Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aimé has addressed the Switch's lack of streaming apps and hinted that they'll arrive in the future. For now, they're "not a differentiator," he said.
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An animated series based on Castlevania will be coming to Netflix sometime in 2017, and is being produced by Adi Shankar and written by Warren Ellis. A second season is also promised for 2018.
The post ‘Castlevania’ animated series coming to Netflix appeared first on Digital Trends.
Everyone loves Stranger Things, right? Well, in case you’re tired of binge watching the first season over and over while waiting for season two, Netflix has a little surprise for you. A Stranger Things-themed retro-browser game is now available.
The post Revisit ‘Stranger Things’ with Atari-inspired game from Netflix Hack Day appeared first on Digital Trends.
Netflix targets video game fans this week with the launch of Netflix Infinite Runner, an autoscrolling platformer featuring characters from the original series Narcos, Marco Polo, Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things.
The post ‘Netflix Infinite Runner’ is the ‘Stranger Things’ game we never wanted appeared first on Digital Trends.
A lot of companies would have you believe 360 degree video is the future of storytelling. It’s why 20th Century Fox just signed a deal with Felix and Paul, and IMAX is bringing VR stations to cinemas around the world. But is ‘VR video’ in its current state really proof of that?
That’s what VR testing company, Fishbowl VR, wanted to find out with its new report, ‘The State of VR Video‘. The company, which traditionally allows developers to playtest their VR experiences and gauge reactions to them, has used its services to gather information about the current state of 360 degree experiences.
“You hear a lot about the future of 360º video and immersive storytelling, and about how VR video will be a gateway drug to more interactive VR,” Fishbowl VR founder Geoff Skow told UploadVR. “What you don’t hear much about is what users like and don’t like about today’s VR video apps.”
To test reactions to 360 video, Fishbowl used 10 apps: Littlstar, Jaunt, Oculus Video, Wevr, Sky, Netflix, Within, Hulu, Discovery VR, and VRideo. Most of these are simple portals for 360 degree content, though Netflix and Hulu offer viewing of their standard content on virtual screens and Wevr also has full VR experiences in its Transport app. Participants used the apps, and then rated their likelihood of recommending it on a scale of 1 – 10. They also rated elements like load times, depth of content, picture quality and more.
In terms of apps users thought they might one day replace their traditional viewing platforms with, Netflix was the highest rated app among the hundreds of participants, with Oculus Video following closely behind. Both were well ahead of the rest of the competition, and DiscoveryVR was rated the lowest.
In faxt, Netflix was one of the highest ranking apps overall, which is interesting as it essentially means users were ranking 2D content on a virtual screen over full 360 degree content, though Netflix and Hulu — which also scored well — both have the advantage of quality programming through decades of traditional media.
In general, the reports key findings suggest that users missed the feeling of shared viewing when in VR, something that might be rectified with the arrival of Facebook’s social VR intergrations. They also wanted more interactivity inside the videos they were immersed in, and video quality left a lot to be desired. Buffering also caused discomfort, and videos need better description.
In other words, there’s a lot to do before 360 video can really hope to reach the masses. Anyone that’s spent extended time with apps like the ones here probably already knew that, but identifying the key areas that need improving provides crucial insight into how the future of this platform looks.
Tagged with: 360 video, fishbowl vr, netflix, study, VR
Google is doing it’s best to make up for lost time when it comes to the virtual reality space. The Silicon Valley juggernaut may not have been first to market for smartphone powered VR with its Daydream platform and View headset (that honor went to Oculus and Samusng’s Gear VR), but it has been steadily gaining ground since the device launched in November. The View is striving to achieve content parity with the other major VR headsets and today it takes one step closer in that mission.
It was announced recently that Netflix, HBO NOW, and other notable applications like Next VR are available now for the View in addition to a slew of recent game releases. Netflix VR and HBO Now, as well as the others, can be obtained in the Google Play Store. These former two in particular will be available free of charge.
These updates may seem negligible but they represent a noticeable shift in the VR power balance. Since September of 2015 the Samsung Gear VR has been the only place that users can access the Netflix VR experience. Now, Daydream has muscled its way into that same club and has even managed to move slightly past its competition in some regards.
Google Daydream View is now the world’s sole portal into HBO’s VR properties. Both HBO GO and HBO NOW can be accessed on the View via an immersive, virtual theater. In a single day the Daydream View has gone from a scrappy newcomer to one of the most comprehensive platforms for VR video on the market.
The other recent additions such as Jaunt and NextVR only make this increase in the View’s video prowess all the more noticeable. Now Google is the company with the exclusive, must-see VR video content rather than Oculus and that is a major reversal for the fledgling industry.
Google may still be lagging in terms of games right now, but if today’s news is any indication, that may be the next domino to fall.
Alongside the official reveal of the Google Pixel phone last month, Google announced Daydream View, a VR headset and controller combo designed for use with the company’s first Daydream-ready phone. Now available on the Google Store, Verizon and Best Buy, Daydream View is coming in with 10 apps and 41 more planned for release by the year’s end.
Starting today, you’ll be able to download some of the basic Google apps including YouTube (with 360 video support), Street View, Play Movies virtual cinema, Google Photos, and the Google Arts & Culture museum app—all of them free, and all of them designed specifically to work in VR.
To that, Google is publishing 5 other apps built by third-party developers today:
An interesting mix of experiences, proprietary VR cinemas, and games are coming to the Daydream platform soon. If you have a Samsung Gear VR, you’ll see a number of familiar names below.
Note: We have access to the famous J.K. Rowling VR experience Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on the review model Google provided us, but it’s unsure at this time if it will be launching today or in the days to follow. The list below was provided to us by Google.
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Apps and Experiences
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Personal Cinemas
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Games
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The post 10 Daydream Apps Launch Today, 40 More Coming By Year’s End appeared first on Road to VR.
Game publisher Ubisoft is in talks with Netflix to produce a series, CEO Yves Guillemot announced Monday. The company has already produced a Rabbids show for Nickelodeon and has several films in the works.
The post Ubisoft looking at potential Netflix series as Vivendi gains more control appeared first on Digital Trends.
Google’s #madebygoogle press conference today revealed some significant details about the company’s forthcoming plans for virtual reality (VR). Daydream is set to launch later this year, and along with the reveal of the first ‘Daydream Ready’ smartphone handset, Pixel, and Google’s own version of the head-mounted display (HMD), Daydream View, the company revealed some of the partners that will be bringing content to the device.
Netflix, HBO and Hulu are three of the most popular video streaming services available in North America. All three are committed to bringing their content to Google Daydream, with the brief announcement stating that Google had been working to bring their ‘entire libraries’ to VR.
This will no doubt reflect Oculus VR and Samsung’s efforts on Gear VR, for which Netflix launched an application late last year. However, there’s been no suggestion of VR exclusive content. It’s currently expected that Netflix, HBO and Hulu will each launch their own ‘virtual cinema’ style application for Google Daydream, opposed to developing original content for the medium of VR.
Google Daydream will launch this November, priced at $79 USD. There’s currently no information on pricing for the Netflix, HBO or Hulu applications, nor release date and cross-platform subscriptions for existing members. Of course, VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
Save yourself from hours of scrolling and searching through Netflix's massive library by checking out this list of our favorite movies you can stream right now. No matter what genre you're looking for, you're bound to find something.
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