The Future Iz Meow!
Get ready to wield a Lightsaber as Trials on Tatooine by @ILMxLAB is being released on Monday for free on Steam! pic.twitter.com/H1XJDPhvzd
— HTC Vive (@htcvive) July 16, 2016
Developed under the management of Lucasfilm's CTO, Rob Bredow. Trials on Tatooine is a first-person VR experience set after the events of Return of the Jedi. Though there is limited lightsaber battling, it is said to be more of a short yet immersive Star Wars experience rather than a full on game. Hey it's free and Star Wars VR.
Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality smashes together the absolute VR chaos of the award-winning Job Simulator with the ridiculous, all-out, take-no-prisoners comedy of Rick and Morty. And now, for the worldwide, earth-shattering gameplay teaser reveal:
Check Out More Here: http://owlchemylabs.com/rick-and-morty-simulator-virtual-rick-ality-announced/
Looks like Pokemon GO is really going to push acceptance of AR. A team of developers with a Hololens dev kit were able to create a demo showcasing Pokemon GO as a Hololens App.
David Robustelli, Head of Digital at CapitolaVR posted the above video and had this to say.
"We were actually amazed how easy it is to launch an app for this device and create and optimize the mechanics and interaction. The build was created in Unity with the HoloLens SDK"
"For now the Pokémon are randomly generated within a mapped environment. We are now focusing on how to use different gestures for specific interactions. For example, like opening your inventory or activating your map and zooming in and tilting your map. The thing is there is a huge amount of possibilities that are unexplored and which could work for games like these. A more challenging thing is how to access the Google Maps API and enabling it within a running app. But I’m sure that in the upcoming years when more and more people are developing for this hardware also more things will be standard to use in tools and apps.
Right now this is an unofficial port but with the success of Pokeomon Go to evangelize AR, I am sure Capitola VR will have some holo eyes looking at them, perhaps from Niantic, Google, Microsoft, or Nintendo.
Will NFL teams need VR specialists in the future? Radd3 hopes so and is developing systems to adopt playbooks into VR where you could run the plays repeatedly until they're second nature? With the recent understanding of injuries in Football there is even a chance VR could help reduce these factors.
Tech Crunch reports Radd3 closed a $2.2 million Series A round led by HTC. Radd3 CEO Andrew Won told TechCrunch that it is more than just a financial investment that HTC has made in Radd3. HTC will also be providing Radd3 access to valuable resources to help them grow.
If Radd3 was to take off and get adopted by NCAA Football programs and then perhaps the NFL, could Vive be the official VR sponsor of the NFL? Looks like HTC is making some bold moves to make VR mainstream and lucrative despite Oculus/Facebook's head start.
Radd3 recently detailed their plans during an event put on by TechCrunch and the NFL, 1st And Future. This plan did also include a Gear VR version of their DimeTime program.
Image Credits: TechCrunch
Check out more about Radd3 from 1st and Future.
Why memorize a static playbook when you could run the plays yourself in VR repeatedly with DimeTime until they're second nature?
Information Source: TechCrunch
Unity Technologies, the largest global development platform for creating 2D, 3D, VR and AR games and experiences, today announced a $181 Million series C led by DFJ Growth and including China Investment Corporation, FreeS Fund, Thrive Capital and Max Levchin, joining existing investors that include Sequoia Capital and WestSummit Capital. In addition, DFJ’s Barry Schuler will take a seat on Unity’s board of directors.
“Unity’s platform has revolutionized the game industry by allowing any size studio from Indie to Triple-A to create beautiful and compelling games and experiences and monetize them with their advertising and analytics services,” said Barry Schuler, partner, DFJ Growth. “Now Unity is poised to accelerate the advance of AR/VR with their unique ‘write once/ publish many’ engine which allows studios to easily support all hardware platforms without having to attempt to choose a winner.”
Based in San Francisco, Unity Technologies has been helping developers bring their visions to life for over 10 years and currently has almost 1,000 employees globally. Unity developers can export their games and experiences to over 25 different platforms across 2D, 3D, VR and AR. 31% of the top 1,000 grossing mobile games globally, including great indie games such as Perchang, Sky Force Reloaded and INKS as well as the smash hit Pokemon Go, are made with Unity. Additionally, Unity plays an integral role in PC, console, VR and AR spaces, with 90% of Gear VR content being made with Unity, not to mention a huge variety of titles for PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and others including THE VOID’s Ghostbusters: Dimension hyper-reality experience and Ubisoft VR game Eagle Flight and PC game Inside from developer Playdead.
"We continue to focus on helping developers in every way we can,” said John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity Technologies. "We do this by focusing on our three core principles; democratizing development, solving hard problems and enabling developer success.”
About Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies is the creator of a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences. Unity's powerful graphics engine and full-featured editor serve as the foundation to develop beautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personal computers, and embedded systems. Unity also offers solutions and services for creating games, boosting productivity, and connecting with audiences including the Unity Asset Store, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Analytics, Unity Ads, Unity Everyplay, Unity Connect and Unity Certification. Unity Technologies serves over 5.5 million registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com to see the latest games and experience created in Unity, go to: http://madewith.unity.com.
Though it may make it hard to see when traveling, but Pokemon Go may be coming to VR headsets. Opening the games licenses sub-menu will bring up a list of the licensed software that Niantic used to build Pokemon Go. This includes the Google Cardboard SDK.
Perhaps this is an indication that some VR features will be coming to go as I feel that Niantic would not want to take away from the AR experience. This could also be an interesting first step for Nintendo VR and could lead to a Killer VR app for Google's new Daydream platform.
Save the date for Oculus Connect 3, coming to San Jose, California, October 5-7! more than 50 technical talks and opportunities to experience new Oculus hardware and content. Featuring signature keynotes from Brendan Iribe, John Carmack, and Michael Abrash.
Oculus Connect is the Oculus annual developer conference where engineers, designers, and creatives from around the world come together to learn about the future of the Oculus platform and push virtual reality forward. https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/blog/announcing-oculus-connect-3-and-rift-availability-update/
Applications open to attend OC3 at 9am PST, August 2. Visit the Connect site to learn more about the conference and to register.
Check out the Keynotes from 2015.
Today The Walt Disney Company announced participants in the 2016 Disney Accelerator, a program that provides entrepreneurs with mentorship and immersion into the media and entertainment industry. The three-month program connects participants from around the world with Disney’s creative expertise and resources to help them develop their products and consumer experiences.
Past participants in the Disney Accelerator have continued to work with The Walt Disney Company after completing the program, such as, Sphero, which created the BB-8 droid toy, the number one Star Wars toy in 2015. Additionally, Statmuse, an interactive sports stats platform powered by natural language search, is currently providing ESPN with statistical content; Israel-based imperson launched The Muppets’ Miss Piggy and Disney’s Zootopia chat experiences on Facebook using their artificial intelligence technology and EMOTIV’s Insight wearable for the brain was featured on ABC Television’s The Bachelor.
This year’s program includes nine startups and one internal project, and builds on Disney Accelerator’s success since its initial launch.
“We are evolving this year’s Disney Accelerator to include many later-stage start-ups, and for the first time, an internal project,” said Michael Abrams, senior vice president, Innovation, The Walt Disney Company. “This year’s Disney Accelerator program is designed to advance a broader spectrum of the strategic investments we make in innovation across all of our businesses.”
The companies selected for the 2016 Disney Accelerator include:
Ader is a marketplace connecting brands with eSports and gaming influencers. The company’s network of influencers reaches more than 50 million monthly viewers.
Atom Tickets is a new mobile movie-ticketing app where customers can buy movie tickets, pre-order concessions, invite friends without having to pay for them, easily discover new movies, browse trailers, read reviews and plan their next night out at the movies. Atom Tickets is movie-going for the 21st century.
Hanson Robotics is a leader in creating human-like robots with a full range of facial expressions. Based in Hong Kong, Hanson Robotics is building a range of robots for the business and consumer markets. The videos of its robot “Sophia” have been viewed more than 1 billion times.
Jaunt is pioneering end-to-end solutions for creating and publishing immersive cinematic virtual reality and a leading developer of the hardware, software, tools and applications that put the power of virtual reality in the hands of some of today’s best content creators. Jaunt has raised more than $100 million, and has launched Jaunt China, a virtual reality joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group in May.
littleBits is a platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that empowers kids to invent anything, from a remote-controlled car to a dancing robotto a smart home device. littleBits was founded by Ayah Bdeir, co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit, a TED Senior Fellow and a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. On a mission to unleash the inventor in everyone and get kids excited about STEM, littleBits has raised more than $60 million in funding.
Nom, an online live-streaming video community for chefs and food lovers, allows its users to create, share, watch and participate in live videos while chatting and interacting with each other. Nom was founded by Vijay Karunamurthy, former YouTube engineering lead, and Steve Chen, co-founder and CTO of YouTube.
OTOY is a “holographic content” platform bringing the power of light field rendering and network streaming to virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. OTOY’s investors include Autodesk and its advisers include Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet (formerly Google) and Ariel Emanuel, Co-CEO of WME|IMG.
Playbuzz is a content-creation and audience-engagement platform that empowers tens of thousands of publishers, marketers, bloggers and brands to easily create engaging content using mobile-friendly formats that are optimized for social sharing. With headquarters in New York and Tel Aviv, Playbuzz has raised $31 million in funding.
Pley is a leading toy subscription company that is pioneering the next generation in e-commerce for toys. For a monthly fee, members receive their preferred toys from a catalog of 500+ toys shipped directly to their door and can play with, keep or return each toy whenever they wish. Pley has raised more than $16 million in funding.
For more information go to www.DisneyAccelerator.com.
NextVR is virtual reality capture and delivery technology company based in Laguna Beach, California. The company started as Next3D, a 3D TV broadcast technology company. It switched over to VR in 2012. NextVR is able to capture and transmit live HD, 3D VR content over the internet, delivering an immersive and life-like experience. They presented the Golden State Warriors NBA Championship Ring Ceremony and Opening Night Game Against New Orleans Pelicans. They may have also brought them a championship next season by helping with a VR presentation.
According to a recent USA Today post about the presentation, "There were shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, footage from the Warriors practice facility, of coach Steve Kerr talking to his team inside the Oracle Arena locker room and even a courtside view inside the building," all set to Drake lyrics.
It could have been that the Bay Area is more lucrative than Oklahoma or that Durant is friends with Draymond Green but I would like to give credit where credit is due. Drizzy and VR are a match made for each other. Both are literally game changers.
Elite Dangerous Arena will be completely free on Steam and the Frontier Store this weekend. If you purchase a copy of Arena between now and 6PM BST on Monday July 11 you won’t be charged a thing, and you’ll retain access to the game even after the deal ends.
Steam Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/443080
Elite Dangerous: Arena has native HTC Vive and Oculus Rift support through Steam.
Here is what to expect.
Four different ships to choose from with varying play styles,
Ranks and custom loadouts to unlock over time,
Four different maps to play on,
Three game modes: 8-player Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag,
When you reach CQC Rank 50 you’ll be given the option to 'Prestige'. You will set your rank back to one and lose all your unlocks, but in return you’ll be able to earn more credits for use in the main game, and get a permit to the Attilius Orbital starport in CD-4311917 where you’ll get exclusive discounts on many modules and ships. You can prestige up to level 9 and at that point you’ll be receiving the maximum amount of credits you can take in to the Elite Dangerous galaxy.
Arena is the PVP mode already in Elite Dangerous so all players who own Elite Dangerous or Elite Dangerous: Horizons will already have access to it. Simply select Arena from the in-game main menu to play.
HapticWave, an Oculus research project, uses a metal plate on a ring of electromagnet actuators to send vibrations to your hand to let you feel virtual objects. A headset and audio help the illusion along, says Ravish Mehra, a research scientist at Oculus.
With this tech, your hand would stand in for your entire body, says Ravish Mehra, a research scientist at Oculus. If someone in a video game is creeping up behind you, you might feel vibrations at the base of your palm. If you're in an educational experience exploring the world of dinosaurs, your entire hand might vibrate with each step. "Our hope around this project was being able to generate this extrasensory input so users can be more perceptive and more believable of virtual objects," Mehra says.
There has been some recent demos created to showcase this new tech and will be showcased later this month at the Siggraph computer graphics and interaction conference. http://s2016.siggraph.org/
Virtuix are forming a joint venture with Hero Entertainment, a billion-dollar, publicly listed Chinese game publisher and developer of Crisis Action, the most popular mobile first-person shooter game in China with more than 400 million players. Hero is partnering with Virtuix to convert Crisis Action to VR gameplay with the Omni, and to create other VR content and product bundles for both the U.S. and China markets.
Hero also owns the Hero Pro League, the largest eSports league in China, to which they will add a VR eSports competition featuring the Omni. In addition, Hero is investing a large sum in the Virtuix Series A round.
In addition UNIS, one of China’s largest suppliers of amusement machines, intends to purchase 5,000 to 10,000 Omni units this year for sale to VR cafes and entertainment centers. China has some 140,000 internet cafes, many of which will be retrofitted as VR cafes.
On this day in history, Paul McCartney met John Lennon. Hear about The Beatles’ Early Days in this 360° video from JauntVR.
If you look at old rock concerts, you’ll see these HUGE synthesizers that the musicians connect together to make electronic sounds. These instruments are literally enveloping the player. SoundStage attempts to capture the feel of those epic music machines then take it to the next level with tools only possible in a virtual environment. All in a world inspired by the airbrush paintings and computer graphics of the 80s.
Available 7/7 on Steam Early Access: http://store.steampowered.com/app/485780 SoundStage is a virtual reality music sandbox built specifically for room-scale VR. Whether you're a professional DJ creating a new sound, or a hobbyist who wants to rock out on virtual drums, SoundStage gives you a diverse toolset to express yourself.
So here at CatsAndVR.com we are starting a new thing to promote student projects. The Student VR Project of the Month. We will be looking for fun and unique student projects to help promote and send bumper stickers to. The very first award goes to VR Flush, a toilet VR experience.
This VR project was noticed by one of our globe trotting VR correspondents at the FRAVR Conference. FRAVR is a 1-day, free to register B2B conference about Virtual Reality in gaming and entertainment hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. The event had some amazing speakers for a up and coming conference.
One of the VR projects on the expo floor was VR Flush, a project I am excited about due to the absurdity and the fact that they have a cat reference. They also used a toilet for the demo. I look forward to more from this team. Please check out the game play video, it is actually way more interesting than you may realize and has a very Outer Limits feel to it. The dialog is on point as well.
VR Flush is a 5th Semester project at Hochschule Darmstadt (Animation & Game)
Team: Lenz Monath, Felix Barton, Tobias Fischer, Jan Philipp Eckert, Nicolas Künzer, Patric Keßle
If you are currently a student and working on VR please let us know. We want to send you bumper stickers.
Deadmau5 partners with Absolut Vodka for VR game and Cardboard headset tie-in. The headset retails for $17.95. We are fans of the headset because it has a cat on it.
Check out this blurb from the Knox Labs site.
"Join electronic music superstar deadmau5 as he goes on an epic night out. Use this Limited Edition collectible Absolut deadmau5 headset to visit his studio, and then navigate him through a series of gameplay challenges, ending with you standing next to him in the booth as he plays his latest track, Saved.
The Absolut deadmau5 app launches on July 27th. Order by July 8th to guarantee your headset will be delivered in time for launch.
Please ensure you are of Legal Drinking Age in your country to purchase this headset.
Starbreeze, today announced its acquisition of the French toys to life, VR and augmented reality tech company ePawn. This comes right after Acer gave Starbreeze $9 million to help fund development of the company's StarVR. Looks like Starbreeze plans on having a huge Payday with Virtual Reality.
“With ePawn, we will significantly diversify our virtual reality and toys-to-life offerings, as well as speed up the development of existing internal projects already in the works,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO. “The ePawn team has already innovated and productified their technologies and we acquire not only many good ways of applying them, but also a solid portfolio of patents that will benefit Starbreeze for many years to come.”
ePawn is a next generation VR and toys-to-life company merging real life gaming experiences with their digital counter part through its gaming boards and mats in table and room scale sizes. ePawn’s patented technology captures everything that happens on the game board and feeds digital applications with information. Up to 40 objects equipped with off-the-shelf NFC (Near Field Communication) tags can simultaneously be put into play on a game board and ePawn’s technology will calculate their position, orientation and altitude in real-time and at the millimeter level. ePawn has developed several versions of its technology to fit many gaming-related markets, such as video games, toys, board games and greatly enchanted augmented reality support between for example a toy and a mobile device.
Virtual reality applications include large and flexible flooring tiles that can be assembled to equip spaces with a solution for affordable positioning system capable of tracking several people in a room.
“For ePawn, I especially appreciate the location based entertainment applications, where for example the VR-mat will enable us to offer even more immersive experiences in our VR-centers,” said Emmanuel Marquez, Starbreeze CTO. “Additionally, the toys-to-life applications are numerous and the ability to technically track physical objects in our future games, such as Geminose, are really promising. The potential to be able to add augmented reality components to further enhance the gameplay for mobile devices are really exciting.”
THE 2016 ZEALITY 360 SHOOTOUT
The hunt is on to find the next VR producer for the San Francisco 49ers! Zeality and The 49ers Studios are excited to announce the 2016 Zeality 360° Shootout -- a first-of-its-kind industry event where five teams of 360°/VR filmmakers will compete head-to-head in a two-day Shootout/Hackathon to produce the best 360°/VR video. Learn from the industry’s best VR production companies, get hands on experience with the full ecosystem of cutting edge VR gear and tech solutions and showcase your talent to top VR media and tech leaders.
Teams enter by submitting their best 1-5 minute original 360°/VR video for consideration. Entries will be voted on by the Zeality online community and judged by a panel of VR Industry leaders from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to determine which five talented teams will shoot it out at Levi’s® Stadium. The winning team with the best, 360°/VR video will win $20,000 in cash, plus top VR gear and tech solutions and the once in a lifetime opportunity to produce a Game Day 360°/VR video for The San Francisco 49ers.
Toronto-based VR Agency MetaVRse has launched as Canada’s first full-service Virtual Reality agency. MetaVRse offers a wide range of experiential marketing and event production, content production and consulting services to brands interested in harnessing the incredible power of virtual and augmented reality technologies.
Founded by Alan Smithson, serial entrepreneur and inventor of the Emulator DJ system and Dan Flatt, a former lawyer, management consultant and leader of social media for Canada’s largest media company, MetaVRse offers a wide range of customized solutions including: 360° video and interactive Virtual Reality content development, 360° live streaming for festivals and events and VR rentals for tradeshows, marketing initiatives and events.
“The biggest challenge facing the emerging VR industry is showing the world VR,” said MetaVRse President, Dan Flatt. “We are leveraging the power of corporate events to solve this challenge.”
“Our mission is to show the world the future,” said an enthusiastic Smithson. “VR is already the most powerful and engaging platform for entertainment, gaming and branded content.”
With over one million active monthly users of the Samsung GearVR, millions of Google Cardboard units and high-end Oculus Rift and HTC Vive pre-orders, Smithson believes that brands that are early to develop unique and engaging content for VR and will have a huge advantage over their competition.
Studies show that people remember VR experiences the same as real memories. With the growing VR user base hungry for new content, marketers can create meaningful connections with their customers through innovative branded experiences.
MetaVRse has worked with marquee clients including: Royal Ontario Museum, Adidas, Footlocker, Niagara Falls Tourism and CDW. MetaVRse has been onsite capturing immersive 360° video at Groove Cruise, Bestival, MuchMusic Video Awards, and more. Smithson will be speaking at the Virtual Reality Toronto (VRTO) conference in Toronto and International Live Events Association (ILEA) conference in Austin. He will also be performing a live DJ set in VR at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference (MWPC) in Toronto.
Unity, the largest global development platform for creating 2D, 3D, VR and AR games and experiences, today announced a new and truly unique virtual reality (VR) experience "Ghostbusters: Dimension" has been built using the Unity Technologies platform. Led by tech innovators THE VOID, the experience was created in partnership with Sony Pictures, Madame Tussauds New York, and Ghost Corps.
In Ghostbusters: Dimension, THE VOID's proprietary hardware and software allow guests to step beyond reality and into the world of the Ghostbusters. Based on the new movie, this first-of-its-kind, Hyper-Reality experience blends real world physical environments with a unique untethered virtual reality (VR) setup that uses real-time interactive effects powered by the Unity Platform and 3D engine.
"This is precisely the kind of innovative use of VR that Unity is now powering with our 3D engine and platform," said Clive Downie, CMO Unity Technologies. "With an untethered VR experience that allows people to roam freely and interact with a physical world that matches the digital one they are seeing, consumers will have whole new levels of delight as they lose themselves in another realm. It's giving presence to interactive storytelling putting people into the Ghostbusters world with high definition, high frame rate high excitement action, powered in part by Unity."
Audiences get to experience what it's like to be a Ghostbuster, tracking and trapping a supernatural foe through a New York apartment complex. The entire experience lasts about 15 minutes, with up to three people at a time and is scheduled to open to the public at Madame Tussauds New York on July 1, 2016 as an add-on to their Ghostbusters Experience.
"The Ghostbusters world is the perfect fit for THE VOID because you literally strap our RAPTURE gear on and it turns into your proton pack and proton gun," said James Jensen, Chief Visionary Officer at THE VOID. "One of the key components to powering this experience is a powerful 3D engine, and Unity was the obvious choice. Their VR platform allowed us to rapidly iterate on our ideas, while offering us an editor that lets us focus on storytelling instead of being bogged down in writing a lot of code."
For more specifics on Ghostbusters: Dimensions, please visit: https://thevoid.com/Dimensions/Ghostbusters. If you do get to the experience, make sure to use #unity3d #voidvr and #Ghostbusters when sharing your pictures and thoughts!
