28 April 2017

Fieldscapes Workshop accepted for ITTE Conference in June



We're delighted that we've been accepted to run a Fieldscapes workshop at the in Hull on 21st June 2017 at the Association for Information Technology in Teacher Education's 31st International Conference at the University of Hull.

The whole conference should be a great event and you can find out more or sign-up! And a great excuse to visit Hull again during its City of Culture year.

27 April 2017

Brighttalk Webinar recording on Datascape has been posted




Our Brighttalk webinar on "Using 3D, Virtual Reality and Social Virtual Worlds for Data Visualisation" is now available on-line to view.



https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/13939/248865

In it I give a short introduction to 3D dataviz and our taxonomy for it, an intro to Datascape, and then look at how we can now get the data into MobileVR and SocialVR.


April 17 Newsletter Out - Fieldscapes Open Beta, Datascape, Webinars and a Survey

Our April Newsletter is out.



In this latest issue of the Daden Newsletter we are proud to announce:
  • Fieldscapes is now in Open Beta - this means that anyone can now download, sign-up and use the system to create, share and play 3D and VR immersive learning exercises, lessons and experiences. You can register and download Fieldscapes from https://www.fieldscapesvr.com/download. The open beta will run til mid May when we'll put the system fully live.
We also have:
  • An update on Datascape and its ability to publish to the web and VR. You can download a free trial of Datascape from https://www.datascapevr.com/trial
  • Initial information on Trainingscapes - the corporate/white label version of Fieldscapes for professional and commercial training, and our ideas for a public outreach version
  • A description of our R&D work at bringing 3D visualisations out of Datascape and into VR in both Fieldscapes and AltSpaceVR
  • The return of chatbots!
  • A list of upcoming webinars to introduce you to Fieldscapes and Datascape - check the dates and sign-up
  • A quick survey - with the focus on two product streams should we have separate newsletters for each - let us know your views!
We hope you enjoy the newsletter, and do get in touch if you would like to discuss any of the topics raised in the newsletter, or our products and services, in more detail!

Download your copy today.


13 April 2017

Carding Mill Virtual Easter Egg Hunt


To celebrate Easter we've put up a virtual Easter Egg Hunt on Fieldscapes in the Carding Mill Valley. Its a nice simple exercise that shows:


  • Object collisions triggering sound, a count reduction and object disappearance
  • A variable rule that gives a message when it reaches zero

We've laid out 10 large (~1m) and 10 small (~ 0.3m) eggs. We thought it would be easy, but its a real challenge to find all the eggs, The better way to play it is how many can you find in 10 minutes. Mind you, think of it in the real world. If I hid 10 huge Galaxy Easter Eggs over the bottom half of Carding Mill Valley I bet you wouldn't find it easy to find them all!

Of course this would also be a good game to play collaboratively. Whilst the eggs themselves aren't multi-user at the moment (so if I find an egg you can still see it and find it) we can still collaborate by remembering (or mapping) where we find the eggs in order to help others. And once we have multi-user objects than we can all hunt for the same eggs - it would be interesting to know which is the better model to foster collaboration!

Watch out for more Festival themed exercises on Fieldscapes in the future, and remember that you can clone the Easter Egg exercise to make your own version!



10 April 2017

Fieldscapes Open Beta starts today


The Fieldscapes Open Beta starts today. Our plan is to run this until 3rd May when we will go fully live. During the Open Beta all functionality is live and we have created a set of example lessons and exercises - but the aim is that it is you the educators and tutors who ultimately create and share the content which will make Fieldscapes - and 3D immersive learning in your classroom - a success.

There is a step by step guide to registering and downloading, or you can go directly to the Download and Registration pages. You MUST register in order to use the application.

Note that if you "play" an exercise at the same time as another tutor you will be able to see them and communicate by text chat - but they will not see how you are playing the exercise - you each have your own version. We call this hybrid multi-user, and will add full multi-user later in the year.

Fieldscapes is designed to support any sort of immersive learning, including:
  • Support physical field-trips for geography, biology, geology and other earth and environmental sciences
  • Allow visits to (global) locations which are not practicable (or safe) to visit in (or out of) class time
  • STEM lessons on the Moon, Mars, the Solar System and other worlds
  • History lessons in virtual Roman or Tudor towns.
  • Comparing castle and abbey ruins to how they were when built
  • Virtual battlefield tours – Naseby already available
  • Maths for the real world – exploring maths in real contexts (good for science too!)
  • Virtual laboratories (and virtual experiments)
  • Letting students create immersive environments to present back rather than a Powerpoint or poster
  • Virtual drama and set design
  • Letting students learn programming without having to worry about syntax 
  • Language learning – just write an exercise in a foreign language, or create a foreign setting
  • Vocational skills, trade and business training
  • Health and care training – we already have a virtual clinic

Donwload our 4 page summary and 20 page description from the Resources page.

The Beta version can be used on Oculus Rift as well as in 3D only PC. We will add Mac, Android and Android Cardboard versions before the formal launch, with iOS and other HMDs to follow.

Do use the Forums for any support requests or user feedback (or email support@fieldscapevr.com), and do post how you are using Fieldscapes to the Forums or our Facebook page.

We'll be setting up some webinars on How to Use Fieldscapes (including editing) over the next few weeks - but most of you should find that you'll be able to dive right in. If you're coming from Second Life we've got a comparison of the two systems.

We look forward to seeing you in Fieldscapes.




5 April 2017

VWBPE17 Virtual Safari to Fieldscapes

Starting off in the Demonstration Space

As a follow up to the VWBPE presentation last week last night we hosted a virtual field trips (also called a virtual safari) to our virtual field trip system - Fieldscapes! 

We had about half-a-dozen attendees from (I think), the UK, Egypt, and North America. We ran a skype group call to give us audio, and then I also used in world chat. We were making use of a new Fieldscapes feature which is that is, as a tutor, you PLAY (not EDIT/TEST) an exercise then you will also meet any other educator/tutor also trying that exercise out. Note that when working with students you create assignments which limit entry to just your nominated students, so the new feature doesn't effect the child safety aspects of the system.

We started in the Demonstration Space where the visitors were able to try out the props and see most of the basic behaviours of Fieldscapes. We then moved on to Mars, and after that Carding Mill Valley.

Overall the session went very well, even though name labels are temporarily missing and we only get our first full load of avatars this week! Lots of discussion of comparison between SL and Fieldscapes, and also between older systems like ReactionGrid/Jibe, and newer ones like Sinewave's Space and Fieldscapes - and Fieldscapes came out pretty well all round I think for what it's intended for - delivering 3D and VR immersive education at scale.

The event certainly encourages us to do more tours like this, so we'll post a schedule up on EventBrite shortly and probably host one a month for people to get to know the system - as well as doing separate Editor focussed sessions.


Showing how students can be enabled to move objects in world - like the pointer

Exploring an empty Mars! Spacesuit on its way!

Walking up into Carding Mill Valley