Category: BigScreen Inc.

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Bigscreen’s Next Update Adds a Built-in Videoplayer

Bigscreen

Over the years Bigscreen has become one of the go-to virtual reality (VR) apps if you want to watch 2D or 3D film content. Today, the app will release a new update adding a free feature, a built-in videoplayer.

Bigscreen

Now, from the very outset, you’ve been able to watch videos on Bigscreen, originally by desktop screen sharing web browsers, YouTube, or Windows Media Player for example. Most recently that was expanded via Bigscreen movie offerings, with rentals or live film events.

The new videoplayer adds a third option for users. The community has been asking for this as it provides a range of benefits thanks to native integration. Because the videoplayer allows you to watch content directly off a device it’s great for mobile VR users needing a quick way of viewing content.

The videoplayer has a UI designed for easy VR navigation and features social elements like being able to sync a video with everyone in a room so long as they all have the video file on their device – Bigscreen doesn’t include any filesharing features. This works cross-platform across all supported headsets.

Bigscreen

The videoplayer supports multiple file formats and codecs as well as 3D movies, works offline – great when taking the Oculus Quest out and about – and can be used alongside Bigscreen’s other features like desktop screen sharing and multi-monitor capabilities.

The Bigscreen VR is free to download, supporting a wide range of devices like HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Oculus Quest. As Bigscreen continues to enhance its feature set VRFocus will keep you updated on all the latest announcements.

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Bigscreen Beta Halloween Update Adds 10 Themed Channels & Retro Cinema

Today, Bigscreen Beta continues its push to add more content and expand its platform whilst getting into the Halloween spirit. Launching a ‘Spooky Update’ for the social entertainment app, users will receive new TV channels, theatre environment and several small tweaks and improvements.

Bigscreen Beta

From tomorrow until 31st October, you’ll find ten new horror-themed channels in Bigscreen TV like Fear Factor, Disney Channel, The Addams Family, the Asylum, Criss Angel: Mind Freak, Thrillers, Terror, and more. These are only available for Halloween week so enjoy them while they’re available.

Much more permanent is the addition of the movie theatre theme, with Bigscreen Inc. launch a Retro Cinema. Designed as a throwback to those classic 70s and 80s theatres, it’ll complement the Modern Cinema which arrived over the summer.

In conjunction with the update, Bigscreen Inc. also mentioned future plans, such as PlayStation VR support coming in 2020 and 3D movie screenings. The latter first appeared way back in 2017 when Bigscreen Beta partnered with movie studio Paramount Pictures to offer free virtual reality (VR) screenings of Tom Cruise’s iconic action movie Top Gun in 3D. The app will begin screening 3D films in December in partnership with some major studios. At present, no details have been released regarding which studios they might be or the potential films on offer.

Bigscreen Beta is one of the most widely available apps supporting almost every VR headset for free. Currently, these platforms are HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift/Rift S, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Samsung GearVR.

Over the years BIgscreen Beta has morphed from a PC desktop screen sharing app into a socially driven community hub, where people can hang out, watch a movie, play games on massive movie screens and more. Additions such as Bigscreen TV have helped to expand the content lineup with a variety of shows alongside several regular podcasts.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Bigscreen Beta, reporting back with the latest updates and announcements.

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Bigscreen Beta Will Officially Host The International 2019 DOTA 2 Tournament Next Week

Bigscreen Inc. has been rolling out the updates for its popular cross-platform app Bigscreen Beta, with the most significant being July’s Bigscreen TV feature. This has allowed the app to become more than just a screen-sharing social app, evolving it into an entertainment portal in its own right. While there are a bunch of channels to watch, Bigscreen Beta is looking towards the eSports market to attract new users, announcing The International 2019, the DOTA 2 eSports tournament will be officially streamed via the platform next week.

The International Dota2 2019 Championship

Taking place in Shanghai, China, The International 2019 has a prize pool of $32 million USD, helping it retain its place as the biggest eSports tournament in the world – the recent Fortnite World Cup had a $30 million prize pool. And for all those fans who can’t head over to China to watch, they don’t need to thanks to Bigscreen Beta.

This isn’t the first time Valve has streamed this competition in virtual reality (VR), originally experimenting with the feature in 2016 for HTC Vive owners. Bringing it to Bigscreen Beta, on the other hand, opens the tournament up to even more viewers thanks to the apps support of multiple platforms such as HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift/Rift S, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Samsung GearVR.

Watching The International 2019 DOTA 2 tournament live via Bigscreen Beta also means you can customise avatars, change virtual environments, and voice chat with friends and other DOTA 2 fans.

The International 2019 DOTA 2 tournament schedule is as follows:

  • 15th – 18th August – Group Stage featuring 18 teams divided into two groups.
  • 20th – 24th August – Main Event
  • 25th August – Finals (First place nets $14 million)

Bigscreen Beta

That’s not all Bigscreen Beta has planned. “As Bigscreen makes a bigger push into eSports, we plan to create an “eStadium” virtual environment where fans can gather together to cheer for their favourite teams,” notes Bigscreen Inc. CEO and founder Darshan Shankar in a blog post.

At the end of the week Bigscreen Beta will be launching a new environment to enjoy, a new modern-themed cinema. The app is free on all the aforementioned headsets, and as further updates are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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Bigscreen Beta Hopes to Support PlayStation VR in the Very Near Future

When it comes to cross-platform, social virtual reality (VR) interaction Bigscreen Beta has got most platforms covered. The app which once allowed PC users to see their monitor in VR has grown enormously, supporting HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Samsung GearVR. But there’s one important headset missing from that list, PlayStation VR. However, it seems that might not be the case for much longer.

Bigscreen Beta

Over on Twitter Bigscreen confirmed that it is working on a PlayStation VR version, looking at a release either late 2019 or early 2020. When the app does arrive it should tie-in every major headset, with the PlayStation VR version hopefully having the same social features as the other versions. PlayStation VR support had previously been mentioned back in 2017 for release in 2018 yet that plan never came to fruition.

That was most likely due to the features Bigscreen Beta had at the time. As mentioned, Bigscreen Beta was primarily about remote desktop streaming, being able to take what was on your desktop PC and view it in VR, usually on a massive cinema screen. This allowed users to watch movies or play PC videogames in a virtual movie theatre or by a campfire, with the option to invite friends into your virtual space.

However, that all changed this month with the rollout of Bigscreen TV, giving users over 50+ channels to choose from so they can watch movies, news, anime, sports, and more, with each TV channel hosted in social rooms in groups of eight. Thanks to Bigscreen TV, having the app on PlayStation VR makes a lot more sense as owners will be able to watch a multitude of shows just like PC VR and standalone headsets owners can.

Bigscreen TV UI

Bigscreen TV isn’t just about fixed streaming channels, the service also offers live events. This week saw the app cover the SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch with thousands of fans watching. Tomorrow, 27th July will have the F.Reality VR Podcast with Zimtok5, VR Oasis, Nathie, and RowdyGuy, as well as the Tomorrowland Music Festival.

Bigscreen Beta is completely free on all supported headsets. As further details are announced, VRFocus will let you know.

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Bigscreen Beta’s New Filters Add More Fun and Comfort

After releasing the rather substantial ‘2019 Update’ in February, Bigscreen Inc. has announced its next set of improvements, called ‘The Filters Update’. This sees both fun and useful additions for users to play with.

Bigscreen Beta

We’re all constantly looking at screens of some description, whether that’s a TV, mobile phone or virtual reality (VR) headset. A lot of research has gone into the effect looking at screens for long durations can have on people’s eyes and brains, finding that the reduction of blue light can reduce eye strain and improve quality of sleep, hence why Android phones, for example, have a ‘Blue Light Filter’ mode.

And that’s the reasoning behind Bigscreen Inc’s. new Night Mode for Bigscreen Beta. As Darshan Shankar, CEO of Bigscreen Inc explains in a Medium blog posting: “On average, users spend 1 hour in each Bigscreen VR session. Some people spend 20–30 hours each week in Bigscreen. Our new Night Mode filter reduces blue light emitted from the virtual screen, and it can make a significant impact on health and comfort during these long VR sessions.

And then there’s the fun stuff. Adding some special effects to Bigscreen Beta are the 8-Bit and CRT Filters. The 8-Bit Filter makes PC videogames look pixelated while the CRT Filter adds moire and barrel distortion. Plus there have been several presets added like Movies, Text, Sports, and Black & White. And for those users who like to fine tune things even further the Brightness slider has now been joined by Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation sliders.

Bigscreen Beta

As for the future of Bigscreen Beta? The studio is working on a Friends System, a Videoplayer, and new environments, plus the Oculus Quest version which has now been confirmed as a launch title. Bigscreen Inc. eventually hopes to leave the beta branch behind later this year, adding more polish and reliability.

Bigscreen Beta lets you use your PC desktop in VR. It is free for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Go and Samsung GearVR. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Bigscreen Beta as the studio continues to roll out further improvements, updating you with the latest announcements.

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The Bigscreen Beta ‘2019 Update’ Adds Some Substantial new Features

When it comes to using your PC desktop in virtual reality (VR) or watching a movie on a giant screen, Bigscreen Beta was one of the earliest apps to offer this functionality. Today, Bigscreen Inc. has announced a ‘massive new update’ for the software, adding quite the list of new features and improvements.

Bigscreen Beta

So where to start. Well in a blog post, Bigscreen Inc. CEO and founder Darshan Shankar has revealed the addition of real-time raytracing lighting effects which casts rays of light from the movie screen into the environment for a much more authentic effect. An additional bonus to this feature is its performance improvements, enabling it to be run on mobile VR headsets.

There’s a new environment, an amphitheatre-style cinema with curved seating, improved avatars with new hairstyles, beards, and hats, a redesigned Bigscreen Menu UI which supports easy interaction with both laser pointing and poking – to which  Shankar also notes future compatibility with Oculus Quest – and new teleportation, allowing you to move around the environment, change seats easily, and snap rotate.

A new movie theatre lobby has been created, to meet friends (or strangers) before watching a film. Plus in the near future Bigscreen Inc. plans on selling “virtual movie tickets” and hosting events in the lobby. On the Mobile VR headset side, users can now create public and private rooms which are fully cross-platform so that anyone can join their room.

Bigscreen Beta

The team may have been working on this new update for the past year but they’re not stopping there. Over the course of 2019 further improvements will include:

  • Friend/party system: invite friends into your rooms easily, and get notifications
  • Videoplayer: watch videos stored locally on your PC or Mobile VR headset. This videoplayer has an easy-to-use VR UI, making it easier to watch videos, especially 3D movies.
  • Streaming & performance improvements: while the performance has improved in the 2019 Update, more significant tech is coming soon that enables much better performance and streaming in larger 12-person rooms
  • Bigscreen Movie Nights: last year, we did a few pilot tests of “movie nights” where we hosted a movie. We plan to sell “virtual movie tickets” for our movie nights.
  • Bigscreen 1.0: by the summer, we expect to leave “beta” and launch 1.0. Expect a whole new level of polish, reliability, and functionality by then.

Bigscreen Beta is free for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Go and Samsung GearVR. As further updates are released, keep reading VRFocus.

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Bigscreen Releases New Update Improving Visual Fidelity

Today Bigscreen have announced a new update to help make the platform more immersive and realistic for users of the virtual reality (VR) application.

Bigscreen_Rick_01

The major refresh will see the environments within Bigscreen getting improvements to their visual fidelity and immersion thanks to a new dynamic lighting system. The Home Theater, Grand Theater and Big Campfire will all see the benefits of this new hyper realistic lighting, which is similar to the Big Cinema environment that was released back in 2017 as part of the “Cinema Update”.

These improvements means that colour from the screen will fill the environments, with accurate reflections occurring as well. When the screen goes dark so to will the viewing environment creating a more believable experience and adding a more dynamic range of colours to the media. This has been asked for by users for sometime now so this news is sure to make many of them happy.

Elsewhere Bigscreen is many a number of improvements to mobile VR headset to help increase the performance of Bigscreen on these platforms. The developers have reduced the CPU render time of the Home Theater environment by 10x as one example of what the team are doing. These performance improvements are necessary in order to bring Bigscreen to mobile VR devices including the Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go. Currently the mobile release of Bigscreen is in Alpha testing and if you are interested you can sign up to become a tester here.

Bigscreen_SeaofThieves_01

Bigscreen has been continuing to develop new features for its users for some time now along with bring them new and exciting content to watch within the social viewing platform. Most recently was the chance for users to watch Stargate Origins within the application, as part of its ongoing movie night showings which have also features the likes of Top Gun 3D in the past as well.

With the “Big Rooms” update last year as well allowing for up to 12 people to hang out in one of the many locations and enjoy media together. The new improvements to the lighting and performance will surely be of a great benefit to those looking to host large social screenings, all while getting fully immersed in the moment.

For more on Bigscreen in the future, stay tuned to VRFocus.

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Bigscreen Announces Mobile VR Development Push

It has been a busy few months for the team at Bigscreen VR. Following on from a funding round back in October that saw it raise a further $11 Million (USD), a number of developments with the app have been revealed. Such as its super-sizing ‘Big Rooms’ update, which upped the allowed number of users in one of Bigscreen’s rooms up to 12, trebling the previous total. It’s work to provide support for Windows Mixed Reality head mounted displays (HMDs) and the announcements of partnerships with both Paramount and MGM.  The former (and first) being an agreement to screen Top Gun 3D for free multiple times across December in the service’s virtual cinema.  The latter a recently revealed second partnership that sees users able to watch Stargate Origins in the cinema last weekend.

Now Founder and CEO Darshan Shankar has revealed the next branch of development for the service – it’s heading to mobile based virtual reality (VR). More specifically the Samsung Gear VR, where users will soon be able to surf the web, watch a film and hang out with their PC VR cousins thanks to cross-platforming. A new Alpha Testing phase has been announced for the free development and signups are already underway, interested parties can sign up here.

But this is just the beginning according to Bigscreen, as whilst it is looking to the Gear VR first, Bigscreen also has designs on bringing this new version to both the Google Daydream and Oculus Go and is encouraging users of both those HMDs to sign up also.

“In the coming months, we plan to bring Bigscreen to several mobile VR headsets including Oculus Go and Google Daydream.” Shankar explains, “We are starting the Alpha Test first on the Samsung Gear VR. If you own a Google Daydream or plan to get an Oculus Go, sign up for the Alpha now and we’ll contact you when a build is ready for testing.”

Bigscreen Stargate Origins 01

As for what features the mobile VR version of the app will include, the developer is being a little cagey as it is early days in development.  However, it is aiming for a Q2 2018 release of both the single and multiplayer features with the following have been confirmed:

  • Public & private rooms are supported, with 4–12 players per room. Mobile VR users can join rooms to watch videos and hangout together. Mobile VR users will eventually be able to create their own multiplayer rooms, but not during the Alpha Test.
  • Mobile VR users will also be able to attend our live movie screenings, like our Paramount Pictures’ Top Gun 3D VR movie night and our Stargate movie night with MGM.
  • The video player will allow you to watch videos stored locally on your device. We plan to eventually support various streaming services within our video player as well.
  • PC-to-Mobile desktop streaming allows you to stream your Windows PC’s desktop screen into your Mobile VR headset over WiFi without the need to be tethered to your PC. This allows you to sit on your couch, pull up a movie or videogame on your PC, and see it on a huge screen in your headset.

You can see a trailer for the update below. VRFocus will be bringing you more news regarding these developments as we get them.

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Watch Stargate Origins in BigScreen VR This Weekend

Virtual reality (VR) movie theatre platform Bigscreen has announced its next movie night showing will be Stargate Origins.

Bigscreen Stargate Origins 01

Bigscreen released back in 2016 for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive and has quickly grown to be a must have app for any VR user. By allowing people to enter a virtual movie theater, Bigscreen has brought the experience of going out to see a film into virtual space and created a social platform. Users can create their own rooms to invite friends into and sit back to enjoy a good film or show together in VR. Thanks to the Big Rooms Update last month users can now even make rooms that support up to 12 users at the same time.

Bigscreen Stargate Origins 02

The Stargate Origins showing will allow users to watch the first two episodes of the series along with some behind-the-scenes content and trailers. Showtimes will start every 30 minutes from 6PM Eastern on Thursday 8th March, until 3AM Eastern on Sunday 11th March. There is no need to sign-up or purchase a ticket for the showing as anyone is able to jump into Bigscreen and join in. Take note that the showing of Stargate Origins will only be available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia. Additionally, only those running Windows 10 will be able to partake in the screening as well.

Of course a supported VR headset is required as well meaning you will need an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, all SteamVR-compatible headsets and all Windows Mixed Reality (MR) headsets. The Bigscreen application is available for free via the Oculus Store, Steam and the Microsoft Store.

For those who cannot make the showing you will be able to watch all of Stargate Origins and Stargate Command via video on demand (VOD) within Bigscreen. There is currently work be done to provide regular, weekly content in 2018 which will include both paid and free screenings of movies, TV shows and video content. This is being done thanks to Bigscreen’s work with studios like MGM and Paramount Pictures to ensure that users will have access to a wide range of 2D and 3D content. Back in December of last year Bigscreen had a showing of Top Gun 3D as well, which gives you an idea of the sort of content they are hoping to provide more often.

VRFocus will bring you more updates on this in the future so stay tuned for more.

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Bigscreen Goes SuperSize with Big Rooms Update

Bigscreen might have begun life as a way to bring your desktop into virtual reality (VR), but it has since grown to be much more than that, leading the way with regards to social VR. Bigscreen are taking this even further with the launch of the new Big Rooms Update.

Bigscreen has become a popular way for users to screen-share or stream to friends and family in VR. Small groups can gather to watch a stream together, and Bigscreen have even started to experiment with larger-scale official VR screenings, like its partnership with Paramount to screen Top Gun.

Following on from that success, Bigscreen are introducing ‘Big Rooms’. Whereas normal Bigscreen rooms only allowed up to four people in a room, with the new update a special kind of room is available labelled simply as ‘Big Rooms’ that allow up to 12 people to share a virtual space. A Big Room only allows the host/admin to stream from their desktop in a Big Room, and that person will need a good, stable internet connection – Bigscreen are recommending 10Mbps or better.

To tie-in to the new Big Rooms, some new large environments have been added. The Big Balcony and Big Campfire, which is similar to the existing campfire environment, but on a much larger scale, with amphitheatre-style seating and a valley between mountains. The developers have also said some Easter eggs are lurking in these new environments.

The development team have also been busy rebuilding the environments to improve efficiency and reduce the work needed for a user’s GPU and CPU. In addition, netcode has been optimised for multiplayer use. Whereas previously each new person added to a multiplayer room would add to the CPU overhead, with the new update this is no longer the case, so hosts no longer need worry about maxing out their CPU usage.

Bigscreen have promised further news about its upcoming mobile VR launch in the next few weeks. VRFocus will, of course, bring you the latest news once it is available.