The porn business would like one to be a part of the activity.
It was becoming a bit uncomfortable.
Two nipple-pierced brunettes, totally nude, were all over me. They guaranteed me a blow job I wouldn’t forget.
But I could not forget I was in a packed suite on the 34th floor of the Cosmopolitan, a fancy resort on the Las Vegas strip. Or that I had been wearing a boxy virtual reality headset while sitting next to my coworkers. The girls were only performers in a Naughty America video that was recorded using the newest technology.
“VR is the next logical step” for the porn business, Ian Paul, Naughty Americas chief information officer, told me before that day in the CES 2016 convention in Vegas. “Haven’t we all wanted to be immersed in what we’re watching?”
It is an axiom of the technology world: Wherever adult entertainment goes, consumers follow. Mature videos helped cable television make inroads, giving (mainly male) audiences a reason to buy TV. The widespread access to porn at video shops helped fuel the popularity of VHS players. In the end, it is more comfy to see your dreams at home than in a dingy movie theater. Simply ask Paul Reubens.
As media transferred to the Web, the porn business saw a fresh chance to peddle its steamy products. A Dutch firm, Red Light District, developed streaming-video technology as well as a payment system, helping pave the way for mainstream entertainment businesses. Even the increase of cellular has enticed porn to take a position. When Apple launched the iPod Video player in 2005, porn was there.
Now it is virtual reality’s move. VR has evolved from a tiny group of startups four years back to among the latest trends in technology now. Slot your telephone to the goggles, strap ’em on, and you are an astronaut exploring Mars, a knight jousting in medieval England or an Aussie rules football player striking the field.
Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, is already selling its Gear VR headset. Taiwan’s HTC, Japan’s Sony, and Oculus, possessed by California-based Facebook, are anticipated to sell headsets in 2013. Video games from Ubisoft, Sony and Valve are slated to follow.
No surprise, porn’s conquered them to the punch. Adult entertainment business SugarDVD started making VR porn in 2014. Another, BaDoink, began offering a variety of VR skin flicks last year. Though the VR porn business continues to be in its early days, it is possible to still locate hundreds of VR porn videos online, with names that leave little to the imagination, including “Tour of Booty,” “The Bad Student” and “Your Dirty Maid.” And let us not forget “Hookers” and “Hookers 2,” its imaginatively called sequel.
Beginning to feel real
CNET Reviewer Scott Stein says Paul is not exaggerating. He saw “Very Merry XXXmas” — Naughty America’s discreetly called vacation show — on a Samsung Gear VR headset, and came away impressed.
“It’s right in front of your face … in one of the more eerily successful examples of VR-ready video I’ve ever seen,” Stein told me. “It starts to feel real at times.”
Making VR porn is different than making traditional 2D films, and filmmakers are still learning the best way to shoot together with the technology’s cameras. VR cameras record just as much as 360 degrees — all round the room — and they get more information than standard video apparatus.
The digital files are enormous, so Naughty America has restricted its videos to only 180 degrees: left, right, up and down. The productions do not trouble with the view behind the camera, Paul says.
The videos do not have complete action either. You can not turn your head, for example, to alter the viewing angle. In the event you would like to get a much better look in the girl wearing a Santa hat and little else — she is the star of “Very Merry XXXmas” — you are out of luck.
Stein said it feels like a “peep show.”
Paul says he is still working out the kinks. For the time being, Naughty America has already stumbled on new strategies for his “seasoned performers” in moviemaking.
“We instruct them to come close to the camera,” he says. “We tell them to treat the camera like it’s a person.”
Paul says he is still working out the kinks. For the time being, Naughty America has already stumbled on new strategies for his “seasoned performers” in moviemaking.
“We instruct them to come close to the camera,” he says. “We tell them to treat the camera like it’s a person.”