The newest competitor in the location based VR experience market is a start up from Moscow called Anvio. Anvio is a great looking, full body motion capture VR experience.
The setup employs full body motion capture from a Moscow based company, Vortex LLC., mixed with off the shelf HMD equipment (Oculus Rift) and backpack computers. From the videos they seems to have a very fleshed out experience.
With their 2,150 square foot arena, one can’t help compare Anvio with Zero Latency. However with plank walking, floors breaking apart, soccer balls, and a seemingly less arcade like experience, it would seem Anvio has a superior product. An interesting observation is that Anvios offers fill body Motion capture which none of the existing experience companies are providing. By effective tracking of wrists, ankles and bodies, the participants are empowered to interact on a far more organic and intimate level. It will be interesting to see where this company goes. They plan on opening a facility in London in the near future. These guys are really exciting!
I suppose this was inevitable. Not only are location based immersive experience sweeping the the American country-side but it seems as if the fever is also catching abroad. VR Arcade are very popular in China. Limited hi-end PCs and and the desire for social interaction make China fertile ground for this type of industry. Japan is jumping on the bandwagon as well with Bandai Namco opening its VR arcade, known as “VR Zone: Project I Can” in the Kabukicho district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan starting this Friday, April 15th, until October 10th, 2017.
Not much is known about the experience other than video, shown above. Some of the teaser art promises:
Two mech-type battle sequences
A singing simulator
A skiing simulator
A plank walking experience
A horror experience
A train management simulator
If the attraction employ real props and are as interactive as the above video then I am sure the patrons will have a rewarding experiences.
Update 7/17/17
Here is a quick update with a trailer for each of the unique experiences which can be found at the newly opened Bandai Namco VR theme park.
After what seemed to be an almost two year wait, the Void has finally opened their doors in their home Utah location. I have yet to sample any of The Void’s experiences. I have read there are many good aspects and many bad aspects. Overall, each individual needs to be the judge for themselves.
As The Void claims, they are now operating at 90 frames/sec and with a FOV comparable to the Vive. Participants are equipped with backpacks so there are no annoying cables to deal with. Evidently, compared to some other immersive experiences, the extra weight on a participant’s back is worth the extra frame rate and expanded field of view. It also seems as if The Void’s tracking problems have been solved with the new tracking system by OptiTrack. OptiTrack claims their cameras are 40{76c5cb8798b4dc9652375d1c19c86d53c1d1411f4e030dd406aa284e63c21817} less expensive than competitor’s. I am not sure this is so remarkable. 40{76c5cb8798b4dc9652375d1c19c86d53c1d1411f4e030dd406aa284e63c21817} from $.5 million is still close to $.25 million which is still quite a chunk of change. iMyth will need to find other ways around this entry barrier. Tracking balls are also hidden from the experience. This is actually a good idea since tracking balls tend to stick out and be one more item to potentially break. This is achieved with imbedded led lights and silver metallic paint which is the same stuff used to paint the Nike logo on the sides of your shoes.
The tracking and the overall experience appear to be stable. There still seems to be some dynamic problems in tight situations where participant bump into each other. Evidently the avatars don’t really match the person they are modelling. This is attributed to only the participant’s head and gun being tracked. With that said, participants were feeling disappointed they could not see their hands. Once again this is because the participants hands are not being tracked.
The price of the experience is $25 for a less than 15 minute experience. Some may question this price and make it hard to justify a trip to Linden Utah. However, if one is passing through with a little time on their hands then the experience is definitely worth it.
Once again The Void is back on top of the Pioneer Train of Immersive experience. They are definitely discovering many of the bumps and pitfalls of this immerging new media. For us little guys let’s hope they do not run out of money so they can keep hitting these snags and coming up with solutions. Good Luck!
I knew there were going to be many players in the immersive experience industry. I just didn’t expect so many with quality product and coming from over-seas. Look out Void, Dreamscape, Zero Latency and iMyth, there is a new player in town and it looks like they are doing it right; Tick-Tock Unlock/Hyper Reality Experience!
The folks who started Tick-Tock, Ali and Samrien Kahn, are coming from a different perspective. The former engineer and Disney employee cut their immersive teeth on escape games.Tick-Tock Unlock appears to be a very successful franchise in Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and Leeds. Growing beyond escape games, the Kahns are venturing towards Virtual Reality and immersive experiences with real physical props and sets. They are featuring modular sets and theatrical “game masters” who guide participants into HTC Vive Headsets and take the experience into another dimension while creating a context and a mission.
Their first Hyper-Reality experience is scheduled to open late April. A larger experience center in London is expected to open later this year. They have two themes for games, a World War II shooter and a sword and sorcery fantasy. Other than integrating VR as a component of their escape games, not much else is known about about Tick-Tock Unlock or Hyper-Reality Experiences. However, if they deliver half of what they promise in their promo video, then companies such as The Void, Dreamscape and iMyth are in for some stiff competition.
In an article posted by Road to VR, Once a Pioneer of VR in Theme Parks, Disney Aims for AR This Time Around, Disney’s CEO, Rob Iger gives a message to the amusement industry about Diney employing VR in its attractions, “Don’t even think about it”. I personally believe this is a current reflection of the state of VR and not necessarily a reflection of Disney’s opinion about the technology.
Indeed, for a company with standards as high as Disney and with the number of people pushing through the experiences, VR just would not make sense. Currently, mobile VR experiences can only support lower quality compared to PC based technology. These high end HMDs and computers are expensive. For an attraction that pushes 100 patron’s through at a time means the attraction would need to shell out close to $4k per head or $400k just to get the attraction started. That may not seem like much but there is going to be maintenance and equipment failure which could make the initial cost skyrocket. Then there is the issue of through put. Disney just can not be expected to support that many people through its experience with what is a “Clunky” technology. The sanitary issues alone make the head spin. Disney will also have to worry about elderly and handicapped who just could not deal with a computer and a heavy HMD. Taking these immediate factors into consideration, I can certainly understand why Iger is not accepting VR technology, at this moment in time.
Although Disney Quest was slated to close in 2015, it is still operational. Why? Simply because it is making money. It is old and antiquated but still generating positive cash flow. Disney Research has not been told to turn it off either. They just released a very good white-paper on dynamic object interactions and proprioception. I have a hunch while not diving into the VR craze head first, Disney is still reaseraching and exploring ways to exploit the technology once it reaches a state of being practical, and “High Quality”.
IMAX claims that it has 15,000 admissions in its immersive center at the Bridge in LA. what this number really relates to is the number of individual experiences sold not to unique visitors. That means with tickets selling between $7 to $10 for VR content, we can roughly guess that IMAX may have cleared $100,000 in ticket sales during its first few months of operation. Notably, that includes a soft launch at an IMAX VR location unconnected to a movie theater — future locations will be connected to theaters and might see more foot traffic as a result.
IMAX will be competing directly against Dreamscape Immersive as they rush to create experiences based on Feature film releases. While iMyth is not immediatly aiming towards this market, it is interesting to see how things will develop.
Up until this point, there has not been much information about the LA startup, Dreamscape Interactive. The Dreamscape history was revealed slightly from a Forbe’s Article, Dreamscape’s Big Dreams for Immersive VR. The article explains a little of whom Kevin Wall and Walter Parkes are and what his ambitions are.
One of the first, and most important of his accomplishments was partnering with Artanim, a Swiss research think tank focussing on motion and motion capture. Artanim burst onto the VR scene two years ago when they displayed their groundbreaking, immersive VR for the 2015 Siggraph. I may be a CGI snob but I have to admit the folks at Artanim have the real head start in the immersive experience game. The Void has spent millions but only gets to the point where Artanim starts.
Relying on Hollywood serendipity and a powerful rolodex, the Wall nabbed as CEO the Disney Chief Creative Officer behind the massive Shanghai Disneyland project, Bruce Vaughn, who had planned to take a well deserved sabbatical, until Wall interrupted him with Dreamscape’s ambitious plans. Along with other Disney Imagineers recruited for the effort, Vaughn’s job is to spearhead development of both the experiences and the venue, which is being designed by Yves Behar, who Forbes described as “the most influential designer in the world.”
With this high powered team Wall and Parkes have enlisted a prime crop of heavy huitting investors including Westfields Malls, three movie studios, and Parkes’ former boss Steven Speilberg. Because of their strategic alliance with the multiple studios, the group claims to be movie agnostic. While they have given no clues on what their first experience will be, it will be fairly safe to assume the experiences will coincide with the release of major films. With their focus on the most recent feature film IPs, I believe there is still plenty of room capitalizing on the infinite number of theme worlds which have already proven themselves.
The group plans on opening their first experience at landmark Century City Mall in Los Angeles this fall. When they’re sure the venue can be operated profitably, they’ll explode into hungry malls around the country. I’ll have to admit, this is a solid plan. iMyth plans on doing the same.
Dreamscape Immeresive really seems like they have a good plan with a strong team to boot. It looks like I’ll need to be making a trip to Los Angeles this Fall to check out the new iMyth competition.
This is starting to get a bit comical. It seems everywhere you look there is new immersive experience company sprouting. Not more than two days ago I blogged about Knott’s Berry Farm entering the immersive experience game. Now I am reporting the emergence of yet another company called Nomadic. This time, instead of a location based experience, the Nomadic folks are focusing on the physical environment itself. This is a very cool concept. I will have to reach out to them to explore opportunities for partnership.
Tech-wise, it looks like they are employing the typical Optitrack setup as a turn key VR experience station. This will be very interesting to see how they pull of objects such as doors, walls and windows which may occlude the line of sight of the optical cameras. Also what should be explored is the possibility of partnering with piecemeal items instead of an entire “turnkey” system, similar to the one offered by Zero Latency.
Nomadic isn’t the first company to add physical cues to virtual reality experiences. But the company does have a novel concept of getting these kinds of experiences out in the marketplace. Instead of building and operating its own VR locations, Nomadic wants to partner with bigger players that already have a lot of real estate at their disposal and are now looking for the next big thing to retain and monetize audiences. Think mall operators, theater chains and the likes.
The Nomadic website gives a good indication of the makeup of the company. I recognize many of the names from days at Electronic Arts. It seems like they have a very solid team in the works. I hope some kind of partnership can be reached.
I love Knott’s Berry Farm. When living in Southern California I looked forward to every opportunity to visit the nation’s first theme park. Although the rides were definitely geared for smaller kids and were not as high-adrenalin as what could be found at Cedar Point or Six Flags, they park always had a low keyed, pleasant atmosphere around it.
Knott’s Berry Farm, as part of thew Cedar Fair conglomerate, has take its own step into the location based, immersive experience market. Its VR Showdown In Ghost Town is a multiplayer VR experience that costs $6 in addition to the cost of your ticket. It pays homage to the park’s 19th century western theme but with a 21st century twist. IN a nutshell the experience is three minutes long where the participant plays a law keeper in an old west town trying to stop time traveling robots. Luckily the bad guys are not Zombies but there are similarities to other shot-em ups such as Zero Latency.
The experience is wireless as the participant is equipped with only a toy gun and an head mounted display device. The tracking is done with Optitrack cameras which track the headsets and the toy guns.
The refresh rate is only 60 frames per second which will be noticeably slower than the 90 frames per second experienced with the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. I have not goner through the experience myself but initial experiences report blurring and thick black lines outside the display area in different headsets.
Many amusement parks are venturing into virtual reality to beef up their existing rides. Similar to the Void and Zero Latency, this is an early attempt to get the public involved with larger than life experiences that can not be found in the home. While I am dismayed the experience developers chose yet another “Shoot-em-Up” experience, I am encouraged with the acceptance of this new form of media by location based venues such as amusement parks.
I just discovered today there is a new player in town, Dreamscape Immersive. Dreamscape is a new Los Angeles-based startup for location-based virtual reality planning to open their first VR Multiplex in Los Angeles this coming September. The facility will use untehered VR headsets to allow consumers to move freely through a space and interact with real and virtual objects as well as with each other. This is very similar to the iMyth experience.
Dreamscape has an impressive list of investors and supporters. Co-chairman Kevin Wall is an Emmy award winning producer. The company’s CEO is Bruce Vaughn, who until last year was Chief Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering. Imagineering has been hinting at this new medium for the last ten years. Maybe Vaughn’s exodus signals Disney’s apathy or unwillingness to participate in this new field. Dreamscape has raised $11 million in funding in a round led by Bold Capital, with contributions from Warner Bros. 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Advisors include star designer Yves Behar and legendary film music composer Hans Zimmer.
Just as iMyth has its sights on shopping malls, the first location for a Dreamscape Multiplex will be the Westfield’s Century City Mall, which is undergoing remodeling and expansion. iMyth will need to establish its empire in central Florida.
Dreamscape has said that its multiplex will be powered by technology from Swiss tech and arts foundation Artanim. These folks have probably been doing immersive experiences longer than anyone else. I first learned about them before Siggraph 2015. Artanim co-founders CaeciliaCharbonnier and Sylvain Chagué will serve as co-CTOs of the company. Artanim had been a non-profit foundation in Switzerland. it will be interesting discovering their ambitions over the next few months.
One interesting thing to note is that they will be using the Vicon tracking system mixed with the OCculus Rift. A basic installation of the Vican cameras probably starts around $160K. This is a hefty price to pay. However, the Vicon system can track multiple objects at the same time including multiple participants and props without additional cost. At this moment in time that inital tracking cost is a bit expensive. iMyth will probably stick with the Steam VR tracking system in the near future.
