Another David Attenborough documentary, First Life, is coming to Oculus TV, focusing on the origin of life on Earth.
It was only a few days ago that we found out that David Attenborough’s 3D documentary Kingdom of Plants was making its way to Oculus TV, and yet another documentary is now available too. First Life was first broadcast in 2010 and has now been reimagined for VR over a decade later, co-produced by Meta and Alchemy Immersive with Zoo VFX and 1.618 Digital.
The documentary runs for just over 11 minutes and will explore the very beginnings of life on our planet, featuring a variety of creatures such as the Opabinai, the Anomalocaris and the Hallucigenia. Here’s a snippet from Alchemy Immersive on what to expect:
Join David Attenborough on an epic journey 350 billion years into the past to experience the origin of life on Earth. Utilising world-leading paleontological research and breakthroughs in CGI technologies, experience for the first time the story of how life evolved from single-celled organisms into the ferocious predators that stalked the seafloor.
Alchemy Immersive also brought the aforementioned Kingdom of Plants documentary to life in VR, but that was a little different to First Life — whereas the former was filmed in 3D, the latter was not.
Nonetheless, First Life will present on Oculus TV in stereoscopic 8K 60fps video, available now on Quest headsets. Headphones are recommend as well, as the experience uses spatial audio.
A flora-focused series from nature documentary legend David Attenborough is making its way to VR, available now via Oculus TV.
Kingdom of Plants 3D is a three-part series, written and presented by Attenborough, that first premiered on TV back in 2012, broadcast on 3D channels.
It was one of a couple of Attenborough series in the early 2010s that were shot and presented in 3D format. Kingdom of Plants is the only one to since be converted to work in VR and made available to Quest users.
The VR adaption was produced by Alchemy Immersive — who also worked on last year’s release of the Micro Monsters series by Attenborough on Oculus TV — in collaboration with Meta, ZOO VFX and 1.618 Digital.
Kingdom of Plants will be available at 8K 60fps on Quest 2 and 5K 60fps on the original Quest.
“This immersive series gives you a chance to discover how the life of plants is far from static; it’s full of rich and curious stories of rivalries, dramas, allies and enemies,” said Alchemy Immersive director Iona McEwan to Variety. “By immersing you in the plant world at their scale, in their time, and in incredible 8K quality, you experience our world in an entirely new way.”
Speaking about the original film, Attenborough said that “you can go to Africa and watch elephants and you’ll see more or less what you see on TV but you can’t go anywhere in the world and see plants like you can in this series.”
When Respawn Entertainment and Oculus Studio created 2020’s Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond it wasn’t just a wall-to-wall WWII first-person shooter, the studios wanted to honour those that fought by helping to create several short documentaries. One of those was Colette, which has received an Oscar nomination. If you’ve not played the videogame, this week sees the arrival of Colette on Oculus TV so you don’t need to.
Directed by filmmaker Anthony Giacchino and producer Alice Doyard, Colette follows one of the last surviving members of the French resistance, 92-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine. “As a young girl, Colette Marin-Catherine fought the Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. Since 1945, she has refused to set foot in Germany. That changes when a history student named Lucie enters her life and encourages her to visit the concentration camp where the Nazis killed her brother,” explains the synopsis.
While Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond launched in later 2020, Colette originally premiered much earlier at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February of that year, winning Best Documentary Short in the process. The 24-minute film was acquired by the UK’s Guardian newspaper so you can see the film below via YouTube if you so wish.
Through the Oculus TV app its still in a 2D format, there’s no special 3D/stereoscopic version available, with the app supporting the Oculus Quest platform. You’ll need to ensure the app is updated to the latest version (v2.24) to find Colette in the listings.
It’s the first time a videogame company has received an Oscar nomination, with Colette joining four others in the Best Documentary Short Subject category. These are:
“A Concerto Is a Conversation,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
“Do Not Split,” Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook
“Hunger Ward,” Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman
“A Love Song for Latasha,” Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan
The Oscar’s take place this Sunday, 25th April if you’re interested in watching. For all the latest VR updates, keep reading VRFocus.
The documentary premiered first at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February 2020 and won Best Documentary Short, followed by many other festivals, awards and limited release theatrical runs. It was then featured in the gallery section of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond on PC VR, which released in December 2020. Now, the film is available to view for free in Oculus TV on Quest as well.
It follows Colette Marin-Catherine, one of the last surviving members of the French Resistance from World War II. Here’s a description from the Oculus blog:
As a young girl, Colette Marin-Catherine fought the Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. Since 1945, she has refused to set foot in Germany. That changes when a history student named Lucie enters her life and encourages her to visit the concentration camp where the Nazis killed her brother.
The film runs for approximately 25 minutes. While it’s available for viewing on Quest, it screens as a 2D traditional short film, so don’t expect any 3D or VR elements coming into play.
Last month, the film was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the category of Documentary Short Subject. The Academy Awards are set to take place within the week, on April 26, and so Colette’s appearance in Oculus TV is timely. It’s up against four other short films in the same category.
A new 5-part nature series starring David Attenborough is coming to Oculus Quest from October 6, co-produced by Oculus and Alchemy Immersive.
The series, split across five episodes, is called Micro Monsters with David Attenborough and will be available through Oculus TV starting tomorrow. On Quest 2, the series will stream in 8K 3D in 60fps, whereas on the original Quest it will come down to 5K.
As the title suggests, the series will focus on some of nature’s smaller creatures, specifically arthropods such as butterflies, scorpions and the like. While filming, the series used a combination of custom-developed 3D stereoscopic camera rigs, 180 degree footage and VFX compositing to create the final product, created specifically for VR.
Here’s a summary of what to expect:
“Witness a scorpion and a centipede fight to the death; experience the process of an aphid miraculously cloning itself; and an army of green ants building incredible structures. Narrowly avoid the deadly ambush of a Trapdoor spider and become transfixed by the Portia spider’s deadly musical lullaby. Combining spectacular live-action close-ups with the power of computer graphics, watch a caterpillar’s transformation from inside its cocoon and discover a beetle’s secret chemical weapon.”
Here are some more details on each episode as well:
Episode 1 – The Duel at Dawn: Dive into the deadly world of scorpions, as they battle for their pray and a mate.
Episode 2 – The Mighty Makers: Discover the natural world’s ultimate colonizers: ants and aphids.
Episode 3 – The Trap Door: Uncover the secret forms of defense and attack of the Trap Door spider and the Bombardier beetle.
Episode 4 – The Feast and Flight: Discover the miraculous shapeshifting bug that starts life as one creature and ends it as a completely different one.
Episode 5 – The Deadly Lullaby: Join the hypnotic Portia Spider as she prepares her attack on a spider twice her size.
Micro Monsters is available on Oculus Quest from October 6.
A new 5-part nature series starring David Attenborough is coming to Oculus Quest from October 6, co-produced by Oculus and Alchemy Immersive.
The series, split across five episodes, is called Micro Monsters with David Attenborough and will be available through Oculus TV starting tomorrow. On Quest 2, the series will stream in 8K 3D in 60fps, whereas on the original Quest it will come down to 5K.
As the title suggests, the series will focus on some of nature’s smaller creatures, specifically arthropods such as butterflies, scorpions and the like. While filming, the series used a combination of custom-developed 3D stereoscopic camera rigs, 180 degree footage and VFX compositing to create the final product, created specifically for VR.
Here’s a summary of what to expect:
“Witness a scorpion and a centipede fight to the death; experience the process of an aphid miraculously cloning itself; and an army of green ants building incredible structures. Narrowly avoid the deadly ambush of a Trapdoor spider and become transfixed by the Portia spider’s deadly musical lullaby. Combining spectacular live-action close-ups with the power of computer graphics, watch a caterpillar’s transformation from inside its cocoon and discover a beetle’s secret chemical weapon.”
Here are some more details on each episode as well:
Episode 1 – The Duel at Dawn: Dive into the deadly world of scorpions, as they battle for their pray and a mate.
Episode 2 – The Mighty Makers: Discover the natural world’s ultimate colonizers: ants and aphids.
Episode 3 – The Trap Door: Uncover the secret forms of defense and attack of the Trap Door spider and the Bombardier beetle.
Episode 4 – The Feast and Flight: Discover the miraculous shapeshifting bug that starts life as one creature and ends it as a completely different one.
Episode 5 – The Deadly Lullaby: Join the hypnotic Portia Spider as she prepares her attack on a spider twice her size.
Micro Monsters is available on Oculus Quest from October 6.
John Carmack has made another interesting comment on Twitter today regarding Quill animations on the Oculus Quest. This comes after his revelation last month that he had a version of Minecraft VR running on Quest at one point, but could never get the schedules to align between Facebook and Microsoft to send the game into production.
Animations made in Rift creation tool Quill are frequently highlighted on Oculus TV in Quest, where users can subsequently view the creations using the standalone app Quill Theatre. A new remark from technical VR guide at Facebook John Carmark indicates that this feature is more popular than people might expect.
The Quillustration support in Oculus TV on Quest has turned out to be more popular than I expected. Quickly constructed scenes with simple animation and full 6DOF exploration have become an interesting new canvas for a lot of talented artists.
The tweet was actually a comment attached with a retweet from Goro Fujita, who tweeted a video of a stunning animation he made in Quill and rendered in Octane. It features a Vulture moving idling with some very nice light effects, as you can see below.
Vulture – Daily Quillustration built and animated in VR using Quill rendered in Octane
The Vulture animation is just one example of many creations that get featured on the Oculus TV homepage, which can be opened directly in Quill Theatre. Although artwork created in Quill can be viewed in Oculus TV/Quill Theatre on Quest, there is currently no way to create Quill artwork on the standalone headset. The Quill creation tools are still only available for Oculus Rift on PC VR (unless you use Oculus Link).
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, several VR and AR projects that were set to be presented at this year’s SXSW Festival are being released online this month after the festival’s cancellation. The projects include several 360 video projects that will launch on Oculus TV, along with a new AR project called ‘Fragments’ that is available now for Magic Leap 1 users.
SXSW announced that they would launch a new collaboration called the ‘SXSW 2020 Virtual Cinema on Oculus TV’. In lieu of a physical festival, SXSW will present seven 360 video projects which were all entered into the Virtual Cinema competition before the physical events were cancelled. All seven projects will be available to experience in Oculus TV from May 22-31, and you can read more details about each project on the SXSW site.
Additionally, a new augmented reality project from Atlas V and NSC Creative called ‘Fragments’ is available for the Magic Leap 1 from today. The project was set to have its world premiere at SXSW as part of the official selection before cancellation. The project is directed by Peabody Award winner Aaron Bradbury and is based on the true story of Lisa Elin and her husband Erik Craighead, who passed away six years after they met. Fragments will explore the themes of grief, death and ‘how we perceive and hold onto memories of a tragic event.’ The project’s release also coincides with the International Day of Light, chosen as a a ‘reminder of hope in these especially dark times’.
Will you be checking out any of these SXSW VR and AR projects when they go live? Let us know in the comments below.
It’s quite often the case that only a few immersive films ever make it away from the film festivals, securing funding for a wider public release. Those that have tend to receive substantial backing such as Spheres or Traveling While Black. The current pandemic has shifted expectations regarding what these types of events can achieve when forced to move to a digital format, one of the best examples being today’s release of Tribeca Immersive’s Cinema360 programme thanks to Oculus.
As previously reported, the pair have partnered up in a way which allows everyone at home to enjoy a selection of short films from around the world, from 360-degree videos to animation. It’s a chance to showcase some of the wonderful talent emerging across the globe, creatives experimenting with immersive technology to tell imaginative stories or tackle serious subjects in new ways.
While it is a bit of a shame the content is limited to Oculus TV and therefore purely Oculus Quest and Oculus Go headsets (which means no Oculus Rift support), for those that do have access to either then the selection of free content is worth exploring, split across four sections; Dreams to Remember, Seventeen Plus, Kinfolk and Pure Imagination.
There are a total of 15 films across the categories and while there is certainly some stand out gems, they’re all worth a look; especially considering they’re only available until 25th April. Those which caught VRFocus’ eye include Rain Fruits from South Korea, a story about Tharu who comes to Korea from Myanmar in search of work as an engineer and the hardships he faces as an alien worker.
Or then there’s 360 video Home from Taiwan, a touching family film where the viewer is the grandmother, who can no longer move, react, or hear clearly. It’s a day in the life, where all the family get together, enjoying one another’s company. For those who like animation Lutaw from the USA/Philippines is a high-quality production, following two siblings who look for a better way to commute to the other island where their school is.
For a mixture for styles including 360-video, CGI and a play on scale, then there’s Attack on Daddy, another South Korean film where a dad looks for his daughter inside her dollhouse. And because these are all easily accessible through Oculus TV, if you’re using Oculus Quest then you’ve also got full hand tracking control to play with.
Most importantly Tribeca’s mini VR film festival is a great showcase for the future of film festivals online and through VR headsets. The ability to reach a mass audience rather than the elite few is what content like this needs, so hopefully this will continue and become more widespread into the future.
Starting this week with the launch of hand tracking, Oculus Quest owners no longer need controllers to operate the standalone VR headset.
UPDATE Dec 10: v12 is now rolling out with this feature available!
Facebook calls the feature “Hand Tracking” and it uses the on-board cameras to identify the movements of your fingers and hand without held controllers. It will be available in the ‘Experimental’ section of the Settings in update v12, which is rolling out this week.
This is a firmware update, no new hardware is required. In fact, less hardware is required. For the first time, Quest owners will be able to demonstrate some basic functionality of the standalone headset to friends and family for the holidays in 2019 without Oculus Touch controllers.
The company first announced this feature at Oculus Connect 6 in September, stating that it would arrive in ‘2020’. But in a holiday season surprise they’ve managed to ship it early — for system apps at least.
This isn’t the first headset to support this feature. HTC’s PC-based Vive Cosmos VR headset also supports optical finger tracking. Doing this on a standalone headset, however, is significantly more difficult, and reports of the Cosmos finger tracking quality have not been great.
Quest System Apps At First
The only apps which will support Hand Tracking this week are a handful of system apps. So you’ll have to wait a bit longer for some of your favorite games and experiences to support the feature.
The main Oculus menu, including the Store and Library
Oculus Browser (the built in web browser)
Oculus TV (for both 2D content and 360 videos)
This means you can use Quest as an immersive media viewer or portable cinema without picking up or bringing along the Touch controllers.
We don’t know when Facebook will launch Elixir, an introductory experience used to show off the feature to media at Oculus Connect 6.
SDK Available Next Week
Next week, Facebook plans to release the software development kit (SDK) for Hand Tracking, so that any Quest developer can support the feature in their app or game.
Oculus Avatars is targeted to support finger tracking in 2020, which will allow developers to add hands matching the user’s actual skin tone by default.
We don’t yet know which developers will support Hand Tracking, but we’d expect most social and media apps to do so. We’ll start a list of Quest apps with plans for hand tracking support, so please email tips@uploadvr.com if you’re a VR developer embracing the feature. Bigscreen’s CEO already hinted at support and we confirmed that Virtual Desktop from Guy Godin will be working on the feature when he gets access to the SDK.
Facebook expects the first third party apps to start supporting the feature in 2020.
Keep in mind that it is likely only some games will be adding Hand Tracking support. Many games require buttons, analog sticks, triggers, or haptic feedback. Additionally, based on our experience at Oculus Connect 6, the tracking quality likely wouldn’t be suitable for advanced two hand interactions.
A Long Researched, Challenging Feature
The first indication of Facebook’s interest in finger tracking for VR was revealed in late 2014. The company acquired startup Nimble VR, composed of four veterans of hand tracking technology. But upon this acquisition, Oculus was clear that this technology “may not even be used in the CV2 or CV3”.
That’s likely because Nimble’s tech wasn’t just software, but a dedicated depth sensor. Depth sensors deliver excellent finger tracking such as that found in the new HoloLens 2 AR headset. But these dedicated sensors can add cost and weight to headsets when reducing both is key to broader adoption of the technology. Delivering high quality finger tracking on regular cameras, as is the case on Quest, is a different level of challenge. Its implementation on Quest using the same hardware employed for other kinds of tracking is likely a competitive advantage for Facebook and something likely to be more broadly adopted in future products from the company.
In 2016 at Oculus Connect 3, Chief Scientist Michael Abrash made a range of predictions about VR in the year 2021. He noted that finger tracking could be done perfectly with markers on gloves (and showed this), but not yet directly. However, he predicted that by 2021, it would be possible:
With the roll-out of this feature, then, Facebook will have essentially beaten Abash’s prediction by a year. In 2018 at Facebook’s annual F8 conference the company showed high quality gloveless, markerless finger tracking:
An Oculus representative explained on stage that this “breakthrough” was made possible by Facebook’s heavy investment in machine learning (“AI”) research. They use the kind of glove system described by Abrash in 2016 to train a convolutional neural network to recognize hand poses. This is likely how the feature was made possible.
“If I put my fists together my hands could disappear. If I turned my head to the side and then looked back at my hands it would take a second for them to pop back into existence at a spot where I expected them to be. If I moved my hands too fast they could disappear. If I touched my pointer fingers tip to tip their virtual representations still showed a slight gap between them before quickly correcting themselves to a more believable position. All of these I would characterize as momentary lapses during deliberate attempts to break the tracking rather than just enjoying the things for me to do in the fantasy demo world.“
Unless Facebook made dramatic improvements in the past three months, you won’t have the same tracking robustness you get with the Touch controllers. The controllers contain an accelerometer and a constellation of infrared LEDs designed specifically for tracking in a range of conditions.
But finger and hand tracking should still be good enough for social VR, media consumption, and some very casual games designed specifically with the feature’s limitations in mind. Facebook plans to “add new features and functionality to improve the experience of hand tracking on Quest in 2020.”
At Oculus Connect 6, Engineering Manager Robert Wang explained this current iteration “only scratched the surface of what we can do with hand tracking”. While he was careful not to give a roadmap, he did state that Facebook would “love to be able to” reliably track two handed interactions with regular cameras.
It will certainly be interesting to see what developers do with this feature, and where Facebook will take it in future.
As previously reported, the pair have partnered up in a way which allows everyone at home to enjoy a selection of short films from around the world, from 360-degree videos to animation. It’s a chance to showcase some of the wonderful talent emerging across the globe, creatives experimenting with immersive technology to tell imaginative stories or tackle serious subjects in new ways.
Or then there’s 360 video Home from Taiwan, a touching family film where the viewer is the grandmother, who can no longer move, react, or hear clearly. It’s a day in the life, where all the family get together, enjoying one another’s company. For those who like animation Lutaw from the USA/Philippines is a high-quality production, following two siblings who look for a better way to commute to the other island where their school is.