Valve, the famous developer who has demonstrated a particular interest in virtual reality, has ported the ever-popular Team Fortress 2 for use with VR headsets. This confirmation comes from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) website which has announced two keynotes to be given by Valve employees; one of which will talk explicitly about a “virtual reality version of TF2.”
Here’s another interview from CES 2013 with details on the Oculus Rift head mounted display / VR headset. Again, we’ve heard most of it already, but if you’re like me you’re soaking up every scrap of info you can. In this interview Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus Rift, talks to his long-time virtual friend Neil Schneider for the first time in person.
Update (1/14/13, 1:15pm): The video has been removed from YouTube by the user. It is not clear why; Oculus may have asked them to. I’ll see if I can track down another video.
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Last week Oculus Inc. demoed their Oculus Rift head mounted display (HMD) / VR headset alongside thousands of other companies present at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The annual show is one of the largest technology conferences in the world. As I pointed out a few days ago, the press raved about it at the show. Now you can take a reporter’s-side seat and see the behind-closed-doors Oculus Rift press demo as it was given at CES 2013.
A Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) is a virtual reality system that immerses the user in a virtual space using a small room with blank walls, projectors, and head tracking. Recently we talked about what it looks like to be inside of a CAVE and saw one used in a music video. The director of said music video pointed me to a series of videos, which are worth watching, wherein Sony uses a CAVE to create cool live virtual imagery.
At CES 2013, Xsens is demonstrating a camera-less full body motion tracking system which could be used for virtual reality gaming and other applications. The company, which provides professional motion capture systems for film and industrial uses, is now hoping to provide affordable full body motion capture for consumer experiences.
Oculus Inc is that CES 2013 this year and the Oculus Rift is getting plenty of attention. The company isn’t making any new announcements, though they are giving demos of the VR headset to press at CES. In this post I’ll be pointing you’ll find fresh interviews and hands-on demos that are coming out of CES 2013 this week.
At CES this week, Microsoft has revealed a research project called IllumiRoom. The system combines a Kinect with a projector to scan your TV room and show content that extends beyond your TV. The goal is to create a more immersive gaming experience by adding peripheral information. The IllumiRoom appears very similar to a patent application recently filed by Microsoft.
Here’s a neat video that the folks from Project Holodeck pointed out on their blog. Cara Santa Maria of the Huffington Post took a trip to the MxR (Mixed Reality) Lab at USC. Mark Bolas, the associate director for mixed reality research and development at ICT, walks Maria down a gravel path in virtual reality which seems to go on forever, even though they’ve only got a 20×20 foot space. How do they do it? Take a look:
Vuzix announced the M100 Smart Glasses back in November. The company is now shipping developer kits along with the SDK which was offered for $999 when the unit was first announced. Engadget also has a brand new hands-on video with the M100 at the CES 2013 exhibition which is happening right now!
Back in November I highlighted a cool music video for the song Sweater by Belgium-based band Willow. The video used a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) and a treadmill to allow the singer to stroll through live virtual environments as the video was being shot (more about CAVEs here). I thought this was a really neat merger of virtual reality technology and art, so I contact the director of the music video, Filip Sterckx, to learn more about his choice to use a CAVE.
One of the things that makes virtual reality so alluring is the immeasurable possibilities. With minimal hardware these days you can transport yourself to a virtual world where you could literally rewrite the laws of physics if you wanted to. Virtual reality and augmented reality are going to change life as we know it. Things that are happening today are going to ripple through time and powerfully affect the future.
I love to discuss/imagine/brainstorm about VR and AR for these reasons, and there’s no better way to do that than collaboratively. While this blog is a great way to keep people abreast of the latest interesting news, there’s lot’s of fascinating discussion that happens on the sidelines that everyone can participate in. With that said, I’ve started a Google+ community for VR and AR that I encourage you all to join and jump into the conversation of the future of these amazing technologies.
Join the discussion at the Google+ Community: ‘Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality’!
Here’s another cool Oculus Rift ‘fan ad’ by Andreas Aronsson (click to enlarge)! A bit wide for a two-page magazine spread, but still cool ; ). What do you think?
Project Holodeck is an effort out of USC to create a multiplayer virtual reality gaming platform that offers full avatar embodiment and immersive first-person gameplay. Some members of the Project Holodeck team made the lengthy trek from the States to Dublin, Ireland to showcase the project at the ‘Game: Next’ exhibition, a 4-day look at experimental gaming technology and the future of gaming, at the Science Gallery
A friend spotted someone wearing a prototype Google Glass HMD in New York City and shot me this photo. You can see that the Glass unit has prescription lenses, something that hasn’t been seen in public until now. This is one of several other styles that we’ve seen, including sunglasses and no lenses.
It’s interesting to see this in NYC; Project Glass is the creation of the company’s semi-secret ‘Google X Lab’ which is likely located close to Google headquarters in California. The company does have offices nationally (including New York) and internationally, but it is unknown if the company has distributed Google Glass prototypes outside of the Google X Lab.
Last week Palmer Luckey took the stage as a keynote speaker at Evolve 2012 in London. The conference is an “event exploring everything that’s cutting edge and innovative in game development – new platforms, new technologies, new business models and new markets.” Luckey, who is the founder of Oculus Inc. and inventor of the Oculus Rift HMD, had the headlining speech on virtual reality.
