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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 has announced that its augmented reality platform Tango will be getting native integrated support for Unity later this year.
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.
Mark Zuckerberg recently posted the 360 film Step to the Line on his Facebook page, which highlights the challenges of living with the criminal justice system in the US, on both sides of the prison wall. The short documentary is an emotionally powerful 360 degree video production, funded by Oculus’ VR for Good initiative.
Artist Anna Zhilyaeva recently created an ‘augmented reality painting’ for her YouTube channel, ‘Anna’s dream brush’, which is dedicated to VR-based art. The work combines mixed-reality footage using VR software Tilt Brush with a real painting on canvas.
Wilson’s Heart, the latest exclusive on the Oculus Rift and Touch, has launched to much fanfare, including a funny take on the game (and VR in general) by Conan O’Brien.
UploadVR opened up their new 20,000 square foot Upload LA co-working space in April. I had a chance to catch up with co-founders Taylor Freeman and Will Mason as VRLA to get the inside scoop. Mason told me that opening up this huge co-working space in Los Angeles represents an energetic shift from the VR technology born out of Silicon Valley to focusing on content & storytelling in VR.
