VRScout

OCTOBER 11, 2016

The multi-platform series launches in 2017 on LIFE VR and SI.com. The folks who brought models Nina Agdal and Irina Shayk to life in VR with their Swimsuit Issue are now putting us in the shoes of four climbers as they summit Mount Everest. Sports Illustrated and Endemol Shine Beyond USA have partnered to produce a virtual reality documentary series that promises to give you a first-person perspective on one of the most dangerous mountaineering journeys in the world.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 11, 2016

It sounds like IMAX’s plans for launching its location-based virtual reality experiences have shifted a little since we last heard about them. In an interview with Wired , company CEO Richard Gelfond confirmed that the first of its location-based VR installations, appearing in Los Angeles, should be completed in the next two weeks. It’s not clear if that means open for business, though we had previously heard that it would be before the end of the year.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Today at the Steam Dev Days conference in Seattle, Valve is showing off brand new prototypes of its Steam VR controllers. Today’s HTC Vive controllers are bulky compared to what’s coming. While the original VR controllers that ship with the HTC Vive are undoubtedly functional, it’s widely agreed that Oculus’ forthcoming ‘Touch’ controllers are a big step forward in ergonomics.

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VR Bites

OCTOBER 10, 2016

A few weeks ago was able to test the Hackers Development Kit 1.4 from Razer. The result was somewhat disappointing, so Razer assisted to show me their latest model. The new hacker’s development kit has some improvements over the earlier version. I named as the biggest minus the horrible screen of the HDK1 and that is the main upgrade of the HDK2. On paper the HDK2 is now comparable, if not better, than the Rift and the Vive.

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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

VRScout

OCTOBER 9, 2016

The Simpsons teamed up with Google to create an experience sure to make you go, DOH! The Simpsons have done television, film, video games, almost every form of entertainment you can think of. However they’ve yet to make their debut on the hottest new entertainment platform out right now: virtual reality. Well you can officially wipe those tears away because thanks to the guys over at Google , the wait is now over.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 9, 2016

The long rumoured sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner is coming soon and it’s to be joined by virtual reality experiences via Oculus. Update: We’ve updated this story with new information, and updated the headline to reflect this. . There’s a good chance if you’re reading this, you’re pretty familiar with Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Blade Runner, starring Harrison

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Cats and VR

OCTOBER 13, 2016

So the Playstation VR is officially out today and hopefully Best Buy gets the delivery soon cause I am going BANANAS waiting for it. Ace Banana that is! Ace Banana, has launched. Developed exclusively for VR, Ace Banana is a first person arcade archery game where players wield a bow to protect their banana stash from a host of marauding monkeys. The light-hearted shooter features a mix of over-the-top fun supported by native VR controls, which allows players to quickly get into the action. “ Ace

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VRScout

OCTOBER 14, 2016

Flying high under a bomber and blasting fools out of the air is the name of the game. VR On The Lot , a virtual reality industry conference at Paramount Pictures Studio, included a packed schedule of top Hollywood talent and executives addressing the future of entertainment and VR. During day one of the Hollywood conference, Black Eyed Peas frontman, will.i.am, took the stage to urge other artists in experimenting with the new medium for their art.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 11, 2016

New VR peripherals will be shown off at Steam Dev Days this week as developers gather in Seattle, Washington for two days of meetings and sessions covering the latest “tools, services, and hardware in production for 2017 and beyond.” “VR peripheral prototypes will be made available for demonstration and design collaboration with attendees,” a statement from Valve reads.

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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

Road to VR

OCTOBER 8, 2016

Among the swath of announcements made at Oculus Connect 3, one of the fleeting but important pieces of content-related news is that Walt Disney Studios is working with Oculus to create a series of VR experiences based on iconic characters and franchises. We’ve already seen some pieces of content from Disney in the modern VR space, such as the Disney Movies VR app currently on Steam, but that initial half-hearted attempt doesn’t offer the kind of value you might expect from a Disney product

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Cats and VR

OCTOBER 12, 2016

If you were not able to make Oculus Connect 3 this year here is a Youtube playlist with 32 videos from the event included: I was able to attend quite a few and some highlights for me include the sessions below. Check them out to really get a great understanding of not only what Oculus and Facebook are doing with VR but how the industry is developing as a whole.

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VRScout

OCTOBER 13, 2016

In the hopes of enacting meaningful environmental change rather than simply raising awareness for causes, the Nature Conservancy has launched a new experience for Oculus Rift and Gear VR. The real-time interactive experience dubbed “This Is Our Future” debuted October 6th at a Conservancy hosted event in San Francisco. The art gallery-inspired VR series starts off with a campaign that immerses you in the problems facing the world’s largest tuna fishery and how technology can catalyze change.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 12, 2016

The Force is coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney Resorts in the near future with new Star Wars-themed lands, and VR will be joining it. Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney today announced that Disney is working on Star Wars VR rides for its parks. He said as much during his keynote talk at the 2016 Steam Dev Days conference in Seattle. It was just a small tease, though it’s already got us thinking of how cool an updated version of classic simulator Star Tours would be.

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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

Road to VR

OCTOBER 14, 2016

Long a point of contention, Oculus last week announced a welcome new stance: the Rift will be officially supporting 360 degree tracking and room-scale as part of the forthcoming Touch launch. At the company’s ‘Connect’ developer conference it was finally revealed that Oculus now plans to support four Rift and Touch camera configurations: One camera in front: seated/standing gamepad experiences.

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Cats and VR

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) and THE SIMPSONS worked closely with the Google Spotlight Stories team to create a special Virtual Reality (VR) experience for THE SIMPSONS couch gag, “Planet of the Couches,” airing in the milestone 600th episode of the animated series, the all-new “Treehouse of Horror XXVII,” on Sunday, October 16, on FOX. “At first we had concerns about working with Google because we didn't know who they were, but then we googled the company and were very impressed,” said Homer

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VRScout

OCTOBER 14, 2016

This DJ’s virtual world will take your breath away. During the first day of VR On The Lot , a virtual reality industry conference at Paramount Pictures Studios, Sony Music unveiled a new VR experience from superstar Norwegian DJ Kygo. Set to the hit song “Carry Me,” this new music experience is a stunning look at what the future of music videos may look like.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Today marked the start of Steam Dev Days — a developer-only conference in Seattle — and although press is not allowed on the show floor, some major news has leaked via Twitter updates. Of these limited updates, one stands out as being particularly significant: “We have over 1000 new VR users on Steam every day” #SteamDevDays. — Oshry @ SteamDevDays (@DaveOshry) October 12, 2016.

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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

Road to VR

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Valve have revealed that their room-scale tracking technology SteamVR has now been licensed to over 300 companies, many of which plan to release products integrating the tech in 2017. Valve’s pseudo-annual developer focused event ‘Steam Dev Days’ will kick off tomorrow and the gaming giant has already teased some of what attendees at the Seattle based show will see.

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VR Bites

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Symphony of the Machine , a VR puzzle game from Stirfire Studios where a mysterious tower can restore life to a post-apocalyptic world, will reach HTC Vive and PS VR in Q1 2017.

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VRScout

OCTOBER 12, 2016

The On The Lot mobile app will live stream keynotes and panels with the Nokia OZO. A two-day VR industry insiders summit is happening October 13 & 14 at the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood. It’ll be a prime opportunity for serious VR creators to mingle with producers, production companies and other content creators, as well as check out the latest gear and cinematic offerings.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Valve brought out its new controller prototypes at Steam Dev Days and attendees are getting hands-on demos. The new controllers strap onto the hand like a glove but feature an outer ring covered in tracking sensors. The design should allow people to grasp and drop objects in VR realistically. “I didn’t have to think about input,” Eva Hoerth tells Upload. “I just did it.” Max Weisel also went hands-on with the controllers, providing us with that featured photo above

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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

Road to VR

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Ricoh , the Japanese imaging and electronics company, today announced a new model of the Theta, the company’s pocketable 360 camera. It’s called Theta SC. The new Theta SC is a lighter, more colorful version of the Theta that has almost everything the $350 Theta S camera has. Almost. It has the same twin-lens design for 360 video and still images, same 12 megapixel sensors, same internal 8GB storage, same estimated battery life of 260 photos—the list goes on.

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VR Bites

OCTOBER 12, 2016

No one can beat Tested. So here one of the best reviews you can find on the PlayStation VR. Sony’s virtual reality headset, has potential to bring VR to mainstream gamers. Jeremy and Norm discuss the display quality, ergonomic design, motion controllers, tracking performance, and launch games. Enjoy the review!

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VRScout

OCTOBER 10, 2016

HuffPost RYOT introduces the technology for ELLE’s November “Women in Hollywood” issue. Elle Magazine is looking to bring some of Hollywood’s favorite women to life on the cover — and all you need is your iPhone. In partnership with Huffington Posts’s VR division HuffPost RYOT, you will be able to use the ElleNow app and hover your phone over any of the eight covers to watch as the cover face comes to life with a video interview.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

OCTOBER 10, 2016

HTC wants you to accessorize the Vive. At the beginning of the month the company kicked off a new competition over on Viveport, asking fans to design new additions for its VR headset, no matter how silly of infeasible. Over the past week there have been a flood of submissions that the community will vote on. The top three will each earn an HTC Vive, and the overall winner will have their design 3D printed (though not actually functioning).

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Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly

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