Someone asked what was in Amaze and it struck me that it would be nice to document what was in the various video and photo collections in true stereoscopic 3D VR. So lets dive into NextVR which is one of the best collections of video out there.
Tribes of Papua New Guinea: This is a 12 minute documentary on a marriage and festival in New Guinea. It is nicely shot and narrated and the additional 8 minutes or so of behind the scenes type footage is a nice addition. This is an excellent free 20 minute educational travelogue package. These types of experiences really add to my enjoyment of VR and I congratulate NextVR on making this film. Note there is national geographic style toplessness so it is likely PG-13.
The technical work is excellent. I've seen so many travelogue type 'VR' videos that were poorly shot 2D that I was wondering if even NextVR could carry off a good VR experience. They did. In one of the little commentaries the director mentions that they had to stop the wedding many times to get the right shot and it took 3 hours to film that part of the video.
As with many NextVR films the scale seems a bit small. I actually thought it was much too small at first until realizing that the folks in New Guinea where a bit smaller than the football and basketball players I usually see in NextVR.
Overall this is one of the best non-sports films available on the Go right now. You really get a feel for the area and its people in a very short period of time. The immersion factor of VR really shows what can be done with an educational video. This and Space Explorers have really wet my appetite for more of these videos. The fact that it free makes this even more amazing. The streaming works well and unless you are deeply offended by topless women, you should definitely watch this.
NFL: If you enjoy the football as I do, you will like love this collection of game highlights from five NFL games. They tend to run about ten minutes each with two hosts who guide you through the highlights and chat about the games and such. There are a few best of films.
The inherent problem of the Go is that you have a range of about 1 to 10 yards where things look sharp. After about 10 yards things just start getting fuzzy. A football field is what 53 by 120 yards when you include the endzone. So much of the action is in the fuzzy zone. The good news is that plays close to the endzone and by the sideline look really good. It can be odd to see a receiver running into focus. Also to me the players are a bit smaller than reallife. Even with these limitations, this is just fun to watch.
Preview Show will get you hyped for five highlight reels from the games.They actually show some highlights from the previous season and the odd thing is that the plays look about 2 feet tall. In the current season they might look about 5 feet tall, so they have really improved in scale.
Sideline to Sideline is a nice 3 minute highlight reel with music of the games NextVR covered.
Best of the NFL is a 7 minute hosted clip show with mascots, players dancing and having fun, fans and even some plays. Nicely done, it might be the best of the lot.
There is a 3 minute clip about the Atlanta Falcons new digs.
The heart of the NFL experience is 5 games with hosted highlight / recap shows that are 8 to 10 minutes. In addition to a little intro and the highlights there is a player interview. This wouldn't be particularly notable on TV, but in VR it is amazing to see the plays as if you were standing on the sidelines. The players can look a bit small and once the action gets say 15 yards or more from the camera it gets very blurry. Still along the sidelines or in the endzone the picture quality is very good and it does feel like you are watching in person. Again if you like Football this will be high on your list of VR tings to do.
NBA: Amazingly enough there are full game replays. Camera are above and below the backboards and on the sidelines. At first it was a bit jarring to look at a play from up high, but you quickly adjust. NextVR is treating this in the same way that TV broadcasters do with their own trucks, crew, producer and announce team and it really shows. I've tried other sports app and they all feel like afterthoughts and generally have terrible video. These NBA productions look like broadcast TV productions in VR.
There are lots of action packed 3 minuteish highlight reels, dozens of them is feel like. They do a good job dazzling you with players from your favorite team and showing off the technology. But it is the full game productions that are really impressive. I don't know if most of use are quite ready to sit through a 2+ hour game in the Go goggles, but the games are there if you want to try it.
As mentioned here and there, the Go camera doesn't do very well at less than a yard or more than maybe 10 yards out if that. Fortunately the NBA is played in a much smaller field that football and soccer so with half a dozen good VR cameras it is possible to have most of the plays and players in reasonable focus. Along with the WWE (more next), the NBA seems ideally suited to the demands and limitations of VR. With a younger audience than either the NFL or MLB and flush with cash, the NBA seems to the the sport embracing VR. Even if you aren't a big basketball fan, and I'm not, you owe it to yourself to checkout some of this content as it might be the best VR sports content in the world today. Actually it might be some of the best VR film content anywhere and there's roughly 50 hours of it free.
WWE: Well produced segments that feel like TV broadcasts come to life. I watched all three 10 minute or so segments after typing that first sentence (I'd watched about 5 minutes before) and yes they are well done. WWE knows how to put on a show and the highlights from Fastlane and Wrestlemania are among the best I've seen up there with the NBA VR.
There seemed to be cameras on two ring posts and a couple outside the ring to bring all the action to you. It did feel like being inside a telecast as you felt closer than being in the arena crowd. The only odd thing was they didn't show any actual finishes. I don't know if that was contractual or if the finishes might have looked fake in VR. Anyway odd. That aside this was a lot of fun and that from someone who hasn't watched wrestling in decades.
With all the scripting and planning that goes into wrestling and with the performers in a tight area, Wrestling would seem perfect for VR to broadcast live. giving the new huge contract with FOX, WWE can certainly afford it. It would be ironic if Wrestling helped drive live VR as it once drove live (and taped) TV back when TVs had 10 inch black and white screens. Technology has come quite a ways.
Soccer: Like American football there tends to be too much ground for the camera to focus on. As a result everything not right in front of the goal tends to be fuzzy. Also the size of the players seems to be an issue. In the Manchester highlights at least everyone seemed about half size in some shots. Watching some more highlights the players generally seem a bit small but not half sized.
I'm not a soccer guy so forgive my ignorance of the sport. There was a big pre-season tournament with many of the best teams in the world playing in America. There are lots of highlight shows here, maybe 20, that range from 3 to 5 minutes usually and a longer tournament wrap-up show. The highlights are generally shots of all the goals made and miss from a camera near the net.
Fox Sports VR: Boxing fans will rejoice at three full half hour bouts along with some highlights and there is even some fun monster truck footage. The only negative is that these definitely seem to be scaled too small. The production isn't up there with the WWE, with I'm thinking only two cameras, one on the ringpost and one on the floor. Still scaling aside it is a decent, if fairly static, VR experience. I just previewed the fights, but I suspect I'll nuke some popcorn and start watching them at some point. Boxing from the edge of the ring is pretty entertaining.
NextVR Boxing: Basically two 'fight experiences' of about 5 minutes each which are highlight packages. The scale is maybe a touch small, but better than the Fox fights. Ignore the rest of the stuff as it is just the usual boxing hype, but take 10 minutes and enjoy the well produced highlight reels of two good fights.
Wimbledon: This is one of the few areas where NextVR didn't impress me. There are two highlight clips totaling 9 minutes and the footage is shot from behind a distracting green barrier. The barrier is too close and the action is too far away.
Paranormal: I don't do horror. Just for this blog post I did watch a couple trailers and such for this. It is well filmed, though the scale to me looks about a third too small. If you like horror and spooky stuff you will like the two 30 minuteish shows here.
LiveNation: Sadly there are no concerts here, just backstage passes that are primarily promos for concerts held last year. If you happen to see an artist you like, check out that 4 minute or so clip. Otherwise not much here, except they show, without the concert sound, bits of the concert and the video looks amazing.
I've slammed MelodyVR repeatedly for terrible monoscopic graphics and to me this proves everything I've written. The limited concert footage is superb VR quality unlike the horrible quality I see on MelodyVR. Just watch a couple backstage passes and then a couple MelodyVR previews to see what I mean. NexrVR really is miles ahead. I hope they offer more concerts, though I see no evidence that they will.
There are the occasional scaling issues and some categories without a lot of real content, but there is lots of very good VR content in this free app. The NBA really stands out as the does the documentary. Hopefully they add lots more content and do live events. The NBA already seems to be doing live games with the soon to be played finals on Gear VR for TNT subscribers but not on Go. I suspect that will change next year. Sports might be the huge breakout for VR, at least the one you can show your Mama, and I suspect NextVR will be in the vanguard. 'Stay tuned' I say in my best announcer voice, the best is yet to come.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Secret Fire on the Titanic
Secret Fire on the Titanic
Type: Exploration
Image Quality: Pretty Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
If you have ever wanted to walk some of the decks of the Titanic or go down into the bowels of the ship and explore the steel passageways, engine room and furnace rooms, you have found the app for you. Oddly you can't get onto some decks even though they are modeled and you can't see cabins or anything like that. However if you get Unimersive, you can see cabins and dining rooms, so between the two you get a pretty fair Titanic experience.
The graphics are fairly good 'gamey' 3D graphics. Some folks wander around and you can empathize with the poor saps loading the coal into the furnaces. It sort of feels like there should be a gmae, but someone forgot to put it in. Still a cool way to pass sometime.
Type: Exploration
Image Quality: Pretty Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
If you have ever wanted to walk some of the decks of the Titanic or go down into the bowels of the ship and explore the steel passageways, engine room and furnace rooms, you have found the app for you. Oddly you can't get onto some decks even though they are modeled and you can't see cabins or anything like that. However if you get Unimersive, you can see cabins and dining rooms, so between the two you get a pretty fair Titanic experience.
The graphics are fairly good 'gamey' 3D graphics. Some folks wander around and you can empathize with the poor saps loading the coal into the furnaces. It sort of feels like there should be a gmae, but someone forgot to put it in. Still a cool way to pass sometime.
Medieval Hidden Object
Medieval Hidden Object
Type: Game
Image Quality: Playstation 1
Scale:Good
Length: Too Long
This felt like wandering around the house of a PS1 RPG looking for stuff before you start your quest, only once you find all the stuff you have to find your stuff again and you never go on a quest. I actually like the occasional hidden object games on the PC to relax. Somehow it felt even more pointless than usual in VR. To be fair it did feel like I was a 3D sprite wandering around my two room house.
Type: Game
Image Quality: Playstation 1
Scale:Good
Length: Too Long
This felt like wandering around the house of a PS1 RPG looking for stuff before you start your quest, only once you find all the stuff you have to find your stuff again and you never go on a quest. I actually like the occasional hidden object games on the PC to relax. Somehow it felt even more pointless than usual in VR. To be fair it did feel like I was a 3D sprite wandering around my two room house.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Pet Lab
Pet Lab
Type: Game
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale:Good
Length: Long
This is a fun make pets and sell them or train them and enter in tournaments, which I haven't done yet. The content unlocks nicely taking you through hatching, adjusting physical attributes, adding things like horns, training and such as you level up. The pets are very nice looking and fun. They do have a nice sense of reality to them.
I think I've now entered a tournament, so I'll have to see how that goes. They showed a preview tournament and it seems fun, it is a bit like sumo wrestling for pets. You can unlock everything for 8 bucks, I'll try it on the free mode for now and see what you can unlock without paying.
This is a fun game that makes good use of the Go. The graphics are quite impressive and there is a good sense of immersion.
Type: Game
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale:Good
Length: Long
This is a fun make pets and sell them or train them and enter in tournaments, which I haven't done yet. The content unlocks nicely taking you through hatching, adjusting physical attributes, adding things like horns, training and such as you level up. The pets are very nice looking and fun. They do have a nice sense of reality to them.
I think I've now entered a tournament, so I'll have to see how that goes. They showed a preview tournament and it seems fun, it is a bit like sumo wrestling for pets. You can unlock everything for 8 bucks, I'll try it on the free mode for now and see what you can unlock without paying.
This is a fun game that makes good use of the Go. The graphics are quite impressive and there is a good sense of immersion.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Discovery VR
Discovery VR
Type: Documentary shorts
Image Quality: Bad
Scale: Bad
Length: Long
The ideas and narration are good, sadly the video is monoscopic, everyone looks too big and the general video quality is quite low. Some commentary is so good that its almost worth watching some of the videos with your eyes closed and pretending you are listening to Go radio, almost. So much potential such terrible execution.
Type: Documentary shorts
Image Quality: Bad
Scale: Bad
Length: Long
The ideas and narration are good, sadly the video is monoscopic, everyone looks too big and the general video quality is quite low. Some commentary is so good that its almost worth watching some of the videos with your eyes closed and pretending you are listening to Go radio, almost. So much potential such terrible execution.
Madefire Comics
Madefire Comics
Type: Comic Viewer
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good for VR comics - Too close in non-VR comics
Length: Long
There are two distinct ways to use Madefire, one is passable, but the other is brilliant. Looking at old comics in the form they were originally published is pretty boring and they seem too close to the camera. On the other had the 3dish, somewhat animated comics made for VR are a lot of fun. They seem to 'pop' off the page in a way only VR can deliver. I would guess there are twenty or so free VR comics including two mini-series. They are definitely worth checking out if you enjoy comics.
Type: Comic Viewer
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good for VR comics - Too close in non-VR comics
Length: Long
There are two distinct ways to use Madefire, one is passable, but the other is brilliant. Looking at old comics in the form they were originally published is pretty boring and they seem too close to the camera. On the other had the 3dish, somewhat animated comics made for VR are a lot of fun. They seem to 'pop' off the page in a way only VR can deliver. I would guess there are twenty or so free VR comics including two mini-series. They are definitely worth checking out if you enjoy comics.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Städel Museum
Städel Museum
Type: Art Museum
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
I've been going back and looking at all my apps and sort of grading them based on both preference and quality. I wasn't expecting that much out of this one, but it was a pleasant surprise. Giving the inherent somewhat low resolution you notice on still pictures in the Go, these paintings look quite nice. They also appear to be paintings in frames and not just textures on the wall. In fact when you click on them, they pop off the wall for you to look at.
You are traveling back in time to the museum as it was. There were two nice guided tours, one about important paintings and the other about the museum itself. There is also a free walk mode where you can click on the individual paintings. I'm not really an 'art' guy but I spent about an hour wandering around the virtual art museum.
Type: Art Museum
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
I've been going back and looking at all my apps and sort of grading them based on both preference and quality. I wasn't expecting that much out of this one, but it was a pleasant surprise. Giving the inherent somewhat low resolution you notice on still pictures in the Go, these paintings look quite nice. They also appear to be paintings in frames and not just textures on the wall. In fact when you click on them, they pop off the wall for you to look at.
You are traveling back in time to the museum as it was. There were two nice guided tours, one about important paintings and the other about the museum itself. There is also a free walk mode where you can click on the individual paintings. I'm not really an 'art' guy but I spent about an hour wandering around the virtual art museum.
Smithsonian Journeys: Venice
Smithsonian Journeys: Venice
Type: Tours of Venice
Image Quality: Low Resolution
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This collection of five tours, totaling about 30 minutes, shows both the potential and the limitations of early stereo 3D video. The exploration and feeling of immersion are great, but they are betrayed by the low resolution camera work. It is still worth viewing if you love travel as I'm not aware of any better half hour video tour available of a European city in VR.
The tour guide is a college professor who is a veteran of the Great Courses line of educational videos, which I love. He is very enjoyable and knowledgeable about Venice being basically an expert on the subject of historical Italy. A nice trip, just don't expect high quality video.
Type: Tours of Venice
Image Quality: Low Resolution
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This collection of five tours, totaling about 30 minutes, shows both the potential and the limitations of early stereo 3D video. The exploration and feeling of immersion are great, but they are betrayed by the low resolution camera work. It is still worth viewing if you love travel as I'm not aware of any better half hour video tour available of a European city in VR.
The tour guide is a college professor who is a veteran of the Great Courses line of educational videos, which I love. He is very enjoyable and knowledgeable about Venice being basically an expert on the subject of historical Italy. A nice trip, just don't expect high quality video.
All my apps rated
Along Together: 3 - Guide a kid in his search for his lost dog, nice graphics
Amaze 3D Videos: 5 - Amazing collection of real VR stereo 3D videos, slightly jerky at times
Amazon Sights - 2 - Some monoscopic videos of the amazon
American Experience: 2 - Looking at famous pictures, feels old and unfinished
Apocalypse Rider : 3 - Kind of fun motorcycle game, graphics aren't very good
Apollo 11: 5 - Amazing trip, well done 3D modeled experience
Art Plunge: 3 - Amazing step into pictures, but only 5, so very short
Athens in VR: 5 - Excellent time travel to the birth of western civilization
Augmented Empire: 3 - Early on interesting but not immersive
Bait: 3 - Enjoyable fishing game
Bear Island: 2- Nice idea, crummy mono videos, crashed
Big Screen Beta: 2 - Has potential, right now desktop responses very slowly
The Big Table: 3 - Nice exploration of the periodic table, light things on fire
Catan: 3 - Not big on digital board games, should learn, looks nice
Cervantes: 4 - Interesting and very odd meeting with the author and his characters.
Chemistry VR: 1 - Some advanced topics with a couple models on two screens
Coaster Combat: 3 - Sort of fun ride coaster and shoot at things game
Cursed Sanctum: 3 - Impressive graphics but more tech demo than game
Curtains: 3 - Some nice preview trailers and free rentals, not really into rentals
Darknet: 4 - Fun hacking game, not heavy on VR
Deer Hunter: 4 - A fun shooter / hunting game with decent graphics
Discovery VR: 1 - Horrible, not very good, very bad quality videos
Discovering Space: 5 - Nice tours, loved the flybys of Mars and the Moon.
Discvr Egypt: 2 - A very short exploration of a Pharaoh's tomb
Disney Movies VR: 1 - Coco is Nice, everything else is trash
Earthview 3D: 2 - Mostly very low resolution
Edinburgh 70: 2 - Strange app with not much to see or do
Elevator to the Moon: 3 - Fun silly game
The Expanse: 2 - Some 2D movies about a TV show I think
Facebook 360: 3 - A lot of multimedia much of it 2D or poor 3D, but still a lot to browse
Fansite VR; 1 - Poor Mono videos
Fantasy Pets: 2 - Too little to actually do
Floor Plan; 3 - Fun little game
Fox Sports VR - 2 - A few game highlights that are mildly interesting
Gala360: 4 - Some very nice 3D pictures along with the 2D ones
Geo 101: 2 - Not that interesting educational thing
Gubbie Arena: 0 - Doesn't work.
Gun Club 3: 4 - A lot of shooting fun, the WW2 environment is impressive.
Hello Mars: 3 - Nice landing on mars video but low rez, rest dull
Hidden Fortune: 2 - Dull mini-games to advance to more dull mini-games.
Hulu: 2 - Almost all 3D content is monoscopic
Imageen VR: 3 - Interesting flat 3D and VR pictures, dot in center has to go
In Mind 2: 2 - Weird little shoot stuff in your brain for outcomes 'game'
Invasion : 3 - Animated short that is well done, can find in video collections
Jigsaw Puzzle: 1 - Dead boring
Jurassic World: Apatosaurus: 2 - Decent short VR video, feels old
Juarassic World Blue: 4 - Nice little dino short film
Kayip Efs: 2 - Decently modeled boring find stuff game
Labster: 0 - Doesn't support the controller, had to reboot to exit
Live the Past: 4 - Surprisingly nice exploration of towns through time
Looking Glass VR: 3 - A clever collection of old steroptican slides now in 3D again
Madefire Comics: 4 - 3D VR Comics look quite impressive, 2D not so much
MAN Virtual: 3 - A nice walk though about ten history exhibits at a museum
Mars is a Real Place: 3 - Nice black and white NASA pictures
Meeting Rembrandt: 4 - Cool time travel experience
MEL Chemistry: 3 - Good educational material but heavily overpriced
Melody VR: 1 - Clever idea, video looks terrible, singers as big as houses, Sessions VR better
Madefire: 4 - The VR comics are excellent, regular comics not so much.
Masterworks: 4 - Nice tour of 4 modeled sites with lots of audio.
Mission ISS: 4 - Impressive app that I stink at, excellent visuals and immersion
Medieval Hidden Object: 1 - Tedious PS1 find stuff, rinse and repeat game
Mondly: 4 - Fun learn basic words in many languages program, voice works well
Monzo VR: 4 - Surprised by how much fun putting together models is
Moon Player: 4 - Streams from computer very well, decent picture
Mysteries of China Wall: 3 - lots of 360 not 3D pictures of Great Wall, narration
Mysteries of China City: 3 - Interesting model of Forbidden City, OK 360, not 3D pictures
NBC Sports - 2 - OK 3D video, have to exit after every video to reset remote
Neos The Universe: 3 - Short video about scale from atoms to the universe
Netflix: 2 - Low resolution, small screen, no 3D
NextVR: 5 - Great sports videos in real VR, streams well.
A Night Sky: 3 - Relaxing look at fiction heavens that come alive
NYSM: 2 - Decently model find stuff game
Ocean Rift: 5 - About as close as you can get to diving without getting wet
Ocean Wonder: 3 - A kind of fun game with fish feeding and net catching
Oculus 360 Photos: 4 - The 3D Art Pictures are excellent, even some decent 2D
Oculus Browser: 3 - Browses, can't play 3D Youtube vids or Sketchfab models
Oculus Gallery: 3 - Can show pictures and movies, internet stuff is broken
Oculus Prologue: 0 - Doesn't Exist
Oculus Room: 2 - Hang out with friends in VR, rather do in RL if required
Oculus Venues: 2 - Tried the first live concert and it looked bad. Will try again.
Oculus Video: 3 - Hundreds of Videos, 2% are stereo 3D, look for the 3D icon, decent player
Only in VR: 2 - Free music, sadly monoscopic and bad looking mono at that, streams poorly
Our Dinosaur Era: 3 - First movie was pretty nice, museum pretty dull
OpenMovieVR: 0 - Seemed totally broken to me
Orchestra VR; 0 - Non-functional
Overtake : 4 - Surprisingly fun bad race driver in traffic game, pretty good graphics
Pet Lab: 4 - Quite a lot of fun creating pets for orders, haven't tried a tournament yet.
Pinball FX2: 5 - Loving 3D pinball
Plant Cell: 3 - Brief exploration of the cell, nice class project
PLEX: 3 - Have to pay to get video card to work, Skybox does it for free, nice player
Prehistoria: 3 - Mediocre graphics, best part was in the preview so a bit misleading
Raising a Ruckus: 5 - Great animated movie
Salakapakk: 2 - Very brief adventure game
Samsung Galley: 0 - Doesn't Exist
Samsung Internet: 0 - Doesn't Exist
Samsung Videos: 4 - Best player, VR Sessions & Animated Shorts are good VR films
SceneThere: 2 - Nice looking monoscopic video, but dot in middle of eyes is annoying
Sea Hero Quest: 2 - Kinda boring mini games but for science
Secret Fire Titanic: 3 - Interesting but limited explore the titanic game
Showtime: ? - No idea
Singularity: 2 - Strange short video
Sketchfab: 4 - Nice demo of excellent 3D models, hope for full experience
Skybox VR: 3 - Streams well and plays Youtube vids, constantly used 30% GPU
Skylight: 4 - Battleship in space meets space combat
Städel Museum: 3 - Nice art museum with tours, wish controller instead of looking
Steam Museum: 2 - Look at half a dozen steam machines
Smithsonian Journeys: Venice: 4 - Great tour guide, love Venice, low rez video
Space Explorers: 5 - Lovely 20 minute video, best VR video ever shot
Space Time: 4 - Good science type lessons
SWAT Acadamy: 4 - I feel guilty for enjoying the game so much, just fun shooting game
Temple Run VR: 1 - Running away from things, dull for me
Teatro Real: 3 - A couple nice short videos about opera and theater tour
Titans of Space: 4 - Good exploration of the solar system.
They Suspecy Nothing: 3 - Fairly fun minigames with a sense of humor
Trains VR: 3 - Puzzle game with trains
Treasure Hunter: 2 - Boring aim the light beam with mirrors game, kinda nice graphics
Turning Forest: 3 - Impressive colors, too short
Unimersiv: 5 - Great explorations of the Titanic and Rome
Violin VR: 2 - Cute but very short tour of a violin
VisoPlaces: 0 - Doesn't seem to work at all now, was a mess before.
VR Carts: 3 - PS 2 graphics cart racing game
VR Guest : 2 - Love the concept, devolves into new age astrology crap
VR Sessions: 3 - Decent music some OK videos, not as good as the Samsung ones
Welcome to VR: 2 - A nice welcome video, watch it once and delete.
The Well: 4 - Fun RPG that uses VR Well.
Within: 2 - Curated videos, some original, good ideas, often terrible execution, 2D or low rez
Wonder Glade: 3 - Decent mini-game collection, like the mini golf.
Wonders of the World: 3 - 3 fun cartoonish, funky art time travel adventures.
Zoo Park: 2 - Modeled animals wandering around pointlessly
Gala360
Gala360
Type: 360 pictures, some movie shorts
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale:Varies wildly, some stereo 3D which looks good
Length: Long
Look for the 3D icon, as with Oculus Video. There is a ton of 2D content here, some of which looks pretty good especially if it is just scenery with no people, but a fraction is actual 3D and this looks quite nice. I paid the $3.99 to unlock everything and it is worth it. There are some nice experiences here as hopefully they add more 3D content. It would be great if they had a 3D category instead of having to browse around for something with a 3D icon. None the less in world starved for real VR content, there are some great pictures here.
Type: 360 pictures, some movie shorts
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale:Varies wildly, some stereo 3D which looks good
Length: Long
Look for the 3D icon, as with Oculus Video. There is a ton of 2D content here, some of which looks pretty good especially if it is just scenery with no people, but a fraction is actual 3D and this looks quite nice. I paid the $3.99 to unlock everything and it is worth it. There are some nice experiences here as hopefully they add more 3D content. It would be great if they had a 3D category instead of having to browse around for something with a 3D icon. None the less in world starved for real VR content, there are some great pictures here.
Curtains
Curtains
Type: Pay to View Art shorts, but free coins given
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
I suspect this is largely intended for the Chinese VR machines. There are a fair number of stage performances from dance to classical music to cute girls showing off their legs in unison. You can watch thirty seconds to a minute for free and then spend coins, often 10 to 20, to watch the 'whole' performance as a rental for a couple days. You are given 200 coins to start so you can watch a number of free performances. Actually well done stereo 3D VR.
Type: Pay to View Art shorts, but free coins given
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
I suspect this is largely intended for the Chinese VR machines. There are a fair number of stage performances from dance to classical music to cute girls showing off their legs in unison. You can watch thirty seconds to a minute for free and then spend coins, often 10 to 20, to watch the 'whole' performance as a rental for a couple days. You are given 200 coins to start so you can watch a number of free performances. Actually well done stereo 3D VR.
Teatro Real VR
Teatro Real VR
Type: Short Opera / Theater Tour Movies
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Go onstage for five minutes of Madame Butterfly and take a seven minute tour of the theater. More footage is promised. Really just a couple short Stereo 3D films that will interest the arts crowd.
Type: Short Opera / Theater Tour Movies
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Go onstage for five minutes of Madame Butterfly and take a seven minute tour of the theater. More footage is promised. Really just a couple short Stereo 3D films that will interest the arts crowd.
Edinburgh 70
Edinburgh 70
Type: Virtual Visit / Comedy
Image Quality: Wierd
Scale: Good
Length: Short
The visuals feel a bit pythony with cardboard cutouts wandering around and talking. You see a touch of cardboard Edinbugh and listen to brief exerts from a few cardboard comedians and it is all over. Its good fun for five minutes, but I was hoping for a bit more like music or something. Well anyway free and odd. Download, watch, delete.
Type: Virtual Visit / Comedy
Image Quality: Wierd
Scale: Good
Length: Short
The visuals feel a bit pythony with cardboard cutouts wandering around and talking. You see a touch of cardboard Edinbugh and listen to brief exerts from a few cardboard comedians and it is all over. Its good fun for five minutes, but I was hoping for a bit more like music or something. Well anyway free and odd. Download, watch, delete.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Joylab
Joylab
Type: Kid's laboratory
Image Quality: Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium - Long
There are 60 experiments I'm told and the app looks pretty good. Unfortunately it seems like you have 2D controls in 3D space, up/down, left/right, but no forwards/backwards. I spent 90% of my time trying to get things closer or farther away from me to get them to line up. In the end if I kind of whirled them around my head they would sort of shift toward me, maybe.
I wanted to reach out and pull or push but unfortunately this is 3DoF not 6DoF. If you have 6DoF give it a try, I bet it is fun. For the Go not so much.
Type: Kid's laboratory
Image Quality: Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium - Long
There are 60 experiments I'm told and the app looks pretty good. Unfortunately it seems like you have 2D controls in 3D space, up/down, left/right, but no forwards/backwards. I spent 90% of my time trying to get things closer or farther away from me to get them to line up. In the end if I kind of whirled them around my head they would sort of shift toward me, maybe.
I wanted to reach out and pull or push but unfortunately this is 3DoF not 6DoF. If you have 6DoF give it a try, I bet it is fun. For the Go not so much.
The Well
The Well
Type: RPG
Image Quality: Passable, think Nintindo some time back
Scale: Good
Length: Medium - Long
I've only just begun before running my battery down, but so far this is fun RPG with graphics that remind me of maybe an old Link game. Trees and things tend toward being pleasant blobs and the enemies are stylized more than 'real'. It works for the game which is a first person dungeon crawler, though so far more of a forest crawler. Don't expect something like an Elder Scrolls game though.
If this weren't VR, this would be a forgettable RPG, but as one of the few for the Go and one that seems to embrace the technology rather than fight it, it is a very nice RPG. So many games on the Go want me to turn 360 degrees, puts controls at my feet where I can barely touch them with the controller and swing the controller to try to throw things. In this game you can look left or right and step forward just by clicking the direction pad. The combat is simple pointing at an enemy and choosing icon. all nice and simple. Just playing a fun game where I'm not fighting the controls or the game design is a distinct pleasure.
Type: RPG
Image Quality: Passable, think Nintindo some time back
Scale: Good
Length: Medium - Long
I've only just begun before running my battery down, but so far this is fun RPG with graphics that remind me of maybe an old Link game. Trees and things tend toward being pleasant blobs and the enemies are stylized more than 'real'. It works for the game which is a first person dungeon crawler, though so far more of a forest crawler. Don't expect something like an Elder Scrolls game though.
If this weren't VR, this would be a forgettable RPG, but as one of the few for the Go and one that seems to embrace the technology rather than fight it, it is a very nice RPG. So many games on the Go want me to turn 360 degrees, puts controls at my feet where I can barely touch them with the controller and swing the controller to try to throw things. In this game you can look left or right and step forward just by clicking the direction pad. The combat is simple pointing at an enemy and choosing icon. all nice and simple. Just playing a fun game where I'm not fighting the controls or the game design is a distinct pleasure.
Wonders of the World
Wonders of the World
Type: 3 short adventure games
Image Quality: Passable, Artistically interesting
Scale: Good
Length: Short-Medium
I was expecting an interactive filmic experience where you explored a bit of a few ancient sites, instead I found a series of short chat with a few folks and find a few items games with graphics that sprang from the mind of a slightly mad artist. The games themselves won't blow you away, but they do give you enough immersion to be interesting. You are for a few minutes transported back in time to an artist's rendering of three important places where you are an important person. While you only interect with a few folks, they seem pretty authentic to the time.
It is the art that makes this game stand out. It is hard to describe but it feels like the game's artist decided to have fun and create a sort of customized experience for each place that fits but feels more surreal than real. Without this the app would be much less memorable so congratulations on finding ways around the technical limits of a 'phone' game with creativity.
Type: 3 short adventure games
Image Quality: Passable, Artistically interesting
Scale: Good
Length: Short-Medium
I was expecting an interactive filmic experience where you explored a bit of a few ancient sites, instead I found a series of short chat with a few folks and find a few items games with graphics that sprang from the mind of a slightly mad artist. The games themselves won't blow you away, but they do give you enough immersion to be interesting. You are for a few minutes transported back in time to an artist's rendering of three important places where you are an important person. While you only interect with a few folks, they seem pretty authentic to the time.
It is the art that makes this game stand out. It is hard to describe but it feels like the game's artist decided to have fun and create a sort of customized experience for each place that fits but feels more surreal than real. Without this the app would be much less memorable so congratulations on finding ways around the technical limits of a 'phone' game with creativity.
Friday, May 18, 2018
First VR to make me sick
I thought I was handling VR pretty well until I played SkyTrek. Now my head is spinning and I'm having a bit of trouble finding the keys on my computer keyboard to write this little blurb. I've purposely only gone up to moderate comfort in things like End Space and Apollo 11, but handled them fine. For some reason this little flyer wasn't moderate for me at all.
This Flight Simulator is a love it or hate it affair with what seem to be procedurally generated PlayStation 1 quality graphics that popup as you fly along. You start out flying over London and apparently then go to other cities around the globe. You can go on missions or use a free fly mode. I completed the London mission though I have no idea how. The controller seemed to drift until I was flying sideways. For more information try a non-airsick blog. I'm off to lay down and watch something soothing with absolutely no motion!
This Flight Simulator is a love it or hate it affair with what seem to be procedurally generated PlayStation 1 quality graphics that popup as you fly along. You start out flying over London and apparently then go to other cities around the globe. You can go on missions or use a free fly mode. I completed the London mission though I have no idea how. The controller seemed to drift until I was flying sideways. For more information try a non-airsick blog. I'm off to lay down and watch something soothing with absolutely no motion!
My top experiances so far
My favorite things to do on the Go are...
Going to Space...
Riding in the Apollo 11 and landing on the moon.
Meeting NASA Astronauts and riding in a Mars Rover in Space Explorers.
Touring the Solar System in Titans of Space Plus.
Discovering Space with flybys of the moon and Mars.
Saying Hello Mars by landing on the red planet.
Standing on the edge of a Black Hole in Space Time.
Exploring...
The Ocean depths in Ocean Rift.
The Decks of the Titanic and Stonehenge in Unimersiv.
The White House (People's House) in Oculus Videos
Atoms while the size of an Atom in the expensive MEL Chemistry.
The World through old stereopticon slides in Looking Glass VR
Strange surrealities in Singularity and Turning Forest
Time Traveling like Doctor Who to...
The Acropolis while visiting Athens in VR
The Acropolis and Rome in Unimersiv.
Visit Cervantes in his bizarre word.
Meeting Rembrandt.
Live the Past in small town Spain.
Watching...
Jurassic World Blue romp.
My beloved Denver Broncos get beat in NextVR
Dinosaur skeletons chase kids in Raising a Rukus.
Aliens bumble in Invasion and Asteroids in Oculus Videos.
A Jazz Quartet in Amaze. And what you say there is a pretty dancing lady too?
Space Pirates in A Night Sky.
Nightfall Ballet all around me in Inception.
VR Sessions musicians in Samsung VR-Videos
Looking at
3D VR Madefire Comics (not regular comics)
3D Art Photos in Oculus 360 Photos
3D Travel Pictures in Gala360
3D Models in Sketchfab and wishing I could see more
Playing...
Pinball on 3D tables in Pinball FX2
With Swords and Spells down The Well
With missiles and blowing up bad guys in space, End Space.
With crazy toy cars in BlazeRush.
At being a fisherman in Bait!
Seeing low resolution dinosaurs in Our Dinosaur Era, Prehistoria, and Unimersiv. Hey they might be PS2 dinosaurs but I still saw them.
Going to Space...
Riding in the Apollo 11 and landing on the moon.
Meeting NASA Astronauts and riding in a Mars Rover in Space Explorers.
Touring the Solar System in Titans of Space Plus.
Discovering Space with flybys of the moon and Mars.
Saying Hello Mars by landing on the red planet.
Standing on the edge of a Black Hole in Space Time.
Exploring...
The Ocean depths in Ocean Rift.
The Decks of the Titanic and Stonehenge in Unimersiv.
The White House (People's House) in Oculus Videos
Atoms while the size of an Atom in the expensive MEL Chemistry.
The World through old stereopticon slides in Looking Glass VR
Strange surrealities in Singularity and Turning Forest
Time Traveling like Doctor Who to...
The Acropolis while visiting Athens in VR
The Acropolis and Rome in Unimersiv.
Visit Cervantes in his bizarre word.
Meeting Rembrandt.
Live the Past in small town Spain.
Watching...
Jurassic World Blue romp.
My beloved Denver Broncos get beat in NextVR
Dinosaur skeletons chase kids in Raising a Rukus.
Aliens bumble in Invasion and Asteroids in Oculus Videos.
A Jazz Quartet in Amaze. And what you say there is a pretty dancing lady too?
Space Pirates in A Night Sky.
Nightfall Ballet all around me in Inception.
VR Sessions musicians in Samsung VR-Videos
Looking at
3D VR Madefire Comics (not regular comics)
3D Art Photos in Oculus 360 Photos
3D Travel Pictures in Gala360
3D Models in Sketchfab and wishing I could see more
Playing...
Pinball on 3D tables in Pinball FX2
With Swords and Spells down The Well
With missiles and blowing up bad guys in space, End Space.
With crazy toy cars in BlazeRush.
At being a fisherman in Bait!
Seeing low resolution dinosaurs in Our Dinosaur Era, Prehistoria, and Unimersiv. Hey they might be PS2 dinosaurs but I still saw them.
Raising a Rukus
Raising a Rukus
Type: Kinds Cartoon Movies
Image Quality: Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short-Medium
This is a really fun kids cartoon that runs maybe 10 minutes and you can watch the second half from another perspective. This is an impressive animated movie that follows two kids and their new dog on a strange adventure in another world. You can tell this was made by a pro studio as the animation is very smooth and the models are real enough to make you forget they are models. Think being immersed in an intimate Pixar movie. I would note that the film seemed just a lit bit fuzzy to me some of the time but was otherwise brilliant.
This is one of those experiences that shows off what VR does best. While a kids cartoon might not be to everyone's taste it is definitely a fun film if you have some whimsy in your soul. So far a top ten VR experience for me.
Type: Kinds Cartoon Movies
Image Quality: Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short-Medium
This is a really fun kids cartoon that runs maybe 10 minutes and you can watch the second half from another perspective. This is an impressive animated movie that follows two kids and their new dog on a strange adventure in another world. You can tell this was made by a pro studio as the animation is very smooth and the models are real enough to make you forget they are models. Think being immersed in an intimate Pixar movie. I would note that the film seemed just a lit bit fuzzy to me some of the time but was otherwise brilliant.
This is one of those experiences that shows off what VR does best. While a kids cartoon might not be to everyone's taste it is definitely a fun film if you have some whimsy in your soul. So far a top ten VR experience for me.
Apollo 11
Apollo 11
Type: Moonshot Modeled Movie
Image Quality: Overall Good, impressive visual experience
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This was one of those take my breath away experiences in the Go. From being strapped in the tiny cockpit of the the Apollo 11, to seeing a tiny earth rise, to seeing a man step on the moon this, was an impressive VR 'movie'. The feeling of immersion was definitely there.
To show you how a real reviewer writes about VR, check out Rock, Paper, Shotgun's review of Apollo 11. It is interesting that a two year old experience is still one of the best.
Type: Moonshot Modeled Movie
Image Quality: Overall Good, impressive visual experience
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This was one of those take my breath away experiences in the Go. From being strapped in the tiny cockpit of the the Apollo 11, to seeing a tiny earth rise, to seeing a man step on the moon this, was an impressive VR 'movie'. The feeling of immersion was definitely there.
To show you how a real reviewer writes about VR, check out Rock, Paper, Shotgun's review of Apollo 11. It is interesting that a two year old experience is still one of the best.
Hello Mars
Hello Mars
Type: Landing on Mars, Roving the surface movie/game
Image Quality: Lower resolution, but still impressive
Scale: Good
Length: Short - Medium
This is lower resolution than I would like, but the descent to Mars is an impressive and powerful little movie well worth the time and cost. The colors, sound and feeling of the event are all impressively captured and the descent almost feels like it could be real. It reminds me of the old days of computers and watching an awesome 240 x 320 and wishing it was 480 x 640. Up the resolution by four and this would be one of the most impressive things on the Go.
There is also a fun gamish bit where you try to land the rover in a simulator. I never landed it but I had fun blowing it up. There is also a nice but again lower rez bit where you try your hand and moving the rover about.
Type: Landing on Mars, Roving the surface movie/game
Image Quality: Lower resolution, but still impressive
Scale: Good
Length: Short - Medium
This is lower resolution than I would like, but the descent to Mars is an impressive and powerful little movie well worth the time and cost. The colors, sound and feeling of the event are all impressively captured and the descent almost feels like it could be real. It reminds me of the old days of computers and watching an awesome 240 x 320 and wishing it was 480 x 640. Up the resolution by four and this would be one of the most impressive things on the Go.
There is also a fun gamish bit where you try to land the rover in a simulator. I never landed it but I had fun blowing it up. There is also a nice but again lower rez bit where you try your hand and moving the rover about.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Prehistoria
Prehistoria
Type: Dinosaur zoo visit plus a little movie
Image Quality: Generally Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This is a bit odd in that the best part of the app is available as the demo. That would be the slow moving but interesting movie like experience. The other 5 scenes are all ones where you wander around a sort of virtual zoo exhibit of a dinosaur, though of course you are inside the exhibit with the animal(s). You can click on a dino for information about it and one of the scenes has several creatures and you wander around a bit more in it.
As with all the dino apps like this the graphics are more stepping into a PS2 world than stepping into a 'real' dino world. Still it is fun to see the fairly decent models and learn about the dinosaurs if you are so inclined. For about ten bucks, for this app and the next two, you can learn about the ancient reptiles, see dozens of them and watch a couple 'movies', all the while feeling that you are sort of there at least if they lived in a somewhat low rez world. Good bone crunching fun.
Type: Dinosaur zoo visit plus a little movie
Image Quality: Generally Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
This is a bit odd in that the best part of the app is available as the demo. That would be the slow moving but interesting movie like experience. The other 5 scenes are all ones where you wander around a sort of virtual zoo exhibit of a dinosaur, though of course you are inside the exhibit with the animal(s). You can click on a dino for information about it and one of the scenes has several creatures and you wander around a bit more in it.
As with all the dino apps like this the graphics are more stepping into a PS2 world than stepping into a 'real' dino world. Still it is fun to see the fairly decent models and learn about the dinosaurs if you are so inclined. For about ten bucks, for this app and the next two, you can learn about the ancient reptiles, see dozens of them and watch a couple 'movies', all the while feeling that you are sort of there at least if they lived in a somewhat low rez world. Good bone crunching fun.
Our Dinosaur Era
Our Dinosaur Era
Type: Two 3D Modeled Dinosaur Movies and a Museum Trip
Image Quality: Passable, think PS2
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Like most Dino apps I've tried (aside from the incredible movie Blue), this is a pleasant experience that feels like you are inside a PS2 game rather than watching dinosaurs in real life. The dinos themselves are pretty well modeled and skinned, but the ground, rocks and such are low rez. If you enjoy a bit of time travel to learn about the ancient past, it is a worthwhile experience. If you are looking for a Wow Go experience not so much.
The first movie is the best part of the app. You meet, and occasional feed meat to, a fair collection of dinosaurs while hearing about them and their world in a fairly lengthy experience. The second 'movie' is an odd mashup of visuals explaining the dinosaur extinction and is much shorter. After that you can wander around a virtual museum and look at dino skeletons. Not over whelming visually, but a nice narrative and clever little graphics to drive home important points.
Type: Two 3D Modeled Dinosaur Movies and a Museum Trip
Image Quality: Passable, think PS2
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Like most Dino apps I've tried (aside from the incredible movie Blue), this is a pleasant experience that feels like you are inside a PS2 game rather than watching dinosaurs in real life. The dinos themselves are pretty well modeled and skinned, but the ground, rocks and such are low rez. If you enjoy a bit of time travel to learn about the ancient past, it is a worthwhile experience. If you are looking for a Wow Go experience not so much.
The first movie is the best part of the app. You meet, and occasional feed meat to, a fair collection of dinosaurs while hearing about them and their world in a fairly lengthy experience. The second 'movie' is an odd mashup of visuals explaining the dinosaur extinction and is much shorter. After that you can wander around a virtual museum and look at dino skeletons. Not over whelming visually, but a nice narrative and clever little graphics to drive home important points.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Unimersiv
Unimersiv
Type: Educational Trips
Image Quality: Generally Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium-Long
Half a dozen interesting 'field trips' to places like Ancient Rome, the Space Station and the Titanic. Many of these have guided tours with narration and also free tours where you can jump around to various places in the 3D modeled world. The models are generally decent but the skins are often somewhat low resolution and doors and windows can look painted on. Still it is a solid educational experience and the Titanic is especially good as it has been updated recently.
This is another of what I think of as the Tardis apps which let play your favorite time traveler and checkout and interesting time and place. Sadly there are no other people and certainly not a lovely assistant nor is it photo-real, but nonetheless for me looking at a reasonable 3D representation of something while hearing about it is my best learning experience. Whether seeing a massive statue of Athena, walking the decks of the Titanic, looking at passable versions of dinosaurs, touring Rome or looking at the huge stones of the appropriately named Stonehenge, this is a good learning experience that can happen only in VR.
Type: Educational Trips
Image Quality: Generally Passable
Scale: Good
Length: Medium-Long
Half a dozen interesting 'field trips' to places like Ancient Rome, the Space Station and the Titanic. Many of these have guided tours with narration and also free tours where you can jump around to various places in the 3D modeled world. The models are generally decent but the skins are often somewhat low resolution and doors and windows can look painted on. Still it is a solid educational experience and the Titanic is especially good as it has been updated recently.
This is another of what I think of as the Tardis apps which let play your favorite time traveler and checkout and interesting time and place. Sadly there are no other people and certainly not a lovely assistant nor is it photo-real, but nonetheless for me looking at a reasonable 3D representation of something while hearing about it is my best learning experience. Whether seeing a massive statue of Athena, walking the decks of the Titanic, looking at passable versions of dinosaurs, touring Rome or looking at the huge stones of the appropriately named Stonehenge, this is a good learning experience that can happen only in VR.
Ocean Rift
Ocean Rift
Type: Diving and looking at sea life
Image Quality: Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Ever wanted to dive into the oceans and look at fish, turtles, whales, sharks, dolphins and the like? Well this experience is all about doing just that. You choose from a number of different animals (turtle, whale, shark) on the menu, but there are lots of other fish and plants and such to see on each dive. You can swim around the environment which is generally pretty large. There are plenty of things to see and exploring the ocean floor is part of the fun.
The graphics are surprisingly good and sharp. If you get really close to an animal you can see that it is a skinned model, but unless you are looking for that they seem quite real. The animation is very good and smooth. This is one of the closest experiences I've had to thinking wow I am really here. I showed it to a lady friend who is a real driver and she said that it was quite realistic.
This is one of the stellar experiences on the Go and with plenty of content you can come back to it again and again. This is a definite buy if you enjoy educational apps, exploring and marine animals.
Type: Diving and looking at sea life
Image Quality: Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Ever wanted to dive into the oceans and look at fish, turtles, whales, sharks, dolphins and the like? Well this experience is all about doing just that. You choose from a number of different animals (turtle, whale, shark) on the menu, but there are lots of other fish and plants and such to see on each dive. You can swim around the environment which is generally pretty large. There are plenty of things to see and exploring the ocean floor is part of the fun.
The graphics are surprisingly good and sharp. If you get really close to an animal you can see that it is a skinned model, but unless you are looking for that they seem quite real. The animation is very good and smooth. This is one of the closest experiences I've had to thinking wow I am really here. I showed it to a lady friend who is a real driver and she said that it was quite realistic.
This is one of the stellar experiences on the Go and with plenty of content you can come back to it again and again. This is a definite buy if you enjoy educational apps, exploring and marine animals.
Discovering Space
Discovering Space
Type: Tour of Earth / Moon / Mars / Jupiter
Image Quality: Very Good mostly, occasionally low resolution planets
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Three tours of duty take you first to Earth and the Moon, then to Mars and finally to Jupiter. I've not tried Jupiter yet as I'm recovering from my Mars flight. The fights over the Moon and Mars are the best parts of the experience so far. When you are orbiting around the planet / moon it can look a little like its a picture wrapped around a really big round thing (which it is), but when you are cruising over the planet's surface in your little spacecraft, it starts to look amazingly real. For me these little flights across the surface of places I can never go are what VR is all about.
Once I've recovered sufficiently, I'll fly to Jupiter and let you know how that looks. If you like Space and VR, then this is one app to get. It is a clever stitching together of the sphere of space with the stars and such, decent pictures of the planetary surfaces (as mentioned not perfect) and then flying down to the surface where it really shines. Note you are on a 'tour' and you can't just pilot your craft anywhere you want.
And I made it to Jupiter. It was impressive to see the gaseous planet in motion. There was a flyby of one of its moons, but it didn't feel as cool as the other fly overs of the Moon and Mars. Definitely a solid VR experience.
Type: Tour of Earth / Moon / Mars / Jupiter
Image Quality: Very Good mostly, occasionally low resolution planets
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Three tours of duty take you first to Earth and the Moon, then to Mars and finally to Jupiter. I've not tried Jupiter yet as I'm recovering from my Mars flight. The fights over the Moon and Mars are the best parts of the experience so far. When you are orbiting around the planet / moon it can look a little like its a picture wrapped around a really big round thing (which it is), but when you are cruising over the planet's surface in your little spacecraft, it starts to look amazingly real. For me these little flights across the surface of places I can never go are what VR is all about.
Once I've recovered sufficiently, I'll fly to Jupiter and let you know how that looks. If you like Space and VR, then this is one app to get. It is a clever stitching together of the sphere of space with the stars and such, decent pictures of the planetary surfaces (as mentioned not perfect) and then flying down to the surface where it really shines. Note you are on a 'tour' and you can't just pilot your craft anywhere you want.
And I made it to Jupiter. It was impressive to see the gaseous planet in motion. There was a flyby of one of its moons, but it didn't feel as cool as the other fly overs of the Moon and Mars. Definitely a solid VR experience.
Monday, May 14, 2018
Athens in VR
Athens in VR
Type: Tour of the Past
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: $2.99
I'm a history buff and an occasional Doctor Who fan so any experience that lets me step from the Tardis into a strange land and explore a bit tends to have my approval. Some future historian, while shifting through the endless pointless blog posts of the the year 2018 (Hi there now present historian), will laugh at me for thinking that a static world devoid of people that is nicely modeled but certainly not realistic is a great trip through time. In 2018 being able to take a somewhat linear guided tour of parts of Athens as it was 2000 years ago and stare up at a well made replica of the massive statue of Athena is a really great experience.
I've taken the Great Courses tour of Greece and Turkey, and now I want to take it again, but as good as it is, and it is, being 'in' a 3D modeled version gives an entirely different perspective. These sorts of, yes I overuse the word, experiences along with real VR movies are why I got the Go in the first place. If you like history grab it and enjoy.
Type: Tour of the Past
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: $2.99
I'm a history buff and an occasional Doctor Who fan so any experience that lets me step from the Tardis into a strange land and explore a bit tends to have my approval. Some future historian, while shifting through the endless pointless blog posts of the the year 2018 (Hi there now present historian), will laugh at me for thinking that a static world devoid of people that is nicely modeled but certainly not realistic is a great trip through time. In 2018 being able to take a somewhat linear guided tour of parts of Athens as it was 2000 years ago and stare up at a well made replica of the massive statue of Athena is a really great experience.
I've taken the Great Courses tour of Greece and Turkey, and now I want to take it again, but as good as it is, and it is, being 'in' a 3D modeled version gives an entirely different perspective. These sorts of, yes I overuse the word, experiences along with real VR movies are why I got the Go in the first place. If you like history grab it and enjoy.
Virtual Virtual Reality
Virtual Virtual Reality
Type: Animated Dinosaur Movies
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost:$9.99
Every see all the cool kids playing a game they love and you try it and just kind of shrug? That is me with V-VR. So far it is a kind of clever adventure game with decent graphics and humor, but nothing really special. I'm guessing I'm a bit over halfway through based on a guide I just found and I must admit it feels like a five buck price would be a better fit.
The mini-games are annoying, though I suspect that is much of the point. The controls feel a but odd and intuitive though again that may be the point and it might be because I'm new to VR. Exploring the world you aren't supposed to explore it dark, odd and well kind of boring. Overall it feels like say a really short King's Quest might decades ago or 7th Guest and 'real' video a bit later. It is cool to having anything to play on the newish tech, but it all seems well kind of pointless aside from clever use of tech.
Type: Animated Dinosaur Movies
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost:$9.99
Every see all the cool kids playing a game they love and you try it and just kind of shrug? That is me with V-VR. So far it is a kind of clever adventure game with decent graphics and humor, but nothing really special. I'm guessing I'm a bit over halfway through based on a guide I just found and I must admit it feels like a five buck price would be a better fit.
The mini-games are annoying, though I suspect that is much of the point. The controls feel a but odd and intuitive though again that may be the point and it might be because I'm new to VR. Exploring the world you aren't supposed to explore it dark, odd and well kind of boring. Overall it feels like say a really short King's Quest might decades ago or 7th Guest and 'real' video a bit later. It is cool to having anything to play on the newish tech, but it all seems well kind of pointless aside from clever use of tech.
Mel Chemstry VR
Mel Chemistry VR
Type: Educational
Image Quality: Good / Very Good inside the microscope
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short / Short
Cost:Free for 4 minute lesson, $9.99 for each additional topic
I'm an education geek. I own dozens of Great Courses lecture series on DVD and I'm used to paying a premium for this kind of stuff. But this is expensive. For 10 bucks you get maybe 30 minutes of content in the first series on atoms plus some little 'labs', but for the periodic table and molecules you get maybe 10 minute of video each for your ten bucks. However the interactive periodic table and the molecule builder do add value.
That said this is an experience like no other that I'm aware of. You dive into diamond, graphite and helium down to the atomic level. You look at an atom and the electrons like you were the atom next door. You learn how to build molecules by building molecules. This is something you can't replicate outside of VR. You can interact with the periodic table and look at the electron charts and such. For someone interested in chemistry but understanding little about it, I'm a history guy not a science guy, this was a highly educational experience that I will repeat several times. Obviously a very niche and expensive app, but wonderful if you are in the target audience.
Type: Educational
Image Quality: Good / Very Good inside the microscope
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short / Short
Cost:Free for 4 minute lesson, $9.99 for each additional topic
I'm an education geek. I own dozens of Great Courses lecture series on DVD and I'm used to paying a premium for this kind of stuff. But this is expensive. For 10 bucks you get maybe 30 minutes of content in the first series on atoms plus some little 'labs', but for the periodic table and molecules you get maybe 10 minute of video each for your ten bucks. However the interactive periodic table and the molecule builder do add value.
That said this is an experience like no other that I'm aware of. You dive into diamond, graphite and helium down to the atomic level. You look at an atom and the electrons like you were the atom next door. You learn how to build molecules by building molecules. This is something you can't replicate outside of VR. You can interact with the periodic table and look at the electron charts and such. For someone interested in chemistry but understanding little about it, I'm a history guy not a science guy, this was a highly educational experience that I will repeat several times. Obviously a very niche and expensive app, but wonderful if you are in the target audience.
Pinball FX2 VR
Pinball FX2 VR
Type: Pinball Game
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Just a touch small
Length: Long
Cost:$4.99 for 3 tables, additional tables $2.99 - $4.99
I'm somewhat qualified to compare the Pinball FX experience in VR versus on a flat screen as I've played over 200 hours of Pinball FX3 on Steam. Stepping into the world of VR pinball was a revelation. The tables are truly three dimensional. On Steam they are a nice approximation but they are really lacking in depth. For instance ramps that go up are next to lanes that are flat and you really can't tell them apart on the computer, but in VR they definitely rise. The ball also feels more or less like a real ball with weight and not a circle moving around a flat board. The FX guys love to make little 3D characters who live on the edges of the table. Here they are really 3D and it is fun to watch them.
Speaking of characters, the various boards tend to have some kind of character or movie prop or some such near the table to give it ambiance. For instance the Back to the Future table has a model of the Delorean. My favorite is the wild west table with a scale model of a train running on a little track and the girl from the game making saracstic motions when you lose the ball.
There are two negatives. The game is a bit low resolution. The tables are very well modeled, but there are two many jagged lines and this is especially noticeable on anything made of wire. This might be a limitation of the platform. Some people were complaining in the store that there was stuttering on the tables. I assume higher resolution would have made this worse. By the way I saw no stuttering in the Go version, the ball moved very smoothly. The other thing to remember is that you are looking down while wearing a pound weight on your head that is mostly balanced forward. You need to take breaks and maybe avoid when you are tired as you can feel it in your neck and shoulders if you go too long.
While not perfect, if you enjoy pinball, and like me have never experienced it in VR, this is a great experience. The three included tables are nice, but my favorite in the Back to the Future table where you can pick from six different time periods which adds a ton of replayability. I'm going to be coming to this pinball room a lot!
Type: Pinball Game
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Just a touch small
Length: Long
Cost:$4.99 for 3 tables, additional tables $2.99 - $4.99
I'm somewhat qualified to compare the Pinball FX experience in VR versus on a flat screen as I've played over 200 hours of Pinball FX3 on Steam. Stepping into the world of VR pinball was a revelation. The tables are truly three dimensional. On Steam they are a nice approximation but they are really lacking in depth. For instance ramps that go up are next to lanes that are flat and you really can't tell them apart on the computer, but in VR they definitely rise. The ball also feels more or less like a real ball with weight and not a circle moving around a flat board. The FX guys love to make little 3D characters who live on the edges of the table. Here they are really 3D and it is fun to watch them.
Speaking of characters, the various boards tend to have some kind of character or movie prop or some such near the table to give it ambiance. For instance the Back to the Future table has a model of the Delorean. My favorite is the wild west table with a scale model of a train running on a little track and the girl from the game making saracstic motions when you lose the ball.
There are two negatives. The game is a bit low resolution. The tables are very well modeled, but there are two many jagged lines and this is especially noticeable on anything made of wire. This might be a limitation of the platform. Some people were complaining in the store that there was stuttering on the tables. I assume higher resolution would have made this worse. By the way I saw no stuttering in the Go version, the ball moved very smoothly. The other thing to remember is that you are looking down while wearing a pound weight on your head that is mostly balanced forward. You need to take breaks and maybe avoid when you are tired as you can feel it in your neck and shoulders if you go too long.
While not perfect, if you enjoy pinball, and like me have never experienced it in VR, this is a great experience. The three included tables are nice, but my favorite in the Back to the Future table where you can pick from six different time periods which adds a ton of replayability. I'm going to be coming to this pinball room a lot!
Space Explorers
Space Explorers
Type: Stereoscopic 3D Movie
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: $2.99
Felix & Paul are probably the best movie makers in the 3D world. They produce beautiful stereoscopic films that offer a high degree of immersion. Space Explorers might be the best film they have ever made and one of the best available for the Go. It is a 20 minute exploration of NASA training for astronauts featuring a chat about Mars with a real astronaut while riding in a prototype Mars two man rover along with underwater training footage and more.
The image quality is so high and the video so well shot that I got that sense that I was actually at NASA. I was a passenger in a plane briefly and inside the two man rover. There is a lot of talk about VR being like real life and having total immersion, but the truth is for me I very rarely feel that. I've described many experiences as either a really good holograph where the people are made of light or for low resolution experiences like being trapped inside a VHS movie. Not to mention Monoscopic films where I feel like Gulliver in Brobdingnag. So when I find a rare true immersion experience it blows my mind. After this film my mind was blown and I had to take a break from the Go just to recover.
Do note that while two parts are listed there is only one available. Hopefully a second will be forthcoming as I would love to continue this journey.
Type: Stereoscopic 3D Movie
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: $2.99
Felix & Paul are probably the best movie makers in the 3D world. They produce beautiful stereoscopic films that offer a high degree of immersion. Space Explorers might be the best film they have ever made and one of the best available for the Go. It is a 20 minute exploration of NASA training for astronauts featuring a chat about Mars with a real astronaut while riding in a prototype Mars two man rover along with underwater training footage and more.
The image quality is so high and the video so well shot that I got that sense that I was actually at NASA. I was a passenger in a plane briefly and inside the two man rover. There is a lot of talk about VR being like real life and having total immersion, but the truth is for me I very rarely feel that. I've described many experiences as either a really good holograph where the people are made of light or for low resolution experiences like being trapped inside a VHS movie. Not to mention Monoscopic films where I feel like Gulliver in Brobdingnag. So when I find a rare true immersion experience it blows my mind. After this film my mind was blown and I had to take a break from the Go just to recover.
Do note that while two parts are listed there is only one available. Hopefully a second will be forthcoming as I would love to continue this journey.
Friday, May 11, 2018
3D Stereoscopic Movies worth watching on the GO
Without the Youtube app it can be hard to find any true Stereoscopic 3D videos which are the only true VR videos. Here is a list of some I've found. Please leave suggestions.
Apps:
Space Explorers : Felix & Paul
Jurassic World: Blue & Apatosaurus : Felix & Paul
NextVR: NFL, NBA and WWE
Raising a Rukus
Amaze: The Christmas Songs, Some of the Travel Shows
Samsung VR: Find the Animated Shorts & VR Sessions categories
Inception: Nightfall Ballet
Within: The Robot Movie
ProSense: Ballet
Meeting Rembrandt
Hello Mars Descent (a bit low rez)
Oculus Video: (note that you can search the name instead of paging through videos)
Lost
Invasion
Asteroids
Henry
The People's House (White House)
Skybox can view the new Youtube videos which are decent stereo 3D though often fuzzy. Search for the VUSE camera in Youtube. Again more like home movie quality, but still cool tours of London, Scotland and more.
3D Modeled / Multimedia
Apollo 11
3D Photos in Gala360 and Oculus 360 Photos are also pretty nice even if they aren't movies.
Apps:
Space Explorers : Felix & Paul
Jurassic World: Blue & Apatosaurus : Felix & Paul
NextVR: NFL, NBA and WWE
Raising a Rukus
Amaze: The Christmas Songs, Some of the Travel Shows
Samsung VR: Find the Animated Shorts & VR Sessions categories
Inception: Nightfall Ballet
Within: The Robot Movie
ProSense: Ballet
Teatro Real VR: Opera & Theater Tour
Curtains: Some free coins to 'rent' theater type Chinese videos
Smithsonian Journeys: Venice: Low rez, but lovely free tour, long downloads
SingularitySmithsonian Journeys: Venice: Low rez, but lovely free tour, long downloads
Meeting Rembrandt
Hello Mars Descent (a bit low rez)
Oculus Video: (note that you can search the name instead of paging through videos)
Lost
Invasion
Asteroids
Henry
The People's House (White House)
Skybox can view the new Youtube videos which are decent stereo 3D though often fuzzy. Search for the VUSE camera in Youtube. Again more like home movie quality, but still cool tours of London, Scotland and more.
3D Modeled / Multimedia
Apollo 11
3D Photos in Gala360 and Oculus 360 Photos are also pretty nice even if they aren't movies.
Video Players
Getting videos to play in Go can be a frustrating experience, which is sad because a nicely done video is one of the premier joys of VR. There is allegedly some update or app or something to let you watch VR Youtube videos. This one of the biggest flaws with Go right now. I've tried several video players on many Youtube videos and none of them look right. Even many of the Facebook videos look terrible and suffer from giantism where you are a one foot tall being floating in midair surrounded by low res people 5 times your size. Other videos show me all four corners of the screen in the center of my vision. Talk about useless.
Many of the best and easiest experiences are in dedicated apps like amaze and NextVR. If you can find straight ahead 3D Side by Side videos (SBS) that are in the 2K to 4K range you should be able to play them in the included Oculus Video Player or Oculus Gallery. Oddly what looks weird in one might work in the other. If you can get they videos to work and a they have the correct scale, the these two apps play the best looking video. There is some Carmack magic or other at work here as the videos seem more immersive and better lit than the same video in other players.
It is important to note that 3D and two pictures in a frame are important here. There are lots of 2D 360 or 180 movies which are just 2D pictures stitched together. These are not VR and they all suffer from giantism. Your eyes need two separate images to create 3D for your brain and to tell your brain relative distance. Here you are feeding the same image to both your lenses and you might as well be a cyclops. There are also mono 3D images and these don't work right either. Look at the video in a regular player like VLC on your computer. If you see two very similar objects in the same video and both look oddly stretched then they might work.
Samsung VR will play quite a few different formats and is pretty good at auto detecting the format. Even if it can't auto detect the film's format, it lets you scroll through something like a dozen format to see if you can find the right fit. If this won't play it, it probably can't be played currently on your Go. Oddly the many video clips it lets you stream all suffer from giantism. Come on Samsung!
Skybox and Pigasus both allow you to do things like zoom and pan the movie. I have glasses and really bad eyes and some movies seem to be way too close, zooming out a bit makes them watchable. Also zooming and panning and the like can make some off-scale videos somewhat watchable.
Many of the best and easiest experiences are in dedicated apps like amaze and NextVR. If you can find straight ahead 3D Side by Side videos (SBS) that are in the 2K to 4K range you should be able to play them in the included Oculus Video Player or Oculus Gallery. Oddly what looks weird in one might work in the other. If you can get they videos to work and a they have the correct scale, the these two apps play the best looking video. There is some Carmack magic or other at work here as the videos seem more immersive and better lit than the same video in other players.
It is important to note that 3D and two pictures in a frame are important here. There are lots of 2D 360 or 180 movies which are just 2D pictures stitched together. These are not VR and they all suffer from giantism. Your eyes need two separate images to create 3D for your brain and to tell your brain relative distance. Here you are feeding the same image to both your lenses and you might as well be a cyclops. There are also mono 3D images and these don't work right either. Look at the video in a regular player like VLC on your computer. If you see two very similar objects in the same video and both look oddly stretched then they might work.
Samsung VR will play quite a few different formats and is pretty good at auto detecting the format. Even if it can't auto detect the film's format, it lets you scroll through something like a dozen format to see if you can find the right fit. If this won't play it, it probably can't be played currently on your Go. Oddly the many video clips it lets you stream all suffer from giantism. Come on Samsung!
Skybox and Pigasus both allow you to do things like zoom and pan the movie. I have glasses and really bad eyes and some movies seem to be way too close, zooming out a bit makes them watchable. Also zooming and panning and the like can make some off-scale videos somewhat watchable.
Wonderglade
Wonderglade
Type: Little Arcade Games
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost: Free, $3 to unlock everything
Wonderglade is a fun collection of mini-games set in a sort of carnival environment where you can earn tickets to unlock lots of 'upgrades' for your avatar. I upgraded my mini-golf putter to a good sized trout which makes putting more fun and earned some sunglasses to make my little avatar the epitome of cool.
There are little games like the previously mentioned mini-golf with 3 courses of 3 holes each, unless you pay a couple bucks to unlock three more of these little courses. There is a shoot the basketball at the floating hoops game, a roll the marble, err the pig, around a course game and others. To me this is play it for 15 minutes to relax and then move on to something else game. Nothing challenging but like a lot of simple VR experiences it is a lot of fun in small doses. Having unlockables for tickets you can earn adds a bit of silly depth to the experience. I mean can you putt with a trout? Well I can!
Type: Little Arcade Games
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost: Free, $3 to unlock everything
Wonderglade is a fun collection of mini-games set in a sort of carnival environment where you can earn tickets to unlock lots of 'upgrades' for your avatar. I upgraded my mini-golf putter to a good sized trout which makes putting more fun and earned some sunglasses to make my little avatar the epitome of cool.
There are little games like the previously mentioned mini-golf with 3 courses of 3 holes each, unless you pay a couple bucks to unlock three more of these little courses. There is a shoot the basketball at the floating hoops game, a roll the marble, err the pig, around a course game and others. To me this is play it for 15 minutes to relax and then move on to something else game. Nothing challenging but like a lot of simple VR experiences it is a lot of fun in small doses. Having unlockables for tickets you can earn adds a bit of silly depth to the experience. I mean can you putt with a trout? Well I can!
Color Battles
Color Battles
Type: Match 3 type game
Image Quality: Passable
Scale:Too Big
Length: Long
Cost: Free
This is a fun game let down by two things. First it is too big. You have to change colors on a playing field that is so big it stretches beneath you to where you can't even see it without putting your head between your legs and looking straight down. It also uses your view to select the tiles instead of your remote. Coupled with the first issue this makes the game almost unplayable unless you are a contortionist.
This is unfortunate because it is a nice game where you try to match color tiles to destroy oncoming enemies. There are lots of levels and the enemies and world look good. Shrink the view by 50% and let the remote change the tiles and you would have a winner.
Type: Match 3 type game
Image Quality: Passable
Scale:Too Big
Length: Long
Cost: Free
This is a fun game let down by two things. First it is too big. You have to change colors on a playing field that is so big it stretches beneath you to where you can't even see it without putting your head between your legs and looking straight down. It also uses your view to select the tiles instead of your remote. Coupled with the first issue this makes the game almost unplayable unless you are a contortionist.
This is unfortunate because it is a nice game where you try to match color tiles to destroy oncoming enemies. There are lots of levels and the enemies and world look good. Shrink the view by 50% and let the remote change the tiles and you would have a winner.
El Ministerio del tiempo VR: Salva el tiempo
El Ministerio del tiempo VR: Salva el tiempo
Type: Escape Game
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
Also called Save the Time and yes it is in English along with Spanish. This is a well crafted 15 minute or so game. The graphics are surprisingly good for free and the narration is good if occasionally repetitive.
This is a time puzzle game in a nicely immersive environment that comes quite close to looking like real life if real life had just a bit fuzzier skins. Given the price of free and the small size, this was a pleasant surprise. Check it out.
Type: Escape Game
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
Also called Save the Time and yes it is in English along with Spanish. This is a well crafted 15 minute or so game. The graphics are surprisingly good for free and the narration is good if occasionally repetitive.
This is a time puzzle game in a nicely immersive environment that comes quite close to looking like real life if real life had just a bit fuzzier skins. Given the price of free and the small size, this was a pleasant surprise. Check it out.
RelayCars
RelayCars
Type: Car Showroom VR
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale: Good outside, Oversized inside
Length: Long
Cost: Free
Do you enjoy looking at cars in a showroom? Then this is the app for you. There must be hundreds of different cars and trucks that you can look at in this experience. They are very nicely modeled and look great from the outside. Once you get inside you feel like you are three feet tall and standing on the seat. The steering wheel is almost the same size you are.
There are a couple of bonus experiences including driving down the coast and through the desert, unfortunately both of these are in the giant world mode. You can also look at a few cars in other settings besides the showroom. If you are a big car buff or just like to look at nice models of cars than this is for you.
Type: Car Showroom VR
Image Quality:Very Good
Scale: Good outside, Oversized inside
Length: Long
Cost: Free
Do you enjoy looking at cars in a showroom? Then this is the app for you. There must be hundreds of different cars and trucks that you can look at in this experience. They are very nicely modeled and look great from the outside. Once you get inside you feel like you are three feet tall and standing on the seat. The steering wheel is almost the same size you are.
There are a couple of bonus experiences including driving down the coast and through the desert, unfortunately both of these are in the giant world mode. You can also look at a few cars in other settings besides the showroom. If you are a big car buff or just like to look at nice models of cars than this is for you.
Medieval Town
Medieval Town
Type: Tour a Town / Roller Coaster
Image Quality: Passible
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
This has got to be one of the strangest experiences I've had on the Go. You start with a nice if somewhat low rez tour of a medieval town. Being a history buff I quite enjoyed this. Then suddenly you are looking at a dinosaur eating lunch before you zoom over the city to a statue of a Greek god. how weird is that?
Type: Tour a Town / Roller Coaster
Image Quality: Passible
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
This has got to be one of the strangest experiences I've had on the Go. You start with a nice if somewhat low rez tour of a medieval town. Being a history buff I quite enjoyed this. Then suddenly you are looking at a dinosaur eating lunch before you zoom over the city to a statue of a Greek god. how weird is that?
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Singularity
Singularity
Type: Abstract Narrative Experience
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost:Free
When the AI take over at least you will know how they learned to out-think us all. Possibly this will allow you to communicate with them and this app will have saved your life. If not it is a memorably odd experience, which is certainly better than watching another 2D picture masquerading as VR.
Type: Abstract Narrative Experience
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost:Free
When the AI take over at least you will know how they learned to out-think us all. Possibly this will allow you to communicate with them and this app will have saved your life. If not it is a memorably odd experience, which is certainly better than watching another 2D picture masquerading as VR.
Space Time
Space Time
Type: Interactive Science Lesson
Image Quality: Good Enough
Scale: Good
Length: Medium Short
Cost: Free
This is a fun and informative set of 5 little science lessons about Space and Time or possibly Spacetime. The instructor is quite enjoyable and makes somewhat tough topics understandable. The graphics and animation really help with the understanding. Also 'seeing' the Andromeda Galaxy and a Black Hole was a lot of fun. Any fans of using their brain will enjoy this one.
Type: Interactive Science Lesson
Image Quality: Good Enough
Scale: Good
Length: Medium Short
Cost: Free
This is a fun and informative set of 5 little science lessons about Space and Time or possibly Spacetime. The instructor is quite enjoyable and makes somewhat tough topics understandable. The graphics and animation really help with the understanding. Also 'seeing' the Andromeda Galaxy and a Black Hole was a lot of fun. Any fans of using their brain will enjoy this one.
Meeting Rembrandt
Meeting Rembrandt
Type: Short mildly interactive art historical experience
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
This is a fun trip to the past to meet Rembrandt and see the reactions to one of his paintings. It looks good, the scale is right and the actors aren't half bad, this is the trifecta in the VR world at this point. It is quite short but at 400 megs it isn't a memory or bandwidth hog either. If you like visiting history in the closest thing we have to a Tardis, then give this a go. It is the most G-rated fun you can have in a Renaissance Dutch art studio.
Type: Short mildly interactive art historical experience
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
This is a fun trip to the past to meet Rembrandt and see the reactions to one of his paintings. It looks good, the scale is right and the actors aren't half bad, this is the trifecta in the VR world at this point. It is quite short but at 400 megs it isn't a memory or bandwidth hog either. If you like visiting history in the closest thing we have to a Tardis, then give this a go. It is the most G-rated fun you can have in a Renaissance Dutch art studio.
OnlyinVR
OnlyinVR
Type: Music Videos
Image Quality: OK
Scale: Suffers from 20 tall foot singers
Length: Medium
Cost:Free
I was so hoping this would not suffer from giantism as I would love to be on stage for live music performances especially for free. Sadly it does feature amazonian singers and stages the size of football fields. I don't get how no one seems to notice this. Is it a problem with Go and not with other VR devices? Maybe it is my eyes and heavy glasses. Try it for yourself and see if the video looks normal to you and please leave a comment. If it was scaled right this would be a great app.
Type: Music Videos
Image Quality: OK
Scale: Suffers from 20 tall foot singers
Length: Medium
Cost:Free
I was so hoping this would not suffer from giantism as I would love to be on stage for live music performances especially for free. Sadly it does feature amazonian singers and stages the size of football fields. I don't get how no one seems to notice this. Is it a problem with Go and not with other VR devices? Maybe it is my eyes and heavy glasses. Try it for yourself and see if the video looks normal to you and please leave a comment. If it was scaled right this would be a great app.
Prosense
Prosense
Type: Collection of Sports and Ballet Videos
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Miniaturized by about 50%
Length: Medium
Cost:Free
This is sort of a small semi-pro version of NextVR. There are maybe 20 videos and the scale is oddly shrunken. The average human seems about 3 feet tall if that. It has two reasons for existence. They are a half dozen very nice ballet movies and a couple hockey highlight films which are decent but somehow the players sometimes skate outside the movie.
Type: Collection of Sports and Ballet Videos
Image Quality: Quite Good
Scale: Miniaturized by about 50%
Length: Medium
Cost:Free
This is sort of a small semi-pro version of NextVR. There are maybe 20 videos and the scale is oddly shrunken. The average human seems about 3 feet tall if that. It has two reasons for existence. They are a half dozen very nice ballet movies and a couple hockey highlight films which are decent but somehow the players sometimes skate outside the movie.
A Night Sky
A Night Sky
Type: Cartoon Interactive Experience
Image Quality: Good Enough
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost:Free or $3.99 for the little DLCs
This is one of those whimsically fun little 'games' that work nicely in VR, but you aren't ever going to admit you played to your online shooter buddies. Surprisingly fun and relaxing, yes, macho, no.
The basic idea is that you trace imaginary constellations in the sky and then appropriate animated characters fly across the sky or run or waddle across the land. There are quite a few things to see and they are fun enough to make you want to see them more than once. You can get the DLC for 4 bucks which adds a few mini-games with the emphasis on the mini part of that word and a fun little companion.
The graphical quality is not going to blow you away technically, call it PS2 quality, but the experience works so well and the animations are so smooth and enjoyable that you aren't going to notice the technical limitations. If you can imagine yourself in a cartoon type world this is quite immersive and unless you have Sheldon Cooper's lack of humor you will chuckle several times.
Type: Cartoon Interactive Experience
Image Quality: Good Enough
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost:Free or $3.99 for the little DLCs
This is one of those whimsically fun little 'games' that work nicely in VR, but you aren't ever going to admit you played to your online shooter buddies. Surprisingly fun and relaxing, yes, macho, no.
The basic idea is that you trace imaginary constellations in the sky and then appropriate animated characters fly across the sky or run or waddle across the land. There are quite a few things to see and they are fun enough to make you want to see them more than once. You can get the DLC for 4 bucks which adds a few mini-games with the emphasis on the mini part of that word and a fun little companion.
The graphical quality is not going to blow you away technically, call it PS2 quality, but the experience works so well and the animations are so smooth and enjoyable that you aren't going to notice the technical limitations. If you can imagine yourself in a cartoon type world this is quite immersive and unless you have Sheldon Cooper's lack of humor you will chuckle several times.
Jurassic World: Blue & Apatosaurus
Jurassic World: Blue & Apatosaurus
Type: Animated Dinosaur Movies
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
Blue might be the best short film available for the Go. The modeling and animation are superb. The size, 1.5 gigs for about 5 minutes, allows for high quality video that looks amazingly real and is immersive. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that it has a touch of the magic to it that the good Pixar films have. You definitely want to watch this one to see the potential of VR movies.Type: Animated Dinosaur Movies
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
Apatosaurus is also well made, but it isn't as fun. You are basically just watching a dinosaur for a couple minutes. Still it is worth watching for the quality and hey even watching a dinosaur wake up and wander around is pretty cool in VR.
République!
République!
Type: Stealth Game
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost: $9.99
I suck at this game, but even I can see that it is quite well made. The modeling is very good as is the animation. The gameplay works well in VR. If I understand correctly from the early game you are something like an AI that can jump between security cameras and unlock doors and such. Since you are looking from the cameras your view is often from overhead. You are trying to get a girl out of jail and presumably through other adventures in a dystopian state.
There is regular time where you tell the protagonist where to run and hide or steal something and the like. Then there is stop time where you can jump around to different cameras, try to unlock doors or find codes and figure out what to do next. The stop time is a nice idea as it gives you a chance to think about what you are going to do next. You can also take a look at a map and your inventory. The controls seem to work quite well though as always with the GO you will need to re-calibrate your controller occasionally.
There is a real sense of immersion and tension in the game and it feels like real A level computer game if not quite AAA in this VR platform where most games feel like PS2 demos. This is often mentioned as one of the top games for mobile VR and it lives up to that reputation. If, like me, you aren't a stealth gamer be sure to look up the walkthrough on IGN as it helps a lot.
Type: Stealth Game
Image Quality: Excellent
Scale: Good
Length: Long
Cost: $9.99
I suck at this game, but even I can see that it is quite well made. The modeling is very good as is the animation. The gameplay works well in VR. If I understand correctly from the early game you are something like an AI that can jump between security cameras and unlock doors and such. Since you are looking from the cameras your view is often from overhead. You are trying to get a girl out of jail and presumably through other adventures in a dystopian state.
There is regular time where you tell the protagonist where to run and hide or steal something and the like. Then there is stop time where you can jump around to different cameras, try to unlock doors or find codes and figure out what to do next. The stop time is a nice idea as it gives you a chance to think about what you are going to do next. You can also take a look at a map and your inventory. The controls seem to work quite well though as always with the GO you will need to re-calibrate your controller occasionally.
There is a real sense of immersion and tension in the game and it feels like real A level computer game if not quite AAA in this VR platform where most games feel like PS2 demos. This is often mentioned as one of the top games for mobile VR and it lives up to that reputation. If, like me, you aren't a stealth gamer be sure to look up the walkthrough on IGN as it helps a lot.
The Turning Forest
The Turning Forest
Type: Animated Short
Image Quality: Low resolution modeling, but it works
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
This is basically a kid's picture book come to life. As you might guess from the title it takes place in a forest which is fairly basically modeled but in a pleasant and whimsical manner. The graphics won't blow you away, but this short does prove that you don't need high resolution for a nice brief VR experience. The narration is nice and fits the mood of the piece. This is definitely a download it, watch it and then delete it app, but if you have a sense of whimsy it is worth the trouble.
Type: Animated Short
Image Quality: Low resolution modeling, but it works
Scale: Good
Length: Very Short
Cost: Free
This is basically a kid's picture book come to life. As you might guess from the title it takes place in a forest which is fairly basically modeled but in a pleasant and whimsical manner. The graphics won't blow you away, but this short does prove that you don't need high resolution for a nice brief VR experience. The narration is nice and fits the mood of the piece. This is definitely a download it, watch it and then delete it app, but if you have a sense of whimsy it is worth the trouble.
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
National Archaeological Museum: Live the Past
National Archaeological Museum: Live the Past
Type: Educational Spain Exploration
Image Quality: Fairly Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: Free
As I will say repeatedly, I like learning and exploring so this scratches an itch. There are five guided tours, yes in English with a heavy Spanish access, (you expected perhaps john rhys davies?), across time from prehistory through modern times in Spanish towns. These are short tours through a bit of town and into a house of the era. The world is modeled like a game say somewhat like a little slice of Morrowind except time traveling in Spain. There are a few backside walls missing here and there, but you won't notice them on the guided tour. You can also wander freely around the block or so and the house that was modeled.
When I type that out is sounds fairly dry, but this is another example of using VR well. You get to be a time traveler in five little slices of history and space. I kind of felt like Doctor Who, the second doctor from the original series, playing my recorder and wandering with my guide. Now granted the towns were empty but still the virtual objects were modeled and placed well enough that it gave the impression you were really in at least a game version of that time and place. There is no other media type that can come that close to time travel. I really hope Assassins Creed devs decide to sell their modeled cities to us VR folks, but until then this is a nice little piece of exploration.
Type: Educational Spain Exploration
Image Quality: Fairly Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium
Cost: Free
As I will say repeatedly, I like learning and exploring so this scratches an itch. There are five guided tours, yes in English with a heavy Spanish access, (you expected perhaps john rhys davies?), across time from prehistory through modern times in Spanish towns. These are short tours through a bit of town and into a house of the era. The world is modeled like a game say somewhat like a little slice of Morrowind except time traveling in Spain. There are a few backside walls missing here and there, but you won't notice them on the guided tour. You can also wander freely around the block or so and the house that was modeled.
When I type that out is sounds fairly dry, but this is another example of using VR well. You get to be a time traveler in five little slices of history and space. I kind of felt like Doctor Who, the second doctor from the original series, playing my recorder and wandering with my guide. Now granted the towns were empty but still the virtual objects were modeled and placed well enough that it gave the impression you were really in at least a game version of that time and place. There is no other media type that can come that close to time travel. I really hope Assassins Creed devs decide to sell their modeled cities to us VR folks, but until then this is a nice little piece of exploration.
Steam Museum
Steam Museum
Type: Educational small museum tour
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
If you like machines and steam power these are worth a look, if you aren't interested in steam powered machines than move along to another experience. There are 6 nicely modeled machines and a bit of information about them. I'm glad I took a look at them for about 5 minutes and I'm glad it was free.
Type: Educational small museum tour
Image Quality: Solid
Scale: Good
Length: Short
Cost: Free
If you like machines and steam power these are worth a look, if you aren't interested in steam powered machines than move along to another experience. There are 6 nicely modeled machines and a bit of information about them. I'm glad I took a look at them for about 5 minutes and I'm glad it was free.
Titans of Space Plus
Titans of Space Plus
Type: Educational Universe Exploration
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium, about an hour long tour
Cost:$4.99
Wow. If like me you enjoy educational videos, I've watch almost 100 online/DVD college courses so I'm a freak, and getting to view things you will ever see in real life, then this is an app for you. Touring the solar system in your own private spaceship is flatout fun and you learn a lot too. The planets and moons are well modeled and spring to life before your eyes. The universe is somewhat scrunched for effect, but it works. Otherwise the scale seems right and it is awe inspiring to see Jupiter fill up your screen. To me modeled videos tend to work better than most shot in the real world videos and this certainly takes advantage of the medium.
The narration is good and has lots of solid information. Each planet/moon stop has a couple info slides and pictures you can access from your ship's controls. Speaking of the ship it is nicely done in a simple and unobtrusive way. It isn't the way George Lucas would do it, all together yell 'NNNNOOOO', but it works very well for the app. In the somewhat dicey world of 1000 GO VR apps of which 100 are worth trying, this stands out as a great reason to own a GO.
Type: Educational Universe Exploration
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Good
Length: Medium, about an hour long tour
Cost:$4.99
Wow. If like me you enjoy educational videos, I've watch almost 100 online/DVD college courses so I'm a freak, and getting to view things you will ever see in real life, then this is an app for you. Touring the solar system in your own private spaceship is flatout fun and you learn a lot too. The planets and moons are well modeled and spring to life before your eyes. The universe is somewhat scrunched for effect, but it works. Otherwise the scale seems right and it is awe inspiring to see Jupiter fill up your screen. To me modeled videos tend to work better than most shot in the real world videos and this certainly takes advantage of the medium.
The narration is good and has lots of solid information. Each planet/moon stop has a couple info slides and pictures you can access from your ship's controls. Speaking of the ship it is nicely done in a simple and unobtrusive way. It isn't the way George Lucas would do it, all together yell 'NNNNOOOO', but it works very well for the app. In the somewhat dicey world of 1000 GO VR apps of which 100 are worth trying, this stands out as a great reason to own a GO.
NextVR
NextVR
Type: Sports Videos and a few other vids
Image Quality: Very Good, some buffering problems
Scale: Somewhat too small when seated
Length:Huge, given full length NBA replays
Cost: Free
If like me you are a sports fan, you will enjoy this experience. While I'm not a huge NBA fan, the presence of complete 2 hour game replays is amazing on a free app. Note that it also sucks bandwidth, so if you have a cap be careful. Speaking of bandwidth, I have 20 meg DSL that does 25-28 on speedtests and depending on the day and the hour, I had some buffering issues. As an NFL fan, I can simply download the half dozen or so videos, but the NBA games you obviously have to stream.
Again not huge on wrestling these daze, but some fun highlight videos from Wrestlemania and the like really show off NextVR and are among the best videos I've seen on the platform. They also illustrate an odd feature of some VR vids in that your height directly effects the video size. When seated, the athletes seem to be maybe 2/3rds normal size, but when standing they seem to be almost full sized. To me an image being a bit small is far more manageable than the image being three times too big. However someone online hated the app because the people looked half size. As with much in VR your mileage will vary. I always worry about standing up for VR, but will sometimes with my back against a door so I can feel where i am. This is an ideal standing up candidate.
As I'm noting and discovering, VR can be a very personal experience. I personally am a Denver Broncos fan and the video of the Broncos losing to the Raiders was one of my all time best VR moments to date in the 2 days I've had VR. I can only imagine if they had a vid from the Manning days! If you are a fan of any of the teams with a highlight video or better yet a full NBA game, this will blow your mind. It is about 90% like being on the field and standing in front of Von Miller or whoever. Again the scale is an issue, mild to me, and especially in football and futbal, the field size means that many plays are fuzzy. The Oculus has an ideal distance of roughly 6 feet and this works pretty well in basketball where you can view offensive plays from the rim and transitions from courtside. The grass fields are so big that only the edges are truly in focus.
While not perfect, to me this is one of the showcases of VR video and the Broncos highlight film will have a place in my VR memory for a very long time.
Type: Sports Videos and a few other vids
Image Quality: Very Good, some buffering problems
Scale: Somewhat too small when seated
Length:Huge, given full length NBA replays
Cost: Free
If like me you are a sports fan, you will enjoy this experience. While I'm not a huge NBA fan, the presence of complete 2 hour game replays is amazing on a free app. Note that it also sucks bandwidth, so if you have a cap be careful. Speaking of bandwidth, I have 20 meg DSL that does 25-28 on speedtests and depending on the day and the hour, I had some buffering issues. As an NFL fan, I can simply download the half dozen or so videos, but the NBA games you obviously have to stream.
Again not huge on wrestling these daze, but some fun highlight videos from Wrestlemania and the like really show off NextVR and are among the best videos I've seen on the platform. They also illustrate an odd feature of some VR vids in that your height directly effects the video size. When seated, the athletes seem to be maybe 2/3rds normal size, but when standing they seem to be almost full sized. To me an image being a bit small is far more manageable than the image being three times too big. However someone online hated the app because the people looked half size. As with much in VR your mileage will vary. I always worry about standing up for VR, but will sometimes with my back against a door so I can feel where i am. This is an ideal standing up candidate.
As I'm noting and discovering, VR can be a very personal experience. I personally am a Denver Broncos fan and the video of the Broncos losing to the Raiders was one of my all time best VR moments to date in the 2 days I've had VR. I can only imagine if they had a vid from the Manning days! If you are a fan of any of the teams with a highlight video or better yet a full NBA game, this will blow your mind. It is about 90% like being on the field and standing in front of Von Miller or whoever. Again the scale is an issue, mild to me, and especially in football and futbal, the field size means that many plays are fuzzy. The Oculus has an ideal distance of roughly 6 feet and this works pretty well in basketball where you can view offensive plays from the rim and transitions from courtside. The grass fields are so big that only the edges are truly in focus.
While not perfect, to me this is one of the showcases of VR video and the Broncos highlight film will have a place in my VR memory for a very long time.
Amaze
Amaze
Type: Curated collection of 180 3D Videos
Image Quality: Generally good, some twitching and odd light efffects
Scale: Almost all good
Length:Huge, given the 150 videos
Cost: Free
This is a lovely collection of movies especially given the price of free. Most of them look quite good though I'm guessing some were recorded at a slow framerate as the action seems to jerk when anything fast happens on screen. Some videos also have some odd lighting effects as skin especially will sometimes twinkle. Don't let this deter you as many are quite well done and immersive and thankfully almost all have the scale right.
There are quite a few categories and though a few are kind of barren some have a dozen or more videos in them. Some of my favorites are in the travel section. There are a couple very nice narrated journeys that rival the paid apps. Several of the music videos are very nice, the three Christmas songs are wonderful. Oddly the in-concert songs were some of the few that suffered from giantism. If you are a foodie there are plenty of vids for you along with many fitness and dancing videos. It should be noted that some of these cater to the Teen rating.
Yes this is PG-13. Amaze likes the ladies and to be honest so do I, but if scantily clad women offend you, then you probably need to avoid some categories. There are lots of ladies in shorts dancing and the like and a whole category of burlesque. In the interest of scientific discovery I watched some of these and they are generally well done, though there are stage lights and effects in the latter directory.
Type: Curated collection of 180 3D Videos
Image Quality: Generally good, some twitching and odd light efffects
Scale: Almost all good
Length:Huge, given the 150 videos
Cost: Free
This is a lovely collection of movies especially given the price of free. Most of them look quite good though I'm guessing some were recorded at a slow framerate as the action seems to jerk when anything fast happens on screen. Some videos also have some odd lighting effects as skin especially will sometimes twinkle. Don't let this deter you as many are quite well done and immersive and thankfully almost all have the scale right.
There are quite a few categories and though a few are kind of barren some have a dozen or more videos in them. Some of my favorites are in the travel section. There are a couple very nice narrated journeys that rival the paid apps. Several of the music videos are very nice, the three Christmas songs are wonderful. Oddly the in-concert songs were some of the few that suffered from giantism. If you are a foodie there are plenty of vids for you along with many fitness and dancing videos. It should be noted that some of these cater to the Teen rating.
Yes this is PG-13. Amaze likes the ladies and to be honest so do I, but if scantily clad women offend you, then you probably need to avoid some categories. There are lots of ladies in shorts dancing and the like and a whole category of burlesque. In the interest of scientific discovery I watched some of these and they are generally well done, though there are stage lights and effects in the latter directory.
Melody VR
Melody VR
Type: Live Concert Experiance
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Three times too big
Length: Varies
Cost: A few free songs and short previews. $10-$13 per concert.
This is a brilliant concept but unfortunately it suffers from giant-ism. The singers seem to be about 20 feet tall and you seem to be hovering in space well above the stage. Aside from that, this it is a great app. The audio is very good and they recommend using headphones as the builtin speakers won't give you good enough quality. The idea of standing on stage or being in the audience is certainly clever and appealing. The concerts were shot with several cameras and you can jump between them. There are often several stage positions and audience positions for maybe half a dozen total. It does vary by concert.
I wish the concerts were closer to 5 bucks than 10, but music is always overpriced. Even at $10 I can see picking up one or two favorites if they get the scale problem solved.
Type: Live Concert Experiance
Image Quality: Good
Scale: Three times too big
Length: Varies
Cost: A few free songs and short previews. $10-$13 per concert.
This is a brilliant concept but unfortunately it suffers from giant-ism. The singers seem to be about 20 feet tall and you seem to be hovering in space well above the stage. Aside from that, this it is a great app. The audio is very good and they recommend using headphones as the builtin speakers won't give you good enough quality. The idea of standing on stage or being in the audience is certainly clever and appealing. The concerts were shot with several cameras and you can jump between them. There are often several stage positions and audience positions for maybe half a dozen total. It does vary by concert.
I wish the concerts were closer to 5 bucks than 10, but music is always overpriced. Even at $10 I can see picking up one or two favorites if they get the scale problem solved.
Welcome
Welcome to the blog and the world of VR. I recently got an Oculus Go which is my first VR headset. I had never experienced VR before and was both blown away and frustrated by the VR experience. How is that possible? Well the quality of the available experiences varies wildly. Some made me feel like I was immersed in a lifelike and beautiful world. Some made me feel like I was floating 50 feet above the ground trapped in a world of pixilated, low resolution giants.
The idea behind this blog is examine the many Go experiences to see which ones are worth viewing and why. There will be a rating for the quality of the image. Sadly some older videos are so poor that you can barely see what is being filmed. Very low resolution is like trying to watch an old video tape (remember those) on a 60 inch TV screen. Your Go has 2560 x 1440 resolution and since you are moving your head around to view 180 or 360 degrees, the movie or picture had better be recorded in high resolution or it will look terrible.
Another rating will be for scale. A stunning amount of pictures and video have what has been call the 'Amazon Lady' effect where you feel that your are trapped in a world of 50 foot tall people who have heads as big as your body. Sadly this is often the case even for content in the Facebook and Oculus apps. Almost all 360 still pictures suffer from this as do a surprising amount of videos.
Another rating will be for the length of the experience. Some like Amaze have tons of video content and you could spend much of a day watching it all, while others might have 10 minutes of stuff and then you are done. I'm not going to give exact times, just something like short, medium or long.
Then there will be a description of what the app is like. What sort of experience it gives and who might enjoy it. There won't be a grade for this as what might thrill me might bore you to tears. Hopefully this will be enough information to point you to the best experiences in the VR world and maybe help you avoid some of the disappointments.
The idea behind this blog is examine the many Go experiences to see which ones are worth viewing and why. There will be a rating for the quality of the image. Sadly some older videos are so poor that you can barely see what is being filmed. Very low resolution is like trying to watch an old video tape (remember those) on a 60 inch TV screen. Your Go has 2560 x 1440 resolution and since you are moving your head around to view 180 or 360 degrees, the movie or picture had better be recorded in high resolution or it will look terrible.
Another rating will be for scale. A stunning amount of pictures and video have what has been call the 'Amazon Lady' effect where you feel that your are trapped in a world of 50 foot tall people who have heads as big as your body. Sadly this is often the case even for content in the Facebook and Oculus apps. Almost all 360 still pictures suffer from this as do a surprising amount of videos.
Another rating will be for the length of the experience. Some like Amaze have tons of video content and you could spend much of a day watching it all, while others might have 10 minutes of stuff and then you are done. I'm not going to give exact times, just something like short, medium or long.
Then there will be a description of what the app is like. What sort of experience it gives and who might enjoy it. There won't be a grade for this as what might thrill me might bore you to tears. Hopefully this will be enough information to point you to the best experiences in the VR world and maybe help you avoid some of the disappointments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)