Europe GDC 2016 Report

The following is a link to the Europe Game Developers Conference state of the industry report. It provides some interesting industry statistics on where VR sits with respect to game developers. Link

Mr Robot preview in VR

Here’s another link showing how media companies are dipping their toes into VR. Link

Star Wars Trials on Tatooine

When Hollywood and large media studios are releasing licensed content on a new platform, you know they are definitely paying attention. This VR experience lets you be inside the Star Wars universe with a lightsaber, R2D2 and the Millenium Falcon! Although VR is still in it’s infancy, many companies and people moving aggressively to drive forward.. Google, Facebook, Valve, HTC, nVidia, media, game developers, content creators, etc. Link

VR Boxing

I borrowed my friends webcam and watched some tutorials on using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to be able to simulataneously record what someone is seeing in VR at the same time as what’s happening in the room. Here’s my test video of me playing Thrill of the Fight which is a Boxing game. Link

Using TiltBrush to draw hair for CG characters

This is a thread from reddit describing how TiltBrush can be used to help draw hair more efficiently for CG characters which is traditionally a very time consuming task. Link

Ideas on 3D printing and Hyperreality

There are a lot of amazing games coming out on the Vive making use of the motion tracked controllers. There was a round table discussion with VR devs on Toms Hardware where a comment was made that dealing with two handed objects was a challenge because there isn’t that physical link between the real and virtual world. If a game designer provided a set of 3d printer files along with the game that allowed people to create a game specific harness such as a gun mount, sword hilt, etc. then it could potentially provide a way for people to have a standardized mechanic for building gameplay on. The link between VR and 3D printer industries could have a symbiotic relationship.

Here’s a fun video of a vision of a possible future of AR/VR world. Link

Using a GoPro to experience what it’s like to be on a motorbike. Link

nVidia releases VR funhouse application to show off their new GTX 1080 GPU which has VR optimizations based on their new Pascal architecture. Link

Pokemon Go released upon the world

Title says it all.

Health of the VR ecosystem based on Steam statistics

Steam is one of the most popular platforms for obtaining VR games and applications and they gather statistics on the state of the market through SteamSpy. The following is an article discussing the first real statistics on overall VR usage and estimated size of user base. Link

VR is scary

Here’s a video of my friend playing the Brookhaven Zombie shooter demo. It’s gets pretty scary and intense when they start getting close to you. She ends up going full-on fetal position!

Motion Sickness in Driving Games

Here’s an interesting article about motion sickness in driving games and how differences in how they render the scene can impact whether you will experience nausea. Link