Page 48 - AVN April 2018

FEATURE |
MEET THE DREAMERS
First-time exhibitors
share their wares
at the AVN Expo
FEATURE | By Mark Kernes
The 2018 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) was
notable in part because of its super-sized exhibitor
booths, but the show was nonetheless welcoming to its
smaller exhibitors, including various companies showing their
wares for the first time. Some of these “newcomers” are the
focus of this article.
At least one major media outlet claimed that virtual reality
was virtually absent from AEE 2018, but nearly half of the first-
time exhibitors we spoke with were going full steam ahead with
VR offerings.
Most impressive was CamasutraVR, which set up its own
“virtual bordello” to showcase state-of-the-art motion-capture
avatars that were nearly indistinguishable from live humans.
AVN spent a day on the set at the company last spring, where
more than 140 hi-def cameras captured even the tiniest details of
actress Lily Lane’s body, and CamasutraVR’s programmers took
that material, as well as similar captures of about a dozen other
actresses, and combined it into the most realistic VR scenes
currently available that didn’t consist of simply filming live
humans. And once CamasutraVR secures a bit more funding, it’ll
be turning its porn star avatars into programmable bots that VR
users can bend to their every sexual desire.
“This trade show has been very important for us, and the
reception we’ve had has been great,” said CamasutraVR
spokesperson Jason Rockwell. “The people that have tried it on
the floor loved it and so we’re very happy so far. There’s a really
positive vibe here, and it’s helping us really reach out to the
public.
“Right now, we’re looking for investment,” he added. “There’s
a few people interested already, and right now, we’ve got a demo
ready, and more importantly, the feedback that we get from the
people here is going to help us fine-tune the experience, so the
convention is also acting as market research for us.” (To contact
CamasutraVR, email info@camasutravr.com.)
Another company with its own hi-def avatars was the German-
based VRXcity, which boasts “about 900 erotic stars” on its
website, and invites the public to become “alpha testers” of its
latest products.
“We’re bringing porn to a new level,” stated VRXcity’s
Sebastian Malm. “We produce a VR experience with a VR
headset where you can not only watch people having sex but you
can do it yourself. We scan porn stars with a 3D scanner, make
them into digital avatars, go into the motion-capture studio and
then program interactivity into them with AI and all that kind
of stuff, and then you can basically have sex with her just like in
real life. You can touch her, follow her around, touch the breasts,
all in VR. It’s very, very immersive. It’s something completely
different; you have to really see it to believe it. Everyone who
48 | AVN.com | 4.18
stopped by has been amazed by it. They were like, ‘Holy fuck, that’s the future!’ Because it’s another
step on the ladder and it’s where everything is headed.”
Among VRXcity’s plans are a line of web-connected sex toys to be used with its virtual sex scenes,
so that as one of its VR porn stars is bouncing on a user’s cock, the user will be able to feel as though
he’s actually inside her, thanks to motors and vibrators within the rubber stroker. The company can
be found at VRXcity.com.
VR Novels, on the other hand, is aiming to create “mini-features” for its own virtual reality
platform, starring some familiar porn actresses as well as a selection of newcomers.
“We shoot our own content, storyline videos and VR; we’re also shooting short films as well,” said
company CEO Daryl Foster. “All of our performers have different scenes that they will do, and we also
tie them all in as a novel, as a book to where the series can keep going on and on and on.
“Our key features right now are Miss Nyomi Banxxx; we have Miss Lethal Lipps, we have Miss
Kelli Provocateur, we have two male performers, Bolo the Entertainer and we also have Anthony
Borelli, and we’re also working with a lot of new artists,” he continued. “We have a lot of different
acts, a lot of different content on our website, so people can come check us out at 360vrn.com.”
Moving away from the VR, a couple of the new exhibitors were already well-known to AVN.com
readers: Fist Pump Films and FuckingAwesome.com, both of which are ramping up online scene and
even feature production.