Category: Arcturus

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Arcturus Raises $5 Million to Expand Volumetric Video Toolset & Streaming

Arcturus, a company building tools for editing and distributing volumetric video, today announced it has raised a $5 million seed investment.

Distinct from stereoscopic video, volumetric video is fully three-dimensional and can be viewed from all angles, which makes it potentially well suited for use in augmented and virtual reality. Volumetric video isn’t yet widespread, owed to challenges with capture, storage, editing, and distribution.

With its ‘Holosuite’—HoloEdit, HoloCompute, and HoloStream—Arcturus hopes to streamline the use of volumetric video, by making it easy to edit, manage, and stream.

The company today announced a $5 million seed investment led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation HBSE Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures, Build Ventures, Marc Merril and Craig Kallman.

Arcturus says the funds will be used to “scale the software development team, focus efforts on sales growth, and expand the product line with an emphasis on live-streaming features.”

“Arcturus’ mission is to create a future where digital human holograms are captured from reality, customized and even interact with the viewer in real time. This can take the form of digital customer service agents, human avatars, virtual 3D concerts and fashion runways, or giving access to the perspectives of professional athletes in broadcast sports,” says Arcturus CEO, Kamal Mistry. “With the backing of BITKRAFT Ventures, true leaders in games and XR investments, we are confident Arcturus will serve as a catalyst to enable widespread accessibility to volumetric video creation, enabling millions of users to create a new form of interactive content.”

Capturing live-action volumetric video remains a complex process, often requiring dedicated light-stages with tens if not hundreds of cameras surrounding the subject. The resulting datasets are also massive compared to traditional or even stereoscopic video.

Microsoft’s Mixed Reality capture stage | Image courtesy Microsoft

But that could well change in the future thanks to developments in both hardware and software.

Researchers in recent years have shown compelling results using machine learning approaches to reconstruct volumetric video from traditional video footage. Hardware built specifically for capturing volumetric data—like Microsoft’s Azure Kinect or Apple’s LiDAR-equipped phones & tablets—could streamline the capture process and expand the use-cases of volumetric video from dedicated capture stages to less complex productions.

Arcturus doesn’t deal in the actual capture of volumetric video, but it’s counting on the growth in the demand for volumetric video and wants to be ready with its suite of tools for creators to store, edit, and stream the content. But with the freshness of this tech it isn’t something individual users will be using for some time to come—that much is clear from Arcturus’ Holosuite pricing, which runs a cool $7,500 per year, per user.

The post Arcturus Raises $5 Million to Expand Volumetric Video Toolset & Streaming appeared first on Road to VR.

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Review: The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains

Fans of fantasy were excited to learn that a virtual reality (VR) adaptation of Brandon Sanderson’s best-selling Stormlight Archive was happening. The title has been available for a while now, putting players in the shoes of one of the main characters from the series, Kaladin Stormblessed.

Curiously, instead of being a direct adaptation of the book it is named for, The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains instead tells an original tale in the same world with the same characters, but not directly referencing the events in the book.

Back when VR was first emerging, many VR videogames and experiences were little more than extended tech demos. The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains feels much the same way, as it is very short, comprising a grand total of about 30 mins play time, and that’s if you choose to explore everywhere and try everything.

Somewhat frustratingly, despite its short length, The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains is very good. It looks great, with some nicely realised environments, interesting character designs and good animation. Movement seems to be teleport-only, which is a bit of a shame.

Other than that, you can explore the environment and engage in combat, where the Stormlight magic comes into play, allowing you to throw big rocks at your opponents. The big action sequence at the end is pretty intense, and gives you chance to really exercise your magic skills to defeat a massive scorpion-like creature. Though considering how much the Stormlight power is said to be, it feels a tiny bit underwhelming to just use it to throw things and walk up walls.

You are guided through the experience by a small fairy-like creature by the name of Syl, who provides instructions on what to do or where to go. Thankfully, she is nowhere near as irritating as Navi of Legend of Zelda fame, and is actually somewhat endearing.

Some sources are reporting that the reason for the brevity of The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains is due to it being a proof-of-concept so that the Stormlight Archive series can be shopped to film and TV studios. If that is true, then it feels a bit cheeky to be charging £8.28 for a marketing promo.

There’s a hinted-at richness in the world around you that you are only given a few tantalising glimpses of, and the indication that there is so much going on behind the scenes. In this way, it makes The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains feel much like a starter, not a main course.

The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains will be of interest to people who are big fans of Brandon Sanderson’s work, or for people who are curious about what a The Stormlight Archive TV series might feel like, anyone else will only feel frustrated a a bit short-changed by how brief and limited it all is. If this was the first part in an episodic series, it might be enough to draw interest, but otherwise its’ something best left for hardcore fans only.

60%

Awesome

  • Verdict
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Hands-On – The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains Is A Brief VR Tease

Hands-On – The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains Is A Brief VR Tease

The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains is a very short VR experience from Arcturus Studios that’s centered on the first entry in Brandon Sanderson’s sweeping epic fantasy novel series, The Stormlight Archives. Sanderson is three books deep into the world (Oathbringer just released very recently) and this extremely brief experience, for all of its eagerness, is little more than a tech demo.

In a unique turn of events, The Way of Kings VR isn’t based on an existing movie, TV, or video game at all, but is actually created directly from the original book source material itself. You can see some glimpses of gameplay down below:

The Way of Kings VR being short in and of itself isn’t a huge problem, but I’m just not sure anyone other than die-hard Sanderson fans are going to pay for an experience like this. When I first read these books my mind was racing with ideas for movies, TV shows, and video games, but I never once thought that a short, pseudo-marketing demo was the way to go. But maybe this was an experiment with an eye towards a future of more episodic Stormlight Archive content?

We’ve entered a period of VR software creation in which I can only assume most studios are struggling to turn a profit. Small projects like this, The Martian, Spider-Man Homecoming, Justice League, Jumanji, and others are riding on the coattails of brand recognition more than anything in the hopes of raking in enough to recoup investments.

The frustrating thing about The Way of Kings VR is the fact that, despite its brevity, it’s actually well-made for the most part. Character models look good, animations are mostly top-quality, and the moments of action feel about as good as you can expect from modern VR hardware. The visuals are solid and they do a really stellar job of making you feel like you’re right in the middle of a High Storm as its described in the books.

In my 15 minutes with the app I did see a few bugs here and there, but nothing game breaking. It needs a bit more polish overall and should absolutely be a free download instead of paid, but it’s not really a bad VR experience relatively speaking.

For more on The Way of Kings VR, you can check out the official Steam page right here. Let us know what you think of The Way of Kings VR and the book series as a whole down in the comments below!

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Magic and Adventure Await You Down The Way of Kings

Last month, it was revealed that a virtual reality (VR) adaptation of Brandon Sanderson’s best-selling fantasy series The Stormlight Archive was in development. That VR experience, titled The Way of Kings, Escape the Shattered Plains is now available for HTC Vive.

The Way of Kings, Escape the Shattered Plains was developed as a partnership between DMG entertainment and Arcturus. The developers describe it as an immersive, interactive experience that delivers an unforgettable adventure for HTC Vive users.

Players of The Way of Kings, Escape the Shattered Plains take on the role of Kaladin, a young man struggling to control his magical powers. As Kaladin, users can explore the mythical land of Roshar, a place where storms of terrible power and magnitude frequently sweep across the land.

Guided by a mysterious fairy-like creature called Syl, players must journey across the treacherous Shattered Plains in order to harness the magical power of Stormlight, all while fighting off hostile mythical beasts and powerful Parshendi warriors.

The adaptation of The Way of Kings into VR was written by Joshua Rubin, who ha previously worked as the lead writer behind successful videogame titles such as Destiny and Assassin’s Creed. The Way of Kings is the first book of The Stormlight Archive series, which was first published in 2010. Since then over 15 million copies of Stormlight archive books have been sold worldwide.

This is the first consumer release from Arcturus, who are best known for their work in developing technology for companies such as Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Google and YouTube. The studio says its goal is to create excellent quality immersive experience and guide others through the immersive technology industry. DMG Entertainment, meanwhile is a well-known media and entertainment company that has worked with a variety of firms in areas such as television, film and videogames, including such projects as Iron Man 3 and Looper.

The Way of Kings, Escape the Shattered Plains is out now on Viveport and Steam, priced at $10.99 (USD). VRFocus will be sure to brig you any further updates as they become available.

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Immerse Yourself In The Stormlight Archive With VR Experience

Best-selling books have been getting adaptations into movies for many decades, but as of yet few books have leapt directly from the page into the virtual reality (VR) headset. That might be about to change with a VR experience adapted from Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive.

Brandon Sanderson has sold over 15 million copies of his books from the Stormlight Archive series. Now Arcturus is working with DMG Entertainment to produce a VR experience titled The Way of Kings: Escape The Shattered Plains, based on Sanderson’s epic fantasy narrative.

Players of the experience will be stepping into the shoes of Kaladin, a young man who is slowly learning how to wield his magical powers. Users will be able to explore the mythical land of Roshar, full of dangerous, mountainous terrain while guided by a fairy-like creature named Syl. Users will need to find out how to control the magical power of Stormlight and battle against magical beasts and hostile warriors.

For the first time ever, audiences will be able to experience the thrills and see the magic of the fantasy universe Brandon Sanderson created before their very eyes,” said Ewan Johnson, Chief Creative
Officer of Arcturus. We can’t wait for fans to get their first glimpse of a unique and truly immersive virtual reality experience.

I am beyond excited to finally be able to present this VR experience of The Way of Kings after many months of long, hard work from the teams at DMG and Arcturus,” said Brandon Sanderson. “It’s the first time my fans will be able to experience a thrilling adventure in Roshar and see what it’s like to be in the Shattered Plains.”

The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains will be available for the HTC Vive through Viveport or Steam, priced at $10.99 (USD). A trailer for the experience is available to view below.

For any news on new and upcoming VR experiences, keep checking back with VRFocus.