Tag: Review

HBO Max Documentary Review: We Met in Virtual Reality

This evening, I finally had an opportunity to watch Joe Hunting’s full-length documentary, We Met in Virtual Reality, which I first wrote about last year. This is my review of that documentary.

Here’s an overview of Joe’s film, taken from his IndieGogo page:

We Met in Virtual Reality is an enchanting portrait of social Virtual Reality (VR) app VRChat, composed of intimate and hilarious moments inside global VR communities. The film presents an emotive impression on this new virtual landscape through a poetic collage of stories, exploring how VR is affecting the way we socialise, work, love and express ourselves; told authentically by the users of VRChat through a warm heartfelt lens. 

The overall narrative is made up of three distinct protagonists each presenting unique stories of discovering a romantic relationship through VRChat, and using VR to cope with poor mental health. These core narratives flow between each other in a linear fashion through Winter 2020 to Summer 2021, delivering a compelling journey amidst the more observational moments in other VR communities.

Filmed entirely inside VRChat using cinematic virtual cameras during the COVID lockdown crisis, this film captures a precious time in an underground cultural movement that will soon shape the world we live in; additionally highlighting contemporary subjects such as of coping with poor mental health, modern forms of sign language, non-binary gender expression and finding love beyond physical interaction. Everyone appearing in the film will be addressed by their virtual usernames without any real life imagery, immersing audiences into a new cinematic documentary experience.

This documentary has three main storylines: the American Sign Language (ASL) teachers teachers Jenny0629 and Ray_is_Deaf, who work at Helping Hands; one couple, DustBunny and Toaster; and a second couple, IsYourBoi and DragonHeart. Both couples first met each other within VRChat. In addition, there are many cameos of a number of other characters, who candidly discuss various aspects of being an avatar on a social VR platform.

Among the worlds explored are a dinosaur theme park, a camel ride through the desert, an improv comedy stage show, a New Year’s Eve countdown celebration, and the Zodiac Club, an exotic dance club. Many of the avatars shown have eye, finger and even full-body tracking, which gives the viewer a really good idea of what you can accomplish in VR (for example, shooting a game of pool, or taking part in a belly-dancing lesson!). This film will be a real eye-opener to the metaverse neophyte who might have thought that being in virtual reality meant that you would be limited to only moving your head and your hands!

There are moments of glorious hijinks in this documentary, as well as some sombre discussions of mental health issues. Joe does a masterful job of editing, moving smoothly from one story to another, and he wisely gives the people he profiles the time and space required for them to tell their stories, each in their own fashion. It’s been a joy to see Joe Hunting burnish his skills as a documentary filmmaker over time!

The decision was made to film the entire documentary in VRChat, so there is no jarring back-and-forth between the virtual world and the real. In fact, one of the underlying messages of We Met in Virtual Reality is that the virtual can, in fact, become the real. The communities and relationships Joe documents are just as authentic as any in the real world! (While this will not come as a surprise to any of my blog readers, many of whom already have experience in countless virtual worlds, it might come as a shock to those who have not yet set foot in the metaverse.)

In fact, the outreach potential of having Joe’s documentary available on a major TV/movie streaming service such as HBO Max means that a lot more people will learn about social VR and the metaverse in general, and VRChat in particular!

I do find it ironic that this documentary—which focuses so wonderfully on the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community of Helping Hands—has been released on HBO Max at the very moment when the VRChat community is in an uproar over an update which has disabled many popular mods intended to serve the Deaf and hard-of-hearing, providing core functionality which the official VRChat client still lacks.

The documentary is available in both closed-caption and described-video versions, and you can watch it on HBO Max in the United States, and through Crave TV in Canada (which carries HBO content). Here’s a list of the other countries where HBO Max is available.

Joe Hunting has crafted a love letter to VRChat, and if you watch only one film about the metaverse this year, We Met in Virtual Reality is that film. Highly recommended, particularly if you are brand new to social VR and VRChat. I give it five stars out of five! ★★★★★

Varjo Aero: A New, ULTRA-High-Resolution Consumer VR Headset

The new Varjo Aero VR headset offers a resolution of 2880 x 2720 pixels per eye!
(image source)

Varjo, the Finnish manufacturer of ultra-high-end virtual reality and mixed reality headsets for the corporate market, which boast photorealistic levels of resolution, has announced a brand new VR headset intended for the consumer/prosumer market: the Varjo Aero.

This new PCVR headset (selling for US$1,990, which is just the price for the headset alone, but you can use Valve Index Knuckles controllers and base stations with it) has the following key features:

  • Dual Mini LED LCD lenses with a resolution of 2880 x 2720 pixels per eye at 90Hz (which completely removes the screen-door effect seen in lower-resolution VR headsets);
  • Automatic interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment (i.e. you just put it on and the device automatically adjusts to your eyes), plus ultra-fast, built-in eye-tracking at 200 Hz;
  • Weighing in at 617 grams, offering 4 separate adjustment dials for a custom fit, with active cooling and optimized ergonomics for long-duration usage; and
  • Unlike Varjo’s corporate line of VR/AR/XR headsets, there is no annual software subscription fee.

However, there are also a few drawbacks to the Varjo Aero: there is no built-in audio and, even worse, no built-in microphone! (There is, of couse, an audio jack to attach an external set of headphones.) Also, as Jamie Feltham notes in his review of the product on UploadVR:

So let’s start with what has been my biggest issue in my time testing the headset. Yes the Aero is impeccably clear and I’ll touch on that in a second, but over the past four weeks using the headset I’ve noticed significant peripheral distortion when rotating my head. As I look away from a virtual object or surface, it appears to warp as if not entirely solid. Only the very center of my view looks stable. It’s incredibly distracting (which, ironically, is only enhanced by the clarity of the display).

In pretty much all the apps I’ve tested, including big-budget titles like Half-Life: Alyx and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and indie projects like Gorn and Sweet Surrender, it’s been a noticeable issue.

Crucially, Varjo itself knows about this. I’ve been on multiple troubleshooting calls with the company over the past few weeks to talk about it and have been repeatedly assured that this is a software issue it’s aiming to fix with subsequent updates. In fact, the company says it expects to have its Base software fully ready for the Aero in December, which is when it also expects the first units ordered today to arrive.

And, of course, the YouTube VR vloggers were all over this new release! I have attached review videos by Thrillseeker, Cas and Chary, and Sebastian Ang of MRTV below (if you only have time to watch one, watch Thrillseeker’s; his mind is just blown by the Varjo Aero, although he also notes the visual distortion Jamie mentioned, and says that the company assured him that they would fix the issue before shipping product):

As Thrillseeker says in his review video, improvements to virtual reality hardware and software are accelerating, and slowly but surely filtering down to the consumer market! It’s an exciting time to be in VR!

I leave you with another video showing how the Varjo Aero VR headset is being used in aircraft pilot training:

UPDATED! KAT Walk C: The First Consumer-Level VR Omnidirectional Treadmill

Yesterday, virtual reality vlogger ThrillSeeker reviewed the KAT Walk C (the world’s first VR omnidirectional treadmill intended for the consumer market) in the following 13-minute video, which is an absolute must-watch. The video is epic, mind-boggling, and at times absolutely hilarious!

ThrillSeeker reports that he was easily able to set up the device and get it to work with various VR apps and games. He doesn’t shy away from criticism in his review, about what he thinks are the weak parts of the system. While he says that most VR games probably wouldn’t greatly benefit from the US$1,399 treadmill, he found that adding the ability to use your legs to walk around in open world VR games like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim VR and No Man’s Sky gives you a completely different sense of scale and realism, compared to using your thumbsticks to walk and/or teleport in virtual reality.

ThrillSeeker, wearing a Valve Index VR headset, walking on the KAT Walk C

For those of you, like Thrillseeker, who have to be on the absolute bleeding edge of virtual reality, you might well want to add to the body-tracking pucks, the Vive Facial Tracker, the FeelReal Multisensory VR Mask, and any haptic vests or any other haptic equipment may you already have, and open your wallets for this device! (Yes, they’re even having s sale!)

I leave you with a 3-minute promotional video for the product by the company behind this device, KAT VR (which also sells a version for business use):

UPDATE Oct. 3rd, 2021: VR vloggers Cas and Chary have also released their review of the KAT WALK C:

XRSpace Manova: An Update

I last wrote about XRSpace in May 2020, but I decided that it was time for an update on the ambitious project to create both a new standalone, wireless VR headset and a new social VR platform called Manova. (Yes, as far as I can tell, they are using the same name for both. The headset used to be called Mova, but is now called Manova, and I have seen the social VR platform referred to as “Manova World”, to differentiate it from the VR headset.)

XRSpace is working with Deutsche Telekom on Manova, and a German vlogger called VoodooDE had an opportunity to try out the new headset and the social VR platform, posting the following review video with in-world footage:

To put it mildly, he’s not a fan, citing problems with the visual display of the headset and calling the internal cooling fan a “disaster”, comparing it to someone turning on a hairdryer nearby. He played a clip of the sound and yes, it’s horrible! I can’t imagine wearing this headset for any length of time for that reason alone.

While the app store includes games such as Angry Birds and Bait!, it’s still rather limited. There’s also a selection of 360-degree videos you can watch. The various locations in social VR look pretty good, including a traditional German Christmas market, a dance club, a beach with an underwater world to explore, and a spa.

VoodooDE saved his harshest criticisms for the clumsy gesture system. In its current incarnation, you can’t just wave at somebody using your hands. Other people do not see you waving at them! You literally have to open the gesture menu, select Wave, and only then does the other avatar see you waving at them! Mindboggling.

In short, Manova seems to be a hot mess. But it’s still very early days, and we can hope that they make some improvements to both the headset and the social VR platform in future. It would be nice if XRSpace Manova could give Facebook some competition in the wireless headset market, but the hardware and software problems are pretty serious, and definitely need to be addressed.

German vlogger MRTV also reviewed the Manova (but unfortunately, he can’t really share his opinions because of an non-disclosure agreement with Deutsche Telekom).

Other than that, there is still frustratingly little information out there about this product. But I’ll continue to monitor the situation and keep you posted!

UPDATE 3:03 p.m.: I did a little more searching and I uncovered an article written by Gerald Lynch in March for the TechRadar website, where he mentions hand tracking problems (something which VoodooDE also mentions in passing in his video):

It’s also one of the only headsets to feature built-in hand tracking (not to mention outside-in tracking, generally), but its execution is a bit patchy. It regularly lost track of where my hands were floating, and the pinch-to-select menu gesture worked – but would often select the wrong item as my VR hands inadvertently veered over an unwanted menu option. This led to a humorously-brief excursion during my demo session with Manova World’s creators where I was whisked away and accidentally became lost in some sort of circus land after arranging a rendezvous at Manova’s beach environment instead. Thankfully, I was not met by any creepy virtual clowns.

Interestingly, I learned from Gerald’s article that XRSpace has plans to make the Manova social VR platform available for other headsets:

But XRSpace is pragmatic about Manova World’s future. It’s aware of its own hardware’s limitations (understandable, given the blueprints were drawn up around four years ago, a time when all-in-one hand tracking VR solutions weren’t commercially available), and sees the long-term future of Manova extending to other hardware and VR platforms. XRSpace is expecting to bring Manova World to other VR platforms later this year, and is aiming to have 50,000 users in the next 12 months as a result.

So, I anticipate future announcements! Stay tuned.

A look at the social VR platform Manova (sometimes called Manova World)