2014 Oculus Rift Development Year in Review

By just about any measure, 2014 was a breakthrough, banner year for virtual reality.  This year saw the release of Oculus Rift DK2, demos of the amazing new Crescent Bay, as well as GearVR and lots of other cool tech and supporting hardware that have brought VR to the forefront.

We had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects again this year, most of which remain confidential, but you can see an overview of the projects we’re able to share on our new Pinterest portfolio [HERE]

Below are a few year-end highlights and metrics that we’re extremely proud of as we take a look at 2014 and anticipate the years ahead.

Consistent Success and ROI.  Second only to introducing someone to VR for the first time, is hearing about the success our clients are realizing with the applications we’ve developed.  Every single project we completed this year has been positively received, and nearly every client we’ve worked with has returned with additional projects.  In many cases, our clients have reported significant returns on their investment, using their VR apps to pre-sell units in real estate developments, or increasing product sales at trade shows.  This is a track record we intend to continue into the new year and beyond.

Client evangelists:  Several times this year, we’ve been contacted following demos or project releases by people who are overwhelmingly convinced of the potential for VR and want to join our team, or help demo and sell our services.  They’re bit by the same bug we were the day we received our first Oculus Rift, and VR’s gravitational pull has attracted some top-notch people into our network.  We’re happy to have them on board.

 

Branching out: In 2014, we established several new partnerships with some of the largest architecture, construction and real estate development firms.  Yet, this work within AEC industries only accounted for about 50% of our work this year, as we branched into exciting new industries, such as manufacturing, automotive, oil & gas, and health care, developing virtual reality applications that help visualize and promote their products and services.

Growing the team: Our development team also grew considerably in 2014, as we were fortunate to recruit lots of new and highly talented developers with specialty expertise that has already improved the quality of our applications dramatically.  We’re always looking for more help, so if you’re an expert developer in any contributing field to virtual reality applications (Unity tech, animation, rigging, prop asset modeling, architectural modeling, etc.) please get in touch ASAP!

  

Scaling: We’ve taken major steps toward scaling our services this year, and have been able to work simultaneously on several large-scale projects without compromising development timeline or quality.  We’ve also ironed out a streamlined workflow and strong project management methodology that has led to greater efficiencies.  This has allowed us to reduce the cost of our services, and the time it takes us to deliver.

Reinvesting in R&D and Tool Development: We’ve taken the opportunity to make a significant reinvestment into R&D, and the design and engineering of new VR tools and technologies that will shape the future of our core service offerings.  During demos and post-mortem project reviews, we hear a lot of “you know what would be nice…” feature requests.  We’ve kept track of the input we’ve received, and combined that with some intensive internal brainstorming with our development team to build some exciting new tools and features.  We’ll be releasing new demos soon to showcase the same, and hope to excite imaginations around how these new capabilities can be put to use.

One of this year’s major highlights for me personally, was having the opportunity to meet and show Frank Gehry the Oculus Rift.  His company, Gehry Partners has already been doing a lot of high tech visualization and BIM innovation before this, so it wasn’t necessarily anything new to him, but he immediately recognized the potential for architectural visualization and design in VR.

2015 and beyond.  Next year is already shaping up to be a significantly bigger year, with several new and exciting assignments already on the boards.  In addition to releasing some of the new tools and features we’ve been building, we will also be completing several projects that we’re allowed to share as freely downloadable content for you to try out.

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