Road to VR

NVIDIA Shows How Physically-based Audio Can Greatly Enhance VR Immersion

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May 8, 2017

Positional audio for VR experiences—where noises sound as if they are coming from the correct direction—has long been understood as an important part of making VR immersive. But knowing which direction sounds are coming from is only one part of the immersive audio equation. Getting that directional audio to interact in realistic ways with the virtual environment itself is the next challenge, and getting it right came make VR spaces feel far more real.

High Fidelity is Architecting for VR Privacy with Self-sovereign Identity

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May 8, 2017

Philip Rosedale has been thinking deeply about how to architect large-scale, distributed virtual worlds after experiencing many bottlenecks as the founder of Second Life. His new metaverse venture, High Fidelity, is taking a much more distributed approach with how it’s being developed openly in open source using Worklist.net contractors, how it plans on distributing hosting and compute resources to user’s computers, as well as using a decentralized identity based upon blockchain technology. Rather than having a centralized authority for tracking and data mining an individual’s identity, they’re planning on using what’s called “Self-sovereign Identity”, which Christopher Allen explains in great detail in his comprehensive essay titled A Path to Self-Sovereign Identity.

Why 360 Film is in the Midst of a Reboot – Part 3: Demand

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May 8, 2017

daydream-video-stat-2 — Photo courtesy Google

The 360 film industry is still young and it’s maturing rapidly. With his name on more than 20 360 film projects to date, Armando Kirwin has had an inside view as to where things started, where they’re going, and why.

Intel to 360 Livestream PGA Tour at TPC Sawgrass Golf Course on Gear VR

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Dominic Brennan

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May 8, 2017

intel-true-vr-pga-2 — Photo courtesy Intel

Broadcast during all four days of The Players Championship starting May 11th, 360 video will be livestreamed from the famous 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass golf course. The collaboration with Intel, Twitter, and the PGA Tour will be viewable on Gear VR headsets or via Twitter and Periscope.

The Future of ‘Facebook Spaces’: Opening the Door to Third-party Developers

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May 7, 2017

Facebook launched their first social VR app Spaces last month to much acclaim. It’s a polished experience that does a few things very well, and has the major benefit of tapping into Facebook’s existing dominance of the social graph. But to become truly compelling it needs to do much more than it does today. Facebook knows this, and is looking to third-party developers to expand and enhance Spaces.

Why 360 Film is in the Midst of a Reboot – Part 2: Workforce

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May 7, 2017

Armando-Kirwin-2 — Photo courtesy Armando Kirwin

The 360 film industry is still young and it’s maturing rapidly. With his name on more than 20 360 film projects to date, Armando Kirwin has had an inside view as to where things started, where they’re going, and why.

More Evidence Points to ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ PSVR Content in the Works

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May 7, 2017

star wars battlefront 2 (4) — Star Wars Battlefront II | Photo courtesy EA DICE

Although not yet officially announced, evidence is mounting for PlayStation VR content coming to Star Wars Battlefront II.

‘SuperChem VR’ Shows Impressive, Engaging Gamification of Chemistry Lab Education

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May 6, 2017

I Expect You to Die developer Schell Games have released a trailer for their latest project SuperChem VR, an incredibly fun looking way to teach chemistry and perhaps a glimpse into the potential future for VR in education.

Beautiful PvP Space Explorer ‘Detached’ Gets Official Steam Release May 18th

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May 6, 2017

Already on Steam Early access, the very pretty online PvP space explorer / dueller Detached from developers Anshar gets a new, official release on May 18th with a sprinkle of new features and a new multiplayer map.

The Extremes of Mental Presence: Cognitive Enhancement, Biohacking, Psychedelics, & Transhumanism

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May 6, 2017

Eric Metzner identifies as a Techno-Optimistic Futurist who sometimes works an entire second workday within VR exploring different ways to expand his mind. He’s pushing the limits of mental presence by using nootropic supplements for cognitive enhancement from his company Nootroo, experimenting with psychedelics and VR with the psychonauts from /r/RiftIntoTheMind, exploring sensory addition & biohacking with the Northpaw device, using EEG sensors and VR to have an embodied experience of neurofeedback, teaching himself how to type with one hand with a chorded Twiddler3 Keyboard, and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to read up to 1000 words a minute using Virtual Desktop.

I had a chance to catch up with Metzner at an UploadVR party during GDC where he shared his explorations into the extremes of mental presence. For me, I’m interested in the balance between mental & social presence with embodied presence, emotional presence, and active presence. But Metzner wants to push the limits of what types of experiences are possible as well as use VR to help him focus on his learning practices.

New PlayStation VR Bundle Adds Free Camera, Saves You $59

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May 6, 2017

sony-playstation-vr-psvr-virtual-reality — Image courtesy Sony

Right now, Amazon and Best Buy are running a promotional bundle which includes the core PSVR package with a PlayStation Camera thrown in for free, saving you a respectable $59.

Watch: NeosVR “Metaverse Engine” World Building in Action, Latest Version Adds Cloud Functionality

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May 6, 2017

Solirax’s latest alpha release of its collaborative “metaverse engine” NeosVR has reached an important milestone, adding the ability to save your VR worlds and experiences to the cloud and enjoy other creator’s virtual projects at the wave of a SteamVR controllers.

Why 360 Film is in the Midst of a Reboot – Part 1: Tech

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May 6, 2017

The 360 film industry is still young and it’s maturing rapidly. With his name on more than 20 360 film projects to date, Armando Kirwin has had an inside view as to where things started, where they’re going, and why.

US Legislators Form VR-centric “Reality Caucus” to Guide Immersive Technology Policy

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Michael Glombicki

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May 5, 2017

house-of-reps-2 — Photo courtesy Ron Cogswell (CC BY 2.0)

Yesterday five US congressional representatives announced the formation of a ‘Congressional Caucus on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality’.

Why the Closure of Oculus Story Studio is Good News for VR Filmmakers

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May 5, 2017

Oculus just officially announced that they’d be winding down Story Studio, the company’s internal VR film studio which produced first-party VR shorts like Lost, Henry, and Dear Angelica. Along with the closure, the company also says they’re earmarking $50 million to invest in non-gaming experiential VR content, and in doing so reveals a major reason why the company opted to shutter the studio.

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