A list of high level summaries of my takeaways from SXSW 2019 regarding Virtual Reality industry takeaways. For the Denver CO VR Meetups

1. VR News from SXSW
Presented by Nate Girard
5-2-2019
@N8Girard
http://n8girard.com

2. Who is Nate Girard?
• Senior UX Designer at Billtrust
• VR Enthusiast
• BA in Computer and Video Imaging from
Cogswell Polytech
• Post grad diploma in 3D Animation and
Visual Effects from Vancouver Film School
• Passionate about the overlap of art and
technology
• Recently attended SXSW 2019

3. What is SXSW?
• Featuring a variety of tracks that allow attendees
to explore what’s next in the worlds of film,
culture, music, and technology, SXSW proves
that the most unexpected discoveries happen
when diverse topics and people come together.
• With one unified conference that spans 25
tracks of programming, we’ll be offering more
opportunities for networking, learning, and
discovery than ever before from March 8-16.
Days I Attended

4. What did I take away?
• Audio Augmented Reality with Bose AR
• Volumetric video capture and post processing
• Funding Immersive Experiences
• Seated VR Experiences
• VR Distribution in the East
• HoloLens Mixed Reality applications
• Immersive Museum Experiences Lessons Learned
• Full Body Motion Capture
• VR Content Creation
• VR Demo Best Practices

5. Audio AR
• Audio AR with Bose AR glasses is a lightweight low
impact AR experience that can use location and
orientation information to determine where you are
looking and what you are looking at.
• Can create the illusion of 360 degree audio experience
due to the orientation information in the headset
• Open-Ear Audio
• Bluetooth Enabled
• Voice commands through mic
• Double tap side of glasses for an interaction type
• Head gestures accepted for “Yes” and “No”
• Audio AR Apps:
• Aira - Blind navigation and phone interactions using
voice
• Audiojack - Auditory learning experiences
• Earplay - Part casual game, part interactive
audiobook, it’s a new kind of immersive audio
storytelling
• Sentient Play - Interactive Audio AR gaming
Bose AR - https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/wearables/frames.html
Bose AR Dev - https://developer.bose.com/bose-ar
Audiojack - https://www.audiojack.com/
Earplay - https://www.earplay.com/
Sentient Play - https://www.sentientplay.com/

6. Volumetric Video
• Volumetric video is a live video performance captured
with both depth cameras and video cameras from all
angles to provide a 3 dimensional performance that
can be explored using 3D Displays and/or VR
• Volumetric video capture is not an exact science yet
and different studios have different qualities of output
and different prices.
• Post production processing is required to get the data
compressed to a reasonable size for delivery.
• Volumetric Video Post Production techniques are
used to correct motion captured performances and
track sight lines properly by rigging the 3D models
(Arcturus Holosuite)
Blade Runner 2049 Memory Lab:
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1789924451050066/
Arcturus Holosuite: https://www.arcturus.studio/holosuite

7. Volumetric Video
• Volumetric video can be captured from
Microsoft Kinect Devices and collect
RGB and depth at the same time.
Requires some cleanup after but can
yield very impressive results for objects
within 10 feet of the user’s head.
• Anything beyond 10 feet doesn’t really
need to be volumetric because you
can’t walk around it in the experience.
• Augment the volumetric video capture
with photogrammetry for sets and
locations and props
Trinity VR: https://store.steampowered.com/app/970130/Trinity_VR/
Go Unlimited AR VR XR: https://www.go-unlimited.co/

8. Funding Immersive Experiences
• Kaleidoscope is a platform for finding funding
for immersive art projects
• Funding projects is still difficult and can come
from a variety of sources.
• Crowdfunding is a good way to raise enough
capital to get a POC or short experience built.
Good for first entry projects to try out the
technologies and learn from them
• Partnering with hardware vendors to make
content to showcase their hardware is a good
way to raise money early on. Lots used Oculus
for Good, ViveX, Google Daydream
Kaleidoscope: https://www.kaleidoscope.fund/
Spheres: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1859625197439973/
Oculus VR for Good: https://www.oculus.com/vr-for-good/
ViveX Accelerator: https://vivex.vive.com/eu/

9. Funding Immersive Experiences
• Partnering with museums, non-profits, community
centers is a good way to get a project scoped out, seen
by the public, on display, and helps you qualify for
certain grants
• Venture capital is rare to be used to fund projects and
the project must have a go to market strategy that
involves some way to make the money back
• Venture capital is used to build the studios who then
have capabilities to produce high quality projects which
each require a new round of fundraising to occur (Felix
& Paul)
• Some countries have special grant programs for
immersive arts like Canada and Italy and France.
Felix & Paul Studios: https://www.felixandpaul.com/?projects/intro
Jurasic World Blue: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1429661883829354/
The ISS Experience

10. Seated VR Experiences
• Positron VR Chair easy to develop a timeline script for
and don’t need the chair to test it.
• Easy to adapt 360 video or 180 video for a relaxed VR
experience.
• There are LOTS of 360 and volumetric video
documentaries out there raising awareness and getting
licensed for Location Based Entertainment (LBE) content
distribution to enhance product offerings
• It doesn’t take much to make a unique experience. Many
are head navigation only and compatible with Go.
• Wheelchairs used to allow users to rotate themselves in
place and feel empathy for those chair-bound.
Positron VR: https://gopositron.com/
Metro Veinte: Cita Ciega: https://thexrdb.com/title/metroveintecitaciega

11. VR Distribution in the East
• The market in China is shifting from LBE 1.0 to LBE 2.0 model which is more platform based and
less one off hardware demos.
• This shift means we can enforce licensing much better.
• Content localization is nice but not a requirement as most are familiar with English already.
• Chinese are VERY picky about the content and want high quality content, preferably from IP that
they are familiar with.
• There are over 4K LBE locations in China.
VR Content Distribution In East and West: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP88927

12. HoloLens 2
• HoloLens 2 does have a wider FOV but it’s
still not that impressive as it doesn’t yet fill
your view.
• It does track hands but latency is still
noticeable.
• It’s better than HL1 but still doesn’t work
well outdoors due to the infrared sensors.
• Mixed Reality Headsets don’t track well
when you put helmet cover over the
headset but custom covers are offered
HoloLens 2 Preorder: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buy

13. HoloLens 2 Applications
• Targeting 80% of the workforce
that does not sit at a desk
• Three major offerings ATM:
Remote Support, Spacial Training,
Spacial Planning
• Microsoft Ethical Guidelines are
good for any project, not just MR
An Honest Hologram: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP88418

14. Microsoft Ethical Principles
• Fairness - how are we treating everyone equally, not re-ninforcing stereotypes
• Reliability - how could the system malfunction or be misused
• Privacy & Security - keeping data private, what data should we NOT collect, consequences in case the data became
public?
• Inclusion - empowers everyone
• Transparency - systems and output that are understandable for everyone
• Accountability - how do we take responsibility and understand the impact on society
Microsoft Ethical Principals: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/our-approach-to-ai

15. Immersive Museum Experiences
Lessons Learned
• It’s not enough to immerse people in another world, we need to give
them a mission and a set of tools
• Embrace imperfection: It doesn’t have to be polished to be meaningful.
• Make magic: give people a super power and get out of their way
• Overcome the romance of technology: start the project for the right
reason
• Sometimes a pin beats a pixel: (innovation, in the end, does not need
to mean high tech) low tech can still be sexy
• Design, test, and retest in three dimensions (don’t just design screens)
• If it’s for people it has to be with people. Let users take ownership.
• Get to GOOD before making it GREAT
• Rethinking, adjusting. Be willing to completely rework what you came
up with
Journey Maker: https://archive.artic.edu/journeymaker/
Mummys to Manet: Immersive Experiments in Museums
https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP81974

16. NOITOM Full Body Motion Capture
http://niotom.com
neuronmocap.com hi5vrglove.com alicespace.com projectalicevr.com

18. VR Content Creation Takeaways
• Content is King
• Short high quality repeatable experiences are desired,
about 7-10 min is the sweet spot
• focus on how to tell the story and then let the tech fill in
the gaps
• Most projects required a team of people to execute in a
timely fashion and to a high degree of polish.
• Fear Of Missing Out is very real, exaggerated with 360
experiences, lessened by 180 experiences.
• Avoid all white or bright scenes, they hurt the eyes.
• Avoid all black scenes as it draws attention to the device
imperfections taking away from the experience itself.
Cypher: http://www.ozeloffice.com/

19. VR Content Creation Takeaways
• Control where users are positioned and what they are
looking at with cuts and motion, but don’t frame a shot by
adjusting the head height, only horizontal orientation and
position.
• If you are going to give users agency, do a better job
indicating what they can/cant interact with other than laser
pointing
• Wayfinding within a free roam environment is important to
keep the user focused and feeling like they know where to
go and where they have been
• Understand the outcome and goals of what your project are
up front
• Distribution mechanisms are still being built, some are out
there but it’s difficult to reach large audiences
SyFy Eleven Eleven: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/13/18262924/syfy-eleven-eleven-interactive-vr-ar-story-sky-vr-sxsw-2019

20. VR Demo Best Practices
• Barrier to entry is high, must wait in line or get
in a queue to experience, no immediate
gratification
• People will stand in line for hours to
experience something unique like the Positron
chair or Free Roam VR
• Wait queues are a problem because the
experiences take so long to complete
• Clean your equipment after every use
• Be open to feedback that users will give you
freely immediately after an experience. Record
it.
Backlight: https://backlight.fr/virtual_works/
Eclipse: http://eclipsegamevr.com/en_us/eclipse/

21. VR Demo Best Practices
• Practice your pitching as each potential
user will need a solid pitch in order to
consider spending time or money in your
project
• Be prepared to answer lots of questions
about your project both before and after
experiences
• If you have to tell a user what they can/
can’t/should do in an experience you didn’t
onboard them well enough in the
experience
Nothing to be Written: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z6dnkmn

22. Do you still want to see more
cool stuff???

23. Augmented Reality Business Card

25. How did I build it?
+ +
+

26. Why ZapWorks?
• Easy to use interface
• Hosted content solution
• Speed to delivery
• I only had 24 hours to make the project before
leaving for SXSW
• I didn’t have time to build and post my own app in
multiple app stores, get developer licenses, etc.
• Simple user experience, load the app, zap the code,
voila!
• VERY little code! (11 lines total but you can do it
without any!)
• Easy to get assets into it with FBX and Sketchfab
support
• Free hobbyist account!!!
ZapWorks Studio: https://zap.works/studio/

27. Where to get a 3D model?
Adobe Fuse: https://www.adobe.com/products/fuse.html

28. How to make it animate?
Mixamo: https://www.mixamo.com

29. How to add VR accessories?
Sketchfab Oculus Rift: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/oculus-rift-bac8bbee5cf743aeb09087656e7d6796

30. Mix together in ZapWorks Studio!
More in depth tutorial coming soon!

31. Follow Nate Girard
Twitter: @N8Girard
Email: n8@n8girard.com
Portfolio: http://www.n8girard.com
LinkedIn: https://
www.linkedin.com/in/n8girard/
Grab an AR Business Card!