Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D News - Page 124

Popular tequila company Patron has introduced its "Art of Patron Virtual Reality Experience," giving customers the chance to check out its Mexican distillery using VR. The tour can be viewed using an Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR headset, with Patron also showing the VR demo at company events and seminars.

The tequila maker recorded its agave fields and distillery using a drone equipped with seven GoPro cameras, with binaural audio recorded so clear sound accompanies the video footage. It took six months to prepare the VR experience.

"It's relatively easy to write brand education materials or shoot a video, but that doesn't always capture the full experience," said Lee Applbaum, global chief marketing officer at Patron Spirits, in a press statement. "What we've created, using the very latest VR technology, is an authentic, intimate and unprecedented look inside our private Hacienda doors, second only to visiting in person."

Microsoft has pulled the plug on the Windows Media Center for Windows 10, but has something special planned for Xbox One gamers. Console owners can view live TV through the Xbox One, and will soon have the ability to record content.

"Of course, many Media Center fans actually use the product to record and watch TV shows via Media Center PCs in the living room," said Paul Thurrott, a Microsoft blogger, in a statement to GameSpot. "Microsoft's solution for this need will apparently be the Xbox One."

The update will reportedly go live sometime later this year, as Microsoft wants to provide a variety of different streaming options for gamers. Both Microsoft and Sony want to keep users engaged with their consoles, but Microsoft hopes to have an advantage after the release of Windows 10 later this year.

Epic Games has been making waves with its new iterations of Unreal Engine, with the latest version including integrated support for Valve's SteamVR platform.

Unreal Engine 4.8 is available right now, with the team at Epic explaining: "Virtual Reality technology is evolving rapidly and becoming more powerful and immersive by the day. Even if you're starting with a simple project to learn VR or AR, build your team, your assets and your workflow around a technology that can deliver on your creative vision - now and in the future. From students just starting out and small teams of veteran developers, to world renowned VFX houses and Hollywood storytellers, you'll never outgrow Unreal Engine 4".

The team continues: "To create immersive experiences that are believable to the human mind, VR requires scenes to be complex scenes rendered at very high framerates. There are no shortcuts. Because it was designed for demanding applications such as AAA games and photoreal visualization, at its core Unreal Engine 4 meets these requirements and provides a solid foundation to build upon".

If you thought the Oculus Rift was only for PCs and not consoles, then you should think again. During TechCrunch Disrupt, Oculus VR officials noted there have been discussions to one day bring VR to the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One game consoles.

"We've talked to everyone," said Nate Mitchell, VP of Oculus VR, when asked if his company has spoken with Microsoft or Sony regarding the VR headset for game consoles. "There's a lot of people right now interested in the VR space. And we've said many times that we're interested in bringing the Rift to as many consoles or platforms as possible. Ultimately, we haven't announced any sorts of partnerships to date. But it's something we're always exploring."

Microsoft is developing HoloLens and Sony has its Project Morpheus, so it's unknown how receptive either company would be to Oculus VR. However, the Oculus Rift remains the best known VR headset, so it may not be a wise decision to shut it out completely in the future.

Since the Oculus Rift hit Kickstarter the world has been wondering when the CV1 (Consumer Version 1) would be released to the public. Well, now we know: Q1 2016.

Oculus VR announced the news just now, with the hardware on the final version, as well as its price, still unknown. However, the company did say: "The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as updated ergonomics for a more natural fit, and a highly refined industrial design".

The teasing continues: "In the weeks ahead, we'll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift. Next week, we'll share more of the technical specifications here on the Oculus blog".

Neurosurgeons at the University of California at Los Angeles are using virtual reality to get a unique viewpoint of patients' brains. There is long-term hope that VR will help neurosurgeons shorten surgeries, while also making them easier to conduct.

"It's just amazing to see every little opening in the skull where a nerve goes through," said Dr. Neil Martin, chairman of the UCLA's department of neurosurgery, in a statement to CBS News. "I'm virtually inside the skull of the patient walking around, floating around."

During the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting, Dr. Martin said he believes virtual reality can have a "tremendous impact" on neuroscience research. A custom program is being developed with Moty Avisar, CEO of Surgical Theater and creator of F-16 flight simulators for the Israeli air force - using his expertise and blending brain scans with the flight simulation software.

We've known about the GeForce GTX 980 Ti for a while now, but VideoCardz.com is reporting that the upcoming Maxwell-powered card will definitely feature 6GB of VRAM, half that of the GeForce GTX Titan X.

NVIDIA will be making the GeForce GTX 980 Ti very different from its bigger brother in the Titan X in one very big way: allowing AIBs to slap custom coolers on their GTX 980 Ti cards. This means we can expect everything from reference to watercooled and fan-cooled models, as well as heavily overclocked models, too.

VideoCardz.com has also confirmed that the GTX 980 Ti will feature the usual Maxwell display outputs: three DisplayPort, one HDMI and one DVI-I. The GTX 980 Ti will be powered by the GM200-310 GPU, but we don't know how that differs from the GM200-400 GPU, so we'll find out in the near future. NVIDIA will be using the GeForce GTX 980 Ti to battle the Fiji-based Radeon R9 390X from AMD, which should be launching in the next couple of weeks, rocking its own surprises.

We still don't know if the Oculus Rift will be launching this year, or if it does launch we could face low units, but when CV1 (Consumer Version 1) launches, we should expect something magical.

According to Sean Halloran, or @Comic_Seans on Twitter, a game and software developer at Myomo, in Cambridge, MA - the Oculus Rift CV1 will feature an integrated DAC and built-in headphone port. He noticed the details in the documentation of the Oculus Audio SDK, which has now all but confirmed the use of the integrated DAC and headphone port.

During the Build conference keynote today, Microsoft announced it has expanded a partnership with Unity Technologies to include HoloLens support for the Unity development platform. Unity is best known for its Unity game engine, and is currently used in video game titles such as Cities: Skylines and HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft.

"Microsoft HoloLens unshackles game and app designers from traditional screens creating a freedom to completely reimagine how we view and interact with information, education, entertainment, creative tools, social networks, remote healthcare and more," said Steffen Toksvig, VP of strategic technology at Unity.

As part of the agreement, Unity tools will be included in the Unity Personal and Unity Pro packages for HoloLens.

Samsung believes there is potential for virtual reality in the workplace, and wants to explore possible opportunities. The company already has the Gear VR headset, but that product is designed for consumers - something a bit more rugged would likely be required in the enterprise world.

VR headsets could become appealing in the office because they create an immersive way to give presentations or sales pitches. However, developing and sharing content designed for VR headsets would need to be customized for every company based on their work environments.

Samsung says the automotive industry has shown the most interest in VR, but real estate agencies and other niche companies could benefit from VR. Unfortunately, it could be years of testing and development before VR begins to take off in the workplace - with more dedication needed from software developers and hardware manufacturers