AMD’s ‘Liquid VR’ Initiative Wins AIS Lumiere Award
AMD launched its bid for technical supremacy in the VR rendering race back at GDC earlier in the year. It’s called Liquid VR, and the folks over at the Advanced Imaging Society liked what the company’s virtual reality team has come up with as they’ve just awarded them a prestigious Lumiere Award “LiquidVR technology enabling the best and fastest VR experience”.
Both GPU players are racing to ensure that their graphics silicon is as well supported and as well placed as possible to take advantage of the virtual reality revolution coming early next year, once the first VR headsets land. AMD’s Liquid VR is a set of APIs to enhance virtual reality rendering, lower latency and generally make immersive entertainment better.
AMD have been extremely conspicuous on the virtual reality scene recently – you’ll doubtless have noticed their sponsorship presence at various events, most recently of the pre-Connect Proto Awards. Their assault on E3 was also impressive, with one of the highlights their launch of the inaugural ‘VR Advisory Council’, a gathering of industry heavyweights to discuss the challenges VR technology poses.
See Also: Tech Industry Heavyweights Debate the Future of VR at AMD ‘VR Advisory Council’
The AIS describes itself as a body that “recognizes outstanding international achievement in 3D & Advanced Imaging innovation”, with its Lumiere award. AMD’s VR Architect Layla Mah (pictured) accepted the award on behalf of the team.
It’s not clear how the AIS came to their decision, especially considering the lack of any final VR hardware with which to ascertain Liquid VR or NVIDIA’s equivalent Gameworks VR. What’s more, we won’t know for certain how either offering stacks up until headsets begin to ship in numbers early next year.
Nevertheless, you can’t doubt AMD’s commitment to the space over the last 12 months, and we look forward to having the opportunity to see what Liquid VR is capable of soon.
AMD Partners With Dell on Oculus Ready ‘Alienware’ PC’s
At Oculus Connect 2 last month, amongst the myriad announcements, an important initiative by the virtual reality company was revealed, affordable ‘Oculus Ready’ PCs that meet the minimum, recommended requirements of virtual reality. Now, AMD have announced a strategic hardware partnership with Dell to bring Oculus Ready Alienware PCs to consumers soon.
Facebook Founder Confirms Work on Augmented Reality
Faceboook’s move to position itself at the forefront of immersive technologies with the acquisition of Oculus VR last year, may have implications beyond Virtual Reality. During a talk at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg positively confirmed that Augmented Reality will play a part in the social media giant’s future, adding “It’s a bit further out.”
At first glance, Augmented Reality is actually a more logical direction for an immersive social technology company to pursue, but AR’s level of technical progression now sits some way behind that of virtual reality. This is partly because VR has received the lion’s share of investment and attention over the last few years thanks to it’s initial positioning as a Gaming technology.
However, despite VR’s technical requirements which have been and remain extremely challenging, AR’s mixed reality of computer visualisation overlaid into our real world poses a host of new ones. For this reason, it makes sense for VR to be the first stop for Facebook on the road for the next step in social interaction via it’s software platforms.
Michael Abrash, Chief Scientist at Oculus and long time augmented reality evangelist, said on the subject “It’s kind of seamless. Maybe it’ll be contacts [or glasses]. You’ll have something on and it’ll be VR and AR as you choose,” but on those aforementioned technical hurdles “But right now the VR tech is past the knee of the curve. For AR, it’s harder. There are a whole host of challenges — how you do the optics and displays and get photos onto the eyes, how you have something that’s socially acceptable and comfortable all day. I think VR is here now, I think AR will be here, but it’s a long road to get there.”
Watch How Epic’s Oculus Touch Shooter ‘Bullet Train’ Was Made
Epic‘s Bullet Train was one of the highlights of last month’s Oculus Connect developer conference, being one of the first triple-A titles to demonstrate ground-up support for Oculus’ new VR controller, ‘Touch’. This short film charts the final stages of development preparation in the run up to Connect and features commentary from Epic’s Ray Davis and Nick Donaldson and an appearance from Tim Sweeney.
Jesse Schell on the VR Design Principles of ‘I Expect You to Die’
Jesse Schell has been involved in virtual reality for over 20 years, and he’s also the author of the popular The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. He was able to combine his background in VR and game design at Schell Games to create the very popular I Expect You to Die, which has been the top-ranked experience at Oculus for the last three months. It also took home three Proto Awards including the top prize for Best Overall VR Experience, Best Gameplay and Best Interactive Design. I had a chance to catch up with Jesse at Oculus Connect to talk about some of VR design principles that has helped I Expect You to Die to do so well.
GameStop Bringing Valve’s Steam Hardware to Stores
Hot on the heels of US game retail giant GameStop’s CEO Paul Raines announcing that “We’re going to be the destination for VR”, come news that the company has also cut a deal with Valve to stock the forthcoming wave of new Steam hardware, probably to include SteamVR’s flagship VR headset, the HTC Vive.
Oculus Touch Shooter ‘Bullet Train’ Publicly Debuts at SEA VR Oct 28th, Register to Try it Now
Connect 2, Oculus’ developer conference held last month, witnessed a focus on their new VR input system Oculus Touch, including a flagship title built from the ground up for the devices from Epic Games named Bullet Train, a virtual reality first person shooter. The title impressed all who tried it and Epic have now announced the game will see it’s public debut at the forthcoming virtual reality event SEA VR, held in Washington on October 28th. Register now to try it for yourself.
Jaunt CTO Talks ‘One’ VR Camera Specs, Lightfields & Ambisonics
Arthur van Hoff is the CTO of Jaunt, and I had a chance to catch up with him at Oculus Connect 2 to go over some of the most important specifications for their Jaunt ‘ONE’ 360-degree camera, formerly known as ‘Neo’.
Microsoft Reveals ‘Project XRay’ HoloLens Gameplay
On stage at Microsoft’s Windows 10 event today, the company showed gameplay of Project Xray, a mixed reality shooter for HoloLens which has players using a “wearable hologram” to blast aliens that are bursting out of walls.
Nicole Lazzaro on the Four Keys to Fun in Virtual Reality
Nicole Lazzaro is the founder and president of XEODesign, Inc., and she has twenty years expertise in Player Experience Design for mass-market entertainment products. She’s recently started developing a VR game called Follow the White Rabbit and consulting on a number of different virtual reality projects.
Applications for HoloLens Developer Edition Open to US and Canada-based Devs
At today’s Windows 10 device event, Microsoft executive VP of operating systems Terry Myerson took to the stage to release date and price info for the developer edition of HoloLens, the company’s untethered AR headset.
Microsoft Prices HoloLens Development Kit at $3000, Available Q1 2016—Breaking
At Microsoft’s ‘Windows 10 devices event’ today, it was revealed that a HoloLens development kit, the company’s augmented reality headset, will be available for purchase in Q1 of 2016 for the hefty price of $3,000.
Now Playing: Kent Bye’s ‘Voices of VR’ Podcast Comes to Road to VR
We’re excited to announce that the Voices of VR podcast by Kent Bye will now be syndicated through Road to VR. Kent began his journey in May, 2014, seeking to catalog the insights of experts working in the core of the virtual reality industry. With more than 200 episodes released, Kent’s podcast is an ever-growing repository of VR knowledge.
VR Launchpad Deadline Extended to Wednesday – Apply Now for Your Chance to Pitch in the Heart of Silicon Valley
VR Launchpad, presented by SVVR and Road to VR, is the startup showcase for virtual reality companies. Applications for startups and entrepreneurs have been extended to October 7th. Apply today for an invitation to pitch before a crowd of investors and media in Mountain View, CA.
