Road to VR

360 Film ‘Dinner Party’ is a Symbolic Exploration of Race in America Wrapped in an Alien Abduction Story

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Feb 6, 2018

Dinner Party - Still 1 — Sarah Sokolovic and Malcom Barrett appear in Dinner Party by Angel Manuel Soto, an official selection of the New Frontier VR Experiences program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Skybound Entertainment. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or 'Courtesy of Sundance Institute.' Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.

laura-wexler — Laura Wexler

Dinner Party is an immersive exploration of Betty and Barney Hill’s widely known 1961 alien abduction story that premiered at the Sundance New Frontier film festival. Rather than using normal alien tropes, writers Laura Wexler & Charlotte Stoudt chose to use the spatial affordances of VR to present a symbolic representation of each of their experiences to highlight how vastly different they were.

‘Sairento VR’ Exits Steam Early Access Today, Launches on Oculus Home

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Feb 6, 2018

Sairento VR (2018), a VR ninja action game from indie developer Mixed Realms, ended its year-long stint in Steam Early Access today. The game, which features both single player and multiplayer modes, also launched on Oculus Home today.

Play ‘Eleven: Table Tennis VR’ on Rift for Free This Weekend

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Feb 6, 2018

table-tennis-vr — image courtesy For Fun Labs

For Fun Labs, the developers behind Eleven: Table Tennis VR (2016), are hosting a free weekend for Rift players this week on Oculus Home.

Walmart’s Tech Incubator Store No. 8 Acquires VR Startup Spatialand

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Feb 6, 2018

walmart store front — photo courtesy Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Wal-Mart, the big-box retail giant, unveiled its Store No. 8 tech startup incubator last year with the aim of researching and investing in emergent tech like AR and VR. Now, Store No. 8 has acquired Spatialand, a startup that has created a platform and toolset for enterprise companies to create VR content.

HP to Launch Enterprise-focused Windows VR Headset in March

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Feb 5, 2018

HP is bringing out an enterprise-focused version of its Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ VR headset in March. Called the ‘Professional Edition’, HP is pushing out basically the same headset hardware-wise save a few tweaks it considers necessary for VR-use in the workplace.

Open Source Game Engine ‘Godot Engine’ Gets VR Support

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Dominic Brennan

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Feb 5, 2018

godot-3-vr-support — Image courtesy Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur, et al

The full release of Godot 3.0 is now available, bringing VR support to the engine via a lightweight, 3DoF, ‘Cardboard-like’ solution, and OpenVR support through a GDNative-based plugin. The multiplatform Godot Engine is an open source, non-profit project available to download for free via the official site or through Steam.

Noitom Releases Perception Neuron 2.0 Motion Capture System

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Feb 5, 2018

BannerTeaserPN2_1_0 — image courtesy Noitom

Noitom, the Beijing-based company building affordable motion capture systems, announced the release of Perception Neuron 2.0, a hardware refresh of the company’s original tracker which resulted from their 2014 Kickstarter campaign. The company also announced a new product ecosystem which will allow both 1.0 and 2.0 owners to use the tiny 1.2 gram snap-in sensors with specialized straps and a full body mocap, zip-up suit.

Former Mozilla WebVR Pioneers Launch ‘Supermedium’ VR Browser

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Dominic Brennan

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Feb 2, 2018

Image courtesy Supermedium

Supporting HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Supermedium is a new, fully VR browser from the creators of VR web framework ‘A-Frame’ and part of the original Mozilla team behind the WebVR initiative. Available to download on Supermedium’s website, the browser aims to become the new home for lightweight, fast-loading, web-based VR experiences.

Play VR Sport ‘SPARC’ for Free on Rift This Weekend

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Feb 2, 2018

sparc ccp games (3) — Image courtesy CCP Games

Sparc (2017), the VR sport from EVE Online developers CCP Games, is hosting a free weekend for Rift players on Oculus Home. Temporary free access has already begun, and will conclude on February 4th at 11:59 PM PT (local time here).

Oculus Go Dev Kit Images Show the Headset to Be Near Consumer-ready

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Feb 2, 2018

oculus-go-large — Image courtesy Trusted Reviews

Two images showing a seemingly consumer-ready box containing Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming standalone VR headset, found its way to Reddit and Twitter recently, possibly indicating that launch is right around the corner.

Medieval Roguelike Bow-shooter ‘IN DEATH’ Hits Early Access, PSVR Version in the Works

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Feb 1, 2018

Sólfar Studios’ new title IN DEATH, launches today in Early Access with a launch week discount. The “roguelike” bow-shooter makes use of procedural generation to create different experience every time you play, the developers say, while players come upon “monsters, mysteries and loot.”

Hands-on: VRHero “5K” Plus Aims for Visual Fidelity Above All Else

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Feb 1, 2018

vrhero (1) — Photo by Road to VR

VRgineers is a Czech-based startup building a VR headset positioned strictly for the enterprise world. Compared to today’s consumer VR headsets, it’s undeniably huge and heavy, but a hands-on with their latest VRHero “5K” Plus shows that they’re on a path to delivering on their promise of unmatched image quality.

Inside Sundance Hit ‘SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime’ with Director Eliza McNitt

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Feb 1, 2018

SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime - Still 1 — A still image from SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime by Eliza McNitt, an official selection of the New Frontier VR Experiences program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or 'Courtesy of Sundance Institute.' Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.

Sundance New Frontier had a solid line-up of VR experiences this year with a number of immersive storytelling innovations including SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime, which takes you on a journey into the center of a black hole. It’s a hero’s journey that provides an embodied experience of the evolution of a star from birth to death with a poetic story written and directed by Eliza McNitt, narrated by Jessica Chastain, and produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures.

HTC: Vive Pro is Targeted at Prosumers and Will Be “more expensive” Than Consumer Vive

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Jan 31, 2018

vive pro — Image courtesy HTC

VR/AR expert Antony Vitillo (aka ‘Skarred Ghost‘) got an opportunity to speak with HTC Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin recently, and while Graylin predictably couldn’t answer the question on everyone’s mind—”how much is Vive Pro going to cost?”—we learned the headset is definitely targeting a prosumer price range that makes it “more expensive than the existing consumer product.”

VirZOOM Closes $5.5M Seed Funding to Develop Second Generation of VR Bike Kit

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Jan 31, 2018

VirZOOM vSports Competition — image courtesy PRNewsfoto/VirZOOM

VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, announced the successful closure of a $5.5 million seed funding round which the company says will help expand its commercial business worldwide with a second generation of its VZ Module and VZ Sensor, a retrofitting kit for stationary bikes that turns them into VR controllers.

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