In an interview with the Gaming Business Review, an online site ran by M2 Publishing, Tim Sweeney detailed recent developments in Epic Games, as well as his visions of the future.

The interview obviously took place during Game Developer’s Conference 2015, which is traditionally held in San Francisco, CA. We highly recommend that you head there and read the whole interview, but we could not miss out on a question that is shaping the industry right now:

GBR: How big do you see virtual reality becoming over the next five to ten years as a business?

TS: Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will literally change the world. They will be the next computing platform.  There’s a market for billions of these devices because everybody who has a smartphone today will — perhaps in as much as decade from now — much prefer entertainment in a completely immersive experience that takes advantage of your entire field of view and has full body input through miniaturized cameras and other technologies.  But we’re in the early days of it now.  Let’s be clear, everything is in the development kit stage.  It is for early adopters and what we’re seeing now is really just the Palm Pilot to the platform that will evolve into something iPhone-like in its quality.

There’s no point in denying it, after seeing billions of dollars earned by 3D movies which rely on ‘cheap tricks’ to achieve depth (try finding animated feature movies without 3D being the ‘default’ option), next step will bring us technologies such as Microsoft Hololens, production versions of Facebook-owned Oculus VR (John Carmack keynote) and second-generation Google Glass, which is developed in near-secrecy by the search giant and a practical monopoly in glasses, Italian giant Luxottica.

After operating for almost 20 years as an independent studio, Epic Games made waves across the gaming and development community when they accepted an investment from Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700) last June (2014). The Chinese powerhouse paid up $330 million for 48.4% of the company, setting the valuation just a bit below $680 million.

Tim Sweeney continued to be the CEO, while his lifelong business partner Mark Rein still continues as in his role of Vice President.  Not selling themselves outright like idSoftware did with ZeniMax Media, Epic Games continues to be independent studio, consisting out of product (games) and technology development units. Their recent announcement about making Unreal Engine ‘free’ opens a path for even more ‘premium freemium’ titles which base their revenue model on microtransactions.

The post Tim Sweeney: Virtual Reality will Literally Change the World appeared first on VR World.

Hello, how are you?

Yes, it is me, the guy who decided to get out of all the CPU or GPU tests and reviews almost a decade ago. And do I feel regret? Can’t I wait to jump right back into it like Michael Schumacher, God bless him, when he returned to F1 with rather mixed results? Trust me, and please believe me I don’t mean to offend anyone, but the days of motherboard reviews and sleepless nights spent trying and testing the latest and greatest PC components are gone for good.

Funny as it is, time has not stood still in the last eight years, since I finally turned my back on Tom’s Hardware, oh yes, with money in my pocket, yet that wasn’t and couldn’t have been the reason why I was oh-so tired of it all. True enough, there are still those who care about a new chipset, new motherboards, new graphics cards, even overclocking, but the numbers have dwindled and why? Because the PC is dying, along with it the notebook, go figure!

We are running out of excuses for building or buying a new PC system, a new motherboard, a juicier power supply and even a new graphics card. What is so power hungry that would justify the pain, the expense and the time spent on such a project? The latest computer game? Yes, for years that was the one last stand for the power users, but let’s be honest, how many really good games have been released in recent years? Do we really want to sink tons of money into the hottest new components, just to be bored to tears by yet another first person shooter with yet even greater graphics, but a thin or even idiotic story, or a totally dissatisfying end?

So what are we looking at today? Oh yes, there would be this company named Apple. It came out with the greatest gift to man, the first ever true smart phone. Boy did that revolutionise the world, hasn’t it? Today, years later, we are at the nth reiteration of the iPhone, we acknowledge the iPad, we look at all the Android devices, but do we still feel the excitement we experienced when 3dfx, long gone but not forgotten, released Voodoo2? Do you remember that time? Oh how pathetic it looks today, but weren’t we blown away back then? Are we shaking in excitement the same way over the iWatch, or Nvidia’s latest addition to the world or 3D-graphics? Not really, right?

Much has happened in my life in the last eight years. Today, I am the husband to a beautiful wife and the father of an amazing 6-month old boy. Family life has got me in its grip, and I would not want to have it any other way.  You know what upsets my little son the most? It’s mommy or daddy reaching for and staring into their smartphone, instead of giving him the attention he wants as well as deserves. Oh yes, I am a smartphone addict like the next man, but little Ciarán’s disdain for this device made me realise that this cannot possibly the future of mankind.

It makes us antisocial assholes – thank you so much Apple – and if we should believe that our future might go along the lines of the Terminator movies, then becoming antisocial would have to be the first step of humanity losing what it takes to differentiate itself from and be better than ‘the machines’. I am not gonna be a daddy who hands his child an iPad once he turns one and a half years old. I made that oath, and believe me, I am still as technology savvy and hungry as you remember me, but not at any price!

People asked me to talk about how the PC and other technology business evolved to what we are looking at today, but I better be careful, feeling a little bit of an outsider who hasn’t been invited to the hush-hush back rooms, the trade shows or intimate dinners with vendors for a long time. What I can see is Samsung going to produce everything, and the kitchen sink soon, focusing along with other Asian producers on creating yet the best copy of something invented by somebody else. I see Intel apparently busy digging its own grave, Microsoft also somewhat out of wits, the Taiwanese producers, Asus et al., concentrating on squeezing the last little bit of margin, so they can continue selling their stuff just that little bit cheaper once again, and Apple predominantly concentrating on making money, rather than creating something the world is really waiting for.

My dear friend Anthony, fellow dedicated daddy as well as technology editor, suggested I should write about VR and I would love to. When it comes to gaming, it seems to be the next big thing. However, I haven’t played with it yet, so who am I to comment? I’ll get my hands on one of those funky devices as soon as possible though, and I can’t wait sharing Anthony’s genuine excitement about this technology, … or not.

I have the request to give my view of what things will be like in 2030, and what to tell your child now in preparation for our glorious future. I used to be asked that kind of question a lot in bygone times, and my answer was always the same – I ain’t no oracle! I was just about to go there and embarrass myself, but the word count of my article made me reconsider, so why not wrap things up by speaking about the current state of computer journalism? Has it evolved, improved, withered? Well the landscape has changed, hasn’t it?

It feels very much as if all the good guys are gone, while the bad ones still remain. It has become more and more popular rewording press releases rather than doing research, hard work and arriving at one’s own point of view. I wish I could say why. If you allow me taking a wild guess, I would say it has plenty to do with balls versus greed. If it is money that you are after in this business, you cannot possibly say you’re searching for ‘the truth’ or ‘justice’ or – modestly – ‘the best interest of your reader’, can you? What it takes is drive, ambition, a certain level of fearlessness and inspiration. You have that and the money will come by itself. Just watch it arrive, nod if you have to and continue with your mission.

I have joined a team of people with ambition, balls and the determination to provide quality. I would not be writing this, would I not firmly believe in it. I never wanted to return to publishing, because it is a rather ugly business. However, things are going to change, and I have my own little idea how the publishing of old will be turned into something brand new and very exciting.

I have enjoyed writing this, certainly not exactly ground breaking or overly meaningful little piece and I can’t wait getting back into the scene and mixing things up my way. Give me a chance to assimilate all that I might have missed before I can give any kind of fundamental guidance. I’ll be there.

Tom’s back, for better or worse.

The post Thomas Pabst: Is the Computing Business Getting Boring? appeared first on VR World.

The biggest companies in the Augmented and Virtual Reality space are coming to Austin on March 16 for AR/VR Austin.

Attendees at AR/VR Austin will have the chance to try out the latest VR displays and controllers from Seebright, OSVR, and Sixense. AR/VR Austin is a cooperative effort by the sponsoring companies, organized by Praevidi with help from Upload and SVVR.

“Augmented and Virtual Reality are at the peak of anticipation but the most up to date technology has only been experience by a small number or developers and enthusiasts. This is an opportunity for visitors to Austin for SXSW Interactive and the Austin tech community to experience these cutting edge technologies for the first time,” said Simon Solotko, the CMO of Augmented Reality Pioneer Seebright and co-founder of Praevidi, in a statement.

The state of the art in immersive content will be on display at AR/VR Austin with demonstrations from Jaunt, Littlstar, Rewind and a host of independent content and game developers.

“The impact of Immersive content, and cinematic VR in particular, will be profound this year.  The ability to experience music, education, travel and narrative as if you were ‘there’ is a game changing event in the way people consume content,” added  Scott Brock, VP of Content at Jaunt, in a press release. “SXSW and AR/VR Austin present the perfect opportunity to meet with the creators and storytellers that will push this new medium forward and to share some of our latest work.”

Tickets are available now from Eventbright.

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Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has published its third quarter 2014 results, in which its revenues, growth and earnings have surpassed analyst expectations for the period. Notable in its report is a stark change in how the company monetizes its advertising network. First, ad impressions have fallen, but revenues per impression have increased, signifying improvements in quality and engagement. Second, mobile is on the rise, growing from almost 50% in Q3 2013 to 66% in the recent quarter. With an established collection of assets like WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook is likewise set to make a big push for its cross-platform ad network throughout 2015.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed the company’s near-, medium- and long-term strategies in an investor guidance call, and he says the company expects a drastic shift in computing platforms in 10 to 15 years’ time. Facebook is banking on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to play a big part. “Every 10 to 15 years, a new major computing platform arrives and we think that virtual and augmented reality are important parts of this upcoming next platform,” says Zuckerberg. He cites how Facebook is working closely with developers and device-makers like Samsung in order to shore up support for Oculus, the Rift and its VR platform.

Much work has to be done, however. “It needs to rich a very large sale — 50 million to 100 million units — before it will really be a very meaningful thing as a computing platform,” Zuckerberg says, regarding the traction that AR and VR needs in order to be considered relevant.

Read the full story on VR World’s sister site, Bright Side of News*.

The post Facebook Banks on VR as the Future of Computing appeared first on VR World.

Past two decades saw the automotive industry trying to push advanced electronics onto a very old and slow serial backbone protocol called CAN bus, which resulted in less than satisfactory technology. This is the main reason why pardon us saying, most car electronics of today aren’t integrated and crash worse than Windows 95 on a no-name PoS system made in rural China.

With the advancement of MOST15, ethernet-based optical protocol with speeds of up to 150Mbps (CAN is 40-125 Kbps on a good day – yes, slower than what you used to connect to the Internet in 1990s), car manufacturers are finally starting to push the technology integration leading to safe cars. In a way, we can compare the automotive industry of today as an airline industry in 1980s, when pressured with crashes and failures that took thousands of lives – airline industry came up with much safer protocols, reducing the number of passenger deaths. Now, does that sound familiar (how many people die on the roads each day?)?

Toyota Hachi-Roku meets Gran Turismo 6

With the New York International Auto Show preparing to open its doors, car manufacturers are gearing up to demonstrate new technology that will grace the cars of tomorrow and today’s story shows you two very shiny examples of technology integration which is close to entering mass manufacturing. First up is Toyota, with the integration of onboard telemetry recorder inside of their GT86 (Hachi Roku) sports cars. The “Sports Drive Logger” is enabling the driver to input his driving data on race tracks into the popular Gran Turismo 6 game for the Sony PlayStation console. This syncs the vehicle data compared to what you experience in a game, and you can race yourself and see what the best lines you did and what you should have done to achieve ideal lap time.

Data transfer is enabled through a simple USB drive (addmitedly so, with a cool 86 logo on it), which you shift between a real car and the PlayStation 3 console. So far, this feature will be enabled only for the Japan market, where three race tracks are supported: Fuji Speedway (owned by Toyota, of course), Suzuka International Circuit (owned by Honda) and privately owned Tsukuba Circuit 2000.

Toyota Sports Drive Logger is a button and a USB key in one. Import data into Gran Turismo 6 and compare yourself.

Imagine this as an ultimate driving simulator which will change how racing drivers adapt to the race in phase one, but the technology can easily expand onto Safe Driving courses on race tracks and in couple of years, as automotive industry adapts to the ‘big data’ trend, for automotive industry means we could go into a world with less real-world crashes, as less experience drivers can learn how their vehicle react.

Land Rover Augmented Reality

Second concept is something we might say nothing short of revolutionary. When Peugeot launched a concept vehicle with full-screen HUD (Heads-Up Display) couple of years ago – it was viewed as a concept which might see the light of day. Land Rover, now owned by Indian conglomerate Tata is starting to use the Tata Communications backbone to plug into ‘big data’ and enable Augmented Reality in the best possible way.

The Transparent Bonnet concept utilizes a wide-angle camera, a powerful onboard computer with a GPU inside and a windscreen wide flexible display which overlays the windscreen (in its entirety). The end result is that the bonnet of your car becomes transparent and you see the physically-correct location of the wheels and the road ahead of you. You can use this technology to park in narrow places, see what lies beneath your car as you pass and overall, contribute to the safety of passengers onboard.

The company will reveal more at the afore mentioned New York International Auto Show (April 18-27), and we hope that this concept will become a reality in Land Rover and Range Rover vehicles over the next couple of years. Would you like to live in such a future, wher Augmented Reality meets advanced computer simulations?

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