Road to VR

In First Interview Since Leaving Oculus, Founder Palmer Luckey Talks VR’s Mobile Future, Facebook, and Cosplay

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May 10, 2017

palmer luckey (3) — Photo courtesy MoguraVR

Having founded Oculus in 2012 and been an important face for the company throughout its growth from fledgling startup to $2 billion acquisition by Facebook and beyond, it was a shock to see Palmer Luckey leave the company just two months ago. Having shied away from the public eye since September 2016 after the ousting of a polarizing political position, Luckey has gone on record in an interview for the first time since leaving the company.

This Pulsating ‘Haptic Skin’ is Somewhat Creepy, Mostly Awesome

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May 9, 2017

Omnipulse is a new haptic technology out of Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab which uses an array of embedded pneumatic actuators to create haptic feedback which feels quite ‘organic’ compared to the more ‘mechanical’ of many other haptic technologies out there. With the ability to form the flexible Omnipulse skin into arbitrary shapes, the technology could be integrated into VR controllers, gloves, or potentially even haptic VR suits.

Microsoft Technical Evangelist on Presence in VR Game Design

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May 9, 2017

The Microsoft Build conference starts this week, and I expect that we’ll be learning more about the HoloLens as well as Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality operating system. Microsoft has been evangelizing about virtual reality the past couple of years now, and I had a chance to catch up with Microsoft Technical Evangelist Kat Harris at PAX West last Fall. She’s been teaching VR 101 development courses at different conferences, and we talk about what she’s been telling game designers about maintaining presence, building immersive experiences, and how to deal with some of the biggest breakers of presence including VR locomotion and the uncanny valley. We also discuss the limits of virtual reality when it comes to haptics, uncanny narrative, the future of artificial intelligence in enabling collaborative role-playing, and the power of world building & storytelling in games like Minecraft.

Preview: ‘Arden’s Wake’ the Latest Work From ‘Alumette’ Creator Penrose Studios

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May 9, 2017

arden's wake penrose studios (1) — Photo courtesy Penrose Studios

Penrose Studios’ latest VR film work, Arden’s Wake: The Prologue, has debuted at TriBeCa Film Festival’s Virtual Arcade. As “Prologue” implies, Arden’s Wake will be released in episodic form, though the final number of ‘episodes’ in the series, as well as whether or not Penrose might have other stories to tell in the world of Arden’s Wake, has yet to be decided, according to the project’s director and Penrose founder and CEO Eugene Chung.

VirZOOM Partners With AMD to Bring VR Fitness Bikes to Locations Across the Globe

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May 8, 2017

VirZOOM vSports Competition — image courtesy PRNewsfoto/VirZOOM

Pedaling a stationary bike is kind of a sad metaphor for life: try as you may, you’re never going anywhere. But thanks to virtual reality, there might be an exercise machine coming to your local gym or arcade that promises to gamify what many people not only find to be an existential commentary on their personal failings, but also a painfully boring experience. VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, recently announced a partnership with AMD that promises to provide the graphical horsepower to drive VirZOOM experiences in gyms and arcades, bringing their collection of VR games to gym-quality upright and recumbent bikes around the world.

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.

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