Oculus Venues – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 6, 2022

Meta’s Venues App to Shutter, Moving to Horizons World

Meta’s collection of virtual reality (VR) social apps (Horizon Worlds, Venues and Workrooms) is a bit of a fragmented affair as you can’t switch between them as one seamless metaverse. However, part of that is about to change with Venues about to be absorbed into Horizon Worlds in June.

Meta has announced that the Horizon Venues app will be shuttered on 6th June 2022, so if you use it for watching Foo Fighters concerts, martial arts events, the Space Explorers series or any other programming that’ll soon come to an end. You will be able to catch highlights via Oculus TV if that’s any help.

Instead, on that same date Venues will get its own dedicated space within Horizon Worlds, giving the metaverse greater utility and so more reason for Meta Quest owners to venture inside. The downside, Horizon Worlds is still only accessible to Meta Quest 2 users over 18 in the US and Canada. For the rest of the world or those under 18 who do use Venues, tough luck, for now.

It’s understandable (and expected) that Meta would merge these apps, it’s just a shame that this would happen when only very select territories have access. The company has indicated that Horizon Worlds will be expanded to more countries this summer although specific details on when and where have yet to be unveiled.

Meta has been gradually rolling out several new updates to Horizon Worlds over the past few months, testing monetization tools for creators that’ll allow them to sell virtual items and effects inside their worlds. And to ensure users feel safe in its metaverse Meta introduced the Personal Boundary as an unseen security guard.

Every day there seems to be a new company jumping on the metaverse bandwagon with several key tech giants leading the charge. One of those is Epic Games, having made several acquisitions of late as well as releasing Unreal Engine 5, Metahuman and RealityScan, for example. Alternatively, there is Niantic Labs and its vision for a real-world metaverse utilising augmented reality (AR).

As Meta releases further updates for Horizon Worlds, gmw3 will let you know.

July 20, 2021

Space Explorers Episode Two Streaming For Free Until July 23 On Quest

The second episode of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience is available to stream for free in Oculus Venues on Quest, starting today and running until July 23.

The event is running in celebration of National Moon Day (which itself commemorates Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon) and is available on a 24-hour loop in Oculus Venues for Quest users.

The episode, titled ‘Advance’, is the second in a planned four-part series from prolific and veteran immersive media creators Felix & Paul Studios, in association with Time Studios. Here’s a synopsis of the episode:

The daily workload of conducting pioneering scientific experiments continues on the Space Station as the crew prepares for the departure of three astronauts who have completed their six month stay. A changing of the guard offers an opportunity to reflect on the vital role of women in space.

The first episode in the series was available to stream for free in Venue back in May. However, if you missed it, you can catch up by downloading the Space Explorers app for Quest.

The ISS Experience is the second series offered by Felix & Paul Studios as part of Space Explorers, the first of which is titled The Journey Begins and features two episodes. The individual episodes, from The Journey Begins and The ISS Experience, are available for $2.99 each as an in-app purchase.

Episodes 3 of The ISS Experience is due out in the Fall, while episode 4 is set for a Winter 2021 release. The series has also been nominated for an Emmy this week, competing in the Outstanding Interactive Program category.

March 24, 2021

Echo VR Challenger Cup Broadcast Live In Venues This Weekend

The third season of VR Master League’s (VRML) competitive Echo VR matches continue this weekend, with the second challenger cup concluding cycle 2 of the season.

VRML began Season 3 of their competitive Echo VR matches earlier this year, many of which are broadcast live in VR through Oculus’ Venues app, available on Quest. Season 3 brought some new structural changes compared to last year’s second season, with a “flexible ladder system” that accounts for multiple divisions with players at any skill level, from Master down to Bronze.

The regular season matches are spread out over three cycles, each of which conclude with a Challenge Cup. The cups are an opportunity for teams in the second highest division, Diamond Division, to make it into the Master Division for the next cycle of regular season play. Likewise, for some of the teams in the Master Division, this is their chance to keep their spot and avoid relegation for the next cycle.

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The 2nd Challenger Cup of the season will be broadcast in Venues this week for both the NA and EU regions , with six teams competing per region — five from Diamond, trying to move up a division, and one from Master, fighting to keep their spot and avoid relegation down to Diamond.

The teams competing in the EU Challenger Cup are Clockwork, Everest, Baked Potato, Ronins, Exploited from Diamond and Nantes Esport from Master. Likewise in the NA division its Wrath, 7, Corrosion, Genz, Rush and Illumidooty (formerly known as Illuminaughty and Illumidotty) from Master.

The entire Challenger Cup for both regions will be broadcast in Venues this weekend, so you can watch the matches by yourself or with friends in a social setting. Venues features a live theater-sized virtual screen, which emulates the feeling of attending a large sports event.

You can view your timezone’s start and end times for the NA Challenger Cup broadcast here, or the start and end times for the EU broadcast here. Outside of VR, the matches will also be broadcast on YouTube and Twitch.

February 9, 2021

VR Master League To Bring Live Echo Arena Season 3 Matches To Oculus Venues

VR Master League (VRML) is returning to Oculus Venues starting this week with live in-VR broadcasts of Echo Arena Season 3 VR esports matches.

During Season 2 previously, VRML broadcasted VR esports matches in Oculus Venues so this will be a return to form with “more shows than ever” this time around. The slate of content includes “Challenger Cups” every six weeks for the top teams in the VRML.

You can see the current list of standings right here. At the time of this writing Team Gravity is on top with 9 wins. For Season 3, VRML revamped the entire ladder ranking format.

“Now, the top 10 teams in the VRML are slotted into the Master Division and face off against one another in a round-robin style of matchmaking over the course of five (5) weeks (one cycle). In addition to the Master Division, the Echo Arena VRML maintains its flexible ladder system for players of all skill ranges. Ranging from the Bronze Division to the Diamond Division, the ladder is a space for anybody to play Echo Arena, competitively, against equally skilled opponents.”

For those unaware, Echo Arena is developed by Facebook-owned Ready at Dawn Studios (the same team behind Lone Echo) like zero-gravity ultimate frisbee in VR and it’s awesome. You can get the game for free on Rift/Rift S or on Quest/Quest 2.

Echo Arena VRML games in Oculus Venues should be a really interesting way of enjoying the matches. The large theater-sized virtual screen will emulate the experience of attending a large-scale esports event in the real world like no computer monitor can, especially due to the social aspect of the Venues experience.

VRML has put in a lot of work to keep VR esports chugging right along and has continued to expand their content to include match highlights, interviews, recaps, and more each week. You can find that on the official Echo Arena VRML YouTube channel. They’ve added more casters as well for the hundreds of live matches each and every week.

There are two Twitch channels you can follow for Echo Arena VRML (channel 1 and channel 2) as well as a growing ‘Content Creation Team’ at VRML.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

September 11, 2020

Facebook Opens Up Oculus Venues Beta Wider Ahead Of Connect Event

Facebook has widened access to their new Oculus Venues beta and provided some more details on new features ahead of next week’s Facebook Connect event.

Previously Facebook confirmed it was testing a new and improved version of Venues with a limited group of people on Oculus Quest. According to an Oculus blog post, it looks like this access will be widened even more over “the coming weeks” to larger numbers of people.

Facebook says that the upgraded Venues app is “focused on helping you be more social.” There’s a new lobby area where you can meet up with friends at any point before, during, or after the show. Content will also be expanded as well — Venues will now have a rotating set of “always-on” content that is available on a rotating schedule. This will be a mix of genres according to Facebook, including “comedy, exploration, and more.”

The Venues update also uses avatars that seem to resemble the same ones used for Facebook’s upcoming collaborative game creation and playing platform, Facebook Horizon, which is also currently being tested in a private beta. While in Venues, you and your friends will have access to new social features as well, including “interactive emoji expressions, confetti rain, fist bumps, high fives, and the ability to take photos and selfies.” The app will also now support sending invites to friends, asking them to join you in the lobby before an event.

Next week’s Facebook Connect event can be watched in Venues and will also include an exclusive concert by Jayden Smith.

Have you got access to the new Venues beta? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

August 14, 2020

Oculus Venues Revamp To Add Lobby And ‘More Social Features’

Facebook confirmed it is testing a “new and improved version” of its Venues software with a limited group of people on Oculus Quest that will add a lobby to meet up with friends and fans “as well as more social features.”

Oculus Venues launched in 2018 for Go and Gear VR and pushed forward Facebook’s merging of its Oculus VR platform and existing Facebook social network, as it required participants to use their Facebook account to access live events in VR. Both those earlier VR headsets are no longer sold, however, as Facebook focuses its strategy around the Quest standalone headset with some features backed by Facebook’s policy which asks people to use a name that “should also appear on an ID.” Facebook contends the policy, which is also used with its forthcoming VR-based Horizon social networking effort, allows the organization to “do some great things around both safety – making sure it’s backed by a real person – but also for the people who want to invite more of their social network from their Facebook world into their VR environment,” a representative explained at the OC6 developer’s conference in 2019.

“This week we began testing a new and improved version of Venues in beta early access with a limited group of people on Oculus Quest,” a Facebook spokesperson explained in an email today. “The new Venues experience places a stronger emphasis on social interaction, including a lobby where you can meet up with friends and fans, as well as more social features. We’ll continue rolling this out in the coming weeks and will have more to share soon.”

Earlier today the Oculus Store leaked the revamp showing avatars resembling those being developed for Facebook’s forthcoming VR-based Horizon social networking service.

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August 14, 2020September 11, 2020

Facebook Expands Access to ‘Venues’ Beta Ahead of Connect Next Week

Facebook dropped the Oculus prefix for its social VR event viewing platform, rebranding it to simply Venues—another ostensible move to minimize the Oculus name (eg: Facebook Connect now, not Oculus Connect). Now the company is widening access to Venues in preparation for their upcoming flagship social VR offering, Facebook Horizon, which will likely have a bigger reveal at Connect this year.

Update (September 11th, 2020): Facebook is talking up its Venues (Beta Early Access) app in a recent blog post, releasing more information on what to expect from the social platform.

“There’s a new lobby where you can socialize before, during, and after the show—because we all know that one of the best parts of an event is chatting about the experiences with others who were there,” the company says.

Facebook says Venues will also include interactive emoji expressions, confetti rain, fist bumps, high fives, and the ability to take photos and selfies.

Access to Venues is being expanded to more people, Facebook says, and will continue “in the coming weeks.”

Original Article (August 14th, 2020): Now simply named Venues, an early access beta version of the social VR app is currently rolling out. The app is being released to only a few users at this time though, so you may not find that big blue ‘Download’ button on Venue’s new Oculus Store page.

Although likely still a work in progress, many of the avatars appear to be very similar, if not identical, to the ones seen in Facebook Horizon promo material.

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Facelift notwithstanding, Facebook is still using Venues for social live event viewing, including sports, concerts, and standup comedy. Although we haven’t had a chance to go hands-on yet, the Beta Early Access version seems to include a more robust avatar creator and multiple environments, including lobbies for informal chats and more intimate viewing areas for groups.

Oculus Venues May Be The Most Authentic Way To Watch The NBA This Season

After going on hiatus earlier this year, the NBA 2019-2020 season is back in full swing now. But with no fans in attendance at the matches, watching in Oculus Venues is now the closest experience fans can get to watching a NBA game in-person.

A selection of NBA games have been available to view live in Oculus Venues for several seasons now, however this season has been a bit different. No games have been played since March, due to a season suspension in response to COVID-19. Now, the NBA has resumed play in a closed hub at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, but things look a bit different than they did before.

Perhaps the biggest change is the lack of a physical audience — with no fans present at any of the matches for safety reasons, it turns out that Oculus Venues might be the best way to watch the matches with a live crowd right now. The experience will let you watch the match in VR in arena-like seating and interact with other users sitting around you. You can jeer and cheer the players with random strangers sitting around you, just like real life.

That being said, the NBA broadcast in Venues is being handled by a different company than it was pre-season suspension. Traditionally, VR broadcasts of NBA games were handled by NextVR, both for their own app and for the select games available in Venues. However, NextVR was acquired by Apple earlier this year, and so the rights to the NBA broadcast in Venues have been taken over by Yahoo Sports and its sister production company RYOT.

Not all games are available in Venues, but there’s almost one match available each day in Venues from now until August 12. You can check out the full schedule of NBA games broadcast in Oculus Venues here.

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July 30, 2020

Oculus Venues To Broadcast VRML Tournaments For Echo Arena, Onward

VR esports tournament organizers VRML (VR Master League) announced the prize pools for the next seasons of their Onward, Echo Arena and Pavlov leagues, with prizes valued up to $12,000 USD across the three titles. Plus, select matches will be broadcast live in Oculus Venues each weekend.

VRML has consistently organized tournament seasons for some of VR’s biggest competitive games, but this latest prize pool is the biggest cumulative pool yet. VRML says that the increase is thanks to more sponsors and partners, however it’s important to note that the pool is only valued at $12,000 — not all of that is cash prizes. However, VRML wants to ensure that opportunities for competitors to win cold hard cash remain available where possible, and so will be contributing to a cash pool themselves for Onward and Echo Arena.

The prize pool distribution is split as follows:

Onward: $5,520 USD (including $1500 USD in cash, contributed by VRML and Downpour Interactive)
Echo Arena: $3545 USD (including $1400 USD in cash contributed by VRML)
Pavlov: $3,060 USD (no cash prize included)

For Onward, this tournament season is the tenth organized by VRML. Pavlov, on the other hand, is in its seventh season with VRML, and Echo Arena its second, resuming after a hiatus.

Perhaps even more exciting is the announcement that select Onward and Echo Arena matches will be broadcast in Oculus Venues each weekend, allowing spectators to watch VR esports action in VR itself. The Echo Arena matches will continue to be broadcast in Venues each Saturday, having already begun on July 19. Onward matches will be viewable in Venues on Sunday, starting from a TBA date in August.

It’s an exciting development for the VR esports scene — will you be tuning in to catch any of the matches? Let us know in the comments. On the other hand, if you’re interested in competing instead, you can read more and sign up on the VRML website.

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