Google takes Tilt Brush open source as official development comes to an end

Google is ending official support and development for its VR painting tool Tilt Brush, a decision that comes roughly five years since the app first launched back in early 2016.

Despite the official end to Tilt Brush within Google, the company has announced that it has open sourced Tilt Brush to both allow scores of developers to explore the app's inner workings and to continue to evolve the tool now that Google has moved on from the project.

Google notes in its blog post that some Tilt Brush features won't be exactly as its users remember them in the open source code due to licensing restrictions, but for the most part some fiddling can return that functionality to the tool. Tilt Brush's code is now up on GitHub and can be used, distributed, and modified under an Apache 2.0 License.

"As we look back on Tilt Brush, we’re proud of what this creative application has achieved, and excited for where the community will take it," reads that blog. Despite the pull of official support, Google notes that Tilt Brush will remain up for sale in digital VR stores for currently supported platforms, which includes Oculus, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows MR, and PlayStation VR.

More details on what Tilt Brush brings as an open source project can be found on the tool's GitHub repository.