Lucid Realities Studio

Étiquette : Oculus

  • Post-Pandemic Virtual Reality: an opportunity for VR exhibitions?

    The Covid-19 pandemic, and the global lock-down measures that came as consequence led an important proportion of the population to re-consider how we consider outings, our time, and social interactions. Telecommuting, distance learning, restriction of social encounters and leisure venture, most of our daily activities had to be reconsidered and transformed to align with social distancing and health measures.  Many of us observed the practicality of new technologies in pursuing work activities, maintaining social interactions, or remedy to the monotony of lock down – to the point that some of us durably reconsidered their everyday life post-pandemic. But what can we say about Virtual Reality technology ? From Oculus Quest, to HTC Vive or Playstation VR, in-home VR experiences has never been this accessible. In addition, users can now benefit a growing offer of games and narrative experiences on the major specialized stores (Viveport, Oculus store, Steam VR…). Being locked out of our own reality for so long, could it be time to turn towards virtual reality ? 

    Several sources state that the pandemic lead to a rise of interest from the public in Virtual Reality : « In the meantime, there’s discuss that the coronavirus disaster has boosted demand for headsets too as folks caught at dwelling have sought new methods to entertain themselves. (…) Some suppose that the pandemic may show a turning level for VR, which has didn’t reside as much as early progress expectations. » writes TechMartie. While sales in VR headsets actually decreased in 2020, it is mostly believed to be a consequence of supply chain disturbance lead by the pandemic, but will later result in long-term growth according to a report from the International Data Corporation. George Jijiashvili, a senior analyst at analysis agency Omdia, predicts the variety of standalone and tethered VR headsets will develop from 13.1 million in 2019 to 55.5 million by the tip of 2024. “It’s a giant progress” he says.

    Besides an increasing general demand for in-home entertainment, such as innovative gaming experience, Virtual Reality could come as an unsuspected substitution to some outdoor leisure. Museum visits, tourism, festivals and concerts, cultural outings… during the pandemic, nearly all of us could forget about these activities. While in the past few weeks the cultural sector is slowly re-opening to the public, it is not without a variety of constraints to ensure sanitary safety.

    For instance, when on August 27th, New York’s iconic Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) re-opened its door to the public after 6 months, it was under certain conditions. We can read in an article by Daria Harper « MoMA’s reopening plan will include new safety measures to curb transmission of the coronavirus, including decreased visitor capacity and timed entry tickets that must be reserved by visitors in advance via the museum’s website. The tickets will be available in 30-minute slots beginning August 21st, and will be released one week in advance, in one-week intervals, each Friday at 10:00 a.m. The institution will also require face coverings and social distancing, conduct contactless temperature checks, and position plexiglass barriers at strategic areas throughout the museum.« 
    The reduced capacity, shortened opening hours and reservation requirements, added to the travel restrictions induced by the pandemic, lowering the volume of tourists and visitors inevitably depreciates the museum’s accessibility – not to mention the important proportion of the public who prefer to limit their outings to avoid any health risk. 

    Could Virtual Reality come as a solution for the loss access to cultural outings caused by the pandemic ? Some seem to believe so. In an article by Alexandros Skandalis we can read « There appears to have been a signifiant rise in such VR offerings this year, aiming to deliver safe, accessible experiences during the pandemic. A number of visitor attractions have stared to offer immersive VR experiences and access to online collections via the Google Arts & Culture app. You can go on a walking tour of the ancient temples of Sicily’s Valle dei Templi, for example. Or how about visiting a New York street art exhibition based around giant water tanks, or Hong Kong’s renowned Blue House building? ».

    Will in-home VR experiences slowly grow to replace cultural outings? Some argue that both are not mutually exclusive, especially as museums and cultural institutions have been experiencing with XR and Location Based VR as proves this article . Jimmy Cheng, director of content material and enterprise operations at XR (digital and augmented actuality) content material and expertise specialist Iconic Engine says that Covid-19 has spurred the expansion of in-home VR in comparison with LBE (Location Based mostly Leisure) VR. « If Covid-19 can finish by the tip of 2020 or early 2021, then LBE VR can profit from in-home VR as these new customers will step out and begin making an attempt extra entertaining tasks or larger scale experiences at museums, arcades and playgrounds. »

    In the meantime, if you’ve missed Lucid Realities’ experience Claude Monet – the Water Lily obsession , shown at Musée de l’Orangerie , or our family friendly VR Game 1,2,3… Bruegel!, you can still enjoy it from the confort of your own home, as it available, as all of our previous productions, on Viveport or Steam.

    Source: TechMarie, IDC, Artsy.net, The Conversation, Museum Next

  • VARIETY | France, Britain Lead Europe’s Foray Into VR Contents

    VARIETY | France, Britain Lead Europe’s Foray Into VR Contents

    Logo Variety

    They’re already home to two of Europe’s most vibrant film industries. Now France and Britain are leading the way in the region in creating VR content.

    Between them, the two countries have eight of the 22 titles competing in the upcoming Venice Film Festival’s new virtual-reality section — the world’s first competitive VR strand at a film festival. Add in an entrant apiece from Italy and Denmark, and the number of European titles in the competition exceeds that of the U.S.
    “The VR industry is booming in Europe, which is great for all of us,” said Sol Rogers, CEO and founder of Rewind, the British creator of “Ghost in the Shell VR,” with U.S. banner Here Be Dragons, and “Home: A VR Spacewalk,” which just picked up an award at Cannes Lions.
    A report in August identified 487 virtual-reality companies operating in Europe, up from the 300 recorded in February.

    But in contrast with the U.S., where virtual-reality creation is mainly being funded by deep-pocketed corporations and private investors, the VR industry in France and Britain is being driven in large part by public broadcasters, TV channels, government institutions, independent producers and tech studios.

    In France, where the entertainment industry is highly subsidized, the National Film Board has funneled more than €3.5 million ($4.1 million) into VR projects via two schemes: one for writing, development and production and another for technology expenses. The board backed 33 VR projects in 2016, compared with just one in 2014.

    Okio, one of France’s top VR companies along with Agat Films (“Notes on Blindness”) and Camera Lucida (“The Enemy”), has raised about a third of its budget from subsidies. Most of the money is allocated to development.

    The company premiered “I, Philip” at the Cannes Film Market and will be attending Venice to pitch its upcoming VR experience “Lights.” It is also developing a segment for an eight-part VR series commissioned by Arte. The segment’s budget is €120,000, two-thirds of which comes from Arte and the rest from government subsidies.

    Antoine Cayrol, producer at Okio, said that steering the subsidies into development is what makes the French virtual-reality experience so original and ultimately popular among festival programmers and platforms. “We’re able to hire skilled creatives and crews [and] spend time on the graphic bible, the script,” said Cayrol. “So when we start pitching Arte, Amazon, Oculus or Hulu, we have a well-developed proposition.

    “I remember someone at Oculus who once told me, ‘We get a lot of people in the U.S. who send us three pages and ask for $3 million, and in France, producers send us treatments of 25 pages and ask for $25,000,’” Cayrol quipped.

    A handful of pure VR players, such as HTC and Oculus, are starting to invest in content creation overseas and can help finance bigger-budget, more ambitious projects. Facebook-owned Oculus is developing projects with Agat Films and Okio. It also pre-bought Okio’s latest experience, “Alteration,” and made up a big chunk of the project’s budget, Cayrol said.

    Broadcasters such as the BBC, Arte, France Televisions and Germany’s ZDF are considered VR pioneers in Europe and have been key in pushing for strong VR-native content. More channels are following suit, including France’s TF1, which recently launched an app dedicated to the technology and commissioned its first VR experiment, “Sergeant James.”

    The channels see their investment as a way to nurture emerging talent, attract younger audiences and boost their brands. It also equips them to compete with Hollywood and Asia. “If we don’t invest in VR today, in a few years the VR landscape will be fully dominated by American or Asian content,” said Gilles Freissinier, Arte’s head of digital.

    In Britain, VR players can apply for funding from government body Innovate U.K. and have access to a strong talent pool of post-production experts, FX specialists and other creatives who have flocked to London and the British entertainment industry.

    “There’s brilliant stuff from institutions, and from the BBC with Taster, but also a huge amount from the private sector as people work out what VR is, what the business model is and how we can make the experience different and superior to TV or standard games,” said John Cassy of VR studio Factory 42, which is developing a hologram project with Sky, London’s Natural History Museum and David Attenborough.

    The challenge is to make the VR industry scalable enough to sustain it, said Tom Burton, head of interactive and VR at BBC Studios. “So far, there is no return on investment,” he noted. “It’s a medium that’s barely a few years old.”

    Alchemy VR is working with London’s publicly funded Science Museum on “Space Descent,” which re-creates British astronaut Tim Peake’s journey back to Earth from the International Space Station.

    “There is no template or set business model for VR,” said Emily Smith, Alchemy’s director of marketing and business development. “It’s a mixed economy. With ‘Space Descent,’ the Science Museum had the Soyuz capsule and commissioned us to make a visceral VR experience. We also have pay-to-download experiences on the PlayStation Store. There are different models for different projects.”

    While prospects for monetization remain limited in Europe, one emerging revenue stream is location-based VR. MK2, one of France’s biggest film companies, recently opened Europe’s largest permanent virtual-reality facility in Paris.

    “Location-based VR is crucial to give virtual-reality content a commercial life, create a business model and a chain of revenues for right holders, as well as initiate consumers to the technology and have them embrace it before it hits the mass market,” said Elisha Karmitz, managing director at MK2.

    The company kicked off international sales of its VR content at the Cannes Film Festival. And one of its films is competing in the VR section at Venice: François Vautier’s aptly named “I Saw the Future.”