VR Takes Over GDC
The Game Developers Conference - the world's largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event, celebrated its 30th anniversary this week in San Francisco,CA.There were over 26,000 participants hailing from all over the world.There was every kind of game imaginable, numerous lectures, parties and meetups all around the city by the bay.But the darling of the event was unmistakably, virtual reality.What started as a returning novel idea a couple of years back is now a full fledged vertical with developers, games, enthusiasts, panels, speakers, meetups and and even an incubator/co-working space.The gaming world appears to be the easiest gateway into the fully immersed world, especially with 3D games, which are by definition a 360 immersive world.There were so many highlights, but here a few that really stood out: Oculus:The darling of the show and of the VR world, since it was bought by Facebook, Oculus didn’t fail to entertain with a two story, museum like structure, where people could experience its different platforms. From the Samsung GearVR area, manned by Apple store looking attendees, to the private rooms where one could experience the more interactive experiences, the lines were long and people were excited to try the many experiences that Oculus was offering - including free GearVR headsets to everyone coming into the space.
It seems that almost every big company was showing VR this year: Sony’s Morpheus, Intel with its immersive lab-- at times it seemed as if every third booth in the expo had a VR experience. SixenseOne of the most impressive experiences came from Sixense and their STEM system - a wireless motion tracking system. Their archery demo allowed players to shoot arrows and go to war with a virtual enemy in a Virtual environment using the Wii like controller. It was a seamless and easy experience which let people interact in VR quite easily and lets two players play at the same time, which opens the possibility for more social gaming opportunities.
Virtux OmniAnother darling of the event was the Virtux Omni - which offers VR without limits. Virtux Omni is a body rig that lets you run and interact in the world as if you were there. The whole set is under $1000 which makes it pretty cost effective for the avid gamer. The product is not on the market yet but the company is taking pre-orders.
Content PlaysThere were some interesting content plays in VR, too. Sequenced by apelab brought an animated narrative to an immersive experience.Sequenced is the first animated interactive series to use a 360° world for virtual reality helmets. The story adapts in real time to the user’s focus: the characters and environment react to the user's presence in the scene. Taking place in a near future, the first episode of Sequenced will come out in 2016 for iOS, Android, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.Here's the Link to trailerBeyond the show itself, there were many other mixers and events throughout the week.UploadVR collective is a new hybrid coworking and incubator space dedicated to cutting edge virtual reality development - from technology to content. They held an open house all week in their space in SOMA district in San Francisco. Their space is scheduled to open in April and has luminary mentors such as Philip Rosedale of Second Life and High Fidelity fame, and Robert Scoble who has recently joined the UploadVR team, just to mention a few.
What was just a buzz is definitely becoming a full on gold rush in the Bay Area and time will tell how fast the rest of the world-- and the mainstream audience-- catches up and adopts it.It’s going to be an interesting few year for sure while we attempt to finally create the holodeck.
