Silicon Valley Comic Con is over and while the show wasn’t a massive one for virtual reality, there were a few moments worth mentioning. We’ve rounded up the best below for you to enjoy.
Let’s start off with a walkthrough of the show floor itself courtesy of our own Az Balabanian taken directly from our Facebook Livestream this past weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjoKrt4XlM
As you can see, there wasn’t a ton of VR happening at the San Joe Convention Center but here are a few of the standouts:
8i Introduced Buzz Aldrin
She’s meeting a real life superhero. THE Buzz Aldrin is in #VR thanks to @LIFE and @8iReality pic.twitter.com/g1BelF8Huq
— Upload (@UploadVR) April 22, 2017
8i and Time partnered up to create this experience. In it, you get to see what 8i’s holographic telepresence technology is capable of as you go on a digital journey with a real American hero: the one and only Buzz Aldrin.
8i made its intention to bring VR and communications together a lot clearer this year by announcing a dedicated research lab in Washington state.
The ability to combine the immersive power of VR with high fidelity capture and broadcast tech is truly exciting and 8i’s demonstration at SVCC showed that we’re moving quickly towards that goal.
Facebook Brought the Gear
Facebook continued showing off what they have planned at #SVCC today. Don’t worry, we’ll share the details later. #VR #AR pic.twitter.com/WX2UKsCyvr
— Upload (@UploadVR) April 22, 2017
Facebook set up a trailer just outside of the convention center to show off its VR hardware. However, the company only brought the Samsung Gear VR. There wasn’t an Oculus Rift in sight. Also, the trailer itself was only covered in Facebook branding with the Oculus logo being curiously omitted.
Is this another sign that Facebook and Oculus are steadily merging into a single entity? We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and will let you know what we hear.
Steel Wool Took us To Mars
Steel Wool Studios brought its Mars Odyssey experience to SVCC this year, giving people the chance to virtually step foot on the Red Planet long before Elon Musk figures out how to get us there in real life.
Mars Odyssey lets you explore Mars up close and interact with to-scale versions of NASA’s Rovers. Turns out, people that attend Comic Cons love outer space. Who knew?
These aren’t all the VR activations SVCC had to offer but they are definitely some of the best. Were you at the show? Let us know what you saw and loved in the comments below.
