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November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and today conference organizers are excited to share more information on one of the many exciting sessions talking place during the show.

One of the great strengths of VR is its ability to transport us to other places -- and when those places are physically hazardous, VR allows us to safely visit and explore them in virtual space.

The area around the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one such place, and in his VRDC talk on "Exploring & Remembering the Chernobyl Disaster Using VR: 'Chernobyl VR Project'" Wojciech Pazdur will break down how The Farm 51 captured Chernobyl and authentically reconstructed it for a virtual audience.

Pazdur is the head of The Farm 51, a Polish studio, and in his talk he'll showcase the ways that The Farm 51 recreated parts of the radiated Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl in Unreal Engine 4 with the help of photogrammetry, laser scanners, drones, 360 spherical movies and photos.

Virtual reality experience design is an exciting, uncharted territory. How can developers use sound to really sell the illusion of reality (or hyper-reality) in VR experiences?

At the Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, HUGESound audio director Chance Thomas will how you how in his talk on "Hearing Is Believing In The Void."

Thomas is an expert, and his talk discusses a multiple-solution approach like the one utilized to deliver the debut VR experience for "The Void" (pictured), which blends real-world elements with VR to create a sort of "hyper-reality." In his talk Thomas will dig into hardware control, current-gen software algorithms, and pre-rendered assets will be discussed, including pros and cons.

GDC organizers want to remind you that today is the last day to propose a talk for one of the Game Developers Conference 2017 Summits or the VR-focused VRDC at GDC 2017!

The call for talk submissions for the VRDC and the specialized Summits that help open the 2017 Game Developers Conference closes today, September 23rd at 11:59 PM Pacific!

Remember that both VRDC and the GDC Summits take place on the first two days of GDC, signaling the start of the five-day signature game creation conference.

GDC organizers debuted the Virtual Reality Developers Conference at GDC last year as a special two-day event where developers of all stripes have the opportunity to explore and discuss VR/AR game design, to great success.

They're bringing it back to GDC 2017 with the same two tracks of talks: one focused on VR/AR in games, the other on VR/AR in entertainment. (Organizers have also launched a standalone version of VRDC with an expanded focus that will be taking place in November of this year.)

And of course, even if you've already proposed a talk for the standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, that does not prevent you from proposing the same talk for the VRDC track of talks at GDC 2017.

The popular Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit at GDC is now the Mobile Summit, and now organizers of the 2017 Game Developers Conference are calling for great talk submissions!

We're now accepting Mobile Summit talk submissions through this Friday, September 23rd -- so submit your idea now, because the deadline is coming up fast!

The Mobile Summit at GDC brings together top game developers from around the world to share ideas, discuss best practices, and consider the future of gaming on mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, Amazon and more.

This two-day program will focus on the nuts and bolts of great game design and successful business strategies specifically tailored to popular smartphones & tablets. We're always seeking great talks from both new and established speakers, and being a GDC speaker is a great experience: the week-long conference continues to be the world's largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games.

Good news, everyone: The 2017 Game Developers Conference has opened a call for submissions to ALT.CTRL.GDC, that popular on-site special exhibit which highlights unique control methods for playing games.

The perennially popular ALT.CTRL.GDC showcase will take place during GDC, from March 1st to March 3rd of next year. The deadline for submissions to the showcase is December 2nd, and organizers welcome all indie-centric one-of-a-kind game peripherals, contraptions, and novelties which enhance game experiences and challenge traditional forms of input.

To get your creative juices flowing, consider that at GDC last year ALT.CTRL.GDC visitors could pick up a phone and discover their true self (with the help of a deranged automated psychiatrist) by playing The Von Neumann Personality Test, lead a flock of migrating birds across North America via an electronic zoetrope, and muck with an authentically reproduce telephone switchboard to play Hello, Operator!

Teams for each chosen submission will be asked to showcase their games to GDC attendees at the ALT.CTRL.GDC exhibit area on the expo show floor. They'll also receive a pair of All-Access Passes and a pair of Expo Passes, for a total of four free passes to GDC 2017.

If you have a great idea for a talk about the art or business of virtual reality game development that you think would be a great fit for the VRDC at Game Developers Conference 2017, we've got good news:

GDC organizers are now accepting VRDC @ GDC talk submissions through this Friday, September 23rd!

VRDC made its debut at GDC 2016, and proved so popular that GDC parent company UBM Americas will be hosting a special standalone VRDC with an expanded remit later this year.

There will also be a more focused, entertainment- and game-centric VRDC at GDC 2017 (the 31st edition of GDC) which continues to be the world's largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games.

That means that VRDC @ GDC 2017 is seeking submissions exploring virtual- and augmented-reality spaces, submissions pertaining to both game and non-game, entertainment-immersive VR/AR development -- submissions, in short, that can be part of VRDC @ GDC's two talk tracks: the Game VR/AR Track and the Entertainment VR/AR Track.

Good news, would-be GDC speakers: 2017 Game Developers Conference organizers are now accepting Independent Games Summit talk submissions through Friday, September 23rd.

This is important, because the Independent Games Summit is intended to be the place for the independent game developer at GDC. It features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from notable independent game creators, including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners.

The Independent Games Summit seeks to achieve diversity of voice, experience and perspective, while highlighting the best and brightest in indie development. Discussion topics range from game design philosophy to art, programming, distribution, business, marketing, and much more.

The 2017 IGS will again use a main, large room alongside a simultaneous second smaller room - for deep-dive subjects and focused talks that we would otherwise be unable to fit into the program. Please submit with this in mind!