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The CatsAndVR.com top 5 VR compaines in 2016 (for Us). Have a Great NYE! Have a Great 2017

December 31, 2016  /  Bobby Venom

First of all I would like to thank all the people who supported CatsAndVR.com this year. This started of as a pet project so I could learn and immerse my self in the world of Virtual Reality. 

As 2016 started I was in a job I hated but thanks to CatsAndVR.com I was able to get a job in VR that allows me to travel, be plugged in, and also follow my passion. I have learned a lot and due to that job I have I have not been able to put as much time into CatsAndVR.com over the last month. Since the end of 2016 falls on Caturday, I am closing 2016 out with a post. 

So Happy Caturday, Happy NYE, and Happy 2017 to all of you. Here we go.

The Top 5 VR Companies for me in 2016 (in no particular order I think they are all awesome)

Number One

 

Unity Technologies announced a host of new partnerships and exciting updates in 2016.The dev team I work with uses Unity as our bread and butter. There is a reason it is the game engine helping to push VR into a consumer product.  

With nearly 5 billion downloads of made with Unity mobile games in Q3 alone including  Super Mario Run, Unity continues to enable developers to create content and are now using that for VR and AR.

At the end of the year they released their EditorVR for constructing environments for VR in VR. For now, if you’re building VR games and experiences, EditorVR will likely help you with laying out a scene in VR and building your own custom VR tools

Unity has helped the VR ecosystem with innovation and has made some great hires this year to help chart them into 2017 including hiring innovators such as Tony Parisi and Danny Lange.

As VR grew in the past few years, so has UploadVR. UploadVR has helped create an awareness of VR in the San Francisco Bay Area and is now helping to evangelize globally.  This growing set of influencers in the VR community known for their events and ability to connect the VR world.. Upload VR is not just a blog but a group helping to shape VR not only as a consumer product but through connecting VR to the world of art, cinema, as well as using these connections for good. 

They are also helping to push Unity by hosting Learn Unity events. I hope to take one of these in 2017 so I can better my own skill set. On a personal level I owe something to Upload VR due to the fact that they gave me tickets to their E3 Upload Party. If I had not received those tickets I may have not went to LA to try to get in to E3 as press. I was successful in getting press for CatsAndVR and thus my 2016 VR year actually seemed like a reality. 

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/uploadvrart

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/uploadvre3

Number Three

Mindshow is a product built from a passion for VR. Not just because VR is cool but because we were promised the future when we were kids and still seeking it. 

Mindshow is Walt Disney. Mindshow is Jim Henson. Mindshow is Steve Jobs. Mindshow is the spark in humanity that made them create characters out of the stars. Mindshow are the muppet babies playing make believe come to life. 

It was hard to try to write something about Mindshow after I first tried it at VRLA because everyone who tried it in the media loved it to some degree and has been able to post before me. What do you write to be different. CatsAndVR.com can't compete with UploadVR, Techcrunch, VRScout , and the other cool kids in resources, turnaround time, etc.

Mindshow reminded me I did not start the site to do that at all but instead I started it to learn and to grow. In the end maybe this post did not fully explain what Mindshow really is or do the experience justice, but neither did the trailer. You have to experience it to really know that this is what we have been seeking in VR the whole time. You see in the end what Mindshow really is can just be described as inspiration captured and then shared for the sake of shared inspiration itself. Inspiration is what I walked away with from VRLA. Inspiration is what I walked away with from Mindshow.

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/mindshow

Number Four

As you may know, TheWaveVR recently made headlines for raising $2.5 million to create a VR music ecosystem. http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/thewavevrfunding

TheWaveVR is a VR platform for people who love music, enabling them to view, host and socialize in live and recorded shows worldwide, anytime, anywhere.  TheWave creates a VR venue where artists can perform live music by simply importing their tracks, customizing the visuals of the venue, and sharing virtual shows. Fans can attend via most major VR head mounted displays, interact with performers, socialize with friends, dance, paint and more.

One of the major highlights of the VRLA Summer Expo was the VR Rave presented by Skullcandy, Subpac, WeLens, and TheWaveVR. Attendees like comedian Reggie Watts got to experience a next level audio visual experience that incorporated 3D visuals as well as the ability to experience it all in VR.

Number Five

Thank you everyone this year. I started this year just wanting to be part of the VR world and now I have an HTC Vive, Playstation VR, and Gear VR I can call my own. I used CatsAndVR.com to get me a paying job in VR. I have traveled all over America evangelizing VR for my day job and got to meet a bunch of pro Football players.

I watched two Warriors games from a private suite because of VR and got to travel to 3 new states due to VR. All in all I think CatsAndVR.com was a worthwhile investment. I look forward to growing, writing more, learning Unity, going to VR meetups, and being a member of the VR community. Have a safe NYE and great 2017. 

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Bobby Venom

 

 

 

 

 

 

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categories / Art, Life, Productivity, sports, Social, VR Gaming
tags / nye, catsandvr, upload vr, caturday

Review-UploadVR E3 Party

June 20, 2016  /  Bobby Venom

What can I say about the UploadVR party? Well not only was it the E3 party VR needed but also deserved. I have been attending E3 since 2011 and in 2013 I had my first experience with Rift DK 1. That seems like forever and a day looking at how important VR was to E3 2016. 

As VR grew in the past few years, so has UploadVR. UploadVR has helped create an awareness of VR in the San Francisco Bay Area and is now helping to evangelize globally. 

This real care about the growth of VR was very present at the party. Though they had Morgan Page as the musical headliner, this party was first and foremost about spreading the importance of Virtual Reality. 

Before the main festivities of the party started the UploadVR founders got on stage for a moment of silence for the recent Orlando tragedy. This followed up by them saying that ticket sales of the event would be going to help that cause. 

This in reality is a reflection of how I view the UploadVR E3 party. Yes VR is now the hot girl at the dance that everyone wants to talk to. That does not mean she does not also have a great personality and still aware of her Kickstarter roots. For a party sponsored by Nokia and Hulu that represented the hottest thing, there was still an indie charm that felt real.

My favorite example of this was UploadVR Co-founder & EIC Will Mason legitimately coming across awestruck when introducing Co-creator of the Myst franchise, Rand Miller.

Miller seemed to be really enjoying himself while also spreading the word about his new game Obduction.  Obduction, which garnered several E3 Best Of Show nominations was available to be played in VR at the party. This was a perfect opportunity to showcase the game to people that may have missed it on the floor and showcased why this party was different than your general free drinks and swag E3 event. 

In fact several demos were available to play including one of my favorite VR games, Time Machine VR. This was also a great opportunity to showcase something that may have flew under the radar for people that were bombarded by all the E3 VR announcements.

Of course what is a party without the party aspect and UploadVR delivered. A variable who's who of the industry attended and one minute I found myself discussing 360° filmmaking with the award winning filmmaker Ando Shah to discussing Space VR with Ryan Holmes.  

On the music side, the event was headlined by Morgan Page but also featured the first ever live in real world venue use of The Wave VR. Bay Area DJ Grimecraft put on a fantastic performance using HTC Vive. This is yet another example of why the VR was the most important aspect of this party.

To be honest I really wanted to spend my entire evening at the UploadVR party but I had to head out to catch up with some old friends old school VIP style at the Twitch Event. 

The only thing left to say is that I truly loved every minute I was at the UploadVR E3 party and told people about it at the next event I went to. I do hope that CatsAndVR.com will be around to be able to attend another UploadVR E3 party in the future. Nothing but respect for an excellent E3 event put on by an excellent collective that made sure to show that VR is not a gimmick and worth every minute of celebration. 

Cats And VR

categories / Social
tags / vr, upload vr, uploadvr, e3
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