VR Company Unveils Free-to-download Production-Ready VR Renderer
Los Angeles-based cloud computing company OTOY Inc is behind the efforts to bring virtual reality technology into popular sports leagues such as the National Hockey League (NHL), with the live streaming of an NHL game over virtual reality. Now, the company is bringing another innovation to get virtual reality to hands of content creatives with the unveiling of a new software.
In a press release, OTOY Inc lifted the curtains on OctaneVR, a highly sophisticated production-ready renderer for virtual reality, augmented reality, and holographic cinema that will serve content creators as a tool for making ultra-realistic cinematic content – leveraging the power of virtual reality devices coming to the market later this year. According to OTOY, OctaneVR will surpass certain bottlenecks of content creation in computer-generated imagery and film, and will render these types of content at the highest maximum fidelity possible on VR headsets.
OctaneVR will be made available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. This wide range of platform availability will enable content creatives to explore and experiment with OTOY’s virtual and augmented reality software tools – these applications are highly regarded in the field of cinematic virtual content creation.
Because OctaneVR is optimized for ease of use, it features one-click exporting of generated virtual content to VR headsets like the Samsung Gear VR. Virtual content such as images and animations created using OctaneVR will be exported into a format that is directly viewable using the Oculus 360 Photos and Oculus 360 Videos applications on the Samsung Gear VR. OctaneVR also features creation of content scripts that contain navigable virtual content and VR menus. These navigable content are viewable with the use of OTOY’s ORBX Media Player app available on the Samsung Gear VR.
Along with OctaneVR, the ORBX Media Player app works hand in hand with OctaneVR, giving content creators the ability to test live virtual content as they change scenes in real time. The ORBX Media Player app supports virtual content including live VR streams like the first hockey game to be streamed in virtual reality, made in collaboration by OTOY and NHL. OTOY also announced that aside from the initial support of the ORBX Media Player app for the Samsung Gear VR, Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset will be supported as well together with HTML5 WebVR later this year.
OTOY’s OctaneVR will be available as a free download in April on OTOY’s website. The ORBX Media Player app will be added to the Samsung Gear VR Store at the same time.
For more information on OTOY Inc and OctaneVR, please visit the following websites:
http://home.otoy.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTOY
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/otoy
