Infinadeck is a new entrant into the omnidirectional treadmill space for VR use. The device allows a user to walk completely naturally in any direction. Unlike other VR treadmills that have sprung up recently, the Infinadeck is an active, rather than passive, solution to the problem of VR locomotion.
With multiple consumer VR headsets now on the horizon, many users will soon be choosing to go with one over others. Will it be difficult for developers to support multiple VR headsets from a single application, rather than creating custom distributables for each individual headset?
Virtual Reality Ventures, an Australian VR consulting firm, is working with a client to produce a VR fashion show which could put you at center stage. Their proof of concept demo for the Oculus Rift is now available for download.
Sam Gebhardt, developer of VR cinema app Go Show, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bolster the feature set of the app. Designed for Smartphone VR headsets, Gebhardt hopes to add custom theaters, streaming media support, and more to Go Show.
It looks as if all the posturing shown by both games publisher Zenimax and virtual reality startup Oculus VR over the last couple of weeks hasn’t resulted in an amicable agreement between the two companies. In a press release issued a couple of days ago, Zenimax media assert that they have now filed suit against Oculus VR for what it claims are the theft of it’s intellectual property.
The press release seems to have been removed from Zenimax’s site, but Google has it cached here for the moment (printed in full below this article). Zenimax’s claims are numerous, but they revolve around Carmack’s work back in 2012 when he enthusiastically championed an early Oculus Rift prototype at E3 that year.
Specifically though, Zenimax claim that Carmack’s not inconsiderable amounts of work to bring the infamous Oculus Rift enabled Doom 3: BFG, complete with early head tracking and pre-warping stereoscopic rendering, the show where it attracted enormous interest by all who tried and subsequently heard about it.
The dispute hinges on claims that Oculus VR violated an NDA signed by id software and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, an agreements signed to allow the two parties to collaborate on software to be used alongside the Oculus Rift. The NDA was pulled from recode.net’s story on the dispute quite recently, but interestingly Carmack is not implicated or in fact mentioned in the document. According to recode’s analysis of their copy of the document:
The NDA notes that both parties were under “no commitment” to invest in one another or “enter into any other business arrangements of any nature whatsoever.” ZeniMax said in a statement that it discussed taking equity in Oculus but that talks between the two companies fell through.
Carmack has refuted absolutely any assertion that any code owned by Zenimax was used by him or Oculus. He recently tweeted “Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to Zenimax.” Oculus VR too have been robust in their own defence recently, revealing that it was a failed equity deal that forced Oculus to go back on promises to their original Kickstarter campaign backers to include a copy of Doom 3: BFG along with their Developer Kit VR Headsets.
One excerpt in particular caught my eye when reading through the filing – namely Zenimax openly alluding to past in house R&D projects to try and frame their claim in a more favourable way:
For years, dating back to the 1990s, ZeniMax and its affiliates had conductedresearch into virtual reality technology and headsets (sometimes called “head mounted displays”or “HMDs”). For example, ZeniMax had developed prototype software for its major video game franchises, including “
The Elder Scrolls
,” designed to optimize the gaming experience in avirtual reality display device. ZeniMax’s subsidiary, id Software, also researched virtual realityand continued its efforts following its acquisition by ZeniMax. Carmack highlighted thoseefforts in public remarks at the E3 Convention in 2012
Oculus VR has responded to news of the filing. An Oculus representative stated succinctly:
“The lawsuit filed by ZeniMax has no merit whatsoever. As we have previously said, ZeniMax did not contribute to any Oculus technology. Oculus will defend these claims vigorously.”
The whole affair is somewhat depressing and brings home that Oculus, post Facebook acquisition, has now been thrown into the world of big business with all the pitfalls that entails. And as I’ve previously written, it pitches one of the worlds most important games publishers against virtual reality’s best hope for revival. Any such dispute and inevitable protracted animosity between the two can only be a bad thing for gamers and virtual reality, at least for the foreseeable future.
We’ll keep a close eye on how this on develops and will keep you up to date.
ZENIMAX MEDIA INC. AND ID SOFTWARE LLC FILE SUIT AGAINST OCULUS VR, INC. AND ITS FOUNDER, PALMER LUCKEY
May 21, 2014 (Rockville, MD) — ZeniMax Media Inc. and its subsidiary, id Software LLC, filed suit today against Oculus VR, Inc. and its founder, Palmer Luckey, for illegally misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology, and infringing ZeniMax copyrights and trademarks. ZeniMax is also asserting claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition against the defendants. The suit was filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The suit arises from the defendants’ unlawful exploitation of intellectual property, including trade secrets, copyrighted computer code, and technical know-how relating to virtual reality technology that was developed by ZeniMax after years of research and investment. ZeniMax provided this valuable intellectual property to defendants under a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement that specifies such intellectual property is owned exclusively by ZeniMax and cannot be used, disclosed, or transferred to third parties without ZeniMax’s approval. ZeniMax’s intellectual property has provided the fundamental technology driving the Oculus Rift since its inception. Nevertheless, the defendants refused all requests from ZeniMax for reasonable compensation and continue to use ZeniMax’s intellectual property without authorization.
All efforts by ZeniMax to resolve this matter amicably have been unsuccessful. Oculus has recently issued a public statement remarkably claiming that “ZeniMax has never contributed IP or technology to Oculus.” Meanwhile, Luckey has held himself out to the public as the visionary developer of virtual reality technology, when in fact the key technology Luckey used to establish Oculus was developed by ZeniMax.
“Intellectual property forms the foundation of our business,” said Robert Altman, Chairman & CEO of ZeniMax. “We cannot ignore the unlawful exploitation of intellectual property that we develop and own, nor will we allow misappropriation and infringement to go unaddressed.”
“ZeniMax and id Software take their intellectual property rights seriously,” said P. Anthony Sammi, a Partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP which represents ZeniMax and id in this matter. “We now look to the federal courts and will pursue all appropriate measures available under the law to rectify defendants’ egregious conduct,” he added.
White Lotus Interactive have released a new trailer for their Oculus Rift enabled adventure title Xing: The Land Beyond and it showcases the varied environments and some fairly stunning vistas waiting for backers of their Kickstarter campaign. The 3 member team based out of Orange, CA doubled their initial target
Recently, the team made the decision to move to the recently released Unreal Engine 4, extolling its virtues in a post explaining the reasoning for the move and how they went about making it happen. In their last post, they went into some detail explaining the processes involved in designing and building a scene in Xing. Take a look at the results below and check out that post here – it’s an interesting read.
At SVVR Conference & Expo, GameFace Labs shared with Road to VR info on a new prototype of the mobile head mounted display that the company intends to show off at E3 next month. The prototype features a brand new form-factor, front facing gesture camera, multiple ports, and custom lenses.
They have each individually done their part to fill your ears, minds, and souls with VR conversations and to help keep the enthusiasm for VR going. Now, at the 2014 SVVR Conference & Expo, Cris Miranda, Matt Carrell, Brian Bullard, and Reverend Kyle join up to give you the first ever UBERCAST! Oh, did I mention Palmer Luckey joined us too?
The team behind Project Holodeck has announced that it has secured $4 million in venture funding to help them build their immersive VR experience.
The final panel of the first Silicon Valley VR Conference and Expo 2014 is entitled “Creating the VR Metaverse”, and attempts to answer some of the key questions around what the future metaverse might look like:
Panel Members:
Moderator: Bernhard Drax, Founder, draxtor…and media for all
Join us for another SVVR panel livestream focused on the future of crowdfunding and its intersection with virtual reality.
An open discussion with leading developers in the VR space discussing anything and everything around developing for virtual reality.
What does your VR game development workflow look like?
Does it differ from your standard workflow?
What tools/functions are on your SDK/Engine wishlist?
What are the wins and challenges dealing with Unity for VR development? UDK/Unreal? Would you consider switching engines?
How are you managing relationships with big players in the game space, i.e. Oculus, Sony?
What about the android market?
Funding options and distribution channels for VR Games (Steam/Share/Riftenabled/Reddit/Forums)
Panel Members:
Justin Moravetz, Proton Pulse
Sean Edwards, Lunar Flight (Lucid VR/Shovsoft)
Aaron Lemke, Eden River (Unello Design)
James Andrew, Rift Wars (PixelRouter)
Blair Renaud, Technolust (IRIS VR)
Denny Unger, The Gallery: Six Elements (Cloudhead Games)
Moderator: Cymatic Bruce
On to the second and final day of the SVVR Expo. Next up is a panel discussion of the issues and opportunities of starting and operating a consumer VR focused business:
Is now the right time?
What does it take to start a company in the space?
Did the Facebook Acquisition of Oculus affect your business plans?
Are you affected by Oculus launch timing uncertainty?
What are the risks in starting a VR-focused company?
Eric Romo, Qualia 3D
Stefan Welker, Shoogee
Shiraz Akmal, DreamWorks
Moderator:Nonny de la Peña, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Brian Hart will be live streaming the event which kicks off at 10:00am PDT. The video should appear directly below.
Another SVVR Con panel discussion, this time exploring various non-game applications for consumer VR in areas such as entertainment, storytelling, cinema, tourism, health & wellness, fitness, CAD, 3D modeling, scanning and printing, education.
Oliver Kreylos, VR Researcher, UC Davis
Eric Greenbaum, Jema VR
Paul Mlyniec, Sixense
Scott Broock, Jaunt VR
Paul Grasshoff, Matterport
Brad Herman, DreamWorks Animation
Moderator:Walter Greenleaf , Stanford University
Brian Hart will be liveStreaming the event which kicks off at 4pm PDT. The video should appear below.
