Category: LIV

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Meta Ditches Its Own Tools in Favor of LIV Partnership for Mixed Reality Capture on Quest

There are a few great ways to market VR games, but there’s arguably none better than by showing real people immersed in virtual environments thanks to mixed reality capture. While Meta has its own Mixed Reality Capture tool (MRC), the company is taking a step back from development by adopting third-party app LIV as its official solution.

LIV describes the deal as a “multi-year partnership with Meta to bring LIV’s mixed reality capture & virtual camera solutions to developers publishing on Meta Quest and soon also creators who wish to use those features in Meta Quest and Rift apps.”

To boot, LIV is today releasing in beta its new SDK v2.0 for Unity-based apps which support Meta’s Presence Platform capabilities, such as hand tracking, passthrough, spatial anchors, etc.

The studio says that later this year a beta release of SDK v2.0 for similar Unreal-based apps will also arrive, with official release of both Unity and Unreal versions coming sometime in Q4 2024.

Although a headlining feature, LIV isn’t just a mixed reality capture tool; it also specializes in avatar solutions for Vtubing and allows streamers to monitor chats, alerts and notifications in VR. Notably, to create mixed reality videos like the one seen below, you’ll need a PC with a supported external camera, and of course the free PC app itself.

One of the biggest names to use LIV is Another Axiom’s Gorilla Tag, which has just topped $100 million in revenue, making it one of VR’s most successful games to date.

“Another Axiom builds fully realized spaces that are meant to be shared together, like in our popular game Gorilla Tag,” said David Yee, COO at Another Axiom. “We’re always looking at new ways to give our players and creators a great experience they can share with their family and friends. This partnership between LIV and Meta provides access to best-in-class capture and virtual camera technology, introducing new ways to capture and share in-headset experiences. We can’t wait to see what the community does with these new tools.”

You can download LIV on Steam and get started on integrating LIV SDK to your Quest app starting today, both of which are free for content creators and game developers alike.

The post Meta Ditches Its Own Tools in Favor of LIV Partnership for Mixed Reality Capture on Quest appeared first on Road to VR.

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‘Vi’ Wants You to Build Muscle with XR Gloves & (eventually) Its Fitness-first Headset

Using an XR headset for at-home workouts basically looks like playing Beat Saber: you can duck, dodge, punch or slice to improve cardio and burn fat. With an increasing number of apps that essentially play on that formula, XR startup Vi hopes to change things up by letting you build muscle as well with the help of its upcoming XR glove and, eventually, its own standalone XR headset too.

Founded by serial VR fitness entrepreneur Cix Liv, the new startup Vi (‘virtual eye’) announced late last week it’s building a glove you can wear while pumping iron, letting you automatically do things like log reps and keep track of barbell weights.

The company isn’t speaking in-depth about the gloves for now, however Vi’s demo video above seems to suggest it’s still in early prototyping stages, with the render promising a sleeker device.

There is some info to glean from the company’s Discord (invite link) though. Product designer Eugene Nadyrshin says the ostensibly hardware agnostic controller will use custom hand-tracking models together with IMUs for sensor fusion, and include a Linear Resonant Actuators (LRA) at the back of the hand which give vibro-tactile feedback.

“As for openness we want to be as open as possible and you can be assured that we’ll be clear and open about the development journey instead of working behind a closed door for years,” Nadyrshin says, also noting that although the team isn’t making any broad commitment to OpenXR, they’re investigating it.

Image courtesy Vi, Cix Liv

You may recognize the startup’s founder Cix Liv from his other three-lettered ventures YUR, REK, and LIV, the latter of which helped popularize many VR games by letting content creators record themselves playing in the third-person. While many of Cix’s past projects focused on XR fitness, the team wasn’t founded with a fitness-focused mission in mind. Instead, Vi is what Liv calls “a pretty big pivot” from a previous idea of creating an AR app that would use computer vision to automatically price objects in your home to sell online.

And that pivot also includes creating an entire mixed reality headset dedicated to fitness:

“We will ship the gloves, then headset,” Liv writes on X (formerly Twitter). “Sell the headset at cost with a subscription for content. You’ll be able to own part of the company with a community fund-raise. We will eventually open up the cameras on the headset too.”

And why a headset? Liv says that some people need the mental and physical separation from ‘standard’ XR headsets, such as Quest:

Liv suggests the company can “do most of this with industrial re-design of existing hardware references. Just being hyper focused on specific use-cases, and do initial runs by 3D printing.”

There are indeed some recent reference designs the company can co-opt, such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ second gen reference, which Samsung may be using as a base to build its upcoming XR headset. Still, creating a standalone headset with its own operating system and app store that’s entirely separate from Meta’s or Apple’s is going to be a challenge worth watching.

In the meantime, Vi provided a few renders to give us a look at what could be one of the first fitness-focused XR headsets:

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Image courtesy Vi, Cix Liv
Image courtesy Vi, Cix Liv
Image courtesy Vi, Cix Liv

The post ‘Vi’ Wants You to Build Muscle with XR Gloves & (eventually) Its Fitness-first Headset appeared first on Road to VR.

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LIV iOS Open Beta Offers Easy Oculus Quest Mixed Reality Capture

LIV’s iOS app is in open beta, offering an easy way to capture mixed reality footage with select games using just an iPhone and an Oculus Quest headset.

An early version of the software was available back in March 2020, but was taken down and improved to make it more reliable and accessible. Now, the new open beta gives anyone with a Quest and an iOS device an accessible way to start capturing mixed reality footage.

The app is available in open beta through Apple’s beta testing platform, Testflight. Users can install the app on their iOS device through Testflight and will then also need to install the LIV Capture app for Oculus Quest, which is available for sideloading through SideQuest.

Once everything is installed, the LIV Capture app on Quest runs the user through a quick calibration process to align everything. Once that’s complete, the LIV app can show a mixed reality view of select Quest games, where the player is overlaid onto a third-person perspective view of the virtual world.

Mixed reality capture has been available in varying capacities across many VR systems for some time now, but the LIV iOS app makes it much more accessible for Quest users. Only a phone and a Quest headset are needed — no additional equipment is required, not even a green screen. The app is able to identify the user against any background and dynamically place them into a third-person perspective of the virtual world, with generally positive results. Users can record the mixed reality view by using iOS’s built-in screen recorder.

For now, only select Quest games support mixed reality with the LIV app — Beat Saber, Crisis VRigade, Cubism, FitXR, Hyper Dash, OhShape, Real VR Fishing, Smash Drums, Space Pirate Trainer, Superhot and Synth Riders.

The LIV Beta app for iOS arrives at a time when there seems to be increasing support and interest in mixed reality capture. Facebook is seemingly trying to build its own answer to LIV’s mixed reality tools, but the features are segmented and don’t quite work together cohesively yet. Live Overlay lets you view a cut-out of the user playing VR (taken from the phone’s camera) on top of the first-person VR view cast to a phone. However, this misses the essential third-person perspective needed for mixed reality.

Meanwhile, its Spectator Camera feature will allow users cast a Quest to a phone and reposition the camera to third-person positions (that offer a different perspective to the VR user’s first-person view), but lacks any implementation of mixed reality features. The building blocks are there, but all remain separate and don’t come together cohesively like in LIV’s iOS app.

Likewise, Fabio Dela Antonio’s Reality Mixer app is another community project offering mixed reality capture on Quest, which Mark Zuckerberg seemingly used in a recent Facebook video showing him playing Beat Saber captured in mixed reality.

LIV’s iOS app is available in open beta now through Testflight. You can read more on the LIV blog.

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LIV Mobile App Lets You Record Quest Mixed Reality Video with Just Your iPhone, Now in Beta

LIV develops software for mixed reality video capture, and over the years it’s become the de facto method for streamers showing themselves immersed in VR from a third-person perspective. For best results though, using LIV invariably means you’ll need some extra equipment, which isn’t ideal for everyone. Now LIV has released its newly unveiled mobile iOS app which lets you record your Quest experience without the need of a green screen, webcam, or PC—only an iPhone or iPad.

The LIV.tv mobile app is still in early beta, however it can be freely downloaded via the iOS TestFlight program. You’ll also need the LIV Connect Quest companion app, which is available for free on SideQuest. Of course, you’ll need an iOS device (iPhone or iPad), but also ideally a 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection. The team says it’s working on bringing it to the Oculus Store in the future, and also to Android by the end of the year.

The mobile app includes two modes, a ‘Mixed Reality’ mode for third-person capture using the iOS device, and ‘Watch Mode’ for watching gameplay from a fixed perspective. Calibration is said to be “the easiest mixed reality calibration yet,” which only requires you to hold a Touch controller to the iOS device so the physical and digital cameras can line up properly.

Check out the app in action below:

There’s only 11 Quest games that natively support LIV’s mobile app for now, including:

Like custom Zoom backgrounds, the masking effect isn’t as perfect as it might be with green screen chromakey, however the results seem much more stable than previous efforts. Considering its quick setup time and excellent latency, it’s a great option for aspiring streamers, and anyone who wants to showoff their in-game experience to friends.

LIV had previously released a similar Quest beta last year, although the developers admit was “glitchy, difficult to use, and required a ton of support from us to keep running.” Since then, the team has devised a new method, having completely taken the Quest Beta offline.

If you’ve never installed an app from SideQuest, check out our handy step-by-step guide to get you perusing a mountain of Quest content.

The post LIV Mobile App Lets You Record Quest Mixed Reality Video with Just Your iPhone, Now in Beta appeared first on Road to VR.

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LIV Now Supports Full-body Avatars from ReadyPlayerMe, Making it Easy to Stream VR Without a Green Screen

Many VR streamers use complicated mixed reality setups to show themselves from a third-person perspective inside the virtual world. LIV, a leading tool which makes this possible, now supports free, customizable, full-body avatars from ReadyPlayerMe, making it possible to stream your avatar inside of VR without the need for a green screen.

In addition to true mixed reality streaming, Liv has supported streaming with avatars for some time. However, actually finding a unique avatar for yourself was no simple task. Now, Liv has partnered with avatar maker ReadyPlayerMe to make it as simple as can be.

ReadyPlayerMe allows you to build a free full-body avatar—optionally based on a photo of yourself—in mere minutes. You can use the avatar as the character in select Liv-supported VR games, allowing stream viewers to see your movements in third-person.

Here’s an example of a ReadyPlayerMe avatar in Pistol Whip streamed via Liv:

Avatars from ReadyPlayMe are moderately customizable, and easy enough to get something you’re happy with relatively quickly, though we hope to see more customization options in the future (like height, build, and more control over outfits).

Image courtesy ReadyPlayerMe

You can make your own ReadyPlayMe avatar to import to Liv right here. If you want to download your avatar for some other use, you can make one here and download it at the end of the process as a .GLB file for use in other applications.

Streamer Atom Bomb Body also has a detailed walkthrough for configuring Liv with your new avatar here:

 

The post LIV Now Supports Full-body Avatars from ReadyPlayerMe, Making it Easy to Stream VR Without a Green Screen appeared first on Road to VR.

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The VR Job Hub: LIV, Bloober Team & Rendever

VR Job Hub

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.

Location Company Role Link
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team QA Tester Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team Senior Character Artist Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team Level Designer Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team VFX Programmer Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team Producer Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team Game Designer Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team Animation Programmer Click Here to Apply
Krakow, Poland Bloober Team 3D Technical Animator Click Here to Apply
Remote LIV Mobile Unity Engineer Click Here to Apply
Remote LIV Android Engineer Click Here to Apply
Remote LIV iOS Engineer Click Here to Apply
Remote LIV Unreal Engine Developer (Tools/SDK) Click Here to Apply
Remote LIV Desktop (C# or C++) Software Developer Click Here to Apply
Boston, MA Rendever Content Manager Click Here to Apply
Boston, MA Rendever Sales Manager Click Here to Apply
Boston, MA Rendever Unity Developer Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

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Latest LIV Beta Enables Green Screen Free Mixed Reality Recording on Oculus Quest

When virtual reality (VR) gamers want to record themselves playing a title in mixed reality (MR) one of the most popular software solutions is LIV. This is mostly achieved through green screening, great if you’re a developer with the space to set it up, not so much for general consumers wishing to showcase their latest Beat Saber highscores. So LIV has just launched a beta for one of the most popular headsets at the moment, Oculus Quest, allowing players to record their own MR gameplay videos without having to hand any green fabric.

LIV - Beat SaberThe process can be achieved via two methods, using a Kinect camera (Xbox One or Azure) or the latest is on an iPhone XR smartphone. Exclusive to the Apple handset due to the background removal technology LIV employs – Android solutions are being looked into – to access the LIV Camera app users need to head to the LIV Discord to request access.

As you can see from the demo video below this beta version can impressively remove any background environment the player is standing in, replacing it with the VR videogame they’re playing. Of course, this is still a beta so there are a few kinks to work out and you’ll also need the LIV PC app.

Over on Reddit, the team notes: “We are aware that setup isn’t as simple as we want it to be. Early on, our issues were largely on the bugs/performance side, but since spending the better half of 2019 working on that, we are now turning the corner. Quest support is in beta, so expect some bugs as we iron out the kinks!

“One of our areas of focus for 2020 is rethinking the App setup process (and design) to make it easier to get started, and finding the right information.”

LIV - Beat Saber

LIV left Steam Early Access last summer adding a range of features including avatars for those players who didn’t want to directly feature in their videos. Free to download and supporting most VR headsets, the software is compatible with some of the best VR titles on the market.

As LIV continues development, improving its capture solution for Oculus Quest, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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LIV Mixed Reality Now Has Beta Support For Oculus Quest

The leading mixed reality capture software company, LIV, now works with Oculus Quest via a new beta app as of today, including support for some of the Quest’s most popular games such as Beat  Saber.

If you want to use LIV with your Quest, you don’t even need to use Oculus Link connected to a PC at all. All you need are an Oculus Quest, a PC running the new beta LIV app for Quest (available on Discord), and a camera setup. LIV supports the following camera arrangements:

  • Green screen + camera connected to PC such as a webcam,
  • Xbox One Kinect connected to PC,
  • Azure Kinect connected to PC,
  • iPhone or iPad with an A12 chip or higher (such as the iPhone XR or most iOS devices released since 2018) connected to PC via beta iOS LIV app.

If you’re using the virtual green screen method through iOS or Kinect, it will look something like this:

Currently supported games for LIV mixed reality capture on Oculus Quest include:

  • Beat Saber
  • Kingspray Graffiti
  • Hyper Dash
  • OhShape
  • Real VR Fishing
  • Superhot

Green screen-less footage isn’t anywhere near as good as videos made with actual green screens, but they’re decent replacements given the added flexibility. If you want to see  what LIV on Quest is like using an iPhone, the end result looks a bit like this:

Alternatively, you can use Oculus Link, or Virtual Desktop / ALVR, if you want, but at that point you’re using the Quest as if it were a Rift — which was already possible before today. What they’re releasing in beta today is the ability to capture mixed reality footage, wirelessly, using the Quest as the standalone device it was designed to be.

Last year, LIV also released an avatar system for its mixed reality capture. The avatars functionally work like the user is wearing the avatar inside the mixed reality video as it mimics their movement providing the visual sensation of seeing someone inside the game without actually exposing what the user looks like. This feature is still PC VR only for the moment.

To get started, head over to the LIV Discord and check out the official website for more details.

The post LIV Mixed Reality Now Has Beta Support For Oculus Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

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‘Pistol Whip’ VR Tournament Kicking Off in March with $10,000 Prize Pool

SpringboardVR, the content distribution platform for VR arcades, has partnered with Cloudhead Games and eSports organizers The Virtual Athletics League (VAL) to bring a Pistol Whip (2019) tournament next month to more than 500 arcade locations as well as at-home players.

The competition is slated to take place over three weekends in March, including an at-home section open to anyone from March 13-14 and a global VR arcade section co-hosted by SpringboardVR from March 18-22. The Grand Finals are set to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 29th, and will include the top three finalists.

Outside of an all-expenses-paid trip to VAL’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, tournament participants will be vying for cash prizes, and other giveaways such as an Oculus Rift S, various swag, custom mixed reality avatars from Wolf3d, and other VIP packages. Here’s a breakdown of the prize pool structure:

Image courtesy VAL

“This tournament is our largest yet, and we are deeply grateful to all those we are working with here to bring this VR esports revolution to the world,” said Ryan Burningham, CEO and founder of the Virtual Athletics League.

More information about the competition and player sign ups forms are available on VAL’s website.

Developed by Cloudhead Games, Pistol Whip essentially marries rhythm and shooting in a package that feels a bit like a mashup between Superhot VR (2017), Beat Saber, and Smash Hit (2015). 

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15 Minutes of 'Pistol Whip' Dual-wielding Gun Kata Gameplay

The core of the gameplay consists of both physically dodging enemy bullets as they approach and firing back at baddies on the beat as you’re automatically pushed forward through a level—all the while underscored by a thumping EDM track.

It’s also garnered plenty of positive reviews since it launched in November 2019. It holds a ‘Very Positive’ user rating on Steam, [5/5] stars on Viveport, and well over 4 stars on the Oculus Store for both Rift and Quest. Not only that, but Road to VR crowned it ‘Best SteamVR Game of 2019’.

Check out our deep dive review of Pistol Whip to learn more about what makes this stylish rhythm shooter tick.

The post ‘Pistol Whip’ VR Tournament Kicking Off in March with $10,000 Prize Pool appeared first on Road to VR.

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Virtual Athletics League to Host Pistol Whip Tournament Starting March

One of the most original rhythm-action titles of 2019 was Cloudhead Games’ first-person shooter (FPS) Pistol Whip, which recently won ‘Immersive Reality Game of the Year’ at the 2020 D.I.C.E. Awards. Today, the Virtual Athletics League (VAL) has announced a new esports tournament featuring the videogame, with the initial round starting in March. 

The tournament is open to everyone – as long as you own a VR headset and copy of Pistol Whip of course!. Split into three sections the first is the home pool, where you can test your skills online against players worldwide. A prize fund of $2500 USD will be split amongst the eight best players, with the top scorer winning a cool $500.

In the second Arcade Pool section the same rules apply, just this time you have to head to a qualifying arcade to enter. SpringboardVR is supporting and sponsoring efforts to involve their 500 VR arcade customers. This also gives those who were unsuccessful in the first round to have a second shot. Once both of those have taken place then the top three scorers will move onto the finals hosted in Salt Lake City, Utah. Finalists will be flown out for an all-expenses-paid trip to Salt Lake City to compete for up to $2500 as well as a new Oculus Rift S.

In addition to the tournament VRespawn and VAL will be running a global social media contest in mixed reality (MR). Powered by LIV, this is an opportunity for creators and influencers to showcase their talents, with eight winners selected for goodies from Cloudhead Games and Wolf 3D.

Pistol Whip

The Virtual Athletics League Pistol Whip dates:

  • Home Tournament – 13th – 14th March
  • Arcade Tournament 19th – 22nd March
  • Grand Finals – 29th March
  • Social Media contest starts 1st March until the end of the tournament

Pistol Whip arrived in November 2019 supporting Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. VRFocus gave Pistol Whip a solid four-stars in its review, noting: “Pistol Whip is huge amounts of fun even on the easiest difficulty setting, suitable for VR players no matter their skill level. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Pistol Whip, reporting back with further updates.