News
Watch Enemies – State-of-the-art digital humans // Unity
Enemies is a cinematic demo showcasing Unity’s latest advancements for rendering high-end digital humans and implementing a strand-based hair solution. This is partly possible due to their acquisition of Ziva Dynamics (mentioned back in issue 62), and though it's not perfect (people have mentioned the hair, for instance) but since they are releasing the project for anyone to use as a reference we think this wasn't faked and will only get better over time.
Reading
Designing the Metaverse
User Experience (UX) touches every aspect of our lives and hearing the thoughts behind the mindset that goes into addressing design challenges around user interaction and engagement. This article is not a quick read but is a good editorial take on some of the challenges facing the industry and creatives looking to entice more users into shared VR environments.
How Brands are Engaging Gen Zers with Roblox Experiences // Obsess
Roblox has become a mature platform allowing brands to take small steps into virtual environments with very large payoffs. If you haven't been keeping track of some of the major brands that already have a place waiting for you in Roblox this quick read will get you up to speed, and maybe logging in,
Business
This Company Is Leading the VR Esports Industry, and Now You Can Invest Today // Democratizing Finance
Though you shouldn't be getting your financial advice from a newsletter but if you are looking to invest in the future of VR there is no better way to do that than investing in companies taking a risk in doing innovative things. Virtual Athletics League (VAL) brings competitive esport opportunities to major game titles, including holding the first officially sanctioned Beat Saber tournament. To learn more about the company and why you may want to invest this is the link to start your research.
Gear
Emerge Home | A Social VR Experience You Can Feel by Emerge // Kickstarter
We've mentioned a fair share of Kickstarter projects over more than 60 issues of the newsletter (and backed most of them), and here is another that we're considering throwing our support. An ultrasound-powered product that lets you physically feel virtual reality content sounds amazing,
Learning
VR Gallery Workshop // VR Art Live
Learn how to create your own virtual gallery experience, optimize your artwork, and utilize virtual platforms' features with other virtual reality artists in this workshop which explores virtual galleries and chats together in a live stream chat while learning together.
Inspiration
Cubebrush - Curated digital assets & resources
Last year were were among the 142 million people streaming Squid Game on Netflix, so when we came across these free 3D assets inspired by the series we couldn't help but share. We're thinking of some fun things we can do, and would love to see what others are inspired to create with these models.
One More Thing
Introduction to Xamarin ARKit with code samples and video tutorials
We found this website focusing on AR within the Xamarin development framework from a Twitter post where its creator was doing something very brave: learning in public. Though Xamarin is not the most popular mobile framework we are always energized by people who are both willing to share what they are learning and finding new ways to broaden the access for everyone. This website is a great introduction to Xamarin ARKit with code samples and video tutorials, so if you've ever wanted to try this out the barrier to entry has been lowered.
Commentary
We are hopeful that the two investment opportunities mentioned in this issue don't seem too far afield from what some of you may expect from the newsletter. In the past we have shared some of the crowd funding campaigns and investments that have caught our attention, but have been careful not to say which we have or have not personally backed to remain partly neutral. We do find that a fair number (how much we won't say) of these we eventually do get behind.
So far we've been happy with the results. All of the crowd funding campaigns have delivered what was promised. It may have taken a while since the pandemic shut down significant aspects of production for more than year, but we did get what we paid for. Investments in VR companies are another matter, and those are more long term scenarios which we won't see mature for years in some cases.
This issue isn't totally dedicated to investing but to stave off any concerns we just wanted to make it clear that we aren't oracles or investment gurus. We do feel like we find some of the more reliable companies dong interesting things in the VR space. But, still, please to a bit of investigation of your own before entering into any investment.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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