Patrick Hagan is a technical specialist for the Houston Fire Department who had an opportunity to try out a VR demo by HTX Labs featuring an active shooter critical response training scenario. This demo inspired him to start collaborating with HTX Labs to see how virtual reality could be used train new firefighters, but also create atypical training scenarios for teams of firefighters.
Lytro, a leading light-field company, is positioning its light-field capture and playback technology as the ideal format for immersive content. The company is building a toolset for capturing, rendering, and intermingling both synthetic and live-action light-field experiences which can then be delivered at the highest quality playback supported by each individual platform.
L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files is the debut VR title from Rockstar Games, and a remake of unique action-detective game L.A. Noire which was released in 2011. LA Noire VR draws upon the same foundation of impressive facial motion capture that was a hallmark of the original; the remake offers up several cases from the original game that have been reworked for VR.
Electronauts is a music creation tool built within an “interactive sonic environment” where users can make, remix, and perform music, regardless of skill level. This is the third VR project from California-based developer Survios, creators of VR action games Raw Data (2017) and the upcoming Sprint Vector.
L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files launched to much excitement yesterday, but it wasn’t long before it was revealed that the game explicitly blocks OpenVR-compatible headsets other than the Vive. Luckily a free, unofficial workaround has been released which adds support for the Oculus Rift and Windows VR headsets to LA Noire VR.
More than 6,000 German soldiers worked at the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. Now on the cusp of 2018, the ones that are still alive are in their 90s and 100s, so there’s very few left to actually pursue. That doesn’t mean the German state has given up prosecuting those involved though, as we see in a new documentary from Mel Films called Nazi VR that delves into how VR helped convict SS guard Reinhold Hanning last year. You can catch the full documentary at the bottom of the article.
Vive Focus, the first consumer-available standalone headset with six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) positional tracking, has officially launched in China. While HTC isn’t shipping Vive Focus outside the country, fresh reports of the headset’s tracking capability seem to be promising.
It’s been a long while coming, but Google has finally launched a YouTube VR app on PC. The app is now available on Steam, officially for the Vive (but also functional with Rift and Windows VR headsets). Google expects YouTube VR to remain in Early Access through 2018 as they continue to develop it based on feedback.
Alongside today’s launch of the new iMac Pro, which the company is pitching as an ideal machine for VR creators, Apple has updated its widely used video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, with what it calls a “complete toolset for importing, editing, and delivering both monoscopic and stereoscopic 360 video.”
Google and the NFL today announced season two of Immersed, the multi-episode docuseries following NFL players on and off the field. The first three episodes are available today on Daydream through YouTube VR and the NFL’s YouTube channel.
Interactive VR short film Asteroids!, the follow-up to Emmy award-winning VR short Invasion! (2016) is now available for Gear VR, Daydream, and Windows MR headsets. From the director of the Madagascar franchise, the full 11-minute cut continues the journey of aliens Mac and Cheez (and robot sidekick Peas) on their deep space mission.
The Lost Bear (2017), Odd Bug Studio’s cinematic 2D VR platformer for PSVR, is making its way to Oculus Rift headsets in time for Christmas.
If you’ve been eyeing a PlayStation VR but missed out on Black Friday deals, you’re in luck—the PlayStation VR Skyrim bundle is available on B&H Photo Video for $335, saving you $115 off the MSRP. The bundle has also re-appeared at a number of major retailers at the same $350 price point as it was during Black Friday.
