Blog V Reality

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Dreamscape Immersive Begins Nationwide Expansion With Four New Venues

https://ift.tt/2Q2lNds

The premiere location will launch at LA’s Westfield Century City this December.

Location-based VR studio and retailer Dreamscape Immersive this week confirmed the launch of four new state-of-the-art immersive venues across Los Angeles, CA; Dallas/Fort Worth, TX; Columbus, OH; and the New York/New Jersey metro area, in partnership with AMC Theatres.

The first location will be open to the public December 14th at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, California and will feature original free-roam VR experiences for participants of all ages.

In Alien Zoo, guests travel to an intergalactic sanctuary where they’ll have the opportunity to interact with a healthy variety of endangered alien species. Visitors can participate in numerous activities throughout the experience, from playing catch with frogcats, to cuddling with strange-looking beasts; all of which culminating in a fast-paced escape from a terrifying predator known as Sicari.

Lavan’s Magic Projector: The Lost Pearl throws guests into the middle of a feature film and are tasked with solving a tangled mystery while simultaneously avoiding deadly traps and collecting clues.

The final experience, The Blue: Deep Rescue, users dive into a jaw-dropping ocean world where they’ll explore various undersea life before assisting in the rescue of a baby Blue Whale in the hopes of reuniting it with its mother.

The Westfield Century City location will also feature five stand-alone adventure pods with a revolving catalogue of original and studio experiences.

“What sets Dreamscape VR apart from all others are the magical minds responsible for crafting such captivating, immersive experiences, the likes of which has never been seen before,” said Adam Aron, CEO and President of AMC Entertainment, in an official release. “Audiences have come to expect innovations from our company, and Dreamscape and AMC are going to deliver a next-level entertainment option.”

Tickets for the premiere venue are available now over at dreamscapeimmersive.com. The following three locations will launch as either stand-alone and in-theatre venues beginning mid 2019.

Founded in 2016 by film producer Walter Parkes, global live events producer Kevin Wall alongside his partner Aaron Grosky, Artanim co-founders Caecilia Charbonnnier and Sylvain Chagué, entrepreneur Ronald Menzel, and former Chief Creative Officer at Disney Imagineering, Bruce Vaughn, Dreamscape Immersive has partnered with numerous high-profile studios and clients, including 21st Century Fox, WarnerMedia, Steven Spielberg, and Hans Zimmer.

In 2017, AMC Theatres invested $10 million during the studios series B equity round, followed by another $10 million to fund the production of Dreamscape Immersive experiences. This 2018 expansion marks the next big step towards the studios domination of location-based VR.

Image Credit: Dreamscape Immersive

The post Dreamscape Immersive Begins Nationwide Expansion With Four New Venues appeared first on VRScout.

from VRScout https://ift.tt/2RsZs5v
via IFTTT

New PSVR ‘Mega Pack’ Europe Bundle Includes Skyrim VR, Doom VFR, Astro Bot, and WipEout: Omega Collection

https://ift.tt/2E4XwNc

Sony is launching a new PSVR bundle in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland next week. The ‘Mega Pack’ includes the headset, camera bar, Skyrim VR, Doom VFR, Astro Bot, and WipEout: Omega Collection. It also includes the PlayStation Worlds VR demo reel which gives you a taste of what’s possible in VR.

What the pack doesn’t include is Playstation Move controllers. If you want your hands in VR, you’ll need to buy those separately. They aren’t useful for Astro Bot or WipEout, but for Skyrim VR, Doom VFR and PlayStation VR Worlds they really take the VR experience to the next level, so we highly recommend buying them too if you’re going for this bundle.

The company hasn’t announced the price yet, but given the pricing of the other similar PSVR bundles we’d expect it to come in at around £200. This is a box that will be under many European Christmas trees this year.

Skyrim VR [9/10]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is the whole game brought into virutal reality – DLC and all. This is no “experience” or experiment, this is the whole >100 hour game and all of its gameplay mechanics. We were highly impressed when we reviewed the game, stating:

For a game that wasn’t originally designed for VR at all and has been ported first to the least powerful of the big three VR platforms in the PSVR, Skyrim VR is nothing short of impressive. This really is the Skyrim that you know and love, but now you can enjoy it like never before with the immersive presence of a VR headset. With a large variety of control schemes to choose from and hundreds of hours of content, this is a game that all RPG fans should play as long as you can look past the sometimes glaring issues. And if you don’t own a PSVR yet, luckily there’s a new Skyrim VR bundle with your name on it.

DOOM VFR [6/10]

DOOM VFR is not a port, it’s an entry in the popular gore shooter franchise made specifically for VR. While it provides some great VR action, there are some problems on the PSVR version. As we stated in our review:

While Skyrim VR made a great case for the VR port, Doom VFR brings us back to the drawing board. On PSVR, the game has its moments, largely thanks to the foundations it was built upon with the 2016 original. In the end, though, the real fight is with its awkward control setups that eventually led me back to play with just a standard gamepad. Though the foundations of a hugely enjoyable shooter are intact, VFR’s struggle with the platform’s limitations makes it feel like the VR support is holding it back more than anything.

Astro Bot Rescue Mission [8.5/10]

Astro bot is one of those games that proves that 3rd person platformers can work just as well as 1st person games in VR. We really enjoyed reviewing this game, concluding:

Astro Bot is not here to reinvent the wheel or claim the throne as VR’s killer app; there are enough games trying to do that already. Instead, it fuzes the thrill of seeing a virtual world come to life with the dependably engaging gameplay of one of gaming’s most beloved genres and explores what that can mean with fascinating results. It’s a refreshing reminder of just how astonishing VR can be when there’s nothing in your way, and it’s an absolutely essential experience for any PSVR owner.

WipEout: Omega Collection [9/10]

WipEout: Omega Collection is the Wipeout you dreamed of back in 1995. As we stated in our review:

Wipeout VR is an eccentric mix of new and old; a series delivering on the same kind of regular reliability it has for over two decades but from an entirely fresh perspective. Everything you love about Wipeout is here but with a new lease of life, from the violent crunch of combat to the twitch-like reactions needed to navigate the many courses from the seat of your vehicle. It’s both Wipeout as you love it and as you’ve never seen it before, and one of the very best games you can get on PSVR yet.

Tagged with: Astro Bot, Doom VFR, playstation vr worlds, PSVR, Skyrim VR, Wipeout VR

The post New PSVR ‘Mega Pack’ Europe Bundle Includes Skyrim VR, Doom VFR, Astro Bot, and WipEout: Omega Collection appeared first on UploadVR.

from UploadVR https://ift.tt/2Q0foiK
via IFTTT

Beat Saber Custom Songs Livestream – Outkast, Michael Jackson, Avicii, And More!

https://ift.tt/2Km7N87

We’re diving back into Beat Saber for today’s livestream and focusing on our massive catalog of great custom tracks the community has produced. I’ve got 40 different custom tracks installed, plus the game’s original 10, so we should have plenty of content to peruse on today’s stream. Since we’re focusing on custom songs today, that means the stream will be on the PC version of Beat Saber since the new PSVR version cannot play custom tracks.

We’ll be playing Beat Saber on Rift using a two Touch controllers. We’re starting right around 12:30 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for about an hour and a half or more. We’ll be livestreaming to the UploadVR Twitch page where you can interact with us directly and chat among yourselves. Streaming is something we’re going to double down on doing more often very soon so you should get in on the ground floor of our Twitch community early! You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:

Watch live video from UploadVR on www.twitch.tv

You can see our most recent past archived streams over on the UploadVR YouTube channel right here. There’s lots of good stuff there!

Let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next and don’t forget to follow the Twitch channel and sign up for notifications.

Tagged with: Beat Saber, livestream

The post Beat Saber Custom Songs Livestream – Outkast, Michael Jackson, Avicii, And More! appeared first on UploadVR.

from UploadVR https://ift.tt/2QnLp3K
via IFTTT

Custom Tattoo Launches Interactive Sonic The Hedgehog AR Experience

https://ift.tt/2DRGX6w

A man in Mexico City turns his first tattoo into a trigger for a prototype AR game.

The impact of AR technology on our daily lives gets greater and greater each day as it finds its place in how we learn, how we perform our jobs, purchase items on the internet, home repairs, stay connected with friends, and entertain ourselves. The technology has even found its way into the tattoo industry, offering a new form of body art brought to life using smart devices.

Recently, one designer took the idea a step further with an interactive AR tattoo based on one of gaming’s most beloved franchises. Olo Sabandija, a graphic design artists with limited knowledge of AR development, sat through almost 20 different YouTube tutorial videos to learn how to create a unique and super fun Sonic the Hedgehog AR scene that uses his freshly-inked forearm tattoo as the trigger.

Here's a direct from the screen version of my AR tat pic.twitter.com/CuIYaDZT6m

— Olo Sabandija (@olomerol) November 19, 2018

From a video posted on Sabandija’s Twitter, you can see his forearm with an AR scene from Sonic the Hedgehog pinned over a freshly ink’d NES controller tattoo, complete with animations and that familiar, peppy soundtrack you know you love.

In an interview with VRScout, Sabandija talked about how he made it all come together saying, “I’ve wanted a tattoo since I was 15 years old, and I’ve wanted it to be an AR tattoo for the past 8 years. But every year would pass and nothing ever happened.”

Sabandija says his hesitation came from the fact that a tattoo was permanent, and he didn’t want to commit to a design he’d ultimately regret. However, after attending a tattoo convention and seeing a friend with a tattoo that launched an AR image of a jumping and dancing Hestu from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – he was motivated to make it happen.

To help him stick to his tattoo dreams, Sabandija set a deadline. “I wanted to have some ink before I turned 40 – at the time – I had several months to plan everything. Choosing an image to get ink’d on my arm, build the Sonic AR scene, and then make it happen, all before my birthday at the end of November.”

Choosing a tattoo design was actually a difficult task. Sabandija originally envisioned a SEGA controller as the marker. Unfortunately, classic SEGA controllers featured rounded edges, which made it nearly impossible to create an AR marker. The solution for Sabandija was to switch gears and go with the more iconic Nintendo controller. According to Sabandija, the design of the classic NES controller makes for a perfect marker due to its right angles and straight lines.

As for creating Sonic in AR, Sabandija looked to the internet for guidance in building his augmented diorama. “I basically learned the basics of Unity by watching more than 20 YouTube videos,” said Sabandija, adding, “I’d work about 6 to 8 hours a day for almost a month to build my Sonic scene.”

Sabandija worked with Unity to create his AR image and Vuforia to launch the digital content on his Android device. When asked about why he chose to not use ARCore, Sabandija laughed and said, “I have an older phone.” Respect.

Once Sabandija built his Sonic the Hedgehog AR scene, he headed over to Orion Tattoo in Mexico City where tattoo artist Ng Blackeye gave Sabandija his very first ink.

From there, Sabandija brought it all together and then showed his friends what his new tattoo could do. He excitingly talks about how his friends were blown away and even thought it was a fully playable level.

Unfortunately, you can’t actually play a level of Sonic the Hedgehog, but the tattoo is interactive. When one of the buttons on Sabandija’s tattoo is covered, the smartphone sees that as ‘pushing,’ and triggers a jump animation from Sonic. Sabandija states he’s a few tutorial away from a fully-playable, giving hope that we may one day see a more in-depth tattoo-based AR gaming experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about interactive AR tattoos yourself, you can reach out to Sabandija through his website. Of course you can always create your own interactive AR experience if you have the knowledge and a compatible tattoo design.

Image Credit: Olo Sabandija

The post Custom Tattoo Launches Interactive Sonic The Hedgehog AR Experience appeared first on VRScout.

from VRScout https://ift.tt/2AyZmlj
via IFTTT

Shadow Legend Is A Story-Driven VR RPG About The Medieval Crusades

https://ift.tt/2FPg3Pv

If you’re a fan of swords and sorcery like me then you’re likely quite pleased to see such a diversity of choices when it comes to scratching that good ol’ fantasy RPG itch in the immersive realm of VR. From lengthy single player adventures like Skyrim VR and The Mage’s Tale, to bespoke VR encounters like Vanishing Realms and Karnage Chronicles, to epic combat simulators such as Blade and Sorcery or Deus Vult, there are lots of options.

Shadow Legend from Vitruvius, the same studio behind the charming indie VR platformer that beat both Astro Bot and Moss to market, Mervils, aims to deliver yet another fantasy-soaked VR RPG experience due out on Steam and Oculus Home for Rift and Vive in February 2019.

Visually, I get heavy gothic vibes that seem similar in style and tone to SoulKeeper VR, one of the most visually impressive indie VR projects I’ve seen to date. Shadow Legend is certainly less polished than that one, but the stylings are still there.

We haven’t tried Shadow Legend for ourselves or even seen the game in action yet other than the above trailer, but it certainly sounds and looks promising. According to the press release, you’ll be able to use your own voice via recognition software to talk with characters and barter with merchants. Recently we’ve seen mods introduce similar functionality to Skyrim VR and it’s also been used well in games like Star Trek: Bridge Crew, The Inpatient, and Starship Commander.

The story in Shadow Legend revolves around the medieval time period and its ensuing crusades. In the game you’ll play as the Grand Master of the Knights Templar in this 5-6 hour long journey. Vitruvius has been working on the game for over two years.

After having experienced the visceral quality of melee combat in Blade and Sorcery, I can say with confidence that Shadow Legend very likely won’t live up to that bar in terms of its physics — and that’s okay. Blade and Sorcery is a physics/combat sandbox with little else going on, but Shadow Legend appears to be aiming to actually contain a relatively full game with a story, combat, inventory management, vast environments, and more.

We can’t wait to see more from Shadow Legend — VR needs more fleshed out narrative-driven games that feature melee combat as a focus. Shadow Legend is expected to have a beta period available sometime next week with its full release slated for February 2019 on Rift and Vive.

As of the time of this writing the Steam page isn’t up yet, but Shadow Legends should have its own “Coming Soon” page on Steam at this link by the time you’re reading this. Check that for more details!

Tagged with: Shadow Legend, vitruvius

The post Shadow Legend Is A Story-Driven VR RPG About The Medieval Crusades appeared first on UploadVR.

from UploadVR https://ift.tt/2Q2AqNS
via IFTTT

‘Spice & Wolf VR’ Funding Campaign Reaches Goal in 2 Hours, Kickstarter Coming “next week”

https://ift.tt/2zKntQQ

SpicyTails, the studio behind the popular VR visual novel experience Project LUX (2018), have something to celebrate. Spice & Wolf VR, the studio’s next VR project, has smashed its goal on Japanese crowdfunding platform Campfire. Residents outside of Japan will be able pitch in too when the Kickstarter campaign goes live in early December.

Update (November 29th, 2018): Spice & Wolf VR has exceeded its ¥8,000,000 (~$70,000) funding goal within two hours of the Campfire campaign launch on Sunday. At the time of this writing, the project has garnered over ¥21,000,000 (~$185,000) through the Japan-only campaign.

SpicyTails originally planned to release their Kickstarter for non-Japan residents on November 25th, although due to some unforeseen circumstances the company has pushed it back to an early December release, or what SpicyTails says will be “next week.”

We’ll update with the relevant link when the Kickstarter goes live.

Original Article (July 16th, 2018): As first reported by Japanese VR publication MoguraVR, the project is based on the manga and anime series Spice and Wolf.

SpicyTails, an indie studio which involves original series author Isuna Hasekura, says their newest VR project will also include the anime’s original Japanese voice actors. The production staff includes original author Tsukasa Okura, character design by Ju Ayakura, 3D modeling and motion by Keisuke Sakakibara, and voice actors Ami Koshimizu (Holo) and Jun Fukuyama (Kraft).

SpicyTails say the VR experience will support Vive, Rift, and “others”, and launch sometime in 2019.

We will make "Spice & Wolf VR". It is scheduled to be released in 2019. VIVE, Rift, others!! pic.twitter.com/SYkCF6Jc13

— SpicyTails@ (@spicytails) July 16, 2018

While not much else is known about the project so far, the creators say it will be like Project LUX, which could mean it follows the latter’s multi-ending style.

as like this one. https://t.co/IBs4rJXPKy

— SpicyTails@ (@spicytails) July 16, 2018

Project LUX, which is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows VR, boasts 65 minutes of total story, and includes localization for Japanese, English, and Chinese. Project LUX currently sits at a healthy 89% positive rating on Steam and a near [4.6/5] stars on the Oculus Store.

Take a look at the teaser below to get an idea of what SpicyTails could have planned for their upcoming Spice & Wolf VR visual novel.

The post ‘Spice & Wolf VR’ Funding Campaign Reaches Goal in 2 Hours, Kickstarter Coming “next week” appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/2NjVx8B
via IFTTT

Occipital’s $399 Structure Core Senses Depth For New Device Categories

https://ift.tt/2AxEY4e

A new product from computer vision startup Occipital could be a big help for companies and creators building new kinds of depth-sensing devices, like robots or mixed reality headsets that blur the line between VR and AR.

The $400 self-contained Structure Core is slated to ship in March — though the gadget is available earlier in limited supply for a higher price. The device is an evolution of an earlier pre-production unit offered as a developer kit. The new Structure Core is “a fully enclosed and self-contained sensor” with “a machined, anodized aluminum case; a bandpass-filtering glass front; and built-in attachment points for easy integration.”

Structure Core is available with one of two kinds of cameras integrated into it depending on the use case, either “a built-in ultra-wide visible camera with a 160° diagonal FOV for robust tracking or an 85° FOV RGB camera for color imagery or registered RGBD (color+depth) images.” Software for the new unit has also been updated to support a wider variety of use cases, including robot mapping and navigation.

In 2013, Occipital crowdfunded the Structure Sensor on Kickstarter, adding depth-sensing capabilities to the iPad long before Apple released ARKit. Even though ARKit does a pretty good job of understanding the world around an iPhone or iPad, the Structure Sensor is still available “for those who need a ready-to-use, high-quality depth sensor primarily for iOS devices.” In contrast, the new Structure Core “will be focused for those who need high-performance depth sensing designed for rapid integration into other types of products and on other platforms such as Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.”

Tagged with: occipital

The post Occipital’s $399 Structure Core Senses Depth For New Device Categories appeared first on UploadVR.

from UploadVR https://ift.tt/2Q1X1Kd
via IFTTT