While it’s true that the Oculus Rift didn’t initially support room-scale tracking, Oculus has embraced large-scale tracking, allowing for 360 degree tracking and room-scale gameplay at similar sizes as the HTC Vive. This guide will show you the easiest way to get up and running with rooms-scale tracking starting with just two Sensors (cameras) and no drilling holes.
Song Exploder, the popular music podcast that lets musicians explain every part of their songs, has gotten some help from Google to create a new app that throws you in the middle of song so you can experience it like never before. Called Inside Music, the WebVR app lets you turn individual pieces of a song on and off, giving you a little more insight into just how it’s made.
ManoMotion, a computer-vision and machine learning company, today announced they’re integrated their company’s smartphone-based gesture control with Apple’s augmented reality developer tool ARKit, making it possible to bring basic hand-tracking into AR with only the use of the smartphone’s onboard processors and camera.
L.A. Noire (2011), the hit neo-noire adventure game for PC and console, is coming to VR in a series of cases taken from the original game that Rockstar says are being “rebuilt specifically for virtual reality.”
The National Theatre has created an Immersive Storytelling Studio to better understand the practices, protocols, opportunities of how virtual and augmented reality technologies are creating new storytelling possibilities. They collaborated with the National Film Board of Canada on an immersive theater piece called Draw Me Close that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. It featured a one-on-one interaction with a live actor in a mixed reality environment while the audience was unveiled within a virtual reality headset where you play the archetypal role of a son/daughter as your mother embraces you, draws with you, and tucks you into bed as she narratives a memoir of her life. I talked with Immersion Storytelling Studio producer Johanna Nicolls about the reactions, intention, and overall development of Draw Me Close, which is their first immersive theater VR piece.
Brass Tactics, the RTS from Defense Grid 2 (2016) studio Hidden Path Entertainment, was first teased at GDC earlier this year where they showed off their miniature tabletop world of war. As an Oculus platform exclusive, Brass Tactics is now available for pre-order on the Oculus Store with an October 19th launch date.
Facebook’s VP of Marketing, Rebecca Van Dyck, has been chosen to take over the role of CMO at Oculus.
AI and VR development firm AiSolve has acquired Clay Park VR, an LA-based strategy and advisory consultancy headed by Oculus-alum Shauna Heller. Heller takes up the position of president of AiSolve’s newly formed North American operations.
The second annual Virtual Reality Strategy Conference hosted by Greenlight Insights takes place October 24th through the 26th with new focus-areas reflecting the VR and AR industry’s lightning fast changes and growing worldwide impact across industries. The event features over 80 speakers, 400+ expected attendees, state of the art VR/AR technology demos, and innovation tours at leading Silicon Valley companies. The conference takes place in the heart of San Francisco at the Hilton Financial District Hotel.
The big Oculus Rift Summer Sale may be officially over, which saw the Rift + Touch bundle temporarily slashed from $600 to $400 for a limited time, but for some reason the US Amazon site hasn’t reverted yet to the new $500 price tag, making now the very last time you’ll be able to get the deal.
Acclaimed author Khaled Hosseini’s short story inspired by Alan Kurdi—the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015—has been illustrated using Tilt Brush for a unique 360 degree short film. Sea Prayer is the latest of several thought-provoking VR experiences from The Guardian VR team.
One of the most emotionally-moving VR experiences that I’ve had in VR was bearing witness to Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter share his experiences at the Majdanek Concentration Camp in The Last Goodbye. Gutter not only provides a guided tour, but he is able to achieve a level emotional catharsis through the process of sharing his story that his virtual presence within the experience, amplified my own sense of emotional and social presence, which is what helped to make it such a profoundly moving VR experience. The Last Goodbye uses a unique blend of photogrammetry and billboarded stereo video that helped to transport me into a room-scale experience of multiple key locations at the Majdanek Camp as Gutter shared his memories of being there as an 11-year old child.
Education is an odd bird: we all know it could be better, while at the same time it is the best it has ever been in human history. For the last two centuries the world went through a great expansion in learning: our literacy rate skyrocketed from 12% to 88% worldwide, and Primary, Secondary and Tertiary education have all seen drastic growth (in schools and students), breaking records on almost a yearly basis.
