Xtended Realities Podcast | #014 | Education in VR with UploadVR Co-Founder Taylor Freeman + Industry News

Let’s figure out what it takes to open and run a game studio, with Nesting Games Co-Founder and Studio Head, Frederick Brassard! Tune in as we chat about his early days helping to found Ubisoft, lessons he learned with failed companies in the past, and how he’s worked with a full team to create an original IP. Plus, he’ll share his advice for aspiring game developers, and folks considering opening their own studios. Keep your eyes on the horizon for the announcement of Nesting Games’ first release, and enjoy this inside scoop before they announce!

• 0:00 - Intros
• 1:26 - Frederick’s early career at Ubisoft
• 8:57 - Differences founding a studio in the past vs. the present
• 11:35 - Lessons learned from past mistakes
• 13:30 - Nesting Games’ core principles
• 15:38 - How to turn Vision into an actual Studio
• 16:37 - Biggest challenge starting a studio
• 19:06 - How to approach funding a studio
• 21:11 - Structuring a roadmap when starting a company
• 24:35 - Approaching publishers
• 30:02 - Building a team from scratch
• 36:20 - Prepping the team for a first pitch
• 41:30 - Maintaining a solid team throughout the process.
• 45:00 - Developing an IP from scratch
• 49:40 - How to successfully communicate across teams
• 53:43 - Removing ego
• 59:25 - Frederick’s biggest professional risks, and how he keeps taking them
• 1:03:43 - When to finalize your game and prep for release
• 1:10:37 - Frederick’s first step for upcoming devs who want to break into the industry
• 1:13:39 - Lightning round and conclusions

It's time to get technical this week with Survios Co-Founder and CTO Alex Silkin! Join us for a deep dive into VR gamedev in Unreal Engine as we cover decisions and challenges faced by Survios while making some of the market's biggest VR games like Raw Data, Creed: Rise to Glory, Sprint Vector, and an upcoming Aliens title.

• 0:00 - Welcome back/intros.
• 1:55 - How Alex approaches game design.
• 5:38 - VR games as fitness tools.
• 7:31 - Player fatigue and session playtime.
• 13:41 - Designing gameplay loops around fatigue.
• 14:50 - Survios "must-haves" when designing for VR.
• 20:33 - What Survios considers before production.
• 22:27 - Flat screen games vs VR.
• 29:45 - Lessons Survios has learned.
• 33:31 - Survios' standards with VR design.
• 40:51 - Survios' testing process.
• 45:29 - Collaboration between designers and engineers.
• 53:06 - Survios' "must-have" tools.
• 1:05:20 - Best practices for architecting systems in Unreal Engine.
• 1:27:32 - Shift from blueprints to next steps.
• 1:33:12 - Alex's thoughts on Nanite/Lumen.
• 1:38:32 - Mistakes made and lessons learned.
• 1:44:28 - Lightning Round

• Arkit - :45
• • https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/22/apple-announces-arkit-4/
• Apple AR glasses - 6:50
• • https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/05/19/apple-glass-details-leaked-will-cost-499-and-work-with-prescriptions
• Oculus Go dead - 18:00
• • https://uploadvr.com/oculus-go-gone/
  • No more 3DOF
• Success of HL:Alyx - 24:50
• • At least 500,000 https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/820648379/half-life-alyx-and-the-promise-of-virtual-reality#:~:text=But%20just%20how%20many%20people,for%20a%20VR%20exclusive%20title.
• Star Wars Squadrons - 26:10
• • Full VR support!

• Industry impact of covid - 27:09
• • The work from home shift, and how tech companies were already well-suited to making the change
  • We’ve covered virtual production before https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/icvr-xtended-realities/xtended-realities/e/64617153
  • Most steam players ever - 34:45
  • • https://uploadvr.com/steam-hardware-survey-2-million/
  • Mobile gaming doing better than ever before
  • More offices using virtual offices: https://spatial.io/#features
  • AI-enabled semi-autonomous food delivery robots - 36:05 https://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/15391/uber-buying-postmates-will-drive-3-technology-innovations
• Virtual Events Shit:
• • Fortnite - 37:30
  • • Travis Scott: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/entertainment/travis-scott-fortnite-concert/index.html
    • Marshmello - 37:50
    • https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/21/18234980/fortnite-marshmello-concert-viewer-numbers
    • Christopher Nolan movies (Inception, Batman Begins, The Prestige)
    • Where is Fortnite going with Party Royale Island?
  • John Legend https://go.wave.watch/johnlegend
  • • https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/john-legend-to-perform-songs-from-new-album-bigger-love-during-first-ever-virtual-live-concert/ar-BB15QmM0
  • Lindsey Stirling https://youtu.be/mK5Jb1vgrgw
  • • WaveXR
  • Virtual Burning Man - 40:35
  • • https://burningman.org/culture/virtual-brc-2020/
    • • Portal submissions through Kindling, new internal app: https://edm.com/news/burning-man-project-kindling
  • LIB Festival - 39:10
  • https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lib+festival+2020&docid=608011852511907714∣=A6074FB6F3EC09EFD981A6074FB6F3EC09EFD981&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
  • • What it did well and not so well
    • • Used Vita Motus: https://vitamotus.com/dgtl-lib/
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 for meetings: https://mashable.com/article/red-dead-redemption-2-coronavirus-meeting-work-from-home-social-distancing/
  • Lightning Round - 48:30

We talk all things VR education-related on this week's episode with special guest Taylor Freeman - co-founder of UploadVR. 

We'll also look at some of the latest industry news and market numbers.

Learn from Taylor's hands-on experience about what works and what doesn't, what verticals present the best use cases for VR education, how it is currently being used most effectively, and what VR education will look like in the future.

0:00 - Intro with Taylor
1:07 - Superdata: 180k units in Q3, over 400k total before the holiday season
4:11 - Steam Hardware Survey
7:38 - PSVR2
9:50 LYNX-R1
14:04 Facebook acquires Scape
22:10 Taylor and Axon Park intro
28:27 5 Key Areas of Enterprise Training
45:06 Health and Safety
52:09 HR and Culture
56:44 - Soft Skills
1:06:25 - Technical Skills
1:09:04 - Operations and Compliance
1:12:13 - Obstacles
1:19:58 - Future of Axon Park
1:22:18 - Lightning Round!

You heard that right. We're going down the whole gamut of all the news in XR including a massive announcement from Valve, a rather unexpected acquisition from Oculus, and yes fam, cows in VR. Let's do this.

Show Notes:
:29  Half Life: Alyx
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/half-life-alyx-what-we-know-release-date-price-and/1100-6471549/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2W0N3uKXmo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw
18:13 Boneworks VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ2lzV2LLwM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8a1BAolFIk
https://www.roadtovr.com/boneworks-gameplay-video-stress-level-zero/
:22:47 Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (VR Support??)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCBgO6St9ug
:26:03 No Man's Sky Updates
:27:41 Google Stadia Launch Woes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2019/11/26/google-stadia-review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/#5b333bc46cc1
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/11/google-offering-refunds-for-players-that-bought-new-stadia-freebies/
35:49 SuperData- over 400,000 Oculus Quests sold
https://gamedaily.biz/article/1337/report-oculus-quest-has-sold-400000-units-will-leapfrog-pc-headsets-superdata
:37:08 Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales!!
https://www.cnet.com/news/best-black-friday-2019-playstation-deals-psvr-down-to-199-ps4-pro-with-games-for-299/

:38:02 Beat Games Sold to Oculus! But muh MODS!

:44:54 VR For Cows??
http://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-wont-make-cows-happier-but-it-might-help-us-see-them-differently-127916

:50:36:01 Lightning Round

Today's episode looks at Virtual Production practices for Hollywood motion pictures and more! Featuring special guest Adam Maier, of Fox VFX labs. We explain what virtual production is, why it's so important in today's film production, and how it uses emerging tech like VR to bring CGI sets to life onstage.

Today we look at the world of 360 Video- we tout it, we criticize it, we discuss the biggest market for it. 

If anyone is going to attend SIGGRAPH 2019 this year, please come visit us in person at Booth #647/649 and try our Digital Human Project. Enjoy!

Show Notes

02:45 Google Carboard History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute
04:31 Jaunt VR https://variety.com/2015/digital/news/jaunt-virtual-reality-disney-evolution-media-65-million-1201598574/
12:43 Samsung GearVR John Carmack https://www.engadget.com/2014/09/04/samsung-gear-vr-john-carmack/
15:38 Android Poll https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/03/19/weekend-poll-do-you-regularly-use-vr/
19:16 ARtillery Studies (paywall) https://arinsider.co/
21:33 Challenges of 360/VR https://fortune.com/longform/virtual-reality-struggle-hope-vr/
29:18 The Nun VR Experience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evzsN1BGR6A
34:41 Adult VR content https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/23/porn-and-games-are-the-biggest-drivers-of-vr-revenues/
40:39 Future of VR Video https://uploadvr.com/jason-rubin-oculus-quest-index-rift-go/
44:03 Disney Kite’s Tale https://vrscout.com/news/first-look-disney-vr-film-a-kites-tale/
55:44 Lightning Round

A look at the recent events from E3 2019 as it relates to the XR community.

Oculus Quest Ecosystem - No Steam Features!
https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/c084cn/virtual_desktop_update_142_steamvr_feature/ - 1:03

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/c08s31/pavlov_vr_wont_come_to_the_oculus_quest_store/ - 9:17

Oculus Quest Development: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/submitting-your-app-to-the-oculus-quest-store/ - 10:48

UPDATE: Pavlov is coming to Quest Store - 16:31 https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/c0qt8a/pavlov_developer_my_apologies_there_was_some/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

QA with Oculus’s Jason Rubin (VP of Special Gaming Strategies @ Facebook) - 16:54
https://uploadvr.com/jason-rubin-oculus-quest-index-rift-go/

HTC to reveal Vive Cosmos next week - 27:18
#HTCVIVE #HTCVIVECosmos pic.twitter.com/7WkqnH32Yq

New Games!
https://www.roadtovr.com/lone-echo-2-larger-than-predecessor-e3-2019-gameplay/
Lone Echo 2 - 30:07

ACORN: Attack of the Squirrels - asymmetric couch party game, Oculus Quest + Mobile - 33:46

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets - cute game with Alumette like art - 37:57

Espire 1: VR Operative - Splinter Cell type experience - 38:15

SpaceTeam VR - 42:17

RedPill - 39:05

Lightning Round - 43:04

It's time to have a current look at the state of the VR Gaming market, and make predictions as to where it's headed.

Size of the market 1:23
https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/24/superdata-vr-grew-30-in-2018-thanks-to-psvr-oculus-quest-will-be-2019s-hit/
Number of active players, broken down between device/platform 11:01
https://www.roadtovr.com/2018-ends-with-a-record-number-of-vr-headsets-on-steam/
Player Demographics 14:40https://www.statista.com/statistics/831819/us-virtual-augmented-reality-device-average-session-time/
VR Content 16:20 (https://quanticfoundry.com/2019/03/01/vr-adoption/)
Sales projections & ROI 18:20https://www.roadtovr.com/vacation-simulator-among-steams-20-top-selling-games-released-april
Digital distribution revenue vs. LBE 29:59
How to make a VR game 36:16
Future market 43:30

00:56 - Qualcomm news! XR1 Chipset details announced https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/29/qualcomm-enables-xr-smart-viewer-augmented-reality-smartphone-apps/
6:24 - NReal AR https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/30/18646160/nreal-light-ar-xr-qualcomm-snapdragon-sunglasses-consumer-price-shipping-release-5g
10:50 - MR Rokid Vision https://www.gizchina.com/2019/05/29/mr-glasses-rokid-vision-shown-at-awe-2019/
12:58 - Facebook AR/Speaker Patent Filing
https://mashable.com/article/facebook-ar-glasses-cartilage-conduction-patent/?europe=true
15:25 - Leap Motion Sold Off https://www.wsj.com/articles/leap-motion-once-a-virtual-reality-high-flier-sells-itself-to-u-k-rival-11559210520
18:44 - Google Shuts Down Jump VR
https://vrscout.com/news/google-shutting-down-jump-vr-program/
22:23 - Google Glass Returns
https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/hands-on-heres-augmented-reality-google-search-works-0198193/
24:15 - AR Google Searches
https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/hands-on-heres-augmented-reality-google-search-works-0198193/
25:21 - Minecraft AR
27:38 - Lightning Round