Schlagwort: vive

  • HTC Vive and ARVI VR Partner to Expand Global VR Arcade Presence

    HTC Vive and ARVI VR Partner to Expand Global VR Arcade Presence

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    Exclusive VR escape–room content to be deployed across hundreds of location-based entertainment (LBE) sites. 

    HTC VIVE®, the leader in premium virtual reality (VR) and arcade solutions, today announced a collaboration with ARVI VR to extend their presence to a greater number of location-based entertainment (LBE) VR sites across the globe. The first wave will open this year in China, India, Taiwan, and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, allowing a greater number of customers to experience interactive VR content. Through this partnership, HTC Vive and ARVI VR are planning to deploy arcade content and escape room games to hundreds of sites over the next three years.  

    Currently, ARVI VR’s highly-rated escape room content such as Sanctum, Christmas, Mission Sigma, Cyberpunk, Prison are the most popular games at VIVELAND™, HTC’s flagship VR park. With this partnership, HTC Vive and ARVI will work to deploy ARVI’s escape room content across more than 300 LBE venues worldwide over the next several years, allowing customers to take advantage of innovative VR technologies and exclusive content provided by the two companies. After the first wave of openings, the deployment will extend at a later time to Egypt, Hong-Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam, and Kuwait.  

    “Since 2019, HTC Vive has worked closely with ARVI VR to implement their popular escape room content for our customers at Viveland,” said Plutarch Lee, Associate Vice President, VR Enterprise Solutions at HTC Vive. “We’re excited to leverage their escape room content in even more arcades globally and look forward to adding more great multiplayer content later this year”. 

    HTC Vive works with LBE venues around the globe to leverage Vive’s VR technology for opportunities to showcase immersive experiences and gain new revenue streams. By partnering with ARVI VR to offer escape room content tailored specifically for VR, arcades, and LBEs can showcase new and innovative games to customers that would be impossible to create in a real-life escape room.  

    “We’re thrilled to work with HTC VIVE to bring our exciting and adventurous content to new audiences around the world,” said Michael Dementii, CEO of ARVI VR. “At present, we view our this as a long-term and fruitful partnership with the possibility of broadening cooperation opportunities in the LBE industry”. 

    ARVI VR’s escape room content features various game-based experiences where multiple players must work together to find their way out by solving diverse puzzles and unraveling versatile mysteries. Escape room content in VR goes beyond typical live escape rooms as the technology allows players to fully immerse in unique and exciting atmospheres that they otherwise would not experience, such as the abandoned monasteries of Sanctum or futuristic data stacks of Cyberpunk. 

    Website: LINK

  • Mario Kart Arcade GP VR Takes Off in Irvine, CA with HTC VIVE

    Mario Kart Arcade GP VR Takes Off in Irvine, CA with HTC VIVE

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    A fan favorite. Reimagined in immersive VIVE VR. Experience it now at VR Zone Portal USA at K1 Speed.

    Mario Kart GP VR & VIVE

    With VIVE headsets and trackers, players can not only play Mario Kart Arcade GP in immersive VR, they can shell and peel riders off course too.

    VR ZONE Portal is a one-of-a-kind virtual reality hub. Originating in Japan and the United Kingdom, this Shinjuku-style arcade experience made waves at Washington D.C.’s historic Union Station last fall. Now, you can catch it—for the time being—at K1 Speed, an indoor go-kart track and family fun center in Irvine, CA.

    At VR ZONE Portal USA / K1 Speed, you can play through an exciting suite of virtual reality games, including: Argyle Shift, an exciting, futuristic mecha battle and flight simulator; Ski Rodeo, a thrilling, steep trial to the bottom of the slopes; and last, but definitely not least, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, a thrill-packed virtual take on the arcade game.

    With use of the HTC VIVE VR system, each game provides a highly immersive experience. Mario Kart Arcade GP VR not only features industry-leading graphics for players, but the ability to reach up and grab classic items like Green and Red Shells with VIVE Tracker technology to drive opponents off-course. Additionally, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR boasts haptic feedback capabilities, creating a truly four-dimensional experience that allows players to feel every twist and turn.

    Mario Kart x VR Zone Portal x VIVE

    Experience the Mario Kart VR phenomenon now at VR ZONE Portal USA / K1 Speed in Irvine, CA. For more information, please visit: https://www.k1speed.com/

    Nick Iftner, Virtual Reality Sales Manager at BANDAI NAMCO Amusement America, says “There is no doubt that Mario Kart Arcade GP VR is one of the most immersive games on the market. With this game, virtual reality joins forces with one of the most popular IPs in the world to create a must-have experience. Players finally get to feel as though they are cruising on tracks and throwing items with their favorite characters. Whether players have known Mario Kart for a long time or are new to the game, all ages will surely enjoy the racing adventure.”

    Website: LINK

  • Vive Cosmos and Vive Wireless Adapter

    Vive Cosmos and Vive Wireless Adapter

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    Website: LINK

  • Case Study: VIVE Solves VR For Theme Parks With Busch Gardens Project

    Case Study: VIVE Solves VR For Theme Parks With Busch Gardens Project

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    Website: LINK

  • VIVE & Motion Workshop Bring Full-Body Interaction To VR

    VIVE & Motion Workshop Bring Full-Body Interaction To VR

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    Fast, high-quality mocap animation at 400 fps. Brought to you by VIVE Tracker & Shadow® Motion Capture System.

    Erik Bakke is the co-founder of Motion Workshop, a Seattle-based business that focuses on motion sensor technology and motion capture. We invited him to sit down and discuss his signature Shadow Motion Capture System and what he was able to accomplish with VIVE.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWBX6aE4qeA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Dancer Catriona Urquhart, equipped with the Shadow Motion Capture System and 3 VIVE Trackers, has her movement livestreamed into characters in Unreal Engine.

    Production of animation content has traditionally involved very expensive motion capture setups using dozens of cameras. This limited high-quality animation production to large studios with big budgets. In the past few years, advances in tracking technology have brought excellent quality animation production to smaller budget projects, indie game and film studios, and independent freelance animators.

    Motion Workshop offers a new hybrid tracking system using their Shadow full-body mocap system and HTC VIVE Trackers. The Shadow mocap system provides excellent, fast full-body animation up to 400fps with built-in VIVE Tracker support. The Shadow/VIVE setup provides drift-free position tracking and smooth, accurate full-body joint animation. Plus, VIVE Trackers can be added for virtual camera, prop, and object tracking.

    With the included plugins you can livestream into Unreal Engine and Unity game engines. Character animation, props, and cameras are all available in one easy-to-use data stream inside the game engine.

    In a recent mocap shoot with dancer Catriona Urquhart from Cornish College of the Arts, we used the Shadow mocap system with 3 VIVE Trackers to livestream the dancer’s motions onto a AAA game character in Unreal Engine. We started with the free Paragon characters from the Unreal Marketplace and retargeted the animation in real time using Autodesk Motion Builder. The results were composited and rendered in near-real time using the Composure tool in Unreal Engine.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=338xxSMqMoo?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    This setup is ideal for virtual production and doesn’t require a large team or a dedicated mocap stage to create great content. For very small teams, these tools are helpful in getting animation content and rendering/compositing arranged in one place for quick and reliable delivery.

    ***

    Shadow Mocap Plugin
    Shadow Mocap plugins are available for free on the Unreal Marketplace and Unity asset store. The Shadow Mocap system is available for purchase at motionshadow.com

    Website: LINK

  • Computer-Aided Design, VR/XR Reality Solutions Shine at SOLIDWORKS World 2019

    Computer-Aided Design, VR/XR Reality Solutions Shine at SOLIDWORKS World 2019

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    The future of design, collaboration, visualization—business itself—is immersive.

    SOLIDWORKS World 2019 has come and gone, but the business world has only just begun to use the tools it revealed to the world. For the next generation of makers, doers, and innovators that want to create things and create them well, there has been incredible advancements in computer-aided design (CAD) and virtual/extended reality (VR/XR) solutions to bring their ideas to life.

    At SOLIDWORKS World 2019’s XR Zone, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and visualization professionals got to experience those advancements firsthand in augmented (AR) and virtual reality. Working in conjunction with VIVE Virtual Reality’s enterprise-class hardware and software, participants;

    • trained users in the assembly, interaction, and operation of products;
    • improved collaborative internal and external design reviews;
    • sold designs more effectively with immersive experiences.

    Those who attended the XR Partners Panel Discussion were treated to an even deeper XR dive with David Randle, Sr. Manager Strategy & Business Development at Dassault Systèmes and David Weinstein, Director of VR, NVIDIA and learned how to address the ideal use cases with the current scope of available technology and capitalize in the new era of business.

    Didn’t have a chance to attend? Don’t fret: SOLIDWORKS World returns again next year as 3D EXPERIENCE World.

    Feeling a little left out of all the XR action, SOLIDWORKers? Not to worry: we’ve compiled a summary of VIVE’s collaborations and partnerships with NVIDIA, Tsunami XR, and Silverdraft so you can stay up-to-date on the latest tools of your trade.

    NVIDIA

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHqzH2KBLpc?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    So, you have a detailed CAD model built in SOLIDWORKS, you created some beautiful renderings using SOLIDWORKS Visualize, and now, you need a fast way to review your model in VR with your colleagues. There’s no time to prep the CAD model in another application, and definitely no time to reduce down hundreds of surfaces so a VR app can display them without your boss getting motion sick. What do you do?

    At SOLIDWORKS World 2019, NVIDIA exhibited the CFH Telescope model—a 27-million-polygon model that went from SOLIDWORKS to SOLIDWORKS Visualize to NVIDIA’s Holodeck with the power of RTX6000. With “Export to Holodeck” in Visualize 2019, your model and materials export to Holodeck ready for VR viewing—no model editing or geometry reduction required. Even better, you can view your Visualize materials or reassign them with 1300 vMaterials in Holodeck. To share the efficient Holodeck workflow, users can collaborate, talk, record, and see their colleague’s avatars in the same experience whether in the same room or across the globe.

    For more information about Holodeck, please visit the official site.

    Tsunami XR

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1xombHlYE]

    Tsunami XR is revolutionizing the way people communicate and collaborate in business. Launched in 2012, Tsunami XR Workspaces, a spatial computing platform offered by the company, enables customers to build immersive 3D environments such as virtual conference rooms, virtual workshops, and virtual classrooms. Multiple users can join the virtual environments from any location and interact through a variety of devices, including tablets, laptops, desktops, augmented reality devices, and virtual reality headsets. Tsunami XR Workspaces platform supports SOLIDWORKS as well as most of the other popular CAD formats.

    To further allow designers and engineers to share and engage around spatial content, Tsunami XR is also launching Meet.com, a new service that enables simple, drag-and-drop collaboration experiences to any device via a web browser. We’ll keep you posted on this exciting development that allows people to widely share their work and ideas, spanning all device types, whether desktop, mobile, virtual, or augmented reality.

    Here’s a taste of what was showcased at SOLIDWORKS World 2019:

    The SOLIDWORKS-provided model of the CFH Telescope through Tsunami XR on VIVE Pro.
    Visitors will be able to teleport around the full-scale model and play an animation. In addition, they’ll enjoy the full collaboration and annotation tools offered in Tsunami XR Workspaces.

    Simple Tsunami XR demo collaboration workspace on VIVE Pro and VIVE Focus Plus (all-in-one VR with six degrees of freedom.)
    A demo workspace that includes a 3D jet engine model, white board, .pdf board and two stream boards to demonstrate Tsunami XR Workspaces cross-device capabilities.

    Dell Gaming CES Virtual Experience on VIVE Pro.
    A complete digital twin of Dell Gaming and Alienware’s physical CES booth demonstrates the future of retail shopping in the virtual world. The experience showcases Tsunami XR Workspaces scripting and simulation capabilities.

    Ameren Training Experience on VIVE Pro.
    Virtual training has the ability to save lives and reduce costs. The Ameren Training Experience highlights the improved learning and retention of immersive education versus standard 2D methods. Visitors are transported deep inside a nuclear facility to troubleshoot potential threats and learn how to safely mitigate those risks.

    Silverdraft

    DemonVR, a first-of-its-kind supercomputer capable of hosting two VIVE Pro headsets simultaneously.

    Whether you’re in design, VFX, manufacturing, AEC, or simply looking for ways to leverage visualization to enhance your business, Silverdraft can help accelerate your adoption and speed up your ROI. They focus on the use of talented individuals and unique supercomputing architecture to address the significant computational and processing needs of high-end rendering, VR, and visual effects. The Silverdraft process always starts by identifying the bottlenecks in any given workflow to establish which solution is right for the job.

    Most relevant to those interested in extended reality solutions, and the one showcased at SOLIDWORKS World 2019 is the expert-assembled DemonVR, a first-of-its-kind multiuser VR workstation capable of hosting two VIVE Pro headsets simultaneously. Powered by two NVIDIA P6000s, one NVIDIA P2000 and backed up by a single 18-core Intel Extreme CPU and 64GB of high-speed RAM, DemonVR is designed to deliver smooth, collaborative user experiences.

    Website: LINK

  • Announcing VDA3 Nominees

    Announcing VDA3 Nominees

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    It’s that time of year again! We’re excited to share the nominees for the third annual Viveport Developer Awards. In total, there are 8 nominees across 4 categories for PC titles and 3 winners for Mobile titles. This year, we wanted to recognize the developers who are delivering exceptional experiences to our Viveport Subscribers and Viveport Arcade Operators. These 11 titles highlight some of the best titles in VR today. If you haven’t tried these nominees and winners, we highly recommend giving them a play and exploring them yourself.

    If you need a refresher on the prizing, check out our announcement blog of the awards. Final winners will be announced at our private developer mixer on Monday, March 18, the first day of GDC 2019. Good luck to the nominees and congratulations!

    Here are the nominees and winners in no particular order:

    Entertainment – PC

    Education – PC

    Arts & Culture – PC

    Arcade – PC

    Entertainment – Mobile

    • Bait! | Resolution Games

    Education – Mobile

    • Star Chart | Escapist Games Ltd.

    Arts & Culture – Mobile

    • PAINT VR | COSKAMI LLC

    Website: LINK

  • HTC VIVE Teams Up With Mozilla and AWS to Bring Dedicated Virtual Reality Web Browser to Market

    HTC VIVE Teams Up With Mozilla and AWS to Bring Dedicated Virtual Reality Web Browser to Market

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    HTC VIVE™, the leader in room-scale Virtual Reality (VR), today announced a first of its kind collaboration with Mozilla’s Firefox, AWS’s Amazon Sumerian, and Fidelity Investments that will enable consumers to bring VR into their everyday life by providing an immersive web browsing experience in VR. Firefox Reality will become Vive’s native VR browser, providing a safe and private experience for users.

    To easily bring web content into VR, HTC Vive is also working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), whose Amazon Sumerian provides developers and companies toolsets to easily create and launch VR experiences. At CES, the first company to demonstrate on the new platform will be Fidelity Investments, which will enable consumers to review their portfolio in VR through a custom environment built for the new browser.

    “We’ve set out this year to bring everyday computing tasks into VR for the first time,” said Michael Almeraris, Vice President of Partnerships and Content, HTC VIVE. “Through the collaboration with Mozilla and Amazon Web Services, we’re closing the gap in XR computing, empowering Vive users to get more content in their headset, while enabling developers and businesses to quickly create content for these consumers.”

    Mozilla Firefox

    Today, VR web browsing is cumbersome and difficult to navigate. HTC Vive turned to Mozilla’s Firefox to reimagine what a VR Web experience could be. This partnership enables a truly optimized browsing experience in VR for quick and easy searches, access to their favorite websites in VR for shopping, researching, surfing, watching videos and more. Firefox will be the default internet browser for Vive, Vive Pro and the upcoming VIVE Cosmos.

    “We’re excited to work with Amazon and HTC to ensure that the web is the best way to experience 3D content from the internet on the best VR devices in the market,” said Sean White, Chief R&D Officer, Mozilla. “We are bringing Firefox Reality to this platform to ensure that users have a safe, fast, and private experience on the next generation of hardware.” 

    Amazon Sumerian

    As part of this relationship, HTC Vive is teaming up with Amazon Sumerian to bring true web VR to the market. Through this collaboration, HTC Vive developers will be able to create highly immersive, VR-optimized websites, without requiring specialized programming experience. Using Sumerian, developers can quickly concept, test and publish VR-optimized websites that are immediately available to internal testers, authenticated users, or for public use. In addition to VR sites, AWS and HTC plan to seamlessly integrate Sumerian with Viveport for publishing any VR experience to the platform, making them available to end users faster than previously possible.

    “Many industries are adopting XR technologies for a wide range of uses, including training simulations, virtual concierge services, enhanced online shopping experiences, virtual tours, and more,” said Kyle Roche, General Manager, Amazon Sumerian, AWS. “Until now, creating realistic XR experiences required developers to have specialized programming skills and learn unique specifications and deployment procedures, adding complexity to the process. Together with HTC and Mozilla, we’re making it easier for developers to more quickly build and distribute VR applications using nothing more than a browser and a URL.”

     

    Fidelity Investments

    To showcase the full potential of these collaborations, HTC Vive will host Fidelity Investments at their CES VR Showcase at the Wynn Hotel. The Fidelity Investments VR website prototype allows financial customers to immerse themselves in their investments via new data visualization tools and will allow for collaboration between users, such as a family member or a trusted advisor.

    “At Fidelity, we’re committed to helping people live better financial lives, so we were excited to explore the capabilities of these new technologies,” said Adam Schouela, vice president of Product Management at Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology.  “The ability for an investor to collaborate with a family member or trusted advisor in a virtual environment opens up new possibilities for how consumers may interact with their finances in the future.”

    For press images and assets for all Vive CES News, please use this LINK.

    Website: LINK

  • VIVE Arts’ ‘Up the River During Qingming VR’ Brings National Treasure to Life

    VIVE Arts’ ‘Up the River During Qingming VR’ Brings National Treasure to Life

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    Today HTC VIVE announced a next step in its partnership with Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, one of the major institutions dedicated to preserving human historical artefacts — in bringing the world renowned masterpiece – Up the River During Qingming to life in virtual reality. Starting October 15, A Journey Inside Paintings and Calligraphy: VR Art Exhibition, will showcase the innovative capabilities of the VIVE Pro headset in not only delivering a unique viewing experience, but to actually traverse the famed painting, offering unprecedented recreation and interaction.

    Up the River During Qingming VR, marking another major step for the VIVE Arts program, continues its mission to transform how art is experienced. VIVE Arts titles are now deployed at the most prestigious institutions across the world, such as the Royal College of Art, Tate Modern, the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, the Newseum, the State Hermitage Museum, and the National Palace Museum. With Up the River During Qingming VR, VIVE Arts is again marrying cultural richness and state-of-the-art immersion/interaction.

    This partnership between Taiwan’s National Palace Museum and HTC Vive was established in 2015, when the two institutions had co-developed VR artwork projects including “The Spirit of Autobiography” (based on Tang dynasty Huaisu’s cursive script – Autobiography), and “Roaming through Fantasy Land” (based on Yuan dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu’s “Autumn Colors on the Qiao & Hua Mountains”). Seeking to redefine exhibition standards with the help of modern VR technology, the partnership also brings VR content to rural and remote townships.

    Running October 15 to December 15, 2018, the A Journey Inside Paintings and Calligraphy – VR ART exhibition, alongside the current exhibit Another Look at National Treasures: Select Masterpieces of Painting and Calligraphy in the Museum Collection, will be located at the Northern Branch Exhibition Area 210.

    ”Up the River During Qingming, especially this version by Qing dynasty court painters, is one of the most exquisite and beautifully rendered genre paintings,” said Lillian Lee, AVP of HTC Vive and Producer of the Up the River During Qingming VR project. “Through the VIVE, we make this content both educational and entertaining. While the viewers are having fun, they learn the historical heritage of the painting at the same time. We look forward to bringing this experience to the museums, galleries, and art exhibitions around the world through location-based business collaboration.”

    Up the River During Qingming VR is a dual experience including 8K High-Res artwork display and interactive sessions:

    Hidden details revealed through VR

    Scroll through the high-res painting at your own pace, zoom out for an overall view of each scene, and get close to appreciate every detail. Many “Scenic Spots” are located throughout the painting, and the Emperor Qianlong himself will provide related knowledge and anecdotes.

    A World Brought to Life

    Viewers walk into the lively worlds portrayed in the artwork, searching for characters, playing mini games throughout the ancient world.

    The Rainbow Bridge

    The iconic “Rainbow Bridge” scene consists of the hustle and bustle of a crowded market and passing cargo boats. Interact with the fascinating people and shops in a game, and take on a mission to assist a stranded boat to gain a better understanding of river transportation.  

    Outdoor Theater: “The Phoenix Pavilion”

    Portraying the ancient story from the “Romance of Three Kingdoms”, traditional Chinese opera is a favorite for all market goers as they bustle about to get a better view. Help dress up the actors for the show to commence.

    • Golden Orchid Restaurant

    The Golden Orchid Restaurant is situated at a prime location in front of the city entrance, offering a spectacular view of the river. Here, you can immerse in the house duties and learn about the origins of iconic Chinese dishes.

    This special exhibition includes:

    1. Up the River During Qingming VR: Rainbow Bridge
    2. Up the River During Qingming VR: Outdoor Theater
    3. Up the River During Qingming VR: Golden Orchid Restaurant
    4. “Roaming through Fantasy Land” & “The Spirit of Autobiography”

    About the National Palace Museum

    The incredible troves of historical artifacts in NPM’s collection are not only the important remains of Chinese civilization but are also of immeasurable value to mankind at large. NPM shoulders the great mission of preserving and educating people about traditional culture and hopes to continue to build upon historical foundations.

    Website: LINK

  • A Look at Sense Arena, VR’s First Pro-Level Hockey Training Tool

    A Look at Sense Arena, VR’s First Pro-Level Hockey Training Tool

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    We sat down with Bob Tetiva, founder and CEO of Sense Arena, a Czech startup  that seeks to bring the ice rink to hockey players’ homes, gyms, and training centers. Catch their virtual-reality-based training platform mid-October 2018.

    Where did the idea of using VR for athletic training come from?

    Well, for starters, my son plays ice hockey and I’m an amateur coach. (I’m just your typical hockey dad!) But one day, I was thinking about the length of your average training session, which is about 60 minutes. With 20 players on the ice, that means, statistically, each player is only in action for about 10 minutes. Then, the average player only handles the puck for about two! That’s no way to learn how to play.

    That’s when—with the help of my son—it hit me. What if we made hockey training virtual? The experience could focus on hard-to-learn, hard-to-train-for skills and drills while making it fun for the players.

    What can you tell us about the training and skills players will focus on in this experience?

    The player holds a standard hockey stick connected with a VIVE Tracker. They then see the 3D model of the stick in VR and perform all sorts of drills, just as they would on the ice. The player then gets to focus on agility, scoring, teamplay, and develop instincts on their own time.

    One of the most unbeatable advantages, when compared to being on the ice, is the ability to setup challenging conditions and situations that you can’t always replicate in real life. It’s the perfect tool for coaches who have been there.

    What equipment is needed to set up the Sense Arena training?

    It’s your standard hardware setup for the VIVE Pro, plus our special hockey stick with an attached VIVE Tracker and Sense Arena haptic feedback technology. A real breakthrough for us was the arrival of the VIVE Wireless Adapter. Our athletes perform workouts typically in a room that is 25 x 25 feet, skating sometimes on synthetic ice. They run all around the room, sweating it up like they would in a gym, all without a tether to hold them back.

    What can you tell about player feedback or any results you’ve seen?

    After only three months of Sense Arena use at Charles University in Prague, we found a 10-15% improvement in cognitive and physical abilities specific to hockey. Currently, there are five installations of Sense Arena in the U.S. and Europe. However, we expect to see more in the future. We received some good feedback at CES (The International Consumer Electronics Show) in January, albeit from a sport journalist and an ex-player: “This is the first useful application for VR I’ve seen so far.” Talk about high praise.

    To find out more about Sense Arena, visit https://www.sensearena.com.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8o90Jf_djM?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Website: LINK

  • Masterworks: Journey Through History Provides A Transformative Educational VR Experience

    Masterworks: Journey Through History Provides A Transformative Educational VR Experience

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    Masterworks: Journey Through History is an educational VR museum where users can explore four culturally significant sites in full roomscale aided by the power of photogrammetry.  Developed by FarBridge and published by CyArk, MasterWorks authentically transports users to places not easily accessible, and leverages actual archaeologists and historians to discuss the significance and meaning of these locations and their artifacts.

    John Ristevski, CEO of CyArk, talks about Masterworks and how their first VR experience ensures that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for years to come.

    First off, tell us about MasterWorks and what users should expect when they try it out for the first time.

    MasterWorks is a journey to 4 incredible locations created using fully navigable 3D environments created from photogrammetry rather than simply 360 video or hand modeled environments.  The result is an experience the user can move through in real time, exploring every portion of these amazing historic sites.  The result is an experience unlike anything else, creating a real sense of place.  This incredible visual experience is made more interactive through audio hotspots where you can learn from the people who care for these sites about their history and the challenges they face today. 

    How did you come to pick the locations that you did, and what particular significance do they have? 

    The four locations in MasterWorks represent a diverse range of sites both geographically and temporally, spanning almost 3000 years of human history and 3 continents. Users can discover the fate of the ancient capital of Thailand, the mysteries of a pre-Incan temple in the Peruvian Andes, the astonishing Native American cliff dwellings of Colorado, and the monumental stone carvings of Mt Rushmore in South Dakota. These are also some of the most visually impressive sites in our archive with some especially interesting stories and I think users are going to have a great time exploring these places in VR.

    Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

    Tell us about Cyark’s greater mission, and how VR fits in that mission relative to other mediums.

    CyArk is a non-profit located in Oakland, California and we capture, share and archive the world’s cultural heritage. We have captured over 200 sites on all 7 continents. Our vision as an organization is to “ignite wonder, curiosity and a shared understanding of our past” and I see VR as a really important technology in helping us achieve that. When someone is truly immersed in these places it can convey that same sense of awe that you have when you visit it in person, and I think VR is unique in its capability to convey that.

    As MasterWorks is your first official VR title, what key challenges and learnings emerged from this experience?

    We have a lot of experience in capturing these places accurately in 3D but capturing the narrative and story associated the physical site is a new experience for us. We spent many hours interviewing archaeologists, conservators and site managers to extract these stories and it was quite the task to distill this down into bite size chunks that were both interesting and still conveyed the complex and rich historical story of these sites.

    Given the amazingly rich cultural context of Cyark’s existing content, what other stories do you think need to be told?

    We have many more sites in our archive and some with some fascinating and compelling stories. We just recently completed projects at Normandy in France, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and the team is currently documenting the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. All of which are fascinating sites with rich histories. 

    Will there be additions to the Masterworks VR title?  What’s next for Cyark and VR?

    It is definitely a possibility. We have received some great feedback about the application already and I believe VR is the perfect medium for the presentation of the data we collect so we would love to grow the library of available sites in the future.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrdXaBxdyCk?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Website: LINK

  • Bell Brings the Revolutionary FCX-001 to Market 10 Times Faster With HTC VIVE

    Bell Brings the Revolutionary FCX-001 to Market 10 Times Faster With HTC VIVE

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    Ultimately, the team decided to build their mock-ups in VR, and it had a profound effect on their entire design process. Bell worked with Sector 5 Digital (S5D), an innovative 3D design and production agency, to help design and sketch the initial model, then create the aircraft in 3D using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. The model was then transferred into Unity (a real-time game engine) so the design could be experienced and modified in VR on HTC VIVE.

    Shots of interiors, design, mock up, and passengers at Dallas Convention Center

    Rather than having to start with a small-scale model for the initial prototyping, the VIVE enabled Bell’s engineers and test pilots to visualize a full-scale model right from the very beginning. The test pilots could then experience the aircraft as if they were inside an actual model, allowing them to provide faster and more specific feedback.

    Website: LINK

  • HTC VIVE & Immersive Factory Provide World Infrastructure Leader with Innovative Safety Solutions

    HTC VIVE & Immersive Factory Provide World Infrastructure Leader with Innovative Safety Solutions

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    Like most infrastructure companies, Colas Group is not necessarily a household name—though they should be. With 55,000 employees on five continents and an average of 80,000 road construction and maintenance projects every year, Colas’ work and presence are felt the world over. In 2017, their consolidated revenue totaled 11.7 billion euros—with international markets accounting for 48% of this figure.

    As a world leader in infrastructure, Colas are at the cutting edge of seemingly everything in their industry, be it recovering and recycling waste, reducing their carbon footprint, or limiting the impact of their production sites on the local environment and community.

    Colas is also at the cutting edge of the thing they value most: safety. More than 50% of their budget is dedicated to it. Believing that any company that runs on human capital has a duty to look out for its employees, they have invested significant time and resources in safety audits, site safety briefings, dedicated prevention courses, and first aid with over one-third of the company trained.

    “It is not acceptable for an employee to be injured in the course of his or her work. Our goal is zero accidents, and to achieve it we use a range of levers, including safety training. Our ambition is to bring about lasting change in people’s behavior,” said Philippe Simarik, Director of Prevention, Health, and Safety at Work at Colas.

    While both the frequency and severities of workplace injuries are steadily diminishing, Colas took their efforts a step further in order to hit their lofty, but noble zero accident goal.

    Their approach was two-fold. One: focus on new employees. Internal research showed that over the past several years, almost 60% of lost-time accidents at Colas involved people who have been on the job for less than two years. Two: employ the use of HTC VIVE’s professional-grade VR systems and Immersive Factory’s active-learning training programs in their safety training.

    “We met with four companies to develop virtual reality training courses,” said Simarik. “And it is Immersive Factory that we selected, for the quality of the graphics, the sensations experienced during the VR experience, and sheer ‘playability.’ It was also an opportunity to co-construct and co-finance the creation of this module on worksite crush hazards.”

    Immersive Factory, working in collaboration with Colas, developed a virtual model construction site based off a real one in Nantes, France as well as a virtual scenario based on the feedback of prevention staff, field workers, and even the regional director. After development was completed and approved, Colas was quickly able to test the course out at one of their training sites.

    The result was not only an innovative take on safety training, but a fun and engaging one, too. Immersive Factory’s program appealed to both journeyman and manager; a digital native new to their infrastructure career and the veteran hungry for a new educational experience. Finalized in early 2018, the program was integrated into the newcomer safety days at the Colas Centre-Ouest subsidiary.


    “With virtual reality, we can experience hazardous situations without danger, but keep them in memory,” says Simarik. “The feedback from every level of the company is excellent. Most of the trainees react after the course by saying things like ‘from now on, I’ll be careful about…’; it’s a sign that the message is getting across.”

    Though Colas co-constructed and co-financed this virtual worksite and software, they want Immersive Factory to be able to offer exercise to other infrastructure companies.

    “When it comes to safety,” says Simarik, “good practices must be shared.”

    While the Immersive Factory’s program can be used across a wide range of VR systems, co-founder Olivier Pierre recommends one in particular.

    “We recommended that Colas use the HTC VIVE Pro range of VR headsets for their comfort, ergonomics, and professional resolution. Aside from the reliability of their devices, we and the HTC VIVE teams share a common vision of innovation and of the quality our customers expect.”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1NbZFxKoqI?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Website: LINK

  • VIVE AT GDC 2018: VIVE FOCUS Coming To International Markets Later This Year; VDA Winners Announced

    VIVE AT GDC 2018: VIVE FOCUS Coming To International Markets Later This Year; VDA Winners Announced

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Today at GDC 2018, HTC Vive announced that we are bringing Vive Focus to the global markets later this year.  Vive Focus is the first 6DOF stand-alone VR headset to be commercially available.  We also are making Vive Focus developer kits available to registered developers in most countries through our developer portal, starting today.   

    Built upon Vive Wave, our open VR platform and toolset that is unifying the development experience for standalone and mobile VR devices, along with Viveport as its content platform, Vive Focus is designed to appeal to a wider range of mass market audiences as well as commercial/enterprise users who want broad deployment and stunning VR experiences in a convenient and portable form factor. 

    In addition, developers who bring content to Viveport in China for either Vive Focus or PC-based Vive, will receive 100% rev-share from title sales and Viveport subscription in China between April and September 2018. Viveport continues to be the best platform for VR developers, and this rev-share opportunity is just another way in which we are empowering developers to create the best VR content, not matter what hardware device. 

    Viveport Developer Awards trophy mock-up

    Also, at GDC 2018, we hosted our 2nd annual Viveport Developer Awards (VDAs), where five first place winners were each awarded $50,000, and five second place winners were awarded $20,000. The categories and winners are listed below, all of which are currently available on Viveport. Come meet the VDA winners on Thursday during our panel at GDC: 

    Entertainment

     Education

     Arts & Culture

     Enterprise

     Arcade

    The winners for the VDAs in China are:

    Website: LINK

  • The World Needs More Talented Women In Tech

    The World Needs More Talented Women In Tech

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Today, on International Women’s Day, HTC VIVE is supporting the 5th Women In Tech (WIT) conference in Stockholm with 1,300 WIT participants and several thousand on the waiting list. There is clearly an appetite for this as the +1,000 ticket sold out in 100 seconds!

    The mission of WIT is to inspire talented women to consider a future in media and technology by providing a network and experienced of successful women and men from the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds.

    We are also proud supporter of WIT GIRLS, which is a new program aimed to inspire young women aged 8-15 access to learn about coding, game design, web and Virtual Reality during their summer break at a weekend tech camp that goes on through-out the year. We will provide them with a unique first insight into the world of VR and AR and let their minds embrace the new mediums. We believe this will program help inspire the next generation of female talent in the years to come.

    At HTC VIVE we are all technology “geeks” and hope that the next generation will share our passion for technology. Most technology companies today are male dominated, and those men need to take active part of changing the status quo or there will be no growth of women in tech. However, HTC VIVE is an exception as it is managed by an amazing Woman In Tech – CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang – who started the company more than 20 year ago. She has had a significant impact on the mobile and VR industries and continuous to promote WIT and the next generation of female tech talent.

    To take the next step for WIT Globally we need more leaders and visionaries, we need thinkers and doers.  We need women and men, we need you to take action today, we need you to make a difference, without you there will be no Women In Tech.

    Join us today on International Women’s Day in celebrating all women and support initiatives that will inspire them to join us in our exciting industry.

    Website: LINK

  • Step Inside the Unabomber Investigation with HTC Vive and Newseum

    Step Inside the Unabomber Investigation with HTC Vive and Newseum

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    This is a guest blog post by Lukasz Biernacki, Communications Associate at Immersion.

    If you’re one of the many that spent the Christmas break binging on Netflix then you may be familiar with Manhunt: Unabomber, the eight-part docudrama outlining the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of Ted Kaczynski. For those of you not familiar with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski was an active domestic terrorist between 1978 and 1995, during which time he murdered three people and injured a further 23 through a ruthless campaign of mail-delivery bombs, which he made and sent from his secluded cabin in the Montana woods. Kaczynski is currently incarcerated for life in a maximum security institution in Colorado following a lengthy FBI investigation into his crimes.

    There’s no doubting that the story of the Unabomber and his capture was and still is an international spectacle, which is why we teamed up with The Newseum and HTC’s Vive Studios to produce a VR experience that immerses users in the story of the Unabomber – from the FBI investigation to the capture of Kaczynski at his primitive cabin. In the Unabomber experience, visitors will not only get to enter the same cabin that officials found in 1996, but actively participate in the case and get a front row seat to the process that led to Kaczynski’s arrest. Insight from FBI agents Terry Turchie (Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the UNABOM investigation from 1994 to 1998) and Max Noel (FBI agent during the investigation) adds to the narrative experience that reflects in many ways the reality of the investigation, over 20 years later.

    The Unabomber experience marks a cornerstone in the use of VR technology to enhance visitor’s experiences in museums and similar environments. Interacting through activity-based and learning-enabled environments helps us create the memory anchors that cements what we learned.

    The launch also highlights the potential for VR technology in the criminal justice system, as it may become a tool in the courtroom in years to come. Paul Armstrong at Forbes, recently spoke to FBI Special Agent Terry Turchie about the sense of ‘presence’ that VR provides and its potential to be a ‘game changer’ in the practice of law. Turchie explains that he can see the benefits of using VR in the courtroom but is concerned about a couple of areas such as how will it impact conviction rates. Ultimately, as with any demonstrative evidence presented in a courtroom, the judge is the final gatekeeper for what is admissible and how it is used. As the technology refines, transforms and becomes more common, expect to see it to become a staple in the courtroom.

    The Unabomber experience marks the first in a series of similar educational experiences that we will develop with The Newseum and HTC’s Vive Studios, such as Nellie Bly’s trip around the world. All of the VR experiences will be selectively showcased to Newseum visitors in Washington and available for download on Viveport.

    Together with Vive Studios, we understand that educational experiences such as this add an additional story-telling platform to museums’ arsenal, and enable children all over the world to experience the most exciting exhibits as virtual models. For many children, currently deprived of the opportunity to travel, these kits will give them the chance to learn about human history directly, and interact with key artifacts and artwork from their selected period. In many ways, it’s about bringing children closer to history, and letting them learn about it through the very natural need to explore our surroundings.

    The Unabomber app is available now on Viveport and will be made available for Steam at a later time.

    Website: LINK

  • HTC VIVE and World Economic Forum Partner For The Future Of The “VR/AR For Impact” Initiative

    HTC VIVE and World Economic Forum Partner For The Future Of The “VR/AR For Impact” Initiative

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Today, HTC VIVE announced a partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to drive the VR/AR for Impact initiative forward, and to showcase its latest content at the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Impact Hub at the WEF 2018 in Davos.

    Originally launched by HTC at WEF in 2017, VR/AR For Impact is a more than $10 Million program to drive VR and AR content and technologies that will create positive impact and change in support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.  In collaboration with a core group of VR/AR leaders and the UN, WEF will drive the “VR/AR for Impact” initiative going forward, and as a core member of the group, HTC Vive will continue to design and create experiences as part of their collaborative, ongoing commitment to foster and champion the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality to educate and empower humanity. 

    “The challenges our world faces today have never been greater, and humanity needs a clearer understanding and guidance to help solve global issues,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO, HTC. “Unlike any other medium, Virtual Reality is able to immerse the global audience in literally any experience, and can help us learn, empathize and transform the world. VR/AR for Impact is a unique way of driving critical awareness toward problems and solutions facing mankind.” 

    “We see so much untapped potential with VR/AR to drive positive outcomes for society in areas such as health and education, and we are looking forward to working with leaders in this space to build up this initiative in the coming years,” says Lauren Joseph, leader of the Electronics Industry Program at World Economic Forum.

               

    VR/AR for Impact experiences shown this week at WEF 2018 include:

    • OrthoVR aims to increase the availability of well-fitting prosthetics in low-income countries by using Virtual Reality and 3D rapid prototyping tools to increase the capacity of clinical staff without reducing quality. VR allows current prosthetists and orthosists to leverage their hands-on and embodied skills within a digital environment.
    • The Extraordinary Honey Bee is designed to help deepen our understanding of the honey bee’s struggle and learn what is at stake for humanity due to the dying global population of the honey bee. Told from a bee’s perspective, The Extraordinary Honey Bee harnesses VR to inspire change in the next generation of honey bee conservationists.
    • The Blank Canvas: Hacking Nature is an episodic exploration of the frontiers of bioengineering as taught by the leading researchers within the field. Using advanced scientific visualization techniques, the Blank Canvas will demystify the cellular and molecular mechanisms that are being exploited to drive substantial leaps such as gene therapy.
    • LIFE (Life-saving Instruction For Emergencies) is a new mobile and VR platform developed by the University of Oxford that enables all types of health worker to manage medical emergencies. Through the use of personalized simulation training and advanced learning analytics, the LIFE platform offers the potential to dramatically extend access to life-saving knowledge in low-income countries.
    • Tree is a critically acclaimed virtual reality experience to immerse viewers in the tragic fate that befalls a rainforest tree. The experience brings to light the harrowing realities of deforestation, one of the largest contributors to global warming.
    • For the Amazonian Yawanawa, ‘medicine’ has the power to travel you in a vision to a place you have never been. Hushuhu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawa, uses VR like medicine to open a portal to another way of knowing. AWAVENA is a collaboration between a community and an artist, melding technology and transcendent experience so that a vision can be shared, and a story told of a people ascending from the edge of extinction.

    These experiences will be made available for all attendees at the World Economic Forum at the UN’s Sustainable Impact Hub on January 23rd, 2018 on Promenade 72, Davos Platz in Switzerland. Awavena can be experienced in the main congress hall, Portals exhibition.

    For more information on VR for Impact visit: https://vrforimpact.com/.

    Website: LINK

  • HTC VIVE Raises The Bar For Premium VR With New VIVE PRO Upgrade And Wireless VIVE Adaptor

    HTC VIVE Raises The Bar For Premium VR With New VIVE PRO Upgrade And Wireless VIVE Adaptor

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    New Hardware Raises the Bar for High-End VR Market, While All-New Viveport VR and Vive Video Dramatically Improves the way You Browse, Discover and Acquire VR Content.

    Today in Las Vegas, HTC VIVE™, the leader in room-scale Virtual Reality (VR) announced new hardware upgrades that deliver premium VR experiences to consumers and enterprises with the introduction of Vive Pro and Vive Wireless Adaptor. In addition, the company debuted new improvements in how VR users discover, experience and acquire VR content through a radical redesign of Viveport VR and Vive Video. These advancements deliver on VR users’ desire for higher resolution, improved audio, greater comfort, wireless freedom and immersive content discovery.

    Vive Pro

    Vive Pro is a new HMD upgrade from Vive, built for VR enthusiasts and enterprise users who want the best display and audio for their VR experiences. Vive Pro includes dual-OLED displays for a crisp picture resolution of 2880 x 1600 combined, a 78% increase in resolution over the current Vive HMD.

    This premium resolution enhances immersion for VR enthusiasts, and the improved clarity means text, graphics and overall experience all come into sharper view. Vive Pro also features integrated, high-performance headphones with a built-in amplifier to offer a heightened sense of presence and an overall richer sound. Vive Pro’s new headstrap was built with enhanced ergonomics and comfort, including a sizing dial for a more balanced headset that decreases weight on the front of the headset. Additional improvements include dual microphones with active noise cancellation and dual front-facing cameras designed to empower developer creativity.

    “There’s a clear need in the VR market for a premium VR experience with high resolution display, integrated audio and the best components available today in a headset,” said Daniel O’Brien, GM U.S., VIVE. “Vive Pro offers an immediate upgrade for both VR enthusiasts and enterprises that want to utilize the best VR experience.”

    More details on Vive Pro availability and price will be made available soon.

    Vive Wireless Adaptor

    Also unveiled today, the Vive Wireless Adaptor will be the first to market with a truly wireless VR headset integration for both Vive and Vive Pro.

    The Vive Wireless Adaptor features Intel’s WiGig technology and offers a premium VR wireless experience that operates in the interference-free 60Ghz band, which means lower latency and better performance. The Vive Wireless Adaptor will ship in Q3 to customers worldwide. 

    “Wireless VR has been on nearly every VR user’s wishlist since the technology was unveiled,” said Frank Soqui, General Manager Virtual Reality Group at Intel Corporation. “By collaborating with HTC to commercialize Intel’s WiGig technology, we will guarantee that wireless VR meets the most discerning quality bar for home users and business VR customers.”

    Viveport VR

    In the largest upgrade to the Viveport customer experience since launch, Viveport VR redefines how users, discover, experience and acquire VR content. Instead of a traditional 2D catalog, Viveport VR content is delivered in fully immersive interactive previews. Viveport is embracing a VR first approach by including VR enabled “VR Previews,” which are interactive glimpses of content that give customers a room-scale preview of an experience and the opportunity to interact with content before purchasing or subscribing.

    “Viveport is moving to a VR first experience model, and with the all-new Viveport VR, we are changing the way consumers discover, experience and acquire VR content,” said Rikard Steiber, president, Viveport.  “Until now, there has not been a shopping and browsing experience that takes advantage of the full functionality of VR. Available in early access today, Viveport VR increases interaction with content and offers developers a preview that showcases the quality of their titles and experiences.”

    Earlier this year, Viveport launched the world’s first VR subscription service to provide a whole new way to access the best VR experiences for a great price. With more than 1,000 titles available on Viveport today, and more than 325 available for subscription, Vive is changing the way users browse and discover content through Viveport VR.

     Vive Video Includes Vimeo

    Today HTC Creative Labs also rolled out an upgrade to its native VR video player, Vive Video. Vive Video solves the discovery and acquisition problem for VR video content by delivering a large catalog of high quality streaming video directly to VR headsets. In addition to new features and UI upgrades, Vive Video has integrated content from Vimeo, the world’s largest ad-free open video platform home to millions of creators worldwide.

    In the new Vive Video experience, a curated selection of Vimeo content will be made available to browse and view in a highly optimized native VR experiences within Vive Video-compatible headsets.

    “Whether we’re building our own tools in-house or partnering with other innovative platforms, Vimeo is committed to the future of storytelling and finding new ways to support our creators,” said Christophe Gillet, GM of Vimeo’s Creator Platform. “Not only does the integration with Vive Video showcase some of Vimeo’s highest quality, human-curated content within the VR experience, but it also gives those creators an exciting new way to expose their work and engage with audiences.”

    Vive Video has consistently been one of the most-downloaded and highest-rated apps on the SteamVR platform, enabling users to view 180 and 360-degree video content. Vive Video is available today for both Vive and Google Daydream platforms, and will arrive on Vive Wave in the near future.

    Website: LINK

  • Zayden’s Wish: Making the Impossible Mission Possible – in VR

    Zayden’s Wish: Making the Impossible Mission Possible – in VR

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    **This is a guest post from the team at Trick3D

    The tarmac at Dobbins Air Force Base is clear – no jet engine roars – it’s calm enough to hear the American flag flapping in the breeze. And yet, the air’s electric with excitement. More than 50 airmen are aligned in formation. They are awaiting the arrival of a very special astronaut for a very special mission.

    Astronaut Zayden Wright was born with a rare heart condition. In his seven years of life, the young explorer endured 38 echocardiograms, six heart cauterizations and four open heart surgeries. Yet, none of these challenges have stopped his appetite for adventure. When Make-A-Wish Georgia asked Zayden Wright what he wished for in all of the world, Zayden wished to go to Saturn in a red rocket ship, so his mother, Shonda Wright, said “Let’s see what we can do!”

    From there, Zayden’s family, Make-A-Wish Georgia, immersive content studio TRICK 3D, and a squadron of local wish-granting volunteers banded together to make the seemingly impossible mission possible for the young airman. The group turned to the power of virtual reality to make the space expedition come to fruition.

    The creative vision for the virtual reality wish was set by Zayden himself. Zayden described what his space expedition would be like with his mom and, in vivid detail, he shared how his rocket ship will be red, how he’ll meet a little green alien, and how he’ll see countless stars along his journey.

    With Zayden’s creative brief in-hand, director and TRICK 3D founder, Chad Eikhoff, and his team set to work crafting the VR experience.

    “When Make-A-Wish Georgia shared the wish with me, I immediately said ‘yes! We are doing this!’ Virtual reality is a medium that’s inherently built for wishes and dreams, and this is a great example of VR making something possible that was previously unattainable,” said Eikhoff. “For us at TRICK 3D, building a world and experience for such a meaningful use at such a high level of production is 100 percent why we create, so saying ‘yes’ to Zayden was a no-brainer.”

    The ‘yes’ was easy. The task of crafting an experience that transported Zayden to the destination of his dreams was tricky – just the kind of challenge the artists of TRICK 3D love to tackle. Early on, the team turned to the HTC Vive headset, affectionately dubbed “astronaut goggles,” to achieve the most immersive virtual reality experience possible for Zayden.

    “It was imperative for this experience that we make Zayden feel as though he was really experiencing the Saturn of his dreams,” remarked TRICK 3D lead technical artist, Warren Drones. “To achieve this, our team iterated in the Vive constantly – taking the headset on and off repeatedly – checking and re-checking the experience in order to refine the virtual world we were creating in real-time. The result – Zayden’s reaction – made it all worth it and confirmed to us the power of the technology.”

    Zayden donned the HTC Vive (his astronaut goggles) and “blasted off” to Saturn on May 1st from Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Ga. alongside NASA astronaut, LeRoy Chiao, to the fanfare of more than 50 airmen.

    “Zayden’s Wish” represented the first-ever VR wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the seven-year-old’s reaction showcases the potential virtual reality has to transport kids (and adults) to places and experiences that were previously impossible or unimaginable.

    “Zayden’s wish inspires us all to imagine what’s possible – he set a high bar for using VR to instill hope and joy,” said Eikhoff. “We’re excited by the innovative pathways this wish paved that will grant future wishes not yet imagined.”

    Most recently, the Make-A-Wish Foundation honored the Georgia chapter and “Zayden’s Wish” with the Most Innovative Wish of the Year award.

    “We have seen, time and again, that when we can make seemingly impossible wishes come true for these families, they experience an improved sense of overall hope and an improved outlook,” said David Williams, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish America. “Zayden’s Wish represents a remarkable achievement in harnessing creativity and technology to make that hope happen in a whole new way.”

    To learn more about Make-A-Wish America, visit Wish.org. For more on TRICK 3D, visit TRICK3D.com.

    Website: LINK

  • The Ochre Atelier Comes To Viveport

    The Ochre Atelier Comes To Viveport

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The next stage of Vive’s partnership with Tate comes to life as Modigliani VR experience ‘The Ochre Atelier’ is now available to download at home

    In 1919 Amedeo Modigliani returned to Paris from the south of France. The war was over; his health had improved. His art dealer, Léopold Zborowski found a studio and living space for Modigliani and his partner, Jeanne Hébuterne, on the rue de la Grande Chaumière, near the cafés and meeting places of Montparnasse. Thanks to Vive’s VR technology, you can now be transported from the comfort of your own home to a recreation of the place where one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century lived and worked in the final months of his life.

    While the studio still exists, almost 100 years after the artist’s death, its appearance has changed significantly. There are no photographs of the studio from the 1910s.  Yet by using the actual space as a template, as well as study of first-hand accounts, historical research and new technical information about Modigliani’s paintings, the studio was reconstructed by teams at Tate and Preloaded to accurately reflect the artist’s living environment. Each object included in the experience was carefully researched, validated by art historians and authentically modelled.

    This incredible and unprecedented look into the life and work of one of the early 20th century’s most innovative artists is currently installed within Tate Modern’s exhibition Modigliani.

    Available now on Viveport, the experience has been expanded and will be more immersive than ever before by utilising the Vive controllers and Vive’s unique room-scale functionality to allow you to walk around Modigliani’s studio. You can check out the experience and how it was made by watching the video here:

    You can from today download the The Ochre Atelier on Viveport here for $2.99.

    This latest release sees Vive continue its work with the arts world, the partnership with Tate Modern being the latest project in the Vive Arts program. Vive has been previously centre stage at leading art venues and events around the world, including Tribeca Film Festival, The Venice Biennale and Somerset House.

    Stay tuned to the Vive blog for even more exciting art projects in 2018.

    Website: LINK

  • Operation Apex and the Motivations Behind It

    Operation Apex and the Motivations Behind It

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    With the launch of Operation Apex today on the HTC VIVE, we asked the CEO of Curiscope, Ed Barton, to give us some in depth insight into the virtual experience surrounding one of the most expansive, diverse places on the planet: our ocean.

    It’s hard to imagine a world without plastics. For most of us, it’s only the world we’ve ever known. Plastic became a mainstream material in the 70s with invention of the plastic bag  and now, in less than 50 years, we’ve reached a stage where our oceans contain over 50 trillion microplastic particles, 500 times more than the stars in our Galaxy. If we continue at our current rate, by 2050 our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by mass.

    The underwater world makes up considerably more of the Earth than the areas we inhabit, yet to most of us the ocean is completely alien, scary even. It is an environment where still, countless species still exist that we’ve never even laid eyes on. The wonder of this world runs contrary to the impact we as a species are having on it. Our impact is something that’s out of sight and out of mind.

    So there’s a huge problem here but we wanted to try to tackle it a little differently. Virtual Reality is often so immersive that most experiences focused on a social mission leave you drained or overwhelmed and can often do more to disconnect you from the issue at hand. Learning about something doesn’t need to feel like a lecture.

    With Operation Apex we wanted to lead with the wonder of the ocean, creating a product that stands up on its own right. It’s not only a game that you’ll learn from but something that you’ll enjoy and want to go back into time and time again to interact with the creatures and to explore the things hidden around the levels.

    So, what was important to make that happen? We started the project with extensive communication with our contacts at Oceans Research, looking into what messages were important to communicate and how we could best represent the environment. The development team then scoured through research papers to learn as much as we could about the food chain and the way the animals move in this environment so that we’d be able to make it feel as realistic as possible. In particular, we spent months honing an algorithm for the sharks that represented them in a lifelike manner. This provided the user with an ability to interact with them, feed them, chase them and swim with them, all as though you were in their environment alongside them.


    This code-driven animation was something we were particularly keen to work on. Ben and myself started Curiscope at the start of 2016 with an animation, Great White Sharks 360, that went on to be watched by over 25m people. Most people watch it not even knowing that it’s animated and assume it to be filmed footage. Animation and CGI were the tools we chose at the time with the objective of reaching as many people as possible but we always built it with a view to it becoming something more.

    Operation Apex is the product that is something more, the spiritual sequel. We transitioned the company from CGI to real-time, code-driven animation, creating a fully interactive, explorable world where the inhabitants react to your presence. It’s maybe bigger than we ever envisioned it would be and we’re just getting started. One of the most exciting aspects about working in this new medium is world creation and the subsequent exploration and discovery this offers. The opportunity to create dynamic creatures that then live there and react to you is a sensation that’s unique to VR and that’s unparalleled by anything else.

    The food chain is the core point of progression in Operation Apex. As you progress through the game you work your way up, learning more and more about the different species and how pollutants, plastics and overfishing have an impact across them all. We’ve also introduced a couple of interesting game mechanics, the lure and the mimic. Together you can use these to control and interact with the creatures in your environment. As you progress through the game, you unlock more and more mimics (even a Whale Shark which is…interesting) and interact your way up to the predators at the top of the food chain.

    So it’s a bit of an experience, a game and a virtual world, all rolled into one. We designed it to be open ended so that, whilst there’s a narrative arc, you can go off script and explore the environment. We hate experiences that are on rails and think the most exciting part about an ocean environment is the freedom that it offers. It’s an interesting space in which to create; and we want to continue opening up possibilities as we develop it further.

    We’d hope that users spend as much time exploring the environment as they do progressing through the tasks. We’ve spent a lot of time crafting it to have its own character with deep crevices, caves, tunnels and the slowly wafting kelp, loosely modelled on one of our favorite places on the planet, Monterey. We’ve also hidden some pretty interesting discoveries around the levels, some hinting at future expansion ideas and others being creatures that are as elusive in the game as they are in real life.

    Ultimately we’d love to hear how you all get on. We’re a small team with around 6 members of staff working on Operation Apex over 2017. We’d love for this to be the start of development and of transforming the idea of what immersive learning really could be. And, of course, we’d love to hear how Operation Apex has impacted you and how, together, we can protect the most important ecosystem on our planet.

    • Ed Barton, CEO, Curiscope

    Website: LINK

  • Front Defense: Heroes introduces V-Move, a new form of VR locomotion

    Front Defense: Heroes introduces V-Move, a new form of VR locomotion

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    Released today and developed by Vive Studios’ first-party developer Fantahorn Studio, Front Defense: Heroes is a highly-polished, online multiplayer shooter set in the final days of WW2. Playing as either the Axis or the Allies, players can challenge their friends to a 5 on 5 game of Team Deathmatch or Mission Mode across 5 multiplayer maps. To add to the mobility and strategy of the game, Fantahorn has developed their own unique and innovative locomotion called V-Move.

    Fantahorn found that the traditional method of teleporting reduces a player’s sense of immersion and can contribute to motion sickness – a major pain point of VR. With the goal of minimizing motion sickness and elevating strategy, Fantahorn sought to develop their own movement system totally unique to VR. With V-Move you control the movements of your avatar in the 3rd-person, determining their pathway before being teleported to your final destination. By guiding the avatar as it moves with your controller, players maintain the rhythm and continuity of the game while focusing on the battle at hand.

    Front Defense Heroes

    While V-Move may be reinventing teleportation for VR, players will take to the new form of movement with ease. Pressing up on your non-dominant trackpad starts your avatar’s run (in 3rd person perspective) while turning your controller left and right will easily change directions. Let go of the trackpad and your run ends, returning to the original 1st person perspective. Players can dodge enemy fire, jump and crawl their way to victory using V-Move.

    Front Defense: Heroes is now available on Steam and Viveport for a promotional price of $4.99. A new Front Defense and Front Defense: Heroes bundle is now available at a promotional price of $9.99. All existing owners of Front Defense on Viveport and Steam will receive a free copy of Front Defense: Heroes. In addition, Viveport subscribers can now select Front Defense: Heroes as one of their monthly titles.

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