
through EPIC games
