VR music videos seem to be digging out a sweet spot of quick and fun VR experiences that use the depth of virtual reality to immerse viewers in music with powerful and impossible visuals. Chocolate, a new VR music video directed by Tyler Hurd, furthers the case for VR music videos with electro-kittens, masked dancers, and champagne.
While YouTube is rapidly growing as a leading source of 360 degree video content, an official YouTube VR app has been notably absent from the high-end tethered headsets, even after its debut on Google’s Daydream VR platform. Now, PlayStation VR is the first to get support for the app, while the Rift and the Vive will likely have some time still to wait.
Deep in the basement of the Sands Expo Hall at CES was an area of emerging technologies called Eureka Park, which had a number of VR start-ups hoping to connect with suppliers, manufacturers, investors, or media in order to launch a product or idea. There was an early-stage haptic start-up called Go Touch VR showing off a haptic ring that simulated the type of pressure your finger might feel when pressing a button. I’d say that their demo was still firmly within the uncanny valley of awkwardness, but CEO Eric Vezzoli has a Ph.D. in haptics and was able to articulate an ambitious vision and technical roadmap towards a low-cost and low-fidelity haptics solution.
VRGE’s VR Dock is a storage and charging unit compatible with multiple headset and controller designs. Featuring a wood finish and protective rubber bumpers, the prototype has an elegant appearance, and is currently seeking crowdfunding via Kickstarter.
After its announcement nearly a year ago, the much anticipated illustrative VR narrative from Oculus Story Studio, Dear Angelica, finally makes its way onto the Oculus Store. It stars Geena Davis and Mae Witman and it’s out now for free on the Rift.
Holo-this, holo-that. Holograms are so bamboozling that the term often gets used colloquially to mean ‘fancy-looking 3D image’, but holograms are actually a very specific and interesting method for capturing light field scenes which have some real advantages over other methods of displaying 3D imagery. RealView claims to be using real holography to solve a major problem inherent to AR and VR headsets of today, the vergence-accommodation conflict. Our favorite holo-skeptic, Oliver Kreylos, examines what we know about the company’s approach so far.
At CES earlier this month, HTC announced the Vive Tracker, a standalone tracking device which taps into the Vive’s Lighthouse tracking system, and which can be attached to objects to track them in VR, including purpose-built accessories. The company plans to have an official certification process for accessory makers.
Jaunt, the cinematic VR company, has today revealed 5 different content deals slated to go into production in 2017, one of which—love it or hate it—will be based on the seminal ’90s VR flick The Lawnmower Man (1992). And no, neither Pierce Brosnan nor Jeff Fahey have signed on to reprise their roles as the eccentric scientist Dr. Lawrence Angelo and the intellectually disabled gardener Jobe Smith.
Content distribution platform and VR studio Within is partnering up with FoxNext, a recently created immersive media division of 21st Century Fox. The new partnership is promising to “bring viewers a new slate of virtual reality experiences this year,” the first of which will be based on Fox’s Planet of the Apes franchise.
Plevr is a third-party application in development which brings the popular personal media streaming platform Plex to VR. The app is due for an initial release by the end of the month, and a new devlog video shows a major update including 3D video support.
Kevin Mack is a digital fine artist and prolific visual effects designer known for his work across films such as Fight Club (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Fifth Element (1997), and What Dreams May Come (1998) for which he won an Oscar. Outside of supervising VFX for big budget Hollywood films, Mack creates abstract surrealist art, realizing them as 3D printed sculptures, 2D renderings, and now through his newly founded VR production house Shape Space VR, immersive virtual reality experiences that let you explore his strange and beautiful globular creations up close and personal. Enter Blortasia.
At CES 2017 it was announced that users with NVIDIA’s Geforce Experience software will be able to stream gameplay of whatever they’re playing, including VR content, to Facebook Live. An update now available for the software enables the feature, including the ability to share 360 degree screenshots.
A recent study by Facebook IQ, in which people completed one-on-one conversations in VR, concluded that most people respond positively, and introverts in particular feel more comfortable. Facebook IQ is a team established to assist marketers in understanding the way people communicate online and offline.
During a Q&A on Reddit, Valve head Gabe Newell affirmed that the company is continuing development its own first-party VR content, as well as exploring interests in new technologies which could play a part in Valve’s future.
Late last year at Steam Dev Days, Valve talked about a new and improved design for the SteamVR Tracking / Lighthouse base stations, a core component of the Vive’s tracking technology. Now the company says it plans to launch the new version later this year.
