One of virtual reality’s greatests strengths—that it’s a unique and unprecedented experience for most—is also one of its greatest weaknesses when it comes to marketing the technology. Without actually trying VR for themselves, how do you sell someone on the experience? Clearly this is known by Samsung as the company has taken their new VR headset to America’s largest mall to spread the word of VR.
Iris VR‘s Technolust is a regular favourite at Road to VR towers, so when its developer Blair Renaud (aka AntiCleric) released a new demo featuring both 3D positional audio and utilising cutting-edge photogrammetry techniques, we had to get our hands on it.
IndieCade announced the top 20 semi-finalists of the Leap Motion ‘3D Jam’ yesterday. The lucky 20 entrants will go on to compete for the first prize of $5,000 cash and $2,500 in travel costs to send them to IndieCade East 2015 conference in New York City, where the team will present their game with Leap Motion.
All 156 entrants, hailing from 40+ nations around the globe, were initially given a raw score calculated from community votes which determined their pre-semi-final rankings. The IndieCade judges calculated theses scores and weighed in on a final judgement last night, rewarding the top 20 for their hard work and dedication with a featured spot in a Leap Motion marketing campaign as well as a free Leap Motion Controller for each team member.
We take a look at some crowd favorites that have made it through to the semi-finals, with titles like Aboard the Lookinglass, Hauhet, Magicraft, Soundscape VR, and Weightless among the group of 20 semi-finalists.
The concept behind Aboard the Lookinglass by Henry Hoffman is simple: looking through your left hand shows you the past, and looking through the right shows you a horrible future you never wish to visit, allowing you to manipulate objects from the past and transport them to the future, but not really because then the object wouldn’t exist in the first place and… ok. Not so simple. Hoffman shows his keen understanding of Leap Motion’s current limitations (i.e. spot-on dexterity) by turning the hands into a new set of tools that don’t necessarily rely on pin point accuracy to do their job—moving the game forward.
VRARlab’s Hauhet, the demo’s namesake deriving from the Egyptian goddess of infinity, could at least have you playing this Portal-esque game until our Sun turns into a red giant (surely not for infinity). It’s oozing with style, and the team’s choice to go with the puzzling game mechanic, which requires the user to refract a laser beam around the abstract geometric hall until it reaches a pyramid, is clever and promises some exponentially complex gameplay to come.
Leave your battle axes and heavy armor at home, because you’re about to enter the world of arcane magic with StormBringer Studios’ Magicraft. Ranking third on the list of most popular demo last week, Magicraft turns your hands into mystic weapons of fire and ice that you use to remove obstacles and solve puzzles. We would stop and worry about what we’ve become, usurping the dark arts in a way our master never taught us to, but we’re way too busy blasting crap.
Sander Sneek’s Soundscape VR attained the highest score among the community last week, and for good reason too. Soundscape lets you DJ your own tracks in a seemingly tron-inspired landscape, but more importantly, the game utilizes the Leap Motion Controller (LMC) in a way that makes it immediately apparent what you’re supposed to do—no readme files needed—making Sneek’s experience a shoe-in to the top 20.
Lazily drifting through space, messing around with bits and bobs in zero-G; it’s a pretty common childhood dream, and Martin Schubert has brought it to life in his demo Weightless. The futuristic space observatory doesn’t offer much in the way of game objectives, but who needs aliens popping out of your chest and hunting you down when you can sit back and relax a little for once in your space-faring career.
All demos entered into IndieCade’s Leap Motion ‘3D Jam’ are downloadable for both PC and Mac, so don’t forget to check out all 20 semi-finalists at IndieCade’s website for downloadable copies and promo videos.
Contest winners are scheduled to be announced on January 10th, 2015, we’ll report back with the results.
Another year, another Internaional CES. But as the rapid growth of the VR industry shows no signs of abating, we look at the signs that mean 2015 will be the year VR heads to people’s homes.
Samsung’s powerful Galaxy Note 4 is the only phone compatible with the company’s recently launched Gear VR headset. After a Thanksgiving sale saw the price on the three major U.S. carriers come down to $199 before returning to $299, Verizon and Sprint have dropped their Note 4 prices down to $149 just in time for the holidays, while AT&T’s Note 4 comes down to $269.
Littlstar, a new 360 degree video-sharing network, wants to put their YouTube-like platform in the hands of anyone with a cardboard (or plastic) VR headset. Considering the recent appearance of some astonishingly well-funded competition, we reached out to the company’s founder and CEO, Tony Mugavero, to see how he plans on making this a reality.
Proton Pulse has been a well known name in virtual reality since the early days of the Oculus Rift VR headset. After a successful Kickstarter in 2013 followed by a mysterious cancellation and refund to backers, there was a time when it seemed that Proton Pulse would never see the light of day. Now, the pulse pounding VR arcade title launches for the first time in full on Android for Google Cardboard and other VR smartphone adapters.
As a developer, one of the most difficult challenges is getting your hands on the actual hardware you are developing for. Samsung’s Gear VR is slowly trickling out to non-US countries, but it may be months before some folks see it. What if there was a cheap, easily built alternative? Now there is, and Mark Schramm is making it happen.
Today Rothenberg Ventures has announced the launch of the first VR accelerator, ‘River’, created to jumpstart early-stage companies working on exciting virtual reality projects. To start, Rothenberg Ventures plans to invest $1 million across 10 companies, and they’re accepting applications starting today.
NextVR, a company focusing on live-broadcast 360 degree 3D VR video, has recently announced the first piece of content that they will publically release: Colplay’s Ghost Stories Virtual Reality Concert Experience. The company will start by releasing a VR video clip from the popular single A Sky Full of Stars which will soon be available on Samsung Gear VR, followed later by the full concert in VR.
Tammeka games, the UK based creators of “high-octane multi-player sci-fi racer” Radial-G, have made it to Steam via the Greenlight program. To celebrate, the team have released an ‘early access’ demo which includes new tracks and ships. We take it for a spin in VR.
With the Gear VR and Oculus Rift ‘Crescent Bay’ prototype currently in the spotlight, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Sony’s PS4 VR headset, Project Morpheus, is still brewing in the background. Development kits are out in the wild and work has already begun on bringing VR to Sony’s console. One developer wielding the white and glowing headset is Justin Moravetz of Zero Transform. Known for the VR titles Proton Pulse and Vanguard V, Moravetz shares his perspective on developing for Project Morpheus.
Deep inside the inlands of Florida, a technology conference was held that brought together a collection of virtual reality headsets and simulations that focused primarily on military applications. The event was called I/ITSEC (Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference) and was touted as the “world’s largest modeling, simulation, and training conference”.
Attendees to one of the longest running VR meetups around, the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality event, had an extra special treat in store for them this thanksgiving as Oculus dropped by with their latest feature prototype, the Crescent Bay. This video captures some of the demo recipient’s reactions.
With Samsung’s Gear VR now out in the wild, yet more developers will be inspired to get started with mobile VR development. While there are many parallels to regular mobile development, there’s also unfamiliar challenges to tackle. To help new developers get a head start, we asked E McNeil, developer of the Gear VR launch title, Darknet, to share what he’s learned.
