Oculus’ ‘Henry’ Becomes the First VR Film to Win an Emmy

Oculus Story Studios’ Henry, the tale of a lovable, hard to hug hedgehog and his search for friendship, has walked away with the first ever Emmy awarded to a virtual reality film.

I wrote recently that the traditional motion picture entertainment industry seemed to be gravitating towards immersive media, keen to explore creative and financial possibilities, and now one of the earliest VR films has itself become recognised by that industry, awarded as “Outstanding Original Interactive Program.”

If you own an Oculus Rift consumer headset, it’s unlikely you’ll have missed Henry, the first film made specifically for virtual reality to come out of Oculus Story Studios – itself set up to explore the creative possibilities VR might afford. It’s the story of the titular hedgehog with a desperate desire for friendship, but whose less than cuddly exterior foils his attempts to do so.

henry-emmy

Henry’s a delightful experience, channelling as it does the charm present in many of Pixar’s trailblazing CG animated features, but the film also represents a milestone in the world of VR entertainment. Henry represents an early attempt at both extending and in some cases completely re-inventing the language of linear visual storytelling, inherited TV and movies to cope with, and take advantage of, the ‘look anywhere’ challenges virtual reality presents. This is something that the OSS team explored in depth in their presentation at last year’s Oculus Connect conference. You can watch it below, and it’s highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.

So, after all of that pioneering work, predictably, the Oculus Story Studio team are over the moon. “When we set out to make Henry, it was a step into the unknown world of making an emotional VR movie,” says Ramiro Lopez Dau, director of Henry, “While we didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, we were excited about the possibilities. We never anticipated that one of our first projects would be given such a distinction and this recognition is not only a testament to our team’s creative and technical achievements, but also a validation for the VR storytelling community as a whole. While Henry is just one step in the long journey ahead, we hope this moment inspires storytellers to bring their ideas to this new medium and help shape the future of VR storytelling.”

Oculus Story Studios is continuing on it’s experimental journey into VR film-making. It’s already released LOST, and will soon release Dear Angelica, a VR film previewed at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and with an altogether different feel to Henry.

Here’s hoping Henry‘s Emmy win inspires more of those Hollywood executives and creatives to seek out and invest in virtual reality as a narrative platform. In the mean time, Henry is available on the Oculus Store for free.

The post Oculus’ ‘Henry’ Becomes the First VR Film to Win an Emmy appeared first on Road to VR.

Oculus Touch Release Date & Price Appears on Major German Retailer

Oculus VR’s motion-control input device, Oculus Touch, is expected to arrive later this year. Though no release date or price has yet been confirmed, major German retail outlet Media Markt has updated their website with a listing including these details.

Oculus Touch

The Oculus Touch motion-controllers are remarkably high quality input devices, first revealed at the Step into the Rift event, San Francisco, prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last year. Since then Oculus VR has reaffirmed time-and-again that the Oculus Rift add-on would be made available this year alongside numerous exclusive videogame titles, but has declined to specify a date or price.

The listing on Media Markt suggests that Oculus Touch will launch on 21st November 2016, with a retail price of €199 EUR. This ties in with the current belief of the industry and prior hints from Oculus VR, but of course should still be treated as a rumour at this point.

Oculus Touch Media Markt listing

The pricing would put the Oculus Rift in line with the HTC Vive, which ships with motion-controllers as standard. Oculus VR has not yet stated with a bundle package would be available for Oculus Rift with the Oculus Touch motion-controller, however those who pre-ordered their Oculus Rift earlier this year were automatically given the option to obtain a position in the Oculus Touch pre-order queue.

We’re expecting to learn more about the launch of Oculus Touch at Oculus VR’s own press conference, Oculus Connect 3, San Jose, next month. VRFocus will be in attendance and will keep you updated with all the latest details on the release of Oculus Touch.

Oculus VR Respond to Zenimax Lawsuit Amendment

Earlier this evening VRFocus reported on an update to the ongoing lawsuit between Zenimax Media and Oculus VR, in which Zenimax now claim that the technology for the Oculus Rift software development kit (SDK) was in fact developed by their research team. Now, Oculus VR has issued a statement regarding the matter to VRFocus.

Palmer Luckey

The lawsuit update, filed earlier this evening, suggests that not only did Oculus VR unlawfully obtain technology and research from Zenimax (through John Carmack), but also that a story was fabricated to make the commonly known creator of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, appear to be just that. Instead, Luckey allegedly recognised the rising popularity of virtual reality (VR) and obtained Zenimax’s technologies for his own use.

Responding to the claims, and Oculus VR spokesperson offered the following statement to VRFocus:

“This complaint filed by ZeniMax is one-sided and conveys only ZeniMax’s interpretation of the story. We continue to believe this case has no merit, and we will address all of ZeniMax’s allegations in court.”

The lawsuit will be going to trial, although no date has yet been set. VRFocus will of course keep you updated with all the latest details.

Zenimax Claims Creation of Oculus Rift in Latest Oculus VR Lawsuit Amendment [UPDATED]

The ongoing lawsuit between Zenimax Media and Oculus VR has taken an interesting new turn today, as the former has claimed that the latter’s Palmer Luckey did not actually invent the Oculus Rift. Instead, Zenimax accuse Luckey and John Carmack, former employee of Zenimax now at Oculus VR, of directly stealing virtual reality (VR) technology from the company.

John Carmack

In an update to the lawsuit originally filed back in March 2014, Zenimax Media has amended their claim with new information today. The suit now names John Carmack, Brendan Iribe, CEO at Oculus VR, and Oculus VR parent company Facebook directly.

“Instead of complying with his contract, during his last days at ZeniMax, he copied thousands of documents from a computer at ZeniMax to a USB storage device,” reads the amended filing. “He never returned those files or all copies of them after his employment with ZeniMax was terminated. In addition, after Carmack’s employment with ZeniMax was terminated, he returned to ZeniMax’s premises to take a customized tool for developing VR Technology belonging to ZeniMax that itself is part of ZeniMax’s VR technology.”

Directly attacking Luckey, Zenimax now assert that the commonly known creator of the Oculus Rift did not actually have the knowledge required to do so. Instead, Zenimax suggest that Luckey stole the tools to create an SDK from Zenimax.

PalmerLuckey_2

“Oculus used ZeniMax’s hardware and software technology to create a software development kit (“SDK”) for the Rift and to develop, modify, and tune the Rift hardware. Luckey did not have the expertise or knowledge to create a viable SDK for the Rift. An SDK permits programmers to make use of new hardware by providing the technical specifications by which a computer communicates with that hardware, as well as program code that allows utilization of the hardware’s functions. ZeniMax designed the specifications and functionality embodied in the Rift SDK, and directed its development.”

The reason for this? Zenimax state that Luckey – rather than being the brainchild behind the device – recognised the growing popularity of VR and decided to take advantage of it for himself.

“Luckey recognized the extraordinary value that ZeniMax, aglobal leader in interactive entertainment content, and its employee Carmack, a uniquely experienced and widely acclaimed programmer, added to the modified Rift headset. Luckey also recognized the skyrocketing interest in and public support for virtual reality technology that had been generated  by ZeniMax. Only days after the E3 Convention, Luckey formed his company – then called Oculus LLC – to commercialize the Rift. [sic]”

With both parties having moved beyond the point of settlement, the Zenimax Media and Oculus VR lawsuit will go to trial. Exactly when this will happen is not yet known, but of course VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.

UPDATE: Following the publication of this article Oculus VR has contacted VRFocus to issue a statement. More details can be found here.