The social VR app Bigscreen is adding a few new visual options in The Filters Update and one of them is designed with the intent to make your transition out of VR a bit smoother once you’re ready to remove your HMD.
The suppresses melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles, so Night Mode might improve the quality of sleep for those spending a lot of time in the Bigscreen beta.
The Filters Update is also adding some new setting options and presets for different types of content users access in the Bigscreen beta. The new settings are brightness, sharpness, contrast, and saturation. Lowering brightness can help with the lens glare common in Oculus Rift and HTC Vive HMDs, while sharpness/contrast could improve text legibility and saturation affects the density of color. The new presets manipulate these various settings to create the ideal combination for movies, text, or sports. There’s also a black & white preset, which could also be a useful accessibility option for some.
There are two other options coming in The Filters Update that will add special effects to content viewed within the Bigscreen beta. The CRT Filter, which is inspired by the classic cathode ray tube TV technology in old, adds moire and barrel distortion so your modern games get an old school look. The 8-Bit Filter gives a similar nostalgic downgrade to your games, giving them a pixelated style.
As far as the future of the Bigscreen beta, the developers have been preparing for Oculus Quest. Bigscreen earned our 2018 award for bigscreen, Night Mode
Lucas Pope, the developer behind Papers, Please and The Return of the Obra Dinn, made an appearance at the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards where the latter game was nominated in six categories and walked away with wins for artistic achievement and game design. Many eyes will be on his next work and, during an interview, he revealed that it could possibly be a VR game.
A similar experience could translate well to virtual reality, where players can maneuver freely to scrutinize and explore layers of a setting to a higher degree than non-VR games. While it would be interesting to see the mind behind two award-winning games create a VR title, it may be awhile before Pope releases something. It took the solo dev Lucas Pope, The Return Of The Obra Dinn
2016 could be considered the official introduction of virtual reality to the world and many industries have either embraced the technology at varying levels or simply started paying attention to movements within the industry. 2017 is going to be a pivotal year for the technology’s growth and there will be many events welcoming VR as an auxiliary experience or fully focusing on the potential of the immersive tech.
We’ve put together an extensive list of events around the world that will involve virtual reality but, if we’ve missed any, email tips@uploadvr.com and let us know. We plan to update this list periodically.
There are various platforms that help to foster that creative process in VR. InstaVR is among them, aiming to easily let you get an app onto all of the major VR headsets. The company announced a Live Previewer which is a tool that will improve efficiency by allowing creators to see what the application looks like without having to package and download it first.
The smallest issues can completely derail an experience and having to package and download an app only to see that there’s a crucial error is a frustrating experience in addition to burning a lot of time. The Live Previewer should open the door for real-time feedback that will lead to cleaner and more complete final products and also help with the collaboration process if you’re not a solo creative.
“Our mission is to simplify and improve the VR app creation process,” said Daniel Haga, Founder and CEO of InstaVR, in a prepared statement. “Live Previewer allows our clients to more quickly and effectively author applications, without having to deal with packaging bottlenecks. As the speed of app creation increases so too does the productivity of our clients.”
If you’ve yet to use InstaVR but have been itching to give VR application creation a shot, there’s a free option available to get you started. There are some limitations but you should still be able to get a good idea of what you’re in for. At this time, Live Previewer works on iOS, Android, and Gear VR.
Athletic leagues have regularly utilized 360-degree video to give fans that can’t attend events in person a way to get a similar feeling from the comfort of their own homes. The MLB cut a deal with Intel in June involving broadcasts of their games, but the latest project is an immersive experience of a different kind. Partnering with Google’s Daydream, the MLB created On the Verge which is a series that will give fans a chance to see some of their favorite baseball players get under the spotlight outside of a game.
In addition to the episode for Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell shown above, episodes featuring Mookie Betts of the Boston Red Sox, Manuel Margot of the San Diego Padres, and Jose Berrios of the Minnesota Twins are all currently available. The series focuses on younger stars in the league and shows them in the batting cage, clubhouse, and other areas in a documentary-style production. Clips of their performances are mixed in with interviews with the players themselves that take place around their stadiums.
There are many different tools available for production of content like this series and this team utilized the Google Jump, a rig that was also used in the creation of New York Times’ noir 360-degree series that featured Don Cheadle. The four available episodes of On The Verge can be seen on YouTube but can also be viewed on the MLB.com At Bat app on Google Daydream.
This week’s top 5 covers a diverse collection of experiences. You’ll be employed as an all-powerful wizard, take down the Division of Steel in table-tennis, and more. Be sure to take a look at the rest of the games on this week’s list to see if there are some other hidden gems that scratch one of your specific itches.
The fantasy world of The Wizards recruits you to play the part of an all-powerful mage. You’ll use an intuitive spell casting system and progress through elemental spell trees as you journey into a story with time travel and epic conflicts. There are also Fate cards that will modify the gameplay experience. It’s in Early Access currently, but this looks like a game worthy of your attention.
Step out of your role as a wizard and bring things down to earth a bit with Infinite Mini Golf. This casual golfing game is thick with courses created by the community and you can even customize an avatar before jumping into multiplayer competitions. Once you’re comfortable, try making a course of your own!
In Run of Mydan, you take control of a mysterious entity that is struggling to regain its former strength. Acquire power, collect all of your memories, and unravel the mystery of this world. You’ll have to master your hand-eye coordination as you throw various weapons and powers on your quest.
Unimersiv is an educational application that incorporates a gigantic library of immersive educational content that shows you the world in a way a textbook never could. Purchasing the game gives unlimited access to current content and future updates as they come.
Racket Fury is another casually fun experience but this time you’ll be playing some science fiction themed ping-pong. Shape up your skills and take on the infamous Division of Steel or take on the best players from all around the world in online multiplayer.
HTC Vive announced it is partnering with Paul Mitchell Neon Supergirl Pro for female-focused VR programming and activities during the 3-day Supergirl Pro festival in Oceanside, California.
Supergirl Pro, which takes place July 28th through July 30th, focuses on female empowerment for women in sports, entertainment, education, and culture. Vive will be delivering some immersive entertainment at the festival, but it will also show how women are already heavily involved in the tech industry and esports.
Vive will be hosting 3 specific events at Supergirl Pro: A “Gamers vs Surfers” VR competition, a Women in VR panel, and various VR exhibits on display at the festival.
The Gamers vs Surfers VR Challenge takes place today on the Oceanside Pier. Gamers will take on professional surfers in Sprint Vector and it will be live-streamed on the SupergirlGP Twitch channel. The winning team will receive a $1,000 donation to a charity of their choice. The Women in VR Panel is at 11 a.m. on Saturday and will include the following moderator and panelists:
Lynne Cheng – Moderator
Ryan Pulliam – Co-Founder/CMO, Specular
Sally-Anne Kellaway – Creative Director, OSSIC
Carrie Shaw – CEO, Embodied Labs
Wanda Meloni – CEO, M2 Insights
As far as the VR exhibits around the festival, there’s a VR Free Play space at the event’s Festival Village and there will be VIP experiences for surfers, esports gamers, musicians, DJs, skateboarders, celebrities and influencers in the Athlete’s Lounge and VIP Tower.
“This is a perfect addition to the event given the Supergirl Pro’s core mission of providing opportunities for women in typically male-dominated industries,” said Rick Bratman, CEO of ASA Entertainment which manages the Supergirl Pro event. “It’s an important initiative given the lack of equal opportunities for women in VR and the empowerment represented by the Supergirl Pro brand is the perfect background from which to support this movement.”
The Paul Mitchell Neon Supergirl Pro will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Friday, July 28 through Sunday, July 30 and you can find more information on the official website.
Warner Brothers arrives at San Diego Comic-Con with arguably one of their largest lineups, with eyes on them for news on Blade Runner 2049, Justice League, and news for the individual DC comic book heroes. The VR industry and fans have another reason to be excited with the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s book Ready Player One set to be shown for the first time. At the open of the Warner Bros panel, Steven Spielberg, who will be directing the film, joined Chris Hardwick on stage with Ernest Cline to set off the big day.
The trailer gave us a glimpse into an area called The Stacks, which is a collection of trailers situated atop one another and held together with metal beams. More importantly, though, we finally got a glimpse into the virtual world of Ready Player One called The OASIS. The book upon which the film is based is noted for its many pop culture references and we’re given a good handful in the trailer as well.
Throughout the trailer, you will see the Iron Giant, Back to the Future’s legendary DeLorean, and Freddy Krueger. Over time, many will dissect this trailer and likely discover even more pop culture Easter eggs scattered throughout.
Via the CBR live blog of the panel, Cline declared, when speaking of the experience of having Spielberg turning his book into a film, “It’s been the most amazing and gratifying experience of my life”.
“When I read Ernie’s book, it was like the most amazing flash-forward and flashback at the same time, to a decade I was very involved in — the 1980s,” Spielberg added. “But to a future that I think is awaiting all of us, whether we like it or not. The creation of the virtual world took almost two and a half years of preparation.”
A large part of the Ready Player One film will involve a virtual world called The OASIS that the lead character explores. It will feature a multitude of pop culture items and references, but it could also feature a 3D avatar created by you. Warner Brothers has put out a call for artists and creators to make a 3D avatar and it could be a great opportunity to show off your skills and immortalize your work.
Adhering to these detailed specifications, a minimum of 5 avatars will be selected. The artists will each:
Have their avatar design potentially appear in Ready Player One
Potentially receive exposure across the Ready Player One’s marketing materials and social media channels
Receive $1,000 for each selected design in exchange for an Assignment of All Rights to the avatar.
If your creation is not chosen for the main 5, there’s still an opportunity it could be selected to appear as background graffiti in the film. These particular winners will receive $250 in exchange for Assignment of All Rights. More information on the opportunity can be found here.
After debuting the first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Ready Player One, a few more people from the film’s creative team joined Spielberg and Ernest Cline on stage. Taken from the Comic Book Resource live blog, co-screenwriter Zak Penn has this to say about the movie:
“This was definitely the most complex movie I’ve ever worked on. There’s so much material. There’s so much stuff in the book you can use. To be honest with you, I thought, ‘Well, this will never happen, we’ll never be able to make this movie, because we need like, Steven Spielberg to direct it.’ That made everything a lot easier.”
Penn has writing credits for The Avengers, X-Men 2, X-Men The Last Stand, and Behind Enemy Lines so he has seen quite a bit across the film industry. The OASIS, Ready Player One’s virtual world, is riddled with pop culture items which is likely what Penn is referring to with “so much stuff in the book you can use”.
The book’s writer, Ernest Cline, echoed a similar sentiment when interviewing with Variety before the panel. “I knew none of this stuff could be cleared,” Cline said of the many pop culture references. “Which is what’s crazy about Steven Spielberg becoming the director. I don’t think anybody else could have gotten all the pop culture items that we got cleared to be in the movie. A few of them, including Back to the Future’s Delorean. can be seen in the film’s trailer.
