Virtual Reality Day Celebrated with 24 Hours in VR
By Anne McKinnon
@scifiannemarie
The second annual Virtual Reality Day November 17 was a success with 67 participating cities up from 8 cities in 2017. Taking place in AltspaceVR and High Fidelity, VR Day featured 24 hours in virtual reality with music, performances, speakers, art, games, contests, and even a virtual after party where attendees could listen to live music and socialize.
Dropping into AltspaceVR throughout the day, there were numerous avatars present for discussions on virtual reality and business with speakers such as Chris Madsen from social and education platform Engage, and demos of featured metascapes where creators showed off their work. After one gorgeous demo of an oriental looking virtual landscape, an avatar appeared on screen for an official intro to this new world.
AltspaceVR also featured the band Miro Shot, who played exclusive material ahead of their official launch early 2019. They invited members of the audience to join their arts collective who all contribute content that is featured in their live immersive concerts.
Today we played a live set from an album that has not been released in a place that doesn’t exist. Shout out to @AltspaceVR , and to the incredible @bobfine for making it all possible. Also to the strange bumble bee avatar that danced it’s pixels off during the last song. #VRday pic.twitter.com/J8jXGKTHM6
— MIRO_SHOT (@miro_shot) November 17, 2018
It was a good thing the AltspaceVR after party took place on set in weekly talk show The Hive that is literally out in the galaxy, so there was plenty of space for all the avatars present. Special accessories such as wings, spectacles, VR goggles, crazy hair and other features made it almost like a secret mask party. In the metaverse, recognizing your peers comes in part with making a unique avatar. In this case, disguises made it fun to find friends, and to meet new people.
Social VR platform High Fidelity also launched new content by hosting their first festival entirely within the metaverse for Virtual Reality Day. Along with trivia, a contest for best avatar and a live theatrical performance, High Fidelity stayed in tune with AltspaceVR with a live music VR performance by five-time Grammy nominee Thomas Dolby.
24/24h means Europe can come ?. Fun event in perspective
— Marion Scordia (@Marion_Scordia) November 16, 2018
Virtual Reality Day started as a grassroots effort to encourage VR enthusiasts and industry to get together. With 24 hours in virtual reality for virtual reality day and participants from around the globe, VR Day is about helping virtual and augmented reality to become more mainstream and to educate the public about VR/AR technologies.
