Jump to content
VIVE Forum
Need to reach the Vive support team? - Click here

Rockjaw

Verified Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,120

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Rockjaw

  1. Rockjaw
    It’s been a big summer for Vive and our ever-growing VR Ecosystem, and we’re ramping up for a fantastic holiday season.
     
    Starting today (8/21), we are reducing the price of Vive by $200. The high-end, PC-based consumer Vive that is in market today, and will be for the foreseeable future, will now be available for $599.  All Vive purchases come with a free trial to Viveport Subscription, where consumers can choose up to 5 titles per month to experience, and copies of some of the most popular pieces of VR in Google’s Tilt Brush, EverestVR, and Richie’s Plank Experience.
     
    Vive is the leader globally in high-end VR, and this new entry price will make the system available to an even broader audience. When customers purchase Vive, they are getting superior VR technology and the most complete ecosystem in VR. Vive has the best tracking technology and most compelling content. We work tirelessly to continue to iterate and improve on Vive to deliver on the promise of VR. And developers are taking full advantage of this tech in delivering the best software on the market and bringing it to Vive owners.
     
    We have continued to invest in growing the Vive hardware ecosystem. Google, Apple, Intel, UPS, Volkswagon, SalesForce and dozens of other global brands have all lined up with Vive for their VR efforts, and there’s more to come in the back half of the year.
     
    New Tracker software and hardware is coming online daily, and we’ll have more to share on consumer launch timing soon. In addition, many partners are working hard on wireless solutions to bring even more freedom for Vive owners.
     
    On the software side of the house, we offer the only subscription service for VR today in Viveport Subscription, which has not only changed the way consumers get their VR content, but also provided an incremental revenue stream for developers. We’ve signed up over 200 titles on Viveport Subscription, and we’re making a host of improvements that will improve and deepen our store experience.
    This is just the beginning stages of what Vive has in store. We’ll soon see more AAA content coming to Vive with Fallout 4 VR, Doom VFR, as well as some other titles to be announced.
     
    We know price is just one component of a purchase decision, but when you line up all that Vive offers, we’re building a complete VR ecosystem that customers can rely on today and for years to come.
  2. Rockjaw
    Viveport Arcade, HTC’s software distribution and content management platform for arcades, is launching a new pricing structure from March 7th.
     
    If you have content opted-in to the Viveport Arcade program, you will now be able to set your own ‘per station, per month’ license fee through the Developer Console. This means an operator would pay a guaranteed amount for each PC running your content, at a license fee value set by you.
     
    Once you’ve chosen your per station, per month license fee, a price per hour cost is automatically created and associated with your title. This alternative fee allows arcade operators to purchase content either via the per station, per month license fee, or based on the hourly fee.
     
    This gives operators the flexibility to offer more content and developers control over pricing. This new pricing will be available to arcades in mid-April. We encourage you to update your pricing before April, otherwise your per station price may initially be set at a default value (this may be changed later).
     
    If you have further questions, please comment below, or elsewhere in the Developer Forum.
     
    Please note, legal terms and conditions for Viveport Arcade are updated with this change. Read these changes in the Developer Console.
  3. Rockjaw
    As we celebrate one year of the HTC VIVE, VR developers sent us their perspectives on where VR started and where it's going.
     
    Thanks to Google, Owlchemy Labs, Survios, Big Box VR, Against Gravity, Cloudgate Studio, Cloudhead Games, Radial Games and IBM for sharing their views!
     

  4. Rockjaw

    Operation Apex

    By Rockjaw,

    Viveport Review: Operation Apex
     
    Explore the ocean depths and track down a massive great white shark in this immersive and engaging experience.
     

     
    By Joshua Hawkins, Greenlit Content
     
     
    The basic idea behind Operation Apex is to explore three different regions of the sea teeming with ocean life. The scenery looks beautiful, interaction with the world feels real, and as you explore, the sensation of being deep beneath the ocean is both immersive and engaging. That said, there’s no risk of death because the player controls a drone that is mostly ignored by the wildlife. This doesn’t take away from the experience, though, since interacting with the world around you and even swatting at debris feels so good.
     
    In Operation Apex, you play as the aforementioned drone, tasked with checking on the status of sea-life. To complete this goal you’ll need to explore, lure fish close to you, and scan them into the system. This will allow you to check how well they are faring, and then you’ll have to get to the root cause of the issue. It’s a simple goal that leaves the world open for the player to explore at his or her leisure.
     

    All I had to do to move around was hold my arms out in front of me and press the triggers to propel myself forward. I never had any issues with frame drops, and the locomotion felt solid all around—without the usual VR sickness that sometimes comes from a game with this type of locomotion.
     
    The best thing about Operation Apex, however, is the awe-inspiring environment. The depths of the ocean feel real as you explore, with the plant life and rocks acting like physical objects when interacted with. Also, being able to lure the bigger fish and see them up close is fantastic, as they look and move lifelike through the water. The experience isn’t long, though—especially if you breeze through the objectives. This shouldn’t be an issue for those who really enjoy immersive VR games, since the game pushes you to explore and look around by giving you plenty of space to maneuver.
     

    At the end of the game, when you finally locate the massive creature that you’ve been searching for the entire time, well, I won’t spoil anything. All told, when I removed the HTC Vive from my head, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of astonishment at what I witnessed. With that in mind, Operation Apex is among the best that your Vive has to offer. Download the game and take the plunge!
     
     

    Operation Apex is available on Viveport.
  5. Rockjaw
    Playing a virtual god in Townsmen VR
     
    The 'God game' genre is one of the oldest in PC gaming, but recreating that experience in VR is a relatively new idea. Having made a successful mobile franchise, HandyGames are building on that success (pun intended) with Townsmen VR, letting you get up close and very personal with your virtual minions. We spoke with Christopher Kassulke, CEO and one of the founders of HandyGames, about what makes Townsmen VR unique.
     
    Townsmen VR is available now in Viveport Subscription. Follow HandyGames for up-to-date info on Townsmen VR on Twitter and Facebook.  
     

     
    Let’s talk Townsmen VR! What’s it about and why is it a great VR experience?
     
    Townsmen VR uses the exciting possibilities of virtual reality to further enhance the classic city building game with entirely new gameplay experiences and interactive mechanics. You rule over a small island with the help of your loyal companion, Sir Clunkalot, who will explain everything you need to know about how to rule and protect your people.
     
    We had several great guests in our office like Richard Garriott, AKA Lord British, who totally fell in love withTownsmen VR as it is such an immersive game experience. With our very natural movement we've only had very positive feedback so far, and really believe everyone can enjoy Townsmen VR. You will fall in love with your island and find yourself trying out everything - and I mean everything!
     
    You've made Townsmen games previously for PC and mobile platforms. Why did you think it was a good fit for VR?
     
    We've been making Townsmen games since 2002 - the first was released on black and white feature phones. Sixteen years and seven Townsmen games later, when releasing our first 'real' 3D version of the game, we decided to create it exclusively for VR. It's a really big step for us but this experience we wanted to deliver to our fans is only possible in VR at the moment.
     
    Of course Townsmen is inspired by classics like Black & White, Populous, Ages of Empires, Settlers and Anno, but it has so many unique features which were not possible back in the PC games era. You'll see that the game stands for itself and innovates where others stop. We really believe that Townsmen VR perfectly fits VR. A lot of people are dreaming about playing this kind of game in VR, and we hope we delivered what the audience want.
     
    Most games of this type ask you to build a village or city – is that all you do in Townsmen?
     
    You can do a lot on your island in Townsmen VR; you can manage your island, assist your Townies with their daily jobs and build up defense for your small empire - you will face evil bandits, and without any protection enemy forces will destroy your little settlement. So prepare well!
     

     
    In a 2D game of this type you traditionally point, click and move villagers to resources. What’s different in VR?
     
    TownsmenVR goes one step further – you not only take villagers and move them around, you can help them with their daily work. For example you can carry their goods to their destination, or go fishing for them by diving into the sea yourself, then catch the fish with your own hands. Then you can even help your Townies to make a campfire for the fish you caught! I don’t want to spoil too much, but you can do so much and you will love it.
     
    Can you get down to a villager’s eye-view as well as looming over them?
     
    You decide how you play TownsmenVR! You can play in a God view or move very close to your villagers to see all the detail. What you cannot do is take over control of one of your villagers, for several reasons.
     

     
    What else can you do as a 'god'?
     
    You can blow to make wind for your windmill. You can also turn a boar on a spit over the campfire, combine clouds to let it rain, or even create a thunderstorm and let lightning strike to make a fire! Yes, you have a lot of freedom!
     
    Are you visible to your Townies? What else do they need help with?
     
    Your Townies know you are there, just say “Hi” to them and they'll react. Without your help they will have a hard time with the bandits… but of course you can also let them 'burn'. If you think they're not respectful enough just show them your power!
     

       
    You’re launching Townsmen VR in Early Access, so what's available to play right now?
     
    We wanted our Early Access version to offer a vertical slice of the whole game, and not just be a demo with limited features. Imagine the game as a burger – we offer you the whole taste of the burger, it's just a smaller part of it. We have many more features planned of course. 
     
    What kinds of feedback are you looking for, and where's best to contact you?
     
    All kinds of feedback is useful to make the final game even better. We want to know which features the players really want to see within Townsmen VR. What doesn’t work well? Did they understand everything? Did they expect something else? We collect all details no matter where. Players can talk to us on social media like Facebook and Twitter, but also directly via our website.
     
    What did you learn from developing other VR titles (like Panzer Panic – on Viveport) which you applied to Townsmen VR?
     
    Do not just copy or port a game to VR! Develop something unique for VR. For example, with Stunt Kite Masters VR (also on Viveport) we made something which wasn’t available on VR before, but it feels so natural to play a kite game and you get the haptic feedback over your controls for example.

     
    In Panzer Panic we learnt that multiplayer games are awesome in arcades but not so much at home. That said, if you have a VIVE, Rift and Gear VR you can do multiplayer co-op or vs matches in Panzer Panic – if you have two devices, check it out. That is one of the coolest experiences you can have.
     
    What we learnt as well – develop not just a tech demo. Develop real games and offer them for a fair price point. That’s why we offer Townsmen VR in the current version for a really fair price point!
     
    Finally, what are you working on next?
     
    We have another BIG game coming out called Devil and the Fairy which is a genre mix of RPG, Tower Defense and Dungeon Keeper. So if you want to play as the evil Master of the Dungeon you will have a lot of fun. Your little companion is a transgender fairy which will assist you to protect your dark empire. Check out a
    ! 
    Thanks for talking to us, Christopher!
     
    Townsmen VR is available now in Viveport Subscription. Follow HandyGames for up-to-date info on Townsmen VR on Twitter and Facebook.
  6. Rockjaw
    Inception are at the forefront of creating 360 video and VR content, and recently arrived on Vive (and Viveport). With their new series launched, we talked to Benny Arbel, CEO of Inception.
     
    Can you explain what Inception does as a company, and as a VR app?
     
    Benny Arbel, CEO, Inception: Inception is a VR and 360 content destination. We launched in October 2016 and we’re now live on seven platforms, most recently and excitingly on Vive.
     
    We’re working to solve the problem of how technology and content live together and enhance each other in the VR space. We partner with top publishers, musicians, artists and creative talent to create ongoing, repeatable, interactive content which incorporates CGI and gaming concepts together into VR entertainment.
     
    What was the genesis of your new Eye Contact series?
     
    There are few things less powerful to experience in this world than a spoken word performance. We set out to capture the intimacy and passion of these artists’ performances in locations around LA that best represent their words. Eye Contact aims to take those surroundings and juxtapose them with the raw poetry, rhymes, and other lyrical performances to give viewer both an intimate experience and the context to fully appreciate the words that are being spoken. For anyone who enjoys poetry slams, this is the next level.
     
    Who are the first performers we'll see?
     
    We were really lucky to work with some extremely accomplished spoken word performers for our first round of collaborations:
     
    Alyesha Wise is a published poet, teaching artist, creator and TEDx speaker. She wrote her first poem at the age of 11 and has not stopped creating since. She performed her poem Falling In With LA for us.
     
    Dahlak Brathwaite is a writer and educator. He believes in the ability of words to engage, enlighten and inspire. He shares his passion for language and helps others find their voice. Dahlak performed his poem Today for us.
     
    Shihan Van Clief is a writer and presenter. He has been working with clients for over 20 years to rebrand their stories with innovative ideas and creative solutions. Shihan performs his poem The New World for us.
     
    How was Eye Contact filmed? What sort of hardware setup is used?
     
    We worked with the performers to choose spaces and views that were meaningful for them and their piece so that we could translate the visual language through to physical space. For the main performance capture, we used a Nokia Ozo to shoot the performances to introduce the appropriate depth. For the time-lapse portions, we used a Samsung Gear 360 with a number of modifications which allowed us to achieve 8K. This gave the experience a level of movement that helped to create our visual language.
     
    Were there any particular challenges you faced while creating Eye Contact?
     
    We always focus on what VR or 360 adds to whatever we’re filming. If it doesn’t add anything, then we ask ourselves whether we should film it at all. When filming performance pieces like these, we wanted to make sure that we made the most of the space while simultaneously giving viewers the intimate experience we were aiming to create. That’s where the time lapse footage came in – it gave us a chance to create stunning 360 visuals, represent the topic of the poem, and still give the viewer the chance to look the performers in the eye.
     
    Not to mention that we were filming in LA during their worst rain storm in years, so we had to be pretty flexible to say the least…
     

     
    Any hints on who might be seen later in the Eye Contact series?
     
    We pride ourselves on bringing different perspectives and angles to VR. For us, Eye Contact isn’t about the big names, but about bringing in a range of different talents with different messages to share. We have a lot more of that in the pipeline!
     
    What's next for Inception VR? Any big projects you can tell us about?
     
    We’re working with various different publications, brands and talents. You’ve already seen our partnerships with Time Out Tel Aviv and London, we have many more exciting partnerships coming in the next few months!
     
    Thank you for talking with us, Benny!
    Inception, featuring Eye Contact, is now available on Viveport.
  7. Rockjaw

    Remembering Pearl Harbor

    By Rockjaw,

    
    Premiering today on Viveport, Remembering Pearl Harbor is a VR experience created in partnership with Time Inc., Deluxe VR and AMD. 
     
    This narrative VR experience will transport you inside key moments of Pearl Harbor's aftermath through historically authentic and fully interactive VR environments. Narrated by one of the oldest living survivors from this tragic event, Lt. Jim Downing, this VR experience has been created with the hope that it will bring a new understanding of this event to all.
     
    
     
     Remembering Pearl Harbor allows you to immerse yourself in a virtual recreation of World War II-era America. Throughout the experience, you will interact with realistic virtual versions of artifacts from the era, along with iconic photography and archival video, providing a unique and personal view of one of American history’s defining events.
     
    For more insight into how Remembering Pearl Harbor was created, watch this exclusive mini-documentary.
     

     
    Remembering Pearl Harbor is available now on Viveport.
     
  8. Rockjaw
    Savings galore in our Viveport Holiday Sale

     
    Spend $29.99, get three months of Viveport Subscription FREE*
    Whatever you buy during this sale, it will count towards you getting three months of Viveport Subscription. As soon as you've spent $29.99 or more (or local equivalent) you'll be eligible to receive a three month subscription code, which will be sent to you in early 2018. That way you can spend the first quarter of 2018 exploring up to 15 different VR titles!
     
    Want some hints on where to spend your money to get to $29.99? Well, you might start with one or more of our Viveport Staff Picks. Then there's the newly-arrived L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files, Tilt Brush by Google, The Gallery- Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone (and Episode 1's on sale too), Knockout League or perhaps Fantastic Contraption.
     
    * Please note, this offer is only available in the following Viveport territories: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Taiwan and China.
     

     
    Save up to 40% on Viveport Subscription bundles
    Want to keep experiencing Viveport titles until next holiday season? Then save yourself some money with discounts on our Viveport Subscription bundles. Here's what you can save:
     
    Save 40% on a 12-month subscription bundle (Access 60 titles in total!) Save 30% on a 6-month subscription (Access 30 titles in total!) Save 25% on a 3-month subscription (Access 15 titles in total!)  If you already have a Viveport Subscription, good news – these bundles add-on to your existing sub, so you can extend your subscription and save.
     
    To pick up a Viveport Subscription bundle, click here.
     

     
    Save up to 80% on selected Viveport titles
    Last but not least, we've got discounts of up to 80% on a huge range of titles. There's truly something for everyone here, from the gamer to the history buff. Show your family what VR has to offer with one or more from this list (sorted alphabetically by title).
    Amazon Odyssey (80% off) Apollo 11 VR (50% off) Arcade Artist (60% off) Arcade Saga (80% off) Clazer (50% off) Cloudlands: VR Minigolf (50% off) Domino Craft (50% off) DreamWorks Voltron VR Chronicles (60% off) Earthlight: Spacewalk (50% off) Echo Grotto (50% off) Everest VR (50% off) Fantastic Contraption (50% off) Firebird- La Peri (60% off) First Person Tennis (20% off) Front Defense (65% off) Frontier (50% off) The Gallery - Episode 1: Call of the Starseed (75% off) The Gallery - Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone (20% off) Guided Meditation VR (60% off) Happy Drummer (50% off) Haute & Haunted (80% off) The Hospital: Allison's Diary  (25% off) Jam Studio VR (80% off) Kingdom of Blades (50% off) A Lost Room (65% off) MakeVR (80% off) MakeVR Pro (80% off) Manifest 99 (50% off) The Music Room (20% off) Nature Treks VR (50% off) Perfect (50% off) Prison Boss VR (33% off) Racket Fury: Table Tennis VR (50% off) Remembering Pearl Harbor (80% off) Riley Short Analog Boy (50% off) ShapeLab (50% off) Speed & Scream (60% off) Stonehenge VR Sandbox (35% off) Storm VR (50% off) Super Puzzle Galaxy LITE (25% off) Tilt Brush (25% off) TrueScale (50% off) Virtual Sports (80% off) We Are Stars (50% off) Remember, we're giving 100% of revenue share for every title on Viveport until December 31st to developers - so you'll be giving them an extra boost with every purchase, too. Support your favorite developers and get a gift for yourself this holiday!
     
    However you spend the holidays, in VR or out, everyone here at Viveport hopes you have a fantastic time!
  9. Rockjaw
    We Are Stars - now available on Viveport - is an immersive, 360-degree science documentary that takes you to the very beginning of time and back again. We spoke with NSC Creative, the award-winning UK developers of We Are Stars, to find out more about this time-traveling cosmic trip!
     
    First of all, please introduce yourself.
     
    I'm Paul Mowbray, the Director of NSC Creative and the Producer on the We Are Stars project. I conceived the idea of doing it as a cross-platform immersive film, oversaw the production and have been driving the release strategy for the VR version. We are excited to be on Viveport, it has a laser focus on VR only, so we are excited to see what the userbase think of our experience.
     

     
    We Are Stars lets you “explore the secrets of our cosmic chemistry”. For anyone who missed science class, can you sum up what that means in scientific terms?
     
    We ask some pretty big questions, like what are we made of and where did it all come from? We join the Time Master narrated by Hollywood superstar Andy Serkis, a Victorian gent with his very own time tent who whisks us off on a 13.8 billion year adventure. We follow our Victorian time travelers as they learn about the origins of atoms.
     
    We witness the formation of the first hydrogen atoms after the Big Bang and then watch how those hydrogen atoms gather into galaxies and stars. We learn how the stars forged all the atoms needed to make life. We see the creation of planet Earth and follow the atoms and molecules through evolution back to where the time travelers started their journey, all in time for some jellied eels and roasted chestnuts!
     

     
     Was We Are Stars originally conceived as a ‘fulldome’ experience? If so, were any changes made for the VR version?
     
    The project was originally conceived as a cross-platform project. We have been creating dome films for over 16 years so have lots of experience of storytelling in 360° and frameless environments. Due to the multiple delivery formats required the easiest ways for us to achieve this was to do it as a pre-rendered experience, plus there are some shots in there that just couldn’t be done in engine at the moment.
     
    The original plan was to generate a 16k x 8k equirectangular image per eye for 3D at 60fps so we could re-purpose for dome and giant screen from one golden, pixel busting master! Back at the beginning of 2015 we quickly realised that this pipeline wasn't going to get us where we wanted quick enough and so decided on a three stage render process. We did the the 4k x 4k 2D 30fps dome version first which we released to critical acclaim into the international planetarium market and then followed up with rendering out the 360 video VR version which was created at 4x x 2k per eye for 3D at 60fps.
     
    This was an optimal resolution for render time, distribution, playback and HMD resolution limitations. The final stage was the 8k x 8k 3D 60fps dome version for the ultra high-end planetarium market. We have the show playing in the highest resolution 3D domes in the world. We kept the multiple versions pretty similar with minimal changes between dome and VR. With future projects we hope to explore the enhanced field of view that VR affords giving us a full sphere to play with rather than just a hemisphere, but ironically the FOV of the current gen of HMDs is what really jumps out as you as a difference when constantly testing in the dome also - which fills our natural horizontal FOV.
     

     
    We also had to consider how we wanted the viewer to be physically positioned when watching the experience. We Are Stars is a seated, uni-directional experience which encourages people to maintain a reasonably static viewing position with just a bit of head-tracking for those explorative shots. We don’t want people breaking their necks to look behind them constantly.
     
    ‘Spinny chairs’ is another seating type that can work really well for 360 video experiences, but if you want to control the viewer's attention for the majority of the experience then assuming a predominantly forward facing position helps. The stereoscopic 3D effect is one of the main elements to create the sense of immersion, which not many other 360 videos have due to the challenges with 3D live capture. As we are a computer generated experience we can really explore the possibilities of 3D film making in a spherical environment and how this can be used as another tool in support of the narrative.
     

    How did your team’s experience in developing ‘fulldome’ experiences help with developing for VR?
     
    We’ve been using VR as a production tool for many years for the complex immersive projection environments that we work in across theme parks and museums. So actually developing for VR as the end medium was a natural and logical step for us.

     
    We coined the phrase ‘Domography’ in the dome world to help describe the new type of film language that is necessary to compose and edit in that environment. A lot of this translates into VR much more readily than traditional flat-screen cinematography techniques do. There are subtle and not so subtle differences between dome and VR sometimes a shot will prioritise VR over dome or the other way around as we don’t always have time to create a bespoke version for every format. If we did we’d still be working on it now!
     
    Give us an idea of what to expect from We Are Stars - what’s the time scale explored? What will we see in VR?
     
    We cover pretty much all the time! We go back 13.8 billion years to the beginning of time and the creation of everything. You will witness the big bang, early galaxy formation, exploding stars, nuclear fusion, the formation of our solar system, black smokers, the first life deep in the Earth’s ocean and the extinction of the dinosaurs.
     
    It’s perfect for VR! Who wouldn’t want to have our amazing cosmos whizzing past their eyes in stereoscopic 3D at high-frame-rate in 360 degrees!
     
    We Are Stars is a 360 video experience - have you any plans for more interactive VR experiences?
     
    We think there are all kind of new genres that are going to be born as VR evolves. We are really interested in the line between passive experiences and gaming; once the user can interact with the environment are they always going to want too? Guided, semi-on-rail experiences which are responsive to the users gaze or position are interesting, do you allow the user to know they are influencing the experience or keep it from them? We are obsessed with room-scale VR and have two projects in development which you will be hearing more about soon.
     
    The ObserVRatarium is the virtual museum of everything where we offer multiple play modes. It’s aimed at home users, but also at museums and attractions to make it part of their exhibitions. The first play mode is ‘manipulate and observe’, where we put artefacts in people's hands that are normally behind glass or in a far away place. The ‘Investigate and Interact’ mode brings the objects to life by giving rich dynamic info when you look at them. In the ‘Scale’ mode we give things a human scale by using 1:1 mapping. For instance, how big is a Saturn V rocket when you stand at the foot of it, or when you see the ISS within arms reach? Finally ‘Transport’ mode enables the experiential power of VR to create presence and transport people to thematic environments so they can see things in a real-world context, often as a slice of time.
     
    The other project is a complete departure from an educational setting and is called Vestige, directed by Aaron Bradbury. It is a fictional short film which explores multi-narrative in a room-scale environment diving into the subject of memory, love and loss, using volumetric live capture to bring real people into the world but in a highly stylised, emotionally charged, art directed way. We want to offer people a profound experience that gives them a new perspective on life, love and death.
     

     
    For lucky visitors to the National Space Centre in the UK, as well as seeing We Are Stars in the dome - what else can they see?
     
    We have two vertical rockets and moon rock! If that’s not enough we have the largest digital dome in the UK, the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium. A 17-seat 3D simulator that takes you on a ice cracking romp to Jupiter's moon Europa. A giant Soyuz and Gemini spacecraft hanging from the ceiling. An immersive wrap around panoramic tunnel that plummets you through Venus’s killer atmosphere. A recreation of an International Space Station module, loads of other cosmic stuff and of course a shop where you can buy out of this world space gifts like Astronaut Ice Cream!
     
    How do you see virtual and augmented reality working in museums and dome experiences?
     
    We definitely see AR and VR working with artefacts throughout the museum. We are planning to do a bunch of cross-section views to literally add layers of context. We’ll be able to see inside our Soyuz craft and appreciate how cramped it is, look at the layers inside an Astronaut suit and add rich information that bring the static objects to life.
     
    Fulldome technology has finally got to a point where we can run game engines in them so that opens up all kinds of possibilities for interactivity and gaming in the dome on a massive scale. It really is a version of Social VR, 200 people all in the same immersive space. We are excited to see what can be done in this environment and the continued crossover and cross pollination between dome and VR.
     
    Thanks very much for your time and answers, Paul!
    We Are Stars is now available on Viveport. For more information on NSC Creative, you can visit their website, or find them on Twitter and Facebook.
  10. Rockjaw

    Talking Arcade Saga

    By Rockjaw,

    
    Arcade Saga was recently released on Steam and is as the first ever game published by Vive Studios. Developed by 2 Bears Studio, an internal HTC team, we decided to sit down with David Sapienza and J Epps - neither of whom are bears - to talk about the development of this fast paced, energetic retro-styled VR experience.
     
    Hello 2 Bears! Tell us about yourself and a little about your careers.
     
    David Sapienza: I'm Executive Producer of Arcade Saga. I’ve worked on 30-plus games throughout my career, from small GameBoy Advance titles, to huge PC RTS titles like Company of Heroes, to new endeavors like Minecraft on Hololens, and now I’m thrilled to be working on the Vive. I have a long time passion for video games and the art of game creation. 
     
    J.Epps: I am J. “Jay” Epps, Design Director for Arcade Saga. I've been making games as a designer for 25 years. I have worked on Gex, Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, Gears of War 2 & 3, Fable 2, Ryse: Son of Rome. 20 years ago I knew I wanted to work in VR and worked hard to forge and temper my design skills so that I would be ready when VR finally became mainstream.
     
    The name, the look and the feel of Arcade Saga all hark back to ‘classic’ arcades and games. Is there anything you would specifically list as inspirations?
     
    David Sapienza: Yes! Pretty much any arcade game where the player faced off against a boss that was 50x larger. Musically, I love the NES and SNES days and you will hear some of that through the levels. As for movies, I’d be remiss not to mention The Lawnmower Man and Tron.
     
    J Epps: Arcade Saga is really a ‘love letter’ to classic arcade games like Sinistar, Track and Field, Mappy, Heavy Barrel, Street Fighter 2, Galaga, Outrun Turbo, Star Wars, Star Trek, Space Invaders, Gyruss, Rygar, Ninja Spirit, etc.
     
    Given those inspirations, did the game mechanics of Arcade Saga seem like a natural fit for that style of game, or did you think of them before then?
     
    David Sapienza: For me it all started with room scale and the motion controllers. My first time in true VR (i.e. room scale) all I wanted to do was move around and use the motion controllers to interact with objects. Focusing on the movement and the motion controllers was our first goal, everything else was secondary.
     
    J Epps: The mechanics came first. We wanted three games that all used natural motion mechanics: hitting a ball, shooting a bow, blocking a ball with a paddle. In classic games, the player actuates the main mechanic by pressing a button, which is an abstraction. The motion controllers and room scale offered us a way to make fun more straightforward and organic. Incidentally, this is why Bowshot has a bow and not a gun: a gun is an abstract mechanic because you pull a trigger to cause an interaction.
     
    
    What’s your favorite game of the three in Arcade Saga? (Of course, we have to ask, what’s your high score?)
     
    David Sapienza: My favorite game hasn’t been released yet. :smileyhappy:
     
    J Epps: Bowshot is my favorite. My gamer tag is thejammy and I have a LOT of high scores!
     
    What engine was Arcade Saga developed in?
     
    J Epps: Arcade Saga was developed in Unity, which is a great engine. It allowed us to get up and working quickly. The engine is robust and allowed us to put our energy into the game and not the engine. It also allowed us great flexibility, as the three games in Arcade Saga are vastly different.
     
    Did you have any ideas early in the development process that didn’t make the final game?
     
    David Sapienza: We actually had nine prototypes that were being developed and then we narrowed down to the three that we have today. Although a lot of the prototypes were fun, we wanted to make sure everything we released was fun the first time, and the 101st time. I think the three games we have now exceed that goal.
     
    J Epps: The first version of Smash had a more open environment where you threw different pitches to try and score on your opponent. It was a decent concept and we spent a while trying to make it fun enough but in the end we felt like it was better to put the game in a tight corridor.
    
     
    You’re heading up 2 Bears Studio, an internal HTC studio. How big is the studio and how long did development of Arcade Saga take?
     
    David Sapienza: Our studio is actually split between San Francisco and Taipei and the size has transformed a bit since we started, so it’s hard to answer but 30 is somewhat accurate. As for how long, we’ve been working on these games for around 9 months and are continuing to support the project.
     
    What was the hardest thing to get ‘right’ during development?
     
    David Sapienza: VR is a whole new medium that is attracting new types of consumers. Finding that balance between traditional gamers and new VR adopters was challenging but still fun. 
     
    … and what was the easiest thing to get right?
     
    David Sapienza: The natural motion of the mechanics. People ‘just got it’ and understood exactly what they needed to do.
     
    If money and time was unlimited (never going to happen…), what game genre would you like to see in VR?
     
    David Sapienza: I’d love to see a historical battlefield reimagined from Genghis Khan to the U.S. revolution. I’m a military history nerd and proud of it!
     
    J Epps: I would like to see what the ‘traditional’ gaming fantasies that we’re used to feel like in VR. Gunslinger, Samurai, Soldier, Assassin, Sniper, Surfer… they’re all fantasies that will feel different in VR and I would love if 2 Bears could take a stab at all of them.
     
    Of all the games you previously worked on, is there a game you wish you could go back and realize in VR?
     
    David Sapienza: A few years back I worked on a game that allowed players to make their own game called Project Spark. I was a really fun and approachable way to create a game, but I think adding the VR would be mind blowing. 
     
    J Epps: I have worked on many beat’ em up games - Lord of Rings, Demonstone, Ryse, etc - and I can’t wait to make a VR game in this genre.
     
    Thanks to David and J for their answers! If you haven't had a chance to check out Arcade Saga yet,
     and pick it up on Steam. 
    Or, see below for a chance to win your own copy in our comment competition!
     
    David and J will be live in AltspaceVR today at 4PM PST - click here to get details and RSVP! 
  11. Rockjaw
    We're very pleased to announce the winners of our first ever Viveport Developer Awards. Chosen from a range of extraordinary VR applications, these winners represent the 'best of the best' in VR today.
     
    As a reminder, our prizes were awarded in four different categories, along with our previously decided Community Choice Award. The prizes, per category, were as follows:
     
    Category Prizes
     
    1st place: $50,000 + an HTC Vive
    2nd place: $30,000 + an HTC Vive
    3rd place: $15,000 + an HTC Vive
    Runners-up (2 total): HTC Vive
    Community Choice Award: $10,000 (in addition to any other prizes)
     
    Explore
     
    1st place: Apollo 11 VR, by Immersive VR Education Ltd.
    2nd place: Realities, by Realities.io
    3rd place: The Body VR, by The Body VR
    Runners-up: A Chair in a Room: Greenwater (Wolf & Wood Interactive) Mars Odyssey (Steel Wool Studios)
     
    Create
     
    1st place: Fantastic Contraption, by Northway Games
    2nd place: Soundstage, by Hard Light Labs
    3rd place: Paintlab, by LAB4242
    Runners-up: Kodon (TenkLabs), Arcade Artist (Groove Jones)
     
    Connect
     
    1st place: Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, by Futuretown
    2nd place: AltspaceVR, by AltSpaceVR
    3rd place: Engage, by Immersive VR Education Ltd.
    Runners-up: World of Diving (Vertigo Games), SurrealVR (SurrealVR)
     
    Experience
     
    1st place: Allumette, by Penrose Studios
    2nd place: Pearl, by Google Spotlight Stories
    3rd place: Firebird - La Péri, by InnerspaceVR
    Runners-up: TheBlu (Wevr), The Night Café: A VR Tribute to Van Gogh (Borrowed Light Studios)
     
    Community Choice Award
     
    A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, by Wolf & Wood Interactive Ltd.
     
    Congratulations to all of our winners! Every title you see here is available now on Viveport, with savings of up to 40% off on 1st place winners Fantastic Contraption, Apollo 11 VR and Cloudlands: VR Minigolf.
  12. Rockjaw
    Many people first experience virtual reality while standing (or sitting) inside a projected sphere, as they take in a 360-degree video. While this can be immersive and exciting, the moment you move into a fully room-scale, 3D space… everything changes.
     
    It’s the same for the creation of digital art. While Photoshop and similar programs have perfected the process of creating art digitally, the next dimension may literally be that. Tilt Brush, by Google, takes you into the third dimension of digital art, and it’s only possible in VR.
     

     
    Now available on Viveport and as part of Viveport Subscription, Tilt Brush lets anyone create incredible 3D art with only a few waves of a Vive controller. With three-dimensional brush strokes and the ability to paint with stars, light, fire and more, this is unlike any painting class you’ve ever experienced. It’s truly unique to VR, as you create imagery and models with flowing ribbons of light that you can walk around, peek into, expand, contract and rotate… all with a few simple gestures.
     

    Since its initial launch Tilt Brush has been expanded to include a number of advanced features, including many new brushes (some of which react to audio), the ability to import 3D objects, exporting to YouTube, a mini-game where people can guess what you’re painting (as seen on TV!) and as they say, much more. There’s never been a better time to give Tilt Brush a try, and if you have a Viveport Subscription, there’s never been a better deal.
     

    If you enjoy Tilt Brush, make sure to check out some of the other apps in our Create section, including MakeVR (for 3D modeling), Kodon (for 3D sculpting) and more.
    Tilt Brush is available now on Viveport.
  13. Rockjaw
    Experience some of the most intense, scary and surreal titles that Viveport has to offer in our 50% off Halloween sale!

     
    With Halloween not that far away and the nights drawing in, it's a perfect time to snuggle in with a hot beverage and scare yourself silly in VR. To help you with the scaring part, we've lined up a host of chilling VR experiences at 50% off - and also picked out a few perfect additions to your Viveport Subscription. (Not a subscriber? Now is a great time to sign up.) If you're feeling a little thrifty this Halloween we've also got some spine-tingling free experiences too. Here's a complete list, followed by trailers and screenshots to send a chill through you.
    50% off now until November 1st
    Albino Lullaby Emily Wants To Play Flatline - Experience the Other Side Grave VR Haute & Haunted Obscura Speed & Scream In Viveport Subscription - sign up here
    Don't Knock Twice Escape Bloody Mary HordeZ Narcosis Smell of Death VRZ: Torment Zombie Riot Fang-tastic free experiences
    Abduction Prologue The Abbot's Book (Demo) The Bellows Sisters Halloween titles 50% off until November 1st
    Albino Lullaby

     
    Emily Wants To Play
     
    Flatline - Experience the Other Side

     
    Grave VR

     
    Haute & Haunted
     
    Obscura
     
    Speed & Scream
     
    Perfect picks for Viveport Subscription - sign up here
     
    Don't Knock Twice
     
    Escape Bloody Mary
     
    HordeZ
     
    Narcosis
     
    Smell of Death
     
    VRZ: Torment

     
    Zombie Riot

     
    Fang-tastic free experiences
    Abduction Prologue
    The Abbot's Book (Demo)
    The Bellows
    Sisters
    All of these horrific titles are available on Viveport, either for purchase or in subscription. Start a Viveport Subscription here.
  14. Rockjaw
    Today we're announcing another four VDA nominees as we enter the final days of judging. These four titles will transport you to new worlds, allow you to create and experience places you might never go in real life. We're proud to welcome them, taking our total nominations to 16.
     
    The nominees are:
     
    
     
    Kodon, by TenkLabs
     
    
     
    The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Van Gogh, by Borrowed Light Studios
     
    
     
    Realities, by realities.io
     
    
     
    World of Diving, by Vertigo Games
     
    Congratulations to our latest round of nominees. If you haven't experienced these titles yet, make sure you get them on Viveport.
     
    If you missed our previous nominees, here they are so far:
     
    Allumette Altspace VR Apollo 11 VR Arcade Artist Cloudlands: VR Minigolf Fantastic Contraption Firebird - La Péri Mars Odyssey Pearl SoundStage SurrealVR The Body VR  
    We'll have some exciting announcements to share soon about our judges and our community choice award - so stay tuned, and feel free to comment below about these latest nominees!
     
    The Viveport Team
  15. Rockjaw
    
     
    You've been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award! How do you feel?
     
    Ryan Bousfield, Director: It's amazing to be recognised for the hard work and to see that people are enjoying the experience.

    Where did the idea for A Chair in a Room come from?
     
    Initially it was just a way to make the most of the limitations of the early VR headsets - you couldn’t do anything but look around from a set position. So it made sense to put the player on 'A Chair in a Room' and bring the action to them. The advancements in VR, such as room-scale and tracked controllers, have meant that you can leave the chair behind and 'really' investigate the scene.

    How many people worked on A Chair in a Room, and how long did it take to develop?
     
    It was a solo effort, just me working away for 12 months - from the initial ideas and sketches to creating the artwork and gameplay right through to writing the code and even the music. Friends, family and other indies helped by sense checking, testing and generally being there to make sure I didn’t descend into madness.

    Tell us something about A Chair in a Room that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    I've added a lot of references to film and literature. Some are pretty straightforward, such as your patient number is the same number given to Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984. Others are a bit more obscure, such as the painting of the Virgin Mary in the hotel is actually Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    Every playtest was like a psychological experiment. It’s easy to start categorising people - you have escapists who go wild and wreck the place while others would lay out the clues neatly on a table and instinctively tidy up after themselves.

    What do you hope people take away from A Chair in a Room overall?
     
    That there is more to VR horror than jump scares. Yes there’s the odd scene that will make you jump, but underpinning the whole thing is a gritty narrative and slightly surreal atmosphere.

    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to A Chair in a Room? Or is there something new coming from the team?
     
    We put out a free additional story over the summer but now the focus is on new ideas and stories. There was so much learnt from A Chair in a Room that I’m really looking forward to the next thing because I already know how to make it 10 times better.

    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    Create a prototype (whitebox version) within a set deadline. Just build the simplest version of the game out of primitive shapes such as cubes and get it into VR as soon as possible. I had a very blocky room-scale prototype for the Pelican Motel that resembled Dire Straits' Money for Nothing video from the 80s, but it allowed me to get the basics in there quickly and meant that I had a playable version of the level within days.
     
    A Chair in a Room: Greenwater is available on Viveport.
  16. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: Allumette

    By Rockjaw,

    
     
     
    You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award, how do you feel?
     
    Wow, this is such a nice surprise! Viveport has been such a generous partner to us, and we feel extremely honored!

    Where did the idea for Allumette come from?
     
    Loosely inspired by The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, Allumette is an account of the love family members have for one another, and the sacrifices and choices they make for the greater good.
     
    Tell us something about Allumette that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    Here’s a bit of Penrose Studios trivia! Before we named the piece Allumette, we referred to it as Project Rope, like the Hitchcock film.
     
    Why did we give it that name? When you experience Allumette, you have scenes with continuous presence. We didn’t use any cinematic “cuts” within the scenes themselves--it’s a smooth, continuous experience, just like Rope.

    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    Coming from a CG animation background, you could take hours to render each frame without any problem. In VR, you only have a small fraction of a second for each frame! Adjusting to the performance requirements of this new medium was difficult, and required using new techniques for particularly complex elements like the clouds.
     
    To do this, we had to invent some new rendering techniques to get the soft and fluffy look you’d expect.
     
    What do you hope people take away from Allumette overall?
     
    We are developing a new platform for storytelling. Allumette is a story everyone can enjoy and appreciate, no matter their age or where they live in the world. After experiencing Allumette, we hope people will embrace this new medium and will share our excitement for the future of VR storytelling.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Allumette? Or what’s next for Penrose?
     
    Right now we’re focused on celebrating the worldwide launch of Allumette, which took place earlier this month. Stay tuned for more Penrose Studios news soon!

    If you could have anyone experience Allumette who would it be?
     
    Hans Christian Andersen!
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    Watch your work iteratively and often in VR, and try not to rely too heavily on composing your scenes on a 2D screen. It is important to preview your work on the devices you will be showing it with since things always appear different in VR, and tweaks are constantly necessary. Also, take the performance requirements of VR seriously, and don’t underestimate the power and resources you’ll need to make a great piece. This can save a lot of time on optimizing down the road if you stick to the budgets for polygon count, shader complexity, fx, etc.
  17. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: Arcade Artist

    By Rockjaw,

    
    You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award, how do you feel?

    It feels amazing to be nominated. As an artist and creator it is wonderful to be recognized. We put so much time and love and energy into our work and it's great to have that be appreciated.

    Where did the idea for Arcade Artist come from?

    We wanted to make a world that you could feel transported to and also create something that was just a fun escape. I love the feeling of holding a tool in your hand in VR and being able to look at the details and for that tool to be something that you can actually use.

    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?

    There were two main developers and then a small amount of additional artists as we needed them. In all, the team at its largest was probably eight people. We spent about six months on it.

    Tell us something about Arcade Artist that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?

    I guess that the amount of hours that went into it would be surprising to most people.

    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?

    We are constantly pushing the envelope artistically so we are learning everyday how to balance the art and performance aspect.

    What differentiates Arcade Artists from other creativity experiences?

    I think the quality of our work is at the top and I am very proud of the team and the work.

    What do you hope people take away from Arcade Artist overall?

    The biggest thing that I want people to do when they play Arcade Artist is smile!

    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Arcade Artist?

    Absolutely! We have some really fun new features in store and we are also going to be making Arcade Artist a full multiplayer and social experience.

    If you could have anyone experience Arcade Artist who would it be?

    Hmmm....I guess Steven Spielberg!

    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?

    Just do it. It's trite, but jump in and fail fast and learn and go for it.
     
    Arcade Artist is available now on Viveport.
  18. Rockjaw
    
     
     
    You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award - how do you feel?
     
    It's an incredible honor to be nominated for a Viveport Developer Award. The entire development team is ecstatic as this is something very much unexpected. Congratulations and good luck to all of the other nominees.
     
    Where did the idea for Cloudlands: VR Minigolf come from?
     
    When we got our hands on one of the first HTC Vive prototypes we went on a prototyping spree of about 10 different unique-to-motion-control game mechanics such as golfing, baseball, bowling, sword fighting, racquet sports, throwing games, and more. We're a relatively small game team and many of us love golfing. We initially attempted a full on golfing game but settled on the more accessible minigolf genre. Minigolf allowed us to keep the core "golf" mechanic, while exploring much more fantastical environments that wouldn't be possible in the real world. The game started small in scope but after concepting the level editor we realized putting the creative power into the hands of our players was going to produce infinitely more creative levels than our small design team could ever create.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    The Cloudlands core dev team consisted of about 7 people, though we had 14 people touching the project at different times throughout the dev cycle helping with the multiplayer programming, marketing, and performance testing. We started development of Cloudlands in August 2015 and released our launch version in April 2016. The level editor was in development from February 2016 until September 2016 and is still on-going.
     
    Tell us something about Cloudlands: VR Minigolf that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    The game art in Cloudlands had to be completely re-done about a month before launch. Stress! We had been developing under the impression that the min spec for VR would be a GTX980 graphics card and we had good performance on that card. However, upon discovering the min spec would be GTX970 graphics cards it forced us to re-create our entire lighting pipeline, redo all the levels, and also change a lot of the art to be more performant. The art team was working around the clock to get it ready for launch. It turns out hitting 90fps can be quite challenging when you also want to push visual quality.
     

     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    Our initial vision for what the level editor would be, was more of a grid based block snapping tool with the pieces in a menu attached to your hand. It was meant to be fairly simple and a quick addition to the game. However, our designer/engineer working on the level editor had different plans and ended up prototyping this really fantastic and intuitive system for grabbing pieces out of a shelf and snapping them free-form at a smaller scale, which you can then play instantly. The tool continued to grow and ended up being a much more complex feature than originally intended but I think the final product is something we are all extremely proud of.
     
    What do you hope people take away from Cloudlands: VR Minigolf overall?
     
    It's pretty common to have people play and say "Wow, that was way better than I thought. Really fun!" We get it. It's minigolf. And for VR it seems like it wouldn't be anything special, but so many players come out having had a really fun time playing a game they're familiar with, but thrown into crazy impossible real world user generated golf courses.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Cloudlands: VR Minigolf? Or what’s next for Futuretown?
     
    The level editor is still relatively new and we're continually listening to the community and incorporating game feedback into the build. We're currently spending the majority of our time on a new unannounced project.
     
    If you could have anyone famous play a round of Cloudlands: VR Minigolf who would it be?
     
    It would probably be Fumito Ueda or Jonathan Blow. Both game design legends and we've learned a lot from them over the past 10 years as independent developers. I'd love to hear their thoughts on the game and interaction design we've crafted.
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    The VR market is extremely small at this time. Make sure your game design considers who the VR market is and make sure you have a realistic understanding of how many copies you'll be able to sell. This will inform your development design and schedule to make sure you're creating a product that can be financially successful and allow you to continue creating games.
     
    Cloudlands: VR Minigolf is available to download on Viveport.
  19. Rockjaw
    
     
     Congratulations, you’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award. How do you feel?
     
    We're super honored to be selected! I hope awards like the VDAs help bring attention to all the diverse and wonderful VR experiences coming out this year.
     
    Where did the idea for Fantastic Contraption come from?
     
    The idea for the original 2008 2D Fantastic Contraption actually came from a dream! It was to turn a Rube Goldberg machine inside out: instead of creating a complex environment for a simple ball to roll through, you create a smart ball (eg a car or contraption) which has to roll/walk/tumble/smash its way through each level.
     
    We first conceived of adapting it to VR just a few days after trying the Vive for the first time. Our minds were blown by experiences like Tilt Brush, and we wanted to create something that would use roomscale to its fullest potential.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?

    Our team is 4-5 people, Half from Radial Games and half from Northway Games. The game took roughly 9 months to make, although we're still working on updates.
     
    Tell us something about Fantastic Contraption that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport.

    We've put a lot of effort into developing tools to help film and stream mixed-reality footage of Fantastic Contraption, because we believe this is the best way to explain roomscale VR to anyone who hasn't tried it. We ran a mixed-reality development Twitch stream for much of the game's development.
     

     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    We were thrilled (and surprised!) to have Fantastic Contraption bundled with the HTC Vive when it launched.
     
    What do you hope people take away from Fantastic Contraption overall?
     
    We want people to enjoy existing and playing with the world of Fantastic Contraption as much as they enjoy beating the puzzles.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Fantastic Contraption? Or what’s next for Northway Games?
     
    We have two major updates in the pipe: one adds support for standing scale and smaller play spaces including seated. After that we'll release a level editor, so that players can create their own challenges and spaces to play in.
     
    What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen built?
     
    A walking beast, designed after one of Theo Jansen's wind-powered Strandbeests. They look surprisingly organic and lifelike. (See an example of Strandbeests in action below.)
     


    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    If you're getting into VR, now is the time to experiment. In many ways this is an entirely new medium, and there are a lot of things that haven't been tried yet (or even thought of!).
     
    Fantastic Contraption is available to download on Viveport.
  20. Rockjaw
    
     Congratulations, you’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award. How do you feel?
     
    We are super happy! A tremendous amount of work and care has been put in by the whole team in France and in the US to bring Firebird : La Péri to life, and it feels terrific to know that our experience is being nominated alongside other great pieces!

    Where did the idea for Firebird: La Péri come from?
     
    It all came from Paul Duka's music, which essentially became the script for the whole experience. The music stirred up images of a grandiose, magical story in the mind of Balthazar Auxietre, Innerspace's co-founder and CCO. How could we bring justice to such a beautiful piece ? How could we enable the viewer to experience the music, the story and the "on-stage" experience of this ballet piece ? Those were the key questions that drove the creative process.
     
    Paul Dukas who composed La Péri, is also the composer of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the key piece of Disney's Fantasia. Back then Fantasia was something new, the love child of Walt Disney's creative ambition and drive for innovation. It was made from the beginning to exploit a medium, animated motion pictures, which faced skepticism as a viable entertainment platform and eventually took the entertainment world by storm. In that way it seems quite fitting to use Duka's work in VR, which is facing similar challenges while showing unprecedented potential.

    How big is your team and how long did Firebird : La Péri take to develop?
     
    Firebird : La Péri was developed by a team of 10 people over the course of 12 months. Crafting this experience was a long process, since the project was in constant R&D mode, with new ideas coming up and being implemented along the way. The team at Innerspace is growing and we are much more efficient now but taking the high road was an essential part of creating the experience and honing our skills as VR entertainment creators.

    Tell us something about Firebird : La Péri that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport.
     
    The book, which is so central in Firebird : La Péri, was actually a very late addition in the development process. It fits so naturally in the narration and the experience that it might seem unthinkable that it was not present until the final release. But now it's here, right at the center of the piece, and our artists and designers have done an amazing job on it - I suggest viewers actually take the time to scroll through the pages and look at the illustrations in it!
     

     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    The overwhelming feeling of immersion the motion-captured ballerina brought to the piece, was a great surprise. We felt like we had something really cool that surpassed our expectations, and that it was essential to get it out of our studio and bring it to audiences worldwide.

    What do you hope people take away from Firebird: La Péri overall?
     
    First and foremost we hope that users love the experience, and that it feels fresh and new and beautiful to them. The second thing we want people to realize is that VR can truly be a platform for meaningful and compelling entertainment for everyone, not just an amazing technology.

    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Firebird: La Péri? Or what’s next for InnerspaceVR?
     
    Firebird is VR's franchise for classical music and visually stunning entertainment pieces. We are already hard at work on the future episodes to be released in 2017 so if you love Firebird : La Péri and want to see more, stay tuned !

    What's been the best reaction you’ve heard about Firebird: La Péri?
     
    I love that people immediately personify the characters in Firebird : La Péri. Many times we've had users tell us they wish they could stay longer with La Péri, that they were falling in love with her.

    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    Be daring. Try things that are new, that seem scary, and test your ideas early at a small scale before expanding them. There are a lot of amazing VR pieces out there, but still innumerable new ideas that haven't been tried out yet - the tools and technology are here and more affordable than ever, so there is no reason not to try building something crazy!
     
    Firebird: La Peri is available to download on Viveport.
  21. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: Kodon

    By Rockjaw,

    
     
     
    You've just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award, how do you feel?
     
    Glorious! We are still an early access app, so to be considered in this category is a great honor.
     
    Where did the idea for Kodon come from?
     
    The idea was based on our own development team's need to create 3D models. The supreme user experience provided by the Vive seemed to be the perfect combination. We made a demo video on Reddit that caused a lot of attention, and many people asked us to release an early version.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    We have a team of 4 people with various associates. Kodon is about 5 months into development, but it is not done yet.
     
    Tell us something about Kodon that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    Kodon works quite well for 3D-printing. Try it!
     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    The amount of people who wanted to try it in Early Access!
     
    What do you hope people take away from Kodon overall?
     
    I hope Kodon demonstrates the professional future of VR as a tool.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Kodon?
     
    Yes! We are at v0.50 and we're released at v1.0. So keep expecting more!
     
    What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen built?
     
    I think the most weirdest thing I've seen is this 3D-printed alien gnome flower pot (Imgur link):
     
    
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    Don't underestimate the ambitions and dreams of VR users! They are going to imagine doing stuff with your program that you never even considered.
     
    Kodon is available on Viveport.
  22. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: Mars Odyssey

    By Rockjaw,

    You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer award - how do you feel?
     
    We’re exhausted! Also very excited that Mars Odyssey has been well received. We’re very proud of the team and the passion project they’ve brought to life.
     
    Where did the idea for Mars Odyssey come from?
     
    We’ve always had a strong passion for education and science. Joshua Qualtieri, one of our studio co-founders, studied Astrophysics in college with the goal of eventually working for NASA on their Mars missions, but instead he ended up making films and games. Using VR to experience Mars and simulate space exploration has been a dream come true for Joshua and Steel Wool Studios.
     
    Do you really think there is life on Mars?
     
    We think it’s possible. If there is life on Mars, it is some form of super hardy microbial organism that’s yet to be discovered. There’s a lot of interest in Mars these days. If Mars Odyssey can add to that excitement and motivate someone in the not too distant future to get on a rocket to have a look around on Mars, that would be awesome.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    The Mars Odyssey team is relatively small. About eight or nine members were involved with the project from beginning to end. In total, it took about 10 months to develop and put final touches on the project working on it part-time for most of the Mars Odyssey team.
     
    Tell us something about Mars Odyssey that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    Mars Odyssey was built to possibly be part of a larger educational narrative structure. In Mars Odyssey you are simply “The Traveler” and your guide is “Athena”. Our concept is to continue developing educational simulations in which the Traveler and Athena jump from experience to experience, not just space exploration themes. Think “Quantum Leap” meets The Discovery Channel.
     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    Actually, we never realized how large Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris truly are. Mars is a little over half the size of Earth but it is home to the largest volcano and canyon in the solar system.
     
    What do you hope people take away from Mars Odyssey overall?
     
    I hope that people find Mars as fascinating as we do. We get so focused on our lives that we sometimes forget to look up at the night sky. We are amazing, albeit flawed, creatures. We have landed humans on our Moon, shot probes deep into space, and sent robots to Mars, concepts that even now sound insane if you really think about it. Mars is an incredible world and worth exploring. Landing humans on Mars will teach and further inspire us. We are not meant to stay solely on Earth; hopefully we’ll soon take those first steps towards the Red planet.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to Mars Odyssey? What’s next for Steel Wool?
     
    There are some tweaks we have in an upcoming patch to allow the player to replay the Rover and Lander sequences without having to accomplish the tasks -- tourist mode, essentially. Beyond that, we’re gearing up for our next project coming out later this year, Bounce. It’s a VR physics-based puzzle adventure that’s getting great feedback. It’s totally different from Mars Odyssey, but that’s one of the best parts about being an independent studio - we get to work on cool stuff that excites us.
     
    If you could have anyone experience Mars Odyssey who would it be? Has Matt Damon tried it yet?
     
    Unfortunately, Matt hasn’t returned our calls, yet. If we could have anyone experience Mars Odyssey, we’d be honored to help Buzz Aldrin to virtually step onto the surface of the red planet.
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    Keep your artists and engineers collaborating at all times. It’s important for us that both groups understand each other's concerns, and learn from each other.
     
    Mars Odyssey is available now on Viveport.
  23. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: PaintLab

    By Rockjaw,

    
     
    You've just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award... how do you feel?
     
    Bart Burkhardt, LAB4242: I feel very honored and excited!
     
    Where did the idea for PaintLab come from?
     
    I remember when I was young going to the library looking for books about stereo photography. It was like I was naturally attracted to this technology.
     
    This was amplified when I got a ViewMaster from my father, I still remember it, it made a deep impact on me. I also remember that I was fascinated about the 360 painting in The Hague called the 'Panorama Mesdag'.
     
    Then later around 1995 I bought Virtual Reality magazines and I went to arcades to check it out.
    My hope was to get a Forte VFX1, but I never got one and soon after VR disappeared from the radar.
     
    Then 20 years later I was happy to see the light of the Oculus DK1 so I got one and started developing for it. 
     
    I started to make a voxel based creation environment where you could paint cubes using the mouse and showed it at the Amsterdam VR meetup.
     
    It was great but I really missed hand input and so I bought a Razor Hydra and started to explore what you can do with it. 
     
    I created many experiments and found that creating things out of nothing in mid air was such a great feeling that I continued working on that. 
     
    I gave the project the name Paint42 and shared builds to get feedback. I joined the Oculus Mobile JAM in 2015 with a GearVR port, but it didn't make the finals.
     
    Then I got the HTC Vive and ported to this great platform and we renamed the app to PaintLab. 
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    The team is two, where I do development and Gijs helps with media and doing events.
     
    Not counting the learnings it took 2 months to create PaintLab. 
     
    Tell us something about PaintLab that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    We show PaintLab at events and found that its works great at festivals like the
    . Music and VR painting go together great.  
    We plan to do more events so if people are interested they can reach us at events@paintlabvr.com
     
    Also PaintLab will be featured in the documentary 'Dream the Future' for the French TV-Channel CANAL+
     
    The film will be broadcast beginning next year in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Canada, China, Finland and very probably in the USA.
     
    This summer we had two days of film recording where also graffiti artist Zeky from Paris created a 3D artwork.
     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect? 
     
    One of the things that I didn't expect is that when you create errors in your code, these errors could do things visually that sometimes bring new ideas. 
     
    What do you hope people take away from PaintLab overall?
     
    I hope that PaintLab will bring people joy and offers a great way to create art. 
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to PaintLab? Or is there something new coming from the team?
     
    Yes there are many updates in the works. We're experimenting with new effects and possibilities and we're actually fixing bugs to release these new features. 
     
    After the update we will continue developing because its fun and want to improve the app and the possibilities are endless.
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    My advice would be to listen to people but mostly listen to yourself. Do what you think is best, if you believe in something, and others don't see it, just follow your heart and create what you love. 
     
    PaintLab is available now on Viveport.
  24. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: SurrealVR

    By Rockjaw,

    
     
     You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award. How do you feel?
     
    It’s a great honor, of course. VR is simply the most exciting field of work right now, and to be nominated in the space by the folks that have built the best platform available today is just a great feeling.
     
    Where did the idea for SurrealVR come from?
     
    We came from a social gaming background, and we’ve always known that combining social, gaming and virtual reality will create an unbeatable combination. Once the hardware started becoming available, we dropped everything to pursue it.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    We started as two founders, and we’re six now. The two founders have worked together for the better part of a decade, and we’ve recruited others that we knew from the game developer community.
     
    Tell us something about SurrealVR that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport.
     
    What you see in SurrealVR is still just a fraction of the capabilities of our platform, as we’ve had to make difficult prioritization choices as we scale. So far, we’ve been primarily focused on creating the building blocks.
     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    Like everyone, we’ve had to learn that storytelling is different in VR. It’s one thing to just say it. It’s another thing to experience the challenges first hand.
     

     
    What do you hope people take away from SurrealVR overall?
     
    We hope people get excited about the possibilities of Social VR, of enjoying the magic together.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to SurrealVR?
     
    We have a number of very exciting updates planned, including full games within the platform.
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    The number one piece of advice I would give to developers is learn from the work of others. There’s a lot of experimentation going on in the space, it’s happening at a very fast pace, and we’re all learning and improving together.
     
    SurrealVR is available to download on Viveport.
  25. Rockjaw

    VDA Q&A: The Night Café

    By Rockjaw,

    
     
    You’ve just been nominated for a Viveport Developer Award - how do you feel?
     
    Mac Cauley, Borrowed Light Studios: It's an honor to be nominated for the Viveport Developer Awards with so much great content coming out every day that is pushing the boundaries of VR. I think VR as a medium has so much potential to open up new ways for people to express themselves and share ideas. I feel lucky to be a part of this discovery process and to be able to explore the possibilities that lie ahead.
     
    Where did the idea for The Night Café come from?
     
    I originally envisioned The Night Café as a narrative short film about a fictional painter inspired by Vincent van Gogh. I thought it would be interesting to see the world from the perspective of such a unique viewpoint, and in the film I imagined traveling into this character's mind to see these wonderful visions. At the same time I was developing the film idea, I was beginning to think more about VR and the opportunities it presented and I decided it would be an interesting experience to explore this painted world in a very interactive and immersive way. It became clear to me that I wanted to walk through one of Van Gogh's paintings myself and I imagined how that might feel.
     
    How big is your team and how long did it take to develop?
     
    I made The Night Café myself in my spare time. I probably put 6 months of work into it.
     
    Tell us something about The Night Café that we wouldn’t know from just experiencing it on Viveport?
     
    I actually put a lot of time into researching the paintings as well as Van Gogh's life and the time period he painted in. There were many details that I included that were not in the original paintings such as back rooms, the piano player, the style of lamps that were used, and many other small details. I tried to make sure everything felt unified with his paintings by choosing colors that would blend in with his. The experience is directly inspired by his work and I wanted to be respectful of that while allowing myself some creative freedom.
     
    During the development process, did anything surprise you along the way you didn’t expect?
     
    The Night Café was one of the first projects I made in VR and so I was constantly learning the development process as I went along. One of the things that I found interesting was just how important the scale of objects and characters were to creating an enjoyable experience. I often found myself creating models that were too big initially and had to scale them down a bit so their presence in the scene felt more natural and comfortable.
     
    What do you hope people take away from The Night Café overall?
     
    My primary goal for The Night Café was to create a space for people to enter that felt alive in some way, and kind of like a lost moment in time that they were able to step into and stay in, if only for a few minutes. I imagined Vincent van Gogh there in the cafe, pondering his life and the world around him. As I created the experience I had many moments of connecting with the paintings in new ways by spending time with each little detail and imagining what might have gone through his mind as he painted them.
     
    Are you planning future updates and adding more features to The Night Cafe?
     
    I am currently working on a new game that allows you to explore procedurarly generated haunted houses in VR and trap ghosts while searching for hidden artifacts. It's called Spectro and we will be releasing it next year for Vive and other headsets. Once that is done I would consider adding to The Night Café or creating a follow up to that type of experience if it seemed like it was something people wanted. I had so much fun creating the painterly world and I could easily imagine a much bigger space to explore with characters and environments inspired by a variety of well known painters.
     
    What’s been the best reaction you’ve had to the experience?
     
    I once received a letter from a Van Gogh historian who had tried VR for the first time after being quite skeptical of the medium. She told me her friend wanted to show her a variety of experiences and after trying The Night Café she lost track of time in the headset. At that point she realized all the possibilities the technology could offer for experiencing not just entertainment but art and education as well. It was a very encouraging note to get from an unexpected place and really reaffirmed for me just how powerful these experiences can be.
     
    What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other developers?
     
    With the medium in such an early stage of development there is so much to be explored and discovered. No one has all the answers yet and the standards are still being developed and refined every day. With that in mind, don't just listen to others - try out new ideas and see what works for you!
     
    What is your favorite Van Gogh masterpiece?
     
    That's a tough one! It really depends on my mood but I would say "Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape" (digitally viewable here) is definitely near the top of my list. His self portraits are also amazing and really give you a sense of who he was.
     
    The Night Café is available on Viveport.
×
×
  • Create New...