Category: magic leap one

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Magic Leap und HBO veröffentlichen AR-Erfahrung zu Game of Thrones

Die achte Staffel der epochalen Fantasyserie Game of Thrones basierend auf der Romanreihe A Song of Ice and Fire von George R. R. Martin steht kurz bevor. Ab dem 14. April beginnt der Staffelauftakt zum Abschluss der Geschichte und die Fans können das heiß erwartete Ende, rund um die eisigen Schlachten zwischen dem Nachtkönig, Jon Snow und den Lebenden in Westeros kaum noch erwarten. Um den Hype weiter anzuschüren, sorgt eine neue Kollaboration zwischen HBO und Magic Leap nun für die Veröffentlichung einer GoT-AR-Erfahrung namens The Dead Must Die: A Magic Leap Encounter für die AR-Brille des Unternehmens. Die Magic-Leap-Erfahrung soll allerdings vorerst exklusiv in ausgewählten AT&T-Läden vorgestellt werden.

Game of Thrones – Magic Leap und HBO stellen “The Dead Must Die: A Magic Leap Encounter” in ausgewählten AT&T-Läden vor

In The Dead Must Die dürfen die Nutzer erstmalig selbst in das virtuelle Westeros eintauchen, um in den eisigen Gefilden hinter der Mauer auf Tuchfühlung mit einem White Walker zu gehen. Besser gesagt auf Konfrontationskurs, denn die Untoten sind alles andere als freundlich gesinnt gegenüber allen Lebenden. In der Rolle eines Soldaten begegnet ihr mit einer Fackel bewaffnet in einer schneebedeckten MR-Umgebung dem gefährlichen Widersacher.

Möglich macht dies eine Partnerschaft zwischen HBO und Magic Leap, um die AR-Erfahrung mit der AR-Brille des Unternehmens vorzustellen. Allerdings ist das Erlebnis nicht für die eigenen vier Wände gedacht. Die MR-Erfahrung wird vorerst nur in ausgewählten AT&T-Läden in den USA vorgeführt, dafür stilecht in einer würdigen Kulisse.

Valerie Vargas, SVP für Marketing und Creative-Service bei AT&T kündigt die Kollaboration mit enthusiastischen Worten in einem Statement an:

“Dies ist das größte Fernsehereignis in der jüngeren Geschichte, zum großen Teil aufgrund der leidenschaftlichen, loyalen und engagierten Fangemeinde der Show. Zur Feier dieses Fandoms, und auch selbst als Fans, haben wir auf allen unseren Plattformen einzigartige Erfahrungen entwickelt, die nur AT&T und HBO bieten können. Mit dieser Kampagne wollen wir die großartigen Fans der Show und ihren festen Platz in der Popkultur feiern.”

Ab dem 1. April beginnt die Ausstellung in Boston, ab dem 3. April in Chicago und ab dem 6. April in San Francisco. Daraufhin ist die GoT-MR-Erfahrung bis zum 10. Juni zugänglich. Weitere Standorte sollen in Los Angeles und Dallas folgen.

(Quellen: VR Focus | Variety | Twitter: Game of Thrones)

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Game of Thrones is Getting the Mixed Reality Treatment on Magic Leap One

As if you didn’t know already but the biggest TV show on earth, Game of Thrones will soon be back on our screens for the 8th and final series. Naturally, AT&T and HBO weren’t going to let an opportunity like this go by without some wide-ranging promotion, announcing a marketing campaign which will see the GoT universe come to life thanks to Magic Leap.

Game of Thrones

Head down to the AT&T flagship stores in Boston (Boylston) on 1st April, Chicago (Michigan Avenue) on 3rd April and San Francisco (1 Powell) on 6th April and you’ll encounter The Dead Must Die, a Game of Thrones experience exclusive to Magic Leap.

After putting on the Magic Leap One headset fans step into a physical representation of King’s Landing which then transforms into an ominous icy scene. Here they will encounter a White Walker and lead the fight for the living.

“This is the biggest television event in recent history, in large part due to the show’s passionate, loyal and committed fan base,” said Valerie Vargas, SVP of advertising and creative services, AT&T in a statement. “In celebration of that fandom, and as fans ourselves, we have created unique experiences across all of our platforms that only AT&T and HBO can offer. With this campaign we aim to celebrate the show’s superfans and its permanent place in pop culture.”

Game of Thrones

Additionally, AT&T and Magic Leap have announced that the Magic Leap One headset will soon be sold in each of those flagship stores. Consumers can order online at att.com/magicleapone starting 5th April. Magic Leap One retails for $2,295 USD and can be purchased via monthly financing.

“AT&T’s investment in 5G will enable the widespread adoption of emerging and innovative technologies like Magic Leap’s spatial computing and will help to redefine how we access and experience everything from work, play, communication, media, healthcare and education,” said Rony Abovitz, CEO of Magic Leap. “The Magic Leap team and I are excited to take this next step in our exclusive partnership, tapping into AT&T’s vast retail distribution and the Magicverse innovations that will be powered by their game changing 5G network.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Magic Leap, reporting back with the latest announcements.

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GDC 2019: Angry Birds Officially Coming To PSVR And iOS ARKit Very Soon

GDC 2019: Angry Birds Officially Coming To PSVR And iOS ARKit Very Soon

Today, Rovio and Resolution Gamse are officially announcing two brand new versions of Angry Birds for both AR and VR devices. Currently, you can play Angry Birds on Magic Leap One, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, and now the immersive adaptation of one of the most beloved mobile gaming properties of all-time is coming to three more platforms: Windows VR, PSVR, and iOS devices with ARKit support.

The release is split into three parts: starting today, the Steam version of Angry Birds will automatically get Windows VR headset support, as well as 13 brand new levels coming very soon in a matter of days with a new island and new boss fight as well for all PC-based versions. This is the exact same version we wrote about previously when trying it on Rift.

Then next week on March 26th is when the PSVR version of the game will be available and should include all of the same content as the PC VR-based version of the game. It’ll probably cost the same as well at $14.99.

Finally, sometime later this Spring, Angry Birds will also make its debut on mobile iOS devices with ARKit support, expanding its AR footprint from just the Magic Leap One. Specifically, that’s iPhone 6 and later and all iPad Pro models, as well as iPad 5th and 6th generation devices. There will be at least 40 levels in this version at launch plus the ability to walk entirely around each level with full 360-degree views. You can pre-order the iOS version of Angry Birds AR starting today right now on the App Store.

Finally, we got some very loose details about another new Resolution Games release, but this one is not in partnership with Rovio at all. Instead, this is a brand new Magic Leap One game built as part of the Magic Leap Independent Creator Program. According to a press release from Resolution Games, the game is:

“…built from the ground up for head-mounted AR and will be themed around a mystery that players must solve. Players will unlock riddles that require engaging with characters and the environment where the mystery takes shape, which happens to be a diorama. The mystery unravels right before players’ eyes with twists and turns that animate in only ways possible in AR.”

Hopefully we should find out very more soon about this new AR game. In the meantime, let us know what you think of all this news down in the comments below!

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Magic Leap and Weta Workshop Reveal Multiplayer Experience Grordbattle

As expected the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 is building up nicely with a growing number of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) announcements. During the Unity keynote, Magic Leap and Weta Workshop announced for the first time a new multiplayer project for the mixed reality (MR) headset called Grordbattle. 

Magic Leap One Lightwear

Currently, in an early prototype phase, Grordbattle is set within the universe of Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders, an offshoot of that experience where between two to four players can go head-to-head in battle. As you can see from the below image, the videogame allows players to select a character of their choosing, giving their head a new digital representation where their eye movements and voices are mirrored by the character.

Developed entirely in Unity, the original Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders is another collaboration with Weta Workshop and Magic Leap, creating a realistic action game in which evil robots have chosen the players living room to stage an invasion.

“We are thrilled to partner with Unity to showcase this exciting development in spatial computing. Unity has been a long-standing supporter of the Magic Leap platform. Developing in Spatial Computing requires a completely new way of thinking, with fresh opportunities and challenges for creators, said Magic Leap in a blog posting.”

Grordbattle - Magic Leap

Demos of both Grordbattle and Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders will be available to GDC 2019 attendees.

Magic Leap looks to be having a much greater physical presence at GDC 2019 than in previous years, likely due to the company being keen to ramp up content support by supporting the developer community. It was only last month that Magic Leap announced the 31 successful applicants for its Independent Creators Program, with the likes of Resolution Games,  Funktronic Labs, Felix & Paul Studios and Within all being selected.

The Magic Leap One headset is still very much a device for developers rather than a consumer version. While it’s now more widely available, it still comes with a retail price starting from $2,295 USD. As further details or Grordbattle are released VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Magic Leap Announces First Round of Independent Creator Program Grant Recipients

Magic Leap is giving away serious cash to developers this year through their Independent Creator Program, which has earmarked an “eight-figure” number destined to fund app developers working in gaming, entertainment, collaboration, productivity, and more. Now, the company has released a list of its first round of recipients which was whittled down from over 6,500 applicants.

Magic Leap says in their blogpost the list below isn’t comprehensive, as some grant recipients are still in stealth mode and will announce themselves and their projects at a later date.

Without further ado, here’s a few of the first round of grant recipients:

Education
Gaming
Productivity
ANIMA RES Funktronic Labs BadVR, Inc
Giant Army Metanaut
Kubold Monocle Society Taqtile, Inc
Medicalholodeck ONTOP
Nexus Studios Overlay
PRELOADED
Entertainment
Retail & Commerce
Creator Tools
Aesthetic Interactive Obsess Alientrap
Felix & Paul Studios roOomy MINSAR
Within
Collaboration
Architecture & Construction
Data Visualization
Immersiv VIMAEC
Spatial
Workplace Training
Documentary
Health & Wellness
Edge Lab Atlas V Magic Lines

– – — – –

Many of the studios above are well-established in both the consumer VR space and the growing AR industry as well, so you may recognize more than a few names on the list.

Gaming

Funkatronic Labs produced the popular VR real-time strategy game Cosmic Trip (2017) as well as the undeniably cute (and difficult) VR game Starbear: Taxi (2018).

Resolution Games is most recently known for developing both Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019) for VR headsets and the Magic Leap One title Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot (2018).

Metanaut, the studio behind the very Rube Goldbergian VR puzzle game Gadgeteer (2019), have just announced their bringing the game to Magic Leap One.

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Microsoft Significantly Misrepresented HoloLens 2's Field of View at Reveal

Entertainment

The prolific VR film studio Felix & Paul also got in. It should be an interesting change for the company, as so far they’ve mostly focused on creating stereoscopic 360 films, among which were the recent Sundance 2019 entrants Traveling While Black and Marshal from Detroit, as well as the 2017 Daytime Emmy Award-winning 360 documentary The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama to name a few.

Within, the studio behind the eponymous multi-platform VR experience hub, plays host to a number of high-profile pieces from partners such as Apple, The New York Times, NBC, Vice Media, the United Nations, musical acts like U2, Annapurna Pictures, and more. They’ve also done work in kid-focused AR smartphone app Wonderscope, although we suspect the company has only gotten their feet wet now that they’re officially building AR content for Magic Leap One.

Enterprise

Enterprise-focused creators Spatial, the company which was prominently featured in Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 reveal, is also making a cross-platform version for Magic Leap One, Road to VR learned this week at Mobile World Congress 2019.

While this only highlights a few grantees, it’s clear Magic Leap is tapping high-quality content and tool creators to fill out its burgeoning ‘Magic Leap World’ app store, which at this point is fairly sparse. What’s also fairly apparent is the company’s continued focus on gaming and entertainment still portends a consumer-focused Magic Leap AR headset yet to come.

To boot, the company also announced they’re awarding nearly 200 additional applicants with Magic Leap One headsets, which at $2,300 bucks a pop will make a welcome gift to studios that couldn’t otherwise justify the cost.

The post Magic Leap Announces First Round of Independent Creator Program Grant Recipients appeared first on Road to VR.

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Resolution Games, Felix & Paul, More Win Magic Leap Indie Creator Grant

Resolution Games, Felix & Paul, More Win Magic Leap Indie Creator Grant

Last week, we reported that Magic Leap had seen over 6,500 applications to its Independent Creator Program. Today, the company revealed a handful of the winners.

The Independent Creator Program provides funding and resources to smaller studios looking to work with Magic Leap One. Teams with less than 20 members were able to apply for grants between $20,000 – $500,000 to work on specific projects. They’d also be given free headsets and access to mentorship and other resources.

Winners span various industries and include names that will be familiar to VR fans. Angry Birds VR developer Resolution Games was one of a handful of gaming companies to win, for example. Experiential studios like Felix & Paul and Within were also successful.

While it’s true that studios like these are on the smaller side, they’ve also raised significant investment before or are already well-established in the immersive reality industry. Resolution Games, for example, raised around $13.3 million in funding over the past four years. Felix & Paul, meanwhile, regularly works with the likes of Oculus among other partners.

We reached out to Magic Leap asking why it had chosen some of these studios over lesser-known applicants. The company didn’t immediately respond for comment.

There were many lesser-known winners, too. Medicalholodeck uses 3D scans of the body for education and surgeon training, for example. Future Sight AR, meanwhile, is looking to bring AR solutions to construction sites. Cosmic Trip and Starbear Taxi developer Funktronic Labs also joined the list.

Magic Leap lists 31 companies in total. Magic Leap says these are only some of the winners picked from the applications. Others remain in stealth mode.

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Magic Leap Accepts 31 Companies into its Independent Creator Program

At the end of last year, Magic Leap launched its Independent Creators Program in a bid to foster new ideas and content for its headset, the Magic Leap One. This week the company has announced the successful applicants out of a pool of 6,500.

Magic Leap hero-scene_3x

Magic Leap has chosen 31 companies to participate, provide independent developers with the financial, development and marketing support necessary. Those picked include Resolution Games – the studio behind Magic Leap title Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot – Funktronic Labs (Starbear: Taxi, Cosmic Trip), Metanaut (Gadgeteer), Felix & Paul Studios (Marshall from Detroit, Traveling While Black), Within and Immersiv.

“We had so much fun creating our first Magic Leap title, Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot. We’re super excited to have been selected as a Creator and look forward to pushing the possibilities of gameplay when creating a mixed reality experience from the ground up. We can’t wait to get it out and into the hands of players,” said Tommy Palm, CEO and co-founder of Resolution Games in a statement.

Such was the quality of the applications Magic Leap decided to award nearly 200 additional applicants with Magic Leap One devices so they can continue developing their projects.

Angry Birds: First Person Slingshot

Magic Leap expects the mixed reality (MR) experiences developed as part of the Independent Creator Program to begin launching within the next 90 days. All titles resulting from the Independent Creator Program are expected to be released within the next 12 months.

The Magic Leap One Creator Edition was announced just over a year ago, with a retail price starting from $2,295 USD. Originally the US only, now anyone can purchase the device from Magic Leap’s website. Still very much a developers edition rather than final consumer version, studios have still created gameplay experiences like Insomniac Games with Seedling and Funomena with Luna: Moondust Garden.

The system is comprised of three parts, the main headset (called Lightwear), a battery and processing unit termed ‘Lightpack’, and a 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) movement controller. Magic Leap’s main rival, Microsoft’s HoloLens recently unveiled the HoloLens 2 at Mobile World Congress (MWC19), improving aspects such as comfort and FoV. As further details regarding Magic Leap are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Star Wars: Project Porg Is Like A Tamagotchi For Magic Leap, Out Now

Star Wars Project Porg Magic Leap One AR

Forget Jedi training and duels with Darth Vader; the most important Star Wars AR app just released. That’s right, Project Porg is now available for Magic Leap One.

Wait, what’s Project Porg?

I’m glad you asked! A few years back we reported that Magic Leap had partnered with ILMxLAB, a division of Lucasfilm. Then, at last year’s LeapCon, the pair announced Project Porg. It’s like an AR Tamagotchi starring the cute little critters that you either loved or hated in The Last Jedi. Sort of like the film itself! This week the app launched for Magic Leap One owners. You can see the trailer for it below.

In the game, C-3PO instructs you to look after a Porg. The idea, ILMxLAB explains, was to build a relationship akin to owning a dog or a cat. You’ll go through a Porg’s lifecycle, playing with it and caring for it. You can even raise a family of the little guys. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with their adorable little faces? Those abyssal eyes and miserable frowns?

Okay so it might not be the ultimate Star Wars adventure but it looks like a fun experiment. Real talk, though: did anyone else think that Hoth demo teased at the start of the trailer looked really cool? We’d like to get our hands on that too, please.

Project Porg is available to download for free. Elsewhere, ILMxLAB is still working on Star Wars: Vader Immortal. It’s an interactive VR series which will pit players against the iconic villain. Expect the first episode to debut on Oculus Quest later this year.

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ILMxLAB Bring Star Wars: Project Porg to Magic Leap for Free

If you put together a list of top brands that companies would love to be associated with, then Star Wars has to be high on that list, with a dedicated following of fans the world over. When it comes to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) the franchise has already graced The VOID with Star Wars: Secret of the Empire, there’s the to be released Star Wars: Vader Immortal, and Lenovo even released the Mirage AR headset just for Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. Today, ILMxLAB has announced the release of Star Wars: Project Porg, a free experience for Magic Leap.

Star Wars: Project Porg is ILMxLAB’s first public experiment in mixed reality (MR) storytelling, designed exclusively for the Magic Leap One Creator Edition headset.

The entire experience revolves around the fluffy little bird-like creatures called Porg’s – made famous in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Just like any other pet simulator Star Wars: Project Porg is all about keeping these little critters healthy and entertained. This means users need to continually feed and play with their pet Porg’s, teaching them how to navigate real-world environments whilst taking care instructions from everyone’s favourite droid C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels).

ILMxLAB has released a video going into further detail regarding the project, how it came about and what the team managed to achieve using Magic Leap’s spatial computing technology. Vicki Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB executive in charge, and other key spokespeople all feature, plus there’s a small amount of footage of an as yet unreleased MR experiment called Project Hoth.

Magic Leap hero-scene_3x

This experiment originally debuted at Magic Leap’s LEAP Conference in October 2018, with additional smart home integrations shown exclusively for the conference.

Ever since the launch of Magic Leap One, the company has been growing its roster of developers, with the likes of Insomniac Games with Seedling, Funomena with Luna: Moondust Garden, and Rovio Entertainment in collaboration with Resolution Games with Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot. For the average consumer however, don’t expect to get your hands on a Magic Leap One anytime soon. The device retails for $2,295 USD and is only available in certain US cities. For more updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Magic Leap Receives 6,500 Applications For Grant Program, But Not Everyone’s Happy

Magic Leap Receives 6,500 Applications For Grant Program, But Not Everyone’s Happy

AR headset-maker Magic Leap saw 6,500 developers apply to its recent Independent Creator Program. It’s a figure that “exceeded” the company’s expectations. But, a few days on from the application cutoff point, not everyone’s satisfied.

Announced late last year, the Independent Creator Program promised funding and resources for smaller developers building Magic Leap apps. Studios with less than 20 members could apply for grants between $20,000 – $500,000. At the time, Magic Leap said it would screen applications and decide how much money to provide winners. Successful applicants were also promised free Magic Leap One kits and marketing support among other benefits.

According to the timeline shown on Magic Leap’s site, entrants were to be “offered grants on a rolling basis through February 15, 2019.” In an email sent by Magic Leap to applicants, the company said it would let them know if they had been selected “no later than February 15th, 2019.”

However, three days on from that date some developers still don’t know if they have been selected or not. Magic Leap’s official Twitter account yesterday told people to “Stay tuned for more info on who and what was selected.”

Speaking to UploadVR, Chief Content Officer, Rio Caraeff, said that every initial winner had been contacted before February 15th. He said that the company has “been going back and forth, basically with the selected winners, to finalize the paperwork as you do when you have a program of this size which is $10 million.” At the same time, Caraeff said a “small quantity” of developers also turned the grant down due to other commitments.

“And then basically our communication plan was really to start notifying everybody, basically all of the applicants, of the status of the program this coming week because we just started locking in the winners and notifying them Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of last week.”

Developers are free to announce they’ve won, but at the time of writing, we haven’t seen any studios do so.

But what about those that didn’t win? By not immediately notifying other developers as to if they had been successful, the company has left some applicants in suspense. One AR developer told me they had spent around $3,000 on assembling their submission for the grant and had even put off investor meetings in hopes of hearing by now. One developer on Twitter said the situation had them considering dropping Magic Leap support. Over on the official forums, another said they may have to turn down the grant if they aren’t notified by the end of the month.

Caraeff assured me that unsuccessful developers would be notified tomorrow.  “I would agree with you that we could improve the process and the wording going forward, and that’s our intention,” he said when asked if he could understand developer’s frustrations. “As you likely know this is the first time that we’ve done this and we’ve tried to be as open and transparent as possible. So I would agree you could draw a conclusion of that. But it doesn’t say everybody will be notified of their definitive status by the 15th, it just says that winners will be notified and that’s what we’ve done.”

Caraeff was also keen to stress that the company had to deal with more applications than it had anticipated. “I think the number exceeded expectations,” he added. “We spent a long time reviewing all of the applications, we put a cross-company panel together and spent a tremendous amount of rigor and time. Because a lot of the applications are very detailed, a lot of work goes into them. And we want to make sure we respect that.” Over on Twitter Caraeff added that the company wouldn’t share how many programs won.

There will be chances to improve, however.  Caraeff said the company plans on doing “additional waves” and that the program could be “evergreen”.

“The timing of the second program, I think, depends upon how quickly I can get results showing from this program,” he explained. “But I would say mid-year is probably a good estimate. May/June timeframe is when we would launch a second wave.”

As for feedback for unsuccessful applicants, Caraeff noted that the company was still trying to figure that out. “I think that when you’re communicating en masse with many thousands of people you’re not going to be able to provide specific feedback for every single person that’s bespoke for their proposal. So I think we have to figure out the best way to provide feedback,” he added.

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