Art & Science – Page 5 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 19, 2019

GDC 2019: Apex Construct, More Win Big In Third Annual Viveport Developer Awards

Fast Travel Games’ Apex Construct was one of the big winners in HTC’s third annual Viveport Developer Awards.

This year’s winners were announced at GDC 2019 today. As the name suggests, the awards recognize developers that have published apps on HTC’s VR storefront in the past year. Winners will net goodies from a $50,000 prize pool. That includes new Vive hardware, tickets to GDC itself and future marketing support. Crucially the awards don’t just focus on games but also try to recognize other areas of VR content development like education and arts.

Apex Construct took home the prize in the PC Entertainment section. Fast Travel’s 2018 adventure offered a full VR experience and is a pretty deserving winner in our book. VictoryVR’s gruesome VR Frog Dissection took home the award for PC Education while the Vive Arts-backed The Water Lily Obsession won in the PC Arts & Culture section. Finally, nDreams’ Shooty Fruity Arcade scored a win for PC Arcade titles.

There were also awards for developers on HTC’s mobile platform, Vive Wave. Resolution Games’ Bait! won Entertainment, Star Chart scored Education and Paint VR won Arts & Culture.

As HTC points out, each of these apps will be included in Viveport Infinity when it launches next month. It’s basically Netflix for VR; $12.99 a month gets you access to over 600 VR apps for unlimited use.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing how HTC’s upcoming launches change next year’s awards. The company is soon to launch its Vive Cosmos headset and a new platform named Vive Reality System alongside it.

Tagged with: Apex Construct, Fast Travel Games, htc vive, Viveport Developer Awards

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March 19, 2019

Intriguing New VR Projects Unearthed In Final Unreal Dev Grant Round

Epic Games this week revealed its final round of Unreal Dev Grants. The program, which has been running for the past four years, offers funding to companies using Unreal Engine. It gives indie studios a leg up with no-string-attached funding.

Most notably, though, it’s a chance to unearth some VR projects we hadn’t previously heard about. Epic issued $500,000 across 17 different companies, six of which are working in VR. On the gaming front, there’s SnapClick: Fossil Diggers FR from Australia-based The Orphanage. As the name suggests, it casts you as a paleontologist that uncovers dinosaur fossils. Once found you piece them together to make animated models of dinosaurs. Check it out in the trailer below.

EVR Studios’ Project M is also a recipient. You may have seen a teaser for the experience back in 2017. It offers stunningly realistic virtual characters. The actual game will be a story-based adventure that we’re excited to see develop.

Elsewhere there’s a location-based game named Eclipse – 4D Virtual Reality from Backlight. This is a space-set adventure in which four players are cast as astronauts light-years from home. They work together to make their way through a ship. Also on the arcade front is nDreams’ Shooty Fruity Arcade, a location-based adaptation of its popular wave shooter.

In terms of film there’s a new project from Mr. Kite called Glimpse. It’s a short animation in which players become Herbie, a struggling artist (who is also a panda). Herbie is wallowing away in his studio, upset about his relationship with a deer. Sign us up.

Finally there’s money for Virtual Helsinki, a project to digitally recreate the Finnish capital from Zoan.

And that’s it. That’s all of the $5 million Epic pledged towards the grants four years ago now spent. That said, now that it’s earning Fortnite money, surely there’s grounds for an even bigger scheme to take its place.

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March 15, 2019

Google’s VR Closure Shines A Spotlight On The Need For A New Storefront

A few weeks ago I found myself chatting to Darren Emerson, CCO & Co-Founder of VR City. He’s behind striking VR experiences like Indefinite, a harrowing account of the UK’s handling of immigrants. Emerson and co’s latest work, Common Ground, is just as powerful. It’s an immersive tour of London’s Aylesbury Estate, part celebration of the community it fostered, part spotlight for the disregard those people have been shown. It’s a piece that entirely roots you in a certain time and place.

In conversation, Emerson mentioned something that’s been stuck in my brain ever since. He mentioned that, while festival circuits and installations were all well and good, he really wanted everybody to see Common Ground. But how on earth do you make that happen?

It’s a problem that’s risen to the surface of my mind again this week with the closure of Google Spotlight Stories. The team brought us moving VR stories like Pearl and Age of Sail. Google hasn’t confirmed if this is a performance-related move, but one can’t help but imagine that’s the case. And it’s a story we’ve seen before. In 2017, Oculus closed down its short-lived Story Studio division, which created Dear Angelica. Combine that with other studio closures like that of Melita creator Future Lighthouse and there’s a worrying pattern emerging.

Granted the VR market is not an easy place to contend in its current state. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a game, film or B2B app; everyone’s at risk of falling short. But gaming, at the very least, has solid outlets to succeed in. When I want to play a PC game, I usually go to Steam. If I want to play a VR game, I go to Steam or the Oculus store. And if I want to watch a movie, I go to Netflix. But if I want to watch a VR movie… where should I go?

Steam has scattered VR movies/experiences, largely buried under the 10 – 30 games releasing every week. Oculus does a better job at highlighting this content, but it’s still confined to a few categories that are surrounded by games. These stores are built for gamers first and everyone else second. True, this is where the consumer VR market is mostly focused right now, but by not highlighting other types of content, we’re suffocating the rate at which VR can grow. Others, meanwhile, isolate and curate their content within hub apps that can ensure quality but drastically diminish discoverability.

I’ve seen countless amazing VR experiences, but I couldn’t tell you where to find many of them these days. Last year at Sheffield Doc/Fest I saw a selection of amazing experiences, but only a handful since released on the Oculus Store and I have no idea where to see the rest. What’s the point of making something that, ultimately, very few people can see?

This needs to change. VR needs a definitive destination for those that aren’t looking to play games. It needs a space and community that changes the conversation and perception around the platform. Creators need to be able to monetize their content on it and change the perception that VR movies should be free.

Just as I head to Steam for weekly VR game releases, I need to have a place I can go to see what’s new in VR film. A place where I go when I don’t want to dive into Skyrim or show someone Superhot. It needs to be diverse, with interactive VR and 360-degree content, but curated to focus on quality. VR can’t expand beyond its gaming roots until we have that.

There is progress, though. Within, for example, offers VR content from both itself and others inside its app. But it’s not quite as comprehensive as it should be just yet. Plus content is limited to 360 degrees – if I want to get the full 6DOF version of Baobab’s sublime The Crow, I have to get the native app outside of Within. Audiences need one destination that they can count on to have everything from the latest BBC production to whatever’s premiering at Tribeca this year. Not only that, they need to know they’re getting the best version of that experience.

It’s a tall order and a risky one when competing with Facebook and Valve. But VR isn’t going to grow past its perception of a gaming platform and evolve into the all-inclusive media destination we know it is until something like this happens.

Tagged with: google spotlight stories

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March 15, 2019

FundamentalVR Combines With HaptX Glove For Even More Realistic Surgical Training

FundamentalVR gave me a frankly disgusting haptic VR experience back in 2017. The surgical training company combined a VR headset with a robotic arm to provide realistic resistance to actions like inserting a needle into human skin. I winced at the sensation of dragging the needle over bone and piercing skin. Well, good news, that experience just got even closer to the real thing.

Oh, joy.

FundamentalVR is teaming up with HaptX to implement the latter’s haptic feedback glove. The collaboration was announced earlier this week. The pair showcased their work together at the annual general meeting of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS). The glove is an exoskeleton-like device that provides resistance when interacting with virtual objects and forces.

When paired together the user has a HaptX glove on one hand and holds the robotic arm in another. As you can see in the video, the result is an even more tactile training platform for surgeons. It could also enable new, more robust training experiences. The demo features an Anterior Total Hip Arthroplasty, getting users to locate a specific ligament around the hip socket with their hands. They then carry out the necessary operation with the tool in their other hand.

It looks gross but it could be a vital new addition to an already exciting platform. FundamentalVR is already deployed at locations including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the US, UCLH in the UK and Sana in Germany. Earlier this week it won an SXSW 2019 Innovation Award. The company didn’t specify when these features might roll out to customers. HaptX itself is an early development kit right now.

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March 14, 2019

Google Spotlight Stories VR Movie Team Shutting Down – Report

Google’s Spotlight Stories division gave us VR gems like Pearl and Age of Sail. Sadly, though, it appears the search engine giant is shutting the team down this week.

Word comes by way of Variety. The site got hold of an apparent email from Spotlight Stories executive producer Karen Dufilho. Sent on Wednesday evening, the email states that Spotlight Stories is “shutting its doors after over six years of making stories and putting them on phones, on screens, in VR, and anywhere else we could get away with it.”

We’ve reached out to Google to confirm the report. According to a Variety source members of the team are being given the chance to look for new positions within Google.

Spotlight Stories wasn’t always a VR-centric filmmaker. It started life within Motorola back when it was under Google’s ownership. But over the past three years the group produced around 13 360 degree animations. You watched them inside mobile-based headsets like Google Cardboard using a dedicated app or YouTube. Some of them even got native standalone releases on platforms like SteamVR.

Those 13 films cover a vast body of work from a Simpsons VR experience to a behind-the-scenes look at Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. Spotlight Stories’ best content was original, though. In 2017 the team worked with The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez on the excellent Son of Jaguar, for example. It’s most recent experience, Age of Sail, brought stunning visuals and heartfelt characters into VR like never before. All of these films were free to watch. Last year Google released a book celebrating the studio’s work.

But Patrick Osborne’s Pearl was undoubtedly the studio’s crowning achievement. This short film followed a father and daughter as they traveled the country in their hatchback car. A warming soundtrack and effective montage of life’s highs and lows made for sweet, memorable viewing. Pearl later won an Emmy. It also scored VR’s first Oscar nomination.

The news comes at an uncertain time for Google’s VR efforts. The company’s Daydream mobile VR ecosystem appears to have faded into obscurity in recent years. Google is developing experimental six degrees of freedom (6DOF) VR controllers for its Lenovo Mirage Solo headset, but we’re yet to see what will come of them.

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March 11, 2019

Oculus, HTC Hit SXSW With Latest In VR Filmmaking

SXSW 2019 is now officially underway, and VR’s front runners are there to showcase the latest in VR filmmaking.

Both Oculus and HTC are at this year’s show with new projects. Oculus will be highlighting the latest from its VR for Good initiative whereas HTC has two co-produced projects nominated at the SXSW Film Festival.

On the Oculus front, the company will showcase three new 360 degree videos. Each was produced in the VR for Good Creators Lab. Girl Icon follows Rani, from Varanasi, India. She highlights the struggles of being a girl in her society. The piece is directed by Sadah Espii Proctor.

Home After War, meanwhile, transports viewers to Fallujah, Iraq. The piece covered the return of refugees to the war-torn city and the dangers they face. It’s directed by Gayatri Parameswaran.

Finally, Mercy tells the story of a 14-year-old girl named Edith, who has a tumor in her jaw. She lives in Centre Lobo and the piece documents her life building up to a transformative surgery. This one’s directed by Armando Kirwin.

Over on the HTC side, Vive’s first piece is The Making Of. As its name implies, it’s a 360 piece that showcases the shooting of a film from Taiwanese director Midi Z. Viewers can peer into the world of the movie as actors perform but also look back at the crew making it all happen.

Gloomy Eyes, meanwhile, is a VR animation that premiered at Sundance in January. It stars none other than Colin Farrell.

That’s far from all we’ll see from VR at SXSW.

Tagged with: htc, oculus, SXSW

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March 8, 2019

Doctor Who, Bonfire And More VR Movies Debut At Tribeca 2019

Tribeca Film Festival 2019 is coming up and the show is packing a host of VR premieres.

The Immersive lineup for this year’s show was revealed this week. It contains more than 30 experiences, many of which will be shown for the first time at the festival.

Highlights include the recently-announced Doctor Who: The Runaway. It’s a short VR adventure that will allow viewers to step inside the TARDIS for the first time. Current Doctor Jodie Whittaker lends her voice to the piece too.

We’ll also see the debut of Bonfire, the latest from Baobab Studios. Announced earlier this week, the experience sees viewers crash land on an alien planet and start to build relationships with its inhabitants. War Remains, meanwhile, will immerse viewers in the Western Front of World War 1. Podcasting legend Dan Carlin narrates an experience that promises to be both visceral and educational.

We’ve also seen a few of these pieces first-hand. We got an early look at VR City’s Common Grounds a few weeks ago, for example. It’s a striking piece following the demise of a housing estate in central London. There’s also another look at the Wolves in the Walls series we first saw last year.

But there’s plenty more to see that’s entirely new. Into the Light, the latest piece from Jessica Brillhart, promises more immersive musical heights. 2nd Civil War, meanwhile, puts you on the front lines of a fictitious conflict. It’s a voice-activated piece that has you interrogating an insurgency.

There’s a little AR in there too; Stealing Ur Feelings uses facial recognition AI to gauge your reactions to its content.

Quite an eclectic line-up, then. We’ll be looking forward to seeing how Tribeca pushes VR storytelling forward this year.

Tagged with: Bonfire, Doctor Who, Tribeca Film Festival, vr movies

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March 5, 2019

Stephen Hawking VR Experience Takes You On A Tour Of The Universe

A new VR experience will take users on a tour of the universe with none other than Professor Stephen Hawking.

UK-based Atlantic Productions announced Stephen Hawking’s Black Holes Immersive Experience last week. The production company had been working on the piece with the physicist himself before his death in March 2018. It’s a location-based VR experience that will include narration from Hawking himself. It’s due for release in early 2020 alongside a new theatrical documentary recounting Hawking’s life.

That’s about all we know for now. We don’t know where the piece will be hosted nor which headset it will use.

“We are especially pleased as our father always searched for innovative ways to explain science to the widest audience possible and was fascinated by the potential of new technologies to enthral his audience,” Lucy Hawking, Professor Hawking’s daughter, said in a prepared statement. “This project, which began in his office in Cambridge two years ago, will now take viewers on a stunning cosmic journey to reveal our father’s vision of the universe.”

We can’t wait to see more of this project. Experiences like Spheres prove that VR is the perfect medium for space exploration. Combining that sense of immersion with Professor Hawking’s passion for and knowledge of the universe could make for amazing VR.

Atlantic Productions is no stranger to VR. The studio’s immersive offshoot, Alchemy VR, has worked on experiences starring Sir David Attenborough, Tim Peake Dame Judi Dench and many more. The company’s Space Descent VR with Tim Peake piece is currently showing at the Science Museum in London.

Tagged with: Atlantic Productions, Stephen Hawking

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January 1, 2019

UploadVR’s Best Of 2018 VR Award Winners

We’ve finally reached the very end of 2018 and it’s been quite the eventful year for the VR industry. If you want to see the original nominees post, you can check that out here, otherwise keep reading for our full list of winners with details on each decision and the pick for the overall best VR game of 2018.

Let us know your picks down in the comments below and tell us why we’re wrong!

Best VR/AR Hardware

Magic Leap One
Mirage Solo
*WINNER* Oculus Go
Samsung Odyssey+
Vive Focus
Vive Pro

It’s been an odd year for VR hardware with little to truly push the industry forward. But Oculus Go stands out as a device that genuinely achieves what it set out to accomplish; deliver a low-cost, accessible VR device for the masses. Go has its fair share of issues but at the $199 price point and a huge library of apps right off the bat, it’s an easy choice for best overall VR/AR hardware this year.

Best PSVR Game

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
Beat Saber
*WINNER* Firewall Zero Hour
The Persistence
Tetris Effect
WipEout Omega Collection VR

Astro Bot and WipEout put up some serious competition but we ultimately decided Firewall should take the PSVR prize. True, there’s still some work to be done to improve First Contact’s online shooter but there’s no denying that this is one of the first VR games to truly embody the goal of the platform; to make you believe you’re someone else, somewhere else, becoming the hero of your own action movie. Take a good look at Firewall; it could truly be the future of gaming.

Best PSVR Experience

Crow: The Legend
Electronauts
*WINNER* Titanic VR

‘Immersive VR Education’ continues to prove itself as the leading company in, well, VR education with this amazing exploration of the legendary vessel. Titanic VR isn’t simply a digital recreation of the sunken ship but instead a fully gamified experience with a campaign that uses interaction and story to engage your brain in an entirely new way. This is another important stride of a pivotal area of VR development

Best PC VR Game

*WINNER* Beat Saber
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (PC)
The Exorcist: Legion VR
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR
Moss
Transpose

Beat Saber is, without a doubt, the most popular VR game of the year and perhaps even of all-time so far for our young immersive industry. It’s a viral sensation that took the world by storm and has likely been responsible for directly selling more VR headsets than any other app. The developers have crafted an insanely polished rhythm game that’s dead simple to pick up and play but incredibly difficult and rewarding to master. Easily the best and most important PC VR game of the year, no doubt.

Best PC VR Experience

Crow: The Legend
*WINNER* Spheres
The Great C
Titanic VR
Vestige

While Titanic VR on PC is great as well, just like it is on PSVR, we have to give the nod to Spheres here. This is a remarkable experience that is part educational, taking you through the explosive life of a black hole, but also part pure wonder as the colors and sounds engulf you. Narration is incredible and the talent behind it all elevates this to unreal heights.

Best Mobile VR/AR Game

*WINNER* Anshar Online
Arca’s Path
Catan VR
The Walking Dead: Our World

This was a slow year for mobile VR/AR gaming. After the immense success of Pokemon Go a couple of years ago and a few copy cats this year, not even the VR market has really hit a stride again for the limited headsets. But despite that, the third entry in the Anshar War series, Anshar Online, is a bright spot. The excellent space dogfighting is better than ever, now with full co-op, and intense PvP multiplayer. Plus, it’s cross-play with Rift as well.

Best Mobile VR Experience

Crow: The Legend
*WINNER* Nothing To Be Written
Shattered State

Few VR experiences this year demonstrated as firm a grasp on the platform as Nothing To Be Written, Unit 59’s surreal exploration of the use of Field Post Cards in WW1. This is a fascinating new angle on war in VR, one that’s equal parts harrowing and moving, using some of the most striking imagery you’ll see inside a headset all year.

Best Location-Based VR Experience

*WINNER* Dave & Buster’s Jurassic World
Dreamscape’s Alien Zoo
Nomadic’s Arizona Sunshine
Sandbox VR’s Davy Jones Adventure
SPACES’ Terminator
The Void’s Nicodemus

The Void made huge headlines last year with its Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire experience and now Dave and Buster’s restaurants/arcades are jam-packed with VR experiences of their own. We haven’t tried out their new, custom IP in Dragonfrost, but the Jurassic World experience is excellent. It’s a perfect blend of a good price, great format, tons of locations, and pure immersion that show the world VR is much more than just a gimmick and more than just at-home entertainment.

Best Visuals

Age of Sail
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR
Seeking Dawn
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (PC)
*WINNER* Tetris Effect

Whoever knew Tetris could be so hypnotic? We don’t mean in that captivating loop of intently watching ever-falling blocks but instead on the visual side. Each level in Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s transcendent take on the classic puzzler is packed full of visual splendour. On a standard display it shines but in VR Tetris Effect is an irresistibly compelling tour of the wide world around us and beyond. A true feast for the senses

Best Ongoing Support For A VR App

Bigscreeen
Onward
Pavlov VR
*WINNER* Rec Room

Rec Room is literally the gift that keeps on giving. Not only is the main experience free and supported by a raft of user-generated environments and games, but developer Against Gravity continues to set the bar by adding its own modes and cosmetic items around the clock. Whether it’s the PUBG-influenced Rec Royale or the latest co-op mission inspired by Castlevania, there’s always something new to check out in one of VR’s most important apps.

Best Multiplayer/Social

Brass Tactics
Echo Combat
*WINNER* Firewall Zero Hour
Marvel: Heroes United V R
WipEout: Omega Collection VR

We’ve already picked it as our favorite PSVR game of the year, but it deserves another nod for being the absolute best new multiplayer game of the year as well. Working together with your squad is a thrill and the no-respawns format ensures that you feel the intensity of every firefight. It’s a game that’s all about teamwork and even now, months later, new people are joining the fight and matches are always full no matter the time of day.

Most Immersive Moment

Killing the police in Accounting+
*WINNER* Meeting Astro Bot
Stealing time in Deracine
Suiting up as a Marvel hero
Swirling around a black hole in Spheres

True, Astro Bot might not put you in the body of an elite solider or ace pilot, but the connection you form with your little robot buddy in the opening minutes of Sony Japan’s incredible adventure make for some of the most memorable moments in VR this year. Seeing Astro frantically wave at you with his impossibly adorable eyes is one of the most jaw-dropping, heartwarming experiences you can have inside a headset.

Most Active VR Game

*WINNER* Beat Saber
Creed: Rise to Glory
Knockout League
Sprint Vector

From a single two-hour session of Beat Saber I burned over 1,000 calories and my heart rate approached 180 beats-per-minute. If that isn’t a great cardio workout then I don’t know what is. Plus, with custom mods on the PC version you can find most of your favorite songs to slash boxes with when you want to extend out beyond the core set of original tracks. Other games on this list try to emulate real-life sports, but only Beat Saber feels extremely active while also being uniquely only available in VR.

Developer of the Year

3rd Eye Studios
Beat Games
First Contact Entertainment
Secret Location
*WINNER* Survios
Vertigo Games

There are a handful of developers out there that have released two well-received VR apps thus far. Fewer still have released three. Survios, on the other hand, has launched four VR games over the past few years, three of which were in 2018. And these aren’t just rushed follow-ups to the shooter success that was Raw Data; Sprinter Vector, Electronauts, and Creed: Rise to Glory are all completely original, high-quality experiences that explore VR in fascinating new ways. Not to mention the debut of their VR arcade line! We’re not quite sure how Survios does it, but they have our kudos.

Most Anticipated App Of 2019

Defector
*WINNER* Dreams
A Fisherman’s Tale
Star Wars: Vader Immortal
Stormland
Untitled Respawn Game

There’s a reason why we’ve called Dreams PSVR’s most-important game that’s capable of making the metaverse a reality: it’s something truly special. It puts a tremendous amount of power and potential in the hands of otherwise every-day gamers allowing them to craft entire levels, games, worlds, and even inter-connected stories and universes. Then, you can even edit and experience much of them in VR as well. We’re dying to see this VR-supported follow-up to LittleBigPlanet finally hit PS4s this year.

Overall VR Game Or Experience of the Year

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
Beat Saber
*WINNER* Firewall Zero Hour
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR
Spheres
Transpose
WipEout: Omega Collection VR

This has been a big year for VR games. On the PSVR front alone there have been tons of amazing exclusives, such as Astro Bot, WipEout, and Tetris Effect, while PC VR has a fully-moddable viral sensation in Beat Saber along with the visual and audio masterpiece that is Hellblade. But at the end of the day the overall best VR game we’ve seen this year that combines extreme polish, great replay value, fantastic gameplay, and an overall big effort to push VR forward is undoubtedly Firewall Zero Hour. There simply wasn’t a better VR game this year that we felt deserved the recognition over Firewall.

Let us know your picks or other nominations down in the comments below!

Featured image collage created by David Jagneaux for UploadVR.

Tagged with: awards, Beat Saber, Firewall: Zero Hour, game of the year, goty, Oculus Go, rec room, tetrist effect

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December 24, 2018

Pottery In VR Is Like That Scene In Ghost But With Just A Ghost

My art teacher said I’d never make it. Dad told me artistic expression isn’t a man’s profession. Mom? She put my drawings on the inside of the fridge. But you know what? To hell with them all; I’ll make it on my own. I don’t need a stunningly expensive work studio, complicated equipment or a shred of talent to make my own art. I have a VR headset and a copy of Dojagi: The Korean Pottery.

Yes, you read that right: Korean pottery in VR. What could go wrong?

Well, turns out quite a lot. Doing pottery is hard, especially if you don’t A. know what you’re doing and B. can’t actually feel the clay as you mold it, let alone articulate your fingers. Those are two kind of essential elements in the whole pottery-making experience. It’s kind of like Ghost except there’s no Demi Moore to actually make something. You’re just Patrick Swayze, sitting in a room by yourself with no one to show your immaculate biceps to.

To make up for the lack of haptic feedback and finger-tracking, you have to come at pots in certain ways, like lowering your hands down onto the top of the clay to form a bowl, or keeping one hand on the side and another on the rim to expand the diameter. At least I think that’s what those actions were doing; again without feeling the clay in your hands it’s kinda hard to know

It’s just an inescapable fact that pottery is a bit out of the reach of what VR can do right now. I respect this attempt, even admire it a little bit but, without a genuine feel for the clay, it’s incredibly hard to know how to sculpt with your hands. That’s why we have things like Tilt Brush and Medium; they’re creative apps designed with VR in mind, not just trying to ape a physical art form.

To be fair to Dojagi this all works about as well as it possibly could with current VR tech. All the expected tools are there (apparently there are tools in pottery) and you can even paint your finely-crafted masterpiece once you’re done throwing it. And developer Venister has gone above and beyond with what it needed to do; there’s an entire campaign (yes a campaign, in a pottery game) complete with unlockables and a story.

Anyway, I’ve learned two things from this experience. Firstly, my parents were right. Secondly, VR can do a lot of things but maybe virtual pottery isn’t the most practical use for the tech right now. Don’t throw out that turntable just yet, Patrick.

Dojagi: The Korean Pottery is available now on the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows VR headsets for £29.99

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