virtual reality Archives - Page 2 of 3

The Lytro Immerge Will Revolutionize VR Moviemaking

November 8, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Lytro has unveiled a ferociously complex camera for virtual reality moviemaking. Called the Lytro Immerge, this borderline sci-fi camera rig was designed specially for virtual reality from the ground up.

It seems like Lytro wants to be ahead of GoPro and even take an ambitious leap to be known as a leader in the VR industry. A tough goal to accomplish considering that GoPro and Microsoft are in the ring, boasting their muscles at anyone that dares threaten their alliance. What can a start-up like Lytro do?

It can do more damage than you can possibly think.

You see, the alien ball-shaped camera has hundreds of tiny image sensors and lenses built-in. With the help of Lytro’s signature optical tech, called light field, it can record the colour and intensity of light along with the direction it’s travelling.

That’s just fantastic – not only does it offer much needed capabilities for VR filmmaking, but it’s one of the most innovative camera we’ve seen this decade.

However, don’t think of the Lytro Immerge as just a camera. It comes packed with a plethora of VR production goodies such as – editing tools, the possibility of streaming straight from the cloud, consumer dedicated apps for VR headsets and a server.

Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal has told Mashable that this is the very first light-field-powered system that can create cinematic high-quality live action VR-ready footage – that was a mouthful. Nobody has thought this through, he says, from end to end – starting with how a camera should function, to storage, how you can edit footage in post production and even playback.

There are no competitors to the Lytro Immerge – at the moment, there’s no camera on the market capable of doing what the Immerge does. Google Jump might prove to be a competing platform, but a) it hasn’t been released yet, and b) it blends a plethora of existing cameras.

Even though we are inclined to think that users that wish to use the Lytro Immerge should definitely own a ten thousand dollar PC rig, the camera is more than capable to streamline its controls to an iPad.

The server, which is comprised of several terabytes, can hold only about an hour of footage.

And here, you can see the Lytro Immerge in its own habitat, pondering on whether to film the world or destroy it…

Given its huge capabilities, it’s going to sport an astronomical price tag. Lytro has noted that it will be available starting with January of 2016 and the Immerge will retail at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Clearly, it’s aimed at VR studious and companies, and not your average VR enthusiast.

Yet, Rosenthal has noted that there will be a sort of leasing program in place, considering how expensive it is to buy the Immerge. Companies will the possibility to rent the camera for a much lower cost.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

YouTube Virtual Movie Theatre for Android

November 6, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The YouTube Virtual Movie Theatre is a means to bridge more users to join the ever-growing virtual reality fan-base. With the Virtual Movie Theatre for Android, which is available for everyone as of today, comes a new and awesome feature that plans to immerse the audience into the VR medium even more.

Now, users can experience 3D videos while streaming them on YouTube – via Google’s Cardboard.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has meddled with 3D videos. At the dawn of 2015, it introduced support for 360-degree vids on their platform. YouTube’s entire library is up for grabs to whomever wishes to stream videos in VR straight to their Google Cardboard – read, every user-uploaded content available.

To use YouTube’s new Virtual Movie Theatre feature, just tap on the Cardboard option and slide your smartphone into the headset so it can start streaming. The video you’ll be watching is going to be presented in the manner of a movie theatre. It will adjust accordingly to your position.

YouTube brags that it has a massive amount of 360-degree videos. Ranging from incredible concert experiences, movie trailers, short walks in the nature – read, a day at the beach, a lovely stroll in the forest and so on.

Basically, everything that the world has to offer can come right to your uhm, face, I guess.

These video techniques that YouTube uses, the company claims, are akin to how an individual, just like yourself, perceives his, or hers, surroundings. If an object is far far away, then it will appear so. If sound is coming from within a box, then it will be perceived as muffled.

YouTube has its own VR curated video playlist filled with world jumps, movie trailers – The Hunger Games; a music video – Waiting for Love by Avicci; and, one of my personal favourites, walking inside Minecraft.

Yet, unfortunately, these new features are only available for users that have an Android smartphone. The company has announced that it will roll their VR experiences to the iOS medium soon – but we don’t have an exact date.

Considering that there are more than 1 million Google Cardboard owners, we should expect more VR experiences from YouTube.

Guess what? The New York Times is shipping 1.3. million Google Cardboard headsets during this weekend because their new VR documentary, called The Displaced, is about to make its big début.

This opens up another door – one for advertisers. Meaning that from an economic point of view, VR is a potentially huge market, so it makes sense for big tech companies to pump cash into content creation. The more companies willing do create high-quality content, the better the competition.

Things are shaping nicely for virtual reality – also with the help of the new YouTube Virtual Movie Theatre platform.

Image Source: 1

Get Ready for Minecraft on Oculus Rift

September 28, 2015 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Get hyped – Minecraft on Oculus Rift just got real.

According to Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Rift, Minecraft is headed towards the highly-anticipated VR platform this spring. The built-it-yourself game is popular than ever and its growth doesn’t seem to dwindle.

During the Oculus Connect event that took place in Hollywood this morning, Luckey went on stage and unveiled some of their plans for 2016, Gamasutra reports. However, fans that wish to play Minecraft on Oculus Rift will need the game’s Windows 10 Edition, according to Lydia Winters of Mojang.

It looks like our fantasies of digging huge caves and battling mythical blocky nether-drakes just got real – well, virtually speaking.

This hints at a new step forward for the gaming industry. Luckey took to explaining how we move, slowly but surely, to the metaverse i.e. an intense virtual reality world. With the help of Minecraft, Rift will build a sturdy foundation for VR enthusiasts.

Microsoft’s Hololens also takes to Minecraft to help them sell their headset – which is a fusion between augmented reality and virtual reality, but with more AR elements present.

There are a ton of devs that work on gearing up games so they can be easily played in VR. Yet, the majority of titles that are set to be released in 2016 feature realistic worlds that use small amounts of space. We are more than curious to see how VR developers are going to make exploring a virtually limitless world with minimal issues from the get-go.

Luckey and his team seem to be excited about the whole virtual reality trend and this gives us some sort of assurance that the end product will at least be passion-driven.

Fighting dinosaurs in ARK sounds superb, and flying an airplane in War Thunder is more than rad, but there’s something about exploring Minecraft with a VR headset that just makes me want to jump up and down out of pure excitement.

Oculus Rift is shaping up to be a huge ecosystem filled with all sorts of virtual reality experiences.

However, let’s not jump on the bandwagon so fast. Next year will be all about VR and VR pioneers trying to take a huge chunk out of the virtual pie. In theory, Minecraft sounds awesome, but we don’t really know how this will equate to real world standards. It has to be fun, and more importantly, it has to be comfortable and easy to use.

There’s a reason why Kinect failed – nobody wants to commit to standing up just to play a video-game when they can just jump on the couch and relax after a hard day’s work.

Yet, Wii was a huge success, mainly because it is gimmicky.

Regardless if it’s going to be a hit or miss, I can’t wait to try Minecraft on Oculus Rift when the time comes.

Image Source: 1, 2

Improved Samsung Gear VR Costs $99, Sells this November

September 26, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

When Samsung initially released its virtual reality headset for mobile platforms earlier this year, they called it Innovator Edition. Now, the Korean-based company is preparing their product for release – it’s finally consumer-ready!

The new and improved Samsung Gear VR will cost $99 and it will start shipping this November.

The announcement was made on the 24th of September during the Oculus Connect 2 developer conference that took place in Los Angeles. Peter Koo, who is Samsung’s Vice President of Mobile took to the conference’s stage to announce their plans.

This comes right in time for US’s Black Friday event. It will start selling worldwide shortly after its United States debut.

More so, proving that it wants the virtual reality industry to bloom, Samsung is committing to Oculus Rift’s goal – to make VR a mass-market product. That’s the only way to entice VR enthusiasts to buy a headset.

The new and improved Samsung Gear VR will work with all the company’s flagship phones that where released in 2015. This means that if you have recently acquired a Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 and Note 5, you own a VR compatible device.

Samsung’s VR headset now sports a 22 percent lighter hardware. Koo notes that this makes the headset more comfortable to use for extended periods of times. Also, the touchpad found in the side of the headset has received a somewhat complete make-over. Yet, Koo didn’t care to talk more about what this actually entails.

Users will have access to an expanding universe of premium content, Koo noted. This, however, is more than confusing, and nobody knows what he is talking about. Will Samsung build a special platform a la Steam for their Gear VR headset?

This sub-$100 price feels like an aggressive strategy to gain dominance over the VR market, which is yet to crown a king. Furthermore, we don’t even have an industry standard at the moment.

Joining the ranks of Google’s Cardboard, Zeiss VR One and DODOcase, the new and improved Samsung Gear VR will most likely be a hit this holiday season.

Samsung Gear VR headset comes with its very own controller.

A more performance-driven headset will be released at the beginning of 2016. Yes, we are talking about Facebook’s Oculus Rift. But don’t expect Oculus to go under the $100 threshold. Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe has hinted that their device will retail at around $500. Yet, if you want to use their headset you’ll have to use a $1000 machine.

VR is coming strong in 2016 and the mobile platform is one of its key destinations due to its large distribution capabilities.

There’s also a little VR device called Full Dive aimed at emerging markets that is yet to surface. Read our interview with one of Full Dive’s co-founders if you are interested in more details.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Melbourne Is Now The Capital Of Virtual Reality Games

August 17, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Buckle up, virtual reality games are gathering speed and are getting ready to conquer the world. The latest update is the new “free roam” gaming center that just opened in Melbourne, Australia. Called Zero Latency, it already has players hooked and lining up to try it out.

The 4,300 square foot warehouse is equipped with 129 PlayStation Eye cameras. Users have to wear a set of virtual reality head mounted displays, Oculus Rift DK2 as well as a backpack that contains an Alienware Alpha PC, powering the Oculus Rift. As science fiction as this sounds, gamers’ reaction didn’t delay to praise Zero Latency and compare it to “being in a video game”.

Once connected to everything, the players are free to roam in the massive warehouse. As its name suggests, the game was designed to create zero latency, which translates into what the users see in virtual reality games matches up with what they’re doing in real life. By setting such high expectations, it’s no wonder the virtual reality games are already fully booked for the first weeks after opening.

Does this mean we can say good bye to laser tag and paintball? While these kind of gaming centers are only budding here and there, I think it’s safe to say they’re here to stay. If you’re from Melbourne or plan to visit, you and five friends can play Zero Latency for one hour and pay around $65 each.

The game’s description presents it as a totally immersing experience. The creators encourage you to imagine a game that doesn’t feel like a game at all. You control everything with your body in a place where digital meets real life. With each of your movements, the game moves with you. After working on the facility for three years, the makers of the virtual reality games guarantee an experience like no other.

Virtual reality games are not the result of a single man’s work, and they surely didn’t have a linear development throughout the years. With continuous development from the 60s till nowadays, 3D pictures have certainly come a long way.

The simplest way to grasp virtual reality games is to think about them as a three dimensional world generated by a computer. They are founded on concepts like immersion, dealing with data depth and breadth, and latency, the lag time between a user’s change of perspective and the entry of another perspective.

Exactly how much virtual reality will be taking over our lives remains to be seen. While it’s still in its incipient days and it seems limited to games and videos, we’re all eager to take it for a spin and see what it can do.

Image sources 1, 2, 3

Meet the Ozo Nokia Spherical Camera for VR film-makers

July 29, 2015 By Cristopher Hall 2 Comments

The Ozo Nokia spherical camera for virtual reality, aimed at Hollywood film-makers, is the company’s shot to become, once again, a leader in the industry. A feat that it held, but lost for some time now.

Last night at an event in Los Angeles, Nokia officially announced Ozo. You see, this won’t be an affordable camera that can shoot VR. It’s meant to be used by Hollywood film-makers in their high-budget films.

Nokia announced that their camera will be priced in the middle five figure range. Enthusiasts, or hobbyists aren’t their target demographic. But don’t despair just yet. If it’s successful, be certain that Nokia will release something for the average Joe too.

With Microsoft writing off a staggering $7.6 billion in Nokia costs, the old phone-manufacturer turns towards other markets in order to get a grip on something.

The Ozo Nokia spherical camera can be just the thing that prompts them back as leaders of an industry. The Ozo VR camera is a next-gen device that can capture audio, and video in 360 degrees.

It’s still in pre-production, but what we’ve seen so far puts it on the Keep Your Eyes On This list. You see, virtual reality rendering can take up to a couple of days, but Ozo can do it in a few minutes. Mind you, in low quality, but film-makers need to see their footage fast. Filming costs money, and losing money isn’t on Hollywood’s plans.

Because it makes virtual reality in real-time, and because it has a live monitoring option, directors may be enticed to use it more than other devices on the market.

GoPro announced that they bought a virtual reality company in May, and that they are planning on building a spherical camera. Later in May, they announced their sort-of alliance with Google, and their new Jump tech. Even Samsung is working hard on building a VR camera.

With more and more tech industry behemoths getting themselves into virtual reality, the Ozo Nokia spherical camera won’t encounter smooth sailing. Our only hope is that it won’t be a flop, and that Nokia will release a consumer product – sometime in the future.

When you are transported in the Ozo-produced VR, everything feels more real, than virtual. The Ozo takes advantage of the fact that it can record audio, and it uses this feature to make VR feel more enjoyable, and why not, even shocking.

If you hear a dog barking behind you, you can turn around and see the animal in question.

The official price for the Ozo Nokia spherical camera isn’t known at the moment, but we’ll know more when it’s going to officially launch this Fall.

Image source: 1, 2, 3

Epic Games Doesn’t Want to Make a Terrible VR Experience

June 21, 2015 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Epic Games has announced countless times that they are supporting virtual reality in any way they can, but the company doesn’t want to make a terrible virtual reality experience on their Unreal Engine.

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and their included resources, offers developers the tools necessary to build a virtual reality game. At the current moment the Unreal Engine supports VR hardware such as Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Samsung Gear VR.

So you make an idea how much Epic Games loves the virtual reality trend, CEO Tim Sweeney said, earlier this year, that – ” It’s going to change the world. The hardware is going to double in quality every few years for another decade, to the point where, 10 years from now, it’s going to be hard to tell the difference between virtual reality and the real world.”

That’s a pretty bold statement to be honest. Virtual reality changing the world? Let’s calm ourselves a little bit and reassess our mental state, shall we dear Tim Sweeney? Probably in 50 years or so, but not now – it’s impossible.

Engadget managed to sit down, and talk with Chief Technology Officer Kim Libreri, and Unreal Engine General Manager Ray Davis, at this year’s E3 event, to talk more about the company’s stance on virtual reality, and where they believe the trend is heading.

” We wanna make sure that, whatever platform developers choose to use, they’re well supported in UE 4″ says Libreri, which notes that VR development should have a set of standards that will not only make a developers’ life easier, but they will also ensure a great gaming experience.

Davis continues, and adds that – ” It’s always been sort of our [approach] with the engine. Even going all the way back to the original Xbox [360] and pushing back on Microsoft to make sure they put enough memory in it.”

Davis also notes that sharing what works, and what doesn’t with other VR developers, and of course manufacturers, will ensure that games will only get better with time.

Take a look at the Unreal Engine experience on Oculus Rift.

Can’t imagine what a horror game with vampires, ghouls, werewolves, and other creatures of the night might feel like – wet, that’s how!

As we start to think about the evolution of the shooter game or the exploration/action/adventure game, the Uncharted for VR, I think that it’s better to experiment initially with smaller, digestible things. As a collective, we learn that language quickly.” states Libreri.

It’s good to know that Epic Games, a company which pushed forward the gaming industry, and its standards, tackles virtual reality. But can Epic Games provide a good VR experience? That Unreal Engine Oculus Rift demo looks like it was made in two, max three days. What’s up with that Epic Games?

Source Image: 1, 2, 3

A Ton of Games Are Being Developed for Project Morpheus

June 16, 2015 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Project Morpheus

Wired has somehow gotten Sony to spill the beans about their Project Morpheus virtual reality headset. It’s going to come out sometime next year, and Sony’s focus is to build a huge library of games.

Sony was supposed to showcase their Project Morpheus and talk about their VR device Monday at their E3 keynote, but it didn’t happen like we expected. Sony just stated that it’s going to be a social event. Fortunately for us, Wired managed to get the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida to talk.

” We need to convince PS4 owners to spend several hundred dollars to purchase a Morpheus headset, on top of the PS4 they already have, and more gaming content is what will convince them.”, Shuhei Yoshida has said.

Project Morpheus

Can’t say I disapprove with their view on things, and I actually applaud their stance. When the time comes to look for virtual reality headsets I’ll choose the one that offers a huge library of games, and not just a headset that will allow me to watch movies and surf Facebook – I’m looking at you Oculus Rift, which, hopefully, you won’t become a Facebook VR platform.

Yoshida, and Adam Boyes, who is Sony VP of publisher and developer relations, said that the company will showcase during E3 almost 20 demos so users can get a taste of what Project Morpheus is all about. Besides ““small indie teams [and] outfits.” as Boyes puts it, Sony will also support development of Horizon: Zero Dawn, a new IP, for their VR device, and a version of Ubisoft’s Trackmania.

“We have 30 or more games being developed that we are tracking — not all of them will come out at launch, but there are serious efforts being made on all of them,” the two have been reported of telling Wired.

Project Morpheus

More so, the two also point out that porting a virtual reality game from Oculus Rift to Project Morpheus may take only about a couple of days, and that the company is trying its best to fully support developers, and make their lives easier.

But can Project Morpheus go against the really popular Facebook-owned Oculus Rift? The VR company just announced its partnership with Microsoft, and Oculus managed to snag a couple of well-known dev companies to release exclusive titles on their platforms – Square Enix, Insomniac Games, Ready at Dawn, amongst others.

And let’s not forget HTC, and Valve’s alliance – can their SteamVR, also known as Vive, manage to get the needed attention from gamers? Valve has announced that they will feature a huge library of games easily downloadable through their Steam platform.

Project Morpheus

I’m going to wait this battle out, and I’m not going to jump head first. I’m more inclined of buying the SteamVR to be honest – Project Morpheus also seems really great. Don’t know what to say about Oculus Rift – since the news that they have been acquired by Facebook has been publicly announced, I’m feeling a little bit sceptical. The might sway me over – the company has announced that they are supporting developers with over $10 million.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Oculus Rift and Microsoft Have Announced Their Partnership

June 14, 2015 By Karen Jackson 1 Comment

The internet is in an uproar. Oculus Rift has just announced their partnership with Microsoft. More exactly, their virtual reality headset will come paired with an Xbox One controller.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe also announced that their Oculus Rift device will fully support Windows 10, and its users will be able to play Xbox One games directly inside their, er, heads via Xbox-to-Windows streaming.

It is unknown at the moment what other services Microsoft will provide for the Facebook-owned virtual reality device.

Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer sported a huge grin on his face when it was time to take to the stage and announce their unlikely partnership. But even though the internet hates it, for whatever reason, I seriously applaud their entrepreneur spirit.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s a way to counter attack Sony’s Project Morpheus, and who would be better to do so than one of the most known virtual reality headsets on the planet. Oculus Rift has a super-high brand recognition – mostly because it was the first that tackled this trend, and partly because Facebook acquired it and made everyone wonder how Zuckerberg will tackle social media in the VR medium.

Oculus Rift is already built, and it’s in the polishing process – can’t say the exact same thing about Project Morpheus; we have no clue what Sony’s up to.

It’s a pure win-win situation for Microsoft. They don’t have to maintain the VR hardware, they only have to make their software compatible, and easy to use. Unlike Sony, who will most likely adopt the same thing for their VR headset. Sony needs to develop its product first, and then tackle compatibility issues that it may encounter. Or maybe Sony will shock as all, and when the time comes it will have all its problems fixed.

Whether the trend will ship towards augmented reality, or it will stay in the VR medium, Microsoft is more than prepared. The big M has enough time, and resources to focus on their HoloLens project and not worry about Oculus – which big daddy Facebook can easily take care of by opening its deep pockets. Some say that they are filled with gold, and others warn that they are drenched in tears of social media users from around the globe.

This might also be Microsoft’s chance of winning the console wars. Its Xbox, and Xbox 360 were gold, but when you talk about next gen consoles, PlayStation 4 is the reigning king.

Oculus Rift is also offering up to $10 million to help indie developers build games for their VR headset. I think they’re off to a tremendous head start, and Sony might just release their VR headset in time to barely taste the dust.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

HP Sprout Just Turned Into the Most Affordable 3D Scanner!

June 12, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

So the HP Sprout just turned into the most affordable 3D scanner – the 3D high-quality Capture Stage will sell starting this July for $299.

Hewlett-Packard knows what’s up. The 3D printing trend isn’t a trend at all. It feels more like an industrial revolution – although it isn’t.

HP will start selling the Capture Stage accessory this July for their Sprout PC that will allow it to act as a functional 3D scanner – highly accurate, and reliable.

How does HP’s new accessory work? Well, the circular stand 3D Capture Stage will be located at the base of the HP Sprout PC exactly under its RealSense 3D Camera. HP’s device will capture up to eight separate scans that will be blended into a 3D image – it’s angled at 15 degrees, and it will slowly rotate in order to output the best quality possible.

After you get your desired result, you can shape the 3D images in any way you want. HP Sprout features a touch sensitive Touch Mat surface that allows the user to manipulate objects by turning them around, reshaping them, changing their colour, and even cropping them. Afterwards, you can export the data to a 3D modelling program like Autodesk’s Meshmixer or Microsoft’s 3D Builder.

At $299 it makes it one of the most affordable 3D scanners, but it still feels a little bit expensive for a bunch of plastic with a motor inside. But even so, it can tremendously help engineers and animators that use the HP Sprout – although, it’s mostly aimed at hobbyists and enthusiasts. If you plan on working on a prestigious project you’ll need more than a $299 3D scanner.

HP has stated that objects can’t be larger than 200 millimetres along any side, limiting it vastly. Hewlett-Packard offered Claymation models as the best example for their Capture Stage 3D scanner.

This isn’t the first time HP is meddling with this kind of technology. Recently, they’ve been experimenting with their 23.6-inch Zvr monitors that would allow its users to blend reality by modifying objects right in front of them in thin-air – you just need to use a stylus and wear a pair of 3D glasses.

Killing two birds with one stone, HP is tackling virtual reality and augmented reality and at the same time it tries to offer 3D printing enthusiasts the possibility of acquiring affordable gear. Their ultimate goal is to add 3D printing, and virtual reality support to every device they produce. Quite a hefty goal if you ask me.

Microsoft just announced their partnership with Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, and they too are trying to blend real worlds with the virtual ones into the mainstream computing medium.

Are you going to buy the 3D scanner for your HP Sprout PC?

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Categories