Mit Wooorld sollt ihr schon bald gemeinsam die Erde mit eurer Meta Quest erkunden können. Die Entwickler und Entwicklerinnen nutzen hierzu die Google Maps API.
Wooorld: Multiplayer Google Earth für Meta Quest
Aktuell befindet sich Wooorld in der Beta-Phase und ihr könnt euch hier zum Test anmelden. Wann die Software final für die Meta Quest veröffentlicht wird, ist aktuell noch unklar.
Das Besondere an Wooorld ist, dass ihr gemeinsam auf eine Reise gehen könnt und dies sogar im Passthrough-Modus. Dafür soll jedoch der Sichtbereich begrenzter sein als wir es von Lösungen für den PC gewohnt sind. Wir sind dennoch sehr gespannt auf Wooorld und haben uns direkt zum Test angemeldet.
Realworld is a newly announced in-development VR app from the creator of Cubic VR that will let users explore the actual world from inside a VR headset while connecting with friends.
Based on that description and the video embedded above if you think that sounds a lot like Google Earth, then you’re absolutely correct. However, like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Realworld uses Bing Maps, not Google Maps.
We haven’t gotten a chance to try Realworld, but it looks a bit like Google Earth was condensed down onto a tabletop to make rendering that sort of information manageable. Using a “pinch” type gesture with both hands you can zoom the view in and out very quickly.
In the trailer we can even see the ability to “grab” one another, since this is multiplayer, and either shrink or grow each user to get a different perspective on the environment. Since the table is so small, you can start from a space-style continental view and then zoom all the way down to street level very smoothly. But the limited scope of the “table” format seems to rid the experience of the grand scale of things found in something like Google Earth.
Luckily, you can still go “inside” the street view perspective like a 360-photo instantly like you can in Wander. The table becomes sort of like a 3D map with to-scale models of locations and then you can teleport down to see it all around you if you’d like. Realworld will also let you sketch onto the world itself to draw things with 3D pens, drag and drop your own 3D models directly into the world itself which has some amazing possibilities, as well as much more such as built-in streaming support, sticky notes, animation features, and lots of other tools the trailer only hints at for now.
You can go sign up on the official Realworld website to stay up-to-date on details and future information.
Go Guess (2018) is a new interactive VR quiz game from developers Oblix that tosses you into Google 360 captures and makes you to guess where you are. The twist? You’re playing against other people, and you can hobnob in a social VR space between rounds.
Like its 2D forebears such as GeoGuessr (2013), Go Guess tasks you with investigating the captures by hunting for clues. You might be out in the wilderness looking at plants, or on a sunny beach hunting for a sign—anything that will help you distinguish the Welsh countryside from Tasmania, or Japanese islands from the Pacific North West coastline.
Image courtesy Oblix
Giving you a number of nodes to teleport to, you can investigate the scene as much as you like. Rounds take place periodically, although avatars are named randomly currently, so it may be difficult to find and make friends in between matches, which is represented as a 3D render of Times Square in New York City.
Once you’ve found out where you are in the linked-together captures (or where you think you are), you can pull up a globe, mark the map and do some fine-tuning until you’re happy with the location. The closer your guess is to the actual location, the higher the points.
The app is free and supports Oculus Rift headsets, although since it’s on Steam, it’s likely SteamVR-compatible headsets such as HTC Vive and Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets will work as well, albeit without appropriate controller models.
Matterport customers are about to get a few more features to enhance the speed and accuracy at which they can use the software. Matterport’s thousands of customers should find a few more business opportunities opening up soon, with faster space capture thanks to new camera firmware, and introduction of Google Street View publishing.
Both initiatives are currently in beta, but are expected to help customers in the restaurant, retail, travel, hospitality, real estate, architecture, construction and engineering industries.
With the Google Street View publishing beta, Matterport users will easily be able to convert their Matterport 3D Space into an experience that can be exported and show up on Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View as panoramic photo tours, giving potential customers browsing the local area much more insight into the businesses in that area.
Matterport CEO Bill Brown believes this Google Street View publishing beta will enhance the value of Matterport to its existing customers, and simplify the publishing process; “Google Street View publishing and faster space capture are two of the many initiatives that greatly increase the value of Matterport for camera operators, as well as businesses that want to use Google to drive people to their websites. Matterport is the solution of choice for all types of businesses because our automation makes it easy for anyone to quickly capture a space and get a high-quality 3D environment. Now this content can be experienced as a Matterport immersive 3D environment on a business’ website and can also be used to published as a Google Street View experience on Google Maps, Google Earth, or mobile Street View.”
The software essentially automates and eases the process of creating and publishing panoramic photo galleries, all of which can be done with the Matterport camera and software. No additional hardware or software required – a relief for anyone who has previously had to use several cameras and additional editing to achieve a similar effect in the past.
And even the base process of creating a Matterport 3D Space will be easier than ever before, thanks to new firmware which speeds up the camera rotation, enabling the camera to scan 3D spaces in a fraction of the time it did previously.
The firmware update is of course free, and will work for all Pro2 and Pro Matterport cameras. The quality of images will remain unchanged. You can see the new firmware in action at the link below.
For all of the latest advancements and updates from companies like Matterport, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.
Google Earth VR is pretty self-explanatory; it’s Google Earth, but available on VR headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. What isn’t so easy to communicate is the sheer immensity of the world around you as you view everything Google has captured on the planet Earth, replete with 3D rendered models and its vast stores of 360 shots from around the globe. Now, the company has updated Earth VR to allow for in-Street View navigation, meaning you can easily move from 360 sphere to 360 sphere just like on the flatscreen version of Google Maps.
Google first added Street View to Earth VR back in September, which let you enter any one of Google’s panoramic captures just by selecting it when you were nearby. It was more of a peek inside Street View than a proper implementation though, so the update presents a much easier way to walk around a city in VR should rendered geometry or textures fail to show the world’s true complexity.
For now, Street View navigation is accomplished by selecting the preview sphere and pulling the trigger (but not by placing the preview sphere over your head). From there, you can navigate 360 spheres simply by pointing in the direction of an adjacent sphere and selecting it.
Google also says in the initial announcement on Steam that they’ve “worked hard to make changes that more efficiently use your bandwidth, resulting in faster load times.” The company says the update will improve imagery load times on Internet connections that may have been slow in the past.
Check out Google Earth VR on Steam for Vive and Rift, and on the Oculus Store for Rift.
Google Earth got a massive revamp today, but the search giant also brought its Google Earth VR app to the Oculus store. The experience has been available for the HTC Vive since the end of 2016.
Am 13. Februar wurden in Hollywood die Lumiere Awards in den Warner Brothers Studios abgehalten. Die Auszeichnungen gehen an die innovativsten und fortschrittlichsten Technologien. Im Folgenden kommt eine Liste mit den größten Gewinnern aus den Bereichen VR und AR.
HTC Vive und Google Earth VR
Der CEO von HTC, Cher Wang, bekam den Sir Charles Wheatstone Award für seine außergewöhnlich fortschrittlichen Bemühungen im Bereich der VR. Die Auszeichnung übergaben der Präsident der AIS-VR Gesellschaft Jim Chabin und Schauspielerin Maria Bello. Die HTC Vive gilt als eine der monumentalsten Fortschritte im Bereich Optik, Steuerung und 3-D-Positionstracking innerhalb der VR.
Ebenfalls freuen kann sich Google, denn der Umweltaktivist Ed Begley Jr. übergab den Century Award für VR an Google Earth VR für einen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Umwelt. Durch Google Earth VR wird die Welt in einen digitalen Spielplatz verwandelt, in dem man an jeden Ort unseres Planeten fliegen oder sich teleportieren kann. Die Begründung für die Auszeichnung war folgende: Jeder kann inspiriert werden unseren schönen Planeten zu beschützen, wenn man erst einmal die Aussicht auf der Spitze des Empire States Buildings oder des Grand Canyon betrachtet hat.
Ghostbusters, Dear Angelica, Nomads, Tilt Brush und weitere
Ghostbusters VR von Sony Pictures Entertainment und The Void gewann den Preis für die beste VR-Live-Action-Erfahrung. Das virtuelle Spektakel wird in Madame Tussauds in New York City angeboten. Außerdem bekam das von Oculus Studios entwickelte Dear Angelica den Lumiere für den besten VR-Zeichentrickfilm. Die Entwicklung des VR-Erlebnis basiert auf dem neuen Oculus-Programm Quill und zeigt eindrucksvoll was damit möglich ist.
Weiter geht es mit der VR-Serie Invisible vom Regisseur von Die Bourne Identität Doug Liman. Die Serie erhielt die Auszeichnung für die beste 360-Grad-Serie. Ebenfalls mit einem ähnlichen Award wurde Nomads: Sea Gypsies von Felix und Paul Studios ausgezeichnet. Das Meisterwerk über die Sama-Bajau-Völker erhielt den Award für die beste 360-Grad-live-Action.
In The Click Effect kann man sich selbst als Unterwasserjournalist versuchen. Dafür gab es den Preis für die beste VR-Dokumentation. Weitere Lumiere gingen an Branded Experience, die VR-Symphonie von Jushua Bell erhielt die Auszeichnung für das beste VR-Musikvideo, Job Simulator, für das beste VR-Spiel und Tilt Brush von Google erhielt die begehrte Auszeichnung für die beste VR-Produktion.
