TIFCA News

“Joining the ITA was an easy decision for us. Like the ITA, Futuremark believes that open cooperation is the best way to drive the success of new technologies. Since 1997, we’ve worked with industry partners to create the world’s most widely used benchmark tests. Now we’re developing VRMark, a benchmark for virtual reality systems. ITA membership provides us with an excellent forum for sharing our insights while learning from other experts in the field.” – Jukka Mäkinen, Managing Director, Futuremark

Futuremark is easily one of the most influential hardware benchmarking tools for PC and graphics hardware used by gamers, manufacturers, and media alike. Their most recent development is VRMark, a software package designed to measure how VR capable a mix of hardware is by checking such details as measured latency, accuracy, and performance.

The ITA is honored to welcome Futuremark to the fold!

Dominic Eskofier, CEO, Realities.IO at Immersed Europe

“We’re a young VR studio that transports real places 1:1 into Virtual Reality by utilizing cutting-edge photogrammetry software, so joining the ITA was an easy decision for us – besides being able to put us in contact with some of the industry’s biggest software companies and hardware manufacturers, the ITA also offers great networking opportunities as well as the chance to set the bar for engaging Virtual Reality content together. We’re really looking forward to being part of this innovative group of immersive technology enthusiasts!” – Dominic Eskofier, CEO & Co-Founder of Realities.IO

Their photogrammetry demo running on the HTC Vive was a hit at Immersed Europe, and was easily one of the most impressive VR demos we have seen. Dominic Eskofier also serves as one of the moderators for the Reddit /r/oculus community. Read More

Dr. Michael Capps, Former President, Epic Games

“I’m excited about an open, ubiquitous social metaverse. Getting there means solving a whole lot of interesting problems through long-term cooperative efforts. I’m delighted to help an organization like The ITA that’s focused not on a single company’s success, but on the success of the entire industry and ecosystem.” – Dr. Michael Capps

The Immersive Technology Alliance is both honored and excited to welcome Dr. Michael Capps to its influential Advisory Board. Dr. Capps was President of Epic Games during development of legendary video game franchises Gears of War, Unreal, and Infinity Blade. He has a Ph.D. in Virtual Reality, and has been a lead game designer and writer, a comic author, and currently features in Discovery and Science Channel series NASA’s Unexplained Files, What on Earth, and Combat Countdown. He serves on the board of a number of innovative companies and tech organizations.

The Immersive Technology Alliance is proud to announce that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has joined The ITA.  AMD is one of the top GPU and CPU manufacturers in the world, and their technology is the core of consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 4, XBOX One, and Nintendo Wii-U.  In the PC world, their commitments to virtual reality and immersive technology have been demonstrated by the development of powerful APIs like LiquidVR and Mantle.

Daryl Sartain, Director of VR for AMD and the new ITA VR Council Chair

“AMD founded the VR Council to bring together the leading authorities on virtual reality to cultivate the industry and create a cohesive vision for its future. We’ve tracked the ITA and its leadership in immersive technologies for years, and we’re thrilled to be joining forces on this initiative to help drive the evolution of VR.” – Daryl Sartain, Director of VR for AMD Read More

All about video games and unique uses of video take technology with virtual reality, this panel was moderated by Dominic Eskofier, Marketing and PR Coordinator for Rockstar Games and moderator in the Reddit Oculus Community.  Panelists include David Finsterwalder, Founder of Realities.io, Philipp Maas, Developer at Sonar VR, Emmanuel Marquez, CTO of Starbreeze Studios, and Jean-Edouard Fages, Game Designer at Agharta Studio.

This turned out great!

October 16-18, 2016

Now that Immersed 2015 has come and gone, it’s time to begin making preparations for Immersed 2016!  Save the date because we are looking forward to putting on another amazing event featuring the world’s best in immersive tech.  For those that missed Immersed 2015, most of the proceedings are being published online in Immersed Access with new videos being added daily.

So far, the companies featured in the online presentations from Immersed 2015 and Immersed Europe include HTC, Sony Computer Entertainment, InMediaStudio, IM360, Crytek, Epic Games, Sophic Capital, AMD, Jon Peddie Research, and more (much more with much more to come!).  Immersed Access is the ITA’s private online community designed to make it possible for professional level conversations and education to happen all year round in the immersive space.

See you again in 2016!

Well, kind of!  This is Jose Luis Navarro who is CEO of InMediaStudio.  InMediaStudio did the VR experiences for Mission Impossible V and Tomorrowland.  This is just some of the magic that was showcased at Immersed 2015 because he did an awesome job of getting audience participation.  Lots of fun!

As Director of the PlayStation Magic Lab and Keynote for Immersed 2015, Dr. Richard Marks showcased never before seen footage of the fun experiments and wild ideas thrown about at Sony Computer Entertainment.  Their efforts in virtual reality like their most recent PlayStation VR (AKA Project Morpheus) is based on a long and rich history demonstrated in this presentation.  Enjoy!

Now that Immersed 2015 and Immersed Europe is complete, we’ve been able to put a lot more effort into encoding the hours and hours of footage from both events.  This was the Immersed Europe Futurists Panel and featured from left to right (at the table) Richard Huddy (Chief Gaming Scientist at AMD), James Golding (Lead Programmer at Epic Games), Myles McGovern (President of IM360), Frank Vitz (Creative Director at Crytek), and Simon Benson (Director of the Immersive Technology Group for Worldwide Studios at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe).

Much more is available in the private Immersed Access service, and it’s designed to be the place where the conversations continue.  Hope to see you there!