Otoy holographic video recreates Batcave for immersive virtual reality

Samsung Galaxy Gear VR and Oculus Rift users will be among those having a first shot at exploring Batman’s sanctuary from the 1990s animated series.

Cloud graphics company Otoy is putting its new holographic video to work in a project to recreate the Batcave from the classic 1990s Batman: The Animated Series. Owners of Samsung Galaxy Gear VR and Oculus Rift will have first shot at exploring the caped crusader’s private lair.

Batman: The Animated Series ORBX holographic video scene construction in Otoy’s OctaneRender. (Source: Otoy)

Otoy’s holographic video, created in Octane Render and light field technology, delivers realism without a live connection to a computer capable of rendering the setting in real time. It essentially “bakes in” every possible vantage point of a scene, including available light and how it will interact with objects and materials in the scene.

The production is led by an original animation series producer, Bruce Timm. When finished, the environment will be available for others to populate. Otoy and Timm are working on tools that will preserve the show’s distinct visual drawing style in 3D space, without requiring any post-production work or manual artist intervention.

Light field technology captures all available light and object data in a 3D space, then makes it available for processing. The technology has been popularized by Lytro, which makes a light field camera that allows selectable image focus after taking a shot. Otoy uses light field technology in Octane Render to allow the same disconnect of data from use.

First aired on network television in 1992, Batman: The Animated Series defined the classic DC Comics character for a generation of fans. The success of the highly influential show led to a multi-decade run of critically acclaimed television series and animated original movies set in the DC Comics animated universe it helped establish.

“It’s super-cool, eye-popping stuff, and fans are going to love it. We can’t wait for them to have the chance to see the Batcave from the show again—for the very first time.” says Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital Series.

Otoy and Warner Bros. expect the finished Batcave to be released by the end of the year, first for the ORBX viewer app. More images of ORBX holographic video, are available at the Otoy blog: http://render.otoy.com/newsblog/?p=641.