Cyberpunk + XR

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Cyberpunk is science fiction subgenre in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a “combination of lowlife and high tech”, featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay (per Wikipedia). What Cyberpunk also often features are advanced demonstrations and uses of XR technologies: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality.

In previous blog posts, we’ve mentioned KBZ which has created lists of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality films, Artificial Intelligence films, Hard Sci-Fi filmsMultiverse films and Technology films (often also featuring AR, VR and MR). KBZ has two new articles that look at various Cyberpunk films – the Top 20 Best Cyberpunk Films and the Top Cyberpunk Films You Haven’t Seen.

The Best Cyberpunk Films article is worth a read if you’re looking for some of the best AR, VR and MR films to watch. There’s quite a bit of crossover between Cyberpunk and XR tech and the article lists some of the best films like Ready Player One, Blade Runner 2049, Total Recall, The Matrix and others.

What we found more interesting was the Top Cyberpunk Films You Haven’t Seen article as it has some new and obscure AR & VR films we haven’t seen yet. There’s a recent film called Karmalink that has some advanced AR concepts, a film called Hardwired that features AR advertising and display concepts (via a brain implant) and Terminal Justice which features old school VR HMD’s, a virtual reality crime scene and AR eye implants for infrared and night time vision. There were also two additional films we would recommend every AR & VR fan check out: Virtual Nightmare and Natural City. Virtual Nightmare uses VR similar to The Matrix and Natural City is similar to Blade Runner and shows many advanced AR concepts integrated into a futuristic society.

KBZ also has a short video that highlights some of these films (with Cyberpunk AR, VR and MR concepts) and you can watch the video below.

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