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VRDC attendees, don't miss the special opening night reception!

If you're planning to attend the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference in San Francisco this November, make sure to leave room in your schedule to attend the opening night reception!

This year VRDC organizers are kicking off the big show with a welcome soiree from 6 to 8 PM on Wednesday, November 2nd -- the evening of the first day of VRDC. The party will take place in the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco (specifically, the Metropolitan foyer), the hub of all things VRDC that week.

Hosted by our Diamond Sponsors, Google VR and Intel, the VRDC Opening Night Reception will be a place where you can join fellow attendees, advisors, and speakers as we celebrate the kickoff of VRDC 2016. Mix and mingle with best and brightest minds in the VR/AR community to discuss emerging development trends, compare notes and -- most importantly -- relax after a successful first day!

Come to VRDC and see how NASA is using VR to train astronauts

November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and today conference organizers are excited to highlight one of the many exciting sessions talking place during the show.

This one's all about outer space. VR developers have long recognized VR's power to take people to other worlds, and now NASA's own Matthew Noyes is coming to VRDC to talk about how the space agency is investigating the many possibilities Hybrid Reality holds to support space exploration.

In their VRDC talk on "Hybrid Reality: A New Paradigm for Astronaut Training" the pair will run down how, with the advent of private sector innovations in consumer VR, rendering technology, and additive manufacturing techniques, there is a paradigm shift in astronaut training on the horizon combining immersive visuals reinforced by extremely realistic haptic feedback, as well as promising new augmentations to engineering workflow.

They'll offer rare insight into NASA's history of VR usage, and explore examples of modern-day astronaut VR training -- including a simulation of the International Space Station where users can interact with handrails and tracked physical objects in the real world while inside VR, and an instance of how NASA is using one type of virtual reality technology (a consumer headset) to completely simulate and develop another type of virtual environment (a reconfigurable CAVE).

Come to VRDC and learn to create immersive audioscapes for VR/AR games

The arrival of consumer-grade virtual reality headsets has afforded developers a wealth of new ways to make games and experiences, not least of which is the ability to precisely pinpoint where someone's ears are in virtual space.

Even so, it's no easy feat to create authentic, immersive audioscapes for VR. That' s why organizers of the inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November are pleased to announce that Syndicate 17 cofounder and all-around audio wizard Chanel Summers will be sharing her expertise on the subject in a talk on "Creating Immersive & Aesthetic Auditory Spaces for Virtual and Augmented Reality."

It's a promising talk: Audio techniques will be revealed that can be used today to advance storytelling and gameplay in virtual and augmented reality environments while creating a cohesive sense of place.

Plus, processes and techniques will be demonstrated for use in the creation of soundscapes in shipping products, ranging from immersive mixed reality experiences to multi-participant, multi-site, location-based virtual reality games.

Intel, Google and Morph 3D join growing list of cutting-edge VRDC sponsors

The inaugural standalone edition of the Virtual Reality Developers Conference is kicking off in November, so today we'd like to highlight a few more of the cutting-edge tech companies who have already signed on to sponsor the show.

Notably, tech giants Intel and Google are sponsoring the conference, which seeks to explore and understand the fields of virtual- and augmented-reality experience design.

Attend VRDC and learn to build great brand experiences for VR

The first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is coming up this November, and today organizers want to quickly highlight one of the many great tracks of talks taking place during the event.

Since VRDC is expanding from games to also encompass the use of VR/AR in entertainment, journalism, retail marketing and beyond, organizers want to quickly run down a sample of the talks you'll find on the conference's Brand Experience track.

For example, in his Brand Experience track talk on "VR and TV: The Wild West to the Living Room" BBC Worlwide's Bradley Crooks will share insight into the authoring process for 360 VR films from a technical, production and creative viewpoint.

The lecture will have real world examples of what went right, and wrong, in filming and development of VR experience around the popular BBC Earth programs -- and share with the audience what the team will do differently next time.

GDC 2017 opens for registration with new features!

Great news: Game Developers Conference 2017 is now open for registration!

This will be the 31st edition of GDC, the world's largest and longest-running event for game developers, and you can register right now by visiting the official GDC 2017 website!

And you should register now, because Early Bird pricing -- with discounts up to 30 percent -- will remain in effect for a limited time. Also some passes, including the popular Indie Games Summit pass, have limited amounts -- so if you’re interested, don't delay!

The 2017 GDC runs from February 27th through March 3rd, 2017 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. This year GDC will once again host seven high-quality Summits as well as VRDC @ GDC, a sort of sister conference focused on virtual reality game dev. Plus, there will be lots of tutorials, bootcamps, and Main Conference tracks spanning all major facets of game development - from in-depth business strategy to hardcore design and programming sessions.

Learn to build immersive VR experiences for the web at VRDC

Now that virtual reality has arrived, it's a good idea to start looking at how it can effectively be integrated with another life-changing technology: the internet.

The experts at WeVR are already doing just that, and at the inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November WeVR VP (and VR pioneer) Tony Parisi will share insight into how you can start designing VR for the web.

In his talk "WebVR: Building for the Immersive Web" Parisi will run down the potential fruits of getting VR on the web, including the ability for consumers to experience VR without downloading and installing apps, and seamless transitions from one experience to another via hyperlinks.

He'll also explore how VR developers can also benefit, with the ability to deploy using open tools and existing cloud infrastructure.

Come check out some of the latest VR games and tech at VRDC!

November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and conference organizers are working hard to line up great sessions, exhibitors and sponsors for the cutting-edge event.

The best way to understand the power of VR is to experience it for yourself, so today we're excited to reveal some of the great VR demos that VRDC sponsors plan to make available for all VRDC attendees to check out as they're making the most of their time at the conference.

Japanese VR pioneer Colopl Ni will have a booth at the show where visitors can play demos of their popular VR games Cyberpong and Slot Tub Party, as well as an as-yet unannounced VR game that's expected to debut later this year.

Plus, sponsor MyDream Interactive is expected to bring playable versions of both its VR tower defense game Siege Hammer and its innovative LightVR room simulator, which allows anyone to build the room of their dreams.

At VRDC, experts share lessons learned surviving the early days of VR

The field of virtual- and augmented-reality development is still young, but already pioneers have accumulated a wealth of learnings from trying (and sometimes failing) to build cutting-edge VR/AR experiences.

You can hear some of those learnings for yourself at the inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, where a group of VR/AR pioneers will be speaking in a panel discussion called "Prototypes and Tears: Surviving the Early Days of VR."

Panelists Joe Radak (Co-Founder, Lead Designer, Eerie Bear Games, LLC), Nathan Rowe (Founder, SculptrVR, Inc.), Julie Heyde (#ChickenBitch, VRUnicorns), Theresa Duringer (CEO, Temple Gates Games) and Sara Lisa Vogl (VR UX/UI & Creative Squirrel, VR Nerds) will  walk through the challenges they had starting up in VR, overcoming its challenges and how they got to where they are now, and how you can do the same!

Google, Microsoft, HTC among VRDC's growing list of cutting-edge exhibitors

The inaugural standalone edition of the Virtual Reality Developers Conference kicks off this November, and today we'd like to quickly highlight of the cutting-edge tech companies who have already signed on to exhibit on the VRDC show floor.

Often VR/AR tech and experiences are best understood by actually trying them for yourself, and VRDC is shaping up to be a great place for exploring the future of VR/AR development.

Among the exhibitors already expected to showcase their cutting-edge work at VRDC are Microsoft (makers of the augmented-reality HoloLens headset), Google (which recently expanded its mobile VR offerings with its Daydream platform) and HTC, which built the cutting-edge Vive VR headset in collaboration with Valve.

The growing list of VRDC exhibitors also includes CCP Games, developers of the high-profile VR game EVE Valkyrie, eye-tracking VR headset company Fove and the Japanese game publisher/developer Colopl, which recently launched a $50M global VR investment fund as it works to develop and publish its own VR games.

At VRDC you'll see how Chernobyl was authentically recreated in VR

November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and today conference organizers are excited to share more information on one of the many exciting sessions talking place during the show.

One of the great strengths of VR is its ability to transport us to other places -- and when those places are physically hazardous, VR allows us to safely visit and explore them in virtual space.

The area around the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one such place, and in his VRDC talk on "Exploring & Remembering the Chernobyl Disaster Using VR: 'Chernobyl VR Project'" Wojciech Pazdur will break down how The Farm 51 captured Chernobyl and authentically reconstructed it for a virtual audience.

Pazdur is the head of The Farm 51, a Polish studio, and in his talk he'll showcase the ways that The Farm 51 recreated parts of the radiated Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl in Unreal Engine 4 with the help of photogrammetry, laser scanners, drones, 360 spherical movies and photos.

All-new GDC Retro Play to debut at GDC 2017, calls for submissions

Game Developers Conference organizers are pleased to announce that free submissions are now open for GDC Retro Play, a brand new area at the 2017 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that specifically concentrates on showcasing retro consoles, computers, games and related memorabilia.

GDC organizers will be donating free space adjacent to the GDC Play indie dev-centric part of the show from Wednesday, March 1st to Friday, March 3rd to select retro collectors or organizations.

They are targeting those who would like to showcase playable versions of the best of video game history (from Atari 2600 to SNES to Amiga and beyond) to over 27,000 eager game developers attending GDC 2017.

Expanding on previous GDC showcases from the National Videogame Museum and others, individuals and organizations can apply for space as small as a table (featuring 2-3 playable consoles or computers), or even multiple tables.

Come to VRDC and learn to use sound more effectively in your VR game

Virtual reality experience design is an exciting, uncharted territory. How can developers use sound to really sell the illusion of reality (or hyper-reality) in VR experiences?

At the Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, HUGESound audio director Chance Thomas will how you how in his talk on "Hearing Is Believing In The Void."

Thomas is an expert, and his talk discusses a multiple-solution approach like the one utilized to deliver the debut VR experience for "The Void" (pictured), which blends real-world elements with VR to create a sort of "hyper-reality." In his talk Thomas will dig into hardware control, current-gen software algorithms, and pre-rendered assets will be discussed, including pros and cons.

Get expert advice on implementing great VR hand-tracking at VRDC

The first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is just months away, and today organizers want to let you know about another great talk taking place at the November event.

Veteran game developer Matt Newport is now chief technology officer at VR firm Osso VR, and at VRDC he'll be running down the finer points of hand-tracking in a talk on "Hand Tracked Controls: Design and Implementation for Serious VR."

This session will be great because Osso seeks to explain the tremendous value of hand tracked controls in VR for training applications, and discuss the key design decisions developers face implementing hand tracked controls and hand/object interaction in VR.

Today is the last day to submit talks for the Summits and VRDC at GDC 2017!

GDC organizers want to remind you that today is the last day to propose a talk for one of the Game Developers Conference 2017 Summits or the VR-focused VRDC at GDC 2017!

The call for talk submissions for the VRDC and the specialized Summits that help open the 2017 Game Developers Conference closes today, September 23rd at 11:59 PM Pacific!

Remember that both VRDC and the GDC Summits take place on the first two days of GDC, signaling the start of the five-day signature game creation conference.

GDC organizers debuted the Virtual Reality Developers Conference at GDC last year as a special two-day event where developers of all stripes have the opportunity to explore and discuss VR/AR game design, to great success.

They're bringing it back to GDC 2017 with the same two tracks of talks: one focused on VR/AR in games, the other on VR/AR in entertainment. (Organizers have also launched a standalone version of VRDC with an expanded focus that will be taking place in November of this year.)

And of course, even if you've already proposed a talk for the standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, that does not prevent you from proposing the same talk for the VRDC track of talks at GDC 2017.

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