vTime is a free virtual reality (VR) social network that can be enjoyed on various different HMD’s. Create an avatar and enjoy social VR with others in various different environments from 360 film to virtual spaces such as a bar. VRFocus spoke to Julian Price the Chief Marketing Officer at vTime about their new partnerships and potentially working in augmented reality (AR).
Price explains that vTime’s first partnership is with Jaunt. vTime now allows for Jaunt’s content to be enjoyed on their platform. The second partnership is with DTS, a world leading audio technology company that is working together with vTime to create an innovative solution for audio in VR.
Price says: “We strongly believe the simple fact that audio is half the experience in VR, and if you’re really going to want to create great immersion and great presence then your audio has to be as good as your visual. DTS believe that too and we’ve worked very hard to create a really different, new, innovative and also presence inducing soundscape.”
vTime’s relationship with DTS is important. ” We believe our secret sauce that makes us different is this genuine feeling of presence, to make it better – even more compelling and more realistic, the audio is really important. Our sound designers and engineers have wanted to do this for a long time.” Price says that it’s not just about spatialization but ambisonics and creating a truly convincing environment that tricks not only the eyes, but the ears of another reality.
A platform that is HMD agnostic, vTime can be enjoyed on an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, any Windows Mixed Reality headset, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard (iOS and Android), Google Daydream and the standalone 6 DoF HMD’s. “Our main ethos with vTime is to be truly cross-platform so that whatever device you’re on you’re able to meet with family and friends, chat share and enjoy all these experiences,” Price confirms.
When asked how they were making money Price explained that they don’t. Mainly because there simply are not enough users in the world at the moment. He also believes it’s important not to try and monetise vTime right now as he’s seen a lot of social VR apps disappear when they tried to commercialise themselves. He emphasises that their interests lie in building a user base, listening to consumers and developing desired features. Their strategy is in the long game, their investors are aware that it will take another year or two to create and build a user base.
vTime has managed to overcome many technical and funding problems that social VR needs to tackle, but when it comes to copyright and IP rights of content it’s a lot more complicated. He used Spotify as an example of how content creators and studios will be forced to change and adapt. As VR and AR become ubiquitous, content owners will have to adapt and build a framework as they’ve done with online streaming services like Spotify and Netflix.
AR also looks to be a potential future option for vTime, however when asked for more information he hints at a few future dates to find out more. Hear more about vTime in the video below.
via Mint VR