Category: UNLTD

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VR Series Trinity Premieres Today in VR Arcades and Steam/Viveport

Mixed reality (MR) production studio UNLTD has been working on its five-part series Trinity for a couple of years now, releasing the first debut trailer during SXSW in March 2017. This week sees Trinity make its first public debut, not only coming to VR arcades but also Steam and Viveport.

A 12-minute, live-action, immersive, and interactive virtual reality (VR) experience, the pilot episode of Trinity is available now in over 50 VR arcades across the US thanks to a partnership with VR Junkies. Additional arcades in Canada and China will be added in early December, thanks to partners Ctrl V and DD Space. And thanks to distributor Rex Media  Trinity is coming to Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

“We pride ourselves on offering VR enthusiasts and newcomers access to the best virtual reality games and experiences in our arcade locations,” said Nathan Alder, Director of Licensing of VR Junkies. “Trinity’s state-of-the-art filming techniques and interactivity bring a new level of immersion and entertainment that we are certain our patrons will enjoy.”

A science fiction VR series, the story is set in the future where humans have long been extinct. Androids, the last surviving beings on Earth, are fighting a final war for freedom against an all-powerful A.I., their God. The pilot episode is the first in a five episode series that will continue production in 2019.

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Patrick Boivin directed the production of Trinity with the UNLTD executive team, John Hamilton, Sébastien Gros, and Robert Boulos, using Unity to help create the project.

“Unity’s powerful XR tools empower creators with the capabilities to become the storytellers of tomorrow,” said Isabelle Riva, Head of Made with Unity. “We applaud the team behind Trinity for delivering a truly immersive and entertaining experience with Unity, and we hope it will inspire other creators to delve into the world of real-time and virtual reality cinema.”

If you don’t happen to be in the US to see Trinity at one of the VR arcades, the experience will be available for purchase later today through the Steam store and Viveport for $4.99 USD. For further updates as the episodes progress, keep reading VRFocus.

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Liveblog: Unite Berlin 2018 – ‘TRINITY: Next-Level Graphics for Cinematic VR’

VRFocus is once again providing liveblog coverage of sessions (where we can) at this year’s edition of Unity’s Unite Berlin. Over three days this week, creators who use Unity are coming together to discuss all the recent developments in both software, hardware and the usage of both. Naturally, both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences are at the event and how immersive technology is being implimented around the world is a topic a number of speakers are getting into.

Trinity - UNLIMITEDNext up,UNLTD take to the stage to discuss TRINITY.  Back in April it was revealed that UNLTD would be teaming with Made with Unity, the two companies joining forces to create an interactive, immersive live-action VR experience – TRINITY – which combined footage shot on live-action cameras with 3D VFX produced with Unity’s real-time development platform.

At the time, John Hamilton, the CEO of UNLTD commented that “Working with Unity has been amazing, and completely accelerated not only our post-production process, but gave us a creative freedom to accomplish things nobody has ever seen before. We’re looking forward to partnering up again to make TRINITY a global success.” Hamilton will speak more on the project today.

“VR Creator UNLTD share how they achieved photoreal avatars and environments in TRINITY using volumetric capture in a whole new way!”

Your liveblogger for the event is Peter Graham.

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UNLTD and Made with Unity Partner to Create VR Experience TRINITY

In the virtual reality (VR) world, live action experiences tend to come in the form of 360-degree movies, whereas VR videogames tends to be rendered in CGI. VR and augmented reality (AR) studio UNLTD is seeking to change that with the results of its partnership with Made with Unity.

The two companies have joined forces to create an interactive, immersive live-action VR experience called TRINITY, which combined footage shot on live0action cameras with 3D VFX produced with Unity’s real-time development platform.

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TRINITY was screened at Unity’s offices during the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) where it attracted praise from those in attendance. The experience was created to be an interactive science fiction VR movie experience that puts the user in a world of robots and AI where humanity has long since vanished.

“Creators like UNLTD are redefining VR cinema. We are so proud to be supporting storytelling of this caliber and experiences like TRINITY, which raise the quality bar for everyone,” said Isabelle Riva, Head of Made with Unity, Unity Technologies.

“Working with Unity has been amazing, and completely accelerated not only our post-production process, but gave us a creative freedom to accomplish things nobody has ever seen before,” said John Hamilton, CEO of UNLTD. “We’re looking forward to partnering up again to make TRINITY a global success.”.

TRINITY had its first trailer shown at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, with Hamilton speaking of the rewards and challenges involved in filming in VR, covering both the technical and creative sides of working with new technology.

UNLTD and Made with Unity are continuing the collaborate on marketing for TRINITY, including designing a supporting page for the experience on the Made with Unity website. Further details of other results of the collaboration will be revealed in the next few months.

For further news on TRINITY and other UNLTD VR projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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VR Detective Title A Most Curious Murder Coming to Gear VR Next Week

It’s not often that VRFocus finds a virtual reality (VR) title that mixes both virtual worlds with that of real content. Yet Swedish videogame and documentary production studio Impact Unified has done just that in partnership with VR and augmented reality (AR) studio UNLTD, creating detective title A Most Curious Murder. After being impressed by the gameplay, it has been announced today that Oculus has recently acquired the experience for the Gear VR, with a launch scheduled for next week.

A Most Curious Murder

Gaining access to a police station, players need to solve a murder case by finding evidence and watching surveillance video. They’ll need to search the station for evidence, taking screenshots of interesting events and suspicious activities found in the videos, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle as evidence and then gradually unfold the activities leading up to the murder. While the police station itself is a rendered virtual world, all the videos are live action, giving that sense of realism to the experience.

As players wander the station they’ll need to figure out how to access the computers, the computers that a friend is convinced houses the surveillance videos from the night of the murder. Could there be more? There might be items from the murder scene somewhere in the police station that the police have overlooked so a thorough search is required.

Because of the need for exploration Impact Unified claims to have created an innovative locomotion system that is best played standing as it requires players to walk on the spot. “Our game features a unique locomotion system, in our extensive user trials we found this is what greatly reduces VR motion sickness and improves immersion,” said Simon Hultgren, CEO Impact Unified in a statement.

A Most Curious Murder

“We’re very excited to be releasing “A Most Curious Murder” with Oculus. It was a fantastic collaboration with Simon and the team at Impact Unified and we look forward to releasing more episodes in the very near future! ” adds John Hamilton, CEO UNLTD.

A Most Curious Murder will be available for Gear VR on Friday the 9th February 2018. For any further updates from the teams, keep reading VRFocus.

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UNLTD Creates John Lennon’s Suite 1742: A Virtual Bed-in Experience

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) production studio UNLTD has announced its next project, a commission by Fairmont Hotels, Ivanhoé Cambridge Properties and co-producer MassivArt Agency called John Lennon’s Suite 1742: A Virtual Bed-in Experience.

The immersive experience is based around John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in for peace for the newly redesigned Suite 1742 of The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their iconic bed-in for peace in 1969. Directed by Carl Ruscica, guests don a VR headset transporting them into the 2017 version of suite 1742. Then as they relax on the same bed that John and Yoko held their protest on, they are transported back to the 1960s as journalists rush the room and bombard them with questions.

John Lennon VR Experience 1

“The ‘Suite 1742’ project is an immersive voyage that takes you on a journey from the present to the past, it’s part fiction and part documentary and offers insight into John and Yoko’s ideas and values at the time, which are still highly relevant today,” says Ruscica. Ruscica brings a fresh, original and authentic approach to virtual reality. His understanding and interpretation of the medium are truly unique and he has brought the medium of VR to another level with “Suite 1742.”

While the experience will be exclusive to the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal, UNTLD will be publicly debuting the film at the Future of Storytelling Festival in New York, from 6-8 October, 2017.

“Debuting this one-of-a-kind immersive experience at the Future of Storytelling is a natural fit because of the complex story we were able to tell using virtual reality, giving viewers a unique perspective shift,” said John Hamilton, CEO of UNLTD and producer of “Suite 1742. “We worked hard to translate the experience and story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a way that allowed the viewer to step into the shoes of these icons, take a trip back in time and be a part of one of the most historic pop-culture events ever.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of UNLTD, reporting back with further updates.

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VR/AR Firm UNLTD Secures $1.1M in Seed Funding Round

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content studio UNLTD has announced the closure of a seed funding round, securing the company $1.1 million of investment.

The round was led by a group formed by serial entrepreneur and Vrvana investor Richard D. Adler of Interdomus as well as media and entertainment investor David Reckziegel of Rex Media Capital. UNLTD will use the funding to expand its client services as well as continue its original immersive content.

 

“Virtual and augmented reality are the next frontier in entertainment and branded content,” says co-founder and CEO, John Hamilton in a statement. “At UNLTD we are committed to driving immersive content to new levels. It’s an amazing new storytelling platform and we’re developing cutting edge production techniques for immersive content. With this funding, we have the opportunity to continue building on our current success with clients such as Universal Pictures (Fifty Shades Darker), A&E Networks (Fall Into Me) and brands such as L’Oréal Cosmetics and Intercontinental Hotels”.

UNLTD’s recent work includes live-action interactive film project Trinity. A science fiction VR series, the story is set in the future where humans have long been extinct. Androids, the last surviving beings on Earth, are fighting a final war for freedom against an all-powerful A.I., their God. Currently in post-production, Trinity’s pilot episode will be released to select partners by fall of 2017.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of UNLTD, reporting back with further updates.

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Check Out The Trailer For Interactive Sci-Fi VR Series Trinity

Check Out The Trailer For Interactive Sci-Fi VR Series Trinity

VR was born in science fiction, so it only makes sense that one of the first TV series for the tech, Trinity, is set in a sci-fi universe. And, no, we’re not talking about the baseball simulator.

Below you can check out the first trailer for this new series from Montreal-based UNLTD, using a 3D 360 degree camera to immerse viewers in five 15 minute episodes. The series debuted at South by Southwest (SXSW) this week and will be debuting on all VR headsets. There’s an interactive elemnt to the series, though exactly what this is isn’t clear just year.

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UNLTD debuts trailer for VR TV series Trinity at SXSW

Almost a year ago virtual reality (VR) content company UNLTD announced the start of production for a live-action interactive film project called Trinity. Today at the SXSW Film Festival, its released the first teaser trailer for the series.

Trinity is an immersive science-fiction movie experience set in a grim future where mankind is now extinct. Left behind are androids fighting a final war for freedom against an all powerful singularity, their God. As the short trailer (seen below) showcases, UNLTD has mixed in live-action with CGI to tell its dystopian story.

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The series is in production with the pilot due to be released to select partners by fall of 2017. It’ll eventually consist of five fifteen-minute episodes, which will be platform-agnostic to allow compatibility with all VR headsets for viewing.

“To produce Trinity, UNLTD developed a proprietary camera in order to capture and create a truly interactive entertainment experience,” says John Hamilton, UNLTD CEO and Trinity producer/writer. “Using volumetric, 360 and live-action technologies, we are able to allow viewers to move around within an episode of Trinity in a way that hasn’t been seen before in virtual reality.”

Hamilton also participated in a panel discussion put on by Planet Quebec at SXSW, discussing the unique challenges of filming for VR, from the creative and technical to high-end visual effects and utilizing interactive engines.

“Working on a project like Trinity is a unique directing experience from my previous projects due to the nuances involved in shooting for virtual reality,” says Patrick Boivin, Director of Trinity. “The trailer showcases the intimate and involved feeling created when entertainment meets virtual reality.”

Production of Trinity will be directed by Patrick Boivin (Dragon Baby, Little Ant-Man) alongside UNLTD executive team, Sébastien Gros and Robert Boulos.

For further updates on the Trinity series and UNLTD, keep reading VRFocus.