The Under Presents

November 15, 2019

The VR Game Launch Roundup: Mid-November Madness

VRFocus brings you another list of virtual reality (VR) titles being released over the course of next week. Be sure to check out our freshly made roundup video made to accompany this article and stay tuned to check out all individual game reviews as soon as each title is released.

The VRFocus team have been busy covering the events of VRDays in Amsterdam. So make sure to stay following our various social media feeds to get up-to-date information on this event along with all other things VR as usual.

BoxVR– FitXR

This fitness app has everything you need for a VR high-intensity boxing workout. Featuring workout routines advised and regularly updated by various actual professional fitness instructors, activities can range anywhere between 3 to over 20 minutes long. Users can record workouts to track progress and beat personal records and enhance workouts with the help of music from a range of different artists.

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 19^th November

The Under Presents – Tender Claws

First previewed during the Sundance Film Festival, The Under Presents is a new interactive theatre experience by Tender Claws where users interact with both other VR users and scripted film characters. Entering a dimension that exists outside of time and space, you encounter a mysterious being known as “The Under.” Featuring two unique settings of a theatrical stage show and a survival mission, the title has been described as an experience “where live immersive theatre meets VR to bring live actors into your living room.”

Supported platforms: Oculus Quest
Launch date: 19^th November

DEEMO -Reborn- – Rayark Inc.

First released in 2013, Rayark Games are back with a VR updating of their popular rhythm videogame, Deemo, now featuring brand new elements and an extended story. Once again, having fallen from the sky, a young girl finds herself in a mysterious unknown world. She discovers a castle and is welcomed by the mysterious Deemo. She discovers a small tree that grows whenever Deemo plays the piano. If the tree grows enough, the girl can reach the sky and return back home, will she make it back? New sheet music is unlocked for the user by exploring the castle and solving various puzzles and activating switches. Featuring the new “Exploration Mode” to accompany the “Music Mode,” this enchanted musical adventure is back and better than ever.

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 21^st November

Vader Immortal: Episode III – ILMxLAB

Coming soon from ILMxLAB comes the third and final adventure in the Star Wars spin-off series, Vader Immortal. In Vader Immortal: Episode 3, you are joined by your droid companion, ZO-E3, and must stop Darth Vader from returning to his castle and activating a deadly Bright Star artefact. If activated, life on Mustafar could be wiped out forever. It’s up to you make use of the classic lightsabre, the force and any blaster you find to break into the castle and stop the activation taking place, eventually coming face-to-face with the iconic Sith Lord himself.

Supported Platforms: Oculus Quest/Oculus Rift
Launch date: 21^st November

January 29, 2019

The Under Presents: Interaktive-Theatererfahrung für Oculus Quest

Entwicklerstudio Tender Claws (bekannt für Virtual Virtual Reality) stellt auf dem Sundance Filmfestival 2019 seine neue VR-Theatererfahrung The Under Presents für die kommende VR-Brille Oculus Quest vor. Das surreale, interaktive Schauspiel soll immersive Theaterelemente mit Live-Schauspielern kombinieren und dadurch eine einmalige Geschichte erzählen. Zusätzlich ist die VR-Dokumentation Traveling while Black ab sofort kostenlos für GearVR und Oculus Go erhältlich.

The Under Presents – Interaktive VR-Theatererfahrung für Oculus Quest

Das surreale VR-Schauspiel The Under Presents lädt die Zuschauer auf eine einzigartige Reise durch Zeit und Raum ein. Das Setting der VR-Erfahrung spielt an Bord eines magischen Schiffes namens The Under in einer Paralleldimension, um die Zuschauer während der virtuellen Erzählung mit einer Vielzahl von Themen, wie Schicksal, Zeit und freien Willen in einer Art Schleife von Unterakten zu konfrontieren.

Dabei werden die Zuschauer aktiv mit in die Story eingebunden, indem sie mit den stetig wechselnden Charakteren und Storysträngen interagieren dürfen. Hierfür kommen sowohl aufgenommene Performances sowie Live-Schauspielern zur Aktion. Dies soll das Präsenzgefühl weiter steigern und dazu einladen, noch tiefer in die Erfahrung einzutauchen. Sämtliche Zusatzstorystränge sollen dabei geschickt in die Haupterzählung namens The Aickman eingebunden sein.

The-Under-Presents-Oculus-Quest

Zur Umsetzung auf dem Sundance Filmfestival arbeitete das Entwicklerstudio eng mit dem New Yorker Theaterkollektiv Piehole zusammen, um deren langjährige Erfahrung in das Werk mit einzubeziehen. In der VR-Erfahrung sollen die Spieler zudem innerhalb der immersiven Umgebung sowohl miteinander wie auch mit diversen Objekten interagieren können.

Samantha Gorman, Co-Gründerin von Tender Claws, findet freudige Worte zum VR-Projekt:

“Es herrscht großes Interesse an der Überschneidung von immersivem Theater und VR. Die Narration unseres Projekts dreht sich um Themen, wie Schicksal und freien Willen, und als Teil dieser großen Felder, möchten wir mit dem Präsenzgefühl spielen, in dem wir mit bereits aufgenommenen sowie Live-Charakteren interagieren. Zudem sollen die Spieler untereinander und mit früheren Versionen ihrer selbst interagieren dürfen.”

Die VR-Theatererfahrung soll nach der Veröffentlichung der Oculus Quest zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt erscheinen.

Traveling while Black – Kostenlos für GearVR und Oculus Go erhältlich

Neben dem kommenden Oculus-Quest-Titel wurde zudem der VR-Kurzfilm Traveling while Black für Oculus Go und Gear VR vorgeführt. Die immersive Dokumentation thematisiert die schwierigen Lebensumstände von afroamerikanischen US-Einwohnern in der Vergangenheit sowie zu heutigen Zeiten.

Die VR-Erfahrung ist seit Kurzem kostenlos im Oculus Store erhältlich.

(Quellen: Oculus Blog | Road to VR | Videos: Oculus YouTube)

Der Beitrag The Under Presents: Interaktive-Theatererfahrung für Oculus Quest zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

January 27, 2019

Oculus Debuts Two VR Experiences at Sundance, One is an Oculus Quest Title

The Sundance Film Festival is currently taking place in Park City, Utah, showcasing not only the best in original film but also the very latest in immersive experiences. As part of the event Oculus has premiered one title while teasing another, they are Traveling While Black and The Under Presents, respectively.

Traveling While Black

Traveling While Black is the work of Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams and co-directed with Ayesha Nadarajah and Felix & Paul Studios, created in collaboration with The New York Times Op-Docs. It is a 20-minute documentary focusing on the long history of the restricted movement for black Americans and the creation of safe spaces in communities.

“I hope Traveling While Black sparks a conversation that inspires real solutions and awareness,” Williams told Oculus Blog. “If this film asks the right questions and gets people to think about this ongoing crisis in America — not avoid or gloss over it, just to have a profound discussion about race in America instead of looking the other way — then we’ve succeeded.”

If you own an Oculus Rift or Oculus Go headset then you can watch Traveling While Black for yourself, available through the store for free.

The Under Presents

The Under Presents, on the other hand, is merely a teasing glimpse at what’s to come later this year. Created by the team behind Virtual Virtual Reality and augmented reality (AR) experience Tendar, Tender Claws aim to blend immersive theatre and virtual reality (VR).

“There is a lot of interest in exploring the overlap of immersive theater and VR,” says Samantha Gorman, co-founder of Tender Claws. “The project’s narrative revolves around fate and free will and as part of that we’re interested in playing with the change of feeling of interacting with both pre-recorded and live characters. As well as other players and past recorded versions of themselves.”

Merging live actors and scripted performances with a narrative arc that centers on themes of time, fate and free will, for The Under Presents Tender Claws collaborated with NYC-based theatre collective Piehole to feature both motion-captured characters and live actors throughout the story.

The Under Presents will be coming to standalone headset Oculus Quest later this year. When VRFocus has further details we’ll let you know.

January 26, 2019

Oculus Quest Experience ‘The Under Presents’ Debuts at Sundance 2019

Oculus today announced that it’s bringing two VR experiences to this year’s Sundance Film Festival— the previously announced Traveling While Black for Oculus Go & Rift, and the newly unveiled The Under Presents for Oculus Quest.

immersive theater and VR, allowing you to interact with characters and other participants within the experience’s magical ship called ‘The Under’.

Oculus says in a blog post that in ‘The Under,’ the user enters a vaudeville stage that exists in a “special dimension outside time and space, where you are guided by a mysterious proprietor. ‘The Under’ operates on a loop with different live and recorded acts coming and going — and the main act ‘The Aickman’ is the story within the story.”

The experience is said to arrive on Oculus Quest “later this year.”

Traveling While Black

Oculus also debuted Traveling While Black, a VR documentary film that centers on the history of restricted movement for Black Americans.

Directed by Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams and co-directed with Ayesha Nadarajah and Emmy-Award winning directors Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël (Felix & Paul), the project was created in collaboration with The New York Times Op-Docs.

“It started as a need to talk about this forgotten period,” Williams says in the Oculus blog post. “It’s about connecting the past to the present and explaining to people that we, as Black people in America, are at risk every time we step out the front door. There’s a history that makes you anxious and tense because you carry it with you everywhere you go.”

“I hope Traveling While Black sparks a conversation that inspires real solutions and awareness,” Williams added. “If this film asks the right questions and gets people to think about this ongoing crisis in America — not avoid or gloss over it, just to have a profound discussion about race in America instead of looking the other way — then we’ve succeeded.”

Traveling While Black is available today on Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, and on the NYT Op-Docs page.

Sundance 2019 will be taking place from January 24th – February 3rd in Park City, Utah.

The post Oculus Quest Experience ‘The Under Presents’ Debuts at Sundance 2019 appeared first on Road to VR.

January 25, 2019

‘The Under Presents’ Is A Theatrical Oculus Quest Project From Tender Claws

The Los Angeles-based creators of Virtual Virtual Reality and AR software Tendar just announced an Oculus Quest project.

From Tender Claws, “The Under Presents” is a theatrically-centered VR project funded by Oculus Studios featuring a “vaudeville stage that exists in a special dimension outside time and space.” A sneak peek of the project is being shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

According to a blog post announcing the project, this virtual theater will feature a loop of “different live and recorded acts coming and going” and it was produced in collaboration with NYC-based theater group Piehole. “And the experience is designed to take advantage of the untethered Oculus Quest, allowing the actors to join the experience in Oculus Quest too and conduct performances from different physical locations,” according to the post.

Tender Claws co-founder Samantha Gorman says the narrative surrounds “fate and free will and as part of that we’re interested in playing with the change of feeling of interacting with both pre-recorded and live characters. As well as other players and past recorded versions of themselves.” Fate and free will certainly sound like normal questions for Tender Claws to grapple with, but both live and pre-recorded characters makes it sound like the developers are taking their exploratory work in VR and AR game design to the next level.

We don’t know when The Under Presents will launch just yet. The $400 Oculus Quest headset is due to launch in the coming months, but this project’s release is just listed as later this year.

Tagged with: Oculus Studios, Tender Claws, The Under Presents

The post ‘The Under Presents’ Is A Theatrical Oculus Quest Project From Tender Claws appeared first on UploadVR.