CatsandVR

The Future Iz Meow!

Filtering by Category: VR Gaming

The highly anticipated and loved by everyone Ghostbusters remake to get VR tie-in. I ain't afraid of no trolls.

What can I say about the anticipation for the  new Ghostbusters film that director Paul Feig has not said already. The trailer for the new film has received some fairly negative feedback.

My opinion is,  hey give the movie a break and wait till it actually comes out first before dousing it with hate, I mean look how well Michael Bay's TMNT film came out.  But forget about the movies, we are here to talk about VR and looks like there will be a Ghostbusters VR tie in. I may be more excited for a Ghostbusters VR experience than the new movie. I am not knocking the upcoming film at all but I have been dying to play a good Ghostbuster video game for years. One can only hope that there will be Ectoplasm thrown onto participants to create total immersion. 

In advance of the July 15, 2016 release of Ghostbusters, Sony Pictures, Madame Tussauds New York, Ghost Corps and THE VOID have teamed up to bring Ghostbusters to VIRTUAL REALITY! Scheduled to open to the public on July 1, 2016, the VR experience will launch exclusively as part of the Ghostbusters Experience at Madame Tussauds New York in their legendary Times Square attraction. 

In Ghostbusters: Dimension, developed by THE VOID in collaboration with Ivan Reitman, Paul Feig and Sony Pictures, audiences will experience what it is like to be a Ghostbuster, tracking and trapping a supernatural foe through a New York apartment complex in an environment that combines physical props and sets, real-time interactive effects, and virtual reality technology designed by THE VOID.

"Ghostbusters has an incredible, passionate fan following, and now VR technology allows the fans to become a Ghostbuster themselves within Madame Tussauds New York. The technology is breathtaking, the experience is thrilling, and what better way is there to use VR, than to let audiences inhabit the stories they love," said Ghostbusters creator Ivan Reitman.

"Who wouldn't want to answer the call, suit up as a Ghostbuster, and blast their way through a ghost-infested New York apartment with a proton pack?" said Jake Zim, senior VP of digital marketing at Sony Pictures. "We expect this experience will draw fans of all ages to Madame Tussauds and generate a lot of buzz around the release of our new Ghostbusters film this summer."

"Our new collaboration with Sony Pictures and THE VOID has paved the way to delivering an unforgettable experience for our visitors," said Eric Fluet, Head of Marketing and Sales for Madame Tussauds New York. "We believe the Ghostbusters Experience and Ghostbusters: Dimension will propel Madame Tussauds New York into a new era of immersive entertainment."

"Ghostbusters is an amazing property that has kept fans enthralled for decades, so as we roll out immersive VR experiences around the world, we're thrilled to have Sony Pictures on board as our first studio collaboration, working with us to develop a truly memorable experience that will have fans talking for years to come," said Ken Bretschneider, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at THE VOID.

"We are thrilled to work with Madame Tussauds and THE VOID to bring our iconic franchise to life in the heart of New York City.  Fans of Ghostbusters will have the opportunity to take a walk through an immersive environment with iconic scenes from the film, and bust ghosts using cutting edge virtual reality technology," said Mark Caplan, Senior Vice President, Sony Pictures Consumer Products.

Cats And VR. 

Manus VR brings full arm tracking to HTC Vive.

For now, the HTC Vive brings you the most immersive right out of the box VR experience out of any on the market HMD due to its excellent motion controls. As we are now looking at a time when a quality VR experience is achievable on a consumer level, more and more immersion is desired. 

I once played Surgeon Simulator in a padded room just for a tad bit more immersion and I love using a SubPac for full audio immersion.  Everyone developing for VR is looking on how it can be more immersive. Enter Manus VR. Manus VR recently released this video showing full arm tracking being developed for HTC Vive. The have been working on hand tracking but this is a great step and I am excited for what Manus VR is bringing to the VR table. This will be very applicable not to just gaming but for training simulators and a wide array of VR productivity applications. Personally, I want to see the VR boxing games of the future. Punch Club 3000!

The Manus is the first consumer data-glove specifically designed for virtual reality. It tracks hand movement using a combination of high-tech sensors all contained inside the glove. With this technology, The Manus provides accurate and reliable hand tracking. Bluetooth integration makes The Manus completely wireless, giving gamers a no strings attached mobile VR experience. 

To make it easy to develop, the software is completely open-source. This makes it an incredible opportunity for game developers. The Manus offers a immersive and intuitive interaction not found in any other device on consumer market, enabling a revolutionary new VR experience. 

Check out NVIDIA's VR Funhouse and Ansel Game Capture.

With the launch of their GeForce GTX 1080, NVIDIA announced their first virtual reality experience to highlight what their Pascal-based GPU is capable of.

NVIDIA VR Funhouse highlights what NVIDIA Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs can do for VR. VR Funhouse brings a new level of immersion to VR by enhancing what you see, hear and touch through a combination of great graphics, fully interactive audio and simulated physics.

NVIDA also recently introduced Ansel, a powerful, easy-to-use game capture tool built in cooperation with leading game developers.

Ansel lets you freeze time. You can compose your shots from any angle and adjust the image with post-process filters. You can capture at unbelievable resolutions, grab EXR images for full-spectrum color capture, and share your screenshots in 360° panoramas via your smartphone, PC or VR heads.

Check out the features list of Ansel...I just got the name reference, Ansel Adams. Good name Nvidia!

  • Free Camera — Roll, zoom and reposition. Go wherever you want to create the perfect photo. Ansel instantly overcomes the limitations of traditional game capture, allowing you to frame the perfect shot.
  • Super Resolution — Once you’ve positioned and framed your shot, Ansel allows you to capture screenshots at up to 4.5 gigapixel resolution, or 32x higher than your screen resolution. Using your NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU, Ansel can render and save these screenshots in just seconds. The result: images that you can downsample to lower resolutions for wall prints, posters or super-high-quality desktop wallpapers.
  • Post-Process Filters — So you can tweak the look, feel and mood of your screenshot before saving, Ansel includes brightness, vignette, sketch, color enhancer, field of view and many other special effects options. It lets you create and share your own special FX filters, as enthusiasts do now for ReShade and other post-process applications.
  • OpenEXR Capture — If you’ve got a high-dynamic range TV or monitor, you can export Ansel screenshots in the OpenEXR format, enabling you to view high-dynamic range, super-resolution screenshots at the highest possible fidelity. Or you can export in OpenEXR to work with the image in editing tools like Adobe Photoshop to further adjust the look of your screen captures.
  • 360-degree Capture — With Ansel you can also capture 360° panoramic screenshots. It automatically stitches the 360° panorama in mono or stereo so you can view them in Google Cardboard, on your PC or in a VR headset. For Cardboard users, we’ve released the NVIDIA VR Viewer bundled with Ansel 360 Capture screenshots that you can view today. Download the app and check it out!

Google Cardboard – Nvidia VR Viewer

  1. Install the Cardboard app from the Google Play Store.
  2. Install the NVIDIA VR Viewer app from the Google Play Store.
  3. Launch the NVIDIA VR Viewer Cardboard app and install your phone* into the Cardboard holder

*Phone requirements: Android™ Lollipop or newer OS, 2 GB RAM

Oculus Rift and HTC Vive

Download Ansel 360 images and view through Virtual Desktop.

  1. Download Ansel 360 images to your PC
  2. Download Virtual Desktop here
  3. Launch Virtual Desktop and select the appropriate option to “Launch Virtual Desktop in…”
    • Vive: Steam VR Mode
    • Rift: Other Mode
  4. Virtual Desktop will default to the SETTINGS screen
  5. Put on your VR headset
  6. Adjust Virtual Desktop’s settings to your comfort
  7. Within Virtual Desktop, click on PHOTOS
  8. Drag and drop photos into the empty space, within the VR headset, you will now be placed into the center of your 360° photo
  9. After a few moments the Virtual Desktop window within your headset will disappear
  10. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to cycle through your photos

Oculus Rift gets some upcoming high quality content from Insomniac Games.

Well it is late at night so what better time to write about Insomniac Games, the studio that brought you Spyro The Dragon, Ratchet And Clank, and one of my all time favorites Resistance: Fall Of Man.

Well Insomniac just revealed 2 additional Oculus Rift exclusive VR games to go with the already announced Edge Of Nowhere that will be set to launch on the Oculus Store on June 6th.

Looks like Oculus is really pushing to get some quality exclusives and pulling this much content from a AAA studio like Insomniac has really got me asking if Sony will be able to deliver measurable content with PSVR. Check out the trailers below.

Feral Rites: Avenge the death of your father by fighting your way through missions and quests in this VR adventure-brawler. Set on a mystical island, explore unique areas of the island from jungles to temples, while mastering new abilities including the power to transform into a feral beast. Feral Rites will be playable at E3 this year and will appear on the Oculus Store in Fall 2016.

The Unspoken: An Oculus Touch‐enabled VR action game that pulls players into a hidden world of spellcasting and magician’s duels. Manipulate the environment around you with the powerful arcane forces that flow through your fingertips, summon ghastly monstrosities with your bare hands, and rise up through the ranks of an urban magic fight club in supernatural PVP combat. The Unspoken will also be playable at E3 and will release in November 2016.

Check out the trailer for the previously announced Edge Of Nowhere that will be released on June 6th. 

Edge of Nowhere is a VR third-person action-adventure from acclaimed independent developer Insomniac Games. Travel to the far reaches of the Antarctic mountains in search of a missing expedition team. What appears to be a rescue mission takes a turn as you venture into the deep unknown, and discover a surreal world that will test your wits and sanity.

Google Introduces VR View to allow you to embed immersive content into your apps and websites!

Move around using a mouse on a desktop or using your phone. 

SO EASY EVEN A CAT CAN EMBED A VR VIDEO! Also it is super mobile friendly. I tested on an old iPhone 4s and it views and loads great! This will allow for some really good Cardboard acceptance from the blogging community. 

Excerpt from Google Developers Blog

VR views take 360 VR images or videos and transform them into interactive experiences that users can view on their phone, with a Cardboard viewer, or on their desktop computer. For native apps, you can embed a VR view by grabbing the latest Cardboard SDK for Android or iOS* and adding a few lines of code. On the web, embedding a VR view is as simple as adding an iframe on your site. We’re open-sourcing the HTML and JavaScript for web developers on github, so you can self-host and modify it to match your needs.

From travel and real estate to news and entertainment, we hope embeddable VR views make it quick and easy to share your story and build immersive and engaging visual experiences your users will love. We're excited to see what you create.

*Yes, you read that right! Starting today, there’ll be a native Cardboard SDK for iOS. Provided in idiomatic Objective C, and packaged as a single, easy-to-use CocoaPod, this new SDK includes all of the features already available in the Cardboard SDK for Android.

Read More of this fantastic post by Google Product Manager-Nathan Martz

  

Cats and VR

From EVR to Eve: Valkyrie! CCP made a killer VR game.

Back at E3 2013 CCP's EVR demo left me awestruck and totally a VR fanboy. Now as Oculus RIft releases and EVR has now become EVE: Valkyrie I want to share this moment in time that introduced me to Oculus Rift for the first time. 3 years later and EVE: Valkyrie is live check out the gameplay footage. 

Bobby Venomous takes a look at CCP's EVR Demo at E3 2013 and talks with developer David Gundry about his work on the project. 

Experience the future of space combat in the EVE: Valkyrie VR gameplay launch trailer. The most intuitive, intense, and immersive dogfighting game ever made is here, developed by CCP Newcastle and powered by Oculus Rift. Read the launch day blog here: http://bit.ly/1SqZlCg Oculus Rift pre-orders include the EVE: Valkyrie Founder's Pack. 
 

EVE: Valkyrie is also coming to PlayStation VR in October 2016

Virtual Reality Pulse