In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, virtual reality (VR) and immersive technologies are making significant strides, transforming various aspects of our lives. This introduction will delve into different categories of news, highlighting the latest developments and trends in this exciting field.
*Original content sourced from previous Discord & Medium newsletters.
?? Virtual Events and Experiences
The emergence of virtual events as a viable alternative to in-person gatherings is a prominent theme. It explores the possibilities of creating engaging and immersive experiences through VR technology, including virtual concerts, virtual offices, and virtual festivals like Sundance.
?? Social Interactions and Relationships in VR
The impact of VR on social interactions and relationships is explored through articles on VR dating networks, virtual reality meetings, and immersive storytelling. It highlights the potential for deep connections and unique experiences within virtual environments.
- I attended a class about death in VR — here’s what happened (Laptopmag)
- VR Isn’t Dying, It’s Just Getting Started (VR Voice)
- At CES And Beyond, CMOs See Potential With New Kinds Of Virtual Events (Forbes)
- TOP 10 Features to have during a Virtual Event (Azad Abbasi)
- I spent a week hunting for VR love and faced relentless rejection — until this happened (LaptopMag)
- A Moment in Time: The Past, Present and Future of Extended Reality (Rupert Breheny)
- 'I Run a Virtual Reality Dating Network Where You Can Have Sex and Marry' (NewsWeek)
- Who Will Own The Metaverse? (Matrise)
- Virtual Reality Meetings or Social Virtual Reality (Queppelin)
- Finding the Story (Immerse: William Uricchio)
- Why HTML is still more “Metaverse” than 3D (Unbound Blog)
- New Types of Spaces (Samuelab)
- I spent a week in VRchat, here's who I met (Disrupt)
Platforms Updates & Features
- Spatial Concerts in GroupRoom (Chris Matthieu)
- Meet GroupRoom, your team’s new virtual office space! (Chris Matthieu)
- LIV Now Supports Full-body Avatars from ReadyPlayerMe, Making it Easy to Stream VR Without a Green Screen (Road to VR)
- Tivoli Cloud VR Has Integrated Wolf3D’s Ready Player Me Avatar Creator: Now You Can Create a Tivoli Cloud Avatar from a Selfie! (Ryan Schultz)
- Wave VR Concerts Put On Pause (VRScout)
- Wave Deprecates VR App to Focus on Broader Distribution of Its Virtual Performances (Road to VR)
- Virtual Concerts Company Wave Shutters VR App to Focus on Wider Distribution (Billboard)
- ‘Bigscreen VR’ Launches Over 172 Free TV Channels, Including ‘Rick And Morty’ & ‘Robot Chicken’ (VRScout)
- Facebook Announces Multi-User Support And App Sharing For The Oculus Quest (VRScout)
- Top 5 Lessons Learned from 30 Virtual Speaking Engagements (Valorem Reply)
- ‘Rec Room’ Now Has Over 1 Million Monthly Active VR Users (Road to VR)
- VRChat’s New Years 2021 — or, what the $%@& was that? (VRChat)
- Our Cyberpunk 2077 Avatar Maker Went Viral on Reddit (Ready Player Me)
- Top Second Life Creator Is Importing His Avatars Into VRChat And Successfully Selling Them For 10x The SL Price (NWN Blogs)
- Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki believes users will create the metaverse (VentureBeat)
- Multi-app: The next evolution in spatial computing (Forest Gibson)
XR Funding & Partnerships
- Magic Leap Founder Rony Abovitz Unveils New Startup to Build Virtual Humans (Road to VR)
- What’s Next After Zoom? (Forbes)
- Your Guide To Sundance 2021 In VR: What, Where, How To Access (VRScout)
- ‘Bigscreen’ Brings ‘Rick & Morty’, ‘The Eric Andre Show’ & More to Free TV Selection (Road to VR)
- Data Dive: Can Virtual Events Bring in the Big Bucks? (AR Insider)
- The Future is Now: Live Breakdance Battles in VR Are Connecting People Across the Globe (Road to VR)
- Baobab Studios Rolls Out The Virtual Red Carpet For The Premier Of ‘Baba Yaga’ (VRScout)
- Here’s what it’s like to attend a VR premiere (Kidscreen)
- Innovation Is Bringing Fans Closer To The Music (Magnopus)
- The Sundance Film Festival makes a giant leap into VR (engadget)
- This film shows off virtual reality’s growing potential to compete with movies, TV, and gaming as our dominant form of entertainment (MarketWatch)
- Embracing a "3D math / physics state of mind" in the immersive media economy (Francis Chen)
- Sundance 2021: Building a New Frontier for a virtual festival experience (Shari Frilot)
- Electronic music promoter LWE launches Tobacco Dock Virtual for hybrid clubbing and gaming events (Music Week)
Digital + Virtual Fashion
- These platforms want to be the Farfetch of digital fashion (Vogue Business)
New Hardware & Software Releases
- Apple might be working on a VR headset (TechCrunch)
- Testing the final release of the Volumetric Video Capturing system of CERTH and VRTogether (VRTogether)
With COVID-19 still a reality, many event planners are also looking for innovative ways to put together an experience for their viewers that feels as close to real life as possible.
