VR Philippines in 2015 — The Dawn of Virtual Reality
2015 has indeed been a great year for Virtual Reality. A lot of exciting new VR hardware devices were announced, with the HTC Vive being the more prominent as it joins the Oculus Rift and Playstation VR in the list of major platforms to root for. There were also countless VR games and experiences in development that are pushing the applications of the medium. Billions of dollars has been invested in VR-related startups and it doesn’t seem like the cash would stop flowing soon. This year, we also saw the release of the first consumer VR headset — the Samsung Gear VR. As we head to 2016, there’s no doubt that there’s no stopping the Virtual Reality revolution; but what part of that revolution is happening here in the Philippines? Let’s take a look back at what happened in 2015 regarding the local VR scene.
February
VR Philippines was formed
VR Philippines was started by Toph and Gab, two VR enthusiasts, who saw a lack of a local VR community and a lack of a channel where people interested in VR could connect and discuss. They started by reaching out to the few people who owned Oculus Rift Developer Kits here in the Philippines. One of which was Rene, who led the Pinoy Rifters online group. There was also Guido, who was developing his own prototype haptic gloves. They also reached out to Universities to connect to other students who are interested or are working with VR technology.
Soon after, the Facebook discussion group of VR Philippines became populated with VR enthusiasts and developers.
VR Philippines then set itself as a community dedicated in promoting the advancement of VR tech here in the Philippines and putting the Philippines in the forefront of this exciting technological revolution.
Globe Labs holds Google Cardboard Hackathon
Some of the projects that came out of Globe Labs’ 24-hour hackathon were 3DU — a modularized AR/VR Educational System, monstAR — a Virtual Pet Monster AR game and Confetti — an app where users can generate painted images and sound through movement.
May
Manila Augmented and Virtual Reality Meetup
With the help of Blast Asia and Globe Labs, the very first VR Philippines meetup was held last May was attended by over 50 people.
Attendees were able to connect with other VR/AR enthusiasts and share projects they have been working on. There was also devices such as the Oculus Rift DK1, DK2, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard for first timers to try out.
VR Primer at Mapua Institute of Technology
VR Philippines started a series of Seminars and Demos in Universities that are intended to spread knowledge about Virtual Reality and nurture its Research and Development in the country. The first one was held for the graduating Electronics Engineering class at Mapua Institute of Technology.
June
VR Phillippines’ ConVRge Virtual Meetup
VR Philippines hosted its first ever virtual meetup on the social VR platform ConVRge. It was attended by more than 20 people which consisted of people from all over the world as well. Joining as guests were Lex and Sami, both VR community leaders in their own region. Also present were Shawn and Hayden, the founders and creators of ConVRge.
VR Philippines Coffee Meetup
A smaller scale meetup was also conducted with some of the local pioneers in VR as an oppurtunity to connect and share different ideas.
July
Asia Pacific Virtual Reality Meetup
VR Philippines, as part of the Asia Pacific Virtual Reality Network, took part in the biggest and most ambitious virtual meetup in the whole world yet: 8 IRL meet-ups across the Asia-Pacific held concurrently with each other and is to be connected through a virtual meetup in the social VR platform ConVRge. The 8 participating groups were: VR Brisbane Club, Shanghai VR, Indonesia VR, VR Malaysia, VR Philippines, Singapore VRAR, Istanbul VR and Abu Dhabi VR.
VR Philippines’ side of the event was held at Globe Labs and was attended by over a hundred people. It started with talks from local VR pioneers. Cristopher David started with an introduction to VR. Wilson Censon delivered a talk about the use of VR in education. Erika Gatmaitan showcased the Globe Labs/ Ayala Museum VR Project. Fung Yu shared about his more than a decade experience in 360 Photography. Carlo Cojuangco talked about Narra 3D’s 3D scanning services and 3D printed VR headsets. Dan Napa of Synergy88 showcased Kuna, a VR horror game. Raven Duran of Edge Interactive discussed 3DU, their educational VR app. Lastly, Guido Stercken showcased a prototype of the Neohaptic gloves — their prototype haptic glove input solution for VR.
After the talks, attendees were able to experience the demos that were available. VR headsets present were the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2, Samsung Gear VR, and a bunch of different Cardboards. Synergy88 demoed their horror game, Kuna, on the Gear VR. Neohaptic also showcased their haptic glove prototype.
The event was even covered and featured on a local TV show on GMA-7 called Aha!.
The Virtual Meetup on ConVRge began 4PM local time and there were speakers from the different participating VR meetup groups. It started with an opening remarks and introduction to APVRN by Lex Van Cooten of Brisbane. Sami Hamid from Istanbul shared his insights on whether Will VR Work This Time? Shanghai’s Richard Huang had a talk about Preserving History in VR. Representing VR Philippines is Cristopher David, who delivered a talk about VR Adoption In The Developing World. The last speaker was Wilf Watson of Brisbane, who shared their Open Source Mobile VR project.
August
UPLB SiyenSaya 2015
VR Philippines was invited by the University of the Philippines Los Baños to participate and have a booth at their annual Science and Technology Festival. Students of all ages from primary school to colleges from all over Laguna were able to learn about and experience Virtual Reality for the first time.
September
VR Philippines becomes an official OSVR Partner
VR Philippines was included in the growing list of official OSVR partners that seeks to promote the open source VR ecosystem.
October
Computer, Electronics & Electrical Engineering Summit
Held at the University of Pangasinan, the Computer, Electronics & Electrical Engineering Summit (CEEE) Summit 2015 was a 2-day gathering of students and professionals in the field of information and communications technology. VR Philippines participated with a VR seminar from Cristopher David and by hosting a VR exhibit.
Gear on VR, Head on AR
Organized by Computer Science students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in collaboration with VR Philippines, Gear on VR, Head on AR was a series of seminars intended to familiarize Computer Science students with the current trends in VR and AR. Present to give talks were Cristopher David, founder of VR Philippines, Alvin Juban, President of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines and Director for Business Development at Synergy88 Studios, and Ryan Blona, developer at the VREx Ubiquitous Computing Lab. This event also marks the first public demo of the OSVR in the Philippines.
Ignis Fatuus — A Glimpse of Virtual Reality
Ignis Fatuus was an Alternative Classroom Learning Experience at the University of the Philippines Diliman organized by the UP Geodetic Engineering Club.
Delivering talks and demos at the event were Angelo Clark Urzo from VR Philipines, August Calderon, founder of Middle, and Maria Isabel Saludares of the Ubiquitous Computing Lab of IEEE at UP Diliman.
This event was even awarded the Best ACLE Award at their culminating night.
SIGGRAPH Manila General Assembly
The first ever general assembly of SIGGRAPH Manila was held at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, which united professionals across different fields of the computer graphics industry. Virtual Reality was recently added to the fields in focus (including Visual Effects, 3D Animation, Game Development etc.) by inducting Cristopher David as a board member for VR.
November
OSVR Talk at DevCon Summit 2015
VR Philippines was a community partner at the DevCon Summit 2015. The event, which has the theme #GoOpenSourcePH, was the largest gathering of developers in the country and was held at the SMX Convention Center. Cristopher David gave a talk about the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform.
HTC Vive Demos at DLSU Hackercup 2015
To further nurture VR development here in the Philippines, VR Philippines collaborated with Valve to bring HTC Vive developer kits here in the country and it arrived just in time to be first demoed to student hackers at the DLSU Hackercup 2015.
December
VR Talk at TEDx University of San Carlos
Angelo Clark Urzo of VR Philippines delivered a TEDx talk at the University of San Carlos in Cebu about what he considered dream machines.
Mapua Institute of Technology VR Seminar
Another seminar on Virtual Reality was conducted for graduating Electronics Engineering students at the Mapua Institute of Technology.
Manila VR Meetup
Max and Tyler of StackVirtual hosted this casual VR meetup which was attended by more than 20 people.
Manila Vive Jam Pre-Event Meetup
As a kick-off for the upcoming Manila Vive Jam, VR Philippines hosted a meetup to serve as an introduction to the HTC Vive. It was held at PLDT Innolab and was attended by almost a hundred people. Attendees were able to connect with other VR developers and enthusiasts and experience room scale VR with the Vive.
There was also a quick workshop on how to develop a SteamVR game in Unity by Cristopher David. He showcased a quick Vive demo he developed together with DJ Baylon and Gab Enriquez, based on the childhood street game Tumbang Preso.
The event also was the local premiere of the trailer for the first ever 360 documentary shot in the Philippines — Happyland 360.
What’s next for 2016
2016 is considered to be the year of VR, as we will see the consumer release of the 3 major VR headsets — the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and the Playstation VR. It will be the culmination of what everybody has been dreaming of for decades, but it will be for real this time, and we will witness if it will be here to stay.
Content will be ever more important, which is why content development would be the focus of VR Philippine’s events in 2016. It will kick-off with the Manila Vive Jam, a VR hackathon for the HTC Vive that will be held on January 16–17 at PLDT Innolab. For more details, check out its event page.
