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Author: matt

360 VR Spheres

360 VR Spheres

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Nova is an “untethered VR motion simulator,” making virtual reality games and training programs feel more real by rotating in any direction. Their 5.9 foot diameter sphere, which has been compared to a “human-sized hamster ball,” weighs about 1,100 lbs and simulate vehicles of all sorts by being able to move 360 degrees in any direction.

These units are too expensive for the home gaming market, the company leases each Nova unit with ongoing maintenance and upgrades, at a cost of $150,000 US Dollars per year. Eight360 is working with defense forces, mining and forestry industries, where vehicles cost millions of dollars, accidents are a very big deal and training needs to encompass tilt angles.

The original Ford Interceptor from ‘Mad Max’ is up for sale

The original Ford Interceptor from ‘Mad Max’ is up for sale

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One of the V8 Interceptors used on-screen in the cult classic film Mad Max is being put up for sale in Florida by the Orlando Auto Museum.

Titular character Mad Max’s ride of choice was a 1974 Ford Falcon XB GT, modified with a “Concorde” nose and nicknamed “the Pursuit Special.” The car was built in 1977 for Mad Max, which saw wide release in theatres in 1979.

Read more about this fabulous car here.

The Art of Code

The Art of Code

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Dylan Beattie leads us through a really fun history of the ways programming has evolved and opened new avenues of exploration over the years: Conway’s game of Life, Mandelbrot set, Obfuscated code, and many more.

Would make a great first class for any programming major in school and invigorate students.

Check out more of NDC’s talks, courses, and conferences in the following links:
https://ndcconferences.com/
https://ndc-london.com/

Kubrick and The Shining

Kubrick and The Shining

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The Shining is one of my favorite horror movies. It’s not about cheap jump-scares, oodles of blood and over the top gore/sadism. It’s a slow burn as ghostly forces invade the mind of a man being driven slowly into homicidal rage. A homicidal rage we can see all too often in murder-suicide tragedies today.

Here’s a great background of how Kubrick approached and looked at the themes of the Shining – which is why he largely threw out most of Stephen King’s script and worked instead with Dianne Johnson. She had written a book about a woman terrorized by an unknown horror called ‘The Shadow Knows‘. Kubrick had no desire to collaborate with King, but instead spent days with Dianne Johnson talking about gothic horror literature and even watching movies together.

Unreal and films – highlight reel

Unreal and films – highlight reel

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Epic Games and Unreal Engine helped to develop the amazing virtual environments used in The Mandalorian.

As I have reviewed before, this is not done with greenscreens – but instead are projected backgrounds that are rendered realtime based on camera position. This solves almost all the visual problems created when using greenscreens.

As this highlight reel shows, their technique of combining projected, camera-tracked CG environments with live actors and props can be used for all levels of production, not just blockbusters.

I suspect we’re going to see some very interesting applications soon.

https://youtu.be/Y6g2hpfxVJA