STFU NEWS: The Future of Virtual Reality
 

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The Future of Virtual Reality:
Is Virtual Reality Likely To Affect The Rate of Content Piracy?
Are You Actively Engaged in the VR Vertical Yet and How So?
How Big an Impact Will VR Have on the Adult Industry?
Anything else you think is worth mentioning?

For anyone who is unaware of the backstory:
Brian Shuster (the owner Utherverse and RedlightCenter) recently did a series of interviews about a new Virtual Reality paradigm in Adult and is launching a full scale marketing campaign around bleeding-edge VR technology as applied to the Adult industry and beyond. You can see the invite to a live demo here: Holofilm Productions

Virtual Reality is being pitched as everything from a piracy panacea to the future of all content. Mainstream companies are investing billions into brands like Oculus and the race to create the dominant platform is now underway. Where do you see VR going, and do you see it having a major impact on Adult specifically -- the way Tubes, Mobile and other new technologies have disrupted things as the industry continues to adapt or die?

I think the VR has some really interesting potential. I know that filming is currently cost prohibitive but that may be changing. The demo's that I have seen have all been pretty mind blowing. I even have some cardboard that I got from badoinkvr.com and seeing their content has been impressive.

I really wanted to go to the event in LA but had to get dental surgery :(

sounds really interesting

I see a huge future in Holographic tech in combination with cams..

think demolition man... starwars... only better IMHO

stream that girl in lifelike size in your living room... and play...

This will take some more years... doesn't matter.. I will just keep renewing my adult holo cam domains..

After seeing some of the 3D renderings in recent games and movies it should come as no surprise that the leap to VR wasn't far behind. Of course there will be other applications of it but one of the largest, if not the largest, will certainly be the merging of sex toys, porn, super-realistic adult video games, with sex itself. Is there a demand for it? Frankly the demand was massive from the second that movie-viewing audiences of the world first caught glimpses of VR in movies like Tron, Lawnmower Man, Inception, and dozens upon dozens of others, and yes, even the holodeck of the Star Trek universe fueled people's imaginations of what VR could be. The number of movies over the past 40-odd years that contained some shred of it is actually quite startling, actually.

Will it do everything they're saying it will? End piracy? End tubes, etc? Probably not. Back in the day people thought video would kill picture galleries. It didn't. Many of the largest tube sites still contain photo content. Photosets aren't as popular as they were, but they're not dead. People will continue to watch plain old video porn for a long time to come, thus that realm of piracy will remain as well.

As for it ending piracy simply due to the architecture of VR, it may very well "end piracy" once an actual VR porn industry grows into a sizeable entity.... but if I've learned one thing in this business in my 18 years it's never underestimate thieves nor their desire to profit from your hard work. If there's a way to be found they'll no doubt find it.

Smart houses with interactive personalities
"Cherry 2000"-esque robotic realdoll wives
Virtual Reality "sex-on-demand-with-the-pornstar-of-your-choice"
Brain chip containing your "life account"


It's all coming. Because there's a demand for it. Assuming of course we humans manage to avoid wiping ourselves out somehow beforehand. Get a direct piece of it. If you can't do that, promote it. Or get paid to write about it. :D

That's the thing Shuster seems to have nailed down better than anyone. Porn always gets used as a way to build a market and then gets dumped later when the market exists and porn isn't needed anymore. Google did it with their search results, Paypal did it, so many others too.... it makes you wonder what life would be like today of the leading search engine was owned by one of the porn companies that initially drove traffic to search, or if iTunes was owned by a porn consortium rather than Apple. We are like the cute girls who always put out at homecoming and prom but can't figure out why nobody will marry us.

VR may be the first time in decades where, if done right, porn would be able to stop 'asking' if it is allowed to be displayed on leading platform(s) and instead dictate what can or cant be displayed.... :2 cents:

We've been poking at VR shooting for the past 6 months after seeing what Brian Shuster demo'd at AVN and are pretty positive about this as a new rev stream!

The main concern at this point is what equipment to use, and what format? 360? 180? POV 3D? Various folks are trying all of these options now to test the waters.

For 360, there is the "Google Streetview Cam" coming out soon that shoots 360: http://www.nctechimaging.com/iris360...b1caAlQQ8P8HAQ

Other options for 360 include rigs that you can put 16 GoPro Cams on, but that feels a little tech and post heavy: https://gopro.com/news/happy-sweet-s...0-camera-array (who really WANTs to own 16 GoPros?)

Many other rigs coming out soon, including First look at Neo — Jaunt

And, this one also looks promising:
https://shop.360fly.com/products/360fly

As for 180 and POV, most of the above rigs can do that as well it would appear.

Watching closely!
This VR thing will be a craze for a bit and make some money as long as the equipment does not eat the ROI!

Oh, and here may be the killer cam for this....
Nokia's OZO is a Sleek & Minimalist New Camera for Shooting Virtual Reality

I anticipate this one is going to be breath-taking, but the price may be breath-taking as well.....

Other note: whatever we do, this all needs to be compatible with Google Cardboard viewer that uses a smart phone and costs under $15. I don't imagine a lot of folks are going to spend up to $500 on an Occulus Rex, but this is a great point of entry for many, and can be given away by paysites if they like to use it as an incentive.

Live vr/holo cam is where the serious money will be made. It's not so far away - the HoloLens will be released next year and will deliver virtual holograms (through the glasses, obviously).

'Real' holograms, from a technical point of view, are not so far away either. Proof of concept of moving holograms has been demonstrated by several different research teams. I doubt if it's more than 10 years away to mainstream market.

Magic Leap, bought by Google, is a vr company that has tech that actually beams virtual images into your eyes. Eventually this will lead to the wearing of a headset or glasses becoming unnecessary. It could also make expensive 'real' hologram tech unnecessary. You could have the device beam an image of a 3d girl into your eyes from the other side of the room, and it would appear to you to be a real girl a few feet in front of you. Again, this is likely less than 10 years away from being in millions of homes.

For a good few years, whether we're talking about vr or holo cams, it might be very difficult for amateurs to broadcast free live cam shows. The expensive tech required, and the skills, will likely make it the exclusive preserve of professional cam sites. No piracy and little free amateur competition.

As far as what Brian Schuster and HoloFilms are doing, I've been wondering for a few years why the adult industry didn't come together and actually push along the new tech, and even create it. I guess AEBN with the RealTouch was an example, and not a successful one. I think they were a bit too early with that. The problem of lagging has only just been fixed with VR, it will be a while before its ready for haptic sex toys.

If the adult industry invested in, for example, the first holographic video console, not only could you fix the piracy problem (determine which videos can play on it), you could preclude the possibility of porn being blocked from it.

And the biggest problem is the likely moral majority backlash that will inevitably come. The adult industry needs to work together for that as well - for example, promoting studies and research that debunk the 'Your Brain On Porn' rubbish (and it has already been debunked by several psychologists). Having former porn actresses speak out on their positive experiences of working in the industry etc. Paying for studies that link the decline in violence over the last decade to the growth in internet porn, and in future, the positive effects of vr porn.

if anyone is interested - we could produce 360° porn. We have lots of ideas for that ;)

Well put!
Colin

The OP is about prerecorded content with porn stars, not about live cam shows. In fact, live cams already do not suffer of piracy and tubes, while prerecorded videos totally suffer.

About new tech failures in adult cams, I would add a more on topic example: livejasmin added the 3d cams in 2009 and ceased that shortly after as no customer cared:

AWE & LiveJasmin Offer 3D Live Adult Video Chat - GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum

It required the easily available cheap plastic glasses, but simply, guys prefered normal shows to "3d" ones with psychedelic color interference. Models would get less sales if streaming in 3d than streaming normally, so models also stopped streaming stereoscopic.

Too early?

The following is a 1962 VR machine, the Sensorama:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorama


The Ultimate Display (1965) by Ivan E. Sutherland:
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/...0.1.1.136.3720


In 1992 Computer Gaming World predicts Affordable VR by 1994, and market of billions dollars:
http://i.imgur.com/j73ipNp.jpg

I remember buying a "virtual reality" magazine in early 1990's, with all those oculus-rift and hologram-like stuff... saying next few years it will go mass market... read same on web sites in early to mid 2000's... it didn't happened yet, that's 30 years I wait now... not going to comment why that's this, but experimentally I am cautious of predictions about VR going mainstream, guess what...

Like adultmobile said, for the 48 years I've been alive I've read about virtual reality being the next big thing, it's still to happen.

I like to think I'm a futurist, I embrace new technology but the video in the link in the OP just contains far too many buzz words and vague promises for me to take it seriously.

There is mention of a headset. One of the reasons VR hasn't taken off already is that people don't like headsets. Headsets represent a new technology hurdle and even products like the Oculus Rift are bumping into this marketing roadblock.

If there's a video of the demo event I'd like to see it, I want to be wrong in my opinion that consumers won't embrace this stuff.

The headsets are as much a fashion problem as anything else. Sleeker looking visors, celebrity adoption, porn and price will likely be major factors in uptake - just as they were with mobile. The day VR visors look more like fashion forward headgear and less like sleep apnea masks, adoption will bloom.

Adultmobile,

This is the current itteration of the VR platform concept from the 1992 magazine article you attached.



I'd say it is coming along nicely, and progress accelerates itself. That tech years from now will be stunning.

Go Stefan !:thumbsup

"It required the easily available cheap plastic glasses, but simply, guys prefered normal shows to "3d" ones with psychedelic color interference."

Hmmm...so you're comparing 3d hologram girls appearing live in your room to crappy 3d anaglyph porn?

Meanwhile, Penthouse have made millions from their 3D stereo porn movies.

The OP is talking about the future of vr/hologram porn, and he's largely referring to the efforts of Brian Schuster and HoloFilms. Schuster's main long-term goal seems to be interactive holo sex, as spelt out at his website and in numerous interviews he has given regarding his plans for the 'metaverse'. Facebook paid 2 billion dollars for the Oculus Rift with the entire aim of fascilitating social interaction in virtual reality. And I was just replying to another person's comment.

As far as stopping pre-recorded video piracy, I don't know, but I did make the suggestion that if the adult industry had their own media players, they could generate content that perhaps could only be played on it. I also have a feeling that the moral panic over vr porn will be so great, that only in the USA and a few other countries will there be a chance of it remaining legal, or at least without a lot of legislative curtailment. I can't see, for example, Putin allowing millions of young Russian men fapping off wearing vr headsets every day. Therefore, the problem of Russian vr porn tube sites pirating content might not be such a big issue.

For now in porn I dont see this happening. Most cant afford the rigs it will take and the processing power of the PC's needed to deal with it and when the electric bill shows up to run them they will shut them down.

Im thinking this wont be anything really big for at least another 10 to 15 years.

Yup, it has a lot to do with it. I have a 3d tv, after the novelty wears off you dont use it much. 1st of all because of the availability of decent content, secondly because of the glasses:2 cents:

Totally agree with this.

May also be cause we are...well old. ;)

When I go to the movies now, for example, I always look for the 3D version. So I am accepting this change. ;)

This is amazingly cool stuff .

Just not sure it will catch on. Not in the short term ie 5 yrs or so anyway. 20 years from now...highly likely.

And its going to need a concerted effort and a lot of money thrown at it.

Some great points made already.

The hardware requirement is really going to be the killer of VR IMHO. Anything that requires blocking your natural senses is something we're not wired to do. We wear headphones to block out unwanted noise in certain situations but we rarely cover our eyes.

Media consumption in any form is usually driven by whats 'good enough' to consume whatever format we're ingesting. VR as we commonly discuss it does not really fill any type o need. In fact, I see it very much like a Segway - a technology that everyone got super high on but ultimately ended up with niche uses - lazy mall security guards and middle-aged tourists on 'walking' tours.

From my perspective VR isn't truly VR until you're immersed in a fully interactive HD realistic environment. While we're willing to make the trade-off for video games it's not 'real', or we'd all be watching machinima. Haptic feedback is a great idea, but now we're entering 'special event' territory..suit up, put on your helmet and disappear from the world.

Fix point/path 360 degree rendered environments are no different than a big screen. Without control over the environment it isn't VR. While I'm sure that Facebook et al have some big plans for VR as a communication medium I can't imagine that it's going to be used at first for anything more than annoying twenty something females with kitten avatars and the males having jacked up he-man avatars and carrying nerf axes.

So how about adult? Cams seems to be the obvious option in the near term - production costs would be lower in relative terms since most girls seem to operate in a single small room that could easily be mapped and rendered. The only thing then is the tech to scan/map/render the performer from any angle. There's still the problem of POV paths, but this is more like an extension of a peep show booth so making the constraints visual shouldn't damage the experience.

I do think there's a future for VR Theaters where you can jump in a pod in a safe environment for 2 hours to experience something. The thought of widespread adoption at home sounds pretty sad.. an empty living room with enough pods for everyone and a dog whining and scratching at the door because it needs to go outside for a pee. Actually no, the dog gets replaced by a tamagotchi that interrupts the experience at a key point because it digitally crapped in the VRspace lobby you use to talk to your family because it's too damn annoying to face them in real life.

In conclusion, VR needs better definition for what VR is and isn't. Expect lots of kitten avatars and nerf axes but nothing overly useful. Did no one watch Disclosure? That had the worst VR interface ever.

Justin, your post gets back to the main point. The content that fuels tech adoption is often the same. Kitten pics, twenty something females and porn. That's what has fueled much of the Internet, mobile and home video. It will also be what fuels VR.

Someone will create virtual pets, dogs and cats that roam your house and do cute things without requiring the work of feeding and cleaning up after them. Someone will find a way to make VR a great lure for twenty something females the same way AOL did with chat rooms at the dawn of consumer internet adoption, and porn will be ubiquitous at first. The key is making sure porn remains just as viable on the new platform as the other two for the long term... And that likely requires porn to own/control the dominant player.

I agree, but it's the tradeoff between content and convenience that I don't see VR overcoming initially. Unless there's an angle that I can't see - which is totally possible - this rates somewhere between Apple Watch and Google Glass.

It's the same evolution between Video to DVD - a huge leap visually and technically but I think a large part of its adoption was because you didn't have to rewind tapes anymore. DVD was good enough and BluRay struggled to gain any traction. It was/is more popular as a storage medium for video games than for movies.

But DVD to online streaming? Again, convenience thru the roof, now I don't even have to get something out of a box and put it in a slot.

VR as currently pitched offers no convenience, no experience that isn't 'good enough' thru other means and has the drawback of requiring at least a headset, if not a full haptic body suit for the full benefits.

People don't use the iPhone because it's a better phone. They use it because it's not just a phone. I agree with you, VR needs to do more than show existing porn movies where you can turn your head and see the curtains.

However, if Apple Watch could make people cum, it would be on a lot more wrists... :2 cents:

I like this thread.. reading all ideas / opinions with much interest

I absolutely agree with this, people use whats 'good enough' to consume, with what devices they already got or anyway not taking extra space, weight. In live cams I can see that we got models streaming at slow framerate 320x240 with fake colors, like some filipina, while others 640x480 with good colors and framerate, others we can custom setup at 1000x+ and it works - however, we see if a guy likes that specific filipina will waste lots of money to see her super badly, and lots of best video quality and resolution models get very little business. I learned this long ago so I no more even wonder when I see this daily. The 320x240 fake colors old cam in 5 fps is enough for most, it seems!

Relentless shown Virtuix Omni which is cool as you can walk with feet to move in a battle ground, but this hardware fills half your bedroom, it seems niche to some hardcore 1st person shooter gamers, not a mass market there. About Facebook wasting $2 billion for oculus rift... consider they wasted $22 billion to buy whatsapp, and that those billion dollar buys between such big companies is often a mistake, like Yahoo buying broadcast.com for $5.7 billion (or over $10,000 per user) in 1999 - Oculus Rift was valued $100,000 per actual user or so... in hope to get 1 billion users, mhhhh.... also there's so many competitors or different solutions with augmented reality like https://www.getameta.com/ and Microsoft Hololens / Windows Holographic
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us , or mlm semi-fake ones like https://www.worldgn.com/space-lumina/ , so what big company will set the standard and when it is still unknown and investing that much in one is silly at best.

cordoba let me note that "you're comparing 3d hologram girls appearing live in your room to crappy 3d anaglyph porn", no I don't, I just said the today mass market reality is the crappy 3d anaglyph, and star-wars style holograms are shown as proof-of-concept since 1977, so I don't see why now in 2015 we should be really so near to getting to it, maybe that will be the 2040, but then I am not so interested on a business point of view, since I need to make money now, not in 2040. I am nearly sure we will have interactive 3d holograms in mass market some day, I said 2040, maybe is earlier or later. If you show me a working platform, that was shown in 1970's already in a lab and this means nothing for my consumer business today. I am happy to see the working demos in lab, but more interested in seeing sales in my site.

I disagree that live cams will get 3d and holographic sooner and more widely than prerecorded studio content. It will be studio producers like the OP to lead this. Studio productions are HD since long time, and 3d, instead the top live shows in top cam sites are mostly made with $99 Logitech cams, even the pan-tilt with remote it became more rare rather than more popular in the years - and any 3d live shows attempt worked technically, but failed commercially, to date.
Prerecorded content production high-end studios can buy the hardware and be able to use it, so the first "holograms"
By the way there is this live show for Oculus Rift:

https://vrtube.xxx/live/

Bought a 360 camera early last year in anticipation first for some mainstream projects then I want to apply it to adult.

...still waiting on camera. Delay after delay...

Have you noticed this post got not even many views or replies?...

I think it will be one more interesting option, but not a replacement for anything in particular. Some guys love going to the strip club and watching a good feature, but they don't want a lap dance or they don't want a blowjob or a fuck.

Getting to fuck a girl is an old school thing which might seem like more, but a lot of people aren't looking for that, so prostitution doesn't make dancers obsolete and cams don't make prostitutes obsolete. But there is money to be made all along that spectrum.

I would bet that pirates will figure out how to snarf VR recordings. No technology humans can create is uncrackable by humans.

I agree with much of what you said, but you may find this article interesting:
Near-Perfect Computer Security May Be Surprisingly Close | WIRED

We appear to be on the cusp of encryption that even quantum computers would be unable to crack. Standard prerecorded content is dragged down by public expect ion that it 'should all be free' so DRM of any kind is unlikely to take hold. VR may be different enough to short circuit those expectations.

Virtual Reality Bug | Virtual Reality Bug Blog

As a non techie, I see these might be problems.

Creator, publisher and user hardware and costs.

Will customers be able to download the content onto a normal PC or phone. What special equipment will they need and how do they explain that to the wife. And what will it cost him?

Because unless 100,000s buy into this, for a selection of niches, sites and scenes. The ROI for individual sites/companies could make it unprofitable. The drawer of laying out money to get a couple of sites delivering content will be harmed.

Online porn has always had the price advantage over offline, now Tubes have made paying for porn a thing of the past for most. Will enough of them come back to paying for the added benefit? Considering, now they don't want to pay $30 to download 100s of scenes in a niche, format they love?

Cost will be the factor, until it's cheap enough it won't grow. However in the Games market, it will explode.

Here you go , we are shooting vrporn for Badoink, contact me for more info

Behind the Scenes of a Virtual Reality Porn Shoot | Motherboard

That's where the industry is going

I am hoping vr takes off, have aquired quite a few relevant domain names for adult virtual reality, augmented reality/holograms.

Think the owner of VRporn.com will do exeptionally well with that domain.

I have got the domain names VRpornography.com + ARpornography.com

I also see a very good future for vr cams and eventually holographic cams.

Im not sure Domains are where I'd invest for VR. A lot of people raced out to get .mobi domains with mobile on the horizon and it didnt help them much at all. Changes in tech usually mean investing in the tech itself, the billing or the things that spur adoption are the best bets.