Horizon Venues
Watch The First-Ever Spacewalk Captured In VR
Spacewalkers is available now on Oculus TV and Horizon Venues.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to float through the dark void that is outer space? Well, wonder no more as the immersive content and technology company Felix & Paul Studios has released a new movie featuring the world’s first spacewalk captured in VR.
Available now on Meta Quest headsets, Spacewalkers – Space Explorers: A Special Feature was captured just outside the International Space Station using a one-of-a-kind 3D 360-degree camera designed specifically for use in the harsh conditions of space. The film is roughly 10-minutes long and features incredible footage captured in low orbit over a handful of days by the astronauts themselves.
For those unfamiliar with Space Explorers, this incredible episodic series takes you on an in-depth tour of the International Space Station where you learn more about the incredible work being done by its team of highly-trained astronauts.
What’s unique about the series, besides being one of the largest productions ever filmed in space, is that the crew themselves serve as the directors, camera operators, and stars of the series. The result is a thoughtful and captivating series with some of the most impressive footage I’ve ever seen inside a VR headset.
Spacewalkers – Space Explorers: A Special Feature is available now on Oculus TV as well as Horizon Venues as part of the “Always On” Programming from March 1st to March 31st. You can watch other Space Explorers content on Oculus TV.
Previous episodes, including ADAPT, ADVANCE, and UNITE, are currently available for free via Oculus TV. The series was shot using a specialized 3D 360-degree camera designed for use in a zero-g environment and features some truly breathtaking shots of Earth from the ISS. The most recent installment, UNITE, features incredible footage from outside the International Space Station as it orbits over 200 miles above the Earth.
If you’re a fan of space or cinema in general, I’d highly recommend giving this series a shot.
Image Credit: Felix & Paul Studios
Meta Adds New Safety Feature To Horizon Worlds & Venues
Personal Boundary prevents other avatars from encroaching on your personal space.
Anyone familiar with online gaming will tell you that the virtual world can be a cruel and unforgiving place. Online anonymity has emboldened a whole new generation of trolls eager to ruin the party for the rest of us and immersive technology, for all its benefits, has only added further fuel to the fire.
As Meta continues to expand upon its own growing metaverse, the company is looking to nip this problem in the bud before it can evolve into a legitimate issue. This is where Personal Boundary comes in.
Rolling out now for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, Personal Boundary is a new feature that prevents users from encroaching on each other’s personal space. Activated by default, Personal Boundary will prevent other users from coming within 4-feet of your avatar. You can still hive-five and fist-bump other players with the setting activated, you’ll just need to fully extend your arms past the boundary.
“Virtual reality can and should be for everyone. And we’re constantly working to improve people’s experience in VR, gathering feedback from the community to inform our work as we continue to iterate and make improvements,” said Vivek Sharma, Vive President of Horizon via the company’s official blog.
“We believe Personal Boundary is a powerful example of how VR has the potential to help people interact comfortably. It’s an important step, and there’s still much more work to be done. We’ll continue to test and explore new ways to help people feel comfortable in VR.”
Moving forward, Meta promises to continue to expand upon its existing safety features for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues. For example, the company has already implemented hand harassment measures that prevent users from touching others inappropriately.
Feature Image Credit: Meta
Have Your Own Personal Boundary in Horizon Worlds & Venues
Meta’s vision of its metaverse is a safe happy place where you can socialise with friends or make new ones. However, that’s not always the case and there will always be a small contingent who’ll try and ruin it for others. To that end, Meta has just announced Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, a feature that’ll prevent avatars from coming in close proximity to one another.
Essentially, Personal Boundary is an invisible shield that stops anyone from getting too close. You won’t notice it and there’s no haptic feedback to indicate the fact, it’s just there as your unseen security guard.
Whilst it is a shame such features are required, having them there is better than not. Plus the Personal Boundary does have one customisable setting. By default, it is always on but you can turn it off if you so wish, if you’re in a private setting with real-world friends and family for example. The boundary extends two feet from your avatar so there can be a total of four feet between you and someone else.
There’s no way to adjust the boundary yourself if you want to make it bigger or smaller. Those kinds of customisation options may arrive at a later date as Meta fine-tunes the feature.
Meta adds in a blog post that: “Note that because Personal Boundary is the default experience, you’ll need to extend your arms to be able to high-five or fist bump other people’s avatars.” So there might be a few odd moments where two people lean in for a fist bump.
Personal Boundary is rolling out today for Horizon Worlds and Venues. Actually accessing Horizon Worlds is another matter. Currently, under development as Meta’s core metaverse experience, the app was in beta for ages until it opened up to adults in the US and Canada in December 2021. There’s still no indication as to when other territories will gain access.
For continued updates on the Horizon family of apps, keep reading gmw3.