Netflix may bring its gaming service to TVs, with iPhones serving as controllers
Netflix is working on a feature that will bring its games to TVs and allow players to use their iPhone as a controller, according to code found in the app.
‘Ugly Sonic’ cameos in Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers
Ugly Sonic, the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie design that generated controversy online in 2019, has returned in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers on Disney+.
Muse Simulation Theory VR Concert Experience Coming Exclusively To Oculus Quest
Stage Inc., creators of the the virtual entertainment app Stageverse, announced that rock band Muse will be bringing their 2019 Simulation Theory tour to virtual reality as part of a new experience developed for mobile devices and VR.
‘Muse’s Simulation Theory: Virtual Experience’ will launch on iOS and Android mobile devices this fall through the Stageverse app, and will launch for VR exclusively on Oculus Quest later this year. Stage told UploadVR that there’s no set release date for the Quest version at the moment, but the team is currently looking at sometime in Fall.
The Muse event will be the first event held in the Stageverse app, which creates virtual event spaces powered by the company’s proprietary engine. Users will be able to attend the event with a custom avatar, meet up with other attendees and experience a version of the band’s 2019 Simulation Theory tour in a “purpose-built virtual concert venue.” The event will use 360-degree footage captured last year at the band’s sold-out Madrid show combined with “show visuals reimagined for a 3D space” to create a new virtual event. Users will also be able to experience the show from multiple viewpoints and purchase “exclusive virtual merchandise from the band.”
Interestingly, it sounds like this will merge captured footage with new effects in environments designed specifically for virtual viewing. This marks a difference from other virtual live music offerings such as Oculus Venues, where you simply watch a recording in arena-style virtual seating, surrounded by other users who you can interact with.
Stage confirmed that while the main concert experience will be paid, users will still be able to explore the virtual Muse venue for free, which includes “some audiovisual experiences, virtual merch and interactive toys.”
“The music of Simulation Theory was conceived as a 50/50 blend of analog and electronic instruments, so our goal has always been to create experiences that redefine the human role in programming and technology,” said Muse frontman Matt Bellamy. “We can’t wait for our fans to be able to truly immerse themselves in our Simulation Theory world and take full advantage of everything that the Stageverse experience will offer.”
Muse’s Simulation Theory: Virtual Experience is set to launch soon for mobile devices, and will come to VR exclusively on the Oculus Quest this Fall. Keep an eye out for more details.
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2020 Emmy Nominations Include Doctor Who: The Runaway And More
The 2020 Emmy Award nominations were announced today, and four VR experiences are featured across two categories — three in the Outstanding Original Interactive Program category and one in the Outstanding Derivative Interactive Program category.
The 2020 Emmy Awards ceremony is set for September 20 this year and, as expected, a few VR experiences have crept their way into the nominations across two interactive categories.
The nominations for Outstanding Original Interactive Program Category:
- Rebuilding Notre Dame, a VR documentary from TARGO.
- The Messy Truth VR Experience, an experience starring Winston Duke (better known as M’Baku from Black Panther) which focuses on race.
- When We Stayed Home, a compilation of 360 degree videos from TARGO, documenting the empty streets of several cities in April of this year.
The three VR experiences are the sole nominations in the category this year, facing no non-VR competition. For example, VR experiences in the same category last year were also up against other non-VR interactive titles, such as the choose-your-own-adventure program You vs Wild available on Netflix, starring Bear Grills. The award was taken home by NASA’s InSight Mars Landing in 2019, beating out VR experiences Travelling While Black and First Man VR.
If you want to check them out, Rebuilding Notre Dame and When We Stayed Home are both available to view on Oculus Quest through Oculus TV.
The other area featuring a VR title this year is the similar, but slightly different, Outstanding Derivative Interactive Program category. The nominations for that are:
- Big Mouth Guide To Life by Social Life and Netflix
- Doctor Who: The Runaway by BBC and Passion Animation Studios
The former is not a VR experience, so here’s hoping The Runaway manages to bring it home. Ian checked out the 10-minute experience earlier this year, and called it a must-see for fans of the show. It’s available for free on Steam and the Oculus Store for PC VR.
What titles are you hoping take home the awards in September? Let us know in the comments.
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John Wick screenwriter to pen new Splinter Cell anime for Netflix
Netflix reportedly bought 16 episodes of the series
Virtual Tolkien Is A Free Fan-Made VR Recreation Of An Iconic Lord Of The Rings Film Scene
The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films are about as close as you can get to classical fantasy-themed cinematic perfection, in my opinion. I’ve seen all three countless times and now I’ve experienced one of the most iconic scenes from Fellowship of the Ring for myself, thanks to Virtual Tolkien in VR.
Virtual Tolkien is a free fan-made VR recreation created by Blissgig (aka James Rose) of the iconic scene in the first LOTR film when the fellowship is sailing down a river through a gap between two enormous white statues. It was awe-inspiring on the big screen, and now you can relive it in VR.
This experience is only about five minutes long, but it’s still neck-craning worthy. And it’s free, so you can’t really go wrong. Watch the whole thing right here:
I’m not a Tolkien-aficionado by any means, but I do enjoy the films quite a lot. Other scenes I’d love to see in VR would be near the end of Return of the King when Aragorn gives his rallying speech to the army before storming the Black Gates of Mordor; a recreation of what it would feel like to put on the One Ring, similar to what Frodo experiences; and of course a battlefield moment, perhaps during the Battle of Helms Deep, surrounded by all the iconic characters as they fight.
Naturally, I’d prefer a full-blown VR RPG, Asgard’s Wrath style, set in Middle-Earth even more, but I’m willing to compromise here.
There haven’t been any real Lord of the Rings adaptions for VR yet and it’s a damn shame. Maybe with the upcoming new Amazon series there is a chance of some sort of tie-in that will let us visit Middle-Earth from the comfort of our favorite VR devices.
Have you tried out Virtual Tolkien? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
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Gloomy Eyes Nominated For Emmy Award For Outstanding Original Interactive Program
Immersive VR story Gloomy Eyes has been nominated for an Emmy award in the Outstanding Original Interactive Program category.
The experience released a few months ago for PC VR and more recently for the Oculus Quest, with a story that runs for around 30 minutes, split across 3 episodes.There’s been a fair amount of buzz around Gloomy Eyes, both before and after release. It’s narrated by Colin Farrell and was featured at festivals like Sundance and South by Southwest in 2019. It even won multiple awards at the 2019 Raindance Immersive festival.
Now Gloomy Eyes is set to keep its successful run going even longer, with a new Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Original Interactive Program category. The nomination was confirmed the team behind Gloomy, Atlas V, but we can’t find any details on this year’s other nominees in the category just yet.
The category isn’t specifically exclusive to VR or AR experiences either — last year, the same award went to NASA InSight’s Mars Landing, however VR experience Traveling While Black by Felix & Paul Studios was also nominated. There are other categories that have featured VR projects in the past as well, such as the Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media and the Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media categories.
The Emmys are set to take place this September, but we’re not sure whether these immersive and interactive media categories will be announced on the same day as the main show or at an earlier date.
Gloomy Eyes is available for Oculus Quest and PC VR now. You can read our review here.
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Flipside Studio Provides Virtual Production Tools For Animation In VR
Flipside Studio is a new virtual production studio tool that allows actors and directors to capture and create animated content entirely in VR. The tool is leaving Early Access today, after a testing period where several notable companies and platforms made use of the technology.
The software allows users to embody avatars and models within VR and set up virtual cameras to film content from within the virtual studio. This allows actors to act out and perform scenes using motion capture, which is then recorded using virtual cameras and can be edited into a video or broadcast as live animation content.
The tool has been used by some companies while in Early Access, with content made in Flipside Studio now available on some streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, YouTube, Twitch and Caffeine. For example, Flipside Studio was used to prototype Detective Fips, a German kids show on the Toggo platform, which is jointly owned by Walt Disney Direct. Likewise, Caffeine — a live streaming competitor to Twitch with investment from Fox — also used Flipside Studios to film a live animated show with chat interaction, all created from home during the COVID-19 lockdown. It has also been used for music videos by DEL Records and for interstitial content in the Amazon Prime series Spooky Movie Time.
All in all, Flipside Studio looks look a robust tool and has a large number of features to suit different sorts of production. There’s an auto-scroll teleprompter, implementable body physics for realistic interactions, OBS and Twitch integration, custom sets (which can be built out of VR, as pictured above), live drawing capability, and collaboration support for multi-user sessions.
With the disappearance of Mindshow from Steam, Flipside Studio looks like a strong contender for similar sorts of made-in-VR videos. It will be free for non-commercial use, with a $25/month price tier for indie studios, a $200/month for companies with revenue over $200,000, and negotiable enterprise pricing options.
It is available for PC VR on Steam. A standalone version for Oculus Quest is planned for the the future, with an alpha build coming soon.
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Hatsune Miku Is Getting Her Very Own VR ‘Amusement Park’ This Summer
Hatsune Miku is a vocaloid software voicebank, or in other words an entirely digital vocal performing artist, with a massive fan following in Japan. This summer, she is getting her very own VR ‘Amusement Park’ dubbed Miku Land Gate that you can visit for free using VirtualCast.
Even if you’ve never seen or heard a performance, chances are if you’ve spent any length of time on the internet over the past decade then you’re probably aware of Hatsune Miku. The character is represented by a teenaged girl avatar with turquoise twintail hair. Her name was created by combining the Japanese words for “first,” “sound,” and “future.”
To reiterate: she is not an avatar controlled by someone singing into a microphone, she is actually entirely digital. As a result, her voice is actually created using Yamaha vocaloid synthesizing technology.
From the sounds of it Miku Land Gate will be like a digital music festival you can visit inside VR. In addition to performances you’ll be able to watch alongside others while wearing VR headsets, there will be areas to explore and even merchandise to purchase.
Unsurprisingly, Hatsune Miku has already appeared across a wide range of VR games and apps such as this music rhythm game on Steam and on PSVR that’s appropriately titled Hatsune Miku VR.
Miku Land Gate will run from August 8th – August 10th 2020 inside VirtualCast. It’s a free event and you can learn more by visiting the official website here.
h/t: VRFocus
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Hulu Ends Support For Some VR Platforms, Including PSVR And Oculus Go
Hulu quietly ended support for several VR platforms this week, including PlayStation VR, Oculus Go and Windows MR headsets. The only two headsets with continuing Hulu support, at the time of writing, are the Oculus Gear VR (not Quest) and Oculus Rift.
Bad news for VR users subscribed to Hulu – it looks like the streaming platform has started slowly winding down its supported VR platforms this week. As of June 17, users of now-unsupported VR headsets won’t be able to access and stream Hulu on their headsets anymore. As reported by Road to VR, Oculus Go, Windows MR, PlayStation VR, and Google Daydream all became unsupported platforms as of June 17, 2020, according to their respective Hulu help articles.
Oculus Rift and Oculus Gear VR remain the only VR platforms currently supported. Some of the platforms, such as Google Daydream, losing support may not come as a surprise. However it is a bit surprising to see the Gear VR remains supported while popular platforms such as PSVR and Oculus Go are left behind. That being said, there could be plans to drop Rift and Gear VR support in the near future as well, but hopefully not.
Unlike many other streaming services with international options, Hulu is only available in the United States and offers both streaming on demand and live TV streaming. Luckily, several other streaming services still have VR offerings, the biggest of which is, of course, Netflix. The VR app for Netflix is available across many VR headsets and puts you in a cozy winter cabin with a giant virtual TV screen for your viewing pleasure.
Will you miss Hulu on your VR headset? Let us know in the comments.
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