VR First is a marriage of Crytek’s passion for VR and their game engine CRYENGINE with companies such as Leap Motion, OSVR, and Razer to bring virtual reality education to academic institutions around the world. VR First brings event space and workstations to universities via a well equipped VR lab and promotes VR entrepreneurship, community, and knowledge sharing between labs. Already nested in Oklahoma State, Purdue, Universität Hamburg, and others, VR First is expanding to even more universities across Europe, North America, and, for the first time, Asia. The twelve new academic partners are below:
- Dania Academy of Higher Education (Denmark)
- Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
- Doña Ana Community College (USA); Hamburg University (Germany)
- Heidelberg University (Germany)
- HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
- International School Of Design – Rubika (France)
- Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
- NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
- Sogang University (South Korea)
- State University of New York at Oswego (USA)
- VIGAMUS Academy (Italy).
Crytek is no slouch when it comes to virtual reality, providing one of the most visually intense VR engines with Cryengine V. We recognized The Climb for its incredible environments and gameplay despite finicky controls, while Robinson: The Journey is shaping up to be one of PS VR’s most immersive adventurers. Thus, those participating in the VR First labs will have access to some pretty cutting edge technology as they shape their own ideas.
Previously, a survey revealed that the majority of universities were using the Oculus Rift over the HTC Vive. VR First isn’t out to be the only academic lab on campuses though, as the team hopes to inspire more labs with a similar initiative.
There are other substantial marriages of virtual reality and education as well. Immersive VR Education has its Engage program, a free-to-use platform that allows multiple users (up to 30) into a single virtual meeting or lesson. A university in Arizona even has a Bachelor’s Degree program allowing students to major in virtual reality studies. We may be headed toward a future where attending your weekly classes will simply involve pulling on a VR headset.
