Prolific director and producer Steven Spielberg is coming back to Warner Bros. to direct the film adaptation of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline’s lauded VR-centric novel set in a dystopian future.
On stage at Facebook’s F8 conference, the company’s CTO, Mike Schroepfer, may have just let slip a hint at the Oculus Rift release date.
Today Oculus’ Chief Scientist, Michael Abrash, will take to the stage at Facebook’s F8 conference to expound upon virtual reality. As Abrash puts it, “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday and for the rest of your life—this talk will explain why you’re going to care about virtual reality and what it means for developers.”
It has been a while since the guys from Kite & Lightning have been on the show, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been pumping out some amazing things since we last spoke. Ikrima takes some time out of his busy day to discuss their latest projects, and the current news in VR.
Samsung is getting a bit more bold with what’s so far been a fairly soft launch for the company’s first mobile headset, Gear VR. Come March 27th, Gear VR will be available in more than 100 Best Buy locations to try and buy.
From the beginning, NextVR has been positioning its VR video technology toward live broadcasting, especially for sports. We’ve already seen NextVR demo their technology with the NBA, NHL, and more, while their latest test has taken them to Auto Club Speedway to capture and livestream a NASCAR race.
At Facebook’s F8 conference which kicked off today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to open the event. There he revealed that the company will bring support for 360 degree video to the Facebook News Feed, capable of playback on the Oculus Rift. Further, the company is experimenting with live 360 VR video, which they are showing off at the event today at the ‘Teleportation Station’.
With the reveal of Sony’s 2015 Morpheus prototype, the company surprised the VR space with the announcement that the headset would support a 120Hz refresh rate, significantly higher than the 90Hz of the competition. We went hands-on with the company’s first native 120Hz demo, Magic Controller, along with Bedroom Robots from the same studio.
Leap Motion are furthering their commitment to the Open Source Virtual Reality initiative. They’re working with OSVR to produce a Leap Motion enabled faceplate for the project’s flagship VR Headset, the HDK.
Sigurður G. Gunnarsson is a member of the VR’s new-wave ‘old guard’. As one of the original initiators of what was originally known as EVE-VR, the 20% project started by CCP VR enthusiasts, he’s watched EVE: Valkyrie and VR’s resurgence flourish. Ben Lang caught up with him at this year’s Fanfest in Reykjavik to find out more about how EVE: Valkyrie began.
Roto VR has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for its rotating chair design that promises to reduce simulator induced nausea, and give the user more control inside the virtual environment without getting tangled up in wires.
Storytelling is evolving in response to advances in interactive technology, but how is that manifesting itself? Road to VR present the premiere of this video essay by Rogier Postima, a veteran filmmaker of 15 years, which aims to explore the question: Is technology changing storytelling?
With over 15 years of experience in the A to Z of content creation, Rogier Postma has been part of a very diverse list of audiovisual projects in various countries. His approach has always been to get maximum results with an innovative, open-minded and progressive approach in all involved phases of A/V production. Besides his commercial work Rogier is also experimenting with the possibilities of new technologies to present narrative in different ways. (He currently lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Although technology is primarily designed to make our life more manageable, it hasn’t made the craft of storytelling any easier.
Interactive media, like internet and videogames, require more complex structures for narrative that hardly lead to better stories. But the paradox is that the need for better storytelling will only expand when the settings are becoming more comparable to reality.
I was introduced to the Oculus DK2 at PAX EAST last year when directing an episode for Dutch TV show Gamekings. Beforehand I was sceptical, but after the experience its potential was undeniable. I described it as the first experience that made me believe in the possibility of an alternate reality.
So consider this the research of a doubtful enthusiast, very much interested in the storytelling potentials of new platforms and the masterpieces of the future it will eventually lead to.
Our thanks to Rogier for allowing us to premiere his film. You can learn more about Rogier’s work at his commercial site here. You can follow him on Twitter.
Reload Studios, a startup comprising ex-members of Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, have unveiled details of their new multiplayer first person shooter, built from the ground up in virtual reality. It’s called World War Toons.
Adam Kraver, Architect at CCP’s recently unveiled VR Labs, speaks to Ben Lang at Fanfest 2015 about how his team is experimenting with virtual reality to “bring people into the VR space”.
It’s difficult to get a real sense of Crescent Bay, Oculus’ latest Rift prototype, because outsiders are only ever in the headset for a few minutes at a time. Having now logged a number of sessions, I’m starting to get a solid feel for the headset and have collected some of my thoughts on its subtleties.
