PAX 2021 was an online event for me as COVID cases keep rising. One of the better streamed sessions was about the Blurring Lines between Games and Film. Definitely worth a watch as they cover a number of topics: difficulties in embracing the immersive nature of VR/AR, using VR/AR in advocacy work to immerse viewers into environments or as an alternative to zoos/animals in captivity, digital character design, virtual production with LED stages and Unreal engine, massively evolving digital production pipelines, and interactive VR environments. While these are some well known topics in the field, it’s still worth giving it a listen to hear how production folks are dealing with the massive upheaval of changing pipelines.

I still find LED stages instead of greenscreening with post-shoot CG one of the most amazing recent developments – something I’ve written about before with the Mandalorian.

Some panelist links:

• Louisa Spring @ Sami-i
• Neville Page – Concept Designer
• AJ Wedding @ Orbital Virtual Studios
• Jason Parks @ ROTU Entertainment
• Emir Cerman @ ROTU Entertainment

On their topic of AR/VR environments, it was noted that COVID has decimated many in-person VR/AR experiences. One casualty was the VOID – and even their website is now gone. the VOID had interesting setups mixing VR, haptic feedback systems, and real-world props. Sadly, their setups in Las Vegas an other places are no more (like Venetian Las Vegas). Still, their legacy lives on in YouTube footage and some installations still hanging on through COVID.

Footage from the now defunct VOID:

Fight with some zombies in Zero Latency at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

As well as overseas, such as some of the interesting installations in Japan.