Surprise! The Void just announced its Marvel VR experience, Avengers: Damage Control.
We first reported that The Void was making a Marvel VR experience earlier this year. The company creates location-based VR experiences often based on popular IP like Wreck it Ralph and Star Wars. Today, the company surprise revealed its Marvel project, which will be launching on October 18. You can get tickets right here. Check out a teaser trailer below (which features Shuri herself, Letitia Wright).
In Avengers: Damage Control, players are recruited by childhood prodigy Shuri to test an experimental armor. As you can see from the trailer, the prototype suit combines technologies used in both the Iron Man and Blank Panther suits. A website reveals that Doctor Strange, the Wasp and Ant-Man will appear in the experience alongside other Avengers. The piece will also feature a villain from the series’ history.
That’s all we know for now. The name Damage Control itself is a Marvel easter egg, though. In the comics, this is the name of an organization that cleans up after big superhero battles. Tony Stark coined the term in the MCU for its debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Damage Control is developed by ILMxLAB, the studio that also worked on The Void’s Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. It also just launched the second episode of Vader Immortal.
The Void says Damage Control will be available for a limited time only. For now, it’s available in the US and Canada, with no word on a possible launch overseas. Tickets start from $39.95.
Elsewhere, we also know the company is working on a new experience with Sony Pictures that’s yet to be revealed.
Funomena’s visually arresting VR debut, Luna, is finally making its way to Oculus Quest.
The narrative-driven experience was confirmed for launch on the platform at Oculus Connect 6 last week. Though Luna didn’t feature in the new Quest sizzle reel shown on stage, it did show up in the logo thumbnails on stage after.
Luna is a peaceful bit of VR storytelling. In it, users follow a bird traveling to several idyllic locations. The app has some light interactivity to it, allowing you to decorate scenes and interact with creatures. That said, it’s the gorgeous animated visuals that truly stand out, making Luna a sight to behold in VR. It’s definitely the type of experience that a VR user of any age could enjoy.
The initial version of the experience was wordless, but Funomena has since updated it with a ‘storybook’ mode. This adds in narration to the piece, helping to give its collection of scenes a little more context.
No word on exactly when the experience will launch on the standalone headset for now, sadly. It will be one of the few story-driven experiences on the device, which largely focuses on gaming content.
We reviewed the initial version of the experience earlier this year. “It’s never anything less than exquisitely beautiful, which goes some way to redeeming the lacking pacing,” we said. “It’s worth bathing in its glorious rays while it lasts, but there’s better gold to mine from VR storytelling.”
Funomena also brought a spin-off to the experience to Magic Leap. Right now the studio is working on a non-VR title for PC and PS4 named Wattam. Fingers crossed its planning to dive back into headsets following its release.
Microsoft’s upcoming next generation flight simulator will notsupport VR at launch, according to a YouTuber who was given hands-on access at a Microsoft hosted event.
However, Microsoft did apparently tell the YouTuber, Pete Wright, that it would “maybe” come later on, as “perhaps a longer term goal”.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was announced at E3 2019, for Windows 10 and Xbox One. It uses ultra-high resolution aerial imagery from Bing Maps. Machine learning technology in Microsoft’s Azure cloud generates 3D scenery from these images on a global scale. The sim will work offline too, but the world will be significantly less detailed.
Games journalists who have gone hands-on so far have reported the map generation being so accurate that they’re able to recognize their own apartment complex from the air. The graphical realism is also reportedly far ahead of any other simulator on the market. From the screenshots, it almost looks photo-realistic.
The weather data is also pulled in from the live real world conditions, and the ambient AI models real flights happening in real-time. Even natural disasters can be experienced in real-time in the simulation.
Microsoft’s simulator is clearly the true next generation of flight sims. We’re disappointed that it won’t support VR at launch, as it’s difficult to go back to the limited perspective of a monitor once you’ve experienced virtually being in a cockpit. Nonetheless, we’ll be watching this sim closely as it develops.
For now, we’ll just have to be satisfied with Aerofly FS2 and DCS on Steam.
Press the buttons and scratch the disc thingy back and forth? Not sure that’d go down too well at parties. Fortunately for my future career prospects, Quest just got a comprehensive DJ training simulator in TribeXR.
Whereas something like Eletronauts comes up with new interfaces to interact with music, TribeXR wants to teach you real-world skills. The app adds a crucial element to the growing VR simulation scene. Yes it includes all the tech you’ll need, authentically recreated in VR, but the app also includes one-on-one DJ mentoring sessions.
Via the app’s Discord or otherwise, you can arrange to meet up with a DJ expert and get a private DJing session, taking you through the basics step-by-step. There are also video tutorials already stored and live classes to attend, too.
I’ve played around with the app a bit, and it impresses in its comprehension. It doesn’t waste any time getting you used to the kit. A simplistic interface lets you know what each and every button does and it’s easy to call up friends should you want to. It made the idea of learning to become a DJ much less daunting than, say, if I instead had to buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
Elsewhere, TribeXR includes pretty much all the bells and whistles you’d expect. You can import your own music and bring in friends to listen to it. The game also supports full cross-play with Quest and the Oculus Rift version.
In the coming weeks, TribeXR will be adding new features like integrated videos, live-streaming tools and recording tools. If you’re looking for a Quest app that will teach you a genuine new skill, this is a great place to start.
The official score from Survios’ upcoming ship combat VR game, Battlewake (official website), is getting a full official release from composer Jeremy Nathan Tisser.
Battlewake (hands-on preview) hits PC VR headsets and NA PSVR stores tomorrow on September 10th for $29.99, plus a launch discount, with EU PSVR and Quest launches coming soon after. According to a press release, the album will be released a few weeks from now.
The soundtrack includes 14 original tracks specifically composed for the game ranging from classical orchestra music to “heavy metal” tracks. Notably, Tisser has worked with Survios in the past and collaborated with the VR company on their debut VR action game, Raw Data, as well.
Outside of VR, Tisser has scored over 70 projects across gaming, film, and television.
I can’t personally speak to the quality of the soundtrack at the moment since I haven’t had a chance to spend a lot of time with the game just yet, but if it’s of the same quality as Raw Data then there shouldn’t be any reservations with it or the quality of the soundtrack release.
We don’t often see music in VR games celebrated as highly as non-VR games, which is a real shame as it’s an integral part of the experience. Even if it isn’t a music-focused game like Beat Saber, the audio is hugely important.
What do you think about the news? Do you plan on picking up the soundtrack or playing Battlewake once it’s out? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
I attended a Billie Eilish concert in VR using the Oculus Venues app on Oculus Quest. Although it was a good social VR experience with some great music to accompany it, the technology isn’t quite there to be a de factor form of live entertainment.
A few months ago, pop music megastar Billie Eilish toured Australia and, when given the opportunity, I passed on buying tickets. I was only passingly interested in her at the time and knew a few of her songs, but figured I would leave it for the next time she came out. A few weeks later, after listening to more of her music then noticing her Australian tour had sold out, I found myself deeply regretting things.
I was fully resigned to missing Billie live until her next big world tour, until Oculus announced that she would be streaming one of her upcoming concerts through their Oculus Venues app, live from Madrid. As the new owner of an Oculus Quest, I was instantly intrigued. However, I also had a healthy dose of apprehension.
I love going to see live music, and I was very skeptical about how immersive the Oculus Venues live music experience would be. Watching live music is so reliant on all of your senses that I struggled to see how a VR experience could give you the same feelings as a physical concert.
Upon viewing an Oculus Venues experience, you have two options: social or solo mode. Solo will put you in a seat by yourself, just watching alone, whereas social will place you in a virtual arena, laid out like stadium seating, where you can talk and interact with other Venues users around you.
I picked social from the get go, and felt no desire to go back and try solo mode. Sitting in the stadium-style seats, you’re presented with a 180-degree dome view in front of you showing the concert. While the seating arrangement makes it look like you’re up in the nosebleed section, the video feed in front of you doesn’t always display an image that matches that position. At times it did, with a view looking down on the stage and the mosh pit-goers in Madrid, but it would switch to a close-up feed of the stage frequently as well. Although this allowed you to see Billie up close, it also meant that the scale was completely off when up close. Instead of appearing human-sized, the gigantic screen meant that with certain close camera angles, Billie would appear literally larger than life.
The stream itself was of varying quality. The resolution was adequate, but not excellent, however it frustratingly featured heaps of mini stutters, pauses and moments where I could tell the feed was a few seconds out of sync from what everyone around me was watching. It wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t horrendous. There’s definitely work to be done from Oculus on the backend for a smoother experience, but it serves for now.
However, regardless of the camera angles or the stream inconsistencies, the best part of the experience was interacting with everyone around me. Represented by their Oculus avatars, people in the seats adjacent to you can talk, sing, wave their hands and look around. At first, it was a bit intimidating. I expected to just to be watching alone at home, or silently with others around me. I didn’t realize the high level of interaction on offer, nor how open people would be to interacting with strangers sitting around them. The interface will even let you change seats to move closer to someone, or scroll through an index of people who are currently speaking, in order to quickly match up a voice you’re hearing with an avatar. You can also mute people, if they’re being a bit too loud or annoying, and adjust the concert and social’ volumes independently.
It took a little while for me to feel comfortable, but by the halfway point I had befriended a group of people sitting in the front row. We were all cracking jokes together, humming along, and discussing what songs Billie had and hadn’t played yet. By the end of the concert, I realized that I had come to see a Billie Eilish concert but stayed for the interactions with others along the way.
In terms of the actual performance, Billie put on a great show and it was a thrill to watch. However, it’s certainly not the same as watching in real life. It’s more engaging than watching a full upload of an artist’s performance on YouTube, but less satisfying than being there in person. In some ways, it feels like more of a social experience than a live music one, similar to BigScreen or other apps that let you share experiences with others.
The big difference to other apps that let you communally watch videos in a virtual environment is that this is live. This wasn’t just me and a few random others loading up a Glastonbury or Coachella recording on YouTube and watching it in BigScreen. This was actually streamed live from the arena. It feels special – or at least, it did at first. I later discovered that the concert was likely pre-recorded a few hours earlier to align time zones and then re-broadcast on Venues.
In some ways, this dampened the novelty of the experience for me. I loved the idea that I was tuning into something at the exact same time as those in the arena physically in Madrid. On the other hand, it’s not like it’s readily available at any time, despite being recorded. Oculus Venues content is only available to watch live during the scheduled broadcast time.
I would hope that future Venues content is actually broadcast simultaneously with the physical event, but there are many other ways to increase the immersion and novelty of the experience as well. For example, I would prefer a static camera that never cuts away, but matches your position within the arena. The Billie Eilish seating arrangement made it look like we were in the nosebleeds, so I would have preferred a camera that consistently showed that viewing angle as if you were really sitting in the arena. You could even have virtual jumbotrons that showed close-up footage, just like a real concert venue.
Being able to pick between viewing areas, with matching cameras, would be another great step. A virtual mosh, where you’re looking up at the stage and can freely walk around and mingle with others, would be fantastic. Given that the Billie Eilish concert already cut to multiple angles, it’s clear that the technology is available. There’s potential to offer a more tailored and immersive experience for viewers, it just needs to be implemented.
In the days after watching the concert in Venues, I talked to many of my non-VR friends about the experience. They all immediately asked very similar questions. “Was it the same as a normal concert? Surely it’s not as loud and sweaty.” “Did it feel real?” “Will I get the same adrenaline rush?”
The questions they turned to first are telling. The experience as is, with the way you view the concert and the social elements, is fun. It’s a good way of viewing a concert, and much more fun and immersive than watching on a computer. However, the implementation of the technology means that it’s still held back and doesn’t quite live up to the potential. The problem is not technological limitation – it’s implementation.
Oculus Venues is entirely free to experience, and that feels right for the moment. You’re not getting an experience that is worthy of being a paid, ticketed event. For now, it feels more like a social experiment than a new form of concert seating.
Don’t get me wrong – I loved that I got to watch a concert of a tour I thought I had missed out on. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was exciting to make friends and interact with those around me. Attending the concert virtually was like nothing I’ve done before. With some improvements that increase immersion and provide more choices for viewing angles, Oculus would have a killer experience on their hands – something that I might even pay for. However, the way that the technology is implemented means that I wouldn’t call this an alternative viewing option that stands in place of physical attendance just yet.
One of my friends asked me a question that ultimately re-framed how I viewed the whole experience, despite the enjoyment I got out of it. “So would you say you’ve seen Billie Eilish live in concert then?” The question caught me off guard, but I could only conclude that no, I haven’t. However, if we see some improvements in the future, there’s a fair chance that next time I’ll say yes.
Tilt Five (official website) is an upcoming consumer-grade AR platform that aims to bring tabletop gaming to life right before your eyes. We tried it out for ourselves at PAX West last weekend.
Have you ever wanted to see your game of Dungeons & Dragons come alive on the table? Is your fantasy group spread out all over the country or world making you wish you had a virtual table for everyone to play at? Tilt Five is trying to make these ideas a reality with their new tabletop AR platform by bringing tabletop gaming to life in front of you.
The Tilt Five tabletop is a consumer AR platform that will sell for $299 MSRP when it launches sometime in the future. Tilt Five CEO Jeri Ellsworth and her team are launching a Kickstarter campaign on September 15th that’ll include more details on their launch timeline as we get closer to 2020. Ellsworth did say they were aiming for the middle of next year to make sure the platform was available for general consumers, they’ll have a few beta tests before then. The board will run off a USB connection through Linux, Windows, and mobile.
“We have 110 [degree] field of view that fills the whole game board. When you lean in close you get more detail and that’s a unique property of our system,” says Ellsworth. “Occlusion free. All the other systems overlay graphics on your hands.”
Unlike the Magic Leap One or HoloLens that send images to your eyes via a lens, the Tilt Five system has two HD projectors in the headset that fire down to the board itself that gives you a direct return of light to your eyes, putting everything on the board in focus.
My hands-on demo with a version of the board included interaction with a tower defense map and a handful of simple party games that are meant to introduce a user to the system. Each experience I had was promising and enjoyable, despite not testing out any of the more complicated pieces of software Tilt Five says it has in development through third parties.
I got to play with their wand controller and test various mini games to see how it worked in tandem with the board. One was a carnival shooter where I had to take out certain color blocks while another focused on the manipulation of cubes. Both were incredibly simple in their execution but did have me excited at the possibility of playing a board game with my family on the board.
It was a great display of augmented reality that was especially impressive due to how lightweight and small the tech was, although the team still has a lot to prove in how more advanced software works on the platform. The occlusion had minimal issues, I didn’t see any image overlay on my hands. The image was clear and reactive to how I moved, even when the board was bent and twisted. I didn’t get to try more fleshed out software during my time with the glasses and board.
While the games I played were interesting, the focus of the Tilt Five Tabletop platform goes far beyond short party games. The potential is in the ability to play full Dungeons & Dragons campaigns with the augmented reality board, either at the same table or online.
“Let’s say you’re the DM and because everyone gets an independent view into the space you can set up an elaborate map with all your monsters and your dungeons without other players knowing,” Ellsworth said. “Your friends can’t see it until that dramatic moment when you click that button and the monster pops out. It’d be a nice leg up on [the] storytelling front.”
Ellsworth, who has previously worked at Valve and started the now defunct CastAR, told me that she has learned from her previous attempts at working in the augmented reality space. Unlike CastAR, Tilt Five won’t develop games or other third party services like server maintenance in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed. They’ll be fully focused on developing the hardware while they try to bring in external developers who are interested in creating software for the board (which they already have “dozens” of, according to Ellsworth).
Some games currently in development include the AI combat arena game Gladiabots by GFX47, the twin stick shooter Kill All Zombies by Beatshapers, and puzzler Chuck’s Challenge by Niffler, among others. Ellsworth also said that more announcements would be coming this month, including news on their fantasy tabletop endeavors.
I enjoyed my time with the Tilt Five gameboard and can see how much potential it has. My only concern is what sort of support they can get from third party developers, including major brands in the tabletop role playing space, as well as other games.
“I think the difference between our offering versus other VR or AR offerings is that we’re really focused,” Ellsworth said. “We know what we do well and you know how to message that really well. And so I think that’s gonna come across in our Kickstarter.”
You can follow Tilt Five on Twitter to keep up with their latest announcements.
Out now for PSVR, on steam for Vive, on the Oculus Home Store, and on the App Store, Afterlife (official website) lies somewhere between a game and a traditional short movie. We spoke with the developers to learn more.
You may not have heard of Canadian studio Signal Space Lab, but they have extensive experience in TV, movies, and software. They’re no strangers to VR; if you do already recognize the name, it might be from the We Happy Few spin-off Uncle Jack Live VR, which they worked on in conjunction with Compulsion Games and Gearbox. Whereas that was a fairly lighthearted mixture of real-life footage and CGI, they’re out to achieve something completely different, and all their own, with their latest release.
Comprised entirely of real-life footage which surrounds the viewer in 360 degrees, Afterlife puts you quite literally in the middle of the story. Interactive director Etienne Archambault explains that they savored “the challenge of a new way to both immerse the audience in the piece, and also to adapt it to the attention of the user. They are fully in the space.”
“It was very challenging to use the space properly,” says Archambault, “to make sure that everything was right.” The viewer is not passive; and in fact, in a very real sense, is a member of the cast. The story concerns a family that experiences the loss of a young child to a tragic accident. After this event, the viewer is essentially placed into the role of the child’s spirit viewing the aftermath of his death. Most of the time, you’ll just be watching events unfold. But sometimes, your actions will have an effect on this world, even effecting the story path that you see.
The movie progresses through branching paths. At the end of each brief ‘chapter’, you’re presented with a summary of the path that you took, as well as the one(s) that you didn’t. At certain points, the next scene that you view is determined by which character you choose to concentrate on. Impressively, this mechanic is essentially seamless, never revealing when you’re making such a choice.
“We really wanted it to disappear,” says Archambault. “At specific moments, in specific areas, we made sure that these were right for the story […] we didn’t want you to make a choice except when it made sense.” The only explicit prompts for the viewer to interact are the rare occasions where you, as the child’s spirit, can choose to manipulate an object in the physical world. “If you’re going to do something, then it makes sense to you.”
In this way, VR offers the audience a level of connection that traditional cinema cannot. “On the narrative side, it’s a big plus that we’ve got,” says Archambault. “Remember, you’re in this space. And if you can do it well, it really does feel very engaging. The challenge was really just making it work […] you need to have multiple possible outcomes of the footage, while you’re already using pretty much all the bandwidth you can use. You want it to be in stereo, so you have that [for example].”
Returning to the basic premise of Afterlife, it centers on a family’s grief after the death of a young child. The story is structured so that this tragedy happens at the beginning of the experience. After a brief setup, the young boy has an accident at bath time, and dies. While the viewer does not actually see this happen, they are placed in the room in which the event takes place, and hear what happens. It’s genuinely upsetting, especially for those with children of their own, in no small part thanks to a consistently powerful performance from Alarey Alsip as the mother, Emma.
“We had to kind of scale it back,” says Archambault. “We needed to find this balance where it’s still got that punch […] we wanted to make sure that the viewer was really involved from the get-go.” Hence, the movie begins with this event, rather than leading up to it. “It’s such a strong moment. I think that the fact you are blinded afterwards makes you feel bound to this sense of loss, that you’re involved with the child, as you become him.”
Although it’s now available, Afterlife’s journey isn’t quite over yet; it’s been nominated for not one, but two awards at the prestigious Raindance Film Festival in the form of ‘Best Cinematic Experience and ‘Best Debut Experience.’
“When Raindance’s team first contacted us to let us know that Afterlife was in consideration to be nominated for Best Cinematic Experience, we were truly honored and happy,” says Ana Cardenas, marketing and client liaison. “Then just a few days before launch, we received news that we were also nominated for the Discovery Award: Best Debut Experience. With Afterlife, we took the risk of creating something with a new angle. We couldn’t be happier that Raindance is giving us this opportunity to showcase our work and to reach more people who love storytelling and innovation.”
This is one of those reviews that comes with a caveat. If you’re a Spice and Wolf fan, then you’ll be able to glean more out of this VR adaptation than most. Even then, though, Spice And Wolf VR struggles to justify its premium pricing.
That is in spite of its polished visuals. This 30-minute experience takes place entirely within one room as two characters take shelter from the rain. You embody Kraft Lawrence, a traveling merchant that finds a companion in Holo, a wolf-deity that appears as a teenager with a tail, despite being 600 years old.
Anime Animations
The selective focus of the experience allows developer SpicyTails to deliver an incredibly sharp environment. The shack you house yourself in feels worn, with the chilly night’s rain quickly turning to warmth in the orange glow of a fire. Holo herself is the star of the show, though, dutifully animated to mirror her anime counterpart. She struts around the scene with a mind of her own, erratically interchanging facial emotions with a pace that makes her consistently entertaining to watch.
Unfortunately, though, all you’ll really be doing is watching. Spice and Wolf’s three chapters consist of you just passively observing Holo talk to Kraft. In the narrative component, there’s nothing in the way of interactivity to give the experience any weight. Their discussion is far from captivating and I tailed off more than a few times. In 2019 there are plenty of examples of more active character interaction in VR that could have brought Spice and Wolf to life. As it stands, this feels decidedly stuck in the past, especially when Holo stands in the way of subtitles.
Once you’re through watching the story there is an interactive minigame. You look around the same room and locate items to win Holo’s favor. You’re ‘rewarded’ by being able to pet her. Again, it’s something I found more unsettling than anything, but series fans might enjoy that opportunity.
Final Say – Not Recommended
Ultimately Spice and Wolf VR only scratches the surface of VR anime adaptations. It plays out like a 2016 promotional tie-in to a movie, not a VR project worth some $292,000 in crowd-funding, let alone a price tag anywhere north of a few dollars. If you’re a series die-hard, you’ll probably enjoy the fan service on offer. Everyone else should steer clear.
Spice And Wolf VR is available now on Steam and Oculus Home for PC VR and is coming to PSVR and Nintendo Labo VR later this week and a Quest version is on the way. For more information on how we review experiences and games, check out our Review Guidelines.
Talk about a tight turnaround. VR anime Spice and Wolf passed a Kickstarter campaign in December. Now it’s coming to more platforms and a sequel is on the way.
Developer Spicy Tails recently confirmed that the game will launch on PSVR and, oddly, Nintendo Switch VR on September 5. Yes you read that right; from what we can tell this is the first game not made by Nintendo itself to appear on the Switch’s Labo VR headset. We’re still expecting a Quest version of the game to arrive later down the line, too.
It’s definitely interesting to see a third-party game coming to Labo VR. The cardboard headset only allows for 3DOF tracking and the 720p screen is blurry, but we can’t help but wonder if other developers will bring their titles to the device. Certainly, some Oculus Go and Google Daydream games could make the translation.
In Spice and Wolf, players take on the role of Kraft, a traveling merchant that means a woman named Holo that can transform into a wolf. Over the course of the experience you’ll interact with Holo in different ways. the game raised just over $290,000 in Kickstarter funding last year.
As for the sequel, Spicy Tails confirmed its production in a recent blog post. Spice and Wolf 2 will introduce a new character and a new setting. Other than that, there’s really not much we know about it. We’d expect to hear more sometime next year, though.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for more anime-flavored VR adventures, Tokyo Chronos finally got its PSVR release last week.
