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Good morning!
Our first XR Jobs Office Hours on Thursday was packed with insights on getting started in XR, for job seekers looking into corporate, startup and consulting opportunities. Thanks to our panelists - Joanna Popper from HP, Cortney Harding of Friends with Holograms, echoAR founder Alon Grinshpoon, stealth mode founder Chris Horne, and RLab's Director of Corporate Innovation Adaora Udoji. Check out our recap for the recording, some highlights, and a list of resources shared.
After we capped attendance for the first Office Hours event, we learned there were so many more who wanted to join, so we will open these up to more participants starting with our next event in September. Stay tuned for more details.
This week's newsletter takes a look at Facebook's announcement that new Oculus device users will need a social login to access content starting in October, Snap's release of full-body AR tracking for its creator tool, the AARP Innovation Lab's cross-generation VR experience (available free on Quest), and an interview with the startup that helped the Microsoft Flight Simulator team render 1.5B buildings.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
- the RLab team
We're always working to improve this newsletter - let us know how we're doing and send tips, feedback or questions to info@rlab.nyc.
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MUST-READS
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| Facebook Account Required For New Oculus VR Headsets |
By December 2019, Facebook was already requiring Oculus users to connect their Facebook accounts to their Oculus ID to access certain features. Meaghan Fitzgerald, head of product marketing for AR/VR content at Facebook, noted at the time that players could display their Oculus identity in the upcoming Horizon, but would require a linked Facebook account to access social features.
Now, what many VR users have anticipated with apprehension (but saw as inevitable) has arrived: starting in October 2020, you'll need a Facebook account to use new Oculus devices. "There will no longer be the option for a separate Oculus ID," notes UploadVR. The Oculus account system will also be phased out by 2023. So you can either merge your Oculus ID to your Facebook account, or keep it, knowing you have a few years left before you need the social login.
Facebook has already seen some backlash for requiring a Facebook login for Oculus Venues, which currently holds a 2/5 star rating with a mix of rave reviews around the actual experience and reviewers disconcerted or downright infuriated at the forced login. It also seems like Venues may border the Horizon universe, as the live events platform recently got a graphical overhaul that looks awfully like Horizon.
1 min read
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| Alcove for Oculus Quest Entertains Pandemic-Bound Seniors With VR |
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Innovation Lab released Alcove for Oculus Quest. Alcove is an all-ages, family-oriented experience with casual games, meditation, world travel, and media customization. Product lead Cezara Windrem says the team saw an opportunity to introduce something to users who wanted a "more quiet, peaceful, and beautiful experience in virtual reality." Whereas other VR apps may work to inspire awe or excitement, Alcove is aiming for a cozy space that feels familiar (it takes place in a virtual home).
Of course, with AARP behind the experience, the focus is on accessibility - users can invite family members and friends and fully guide them around the Alcove home. "It's not targeted at people who are 75 years or older only. You can communicate with other people. You can take people on a tour. We find that people 50 or older are engaging with their children or even their grandchildren via the avatars," says AARP Innovation Labs vice president Richard Robinson.
4 min read |
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| Startup Helped Microsoft Build the 3D World of Flight Simulator |
Microsoft and Asobo Studios weren't alone in their efforts to create the stunning Flight Simulator 2020 - they had help from a range of partners, including Austrian startup Blackshark.ai, which recreated every city and town in the world with the help of AI (you can see a video of the game in action in the Must See section below). TechCrunch spoke with Blackshark co-founder and CEO Michael Putz on the company's founding, working with Microsoft, and the Putz's future plans.
"'The core idea of the new Flight Simulator simulator was to use Bing Maps as a playing field, as a map, as a background,' Putz explained. But Bing Maps' photogrammetry data only yielded exact 1:1 replicas of 400 cities — for the vast majority of the planet, that data doesn't exist. Microsoft and Asobo Studios needed a system for building the rest. This is where Blackshark comes in. For Flight Simulator, the studio reconstructed 1.5 billion buildings from 2D satellite images."
9 min read |
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| MUST-SEE |
Microsoft Flight Simulator is older than Word (1983) and Windows (1985). It came out during Raegan's first term. Microsoft commissioned and acquired the software in 1982, pretty much to demonstrate the power of modern technology to everyday consumers and corporate rivals.
FS2020 has much the same goals. This year's entry is special because of a few things (besides requiring 127GB of HD space). FS2020's earth model is, closer than anything before it, a rough digital twin of our planet (excepting secret military areas, of course).
But it goes deeper than that: the new game represents Microsoft's ability to coalesce various internal teams and layer advanced technologies together into an easy-to-consume product. Check out this Protocol piece for a deeper dive into how FS2020 got started, and watch the graphical evolution of the game in the video below!
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| COMMUNITY NEWS |
RLab contributed to a newly published report on the future of virtual reality, augmented reality and 360-degree videos in journalism, produced by Jano Gibson, a journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation who received a fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to study immersive journalism last year.
RealMotion VFX released a video showing the making of the AR-fighter game Holofighter, with volumetric video captured in a Mantis Vision ring at RLab last summer.
IL3X (RLab Accelerator Spring 2020) was recognized in a feature about digital fashion solutions in Io Donna, the weekly women's magazine of the Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera.
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| TWEET OF THE WEEK |
Former Oculus developer strategist Callum Underwood started a thread about Facebook's announcement, and the VR community weighed in with 240+ comments detailing concerns about the impact on developers as well as users. Voices of VR's Kent Bye takes a deeper dive into the tension between Facebook's ambitions and VR developer ecosystems in his recent podcast interview with the CEO of BigScreenVR.
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TECH TALK
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| Videos of all 50 sessions from Unreal Fest 2020 are now available online. There's something for almost everyone in here, with technical talks drilling down into applications of Unreal Engine across a growing range of industries outside gaming - including Automotive, Architecture, Film/TV/Live Events, and Cross-Industry categories. If you're new to Unreal Engine, the 35-minute crash course with Epic Games' Global Education Evangelist Luis Cataldi provides a high-level overview of the principles of the game engine and its various tools. |
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| EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES |
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UPCOMING CLASSES AT RLAB
Online Intensive: Virtual Production
September 26 - October 10
Learn virtual production tools and techniques for remote multi-user collaboration and content creation in the Unreal Engine. This two-week online course will help digital filmmakers, directors, producers and other creators address remote production challenges and develop the skills and processes that are most relevant to their projects and pipelines. Register Here.
Online Course: UX Design Principles for AR & VR
Starts September 2
Developed by RLab and NYU Tandon School of Engineering, in partnership with Emeritus, this two-month course is designed to provide UX designers, UX architects, and product managers with an understanding of how to design UX for AR & VR technologies. Register Here. |
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Event: SIGGRAPH 2020
August 24-28
The year's top advancements in computer graphics and interactive techniques through on-demand presentations (available starting August 17) and interactive sessions with contributors.
Event: AWE Nite NYC
August 25, 7-8PM
This month's online meetup for AR enthusiasts features a talk with Jacob Loewenstein, head of business at Spatial.
Event: Women of Spatial: A Creative Tech and Startup Summit
August 26, 4-6PM
Join women from across the XR space for an opportunity to connect, learn and discover new opportunities at this virtual event.
Event: MAVRIC 2020
September 10-11
3d annual conference (online this year) exploring the impact of XR in healthcare, business, art, intelligence, defense, and government.
Event: Ethics and Privacy: Terms of Usage
September 14, 10AM - 11:30AM
As part of the Data Science Institute's flagship annual event, Eric Schmidt will join for a discussion with Jeannette M. Wing.
Opportunity: Kaleidoscope Artist Grants
Deadline: August 31
Monthly grants for projects in development include Activist Lens for documentary projects, Black Realities for projects by Black artists, and more.
Opportunity: Techstars Anywhere
Deadline: October 11
While anyone from anywhere building anything can apply to Techstars' remote program, they're specifically looking for founders building products and services catalyzed by a remote-first world.
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| OTHER NEWS |
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Venice Film Festival Partners With HTC Vive, VRChat & Oculus for Digital VR Event
Apple Threatens to Terminate Epic Games' Developer Accounts on August 28
Fashion Is Building a Virtual Future, Starting With Its Showrooms
Facebook Signs Multiyear Deal With NBA, Making Oculus Its Official VR Marketing Partner
VR Puts Viewers Inside the Grisly Reality of Factory Farms |
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