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Bobby Throne Saves The World may be the next killer disruptive VR app, eSport, and social networking platform people in highly populated tech sectors of America are looking for.

"Games are about learning, you learn muscle memory, history, communication, stories, and so much more. If games are about learning then I’m here to teach. So what better place to share my ministry with than at the wonderful PAX East show where everyone is learning. I look forward to introducing myself to all these new minds and see them transform right before my eyes… forever."- Bobby Throne

I first took notice of Bobby Throne Ministries when my former roommate at the House Of Dtoid SF and my favorite MTV reality show personality Jonathan Holmes did a post about it on Destructioid. My first thoughts were wow this guy is still writing, my second was hey my name is Bobby too, I should write about this upcoming VR expereience.

Bobby Throne Ministries is a show (Twitch Stream?) that will be part of the vision of SnowRunner Productions new game Bobby Throne Saves The World. You keep contact with the audience and perform a sermon for a crowd. You can even unlock sermons!? The killer VR app we are looking for? The next eSport?

William Brierly of SnowRunner Productions describes the gameplay mechanics as very similar to Rock Band VR and other stuff he has never seen before.

The game is inspired by Will's fascination with Televangalists and also his time as a proffesional magician. 

Will and his brother have been working on this game ever since their big time indie hit Soda Drinker Pro recived critical and financial success. https://www.destructoid.com/review-soda-drinker-pro-358097.phtml

It does look like the SnowRunner Productions team has invested a lot of the money they received from the success of Soda Drinker Pro into Bobby Throne. They had a huge gaming booth at PAX East where they gave out coins. As you may have heard precious metal prices have gone up since the election of President Bannondorf. As you know silver bullets have great power against dark forces. 

Though they are indie darlings the SnowRunner Productions team has taken a page out of the books of major brands like Wal-Mart and Circuit City and used their new found gaming wealth to hire social media influences and strategic brand managers to brand their manage.

The true goal of Bobby Throne Saves The World is to teach us to see the multiple realities around us and see how someone can influence us with words and shinny things.

VR.............?

Ex Marvel CEO and corporate turnaround genius Peter Cueno to join VR/AR company Uncorporeal Sytems

Uncorporeal Systems, today announced that corporate turnaround genius Peter Cuneo has joined the company as Chairman. Cuneo has a distinguished career in leadership roles at world-renowned corporations across industries, from CEO of Marvel Entertainment to president of a Black and Decker business group, with a reputation for unleashing unprecedented growth.  Uncorporeal Systems is known for their volumetric capture, holographic photography and static photogrammetry technology. 

"Peter is a gamechanger," said Kul Wadhwa, Uncorporeal CEO. "With an esteemed career leading major companies working in everything from entertainment to consumer goods, Peter brings us an unparalleled understanding of what customers need to embrace VR and AR. When you add his shrewd operational acumen and extensive relationships at the highest levels of industry, Peter is an ideal partner to scale Uncorporeal's technology."

Cuneo has more than thirty years of experience leading companies into rapid growth phases and facilitating successful market exits. Cuneo is currently Chairman of Valiant Entertainment, a leading character-based entertainment company and one of the most successful publishers in the history of comic books. He is Chairman of Iconix Brand Group, which licenses major consumer brands including Peanuts, Danskin and Mossimo. He previously held several senior leadership roles at Marvel Entertainment, including president and CEO. Ultimately, Disney purchased Marvel for $4.3B. Before that, Cuneo was President and CEO of Remington Products Company and held leadership roles at Black & Decker, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Clairol.

"When I saw the technology Uncorporeal's team developed, I realized the enormous market potential and had to get involved," said Cuneo. "The company is creating incredible experiences that help brands deepen relationships with audiences anywhere, from moviegoers and gamers to online shoppers and travelers. As we enter a new era of visual engagement, Uncorporeal provides an incredible value proposition that businesses can't afford to ignore."

Cats And VR

 

HTC Vive and Viveport are bringing some of my favorite VR experiences to Sundance.

HTC Vive and Viveport is heading to Park City, Utah during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to exhibit at “VR on the Mountain,” a virtual reality hub for festival attendees taking place January 20-22. HTC Vive and Viveport are bringing a lineup of apps including two of my favorites of 2016, Mindshow and The Price Of Freedom.

I'm actually in a promotional video for The Price Of Freedom but that is because it is super rad.

I am also a huge fan of Mindshow and have been hanging in the Alpha for a bit.

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. 

Vive is also highlighting new content from Baobab Studios, a studio that brought its impressive animation pedigree to VR last year with “Invasion!,” an award-winning title launched last year.  Headed by veterans from Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, including “Madagascar” writer-director Eric Darnell.

The Viveport exhibit is part of HTC Vive’s sponsorship of “VR on the Mountain” during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. “VR on the Mountain” will be held January 20-22 at Firewood, one of newest venues located on Main Street in Park City, Utah. Attendees will be able to experience all of the titles listed for the duration of the exhibit with the exception of “Asteroids,” which will debut on January 21.

HTC is already killing it in 2017 with a rad showing at CES including the Vive Tracker. Also who in the hell is dotdotdash?

HTC has kicked off 2017 by showcasing new Vive accessories and services at CES that will lay the foundation for VR in 2017 and beyond.  

First up: The Vive Tracker

The Vive Tracker will ship in the Q2 of this year. The company showed off a video featuring Portland, Oregon VR design studio dotdotdash, one of the first developers to use the Vive Tracker. The company developed a camera accessory called D3-U for its VR experience called Exoplanet. I would describe Exoplanet as Pokemon Snap on Acid.

Second Up: Vive Deluxe Audio Strap.

I love my HTC Vive but I have always thought that Oculus had them beat with the way they integrated audio into the headset. HTC has finally addresses it with the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap.

The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is designed with adjustable integrated headphones and a new customizable sizing dial for quickly adjusting the fit of the headstrap ala the Playstation VR headset. The Deluxe Audio Strap will also be available in Q2. Pricing for both the Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap will be announced soon.

HTC also announced a collaboration with Intel to jointly bring to market a commercial-grade wireless VR adaptor. TPCast is a wireless adaptor  incubated through the Vive X accelerator program. It includes a one and a half hour battery, and latency as low as 2ms. TPCast will be shipping in Q2 2017 and will retail for $249 USD.

Lastly: Viveport & Chill?

In early 2017, Viveport will be launching a subscription service to help you navigate and find the best VR apps in the world, as well as introduce a new channel through which VR developers can monetize their content. There are currently thousands of apps available on Vive globally. Viveport’s subscription service will help people navigate this growing marketplace and discover new apps, providing access to an ever-growing library of content for a low monthly fee. 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oculus Connect 3 Developer Session Videos are now up to view.

If you were not able to make Oculus Connect 3 this year here is a Youtube playlist with 32 videos from the event included:

I was able to attend quite a few and some highlights for me include the sessions below. Check them out to really get a great understanding of not only what Oculus and Facebook are doing with VR but how the industry is developing as a whole. 

The proliferation of 360 content coupled with the new WebVR standard promises to bring a wave of fresh content to VR. Using familiar tools such as WebGL, three.js, and React, developers can easily create interactive 3D and 360 experiences.
Virtual reality has changed how we create. From games and movies, to experiences and tools-we're just beginning to see what's possible. But what happens when you take traditional artistic methods and transfer them to VR? Learn how Oculus is creating new tools, specifically for Touch, to help more people express themselves.
VR has become a powerful empathy machine. What is it about this new medium that's so effective at connecting humanity? This panel discusses how we can continue to harness the power of VR for positive social change.
Virtual Reality Pulse