The VRLA Winter Expo kicked off this weekend at the LA Convention Center and boy was there a lot to demo. Even with the expo running some 6-7 hours during the second half of the day, there wasn’t enough time to see it all.
With an entire hall dedicated to VR exhibitors and a floor of conference rooms for some 14 different panels, attendees shuffled back and forth between demos and panels that ranged from industry discussions like “Interaction and Motion Controllers” to “Attracting VCs & Scaling Businesses”.
Thousands of attendees came out again, showing how VRLA is growing larger and larger every year, probably making VRLA the largest independent virtual reality expo around.
Although we had a team popping into all the panels during the day, we wanted to make sure we covered the full breadth of experiences on the VRLA demo room floor. So be sure to check out our recap video above.
When speaking with attendees, some favorite demos included Survios’ latest game Raw Data on the HTC Vive Pre that made its game debut at VRLA, as well as Epic Games’ Bullet Train on the Oculus Rift.
Survios’ Raw Data game was a co-op first person demo that allowed the users to pick up a variety of weapons and fend off waves of killer androids from all angles. Although Epic Games showed off Bullet Train at Oculus Connect 2, this was a new game experience for most and had long lines. Crytek showed off The Climb that is coming exclusively to Oculus Rift, HTC had a couple booths set up just for HTC Vive Pre demos, OTOY gave users a sample of their light field technology, and Virtuix Omni and Virzoom were side by side demoing their VR treadmill and stationary bike controller respectively. Starbreeze also fit an entire bus that was converted to a VR demo room into the conference, scaring quite a few with a demo of Overkill’s The Walking Dead.
When compared to past VRLA expos, even the last year’s expo that was only 4 months ago, the amount of motion-controllers and hand tracking being demoed from big companies and small, is definitely a show of force on how the industry is trending forward to bring more immersive experiences to the public.
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