Amazon Cyber Monday – Virtual Reality Schnäppchen (Samstag)

Die Cyber Monday Woche bei Amazon neigt sich dem Ende zu und heute gibt es leider kein interessantes „Angebot des Tages“. Auch bei den Blitzangeboten sieht es heute sehr mau aus. Es gibt heute keine VR Headsets für Smartphones und somit nur VR Deals für ganz spezielle Bereiche.

Amazon Cyber Monday: Virtual Reality Schnäppchen (Samstag)

Um 14:40 Uhr (14:10 Uhr mit Prime) gibt es ein Angebot für Menschen, die in den Mixed Reality Bereich einsteigen wollen. Das BPS Profi 250W Studioleuchte Studioset besteht aus Lampen und einem kompletten System für den Hintergrund. Das System besteht aber nur aus einer Wand. Das bedeutet, dass ihr bei Bewegungen der Kamera schnell aus dem grünen Bereich kommt. Dies kann unter Umständen zu einem größeren Aufwand bei der Nachbearbeitung führen. Der mitgelieferte Stoff hat eine Größe von 1,8m x 2,8m. 

Um 18:50 Uhr (18:20 Uhr mit Prime) ist ein ähnliches Set von BPS im Angebot. Die Unterschiede zwischen beiden Sets sind sehr gering. Die Leuchtmittel sind identisch und die Unterschiede in der Größe sind minimal. Dieses Set bietet einen Stoff mit einer Größe von 1,6m x 3m.

Doch auch wenn euch die Blitzangebote nicht ansprechen, braucht ihr nicht traurig sein. Derzeit bietet Amazon einige PSVR Spiele zu einem besonders guten Preis an. Die Liste der Spiele findet ihr hier.

 

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Neue OwlchemyVR Mixed Reality Beta

Wir haben bereits mehrfach gezeigt, dass Mixed Reality Aufnahmen bereits heute mit vielen Spielen in einer hervorragenden Qualität möglich sind. Natürlich gibt es aber immer Luft nach oben und das Team von OwlchemyVR stellt nun eine neue Lösung vor, die es ermöglicht, dass auch die Lichter des Spiels eine Auswirkung auf den Darsteller haben.

OwlchemyVR Mixed Reality Beta

Das schöne an Mixed Reality Aufnahmen ist, dass man den Spieler direkt im Spiel sieht und nicht die Ansicht des Headsets präsentiert bekommt. Mit einer solchen Darstellung fällt es dem Zuschauer leichter, zu verstehen, wie sich der Spieler im Spiel fühlt und wie er agiert. Ein Beispiel seht ihr hier:

Die neue Beta von OwlchemyVR geht einen neuen Weg. Der Spieler wird nicht mehr mit einer herkömmlichen Kamera aufgenommen, sondern es kommt eine 3D Kamera zum Einsatz. Das erfasste Bild wird anschließend wieder an Unity geben und der Spieler wird live in die Szene gesetzt. Somit können die Informationen für das Licht auch Auswirkungen auf den Spieler haben:

Außerdem hat das Team ein Verfahren entwickelt, wie Menschen mit einem kleinen Greenscreen eine saubere Mixed Reality Lösung erstellen können. Das System blendet dabei automatisch den Übergang zwischen echter Welt und Greenscreen aus und ihr müsst keine speziellen Masken in der Nachbearbeitung anlegen. Auch die Transparenz wird durch das neue Verfahren besser. Bisher gab es zwar auch Transparenz über die Ausgabe des Alpha-Channels, doch diese war nicht immer 100% akkurat. Laut OwlchemyVR soll dieses Problem nun auch gelöst sein.

Falls ihr Interesse habt, an der aktuellen Beta teilzunehmen, dann könnt ihr euch hier anmelden. 

 

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Owlchemy Seeks Beta Testers For New Mixed Reality Solution

Owlchemy Labs Adds Incredible Transparency and Lighting To Mixed Reality Solution

Mixed reality is one of the most impressive uses of virtual reality technology we’ve seen so far. By using a green screen and inventive camera setup, users can project the game world to the screen and let it surround the player — as if they are actually standing inside the VR experience itself. This not only looks great in video, but does a wonderful job of communicating what it’s like inside the headset.

Back in October, Owlchemy Labs, the developers behind the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Job Simulator and upcoming Rick and Morty VR game, announced their plans for iterating and improving on mixed reality capture technology. Now today, they’ve announced the follow-up to their developments, which includes incredible dynamic lighting, automatic green screen bounding, and transparency features.

UploadVR reached out to Owlchemy Labs CEO, Alex Schwartz, about these new features and how they will work with other non-Owlchemy games and applications. “It can be dropped into any app with zero integration and will work for any 3D content in Unity. At this moment we’re looking for people to try it out in a closed beta and the licensing model is yet to be announced.”

You can apply for the Owlchemy Labs mixed reality private beta right here.

Livestream Recap: Expert ‘Tilt Brush’ Techniques, ‘Google Earth’ and PS VR Launch

mixed reality

Every week, we go Live at Five on Facebook and Persicope to show you all the latest and greatest VR experiences that we can get our hands on. Every show is shot using a green screen and an HTC Vive in the mixed reality mode to give you the best angles to watch.

This week, we had Tilt Brush artist Steve Teeps in the studio to show us behind the scenes of what it takes to create dark and mysterious Tilt Brush art and character designs, and on Friday, we had all our friends and family from the Upload Collective companies hang out on on beanbags and play Google Earth. As a bonus clip, I’m throwing in our writers’ Joe Durbin and David Jagneaux’s thoughts and impressions on the PSVR launch titles!

Keep on the lookout on our social channels for announcements for when we’re streaming a multiplayer game for a chance to be a part of the video! Follow us on Facebook to join the discussion when we go live:

Tuesday – Tilt Brush Techniques 3: Steve Teeps


3D artist extraordinaire Steve Teeps made an appearance at the Upload Mixed Reality Studio to show off his work in the Doctor Strange promo video. He also brought a ton of his work in Tilt Brush over the past year, showing us the amount of features that have been added since Google’s acquisition of software.

Friday – Google Earth: Childhood Stories


Finishing off this long week, the members from Upload Collective companies raided the Mixed Reality studio to talk about their childhood memories and give us tours of their home town. Too bad the my country is flat!

Bonus Clip – PSVR Launch Titles Impressions


Throwback Sunday? For those of who you missed it, the Playstation VR had a big launch, and who better to tell you what to play than Senior Staff Writer Joe Durbin and Games Editor David Jagneaux!

Calling all Developers!

Want to us to feature your game on our live shows? Send us a build of your game to test it in Mixed Reality! Pre-requirements (at least for now): HTC Vive / Unity.

You decide what games we should play next! Let us know in the comments below!

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Linq: Neues Mixed Reality Headset von Stereo Labs

Mit Linq stellt das Unternehmen Stereo Labs ein neues Mixed Reality Headset vor, welches speziell für die Verwendung im Wohnzimmer gedacht ist. Während aktuelle Virtual Reality Headsets wie die HTC Vive, die Oculus Rift und das PlayStation VR Headset eine externe Lösung für das Tracking verwenden, wird dieses Headset ohne zusätzliche Hardware auskommen und auf ein Inside-Out Tracking System setzen. Auf ein solches Verfahren setzt auch beispielsweise die HoloLens von Microsoft oder das Snapdragon VR820.

Linq

linq Mixed Reality

Das Unternehmen hat einen Trailer veröffentlicht, der die Verwendung des Headsets demonstrieren soll.  Im Trailer zeigt sich, dass das Unternehmen nicht nur ein Headset gebaut hat, welches den Raum erkennen kann, sondern das Headset wird auch mit einem System für das Hand-Tracking ausgestattet. Das Unternehmen setzt bei dem Headset aber nicht auf ein transparentes Display. Die Bauweise erinnert eher an ein klassisches Virtual Reality Headset mit zwei verbauten Kameras an der Frontseite, die einen Blick in die echte Welt gewähren. Aktuell ist nicht klar, was für ein Display zum Einsatz kommt.

Stereo Labs sagt, dass es mit dem Headset möglich sei, Objekte in einer Distanz bis zu 20 Metern zu erfassen. Somit kann Linq auch in größeren Räumen problemlos eingesetzt werden. Für das Inside-Out Tracking und für die Aufnahme des Raumes wird eine spezielle Version der ZED Kamera von Stereo Labs verwendet.

Upload VR hatte bereits die Chance, das Produkt auszuprobieren und sagt, dass die aktuelle Version von Linq schon sehr beeindruckend sei. In der Demo war jedoch die Latenz etwas höher als bei aktuellen Virtual Reality Headsets, doch die Latenz soll in Zukunft noch weiter sinken. Im Moment handelt es sich bei Linq noch um einen Prototypen und bevor man erste Geräte an Entwickler und Konsumenten verschickt, sollen alle Probleme beseitigt sein. Stereo Labs möchte erste Headsets Anfang 2017 an Partner und Entwickler ausliefern und im Laufe des Jahres 2017 auch ein größeres Publikum bedienen.

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Stereo Labs Unveils ‘Linq’ – A Mixed Reality Headset For The Living Room

Stereo Labs Unveils ‘Linq’ – A Mixed Reality Headset For The Living Room

Most high-end virtual reality headsets today use what’s called outside-in positional tracking. This means that they require some sort of outside camera, sensor or other location sensing aid in order to determine their location in 3D space. This system makes the headset dependent on static hardware, however, and so top engineers at Oculus, HTC and Google are all racing to crack the inside-out code first.

Amidst this clash of titans is Stereo Labs, a little-engine-that’s-trying to enable inside-out tracking on mobile VR headsets using simple, depth sensing peripherals. Today, Stereo Labs is announcing a new developer kit for a product called “Linq.” It’s goal is to bring entertaining mixed reality experiences into your living room.

According to Stereo Labs, “Through high definition stereo cameras, the headset blends the virtual and real worlds together in an immersive and photorealistic way. Linq understands the world around it and perceives people and objects in space up to 20m away.”

In a launch day release, the company further explained how its system works:

The magic comes from Linq’s front-mounted sensor, a special version of Stereolabs’ ZED stereo camera that replicates the way human vision works and perceives the world. Linq’s built-in camera scans the environment in real-time and provides 6DoF inside-out world-scale positional tracking without the need for any external sensor. Users can walk, jump, crouch and even dodge projectiles, with every movement captured in the MR experience itself. They don’t need to map out the entire playing field first in order to play.

This take on AR is what Oculus’ chief scientist, Michael Abrash called “Augmented Virtual Reality.” Rather than using transparent images and complex computerized lenses to change the world around you, Linq simply beams the real world inside a VR headset where the physical realm can be manipulated on the onboard digital screens.

This could be a major breakthrough for the immersive tech industry but that depends on how well Linq actually works. UploadVR had the chance to try an prototype of the Linq at our offices in San Francisco and we found the hardware to an impressive proof-of-concept.

The inside-out positional tracking on the Linq prototype worked better than their previous Gear VR + ZED camera combination. The tracking was accomplished using 2 RGB cameras, unlike most inside-out SLAM systems using infrared band. The dual camera depth mapping works by stereoscopic vision, similar to how Human depth perception works.

You could walk around a AR space, place virtual windows and videos in the room around you, have everything stay put without much drift. However, we did notice more motion-to-photon latency than any of the consumer headsets, but we were told that that’s to be expected for using combining 3rd party components to create a proof-of-concept device.

Linq’s system for hand tracking is also unique. It does not use infrared finger tracking a-la Leap motion but instead opts for a more blunt limb-tracking technique that simply clocks the relative positions between physical and digital objects in order to determine interactions.

Addressing the latency issue is Stereo Labs main goal as they move from the prototype and begin to release dev kits. To sign up for one of your own check out the Linq website.

Additional reporting by Az Balabanian

Disclaimer: Stereo Labs rents an office at the Upload Collective – a co-working office in San Francisco. This story was run solely because of its merits and relevance to the wider VR community. No money was exchanged between either company for this article. 

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Upload LIVE Show weekly recap: 10/30/16

Upload LIVE Show weekly recap: 10/30/16

Every week, we are Live at Five on Facebook to show you all the latest and greatest of VR experiences that we can get our hands on. Every show is shot using a green screen and an HTC Vive in the Mixed Reality mode to give you the best angles to watch.

This week was Halloween so we kicked it off with fun Unicorn and Green Man costumes, followed by an amazing VR painting lesson from Danny Bittman, and finished it by getting an exclusive look to HTC Vive game ‘Cowbots and Aliens’. Here’s a full recap of what’s been going on LIVE in the Upload Mixed Reality Studio in San Francisco.

Follow us on Facebook to get join the discussion when we go live:

Monday – Halloween in Sword Master VR


Floating head gladiator Az Balabanian is joined by his wonderful trustee Unicorn Elizabeth Scott to battle the knights of hell in Sword Master VR for a special Halloween show. Since the video is shot on a green screen stage, Az’s green man suit blends in and makes him look totally invisible!

Tuesday – Tilt Brush Technique : Danny Bittman


Carrying the Tilt Brush Tuesdays tradition, we had Danny Bittman in from magical studio in Wisconsin to show us his creation in a collaborative Tilt Brush painting for the Doctor Strange Trailer. He talks about the best Tips and Tricks to be a better artist in Tilt Brush. Using the .obj import/export tools, he created his own library of assets to speed up his painting process!

Friday – Cowbots and Aliens Interview and Gameplay


Filling in for Az, Will Mason takes talks on the stage as a Robot Cowboy in the new ‘Cowbots and Aliens‘ interviewing the Wizard Games developers and jumping into a Free-for-all Match against high-pitched voiced teenagers playing at the Australia PAX demo booth. Madness!

What’s next? You Decide!

You decide what games we should play next! Let us know in the comments below!
Tuesday ELECTION SPECIAL 5 PM PST – Whack a Vote: Hammering the Polls

Want to us to feature your game on our live shows? Send us a build of your game to test it in Mixed Reality! Pre-requirements: HTC Vive / Unity

As always, follow UploadVR on Facebook and Twitter to get notified when we go live and jump in the discussion!
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Creative Works Announces KWP Partnership For Mixed Reality Attraction

We’ve discussed on a number of occasions at VRFocus the ongoing development of virtual reality (VR) entertainment experiences outside of the home. Be is a large-scale multiplayer experience as with The VOID’s Ghostbusters: Dimension or a theme park ride such as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train ride at the UK’s Alton Towers resort. Now amusement attraction designers Creative Works have inked a new exclusive deal with KWP’s Kevin Williams.

Creative Works, who manufacture all aspects of amusement attractions from designing the venues to manufacturing props and effects will be working with Williams to create a new attraction that won’t be VR-based but in this instance a Mixed Reality (MR) experience. As the company puts it in a press statement: “This attraction won’t be VR and it won’t be real life. Rather, it will bridge the gap to deliver the best of both worlds while eliminating the weaknesses of each.”

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Williams of course is a well known figure in the industry, particularly the pay-to-play scene; with an extensive background in the development and application of amusement and attraction technologies. Williams will also be familiar to VRFocus readers for his series of articles on this very subject, The Virtual Arena. The most recent edition of which was about sharing headsets in the public space which you can read here.

Speaking on the partnership and the project before them, Creative Works co-owner Armando Lanuti commented that “Too many vendors in our industry fear the advancements with in-home entertainment and technology. Rather than fear it, we want to understand it so we can take the successful elements and, with the support of KWP, craft a truly unique digital game experience that will define the sector’s future.”

The depth and details of this MR project have yet to be revealed,but both parties promise that they will “follow shortly”. VRFocus will be bring you more when announced.

Hacked Together Mixed Reality Camera Robot Shows Huge Promise

Hacked Together Mixed Reality Camera Robot Shows Huge Promise

Jaymis Loveday’s most recent mixed reality video project was filmed with a helpful robot camera assistant.

Loveday seems to be something of a mad scientist working in Australia, creating the first music video built in Tilt Brush. Recently he got access to a third HTC Vive controller, allowing him to start experimenting with mixed reality video capture. With Loveday’s most recent experiment, he essentially built a camera robot assistant.

Loveday filmed artist SUTU as he sketched out a scene in Tilt Brush over the course of about four hours. The scene is from a panel SUTU previously made for a 2D interactive Web-based comic book called NAWLZ. In the video below, you can see him place a reference image in the scene as he begins. SUTU was previously commissioned by Google to create a work of art in Tilt Brush, so he knows his way around the sketching program.

The video represents a series of experimental camera techniques. The result is a kind of cinematic stabilized camera system that can be operated with no human involved, or handheld by one person who is seamlessly capturing the action in two realities. Powering the system is Valve’s SteamVR Tracking technology and a DJI Ronin gimbal receiving commands from an Arduino telling it to keep the VR headset in the frame.

“I’ve written some software in Unity which takes the position/rotation of the mixed reality controller, and figures out pan/tilt angles to the headset,” Loveday told UploadVR. “It’s running as an “overlay” application, so it can work alongside a regular piece of VR software. Unity sends those angles via serial to the Arduino, which sends pan/tilt commands via RC transmitter to the Ronin. So for the timelapse stuff, I make it so the movements are slow, and there’s a bigger “dead zone” so he can move around and it’s not jerking everywhere. And for the real-time stuff where I pick up the gimbal, it’s moving faster so it keeps the headset centered.”

The experiments were captured without a green screen, an addition which could make it easier to add the virtual environment to the scene. Still, the video — particularly shots near the end showing a mostly opaque work of art in the foreground — show enormous promise on the path to impressive mixed reality videos and broadcasts. Next, Loveday will be looking at how to make the system work with cheaper, smaller hardware.

“One of my next steps is to have the robot physically moving around the space as well,” Loveday said. “Initially it’ll be on a 6 ft camera slider, but there are other options for robotic moving cameras.”

‘Ghostbusters: Dimension’ Trailer Offers Glimpses Inside The VOID

A new trailer for Ghostbusters: Dimension, a location-based VR attraction produced by The VOID, shows what it’s like to step inside a VR experience that mixes a physical environment with virtual visuals.

The VOID produces a unique type of VR attraction that has players roaming a large scale physical space while wearing headsets and haptic vests. The idea is that players see the virtual world around them but it’s reinforced not only with the feeling of real walls and objects when they reach out to touch them, but also with real-world effects like temperature, smell, air bursts, and more.

SEE ALSO
Harrison Ford Enters The VOID's VR Experience at TED 2016

Built on this platform, the company created the Ghostbusters: Dimension experience which launched at Madame Tussaud’s in New York City earlier this year. We’ve seen screenshots of what it looks like inside, but a new mixed-reality trailer (heading this article) gives a much better feel for what it’s like to brandish the Proton Blaster as you battle your way through the set that’s infested with virtual ghouls.

The VOID says that 20,000 people have taken the dive into the experience and also says that a number of updates are in the works to add additional effects and features, including an achievement system.

Road to VR’s Paul McAdory took a spin through Ghostbusters: Dimension himself and found the experience suitably enticing.

The post ‘Ghostbusters: Dimension’ Trailer Offers Glimpses Inside The VOID appeared first on Road to VR.