BEER Labs

12/07/2024

If you'll be in the Bay Area on July 18th, definitely drop by this event where Dr Damo will be speaking and showing his infamous XR rig! It's a great event to meet a community passionate about the world of VR, AR, CV and spatial computing.

Connect with the VR community! Let's get together again for our monthly meetup and have some fun with XR and spatial computing!

22/06/2024

ACT IV Part 1 (Bonus): Open Sauce.

Besides getting caught in the Floirda storms on the way back to San Francisco, I made it back safely! Shortly after landing, happen circumstance I checked the email in the XR glasses, more specifically the SPAM folder to see something called "Open Sauce 2024 launch party".

So rather than ignore the spam, I followed it, and I was greeted with many builders, hackers, and enthusiasts! The look on their faces when I had no idea about the Open Sauce 2024 conference was hilarious to say the least!

Didn't have the dollarydoos in hand really, but I took the gamble, 200 bucks out of pocket to go and attend the next day!

HOLY CRAP IT WAS AMAZING, well worth the money. I got to see so many well built, thought out, experimental and even hypothetical stuff being made by all that love to just build and be better, it's truly amazing what we can do when we put our heart and soul into it! (A few excerpts are attached). Between a walking 3D printer, a ice cold fireball server, to large robots, cars, and tesla coil inspired events!

I had to recharge my batteries during the event (quite literally) so I sat down and gave a hand to help someone who was struggling to debug hardware. Very touching experience we can all learn from.

It's beautiful to see these kinds of communities in the field, back home I'm hardly ever seeing events like this. I guess this is one part of another's culture I'm going to (even if forcefully) drag home with me :)

19/06/2024

08/02/2024

At BEER, we do a lot of work with computer vision. Here's an explainer video about what it actually is.

Our last video was about Graphics Rendering, this time, we're talking Computer Vision! An easy to understand explainer of what Computer Vision is and how it ...

05/02/2024

Throwback to 2021 when we worked with Odd Critter Games on Henosis, which went on to nab the Best Game Award from the South Australian Screen Awards!

22/01/2024

The problems with Hololens 2, Magic Leap and Project Northstar?

❌ low graphics capabilities due to a mobile deployed system
❌ limited field of view
❌ delayed hand tracking
❌ lack of built in 6DOF head tracking
❌ entry level market place cost vs fidelity properties → isolating hobbyists from the field

Here’s our solution: an high fidelity platform

17/01/2024

From early gaming (eg your basic ‘Light Gun’) to the most complex of medical imaging technology, here are some examples of Computer Vision. Wanna know more? Drop a comment!

15/01/2024

It's rare that I put the 'dirty laundry' on the internet.

We all know it's extremely difficult in this climate to launch a game. In the last year, BEER, with it's own funding gained from our many industry projects, developed a fantastic game built around the premise of a twisted alternate reality of Ned Kelly and his bushranger adventures, while concurrently teaching players about so-called Australia's colonial background and history.

When we sought out funding from the Games Expansion pack in 2023 with Screen Australia, I knew full well that this would be a hot topic and actually consulted with various First Nations representatives who all collectively agreed: it's a great game but not BEER's place to tell the story of First Nations history and stories. Agreeing with and respecting that advice, we did not include commentary nor included First Nations characters (fictional nor historical) in the game.

Screen Australia's response for our submission appalling, avidly claiming that we were not capable/ready with only 3 individuals working on the project. However, the reality was that if they had looked beyond a first-blush click of the submission, they would have seen that the budgets included many other team members. They failed to read far enough to note that that we had financial backing and exit strategies, something most game development studios lack. Note that this is mentioned only in passing AFTER hammering us for our lack of First Nations content.

I figured this was just someone specific so we gave the SAFC (a subsidiary of Screen Australia from what I understand) a second go, when they approached us at the end of 2023 to showcase NED at SAGE (a local games conference). This time around, we stressed in the application form - nothing more than a simple Google Form to collect rudimentary level information about the project - the following:

"BEER Labs sought the advice of First Nations individuals in relation to Australia’s dark colonial history that the game is based on. As BEER Labs are not representative of the Indigenous culture of Australia, it was agreed by all consulted that BEER will not speak on behalf of First Nations."

Their response? See screenshot.

It seems that they are unable to grasp the difference between referencing iconography and speaking on behalf of First Nations people on history.

The fact that this was the only reason provided without any members of the SAFC reaching out to us for further information and clarification on our consultation process is deeply disappointing. How do they expect to truly uphold their First Nations Cultural Protocols if they make shallow assumptions like this?

11/01/2024

Ever wondered how fantastical worlds come to life? Welcome to the world of Graphics Rendering. Watch now on YouTube!

Ever wondered how fantastical worlds come to life? Welcome to the world of Graphics Rendering. Here are the links for some of the images we used in this vide...

04/01/2024

As it should be

24/12/2023

Doesn't matter what ya celebrate, hope everyone's having a good day in.

13/12/2023

RockemBot boxing is a boxing game that facilitates interactions between two users over a larger-than-arms reach distance. The users stand two metres apart, and use virtual fists as a means of knocking the opposing player’s virtual head in an intense matchup. By first re-mapping the user’s hand tracked input to a virtual model, and representing the user’s in the collaborative space as a semi-attached avatar, Rockembot allows real-time high fidelity interaction.