Conversations around virtual reality are quickly centering around one of the biggest bottlenecks in the industry’s development: high-quality content.
The two-day Global AR/VR China Summit, which kicked off on Wednesday, featured speakers from different corners of the industry, from virtual reality analytics company Touch Virtual to Neobear, an early education startup developing augmented reality products. The hype around VR hardware seems to have petered off with most presentations focused on building exciting and useful VR content in marketing, education, travel, and social applications.
“We have to choose PC-based VR [over mobile-based VR] because our client’s expectations for high quality content,” said Yuan Yuan, the CEO of AR/VR software company Ugion, on a panel discussing the current and future adoption of VR and AR technology.
“The most important thing is there’s no killer-app,” he said. ” There’s no killer app to attract users to the headset.”
At the moment, VR content still leaves a lot to be desired. While a multitude of VR headset and hardware startups have sprung up in China, the same cannot be said about quality VR content and software. Still, as this year’s conference shows, there’s plenty of interest and potential in the area – it’s only a matter of time before VR content hits its stride.
Here are some highlights from Global AR/VR China Summit 2016:
Multiple users can interact with and import 3D models into MiddleVR‘s virtual meeting space software aimed at designers and architects. These two guys are measuring a CAD model.
Plex VR creates custom 360 degree content for shops, museums, and real estate developers.
Conference attendees lined up to try Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headset.
Scott Lai, the marketing and sales director of Realmax, explains the company’s AR training software.
Behavioral research firm Noldus is jumping on the VR bandwagon with eye tracking and VR interaction analytics.
A conference attendee tries Nvidia’s Funhouse app where users can play a range of carnival games, like whack-a-mole and arrow shooting.