Diego Montoya, Developer in Munich, Bavaria, Germany
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Diego Montoya

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Diego is an engineer and creative technologist with 10 years of experience in AR/VR and other spatial computing fields. After five years in an AR/VR startup from Munich, he co-founded VRdirect and served as its CTO. He has done groundbreaking AR/VR work for Audi, Porshe, BMW, Hyperloop, Henry Schein, the Cologne Cathedral and many agencies. With a passion for emergent technologies, Diego excels at pushing the limits of 3D interactivity through creativity, ingenuity, and drive.

Portfolio

Freelance
3D, Unity, C#, Unity3D, iOS, WebXR, WebVR, Spatial Audio, Augmented Reality...
VRdirect
Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Video Players...
RE'FLEKT
Android, ARKit, Projection Mapping, User Experience (UX), Software Architecture...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Mixed Reality (MR), C#, Unity, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR)

The most amazing...

...project I have done: a special relativity simulation in VR. Feel the speed of light, see space contraction, time dilation, and the relativistic Doppler effect.

Work Experience

Creative Coder and Freelance XR Expert

2020 - PRESENT
Freelance
  • Developed a 3D visualization web tool for medical procedures for a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500® index.
  • Engineered and developed a system for AR and VR NFTs which included creating a VR player for the browser, including OTP access, asset loading, locomotion system, and animations.
  • Researched different spatial (3D) audio technologies and developed an app with support for head-tracked 3D audio for iOS.
  • Digitized (made 3D scans of) works of art to be presented as a metaverse gallery in Q3 2022.
Technologies: 3D, Unity, C#, Unity3D, iOS, WebXR, WebVR, Spatial Audio, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Web-based AR, ARCore, Python, Arduino, Computer Graphics, Software Engineering, Terragen, Spatial Computing

CTO and Co-founder

2018 - 2019
VRdirect
  • Co-founded the startup as a spinoff, bringing the whole development team and IP to the new company.
  • Managed companywide technology and innovation efforts and led the development team to fulfill product and engineering requirements.
  • Co-formulated the company's vision and product strategy, which helped secure several funding rounds.
  • Established IT, engineering, and Agile development processes, using Atlassian and Azure Cloud tools.
Technologies: Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Video Players, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Cloud, WebXR, Virtual Reality, Agile Software Development, Unity, Jira, Git, iOS, Android, Bitbucket, Xcode, Visual Studio, .NET, Microsoft Teams, MacOS, Unity3D, C#, 3D, Computer Graphics, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface

Senior Software Engineer | Interactive Media Specialist

2012 - 2017
RE'FLEKT
  • Developed breakthrough VR research work for Audi, which was presented at Unity's Vision VR/AR Summit.
  • Led the team and product development of an interactive 360 VR platform that went on to become a new company.
  • Participated in the development of the WDR Cologne Dome interactive 360 experience for the cathedral. After its release on Android, iOS, and Oculus, it had 15,000+ users.
  • Played a key role in the company's growth from nine to 60+ employees. Took part in recruiting and establishing internal and engineering processes.
  • Worked on a wide range of projects with clients, ranging from small agencies to big corporations such as Porsche, Audi, BMW, and P7S1, one of Europe's most successful media companies.
  • Spearheaded innovation efforts for the Hyperloop augmented windows project.
Technologies: Android, ARKit, Projection Mapping, User Experience (UX), Software Architecture, Simultaneous Localization & Mapping (SLAM), Software Engineering, Mixed Reality (MR), Objective-C, C#, Unity, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Jira, Git, iOS, Bitbucket, Xcode, Visual Studio, .NET, Microsoft Teams, MacOS, Windows, Unity3D, 3D, Computer Graphics, Game Development, Games, Unreal Engine

Software Engineer Working Student

2009 - 2011
Nokia
  • Automated test procedures for new-generation smartphones.
  • Extended test automation from 2G to 3G technologies and beyond.
  • Wrote macros to automatically evaluate and visualize test result data.
Technologies: C#, Visual Basic

TheHaus On Chain

https://thehaus.de/
An abandoned office building in Berlin's former west, taken over by artists. Its rooms were turned into works of art, digitized before the building was demolished. After a long wait, TheHaus found the perfect place to come back to life: the Metaverse in the form of NFTs. Each room of the collection is available as an AR and VR experience, accessible when purchasing the token.

My role in the project was the development of the VR viewer and AR models, as well as participating in the design of the system architecture and blockchain integration.

Spacetime

https://diego-montoya.com/spacetime.html
Spacetime is a research project consisting of a VR special relativity simulation for the Oculus Quest, where the light-speed c is much lower than usual. Space contracts, time dilates, and light shows a Doppler effect according to your movements.

I led the overall concept, design, and development. The main goal of the experience is to allow for a more intuitive and natural understanding of how space, time, and light behave when an observer approaches the speed of light.

Audi VR Experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At_Zac4Xezw
With the VR solution, customers can get an extremely realistic experience of their individually configured car, down to the last detail. The VR experience explains Audi technologies intuitively and offers customers the opportunity to immerse themselves virtually in extraordinary moments from the world of the four rings.

My work was to research the best way to explore the car in VR, being able to walk around it in an intuitive, realistic manner. A series of prototypes were developed and user tested to determine how the target audience interacted with the locomotion schemes.

VRdirect - Interactive 360 VR Platform

https://www.vrdirect.com/
A platform that allows the creation of interactive 360 experiences without code. Create a VR experience with a drag-n-drop tool. Import your 360 and traditional images, video, and audio to build marketing displays, training scenarios, real estate tours, gamified cultural documentaries, and more.

I was the CTO and co-founder, taking over companywide responsibilities for all innovation, development, and IT tasks.

Hyperloop Augmented Windows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp5n1cunMtU
A research project to explore the first realistic simu­la­tion of a real window to enable passen­gers to look outside Elon Musk’s window­less Hyper­loop capsule. I led technical efforts to develop and integrate the necessary technology to emulate the virtual windows.

Retzompantli

https://foundation.app/@arturo.zv/rtz/17
An NFT collection of 212 real-life skull sculptures turned into 3D models with photogrammetry. I am in charge of the process digitization, which comprises photographic setup and method, 3D reconstruction, 3D optimization, materials and textures, as well as preparation and optimization for AR on iOS and Android.

Each sculpture is very unique so the process had to be very robust but scalable at the same time. The full 3D creation pipeline included photography mechanization and automation, reconstruction scripts for RealityCapture (command line, Python), and Photoshop scripts.

• Information about the project: retzompantli.art/
• NFT collection: foundation.app/collection/rtz

SuperWorld

https://www.superworldapp.com/
SuperWorld is a virtual world in augmented reality (AR), digitally mapped over Earth. Every plot of virtual real estate in SuperWorld is a non-fungible token (NFT) that corresponds to real-world space and lets users buy and sell properties, and monetize activity on their land.

As part of my role as a software engineer, I was in charge of researching and prototyping new AR technologies for their app, as well as being part of the development team of the production AR app. I evaluated different AR technologies to decide whether or not they should be integrated as part of the production app, was one of the two engineers in charge of rebuilding the app with an improved, more maintainable architecture, ported the UI into a more performant and extensible system, and worked on CI/CD automation.

Jadu AR

https://jadu.ar/
Jadu AR is an innovative multiplayer AR fighting game. I engineered an internal 3D modeling and animation tool and developed a Unity module so artists could test their 3D models and animations in a drag-and-drop fashion. Instead of having to ask an engineer and spending hours (with a turnaround of days) to be able to test a new model, artists can take the tool, drop their models, and see them in action in the game context in minutes. Also, with a couple of clicks, they can try the game on their augmented reality devices.

The result is very short iteration cycles in the creative team while letting the engineering team concentrate on development tasks.

The tool uses its core codebase and sticks to its engineering principles. Consequently, maintenance is minimal, and artists see their models just as they would look in the game.
2009 - 2012

Master's Degree in Information Systems Technology

Ulm University - Ulm, Germany

2004 - 2008

Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering

ITESO, Jesuit University of Guadalajara - Guadalajara, Mexico

JUNE 2020 - PRESENT

Deep Learning Bootcamp

Udemy

DECEMBER 2016 - DECEMBER 2018

Certified Product Owner

Scrum Alliance

Libraries/APIs

WebVR, Three.js, WebGL, WebXR

Tools

Jira, Git, Bitbucket, Xcode, Visual Studio, Microsoft Teams, Blender, Photoshop CC, Maya, Autodesk FBX SDK, Terragen

Languages

C#, Python, JavaScript, Objective-C, Visual Basic

Frameworks

Unity, Unity3D, ARKit, .NET, Unreal Engine, Universal Scene Description (USD)

Paradigms

Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Clean Code, Agile Software Development, UX Design

Platforms

Arduino, iOS, Android, ARCore, MacOS, Windows, Raspberry Pi, Blockchain

Industry Expertise

Telecommunications, Automotive

Other

Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Software, 3D, Game Engine Programming, Digital Art, Software Engineering, 3D Art, Creative Coding, Unity Game Assets, Mobile Game Development, Computer Graphics, Hardware, Digital Signal Processing, Computational Photography, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Mixed Reality (MR), Software Architecture, Research, UX Research, Web-based AR, Spatial Audio, Game Development, Games, Crypto, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Generative Art, Photogrammetry, RealityCapture, Deep Learning, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Game Animation, Machine Vision, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Networks, Image Processing, Mobile App Development, Cloud, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Video Players, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Recursive Neural Networks (RvNNs), Autoencoders, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), CTO, Interaction Design (IxD), Prototyping, Physics, Simultaneous Localization & Mapping (SLAM), Projection Mapping, User Experience (UX), Video Streaming, 3D Modeling, GL Transmission Format (glTF), VPS, User Interface (UI), AR Foundation, Character Animation, 3D Animation, Video Gaming, Visual Effects (VFX), Game Tools Development, 3D Rigging, Spatial Computing

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