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.
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).
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.
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)
Apple was never going to "save" VR.
We've spent the last decade giving Apple an unlimited runway of speculation and hype to bring a face computer to market.
Instead of doing a better job earnestly and fairly covering the tech along the way, properly educating consumers on what these things can do, now even Vision Pro can't live up to the media's imagined narrative of Apple.
Apple did nothing to earn a DECADE of media support for XR products, but think of all the projects that were criticized for not living up to some kind of imaginary Sci-Fi standard.
"Wait for gen 2 or gen 3 instead!"
Techies expect everyone else to lift off like a helicopter, but Apple gets UNLIMITED runway...
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.”