Skateboards, Surfboards, Sharks and Storytelling – you could never describe virtual reality as a boring medium, that’s for sure.
Though, let’s not beat around the bush, this week was all about the Crescent Bay (the new Oculus VR prototype, not the Californian beach location after which it’s named).
INITION
- We were featured in Opposable Games’ list of ‘10 innovative ways companies are using virtual reality in marketing and beyond’
OCULUS CONNECT
- Oculus VR officially revealed their new Crescent Bay prototype
- Another Connect announcement: the launch of Oculus Platform – a virtual reality storefront for games, apps and software
- “Why the Crescent Bay HMD is a watershed moment for gaming”
VIRTUAL REALITY
- Despite a partnership with Samsung, the Oculus Rift is apparently a long way away from mass consumer adoption
- ..meanwhile, others claim the new Crescent Bay prototype is a ‘huge step toward consumer VR’
- Two Australian surfers have captured the experience of Big Wave surfing for all to enjoy (?) in a virtual reality experience
- “Oculus’ new prototype is where virtual reality should be right now”
- Cinema 1.5: Filmmakers are looking to virtual reality as the future of immersive storytelling
- Try saying this five times in a row: Mountain Dew have developed a “virtual reality, live-action 3D, 360°, binaural audio-branded experience” for their latest Dew Tour promotion
- Become your own virtual Picasso (or Dali, or Van Gogh, I don’t know your style) with this new VR painting app
- The German Ratings board has declared that shark-diving is way scarier in virtual reality than it is in plain ol’ 2D
- Learning to Type is Fun (in the Oculus Rift, that is)
AUGMENTED REALITY
- An architecture student turned London’s iconic Barbican Centre into an augmented reality game for his final year studies
- Take a step back in time and experience the Berlin Wall like never before, thanks to augmented reality
3D PRINTING
- NASA has officially blasted the first 3D printer into space
- Now you can run in the NYC Marathon and receive a 3D printed figure of yourself running in the NYC Marathon
- And in a momentous cross-section between sport, history and technology, a group of researchers have successfully replicated two historic golf clubs using 3D printing
- Could this ‘draft mode’ 3D printer speed up the process of rapid prototyping?
- Coolest professor ever? A Swedish professor has 3D printed an entire band’s worth of instruments and recruited a bunch of his students to play the world’s first 3D printed gig
- In (another) world first, a 3D printed telescope has taken its first shot of the moon
- Again proving there is no limit to the capabilities of 3D printing, engineers in the UK have 3D printed a raspberry-pi laptop
- Sign up for one of 3D Systems’ free upcoming 3D printing webinars!
- WATCH: Avi Reichental give an inspiring talk for TED Talks on the history and future of 3D printing
OTHER TIDBITS
- Unpack the stereoscopic, 3D printed goodness behind the magical new stop-motion Boxtrolls film