Wednesday is here again and so it is time for another trip into the skies courtesy of a 360 degree video. Li360 regulars will know we’ve had more than a few instances of getting up above the clouds. Sometimes it’s been a case of the action coming to us however.
Yes once more we’re going inside a plane for a view, practically from the co-pilot’s lap, of the interior to a jet fighter. The footage, recorded by Blick takes you inside an F-5 fighter flying over the Alps. You get to fly in formation with Nils Jamie Hämmerli as he and the team perform a number of maneuvers from a barrel roll to a Delta loop all with a miraculous view of the mountains below and around you.
VRFocuswill be back on Friday with another showcase of 360 degrees in action.
With HTC Vive primarily flying the flag the desire for roomscale virtual reality (VR) experiences grows steadily. As does the amount of companies looking to bring them to the consumer. The latest to do so is Califonian company LYRobotix who have brought a new front-facing, room scale motion tracker to Kickstarter.
Called NOLO VR and consisting of two controllers, a base station and a headset marker, according to the makers it will be a bring six degrees of freedom tracking in a 13ft squared space, operating at low latency. LYRobotix also promises that it will be compatible with PC systems operating SteamVR and Android-based mobile VR headsets such as Google Cardboard. The controllers and base station being designed to work out of the box with any headset that is Android based and will operate on battery for 7 hours.
Setting a price point of $99 (USD) LYRobotix are attempting to provide a budget alternative to the solutions already on the market.
“With NOLO VR, you can put on your mobile headset and interact with the environment naturally, turning the usual passive VR experience into an active one.” Explains LYRobotix COO and Co-Founder Lisa Zhao.
At the time of writing NOLO VR has already surpassed it’s initial $50,000 (USD) goal by nearly $25,000 and continues to gain support with 38 days still to go on the campaign. VRFocus will bring you more news on the project when the campaign finishes.
Hello everyone I’m back to talk virtual reality (VR) and the House of Hedgehog for another week. As you may recall last week on VR vs. I started a list of ten franchises (and one honourable mention) that would – in my opinion anyway – be great for the leap to VR. SEGA is of course no stranger to VR down the years, there was the SEGA VR for instance. A headset which was initially designed with the idea that it could provide support for not just the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and the SEGA Saturn but the arcades as well. A project that would have seen a 1994 release date after being revealed at 1993’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event. This in itself is not to be confused with the SEGA Master System’s 3D Glasses that allowed you to play a number of titles in quote-unquote “3D”. Yes, such things existed.
But enough of the hardware of the past let’s get back into those games franchises, eh? What else, via way of a lick of virtual paint, could hypothetically make its way to modern VR? Well when it comes to SEGA sometimes you’ve got to make some tough choices (as any long time SEGA fan can probably tell you) and when it comes to this list there’s one or two games that could easily occupy the same space. Such a dilemma can be found with our next title, it was a tough decision in the end but let me explain my reasoning.
Virtua Cop: OVERKILL
Admittedly having a game with “cop” and “kill” in it isn’t going to win much in the way of good publicity, but this combination name should tell you everything you need to know about where I’m going with this. For you see when it comes to VR genres we have the ever popular (and increasingly railed against) wave shooter, and it just so happens that for SEGA two franchises – Virtua Cop and THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD*. I could give you very good reasons for both being on this list but I’ve gone with Virtua Cop. Why? Because put simply we’ve not had a Virtua Cop game for nearly fourteen years.
FOURTEEN FREAKING YEARS.
Yet people still think of the series fondly. HOTD on the other hand has had quite a few iterations, is a staple of SEGA’s All-Stars franchise and has proven itself to be an arcade mainstay. In other words, if you’re going to use VR to help elevate some old properties why not help the one that needs it more. Increase your viable library of characters. Increase the interest and hence their and your value. At the very least you’d raise some interest in getting some ports of the older titles going.
For VR the idea is simple. We have wave shooters, and the idea of having such a game where hiding behind some oh so handy barrel or outcrop of rocks isn’t 100% infallible makes it a far more frantic experience.
But what about the suffix? Well people familiar with HOTD will like as not recall the Wii game THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: OVERKILL. UK studio Headstrong’s entry into the series took the franchise, supposedly back to the very beginning before all the nonsense at Curien Mansion and into the shoes of rookie cop and series protagonist Agent G. Except things weren’t quite as people were used to with the game. OVERKILL took the franchise to 18/R-Rated territory by spoofing the grindhouse genre. Partnering the straight-laced G with foul-mouthed Detective Isaac Washington a man incapable of finishing a sentence without a s***, f*** or m***********. (Except, ironically, at times when it would technically be accurate. Long story.) In fact there were so many swears it actually held the world record for number of swears in a single game for some time. Eventually only taken out by Grand Theft Auto 4 I believe.
The video below features some… examples of this. You have been warned.
OVERKILL might not have set the world alight with sales but it, along with another SEGA title, Platinum Games’ MADWORLD, certainly held up the ‘adult’ end of the Wii gaming spectrum. It was later ported to PS3 and given extra levels, ported to mobile and eventually PC where it was converted yet AGAIN this time adding old SEGA favourite THE TYPING OF THE DEAD into the mix. Four games from one game. Not bad going, huh?
The point is OVERKILL was very tongue in cheek about the franchise’s own foibles, and that’s in a series that was already very self-aware. It was so fresh and different why not do a similar trick with Virtua Cop? Turn it into a self-aware parody of all those 80’s cop shows. Or even the 90’s, you meta humour all over the place then about old VR tech. Make it these two ridiculously out of touch cops dealing with endless suited gunmen in shades, ninjas and all the other light gun game staples who for some reason think this is perfectly normal. Make it Miami Vice on acid with a smart mouth and a stick up it’s ass. Make Virtua CopbutHOTD: OVERKILL.
In VR.
Then let me know so I can buy it.
Thanks muchly.
NiGHTS
NiGHTS is a pretty deep franchise, if you did but know it, and one I have all the time in the world for. Not only do they have the most friendly fan base I’ve ever met, (no really, they’re all lovely) the game is fun, scary and promotes an array of ideas that would be very interesting to explore in VR. For a start there’s the obvious connotations of dreams and nightmares, and Sonic Team had no problem going dark. This shouldn’t be a massive surprise since in one of their games they once showed the moment a little girl gets shot for goodness sake**.
But NiGHTS isn’t just about dreams it is about the psyche itself. The original idea is based on the works of noted psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The ideya you collect are aspects of the Id – your personality traits. Hope, growth, intelligence, purity and lastly courage. Even their colours weren’t chosen randomly. The game deals with the topics of freedom, confidence, growing up, parental issues, loneliness, friendship, the idea of two people sharing the same experience and trust. NiGHTS is after all actually a Nightmaren – the bad guys. Trusting the person based on their actions and not on the preconception of where they were born is also something NiGHTS (particularly Journey of Dreams which has more of an outright story) touches on.
It is also about freedom and flight. So I want you to now imagine a first person NiGHTS game, one where you actually get to feel the simulation of flying, where you travel through a colourful level doing tricks and collecting… balls. And things. Now take that landscape with its SEGA blue skies and popping colours and what if we added a touch of Nevermind to it? What if the game reacted to your character’s welfare and became more dark and twisted the closer you came to running out of time or whenever you take a hit? It’s not that far fetched. The various levels in NiGHTS, the world of Nightopia is shaped by the Visitor (your character). The levels are given subtitles such as “The IDEAL”, “The POSSIBILITY”, “The CONFUSION” and are all based on relationships and aspects of their lives.
The feeling of flight and a bit of psychology. Sounds interesting?
OutRun
We all know that driving games can be translated over to VR, some of which can be done very well indeed. But what about SEGA? It has a number of driving franchises that you could port. But All-Stars Racing was never going to be on this list. SEGA Rally was a distinct possibility but no, I turned down that too. Initial-D was a strong contender considering its arcade longevity and popularity specifically in Japan. But ultimately the choice to fill this spot can only be OutRun.
So why OutRun over SEGA Rally let’s say? Because SEGA Rally is a game and OutRun is both a game and wish fulfillment.
OutRun has, for decades, been not just about the game but about going as fast as possible in a sweet looking ride to impress the girl. About owning a Ferrari and being the personification of cool. It sells you a fantasy, one that gives tremendous satisfaction. A ‘long-medium right’ done well is one thing, but it doesn’t match slamming the steering wheel to full lock as you drift around a car and through a narrow gap between two buses in your Testarossa (or a British racing green Ferrari F40 if you’re me). It just doesn’t.
Taking a first person viewpoint and actually living the ride would be quite something. But there’s another reason VR would be an interesting mechanic for OutRun. Do you not remember you have a passenger in your car? A passenger who is very… needy in her desire for you to GO FAST! KEEP PASSING CARS! DRIFT MORE! ETC! As she either falls in love with you or, you know, violently attacks you because you clipped a barrier. If you’re actually in the car with her it gives the game an extra dimension as you’ve got to check how your would be lady (or gentleman – I think some choice on who your passenger and driver is should definitely be included at this point) friend is reacting to the ride. They also in doing such act as a distraction, and OutRun is always a balancing act – particularly in Heart Attack Mode – of balancing speed and safety.
For me it’d be a very interesting mechanic to explore.
That’s all for this week. Next week we round off the list some more games including one I suspect none of you will have guessed is on my list. Until then!
* Old SEGA employee note: For some reason THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD is always supposed to be shown in capital letters in SEGA materials. It’s part of the branding guidelines. If you see any SEGA official messaging with the game not in upper case it has actually been done wrong. #TheMoreYouKnow
** In Shadow The Hedgehog the moment young Maria Robotnik is fatally shot by government soldiers sent to wipe out the ARK facility is actually shown in the light of Shadow’s eyes at the end of a flashback. That’s messed up, Sonic Team.
They might be the developers behind Sublevel Zero and they may have other virtual reality (VR) projects planned, but that certainly isn’t the only plans that Sigtrap Games have according to an interview to be published later this week on VRFocus in which we spoke to studio Co-Founder Luke Thompson. In fact whilst they are best known for a VR title that’s not how the studio would necessarily like you to think of them.
“We don’t see ourselves as an exclusively VR studio but, at the moment, the gameplay ideas that we want to explore are in VR; and ultimately, the reason for that is, what I was saying about not knowing what it is yet that VR can do that other mediums can’t. And that’s what we want to do!” Explains Thompson in the interview. Agreeing that VR’s freedom of creativity is the big draw for them as things stand. “We want to do things in VR that you can’t do otherwise.”
Sublevel Zero, a procedurally generated six-degree-of-freedom shooter inspired by classic titles such as Descent and Forsaken was released as Sigtrap Games’ debut title back in October 2015 with current Beta support for both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The first-person experience gives would-be pilots control of a gunship flying around on its own through randomly generated levels set in an mysterious underground facility. Encountering enemies and gathering keys to unlock new pathways.
The interview, conducted at December’s Develop:VR, also discusses the issues of sim-sickness in VR and Thompson’s personal hopes for what 2017 will bring to the industry. It will be released later this week.
For those that follow wrestling the road to Wrestlemania is well under way following last night’s Royal Rumble pay per view event by WWE.
We’ve covered them a couple of times recently on the Saturday VR In Sports articles thanks to the adventures of their stars on the PlayStation VR. They have also appeared a coupleof times on Life In 360° thanks to occasional ‘WWE 360’ videos. It’s been a while since we featured those however, partly because it’s been a little while since WWE itself featured them on its channel.
That being said, they recently released two videos featuring superstars Bailey and The Undertaker which puts you on the front row of the crowd for their entrances. You can view them both below.
VRFocus will be back on Wednesday with another trip into the realm of 360 degree video.
The Mobile World Congress is set to return to Barcelona, Spain later this year for another four days of everything related to mobile technologies.
The event, to be held this year between 27 February and 2 March has just had a new activity list published from Bureau Veritas, the technology testing, inspection and certification company. Bureau Veritas and partner 7layers are set to bring a number of new ‘Smartworld’ product line items to its stand under the theme of “smart me, smart home, smart city”. One of which is to be related to augmented reality (AR).
Bureau Veritas will be showcasing a “suite of solutions” for the burgeoning connected world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Showing how the firm will assist with smart phones, sart housing and technology connected cars and people.
“For the first time we will be showcasing our state of the art test platforms at the show, virtually.” Explained Chris Baird, Director of Global Marketing for Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services. “All Smartworld products undergo testing to verify a number of needs, but how many people have explored a test lab and appreciate what goes on? Attendees can visit our stand to explore what happens within a modern Smartworld laboratory. Find out what an EMC Chamber looks like. Appreciate the reasons we perform OTA testing. Understand how SAR testing works. See the equipment needed for a RF chamber. Even identify what the numerous acroynms stand for!”
VRFocus will bringing you more news about the burgeoning 2017 events calendar in the near future.
When you’re a company, especially a technology company the idea that you should ‘dream big’ is a relatively easy one. At least in theory. In practice of course it’s a little bit more difficult than it seems. For many though if you said to them make the company ‘go as far as you can’ they wouldn’t necessarily think upwards.
Today’s video shows what happens when a space traveler (Anousheh Ansari), a astronautics professor (David Barnhart), a hotel expert (Brian Kelly) and an interior designer (Nicole Hollis) come together. It may sound like the beginning of the joke but using Cisco Spark collaboration platform has resulted in the design of the very first space hotel. The ‘tour’, produced by studio Gentleman Scholar, takes the idea of space tourism to its end goal. With an orbital rest stop comprising a lobby, bedrooms, a dining area, an observation deck and even – somehow – a zero-G swimming pool which you need to see to wrap your head around.
“Late last year, both President Obama and Elon Musk announced plans for a trip to Mars, so this idea doesn’t seem that far fetched,” said Associate Partner and Creative Director Will Elliott from Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P). “Our new campaign shows how Cisco Spark helps teams turn big ideas, such as the galaxy’s first space hotel, into reality.”
“What’s really interesting is today’s technology is enabling the move from fiction to fact,” added Barnhart, “We are all wanderers and explorers, and now it’s time for us to look outside to space.”
You can see the 360 degree video below ans well as a making-of film to show you what went into making it. VRFocus will, of course, be back on Monday with another trip- maybe not into space, but into Life In 360°.
We’re staying with America for today’s 360 degree video, more specifically we’re off to Miami to take in last weekend’s Race of Champions (ROC) in Marlins Park. If you don’t know what ROC is, the name is pretty bang on. It’s an annual cross-discipline competition between racing drivers from all formulas. Rallycross people square off against touring car people and Formula 1 people. It’s a big party to see who is the best of the best.
Of the best. If that is possible.
Today’s video comes from 360 Racing as has the camera situated just behind the start/finish line. It is, without question, the longest video we’ve ever featured. Because this 360 degree stream clocks in at over FOUR HOURS LONG. It’s like you’re sat in the middle of the track for the whole event(!)
VRFocus will bring you another video on Friday. Enjoy!
Welcome to another edition of VR vs. The weekly VRFocus column where the ‘other one’ from the site talks about most anything and everything to do with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) or some crazed combination of the three. Today we’re continuing a thread begun last week in the final part of my three-week feature into what may lie ahead in 2017. There I mooted the idea that of all the studios currently involved within VR, certainly from a gaming perspective there is one that is conspicuous by its absence. SEGA. Yes, yes, I know there are Hatsune Miku games but as I pointed out at the time Hatsune Miku and the vocaloid bunch ultimately aren’t SEGA property and aren’t a traditional franchise. They aren’t one recognised within their All-Stars series for instance – and whilst that isn’t a qualifying marker for this list considering how big the Project Diva series is and how iconic a figure Miku is in Japanese culture certainly, you’d have thought SEGA would make more of a deal out of things than they have were she theirs. So on that basis, scrub those out PSVR games off your mental tally.
Updated total? Zero.
This is unusual for SEGA. Historically SEGA (at least in the third-party era) have rushed in to support whatever new technology comes along. Do you by any chance remember the EyeToy, Sony’s camera accessory for the PlayStation 2? Yes? No? There weren’t exactly a whole heap of games for it. But SEGA were there with the original SEGA Superstars to fly the flag. They supported the Kinect they fell into bed with Wii U pretty quickly, etc, etc. For SEGA to not have had one of its more noted franchises in the West ready to rock and roll when VR came to retail, certainly the PSVR, was pretty unusual. (Again, discounting the leek-swinging singer lady.)
But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of opportunities for SEGA to embrace VR and thrown a bone to its more beloved franchises. It’s one of the sad truths about SEGA that their most iconic of series, with the exception of the fast spiky one, have never exactly been humongous successes financially. Still, why not use some of them and maybe give them a new lease of life outside of a new racing game? (No, really SEGA. It’s time for Transformed 2. Throw some money at SUMO Digital, will ya?) It’s also not like we don’t know SEGA aren’t messing around with VR either. Both SEGA Europe (SOE) and SEGA America (SOA) revealed their ownership of VR headsets (HTC Vive and PlayStation VR for SOE and Hololens for SOA) thanks to community videos. Never reveal you’ve got any kit you’ve not announced you’re working with as you’re either giving something away or starting unnecessary rumour. So yeah, way to keep that under wraps chaps. A+ work.
So let’s get things underway. As before I must point out that I used to work for SEGA for several years and worked on a number of the franchises listed that I’ll be bringing up. It was some time ago now, but I’m reliably informed that if I don’t do that the world will apparently end. We begin first with an honourable mention which will upset you by not being on the list proper.
Honourable Mention: Alien Isolation
It’s just not going to happen folks. Many have said the masterfully creepy atmosphere of “SEGA’s Good Alien Game” – tho everyone forgets they also did an Alien game on the DS in that discussion – was a perfect match for a full and proper adaption into a VR experience. The scare factor would be immense, obviously. As it’s bad enough being stalked by a Xenomorph without actually looking down at your chest as its tail pushes through it to kill you. As much as we’d all like it to, the economic factors involved just mean Alien Isolation is a non-starter for Creative Assembly to even get involved in really. Boo-urns.
However, speaking of Creative Assembly…
Total War
It’s one of gaming’s little quirks that one of console gaming’s most well known names is the publisher that is in actuality one of PC Gaming’s powerhouses. Between Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series and Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise SEGA have an commanding grip of the PC chart, one would go far to say dominance at some points in the year. If you have lived in a hole for the past couple of decades, Total War is a series of real-time strategy games that takes keen players take on the role of General in various eras of time. Replaying notable battles and playing tactical hardball with history. Whether it’s the Medieval period, the time of Rome, the rise of Napoleon or the era of the samurai there’s plenty to do. Heck, you can even throw history right out the window now and enjoy some Warhammer in your Total War.
Total War has always been about getting stuck in to battles. The planning, the preparation, the implementation and the execution. The buck stops with you, and as the series has developed the control system has allowed you to get ever deeper into the action. You can even follow individual soldiers. It’s such a well developed system that there’s even been a BBC game show (essentially) based on playing the series. One that’s recently had something of a comeback.
So with this in mind how would VR make Total War better? Control.
Now, considering what I’ve just written you might be wondering what I’ve been talking about since I’ve just been praising the system. But you can always improve and everyone and anyone who has played Total War has always had periods where the game just won’t place units right or you can’t get the camera in jussssst the right position. Now imagine you are in the map as opposed to looking at a 2D surface. Imagine you were, with your motion controllers able to to manipulate your units and your surroundings just so. How much easier and dynamic and engaging an experience that would bee if you brought a touch of Minority Report to proceedings.
Heck, can you imagine a Hololens version of Total War? With you waging battles from your sofa over your coffee table, and manoeuvring your archers onto the high ground of the TV unit? That’d be amazing.
Samba de Amigo
Break out the Bellini boys and girls!
When I first saw the HTC Vive controllers my first thought, partly because of how they were being held and moved at the time, was that they kind of looked like maracas. And there’s only one game that invites you, without a hint of suggestiveness, to get your maracas out. Samba de Amigo first burst onto the scene on SEGA’s much loved Dreamcast and was actually developed by Sonic Team if you didn’t realise it. It also came out as an arcade experience before next surfacing on the Nintendo Wii. The game plays with you in amongst a vibrantly coloured carnival, armed with your maracas you control Amigo, one of SEGA’s two monkey mascots (the other being Super Monkey Ball‘s AiAi, strangely the two have never been seen as rivals in the Superstars/All-Stars titles. Which has always puzzled me.) You move and dance along to a selection of upbeat tracks, shaking your controllers in time to the beat and occasionally having to strike a pose. It’s a simple enough title, and well and truly puts the party into party game.
VR needs more games like that I think. More games that are just full on fun and colours. It’s why Balloon Chair Death Match got people excited, it was a simple premise and it looked fun. Job Simulator is the same. Bright colours and positively oozes fun. Yes, we can all enjoy a nice serious game with high stakes, but in dammit we all just want to be silly sometimes. Samba allows you to do exactly that. Now, what I’m essentially asking you is to imagine this in VR. Please watch the video below as in this instance it is important to what I’m writing about.
A warning before you dohowever; if you are wearing headphones please turn them down. There’s some loud audio distortion on the video from the outset.
Just look at this man. Look how bloody happy he is. He doesn’t care he’s in the middle of an arcade, he doesn’t care he has a crowd. He’s just going for it: a master at work. Nevermind your beloved Salt Bae (a reference I realise will date this article terribly), in your heart of hearts you wish that were you. You wish you were as cool as the Samba Bae.
Now I’m waving any potential wire-based issues here. Forget ’em. Let’s lay it out. You put on the headset and you step into a party; a “Carnaval de VR”. Everyone around you is interacting with you. The movement is infectious. You are the centre of a mass celebration with bouncing creatures and an equally bouncing musical beat. You have motion tracking controls. You wave them about in time to the music. It’s escapement, elation, exercise and fun. Now we bring things up to date with the new technology and throw in a dash of evolution to the game as well. Unlike before you can use the sensors or PlayStation camera to fully track your movements. All of a sudden Samba can have a touch of Dance Central in it, evolving it into a bit more of a full body game with one stroke. You have greater accuracy than ever before on the controllers, the game can actually see you for the first time and you get one of the most smile inducing experiences on VR. As an added bonus it gets to be a game franchise fully realised on VR, something people are clamoring for.
Yo SEGA. You’ve got my number. Call my people (me) and let’s make this happen. I’m totally open to being Producer on this thing. SAMBA! Du du de-du du-du du de-du…
Condemned
There’s a very good chance you don’t remember Condemned: Criminal Origins. There’s an even better chance you’ve never played it or Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Which is a pity really. Condemned is a first-person experience which puts you in the shoes of Ethan Thomas, a police officer investigating a murder which slowly takes him down a path to discovering secret societies, mysterious entities, encountering nightmarish visions and the city falling into the grip of madness. Both games are a twisted mix of dark menacing settings, genuine scares that mess with play on psychology and improvised combat usually involving whatever Ethan can get his hands on. It’s frantic, up in-your-face stuff and perfect for VR with the combat emphasis on melee.
It’s not just that though. The first Condemned game especially has you dealing, within your role as a police investigator, a number of different crime scenes. These are technical, and involve you hunting for clues, such as finger prints and making deductions. What Condemned is, is what I suggested it could be back at E3 2016. It could be the Batman VR game you’ve always wanted but combined with all the best twisted bits of Resident Evil VII.
We’ll just ignore the bit about shouting people to death from number 2. (Check out my good friend John’s Let’s Play of Condemned 2 to see what I mean.)
That’s all for this week. On next week’s selection of titles we’re embracing freedom in a couple of ways and I use the term “wave shooter”. Which will probably annoy people. Until then…
The 2017 events calendar is already filling up with the latest in a long line of events relating to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or a combination of the two being the International AR & VR Conference 2017. A new venture to showcase both developing technologies and discuss how they can potentially be used in the fields of industry and education. Hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University on February 23rd 2017, the conference will be on the theme of “Empowering Human, Place and Business through AR & VR”. Tickets will be priced at £99 for businesses and other individuals and at £79 for students.
The University is no stranger to the technology involved, being home to the Augmented and Virtual Reality Hub, whose Director, Dr Timothy Jung, will be supporting the event.
“There is huge potential in the AR/VR sector and it is predicted that global revenues will reach $162 billion in 2020, and 2017 will be a big year for AR and VR in business.” Jung explains. “This conference will provide a great opportunity for academia and business communities in the North West to come together, share experiences and learn about the latest trends in AR & VR. I am hoping that this event will provide a platform for networking and future collaborations between businesses, academia and developers.”
Attendees can expect a full speaker programme with sessions helmed by industry experts from Brandwith, Microsoft’s Hololens team and noted voices in UK academia on technology. There will also be an interactive exhibition space as well as sessions relating to the discussion of academic papers covering a host of topics. Including future city design, health, education and more.
“In 2016 we began to see AR and VR focused hardware, content and applications finally coming into the mainstream, as industry realised the breadth of applications for the technology.” Adds Tech North’s Richard Gregory, one of the events partners. “The North of England has some fantastic assets in this sector, from innovative incubator spaces, pioneering academic research and compelling content from agencies and brands. We’re delighted to see this conference will showcase some of this talent, alongside the international backdrop to immersive technology.”
Tickets are now available and more information can be found on the conference website. VRFocus will bring you more information about event as it is announced.
