Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/869840
www.postmagazine.com 36 POST SEPTEMBER 2017 VR/AR NEWS LOS ANGELES — Vicon (www.vicon. com) is collaborating with Manus VR, a developer of virtual reali- ty gloves, to give customers the ability to incorporate the Manus VR Glove into their production pipe- lines. This would provide full-fin- ger tracking while also unlocking features such as haptic feedback to deliver the sensation of touch to virtual environments and creating more immersive, engaging and personalized experiences. Tracking the movements of all five fingers has often been problematic, especially on low camera count sys- tems, as markers frequently become blocked by one another. As a result, animators usually create the gestures in post production, often a time-con- suming process disjointed from the actor's initial motion capture session. Merging full body tracking data with precise hand analysis brings new ways of expressing creativity in animation design, adds an extra layer of realism to productions and vastly simplifies the production workflow. For those deploying virtual reality environments, the hand and finger movements are valuable, as they allow users to interact with their surroundings and one another in a natural way, removing the need for controllers. VICON PARTNERS WITH MANUS VR TO ADD FINGER TRACKING FRIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY — Just prior to the recent Siggraph 2017 conference, Maxon (www.maxon. net/en-us) announced its Cinema 4D Release 19 (R19). This next generation of Maxon's professional 3D applica- tion delivers tools and enhancements that artists can put to use immedi- ately while providing a peek into the foundations for the future.. According to the company, powerful developments have been made to viewport performance, a new Sound Effector and additional features for Voronoi Fracturing have been added to the MoGraph toolset, a new Spherical Camera introduced, as well as the integration of AMD's ProRender technology. Maxon reports that this new release was designed to serve individual artists as well as large studio environ- ments, offering a fast, easy, stable and streamlined workflow for pros working within the content creation markets, especially general design, motion graphics, VFX, VR/AR and all types of visualization. With Cinema 4D Release 19, Maxon also introduces a number of re-engineered foundational technolo- gies, which the company will contin- ue to develop and bring to maturity in future versions. These include core software modernization efforts, a new modeling core, deeply-inte- grated GPU rendering for Windows and Mac, and OpenGL capabilities in BodyPaint 3D, Maxon's professional paint and texturing toolset. MAXON UNVEILS CINEMA 4D RELEASE 19 WITH VR STREAMLINING FEATURES MIAMI — Origin PC (www.originpc.com), which builds custom, high-performance desktops, laptops, work- stations and servers for hardware enthusiasts, digital/ graphics artists, professionals, government agencies and gamers, announced that the new VR-ready AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card is now shipping on all of its Chronos, Omni, Neuron, Millennium and Genesis line of desktops for gamers, artists, enthusi- asts and industry pros. Powered by AMD's latest Vega 10 architecture and featuring 8GB of HBM2 memory, AMD Crossfire support and support for Origin PC's professional GPU overclocking, the new AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is said to deliver outstanding gaming performance at an affordable price point. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is also said to deliver asynchronous shaders and sup- ports AMD Free-Sync technology to offer new levels of gameplay, at superior and smooth frame rates. AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 GPU Features include: Boost/base clocks 1546/ 1247 MHz, 8GB of HBM2 mem- ory, AMD Cross Fire support, AMD Free-Sync ready, professional Origin PC GPU Overclocking support, VR-ready and free lifetime 24/7 US-based support. AMD RADEON RX VEGA 64 GPU SHIPPING ON ORIGIN PC DESKTOPS SANTA CLARA, CA — Lucid VR Inc. (www.lucidcam.com) recently welcomed Jack McCauley to its team as chief engineer, heading up the worldwide manufacturing of the company's flagship virtual reality and augmented reality camera, the VR180 LucidCam. McCauley is the former chief engineer and co-founder of Oculus VR and the former chief engi- neer at RedOctane on the Guitar Hero franchise. "We are very excited to welcome Jack to the team, as his experience ramping up Oculus and its product production will help us dramatically improve our manufacturing capabilities," says Han Jin, CEO and co-founder, Lucid VR. "We built our initial supply chain to address the 1000s of buyers, but demand has outstripped supply, and we are projecting millions of users world- wide. To properly scale to meet growing demand, we needed Jack because he possesses the experience, connections and know-how, and throughout his career, has proven he can address all possible scalability challenges," The VR industry is at a critical point, with consumer demand for content playing a pivotal role in the sale of VR hardware. According to Lucid VR, its LucidCam, and the upcoming LucidCam 2, will help address that lack of VR content by providing creators with an easy-to-use, VR180 3D camera that works with an Android or iOS smartphone and eliminates the long post-process on computers, making content creation easier and faster. "I'm super excited to be joining the talented team at Lucid," says McCauley. "Lucid has a great product with tremendous market potential. The industry incorrectly believed that 360-degree cam- eras were the way to go, but Lucid has simplified the user-generated content creation process with its VR180, a product that offers a revolutionary click-of-a-button system to capture content and its lightning quick processing time using a smart- phone. LucidCam gives creators more time and greater freedom to create amazing 3D content." LUCID VR WELCOMES JACK MCCAULEY McCauley (center)