MAKE THE FUTURE!
Come get your hands on cutting-edge technology, collaborate with some of the biggest names in VR, and show off your creations at the after-party. Building on the success of last year’s Room-Scale VR Jam, VR Austin is hosting the 2016 VR Austin Jam. Join our creative community of virtual reality developers in beautiful Austin, Texas for three days of hard work and hard partying!
WHEN IS THE VR JAM?
We're pumped to announce the dates of our 2016 VR Jam!
- Saturday, November 12th (10AM to 10PM)
- Sunday, November 13th (10AM to 10PM)
- Monday, November 14th -- Wrap Up Party (7PM to 11PM)
WHAT IS A VR JAM?
A VR jam is like a game jam, but focused on creating new experiences in virtual reality. The VR Austin Jam isn’t a contest or an all-night hackathon. This is a fun, safe, collaborative space, where brilliant creative people get together to make mind-blowing experiences straight out of science fiction. If you want to make VR games, animations, films, or experiences, we invite you to attend! Meet new people, learn new things, and be a part of the vibrant VR scene in Austin, TX.
YOU DID THIS BEFORE?!?
Over a two-day period, 75 developers created 19 original VR games and demos at our 2015 jam. Two of these games, Owlchemy Labs’ Job Simulator and Phaser Lock’s Final Approach, launched months later as commercial VR games. Supporting the VR jammers were representatives from Valve, HTC, Nvidia, Epic Games, and Unity Technologies. You can read all about the 2015 event on Owlchemy Labs’ blog.
HOW DO I ATTEND?
The wrap party on Monday night is free and open to the public. Please RSVP via the VR Austin Meetup Page if you’d like to attend the party, but not participate in the VR jam.
We have limited space for VR jammers, so please register via this Eventbrite page to attend the Saturday and Sunday jam and make things!
HOW CAN I HELP?
We're looking for folks that can sponsor the VR Austin Jam and the other great programs that VR Austin puts on. Please contact us if you'd like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities. Just looking to volunteer? Come to one of our events and introduce yourself!
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?
- Signing up on the Eventbrite page serves as a way to reserve a spot at a desk to do actual development at the VR jam (and the small fee will help cover the costs).
- This is a community event. Let's mix and mingle. Please don't bring teams of more than 4 people per company/employer.
- If you or a colleague would like to attend briefly to "check things out," please email us so we can save tickets for jammers who need use of the desks.
- Bring your own PC! A beefy desktop is encouraged, and if you have a VR headset, please bring it and any other required peripherals. You will be able to iterate much more quickly with a headset plugged into your PC.
- If you have extra VR headsets/HMDs and are willing to share, please let us know!
- Attendees will have access to sample example software projects & packages to begin creating VR content within minutes.
- Bringing along some extra ethernet cables, power strips, and cords can't hurt!
- Of course, every great event needs a Twitter hashtag: #VRAustinJam
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
- Is this a contest? Nope! It's not a contest -- the jam is in the spirit of making cool stuff, sharing ideas, and growing the Austin community that’s excited about VR.
- What do I need to know beforehand? Anyone with experience making games in Unity or Unreal should have no problem making VR content at the jam.
- Do I need a team to attend? Last year most demos were created by teams of 2-4 people. Getting a group of friends to attend together is helpful, but there will also be time to form new teams at the start of the jam.
- How long should my game/experience be? Shorter experiences are always better. We recommend aiming for a 3-4 minute experience. Since we have a limited number of VR headsets, we can only allow demos under five-minutes at the wrap party.
- Can we bring existing content? You can absolutely use existing content / art / designs / full projects that already exist! No problem there, although building content from the ground up with VR in mind is always a good idea. It's harder to take an existing scene that was running at 60fps on a monitor and try to optimize it to run at dual stereo 90hz.
- Any optimization tips? Watch out for realistic art styles, heavy scenes, and complex shaders. Also avoid full-screen pixel shaders / full-screen passes. They will destroy your framerate because you're going to be extremely fill-rate bound pushing so many pixels per frame at 90hz.
Location
Dates
to 13th November 2016 - 10:00 PM