Bristol’s VR World Congress (VRWC), a celebration of the latest innovations in VR and AR tech, is taking place on 12 April at the Bristol Marriott City Centre hotel. Building on the success of last year’s SouthWest Virtual Reality conference, organisers Bristol-based Opposable VR have gone all out to bring in some of the biggest names in VR to show off how they are making virtual reality a reality.
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The conference is split into two tracks, and, very kindly, Opposable VR are giving 5 lucky TechSPARK readers a chance to attend the Tech Track, aimed at hardcore VR enthusiasts and developers, for half price. You can see how to enter below.
VR gaming
One of the biggest names coming to the event is Crytek, developers of Crysis, designers of the powerful CryEngine, and one of the leading developers in graphics and physics design in video games. Crytek will be giving the UK debut of its current VR project The Climb, which aims to take full advantage of both the Oculus VR headset and its companion controller, the Oculus Touch.
The hotly anticipated title offers players the opportunity to simulate freehand rock-climbing. With development drawing inspiration from actual rock climbing techniques to help with level design, The Climb is shaping up to be another incredible, immersive VR experience.
Real-world applications
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of VR development is how it will be applied to daily life. AT VRWC you can meet up with VR developers Property Space who will beshowing off their software intended for real estates and property developers.
The simple concept allows you to look round a house without travelling to it, or to visualise a room before it is constructed. This powerful tool will save buyers travel time, and real estates can digitise their properties for people to view whenever and as often as they like.
VR at the cutting edge
VRWC also has an impressive line up of speakers coming to talk about the future of the technology and the plans their various companies have for VR development. Roy Taylor from graphics card company AMD is speaking. AMD are currently developing GPUs aimed specifically at handling the high demands of VR headsets.
Ikrima Elhassan, one half of developers Kite & Lightening, who have several creative VR projects under their belt already, will also be attending VRWC to talk about working with VR and give insight into some of their projects.
It’s better in here: TechSPARK editor Jamie enjoying another
reality at SWVR last year [Image credit: Jamie Ridyard]
Other big names include NSC and their game We Are Stars, which blends gaming with education with the help of voice over work by Andy Serkis. While BDH will be showing how they combine film and literature to make brief immersive experiences and have won a BAFTA for their work on War of Words.
With such an impressive line-up, of which this selection is just a fraction, VRWC is shaping up to be one of the biggest UK gaming events of the year, as well as being one of the leading events for virtual reality, with expos coming from all over the world to show off their latest work. With the potential for VR to change the digital world after it’s initial release this year, this event is certainly not one to miss.
50% off the VRWC tech track!
As we mentioned earlier, TechSPARK is able to offer 5 hardcore VR enthusiasts tickets to the Tech Track and the Expo at VRWC for half price (£32.70 rather than £64.19). On the Tech Track you can expect to see topics ranging from VR locomotion to Artificial Intelligence, Unity, Unreal and beyond.
To enter the competition, just tweet “Hey @TechSPARKUK, gimme 50% off the @VRWorldCongress Tech Track and Expo!” and we’ll send you the discount link if you are a winner. Good luck!
THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!
The VR World Congress, organised by Opposable VR, is taking place at the Bristol Mariott on 12 April. Click here to see the complete list of expos and speakers. And you can keep up to date with any new announcements via the VRWC Twitter account: @vrworldcongress
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