Page 58 - AVN January 2016

FEATURE
The VRBangers.com booth at the 2016 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. Photo by Hew Burney
on-one interaction with the star.
“This technology is so exciting and hot, I’m thrilled to be among the first in
bringing transsexual porn up to speed,” Klaymour said. “The viewer will be able
to get right in on the action, with exciting POV and voyeuristic scenarios with a
complete 180-degree field of view.”
But Klaymour isn’t the only actress who’s mounting her own VR productions;
there’s also porn starlet Ela Darling, who’s been live-camming VR (which she calls
“holographic 3D porn”) for just over a year.
As AVN reported in March of 2015, Darling first became involved in VR after
having been invited by quantum physicist James Ashfield to shoot a VR scene in
Maryland. The concept and the process so intrigued Darling that the pair formed a
partnership which became VRTube.xxx, and for most of the last year, Darling has
been doing live streaming VR shows from her apartment, and has enlisted other
actresses to do the same.
VRTubeLive officially launched on July 28, 2015, with Darling and other
beauties streaming solo performances for early owners of the Oculus Rift HMD,
but the site now works with all of the major viewing devices including Gear VR,
Vive and even Google Cardboard—and Darling is only too happy to take requests
from fans as to what they’d like to see her and her pals do on-camera.
Most recently, VRTube has partnered with live cam show provider CAM4 to
offer VR scenes to its viewers.
“Together, we have created a best-in-class VR experience that will be fully
integrated into CAM4.com, making VR cams accessible for all,” said CAM4
spokesman Derek Devlin in early May. “We are committed to empowering
performers to monetize across all mediums and VR is just one of the exciting new
platforms we are developing to support our broadcasters. This unique service
offers our users an experience that far surpasses what was possible with any 2D
analog live streaming. It’s a new era for live cams and we are excited to be at the
forefront of this emerging technology.”
Darling was equally excited: “Live VR cams are the most engaging and powerful
experience yet made for virtual reality,” she said. “The most attractive aspects of
live cams are intimacy, immediacy, and presence. VR amplifies these aspects to
create a performance that goes beyond what was previously attainable and soon to
be available from CAM4.com. People can have a much more personal cam viewing
experience than with traditional cam shows.”
CAM4VR will support all of the currently available viewing devices and will
feature 360-degree action.
Massive tube site PornHub has also gotten in on the ground floor of adult
VR, launching its own virtual reality channel in March, in conjunction with VR
producer BaDoinkVR—and giving away 10,000 sets of Google Cardboard viewers
to get its subscribers started.
“I can definitely see Pornhub’s VR porn content becoming very popular,” wrote
reviewer Raymond Wong for Mashable.com, though he had a bit of trouble getting
it right, and noted that one needs a subscription to unlock 1080p 360-degree
quality. However, the site accepts just about all types of headsets and
viewers, and currently has more than three dozen scenes available, with
free-to-view 30-second trailers.
But as for seeing anything beyond men fucking women ... “We expect
to have a diverse selection of content for our fans to choose from,”
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the customer lists. They have the brand recognition and they have successful
models built on their product. Most of these can be successfully translated to
a deeper content experience for their customers, which has me believing that
content will be king again soon.”
Protecting these early-entry brands and their positioning is receiving as much
effort from their management teams as every other part of VR proliferation. “We’ve
got numerous tech and content-oriented initiatives lined up, but the overwhelming
majority are things I wouldn’t want to talk about without having all of your readers
sign an NDA,” said Glider. “We’re going to support Kiiroo’s Onyx, so our members
are afforded another piece of the telepresence puzzle. Video and audio are
just two senses, after all. If one’s aim is to offer the end-user a truly immersive
experience, you’ve got to hit all five. As well, we’re creating a Sex Therapy
experience—and bringing on board a proper sex therapist for it. The goal: Use VR
to help people become better, more attentive lovers.”
“I’m not going to give away the farm here,” Bradbury pointed out. “I see no point
in explaining to our competitors what our direction is for the future. I can however
guarantee that our next camera rig will be almost entirely comprised of equipment
none of our competitors have even heard of and the potential of the rig will go
beyond that of any VR content produced by anyone, in any market.”
Shuster is proud of his own portfolio of VR patents that continue to accumulate
along the way. “We have done a massive amount of R&D in this space, and
we’ve produced some of the biggest breakthroughs in VR history. To begin, I’ll
say that there is no way to cover everything, so it’s easiest to point to the huge
portfolio of patents that I and my various teams have been awarded (and an
even larger list that are pending). The implementation of these breakthroughs
that we’ve developed over the past 13 years in the VR space will be nothing
short of revolutionary. A few specifics from that list include new camera rigs, post
production software and processes that allow us to completely eliminate VR
sickness (we call this NoSick™ technology). We’ve also created a process that
allows us to output three complete scenes each week already, with a target of 12
scenes per week by the end of the year. This is allowing us to produce for other
studios, which we are doing.”
Those kinds of adult
industry-driven innovations
are necessary and may yield
major rewards because
custom solutions from
adult studios are already
starting to outpace many
of the mainstream big-box
offerings.
“The store-bought camera
options are exceedingly
limited,” said Glider.
“Products like Nokia’s Ozo
get a lot of headlines, but it
just doesn’t work for porn,
least of all because the Ozo
only shoots 30FPS. Oculus
Rift is impressive. HTC Vive
is amazing. But what I want
to see is Apple’s solution; I
want to see more Gear VR
competitors. Huawei just announced that they’re throwing a hat in that ring. So
more of that would be great. Anything that keys consumer uptake, that’s what it’s all
about, not just for VR porn, but VR everything and anything. And of course, I want
to see the HMDs get better, get to a point where the screen-door effect is gone,
and where you’re not feeling silly because you’re essentially wearing ski goggles in
the living room. On the tech side, I’m super-excited about foveated rendering, and
the possibilities that presents. Once that’s firmly in place, demands on processing
power drop, and that makes everything more affordable for the end user.”
The fact that the list of things needed to spur VR adoption seems never-ending
is important; it shows how early in its lifecycle virtual reality is presently. However,
the level of investment, innovation and core audience surpasses anything seen in the early days of mobile. If you are
taking a wait-and-see approach to virtual reality, you aren’t alone—there are a whole
lot of people who took a wait-and-see approach to mobile for the longest
time as well … though many of them are now no longer in business.
“While diving into VR is
certainly a long play, the lack
of competition as compared
to other areas gives affiliates
who are early entrants an
incredible advantage
and an opportunity to
achieve significant market
share before the space
becomes saturated.”
—Phil Bradbury, VP, PimpRoll /WankzVR
adoption by companies and a passionate