19 VR Experiences Coming to Tribeca Film Festival
Virtual reality is coming to the Tribeca Film Festival in a big way this year. Festival visitors will have the chance to try out 19 VR exhibits, most of which are seeing their world premier.
New HTC Vive ‘Consumer Edition’ Trailer Lands
In the wake of HTC’s announcement that the HTC Vive will ship on April 1st and cost $799, here’s 51 seconds of industrial design to give you a really good look at the headset you as a potential buyer could be spending an awful lot of time wearing.
Watch Samsung Unpacked Event Live @10am PST / 1pm ET
Samsung’s annual pre-MWC event is about to unfold and with a sure fire appearance from Samsung next generation S7 phone. But what can virtual reality fans expect from the next generation Gear VR? Tune in here to find out as the ‘Unpacked’ keynote in Barcelona gets under way at 7pm CET (10am PST / 1pm ET).
‘Super Ventures’ Announces $10 Million Fund to Incubate AR, VR, and Wearable Startups
Super Ventures is a new incubator focusing on AR, VR, and wearables. The group recently announced the opening of its first $10 million fund a well as two initial investments.
One Explosion and Three Launch Aborts Later, HoloLens Finally in Use Aboard ISS
NASA has been quite active in experimenting with the latest AR and VR technology to explore how it might be useful for space exploration. They have several ongoing collaborations with Microsoft’s HoloLens, including ‘Project Sidekick’ which aims to aid astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The HTC Vive Will Let You Call and Text in Virtual Reality
HTC Today unveiled the price and launch date of its SteamVR powered VR headset the Vive. They also revealed a new feature to launch with the Vive ‘Consumer Edition’, HTC Phone Services, a service which lets you make calls whilst inside virtual reality.
The HTC Vive Costs $799 and Ships April 1st
HTC have finally officially announced the price of the ‘Consumer Edition’ of their Valve SteamVR powered virtual reality solution. The HTC Vive will cost a cool $799.
LG Reveals Mobile VR Headset ‘360 VR’ for G5 and New 360 Camera
LG has today revealed at MWC 2016 two of their first entries in the virtual reality space, a 360 camera dubbed 360 CAM, and lightweight mobile VR headset called LG 360 VR.
This Zelda-style HTC Vive Game Scales its World to Fit Your Room
Legend of Luca is a VR-exclusive title, designed from the ground up to utilise the HTC Vive’s room-scale emphasised tracking capabilities. Heavily influenced by Nintendo classic The Legend of Zelda, the title will work aims to scale your virtual experience to the limits of your physical play-space.
SMI to Unveil Eye-Tracking and Foveated Rendering for Gear VR at MWC
Having demonstrated their impressive eye-tracking and foveated rendering technology to us at CES last month on a modified Oculus Rift DK2, the company have now unveiled they’ve applied the same principals and technology to Samsung’s mobile VR headset, the Gear VR.
New ADR1FT ‘Clair de lune’ Trailer is the Most Beautiful Yet
Three One Zero and 505 Games recently revealed that they’ll be ready to ship their space exploration and survival game, ADR1FT, which is being developed for VR and standard gaming platforms, will be ready to ship on March 28th alongside the Oculus Rift. This latest trailer reminds us of why we can’t wait that long.
Woofbert are Using VR to Bring Great Art to Everyone
WoofbertVR is an educational application that transports you to virtual museums where you can have an art tour complete with audio narration. It was co-founded by Elizabeth Reede, who used to be a curator of the Museum of Modern Art and has a lot of connections within the art world. I had a chance to catch up WoofbertVR developer Phillip Moses, who is the head of Reload Studios’ Rascali VR Lab. He talks some of the intentions behind this educational app as well as future plans to expand into multi-player functionality that would enable tour guides to give live art history lessons. We also talk about some of their locomotion approach, and the tradeoffs between the artistic decision to maintain a sense of presence versus minimizing motion sickness. WoofbertVR has a lot of ambitious plans for the future of education in VR, so much so that they count Kevin Spacey as a patron and investor in their project. It’s currently a free download available in the Gear VR store, and will be coming to desktops & consoles later this year.
VR’s Presence Strong at MWC 2016, Road to VR will be there
Road to VR will be landing in sunny Barcelona, Spain for its very first Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year, bringing you all the latest news to come out of the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry—and quickly becoming a showcase for the latest AR and VR tech.
Samsung is Streaming its Unpacked Event to Gear VR and Cardboard
Samsung is keeping the lid shut on exactly why they featured the Gear VR in their ‘Unpacked’ teaser trailer, an event that promises to see the unveiling of the Galaxy S7. But if you’ve already got your hands on a Gear VR or a Google Cardboard viewer, you’ll be able to see the event streamed live on the eve of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) directly to your headset.
Walking Through an Abortion Clinic Protest in VR
One of the most popular VR experiences at Sundance New Frontier this year was Across the Line, which is a piece that simulated what it feels like to walk through an abortion clinic protest line. It was produced by Nonny de la Peña’s Emblematic Group and 371 Productions. It contained a mixture of live-action, 360 video documentary along with a room-scale, CGI recreation of walking past protestors who are calling you everything from a “whore” to “wicked jezebel feminist.” It’s a visceral, emotional, and intense experience, and Molly Eagan was there to talk to people before and after they experienced it. She’s the Vice President of Planned Parenthood Experience, and I had a chance to catch up with her to talk about some of the reactions and how this project came about.
