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Technolust: Kitbashing the Future
with Blair Renaud
OVERVIEW
Single developers and small teams around the world are creating entire digital worlds and setting the bar for the future of virtual reality. We’ll talk about how anyone with access to the internet can pillage asset stores, never write a single line of code and still create compelling virtual reality content. From Palmer Lucky’s garage to indie developers and AAA game studios, taking things apart and putting them back together in exciting new ways is the driving force of the new VR revolution.
OBJECTIVE
Blair will show how hackers and indies are defining what commercial VR will be in the future through the story of the last 2 years in VR.
TARGET AUDIENCE
VR content creators, game developers, mobile developers, VR enthusiasts.
ASSUMED AUDIENCE KNOWLEDGE
Minimal awareness of virtual reality technology
FIVE THINGS AUDIENCE MEMBERS WILL LEARN
A little about Technolust and IRIS VR
How to create VR content with little to no funding
Creating believable worlds and people
What makes people sick and how to avoid it
Virtual locomotion and input solutions
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Kitbashing the future
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Blair Renaud
I’ve always loved new technology. From the BBS to the Arcade, from the speak and spell to the VR headset. At 17
years old, I dropped out of high school and started working at Rockstar Games. In a few short years I went from
being a Tester to a Technical Director.
I now have over 15 years of game development experience, having worked on titles spanning all genres and
platforms. From the Grand Theft Auto series to N+, from MAC and PC titles to mobile devices and
consoles. Developing for VR is the next logical step.
“He does computers” ~Blair’s Mom
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Kitbashing the future
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The Road to VR
• Kickstarted– I saw the Oculus Rift kickstarter and knew I needed to have one. Not
necessarily for development (I was working as a security guard doing part time VFX on the
side), but to experience real VR!
• Secondlife for a third– A friend had recently reintroduced me to Secondlife. I didn’t “play”
the game, but I made a store selling 3D assets. Mostly props from fictions that I enjoyed and
some odd curio shop odds and ends. As it would happen, I had made almost exactly the
amount required to preorder a DK1.
• Where’s the beef?- When I received my DK1, I was disappointed for a number of reasons. 1st
was simsickness… but we’ll get back to that. More importantly was the lack of content!
Where were the vast and rich new worlds to explore? Where is the style, the flair? Most of
what was out there were small experiments done my non-artists.
• A room with a view. As fate would have it, the DK1 came with trial licences for Unity and
Unreal Development Kit. I played around with both for a bit, but in the end, fell in love with
unity. In one night of furious clicking I managed to put a demo together that worked on the
DK1. It was called “The Room” (I had not heard of the movie at this point). It was a small
room that resembled the inside of a church (ripped from the internet). I packed a lot of
detail in there. Lots of interesting models, floating motes of dust, nice lighting, and
something to watch on the TV. I released it on the Oculus forums and it had a great
response. People were making youtube videos talking about how cool it was. I was hooked.
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Kitbashing the future
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The Road to VR
• The City– I made another demo. This one was just called “The City”. I started taking Oculus
best practices document into consideration (though most of the original document has
been thrown out the window). The player had no control aside from looking around. I
placed them on a foggy street surrounded by towering buildings. The sense of scale was
immediate. Giant robots talked down the streets and behind the buildings, looming over the
user. The last robot actually steps on the player. The youtube reactions were fantastic. I had
found my calling.
• Technolust– I started on my baby. The thing I really wanted to see in VR. Cyberpunk. The
first things everyone(cool) thinks of when you say VR. I loaded up my trial version of Unity
and started building a hackers desk area. The entire game was to take place from this spot.
Surrounded by banks of monitors, the player would take the roll of a security guard in a
dystopian mega-tower with gameplay much inline with Papers Please.
• Pillaging the asset store- The Unity Asset Store is fantastic. Did you know that for $70 you
can buy an entire city to explore in VR? I bought one to decorate the world outside our
hackers window. I added flying cares and billboards for cybernetic implants. Staring out that
window got to me. I had to get out. I needed to explore this world.
• Back to Kickstarter- If I was going to build an entire world (two if you include Mars), I was
going to need money. Not a lot. Just enough to live for a year and buy more assets to
kitbash.
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IRIS VR
Using the latest development kits from Oculus, Samsung, Sony and HTC, we are creating
a number of high quality VR experiences and games. We have something in the works
for every VR (and AR) platform.
Building Worlds
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CHANGES IN OUR INDUSTRY
There are 4 main hardware companies entering the virtual
reality market in 2016.
1. Oculus – Launching the incredibly popular Oculus Rift in
Q1 2016.
2. HTC – Collaborating with AAA game developer Valve, they
will release the Vive in late 2015.
3. Sony – The Mopheus headset is estimated to launch in
summer 2016.
4. Samsung – The main mobile VR headset, Gear VR, that
works with smartphones, launches in fall 2015.
Opportunities
A BRAND NEW, EMERGING MARKET
OUR ADVANTAGE - EXPERIENCE
Our team has been fully immersed in VR since its inception and
has shown remarkable abilities to problem solve and utilize
cutting edge advancements to create new and exciting content
for virtual reality.
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Blair Renaud
IRIS VR Inc. (Games and Experiences)
Quantum Capture (Real-time virtual humans for VR)
Occupied VR (Client facing 360 content)
2 Years of VR just got real