VRScout

MARCH 28, 2017

This post is part of an ongoing series about writing, storytelling, and critique in VR, in partnership with Galatea , a writing and narrative design management tool for immersive stories. The trailer for Rose-Colored , Adam Cosco’s upcoming 360° film, just dropped—and one glimpse offers an immediate understanding of why Adam Cosco has become one of the most distinct and compelling voices in virtual reality today: I first encountered Cosco at VRTO last summer, where Knives was on debut.

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Road to VR

MARCH 28, 2017

Late last year, NBC’s popular late night talk show the Tonight Show with host Jimmy Fallon debuted a new Virtual Reality Pictionary segment which uses the HTC Vive and Tilt Brush. Scarlett Johansson, Michael Che, and Dove Cameron are the latest to step into VR with Fallon. Fallon is no stranger to VR. As far back as 2013, when he was hosting Late Night , he saw an early protoype version of the Oculus Rift that was held together with gaffers tape.

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VRScout

MARCH 28, 2017

The New Zealand Fire Service has burned down an abandoned home to create a virtual reality experience called Escape My House , hoping VR immersion will help prepare homeowners for the worst. Producers remotely filmed the blazing house with fireproof 360-degree camera rigs the country’s fire service started testing last year. In the app, you’re given options on how to escape the home, along with explanations on why some exits — like a painted shut window — aren’t safe.

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Road to VR

MARCH 28, 2017

VR design is still in the very early stages, but something that we know leads to immersion in VR is interactivity. One developer is taking interactivity to the extreme with Chroma Lab , a forthcoming VR experience that will let you play with hundreds of thousands of simulated particles. VR gives us the opportunity to simulate the real world and its physical laws to step into situations that we couldn’t otherwise practically experience, like driving a racecar or flying a plane.

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Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

Mexico

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

Getting a full Grand Theft Auto game inside VR headsets is a dream for many of us, but we do at least have something to hold us over in the GTA 5 VR mod, Grand Theft VR. Last week its developers returned with the first updates of 2017. Last we heard from Grand Theft VR it had been updated to support new versions of OpenVR in December 2016, and hadn’t been updated since May 2016 before then.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

In the middle of August 2012 I wrote my first article about Oculus. A few months later, I got my first demo. I’d previously seen some expensive VR installations, like those used by Disney , but my view inside the Oculus Rift — and the interviews I conducted with researchers at Stanford and USC — convinced me VR had a good chance of actually going mainstream.

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Road to VR

MARCH 28, 2017

One year ago today, Oculus launched the Rift headset after two development kits and numerous prototypes. Today the company is celebrating with discounts up to 80% on 33 titles that launched in the early days of the headset. The sale runs through April 4th. As the Rift launched many months ahead of the company’s Touch VR controllers, the games of the launch era were all made for seated play with the included Xbox gamepad, however some of the games included in the Rift Anniversary Sale have

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

The first full Justice League trailer hit this weekend, sending the internet into a frenzy for both better and worse. These days no Hollywood blockbuster is complete without a promotional VR experience, though, and Zack Synder’s latest move is no exception. Warners. Bros announced today that it has partnered with IMAX to create three new VR experiences based on its upcoming movies, the first of which is Justice League, set to debut later this year.

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Cats and VR

MARCH 28, 2017

Today is the one year anniversary of CatsAndVR.com and also Respect Your Cat day. Here are the best Cat moments of year one. Check out the videos and links to some of my favorite cat related things I have covered during that year. Shoutout to all the people who have helped me this year and also too my very own cats, Vampire Bill Poopton and Donut "Knute" Hartman.

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With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

Virtual Reality

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

VR and 360-degree media creation are becoming more and more accessible as inexpensive software and cameras are made available, but they’re still pricey endeavors. Take into account that you’re not just shooting footage in one direction and you’ll understand that the immersive content can be a stout investment of time as well as money.

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Cats and VR

MARCH 28, 2017

Independent Canadian developer Frima announced today that its Norse-themed storytelling experience and movie-length narrative adventure, FATED: The Silent Oath, is now available on PlayStation®VR (PS VR) across North America and Europe. FATED takes the player on one man’s harrowing quest to protect his family from the destruction of their world at the hands of the gods.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

We’ve already heard that Amazon is looking into how VR can enhance its video offerings, but the company might be using the tech for other means too. New York Times cites sources “with knowledge of discussions” in saying that the online retailing giant is looking to creating physical stores to sell furniture and home appliances. The company apparently hopes to capture a market that doesn’t want to order items like couches and fridges online without actually seeing them in

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Slashgear

MARCH 28, 2017

The folks at Lightform have a device that scans any environment, creates a high-resolution mesh, and creates AI-generated effects and filters to project back out. Combined with a projector, the Lightform device is able to turn any environment into an augmented reality theater. This device combines the real 3D world with digital projections of light to augment reality without need … Continue reading.

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Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

How To

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

Hands up, I admit it; I was not expecting to enjoy Fated: The Silent Oath as much as I did. As a first-person game made by an indie studio using gamepad only controls I had a preconceived notions of what I was about to experience when I sat down to play. I thought I was going to get something short, full of heart, but ultimately unmemorable and underwhelming.

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AllThingsVR

MARCH 28, 2017

HTC Announces New Education Partnerships, VR Ad Service And More For HTC Vive HTC Corporation today announced a series of new partnerships for the HTC Vive at the start of the 2017 Vive Ecosystem Conference (VEC2017). Ranging from virtual reality (VR) content development to education initiatives, the VEC2017 event has kicked-off the HTC Vive’s second year as a consumer product with a bang.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

A year later, Facebook just made a major hire for its VR hardware division and will be charging forward in the effort to make VR more mainstream. Also, Oculus would love for people to stop saying VR doesn’t have any games. There are plenty of solid titles across VR platforms and Oculus is celebrating its library with a 1-year anniversary sale.

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Slashgear

MARCH 28, 2017

Lenovo has taken the wraps off a new entry-level workstation: the ThinkStation P320. This desktop PC is VR-ready certified and, per Lenovo’s announcement, ‘designed for power users.’ Both a full-size tower and a small-form-factor PC will be offered starting next month; in addition to its powerful hardware, the ThinkStation P320 is GreenGuard-certified and Energy Star-qualified, among other things.

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Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

Simulation

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MARCH 28, 2017

Twisted Arrow released today for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on Steam with a price point of $19.99 along with a 25% launch discount. When we revealed the game with our exclusive preview a few weeks ago, we likened it to what it might feel like to explore a city as the Marvel superhero, Hawkeye. You have an assortment of arrows to pick from as you teleport around a sprawling city overrun with evil mercenaries.

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Everything VR & AR

MARCH 28, 2017

Dr. Emma Nichols joins the show to discuss ways her website, VRMedicineNews.com helps people stay up on the latest research regarding VR & AR in the medical space by being a one stop location for people wanting more information. Other links mentioned during this episode are: Link to her 6-week course on freelance medical writing Freelance Medical Writing on Amazon William Shatner goes inside a VR heart on Dr.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

Launching this Thursday, Bolverk Games’ Dick Wilde is first and foremost a wave-based VR shooter. Yes, I know we’ve seen plenty of those, but what separates this one from the rest is the imaginative assortment of weapons players will wield. Today, we’re going to show you them. Dick Wild is a pest control veteran, that is brought in to deal with dangerous beasts in swamps and oceans.

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Veative

MARCH 28, 2017

Virtual reality is a versatile technology that has a broad range of applications, education being one of them. Teaching and learning have gone beyond the conventional norms of reading from a book and understanding. The traditional learning methods need to coupled with new advanced learning resources with the development of technology. This helps the students to visualize and understand concepts at a much extensive level.

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Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

Technology

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

Disclaimer: While the author of this article doesn’t like cats at all he doesn’t actually advocate violence against them. This is purely meant to be taken in jest as a silly response to a silly internet holiday. Today is apparently known as ‘Respect Your Cat Day’ because people on the internet need another reason to force feed us (the sane, reasoned, logical, and intelligent mass of humans otherwise known as dog people) reasons why their cats are cute (they aren’t)

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Gaming Controllers 101

VRScout

MARCH 28, 2017

The best 360-degree music video you’ve ever seen is now available on every headset. When it comes to embracing new types of media and art, there’s no better music group than the world’s most infamous virtual band, the Gorillaz. The fictional 4-person alt rock group is famous for including inventive content with their albums, something fans have begun to appreciate almost as much as the music itself.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MARCH 28, 2017

One of PlayStation VR’s (PSVR’s) more curious games never came west. Summer Lesson from Bandai Namco was one of the first games Sony’s Japanese division debuted for the headset, but it never released in Europe or the USA despite getting demonstrations at industry events. If you’re desperate to play it, though, you’ll soon have a chance.

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Asia Exercises Europe Sony 101

Hypergrid Business

MARCH 28, 2017

Google Cardboard-compatible viewers are a great choice for people who want to experience VR but don’t want to shell out the hundreds of dollars that the big-name headsets cost. In fact, these viewers can start at just $5, and are pretty good for watching VR videos and playing casual games. Plus, they work on most late-model smartphone, so you don’t need a new computer or lots of wires.

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Speaker: Bruce Armstrong Taylor, Co-Founder & Managing Director of SmartNations Foundation, Jimmy Jia, Venture Partner at Pi Labs, Fabienne Durand, Senior Advisor to the SmartNations Foundation, & Roger Strukhoff, Executive Director of the Tau Institute

The Climate 4.0 Economy. Climate change is here. We see it in many ways already. Weather catastrophes: Texas freezing over, the wildfires of California, the increasingly unpredictable violence and frequency of hurricanes, the rapid melting and disappearance of polar ice caps. Much more evidence all around us. What can we do in our corporate organizations, in our homes and communities, to change the current course?

Texas