VR News Roundup October

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The best news and views in Virtual Reality : October

1. Weekend drops new 360 Music Video

You might find the video a little simple. A lot of musicians are doing their videos with 360 cameras. While the content is quite simple, the Weekend differentiates himself from other artists as only a few others have produced 360 videos.

Following the examples of : Bjork, Squarepusher, and Foal.

2. HTC Vive Release Date Leak: Dec 8th

If you’re subscribed to /r/oculus you’ve definitely noticed that there’s a lot of buzz for this product called HTC Vive. Like Oculus, and Samsung Gear, it’s another VR headset. The verge loves it because it gives you an accurate feeling of where you are in VR space. They also have very cool controllers that are joysticks for your hands.

According to an interview done in Polish with Vive’s Bartosz Żuk - HTC Product Commercialisation Manager and a translated google article, HTC is set to release Dec 8th! Will this christmas be the christmas of VR? Let us know in the comments. (I do not speak polish and cannot confirm if this is what he’s saying.)

Featured reddit comment: “ I’m guessing that HTC will announce the Vive on the 8th, and the sale or delivery will happen on the 15th.”

3. New Magic Leap Demo and their hunt for a billion dollars

Dubbed as the “stealth startup” by the verge, magic leap is close to building millions of augmented reality devices.

“We’re actually gearing up to build millions of things,” said Rony Abovitz, the company’s president and CEO, speaking at the WSJD conference in Laguna Beach, CA.

The company is using part of an abandoned Motorola factory in south Florida and is now developing its manufacturing processes, he said. “We’re not ready to announce when we’re shipping, but it gives you a signal that we’re not far,” Abovitz said.

The South Florida Business Journal reports:

“Dania Beach startup Magic Leap is close to inking a $1 billion financing round, two sources close to the deal told the South Florida Business Journal.
The transaction will value the company at over $4.5 billion, the sources said. That valuation is more than twice what the company tipped the scales at in its last financing round.”

What is their end plan? Why do the need a billion dollars? They’re trying to build the next medium. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it we’re in the golden age of online Video. YouTube is blowing up right now as they’ve seen increased their number of viewed content by 60%.

However, Oculus, Magic Leap, Vive all believe that VR is the next golden goose. The ultimate vision for Magic Leap is to create “a broad-based platform for visual computing,” said Rio Caraeff, the company’s chief content officer. If they create the platform that everyone uses to communicate then they can hold a tremendous amount of power. Keep an eye out on Magic Leap.

4. The Void opens beta testing.

If you haven’t heard of the void it’s one of the most exciting developments in the VR landscape. It’s Laser Tag meets Call of Duty meets Jurassic Park all in virtual reality. It’s a real life construction of Star Trek’s holodeck.

“The Void combines an untethered VR experience with room-scale tracking, or rather ‘facility-scale’ tracking…The Void is a multi-user space, which uses a custom-built VR headset featuring dual high-density curved OLED Displays (1080P per-eye beginning resolution), a haptic vest, as well as haptic gloves.”

We’re all very exciting to see how it develops. Hopefully we’ll see something similar in London soon.

5. Dubai360

If you’ve never been to dubai, now’s your chance. A company called du in collaboration with Dubai Film has created 360 panorama and videos of the city for GITEX Technology Week 2015.

If you’re like us you’re thinking, “how is this any different from google street view which is available all over the dubai?” To Du’s credit it’s much higher quality, it has incredible angles, and they’ve included some 360 time lapses from the top of Burj Khalifa.

If you’re interested in taking 360 pictures and videos definitely check out their shots. They’ve taken them from very interesting angles that google street view doesn’t go do (like on top of buildings).

“du in collaboration with Dubai Film during GITEX Technology Week 2015. Using high resolution 360 degree content procured by Dubai360, including panoramic images, 360 degree video and high definition time lapse videos, this pioneering application by du gives users an unprecedented experience of certain areas in the breathtaking city of Dubai.

Or compare yourself to see if they did a good job from differentiating themselves from google street view.

Google street view of dubai

Dubai 360

6. Lucky’s Tail virtual reality developer raises $25million

This company is attempting to be the mario of virtual reality. While it may seem surprising that its able to raise such a large investment Playful is hoping that having the first mover advantage in the VR space will secure it a long prosperous supply of cash, similar to the mario series.