The Immersive Wire - 6 October 2021 (News edition)

By Tom FfiskeCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 6 October 2021

TOP STORIESStrap on your VR headsets and grab some popcorn

BFI's London Film Festival and Raindance Immersive both start this month, with the former starting this week. 

• I've always had a soft spot for immersive productions. The digestible chunks of content are still operating at the edge of filmmaking, working out new tips and tricks as they create some great works of art. One that struck me from a long time ago was 7 Miracles, the first feature-length VR film (thankfully digestible as smaller chapters). 

• Now October brings two festivals filled with new productions for people to watch. LFF Expanded brings Laika, the story of the first dog in space. I've been told it is excellent, and I look forward to trying it myself. 

• Raindance Immersive brings an eclectic range of pieces as well, with the most eyebrow-raining being Step Into Cat Art. I am curious how that will go, or whether my feline sensibilities will be tested extensively.  

• I believe that the artistic creativity of VR showcases its best qualities. Smart and entrepreneurial creatives can stand alongside production houses to make deeply personal or enlivening productions. As the technology gets cheaper, so will the ease of access into filmmaking. The niche elements do not diminish its compelling qualities. 

Facebook's blackout also impacted Oculus' servers - but who cares? 

• The apps were still launchable; only the website and store were down for a small period of time. In the grand scheme of things, the impact was more disastrous for WhatsApp users who are reliant on the service to keep connected with friends and family. 

• What it does raise a question-mark on is if Facebook provides the infrastructure for a persistent metaverse; if there is a similar closure, then I can see it as a more significant closure. Still, it's a nebulous thought at best. 

Charge your Oculus Quests! Tighten your karate belts! Prepare to enter the whimsical wooden world of Loco Dojo and step up to Grand Sensei’s ‘Table of Trials’ to pit your silliest skills against friends or strangers in this hilariously competitive party game.

Got any upcoming news? Reply to this email to get the conversation going, or pop me one at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com. 

• Digital Catapult and Target3D announced the opening of their Virtual Production Test Stage, designed to provide early-stage and independent production companies with access to a research facility. 

• Fast Travel Games announced that Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife, has been delayed until 27 October on PlayStation VR. 

• FireFlare Games will launch a VR dating app in the winter, called Planet Theta.

  • I wonder if, when you swipe right, the other person gets flung off the face of the earth at Mach 7. 

• FitXR released new classes in the HIIT and Dance studios. 

• Lynx launched their new headset via a new Kickstarter campaign.

  • Always be careful with Kickstarter projects, but this one looks promising.

• Niantic acquired Hoss.

• Nreal unveiled Nreal Air, a light pair of AR sunglasses. 

• RealWear announced that Autodesk and RealWear have collaborated to integrate Autodesk Construction Cloud with RealWear’s flagship HMT-1 assisted reality hands-free HMT-1 device. 

• Rendever has been rolled out at two of Vantage Point Retirement Living’s communities spread across the Northeast.

  • Additionally, the Craven-Pamlico Regional Library in eastern North Carolina received a state grant to roll out Rendever’s VR system. 

• The Augmented and Virtual Reality Policy Conference launches on 21 October.

  • The conference is geared towards discussing policies relating to VR/AR, with a US-heavy speaker base. 

• VR Education announced that it has appointed US e-commerce entrepreneur Frank Poore as a Non-executive Director with immediate effect. 

• Warena is an NFT metaverse game that raised $1.5m in seed funding.

Jobs boardINTERNSHIP, US. The intern will be primarily focused on developing proficiency in the use and application of tools designed for experiences in VR/AR headsets. GRIP-IE interns will assist the Get Real management team and clients in the design, development, and implementation of features within both internal and partner platforms. Interns will follow industry best practices including continuous improvement through code reviews of existing and new code. GRIP-IE interns will also be responsible for managing communication with software vendors on a variety of topics including bug identification, feature requests, troubleshooting, and documentation materials. Click here for more. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, UK. Here at CIRCUS (an award-winning creative agency, specialists of Virtual Brand Experiences) we're on the lookout for an enthusiastic B2B Business Development Manager on a part-time, remote basis. If this sounds of interest and you love all things virtual, we'd love to tell you more. Click here for more. SENIOR WEBXR ENGINEER, US. Build a human-centric metaverse with a stellar team at www.urnowhere.com. Full-Time Position, Fully Remote Team, Core hours (10AM-5PM EST). NOWHERE aims to revolutionize gathering with patent-pending video presence technology that allows serendipitous social mingling between conversations with friends or colleagues at conferences, meetings, or parties all within dynamic web environments. Nowhere combines expertise from veteran founders, experience experts, engineers, game designers, theatre-makers, VFX artists from Windmill Factory to build a healthier digital future. Please share with anyone you think might be interested. JOIN NOWHERE.CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST - AUGMENTED REALITY, UK. Poplar.Studio is a leading AR and 3D platform for marketing and e-commerce. Join our growing team based in London (remote for the time being), and work closely with the Business Development, Production and Product teams, in order to assess the feasibility of AR client and internal projects, both from a creative and technical point of view. Develop creatives and proof of concepts across social media AR (Spark AR, Lens Studio, Effects Creator, etc.), web-browser based (8th Wall, Zappar, etc.) or app-based (Unity, ARCore, ARKit, etc.). Work alongside our amazing global AR creator community as they develop experiences for our brand and retail clients. Click here for more. VR 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. 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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That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com. Have an excellent day!