ADVANCING USER EXPERIENCES BY BRIDGING THE CLIENT, CLOUD, AND NETWORK ECOSYSTEMS

“We believe the world has been enlightened by the VR revolution and it’s our responsibility to keep pushing the limits of the content quality and deliver frameworks that enable other developers to push those boundaries even further.” – Valerio Di Donato, CEO, 34BigThings

34BigThings is a leading independent game developer whose most recent claim to fame is being the developer behind the well respected sci-fi racing game Redout.

Regularly receiving top grades, Redout is a multiplayer virtual reality game that works on the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and OSVR platforms.  Be sure to check it out!

One of the most critical elements of having a great virtual reality experience is having little to no latency between moving and seeing updates on the screen.  Every little disconnect can make for a nauseating experience.  Basemark’s solution is the VRTrek library.  Combined with a hardware sensor, their VRTrek Library SDK is coded in to the developer’s software pipeline so that latency can be accurately tracked with hopes that software optimizations can avoid the problem altogether.  It currently works with OLED displays running on VR HMDs and applicable smartphones with LCD testing is available upon request.

The VRTrek Library SDK is available for immediate shipping.

“The Immersive Technology Alliance’s mission is long-term viability for technologies like virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.  We achieve this through a multifaceted approach, and truly open standards are a required pillar for this market to stand on.  The alliance has collaborated with the Khronos Group for years, and we look forward to participating with this effort to help drive its success for the industry at large in tandem with other market-building initiatives within the ITA / ITA VR Council,” said Neil Schneider, executive director, The Immersive Technology Alliance.

The Khronos Group is one of the largest open standards organizations in the world and are behind leading APIs like Vulkan, OpenGL, OpenCL, WebGL, and more.  Open standards make it possible for content makers to support multiple hardware solutions at a time without expensively multiplying the work of developing for dramatically different platforms.

The Khronos Group’s efforts to pursue an open virtual reality standard will make it practical for content makers to support a wide array of hardware and software solutions.  Sample names affiliated with the effort include Epic Games, Valve, OSVR, Intel, Oculus, AMD, Nvidia, the Immersive Technology Alliance, Tobii, Sensics, LunarG, and more.

This cross-vendor standard will be royalty-free and support multiple VR devices.  Learn more here!

Neil Schneider serves as Executive Director of the Immersive Technology Alliance and is also the Founder of Meant to be Seen (http://www.mtbs3D.com).  It was identified that while there are countless shopping guides available for people that are somewhat familiar with virtual reality or people that have an enthusiast-level grasp of personal computers and technology, there wasn’t enough out there for consumers that are taking an interest in this space for the very first time and want to learn more.

MTBS’ Ultimate Virtual Reality Shopping Guide covers everything from mobile, console, and PC based virtual reality to a fifteen minute lesson on how computers work.  It also features expertise contributed by Kevin Carbotte, VR Writer for Tom’s Hardware.  Divided in chapters and areas of interest, it’s intended to appeal to consumers with all levels of technical expertise and know-how so they can easily shop for the virtual reality solution that is right for them.

Ajay Fry, host of InnerSpace, interviewed several Immersed 2016 speakers and tried a lot of amazing virtual reality technology for himself at the Ontario Science Centre.  InnerSpace is broadcast on Space Channel and MTV Canada.  Immersed is the ITA’s flagship event which helps build the immersive technology industries in under-served parts of this world and also featured a separate public exhibition to showcase the potential of virtual reality, augmented reality, holography, and stereoscopic 3D to the consumer market and featured thousands of attendees.

With the advent of virtual reality for the PC consumer space, it is vital to know if your computer has what it takes to support the latest hardware, games, and software applications in this growing immersive space.  ITA Member Futuremark has released their VRMark software tool kit which does just that.  The basic version is free, and advanced versions can be had for as little as $19.99 USD.  Check it out!