Computex 2016 is under way and HTC are out on the show floor in full force with a collection of titles showing off their Vive VR system. One of the titles developed by the company, playable for the first time, is a new title developed closely with HTC, a WWII gallery shooter called Front Defense. Here it is in action.
If you’re the sort of person that played the forerunners of the real-time strategy genre, like the ’90s PC classic Command & Conquer (1995), you’ll be pleasantly surprised with Tactera, a fast-paced mobile RTS game today released for Gear VR. Although it’s missing the flash and vast number of unit/base options of its spiritual predecessors, don’t let the apparent simplicity fool you. The game is a real study in balance.
At Computex 2016 today, AMD took to the stage to reveal their latest GPU, the RX 480. Priced at starting at $199, the company says they designed the card to help make the first 100 million PCs ready for VR.
Virtual reality filmmaking is in its infancy but one Brendan McCourt reports from the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto where virtual reality as a documentary filmmaker platform was on trial. Can VR really become the “empathy machine” some are claiming? Or might its immersive properties become the enemy of transparency?
Vedavi, a medical animation studio working closely with the University of Zurich, wants students to drop the heavy books and plastic models and pick up a pair of Oculus Touch controllers later this year with their highly detailed anatomy software, VR Human Anatomy.
If you’ve always thought of yourself as a hero, one that could step up to the plate when danger rears its head, Rescuties! VR may well be the game for you. Save babies and other helpless creatures in this daft yet fun looking VR game, currently in the final stages of its Kickstarter campaign.
Born out of a lengthy period of experimentation, Lucid Trips begins with a novel method of locomotion and follows through with a unique approach to game design and multiplayer interactivity.
Ben Lang sits down with John Gaeta and Vicki Beck to discuss Lucasfilm’s focus on immersive storytelling with the formation of ILMxLab last year, and their constant experimentation in the immersive entertainment space.
Nvidia takes Mythbuster’s Adam Savage inside their VR Funhouse application which is a sandbox for new technologies made possible with the company’s latest Pascal-based GPUs.
HP and MSI are working on concept ‘PC on your back’ projects (often known as backtops) which opens the door to untethered PC-level virtual reality experiences by allowing you to carry around your VR experience without those trailing cables.
During Google’s Daydream Labs presentation at Google I/O, they discussed how to deal with different types of trolling behaviors. Suzanne Leibrick is a VR user interface and user experience designer, who has experienced different types of online harassment within virtual spaces. As a response to this, she wrote up a number of different suggestions in a post titled Social VR solutions. I had a chance to catch up with her at Google I/O to talk about some of these technical solutions, as well as how to create more open and welcoming social VR spaces.
VR on Xbox One rumors are gaining momentum as Ars Technica reports that an unnamed game developer is working on a VR title for Microsoft’s game console.
One of Nvidia’s most important GPU launches in years is under way with the first card based on the company’s latest 16nm ‘Pascal’ architecture, the GeForce GTX 1080, available to buy now in its ‘Founders Edition’ form. But if you can resist the urge to buy now, here are some good reasons to wait.
A virus is spreading across the world infecting all in its path. Millions are dead. This pandemic is referred to as the ‘Jurassic flu’ named for the time period from which it originated. Scientists have thrown all of the best minds and current medical research at the virus with no success. When humanity is down on its luck and its back is against a wall there is only one thing to do: travel back in time and gather scientific data on creatures of the past in hopes that it will yield a cure to the current pandemic.
Techcrunch reports that Snapchat just raised another $1.8 billion in a Series F round, and Snapchat could end up being a major player within augmented reality hardware market. Snapchat is probably considered a bit of a dark horse by most people when compared to other major AR players including Microsoft, Meta, Daqri, or Magic Leap. But Snapchat has captured the attention of Generation Z through the use of augmented reality filters for selfies and vlogs.
It was also reported recently that Snapchat is building Google Glass-like smart glasses, which seems likely considering Snapchat acquired Vergence Labs’ Epiphany Eyeware in 2014. The Epiphany Eyeware glasses were described at the time as a more stylish competitor to Google Glass.
On my trip to Google I/O, I met Duygu Daniels, who is an augmented reality developer who is an enthusiastic Snapchat user and evangelist to her Millennial friends. Duygu is very interested in studying the behavior of Generation Z and how they’re using Snapchat, Snapchat’s connection to augmented reality, and how it’s cultivating radical authenticity and ushering us into The Experiential Age.
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
Mike Wadhera recently pointed out Snapchat as being an example of a new paradigm of Experiential Age applications in his article titled, “The Information Age is over; welcome to the Experience Age.” He cites a video by Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel where he talks about how desktop computers have created a mindset of accumulation of information, whereas mobile computing empowers users to have instant expression. With Snapchat, identity is constructed from being in the moment rather than accumulating actions from the past like Facebook or Twitter. Stories in Snapchat are told in chronological order and last only 24 hours, whereas other social media is reverse chronological order and lives on forever. Rather than taking photos of things worth remembering for a long time, Generation Z uses annotated photos as a more immediate and ephemeral form of symbolic communication.
After reading Wadhera’s article, I started digesting what it meant for the VR community to be moving from the Information Age to the Experiential Age through an essay about the future of privacy in the Experiential Age. I then started using Snapchat a few days later, and tracking my insights both through Snapchat videoblogs, as well as reflections and discoveries on Twitter.
This podcast with Duygu helped to crystalize a lot of my thinking about Snapchat, but it also helped change and shape my usage of Snapchat.
Here’s a number of articles that I found particularly insightful in my process of learning about Snapchat:
Here’s my first day of Snapchat coverage from Google I/O
You can follow me on Snapchat @kentbye.
Music: Fatality & Summer Trip
