HTC’s Vive X VR Accelerator Announces First Class of 33 Companies, VRVCA Expands to $12bn
The Vive X site has been updated with the first 22 groups to take advantage of the $100 million scheme. A final company was also named in the press release, bringing the total to 23, and a further 10 companies in stealth mode were also selected. Being a member of Vive X will give these teams access to some major new opportunities like investment from venture capital firms, expert advice on development and mentorship from experienced VR professionals, and some other networking and support benefits. We’ve listed the companies below, each of which will be joining the accelerator in either Beijing, San Francisco, Taipei or the newly announced Shenzhen location.
Zuckerberg claimed as much in a recent investor’s call for Facebook’s second quarter results. Though the leader of the social networking giant didn’t have much new info to share about its virtual reality company, Oculus, Zuckerberg was quizzed about the future of AR and how it might fit in to upcoming plans. He noted that the company was “doing AR research” which included “testing lightweight versions” of AR apps like MSQRD, which is a face-animation app similar to Snapchat that Facebook acquired back in March 2016.
An impressive demonstration of body motion and facial capture work at SIGGRAPH showed real-time movements from a live actor transferred to an avatar in a completely digitized scene. The demonstration shows how efficient professional tools are becoming that merge elements from real and digital realms for videogame cutscenes. It also could be seen as a preview of the believable avatars we’ll have when VR headsets include facial tracking.
