Last week VRScout attended VRLO, London’s premier meetup for VR enthusiasts. The event was hosted at Mindcandy, the creators of the smash hit Moshi Monsters. The event was a good opportunity for networking, demos, and VR industry leaders to share their thoughts.
Speakers at VRLO included VFX power houses Framestore, The Third Floor, Autodesk, and Rewind. Autodesk announced the release of their new games engine Stingray, which provides an end to end platform for building elements in a virtual reality environment – be it a CG led game or a live action experience. Autodesk also announced they will be releasing Stingray as a free trial and will be looking to team up with studios to deliver create amazing VR experiences.
The demo area of VRLO included Unit9‘s Pretender Project, a haptic feedback arm sleeve where a user can control another users movements – it works via electro pulses being fired into the user’s controlled arm, causing the muscles to react.
THE LADY ON THE RIGHT IS CONTROLLING KATE’S ARM AND MY MIND JUST EXPLODED!!!! #VRLO https://t.co/muG0BDzdiD — James Berg (@bergy300) September 9, 2015
The Mill and Google ATAP demoed Justin Lin’s 360 epic blockbuster film. The experience combines 360-degree filmed footage with CG elements. It’s been released publicly on the Google Playstore and Apple app store via the Google Spotlight Stories app – it’s well worth a watch and listen (it includes binaural audio).
VR content specialists Visualise were demoing their latest collaboration with Audi; a VR live action experience around the Silverstone test track programmed to a robotic simulation chair sync’d to the movements you see in the Oculus headset. The demo was previously launched at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, UK’s biggest celebration of automobiles, but is now being rolled out to showrooms across London and the UK. Visualise were also demoing their recent award winning 360-degree live action Kasabian concert in the Samsung GearVR.
Rewind demoed their latest collaborations with BMW and Lexus, both of which were 360-degree video experiences. Their latest Lexus project produced for the RX features binaural audio and incredible photo real graphics.
Other HMD demos on show were the HTC Vive and the FreeflyVR.
Great evening at #VRLO – interesting conversations & perspectives! pic.twitter.com/iFw1ZHmot4
— James Golding (@EpicJamesG) September 9, 2015
VRLO will return later in the year and VRScout will be back to follow the scene.
Image Credit: Alaster Armitage-Brain
