PM Network - October 2016

There were plenty of new needs throughout P.O.L.L.E.N.’s development. As headset prototypes were released from different hardware companies, the development team had to adapt to varying requirements across different devices. Its initial plans based on the early Rift prototype were validated when Oculus released its second prototype in 2014, and so very little of P.O.L.L.E.N.’s virtual world had to be remade.

GUESSING GAME

The project was more significantly affected by the 2015 release of another headset, the first HTC Vive prototype, which offered unique elements such as the ability to allow players to see their hands on-screen. “That was a game changer,” says Mr.

Sinerma. “It really makes the experience VR.”
As the team began to imagine the Vive’s pos-
sibilities, it continued to work on the Rift version.
Developers had to guess which game-play peripher-
als Oculus would include: Would the Rift use only
motion controllers or also a traditional controller?
“We agreed early on that for VR, motion control-

Explore a world-famous museum without leaving home. Overcome a phobia through exposure to panic-inducing environments. Tour a physical store before making a purchase online. Virtual reality (VR) application projects extend far beyond the gaming industry. SuperData Research predicts that by 2020, games will account for only a quarter of VR software sales.

There’s plenty of business-to-business project potential. Chicago-
based InContext Solutions, which provides software to clients in the
consumer packaged goods industry to help them develop in-store
promotional content, has jumped into VR. It uses the technology to
simulate proposed retail programs for clients—especially those who
were initially skeptical.

“Years ago, people weren’t sold on the fact we could simulate real-world concepts and scenarios in a virtual environment,” says Tracey Wiedmeyer, chief technology officer, InContext Solutions, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Thanks to the new availability of VR headsets, that’s no longer an issue.

Now VR is so compelling that clients are asking Mr. Wiedmeyer to port content from the company’s ShopperMX desktop platform into headset displays. Beginning in February, his team spent six weeks developing a 3-D application that can play 360-degree videos on a Gear VR headset. It released that app in April even as a smaller R&D team of three full-time employees plus a couple of part-timers worked on translating the full, interactive ShopperMX experience to a VR environment.

The short video project offered useful feedback for InContext Solutions’ larger VR project, because the testing process revealed differences between VR hardware platforms.

The same video that delivered a fine viewing experience in an Oculus Rift caused motion sickness in a Samsung Gear VR, Mr. Wiedmeyer says.

To ensure the project delivers a product that works well on all devices, the project team has ramped up testing to refine the user experiences and to align with various manufacturers’ evolving hardware requirements. Mr. Wiedmeyer says his clients are satisfied with the prototype, but he wants to push the VR product a little further.