How Location-Based VR Is Finally Breaking Out Of Its Box

A “location-first” mentality is leading to a whole new wave of location-based immersive entertainment.

Strictly speaking, all experiences are location-based (save for the ones we have in our dreams and even then technically they’re bed-based). Instagram posts are tagged with #FOMO inducing lifestyle destinations. A scan through your camera roll will remind you where you took that perfect if unnecessary shot of your espresso and tonic caffeine hit. Snapchat entices you to add venue info stickers to your random posts. The location where an experience takes place is just about as important as the thing you were doing at that spot at that moment in time.

So how does VR play into this then, when the assumption is it either requires us to be hardwired into a gaming PC or safely contained within the strict four walls of our Oculus Quest guardian boundaries? In homage to the 90s laser tag centres, a number of go-there-to-do-it retail-style VR experiences have cropped up both inside and beyond the manicured walkways of shopping malls, inviting guests to participate in IP-driven haptic “immersathons” that function as pay-to-play extensions of movie marketing cycles.

(Image Credit: The Shard)

But beyond the idea of paying to be marketed to, a trend we’re seeing more and more of as the lines between entertainment and advertising continue to blur into extinction are alternative models for location-based experiences that take the specificity of their location as their starting point, rather than thinking of location as simply a site at which to house a productised VR activation.

A number of recent pop-ups in London UK demonstrate the potential of this new way of thinking in regards to location-based experiences. Premiered on the UK’s Channel 5 Gadget Show, VRBungee was a 6 month R&D project that looked at how creative VR could be used to complement and amplify real-world adrenaline sports. The participant slides on an Oculus Quest to find themselves inside a real time Roman Colosseum before taking the leap of faith. Real-time tracking and depth sensing from the Oculus Quest’s front-facing cameras blend the physical sensation of falling with a simulated face-first descent towards the arena floor. Timed to the point of impact / snap back of the bungee cord, the participant unexpectedly sees the floor give way and finds themself hurtling even further down into a subterranean hell à la Dante’s Inferno.

Somewhat less physical, but equally scream-inducing, is the VR Sky Slide experience. Initially launched at The Shard (London’s tallest building), the proprietary sit-on VR ride simulates a virtual helter-skelter around the tower guests are visiting. The physical motions of haptic seating device are synced to the digital pitches and turns in-headset, immersing the rider in a vertigo-inducing experience that would be utterly impossible to recreate in real life.

The company behind these activations is London-based createch studio Happy Finish. The productised lease and license or rev-share product is customized for each location install, with a localized live-action skybox stitched and finalized in real time, simulating a whichever city the guest is visiting.

For both of these VR-driven activations, the locations at which they take place are not only central to the creative driving the experience, but also integral and additive to that experience. In contrast to other commercialized location-based VR experiences, VRBungee and Sky Slide offer more than just a chance to play with technology guests don’t have on hand at home.

As cost barriers to at-home access continue to fall, LBEs need to have this idea of the location as additive / integral front and centre of mind. This shift of focus away from retail-style VR showrooms may allow location-based experiences to fulfill their potential not only as sustainable long term revenue opportunities, but also as new creative spaces.

Following the Covid-19 global crisis (yes sorry to go there again!), tourism and the leisure industries will be looking for innovative ways to lure timid audiences out of their homes and back into their establishments. VR now has an opportunity to be that gateway drug.

The post How Location-Based VR Is Finally Breaking Out Of Its Box appeared first on VRScout.

By: Alaster Armitage-Brain
Title: How Location-Based VR Is Finally Breaking Out Of Its Box
Sourced From: vrscout.com/news/lb-vr-experiences-breaking-out-of-box/
Published Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 21:32:00 +0000

Guest Editorial: We Need To Talk About The Ethics Of VR Now, Before It’s Too Late

Last year, while on stage giving my TEDx Talk on the immortalising power of VR, I found myself saying this:

“Imagine if, ten years after her death, I could relive the memory of my grandma teaching me how to waltz in her living room? And imagine if, even decades after she passed away she could teach her grandson, who she never met, how to waltz in her living room. That’s the thing with VR, we’re not just immortalising memories, we’re immortalising people too!”

Fast-forward six months and I find myself twisted up with a weird sense of guilt and horror after seeing my imaginings brought to life. My prophetic wonderings were realised in the form of Jan Ji-Sung, reliving the memory of a day at her neighbourhood park with her deceased six-year-old daughter, through a VR headset.

The VR piece titled ‘I Met You,’ was created for a TV show in South Korea and became a lightning rod for criticism and discussion. Was this a psychologically traumatising experiment with damaging and negligent consequences? Or a glimpse into the potential of VR to immortalise our memories, our loved ones, even the possibility of reanimating them?

It seems we have arrived, earlier than I ever expected, at a crossroads where innovation and ethics intersect.

And while Silicon Valley is full of stories of optimistic good intentions quickly descending into a morally corrupt dystopia, VR has a chance to do things differently.

As a pioneer and champion of VR, I took a step back to take a holistic look at not just the South Korea experiment, but at what it implies for the VR industry as a whole, and how we can overcome human challenges in creating content for this powerful medium that protects and promotes our audiences’ wellbeing.

Firstly, we need to consider consent.

We’ve seen how big tech has clandestinely acquired our data, images, search history and geolocation and misused, sold it and commoditised it all without the public’s awareness or consent. Offering your likeness in VR has to be different. It has to be a conscious act of consent made with clarity and full understanding.

So, what might that look like?

Rather than signing their lives away, we might see people signing over their likeness by giving loved ones permission to reanimate them in the event of their death. Finer details like whether their effigy can be used for general purpose as an avatar or exclusively to engineer VR experiences from lived memories, like the South Korea experiment, might be included as caveats. It’s not farfetched to think that this might even be an extension of the opt-in schemes organ donors sign up to.

But who has the right to whose memories? Would you want your partner, mother or friends to be able to relive memories of your embarrassing wedding dad-dancing or school plays? Could it be possible to veto memories you’d rather forget to prevent them becoming your VR legacy?

The issue of consent is further complicated with the South Korea experiment as the deceased person in question is a child. Consent legally falls to parents and guardians for children in most cases, it’s likely VR would be no different. By agreeing to take part in the TV show, Ji-Sung had, explicitly or not, consented to having her daughter’s image used in this way.

Once we’ve accounted for consent, there’s still a lot to consider. Whether or not it is legal to create a VR experience isn’t a satisfactory qualifying criteria when it comes to safeguarding our audience.

The next thing we need to look at is whether it is safe and ethical to recreate someone in VR based on acceptance.

Experts have suggested that the South Korea experiment could be considered ethical if the mother had fully accepted that her daughter had passed away. I’m no grief counsellor, but Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano told Dell Technologies in December 2019: “Since you know the person is gone, you accept the virtual equivalent for what it is — a comforting vestige.”

With acceptance comes healing, so a VR experience of a deceased loved one is more likely to spark positive feelings of nostalgia rather than despair and grief while immersed in the reanimated memory. So, full acceptance is fundamental in order for viewers to safely engage in this type of VR experience. Graziano gave it his ethical seal of approval, stating that if acceptance is a prerequisite then “there is nothing wrong or unethical about it.”

So, what happens once the headset comes off?

We have an opportunity, as creators, to foster new, transgressive experiences that offer the impossible and bring to life worlds beyond our own. But we also have a responsibility to ensure that we consider our audience’s best interests beyond the virtual world.

That’s where aftercare needs to be appropriately signposted or facilitated if necessary.

All appropriate measures should be taken to put aftercare in place for potentially vulnerable audiences. Neurological studies show that our brains respond to VR experiences the same way they do to things we encounter in reality. This represents a huge threat to our industry if it’s overlooked. Participating in a sensitive VR creation can have traumatising effects on our psyche.

To avoid corporate negligence we need to make sure that a network of support is in place for anyone affected by our creations. This could include helplines, therapy sessions or time with grief counsellors.

As a final backstop for the VR industry, before diving head-first into storyboarding the next ‘I Met You,’ we should consider Jeff Goldblum.

That’s right, Jeff Goldblum. Decrying the skewed moral compasses of genetic scientists in all his unbuttoned-shirt glory in Jurassic Park, Jeff delivers this timeless maxim:

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

It’s going to be a continual temperature check on the state of the VR industry to keep asking ourselves, why are we doing this? And are we doing more harm than good? That pause for thought and self-regulation is the difference between harming our audience in the name of innovation, or building a better, more inclusive, interactive world.

Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-virtualreality-reunion/south-korean-mother-given-tearful-vr-reunion-with-deceased-daughter-idUSKBN2081D6

https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/perspectives/the-departed-communicating-with-lost-loved-ones-through-ai-and-vr/

Alex Rühl (The Drum’s 50 under 30 women in digital, Women of the Future Awards, Pioneers of Immersive Realities Award) is a virtual reality creator, international speaker and founder of immersive storytelling studio CATS are not PEAS.

Rebecca Cooke is a writer covering topics including energy, impact, and sustainable future technologies.

The post Guest Editorial: We Need To Talk About The Ethics Of VR Now, Before It’s Too Late appeared first on UploadVR.

By: Alex Ruhl & Rebecca Cooke
Title: Guest Editorial: We Need To Talk About The Ethics Of VR Now, Before It’s Too Late
Sourced From: uploadvr.com/guest-editorial-ethics-vr-discussion/
Published Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 15:00:55 +0000

Ready for Hot Mutual Real Porn in Virtual Reality?

Ready for Hot Mutual Real Porn in Virtual Reality?

By Virtual Real Porn

Sex and porn. Including them in our daily vocabulary feels embarrassing. Why aren’t these topics usually covered in our society? Maybe, because everything related to exploring our sexuality, from masturbation to just searching on healthy sex, feels embarrassing. So, are you ready for mutual VR Porn?

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You are not the only one. Quite often we have been there with that “taboo” we didn’t know how to talk about. So, after several efforts, we finally decide to talk about sex. Or “mutual VR Porn”

We wanted not only to talk about sex, but to come up with a new kind. We aren’t talking about how we were the pioneers in virtual reality xxx world; you already know that story. We wanted to give its own voice and raise awareness to a subject which is barely covered by all of you who take part in and consume porn: enjoying a free, agreed and real sexuality.

We want to take about all them; actors and actresses, of their role in a shooting, not just as performers, but as active participants when it comes to take production decisions. We want them to be asked about their preferences in fucking, since, as Misha Cross points out, “yes, it’s fucking”. We want to talk about their comfort during shootings. To know they can say no when they don’t agree with something. Talk about their rights.

It’s time to talk. Since we started, we have always bet on our models, their rights and, most importantly, their freedom. Now, after 6 years, 500 VR sex scenes and more than 297 hours, it’s time to talk openly about making porn more human.

It’s time to get more involve

“VirtualRealPorn is a production company which has always try to give professional status to an industry that has never been quite transparent with the rights and obligations of its workers”

In the same way we wanted to encourage the idea of a more natural and real sex, we also wanted to build a closer and more transparent relation with our fellas vrporners.

We thought it was the perfect opportunity to show as it deserves the path we decided to take in January 2014; promote even more the balance between what’s fair and what’s sexual and, especially, show who are the ones behind the production of all these quality and innovative contents you enjoy every week.

Everyone’s interests change when it comes to choose their favorite genre, and just like that, we decided 2020 was going to be a year for change, emphasizing the role of actors when the cameras are on as well as when they are using their social networks to post pictures in the backstage. That is one of the places which carries more social stigma towards porn actors.

You know how adventurous we can be and how much we like doing things in a different way. We wanted to start this “mutual VR Porn” experiences listening to the actresses’ point of view because, who better than them to talk about the changes needed to make porn more real?

The post Ready for Hot Mutual Real Porn in Virtual Reality? appeared first on Virtual Reality Reporter by VR Reporter

By: VR Reporter
Title: Ready for Hot Mutual Real Porn in Virtual Reality?
Sourced From: virtualrealityreporter.com/ready-hot-mutual-real-porn-virtual-reality/
Published Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:58 +0000

5 Half-Life: Alyx Easter Eggs & Secrets You May Have Missed

Hidden references and world-building secrets galore.

Valve’s debut VR experience is chock full of hidden secrets just aching to be discovered. So for the sake of simplicity, we’ll be discussing just five of our favorites discovered so far.

Number One: The Location of City 17

The first 10 minutes of Half-Life: Alyx is ripe with world-building Easter eggs, the most telling of which an old school globe location inside Alyx’s makeshift base. Drawn on the globe is a series of markings confirming City 17’s location to be somewhere in Russia. Turn the globe over and you’ll uncover additional information regarding the fate of North America. Spoiler alert: it’s not good. Based on the giant black X carved over the continent and the lines pointing towards Easter Europe, it appears as though North America has been abandoned, no doubt a result of the 7-Hour war in which Combine forces conquered the entirety of Earth in, you guessed it, 7-hours.

(Image Credit: Valve Software)

Number Two: Baby Dog

Those familiar with Half-Life: 2 will remember Alyx’s trusty mechanical canine, Dog. Given to Alyx as a child by her father as an additional means of protection, Dog would go on to play a pivotal role later on in the series. Turns out, however, Dog wasn’t always a hulking robotic beast. Further exploration of Alyx’s base will reveal a clipboard featuring several early designs for Alyx’s mechanical friend. On one of the shelves, you can also find a photo of Baby Dog prior to his upgrades and modifications. I mean, come on Valve, that’s just straight-up adorable.

(Image Credit: Valve Software)

Number Three: Alyx’s Pet

Before we move on from Alyx’s base, there’s one more easter egg you’ll definitely want to check out. On one of the end tables located near the aforementioned globe, you may have already noticed the small jar housing a single Snark, a tiny alien creature featured in the original Half-Life. He’ll follow your movements if you get close and react if you tap on the glass, but did you know you can actually feed the little bugger too? Adjacent to the jar is a can labeled “Not Coffee” which you can use to feed your tiny friend. A small, but surprisingly wholesome moment; especially when you consider the fate of the other smaller aliens in Half-Life: Alyx…

(Image Credit: Valve Software)

Number Four: Team Fortress 2 Scout Figurine

Though Valve made its name with Half-Life, the legendary company is responsible for a whole slew of genre-defining titles, including Team Fortress. Under one of the computer monitors in Russel’s lab, you can find a small figurine oddly reminiscent of the Scout character from the popular team-based shooter. You can even unlock an achievement if you use it as a marker on Russel’s map. The figurine makes a second appearance later in the game hidden behind a shelf. 

(Image Credit: Valve Software)

Number Five: Bridge from Death Stranding

Who doesn’t love a little cross-promotion in their AAA releases? While exploring through the abandoned zoo portion of the game, you can spot a box stacked in corner featuring the logo for Bridge, a fictional company featured in Hideo Kojima’s 2019 action game, Death Stranding. Earlier this month Valve announced a Half-Life crossover in celebration of Death Stranding’s upcoming PC launch, so it makes sense Valve would want to include a little bit of Death Stranding in its own release.

(Image Credit: XGarbett)

And there you have it! Again these were just five our favorite easter eggs discovered so far. Players have already discovered dozens of hidden secrets scattered throughout the game, with more being discovered every day. In fact, we’d love to hear from you! What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below and perhaps we’ll do a follow-up video!

Feature Image Credit: Valve Software

The post 5 Half-Life: Alyx Easter Eggs & Secrets You May Have Missed appeared first on VRScout.

By: Kyle Melnick
Title: 5 Half-Life: Alyx Easter Eggs & Secrets You May Have Missed
Sourced From: vrscout.com/news/5-half-life-alyx-easter-eggs-you-may-have-missed/
Published Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 20:47:37 +0000

Pistol Whip Tournament To Raise Money For Children’s Hospitals

A tournament for the popular VR shooter Pistol Whip is planning to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network, a non-profit that supports children’s hospitals.

Sunday, March 29, at 2 pm Pacific, the Grand Finals for the tournament will be streamed by the top three competitors remotely. The in-person portion of the event was cancelled in recent weeks in light of social distancing recommendations regarding COVID-19, and the closure of VR arcades everywhere.

The Virtual Athletics League is teaming up with Extra Life — a group that supports streaming games for charity — alongside Pistol Whip developer Cloudhead Games. They have a donate page up here on the Extra Life site as well on Facebook and the competition will stream here on Facebook starting at 2 pm Pacific on March 29. Keys for games and other giveaways are planned for the broadcast, according to the event’s organizers.

For those unfamiliar, Pistol Whip is an easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master arcade shooter from Canada-based Cloudhead Games that debuted late last year. We rated it a 5/5 based on its compelling gameplay and built-in modifiers that add significant depth to the game, and since release they’ve started adding new scenes to the game each month including the latest “Full Throttle” update. Each scene is inspired by various action movies with the latest — one of the game’s hardest levels — featuring vehicles careening overhead in an homage to Mad Max.

You can check out a playthrough of the song here:

Will you be tuning into the finals for the Pistol Whip tournament? Let us know in the comments.

The post Pistol Whip Tournament To Raise Money For Children’s Hospitals appeared first on UploadVR.

By: Ian Hamilton
Title: Pistol Whip Tournament To Raise Money For Children’s Hospitals
Sourced From: uploadvr.com/pistol-whip-tournament-hospitals/
Published Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 16:16:53 +0000

WW2 RTS Final Assault Storms Onto PSVR Next Week

Sony’s PSVR indie streak keeps on going; Phaser Lock Interactive’s Final Assault hits the headset next week.

The World War 2-era VR real-time strategy game (RTS) arrives on PSVR on March 31. This version of the game will feature cross-play with the previously-released PC VR versions too. Cross-play between consoles and PC is a great way to ensure you’ll find players to face off with online.

Not only that but the launch is accompanied by new units, maps and customization options. These features will also be implemented into the PC VR version of the game. They’ll add to the base game, in which you can challenge friends to 1 vs 1 matches in which you guide units through maps, leading an all-out assault on the enemy base.

We were quite fond of Final Assault when it arrived on other platforms. While simple, the incredible detail and fun matches make it easy to recommend.

“Final Assault is not nearly as elaborate or detailed a game as the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was for its time, and it probably won’t make the same waves in VR that the former made for the traditional RTS genre,” we wrote. “However, it’s safe to say that what we’ve reached is something akin to the Advance Wars of VR; Final Assault successfully establishes a powerful set of VR strategy mechanics that are instantly enjoyable, delivering equivocal depth and a permeating sense of awe.”

Whats more, we’ve tried the game on PSVR before and found it runs basically just as well as the PC VR version.

Will you be picking up Final Assault on PSVR? Let us know in the comments below!

The post WW2 RTS Final Assault Storms Onto PSVR Next Week appeared first on UploadVR.

By: Jamie Feltham
Title: WW2 RTS Final Assault Storms Onto PSVR Next Week
Sourced From: uploadvr.com/final-assault-psvr-release-date/
Published Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 14:00:54 +0000

Dirty Diana Shows You Art Pieces in VR Porn Movie

 

Know Your “Art” to Diana Grace and Be Ready for Her… Constructive Criticism in 3D Virtual Reality!

By Virtual Reality Bangers

If you’ve ever taken a drawing or painting lesson, you’re sure to realize that these matters aren’t the simplest of things. Art has always been a difficult and very subjective process, and when someone else has to judge what you consider beautiful or valuable, there can often be some kind of consequences. One of the best professional creators of immersive VR porn videos, VR Bangers, has looked into this issue in their latest virtual reality porn experience of 6K ultra high definition – allowing you to test your artistic skills and get some… constructive criticism from one of the hottest brunette adult actresses in the entire VR porn industry.

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Dirty Diana is the latest 3D VR porn scene from these premium virtual reality porn creators, inside of which you will have to deal with beautiful Diana Grace. The girl who will become a recognized, professional art critic for the needs of this VR porn fantasy will want to take a close look at your skills and evaluate them according to her own, quite specific preferences. After a few moments of your efforts with a pencil and a piece of paper, although the girl will seem more interested in your own… “brush” than to evaluate your drawing skills.

This professional VR porn performer will thus combine the motif of sexual tension well-known from VR porn scenes of VR Bangers with an artistic theme inside of this VR porn experience – only a few moments after she has given you her first thoughts on your drawing, taking a look at your hips and checking your “workshop”, while looking VERY closely at the dick in your pants. Now she will have to deal with your artistry to its utmost, while choking on your cock and riding you wildly inside of this VR porn scene – and you only need a pair of VR goggles and active membership on VRBangers.com to experience it all on your very own.

“Dirty Diana is a rather humoristic VR porn video made for all the fans of all different kinds of widely acknowledged artistry,” admits Roman Lit, the Producer of Virtual Reality Bangers. “Diana Grace indeed has something artistic in the way she moves and behaves – and all our fans and members will be able to find that out on their very own as close as it only is digitally possible. This virtual reality porn experience is funny, super-sexy and I am more than sure that our viewers are going to fall in love with it!”

If you are ready to visit sexy Diana to deal with her “artistic taste” in 3D virtual reality, wear your VR headset and go straight to this newest VR Bangers’ VR porn experience over here.

And to find out something more about these premium virtual reality porn producers and/or to watch some of their latest VR porn scenes in up to 6K UHD VR, just head to their main page, here.

The post Dirty Diana Shows You Art Pieces in VR Porn Movie appeared first on Virtual Reality Reporter by VR Reporter

By: VR Reporter
Title: Dirty Diana Shows You Art Pieces in VR Porn Movie
Sourced From: virtualrealityreporter.com/dirty-diana-shows-art-pieces-vr-porn-movie/
Published Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 08:00:51 +0000