Now that Halloween is over its time to start ramping up the festivities for 2018’s next big celebration, good old Christmas. Ahead of the big day full of presents and too much food media company REWIND (The Magic Flute, Ghost in the Shell VR) will be hosting the last VRLO event of the year in London, UK.
The one-day event will be an evening of talks, demos and networking opportunities all wrapped up with some festive celebrations.
Sponsored by HP, Jigsaw24 and Bluegfx, HP and Jigsaw24 are teaming up to bring the HP Z VR Backpack PC to VRLO, with a demo version of REWIND’s Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel VR.
Also at VRLO will be Coatsink Software, with the studio set to demo relaxing title A Night’s Sky and comedy mini-game collection about robots They Suspect Nothing. Vive Studios will be on hand to showcase 7 Miracles, an immersive adaptation of the seven miracles of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John. It will be the experience’s second showing in London after its World Premiere at Raindance Film Festival last month. Finally, Start VR will demo AWAKE, a character-driven interactive cinematic VR series that blurs the line between dream and reality.
And as a festive treat REWIND will be holding The Santa’s Helper Challenge, you’ll have to attend to find out more.
VRLO will be taking place on Wednesday, 5th December 2018, starting at 7pm and running through to 11pm. It’ll be held at The Microsoft Reactor London, with tickets being free, and entry will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. For further details and to grab a ticket head to the VRLO Eventbrite page. VRFocus will continue its coverage of REWIND and VRLO, reporting back with further updates.
For those who have been anxiously following Breaking Fourth ever since their virtual reality (VR) film CTRL can soon expect another emotional film called Lucid. A demo was available at ninth VRLO which was held at London’s Central Saint Martins University and VRFocus managed to sit down to speak to Pete Short, VR Director and CTO at Breaking Fourth about the film.
The twenty minute seated piece follows daughter Astra as she dives into the mind of her comatose mother in order to try and piece together her consciousness and bring her back to the real world. The two go on an adventure that puts character at the heart of the story.
Breaking Fourth create various VR content ranging from light-hearted and entertaining music videos to long emotional pieces that are about making an impact such as CTRL. Short explains to VRFocus that CTRL was a long VR film in duration, and Lucid too became longer after Breaking Fourth received feedback from users asking for the experience to be lengthened. Short also says that Lucid could not have come out any sooner, as with the evolution of VR technology Breaking Fourth want to stay at the forefront of technology and will continue to experiment with the newest capabilities of immersive technology.
“I think we are starting to see an evolution of VR users that are willing to take these experiences, rather than having a jump in-jump out situation.” Short explains. “Like you get with a five minute experience, and actually wanting to stay in these worlds.”
So far the feedback couldn’t be better, with most users being extremely excited about Lucid. Short says that the piece is currently being submitted to several film festivals and the 360° version will be released this December on the Samsung Gear VR. The full version of Lucid will be available exclusively to the Oculus Rift next year for free. This may also be coming to Breaking Fourth’s app, that itself is heading to the Samsung Gear VR and will feature all of Breaking Fourth’s CGI pieces – as well as their future content moving forward. All of the content on the platform will be free at the initial launch. Short wants to have as many people experiencing their content and this is a great way to do it.
Watch the video below to find out more about Lucid and Breaking Fourth’s new app.
VRFocus caught up with AMD at VRLO in London. AMD have been supporting REWIND for a very long time and helped companies showcase their content on their graphics cards (GPU’s) and portable virtual reality (VR) custom workspaces. The various Armari workstations that are VR ready came in various cases and colours.
Robert Jamieson from AMD says that VR is very important to AMD who produce GPU’s and central processing units (CPU’s) for many devices, consoles and systems such as the PlayStation, Xbox and Apple’s new iMac. A faster GPU enables more realistic content, and Jamieson believes that AMD is doing a great job as a key player in the virtual reality market. “People don’t realise the software is important it gives you the environment, but you need the tools. Which is the API, which is the stuff that’s wrapped around so you can be in a 3D environment, but you also need the hardware.”
Watch the video below to find out what you need from a GPU for the best VR experience for you (which is different if you want to game versus B2B), how the next generation of consoles use their GPU’s to be VR capable, as well as how AMD compete with competitors like Intel.
We attended a VR event in London where developers and studios showed off exciting new VR projects, and just had to share the best ones with you, so you can try them out on your own VR headset.
VRLO, the UK’s leading meetup for virtual reality practitioners and enthusiasts, had its seventh edition on March 20th. Hosted by Rewind, in association with Advertising Week Europe, VRLO 7 attracted 350 attendees who glimpsed the present and future of VR and AR from Epic Games, HTC, BBC Studios, and more. Road to VR’s Jon Tustain brings us interviews and coverage from the event.
Amid varied content at the event, Epic Games presented the recently released and highly acclaimed Robo Recall. The title, which is free for Oculus Touch users, sees you take on the role of an agent tasked with blasting rogue robots.
A built-in slot for the Vive link box makes for a clean look.
High end PC specialists Armari used the event to showcase their compact V25 Slim Micro-tower, a workstation designed specifically for designers of professional VR content. The hardware features dedicated VR front buttons for quick access and a built-in box cage to integrate HTC VIVE components for a ‘cleaner look’.
To showcase the computer’s integrated Radeon Pro WX 7100 (which AMD claims is the world’s most powerful single-slot workstation GPU, capable of 5.73 TFLOPS of compute performance) Armari used the system to power BBC Learning’s Home: VR Spacewalk. As part of the BBC’s mission to inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers, the experience allows users to get to feel of what it’s like to be an astronaut floating 250 miles above earth. Oculus owners can download the experience here.
360 degree content catalogue company Blend Media were on hand to present some of their clips on a VR Sphere. In the context of Advertising Week Europe, they claim 43% of media buyers say 360 degree video will be the largest area for video growth in 2017, with a 28% higher view rate and 4.5% click through rate vs 0.5% of fixed video.
Rewind announced its acceptance into the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program, which was recently expanded to six European companies who each benefit from extensive hands on training and a view inside the Microsoft curtain.
The company’s proof-of-concept Flight Deck mixed reality HoloLens experience, based on the Red Bull Air Race, proposed what the future of live sports could look like. Produced within 12 weeks, the user can look down at a 3D visualisation of the Abu Dhabi Red Bull Air race, seeing an overhead view of the planes fly through the course positioned by real time telemetry data. Synced to a regular TV, the user can use air gesture to select a competitor from the holographic space, to switch to their POV on the television.
Co-founder of Rewind, Solomon Rogers, described how he sees this as a way to offer the drama of replays and analysis to people who attend sports games. For example, in the context of an NFL game, spectators could view player profiles, overhead views of GPS tracked players movement trails, possession averages or augmented First Down and Line of Scrimmage lines, all from their seats in the auditorium.
HTC showed off some of the accessories they announced at CES at make use of the new Vive Tracker. As we reported from CES, the arcade VR-15 gun by VRsenal is weighted like a real gun and adds haptics to add further realism to games. The VR-15 was fitted with a Tracker, the lighthouse compatible puck which is now available for $99.
Among other Tracker peripherals at VRLO was the Hi5 VR Gloves by Noitom. We were impressed with the glove’s combination of finger tracking and motion input when we first tried them at CES. Pricing has now been revealed at $300 for the pair, with a development kit due out in June (complete with C++, UE4 and Unity SDK) and a commercial product expected in September. A developer sign-up sheet is expected to be posted on the Hi5 VR Glove website soon.
For a roundup of interviews from VRLO 7, see the video heading this article.
GDC is nearing its event but the VR events won’t be stopping there. VRLA might be the expo to head to if you’re on the west coast of the USA right now, but those living in the UK have plenty of options too. VRLO is returning this month, for example, and it’s bringing some big names with it.
VRLO 7 will take place on Monday March 20th at the new location in the Picturehouse Central, not far off from Piccadilly Circus. From 5:30pm – 9pm you’ll be able to check out some new VR demos, meet others in the industry, and listen to talks from industry leaders. Tickets just went live over on the event’s meetup page.
Speakers at this month’s event include representatives from Rowland Manthorpe, Start Editor at Wired UK, Tom Burton, Interactive & Technology Lead at BBC Studios, Leila Martine, Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft and Daryl Atkins, Creative Director/Visual Artist at REWIND, the VR production studio that hosts the show. HTC and AMD will also be giving talks on the night.
There are also demos in the form of Robo Recall [Review: 7.5/10], the just-released Oculus Rift shooter from Epic Games, BBC’s Home – A VR Spacewalk and ROM: Extraction being exhibited by AMD, and a new VR glove from Noitom.
Tickets to the event are absolutely free, which means they’ll no doubt be gone very soon. Picturehouse is a tiny bit smaller than the previous venue near Marble Arch, too, so make sure not to miss out.
