The Immersive Wire - 18 August 2021 (News edition)

The Immersive Wire - 18 August 2021 (News edition)

NEWS DIGEST EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 18 August 2021

 

Unity believes they will be a foundational technology of

  • Hopping onto the metaverse bandwagon, Unity said during their earnings call that their engine will be a core piece for building the metaverse, in whatever shape it may become in the future. 

  • The same goes for Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine powers some of the largest AAA games in the industry. 

  • Comparing the two gets tricky when you go deeper. Their engines are powerful and can be used in a variety of different ways, and at times both companies pivot to focus on particular industries. Epic was famous for providing technologies that assisted with production of the Mandalorian, for example, and the same techniques will be used to make films and TV shows in the future. Likewise, Unity has been gripped by the automotive sector to show models of cars during the production process. 

  • But by comparison, Unity is the go-to engine for many VR/AR applications, used to build Pokemon Go and a variety of VR indie games. Though a small part of their portfolio, industrial and automotive uses of Unity have grown healthily over the last few years, and VR/AR has followed suit behind it. 

  • Will the natural edge ensure its place in the future? Perhaps, as the company has built a lot of goodwill with developers who will be enlisted to build immersive applications. The bottom-up influence the developers have when companies pivot towards the metaverse will mean that it will become a go-to tool. 

 Otherwise it's been a quiet week as executives hop, skip, and jump to their summer break. I am on the same boat here, writing this from Italy and enjoying a good read. If you also want a fun read, consider referring a friend the newsletter; both you and your pal will then receive a free PDF of the

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  • DoYouVR is an apparel company for VR lovers, which opened this week. 

  • Facebook Reality Labs VP, Andrew Bosworth, said that Oculus may reach 10 million users earlier than expected.

  • Global XR Conference issued a call for speakers for their early December event.

  • Help Lightning announced its global expansion with Ricoh, which uses AR to virtually place an expert on-site.

  • International VR League (IVRL) is a newly formed league comprised of seasoned VR esports players, which will launch on 30 August. 

  • Red 6 won a contract with the U.S. Air Force to integrate its AR system for pilot training into a supersonic jet trainer.

  • Rendever announced that it has been awarded a $2m Phase II grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

  • The Glimpse Group acquired Auggd, which helps AEC professionals visualise builds virtually. 

  • University of Manchester would like some participants for a study they are running on how viewers see novel media content. 

  • XR Games raised $2.1m in additional funding. 

Jobs boardVR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER (Unity3D, C#), London. Valkyrie Industries, an early stage haptics start-up, is looking for a talented and experienced Unity3D developer with a passion for VR to join the R&D team. You'll be involved throughout the development cycle and must be able to evaluate new technologies, develop new experiences from scratch and optimise existing projects. Click here for more. FULL STACK DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Software Engineer with 4+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (Node.js), remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team.  This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR DEVELOPER (VUE.JS), remote Position. Looking for an experienced JavaScript developer who is highly skilled with Vue.js. You will be joining our Web development team to develop and enhance customer facing Web Applications, where you will be responsible for following best practices to produce modular and maintainable code. Click here for more. QA LEAD, remote positions available. Looking for a competent QA Lead with 2+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated QA Team in Waterford.  This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY GAME DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Unity Developer to join our team with 5+ years industry experience.  The talented individual must have vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more.  SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER, remote position. Looking for a competent Product Owner. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UI DESIGNER, remote position. Looking for a competent UI Designer. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UX DESIGNER, remote position. Are you looking for a unique challenge working in virtual & augmented reality with a bleeding-edge technology company? Then read on. Click here for more.ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA, UK. We are looking to appoint a dynamic and adaptable course director for our BA (Hons) in Digital Media to lead and deliver teaching, learning and assessment on the BA Digital Media and steer  its next phase of growth.  As well as a track record of academic leadership you will have extensive practical experience in digital media such as immersive storytelling (AR/VR/XR), modelling and animation, creative media design / production, or web / mobile app design and development. Click here for more.SENIOR IMMERSIVE LEARNING DESIGNER, UK. Make Real is looking to expand our digital learning team with a Senior Immersive Learning Designer. Your role will be to consult with clients in order to create exciting and imaginative design solutions. Your designs will affect behaviour change in order to deliver on specific learning outcomes, while being achievable within a set budget and timeline. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY DEVELOPER, UK. As a growing and exciting business, we are looking for full-time talented multi-disciplinary Unity developers to join our expert team in central Brighton. Our ideal candidates will have a broad range of technical experience with a proven track record of delivering interactive Virtual & Augmented Reality projects across a range of HMD & mobile hardware. Working as part of our existing team of designers and artists, the roles will primarily involve the delivery of VR/AR projects for our global clients. Click here for more. EU ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE. Avatour is the remote collaboration platform for site meetings. Our cloud service enables full-motion 360° real-time communication, experienced via a web browser or optional VR headset. We are looking for an Account Executive to expand the Avatour business in the European Union. You’ll be initially our only salesperson in the EU, and directly responsible for the expansion and preservation of our customer base in the region. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success selling an Enterprise SaaS product, and experience in customer success as well. Click here for more.BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for three full-time B2B Sales Managers who are excited about technology advancements, and able to sell to CxO/Director level within enterprise accounts. Click here for more. HEAD OF MARKETING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Head of Marketing capable of taking VRtuoso to the next level. We’re looking to make the leap to working with enterprise level companies at scale and we hope you’re the one to help us accomplish this. Click here for more. CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Channel Sales Manager to lead the channel and reseller programmes. The role is primarily responsible for onboarding new partners, serving as the primary liaison for new partners, growing the sales of existing partners, and assisting with sales/marketing initiatives for our reseller channel as a whole. Click here for more. DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering department and help us build, deliver, and maintain the leading VRtuoso Virtual Reality products for the enterprise market. Click here for more. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

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