The legends of the ROCKY franchise now live in free CREED: Rise to Glory update

If you ever dreamed of fighting or putting on the gloves as the Italian Stallion himself, CREED: Rise to Glory brings some of the most legendary figures of the ROCKY franchise to the game’s Freeplay and PvP roster across all VR platforms in its latest free content update.

The list of new fighters include World Heavyweight Champion Apollo Creed, father of Adonis Creed and Rocky’s original rival-turned-friend; Rocky III’s streetwise Southside Slugger Clubber Lang; and, most notorious of all, Ivan Drago himself from Rocky IV.

PlayStation® VR players will also receive a new outdoor fighting ring, The Walcott Bowl, with this free update.

The ROCKY Legends update is now live on Steam, Oculus Home, and PlayStation VR.

Ubisoft launches Hungry Shark ® VR for Google Daydream.

Today, Ubisoft ® announced that Hungry Shark ® VR, the seventh installment in the successful mobile franchise developed by Future Games of London, is available on Google Daydream.

With five different shark species boasting unique characteristics, Hungry Shark VR takes players to the Mediterranean setting made famous by the Hungry Shark series. Players will complete three missions in total: Eat, Checkpoint Race and Rescue. In Eat, players must eat a number of specific edibles within a given time, Checkpoint Race challenges players to swim to checkpoints before the timer runs out, and in Rescue, players must find three keys and rescue jailed sharks.

Hungry Shark VR offers two new exciting game modes, allowing players to test their abilities and explore the vast landscape. Sandbox mode allows players to freely explore the colourful ocean world with no health drain or danger. Players can focus on swimming around the ocean and experiencing the beautiful underwater world. In the Play mode, players will face dangerous marine creatures while attempting to save four other sharks.

“Future Games of London is incredibly excited to announce that we’re working with Daydream to bring the Hungry Shark experience to VR,” said Ian Harper, Managing Director, Future Games of London, a Ubisoft Studio. “The Daydream platform enables us to create high quality VR visuals and bring innovative motion based controls to Hungry Shark fans.”

Built using the Unity 3D mobile game engine, Hungry Shark VR boasts striking 3D models, lighting and beautifully rich environments. Each in-game model has been meticulously designed and animated for accurate design and movement. Offering players a unique opportunity on Daydream with its new virtual reality gameplay, Hungry Shark VR gives players a fun, intuitive and more immersive experience than ever before. With the addition of the Daydream View controller, players can control functions such as navigating, boosting speed, performing flips and chomping fish. This advanced platform allows players to interact with the virtual world in the same way that they would in the real world.

Ubisoft continues its commitment to players by bringing highly innovative mobile games to VR. Built for high quality mobile VR, Daydream ensures easy and intuitive controls. Daydream-ready phones are equipped with high-resolution graphics and high-fidelity sensors for precise head-movement tracking.

Hungry Shark World ® and Hungry Shark Evolution ® is also available on iOS and Android.

For more information about the game, please visit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubisoft.vrhungryshark

VR puzzle game Solaright is the first HTC Vive title from a development team based out of India.

Solaright is the first HTC Vive title from a development team based out of India.  Solaright  is a zen-like VR puzzle game where the player has to illuminate a tree from a solar power source by solving a series of jigsaw puzzles from simple 3x3 virtual cubes to 4x4 and 5x5 complex cubes as you move ahead in the game.  The VR controller lets you rotate the cube, and understand the puzzle flowing through multiple faces

“We are very excited to launch Solaright, a never-seen-before puzzle solving experience with meditative music,”  stated  Manas Gajare , CEO, Zabuza Labs.“Our experience in mobile puzzle games was adamant, which inspired us to build this engaging title in virtual reality.”

With  the launch of Solaright perhaps many other gaming studios in India will also join the VR bandwagon soon.

Solaright is available for  HTC Vive on the  Steam Marketplace today March 13, 2017, for $9.99. Zabuza Labs is offering 15% discount for the first week.

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Trump In VR- An Art Piece For A Modern America.

" To mark the Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States MacInnes Scott invite you to step into the Oval Office and meet President Trump. This historic site has been recreated down to the smallest detail and President Trump is the most photo-realist human you will see in virtual reality today. Explore what it feels like to be in the space where America's destiny has been shaped for the last 78 years and come face to face with the man who will determine America's fate for the next four."-MacInnes Scott

This Virtual Reality Art Piece entitled Wide Awake was created by the firm MacInnes Scott, a group out of LA consisting of former Call Of Duty devs. They are doing some very cutting edge work and have added the new Pres to that body of work. macinnesscott.com

It’s 2am in the Oval Office.  The phone is ringing but nobody is picking up. President Trump is vigilent  against the encroaching darkness. His focus is intense. Is he leaning against his desk in contemplation or pushing off towards an unknown future?  

“VR is a new medium with the potential of being a movie or video game, a combination of both or something completely new,” says John MacInnes. “We see Trump In VR as art - a tableau vivant, in the American tradition of artists like Edward Hooper in painting, Gregory Crewdson and Cindy Sherman in photography. Unlike a painting and photography, you can interact with the art in virtual reality.”

MacInnes Scott's proprietary digital human 'maximum resolution' replication system utilizes HTC Vive's room scale and Epic's Unreal engine to render the character and environment in real-time 3D.

 Wide Awake will be at the VR Society’s Art In VR exhibition with Sotheby’s in New York City this June.

The MacInnes Scott team recently added an update to Wide Awake.

Check it out over at Viveport https://www.viveport.com/apps/c6947061-124e-4315-ab0b-6208c1bb77f9

Jaunt further expands it's role in VR Filmmaking by launching Jaunt Publishing.

Jaunt Inc, today announced the launch of Jaunt Publishing, a program that allows professional VR creators to publish their high quality VR content directly to the Jaunt VR app. Through an online portal on the company’s website, Jaunt Publishing enables creators to submit their work for consideration and publishing across the Jaunt platform. Once content is approved, creators will have access to Jaunt Cloud Services and the publishing tools within.

Jaunt is the only distribution hub that is truly platform agnostic, capable of seamlessly delivering cinematic VR content to every VR platform and device.“Working with Jaunt was simple and intuitive; I didn't have to touch anything. I’m a very hands-on person, so it was a bit awkward at first, but when I started seeing the results it was clear that the encoding was solid,” said Quba Michalski, director of The Pull, one of 16 independently-produced pieces released on Jaunt so far.

“Jaunt has a great team of business leaders who recognize a good product, which is so key in these early, crucial days of VR,” said Maureen Fan, executive producer of Invasion!, an independently-produced piece that's consistently a top video on Jaunt. “They’re great at featuring those products and getting your stories directly to your audience. In the case of our Invasion! movie short, Jaunt’s support has meant that many more people have gotten to experience what storytelling and VR looks and feels like, and how emotions come right to the surface in a very heartfelt way.”

Arthur van Hoff, Jaunt’s CTO, founder and interim CEO, added, “It’s great to be able to provide a creative outlet for content creation in VR. We’re excited to be able to work with more of the VR creative community to showcase the high quality VR experiences they’re making.

Recently, Jaunt announced that its award-winning Jaunt ONE camera is available for rent via Radiant Images, an initial step in connecting the professional VR community to the company’s end-to-end solution.

For full guidelines on submitting through Jaunt Publishing, and information on ways to utilize Jaunt’s end-to-end solution throughout the creative process, visit: www.jauntvr.com/creators/submissions/guidelines/

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Virtuix partners with billion-dollar game developer to bring VR eSports and VR Cafes to china.

Virtuix are forming a joint venture with Hero Entertainment, a billion-dollar, publicly listed Chinese game publisher and developer of Crisis Action, the most popular mobile first-person shooter game in China with more than 400 million players. Hero is partnering with Virtuix to convert Crisis Action to VR gameplay with the Omni, and to create other VR content and product bundles for both the U.S. and China markets.

Hero also owns the Hero Pro League, the largest eSports league in China, to which they will add a VR eSports competition featuring the Omni. In addition, Hero is investing a large sum in the Virtuix Series A round. 

 In addition UNIS, one of China’s largest suppliers of amusement machines, intends to purchase 5,000 to 10,000 Omni units this year for sale to VR cafes and entertainment centers. China has some 140,000 internet cafes, many of which will be retrofitted as VR cafes. 

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Virtual Reality music sandbox SoundStage hits Steam Early Access on 7/7

If you look at old rock concerts, you’ll see these HUGE synthesizers that the musicians connect together to make electronic sounds. These instruments are literally enveloping the player. SoundStage attempts to capture the feel of those epic music machines then take it to the next level with tools only possible in a virtual environment. All in a world inspired by the airbrush paintings and computer graphics of the 80s. 

Available 7/7 on Steam Early Access: http://store.steampowered.com/app/485780 SoundStage is a virtual reality music sandbox built specifically for room-scale VR. Whether you're a professional DJ creating a new sound, or a hobbyist who wants to rock out on virtual drums, SoundStage gives you a diverse toolset to express yourself.

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Starbreeze looking to bolster their VR play with the acquisition of ePawn.

Starbreeze, today announced its acquisition of the French toys to life, VR and augmented reality tech company ePawn. This comes right after Acer gave Starbreeze $9 million to help fund development of the company's StarVR. Looks like Starbreeze plans on having a huge Payday with Virtual Reality. 

“With ePawn, we will significantly diversify our virtual reality and toys-to-life offerings, as well as speed up the development of existing internal projects already in the works,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO. “The ePawn team has already innovated and productified their technologies and we acquire not only many good ways of applying them, but also a solid portfolio of patents that will benefit Starbreeze for many years to come.”

ePawn is a next generation VR and toys-to-life company merging real life gaming experiences with their digital counter part through its gaming boards and mats in table and room scale sizes. ePawn’s patented technology captures everything that happens on the game board and feeds digital applications with information. Up to 40 objects equipped with off-the-shelf NFC (Near Field Communication) tags can simultaneously be put into play on a game board and ePawn’s technology will calculate their position, orientation and altitude in real-time and at the millimeter level. ePawn has developed several versions of its technology to fit many gaming-related markets, such as video games, toys, board games and greatly enchanted augmented reality support between for example a toy and a mobile device.

Virtual reality applications include large and flexible flooring tiles that can be assembled to equip spaces with a solution for affordable positioning system capable of tracking several people in a room.

“For ePawn, I especially appreciate the location based entertainment applications, where for example the VR-mat will enable us to offer even more immersive experiences in our VR-centers,” said Emmanuel Marquez, Starbreeze CTO. “Additionally, the toys-to-life applications are numerous and the ability to technically track physical objects in our future games, such as Geminose, are really promising. The potential to be able to add augmented reality components to further enhance the gameplay for mobile devices are really exciting.”

Zeality launches 360° Video contest to be the next VR producer for the San Francisco 49ers!

THE 2016 ZEALITY 360 SHOOTOUT
The hunt is on to find the next VR producer for the San Francisco 49ers! Zeality and The 49ers Studios are excited to announce the 2016 Zeality 360° Shootout -- a first-of-its-kind industry event where five teams of 360°/VR filmmakers will compete head-to-head in a two-day Shootout/Hackathon to produce the best 360°/VR video. Learn from the industry’s best VR production companies, get hands on experience with the full ecosystem of cutting edge VR gear and tech solutions and showcase your talent to top VR media and tech leaders.

Teams enter by submitting their best 1-5 minute original 360°/VR video for consideration. Entries will be voted on by the Zeality online community and judged by a panel of VR Industry leaders from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to determine which five talented teams will shoot it out at Levi’s® Stadium. The winning team with the best, 360°/VR video will win $20,000 in cash, plus top VR gear and tech solutions and the once in a lifetime opportunity to produce a Game Day 360°/VR video for The San Francisco 49ers.

http://zeality.co/shootout/

Adobe Premiere Pro Update makes working with 360° Video/VR much easier

Adobe Premiere just got a tremendous release that will make editing 360° video easier than ever. Right now the stitching and metadata workflow does not make edited 360° content the easiest thing to do. 

You can now work with different VR Video formats, up to a full sphere of 360 horizontal by 180 degrees vertical of captured view, along with Stereoscopic View - Left, Right and Anaglyph. You can choose a view from the left or right eye in stereoscopic video, or in a red/cyan anaglyph format. Premiere Pro also allows you to work with VR footage that was captured in less than a full 360 degree sphere of view. You can configure the field of view displayed in the monitor, which allows you to emulate different viewing experiences. For example, an Oculus Rift might display a 90 x 60 degree field of view, while YouTube displays a 160 x 90 degree field of view. The Program and Source monitors have their own individual VR Video settings, which are saved with the project.

VR Video Settings

After configuring the settings, choose “Enable” from the settings menu to turn on the VR Video display. When enabled, the Monitor displays an interactive field of view within the spherical projection. Horizontal and vertical sliders along the bottom and right edge of the video frame allow you to pan and tilt the field of view. Numerical values presented next to these sliders display the current degrees of pan and tilt. You can click and drag on these values to pan or tilt the view, or you can click on them to enter a numeric value directly.

360-degree panning

Use the dial at the bottom for 360-degree continuous panning, which indicates the direction of view. Double-clicking within the video frame will re-center the view.  Use either of these methods to change the view interactively during playback and while the video is paused. To return to the normal monitor display, open the monitor settings menu and uncheck the “Enable” option for VR Video. 

You may also toggle between enabling and disabling your VR Video display using a button which can be docked with the monitor’s playback buttons. Click on the “+” icon in the lower right corner of the monitor to open the Button Editor. Drag the “Toggle VR Video Display” button out of the editor and into the monitor panel to its desired location. This button toggles between normal monitor display and VR Video display.

Check Out the Adobe Premiere working with VR video link above. 

Publishing your VR Video

To publish your VR Video on popular websites like YouTube and Facebook, you must use H.264, HEVC or QuickTime formats when encoding the video. In the 'Export Settings' dialog, choose one of these formats, then select the 'Video' settings tab. Scroll down to check the 'Video is VR' check box and choose the layout which matches your media from the popup menu. Metadata added to the encoded video flags it as VR Video content for publishers to play back correctly.

The 'Stretch to Fill' scaling setting in the Export Settings dialog output typically gives the best results for most VR Video exports. Select the “Publish' settings tab in the Export Settings dialog to upload this video directly to websites like YouTube or Facebook.

More information

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/VRSupport.html#ConfiguringthemonitorstodisplayVRVideo

Sacramento Kings new NBA arena wired for VR instant replay with mobile headsets.

This October, the Sacramento Kings will open up a brand new $507 million dollar arena boasting 84 ft long screen almost as long as the court itself. Of course since this arena is in the Bay Area/Northern California part of the world it will be jacked with a high-capacity Wi-Fi system intended to give fans mobile Internet access comparable to high speed home broadband. 

 So great so now we can Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook at the game faster than ever.  Yes,  but there are also bigger plans for all this investment. 

Paul Jacobs, vice chairman and co-owner of the team, and also executive chairman of mobile chipmaker Qualcomm says "Fans could be given an up-close experience of the action no matter where they’re sitting" 

The Kings are planing on allowing someone watching the game at the arena with access to a mobile VR headset such as GearVR be able to watch an instant reply call in full 360° view and in real time as the play is reviewed.

Another VR option the Kings are considering is having providing fan the ticket option to access high-end VR headsets rather than a conventional seat with a poor view.

 “They'd still be there to feel the roar of the crowd and be part of it but be watching in a  slightly different way,” Jacobs says.

The Sacramento Kings are heavily embracing Virtual Reality and recently invested in virtual reality video startup Voke. The team has also experimented with streaming action from the court to virtual-reality headsets outside the stadium as well as the recent uniform reveal via 360° video and Google Cardboard.

In 2015, a game against the Los Angeles Clippers was viewed by people at a school in India using headsets, something Jacobs feels could be common place in the future. Dan Gilbert, owner of NBA champions Cleveland Cavaliers has also shown interest in using this as a way to generate additional revenue from games. 

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The Fathers Of Virtual Reality-a post about VR on Fathers Day.

It is hard to state with any assurance who the father of virtual reality is, as like any new creation it draws upon a wide range of sources and impacts, including several women innovators. 

More than one individual has been included in the improvement of this innovative framework yet in the event that we are discussing the domain of virtual experience then the answer is Morton Heilig. 

He delivered the principal intuitive film involvement in which viewers were welcome to watch a film which would utilize the majority of their faculties. For instance: he utilized a swaying fan so that the viewer could feel wind blowing all over. 

The Sensorama was not broadly embraced but rather the thoughts drove future exploration into virtual reality and the ensuing results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Heilig

The term 'virtual reality' was begat by Jaron Lanier in 1987 amid a time of extraordinary movement into this type of innovation. In any case, before then, he had set up VPL Research – an organization which spearheaded research into virtual reality and 3D illustrations which likewise sold the intitail virtual reality apparatus, for example, virtual reality glasses, data gloves and later, the full data suit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier

The Sword of Damocles is widely considered to be the first virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD) system. It was created in 1968 by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland with the help of his student Bob Sproull. Before he began working toward what he termed "the ultimate display"  Ivan Sutherland was already well respected for his accomplishments in computer graphics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Sutherland

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NBA All Star Kyrie Irving shows off Timbaland's new favorite state of the art audio technology, SubPac

Cavaliers All Star Point Guard Kyrie Irving was wearing one of the hottest accessories on the market today. No not a pair of Kanye West shoes or Dr Dre headphones but a very interesting black body harness.

When asked by a reporter what the black body harness was, Irving said, "It's a SubPac, you'll be hearing about it soon."

SubPac, a transformational technology brand, is pioneering a cultural shift across the music and technology industries by revolutionizing the traditional perception of sound. SubPac is immersive physical-sound technology that brings music to life, expanding beyond an audio concept to a full-body experience. The startup has attracted major investors and industry leaders who have joined forces to engineer this unprecedented sound movement.

I recently had a chance to watch the hella dope Run The Jewels 360° video in a Viewmaster headset while using a SubPac device. I feel it's the addition of accessories like SubPac that will make VR a real fully immersive experience that will keep you coming back. 

Here is my 360° video Demo and interview with SubPac. Use the Mouse to move around

 SubPac recently announced the close of $6M Series A financing with notable investors that include veteran DJ, Richie Hawtin, Dada Life, Azure Capital, NBA All Star Carmelo Anthony's M7 Tech Partners, and Andy Rubin of Playground Global and formerly Google Android. The funds are earmarked for development as the brand is positioned to significantly disrupt the music and tech industries.

"SubPac opened my eyes to the power of physical sound. It will absolutely change the way people experience music, VR and cinema." said Andy Rubin, founder & CEO, Playground Global.

SubPac is creating its own physical-sound category through two unique products; the SubPac M2, a wearable vest, and the SubPac S2, a seatback device. Both create a new form of expression for musicians and sound designers to connect with their fans on a deeper level by using innovative technology that allows consumers to physically feel sound. This tangible connectivity captivated GRAMMY-winning producer Timbaland to come on board as a partner and introduce the brand to the music industry.

"SubPac is a game changing experience for both artists and fans," said Timbaland. "It lets you feel the music like never before.  It's the feeling that's been missing, until now."

SubPac is a privately held technology company and was the brainchild of Co-Founders John Alexiou and Todd Chernecki. The startup's leadership team also includes Sean Leonard, Head of Strategic Development and Sarosh Khwaja, Head of R&D. SubPac is based in the heart of the entertainment industry, Los Angeles and has offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, London and Toronto.  

"Andy Rubin and Timbaland are two of the finest creative minds on the planet," said John Alexiou, Co-Founder and CEO of SubPac. "They have both moved culture in significant ways, and will play leading roles in SubPac's mission to bring the feeling of music & sound to the world."  

SubPac is currently available on thesubpac.com with the SubPac M2 retailing for $349 and SubPac S2 for $299.

 thesubpac.com

Capcom picks up with Resident Evil 7(in VR!) where Konami dropped the ball with Silent Hills.

Seems like it was just yesterday we were treated to the potential hellish wonder that would have been the Silent Hill collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro. Then Konami decided to pull a Freddy Kruger and pull the plug, in turn also distancing itself from prolific game visionary Hideo Kojima. While Kojima has bounced back and taken his talents to Sony Beach, Konami really did not have much to offer at E3.

Resident Evil 7 in VR made me realize that Capcom noticed that Konami dropped the ball big time with Silent Hill. During the Playstation E3 the shock and awe of the audience was reminiscent of when fans first realized that P.T. was a trailer for Silent Hills. Capcom's own Resident Evil franchise has lost some of its's horror luster and has not really taken a major step to reclaim the survival horror throne it once held with a grip of fear. Capcom took notice of the fan response to thing such as Amnesia, Outlast, and P.T. and has redesigned Resident Evil in that light. 

Fear comes home again when Resident Evil 7 biohazard releases on PlayStation 4 (fully compatible with PlayStation VR Mode) on January 24, 2017. 

The Playstation VR demo begins in an old farmhouse with the goal of ESCAPE! This in away is very similar to the set up to P.T, the Kojima/Del Toro Silent Film trailer. The uneasiness continues with the elements of the environment.  A pot of spoiling stew, a raven stuffed into a microwave, rotting dolls and, mysteriously, unpleasant mannequins are just a few of the effective horror tropes used to create tension. 

The trope to be used in the demo is the old VHS is scary house one. Where you pop the tape in and realize how fucked you really are based on what has happened before.

Welcome to the fantastic world of survival horror now in VR! I have been hearing a lot of people coming away from E3 saying they are super excited for RE:7 but would never play it entirely in VR. Mission accomplished Capcom, you have once again brought the fear of the unknown back into survival horror gaming. 

Resident Evil 7 hits PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One on Jan. 24, 2017. It will be available for PS VR, no word on any ports to Oculus or Project Scorpio yet. 

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Introducing 360 Photos on Facebook

For the first time, you can now easily share 360 photos on Facebook. Simply take a panorama with your phone or capture a 360-degree photo using a 360 photo app or 360 camera, and then post it on Facebook as you would a normal photo. From there, we’ll convert it to an immersive 360 photo that people can explore, similar to how people experience 360 videos on Facebook.

360 photos are available to view today on Facebook via the web and the latest version of the Facebook app on iOS and Android. Over the next few days they will be rolling out the ability to share your own 360 photos on Facebook.

Beyond News Feed, you’ll also be able to explore Facebook 360 photos in virtual reality with the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus. While using a supported Samsung device, simply click View in VR in the top left corner of the video, place the phone in the Gear VR, and experience the photo in an immersive VR environment.

How Do I Take 360 Photos?

Take a panorama on your iOS device or Samsung Galaxy phone or capture a 360-degree photo using a 360 photo app or 360 camera.
Open the Facebook app and share the photo as you would any other photo: tap the status tool from the top of your Timeline or News Feed, select Photo/Video, choose the photo you want to share, and tap Post.

Once your photo is posted, look around in your photo — or any other 360 photo in News Feed that’s marked with the compass icon — by moving your phone or dragging with your finger. Tap on the photo to view it in full screen.

On Samsung Gear VR-compatible phones, you’ll see a button in the top left corner of your photo that says “View in VR.” If you tap on that button and insert your phone into your Gear VR headset, you can see your 360 photo in virtual reality.

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Getty Images has launched the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group

Getty Images, has launched the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group, a new business dedicated to the creation and global distribution of virtual reality content.

The Getty Images Virtual Reality Group brings the very latest in photographic and video technology together with Getty Images’ 21 years of experience in visual storytelling, to offer exceptional content for existing and future VR platforms. The Group provides a comprehensive offering of over 12,000 premium 360 images with new content added daily, as well as high res gigapixel content from key events and venues.  High quality VR production is also being offered through Getty Images Assignments.

Quick to adapt to new image technologies, Getty images began building its collection of 360 and gigapixel imagery four years ago, pioneering the use of these techniques in its role as the Official Photographic Agency for the International Olympic Committee at the 2012 London Olympics. Fast track to today, and every Getty Images photographer at the upcoming Rio Olympic Games, will be equipped with a 360 camera. This is just one example of how Getty Images is utilizing its expertise, its access to over 130,000 annual news, sport and entertainment events and its unique relationships to generate high-end VR content, and feed the growing demand for a more immersive visual experience.

Click to see some of the Getty 360° Video content.

“The technology is still in its infancy – as are the business models addressing how to use it – but we can expect to see VR become a leading tool for visual storytelling. It is anticipated that over 14 million consoles will sell this year alone (TrendForce), and we are only on the cusp of what will be a tectonic plate shift in VR” said Dawn Airey, Chief Executive Officer of Getty Images.

Airey continues: “With the launch of the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group, we are embedding VR content technologies into the core of our business and ensuring that, as use of VR continues to grow, its users are further enhancing their experience with access to the world’s best imagery.”

“The diverse range of 360 degree content that we produce – from the red carpet to the stadiums of the world’s biggest sporting events and the frontline of conflict – allows people to access information and experiences that were previously off limits,” said Hugh Pinney, Vice President of Editorial Content at Getty Images. “Virtual Reality is completely transforming the way we view and experience world events.”

The Group will continue to build on Getty Images existing VR content offering, which includes 360 content captured by its award-winning news, sport and entertainment photographers as well as geo-located, interactive panoramic images from its content partner 360cities.net.

Last month, Getty Images and Google announced their latest partnership, which sees Getty Images supplying hi-res VR content from current events around the world for Google Expeditions. Getty Images partnered with Oculus Rift in June 2015 to make its 360 imagery available for users of the Oculus platform via its 360° View by Getty Images collection.

For more information, visit http://wherewestand.gettyimages.com/virtualrealitygroup.

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Check out the current experiments of Google Daydream Labs.

Check out some of the app experiments the Google Daydream lab is working on. Looks like they are using Vive controllers to develop with, it will be interesting how this translates to a final mobile VR product.  

An app experiment from Daydream Labs. Copresence is a multiplier that can amplify the immersion in just about any VR experience.

An app experiment from Daydream Labs. Shared objectives help people break the ice in VR.

An app experiment from Daydream Labs. Text input with drumsticks can be faster than with a laser pointer (and is more fun).

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