Interesting articles about VR – week #26

What’s new in Unity ARKit Plugin for ARKit 2

Apple announced exciting news for AR developers last week at WWDC, including ARKit 2. Unity has worked closely with Apple to allow our developers instant access to all of these new features with an update to Unity ARKit Plugin. In this blog, we’ll get into the technical details of ARKit 2’s new features and how to access them via the Unity ARKit Plugin. Please download the plugin from Bitbucket to follow along.

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Virtual Reality Innovations Again Turned Heads at SXSW

During her Convergence Keynote talk at SXSW 2018, immersive journalism pioneer Nonny de la Peña described how a witness to the fatal beating of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’ by U.S. Border Patrol officers in 2010 came into de la Peña studio to be part of a piece based on video and audio that she and another witness had captured on the scene.

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Generation query network lets computer create multi-view 3-D model from 2-D photographs

A team of researchers working with Google’s DeepMind division in London has developed what they describe as a Generation Query Network (GQN)—it allows a computer to create a 3-D model of a scene from 2-D photographs that can be viewed from different angles. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes the new type of neural network system and what it represents. They also offer a more personal take on their project in a post on their website. Matthias Zwicker, with the University of Maryland offers a Perspective on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.

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Chrome WebXR Chacmool demo shows how AR can be made for everyone

Truth be told, Google’s VR and AR direction is all over the place. From Google Cardboard to Daydream and Project Tango to ARCore and, now WebXR. That last bit, however, may stand to have the biggest chance of making it big, depending on how much backing it gets from competing companies. WebXR is an up and coming web standard, like, say, HTML and CSS and ECMAScript, that would, in theory, enable AR and VR to work on any platform with a web browser and Google’s first WebXR demo shows how.

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How much does VR application development cost?

VR development is supposed to be the future of tech. The market is just about to explode. With long expected Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Gear VR finally shipping as well as the markets old-timer Google Cardboard the year 2018 is going to be critical.

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3D world-building tool SculptVR makes its way to PSVR

SculptVR already provides creative minds a way to conjure up Minecraft-like worlds with detailed 3D sculptures on the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Daydream. Now, it’s also giving PlayStation VR fans the tools they need to bring their imagination to life. The application will be available for Sony’s virtual reality platform on June 19th, allowing you to create any 3D object you want using PSVR’s controllers. Drawing with controllers may sound daunting, but SculptVR founder Nathan Rowe said it could actually be easier than drawing 2D images.

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GAMER GOGGLES: 10 BEST VR HEADSETS

There was a time when virtual reality was little more than a pie-in-the-sky dream of computer programmers and sci-fi fanatics. Now, however, it’s becoming more and more clear that VR has a solid place in the future of entertainment – and we don’t just mean video games, but feature films, television, and more, as well.

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VR Companies Need To Attract More Women. Here’s How They Can.

In the early nineties, a TV studio took a risk. Executives were casting for a character named Dana Scully: a supporting role, they envisioned, being played by a woman with the same physical attributes as Pamela Anderson. Despite that brief however, The X-Files producers ultimately chose actor Gillian Anderson. Turning Scully into a fierce, whip-smart medical doctor, the newcomer offered a portrayal of a female leader in STEM that was missing from mainstream pop culture.

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This virtual reality headset runs at human-eye resolution

It’s virtual reality like you’ve never seen it before: in human-eye resolution. Helsinki-based startup Varjo is building a VR headset that lets the user see virtual objects to the same level of detail as they would in real life, producing a crisp image much clearer than the pixelated view you usually get when you stick a digital display close to your face.

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VR/AR Design to Development Workflow. Reinvented.

We know that crafting great designs and UX in these new spaces is far from being a simple task and we’re investing heavily in making it better. We also know that to be effective, the design must be connected with the entire workflow, with development. Design to development handoff is a real challenge in the VR/AR space, one that most teams are facing. It’s time to fix that.

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Oculus Go: Capable kit, if the warnings don’t put you off

Earlier this month, I jotted down some initial impressions about the Oculus Go virtual reality headset I received at Facebook’s F8 developer conference. 
Last weekend, I had a chance to play around with it more thoroughly and to test it on unsuspecting family members. What follows is a more considered account of the face-hugging screen.

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