Great potential, but too many bugs and there's (imho) a better whiteboard out there.
I originally planned on waiting a bit before refunding this, but the developer hasn't commented yet on any of my issues and i've since found out how to use Tilt Brush to (much better) achieve what i wanted. So in this review i'm going to lay out what this app does, why i refunded it and why i believe tilt brush is better anyway. I used the oculus rift with touch controllers on Windows 10 64bit with a GTX 1070 gpu.
The app aims to fill a real need: It provides a whiteboard on which you can handwrite (with smooting options so that your writing is pleasantly legible), a few combinations of marker colour and thickness (it may state 750 combinations on the store page but i'll explain later why it's still "few") and the ability to insert pdf pages and pictures.
PROS:
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[*]The interface is beautiful. You have a movable whiteboard in front of you, a file inserting menu on your left and can bring up a quick inventory of markers/erasers by pressing the thumbstick (click again to bring up the full inventory of all markers).
[*]You can quickly (note: see cons #2) insert a photo or pdf page. Just turn to your left and there's the corresponding menu, with a simple but beautiful interface of flipping through your files. Also, Tilt Brush doesn't support pdf files - you'll have to convert them into pictures first.
[*]Infinite space to write on.
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CONS:
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[*]Despite the beauty of the interface it isn't as fast as Tilt Brush. In order to move the Whiteboard you have to access a menu, while Tilt Brush allows you to do that on the spot by pressing both grip buttons. To change the colour and thickness of your marker you have to click twice and choose from a menu and while the selection of colours and thickness is adequate, it's still limiting compared to Tilt Brush, where you can literally use any colour and thickness imaginable.
[*]The file insertion interface can easily become cluttered if you have a lot of pdf's and pictures. You can only place your files in the documents folder, as the app doesn't (yet?) see any subfolders you create. Even worse, each page in a pdf document is presented as a seperate picture in this interface, so it'd be extremely difficult for example to find a specific page amongst 10 100-page pdf document's.
[*]Although the app offers infinite space to write on, you're still restricted to 2 dimensions. That means that the chief advantage of this app over a regular 2d pc app is the immersion that vr offers. With Tilt Brush you can create a 3-dimensional whiteboard, which is critical for huge projects (although more difficult to export).
[*]Bugs and crashes. This is what originally made me give up on this app. The app usually didn't exit correctly for me, no matter if i used the exit button from within the app or closed it through the steam interface. Trying to restart the app (through steam or the oculus app) would sometimes work just fine, but other times it crashed steam or displayed a message that the app was already running. Also, the Inserted documents and marker thickness were never saved correctly between sessions. Pdf pages would change position and size, while my writings would get thinner (!) with every restart, to the point they were barely legible. Also, the app was usually (and randomly) unable to "see" the documents that i had placed in my documents folder.
[*]One last minor con is that the developer, although somewhat active on others' discussion threads, didn't reply to any of my own. Granted, devs are busy people that are better off devoting their time to improving their apps, but in these early days of vr i've found most developers more communicative.
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TIP ON HOW TO USE TILT BRUSH INSTEAD:
First of all select throught the menu the "white" environment/background, which will make black text very legible. On tilt brush there's a menu you can bring up that contains among others a cubical "guide". Once placed in space, you can select among many useful markers (that automatically smooth out your writings) or highlighters and write on this guide. You can have as many guides as you like (and toggle them on/off at will), which will keep things tidy even in 3d space and in huge projects. Be sure to keep all objects aligned horizontally and vertically (i believe by pressing the A button while moving them).
