©Oculus
For the past couple of years now, Oculus and parent-company Facebook have been really pushing the concept of social VR. Oculus debuted Parties, a built-in voice chat app, and Rooms, a virtual hangout space, back in 2016, while Facebook launched its own social VR solution in the form of Facebook Spaces in 2017. Now, Oculus is ready to launch yet another social VR endeavor called Venues, which is a way to enjoy live performances in VR with your friends. Oh, and you’ll likely be interacting with strangers as well.
I experienced a demo version of Venues last week to watch a basketball game, a replay of the Golden State Warriors vs. Memphis Grizzlies match that aired last December. To try out Venues, I needed an Oculus Avatar set up and to connect my Facebook account to my Oculus account. Venues will be available on the Gear VR as well as the Go at launch, while Rift users will have to wait a while longer.
As I delved into the experience, I was forced to sit through a Code of Conduct video that explains inappropriate behavior could get me kicked out. The reason for that is, unlike the other social VR apps, Oculus Venues is open to everyone, not just me and my friends. After all, Venues is supposed to mimic how it feels to be at a concert or a sporting event, surrounded by strangers. And sure enough, that’s exactly how the Oculus Venues demo felt.
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When I logged in, I found myself sitting in a virtual seat on the sidelines of Oracle Arena, with the game playing out in front of me. But instead of feeling like I was at an actual live event, it was more like watching a giant IMAX screen. This is because the camera angles kept switching, which removes the suspension of disbelief, and the video quality was pretty pixelated and grainy. An Oculus spokesperson told me that, eventually, they’ll want the Venues experience to be as close to the real deal as possible, where the camera angles remain static. But even then, I doubt the video quality will be as good as a 4K TV set.
I was also immediately surrounded by sound, not just of the basketball game, but of people talking all around me — again, simulating the experience of being at a live event. As I looked around the virtual seats, I noticed I was surrounded by other Oculus avatars with usernames above their heads, all seemingly engaged in conversations. There was no one sitting next to me, so I looked down at the menu console and hit the ‘Try New Seat’ button, which instantly repositioned me in the virtual stadium. I was next to someone who turned out to be, conveniently, an Oculus PR person. As she started talking me through the settings and options, her mouth moved, giving an air of realism to our virtual conversation. Interactions are very similar to the ones I experienced in Rooms, where I can turn my head, nod and even wave my hand.
She told me I can adjust the volume of the event as well as the voice chat going on around me. So if I can’t hear who’s talking to me, I can always turn down the event volume and turn up the chat. At any point in time, I can see in the menu console the three closest people to me: I had one person to my right and two to my left, and I could tell who’s talking by their vibrating speaker icon in the menu console.
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Source: Engadget