Blog V Reality: March 2019

Sunday, 31 March 2019

These Silicon Valley Investors’ Bets May Pay Off

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Short Doc Shows How VR Is Changing The Lives Of The Terminally Ill

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NASA teams with TrinityKids Care to take sick children to space using VR technology.

We’ve heard all about how immersive technology is changing the lives of the terminally ill, allowing them to escape the confines and limitations of their afflictions. In Child of the Earth, a new documentary short from filmmakers Claudio Fäh & Adam Recht, we get a closer look at a particular instance of VR technology having a genuine impact on the life of a suffering young person.

Confined to his home due to advanced cystic fibrosis, 17-year-old Kevin Flores spends most of his day strapped to an assisted breathing machine. As a result, he’s unable to play outside or rush in general. If he does venture outside, he is confined to a wheelchair, as he tires quickly due to underdeveloped lungs.

With the help of TrinityKids Care, which happens to be the only dedicated pediatric hospice program in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas for infants, children, and adolescents with life-limiting illnesses, Kevin has been able to periodically escape his limitations using a virtual reality program that teleports him aborad a painstaking recreation of the International Space Station.

Using an Oculus Rift headset and Touch controllers, Kevin is able to weightlessly navigate the hyper-realistic interior of the ISS, conduct jaw-dropping spacewalks, and operate robotic arms to complete crucial missions.

“When I go in there, I just forget about what I have,” states Kevin in the film. “When you’re up there you feel like, normal. You–how do I say this–with no worries up there. I could just like sit there and look at the Earth all day.”

Kevin while immersed in Mission:ISS / Image Credit: Claudio Fäh & Adam Recht

The VR experience, entitled Mission: I.S.S., was developed in-house at NASA by their dedicated VR Lab, which has been developing and testing groundbreaking VR technology since 1991. The film features an appearance by NASA Hall of Fame astronaut Scott E. Parazynski, MD, who formed a tightknit relationship with Kevin during the program.

“This film was the result of generous donations from the LA film and tech communities, individual heroes from NASA, and a dedicated hospice team,” Komatsu said. “We are humbled that children such as Kevin can experience such wonderment through the caring of others.”

Child of the Earth premiered yesterday at the American Documentary Film Festival at Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs. You can check it out here.

TrinityKids Care provides assistance to over 160 child patients every day. If you’re interested in donating to this amazing program, visit TrinityKids Care.

The post Short Doc Shows How VR Is Changing The Lives Of The Terminally Ill appeared first on VRScout.

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Valve Index VR headset revealed, more info coming in May

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The Valve Index was teased, confirming rumors that the gaming company is working on its own virtual reality headset. More information about the Valve Index will be coming in May, which could also be the device's release date.

The post Valve Index VR headset revealed, more info coming in May appeared first on Digital Trends.

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Saturday, 30 March 2019

Five Emotionally Draining VR Films

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Beacause who doesn’t love crying in a VR headset?

VR technology has proven an effective tool in nearly every field it’s been tested in. This is especially true for the entertainment industry, impacting everything from gaming to filmmaking. VR’s capabilities as an empathy building device make it a natural fit for creators looking to introduce the next generation of storytelling.

Thanks to enthusiastic filmmakers–both independent and established–we already have an solid collection of impressive VR films available, many of which have had audiences fogging up their headsets lenses with a few tears. Below is a small selection of incredible VR films that had us emotionally exhausted by the time the credits rolled. For the sake of simplicity, we’ve limited our selection to VR films with little-to-no player interaction.

ARDEN’S WAKE: TIDE’S FALL

We can’t talk about emotionally draining VR storytelling without mentioning Arden’s Wake: Tide’s Fall. Released back in 2017 to the festival circuit, Arden’s Wake: Tide’s Fall is an absolutely jaw-dropping experience that blends captivating visuals with an equally enthralling story.

Developed by Penrose Studios, the story follows Meena–voiced by Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider, Ex Machina)–a strong young woman living in a post-apocalyptic world in which the seas have swallowed the entire Earth. After an unexplained accident befalls her father–voiced by Richard Armitage (The Hobbit Trilogy, Castlevania), Meena ventures into the unknown depths on a daring rescue mission, discovering various sea life scattered among sunken remnants of the old world.

What follows is a heart-wrenching journey about love, regret, and acceptance. Sufficient to say my time with Arden’s Wake: Tide’s Fall was some of my favorite spent while in a VR headset. The Pixar-style visuals and unique viewing format hooked me from the first 10-seconds, while the well-crafted story kept me captivated for the duration. In fact, the only negative I can find in the project is the fact that it’s still unavailable to the general public.

CROW: THE LEGEND

Developed by the storytelling experts over at Baobab Studios (Asteroids!, Invasion!, Jack (Part One), Crow: The Legend is another star-studded masterclass in VR filmmaking. Featuring the voices of AAA talent like John Legend and Oprah Winfrey, Crow: The Legend is a modern-day retelling of a historic Native American origin legend of the crow that mixes storytelling, music, and light player interaction.

Users step into the role of “Spirit of the Seasons,” an invisible embodiment of the seasons and use their hands to periodically change the seasons and progress the story. The light-hearted adventure follows Crow (voiced by Johne Legend), a charismatic forest creature whos colorful feathers are outshined only by his magnificent voice. During an especially bitter winter season (way to go user), Crow and his fellow forest friends are struggling to survive the harsh conditions. It’s then up to Crow to travel past the sun into the unknowns of the cosmos and seek help from “The One Who Creates Everything By Thinking” (voiced by Oprah Winfrey).

The entire film is littered with jaw-dropping visuals, from the dreamy atmosphere of the fall forest to the chaotic beauty of space; combine this with an emotional story about commitment and sacrifice, and you have one hell of an impactful VR film.

Watch Crow: The Legend for free via YouTube.

CYCLES

I guess it should really come as no surprise that Disney’s very first foray into VR storytelling would be an unmitigated success. Developed by Disney Animation Studios (Frozen, Zootopia), Cycles is a uniquely-told story inspired by Gipson’s childhood spent at his grandparents home before having to move them to an assisted living environment. The film centers around the trials of a family over the course of 50 years told from the perspective of the home itself. Throughout the emotional experience, you’ll watch as the family goes about their day-to-day lives throughout the warm domicile.

“Every house has a story unique to the people, the characters who live there,” states Director Jeff Gipson. “We wanted to create a story in this single place and be able to have the viewer witness life happening around them. It is an emotionally driven film, expressing the real ups and downs, the happy and sad moments in life.”

By employing several unique VR storytelling techniques, such as fading the visuals to gray and lowering the audio when the user breaks focus from the primary actions of the scene, Disney has ensured that audiences catch every second of this raw and relatable tale. Cycles serves as an excellent example of the future of VR filmmaking, both in technology and storytelling.

Disney has yet to announce an official release date.

DEAR ANGELICA

Illustrated entirely in Quill, a VR creation tool for PC VR headsets, Dear Angelica follows a young woman who’s writing a letter to her mother, Angelica. As we progress through the story, the daughter falls asleep and you realize she’s coping with the death of her mother, a famous actress. She is, essentially, keeping her Mother alive through the memories and movies she left behind.

The experience keeps you in a dream-like trance throughout your journey, the world twisting and morphing around you with every new brush of her stroke. Narrated by Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise, The Long Kiss Goodbye), Dear Angelica features the perfect blend of conventional art, filmmaking, and technology, resulting in a memorable journey throughout which you gain a genuine sense of who Angelica was.

You can check out Dear Angelica for free via Oculus.

GLOOMY EYES

The newest film on our list, Gloomy Eyes is an adorable reimaging of the classic ‘ugly duckling’ tale. Narrated by Colin Farrel, Atlas V’s three-part adventure follows Gloomy, a tiny half-human, half-zombie hybrid struggling to find a place in a world fractured by an ongoing war between zombies and the humans who hunt them. Eventually, Gloomy falls in love with an equally adorable human girl. The only issue is her uncle, who just so happens to be the most celebrated zombie hunter in history.

“Anything that invokes a sense of magic and total immersion is worth gold, and it was amazing to be a part of the vision Fernando and Jorge created in Gloomy Eyes,” spoke Farrell during an interview with Variety. “It’s a completely transportive and beautiful experience, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and really connected with my passion of storytelling.”

Gloomy Eyes is somehow adorable, thrilling, and heartbreaking all at the same time. It’s truly one of the more unique VR films available, offering users an inspiring journey set within a dark, Tim Burton-esque universe.

Unfortunately, Gloomy Eyes has only been available at festivals and special events. No word yet on a public release.

The post Five Emotionally Draining VR Films appeared first on VRScout.

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Friday, 29 March 2019

‘Valve Index’ VR Headset Announced, Arrives May 2019

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Valve’s long-awaited HMD features dual front-facing cameras and manual IPD.

Valve has just released its first promotional image for its long-rumored proprietary VR headset, Valve Index.

Although we still know very little about the device, the image does indicate dual front-facing cameras (most likely for the purpose of pass-through functionality), as well as manual IPD adjustment, a feature on a steady decline as more headset manufacturers continue opting for software-based IPD optimization alongside fixed lens systems.

Equally as noteworthy is the overall size of the headset. Although it’s difficult to get a precise set of dimensions based on the image provided, the size of the hands in relation to the device points towards the possibility of a considerably thin device, especially when compared to other headsets. Of course, it’s also possible this particular hand model is simply working with a smaller set of paws. Reddit user /u/sbsce took it upon himself/herself to brighten up the promo photo, revealing what appears to be a translucent front cover.

Image Credit: Imgur

We first learned of the possibility of a Valve headset back in November of last year after images of an identical-looking HMD leaked on Imgur. Although it was never confirmed whether or not the headsets shown were official Valve products, eagle-eyed internet sleuths did discover the Valve logo printed on their circuit boards, adding further fuel to the flame.

This leak also claimed the headset would be bundled with the companies revolutionary Knuckles controllers; hopefully, this is still the case.

Valve was a no-show at both GDC 2019 and PAX East this year, a frustrating decision for fans who’ve been patiently awaiting any new updates on the companies VR hardware or the trio of mysterious games they’ve long been teasing. With May just around the corner however, it looks as though we’ll be receiving a load of new updates very soon.

Fingers crossed for Portal VR!

The post ‘Valve Index’ VR Headset Announced, Arrives May 2019 appeared first on VRScout.

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Valve is building its own high-end VR headset called ‘Index’

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Valve is ready to sell its own full VR hardware getup.

The company has revealed a teaser image on its site of a VR headset called the Valve Index. Alongside the photo, text reads “Upgrade your experience. May 2019” suggesting a near-term full announcement or release date of what is likely a high-end VR system.

Valve has long been a present name in virtual reality circles but it hasn’t shipped a dedicated headset of its own, instead focusing its work on the underlying software technologies. Valve has been at the forefront of the technology and was making substantial advancements while Oculus was in the process of releasing their first developer kits. Valve’s work eventually surfaced in the HTC Vive which operated on the SteamVR platform, but there hasn’t been widespread adoption from other OEMs of Valve’s VR technologies.

In a lot of ways it has been turning into a two-horse race for consumer VR platforms between Oculus and Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality. While SteamVR once seemed a likely choice to be a standard across VR devices, announced products never ended up shipping and the VR market cool-down left HTC pivoting to enterprise.

Things were just as unclear when the company laid off several of its VR hardware-focused employees a few weeks ago, leaving people to wonder whether that meant a release was never coming or one was imminent.

Well, now we know.

Now, there’s admittedly not a ton to go off of with this teaser image.

The look matches the Valve prototype headset that UploadVR found images of this past fall. That report detailed that the headset would have a display resolution similar to HTC’s Vive Pro while stretching that resolution over a wider 135 degree field-of-view.

This image is a pretty clear shot at Oculus in that while there aren’t many discernible features from the base of the headset, there is what definitely appears to be an IPD adjustment slider which allows users to define the distance between the lenses to accommodate for the space between their eyes. The exclusion of a physical IPD adjustment tool was undoubtedly the most controversial choice on Oculus’s Rift S headset, and prompted the company’s ousted founder to pen a blog post complaining about the omission.

Beyond that control, there are a couple of other things we can infer. First, this is almost definitely a PC-powered headset based on the company’s previous work, thus, the company will likely rely on their SteamVR 2.0 tracking system. The big question is then what those onboard cameras in the image are for. The most likely answer if I saw this headset from anyone else is that they were for inside-out tracking but the more likely answer is that they’re for “mixed reality” passthrough experiences, especially since the cameras both appear to be pointed forward though they are also a bit far apart.

This product’s release might not be great for Oculus, which has seemed to walk away from their position pushing high-end PC VR, but it’s far worse for HTC. The Taiwanese company’s consumer ambitions have kind of dried up in their pivot to enterprise markets though they have still seemed to be marketing towards consumers. For most users the best features of the Vive are features developed largely by Valve including the tracking system and software platform, so getting a high-end device direct from Valve seems like a very easy sell to these customers.

Again, not a huge amount to go off from this landing page, but it seems we’ll hear more in a couple months.

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Valve Teases New ‘Index’ VR Headset Coming in May

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After months of speculation, Valve has finally officially confirmed a new VR headset called Index that bears the company’s own name and will presumably be a first-party product. A teaser image for the headset may indicate a release date of May.

A new page posted to Valve’s Steam website revealed the Index headset today; only a photo with the text “May 2019” is shown. We expect that May would be the release month, but it could also just be the month that the company provides a full reveal of the headset.

From the photo we can infer a few things. First, the angle of the headset prominently shows a hardware IPD adjustment on the bottom of the headset, and we’d be surprised if this wasn’t specifically chosen to highlight the fixed IPD of the Rift S. Second, faint cricles on the underside of the headset are the signature mark of IR-transparent plastic which would indicate that the headset will be compatible with Valve’s outside-in SteamVR Tracking tech. The cameras clearly seen on the front of the device may indicate that the headset will also, optionally, support inside-out tracking.

This story is breaking, check back for more details as they come.

The post Valve Teases New ‘Index’ VR Headset Coming in May appeared first on Road to VR.

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Valve's 'Index' VR headset is coming in May

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While Valve worked closely for years with HTC on Vive VR hardware, it's about to introduce a virtual reality headset of its own. A teaser page on the Steam website shows off this image of the Index, with the tagline "Upgrade your experience" and a Ma...

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Valve Teases ‘Index’ VR Headset For May

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Valve is teasing its VR headset for May.

You can check it out right now at

The site confirms our report from late last year Valve was planning its own HMD to compete against Rift S. Updates to come.

The post Valve Teases ‘Index’ VR Headset For May appeared first on UploadVR.

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Black Box Opens First VR Gym In San Francisco

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Getting shredded with the help of VR.

Black Box, founded by Ryan DeLuca & Preston Lewis in 2016, will open the doors to its first VR gym this April in San Francisco with plans for expansion in the near future. By using VR, Black Box is able to motivate, track, and distract gym goers to encourage more effective, motivated workouts than compared to a traditional gym.

“We wanted this to be a real workout — not Wii Fit — that would also track everything you’re doing and react in real-time to a game environment,” Lewis said to SFGate.

Using their own proprietary Dynamic Resistance Machine technology and hands-free controllers, Black Box is able to track over 10,000 movement data points on an individual to ensure appropriate form and track progress in order to readjust the experience.

“The experience’s intensity is completely built around your ability,” Black Box boasts. “Machine learning modules intelligently take you from where you are now to where you want to be.”

Image Credit: Black Box VR

The gym experience is designed around a game that tricks you into exercising and pushing your physical limitations. As the hero of your fitness-inspired adventure, you’ll need to exercises in order to employ your weapons; the more challenging the exercise and the more reps you complete, the more damage you’ll inflict.

As you play, you also unlock new arenas, trophies, and energy to fight off your opponent, all while their algorithm tracks your progress and adjusts your resistance levels and rep ranges automatically.

“With VR and behavioral psychology, we can pull multiple levers at once that get you itching to come back to the gym,” Lewis said. “[since you’re] thinking about the next epic arena or character you’ll unlock.”

The workout uses traditional exercises — chest presses, overhead presses, rows, lat pulldowns, squats, and deadlifts — in complement with high-intensity interval cardio, making a 30 minute work-out doable from home rather than an expensive gym; but Black Box believes the tech will turn working-out from a chore to an addictive video game.

“People want abs in two weeks, and at the end of that period, they look in the mirror, tired and sore, and ask, ‘Where are my abs?'” Lewis said. “They want the magic pill.”

Black Box VR (1390 Market St., San Francisco) opens mid-April. You can sign up for a membership here.

The post Black Box Opens First VR Gym In San Francisco appeared first on VRScout.

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How one fan revived the hair-raising terror of Alien: Isolation VR with a mod

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Playing Alien: Isolation's virtual reality mode on modern headsets shouldn't be possible, but one enterprising modder has made it so with MotherVR, a simple and effective mod that makes it playable once again.

The post How one fan revived the hair-raising terror of Alien: Isolation VR with a mod appeared first on Digital Trends.

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Tokyo Chronos Makes The Case For VR Visual Novels With Middling Results

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I’m always puzzled by the suggestion that VR ‘needs’ its version of some gaming genres. 3D visuals aside, what’s really gained by putting a turn-based strategy game into headsets? Or a JRPG? Moreover, does the obscure visual novel genre really need a VR equivalent? Tokyo Chronos argues it does, but it makes its case with middling results.

For all intents and purposes, Tokyo Chronos is a competently-assembled visual novel. It follows eight Japanese students that find themselves in a deserted version of Tokyo. Fans of the genre will know what to expect; exposition-heavy dialogue, striking anime visuals and a branching narrative that gradually dips into the supernatural. This is a media-fluid genre, one that mixes books, comics and games into one package. But developer MyDearest often struggles to capitalize on the fourth layer VR adds to that recipe. If anything, VR often proves a hindrance just as much it does an enhancement.

Much of the game’s well-crafted atmosphere and style is lost to the subtitles, for example. From a silent Shibuya scramble to the darkened corridors of abandoned buildings, Tokyo Chronos’ empty metropolis can be an unnerving place to viist. And yet, instead of surging chills running down my spine, I’m often too distracted with lengthy text appearing somewhere slightly below me to truly embrace it. I’m forever being told what I feel and what I see as if the game doesn’t trust me to look around and discover it for myself. I’m told I can’t find anyone for miles around, that I don’t have my keys or wallet with me, that I have a crush on one of the cast, that I have a personal history with each of the game’s characters. No detail is too small to be spared in a visual novel, but in VR this tries your patience.

Each character also has their own vibrant design, expectantly matched by their personalities. Would you believe that the stony-eyed, black-haired Karen is the sharp and to the point type, for example? Or that your well-built and noticeably taller best friend Sota is brave, brash and loud as they come? But, again, I often miss their enthusiastic animations because I’m too busy looking through them, head craned at an unsociable angle, reading what they’re saying. There’s a textured world right in front of me and I’m powerless to expose it. And Tokyo Chronos knows it. When I say something that hurts one of my companions, it’s explained to me rather than clearly communicated in their expression. All I can wonder is why I’m not being allowed to discover all of this for myself.

It’s a shame given that there are traces of an attempt to break the mold here. Tokyo Chronos is at its best when it steps outside of its conventions. It’s in the moments it plays with proximity and body displacement. Before the game’s even started you find yourself staring in shock at your own two virtual hands, soaked in blood. It’s a harrowing image, but one that loses its potency the deeper into the conversation-heavy sequences you get. I wanted something more dynamic, something ready to proclaim itself as the evolution of the foundation laid before it. Tokyo Chronos instead seems more interested in preserving it on a platform that should move beyond.

It will have its fans, of course, and more power to them. This is a genre that’s always required patience above all else, something that’s earned it a small but dedicated fanbase. If the thought of strapping an Oculus Rift to your head for multiple hours to read reams of text across several playthroughs appeals to you then take these words as irrelevant; you’ll find plenty of love in Tokyo Chronos.

But for those of us not so easily sold, with our attentions captured but our concerns unaddressed, this is a disappointment. Visual novels are, by their very nature, character and story-driven, and freed from their shackles could be a revelatory experience for headset owners. But all Tokyo Chronos ends up proving is that it’s a genre at odds with the very nature of VR.

Tokyo Chronos is out now on Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and HTC Vive for $39.99.

The post Tokyo Chronos Makes The Case For VR Visual Novels With Middling Results appeared first on UploadVR.

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VR Card-Battler ‘Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl’ Gameplay Revealed in New Video

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Chomping at the bit for the next Skyworld game? Vertigo Games and Vive Studios recently showed off some new footage of the upcoming VR card-battler Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl in action, and it seems they’re hoping to take it to new heights in the burgeoning VR esports scene.

Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl is a game where you collect and upgrade dozens of cards to build a battle deck. You cast spells, raise armies, spend mana, etc. It’s an online multiplayer, and is basically an outgrowth from the original Skyworld’s ‘General Battle’ real-time strategy mini-game.

It seems the cross-platform title is being positioned as a potential esport too, as the studio contracted former Machinima producer & esports announcer Shayan Tamayo to commentate on a mock championship battle that shows off a head-to-head, best out of three fight.

To that tune, Vertigo Games has partnered with the Virtual Athletics League to launch a Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl arcade tournament in late April. The studio is putting up a “slew of prizes,” including an HTC Vive Pro, for the winner.

Vive Pro Eye Hits FCC on Its Way to 2019 Launch

Everything We Know (Officially) About the FOV and IPD of Rift S & Quest

Scape Highlights Geo-Located AR Uses In First Hackathon

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We may all be looking forward to the day HoloLens and Magic Leap are affordable, but smartphone AR still has plenty of room to grow. UK-based Scape technologies is still exploring those possibilities with its new platform.

Scape is powering geo-located AR. Think Pokemon Go but, instead of a GPS-based system, Scape uses images captured on your phone’s camera to determine where you are. Using the ScapeKit SDK, developers can create permanent AR stamps in the real world. In the case of Niantic’s popular mobile game, for example, you could specifically place a Pikachu on a street corner and anyone that walks past could try and catch it.

But this type of AR’s use stretches far beyond game. That’s why Scape recently put together its first hackathon. Developers were given three days to piece together new apps using ScapeKit. The community favorite spot went to Xrad. The group had an intriguing idea, using webVR to design virtual recreations of real-world environments where they could place preposed AR content. It could be used to virtually visualize and ad campaign, for example.

Inition, meanwhile, won the judge’s award. They had a handy idea for a drone delivery service app where the user could pick and visualize drone landing spots. Both teams took home £500. Othe ideas included a Bandersnatch-style game in which players chose a path through a narrative based on their location in the real world.

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Dreams Early Access Won’t Have PSVR But Support ‘Still Planned’

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Good news: the Dreams Early Access launch is just a few weeks away. Bad news: it definitely won’t support PSVR. For now, at least.

Developer Media Molecule confirmed an April 16th launch for the game over on the PlayStation Blog. The Early Access edition of the game is specifically designed for those interested in creating games. You’ll still be able to download and play other people’s levels, but Media Molecule still has plenty to fix and add to the game in the coming months.

One of these is PSVR support. VR integration has long been promised for Dreams but was absent in this year’s Creator Beta. On the blog, Media Molecule explained that Dreams VR isn’t included in the initial Early Access launch. “It’s still planned for Dreams and we’re super excited for it,” Studio Director Siobhan Reddy wrote. “We’ll be sure to share more details about it as soon as we’re ready.”

That’s sad but not unexpected news. The Early Access version will only have a limited number of spaces and will cost $29.99. There won’t be any early pre-orders for the game so it’ll be first-come, first-served on launch day. Media Molecule says it’s a “big limit”, though. Oh, and if you do buy it now you won’t have to get it again when the full version launches.

We’ve long thought Dreams is one of the most important VR releases on the horizon right now. We took part in the beta earlier this year and the possibilities were, quite frankly, stunning. Hopefully it doesn’t take too much longer for the VR support to follow along after Early Access launch.

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Limina To Launch Dedicated VR Arts Theatre In The UK

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From Sundance to Sheffield Doc/Fest, VR art has become a mainstay in the global festival circuit. But the chance to see the actual content touring these shows is fleeting at best. Immersive arts group Limina wants to change that.

You may remember Limina itself hosted such a festival in December 2018. Today, though, the group is announcing the UK’s first dedicated VR art venue, Limina: The Virtual Reality Theatre. Located in Bristol’s Harbourside area, the theatre will offer regular VR programming. Art lovers will be able to purchase tickets to shows, head into a room as a group, take a seat and strap on a headset.

Shows will run from Wednesday to Monday nights, with performances also taking place all-day on Saturdays and Sundays.

In its initial offering, the theatre will include 360-degree videos like My Africa, a short documentary narrated by Lupita Nyong’o that puts you in the heart of Kenyan country. The Roger Ross Williams-directed Traveling While Black, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, will also feature. There are even performances from Cirque du Soleil and the chance to explore one of the planet’s most endangered coral reefs.

The theatre’s opening comes at an uncertain time for VR movie making. Earlier this month we reported on the closure of Google Spotlight Stories, a studio that had made some groundbreaking VR movies. At the time we wrote about how the news highlighted the need for a new kind of VR storefront that was dedicated to these types of experiences. Limina’s approach to a permanent physical location is another interesting idea along those lines. It’s like a VR arcade for those that prefer the gallery over the games console.

“The trouble for audiences is that this new medium is very hard to see at home unless you have your own virtual reality headset and know what to look for,” Limina CEO Catherine Allen said in a prepared statement. “Limina bridge this gap by curating selections of amazing VR experiences for people to see together, much like going to the cinema, the theatre or a concert.”

Limina: The Virtual Reality Theatre opens on April 12th with public previews on April 4th. Tickets to the shows cost £12.50 plus a £1.42 booking fee and are suitable for ages 13 and up

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Talespin Building Virtual Human Tech to Train Interpersonal Skills in VR

Thursday, 28 March 2019

Following PS Aim Support, ‘Borderlands 2 VR’ Will Get All DLC for Free This Summer

The Tale of Lucky

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Editor’s Note: This was originally published on March 29th, 2016 and is being republished today for the Oculus Rift’s third anniversary. The author of this piece, Blake Harris, has a new book out about the history of virtual reality and founding of Oculus called The History of the Future.

“Wait, hold on,” said Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus, as he squinted with sudden confusion at the guests who had come to visit his company’s new Irvine office. It was December 2012, and there were four of these guys. Four of these guys from Dallas. “Wait,” Iribe continued, as his confusion grew to curiosity, “Who are you guys?!”

This is the story of who those guys were and how that awkward moment led to an intimate relationship and, ultimately, the creation of a foxy mascot named Lucky.

The Kings of Pop (Software)

Paul (left) and David (right) Bettner

In late 1997, when he was 19 years old, Paul Bettner began working at Ensemble Studios in Dallas. Six years later, Bettner’s younger brother David joined Ensemble as well. At some point between then and 2008—when the two would leave to start their own game company—Paul brought a chess board to work so that he and his brother could play a version of the game that can probably best be described as the opposite of speed chess.

Paul (left) and David (right) Bettner working in the library in 2008.

The way it worked is one player would make a move and then, the next time the other player passed the board, he would make his move (whether or not the other opponent was present). The game would continue in this fashion—toggling back and forth, each at their own pace—until one of the two won. Sometimes it would take days, other times it would take weeks. And then, when it ended, they would start it all over again.

Certainly, the Bettners could not have been the first to play chess in this manner, but they were the first to embrace the asynchronous aspect and bring it to the iPhone. And not just any game, but one that seemed ideally suited for the iPhone, which Apple had just recently brought to market. In terms of a gaming device, the iPhone paled in comparison to dedicated handhelds (like the Game Boy or PSP) in almost every way. Except for one: it was always connected to the Internet, which made it perfect for this newfangled idea of persistent social gaming.

Paul and David Bettner in their first office.

Text messaging meets gaming, that was the general idea, and in August 2008 Paul and David Bettner left Ensemble Studios to further explore this notion. To keep overhead low, they worked out of the McKinney public library and over the next few months they created a game called Chess with Friends. And in November 2008, Chess with Friends was released on Apple’s just-four-months-old App Store.

By no means was a runaway hit, but there was something unique about the release that kept the Bettners optimistic. Among those who did play the game, over half of them were still playing 30 days later. Compared to the love-‘em-and-leave-‘em games that populated the mobile market, the retention numbers for Chess with Friends were incredible. So the Bettners concluded that their problem wasn’t the gameplay, but rather the game itself. They needed something more fun. Something more playful. Something like…Scrabble.

The Bettners followed up their hit Chess with Friends, with Words with Friends.

In July 2009, with their business hanging on by a thread, the Bettners released Words with Friends. In July 2010, the game surpassed 7 million downloads. And in December 2010, for $180 million, Zynga acquired the Bettner’s mobile game studio (Newtoy, Inc.)

Although neither Paul nor David Bettner would ever complain about their windfall—they both felt grateful, and lucky, to have created something so valuable—the aftermath of the acquisition was a shock to their systems. At Newtoy, they believed they were making something more than games. “Pop Software” they called it, referring to a type of catchy, intuitive content that appealed to both traditional gamers and non-gamers alike. They felt that they had been on the forefront of something special and, without getting into the nitty-gritty of why they no longer felt that way, let’s just say that come 2012—two years into the four they had planned to stay—the Bettners left Zynga.

Following his departure, Paul Bettner didn’t know what he was going to do next. And he certainly had no idea that it would involve unleashing a fox in virtual reality.

Diversely and Relentlessly

Paul Bettner visits the Oculus headquarters in 2012. (Photo Credit: Oculus)

After leaving Zynga, Bettner expected some sort of happily ever after. With money in the bank, autonomy reinstated and a wife (plus two young kids) at home, this was supposed to be the beginning of the good life. Except, as he soon learned, he wasn’t very good at that. Quickly he grew restless—feeling a gnawing need to create, build and collaborate—and started driving his family crazy with pet projects and creative fascinations.

One such fascination was virtual reality, and the string of what-ifs that kept popping up in his mind. What if virtual reality could actually be a thing? What if technology had advanced far enough to actually make it possible this time? What if three or four years from now, my wife (or even kids?) could be buying their first VR headset? So he reached out to an old friend, someone he believed could help him answer the question better than anyone: John Carmack, who around this time just so happened to be asking himself the same sort of what-ifs.

Professionally, these conversations with Carmack didn’t provide Bettner with any increased clarity about what he should do next, but personally—as a creator, as a technophile—he grew increasingly intrigued. Enough so to be one of only seven backers to pledged $5,000 or more to Oculus’ Kickstarter campaign. And, by doing so, received a reward that included visiting Oculus for a day.

Bettner scheduled that tour-the-office visit to coincide with another trip he was making to Oculus, a sort of how-can-we-work-together meeting. So in December 2012, Bettner and three colleagues flew out to Irvine to meet with Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey (twice). One as a developer, the other as a benefactor; which is what led to Iribe’s sudden confusion.

“Wait, hold on,” Iribe said scanning the table. “Wait. Who are you guys?!”

“We’re the guys who did Words with Friends,” Bettner explained.

“Ohhhhh,” Iribe replied. “I thought that meeting was tomorrow. I thought you guys were here for a Kickstarter reward, just to visit.”

Laughs, smiles, recalibrated handshakes. And any potentially lingering awkwardness was wiped away by the awesomeness of trying the duct-tape Rift prototype.

By the end of this meeting, Bettner knew that this was what he needed to do next. “We want to make things with you guys,” he said. “We don’t really know what we want to make, but if mobile taught us anything it’s that we need to let go off our expectations and just figure out what works. So why don’t we start building things on, like, a month-to-month basis with you guys and we’ll see what comes with that?”

What came first was founding a new game studio (Playful Corp) and the idea of doing something like Wii Sports for VR. Not necessarily sports, per se, but a collection of mini games that showed off the potential of virtual reality. Not only did this seem like a logical creative approach (Wii Sports was the perfect vehicle to implement Nintendo’s “Blue Ocean” games-for-anyone strategy), but it also created a framework for Playful to experiment diversely and relentlessly.

Paul Bettner and the Playful Corp team.

During this time, they were churning out about one prototype a week. There was a Katamari-like game, where the player would subtly grow in size over time. There was a cooking game, where players would have to catch ingredients with a frying pan attached to their face. And there were a lot of games based around the mechanics of classics old and new (like Tempest and Doodle Jump).

Operating under the mindset that the fastest way to find the most compelling idea was just to keep building things, that’s exactly what they did. Brainstorming, building, bending (and then constantly re-bending) their expectations. And among the early batch of games, there was one concept that the guys at Playful had the most faith in: and it absolutely, positively was not Lucky’s Tale.

Super Capsule Brothers

One of Playful’s earliest platforming prototypes – the Super Capsule Brothers.

From the getgo, Bettner and his team loved the idea that VR could enable us to do things that were otherwise impossible. Like flying. That was the big one. They thought flying would be the coolest thing in the world and so, in game form, tried things like putting players on the back of a giant dragonfly. Except every time they tried something like this, it was never as good as they thought it would be. It always felt too flat, like a matte painting and lacked any compelling sense of depth.

Meanwhile, as Playful spent 2013 throwing spaghetti at the virtual wall, Oculus continued to take off. In June, they drew in $16 million of Series A funding and then, in December, they brought in $75 million more. As the scope of Oculus and what they believed the Rift could be grew larger, so did their hopes for what Playful could build; instead of a potpourri of mini-games, they wanted a big launch title. Hitting a home run instead of a spree of singles and doubles would be a challenge, but it was one that the guys and gals at Playful relished.

By this point, Playful had created forty games. Although none stood out as an obvious can’t-miss, there was one prototype they all believed in the most. But they had a little trouble admitting that at first because, in truth, it was among the ideas they thought least likely to pan out. This was the one idea that didn’t celebrate the first-person, immersive aspect that virtual reality offers; a third-person platformer called Super Capsule Bros. Inspired, of course, by Super Mario Bros., the prototype’s protagonist differed from its namesake. Instead of starring an Italian plumber, this one featured a blocky capsule (because that was one of the default shapes in Unity).

While the guys at Playful were initially skeptical about the type of game this was, they quickly realized why this concept worked: after decades touring the worlds of their favorite platformers (like Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom), they finally felt like they got to a place like this and explore. What they saw in that Super Capsule Bros. prototype was the first—and, still to this day, the only—VR experience that allowed for continuous, free-form locomotion through a virtual landscape without causing motion sickness. Or, put in terms that the kid inside of each of them was shouting through their skulls: magic.

Intermezzo: Q&A with Paul Bettner

Blake Harris: So you’ve got Super Capsule Bros., and it’s your favorite of the 40 games, but I was wondering if Oculus felt the same way?

Paul Bettner: I think, like us, they were surprised that a third-person game would work in VR. But after they tried it, they agreed that not only did it work, but they also saw the potential of what this could be. And another great thing about this game was that because it was a platformer, we didn’t need an excuse to put in whatever crazy mini-games we wanted. Because platformers have all sorts of crazy mini-games. So we were able to borrow from some of the other prototypes we’d built and bring elements of those into Super Capsule Bros., which, of course, soon became Lucky’s Tale.

Blake Harris: I figured that’s where this was headed. So tell me about how that happened. How did you go from capsule to fox? Were there other iterations in between?

Paul Bettner: Oh yeah. There were four or five major iterations of the character before we finally got to Lucky. Early on, we knew we wanted to do an animal and a fox ended up working really well. He was cute, my kids were into that, and he also evoked something nostalgic. He looks like he belongs in plenty of games you’ve experienced before.

Blake Harris: He does. Given that he’s a fox, it’s hard not to think about Sonic’s old sidekick. But I think that association with Tails is about more than just being the same species. There’s some other quality about Lucky that evokes characters from that era.

Paul Bettner: You know, it’s easy to gloss over this, but I really think that—and I believe this is the reason why Oculus signed Lucky’s Tale as a bundled deal, why this even happened in the first place—when you meet Lucky in VR, there’s this feeling of new meeting the old. You have this incredible technology, you’ve never been inside of a game like this before, and yet you are meeting something that is immediately familiar to you and that most people have some nostalgic memory of. A character, whether it’s Mickey Mouse or it’s Mario, you’ve met a character like Lucky. So it’s kind of this childhood dream come to life. That’s where Lucky came from. We were trying to evoke that. We were trying to create something that felt familiar. Immediately familiar.

Blake Harris: Well speaking of iconic, mascot-type characters like Mario and Sonic, I’m curious why you don’t think there hasn’t been one in such a long time. Obviously there have been some since then—like, say, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro; though even they are both from the 90s—but why do you think it’s such a rare thing?

Paul Bettner: I really couldn’t tell you. I could say that it’s hard, because it’s definitely hard. You could ask our brilliant director, Dan Hurd. We’ve struggled and it’s been an uphill battle to create someone who looks and plays like Lucky. So that might be what keeps people away. Or maybe, to be honest, it could be the lack of diversity that exists in our industry. Typically, that’s not the kind of game that middle-aged white dudes play, nor is it what they tend to want to make. I really don’t know. But here’s one thing that I do know: it’s very frustrating from a consumer standpoint. I mean, I’ve got these little kids—a 7 year old, a 5 year old, a 2 year old—and we love to play games together. But the menu of games that are available to us is so thin. Like how many times can we beat Zelda Wind Waker together? We’re desperate to play more games like this, but there aren’t that many out there.

Blake Harris: That’s where you come in. Lucky’s Tale: uniting families everywhere!

Paul Bettner: [laughing] exactly. But seriously, I think that there’s definitely an element of us wanting to fill that void a little bit. And to be honest, that’s part of why we chose this direction for our first game and why the company is even called Playful.

Blake Harris: What do you mean?

Paul Bettner: Well, technology allows for entertainment to evoke plenty of different feelings. VR especially can evoke several strong emotions and responses. Fear. Adrenaline. Excitement. But what we want, the emotion that we’re going for, is happy. We want to evoke happy. When people put on a VR headset, we want to make them smile. And so everything we’ve done in Lucky’s Tale, all these little elements in the game, they’ve all been about trying to evoke that feeling of just pure joy, childlike joy, and I hope that’s the way that people react to it when it ships this week.

Blake Harris: Speaking of shipping, my last question for you is about how that came to be. Lucky’s Tale is one of two games bundled with the Rift. How did that happen?

Paul Bettner: Oh, that’s a good story…

Let’s Go!

In November 2015, Playful sent a final build of Lucky’s Tale to Oculus. Not long after, Brendan Iribe called up Paul Bettner. “I just sat down and played two hours of Lucky’s Tale,” explained Iribe. “Two hours, non-stop, without coming out of the Rift. I’ve never done that before, that much time.”

“That’s amazing,” Bettner replied. “I’m so glad to hear this.”

After they talked back and forth about the game for a bit, Iribe brought up the idea of making it exclusive to Oculus [for a period of time, at least] and bundling it with the Rift. “We’re going to put a deal in front of you,” Iribe began, speaking with the same sort of magnetic, it’s-all-happening confidence that persuaded many to work for him at Oculus. “We’re going to put a deal in front of you and you’re going to accept it because it’s gonna be that good.”

True to his word, Iribe soon put a lucrative offer in front of Bettner. But if there was anything that Bettner had learned from his Zynga experience, it’s that his long-term vision is more important than any amount of short-term money. Which, of course, begs the question: what was Paul Bettner’s vision?

Visions are hard to put into words, and even harder to put into numbers. So perhaps the best way to try and express Bettner’s outlook and ambitions is by sharing a story that he mentioned during one of our conversations. “This is something that we tell ourselves internally,” Better explained. “Imagine if you could put yourself in Walt Disney’s shoes back in the day. He saw this amazing new cutting edge technology called motion pictures and he believed it was going to change the world. Because what he saw was an ability to bring a character to life and make an audience fall in love with that character in a way that you just couldn’t do before. And the first time that you see Lucky come out of his house, and he looks up at you, makes eye contact, waves hello…I think people will feel something that they’ve never felt before. Then he points at you, points over to the level and says, ‘Let’s go!’ You just feel so connected to him in a way that you couldn’t have felt if this wasn’t VR.”

Sharing and spreading that kind of connection—one of joy, adventure and friendship—is, at least in my opinion, what lies at the heart of Playful’s vision. And so when Iribe presented his godfather offer—one that generously compensated Playful, wouldn’t require them to part with their IP and ensured that their foxy new friend would be experienced by 100% of those first traversing VR’s seemingly limitless frontier—it was, of course, impossible for Paul Bettner to say anything other than what Lucky himself would say: Let’s go!

About the Author

Blake J. Harris is the best-selling author of Console Wars and will be co-directing the documentary based on his book, which is being produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Scott Rudin. Currently, he is working on a new book about VR that will be published by HarperCollins in 2017. You can follow him on Twitter @blakejharrisNYC.

Tagged with: blake harris, brendan iribe, lucky, luckys tale, oculus, paul bettner, playful, playful corp, VR

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Borderlands 2 VR To Get All DLC For Free On PSVR This Summer

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Today during a PAX East presentation Gearbox Software announced Borderlands 3 finally with a great debut trailer. However, there was no mention at all of VR support for the new game. Instead, they discussed the much-requested recent addition of PS Aim Controller support. Then, they confirmed that all of Borderlands 2’s past DLC would be released for free this summer for Borderlands 2 VR.

This is big news for fans because when Borderlands 2 VR launched it not only lacked PS Aim controller support, but it lacked any of the DLC packs that had been out for years in the non-VR version of the game. Now, it will finally be content-complete.

After that moment in the stream they also alluded to “more information about VR” but stopped short before revealing more news. My money is on an eventual PC VR port, which should be coming in just a few months. Probably around the same time the DLC releases so that it debuts on all platforms at the same time.

Obviously the big missing feature is still the lack of multiplayer support, but they have always said since the very beginning that this was being redesigned for single player so that’s likely never going to happen.

We praised the depth and sheer size of the game in our review, but weren’t a fan of the PS Move controllers due to the imprecise movement and lack of analog stick. The PS Aim Controller does certainly help with that a bit.

If you’re curious to see more about Borderlands 2 VR you can read our tips for new players, list of cool things to do, or even watch our archived livestream featuring lots of bombastic over-the-top gameplay.

Let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below and don’t forget to check out our full review

!h/t CybustOne on Twitter

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Madame Tussauds Partners With ARtGlass For AR Wax Exhibits

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Dynamic holograms, historical video, and 360-degree panoramas inbound.

Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C. location is receiving an upgrade in the form of AR enhancements that breath new life into their lineup of famous wax sculptures.

Partnering with ARtGlass Group, the infamous wax museum chain is introducing the companies line of ARtGlasses into the Madame Tussauds experience, allowing visitors to learn more about the historical figures presented through cutting-edge holograms, relevant historical videos, and 360-degree content enhanced by surround audio.

“The ARtGlass team brings the perfect combination of technical innovation and cultural knowledge,” spoke Therese Alvich, general manager for Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C, in an official release. “We are excited to partner with them to bring transformative storytelling experiences to visitors.”

“This partnership combines the creativity and joy of Madame Tussauds’ legendary artistry with the ‘edutainment’ powers of wearable AR to bring notable figures to life,” added ARtGlass founder and CEO Greg Werkheiser.

Built specifically for use by tourists at museums and various cultural institutions, the ARtGlasses were developed in collaboration between technologists, art and culture specialists, and public engagement entrepreneurs to expand wearable AR technology within important cultural establishments–whether it be art, architecture, archaeology, etc–and enhance the learning experience for visitors.

The Royal Family (sort of) / Image Credit: Madame Tussauds

So far over 1M people have purchased an ARtGlass-operated tour across multiple historical European sites, such as Pisa Tower Square and the Royal Villa in Monza in Italy. In 2018, the company launched ARtGlass tours at President George Washington’s Mount Vernon and President James Monroe’s Highland estate, with plans for more United States releases scheduled throughout 2019.

Filled to the brim with important historical figures and various pop culture icons–including everyone from Abert Einstein to Beyonce Knowles, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum is the perfect fit for ARtGlasses; allowing visitors to dive deeper into the lives of these icons. With locations all across the United States, Madame Tussaud’s could be the perfect launch pad for a new wave of AR-based tourism.

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HTC’s ‘6DOF Lite’ Mode Adds Volumetric Depth To 360 Video

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HTC brings flat 360-degree video to life with 6DOF functionality.

As captivating as conventional 360-degree video can be, it pales in comparison to the level of immersion offered by volumetric content featuring 3D depth and 6DOF capabilities. Looking around a 360-degree environment is one thing, being able to lean and move around the space is something entirely different.

Image Credit: Skarredghost

During this years HTC Vive Ecosystem Conference, HTC unveiled a new service that injects 6DOF functionality into a conventional monoscopic 360-degree video, allowing users to move their heads in any direction up to one meter.

According to Skarredghost, ‘6DOF Lite’ mode is capable of automatically converting existing monoscopic 360 into full volumetric video minus the need for expensive photogrammetry, volumetric, or lightfield camera technology. This could be a game-changer for 360-degree content, which–while an interesting format–has so far failed to find mainstream appeal among those unfamiliar with VR.

Unfortunately, the only information offered in terms of a release date is a good old-fashioned “soon.”

If 6DOF Lite sounds somewhat familiar, that’s because Adobe Research launched a similar initiative back in 2017. Sidewinder captured the positions of pixels and analyzed their distance in relation to other objects in the scene to develop a 3D depth map, offering more realistic 3D imagery. Unfortunately, it appears as though the project is currently on the backburner.

In an interview this past October with Immersive Shooter, Adobe’s Director of Immersive Chris Bobotis stated that there was “nothing new to report with Project Sidewinder.” The company has instead focused its efforts on VR180, favoring its ability for longer form work at higher resolutions than 360-degree content.

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