The first Cincinnati / Dayton Virtual Reality Meetup was held on February 28th at Miami University and was an amazing success. Loads of Oculus Rift demos, VR Chat, PrioVR, and a massive crowd made this an event to remember.
Midwest VR Community Proves Strong
When I first set out to create this meetup in the Cincinnati area, I wasn’t really sure where to begin. Then Eric Hodgson, 3D Visualization Director at Miami University, reached out to me on Twitter. I knew we were about to start something amazing.
With all of their fancy VR gadgets, and half a dozen Oculus Rifts, the Smale Visualization Center was the perfect place to host such an event. Centrally located between Cincinnati and Dayton, we saw a great opportunity to bring in folks from both areas.
Our setup was simple. One giant room with laptops running eight different Oculus Rift demos, another room for YEI to setup two of their PrioVR suits, and of course the CAVE system pretty much filling the room it has always resided in. We were ready to accomodate 80+ people.
For the Oculus Rift demos, we showcased iOmoon, Trench Run, Crashland, Tuscany, RiftCoaster, VR Chat, and Red Frame. Plus, we had a few developers showing off their own creations that haven’t made it to the mainstream yet.
My goal was to take this meetup to the next level. We streamed the event on Twitch.tv to allow the entire VR community the opportunity to watch. To take things even further, one of the demos was Graham Gaylor’s VR Chat, which allowed folks in the physical meetup to also meetup virtually. The virtual meetup was also streamed by Sunday VR Meetup coordinator, Gunter.
Being fans of my podcast, the guys from YEI Technology were anxious to get me into one of their PrioVR suits. I suited up and immediately started dancing the “Rev VR Jig”. Once the calibration was set, I wandered around and killed some zombies. This wasn’t their latest and greatest suit, but I was still thoroughly impressed with their technology. Being a backer of their Core system on Kickstarter, I was happy to see that I made a solid investment.
Overall, the meetup was a huge success. I talked to so many enthusaists and budding developers who were thankful that such an event was available close to their hometown. It is encouraging to hear that this meetup, along with all of the other meetups taking place around the world, are successfully bringing together the VR community and providing an avenue for networking and collaboration. I look forward to planning my next one.
