Portland has a new meet-up group centered around Virtual Reality. The group is co-founded by Kent Bye, host of the Voices of VR Podcast and Raven Zachary, an established community organizer and Mobile Advisor.
This is an important moment in the history of virtual reality. For decades VR has been available only to high-budget research laboratories. But that is changing quickly. True immersive VR is finally making its way into the hands-and homes-of early adopters. Come and meet fellow VR enthusiasts, experimenters, and developers, and let’s help each other explore this fascinating new frontier together.
Presentations
Kent Bye kicked off the inaugural meetup and laid out some plans for the group.
Zach Krausnick shared his VR game Noctica with us, and talked about creative intuitive VR controls using Leap Motion mounted on the front of an Oculus Rift.
Thomas Hayden of 360 Labs showed us some 360 camera rigs, and took us through a variety of surround video experiences. He had high praise for the Samsung Gear VR as a mobile 360 video viewer.
Demos
There were many demo stations, all set up by volunteers. Above is the setup I ran, taking a lineup of attendees through the Leap Motion VR Intro, where they get to interact with a simple VR world through hand movement. I originally set up Beam, my AudioReactive VR experience, but switched over to this simpler demo to maximize throughput and give people a gentle intro to Virtual Reality, as this was the first experience for many!