The age of virtual reality is upon us with a torrent of VR Headsets that launch throughout 2016 and many more expected for 2017. Now, people can easily get touch into the real virtual reality world by wearing one of the most popular VR Headsets such as HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Google Day Dream, PlayStation VR. However, the lack of VR content such as VR games and VR movies still don't changed much. Fortunately, for movie enthusiasters, there are stilll some great VR movies for you to watch on VR Headsets.
Best 8 VR Movies to Watch in 2017
1. Surge
The rising sound of streams of falling flashing stones appears like awesome sunrise on an artificial but incredibly beautiful landscape designed by Stacaato. Once you go through the amazing audio tracks of Surge then your mind starts streaming with the harmony of sound of those shifting blocks or cubes and the vibrations on floor can be clearly observed. Surge is designed with open world type music video where so many things are available to explore along with outstanding virtual landscape. The rhythms synthetic track leads to wonderful VR experience for all users and it has potential to create powerful appearance even without any story. This is all due to quality of sound system that makes everything mesmerizing in this VR creation.
This movies is available to download at Oculus store as well as at Kaleidoscope
2. 11:57
Scary movies leading to terrible deaths at each step are difficult to watch but with VR production techniques the effect becomes highly terrifying as users have no option to get away from horrible scenes. 11:57 is same type of lead that makes 360 degree something more than a nightmare and the darkness will never let you stay stable on chair. The challenges faced by team during creation of this movie were explained by Henrik Leichsenring, the co-director of movie but the ultimate movie brings real challenges to viewers.
11:57 is easily available at Google Play as well as Oculus store.
3. Butts
This gem was originally a plain, old 2-D short about a blue man and an orange man bonding by farting confetti into the air. Butts was converted into one of the first ever virtual reality films as a proof of concept for the hardware by Skillman & Hackett.
There's undoubtedly something hilarious about leaning forward directly into the colorful aliens' festive flatulence, but this is a clear example of a film that didn't really need to be in virtual reality. It doesn't attempt any technical innovation or encourage the viewer to look at his or her surroundings, and instead lets the story speak entirely for itself.
You can download Butts to watch on your Oculus Rift via Oculus Share or find it at the Kaleidoscope VR film festival in ten cities that started this week.
4. White Room: 02B3
In contrast to Butts' cartoonish simplicity, there's White Room: 02B3, a 2012 film recently converted into a VR app for your smartphones. White Room was ahead of its time as a 360-degree film meant for dome amphitheaters in which six people wake up trapped inside a circular room with one gun.
No single viewing experience of WR: 02B3 is the same. With your perspective locked in the center of the room, you can only focus on a handful of characters at a time. Do you focus on one person's traumatic experience, try to follow the most action-packed events or spread your gaze evenly?
The film's actors turn in compelling performances that make the film well worth watching and rewatching to enjoy the full experience.
To watch the movie, you can download the app for $2.99 (£2.99, about AU$4.00) on iOS or Android and watch it with Cardboard or Gear VR.
5. From Nothing
This movie has been developed with an inspiration from iconic inception scene where a architect use to fold buildings like a miracle. The video and audio both are created with unique style and from nothing appears to be the most gorgeous and well themed film on VR world. Christopher Libertino in this movie has developed mysteries so beautifully and it serves like a masterpiece in terms of graphic design; From Nothing actually represents the ending scopes and that is why it is rated as one of the highly popular program by all Oculus users.
Those who wish to watch this movie can visit Oculus store or Vrideo for fast download and it can be enjoyed with Oculus device or VR gear.
6. NYT Mag VR: Walking New York
This virtual-journalism film is a behind-the-scenes companion piece to the New York Times Magazine's acclaimed "Walking New York" cover. Filmed by TED Award winning artist JR, it shows dozens of artists painting a massive portrait on asphalt, with the 360-degree camera positioned in the center of the action.
Virtual tours of different famous locations are becoming extremely popular in VR, and this movie shows why. A major highlight of the film takes place when JR's camera crew rides the helicopter above for an aerial shot of his artwork and New York City, then zooms down to street level near the iconic Flatiron building.
As someone who lives in New York, I can honestly say the film makes you feel as though you are truly there, and I can't wait to see VR renditions of more exotic locales.
You can find this movie on the Vrse app for iOS and Android.
7. Closse
There is no doubt to say that traditional movies often bring viewers to observe main action over screen that contains few details about props with periphery. But this short film Colosse tells a story about spearfisher where major focus goes on a giant golem so ultimately VR allows you to watch anywhere without any prop specification needs. This open environment type film making style of VR allows viewers to enjoy everything even if they do not follow typical rules of script.
To watch this movie you can go to Oculus store or Kaleidoscope festival.
8. Vice News VR: Millions March NYC
Academy Award winning director Spike Jonze (recently most famous for Her) took a VR camera to the Millions March event last December to commemorate the experience of the Black Lives Matter movement in a visceral, first-person narrative.
Lasting less than 10 minutes, the film gives you a brief experience of actually being at the protest, seeing the anger and passion of the protestors for yourself rather than viewing the raw emotion through the lens of the media or artful editing based on the documentary's biases.
Imagine the opportunity to march alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. to Washington or witness the first hammer blows to the Berlin Wall. While that would require time travel, future generations could relive the most iconic or pivotal moments of our present, if journalists gain the foresight to preserve the experience in VR. By recreating the experience of physically being at these events, VR documentaries create empathy for the pain and passion of others that news reports and history books can't convey.
How to watch it now: The film can be downloaded on the Vrse app for iOS and Android and watched with Cardboard and Gear VR.
Create VR Movies to watch on VR Headsets
Besides above listed VR movies, you can also get VR videos for VR headsets by downloading from YouTube, 360Heros, Facebook, 360°Videos or AirPano or creating 360 VR videos with 360 camera, third-party stitching software - Kolor Autopano. For those people who plan to make SBS/TAB/Anaglyph 3D video for VR Headset, you can download this splendid 3D movie converter for VR Headset - Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac to convert virtually any digital file formats including H.265/HEVC, MXF, AVCHD, XAVC/XAVC S, Prores, etc and also commercial Blu-ray/DVD disc into VR Headsets playable Side by Side, Top and Bottom and Anaglyph 3D mode with the format of AVI/WMV/MP4/MOV/MKV, etc for viewing 3D movies on various different VR Headsets.
To get better 3D video effect, you can adjust the output 3D depth value to get better 3D depth perception. You can make a output choice between full SBS 3D (which contains each eye in full resolution) or half SBS 3D (which contains each eye in subsampled half resolution). Full SBS videos are noticeably higher quality, but take up more hard drive space and more graphics power to play). In addition, you can also use the "Switch Left Right" option to change the image display order for 3D SBS movie.
