At a special launch event today, Niantic announced it’s opening up the Lightship AR Development Kit (ARDK) platform, a software development kit with the kinds of tools the company uses to make Pokémon Go’s ‘world-scale’ gameplay possible. And to attract third-party developers to the platform, it’s also announced $20 million fund which it hopes will kickstart AR development.
Tales from Soda Island, an animated VR series built in Quill, just released its latest free chapter which takes users on another wild and beautiful voyage through a world of pure imagination.
M Theory and Oddboy announced that their time-traveling VR adventure title Wanderer is officially launching on PSVR and PC VR headsets on January 27th, 2022.
Meta (formerly Facebook) is offering up $700,000 in cash prizes this month in an XR hackathon aimed at developers and creators from all over the world. The objective: choose between Spark AR and Presence Platform and build something cool and useful.
Blade & Sorcery: Nomad almost feels like a work of digital wizardry, as it brings a standalone version of the hit physics-based combat sandbox exclusively to Quest 2 for the first time. Although it doesn’t feel as visually visceral as its bigger brother for PC VR headsets, which is notably still in Early Access, it serves up mostly the same physics-based carnage that will very likely bust some TVs in the process.
We’re just one week past the Connect 2021 event where Meta (formerly Facebook) laid out its grand vision for both XR and the metaverse, including rebranding its entire company around the concept. The event was heavy on vision with a lot of the near-term news being more disparate. I sat down with host Kent Bye on the Voices of VR Podcast to unpack what it all means for the future.
Lynx is a Paris-based startup building the Lynx R-1, a standalone mixed reality headset that’s small and lightweight. The headset’s Kickstarter reached its goal 15 hours after launch and is still ongoing, having recently doubled its funding goal. You can pledge for a unit starting at $500.
Microsoft is making a strong bid to bolster its version of the metaverse as it looks to roll out 3D avatars and immersive meetings for its Microsoft Teams communication platform.
The Twilight Zone is getting a VR game, and it’s slated to release soon on Quest and PSVR.
During the Connect 2021 conference last week, Meta Reality Labs’ Chief Scientist, Michael Abrash, offered a high-level overview of some of the R&D that’s behind the company’s multi-billion dollar push into XR and the metaverse.
It seems Quest owners are about to get a healthy dose of new features in the v34 update, something Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says will bring the previously leaked ‘Space Sense’ Guardian system, push notifications in VR from Android phones, and mixed reality app publishing to both the Quest Store and App Lab.
Meta (formerly Facebook) announced a mixed reality headset at its Connect 2021 dev conference last week—code named Project Cambria. The company’s official teaser video is supposed to leave a little something to the imagination, however leaked 3D models have surfaced now that seems to show a convincing view of the headset.
Last month HP announced that it was releasing a new Reverb G2 headset with some tweaks designed to improve field-of-view and controller coverage. We got out hands on the new headset and put it through the paces.
A sperate, standalone version of the PC VR combat sandbox Blade & Sorcery is going to bring its physics-based carnage to Quest 2 on November 4th.
