Operation Money Grab is all systems go. The heist is officially on. Valo Motion has launched the latest addition to its growing game library of multiplayer mixed reality games for ValoArena. This heist-themed game is set to challenge players physically and mentally as they become immersed in a spy adventure that’s almost straight out of a Hollywood movie. To complete all the missions, you’d need to keep your wits and work well with your team.
Grab Your Squad and Pull Off the Greatest Heist in MR
Recruit a team of up to six players and attempt to pull off the greatest heist in ValoArena. Be spies or thieves and grab as much money and valuables as you can while outmaneuvering high-tech security systems and evading capture.
Upon entering the game arena, be transported to the lobby of the Museum of Money. Enter the elevator and brace yourself for a highly interactive and mentally stimulating spy adventure. As the elevator door opens, figure out how to get past the unique security system and snatch valuable items. Work as a team to solve puzzles and go through physical obstacles on every floor of the building. Once all floors are cleared, head to the roof of the building, then board the helicopter on standby for your grand escape.
Throughout the game, references to popular spy and heist movies add humor and make you feel like the lead star in a Hollywood film. Download the Valo Motion app to create shareable play videos and release your “trailer” on social media.
Powered by Valo Motion Technology
Like all other mixed reality games for Valo Arena, Operation Money Grab is powered by the proprietary motion tracking technology of Valo Motion. With full body tracking, players can roam freely around the game arena and play untethered without using any wearables.
Large digital screens, visually stunning graphics, and spatial audio create a hyper-realistic virtual environment that immerses players in the game.
According to Lauri Lehtonen, Lead Developer in Valo Motion, the popularity of the game Groundfall, inspired by The Floor is Lava, made their team think of other playground games they could draw inspiration from. Lehtonen recounts,
“We noticed that quite a few of them are played by moving back and forth in a limited space. This gave rise to the idea of designing a game with a series of different challenges players must go through in the ValoArena play area,” Lehtonen said in a press release shared with ARPost. “That idea eventually developed into the espionage and robbery-themed game Operation Money Grab, where the game challenges vary a lot during one game, and the players are taken on a kind of mini-adventure through a building to be robbed.”
Innovative Games That Keep People Active
Along with Astro Blade, Runway Zero, Toywatch Island, and Groundfall, Operation Money Grab highlights Valo Motion’s aim to encourage people to lead active and healthy lives through interactive experiences. “Valo Motion takes great pride in developing ValoArena experiences that get people on their feet and moving,” said Raine Kajastila, CEO and founder of Valo Motion.
By creating innovative games that are entertaining and highly interactive, Valo Motion hopes to make it easier and much more fun for people to develop and maintain healthy habits. We expect to see its game library grow with more themed games that would pique the different interests of players of all ages.
It is generally assumed that the VR and XR industry managed to weather the pandemic quite well. However, not all virtual reality endeavors benefited equally. For location-based entertainment (also LBE or LBVR for short), the pandemic had devastating effects.
Even with the social distancing measures and disinfection protocols, the idea of sharing headsets inside a busy venue did not seem very appealing, and just like cinemas, most had no choice but to shut down.
The biggest casualty of that time had to be The Void. They were considered pioneers and one of the biggest players in the LBE space, so their closure and subsequent bankruptcy were seen by many as a grim indication of what was to come.
However, just like with cinemas, location-based destinations are back in business. And while The Void is still closed down (with rumors it might reopen sometime soon), most LBEs are already back on their feet, together with a whole cast of new players, big and small, all interested in exploring this new, emerging frontier.
VR Unleashed
It seems location-based venues continue to attract fun-seekers for a variety of reasons. One is that they offer a high-fidelity experience. Users can walk around freely without the need for gamepads or any other artificial locomotion. Experiences are designed with immersion in mind, taking full advantage of VR as a medium in a way that cannot be replicated at home. This can be especially powerful when experienced by newcomers who’ve never encountered VR before.
Another reason is the social aspect of LBEs. Whether it’s a group of friends or a family, it’s all part of a shared adventure, similar to cinemas, arcades, and many other leisure activities. Booking, getting to the venue, gearing up, and having a chat afterward are all part of this ritual.
Given all of this, it makes sense that, despite the pandemic, LBEs have managed to find an audience again.
But enough theory, time to look at LBEs in practice! I had a chance to try three of the more popular venues. They all have a slightly different approach. Here are my impressions.
1. Dreamscape Immersive
Dreamscape Immersive has currently six centers, three in the United States and the other three in Dubai, Riyadh, and Geneva. Looking at the interior, it’s obvious Dreamscape aims to create a cinema atmosphere. Movie-like posters advertise available experiences, screens inform of the next showings and a sizable cafeteria allows for a place to sit down and relax before the onboarding.
I had the opportunity to participate in the Curse of the Lost Pearl — an Indiana Jones-inspired adventure where you embark on a mission to find an ancient pearl deep in the catacombs of what looked like either a Mayan or Aztec pyramid.
Dreamscape Immersive uses trackers for motion control, one for each hand and one for each foot, as well as laptop backpacks. They also make good use of tracked props. Participants can expect to carry tracked items light torches or the aforementioned lost pearl.
In fact, right from the start, we were asked to push a lever that existed in both the virtual world (as an interactive element) and in the real world (as a feedback prop). This immediately helped blur the distinction. Next, we had to step through the projector, which turned out to be a portal — another clever trick that created a sense of awe as the horizon suddenly expanded miles into the distance.
Dreamscape Immersive scripts feel very engaging and creative. At some point, you might be asked to wave to your pilot. At other points, you’ll get separated. Their venues feature floor which has motorized elements that provided rumbling and trembling during descent. There are also other immersive elements such as wind, heat, or water.
The Curse of the Lost Pearl has no shooting in it. Users can expect scares and traps, but it’s meant to be cinematic first and foremost. It does, however, allow for a bit of flexibility. In my case, for example, at one point, I took a torch from another participant and ended up carrying two. Location-based experiences are always a bit unpredictable as we all react differently, so it’s nice when everything behaves the way you would expect it to, even when things go off script.
Thanks to a technique called “redirected walking”, participants feel like they traverse large distances when, in fact, everyone is walking in circles. Moving platforms, elevators, impossible geometry all of those can be used to make us forget our real-world bearings.
Technically, it would be nice to see higher-fidelity avatars. They all looked a bit lifeless and crude compared to the rest of the experience. Also, our feet didn’t track nearly as well as our hands, resulting in some awkward walking animations, but those were the only real issues I had.
2. Zero Latency VR
Zero Latency VR is a well-known company in the LBE space. They currently have 70 venues in over 26 countries and target intense, gaming-like scenarios.
I had a chance to try two of their adventures. One zombie-themed is aptly called Zombie: Outbreak Origins and the other one is a well-received Far Cry: Dive Into Insanity, which is based on a popular gaming IP. It features arguably the most recognizable character in the entire franchise — Vaas Montenegro.
Zero Latency experiences focus primarily on action and shooting. You wear a backpack but throughout the whole game, you will only need to hold one prop: the gun. Same with onboarding, it mostly focuses on how to reload and fire. There are other game-related mechanics as well, such as respawning, points, and leaderboards.
Far Cry VR made us feel like we were doing great, even though we actually scored 141st
Zombie: Outbreak Origins is pretty much a non-stop shootout between you and the undead. Far Cry VR, on the other hand, features storyline elements, where participants end up captured by Vaas and thrown into what looks like a world of hallucinations. The shooting remains the key component, but thanks to these intermissions, it makes the experience much more intriguing and also helps glue all the action scenes together.
Like many other LBEs, Zero Latency takes advantage of redirected walking, making users traverse the large-scale arena in redirected patterns while the action keeps moving onward in VR.
In my case, I found Far Cry VR to be rewarding and even thought-provoking, but Zombie: Outbreak Origins was fun as well, simply because you roam this big virtual world on foot, making the immersion so much more profound.
3. Divr Labs
Divr Labs was founded in 2016 and its arenas are currently available in three locations: Prague, London, and Stockholm. I had a chance to try their prehistoric adventure titled Meet the Dinosaurs, where you become a time-traveling scientist on a mission to collect some data from 80 million years ago.
What makes Divr Labs stand out is the graphical fidelity of their experiences. The prehistoric jungle, along with its inhabitants, feels high-quality and very realistic. Divr Labs decided to forgo props or guns, opting instead for hand tracking. As a result, everything feels very intuitive. There is no fighting or shooting and instead, participants are asked to gather as much data as possible in the form of specimens, plants, leaves, eggs, and so on. It’s a bit of a game of hidden items.
The story elements were pretty straightforward and there is no plot, other than you being a scientist from the future. Moreover, all the dinosaurs and environments remain true to our current understanding of the Mesozoic Era which makes the experience somewhat educational.
In my case, I really enjoyed the hand tracking aspect of the experience. I could move my hand past things like grass or leaves and the leaves would waggle accordingly. It felt convincing, even though my hands were not receiving any feedback. Collecting hidden items was done by opening my hand over various specimens, which triggered a download animation around my palm.
Towards the end, I had a face-to-face encounter with a T-Rex, plus a virtual photo as my scientist avatar before it was time to leave VR and off-board. I was also given their personal score based on the amount of data collected, which is a nice touch for those planning to go again.
Unfortunately, my experience wasn’t without hiccups. At some point, my hand tracking stopped working. Instead of focusing on the world around me, I anxiously waited for the issue to get fixed. Despite restarting tracking, the issue persisted, which left me without tasks to do and without any interactive elements. Online, some users complained they had missing audio and encountered other technical problems. These aren’t design issues as such, but suggest focus should be on quality assurance so that every experience is always great.
More to Come
Location-based entertainment is not limited to cinematic and gaming entertainment. There are museums, art exhibitions, and other truly amazing free-roaming LBE venues out there, such as the massive, over 1,150m2 (over 12,000 ft2) Space Explorers: The Infinite where participants get to spend one hour in a full-scale replica of the International Space Station.
In the coming years, LBE venues will continue to offer the most refined and sophisticated VR experiences available. They allow people to try virtual reality without the risk of the so-called ‘well-poisoning’, which is an insider term for when someone’s first experience with virtual reality is so inadequate that it effectively kills their interest forever. That was the argument often leveraged against very cheap cardboard and smartphone headsets.
Location-based entertainment is the opposite of that. You can say it sweetens the well by making people immediately aware of the potential of VR and making them curious about what else virtual reality has to offer. It serves as a great ambassador for the entire industry.
About the Guest Author(s)
Mat Pawluczuk
Mat Pawluczuk is an XR / VR writer and content creator.
While one report is not indicative of a trend, job growth, and low unemployment rates are positive indicators of a strong market. To keep up with this growth, businesses must implement solutions that streamline recruitment processes and facilitate faster onboarding.
According to David Chen, CTO and co-founder of a company that makes 3D cameras and depth sensors, Orbbec, VR training is going to be critical to the continued growth of the job market. We talked to him about the role VR training will play in the growing job market and how businesses can leverage this technology to their advantage.
The Role of VR Training in the Growing Job Market
VR training has gained popularity in the business world due to its ability to help new employees acquire skills quickly and efficiently. According to Chen, traditional training methods can be complex with multi-step operations, which are harder to remember and even dangerous in certain industries.
However, VR enables hands-on experiences that are safe and engaging. “VR enables hands-on experiences that risk neither raw materials, equipment nor personnel. Headsets and projectors give trainees real, immersive guidance on what to do, and what not to do,” Chen told us in a written interview. “Unexpected scenarios can be posed at will and because there is no incremental cost for repetition, skills are learned faster.”
In fact, a PwC study found that employee training can be up to four times faster when using VR courses rather than traditional classroom training. What takes two hours in a classroom setting can be learned within 30 minutes using VR.
Chen continues that compared to other emerging training technologies such as augmented reality and gamification, VR training provides a more holistic experience that combines hard and soft skills training. AR training may be more suitable for businesses looking to perform micro-training, focusing on one definable concept, idea, skill, object, or process. On the other hand, VR training puts trainees in a completely digital world, allowing for less repercussion in the physical space while learning a new task.
Honeywell, for instance, has been using VR training for years to train plant operators and field technicians. Its VR training simulator, the Immersive Field Simulator, generated skills retention that is twice as high as previous training methods, leading to a more engaging training program for younger generations of workers. Last year, the simulator was enhanced with new capabilities to meet a broader spectrum of training and development requirements.
Bank of America also launched a VR training program in 2021 to simulate client interactions and practice routine tasks. The pilot program reported that 97% of the employees who went through the simulations felt more comfortable performing their tasks afterward. Now, the VR program is being used by around 50,000 employees in nearly 4,300 financial centers across the country.
These and more examples show that VR training is proving to be a valuable tool in helping businesses train new employees quickly and efficiently while minimizing risk and increasing skills retention.
Challenges Businesses Face in Implementing VR Training
Implementing VR training in businesses is not without its challenges. According to Chen, content creation is one of the primary challenges businesses face when implementing the technology. “Some scenes can be very difficult to recreate in the virtual realm and not everything can be operated with a VR headset controller,” he explained.
Upfront costs can be another obstacle that business leaders have to overcome. One study by PwC shows that VR content initially requires up to 48% greater investment than classroom or e-learning courses.
To address the challenges businesses face when implementing VR training, Chen suggests that businesses consider the long-term benefits of the technology. They should also be aware of the advancements in VR technology, which have made it more affordable than before. By doing so, businesses can improve their training processes, save time and resources, and achieve a higher ROI.
How Businesses Can Implement VR Training
To successfully implement VR training, businesses should consider starting with a pilot program and selecting a platform with features tailored to their specific needs. “Testing VR training in small batches can help determine what jobs can best be improved upon with the use of VR and how these programs may need to be adjusted to fit participants’ specific needs,” Chen said.
As a 3D camera manufacturer, Orbbec offers necessary solutions that support VR training programs.
3D camera technology helps capture the real environment and quickly transfer it into VR content, providing a more realistic training experience without the need for a controller. By using solutions like this, companies can optimize their training processes and provide their employees with a more effective and engaging learning experience.
Indeed, the future of VR training looks promising, with new applications and use cases that are expected to emerge in various industries and continued advancements in processing power, rendering engines, and display technologies.
AWE USA 2023 goes completely carbon neutral by offsetting the carbon footprint of over 5,000 attendees heading to Santa Clara, California for the three-day event. This move is aligned with its primary mission of helping fight the greatest challenges humanity faces—including the effects of climate change.
Aside from taking a huge step in reducing its carbon footprint, AWE is also rallying the entire XR community to help save the earth. Read on to find out all the awesome offerings the upcoming event has in store for everyone.
Smaller Footprints for a Sustainable Future
Being the largest XR community, AWE draws thousands of people from around the world to all its events. Expecting over 5,000 attendees and more than 300 exhibitors at this year’s conference, AWE is taking giant steps to reduce its carbon footprint.
The venue itself, Santa Clara Convention Center, harnesses renewable power through wind and solar energy. To minimize the use of transport during the conference, parties outside the convention center will be hosted at venues within walking distance.
To limit printed materials, digital signage and apps will be used when possible. Necessary printed materials, such as sign boards and name tags, will be made from recyclable or biodegradable materials. Reusable or compostable food service items were also requested for the catering services. Aside from these sustainability efforts, AWE is also working with Terrapass.
Carbon Offset Verified by Terrapass
Terrapass is a social enterprise dedicated to fighting climate change by helping individuals and organizations eliminate greenhouse gases, harness renewable energy, and offset carbon footprint. To maintain carbon neutrality, AWE leverages the advanced platform of Terrapass and follows its “calculate, reduce, and offset” model.
For the AWE USA 2023 conference in California, more than 5.5 million miles of attendee air travel and over 100,000 kWh of electricity are estimated to contribute to AWE’s carbon footprint. These are compounded by wastes from venue use, shipping, ground transportation, hotels, paper, water bottles, meals, and many more.
To neutralize the carbon emissions from all these, AWE is funding a total of 1,238 metric tons of carbon offsets from verified green tech, reforestation, and carbon reduction projects by Terrapass.
According to Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE, “No one can argue the horrific effects carbon dioxide waste has inflicted on our planet’s ecosystem – we firmly believe there is no greater challenge today, and as such we have committed to do all that we can to leverage our platform and community in service of fighting climate change.”
XR Community Pools Environmental Prize of Around $100K
Rallying the XR community worldwide to fight climate change, AWE organized a global competition that seeks to motivate tech teams to develop XR-powered solutions that would combat climate change. The $100K environmental prize for this competition comes from the XR community itself, leading tech companies, and professional organizations.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) supports the XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change by donating an additional cash incentive. According to its President Yu Yuan, “By contributing $10,000 as a cash award to best-in-category solutions, we celebrate the great work of all the XR Prize teams and encourage further XR innovation in this necessary fight.”
NVIDIA is also contributing NVIDIA RT A6000 graphics cards to the prize pool. Greg Jones, Director of Product and Business Development for XR at NVIDIA, says that these graphics cards will provide the necessary computing power for contest winners to continue their work on groundbreaking XR solutions that can help address the effects of climate change.
There are currently 150 corporate teams, educational institutions, and individuals vying for the prizes. The $100,000 cash prize will be awarded to the best submission displaying a functional yet creative and impactful XR-based solution that would help humanity fight climate change.
Register for AWE USA 2023
AWE USA 2023 will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California from May 31 to June 2. There will be more than 400 speakers sharing the most exciting news and developments in the XR industry. This conference gives tech enthusiasts a great opportunity to grow their network, learn from tech leaders, and gain access to the latest tech innovations.
As a media partner, ARPost offers its readers a 20% discount with the code 23ARPOSTD. We are also organizing a ticket giveaway to reward our newsletter subscribers with two free AWE USA 2023 tickets. On May 3, we’ll send an email to all our subscribers and the first 2 who reply will get a free ticket. If you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here.
If the avalanche of recent reports can indicate anything at all, it seems Apple is entering the VR/AR headset market fairly soon, bringing along with it the most inflated expectations the industry has ever seen. It’s probably going to be expensive, but whether it flops or becomes a big hit, the mere existence of Apple in the space is set to change a lot about how things are done.
The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone. That award goes to an obscure PDA device called the IBM Simon, released in limited numbers in 1994. The Apple Watch wasn’t the first smartwatch either. That was debatably the Seiko Raputer, which was released in 1998 in Japan. Its monochrome LCD wasn’t capable of touch, instead offering up a tiny eight-direction joystick and six function buttons to browse files, play games, and set calendar appointments. Similarly, iPad wasn’t the first tablet. Mac wasn’t the first home computer. iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. But all of these products have become nothing short of iconic. There’s very little benefit to being first, at least as far as Apple is concerned.
And while it seems the company’s first mixed reality headset could finally debut at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, like all of its other products, it won’t be the first MR headset. Just the same, like everything else the fruit company makes, it’s going to be the one everyone is talking about—for better or worse.
In case you haven’t noticed, Apple is a big deal. It has an ecosystem of products which connect to each other, design-forward hardware that has helped it maintain brand name cache, and a philosophy that puts user-friendliness at the core of its software experience. Oh, and it’s the most valuable company in the world.
And while the irrational exuberance for successive device generations has mostly petered out since its heydays in the early 2000s, reducing its famed long-line launch extravaganzas to more chill online pre-order releases, becoming an Apple apostate is still unthinkable to many. Once you’re in, you’re in. You buy the phone, the laptop, the headphones, and now, maybe you’ll get the newfangled headset too. Maybe. Let’s put aside the rumors for now. Forget about the spec breakdowns, hardware design leaks, software capabilities, etc. There are plenty of them out there, and you can read about those here. The only thing we know for sure is Apple is… well… Apple. Here’s what you, and probably everyone else is expecting.
Apple’s BKC Store in Mumbai, India | Image courtesy Apple
For Better: What Should Happen
Unless the company is making a drastic departure here, its first mixed reality headset should be built with this same level of user friendliness as all of its other devices, which means it should connect to the Apple ecosystem easily, and have a simple and intuitive UI. Log in with Apple ID. No muss, no fuss (whatever ‘muss’ is). Privacy should be a giant focus for the headset from the outset, since it will almost certainly pack eye-tracking in addition to a host of cameras to get a glimpse of the inside of your immediate surroundings, messiness and all. Apple has its fair share of data collection scandals, yet it seems to inspire enough confidence for privacy to be a big historical selling point for all of its devices.
If you want to avoid drawing the ire of tech reviewers everywhere though, wearing it should be fairly simple and very comfortable, and the experiences within should be of high enough value to overcome that inherent friction of charging it, putting it on, setting up a tracking volume, and wearing it for extended periods of time—everything we expect from any mixed reality headset at this point. It should fit most people, and offer up a clear picture to people with heads and eyes of all shapes and sizes.
Meta Quest Pro | Image courtesy Meta
An obvious analogue here is Meta Quest Pro, which is relatively low friction, but things like a halo strap that forces too much weight on your brow, or a passthrough that’s just a little too grainy, or a display that doesn’t have a high enough pixel per degree (ppd) for staring at text—all of these things make it less appealing to users in the day-to-day, introducing what you might call accumulative friction. You use it a bunch at first until you figure out all of the niggles, at which point you may revert to traditional computing standards like using a laptop or smartphone. The thing isn’t really the all-purpose device you hoped it would be, and the company thinks twice about when to send the better, more improved version down the pipeline.
One would hope that Apple’s headset, on the other hand, should have a mature design language and have obviously useful features from day one. While there’s bound to be some stutters, like with the first Apple Watch, which was critiqued for its slow software, short battery life, and lack of customization, it should all be there, and not require a ton of feature updates to enhance after the big launch day.
It should sell well out of the gate—at least by the standards of the existing XR industry—even if everything isn’t perfect. And it should be so cool that it’s copied. Like a lot. And it should drag top-level studios into the XR scene to start making innovative and useful apps that aren’t just straight ports of ARkit or ARcore apps made for mobile, but things people need and want to use in-headset. A big win from Apple should not only spur its new mixed reality product category, but kick off a buzz among developers, which would include those who currently work in the XR industry and Apple’s existing cohort of dedicated iOS developers.
But more than merely being the latest shiny new headset within the existing XR industry, Apple’s entrance into the field has a real chance of radically expanding the industry itself, by showing that the world’s most iconic tech company now thinks the medium is worth pursuing. That’s the way it happened when Apple jumped into MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, wireless earbuds, and more.
As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. The inverse is also true though….
For Worse: What Could Happen
Apple’s headset is reportedly (okay, maybe just one rumor) priced somewhere near $3,000, so it probably won’t be the sort of accessory that initially attracts people to the ecosystem; that would be the job of a peripheral like Apple Watch. It will likely rely on the pool of built-in Apple users. Despite the price, the first iteration very likely won’t offer the sort of power you’d expect from a workhorse like Apple MacBook Pro either.
At the outset, any sustained draw from prosumers will invariably hinge on how well it can manage general computing tasks, like you might have with an iPad or MacBook, and everything else current mixed reality headset should do too, namely VR and AR stuff. That includes a large swath of things like fitness apps, both AR and VR games and experiences, productivity apps, standard work apps, everything. Basically, it has to be the Quest Pro that Meta wanted to release but didn’t.
AR turn-by-turn directions on an iPhone | Image courtesy Apple
And if not, it leaves Apple in a pretty precarious situation. If their headset can’t find a proper foothold within its ecosystem and attract enough users, it could lead to low adoption rates and a lack of interest in the technology as a whole. Mixed reality is largely seen as valuable steppingstone to what many consider the true moneymaker: all-day AR glasses. And despite some very glassses-shaped AR headsets out there, we’re still not there yet. Even if Apple is willing to take a hit with a bulky device in service of pushing use cases for its AR glasses yet to come, the short term may not look very bright.
And perhaps most importantly for the industry as a whole are the (metaphorical) optics.
After all, if the iconic Apple can’t manage to make MR something that everybody wants, the rest of the world watching from the sidelines may think the concept just can’t be conquered. In turn, it may mean capital investment in the space will dry up until ‘real’ AR headsets are a thing—the all-day glasses that will let you play Pokémon Go in the park, do turn-by-turn directions, and remind you the name of that person you met last week. The steppingstone of mixed reality may get waterlogged. Those are a lot of ifs, coulds, shoulds, and won’ts though. The only thing truly certain is we’re in for a very interesting few months, which you can of course follow at Road to VR.
Apple’s entrance into XR has the potential to expand the industry by demonstrating its viability, just as Apple has done with previous technologies. It stands a good chance at carving out a sizeable claim in the space, but it’s a gamble that could equally backfire if both sales and public perception aren’t on their side.
Is Apple’s XR headset going to be the “one more thing?” we’ve all been waiting for at WWDC this year? Will it live up to the Apple name, or be an expensive dev kit? Let us know in the comments below!
Esports fans are in for a new experience at the Virtex Stadium. Aside from EchoVR, users can now watch live gameplays of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2.
Virtex has partnered with Skybox Technologies to bring this unique spectator experience to gaming enthusiasts. With Counter-Strike as the first significant esports title at the Virtex Stadium, the virtual esports fan base on the platform is bound to grow faster.
An Immersive Experience for Counter-Strike Gamers and Fans
Following the launch of the Echo VR title on the platform, Counter-Strike allows fans to enjoy more top-level gameplay. “As the third most watched esport last year, CS: GO already has an enormous following, and we’re excited to be working with Skybox to deliver a 360° spectating experience unique to every fan,” said Virtex CEO and co-founder, Tim Mcguinness, in a press release shared with ARPost.
Using their desktop and compatible VR headsets, users enter the Virtex Stadium, which is still in closed beta, where they can watch live gameplays recreated in 3D. They can customize their Ready Player Me avatars, meet other fans in the lobby, and enter the virtual arena. They can sit on the stadium seats to watch gameplay in full view or immerse themselves in the battle by diving into the map.
They can see opening duels, site retakes, and clutches up close. Dynamic map controls allow them to maneuver easily and spectate at any site they want. The epic virtual effects and sounds create a deep 3D spectator experience that’s like no other.
Collaborating to Make Fan Experiences More Meaningful
Virtex, a London-based software development company, has been at the forefront of esports. Its Virtex Stadium provides sports and gaming enthusiasts with an innovative VR platform where they can experience esports at a whole new level.
Founded in 2020, Virtex brings together the expertise of tech entrepreneur Christoph Ortlepp and seasoned VR player Tim Mcguinness. Sharing a vision to redefine the esports fan experience, they are collaborating with partners across the tech and esports space to bolster the capabilities of the Virtex Stadium.
In the past year, the company worked with Skybox Technologies to integrate Counter-Strike maps into the virtual stadium. A provider of spectator and analysis solutions, Skybox helps ensure that in-game models, key modes, and spectator tools are functioning smoothly at the Virtex Stadium.
It provides real-time data and 3D game recreations that allow users to view Counter-Strike gameplay from every angle. It also ensures that map control and all gameplay features work seamlessly to make the 3D viewing experience more enjoyable.
According to Ethan Cooper, CEO of Skybox Technologies, Virtex has done an outstanding job at building out the Virtex Stadium. “We are proud that via the Skybox and Virtex partnership, fans can soon experience live Counter-Strike in a whole new way. It’s an exciting time for our respective companies, and we are looking forward to continuing our partnership with additional game titles and new experiences,” he said.
This collaboration paves the way for more meaningful fan experiences across the globe. Fans can dive into the map and watch the players they follow in action. They can explore different areas during the matches or meet other fans in virtual hangout spaces.
More to Come From The Growing Virtex Community
The partnership between Virtex and Skybox has just begun. Through their continued collaboration, we can expect more tournaments and esports titles at the Virtex Stadium in the next few months. Virtex is also pitching to more partners to widen its offerings and make the platform even more engaging. It wants to collaborate with tournament organizers, teams that want dedicated stadiums for their fans, and brands that want to run activations on virtual platforms.
A die-hard esports fan, Tim Mcguinness is eager to announce more upcoming tournaments they are set to feature in the Virtex Stadium. But, for now, fans can enjoy the closed beta program and be among the first to experience this virtual esports stadium.
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is a new VR game from Maze Theory inspired by the popular period crime drama. I’m reporting from a virtually reconstructed Garrison pub, so confess – Jon and ARPost are listening.
This review covers major game elements (avoiding juicy spoilers), how VR is implemented, and some ethical considerations. After all, if you’re familiar with Peaky Blinders, you know that some of the content can be pretty challenging – particularly in VR. I almost didn’t want to play it, and ARPost almost didn’t want to cover it.
Welcome to The Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom takes place during season five. If you aren’t to that point there’s at least one spoiler. Fortunately, the events of the game don’t have a lot to do with the events of the show, so if you aren’t a fan of the show you can still enjoy the game – just not as much.
A lot of the game felt like fan service. I happen to be a fan of the Peaky Blinders TV show, so I appreciated it. From “Red Right Hand” playing as I walked down Garrison Lane to the bottomless pack of cigarettes in your inventory, some more stylized elements of the game might only feel right if you’re familiar with the show.
In the game, you play a war vet working with the Peaky Blinders in hopes that they will clear your criminal record. Your aunt, an NPC in the game, is a family friend of the Shelbys and a good word from Arthur got you in. Tommy tests your loyalty by asking you to shoot a hooded man in the Garrison about 10 minutes into the game, so things move pretty fast.
You’re tasked with finding one of the Peaky Blinders who went missing on the trail of Winston Churchhill’s stolen dispatch box. This sends you to Limehouse, a majority Chinese neighborhood in East London.
There, you find yourself in a serial killer’s crime scene. I was hoping that this would turn into an investigation like the “Blood on the Ice” quest in Skyrim, but you find out pretty quickly that the serial killer happens to be the rival gang leader with the dispatch box.
Gameplay
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is rated “comfortable” with options to play sitting or roomscale. Analog sticks enable snap turns, though you can also do this by turning your head or your whole body in roomscale.
They also control movement, including crouching, walking, or teleporting. I played most of the game walking, but sometimes you need to teleport to jump. Using teleport to move from cover to cover during a firefight can also be handy. Some items in the environment appear lighter when you can interact with them, for example, crates that you can move out of your way.
I did get a little sick playing the game but if you read my reviews you know that I’m particularly susceptible to VR motion sickness, so I blame my physiology and play style before I blame the developers in most cases.
One of the cooler elements of the game was that your character doesn’t speak. NPCs just accept this as a quirk. You don’t have to hear someone else’s voice coming out of your head, but it also avoids dialogue options – you respond with your actions.
Items and Interactions
A guide to the controls looked intimidating but the controls are very intuitive. Your inventory is arranged around your field of view. Reach over your shoulder and grab to get your journal, reach down and grab to get your gun, reach left and grab to get a cigarette, and reach right and grab to get your lighter.
Your lighter is handy for lighting endless cigarettes, but you also use it to do things like light lamps that help you navigate some of the darker scenes in the game. You also defuse bombs, rebuild radios, open a safe, and uncork bottles of gin.
Drinking and smoking don’t impact gameplay. I think it might’ve been cool if smoking slowed down time or drinking made you less susceptible to injury, but they’re just props. You can also find vials of “Tokyo” (that’s “cocaine” in Peaky Blinders lingo) but they’re just collectible easter eggs.
One of the most common item interactions is reloading your 1911 semi-automatic pistol (sorry Peaky Blinders, no Webleys). This involves loading a clip into the bottom of the gun.
There’s no believable way to hold the gun with two hands because of the controllers and because Peaky Blinders are too cool for stable shooting stances, but you can pass the gun from hand to hand to shoot around cover. You can’t carry extra clips, so you have to look for ammunition boxes in the levels. Count rounds if you want, but I just reloaded whenever I could.
One forced story interaction involves your gun being empty no matter how many rounds you should logically have left in the clip when you enter the interaction, so keeping count just kind of frustrated me. Or, maybe the gun jammed because you have a 1911 instead of a Webley.
Navigating Environments
The environments were the biggest draw for me buying this game. I’m a fan of Peaky Blinders largely because of the settings. Being able to explore faithful reconstructions of some of the iconic locations of the show really scratched an itch for me and the game’s original locations feel authentic and well-developed too. Major playable locations include:
Garrison Lane including The Garrison and a garage;
Watery Lane including The Shelby Betting Shop and Polly Shelby’s apartment;
Charlie Strong’s Boatyard;
Limehouse, including a boatyard, a neighborhood, and a rival gang’s operation.
The game never tells you about lighter items being movable, so my first major navigation snag was wandering around an alleyway until I realized I could move a crate blocking my way. One level in Limehouse is also needlessly tricky. I think it was trying to incorporate some puzzle elements, but it didn’t really land for me.
Later in the game, you fight your way out of a burning building while carrying the dispatch box. This level brought all of the game’s control mechanics into play beautifully. You have to teleport to jump over holes in the floor, balance as you walk over beams, and put down the dispatch box to reload.
Finding collectible easter eggs in the game often involves finding tools in the environment to smash open crates. Some of the levels have dysfunctioning radios. Finding the parts, plugging them in, and tuning the radio unlocks radio programs that give you additional context about the level.
After beating the game, the levels remain explorable. I found at least one area that either wasn’t available during story play or I didn’t find the first time around. Either way, there’s a lot to explore.
I Killed a Man in VR Because Tommy Shelby Told Me To
I had reservations about this game. Until now, the most violent thing I’d ever done in VR was knock someone out in Thrill of the Fight. There were situations in this game that made me uncomfortable but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.
For one thing, the character animation didn’t blow me away (I was playing on Quest 2, not PC). Sets and items look great but people in the game leave a little to be desired. Further, the violence isn’t terribly graphic. A cartoony blood burst lets you know you hit someone but it isn’t gory. And, all of the violence that you perpetrate is done at a distance, which I think helps.
Most of the times that I did feel uncomfortable, it wasn’t because of graphical believability or a feeling of embodiment. It was because the writing of the game successfully made me ask myself questions about what I was doing and why.
In one sequence, your character is tied to a chair so you can look around and see your bound hands, which is a little unnerving (you can’t see your body, which is unnerving for a different reason). I don’t know if it was a predictable point in the game or my deep trust in the Peaky Blinders, but I wasn’t afraid at this point – I knew someone would come just in time.
I still think that we should be careful about how and why violence is used in virtual reality entertainment. As far as this game goes, I think that restraint on the part of the developers helped to balance violence as a plot device without going over the top.
Final Thoughts
I was pleased to see that Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom only costs $30, but that also meant that I wasn’t too let down that it’s only about three-and-a-half hours of gameplay. The game has already been updated since it was released, so fans can hope for more to come.
Snap’s annual Partner Summit is the company’s opportunity to showcase its working relationship with other brands. That includes the experiences that come out of those partnerships, as well as the hardware and software updates that drive them. The event covered a lot of ground but we’ll be looking specifically at AR-related updates and announcements.
Some of the announcements are already available for Snapchatters to explore, while others are coming soon. Even the parts of the summit that may seem boring for the average end users help to understand where the platform is going in the coming months and years. And this year’s event is extra special because it was held in person for the first time since 2019.
Snap Map and Bitmoji Features
Bitmojis, the 3D avatars used by Snapchatters for their profiles as well as in games and messages, is constantly expanding, including through new virtual fashion partnerships and this year is no different.
Digital fashions inspired by the Marvel Cinematic universe will be available soon. The avatar system itself will also be updating to allow for “realistic dimensions, shading, and lighting,” according to Vice President of Product Jack Brody.
“Bitmoji style has changed quite a bit, and they continue to evolve,” said Brody.
Jack Brody showing 3D Snap Map
Brody also announced that the Snap Map is getting more updates, including more 3D locations and tags to help users find popular locations from their Snapchat communities. Users who access the app with Verizon +Play will also be getting new options for games and puzzles in calls with Snapchat’s connected lenses.
Camera Kit Integrations
Snap’s Head of Global AR Product Strategy and Product Marketing Carolina Arguelles Navas took to the stage to talk about recent and upcoming partnerships, including some that affect apps and experiences outside of Snapchat itself through its Camera Kit offering.
For example, Snap lenses can now be used in Microsoft Teams and in the NFL app. LA Rams’ SoFi Stadium even uses Snap Lenses on their Infinity Screen to show the audience with augmented reality effects.
Navas also discussed Snap’s ongoing partnership with Live Nation, bringing custom AR lenses to over a dozen concerts this year including Lollapalooza in Paris and The Governor’s Ball in New York. She also announced a new partnership with Disguise, a company that specializes in real-time interactive visuals for live events.
Snap is also partnering with individual artists. The first to be announced is KYGO, a DJ, with more artist partnerships to be announced throughout the year.
More Opportunities for Brands
Until now, Camera Kit has been the main way that other companies were able to use Snap’s technology. However, Jill Popelka announced a new division, Augmented Reality Enterprise Services (ARES), of which she is the head.
“We all know the shopping experience today, whether online or in-store, presents a lot of options,” said Popelka. “We’ve already seen how our AR advancements can benefit shoppers and partners.”
The “AR-as-a-Service” model currently consists of two main offerings. Shopping Suite brings together Snap’s virtual try-on and sizing recommendation solutions, while the Enterprise Manager helps companies keep track of their activations including through analytics.
Popelka also announced a new “Live Garment” feature that generates a wearable 3D garment from a 2D photo of a garment uploaded into a lens.
Commercial Hardware
Popelka also introduced two new hardware offerings from Snap to commercial partners – AR mirrors and AR-enabled vending machine.
AR mirrors are already making their way into clothing stores to make virtual try-on even easier for shoppers, including those who don’t have Snapchat. Some partners have even experimented with incorporating AR games that shoppers can play to unlock in-store rewards. Retailers are also using the opportunity specifically to engage with younger audiences.
Jill Popelka showing AR mirrors
Snap currently has its AR mirror in a Men’s Wearhouse store.
“[Men’s Wearhouse is] proud to launch digital partnerships and store innovations specifically geared toward how high school students want to shop and prepare for prom,” Tailored Brands President John Tighe said in a release shared with ARPost. “We are excited to offer these younger customers experiences in-store and online to make the shopping experience easier. Everyone deserves to look and feel their best on prom night.”
Snap also partnered with Coca-Cola to create a prototype of an AR vending machine controlled with hand gestures displayed on a screen.
It might be a while before you see either of these devices in a store near you, but keep an eye out all the same.
App Updates
The standard app is getting some AR updates too, mainly related to the company’s work with AI. When Snapchatters capture a photo or video, the app will recommend lenses that might match the scene. AI will also recommend lenses for reacting to Snapchat memories and produce a new generation of lenses available to users.
Keep Exploring Snapchat
There really was a lot in the Partner Summit that wasn’t detailed here. So, if you use Snapchat for more than just AR, keep checking into the app to see even more changes coming in the next few months.
True crime has become a national pastime. From documentaries and dramatized biopics to endless podcasts and YouTube channels, folks can’t get enough of diving into real-life murders and missing person cases – some solved, some apparently never to be solved. And now, you can explore a new file of cases in augmented reality with CrimeTrip.
Taking a CrimeTrip
CrimeTrip is a true crime AR game for iOS and Android from developer studio Prologue. The experience, viewed and navigated entirely through a mobile phone, puts you in the middle of painstakingly reproduced crime scenes from six unsolved crimes from the seventies and eighties including heists, mob hits, and more. Three are available now, with three coming soon.
The app download is free, but, after playing through a free “prologue” and tutorial, you have the option to buy an individual story for $3.99, or bundles of stories going up to the complete game for $12.99. According to the app, this allows the platform to be supported entirely ad-free.
Hands-On the Game
If you have enough open space, you can navigate within the game by walking to some degree. However, the game worlds are big enough that no matter how big and clean your living room is you’ll have to use the on-screen controls eventually. (My biggest issue with the game was accidentally holding my phone in a way that covered the camera and lost my tracking.)
CrimeTrip is split between crime scenes and a pretty expansive police department office. The office includes resources that you will need to dive into the case, including the cork board where you put it all together.
“[CrimeTrip] revisits the podcast genre, following non-linear routes, constantly shifting between the present and the past,” Prologue founder and creative director Jonathan Rouxel said in a Medium post. “Designers elevate the status of the audience who is no longer perceived as a community of passive listeners but as active participants.”
On-screen controls don’t do all the work. Sometimes the best way to view a scene or the only way to find an item is by physically getting on your hands and knees. A good portion of the game might be “played” on the various online communities as you compare notes with other true crime enthusiasts.
While scenes and clues are accurately created with great detail, the characters and events in the stories appear as luminous point clouds – so there’s no unsettling blood and gore to deal with. The cheeky, fourth-wall-breaking game narration should be amusing to true crime enthusiasts and not too stressful for people new to the genre.
A Careful Handling of a Touchy Subject
True crime is a sensitive subject – and people can be very sensitive to it. Stories can be emotionally challenging to hear and research, and living people are sometimes affected by true crime commentators jumping on a story still in development. CrimeTrip avoids both of these problems in two important ways.
First, the graphical style and the narration style of the game keep things from being too heavy. We saw a similar approach with USA Today’s Accused experience last year. Second, the cases in this experience are old enough that all of the suspects have passed away so players can enjoy the puzzling stories without stressing the impact on survivors too much.
The fact that the cases are so old and so cold helps add allure to the game as well. There are no bad guys left to catch so it’s okay that even AR-enabled sleuths aren’t able to conclusively agree on whodunit. In ongoing cases, it would be great if the culprit could be caught and taken off the streets. But these forty and fifty-year-old tales can remain unfinished puzzles forever.
Check it Out if You Dare
So, is CrimeTrip worth your money? Check it out. The free app includes free previews to all available episodes – and that’s not just gameplay videos, you get to play the game. Still not sure? You can buy the cases one at a time. So, if you’re even remotely interested in true crime, it can’t hurt to check out.
Virbela has grown a lot over time but they’ve had the same avatar system for nearly a decade. If you open the app today, you’ll see a whole new avatar system. As impressive as it is, it might still have some growing to do.
Long in the Making
Virbela is a platform for remote work, education, and events. The platform consists of an open campus that anyone can download and use for free, and private campuses co-created with clients.
There was nothing wrong with the old campus, but it got a whole lot of new features as well as a beautiful graphics upgrade showcased at the Hands In Enterprise Metaverse Summit last year. An upcoming avatar system was teased at the summit, but no release date was given.
“Avatars are important to the virtual experience because they add fidelity to the world,” Virbela Art Team Manager Nicole Galinato said at the event. “Our users love the playfulness of the current avatars, but they want more features that they can identify with.”
Since the summit, the old avatars roamed the new world. It wasn’t a glaring mismatch, but the avatars were definitely from a different generation. The new avatars certainly fit into the graphically updated virtual world a lot better.
Old avatar (left) vs new avatar (right)
The New You for the New Virbela
The next time that you boot up Virbela, whether you’re a first-time user or just returning after a while, you will be greeted by the first page of the new avatar generator. Just like with the old system, you can join immediately with a default avatar and personalize it later if you want. If you’re not in that much of a hurry, you have a lot of playing to do.
You select one of three “body types” rather than gender, so all clothing and cosmetic options are open to all users. There’s also a custom gradient for specific skin tones and a number of features have an “advanced settings” button that opens up menus of highly customizable sliders. The update also brings several more hair and facial hair options.
“What really pushed us to create this new avatar system was more about this idea of inclusion and equity,” Virbela co-founder and President Alex Howland told me on the XR Talks podcast. “We are working with a very global population of users and we know the importance of the avatar for people to express themselves and explore their identity through their avatar.”
The update also brings new clothing options and customizations. Many outfits consist of a “top” and a “bottom,” with the top consisting of several layers each with their own color combinations, similar to the system that AltspaceVR used (RIP Altspace). I went with the three-piece suite, which means color options for the jacket, vest, and shirt. (Neckties are under “Accessories”.)
“We also wanted much more variability in terms of the ability to customize the avatar because we sometimes have populations of many thousands in the same space and you’d find too many avatars that looked too similar to one another,” said Howland.
Even after you’ve toured your new avatar through the campus, you can change it at any time by selecting the gear icon in the upper right corner to open the settings dropdown menu and selecting the “change avatar” item at the top. And do keep checking back. According to Howland, more is coming.
“This is what I’ll call the [minimal viable product] of this new system. It’s a system that we can build upon and continue to add assets to, whether that be more hairstyles, more clothing options, more cultural garb, that folks can use over time – eventually leading to things like more facial expressions,” said Howland.
The Complete Package
To return to Galinato’s concept that the avatars contribute to the immersion of the world itself, the more detailed and more personal avatars do seem more at home in the more detailed and responsive Virbela campus. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to attend a large event with the new avatars, but I’m sure that they’ll be a lot more colorful now.
After the COVID-19 pandemic made most event organizers cancel their live AR/VR events or host them virtually, in the past year more and more live events are making a comeback. Even the immersive industry needs a real-life environment to discover gadgets and try AR/VR content.
And we will tell you exactly where you should go if you want to try the most exciting discoveries and devices. Also, we know that if you work in this industry, you should not miss these AR/VR events, either. You have the great opportunity to network with peers or even discover new business or employment opportunities.
The Most Relevant AR/VR Events in 2023 You Should Not Miss
Here are some of the most important AR/VR events that are taking place until the end of this year.
1. AWE USA 2023
When: May 31 – June 2
Where: Santa Clara, CA, US; and virtual
Late spring/early summer is a great time to be in California. This year, it is made even better by one of the top AR/VR events: AWE USA. This is one of the most comprehensive fairs for professionals, stakeholders, and tech enthusiasts focused on immersive technologies.
They will be able to test various gadgets, discover content trends, and attend insightful keynote presentations. Attendees will be able to hear from a vast number of XR professionals, such as Peggy Johnson (the CEO of Magic Leap), Hugo Swat (Vice-President and General Manager of XR at Qualcomm), Chi Xu (CEO of Nreal), Elizabeth Hyman (CEO of XR Association), John Riccitiello (CEO of Unity), Kavya Pearlman (Founder & CEO of XR Safety Initiative), and many more.
For those who can’t attend in person, there’s also the option to access some parts of the event online through the awe.live platform.
As AWE USA 2023 media partner, ARPost offers its readers a 20% discount code. Use the code 23ARPOSTD during registration.
2. XR Expo 2023
When: June 15-16
Where: Stuttgart, Germany
If you happen to be in Germany this summer for business, you can also put aside two days to attend XR Expo 2023. This B2B event will bring together industry users, technology providers, content service providers, and XR researchers, and will focus on professional applications of extended reality technologies in health, industry, architecture, and trade and craft.
Right now, registration for XR Expo 2023 is open, but the event’s program is still under development.
3. Enterprise Metaverse Summit
When: June 28-29
Where: London, UK; and virtual
Another AR/VR event taking place in Europe, Enterprise Metaverse Summit is hosted by the British weekly newspaper The Economist. The event audience includes senior executives focused on XR, automation, IoT, 5G, the future of work, AI, machine learning, and edge computing.
This year’s event will cover a vast number of topics, from how the metaverse is expected to replace or improve human experiences at work, and how VR is making surgeries safer, to how the metaverse can help businesses become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint, and the benefits of VR as an engine to catalyze diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Attendees will be able to hear from speakers such as Meta Reality Labs’ VP Christine Trodella, Wallart’s Head of 3D Creative Technology Cynthia Maller, MetaVRse co-founder Alan Smithson, and EndeavorXR founder and CEO Amy Peck.
For all those who cannot attend, the event organizers offer a free virtual pass for full access to all virtual sessions on the first day of the event.
4. XR:WA
When: July 20-23
Where: Perth, Western Australia
Australian winter is mild compared to the summer heat in many parts of the US, so it’s a great moment to attend one of the best AR/VR events of the year. XR:WA is for everyone, from those curious to try immersive experiences for the first time to seasoned professionals.
The event aims to discuss the impact and opportunities for XR across a number of industries including architecture, design, medicine, education, training, science, art, and entertainment.
Back for its fifth edition, the event activities include talks, panels, various AR and VR experiences, workshops, a trade floor, and exhibition.
5. Industrial IMMERSIVE Week
When: August 28-30
Where: Houston, TX
Industrial IMMERSIVE Week is one of the AR/VR events for professionals interested in XR, spatial computing, digital twins, AI, IIoT, 5G, 3D models and simulations, and connected workforce solutions.
Touted as the event “where industry goes for real-world use cases, best practices and emerging tech for your enterprise to launch, pilot and deploy metaverse programs,” Industrial IMMERSIVE Week is intended for professionals from diverse industries, including manufacturing, construction, oil and gas, engineering, mining, automotive, aerospace, and logistics.
From C-suite leaders, to department leaders and professionals, Industrial IMMERSIVE Week brings together seasoned specialists and decision-makers. Some of the most important Fortune 500 companies will be represented at the event, including Boeing, Canon, Shell, Amazon, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
6. Augmented Enterprise Summit
When: October 24-26
Where: Houston, TX; virtual
As its name suggests, this AR/VR event is aimed at enterprises. Augmented Enterprise Summit is dedicated to the business and industrial applications of XR and other metaverse-related emerging technologies.
This year, the event boasts an impressive line-up of speakers including NASA’s Simulation and Graphics Capabilities Manager Angelica Garcia, CocaCola’s Director of Technical Training and Development Michael Whatley, Airbus Head of Augmented Worker Product Andreas Oeder, and Amazon Web Services Principal Spatial Computing Solutions Architect Kurt Scheuringer.
Among the sponsors and exhibitors, you can find a number of XR companies such as Mytaverse, RealWear, Strivr, and Vuzix.
Aside from more than a thousand expected attendees, the 10th Augmented Enterprise Summit will also feature over 50 exhibitors and sponsors, and more than 50 educational sessions.
The event also offers a virtual pass, with access to a virtual event app, digital exhibitor zone, exclusive post-event resources, and all sessions and on-demand recordings. As Augmented Enterprise Summit media partner, we can offer our readers 15% off for event tickets with the code arpost15.
The problem with today’s AR content creation platforms is that their output is usually suitable for powerful phones. But many consumers use older or budget smartphones. And they deserve to enjoy AR experiences as well. With this idea in mind, DEVAR prepares to launch the first neural network for AR content creation for augmented reality projects adapted to all devices.
The Latest Mission of DEVAR: Creating AR Content for Everyone
Big brands and gaming corporations hire experienced designers and developers to create their AR content. And they usually target consumers with new flagship phones. When someone with an older or budget model tries to install top AR apps and games, they find that they are either incompatible with their phone or they won’t run properly.
The Generative AR Platform featuring a neural network for AR will change that. Every content creator can generate 3D objects, without having to figure out all the technical detail. Moreover, these objects will be optimized for any kind of devices, including older and entry-level models.
Key Advantages of DEVAR’s Neural Network for AR
The new platform for creating AR content has several advantages that will likely attract a large number of users. First of all, the platform includes DEVAR’s no-code platform MyWebAR. Launched in 2021, this service allows users to create AR content for web (WebAR) – which can be displayed directly in a web browser, without the need to install an app.
Also, the neural network for AR will calculate all the necessary parameters for creating the 3D objects, including the number of polygons, the presence of textures, and the correct topology.
An experienced designer would need several hours to determine these parameters. The Generative AR Platform performs the computations in seconds.
Finally, the 3D objects generated by the neural network for AR can be used in two ways: as AR content and as markers.
Making AR Creation Simpler Will Increase Adoption Rate Among All Industries
AR is already in use in various fields, but more aspects of our life and work can benefit from it. But the problem is that it is still new territory, and experienced designers are very expensive to hire.
DEVAR plans to solve this issue. “Professional studios usually have no problem with creating new characters for AR – they have 3D artists, designers, and animators on staff to do this,” said the company founder and CTO, Andrei Komissarov, in a press release. “But according to the data of our no-code platform MyWebAR, 60% of users have no experience creating AR. One of the main issues that becomes a barrier to their entry into the industry is the creation of 3D assets.”
Apart from the neural network for AR, the Generative AR Platform offers users a large library containing thousands of 2D and 3D objects they can use to create their own content.
