Interesting articles about VR – week #11

How YouTube Is Making Virtual Reality Look Better

YouTube has developed what it hopes can become a new industry standard that makes 360-degree videos look better and perform more efficiently. The technological update, which YouTube and Google’s internal Daydream virtual reality team have already implemented for displaying 360-degree videos on Android devices, was created to address a problem that would be familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to lay out a spherical object on a rectangle. Think: showing the Earth on a rectangular map, which vastly distorts the size of various continents.

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Leap Motion’s New 180-degree Hand-tracking Comes to Qualcomm’s Latest VRDK Headset

Qualcomm has debuted an updated version of their VR Headset Reference Design now with Leap Motion’s new 180-degree hand-tracking to bring gesture control to mobile VR headsets. The new headset and Leap Motion tracking module was shown off during last week’s GDC 2017.

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Are You Talking to Me? – My Problem With AR Headsets

I work on the third floor of an office with three other developers. It is a fun group of guys, and it is not uncommon for us to kick out some great tunes, or spark up awesome conversations about whatever tech news is hot that day. We aren’t a rowdy bunch, but occasionally the folks on the first and second floors have to come up and tell us to keep it down.

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5 BIG COMPANIES LAUNCHED VR PLATFORMS THIS WEEK: VR LIVESTREAM, FACEBOOK’S FIRST VR APP, AND MORE.

The competition of VR platform is getting heat this week. Facebook released its first VR app. CNN launched its VR platform. Vimeo comes to the party of 360 content. And…

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How Filmmakers Are Solving VR’s Biggest Problem: Adoption

Last week, I outlined ways that VR can avoid failing in 2017 but with SXSW happening this week, I was inspired to delve deeper into the driving force for Virtual Reality’s current adoption.

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How Brands Use Facebook 360 Video (And Why You Should Too)

As managing director of video marketing strategy agency, Hurricane, I have over 20 years’ experience creating engaging content, first for the BBC, and now for leading brands maximizing the opportunities of social media. In my opinion, now is the time to get ahead of the competition and add 360 degree content to your video strategy.

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Psychologists Use VR to Test Whether You’ll Save Someone’s Life

Imagine you’re in your school or office when the fire alarm goes off. You snake your way through the corridors, avoiding explosions and walking through clouds of black smoke. All the while, the alarm bells continue to blare in your ears. Your vision narrows as your body gets weak from the smoke and the physical exertion. Just when you feel like you’re about to collapse, you see someone trapped under a fallen piece of debris. He desperately begs for you to help him. What do you do?

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Top 10 Most Viewed 360 Videos of February 2017

March is here, you know what that means! It’s time for us to bring you yet another list of this month’s most viewed 360 degree videos. From horrifying experiences that will put you into a paranormal state of fright to gorgeous Venezuelan waterfalls, you’re in for a treat this time around so we hope you’ve come prepared with some kind of VR gear. So strap in your HTC Vive, boot up that Oculus Rift, and power on your GearVR – it’s time for the 10 most viewed 360 videos of February 2017!

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Introduction to Virtual Reality

Welcome to the future, Virtual Reality is here and it works. Hooray! Unfortunately, you need a computer from the future just to be able to use it.

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Microsoft HoloLens Takes Michael Abrash Too Literally?

When Michael Abrash moved from Intel to Valve, according to his post on the latter company’s blog, he suggested that he should help optimize Portal 2. The response from Jay Stelly was interesting: “Yeah, you could do that, but we’ll get it shipped anyway.” That’s… not something you’d expect from a company that is getting ready to ship a huge, AAA title.

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