Category: #VR

Irish VR Team Launch Titanic Experience for PlayStation. #VR #Playstation #RMSTitanic

Irish virtual/ augmented reality (VR/AR) software firm, Immersive VR Education’s (IVRE), virtual reality Titanic experience has launched on Sony’s PlayStation. Titanic VR puts players aboard the doomed vessel the night it hit an iceberg and sank in April 1912. The Titanic experience is already available on PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality.

 All aboard the RMS Titanic…

The project began its life through a Kickstarter campaign in early 2017, which raised over €57,000, with the intention of bringing the game to market on PCs and PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Its first phase test reviews in 2017 consolidated the company’s steadfast belief in the project’s direction, and its release to market now, after an exhaustive 2-year process, is a source of great pride for the entire team.  

 Speaking of the game’s release, David Whelan, CEO of VR Education Holdings PLC, commented:

 “Titanic VR is a factually animated VR experience that tells the tragic story of the sinking of RMS Titanic as witnessed by survivors. As well as creating a realistic VR experience that tells the story of the tragedy in a compelling way, the game will also serve as a valuable resource for discovering more about the stricken ship, through a realistic exploration experience, using detailed maps and 3D models of the historic wreck site. We have used motion capture, face-scanning technology and professional voice actors to immerse users in the story and to enable them to relate to the people involved. In developing this, we wanted to create an accurate portrayal of events, so it is not only educational, but also emotional and very engaging.”

 

 

The game shares two different types of educational VR experience that bring history to life.

  • Six hours of educational gameplay, where players are tasked with navigating the wreck using their submersible and ROV.  It features eight dive missions and seven lab missions.
  • The second element is a fully immersive, historically accurate, animated experience which tells the story of the evacuation to lifeboats, based on the eye witness testimonies of survivors as the tragedy unfolded in 1912. 

 

Players can:

  • Recover various artefacts and items from the seabed and complete missions based on their recovery.
  • Choose to undertake the missions or to simply explore, admire and learn about the sheer majesty and scale of the doomed vessel.
  • Check out all hidden passageways and areas inside the wreck.
  • Navigate around and inside the wreck using their submersible and ROV, completing missions such as rescuing a lost ROV, creating a photo mosaic, placing research equipment, and working with a world-famous Director.
  • Clean and preserve recovered artefacts, upgrade the ROV, and learn all there is to know about this awe-inspiring wreck.

 

IVRE has been praised for the game’s intricate and authentic build and design process. Some highlights from the project include:

  • It is the largest animated virtual cast of characters ever based on real people inside a single VR experience.
  • It took more than 8,800 working hours to create.
  • The sinking animation is based on first-hand eye witness testimony.
  • See more http://www.vreducationholdings.com/

Irish Virtual Reality Company Scoops Prestigious Television Accolade. #VR #VirtualReality

A VR experience film created by Immersive VR Education, an Irish virtual/augmented reality software outfit, run by Sandra & David Whelan, has won the award for the best Interactive experience at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Northern Ireland Programme Awards 2018, which took place on Thursday night at the MAC (Metropolitan Arts Centre) in Belfast.

The wife-husband team attended the ceremony, along with colleagues from the BBC team, and were presented with the award at a star-studded bash – beating stiff competition from 360 Productions, who were the other finalists shortlisted in the category.

The RTS Programme Awards span all the genres of television programming, recognising exceptional actors, presenters, writers and production teams as well as the programmes themselves. The RTS Awards seek to recognise programmes which have made a material and positive contribution to their genre.

 L to R: Bronagh Waugh, Actress; Warren Bell, BBC Rewind; David Whelan, Immersive VR Education; Jeremy Biggerstaff from Flint Studios . Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

 

A Winning Creation: “1943: Berlin Blitz”

In February of this year, the Waterford-based company won a commission from the BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘Rewind’ archive innovation team, in conjunction with the BBC’s central VR Hub, to work on the creation.

“1943: Berlin Blitz” puts viewers in the shoes of BBC war correspondent Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, and allows them to retrace his journey on a genuine bombing raid to Berlin at the height of the Second World War. The creation takes the viewer into the belly of a Lancaster bomber high over Berlin, with anti-aircraft shells bursting all around, while Wynford’s dramatic commentary vividly captures both the danger and the excitement of the bombing raid.

Speaking of the win David Whelan, CEO & Co-founder of Immersive VR Education,

“Winning this award has taken us to another level in terms of what our company has achieved to date. Looking out from the stage last night at some of the biggest names in the TV and broadcasting industry was surreal, and to know that we were up there because of something we developed from scratch was tremendously gratifying and, in all honesty, quite emotional”.

David spoke of the work undertaken by the Immersive VR Team to bring the Berlin Blitz experience to life,

“From inception to creation the project took 6 of the company’s 34-person team 4 months in total to build!

The beginning project has been hugely exciting for us & working with the BBC VR Hub was a fantastic experience. Initiatives like this really allow us to move forward on the primary goal of the company, which is to bring immersive VR technology to distance learning and to transform how people all over the world learn and experience events both past and present”.

Sandra Whelan, COO & Co-founder of Immersive VR Education, described the process,

“To create the experience, the team gathered hundreds of photographs of Lancaster bombers and all of the original mission data in order to recreate the historic event. We pretty much recreated the mission with everything being historically accurate, right down to the smouldering Berlin landscape below.”

Immersive VR Education used BBC Archive footage of the original radio broadcast of Wynford Vaughan-Thomas’ report that went out over the airwaves on 4 September 1943, just a few hours after the Lancaster Bomber plane landed back at RAF Langar in Nottinghamshire.

The Lancaster was the most successful heavy bomber employed by the RAF in World War Two and, along with the Spitfire, became something of a British icon in the wake of the war. More than 7,000 of the planes were built, flying upwards of 150,000 sorties.

Jurassic World Comes Alive. #VR #AR #APPS #JurassicWorld

Bringing the virtual world into the real world is rapidly growing in popularity with the global market predicted to be worth approximately £100 billion by 2021. Augmented reality (AR) is undoubtedly one of the most exciting technological innovations around and games like Pokémon GO have inspired more developments in this sector.

Recently Jurassic World Alive was released in the UK and brings monster hunting to a whole new level. Instead of searching for cute creatures, players are tasked with saving dinosaurs from extinction by collecting DNA samples and creating new hybrid species in a lab. The game, developed for both android and IOS, is loosely based on Pokémon Go and only time will tell if it will have the same global success.

Will Jurassic World Alive Become The Most Downloaded App?

A recent survey conducted by mobile app agency, The App Developers showed that Social Media & Communications Apps are the most popular type of app downloaded (31%), with entertainment apps (Games, Streaming & Music Apps) are not far behind (27%). However, when looking at the top grossing mobile apps in the UK, 8 out of the top ten apps are games.  

Jurassic World Alive is free to download, but does contain in-app-purchases. The survey found that this was a good approach as 74% only download free apps with 68% saying they don’t make in-app purchases. Jurassic World Alive, like many gaming apps, offers ways of getting around making in-app purchases and the survey found that 38% would watch “unskippable” ads and 33% would answer survey questions to continue playing for free.

AR Technology Used in Apps  

34% of app users are 18 – 34, and since the release of Pokémon GO by Niantic, AR technology has become more popular. Other franchises have picked up on Niantic’s success and Jurassic Park Alive produced by Ludia, is only the second game to join this trend. Many more AR games are predicated to be released into the marketplace, such as Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and the App Developers could see this happening.

The App Developers, explain: “Both VR and AR technology have been around for a while now; but have still not really exploded into the public consciousness. 2018 and the next couple of years are expected to see a big change in this. Part of the problem with VR has been the low number of quality apps being developed, but this is now turning into a huge growth market. Particularly now developers and businesses are starting to see the potential”.

About The App Developers

The App Developers are an award-winning mobile led design & development agency, working with corporates & start-ups across multiple sectors. All products are created adopting a user-first methodology, and solutions are designed taking an expert think-tank approach to business pain points and objectives.  Everything is built with ROI in mind. The App Developers have worked with brands such as Fujifilm, Exxonmobil, Sainsbury’s, Walkers & many emerging and disruptive start-ups.

Survey Methodology

The App Developers surveyed over 300 men and women within the UK between 07/02/2018 – 12/02/2018 to discover their thoughts and opinions on mobile apps. Respondents were asked 10 questions regarding which apps they use the most, whether they spend money downloading apps or in-app purchases and if they are concerned about apps using their data for marketing. The App Developers then analysed the results.

Finally VR is Accessible To All. #VR #6DoF #VirtualReality #VRCraftworks

I have been a fan of VR since inception and when it launched it took off like a speeding bullet for a year or two then things became slack as a whole and new apps tapered off and it was looking gloomy with AR becoming the main focus, However some companies continue to bring goods to the table such as VRCraftworks.

VRCraftworks have brought us some really great apps since they launched and I have been following them since. Cast your mind back to Quark Expeditions and VR Drop and share for example and how this company works.

Today Jack Maddalena has made an announcement which is welcome in the VR community which will transform brands ability to offer a high-quality experience via your smartphone,effectively meaning you do not need to go out and spend big money on other hardwear which can be costly as we know and this also provides 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF).

Jack says…

For some time, brands have wanted to engage customers with a high-quality VR experience, but consumer access to required hardware is limited (content distribution).

To bridge the gap, we have created software that uses a smartphone and its camera to deliver a high-quality immersive VR experience. The 6 degrees of freedom is vital to allow freedom of movement in a 3-dimensional space.

Via a branded app consumers can engage with brands in an exciting and engaging way from their home, office, in-store anywhere.

Check out the reactions here below in this clip.

For more info and to keep up to date see https://www.vrcraftworks.com/

Minister Richard Bruton joins Microsoft to celebrate ‘Lift-Off’ at DreamSpace #AI #VR #AR

Microsoft today hosted 60 students from St. Laurence’s Boys National School, Stillorgan and TY students from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, Claregalway at its new innovation and education hub, DreamSpace, at its campus in Leopardstown, One Microsoft Place.

These students are the first to have the opportunity to participate in a fully immersive technology experience which has been developed by Microsoft in Ireland to inspire, encourage and challenge students at primary and secondary level to further develop their digital skills.

Microsoft has invested €5m to develop DreamSpace and is committed to bringing 100,000 primary and Transition Year students and their teachers to One Microsoft Place over the next four years to participate in the DreamSpace experience. Students and teachers who visit will leave equipped with critical collaborative, problem-solving and learning skills that will help them to participate fully in today’s and tomorrow’s digital world. By Engaging students in a series of creative and innovative tasks, Microsoft is hoping to shift their perception about the role technology will play in their future.

The experiences undertaken by students visiting DreamSpace will be highly interactive and will evolve as new technology and tools come on stream. Students will undertake experiences in emerging technologies such as AI, AR, VR and demonstrate how through these technologies robotics can be brought to life – encouraging the students to consider how it can be applied to help address real world issues facing society today.

Commenting at the launch of DreamSpace today, Minister Bruton said: “This Government has very ambitious plans in the area of STEM, as part of our overall goal to make Ireland’s education and training service the best in Europe by 2026. 

“In that context, I’m delighted to join Microsoft in officially opening DreamSpace this morning. Having joined primary and TY students in their immersive DreamSpace experience this morning, I am confident that every child who has the opportunity to visit will leave here inspired to embrace STEM subjects and to get the best start in a world where digital skills are key to success.”

“I would like to thank Microsoft for its consistent support and investment in the education space over the years and welcome this further investment in creating a unique space for students across Ireland.”

Speaking at the first session at DreamSpace today, Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland said: “At Microsoft, we’re determined to open everyone’s eyes and minds to how technology can help our young people to not only imagine a better future, but to build it. With digital transformation a reality of every aspect of our personal and professional world’s today, it is important that young people understand the power of technology at the earliest opportunity.  We want them to understand that it is not just the power of technology that is important but rather the power of technology together with their own imagination. The combination of the two will help to shape, change, protect and improve our world and our society for generations to come. We want to ensure that all our young talented people in Ireland understand, appreciate and maximise the role that they can play in the development of their own future.”

 

“That’s why we’ve invested €5m in the creation of a dedicated innovation and education hub, DreamSpace at our new campus at One Microsoft Place. As a physical embodiment of our own transformation as a company, our new building is the perfect place to give our children the knowledge to feed their curiosity and push the boundaries of what can be done, both today, and tomorrow.”

The investment in DreamSpace in Ireland is just another example of the company’s commitment to ensuring that young people not only participate in today’s digital age, but also help createtomorrow’s digital world. Over the coming months and years, the Microsoft team will welcome teachers, youth leaders and children to help equip them with the skills and ambition to encourage them to unlock the opportunities that digital transformation offers and strengthen Ireland’s position as a European digital leader.

ENDOALPHA VR – Step inside operating theatres and more. #VR #Medical

For those who are into all things medicine and more there is a new app called ENDOALPHA VR which is free to download on Android and iOS and its pretty cool with interactive VR scenes to boot and lots more. The app is really interesting and offers an insight into Operating Rooms in 360 degrees. It would not be an app for all but its worth checking out what things are like in such environments and its pretty neat and detailed and excellent graphics which make it visually pleasing to check out..

 

Explore the possibilities of modern operating room design.
You can use this app with all common VR goggles and headsets like Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear and others or just pinch to zoom and pan in 360 degrees.

The app will be updated with new 360 videos, images and even interactive scenarios.

How it Works:
Browse the actual material
Download files for offline viewing
View in 360 degrees
or Enter VR to have the full experience using your VR goggles or headset

Review – The VR One Plus Virtual Reality headset from ZEISS. #VR #AR #TECH #ZEISS

Being a huge fan of VR and AR i could not wait to try this headset because simply ZEISS. Any Nokia fan of old and now new once again will understand why and who exactly ZEISS is, We met some of the team at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi which was nice and where we go to know some more about the company.

VR has been quite the last year but seems to be gaining a bit more traction now given the focus is on AR but this head caters for both so its a win win all round.

The first thing to note here is the build quality as a whole,there is many headsets out there that are cheaper but as the saying goes you get what you pay for and this headset comes in at 69.99 and was cheaper over the holiday season and you can still pick one up for free if you buy a Nokia 8. The build quality here all round is robust and will last and it also does not have that generic look we are familiar with seeing these days with companies putting their names on them,this stands out from the rest and it looks good.

Specs 

Optics
Innovative optics and precision eyeglass lenses from ZEISS ensure the ultimate immersive visual
experience. The specific optical features are,
• users don’t need to make any mechanical adjustments of the lens position. A large so-called eye-box was designed to cover most of the person’s eye distances. Also even when the headset is not perfectly centered in the face, the user still has a clear image across the entire visible area.
• Eyeglass wearers can wear their eyeglasses under the ZEISS VR ONE Plus.
• The high picture quality is constant all over the visible area. You clearly can read text all over the
visible area.

Field of view
Field of view of approx. 100°
Supported wide range of interpupillary distance (IPD)
53 ~ 77 mm
Smartphones supported
Smartphones with display size between 4.7 and 5.5 inches except the LG G4 and SONY XPERIA Z5
Premium. Please note: only compatible with smartphones featuring an accelerometer, gyro and compass.
Transparent front shield
Enables the use of smartphone cameras for augmented reality apps.

UNBOXING THE VR ONE PLUS

 

Setting up.

It’s a simple process you just need your smartphone,there is no adjustment required on the headset itself for the lens,you pop out the tray with a compatible smartphone and away you go I would however keep phones with fingerprint sensors on the front placed to the right as the holder can interfere with the sensor see the image below, Also before use ensure you have the device aligned correctly in the middle you will see two notches,one at the top and bottom and a centre line as you would find on similar headsets of good quality.

After this is all complete you are good to go, ZEISS have a suite of apps available to check out first if you like and they are quite good to get you started if you have not delved into the VR experience yet.  You are not confined to just using their own VR apps you can use any VR app from the Play Store or iTunes  and if you are familiar with VR and have your own apps already downloaded you can fire away and enjoy the experience.

 

ZEISS VR ONE Connect also gives you access to a large number of premium VR games on SteamVR with your mobile VR headset. Connect your smartphone to your gaming PC and the two ZEISS VR ONE Connect Bluetooth controllers and experience premium VR games with three degrees of freedom (3DoF) controls.

Maintenance

This will be easy to keep in check for several reasons, its comfortable to wear for long periods so over time you will want to give it a good scrub but you can daily if you feel the need to. The sponge that surrounds the face is detachable which was clever thinking and so is the face mask that the sponge is attached too. This leaves easy access to the lens and surrounding areas to be easily cleaned which again is important especially if you tend to share your headset around.The straps also adjustable and removable and easy to do so can be just taken off.

Controls

There is none. Nope none at all which might seem odd for those familiar with VR headsets but there was no need for them as it focused fine for me on all games I tried the only issue is the lens are not adjustable so for some it might be a problem depending on eyesight but you can like any other VR headset use a bluetooth connected controller if you like this still works as you would expect.

The front of the headset is clear so this allows you to see inside for those techie heads and want to see how things work and not only that it allows the headset to double as an AR tool which is great and the way forward they have future proofed this headset and the AR experience is good you get a cube with the package to test it out.

 

Overall thoughts

Having tried around 30 headsets now this is one of the better ones in this category their lenses make a difference a big difference and what I expected from ZEISS the price is not bad either so if you want quality you pay for it,the build is great its easy to maintain and comes with a tray that supports much more phones rather than limiting itself to a select few like some companies do. The only thing is the lenses are not adjustable, ZEISS have a content library which is not mature as yet but you can use any app from the respective stores to move along with your experience its pushing toward Gear VR territory but not quite but again its up there for the money and you will enjoy what you can so on such a headset.

BUY HERE 

Unboxing the ZEISS VR One Plus Virtual Reality Headset. #VR #AR #Tech #ZEISS

Pretty cool looking it is and great to see something different rather than the many generic VR headsets we have out there today, The ZEISS VR One Plus headset has dropped in with thanks to the good guys at ZEISS.

Today we have a quick unboxing and walkaround before we check it out and see how good it is which I am looking forward to, I If you have any questions in the meantime please ask below or on Social Media.

There is several apps you can download on Android and iOS to enjoy the experiences ZEISS have to offer. The VR ONE Plus’ lenses offer a sharp picture over the entire field of view of 100°. No manual adjustments necessary. And it even works for wearers of spectacles. The headset can be purchased  HERE 

Review – The VRSE BATMAN VR Game. Another failed product. #VR #VirtualReality

I am not even going to go into this in too much depth because the same problem is persistent here yet again with tonnes of complaints on Amazon and the App stores and all i can say if you have one that works you are very lucky indeed and just like the VR offering I have missed out on games which I really was looking forward to getting stuck into and so where some of my families kids too however this is not going to happened even after three replacements nothing works full stop. I just took out the controller before I wasted my time and yours to see if this worked but nope..

Once again you can see the complaints and details over  HERE and its consistent once more but we will show you what you get in the package and what the game is supposed to do below but until we hear back from the company we can do no more and hope to get working units very soon its in their own interest to remedy this big problem and does not bode well with people being left unanswered at at,they (  http://www.vrse-vr.com/) really need to get their finger out . Another example below of the pairing not happening but then a PIN box pops up but nothing of the sort came up on any of our devices used in testing.

 

What is the game about then anyway?

Step into Batman’s dark reality, determined to thwart The Joker’s latest evil scheme. The fate of Gotham City rests in your hands as you sharpen your skills at Wayne Tech. Ready or not, it’s time to stalk your enemies through dark streets. Use the game’s batarang to take some henchmen down, or drop in close for intense hand-to-hand combat through the Batman-themed controller. Do you have what it takes to become Batman and save the city?