Mind Games

Recently Kevin Peterson visited and reported on the AR Vs. VR event, part of the Digital Shoreditch festival. The event includes a number of novel VR and AR experiences.

The star of the show however, was a unique experiment exploring the basest of human fears – that of plummeting to your death. Designed and built by Inition, it comprised a mix of physical props (in this case a thin plank of wood) married with a virtual space (that plank bridging the gap between two derelict skyscrapers) with  the obvious aim to completely fool the subject’s brain  into thinking they were in imminent danger of becoming pavement pizza.

The experiment was effective by all accounts. And as illustrated in the video below, once the final, cruel trick was played out that reaction climbed to extreme!

The Making of ..

Inition’s own case study on how the experience was built is below. The fundamental components were an Oculus Rift HMD, Kinect (for  movement tracking) with the environment created in the Unity game engine using MiddleVR .. oh, and a crosswind generator (aka ‘a big fan’).

Our 3D artists created a bespoke environment which could be explored in the Oculus Rift head mounted display which offers a 110 degree field of view.

The user would start their experience in a room complete with Digital Shoreditch Festival graffiti, comfy arm chair and log fire.  After being moved towards the exit door, it would suddenly open up, revealing a sheer drop hundreds of feet tall.

A thin plank of wood separated them and the roof of the building on the other side and they were encouraged to walk across, remaining on the plank.  For their return journey, an operator would manually send them falling to the ground.

Inition used a Microsoft Kinect for positional tracking and fans generated wind to enhance the sense of height. The whole experience was created within just one week.

The post Don’t look down! Inition explores VR Vertigo. appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Amidst the raucous pantomime of the big-ticket Next Generation console releases from Sony and Microsoft, a quieter glimpse of the future of gaming was being enjoyed. We take a look at the reaction to what many have dubbed this year’s real next gen experience.

A Little Perspective

I’m a gamer who’s now, shall we say, the wrong side of 30. I’ve been into gaming for most of my life and in that time I’ve read about or watched with fascination the reveals of just about every gaming system there’s ever been. Gaming and it’s associated technology has had me on the hook ever since my (super hip and trendy) Granddad showed me his Tie-Fighter simulator, coded in BASIC on the BBC Model B, back in the dim distant early 80′s. I’ve since watched in awe (and occasional horror)  as each successive computer and console generation has leapt beyond it’s predecessor in technical prowess and (with any luck) new gaming experiences.

I therefore had some perspective to draw upon whilst I consumed videos and articles about this years new generation of console hardware. After having deliberated quite a bit, I’ve decided that the Next Generation starts when Oculus say it does! After enduring days of squabbling and whining over DRM and ‘Always on requirements’ I decided that the industry and it’s commentators were actually largely happy bickering amongst themselves and their content partners. They’ll push the latest iteration of your favourite franchise at you, packing more pixels and more frames per second and hope you don’t notice that what you’re receiving is a warmed up slice of the same.

There was no sparkle, no revelation no jaw-dropping reveals and nothing to re-assure me that my chosen pastime hasn’t completely lost touch with what makes gaming great. There was no pixel-perfect version of Street Fighter 2, no Mode 7, no online revolution and if I’m honest , nothing that really and truly did anything new … except that there was.

In a small booth somewhere away from the E3 show floor, there was a device wowing industry veterans and hobbyist gamers alike. A new version of the Oculus Rift had appeared and those that had a chance to experience it were eager to share what they’d seen. The reactions encapsulated for me the essence of those revelatory reveals from E3 history and was the only time, depite owning an SD Dev Kit myself, that pang of longing to be there to share in a genuinely new gaming experience. Oculus had their new 1080p prototype to show off their recently announced Unreal Engine 4 integration.

The Oculus Rift at E3: Press and Industry Reaction

If you’d managed to filter out the noise generated by Microsoft’s and Sony’s hype machine, you’d have heard a very vocal group of journalists and gamers shouting about the Oculus Rift. More than that, what they seemed to be saying was that their short time with the device had eclipsed anything they’d been served via the Sony PS4 or the Microsoft XBox One. Collected below are a sample set of quotes, tweets and videos illustrating the impact Oculus had on this years show.

Peter Molyneux, Games Industry veteran, was unimpressed with the new consoles, but had nothing but praise for the Oculus Rift whilst speaking to Engadget [Skip to 10m 00s]:

EGMNow dubbed their time with the Rift and CCP games EVR “The True Future of Gaming”:

As I left the room of CCP Games my arms were covered entirely with goosebumps. In that room I had finally bore witness to something that most of us have been dreaming of since childhood, and someone was able to take that dream and perfect it in real life. That dream was pure virtual reality gaming, and the real-life creation to finally make it happen was the Oculus Rift.

The Verge, already familiar with the wonder the Rift is capable of remarked on the new HD prototype’s HR panel:

We played a game rendered in the newly integrated Unreal Engine 4, and from the snowflakes outside to the large, horned monster inside, details just pop in a way they never did before. It makes the world feel more immersive, more immediate.

The Examiner got it’s hands on the new HD prototype and was suitably amazed:

The controller allowed us to shoot bolts of light around the world. It was truly amazing how when you had the headset on and whenever you would move your head, whether it was up, down, behind you or side-to-side, the exact world was incredibly all around you, making you feel as if you were truly inside of it.

That was quite an experience, but once we put the new HD headset on, you could see the amazing difference. The world was much more detailed and whenever you would shoot a bolt of light, it would reveal how incredible it felt to have the headset on.

And finally, PC Gamer named CCP’s Oculus rift enabled space dogfighting demo ‘E3 Game of the Year‘ :

Logan: The next generation of gaming hardware was indeed present at E3 this year, but it wasn’t a console manufacturer that delivered it. Instead, it was Oculus VR, which not only brought a high-definition version of it’s Oculus Rift HMD (head-mounted display) to the show, but also sent me trotting over to the CCP booth to check out EVR. Seriously, I could have played this five minute demo on a loop for six hours. In fact, after just a couple minutes I was so dazzled watching the stars streak behind me over the canopy of my fighter that I turned to look back ahead of me just in time to catch a flash of grey before I slammed into a carrier. (At least it didn’t hurt.)

Reactions from the TwitterSphere

CCP’s demo of EVR, the space dogfighting tech demo built from the ground up with Oculus Rift support, was quietly blowing gamers away too, here’s a collection of Twitter reactions, courtesy of NeoGaf user YuShtink:

Jeff Rubenstein ‏@jeffrubenstein
Oculus Rift+Eve Online is one of the most incredible gaming experiences I’ve ever had. A must try if you ever get the opportunity.

Jayme ‏@onewingedkefka
Just saw EVR on the Oculus Rift. Amazeballs. I felt like I was actually in a spaceship dogfight. Now THAT’s the future.

Carolyn Rauber ‏@itsacarolyn
Holy cow. Oculus Rift is awesome. And I feel like the spatial processing part of my brain just went through a blender. #gls2013

Ben Silverman ‏@ben_silverman
Just had my first Oculus Rift OH SHIT moment. I literally yelled out OH SHIT in the middle of a demo. #ohshit

Sean Cargle ‏@CargleS
Just played @CCPGames EvR with the Oculus Rift. Hot damn. No space sim will ever be the same. @Beefjack

Lucy James ‏@lucyjamesgames
Oh man, just tried out the Oculus Rift at the CCP stand. It was incredible! Can’t wait to see more from it

Ryan McCaffrey ‏@DMC_Ryan
Oculus Rift? More like Oculus Holy Shiiiiiiit! The Eve Online VR tech demo was seriously next-level. I looked down & had a pilot’s body! #e3

Samuel_IGN ‏@Samuel_IGN
Eve VR is the coolest game at #E32013. Oculus Rift+Rogue Squadron. Holy shit.

Josh Daws ‏@JoshDaws
I’ve seen the future of gaming and it is called Oculus Rift. The promise of virtual reality finally delivered. So swag as the kids say. #e3

Rob Keyes ‏@rob_keyes
Oculus Rift changed my life. Thank you, @CCPGames.

Nick Capozzoli ‏@NickCapozzoli
CCP’s dogfighting Oculus Rift demo is absolutely sublime.

Ripper X ‏@Ripper__X
Just sat down with the Oculus VR headset and played a custom EVE game called EVR…OMG!! This is the future of gaming. @Oculus3D

Josh Augustine ‏@jaugustine
The Oculus Rift is incredible. And so is the flight sim death match game CCP built for it :) pic.twitter.com/rOUfoBlPQl

Dan Hindes ‏@dhindes
Just went hands-on with a 1080p Oculus Rift and CCP’s EVE VR space dogfighting game. I have seen the future

Dave Crooks ‏@dave_crooks
Finally got my hands on the oculus with ccps dog fighter game. I was skeptical, now I’m not. That shit was awesome.

Kenneth Price ‏@pricefilms
So far an oculus rift demo by the EVE online team may be the most impressive thing I’ve seen. Never would have thought… #E32013

Scott Craft ‏@iDTScottC
Just played some #EVR with Ben Heck, and to say that I’m officially sold on the Oculus Rift now is an understatement. #E3

Maxwell Roahrig ‏@mroahrig
Holy. Fuck. Oculus. #E3

David Ellis ‏@DavidEllis
Most jaw dropping I played all week was EVR, the Oculus Rift dogfighting demo. Most fun game was Titanfall. Destiny looked great as well.

John ‏@magaman
Checked out EVR at CCP, holy crap is it amazing on Oculus Rift amazing

Colin Moriarty ‏@notaxation
By the way, the best thing I saw at the show was EVE’s Oculus Rift space shooter. Thing is fucking nuts. That’s the future. Kudos,

Quinn Sullivan ‏@Soulibon
@CCPGames never ceases to amaze me. Their protoype for their EvEVR Oculus Rift game was a true next generation experience.

R. Bryant Francis ‏@RBryant2012
Just tried CCP’s Oculus Rift Dogfighting demo. AAAAAHHHHHH

shaun prescott ‏@shaun_prescott
Played Eve Online with Oculus Rift today. I want to live in virtual reality space. I am changed.

Peer Schneider ‏@PeerIGN
E3 is done. Immediate regret: wanted one more game of EVE VR using Oculus Rift! What a cool glimpse at the future.

Dan Ryckert ‏@DanRyckert
Tried the Unreal demo and EVR with Oculus Rift. The Rift is genuinely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen the industry produce.

Blake Rochkind ‏@BlakeRochkind
I will forever remember that at the end of the last day of E3 @rocket2guns and I went TO THE FUTURE and experienced Oculus EVE for 1st time.

Michael Grimm ‏@Pseudobread
I was a Oculus Rift doubter, but @ccpgames’ EVR flight combat game has made me a believer. Legitimately wowed. #E3

Nick Chester ‏@nickchester
I did, however, play CCP’s Eve Oculus Rift tech demo and that was a rad experience, for sure.

Strebeck ‏@Strebeck
@CCPGames quietly had the sickest demo at #E3. That Oculus Rift EveVR thing was freakin legit!

Next Gen consoles with Oculus Rift support?

Shuhei Yoshida, SCE head of Worldwide Studios

Perhaps somewhat ironically, the biggest endorsement of the Oculus Rift came from Sony. Speaking to Engadget at E3, Shuhei Yoshida (SCE head of Worldwide Studios)  said:

We’ve got a couple of the development kits, and I tried it out and I love it!

..as to whether that enthusiastic endorsement would ever materialise as actual support from the new Playstation 4 console he was somewhat more tight-lipped:

No comment

..said with a big smile on his face.

Future support for the Oculus Rift may well be a logical shoe-in for Sony. But I suspect it’ll be quite some time before we actually see HMDs shipping with PS4s. Console manufacturers can’t afford the luxury of throwing out technology as raw and untested as the Rift currently is. Even in it’s new 1080p guise the unit is far from being ready for your ‘average joe’. Potential long-term health effects (including nausea, dizziness) must be assessed and the simple potential safety hazards of wearing the things whilst flailing around in a game must be huge concerns for the larger manufacturers. Not to mention the fact that, as elegant as the Oculus Rift Dev Kits are, their support for those with less than perfect vision isn’t ideal.

So, for me, Oculus were the saviour of E3. Not only did they provide that ‘something new’ conspicuously absent elsewhere at the show this year, they continue to inspire those that try it. 2 years after John Carmack first demoed the technology for the first time, surely no one can have any doubts as to the potential impact OculusVR and their products will have on the industry. Whilst the big established brands hold on tight to the status quo, Palmer and his crew are bravely pioneering what they and many others perceive as the future of gaming. Here’s to E3 2014 and the real next-gen – Virtual Reality!

The post The Oculus Rift at E3 2013: The Real Next Generation of Gaming Hardware? appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Blackspace is an in-development Oculus Rift game by developer Pixel Foundry that ran an unfortunately unsuccessful Kickstarter back in September 2012, long before the Oculus Rift was in the hands of developers. Fresh activity on the game’s developer blog shows initial Oculus Rift support in Blackspace — will this great looking game make a comeback?

After raising only 34% of their $350,000 Kickstarter goal back in September, Blackspace developer Pixel Foundry went dark with this hopeful message on their official website:

We will continue working hard on the game! But, the release date will be pushed back a bit. We are hoping to release an early prototype as quick as we can to help fund the project. Hopefully that get the ball rolling and will give us the means to complete the game faster and with more features.

Now Pixel Foundry is finally breaking radio silence with a new post on their development blog talking about Blackspace Oculus Rift support; a new video shows early implementation:

Given that Blackspace uses a 3rd-person point-of-view, the head tracking aspect required an approach that is slightly different than how 1st-person games work with the Rift. The input to swivel the camera around the avatar is still handled by the regular 3rd-person camera rotation input (mouse or right stick on a gamepad), whereas the head tracking simply allows the camera to look around without changing its position relative to the avatar. This approach emulates a very natural game interface for players that are already familiar with standard 3rd-person game control mechanics

More at the dev blog.

What is Blackspace?

Back when I covered Blackspace in September of last year, I called it a “hybrid-RTS”.

Blackspace has players piloting a versatile craft on unique asteroids which can be mined for useful materials. The player will use these minerals to build up their base and defenses to withstand attach from invaders.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for space games, but I think they’ve nailed the game’s atmosphere. Stark shadows cast against the pale asteroid surface really do a great job of emulating photos I’ve seen of the moon and other barren celestial bodies. I’m definitely excited to give this game a whirl on the Oculus Rift.

The original Kickstarter video gives a good idea of what the game could be:

Personally, I think the concept is awesome and the game looks to have much promise. I’m happy to see this glimpse of hope that Blackspace will rise from the dead. Now that a decent chunk of developers have their Oculus Rift developer kits, I’ve got a feeling that another Blackspace Kickstarter would have a hard time failing.

The post Blackspace is Back — New Video Shows Early Oculus Rift Support appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Oculus Rift E3 news: 1080p HD prototype

Comparing the Oculus Rift Dev Kit (left) and the 1080p prototype (right). See fullscreen image and note the greatly reduced screen-door effect. Source: Tested.com

Undoubtedly, the biggest piece of news was the Oculus Rift HD prototype that was unveiled by Oculus VR on the show floor last Tuesday. Upgraded with a 1080p, 5 inch display, the HD prototype “makes the world feel more immersive, more immediate”, according to The Verge. IGN reports that the screen-door effect is “significantly reduced”, Engadget‘s Michael Gorman agrees:

“Surface textures could be seen in much higher fidelity (…) and the general detail of the entire environment was greatly improved”

Paired with a more vibrant, possibly IPS, panel, the HD version of the Oculus Rift even seems to be good enough for pleasant movie viewing experience. Oculus VR showed confidence into the display’s fidelity by demoing VR Cinema 3D by Joo-Hyung Ahn, a demo that takes you to your own personal 3D cinema. According to most testers, the new 1080p prototype offers a pleasant movie experience – which gives hope for mainstream Oculus Rift use outside of the realm of gaming.

EVR now called EVE-VR, stuns E3 visitors

After unveiling EVR at the EVE Online Fanfest a few weeks ago and covering the history of CCP’s small side-project in an insightful community blog post, the icelandic game studio showed EVE-VR at E3 as well.

Unfortunately, the game still ran on the Oculus Rift Dev Kits, but nevertheless fascinated players: Reddit users (including Chris Dycus, Hardware Developer at Oculus VR) are reporting EVE-VR as “one of the best Rift experiences” and pocket-lint.com even goes one step further in its praise for EVE-VR:

“There is no easier way to describe it other than by saying this is what it must be like to fly a spaceship. Really.”

Unfortunately, CCP hasn’t announced any plans at E3 to release the game to the public. If you want to show your support, visit the still ongoing petition to release EVE-VR to the public.

Sony confirms interest in the Oculus Rift, Shuhei Yoshida “loves” it

Sony has shown interest in the Oculus Rift while denying Rift support for Playstation 4. Above: Console rival Microsoft is rumored to work on their own Augmented reality glasses – under the codename “Project Fortaleza”.

Another very interesting Oculus Rift E3 news bit comes from an Engadget interview with Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios – A confirmation that the Japanese electronics giant has interest in the Oculus Rift: “We’ve got a couple of the development kits, and I tried it out and I love it,” he told Engadget at E3 2013.

After being asked whether Playstation 4 supports Oculus Rift, Yoshida denies:  “No, it doesn’t”. Further inquiries were greeted with a “No comment”, but Yoshida seems to be a fan – During CES in January, he already tweeted about the Oculus Rift: “I say Oculus, you say _ _ _ _?” alluding to a VergeCast that was recorded during the exhibition.

Of course this is in no way a confirmation for Oculus Rift support in the Playstation 4, but the fact that Sony has multiple Dev Kits is a very strong indicator that the console makers are watching Oculus VR closely. On the same note, Microsoft is rumored to plan their own gaming glasses with Project Fortaleza for the Xbox One and could very well take inspiration from the Rift’s current success.

We will be watching the LA exhibition center for any more Oculus Rift E3 news, so stay tuned to Road to VR in the coming days.

The post Oculus Rift E3 News Roundup: 1080p Prototype, EVE-VR, and Sony’s Love for the Oculus Rift appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Hat tip to our pal Kevin Williams of the DNA Association who tracked down what could very well be the Oculus Rift 1080p prototype display.

We’re looking at a 5.5-inch 1080p display from LG. From photos of the unit, we can clearly see that the Oculus Rift 1080p prototype uses a smaller display than the current developer kit (Dk1), which uses a 7-inch screen. Here are the specs of the display in question (data from Panelook.com):

• Brand: LG Display
  

  The current Oculus Rift developer kit (DK1) 7-inch display. Photo credit – David Hodson | iFixit (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)

• Model: LG550WF1-SD01
• Type: LTPS TFT-LCD
• Size: 5.5 inch
• Resolution: 1920×1080
• Weight: 20.23g
• Display Mode: IPS, Normally Black, Transmissive
• Brightness: 450 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
• Display Colors: 16.7M (8-bit)
• Response Time: 17/18ms (Tr/Td)
• Viewing Angle: 80/80/80/80 (L/R/U/D)
• Frequency: 60Hz
• Lamp Type: WLED
• Signal Interface: MIPI (4 data lanes)
• Input Voltage: 5.0V
• Surface: Antireflection

So what makes me think that this is the one? Aside from the resolution and size, the 60Hz frequency gives us a clue.

Engadget’s hands-on with the Oculus Rift 1080p prototype notes that, “After looking around a snowy mountain stronghold inhabited by a fire lord in low res, we switched to the exact same demo running at 60 fps on the HD prototype device…” (my emphasis).

To me, it doesn’t sound like the author of that piece just instinctively knew that the demo was running at 60 FPS. Rather, it was probably a talking point from Oculus during the demo. This coincides nicely with the panel having a 60Hz frequency.

We also know that the colors have been improved, which may be from the new display using IPS — which is indeed a feature of the LG panel.

Furthermore, Oculus’ VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, confirms that the panel is LCD in an interview with Tested.com, another match for the LG panel (the potential alternative being an OLED display).

And while I’d love to say that you could pop this display into your DK1, Mitchell confirms in the same interview that Oculus is using a custom display driver; even if you could get your hands on the display, you wouldn’t be able to use it!

The post Is This the Oculus Rift 1080p Prototype Panel? appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Recently I spoke with Jeroen Van den Bosch, CEO and Founder of Wicked Paradise, the world’s first erotic virtual reality game. Bosch updates us on the game’s latest progress and shares some early prototypes of the game’s vision.

Notice: portions of this article contain sexually explicit content and is not intended for viewing by anyone under 18 years of age.

Jeroen Van den Bosch actually began this project as Sinful Robot, which made the rounds a few months back. Shortly thereafter, the project’s biggest investor vanished, along with their funding.

Bosch and his crew are back under a new name, Wicked Paradise, and are intent on creating the “world’s first erotic virtual reality adventure game.” Bosch tells me that the team is in “negotiations with several funding options so things are looking a lot better…” The work of Bosch and his team could be the beginning of a virtual reality pornography industry.

Wicked Paradise Interview with CEO and Founder Jeroen Van den Bosch

Notice: All visual content contained in this interview are technical tests and not representative of final game quality.

Road to VR: Tell us a bit about yourself, how did you get to where you are now?

Bosch: I have been working in the game industry for almost 20 years now but I’m actually an Electronics Engineer by degree. I have been a huge gaming fanatic (Playing Pong!) since I was a little boy growing up in Belgium but my biggest passion has always been Virtual Reality. I’m a big fan of science fiction books and movies so the endless possibilities of virtual reality always sparked my imagination.

Road to VR: How did you find yourself working on an erotic VR game?

Bosch: How did I find myself working on an erotic VR game? I was always fascinated by the fact that we have hundreds of beautifully crafted shooter games but not a single well designed erotic video game. Sure there have been some attempts in the past, but they all have been ridiculously bad. There is nothing sexy about unrealistic models that move like rusty robots with faulty servos. If you want to genuinely create an erotic atmosphere in a videogame you need to convincingly cross the uncanny valley.

Also, story and setting is everything. The non-explicit sex scenes in Mass Effect are much more erotic than current available explicit adult video games. This is because you care about the characters in Mass Effect. A player will never feel very attracted to a virtual character if he or she doesn’t care. I believe that virtual reality is the perfect medium for an erotic video game because you can make the player feel really connected to your computer characters.

So when the Oculus Rift kickstarter happened, I realized the opportunity has come to put my plan in motion, so I did. I moved to Irvine, founded a company, secured financing and started developing the world’s first erotic virtual reality experience.

Road to VR: What’s your previous VR or game development background? Have you worked on other erotic titles?

Bosch: I haven’t worked on erotic titles before, but I have been a product manager for various gaming titles, mostly in the mobile gaming space. One of my titles was NFL Rivals (Backbreaker), a game with very realistic animations. Working on that title made me realize that the animation technology that is currently available is powerful enough to produce animations of such a quality that it looks lifelike, which is what I was waiting for!

Road to VR: Can you give us a summary of the development journey of the game so far? I understand you were on your way to development before you ran into some unexpected funding issues and eventually changed names.

Bosch: The life of an entrepreneur is never easy, especially when you are trying to create something that hasn’t been done before. Early this year I was up and running with Sinful Robot but suddenly my main investor disappeared from the earth and froze all funding. I don’t know what happened but it left me in a difficult situation. It took us awhile to bounce back but I’m happy to announce that we are currently very much alive and kicking again with Wicked Paradise!

Road to VR: What’s the current status of Wicked Paradise?

Bosch: We are in pre-production, basically doing lots of research and trying out different techniques to see how we can achieve optimal immersion inside a Virtual Reality environment. It’s difficult, because it hasn’t really been done before. I don’t think there are many people walking on this planet that have seen a naked woman inside a virtual reality before, so it’s pretty much uncharted terrain we are wandering into. But, so far we learned a lot and it has been tremendous fun!

One of the biggest questions I had before we started on this journey was: “Can a virtual woman inside a virtual world actually make you genuinely horny?” Well, I’m happy to let you know that the answer to that question is “yes”!

Road to VR: How big is the Wicked Paradise team?

Bosch: In total we have currently 8 industry professionals involved with this project ranging from 3D modelers to motion capture experts. We’ll be hiring more people in the coming months once we go into full production. Keep an eye out on our website if you are interested in joining our team!

Road to VR: What game engine will the final game will be based on?

Bosch: What you have seen so far is done in the Unreal Engine. We are still experimenting with different engines, including our own in-house engine. It’s too early to tell what engine we will end up using.

Wicked Paradise Technical Test Video (Warning: Explicit Content, 18+)

Road to VR: The animation looks great — are you using motion capture?

Bosch: Thanks! We are definitely using full body and facial motion capturing for our animation, it’s very expensive but it’s the only way to do it right.

Road to VR: Is the model (seen in the video) a pre-existing asset or was it built specifically for this game? Are you using any sort of body scanning to ensure anatomical accuracy?

Bosch: The model we are using in the test environment is a pre-existing asset we bought from Lee Perry-Smith, who is doing very impressive work on creating lifelike human replicas!

For our final models we will be using the most advanced body scanning systems that are available to us to make sure we get as close as possible to real human replicas. It’s difficult, but I believe it can be done!

Road to VR: Will the game cater only to heterosexual males, or will content be available for LGBT as well?

Bosch: We are actually going to deliver the games in episodic format, just like The Walking Dead game. So we will have different series offering different experiences. The initial series will be from a hetero male pov but we will also deliver series from a hetero female pov as well as series with LGBT themes. It’s my goal to eventually make erotic VR experiences that everyone can enjoy.

Road to VR: What kind of reactions have you seen to the concept of the game?

Bosch: Well so far I only had positive reactions, and that really gives me extra energy and excitement for this project. One of the more unexpected comments I got was from the disabled community, where a caregiver said that these erotic VR experiences could be an amazing asset to help disabled people obtain a more exciting sex life.

———–

Thanks to Jeroen Van den Bosch for his time!

We’ll be following along with the development of Wicked Paradise. There are bound to be different reactions to this concept. What do our readers think? Is virtual reality pornography good, bad… inevitable? Let us know in the comments.

The post Exclusive: Sneak Peek and Interview — Wicked Paradise, The World’s First Erotic VR Game (video: NSFW) appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Today at E3, the massive annual gaming convention, a new Oculus Rift 1080p prototype is being shown running with Unreal Engine 4. Here’s all the info we gathered so far.

See Also: What Does it Look Like in the Oculus Rift?

Oculus Rift 1080p Prototype

Photo credit – Engadget

Everyone was expecting a higher resolution Rift at some point, but we weren’t expecting to see it so soon. The new Oculus Rift prototype is using a 1080p display. Based on a picture from IGN (above), it looks like they’re gone down from a 7-inch screen to a 5-inch screen, a size that they had originally intended to use.

Assuming a 5-inch display, the new 1080p panel would have a pixel density of approximately 440 PPI, more than twice the density of the current Oculus Rift developer kit (215 PPI). As currently, the display is divided in half for each eye. This makes the effective resolution 960×1080, compared to 640×800 of the current model. While this still doesn’t take the Oculus into the realm of true 1080p HD gaming, it is a big improvement in visual fidelity, about 2x the current development kit.

The latest official update from Oculus says that new display “greatly reduc[es] the screen-door effect seen in the development kit. The brightness, contrast, and color are also improved. All of these changes come together to ratchet the sense of immersion to an entirely new level.”

Comparison between current developer kit (left) and 1080p prototype (right)

The Verge’s David Pierce took a look into the new Oculus Rift 1080p prototype. Oculus is showing off integration with Unreal Engine 4. They’re showing some environments from the ‘Elemental’ demo, seen below:

Oculus is also showing off the VR Cinema 3D demo with a trailer of Man of Steel.

Oculus Rift 1080p Dev Kit 2 in 2013?

Earlier this year at GTC 2013 we saw a hint that Oculus was planning a second development kit for “Q2-Q3 2013″.

Photo credit – PC Perspective

Seeing as we’re almost into Q3, I think it’s a safe bet that it’ll be at least until Q4, if not into 2014, for a 1080p version, and that’s if Oculus even plans to release a second dev kit.

While Oculus is showing off the new 1080p Rift prototype to the press at E3, they currently have “no solid plans” to release it, according to IGN. The fact that we see two cables coming out of the new unit (one for display output, the other for tracker data) tells us that this decidedly still in protoype status — the current Rift development kit has one custom cable for both data streams.

“The 1080p prototype isn’t a product — this isn’t necessarily the display (or even the resolution) that we’ll use for the consumer version — it’s simply a taste of what’s coming,” wrote Oculus in their latest update.

Will the New Screen Adapt to the Current Development Kit?

Photo credit – Engadget

Those who know the Oculus Rift dev kit well will note that the new prototype appears to be using the same front portion as the current dev kit, with only the screen portion swapped out. While we’d love to see an upgrade available for existing dev kit owners, we doubt it’ll happen.

Oculus chose to directly connect the display on the current dev kit to the control box. An upgrade would essentially mean replacing nearly all of the hardware, making it not much of an upgrade to begin with. We would have preferred to see a connector attachment from the display to the control box for this reason, and also to extend the cable length when necessary.

The post Everything We Know About the Oculus Rift 1080p Prototype appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Two weeks prior to their now-successful Kickstarter, Virtuix brought the Omni VR treadmill to LA to show to a room full of VR enthusiasts. The full session has been posted online. In addition to seeing the Omni in action, you’ll see Virtuix CEO Jan Goetgeluk and the venerable Simon Solotko answer questions about the omnidirectional treadmill and philosophize about VR.

Above you can see a summary video of the event. Below you can find the full event (1 hour and 23 minutes). I actually watched the whole thing — well worth it for the interesting Q&A.

Those following along in the VR space will recognize James Iliff and Nathan Burba, Producer and Director, respectively, of Project Holodeck. They stopped by the Virtuix Omni Live event to see it in person. I asked Iliff what he thought.

“The Omni is pretty cool! We are on the other side of the camp regarding the VR locomotion problem, but as far as omni-directional treadmills are concerned I think its a breakthrough solution.  We built Project Holodeck based around the idea that two or more players can intimately share a space together and physically / virtually interact with each other’s avatars.  Locomotion devices are inevitably isolating – which is why we haven’t favored it on our own game development.  But if you want to walk / run long distances in VR by yourself, the Omni is great for that,” Iliff told me.

He told me that the Omni is a breakthrough for omnidirectional treadmills, even outside of gaming.

“Outside games or entertainment, the Omni is an a big step forward in terms of omni-directional treadmills themselves – this is something scientists and engineers have been trying to work out for decades, and this new passive inexpensive solution should work great for many researchers as well.”

Project Holodeck was originally going to use a multi-Kinect system (four, to be exact) to track player movement in their platform, but found that the Kinect wasn’t suitable for their purpose; it works well for the Omni’s purpose though.

“The use of the Kinect (or an IR camera) with the Omni is a great example for what the Kinect is good for – being a gestural interface.  The Kinect isn’t animating the players’ avatar in real time, that would require much more precise tracking.  The Kinect is reading broad leg gestures and translating them into keyboard strokes, which is more like what the Kinect is designed to do.”

See All Virtuix Omni News

The post Virtuix Shows off Omni VR Treadmill to Live Crowd (video) appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Titans of Space is a must-try Oculus Rift demo. I just got back from a trek that I didn’t expect to be able to take in the year 2013. I visited every planet in the solar system, and then some. Titans of Space provides a sense of scale that instills wonder.

If there was ever any question that virtual reality could be used for education, this is the answer. In Titans of Space, I zoomed around the solar system, learning about every planet and their moons along the way. While a textbook could have told me the same facts, the impression of the experience won’t soon let me forget them.

Titans of Space is a short guided tour of a few planets and stars, the point of which is to give the player a sense of scale of just how big these planets and stars are compared to each other.

It’s not meant to be realistic, but more on the surreal holographic side. Everything you see is shrunk down to 1 millionth of their actual size, which means you will see Earth as a 12.7-meter-wide holographic ball, rather than the giant 12756km-wide ball of rock that it is,”  write the developers, CrunchyWood.

Even at a scall of 1:1 million, the sense of scale is amazing. The planets are created with high-resolution imagery, and you can zoom in to get a detailed look.

Download Titans of Space Oculus Rift Demo

The Titans of Space experience is awe inspiring — if you have an Oculus Rift, I insist that you try it. You can find the latest download Titans of Space at the developer’s page (don’t miss the PayPal donate button at the bottom).

The developer recommends that you run the game at 1920×1080 for an optimal experience:

Can’t stress this enough: use high resolution for this. 1920×1080 looks 100x better than 1280×800. So even if you have an old laptop, choose 1920×1080. Titans of Space will automatically strip away unnecessary eye-candy in order to reach a decent frame rate (if it can), and with all the extras turned off, it will still look pretty good in the Rift as long as you’re in 1920×1080.

If you have a Razer Hydra, you can use it for positional tracking to lean around in your seat, further enhancing the experience:

If you have a Razer Hydra and wish to make use of it for positional body tracking (for leaning in your seat), you’ll have to figure out a way to affix the right Hydra controller to your upper torso. After you have done so, lean back in your chair and hit the Start button on the right Hydra controller (while Titans of Space is running) to start tracking your body position. (Note that you can still use the other Hydra controller to zoom/advance to the next tour stop.) If you find your body position drifting, you can reset it again using Start button (when leaning back in your chair).

Don’t miss out on this one!

The post Titans of Space: Waltz Through the Solar System in One of the Best Oculus Rift Demos Yet appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

ARAIG (which stands for As Real As It Gets) is a gaming impact vest designed to immerse you in games with haptic feedback. The unit, which recently took to Kickstarter for funding, could be an excellent addition to any virtual reality setup.

The basic idea of the gaming impact vest is to take rumbling controllers to the next level; rather than just shake your hands, why not shake your whole body? And while you’re at it, why not keep things immersive by shaking the part of your body that corresponds to where you’re in-game character is feeling it?

The gaming impact vest is not a new idea. A company called TN Games has been making one for some time. It houses air bladders which are rapidly inflated with a USB compressor.

The idea may not be brand new, but ARAIG is doing it big. They’ve gone above and beyond previous products with 48 vibrators — covering the front, back, and both sides — and four ‘stims’ (also known as electric muscle stimulation, or EMS): electrodes which rapidly tense your muscles like you may have seen in some contemporary workout devices. The creators of ARAIG note that stims is FDA approved and doesn’t cause pain.

They go one step further by putting a surround sound system directly on the vest.

While some find the inclusion of the speakers odd, I would say it is desirable for using ARAIG in virtual reality — an all encompassing vest means less wires, more portability, and faster setup. In fact, ARAIG would probably work well with something like Project Holodeck which is already using a self-contained backpack system (though the sound engine would need to compensate for player rotation)

As someone who cranks surround sound up to what I liked to call “real-world volume,” and installed a tactile transducer in his couch, I know exactly what ARAIG seeks to deliver, and I want it.

In conjunction with something like the Virtuix Omni and the Oculus Rift, ARAIG could be a vital part of the VR puzzle.

“Haptics are the next step to augment the VR experience even more. We are excited to see ARAIG on Kickstarter and look forward to trying the suit together with the Omni,” said Jan Geotgeluk, CEO of Virtuix.

The creators of ARAIG say that the unit is multi-platform and will “work at a fundamental level for all games already outputting vibration feedback and sound from the game.”

Similar to the Omni, it’s possible to map existing game queues to ARAIG, but the best experiences will need some custom attention with an SDK that the company will make available.

It’s one thing for your controller to shake when firing an M1 Abrams tank in Battlefield 3 — it’s something entirely different to feel the rumble on your back as you drive it and have your entire body shake when firing. Outside of a tank, nearby explosions and small arms fire could be amazingly intense. Even shooting your own gun while shouldered could rumble your real shoulder and add to the immersion. All of this would rely on custom implementation, but it could be done.

The ARAIG Kickstarter offers up some interesting possibilities for custom game integration:

Think of the different ways this would feel if you were hit by a single bullet from a sniper rifle, multiple bullets from an SMG or just the feeling of driving in a tank or vehicle. Furthermore, by creating total coverage it gives developers the ability to alter the sensations that particular actions or weapons will create in their games. For example a high powered sniper rifle might create a very strong impact at one location; a plasma rifle might create an average impact at a particular location and then spread out across the body; a weapon might have a poisonous effect which slowly moves from one location of the body to the next and if you don’t stop it in time it could kill you; and even depending on health or shields in the game at a particular time the intensity may be more or less to let you know whether it just ricocheted off your armour or pierced through and hit something more vital. Thus the vibratory sensations that ARAIG provides allows for complete coverage of sensations across the torso and upper arms to allow for a vast amount of sensations for developers to use to differentiate their products.

Tough spots for the ARAIG will definitely be developer support and price.

So far it looks like they’ve got a functioning prototype, but we’ve yet to see a demo of the unit played with a real game.

ARAIG Kickstarter prices started at $299 for early birds, and scale up in tiers from there. The creators are looking for a lofty $900,000 goal which won’t be reached until around 2535 ARAIGs are ordered. They expect the earliest units to be delivered more than a year from now, in December 2014.

After the Kickstarter, the company says that that price will go up to $499.

Price aside, I’d personally love to see ARAIG happen and think it could add massively to VR immersion, but it won’t get there without our support.

The post ARAIG Gaming Impact Vest Completes Another Piece of the VR Puzzle, Needs Your Help on Kickstarter appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.