CONNECTOME is now live in the App Store!
It’s day two of Augmented World Expo (AWE), the opening keynotes are just behind us, and CONNECTOME is now available for Apple Vision Pro in the App Store!
To my TestFlight users who provided early feedback - thank you! And a special shoutout to Ian Hamilton of Good Virtual Reality who spent some time with me recently to talk about CONNECTOME on Apple Vision Pro. We spent about an hour together talking about this project, favorite VR moments, and the creative process in general.
This is the first experience I’ve published for Apple Vision Pro (and to the App Store in general), and I have to say it feels great to have made it through this process. Publishing across each platform differs slightly, with small unexpected hurdles along the way - each with different asset and content requirements, or hidden agreement checkboxes lurking just out of view.
But it’s done! And it’s live! Now on to… the next! 😉
Project Hydra: Iterations - Now Available for Meta Quest!
And… launch two this week is Project Hydra: Iterations (VR), now available for free in the Meta Horizon Store!
This was a much lighter lift than bringing CONNECTOME to Apple Vision Pro, but it still feels good to have this out in the wild.
This project is the VR extension of a larger body of work I refer to as The Hydra Series, or Project Hydra - my naming has shifted slightly over time. I think the summary from my portfolio site does a pretty good job of providing context:
Project Hydra: Iterations is a VR art experience by Grant Hinkson (Fr0gg3r / Parietal Lab), creator of CONNECTOME and CONSTELLATIONS. The Hydra Series began as static images rendered by pen plotters and has been presented as projected installations, wall-mounted digital frames, and holographic displays at events and galleries in Seattle. This VR experience was created as an extension of that physical body of work — a way to experience the algorithm (a generative system of Bézier curves drawn across a fixed grid of rings) and its variations at scales and forms not possible in a physical gallery.
The journey opens with a sparse composition suspended above a doorway — curves reduced to just a few line segments, angular and spindly. A transitional passage leads to a gallery of smaller works on pedestals. Then, the centerpiece: the Hydra Series – 7×7: Complete Cycle, several stories tall, with ambient music synchronized to the movement of its focal node as it visits each point in the grid exactly once over nearly 13 minutes.
The final room presents an alternative version of the Complete Cycle that changes the mood completely — reduced point count, shifted palette, different sound. The same algorithm in a distorted permutation.
If you have a Quest and want a quick, immersive art journey, please take Project Hydra: Iterations for a spin - it’s a free download!
On Building Project Hydra: Iterations - a Brief Background
I’ve had the Hydra working in Unity for a long time. In fact, it’s one of the first things I created in my journey leading up to CONNECTOME. I explained “starting with what you know” is part of the creative process for me. Being new to Unity at the time, I needed a project that was familiar and had a clear “finished” state. Enter the Hydra 😊It’s through this starter project that I found the Shapes library, learned how I would animate splines, and started building a point of view on interactive, manipulative geometries.
Last week, in my Wearing All the Hats presentation at the Seattle XR Conference, I shared video of an early render test. Here’s a snapshot from that presentation:
All of the projection and digital screen artwork that I’ve shared previously were created by this Unity implementation of the Hydra.
The rest of AWE week…
This week is going to disappear quickly, but I’ll be capturing photos and videos along the way to share later. I’m excited to be demoing CONNECTOME on Apple Vision Pro, Retro 3D, and Project Hydra: Iterations at the Official Auggies After Party Wednesday night! I’ll have a fun menu of experiences for attendees to try.
Until next time!
Grant
CONNECTOME was featured on the visionOS App Store front page last week! From Apple's editors: "The experience of playing Connectome is at once incredibly immersive and totally relaxing." It's not in the header artwork this week, but still in the What's New list on the front page and in the New in Apps and Games collection. I’ll share some screen captures in my next article :)
App Store:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/connectome-a-game-of-points/id6758965447