8i Launch ‘Volumetric VR’ Player for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift at CES

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8i, a company that specialise in volumetric capture of live action subjects has announced they’re launching a new Volumetric VR player compatible with both the Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vive VR headsets.

8i’s volumetric video capture technology has come along leaps and bounds since we last checked in on them. The company specialises in capturing in volumetric 3D, live action subjects that, once taken can be transferred to a 3D, navigable space in virtual reality.

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What this means is that, one a person has been captured, you can walk up to and around the person in question – that’s a full 360 degree, in motion 3D volumetric video. This is now in stark contrast to 6 months ago, when the company only had partial captures up and running. The video embedded above gives you an idea of what this is like in motion, it certainly looks impressive.

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Now, as 8i work towards capturing more and more 3D volumetric footage as part of their ‘100 Humans’ initiative, the company is launching its first volumetric VR video player, and for those of you with Oculus Rift DK2s and HTC Vive Developer editions, you can download ‘8i Portal’ and try it out right now.

The launch of the 8i Portal for VR brings us one step closer to delivering on our mission to enable creators and consumers to connect with each other in the closest way to real life.

You can grab the new player right here and check out a sample set of volumetric footage from their collection.

Meanwhile, 8i will be present at CES this week to demonstrate their technology to show goers. Road to VR are of course on the ground here in Vegas to bring you the latest.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Foreign Devil

    Hope this tech can bring back live actors to 3D video games.

    • remosito

      check out squadron 42. Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, John Rhys Davies, Andy Serkis performance captured.

      • Steve B

        While that’s true, that isn’t the same thing. Motion capture is very different from 3D volumetric capture. Mocap has been done for decades using tracking points and digital markers which then gets translated to data for animation. 8i is actual video footage that gets somehow translated into a 3D array.

        • remosito

          I wrote performance capture. Not motion capture. Perfcap as well catches the actors facial performance in high detail in addition to mocap. Add to that super high resolution scans of the actors face in different expressions to create a near identical base 3D mesh.

          Check it out! Fascinating stuff! http://youtu.be/G1eLecTsTSw

  • Bill Mauchly

    How could it possibly be that they don’t have a demo of Princess Leia calling for help?