Every weekend VRFocus brings you a number of sports and eSports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories as part of This Week In VR Sport. This week, NASCAR have launched an AR experience to let fans enjoy some of the best moments from the NASCAR Playoffs, the Virtual Athletics League are planning more eSport tournaments and ePlay Digital release an update for Big Shot Basketball.
NASCAR Release New AR Experience For The 2018 NASCAR Playoffs
NASCAR fans are now able to immersive themselves in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs thanks to a new AR experience that has been made available via the official NASCAR mobile app. As reported by Yahoo, the new NASCAR Playoffs AR Experience Refreshed by Coca-Cola allows users the change to walk through virtual portals to see the playoffs’ most memorable moments in full 360-degrees of immersion.
For the ten weeks that the NASCAR Playoffs are happening, fans with an AR compatible iOS or Android device will be able to download the NASCAR Mobile app and experience this new feature for themselves.
“NASCAR is always looking for unique ways to engage fans and bring them closer to the sport, especially during the most exciting time in our season,” said Tim Clark, NASCAR Digital Media vice president. “Together with Coca-Cola, we‘re inviting fans to step right into the NASCAR Playoffs and experience the action, pageantry and emotion like never before.”
Fans will place a 3D Coca-Cola can within their surrounding to create the superimposed portal into the NASCAR Playoffs experience. Once they walk through the portal, they will be able to experience the thrilling moments including team celebrations in Victory Lane and other memorable moments from throughout the years.
The NASCAS mobile app is available to download now on the Apple app store and the Google Play store.
Virtual Athletics League Planning More Global VR eSports Tournaments
Following a successful Beat Saber tournament earlier this year, the Virtual Athletics League (VAL), LIV and SpringboardVR have now announced a new global arcade league is being formed to provide further competitions. The news was revealed earlier this week and sees HP and HTC eSports along with seven VR development studios, including Survios, Vertigo Games and CloudGate Studio to see the new league come to life.
Thanks to the success of the Beat Saber tournament, which was originally placed for 50 locations but eventually took place in over 168 around the globe, the companies are planning to reproduce this achievement with several more events during 2018 and 2019.
The first of which took place last month with a global Space Pirate Trainer tournament which run between 27th-30th September. Global tournaments are planned to be held for Arizona Sunshine and Island 359 for Halloween followed by an event for the archery title QuiVR in November.
“The league is also placing a high priority on arcade vs. arcade gameplay, with a core group of elite VR arcades participating in more team-based titles that are VR esports ready. These official launch titles include the giant mech multiplayer shooter Archangel: Hellfire, a jet-propelled shooter Skyfront, and a tactical sci-fi shooter After-H.” Said Ryan Burningham of Virtual Athletics League in a blog post.
VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the tournaments in the future.
ePlay Digital Release New Update For Big Shot Basketball
Finally this week, ePlay Digital Inc have announced the release of new features for their Big Shot Basketball AR app. This includes new filters for users to use when taking AR selfies, which follows the draft of NBA players to Big Shot users’ rosters. Based on popular SnapChat filters, these new filters will also allow users to add information to their selfie such as the weather, location and NBA team information to personalize the experience. The new filters will be free to use for all players of the app.
The new update also brings compatibility with the recently released Apple iOS 12 and the latest version of ARKit 2.0. This sees advanced scene and pattern detection and improved rendering and lighting effects come to Big Shot Basketball. Users will also be able to purchase “swaps” now as well, which allow a user to exchange an NBA athlete discovered in AR with different athletes from different teams. There are two types of swaps – free and paid. One free swap is given to the player ever four hours with users able to purchase four swaps through the in-app purchase screen of the title at any time.
“We continue to update Big Shot Basketball based on feedback we receive through our Beta release,” says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of ePlay Digital. “Expect more and more features as you unlock new levels and as users see their feedback come to life.”
VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on Big Shot Basketball and other AR apps from ePlay Digital in the future.