VRFocus Gets Hands on With ARrived at Gamescom 2017

One of the difficulties with virtual reality (VR) is that it’s difficult to relay an experience or videogame to audiences, because it is so fully immersive. Without mixed reality or a green screen, it’s difficult to imagine or picture it. However, when it comes to augmented reality (AR), it becomes a lot easier to visually explain what’s happening. 

VRFocus managed to get hold of Oleg Chumakov, CEO of Luden.io at Gamescom and got a first-hand experience with his AR videogame ARrived, a God simulation game, similar to the videogames Black and White or Populous.

Chumakov showed ARrived in a room lit by daylight where the floor had two different colours. Apparently this made it easier to calibrate the room for tracking. When you start ARrived, four little men appear on the floor of an iPad, and you then get to choose to be either a good or bad boss by clicking on happy or evil emoticons on the left or right of the screen respectively. Chumakov chose good for the purpose of this demo and the four men celebrated this act by dabbing (a dance move). You can create land for them by adding more trees and clouds. You can move these objects around to your liking around your room, and they will stay in the exact same spot no matter where you move in the room.

Small icons appear above the men as you choose various options for them to eat and drink, indicating they should either eat or drink. Icons also appear above the men to indicate how they feel, a snowflake appears above their heads and they start shivering indicating they’re cold. You have to start a fire in order to warm them and happy icons will appear above their heads to show their gratitude. Chumakov used his sleeve to block the camera to show how lighting works in-game, but it also resulted in slight mis-tracking when he removed his sleeve. After the tracking re-adjusted itself, magic clouds (what look like blue portals) appeared dropping items from the sky to the floor.

Chumakov explains that when at home, you have to physically move around the house and room in order to find more magic clouds. The objects are used to create a totem are not random, they’re based on objects around the room you’re located in whilst playing. Chumakov explains that under the totem dinosaurs will start appearing. As the game continues you can find other tribes and another god. There is no real ending to the game, however if you do meet another god whilst playing the little figures can either choose to follow you or not follow you according to how well you played.

ARrived concept 2

For this version of ARrived, the game is five minutes long. The reason for this is the intense processing power AR needs to work. It will suck the battery life and the device will heat up playing it. It also means that you can’t turn off the game and expect to come back to it and continue playing. AR is still in its infancy. Chumakov explains that as new hardware comes out you’ll be able to spawn the objects and humans in various locations. He also mentions that women are included in ARrived, but unfortunately the mechanic broke just before the conference – but they will be in the finished videogame upon release.

Super Mario Bros. Rendered With ARKit

Two months ago a HoloLens developer posted a video of a proof of concept demo featuring an augmented reality (AR) version of the original Super Mario Bros. Videogame in New York’s Central Park. The demo attracted much interest, and now someone has recreated the feat using Apple’s ARKit.

In June developer Abhishek Singh recreated the first level of Super Mario Bros. Using the HoloLens and proceeded to play it in New York’s Central Park. Since that video was posted, a number of fans have been keen to play it as well, but Singh had no stated plans to release the demo. So another developer took the concept onto Apple’s newly released AR toolkit.

Similar to the HoloLens demo, the ARKit version allows users to stomp on Goombas, jump to hit boxes and collect coins, only it takes place indoors instead of outside. It is not as detailed, or quite as accurate to the original videogame, but it still fairly close. The demo was created by Bjarne Lundgren.

There is no word on if this is ever likely to see commercial release. Considering Super Mario Bros. Is a Nintendo property, a whole tangle of legal and licensing issues will need to be dealt with before it can get a full release, if the developer even plans on taking it that far.

Many fans will probably be waiting and hoping for the AR Super Mario Bros. To get an official release on a platform that is significantly cheaper and more easily available than the HoloLens.

You can watch the demo video below.

VRFocus will continue to report on ARKit projects.

Luden.Io Will Be Showcasing ARKit Title ARrived at PAX West

Since the launch of Apple’s ARKit, a number of companies have been testing out the possibilities provided by the new augmented reality (AR) toolkit. One of these is Luden.io, who will be demonstrating its upcoming AR god simulator ARrived.

During early demonstrations , the developer behind VRobot referred to the title by a different name of AR Tribe, but since then it has gained considerably more polish. The core gameplay is that of a sandbox god simulator, sharing similarities with classic title Black and White. Players will need to guide and care for their chosen tribe, able to choose from various options to improve the life of the miniature AR people presented on the tabletop before the player.

Current artwork and video footage of the alpha build of the videogame reveals a cartoonish, stylised artwork style, with various style of character, from primitive seemed men with clubs to shamanistic figures. Early footage has shown level areas with flowing waterfalls and an active day and night cycle, with fireflies appearing during the night phase.

Luden.io will be demonstrating a build of the title for attendees at PAX West, which is due to take place in Seattle from 1st-4th September, 2017. It is currently unknown what point in development the title has reached, but most are expecting an alpha build at this point.

A launch date and price point for ARrived has yet to be confirmed.

VRFocus will bring you further information on ARrived and other ARKit projects as it becomes available.

Despite Doomsayers, Smartphones Will Be Essential For AR’s Evolution

Despite Doomsayers, Smartphones Will Be Essential For AR’s Evolution

With Apple’s recent introduction of ARKit, developers have rushed to create seriously impressive AR demos for the iPhone. This has resulted in some futurists and techies proclaiming that the age of the smartphone has ended and that the takeover of AR smart glasses is not only inevitable but also imminent.

However, rumors of the smartphone’s death are greatly exaggerated — for now. In fact, the entire narrative of the smartphone “dying” at the hands of AR is fundamentally flawed. The smartphone will play a key role in powering the rise of AR wearables while continuing to evolve into ever sleeker and lighter form factors.

The global market for augmented reality (AR) products will surge 80 percent to $165 billion by 2024, according to research firm Global Market Insights. That might explain why Apple and Google-backed Magic Leap are potentially building the “smart glasses” that Michael Abrash, chief scientist at Facebook-owned Oculus Research, says are likely to one day replace the smartphone. “Twenty or 30 years from now, I predict that instead of carrying stylish smartphones everywhere, we’ll wear stylish glasses. Those glasses will offer VR (virtual reality), AR and everything in between,” he said recently.

Apple chief Tim Cook has also been bullish on the future of AR. “I regard it as a big idea, like the smartphone,” he told The Independent in a recent interview.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg may also be on a quest to kill the smartphone. “We all want glasses or eventually contact lenses that look and feel normal but let us overlay all kinds of information and digital objects on top of the real world,” he explained at this year’s F8 conference.

Apple, Magic Leap, and Facebook will likely join Microsoft and Snapchat in the AR race. Microsoft is working on Hololens, a head-mounted mixed reality headset that projects holograms onto the real world. Snapchat launched its Spectacles sunglasses to mixed reviews earlier this year.

AR has the potential to become ubiquitous. It holds promise in many industries, such as gaming, architecture, health care, retail, fashion, entertainment, military, and education. Yet many challenges exist. Most of the current options for AR smart glasses are either frail and poorly powered, or powerful and uncomfortably large. No provider has yet launched a device that is lightweight, reliable, and durable.

Another problem is that projecting 3D content in the world, in real time, will consume a substantial amount of power. Smartphones are likely to do much of the heavy lifting to prolong the battery life (and thus the duration of) AR sessions. Many tech titans and electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla are racing to develop alternatives to the lithium-ion batteries that power most mobile devices. However, such innovations have not yet made their way into smartphones, partly due to current manufacturing techniques, which are costly to change.

Content will be equally important. Useful applications are key to keeping consumers engaged and willing to spend lavishly on AR hardware. Snap, for example, rolled out lenses — a twist on its popular face filters that overlay digital images onto real ones. The app behaves as if an AR object exists in the real world: Walk closer to it and it gets bigger. However, most of Snap’s successful AR features have been centered on smartphones.

It’s tough to make wearables take off as global consumer staples. Apple’s first go at the category, the Watch, has failed to become a mass market hit. Apple doesn’t share unit sales numbers for the Watch, but a recent report claimed that sales of the product have fallen by as much as 90 percent. Let’s also not forget Google Glass, the hyped-up headset that flopped in 2014.

We are likely several years away from mass consumer adoption of AR, analysts at RBC Capital, the investment bank, say. It may be more likely that AR will be the chief companion of the smartphone. Indeed, Google is betting on that with its Project Tango, which integrates AR into existing smartphones through motion tracking, depth perception, and “area learning.” Facebook and Snap, meanwhile, are rushing to build the most powerful social AR machine that will largely run on existing smartphone hardware. And Apple is rumored to be placing 3D sensorsinto the dual-camera system in its upcoming iPhone 8.

Whether Facebook, Snap, or Apple succeed in generating mass consumer adoption of AR by merging the technology with smartphones, or whether smart glasses truly take off, remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: The smartphone will play an integral role in the future development of AR. Its days are far from numbered.

Michael Park is the CEO and founder of PostAR, a platform that lets you build, explore, and share augmented realities. This post originally appeared on VentureBeat. 

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Why ARKit is a Game Changer for VR

Why ARKit is a Game Changer for VR

It’s been a month since we dove in head-first into Apple’s ARKit and it’s been an incredible ride. We were so blown away with it that we immediately published our findings and set up a Slack group. Where phone-based Augmented Reality had previously been relegated to a few niche use case apps, what became immediately clear was what makes ARKit the most important element for mainstreaming VR.

State of VR / AR Today

Plenty of buzzwords: trough of disillusionmentfragmentationVR adoption problemAR/VR spend forecastsVR companies and studio deaths (and one rebirth) , VR is a fad or failing, etc. These are all very long discussions others have written about.

Augmented Reality visualization using recognized traditional 2d media

My points: Adoption of VR in 2017 needs a catalyst. Enter Augmented Reality (AR)… but not necessarily the AR you know.

If you’re familiar with apps like Snapchat and Pokemon Go, you’ve seen augmented reality as a digital overlay.

This is what we’ve seen as the most commonly recognized form of AR, using a tracked “marker” in space. This marker could either be a graphical image such as a QR code or other unique image, or it could be an image pattern such as a human face, like how Snapchat filters work.

With face recognition, pattern matching allows for an understanding of where certain facial features are in the image, and can add digital enhancements on top.

Shortly after Facebook announced their AR Studio this year, Apple unveiled ARKit. Thus it was natural for our company to imagine that it would be another competitor using the digital overlay model… but we were wrong.

What ARKit Brings to the Table

At launch, ARKit’s core tech does not utilize specific image recognition as detailed above. Rather, it works a lot closer in nature to Google Tango, a mobile phone-based tech that can recognize its local-coordinate position thru AR. In layman’s terms, this means that when a device moves around with the camera enabled, it can report its relative xyz position and orientation. It also recognizes two-dimensional geometric planes that are flat on the ground.

That’s kind of it. And that’s… kind of huge.

The concept of moving in 6-degrees of space with full freedom is a key fundamental element differentiating high-end desktop VR (Vive, Rift) from mobile VR (Google Cardboard & Daydream, Samsung GearVR)… and Apple just delivered it.

For AR developers who were strictly thinking of AR in a digital overlay fashion, this is potentially a shock — because this AR doesn’t respond to any specific commercial product like a movie poster, or even to a face. Suddenly there’s just freedom without bounds.

To which VR developers have already been accustomed.

Making ARKit the ultimate bridge to AR and VR. Dig deeper into Apple’s ARKit to find seeds of future improvements such as vertical plane recognition and occlusion, which will continue to narrow the gap between static AR overlays and interactive VR volumes.

VR-Style Augmented Reality for the masses

When used on the base entry-level device compatible with ARKit (the iPhone SE), Apple’s tracking is still very impressive considering it lacks a depth sensor and only uses a single camera. Accuracy can be improved when implementing depth sensing (such as that which is available on Google Tango or Microsoft Hololens), but similar to what Google Cardboard did for VR, Apple has now provided an entry-level solution for immersive content on an estimated 500 million devices by the end of 2017.

Love Google Cardboard or don’t, but its low cost of entry allowed many users to access VR at low cost. Given one already has a compatible iOS device, ARKit allows many users to access VR-style AR at practically no cost.

The Future Begins Now

Our vision of an impending AR/VR future involves the ability to explore computer-generated 3d worlds right alongside our existing reality. A small percent of us started sampling that future in 2016 with VR headsets, and iOS 11 is going to be bringing in the rest of us for a taste of what’s to come. The possibilities are endless and daunting when it comes to replicating reality, and for those who have yet to try a VR headset, ARKit could be their first step to understanding what that future will look like.

This here is the true dawn of the VR and AR age of computing. There will be those who wait and see, and then there will be those who are the pioneers that are defining the future.

To all VR developers who haven’t toyed with ARKit, I highly recommend starting now. It’s still a relatively small community so the aforementioned ARKit Creators Slack is a great place to get dev tech support. I can also be found on Twitter or LinkedIn, and am happy to continue the conversation on all things #ARKit.

Additional Resources
ARKit Creators Reddit
Apple AR World
@madewitharkit
@jimmy_jam_jam

This is a guest post not produced by the UploadVR staff. No compensation was exchanged for the creation of this content. Steve Lukas is Co-Founder and CEO of Across Realities, working to enable quality immersive content for every digital platform. Follow him on Twitter @slukas or connect with him via LinkedIn. This post originally appeared on Medium.

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Gamescom 2017: Vorschau auf die Spielemesse in Köln

Morgen am 22. August 2017 öffnet die Gamescom 2017 für Fachebsucher und Medienvertreter ihre Tore. Von Mittwoch bis Samstag können sich dann alle Besucher auf der Spielemesse in Köln vergnügen. Dieses Jahr steht neben anderen Themen auch wieder Virtual Reality im Mittelpunkt. Wir schauen uns an, was wir von der Spielemesse erwarten, bevor wir morgen vor Ort nach Highlights und Eindrücken fahnden.

Gamescom 2017: Die Messe wächst

Eins steht jetzt schon fest: Die Messe wächst. Mehr als 900 Aussteller aus über 50 Ländern werden rund 200.000 Quadratmeter Fläche bespielen. Der Veranstalter rechnet mit rund 350.000 Besuchern. Ein wichtiger Trend dieses Jahr soll erneut Virtual Reality sein. Zwar sollen viele Aussteller lediglich Spiele zeigen, die schon auf der E3 zu sehen waren. Jedoch haben Spieler erstmals die Gelegenheit, in Europa selbst Hand an viele Titel legen zu können. Von den VR-Nerds gehen gleich drei Jäger auf die Pirsch, um die interessantesten Neuigkeiten auf der Gamescom 2017 aufzuspüren.

Gamescom 2017 VR

Platzhirsch HTC und Neueinsteiger Microsoft

Die soll es beispielsweise vom HTC-Vive-Team geben, das in Köln zusammen mit AMD „aufregenden neuen Content“ zeigen will. Mit der heutigen Bekanntgabe der Preissenkung hat HTC schon mal kurz vor der Eröffnung der Messe ein Signal gesetzt.

Spannend dürfte es sein, was Microsoft im Gepäck hat. Mit der Verfügbarkeit der Windows 10 Mixed-Reality-Brillen von Acer und HP für Entwickler könnten auch einige VR-Titel zu bestaunen sein. Sicher ist nur, dass Microsoft die Xbox One X dabei hat, die sich seit heute vorbestellen lässt. Die muss allerdings mit VR noch warten, denn Microsoft setzt vorerst ganz auf Windows 10.

Besser wird es naturgemäß bei Sony mit ihrer PSVR aussehen, hier steht VR auf jeden Fall auf dem Speiseplan. Neue Ankündigungen soll es allerdings in Köln nicht geben, die dürfte sich Sony für seine Pressekonferenz am 30. Oktober in Paris aufheben.

VR-Hardware vom Handschuh bis zur Weste

Einen Besuch auf der Messe sollte der Stand von bHaptics wert sein: Das koreanische Start-up bietet mit seinem TactSuit-Set eine Feedback-Lösung aus Weste, Maske und Manschetten an. 550 US-Dollar sind zwar kein Pappenstil für die TactSuit, allerdings sorgen satte 87 Vibrationsmotoren für fein abgestufte Rückmeldungen.

Haitisches Feedback gibt es auch bei Gloveone, die Handschuhe entwickelt haben, mit denen man in der virtuellen Realität Objekte realistischer greifen können soll. Während das Tracking der Handschuhe inzwischen überzeugen soll, war die Vibration als Simulation von Druck nicht so gelungen. Ob die Entwickler das System inzwischen verbessern konnten, sollte man auf der Gamescom ausprobieren können.

Monowheels, episches Adventure und RPG für ARKit und Tango

Auf der Gamescom 2017 findet man beispielsweise auch die IMGNation Studios. Der Entwickler arbeitet an einer VR-Umsetzung des Smartphone-Klassikers Angry Birds. Auf der Messe will das Studio allerdings den futuristischen Action-Racer Monowheels VR zeigen, der für alle Plattformen erhältlich sein soll. Der erste Trailer macht schon mal den Mund wässrig. Das könnte einem auch beim zweiten Titel passieren, den die Entwickler zeigen wollen: den Cow Milking Simulator. Auch der wartet noch auf seine Veröffentlichung.

Die Schweizer Entwickler von Sycoforge zeigen ihr VR-Fantasy-Adventure Arafinn: Return to Nangrin in Köln. Das Spiel zeugt von Schweizer Gründlichkeit und ist bereits seit acht Jahren in Entwicklung. Kein Wunder, denn Arafinn wird ein episches Unterfangen: 2600 Städte und Dörfer warten auf den Spieler in der mystischen Welt.

Zenko Games nutzt die Gamescom 2017, um sein AR-Rollenspiel Diamonst erneut zu präsentieren. Das soll für iOS 11 mit ARKit, für Google Tango und die Microsoft HoloLens kommen. Kurz vor der Messe haben die Entwickler einen neuen Trailer veröffentlicht. Im September will man dann eine Kickstarter-Kampagne auf den Weg bringen und erhofft sich zusätzliche Einnahmen durch den Verkauf von Kuscheltieren.

Weitere Informationen wie Ticketpreise und -verfügbarkeit findest du auf der Webseite zur Gamescom 2017




Der Beitrag Gamescom 2017: Vorschau auf die Spielemesse in Köln zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Combo Announces ARKit Title Pigeon Panic

Ever since Apple unveiled its augmented reality (AR) software ARKit tons of developers have jumped on board, creating all sorts of projects. One of the latest to be revealed comes from Combo, with the studio announcing Pigeon Panic

The title looks like a madcap, point scoring race where players need to collect/scare away pigeons as quickly as possible. As the early preview video shows, players are given 20 seconds for each round, with every bird worth ten points. Along the way time increase tokens can be collected that add five seconds.

Pigeon Panic is due to launch at some point this autumn, probably around the same time as iOS11 gets released. Combo also has several other videos showing some of the team playing Pigeon Panic in the office via its Twitter account.

Expect there to be quite a few titles available for iOS11’s launch with Luden.io’s ARrived a possibility, Apollo Box’s AR shopping app and Directive Games’ The Machines.

As further ARKit projects are revealed VRFocus will bring you the latest updates.

Guns of Boom in Augmented Reality mit Apples ARKit

Der First-Person-Multiplayer-Shooter Guns of Boom gehört mit über zehn Millionen Downloads zu den erfolgreichen Smartphone-Spielen. Nun zeigt das Studio Game Insight eine kurze Demo, bei der man das Spiel aus der AR-Perspektive betrachten kann. Es soll die Zukunft des eSports sein, glauben die Entwickler. In Zukunft sollen alle Guns-of-Boom-Übertragungen hunderprozentig in Augmented Reality stattfinden.

Guns of Boom goes AR mit ARKit

Noch muss man sich bis zum Herbst gedulden, bis Apple mit iOS 11 Augmented Reality via ARKit für iPhone und iPad freigibt. Aber bereits jetzt lässt sich absehen, dass gleich zum Start eine Schwemme von Anwendungen bereit stehen werden. Eine davon wird laut Game Insight der AR-Modus für Guns of Boom sein, den die Entwickler mit Erscheinen von iOS 11 freischalten wollen. Der Modus ermöglicht es, Kämpfe aus der „Gott-Perspektive“ zu betrachten. Dabei können Spieler das iPhone oder iPad frei bewegen und die Wiederholung damit aus jedem Blickwinkel anschauen.

Guns of Boom ist kostenlos für Android und iOS erhätlich und finanziert sich wie viele derartige Spiele über In-App-Käufe. Wohl mit Erfolg. Die 2009 gegründete Firma hat laut VentureBeat inzwischen rund 300 Angestellte. 50 davon arbeiteten angeblich an Guns of Boom. In dem First-Person-Shooter treten Spieler in Clans gegeneinander an, insgesamt stehen 48 Waffen von der Schrotflinte bis zum Maschinengewehr zur Verfügung. Apple wird das erstmals auf seiner Entwicklermesse WWDC im Juni vorgestellte ARKit in iOS 11 voraussichtlich offiziell im Herbst veröffentlichen. Schätzungsweise 300 Millionen Anwender können dann auf einen Schlag Augmented-Reality-Apps mit Positional Tracking nutzen. Der Clou: Im Gegensatz zu Googles Lösung mit Tango ist keine spezielle Hardware erforderlich. Allerdings setzt ARKit einen A9-Chip oder besser voraus, womit die Software erst ab iPhone 6s und iPad Pro/iPad 2017 funktioniert.

(Quelle: VentureBeat)

Der Beitrag Guns of Boom in Augmented Reality mit Apples ARKit zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Apple May Be Planning AR Navigation

The launch of the ARKit and Apple’s entry into the augmented reality (AR) market has had a big impact on the AR sector. The ARKit tool is expected to be part of the upgrade to iOS 11, and experts are already eagerly pouring over the code to find out what has changed. What they have discovered has implications for how iOS will be handling navigation.

We’ve already seen AR used in some locations such as airports for use in helping passengers get to the right ticket desk or gate, code discovered within the iOS update by developer Felix Lapalme suggests that Apple are working on using similar technology for ‘turn-by-turn’ directions using AR.

Lapalme discovered a semi-transparent 3D arrow within the iOS Maps application, with a filename of ‘GuidanceArrowv4’. Further investigation showed that the arrow was designed to for use with the Maps app, integrated with the Camera output to provide directions for pedestrians.

Curiously, Apple hurriedly removed the code related to the functionality for the arrow after this discover way made, though left the Arrow asset in place. Apple have also already mentioned plans to add detailed maps of places like major airports and shopping centres to its Maps application for iOS 11, so it is conceivable that Apple are planning to allow users to locate points of interest in such locations, like restaurants or shops.

It’s unknown at this stage exactly how Apple plans to integrate existing or future apps with ARKit, but using on-screen navigation with AR seems like a viable place to start.

VRFocus will bring you further news on ARKit as it becomes available.

ApolloBox Uses ARKit For Shopping Experience

Since Apple entered the augmented reality (AR) sphere we have seen several companies experiment with the newly released ARKit to create new proof-of-concept idea for entertainment and videogame experiences, but one company has gone a different route, leveraging ARKit’s power to enhance online shopping.

Shopping online has many advantages, such as more competitive prices, greater product range, the ability to have products delivered to your door, among other things. However, when it comes to choosing new furniture, it is difficult to get a true appreciation of how an item will look in your home without physically looking at the item. The Apollo Box uses AR technology powered by ARKit to eliminate this problem by allowing users to get a look at how furniture will look when placed in the home.

Apollo Box has over 100 products available to view through its smartphone app, which allows users to view, move and position a 3D model of the products in real-time, to allow users to examine how a product looks and fits in the home before purchase. The app has products in many area from home décor to electronics, featuring over 400 brands from over 10 countries.

When Apple launches iOS 11 in Autumn, users of the iPhone 6 and up will be able to take advantage of the enhanced AR capabilities provided by the ARKit technology, which will allow users to get a more accurate look at what a chair, lamp or TV will look like when placed in the home, as the ARKIt enhancements allow AR product representations to be ‘anchored’ to a surface, so customers can view a clock on a wall, or a lamp on a table.

VRFocus will continue to report on new applications for the ARKit technology.