Waltz Of The Wizard Voice Interaction Now Available On Quest, PC VR

Aldin Dynamics pushed a new update for Waltz of the Wizard last week, adding in the previously-announced voice interaction features for Quest and PC VR headsets.

This new feature allows players to speak to Skully — the little anthropomorphic skull found on the main table — and ask him to perform actions and affect objects around the room using just their voice. It utilizes Meta’s new Voice SDK on Quest headsets, but is also available on the PC VR version of the game as well.

In tech demo videos from Aldin, the voice interactions include asking Skully how he is, asking to make objects bigger or smaller, asking for objects to become weightless and even asking for potion ingredients to be turned into frogs.

Aldin says the update adds over 200 new voice lines and character commands, but the aim is to let you interact with the world using a combination of voice, hand and gesture input, just like you do in real life:

Voice and extended multimodal interaction is an important part of Aldin’s vision for natural VR/AR interfaces and believable reality experiences, which the company has been exploring since 2013. Believable reality experiences in this sense refer to content that aims to feel like real-life experiences in alternate realities— where we act like we do in reality and the world reacts believably to our presence. Voice and multimodal interaction is an important part of making that possible, opening powerful new ways to make VR feel more real and magical to use.

Aldin says more information on the voice interaction update and its implementation will be shared soon on its blog.

The voice interaction update is available now for Waltz of the Wizard on Quest and PC VR via Steam and Rift.

VR Games & Entertainment Extravaganza Online Conference Launches Today

Dedicated virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) events are great places to checkout the latest technology, whether that’s playing the latest videogames, demoing new hardware or seeing talks by industry experts. However, depending on where you live some of these expo’s aren’t always going to be the easiest to reach, requiring significant expense to attend. So today sees the inaugural launch of VR Games & Entertainment Extravaganza, an online event by VR Voice that’s completely free.

Running from 24th-27th July, the conference features expert speakers at the forefront of VR and AR, with more than 50 speakers, four full of days of presentations, one-on-one interviews, panel discussions and other special sessions – there’s going to be one conducted completely within AltspaceVR.

AltspaceVR highrise2

“Tech conferences flourish during periods of disruption, as they did during the Internet boom and the age of the app, ushered in by the iPhone,” said Charlie Fink, Forbes contributor, co-organizer of the event and a featured speaker in a statement. “Major on-site trade shows cost organizations thousands of dollars to attend, so even big companies can only send a handful of employees. We offer attendees broad access to thought leaders and their insights in real time, with the convenience of never leaving the office.”

The VR Games & Entertainment Extravaganza will feature a keynote interview with Jordan Weisman, a renowned videogame designer, producer, entrepreneur and professor at the University of Southern California. The other speakers come from notable companies like Microsoft, AMD, Giroptic, Zero Latency, Merge VR, Zeality, Technicolor and CompTIA.

While VR Games & Entertainment Extravaganza is the first online conference for VR Voice, it’ll also be holding several regular events over the course of 2017:

  • VR & Higher Education 10th August in Boston
  • VR & Construction/Real Estate 26th October in Washington, D.C.
  • VR & Defense/Public Safety 9th November in Washington, D.C.
  • VR for Good Summit 17th November in Washington, D.C.

If your’re keen on seeing what the conference has to offer you can register for free here. For any further updates keep reading VRFocus.