In a move surely to reinforce the message that “VR has arrived”, McDonalds in Sweden are bundling Google Cardboard-esque VR googles with their Happy Meals, assembled from the packaging the food came in.
One of the most inspiring keynotes at Unity’s AR/VR Vision Summit was by Alex McDowell on world building and storytelling. Alex was production designer for Minority Report, Fight Club, & Lawnmower Man, and so he’s been creating imaginal worlds for many years. Alex argues that the process of building worlds can inform and inspire stories, and that storytelling is coming full circle from tribal oral traditions to singular viewpoints and now back to multiple perspectives with immersive experiences. He says that the more multi-disciplinary VR and VR gets over time, then the more rich and profound the experiences are going to become. I had a chance to catch up with Alex after his keynote to unpack some of his innovative world building narrative work that he’s been doing at 5D GlobalStudio and at USC with the
Leviathan Project.
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Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio
Mirroring the ‘Oculus Ready PC’ program, HTC is now working with PC hardware partners to offer ‘Vive Optimized PCs’. The initial set of systems come from HP, Alienware, and MSI.
The HTC Vive VR headset is now available for pre-order from HTC’s website. We tell you where you what it is, where you can buy it and how much you can expect to pay.
Natural motion input is the clear future of VR. And while the Rift would seem to lead in price over the Vive, factoring the controllers into the equation will create a very narrow price gap, if any, between the two systems.
HTC today confirmed worldwide pricing for the SteamVR powered Vive VR headset, due to go up for pre-order tomorrow (29th Feb). They also announced that those pre-orders would receive Google’s virtual reality, paint application Tilt Brush in addition to the two announced pack-in titles Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.
The HTC Vive VR system is due to go up for pre-order tomorrow (29th February) and we know the US launch price is going to be $799. But what can the rest of the world expect to pay for the new Valve engineered, SteamVR system? A reported leak from HTC’s own website appears to reveal all.
Developers Stress Level Zero, the team behind the HTC Vive shooter Hover Junkers, are known for their VR experiments. But their latest investigation pushes the theoretical limits of Valve’s Lighthouse tracking system, as featured in the HTC Vive.
Among the improvements to come to the latest version of the Vive is easier access to a feature that will maximize the device’s field of view between users and be a boon to glasses wearers.
2016 has already started off as an exciting year for smartphone-based VR. Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR have been around for a while now and are starting to get large marketing pushes from their creators. I still think we’re in the early stages of this technology and wanted to discuss where I think mobile VR is headed.
XEODesign‘s Nicole Lazarro has been researching emotional reactions of gamers in VR to discover the unique properties of the medium. You can’t just port a 2D game into VR and expect it to work, and so she’s calling for design leadership in the field in order to create experiences that use the strengths of the medium. She’s come up with 36 different VR design benchmarks across 12 different categories, and she presented some of these at Unite Boston and the VR Intelligence Conference. In this interview, she tells me about some of her findings in audio design in VR, experiments with low-frequency haptics with a Subpac, VR controls, emotion in VR, as well as revisiting her theory on the four keys to fun.
Nancy Bennett is the chief content officer at Two-Bit Circus, which is a start-up specializing in creating immersive digital out of home entertainment experiences for the Indianapolis 500, NFL, NBA, and the Olympics. Nancy talks about some of the innovations they’ve engineered including technology to synchronize up to 200 people watching a VR experience at the same time on the Gear VR, which was used at Sundance as well as the World Economic Forum. She has some keen insights about the future of shared VR experiences as well as emerging narrative techniques. In the end, Nancy’s goal is to create vivid memories similar to the joy this girl felt in returning an NFL punt for a touchdown.
NVIDIA’s forthcoming GTC Conference runs April 4-7 and is going to be dominated by the topic of virtual reality – with a dedicated session track and VR Village with the latest and greatest demos. What’s more, if you’re an entrepreneur or developer, trying to get into the VR business, NVIDIA opened registrations for its ‘ECS VR Showcase’. With the winning entry receiving $30,000 in cash and prizes, the event is designed to highlight and reward the brightest up and coming talents in the VR industry.
The field of Virtual Reality, which is so rapidly growing and changing, is almost impossible for professionals to keep abreast of, let alone someone new to the scene. However, a number of listeners have told me that the Voices of VR podcast was their introduction and prime source of learning material for getting into VR. Inspired by this, I’ve created a top ten list of the episodes I think would be most helpful for someone getting into the field.
