Big Changes at Regal Cinemas
[Philip Lelyveld comment: The immediate-future no-brainer answer to what they'll show is computer-generated images that match up with the mainstream feature on the main screen - since it doesn't pay to shoot 3 screens for such a small installed based. (Maze Runner I and II). Down the road think more creatively - Abel Gance's Napoleon triptychs.]
On Friday, April 1, the 14-screen complex will get the unwieldy name Regal L.A. Live: A Barco Innovation Center (no, it’s not an April Fool’s joke), with four key changes. The most significant is the turning of one of the theaters into the “Barco Escape,” which touts three screens in a panoramic layout for a more immersive viewing experience. Additionally, the lobby will be overhauled with a bevy of digital screens, new lighting and interactive displays. The complex is getting Barco laser projectors, initially in two theaters, with the remainder being upgraded later this year. The auditoriums’ sound systems are similarly being replaced by Barco and Auro Technologies products. The April 1 change will be marked by a block party with a DJ, street performers and more. Bonus: Anyone who purchases tickets for movies starting at 6 p.m. or later on April 1 gets a voucher for a small popcorn and small fountain drink.
See the original post here: http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/big-changes-at-regal-cinemas/article_6e2230be-f508-11e5-b7b1-4f1f95aa60d5.html
Oculus kicks off virtual reality’s slow-motion revolution
[Philip Lelyveld comment: I'm surprised more people aren't using the quote "the future is here, its just not evenly distributed."]
Adi Robertson of the Verge calls the first version of the Oculus a “solid foundation for what's to come.” Setting up the headset is a significantly bigger task than flipping on a new smartphone, though, and games can take a long time to download, Brian X. Chen wrote in the New York Times.
Headsets continue to cause problems with nausea for some users, even though the companies making them have been insisting they're on the precipice of solving this issue for the past few years. Oculus recently announced a new feature in its latest software for developers intended to reduce motion sickness. As it stands, people who use virtual reality report a range of sensitivity to the uncomfortable physical effects of the technology.
All this means that virtual reality is likely to remain a pastime of hard-core gamers and early adopters.
See the full story here: http://triblive.com/business/technology/10217708-74/oculus-reality-virtual
Sony Plans New PlayStation for Graphics-Heavy Games
The days of waiting six or more years between videogame-console releases are coming to an end.
Sony Corp. is planning to sell a more powerful version of its PlayStation 4 machine to handle higher-end game experiences, including virtual reality, people familiar with the matter said, while continuing production of its existing console that has so far sold more than 36 million units world-wide.
Existing PlayStation 4 owners would need to buy the new model to take full advantage of the enhanced graphics and power, though it is likely that the current model and the coming one would share the same software catalog, one of the people said.
See the full story here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/sony-plans-new-playstation-for-graphics-heavy-games-1459152941
Virtual Reality Whiz Palmer Luckey: Future Will Be ‘More Boring Than We Think’
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus VR, demonstrates the new Oculus Rift headset during the "Step Into The Rift" event in San Francisco in June 2015.
You can listen to the extended interview with Luckey at the audio link above.
In it, Luckey muses about how VR may be better for the environment, why he recommends the novel Ready Player One despite its dystopian view of the VR future, how VR is facing similar pushback to the one faced by rock 'n' roll and swing dancing in their time and what ethical questions are raised by the use of VR for journalism.
See the full story with audio link here: http://kclu.org/post/virtual-reality-whiz-palmer-luckey-future-will-be-more-boring-we-think#stream/0
Oculus Rift review – VIRTUAL REALITY IS ALWAYS ALMOST HERE
But after nearly four years, the finished Oculus Rift has shipped to its very first group of customers, and it’s time to see whether the headset that started it all is still pushing the cutting edge of virtual reality.
The all-black headset is downright understated by gaming hardware standards, with a front of smooth rubber, sides coated in coarse cloth, and lenses surrounded by a web of lycra. It’s tethered to a PC by a single wire, which runs out your left temple and along one of the adjustable side straps.
But once you get used to wearing it, the headset feels lighter and more comfortable than most of its competition, sealing against your face with a firm but pliable ring of foam.
Along with a cylindrical black tracking camera on a slender 8-inch stand, the Rift comes with two accessories: an Xbox One gamepad and a small, simple device called the Oculus Remote.
The 4-meter headset tether ends with one USB and one HDMI port, and the tracking camera is plugged in with its own USB cable — there’s no external power cable or controller box for either piece. You’ll just download Oculus’ Windows app and run through a short, though descriptive, setup checklist before getting into VR.
None of this matters if the view from inside the Rift is no good — and fortunately, it holds up. The headset contains a pair of lenses, a gyroscope and accelerometer, a pair of decent-quality removable earphones, and two 1200 x 1080 screens. The image they produce is bright and relatively clear (although it still has a bit of the graininess that almost all VR headsets struggle with), and the overall resolution is about the same as the single-screened Gear VR.
The biggest problem is that it’s impossible to tell where that space ends until you step outside it, causing a sickening jerk as the world stops responding to your motion.
The result is a lot of games where VR feels like an addition, not a transformation. Most of the first-person experiences could translate to flat screens without much trouble, and some — like space exploration game Adrift — are already coming to both VR and flatscreen platforms like PC and PlayStation 4.
VR-friendly design occasionally hampers a game. Chronos, a beautiful fantasy game that’s become one of my favorite Rift launch titles, uses the same combat mechanics as Dark Souls. Unlike Dark Souls, the camera moves between fixed angles for each area instead of directly following the player. This gives you a perfect view of its beautiful environments, and it cuts the risk of motion sickness to almost zero. But it also means that large enemies can block your view of the protagonist, and the camera will disorientingly pop to a completely different location if you move too far during a battle.
The high cost of buying and running high-end VR headsets makes them inaccessible to many people, and the Rift in particular is relentlessly focused on gaming. Within these limitations, though, the Rift makes a good case for seated VR, and it lays a solid foundation for what’s to come. The headset you can buy today is not Oculus’ most ambitious vision for virtual reality — but it’s a vision that Oculus has successfully delivered on.
See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/28/11284590/oculus-rift-vr-review
Netflix Party lets long distance friends watch together
[Philip Lelyveld comment: Social VR will lead the way for VR adoption. This is one form it will take, and it is also a great way to monetize catalog.]
But now there’s Netflix Party, a chrome extension that lets viewers sync their Netflix viewing session across time and space and adds a group chat sidebar for good measure. Remember Xbox Live’s Netflix Party? Yeah, it’s like that but in a browser window.
This extension is not from Netflix so install at your own risk.
See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/28/netflix-party-lets-long-distance-friends-watch-together/?ncid=tcdaily
PlayStation 4K is reportedly real, so what kind of performance can we expect?
Let’s get one thing out of the way up front. Regardless of whether Sony calls this a PlayStation 4K, there’s no modern GPU that can pack into a console and offer a consistent 30 FPS at 4K within a $400 system price point. Teardowns of the original PlayStation calculated a $121 bill of materials (BOM) cost for its various processors. Even if we assume AMD’s next-generation Polaris architecture could deliver a 2.5x performance increase, the power envelopes and raw frame rates just don’t add up.
If “true” 4K isn’t available, what can Sony offer?
Sony’s best bet with any hardware refresh is to focus on delivering significant gaming improvement at existing resolutions while simultaneously supporting 4K media playback. Upgrade the Blu-ray player to Ultra HD, add HDMI 2.0 support for 4K output, take advantage of the HDR support AMD is building in next-gen hardware, and you’ve got a potent upgrade option. 4K at 30 FPS might not be achievable, but 900-1080p at 60 FPS probably is.
Alone together: my weird morning in a virtual reality chatroom
AltSpace VR has already attracted more than $15m (£10.6m) in venture capital funding, and Mark Zuckerberg has talked about multi-user VR as the future of social media. There are alternatives to AltSpace, such as vTime and VRChat but this one is getting a lot of interest due to its multi-platform compatibility and array of features.
Organisers of real-life events can also arrange to stream live footage into AltSpace – there’s even a plush cinema viewing room where you can stand and watch. Facebook streamed the recent Oculus Connect 2 conference into the world.
We don’t have to ask about age or sex because those come through, to some extent, in our voices. That’s the first really intriguing thing about VR chat – if you talk, it’s harder to disguise your gender; you’re giving away much more real-world information about yourself.
At the same time, there’s no aural intimacy. If you’re in the same room with other people, you can hear everyone chatting at once and there’s little positional detail (even though the Rift and Vive support that function), so everyone is more-or-less the same volume.
But it’s all so strange at the moment because our brains are still adapting to this brave new world. It is crazy to be both embodied and not embodied in a space. To have the visual cues of physical intimacy without any physical intimacy at all. There were times when I cocked my ear towards another speaker in the room to hear them better. Of course it made no difference but some part of me thought it would. All those little indicators of mood and intention that accompany our movements and facial expressions in the real world are lost here. We have our voices and weird, unresponsive metal bodies. We are souls in an alien world.
See the full story here: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/24/alone-together-my-weird-morning-virtual-reality-chatroom-alt-space