Oculus Rift

Third Episode of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience Available Now For Meta Quest

December 22, 2021 From vrfocus

If you love all things related to space then you’ve probably been closely following the rather epic project that is Felix & Paul Studios’ Space Explorers: The ISS Experience. Over the last few years, the studio has partnered with NASA and Time to record some amazing 360-degree footage aboard the International Space Station. Released episodically, today sees the launch of UNITE, the third instalment of the series.

As the title implies, UNITE focuses on the crew members aboard the ISS. More specifically, the episode sees crew members from the same astronaut training class reunite. “A space culture evolves between the select few who have had the chance to live and work aboard the International Space Station. Old friends arrive, and for the first time, half of an entire astronaut class reunites on the station. The cycle continues as, once again, one mission ends and another begins. The crew’s unique shared perspective grows stronger as colleagues realize dreams of the humanization of space together,” the synopsis details.

The astronauts featured in this particular episode are: Nick Hague, Christina Koch, Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir, Luca Parmitano, Hazzaa Almansoori, Alexey Nikolaevich Ovchinin, Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka and Aleksandr Alexandrovich Skvortsov.

Space Explorers: The ISS Experience has been pushing technological boundaries as it captures life onboard the station orbiting 250 miles above the Earth’s surface. In August the teams announced that the first 3D, 360° scenes in space had been captured using the highly specialised Outer Space Camera, a customized Z-Cam V1 Pro housing nine 4K sensors to record scenes at 8K resolution. Expect to see those in the final episode.

Space Explorers: The ISS Experience “UNITE” is available now for free. You can watch all three episodes on Meta Quest and Oculus Rift either via the Space Explorers app or on Oculus TV. This isn’t the last instalment either. The fourth (and final) episode Expand is due for release in Spring 2022.

For continued updates on Felix & Paul Studios projects, keep reading VRFocus.

Museum of Plastic 2121 Envisions a Plastic-Free Future on Curatours

November 11, 2021 From vrfocus

Cooperative Innovations, the studio behind virtual reality (VR) party title Spaceteam VR, unveiled in early 2020 a project called Curatours. A platform designed to off VR users virtual tours of museums and galleries. Today, the first tour has now gone live, Museum of Plastic 2121, a collaborative effort between several organisations and artists built around the idea that in the future single-use plastics will only be found in museums.

Cooperative Innovations worked alongside South African environmental organisation, The Greenpop Foundation, Street Art organisation, Baz-Art, and the University of Hull whilst being supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions programme. Just like any museum, the Museum of Plastics 2121 is made up of several wings including the Environment wing, Industrial wing and History wing.

With Baz-Art working with artists and communities they created real-world murals alongside 3D paintings for the museum which you can now view. Because Curatours is a social tour platform it offers three types of tours depending on your preference. For the greatest freedom, you can go on a Self-Guided tour at any time you like. Or then there are the Pre-Recorded tours where you’re free to explore with a guide appearing to provide information about that place or the artefact you’re near. Finally, there are Live-Guided tours where you book a time slot to join a group guided by an expert who can answer questions. Tour groups will be around 12-15 people.

“Curatours is a social digital space – it isn’t connected to physical geography, it’s nationless, timeless and unconstrained by physics. Featuring stories and creativity from partners around the world, it’s a space where people can gather, learn and discuss what they’ve learned,” said Emma Cooper, Project Lead at Cooperative Innovations, in a statement. “The whole idea of the Museum of Plastic is to take advantage of the best properties of the Curatours platform and, by bringing a future museum to life, to show visitors a path forward to a better future.”

“Combining the insights from academic research with a creative approach, makes a powerful tool for communication. So it was a refreshing experience to look forward 100 years to imagine what a future plastics world might look like with problems resolved. COP-26 is the perfect time to be taking this look forward,” Pauline Deutz, University of Hull adds. “There have been some gloomy headlines recently, but we should remain optimistic that a better society can be achieved alongside the awareness of how urgently necessary it is.”

To experience the Museum of Plastic 2121 tour you’ll need to download the free Curatours app from Steam which supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets or App Lab for Oculus Quest. Cooperative Innovations will be expanding the experience during November by adding a new museum wing each Thursday. For further updates on the latest innovative VR use cases, keep reading VRFocus.

VR Cover Starts its Black Friday Sales Early

November 9, 2021 From vrfocus

The annual Black Friday sales event may not officially start for a couple more weeks but that doesn’t stop retailers from kicking a few deals off early. And that’s exactly what VR Cover has begun, rolling out loads of discounts across its range of virtual reality (VR) accessories.

VR Cover has a huge range of addon’s for most VR headsets, with Oculus Quest 2 the biggest beneficiary. Out of all the deals, 20 are for the standalone headset, whilst there are also discounts to be had on accessories for the original Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Windows Mixed Reality devices including the HP RTeverb G2.

None of VR Covers’ prices are overly expensive so the discounts aren’t huge but it’s worth a gander if you’re after a few bits. For Oculus Quest 2 owners some of the best deals can be found on the Controller Grips or the Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set, both of which are down from €29/$29 to €20.30/$20.30. Or then there are the Silicone Covers in various colours currently retailing for €8.10/$8.10. VRFocus reviewed a few of these accessories and found most to be of a decent quality.

As for the other Oculus headsets, there are foam replacements for Oculus Rift and Go, a cotton cover for Oculus Quest and Rift as well as head strap replacements. It’s a similar selection for PC VR headsets, Silicone Covers for Valve Index, HTC Vive gets foam replacements and cotton covers whilst HP Reverb G2 gets silicone and cotton covers for its facial gasket.

They may all be dubbed Black Friday deals but as they go through until 3rd December 2021 it’s more of a discount month.

Hopefully, there will be plenty of VR Black Friday deals this year with the Oculus website already suggesting signing up to be notified. An offer is already available: “beat the rush and buy a Quest 2 today and get £10 off of a Quest 2 Elite Strap With Battery,” but is it worth holding off?

As more VR Black Friday deals are announced in the coming weeks, VRFocus will let you know.

Build Your Own Spacefolk City on Oculus Quest This Week

October 19, 2021 From vrfocus

Indie developer Moon Mode in conjunction with publisher Beyond Frames revealed colourful city builder Spacefolk City back in August for Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets. This week, It has been confirmed that Spacefolk City will see an initial for Oculus Quest this Thursday, with the Steam release to follow at a later date.

The single-player title is set to offer a quirky take on the traditional city building experience. Taking place entirely in space, you’ll have the freedom to construct your floating city however you wish, creating some unusual urban layouts in the process. As you’re not limited to a flat surface, you can build up or down as you see fit, just making sure everything’s connected so that inhabitants can navigate your undulating cityscape.

Like any city builder, you’ll need to encourage new residents whilst ensuring their interests and requirements are met. From building them houses to useful establishments to frequent, as you can see from the screenshot there’s a definite food theme to some of the aesthetics. This is key to making inhabitants happy, as their body type indicates their interests. A happy community means they’ll be productive and efficient, helping you further build out the growing metropolis.

Alongside all the core buildings, you’ll also be able to decorate your space city to give it that homely feel. Drop in some lighting, foliage and more, making the whole place vibrant and alive. To help keep that motivation pumping, Spacefolk City will feature a funky soundtrack of more than 20 songs influenced by late-70s electro-disco and early-80s electro-pop.

Spacefolk City even has its own backstory with Moon Mode’s synopsis explaining: “The Spacefolk are in trouble! Their sun is going supernova, and they need your help to build up their city and find a way to escape the impending solar disaster!”

Moon Mode has confirmed that Spacefolk City’s Oculus Quest launch will take place on 21st October, retailing for $24.99 USD. A Steam page currently lists the PC VR release for November. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.

VR Film ‘Space Explorers’ Just Won A Primetime Emmy

September 20, 2021 From vrscout

This year’s winners include Ted Lasso, Saturday Night Live, and Space Explorers: An ISS Experience.

Last night was the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, an annual ceremony honoring major achievements within the modern television industry. This year’s winners include Apple’s Ted Lasso, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, HBO’s Last Week Tonight, and other recognizable projects from some of the biggest names in the biz.

This includes immersive entertainment studio Felix & Paul, whose groundbreaking VR film series Space Explorers: An ISS Experience took home a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program. This marks the sixth Emmy nomination and third win for Felix & Paul Studios. The studio took home awards for The People’s House – Inside The White House With Barack and Michelle Obama and Inside the Box of Kurios.

Developed in collaboration with TIME Magazine and NASA, the four-part series offers an unprecedented look at life in space. Episode one of the series, “ADAPT,” introduces audiences to professional astronauts Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques, Christina Koch, and Nick Hague, as they arrive aboard the space station for the first time.

In this one-of-a-kind-VR production, the astronauts themselves served as both the cast and crew. Felix & Paul hooked the crew up with a special camera designed specifically for shooting 360-degree video in a zero-g environment, allowing the team to capture some truly jaw-dropping footage of the ISS as well as planet Earth.

Image Credit: Emmy Awards

Episode two, ADVANCE, offers a closer look at the day-to-day lives of the ISS crew while, simultaneously, shining a spotlight on the many accomplishments of women in space.Episode four, which is scheduled to launch January 2022, will take the series in an exciting new direction with the first-ever 360-footage shot outside the International Space Station. To accomplish this incredible feat, the production team created their own “Outer Space Camera” attached to a “Space Crane.”

Episodes one & two of Space Explorers is available now in 360° mobile format on select 5G-enabled tablets and smartphone, leading Big Screen venues and domes, and in VR on Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2, and Oculus Rift headsets. Episode four is scheduled to launch before the end of the year.

Feature Image Credit: Felix & Paul Studios

‘Space Explorers’: First Look At VR Footage Of Outer Space

August 27, 2021 From vrscout

The Emmy-nominated VR series breaks new ground with the first-ever 3D, 360-degree footage shot outside the ISS.

Felix & Paul, the Emmy Award-winning studio behind critically acclaimed immersive experiences such as Traveling While Black and Gymnasia, announced some exciting news today regarding its Primetime Emmy-nominated VR series Space Explorers. Using an “Outer Space Camera” attached to a “Space Crane,” the company has captured what they describe as the first-ever 3D, 360-degree footage shot outside the International Space Station.

Episode One of the ongoing series, ADAPT, premiered last year to critical acclaim. Earlier this year the company debuted Episode Two, ADVANCE, which shined a spotlight on the many accomplishments of women in space. The one-of-a-kind series has garnered praise from critics as well as audiences for its highly immersive scenes, so much so it was recently selected for Venice VR Expanded’s “Best Of” section.Developed in partnership with NASA and TIME Studios, Space Explorers is the first-ever VR series shot aboard the International Space Station.

Rather than train a film crew for space travel, the astronauts themselves served as the cast, crew, and narrators for the project. The result is an unparalleled look at the lives of these modern-day explorers, from the incredible work their doing aboard the ISS to the smaller moments that make up their day-to-day routines. In the end, the team managed to capture over 200 hours of cinematic 360-degree footage in addition to 18 hours of video logs and interviews.

“Over the past 20 years, very few people have journeyed to the International Space Station. Through the power of immersive storytelling, we can now bring hundreds of millions of spectators aboard this extraordinary spacecraft that circles the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, to experience how astronauts live and to marvel at the beauty of Earth seen from Space,” said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios and director of the EMMY-nominated Space Explorers series in an official release.

“After two years of filming and over 200 hours of footage captured aboard the Space Station in 360-degree 3D virtual reality, it is truly gratifying to share this experience with viewers around the world.”

Up until this point, all of the footage featured in the series has been shot from within the International Space Station. Today’s announcement represents a major milestone in VR filmmaking, supposedly marking the first time 3D, 360-degree footage has been shot in outer space.

In order to accomplish this monumental task, the team at Felix & Paul created their own “Outer Space Camera” by strengthening a Z-Cam V1 Pro camera with Nanoracks to survive the harsh conditions of space. They also outfitted the device with custom lenses to withstand the incredible light and heat emitted by the Sun. This Outer Space Camera was then strapped to a “Space Crane” where it was able to capture up to 15 hours of cinematic 3D, 360-degree footage at a single time.

“Capturing the Earth in stereoscopic 3D, 360-degree format from space, outside the space station, has never been attempted until now,” added Jonathan Woods, Executive Producer of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience at TIME Studios and Emmy-winning producer of A Year in Space. “It’s beyond exciting and surreal to see this happening, knowing that the dream for this ambitious project started over five years ago in 2015.”

Experience life outside the ISS when Episode Four launches on Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift headsets in January 2022. Episode Three of the series is set to launch in a couple of months.

Episodes Two and Three are available now via the Oculus Store for $2.99 each.

To learn more about how this incredible project came to be, you can check out some behind-the-scenes footage here.

Feature Image Credit: Felix & Paul Studios