History has been made. The first live talk show done completely in Virtual Reality was a great success and now you can watch the video.
When Riftmax developers MikeArms and Caine approached me to host this ground-breaking event, I knew that it was going to change things. Huge expensive stages, complicated props, and exclusive access will all become things of the past. Now, guests and audiences alike will be able to sit in the comfort of their own home and participate in – and even star in – these types of events.
This first episode was intended to demonstrate the awesome capabilities of the Riftmax Theater software. The guys put together a full late night set, the infamous NPC band, multiple camera angles with the ability to change them on the fly, laugh and applause tracks, steaming video, and participation from around the world are just a few elements that made this such a revolutionary concept.
As the host, there was a whirlwind of preparations in the last week, from spending quite a bit of time with Caine and Flake developing the cheesiest monologue possible along with a few fun ‘skit’ type gags, to last minute rehearsals. It was a truly surreal experience performing on a virtual stage with a virtual audience, and I, like most of the guests had Razer Hydra control of our avatar’s hands, adding another layer of immersion.
While the live showing had a few glitches (not to be unexpected doing this live!), all things considered it was a big success – The polished ‘broadcast ready’ version of the show is now ready for viewing. Flake, the VR Guinea Pig, acted as my trusty sidekick and managed to ‘Rudd Roll’ me.
Of course, no VR talk show would be complete without prominent members of the community being the first guests. Riftmax Theater developers MikeArms and Caine start off the show by explaining their gameplan for their upcoming Gala event and KickStarter campaign, and to encourage community involvement, extending an open invitation for anyone who is interested in adding content, doing their own show, event, or unique meetup in the theater to get in touch with them. Following next is Half Life 2 VR mod developer and /r/oculus subreddit mod, WormSlayer, who proves to be quite the witty Brit and brings down the house with a cool teaser video for v.1.3 of the mod. Then, our final guest, Cymatic Bruce shares tales from his Sunday streams and London VR Meetup participation, and possibly outdoes WormSlayer for the more believable english accent.
The icing on the cake was a sweet dance party on stage with the audience at the close of the show. During the show, MikeArms made sure the proper videos were queued and played, that the theater server didn’t implode, and even acted as security to break up an unruly light sword battle (cameo appearance by Troach and Kogsworth)! Caine did his best to ensure things from a logistical standpoint ran smoothly, directing the show and control room for the live stream and edited video. Musician and fellow rifter, Stephen Lu created the tune you hear the NPC band rock out during the show. Deeprifter filled in as the drummer for the NPC band, showing off some amazing moves.
SO, what’s next? Do you want to see more Riftmax Live with Reverend Kyle? Are we going to see other shows like this spring up within the Metaverse? Will a VR game show be developed? Will Jay Leno return to late night virtually?
Only time will tell.
Riftmax Theater, by Internow Games www.riftmax.com
email:support@riftmax.com
Stephen Lu http://chibola.com/
