Category: Preloaded

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Explore Mother Nature’s Micro Kingdoms With Magic Leap and BBC Earth Later This Year

In 2018 BBC Studios and videogame developer PRELOADED teamed up with Google for a virtual reality (VR) experience called BBC Earth: Life in VR for Google Daydream. For 2019, the pair have now collaborated with Magic Leap on a mixed reality (MR) project called BBC Earth – Micro Kingdoms: Senses.

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For this experience, BBC Studios Natural History Unit and PRELOADED will give users the opportunity to explore microhabitats from the natural world and interact with them. Come face to face with ants that can carry many times their own body weight, or for the brave how about everyone’s favourite eight-legged, eight eyed friend, the spider.

As this is on Magic Leap that means all sorts of creepy crawlies running around your living, using the devices spatial qualities to reveal the invisible senses that guide their behaviour and help them survive. BBC Earth – Micro Kingdoms: Senses has been made possible thanks to funding by the Magic Leap Independent Creator Program.

“We’re pleased to welcome PRELOADED & BBC Studios to the Magic Leap Independent Creator Program, and are looking forward to working with their team to facilitate their launch into our diverse ecosystem of experiences,” said Rio Caraeff, Chief Content Officer, Magic Leap, in a statement. “Together, we’re innovating the next generation of computing and entertainment, and valued Creators such as PRELOADED & BBC Studios are crucial to defining that future.”

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“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Preloaded to bring our joint interactive and creative skills to such an exciting new platform and technology.  Our natural history team has always used new technologies to tell stories and BBC Earth has brought these innovations to new and established audiences to engage them with the natural world. Mixed Reality and the Magic Leap spatial computing platform presents us with exciting new possibilities to achieve these goals,” Head of Digital Entertainment & Games for BBC Studios, Bradley Crooks commented.

BBC Earth – Micro Kingdoms: Senses for Magic Leap will arrive later this year, scheduled for Fall 2019. While BBC Earth: Life in VR for Google Daydream was fairly easy to view thanks to the budget-friendly device, Magic Leap One is an altogether different experience. Magic Leap has made the headset easier to purchase but the basic version will still set you back $2,295 USD. For further updates on the project, keep reading VRFocus.

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Explore the Ocean’s Ecosystems as BBC Earth: Live in VR Emerges for Lenovo Mirage Solo

The Lenovo Mirage Solo standalone headset has now arrived offering Google’s WorldSense motion tracking and access to the Daydream platforms range of virtual reality (VR) titles. For early adopters of the device the BBC has launched BBC Earth: Live in VR which makes use of the headsets extra functionality.

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Created by BAFTA award-winning videogame studio Preloaded in collaboration with BBC Studio’s VR team, BBC Earth: Life in VR represents the first generation of titles using WorldSense, allowing the user to enter a real-time world and witness first-hand the creature behaviours and relationships that sustain the ocean’s rich and diverse ecosystems.

Taking viewers to the Californian Pacific Coast the app starts by following a mother sea otter as she forages in the coastal waters before heading into rich kelp forests. BBC Earth: Life in VR then heads even deeper plunging into the depths of an oceanic trench to encounter a range of animals from microscopic plankton to giant squid and a gargantuan sperm whale.

“It’s extremely exciting that BBC Earth content has been chosen to launch the Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream headset,” said Bradley Crooks, Head of Digital Entertainment & Games, BBC Studios in a statement. “Working with Google to bring BBC nature content to VR allows us to provide our audiences with a fresh, exhilarating level of immersion and is an evolutionary step in natural history storytelling.”

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This is actually the second instance of BBC Earth: Life in VR on the Daydream platform as it first launched for Google Daydream View back in February.

VRFocus caught up with some of the team from BBC Studios, BBC Earth and Preloaded to learn more about the app, how it came about and what they wanted to achieve in the video below. BBC Studios Head of Interactive Tim Burton also revealed work on a new project called Is Anna Okay? which is due to premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest this summer. For further updates on the BBC’s VR projects, keep reading VRFocus.

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Blue Planet II Comes to Google Daydream as BBC Earth: Life in VR

So far over the course of this month the BBC has delved into whether virtual reality (VR) can help mental illness, released its first augmented reality (AR) app, and today announced another VR experience. BBC Worldwide has teamed up with Google on a natural history app called BBC Earth: Life in VR for Google Daydream.

LifeinVR

Built by BAFTA-winning videogame studio Preloaded in collaboration with BBC Earth Productions and BBC Studio’s VR team, BBC Earth: Life in VR has been inspired by series like Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II. The app allows the user to enter a real-time world, moving them from a passive viewer to an active participant, witnessing first hand the creature behaviours and relationships which sustain the ocean’s rich and diverse ecosystems.

“The journey begins on the Californian Pacific Coast, following a mother sea otter as she forages in the coastal waters,” states the official description. “After exploring kelp forests the player can plunge into the depths of an oceanic trench, experiencing this unique environment and behavior of the animals who live there. Along the way they meet and can interact with a range of animals from microscopic plankton to giant squid and a gargantuan sperm whale.”

Kellee Santiago, Sr. Producer forDaydream Apps said in a statement: “BBC Earth’s experience on Daydream makes exploring the wonders of our world more immersive and accessible than ever before. It allows audiences to guide themselves, based on whatever takes their interest. The experience truly showcases the unique capabilities of the interactive and immersive format of Daydream to provide a platform for deeper understandings of our world.”

LifeinVR

“We are really excited to be working with Google to bring BBC nature content to Daydream. VR allows us to provide our audiences a new level of immersion unparalleled by other mediums and tell stories of the natural world in a new and exhilarating way,” adds Bradley Crooks, Head of Digital Entertainment & Games, BBC Worldwide.

BBC Earth: Life in VR is available now from Google Play as a free downloadable app. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the BBC, reporting back with further VR and AR announcements.

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Tate Modern’s ‘Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier’ Experience Comes to Viveport

HTC has now published the Modigliani VR experience, The Ochre Atelier, on Viveport. As a focal point at the Modigliani exhibition currently still in rotation at Tate Modern in London, the experience takes you to the early 20th century Parisian studio of famous painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani.

While Modigliani’s ‘final’ studio still exists in Paris, its appearance has changed significantly over the course of 100 years. To recreate the studio in VR as it was in 1919, London-based developers Preloaded partnered with experts from Tate, whom were armed with extensive research on the subject matter.

Preloaded calls the at-home version a “longer, exploratory version,” in comparison to the experience at Tate. Drawing on extensive archival material and new research surrounding Modigliani, the experience tells his story in a way a simple audio guide and informational placard never could. The Ochre Atelier is now available for download on Viveport here for $2.99.

“You get that sort of gut feeling understanding that you don’t necessarily get from reading about it, or just looking at it in 2D pictures,” said Hilary Knight, Tate’s Head of Digital Content.

“Understanding art is about understanding the painter, the paintings, and also the historical and social contexts. The opportunity we have with virtual reality, and for this experience, has been to try to deliver that in a very short experience that gets you really close to those details,” said Phil Stewart, Creative Director at Preloaded.

As the result of a HTC’s multi-million dollar VR initiative VIVE Arts program, which aims to support content, creators and institutions embracing VR in the arts, The Ochre Atelier is only one of many VR projects. Vive headsets have made their way to exhibitions at museums including London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Taipei’s National Palace Museum, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, Washington D.C.’s Newseum, and St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.

The Modigliani VR experience can still be viewed at Tate Modern’s Modigliani exhibition until April 2, 2018. You can check out upcoming Vive Art installations here.

The post Tate Modern’s ‘Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier’ Experience Comes to Viveport appeared first on Road to VR.

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HTC Vive Partnership with Tate Modern Immerse Art Lovers into Modigliani’s World

Since the consumer launch of the HTC Vive in 2016, Vive has been working on trying to find ways of integrating the new technology into various forms of culture and art. The Vive Arts Program started in 2015 in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) with Virtually Real exhibition. The project invited contemporary artists to experiment and create work in virtual reality (VR) that would eventually be 3D printed and showcased to the public. Vive also worked with British artist Mat Colliwshaw on his VR exhibition Thresholds that ran at the Somerset House, London. Vive hasn’t only participated with artists in London, but has also partnered with the National Palace Museum in Taipei to educate and provide access to the museums in remote regions. 

Vive Art img1 Announced back in June this year, Vive have also partnered with Tate Modern on bringing VR to Tate Modern’s highly anticipated Modigliani exhibition. VRFocus spoke to Paul Brown, the General Manage of HTC Vive Europe about the immersive experience in the center of the Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern.

The Modigliani exhibition runs from the 23rd November 2017, until 2nd April 2018, so for art lovers who have always wanted to try VR or for the youngsters dragged to museums by their parents – there is an opportunity to be immersed into the world of Italian artist Modigliani. The exhibition is the most comprehensive Modigliani exhibition ever held in the UK, bringing togetehr his iconic portraits, sculptures and the largest ever group of nudes to be shown in the UK. Although Modigliani died tragically young, he was a ground-breaking artist who pushed the boundaries of art at his time. Including 100 works – many of them rarely exhibited and nearly 40 of which have never been shown in the UK – the exhibition re-evaluates one of the greatest artist of the twentieth century.

Whilst perusing through the gallery and rooms, one will find VR experience The Ochre Atelier set up by Vive. Nine HTC Vive head-mounted displays (HMDs) will bring a user to Modigliani’s original studio in Paris in 1919. The nine to ten minute guided experience features various quotes, and bits of information about Modigliani’s life, his paintings and eventually painting a picture of what led to his tragic death. This is the first time Tate Modern has showcased any VR technology. The seated experience is the result of five months of mapping and rigorous historical research, the space, its interiors and objects. Tate selected VR studio Preloaded to create the experience. Each of the over 60 objects featured in The Ochre Atelier has been carefully research and authentically modelled by 3D artist and modellers, from a packet of cigarettes to the way the windows would have opened to let the light in. Two late works, Jeane Hebuterne 1919 and Self-portrait 1919 have been reconstructed at the Tate  in collaboration with colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Sao Paulo.

Brown says this is the first time they’ve helped create a piece of content that is integrated into an experience to enhance the life of the artist. He also says The Ochre Atelier will be available for HTC Vive users via the Viveport, in December 2017. This will be a roomscale and much longer experience that will allow users to interact with various objects in the room. Admission is £19.70 GBP (without donation £17.70), concession tickets are £17.90 (without donation £15.90). The Modigliani exhibition is open daily from 10.00-18.00 and until 22.00 on Friday and Saturday. Or if one owns an HTC Vive, one can simply wait for the experience to be available on Viveport.

To find out more about the Vive Arts Program watch the video below. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest installations from Vive.