US Legislators Form VR-centric “Reality Caucus” to Guide Immersive Technology Policy
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
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.
Meta Expects to Ship 10,000 AR Dev Kits in 2017
Exclusive: Baobab’s ‘Rainbow Crow’ is Pushing VR Film Visuals into Beautiful New Territory
By now it’s trite to call any CG VR film studio “the Pixar of VR,” but one reason for that pervasive comparison is that Pixar’s waxy-textured, brightly-colored, hard-edged geometry has become a dominant style for big-budget CG films. But we hear over and over about how ‘VR is a completely new medium’; doesn’t it deserve a new look? Baobab Studios‘ latest work, Rainbow Crow, is starting to branch out from that style with a unique new look that taps into VR’s strengths.
Hands-on: IMR’s Wireless VR System Aims to Untether Today and Tomorrow’s VR Headsets
IMR is one of several companies creating technology to enable a future where high-end VR headsets can break free of the tether that keeps them connected to the host PC. The company’s secret sauce is their proprietary compression algorithm which they say is made-for-VR, allowing for huge compression at much faster speeds than traditional video compression technology. I recently got to check out the company’s system first-hand during a visit to their Silicon Valley office.
Vive Deluxe Audio Strap Gets June 6th Release Date
HTC announced a serious looking upgrade for its Vive headset earlier this year at CES 2017. The ‘Deluxe Audio Strap’ replaces the original device’s harness and upgrades it with integrated headphones and a new, more robust adjustable head assembly.
VR Veteran Tony Parisi is Leading Unity’s AR & VR Strategy Beyond Gaming
The keynote from Unity’s Vision VR/AR Summit yesterday showcased just how far Unity is reaching into non-gaming content when it comes to augmented and virtual reality. The person who is in charge of Unity’s xR strategy is Tony Parisi, who is a co-founder of VRML and a long-time open web advocate. Tony has long been interested in using VR for artistic expression and storytelling, and the keynote speakers highlighted the range of diversity of immersive technologies ranging from NASA JPL to car companies to the NFL to graphic novel comic books to immersive storytelling to construction to the big tech players including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Valve VR Frontman Chet Faliszek Departs Company After 12 Years
Though there’s surely many talents folks at Valve responsible for the company’s VR initiatives, over the last several years Chet Faliszek has become a front-facing evangelist and go-to spokesperson for VR at Valve. Now after 12 years with the company, Faliszek has departed.
‘rFactor 2’ Beta Adds Vive & Rift Support, and it Looks Intense
It’s been a long time coming for a racing simulator originally released in 2013, but rFactor 2 has just taken an exciting new step for VR fans as the game’s latest beta not only adds DX11 support for enhanced visuals, but OpenVR support, enabling the game to be played on the Rift, Vive, and other headsets supporting OpenVR.
Google Announces New Tools to Develop High-performance Daydream Apps
During the opening presentation at today’s Unity Vision Summit, Nathan Martz, Developer Platforms Product Manager at Google, took to the stage to talk about new tools that the company is releasing to help developers create high-performance apps for Daydream, Google’s high-end Android VR platform.
Here’s the 10 Companies Competing at GTC’s VR Content Showcase for $30,000 in Prizes
With over 120 applications, Nvidia has announced the 10 companies that will compete at the VR Content Showcase during GTC 2017 for $30,000 in cash and prizes.
New Unity Tools Bring Interactivity and Real-time CGI to 360 Video, Now in Beta
360 video combined with real-time CG and interactive elements was demonstrated on stage at today’s Vision VR/AR Summit 2017 keynote. Using two layers of video with 3D elements in between, it is a simple way of enhancing standard 360 video footage to make it interactive.
Microsoft Shows Windows in VR, Gives Acer VR Headset to Vision Summit Audience
Brandon Bray, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, took the stage at Unity’s Vision VR/AR Summit 2017 to show a little more of what Microsoft has planned for the VR side of things when the first Windows Holographic headsets come later this year. And to wit, Microsoft is giving away a free Acer Windows VR headset to everyone present at today’s Unity Vision VR/AR Summit.
Google Bringing Native ‘Tango’ AR Support to Unity Later This Year
Google has announced that its augmented reality platform Tango will be getting native integrated support for Unity later this year.
Unity CEO: VR Will Get Huge, But Devs Need to Survive and Avoid Hype Until it Does
At VRLA 2017, Unity CEO and games industry vet John Riccitiello dumped a little cold water wisdom on the hype surrounding the red-hot VR industry. Riccitiello believes VR is coming and it will be huge, but advises that developers stay focused on survival and steer clear of the hype if they want to seize the incredible opportunities in front of them.
