Mozilla, the creators of the Firefox web browser, is a major advocate for the web platform and is fostering significant efforts to make sure that virtual reality is a ‘first-class citizen’ of the internet. With the launch of A-Frame, web developers can easily begin experimenting with VR directly on the web.
Bandai Namco Designer Michael Murray has dropped some fairly major hints that their forthcoming Tekken 7 will not feature a full, fighting ‘VR mode’ for the game proper when it ships next year supporting Sony’s PlayStation VR headset.
Oculus and UNINTERRUPTED have released a new 12+ minute short film directed by Felix & Paul, a 360 documentary following the NBA star in his training regime.
The Virtual Reality Company is a 360-degree video production studio in Hollywood that has Steven Spielberg as an advisor. I had a chance to catch up with Joshua Watson, Emily Cooper, & Chris Edwards at Oculus Connect 2 to get a sneak peak of some of their premiere storytelling experiences that they’re working on. They haven’t announced any specific projects yet, but they’re working on a pilot for a VR show as well as an immersive documentary. Some of the VRC founders come from a pre-visualization studio called Third Floor, Inc, and they created a immersive traveling attraction for The Marvel Experience which the VRC says these types of theme park attractions have a lot of similarities to creating a VR experience. The VRC seems to be really well positioned to provide a bridge between video game and film franchises and it’s worth keeping an eye on them as they’ve got a lot of connections within the industry.
The Virtual Reality Girls group started as a Instagram and Twitter accounts by Paisley Smith, Ashley Pinnick, & Julie Young. I had a chance to catch up with Paisley and Ashley at the Oculus Connect developer conference in September and learn about their efforts to celebrate and promote women working in the field of virtual reality. They each talk about their VR projects, and how they see VRG is helping to grow community of women who are embracing the medium of virtual reality.
Matt Henderson is a visual artist from Portland, OR who has been creating art installations of abstracted Christmas nativity scenes for the past six years. Matt has been inspired to use virtual reality in order to document and preserve his “NTVTY” installations, and he talks about some of the unique hardware he’s used. He’s also started the weekly Portland Immersive Media Group gatherings, and subsequently received a grant to buy additional VR hardware. Matt shares his journey into virtual reality starting with being an avid listener to the Voices of VR podcast, and eventually into creating a collective of artists interested in pushing the limits of VR experiences that are possible.
Trixi Studios have released a video demonstrating their latest project leveraging the AR and mixed reality power of Google’s Project Tango platform. The video features Star Wars: The Force Awakens character BB-8 and a gaggle of stormtroopers projected into reality and is one of the coolest things we’ve seen via Project Tango thus far.
Microsoft’s 5th Avenue flagship store has begun allowing select developers to demo the latest iteration of its HoloLens AR headset. This is the latest and longest stop on Microsoft’s HoloLens demo tour through the US and Canada.
Mike Gallagher is the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, which is the political arm of the interactive industry. The ESA established the Entertainment Software Ratings Board in 1994 in response to criticism of violent content found in video games. They also won a Supreme Court case that established video games as a form of protected speech under the First Amendment. Mike suspects that VR will face a lot of political pressures similar to what video games have faced in the past.
HTC formally debuted the Vive VR headset to Chinese developers at a packed event last Friday in Beijing, China. The event featured speakers from HTC, Valve, and notable developers working with the Vive. One of the announcements to come from the event was a partnership to bring arcade-like Vive stations to China’s massive internet café market.
Having previously announced that the consumer Oculus Rift and Touch controllers would be available for pre-order in 2015, Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey today confirmed that pre-orders will hit “soon after New Year.”
Lunar Flight from Shovsoft, is one of those OG’s of virtual reality gaming, and a damned fine one too. We’ve not heard too much from the developer recently, but the game work on the game does continue. These new shots of the newly remodeled WIP cockpit have us itching to get back to the game.
Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney dropped a major tease about what we’re likely to see from the company’s ongoing VR efforts.
This what the retail version of 3DRudder, a unique motion controller designed that aims to “free the hands and lets the user do more”, looks like. And this is how much it’ll cost when it finally goes on sale at retail in March 2016.
On the path to eventually releasing the STEM VR motion controller, Sixense has released the Sixense Core API and SixenseVR SDK with support for the still-kicking Razer Hydra. Included in the release is 5 STEM demos which are playable with the Hydra.
