Road to VR

Group Explorations of User-Generated Worlds with VRChat

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Mar 13, 2016

VRChat was one of the first social VR applications, and they’ve been holding regular virtual meetups for the past couple of years. VRChat has a Social SDK that allows Unity developers to add social functionality, and so their metopes have been focusing on doing guided tours and group explorations of user-generated worlds. I had a chance to talk to co-founder Jesse Joudrey who had a lot of really interesting insights about the unique qualities of the VR medium to be able to facilitate these types of shared experiences where the narrative is created through the multitude of shared perspectives. VRChat wants to push the boundaries of being able to explore surreal worlds while still maintaining a suspension of disbelief that’s helped with social presence.

The ‘Big Three’ at GDC 2016 – What to Expect from Oculus, Sony, and HTC/Valve

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Mar 13, 2016

In what’s being widely called the “Year of VR”, GDC 2016 will be the first major battle in the War For Your Head. VR headset frontrunners Oculus and HTC/Valve are due to begin shipping the Rift and Vive in less than a month, with Sony’s PlayStation VR coming not far behind. Three headsets, three platforms, and each of them wanting to win the right to be worn by you.

Valve is Bringing the Steam Library into VR with SteamVR Desktop Theater Mode

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Mar 12, 2016

Valve today confirmed the existence of SteamVR Desktop Theater Mode which will effectively allow players to play any game from their Steam library inside of VR on big virtual display.

NVIDIA GTC 2016 Conference Makes Virtual Reality a Top Topic This April

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Mar 12, 2016

nvidia-eye-high-resolution — Image courtesy NVIDIA

With major consumer VR headsets on the precipice of shipping, NVIDIA’s has put virtual reality among the top focuses of their annual GTC conference coming next month.

Samsung Brings Gear VR Powered ‘4D Theater’ to Spanish Galaxy S7 Launch

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Mar 12, 2016

Samsung is celebrating the launch of their latest Galaxy S7 line of smartphones in Spain with a special Madrid event featuring ‘Gear VR Theater’, a shared ‘4D’ 360 video experience comprising multiple headsets and multiple synced motion platforms.

Tactical Haptics Reactive Brush Lets You Feel Your Art on HTC Vive

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Mar 12, 2016

This is Tactical Haptics’ latest tech demo in action, a VR painting application designed to show off the capabilities of their skin stretching Reactive Grip force feedback technology integrated with the HTC Vive’s SteamVR motion controllers.

Samsung Uses Snapchat’s AR as a VR Advertisement

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Mar 12, 2016

The ever popular Snapchat image sharing app has a small augmented reality feature called Lenses which detects user’s faces and inserts real-time effects on top. Samsung has seen fit to use the AR feature as an advertisement for their Gear VR headset.

Download Crytek’s ‘Back to Dinosaur Island 2’ VR Demo for Oculus Rift Now

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Mar 12, 2016

Crytek has released their impressive VR tech demo Back to Dinosaur Island 2, the precursor to their forthcoming Oculus Rift exclusive The Climb and PlayStation VR exclusive Robinson: The Journey, to download for free right now.

‘Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine’ Coming to HTC Vive, Leaked Trailer Indicates

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Mar 12, 2016

Star Wars is coming to the HTC Vive courtesy of ILMxLab we now know, thanks to the experience’s trailer leaking briefly. It’s to be called Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine and this is what it looks like.

WEARVR Weekly Top Ten VR Downloads – March #2

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Mar 11, 2016

Looking for something fun to play in VR? We’ve got the top 10 downloads from the last week on the WEARVR app marketplace, a cross-platform repository of virtual reality experiences.

The Future of Immersive Education with Apollo 11 VR & Lecture VR

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Mar 11, 2016

One of the most compelling applications of VR will be the educational experiences that will be possible, and David Whelan’s Immersive VR Education has been making some big innovations in this space. They’ve created the VR documentary about the Apollo 11 moon landing, which has won awards at the Future of Storytelling, Unity’s Vision Summit, and the Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories. They also just released the alpha version of Lecture VR, which aims to be the Powerpoint of VR complete with 4D effects, networked learning environments, and opportunities to directly apply science to problems within a virtual space. I had a chance to catch up with David at Unity’s Vision Summit where we talked about Apollo 11, Lecture VR, and the future of immersive education.

‘vTime’ Becomes First Social VR App on Google Cardboard

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Mar 11, 2016

Starship Group, the makers of the social app vTime, today announced early access release of their Google Cardboard app, which allows anyone—provided you own one of the supported Android phone models—to enter the space and chat with Gear VR users.

Inside ‘Realities’ Jaw-droppingly Detailed Photogrammetric VR Environments

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Mar 11, 2016

Realities wants to transport viewers to exciting places across the globe in ways that are much more immersive than the single, flat vantage point of a 360 degree photo or video. The company is creating an efficient photogrammetry pipeline to build sometimes frighteningly realistic virtual environments that users can actually walk through.

BigScreen is Making Virtual LAN Parties Real, Beta Signups Now Open

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Mar 11, 2016

BigScreen is a new VR application which brings you and your computer into a shared virtual space with your friends. The company is today leaving stealth to announce the closing of a seed round and that former Convrge creator Hayden Lee is joining the team as a co-founder.

PresenZ Upgrades CGI-Quality VR Rendering Tech with More Realistic Reflections

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Mar 11, 2016

PresenZ, a software solution that creates pre-rendered CGI VR scenes, is now able to render realistic reflections that have accurate depth and parallax just like those in the real world.

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