No matter where you are or where you go the use of virtual reality (VR) in particular among the immersive technologies continues to grow in the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) market. It’s something that the site follows very regularly as part of its semi-regular The Virtual Arena column, through it we’ve seen that not only VR related rides and experiences on both a small and large scale are continuously being developed for market across the venue spectrum, ranging from arcades to casinos.
Standalone VR specialist venues, arenas and so forth have also seen a surge of popularity. With new businesses founded and locations large and small being revealed across America, Europe, Asia and beyond. In the UK there are now multiple locations within the London area hosting The VOID and popular experienceStar Wars: Secrets Of The Empire. Then back in February we covered how BANDAI NAMCO are spearheading their own mini-push within the industry. Teaming with existing locations, such as those operated by the chain Hollywood Bowl and bringing to those VR Zone Portal – a smaller scale spin-off of its own VR Zone location in Japan.
It’s not just within the capital that you can find VR arcades and spaces, however. A new VR business is opening in England’s second city Birmingham. Birmingham is no stranger to VR, having already The VR Hub on Gibb Street and Matrix VR Virtual Reality Gaming Arcade and Cinema at the famous Custard Factory venue. Not to mention being the home to a number of VR related companies, such as Holosphere VR.
Now the UK-based Immotion Group, which raised £1.3 Million back in December and that specialises in location-based VR have revealed they are going to be adding to this with a new VR centre in Birmingham, called Vortex Arena, which has been installed in the ground floor of Resorts World Birmingham making the third Vortex destination within the retail space.
“We’re delighted to work with Resorts World and provide them with our range of highly immersive VR experiences and motion platforms.” Said Martin Higginson, Executive Chairman of Immotion Group. “Players will be able to experience the delights of virtual reality first hand. From the thrills of roller coaster rides to deep sea diving, shooting zombies, to intergalactic motorcycle racing.”
You can see a teaser trailer, which shows off 3Glasses branded headsets being used at the venue, below.
Digital Domain has revealed an acquisition of 60% of the effective interest of 3Glasses, opening up the opportunity for the company to tap into the virtual reality (VR) market further then before.
3Glasses are one of the pioneers and leaders of China’s VR hardware market, having launched China’s first VR head-mounted display (HMD), the 3Glasses D1 along with China’s first mixed reality (MR) HMD, 3Glasses Blubur S1 and even on a VR player. With more than fifteen years of experience within the VR market creating innovative technology covering software, hardware, developer tools, content platforms and industry solutions. The acquisition of the company by Digital Domain gives the company prospects to create new experience building fully integrated VR ecosystems that encompass VR content production, content distribution and hardware.
By 2016 3Glasses together with Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Fujitsu and Asus became the Microsoft “Windows Mixed Reality” global partner. This demonstrates the company’s strength and global influence, positioning the company as a reliable business partner and a good investment. Digital Domain have been in the VR industry 2014, they have continued to be strongly committed to promoting mass consumer adoption of VR and has made significant progress in establishing business models that feed into this goal.
With it’s premier content creation and production capabilities, exclusive distribution platform, VR Theater now combined with the cutting edge hardware technology from 3Glasses, the group will enable VR content and application distribution business to develop more rapidly, helping the company to create even more enriched virtual reality experience for the consumer market.
Elsewhere, Digital Domain also recently announced a partnership with Deutsche Telekom for a VR collaboration to create content for Magenta VR app. This collaboration will renew development of the release Magenta VR app, along with expanding the library of content that is available through both licensing deals and production of content exclusively for Deutsche Telekom.
With Digital Domain creating immersive content that entertains, inform and inspires, the company is a pioneer in many fields including visual effects and livestreaming events in 360-degree to VR, the new partnership with 3Glasses will see them able to create new and exciting products.
As can be seen in The Virtual Arena’s IAAPA’17coverage, the adoption of virtual reality (VR) technology into the international scene has continued apace – and the UK and Europe scene are no different. Kevin Williams continues his exclusive coverage of developments in the International VR Out-of-Home entertainment scene – by visiting the UK’s largest amusement trade show.
The amusement trade floor.
The 9th European Amusement and Gaming Expo (EAG) International Visitor Attraction Expo (VAE) at London’s ExCel venue, held last week – and the impression that immersive virtual attractions were having on the scene was self-evident, where last year there had be no exhibitors, this year’s event so a major upswing in interest in this technology.
British based company Immotion was one of the most prominent VR exhibitors with the full range of their VR amusement pieces. Fresh from the opening of their VRStar facility in Bristol – you can see a video of The Stinger Report’s coverage of the venue below. The company was presenting their systems to the show’s attendees – with their motorcycle, race car, and 9D simulators, developed by Chinese VR park developer LEKE VR and all running Depoon DP E3 headsets.
Another appearance of the Chinese VR manufacturing scene was on a UK distributor’s booth – with the company Movie Power exhibiting their VR Family, six-seater ride simulator platform running 3Glasses headsets. The system, as it stands, represents the early phase of VR amusement development with much of the limitations of earlier times evident.
Riders “experience” the thrills of the VR Family
One of the latest phase of VR ride simulators was represented by the same UK distributor representing the LAI Gaming Virtual RabbidsRide – the two-seat D-BOX powered simulator offering three ride experiences based on the popular Ubisoft property (running HTC Vive headsets).
Thills and spills with the Rabbids
The amusement developer UNIS was represented by their UK distributor who brought over to the show their Omni Arena platform, based in turn around the Virtuix Omni-direction platform. They were also running their brand-new Omni Arena eSports tournament platform, all of which were also operating with HTC Vive headsets.
Competitive action from the Omni Arena
European firm Hologate started 2018 following on from the success achieved during 2017, bringing their Hologate VR platform to the London show at their own booth. The system running had up to four-players taking part in a frantic shoot ’em up experience, defending their position. The system using a novel ceiling mounted tether system with their HTC Vive headsets to address the issue of cable management. The company revealed plans for a brand-new videogame to be launched on their platform soon.
Fully immersed witnin the Hologate universe
Represented by distributor BANDAI NAMCO, the company A.i.Solve presented their WePlayVR system to the EAG attendance. The system using a backpack PC and HTC headset system, with the players navigating the virtual environment within their specially developed enclosure incorporating vibrating panels and special maze layout. With already sixteen units placed in the field, the hardware has gained much interest.
Navigating the virtual labyrinth from A.i.Solve
Eastern European based Stereolife brought three examples of their VR platforms, with their Flyer, a single player motion capsule with unique motion platform, offering 15 different experiences including interactive games as well as rides. Their stand-upEMotion platform, and their Rifter twin seat motion simulator using VR experiences. (All the systems powered by Oculus Rift head-mounted displays).
The single seat Flyer platform.
Along with the rest of the amusement sales on display at EAG 2018, the show organizers also held for attendees a one-day seminar covering the impact of VR and the amusement trade, moderated by KWP, allowing operators to hear from manufacturers, VR arcade operators and industry specialist on the issues and opportunities this technology offers their business. It popular and with standing room only.
A seminar on how business can profit from VR.
An explosion of VR Arcades has hit the Western market, and KWP recently visited several the newly emerging venues in the UK (you can find a video of some of those visited here). There continues to be a growth in developer in the capital, with London seeing plans for the opening of a dedicated VR Arena-Scale entertainment operation for later next month following on from the temporary Star Wars VR experience that opened last month.
The hard nose amusement and attractions trade now looking to see VR entertainment products generate serious revenue to prove their ability to prove a competitive opportunity to the other immersive entertainment tech that is gaining traction in the industry. While consumer application of VR fight to find its footing, the Out-of-Home entertainment scene seems to be gaining momentum.
Expect more news of major developments in the VR Out-of-Home entertainment scene in the coming weeks – with a special report from America’s leading amusement trade event in Las Vegas, and many exclusive new hardware and facility announcements – be sure to look out for more editions of The Virtual Arena, here exclusively on VRFocus.
Microsoft today announced that 343 Industries, the studio tasked with overseeing the Halo franchise, will be creating Halo-themed experiences for the company’s lineup of VR headsets.
The information, revealed by HoloLens’ chief inventor and ‘Mixed Reality’ project lead Alex Kipman, comes alongside the news that Microsoft’s VR headsets and controller bundles will be launching this holiday season for $399.
“…it’s my pleasure to let you know that we are working with 343 Industries to bring future Halo experiences into mixed reality. We are not providing specifics right now, but it is going to be a lot of fun to work with them,” said Kipman.
Alex Kipman, image courtesy Microsoft
It’s uncertain at this time whether the Halo-themed VR experiences will be necessarily tied to the Windows Store, making them defacto exclusive to the Windows Mixed Reality platform. The company’s VR headsets will however have access to content published on Steam, allowing owners to download all supported VR titles, which thanks to the fairly standard button layout of the Windows VR motion controller may mean the full catalog of Vive/Rift games and experiences.
Nachdem bisher lediglich Entwickler die Windows Mixed Reality Headsets bestellen konnten, schaltete Microsoft nun das Angebot im US-Store für alle frei. Offensichtlich mit großem Erfolg, denn die Geräte sind bereits ausverkauft. Das Modell von HP ließ sich nur wenige Stunden ordern, inzwischen muss man auch auf die zweite Charge des VR-Headsets von Acer warten.
Windows Mixed Reality Headsets von Acer und HP im US-Store
Nach den Lösungen von Acer und HP sollen auch Brillen von 3Glasses, Asus, Dell und Lenovo auf den Markt kommen, erste Bilder der Headsets zeigen wir in diesem Artikel. Von den technischen Spezifikationen unterscheiden sich die VR-Lösungen für Windows 10 bisher kaum: Sowohl Acer wie auch HP verbauen zwei Bildschirme mit jeweils 1440 x 1440 Pixeln. Zwar ist die Auflösung damit höher als bei der Oculus Rift und HTC Vive, in unserem Test der Acer-Brille konnten wir aber nur eine minimale Verbesserung des Bildeindrucks feststellen. Das Sichtfeld fällt mit 95 Grad enger aus als bei Rift und Vive. Ein Highlight der Acer-Lösung ist allerdings das geringe Gewicht und die bequeme Handhabung. Die Windows-Headsets setzen auf Inside-Out-Tracking, benötigen also für Room-Scale-Erfahrungen keine Marker, Kameras oder sonstige Installationen.
Die beiden derzeit angebotenen Windows Mixed Reality Headsets sind zwar jetzt für alle bestellbar, bleiben aber weiterhin Entwicklerversionen. Für den Betrieb benötigt man zudem einen dicken PC: Microsoft hat die minimalen Anforderungen erhöht und empfiehlt Entwicklern einen Intel i7 mit sechs Kernen oder AMD Ryzen 7 1700 mit acht Kernen. Als Grafikkarte sollte es mindestens eine NVIDIA GTX 980 oder 1060 sein, bei AMD beginnt der Spaß mit einer Radeon RX 480 mit 8 GB VRAM. An Arbeitsspeicher reichen laut Microsoft 16 GB. Die Windows Mixed Reality Brille von Acer kostet 299 US-Dollar, das Headset von HP ist mit 329 Dollar etwas teurer.
Microsoft Technical Fellow and chief inventor of HoloLens, Alex Kipman, took the stage today at Microsoft Build 2017 to show off a number of upcoming mixed reality hardware and software streaming out of the company and its partners. Among the announcements—including pre-orders of Windows Holographic Headsets from Acer and HP and a new VR hand controller—was a teaser for more to come at E3 in June.
“Holiday 2017 is going to be phenomenal,” said Kipman. “We have a product lineup that customers really want. I hope you tune in to E3 to learn more about Windows Mixed Reality content story for this holiday.”
Many of the headsets taking part in the Windows Holographic program including Asus, Dell, 3Glasses and Lenovo have yet to receive a street date. There’s also no telling what bundle deals Microsoft will push to entice newcomers to their Universal Windows Platform-flavor of virtual interactions.
image captured by Road to VR
As it is, HP and Acer’s headsets are set to arrive to developers in August, which according to Kipman will be the exact same models shipping to consumers later in 2017.
Das Headset von Lenovo wird zwischen 300 US-Dollar und 400 US-Dollar kosten und wird somit eher eines der günstigeren Headsets sein. Microsoft hatte veröffentlicht, dass die Headsets eine große Bandbreite an Spezifikationen abdecken sollen und somit jeder Kunde das passende Headset für die eigenen Bedürfnisse finden würde.
Während die Oculus Rift und die HTC Vive auf zusätzliche Hardware für die Bestimmung der Position im Raum (Positional Tracking) setzen, werden die Headsets für Windows 10 mit einem Inside-Out Tracking ausgestattet. Leider lässt Microsoft die neuen Headsets die Besucher der CES noch nicht testen, aber zumindest liegen die Prototypen aus. Die Bilder stammen von windowscentral.com:
3Glasses
Acer
Dell
HP
Auch wenn Geschmäcker verschieden sind, so wird das Headset von Acer wohl nicht das schönste Headset auf dem Markt werden. Die Designs der Virtual Reality Headsets von HP und Dell wirken doch deutlich schicker und weniger nach einem frühen Prototypen. Wir sind gespannt, wann wir mehr über die Spezifikationen erfahren werden.
Microsoft hatte in diesem Jahr angekündigt, dass es schon bald diverse neue Virtual Reality Headsets für Windows 10 geben wird. Diese Headsets sollen bei einem Preis von 299 US-Dollar starten und Microsoft wird diese nicht selbst produzieren, sondern hat sich HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus und Acer als Partner geschnappt. Das Besondere an den Headset ist, dass diese nicht mit einer Kamera getrackt werden müssen, sondern auf ein Inside-Out Tracking-System setzen. Außerdem gibt Microsoft an, dass die Mindestanforderungen extrem gering seien werden und lediglich eine Grafikkarte mit DirectX 12 Support und eine CPU mit 4 Kernen benötigt werde.
Windows wird Headsets mit unterschiedlichen Spezifikationen unterstützen
Im nächsten Jahr werden die neuen Headsets auf den Markt kommen und natürlich werden HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus und Acer nicht identische Headsets herstellen und es ist durchaus denkbar, dass die genannten Mindestanforderungen von Microsoft nur auf das schwächste Modell der Hersteller zutreffen werden. Microsoft hat auf der WinHec bekanntgegeben, dass man nun auch mit 3Glasses aus China zusammenarbeite und dass das Unternehmen ein Windows 10 Headset im Jahr 2017 auf den Markt bringen werde. Dieses Headset soll aber deutlich anspruchsvoller sein und eine Auflösung von 2880 x 1440 Pixel bei einer Bildwiederholungsrate von 120 Hz bieten. Die Oculus Rift und die HTC Vive kommen nur auf 2160 x 1200 Pixel bei 90 Hz.
Microsoft plant nicht einen gemeinsamen Standard zu schaffen, sondern das Unternehmen möchte Headsets mit diversen Spezifikationen und mit unterschiedlichsten Eingabegeräten auf den Markt bringen. Microsoft sieht einen großen Vorteil bei den Headset darin, dass diese nicht über eine zusätzliche Software angetrieben werden müssen, denn die Headsets werden direkt vom Betriebssystem unterstützt. Microsoft möchte allen Besitzern der Headsets einen gemeinsamen Store bieten, doch dies bedeutet nicht, dass alle Menschen die gleichen Inhalte verwenden können. Laut Microsoft könnten auch Oculus Rift Besitzer und HTC Vive Besitzer diesen Store verwenden, aber bei diesem Plan wird Oculus vermutlich nicht mitspielen wollen.
Today at the Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Community event in Shenzhen, China, the company announced that VR/AR (mixed reality) headsets from top manufacturers are due to hit the market in 2017. What’s more, they’ll run on integrated Intel graphics without the need for a dedicated GPU.
There’s no word on what specifications these new headsets will bring to the table, but Microsoft has said they will be equipped with inside-out positional tracking (which doesn’t require external sensors like we see with the Rift and Vive today).
These headsets are being designed to work with the forthcoming Windows 10 Creator Update, which is slated to hit users for free this Spring. The headsets will be able to natively tap into the ‘Windows Holographic’ environment, and run more than 20,000 flat Windows apps, which may also be designed to extend into the virtual environment.
Microsoft and Intel have partnered on a platform specification for these headsets such that they’ll be able to “scale across mainstream Intel architecture platforms natively on [Intel’s CPU-integrated] HD Graphics,” by the end of 2017. That means no need for a high-end dedicated GPU as is required for the current generation of PC-based VR headsets. We noted last month that the apparent Windows Holographic minimum spec was surprisingly low. With more than 400 million Windows 10 users, this push could bring VR to a massive audience.
Now, there’s no telling if the headsets running on Intel’s integrated graphics will be able to power the sort of high-end gaming experiences we see today with PC-based VR headsets. It may be that the companies are lowering the quality bar somewhat in an effort to support a basic VR/AR experience across a wider range of PCs with applications that aren’t as graphically demanding. That said, what the companies have shown off so far is very impressive for integrated graphics. Microsoft claimed that the experience shown below is running on a tiny Intel NUC PC with integrated graphics at 90 FPS:
Only time will tell what level of VR/AR/MR we can expect from integrated graphics and Windows Holographic. It’s likely that a high-end GPU will always be able to push the graphical bar for such experiences much higher, just as has always been the case for PC graphics, but even access to a basic VR experience for a much broader group of users would be a great thing for the growing space.
Microsoft is looking to unify manufacturers around using Windows to power VR and AR headsets, with a plan to support HMDs featuring a wide range of specifications.
Next year, Microsoft plans to support headsets from manufacturers like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo starting at just $300, and by the end of the year the tech giant plans for “the base minimum hardware requirements for holiday 2017 systems” to start with an “Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 620 (GT2) equivalent or greater DX12 API Capable GPU.”
Both these marks should dramatically lower the cost to bring a VR headset into your home that still offers full freedom of movement in any direction. The Rift starts at $600 while the roomscale Vive starts at $800, each of which require a PC with relatively expensive graphics cards to run.
Microsoft at its Windows Hardware Engineering Community event (WinHEC) in Shenzhen, China, also announced a partnership with Chinese VR headset maker 3Glasses to offer a headset in the first half of 2017 compatible with Windows 10 at the higher end of a range of headset specifications Microsoft will support. The specifications for the 3Glasses’ S1 headset are listed at 2880×1440 with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The Rift and Vive operate at 2160 x 1200 and 90 Hz.
“We want a wide range of price points, wide range of specs, wide range of input, single developer platform, single developer surface area so the experiences work across the entire set,” said Alex Kipman, technical fellow of new device categories at Microsoft in an interview with UploadVR. “You must at least be able to track in 6 degrees of freedom. That means to me 6 DoF tracking is the minimum requirement. After that it’s all about giving opportunity for partners and choice for customers. That’s inclusive of FOV, refresh rate, resolution and we abstract all that to developers. That is true from an input perspective from 3 DoF to 6 DoF to everywhere between.”
According to Kipman, Microsoft is looking to do with its operating system what Oculus and Steam might not be able to from their place as applications.
“This is the power and benefit of being an operating system. If you’re just an application, and at the end of the day that’s all Oculus or Valve or those things are, you’re an application running in the context of an operating system, you can’t reconcile the input stack,” Kipman said. “On the other hand, if you’re the people as an operating system, that intercept all of those calls, you can come up (and we have) with a homogenized API surface area that to a developer is just more events driven. You just understand the action that was taken, you don’t necessarily understand where it came from.”
The idea is that Microsoft will provide “a consistent interface with a single store for customers,” according to a blog post by Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft. Meanwhile, developers will target a single input stack that would allow their apps to support a wide range of methods Microsoft intends to support for interacting with mixed reality, including controllers that can only move in a few directions, controllers that can move in any direction, gamepads like the Xbox controller, keyboard, mouse and eventually “gaze, gesture and voice” input.
When asked whether the Rift and Vive would be able to access apps purchased from the Microsoft store, Kipman said “it’s up to them.”
“Bifurcating platforms and bifurcating experiences doesn’t help developers and it doesn’t help customers with choice,” Kipman said. “The invitation remains open for any headset that is capable of doing 6 DoF, inclusive of HTC and Oculus, but they have to take me up on my invitation.”
Now the UK-based Immotion Group, which raised £1.3 Million back in December and that specialises in location-based VR have revealed they are going to be adding to this with a new VR centre in Birmingham, called Vortex Arena, which has been installed in the ground floor of Resorts World Birmingham making the third Vortex destination within the retail space.
