If you are interested in the use of virtual spaces for online events, do check out this event next week!
Organised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), this #astrophotography gallery is hosted in spatial: a 3D virtual space you can explore via a regular web browser or #VR Meta headset.
I love virtual spaces for feeling I've "gone somewhere", and the audio falloff means you can chat to people you meet... or run off and ignore their babble while you cruise the #astronomy art.
New Review Essay on @lmesseri tremendous new book, ethnography & tech, social hopes, & false dreams of tech solutionism. Also discussing work of Andrew Brock, Zeynep Tufekci & Kelsie Nabben on Black Twitter, Twitter & ethnographies of DAOs.
The International Astronomical Union (#IAU) are hosting an #astrophotography gallery in #VR! The event is on May 27 from 11am - 12:30pm UTC and May 28 from 8pm - 9:30pm UTC, and showcases astronomical photographs captured with a smartphone 📱🌌
The event is being held in spatial.io, which is accessible from a VR headset (Quest), or just from your computer browser (i.e. no headset needed).
It's compatible with popular VR headsets, and offers curated collections based on user preferences, ensuring a lightly personalized experience for each individual.
#EPSC (Europlanet Science Congress) is being held hybrid this year, and has an exciting program that includes a session on using new tools such as #VR in planetary science outreach.
But... it's 50 Euro per abstract submission, with no guarantee of acceptance. That's a fairly big punch when the Japanese yen is super weak.
Shan-Yuan Teng (https://tengshanyuan.info/) presenting his body of work on challenges in #haptics for #VR and #AR and asking the question how to move them into everyday life! (Photo by Bryan Wang, at U Toronto)
A quick box model this morning in #blender3d! Anyone recognise the shape?
It needs to be as low poly as possible (for #VR), and the circles do look a bit blocky. I was thinking of creating a high resolution version, baking the normals, and using these for the blocky version.
Meta has announced that Batman: Arkham Shadow will be the first big exclusive game for its Quest 3 VR headset.
It’s an important step forward for the device. As @engadget reports: “One of the main reasons it has been difficult to recommend the $500 Quest 3 VR headset over the $200 Quest 2 is a lack of exclusive titles, as most games have to support both models. This means we haven’t really seen the power of the Quest 3 yet, but the tides are turning.”
Had a great afternoon in New Taipei recently with Susan Wang and Kuan-Yuan Lai! The two are collaborating on an ambitious and fascinating VR production spotlighting Taiwan’s rich cinematic history. Ms Wang, director and script writer, brings a professional background in urban planning to the project. Mr Lai of Poké Poké production studio is producer. Both bring fertile imagination to their creation along with a great sense of fun!
It was my pleasure to provide some voice acting, and a little bit of translation, for an earlier edition of this project. Now it is blossoming into something truly special. I can’t wait for you to experience the finished production. I will share more news as it breaks!
Is it cake? One of these has an actual mesh (I think on the right here), while the other is in truth a solid cylinder with a texture. The better results were from creating the texture myself, rather than baking it on. It doesn't look quite as good in the #VR scene in #unity3d as in #blender3d: the lighting doesn't work quite the same way, and you can tell it's a texture when you stand close-up. But it's also over a factor of 100 less polygons, which is needed for a big room design.