Category: The Wellcome Trust

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Work Begins on the National Space Centre’s XR Lab

The past week has been a celebration of space exploration thanks to the 50th anniversary of the moon landings. So it’s fitting that the UK’s National Space Centre in Leicester has now begun work on a multi-million-pound development programme building The Extended Reality Laboratory (XR Lab). 

The XR lab has been made possible thanks to funding from the Inspiring Science Fund – a partnership between the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Wellcome. Additional support came from the Local Growth Fund from Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and The Garfield Weston Foundation.

Home to the new NSC Creative Academy, the XR Lab will allow for the creation of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) content, housing workstations and a stereoscopic test dome. It’ll extend the programmes available to those working with the Space Communications team through the new Community Engagement Programme.

The versatile space will be able to support school visitors, allowing them to further their interest in these technologies, as well as help students work with experts as part of their studies.

National Space Centre“The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) are proud to support The Extended Reality Laboratory (XR Lab), which forms part of the recent developments at the National Space Centre that secured a £1 million allocation from our Local Growth Fund,” said Kevin Harris, Chair of the LLEP in a statement. “Not only will this new facility be a great asset for students and young people, it will also open up space related opportunities to communities within Leicester and Leicestershire. The 50th anniversary celebrations of the moon landings this week have really put a spotlight on the space sector and it is great that Leicester is part of the future for space exploration and technology development.”

Once completed the programme aims to involve 3,600 socio-economically disadvantaged young people from Leicester, of whom 50% will be female, in the various workshops being planned.

Opening its doors in 2001, the National Space Centre is an educational hub for those who love space, designed for family, adult and corporate visitors alike. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the XR Lab as development continues, reporting back with the latest updates.

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VR Plant Breeding Title “Seed” Wins $150,000 Developing Beyond Competition

It’s fair to say that Epic Games does share plenty of support, financial or otherwise, when its comes to virtual reality (VR) development. Whether its through the Unreal Dev Grants, the Big Data VR Challenge, or more recently the Developing Beyond competition. This week has seen the winners revealed, with the grand prize finalist being All Seeing Eye with its VR experience Seed.

Seed Screenshot

Seed is a VR plant breeding videogame where players use some advanced genetic engineering skills to create new plant species. With the help of historian Dr. Helen Anne Curry, she shared her knowledge of plant breeding history with the development team to aid their ideas. The main point of the title is for players to take on missions in a virtual potting shed that can influence food production, reflect geo-politics or even create new poisons in an imaginary world.

All Seeing Eye won $150,000 USD for coming in first place, with second place and $50,000 going to Winter Hall by Lost Forest Games. In third place Terramars by Untold Games received $30,000.

“This caps an incredible year for us,” said Ollie Lindsey, founder of winning company, All Seeing Eye in a statement. “It’s been a once in a lifetime opportunity, and to actually win is a dream come true. It means we now have the opportunity to focus solely on a game that we’re incredibly passionate about.”

All Seeing Eye Developing Beyond

Epic Games launched the $500,000 Developing Beyond competition in January 2017 in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust. The brief prompted developers to create new videogames exploring the theme of ‘Transformations.’ The teams then took inspiration from scientific ideas and used Unreal Engine 4 to build their titles. Developers retain rights to the intellectual property they created over the course of the challenge. The aim of the competition is to prepare the teams to ship new commercial games with the help of investors, publishers or partners.

“The jury was unanimous in voting for Seed as the deserved winner of this year’s Developing Beyond. All Seeing Eye have created a beautiful place to explore and spend time in, as well as delivering great gameplay and hitting all the scientific beats on right on the mark,” said Mike Gamble, European Territory Manager at Epic.“The quality of all three games has been incredible and the decision to split second and third was agonising. All three games are more than good enough to be picked up, developed further and taken to market, where I’m sure they will all shine.”

As Epic and The Wellcome Trust continue to launch new videogame initiatives, VRFocus will keep you updated.