Google unveils new VR projects for the masses
If Facebook’s Oculus Rift mission was to bring sophisticated virtual reality gear to true believers, Google’s evolving VR vision is introducing this otherworldly tech to the masses.
“VR has the ability to take us all to those 1,000 amazing places on the planet that we’ve always wanted to go but can’t get to,” Clay Bavor, Google’s VR effort leader, told USA TODAY before addressing developers at Google I/O Thursday. “It’s just an amazing opportunity for us to help make this a reality.”
Bavor hammered home that populist message when he announced that the company’s new smartphone-based VR platform, Daydream, will feature developer tools normally associated with high-end computer-based VR games.
Also on tap are two new cameras that will make creating sophisticated VR content easier, one being developed in collaboration with IMAX and the other with Chinese company YI, a GoPro rival.
The two new VR camera projects are an effort to expand content created for Google’s Jump platform, which uses massive computing power and complex algorithms to stitch together images shot by multiple cameras to create a VR experience.
When Jump launched a few years ago, Google helped GoPro create a 16-camera rig for VR filmmaking. Now, Google will be helping IMAX make a cinemagrade Jump camera, which could lead to IMAX-quality VR films made for smartphones. And later this year, YI’s 4K Action Cam II will bow with Jump VR capabilities.
Many of the resulting videos will live on Google’s YouTube, which announced Thursday at I/O that it would be unveiling a YouTube VR app this fall.
“As soon as you’re in VR, your brain expects the world to look like it looks in real life, which is stereoscopically, where things have depth and volume, which is why we invested so heavily in Jump,” Bavor said. “For true VR video, you need images that feel near and far.”
That sense of smartphone-VR realism will be heightened due to Google’s partnership with Unity and Unreal Engine, popular tools for developers crafting games for high-end VR gear such as Oculus, HTC Vive and the forthcoming Sony PlayStation VR.
Those headsets cost around $500 and are tethered to powerful computers that can add $1,000 to the price tag. Google’s Cardboard holders for smartphones often are given away free.
In exchange for their hefty price tags, Oculus and others offer transportive experiences thanks to lightning quick pixel refresh rates that create what VR experts call “presence,” or a feeling that one is actually in another world.