VRDC, the virtual reality (VR) exclusive spin-off from the Game Developers Conference (GDC), is set to take place in San Francisco, 19th – 20th March 2018. VRFocus has already reported on the appearance of Polyarc, developers of everybody’s favourite virtual rodent, and now another selection of big names can be added to the list.
David Bond and Brian Pullen of Google will host a talk called Designing Human Avatars for Virtual Reality, in which the pair will discuss the lessons they learned designing avatars for YouTube VR, and beyond. The intention of the talk is for attendees to learn about emerging best practices in designing avatars for VR contexts, and come away with an appreciation of what doesn’t work in VR, and why.
Addressing the growing trend of animated VR short stories, Devon Penney of Penrose Studios will lead a session entitled Water Simulation and Rendering in the VR Film, Arden’s Wake. Arden’s Wake is a VR film that takes place in an ocean world where action is both above and below the surface of the water. This lecture will describe volume rendering solutions for murky underwater environments with spotlights shining through water. Also, the film has many interaction effects on the ocean surface, from characters splashing in the water to boats causing wakes across large distances. Penrose Studios developed a shallow water solver that gave them compelling effects with fast simulation times, and this lecture will share the solver architecture, methods for modelling collision objects, and a foam solver that adds detail to the simulation.
The final new addition to the line-up comes from Drifter Entertainment and Epic Games, wherein Shen-Ming Spurgeon and Wyeth Johnson, respectively, will offer a tutorial session entitled Visual Effects Bootcamp: How VR is Going to Break All the Rules in VFX. This talk will be an introduction to content development from the point of view of a visual effects artist, exploring what real-time VFX looks like in a VR environment, as well as discussing the limitations, sacrifices, and ultimately, the collaboration necessary to achieve success while working in VR.
VRDC will take place next month and VRFocus will be in attendance. Make sure you stay tuned for all the latest details direct from the show floor.