Jason Jones is the co-founder of Bungie, the legendary gaming studio behind franchises like Halo and Destiny. In a pre-show interview ahead of today’s Destiny 2 Showcase, Jones professed a sincere belief that AR and VR (XR) technology is going to radically disrupt smartphones and TV hardware.
I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar is a single-player puzzle game that, true to its name, is a direct extension of the hit spy-flavored VR puzzler launched in 2016, tasking you again to foil the evil machinations of the shadowy Zoraxis corporation. Like the first, it offers up engrossing multi-step puzzles in a surprisingly fleshed out universe that feels much larger than the half-dozen rooms the game actually serves up. Owing to its clever and intuitive puzzle design and high production value, I Expect You to Die 2 makes for a fun few hours to spend for VR newcomers and pros alike.
XR startup StatusPRO has announced it has raised a $5.2 million seed investment. While the company hasn’t fully revealed its product, it says it’s using AR and VR to create immersive sports training and gaming experiences. Teasing a partnership with NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson, the company claims its tech will usher in “a new era of football.”
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (2018) isn’t what you’d call a lazy VR port of the now decade-old open-world RPG, but it certainly leaves much to the imagination when it comes to the sort of immersion you’d expect to see in native VR titles. Like all things Skyrim, mods let you improve the experience in ways Bethesda simply won’t (like, ever), and a few mods in particular have done a lot for Skyrim VR on PC that will have you feeling much more at home in Tamriel.
Windlands (2016), one of the founding pioneers of modern VR gaming, has made the quiet leap to Oculus Quest this past week where it lives on to finally serve up its dizzying heights and grappling hook-based movement scheme to the standalone headset.
The latest update to SteamVR, version 1.19.7, adds a great new feature which lets you float desktop or application windows inside of your VR games so that they’re always in view.
The latest version of Unreal Engine 4, version 4.27, brings “production-ready” support for OpenXR. The change comes just in time for Oculus developers, as the company recently announced it’s fully moving open to the OpenXR standard for VR development going forward.
UK-based VR studio XR Games, known for its recently released Zombieland VR game, announced this week that it has raised an additional £1.5 million (~$2 million) investment to expand its studio with 20 new jobs and a focus on original IP.
The United States Federal Trade Commission today announced it has filed an amended complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, renewing its effort to sue Facebook over alleged anticompetitive practices. The initial lawsuit was filed in late 2020 and was tossed out back in June by a judge which argued that the FTC failed to make its case. The Commission is seeking a remedy which includes spinning out Instagram and WhatsApp. Oculus, the company’s XR organization, is not directly mentioned in the suit, but the amended complaint brings the “metaverse” into the picture for the first time.
As far as live-action VR video is concerned, volumetric video is the gold standard for immersion. And for static scene capture, the same holds true for photogrammetry. But both methods have limitations that detract from realism, especially when it comes to ‘view-dependent’ effects like specular highlights and lensing through translucent objects. Research from Thailand’s Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology shows a stunning view synthesis algorithm that significantly boosts realism by handling such lighting effects accurately.
Facebook today is surprise-launching a new app called Horizon Workrooms, a virtual collaboration space that connects both VR and video chat users. With the ability to bring a user’s PC or Mac desktop into the virtual room, the app takes a big step toward turning Quest 2 into a collaborative productivity device.
VR developer ForeVR Games today announced it has raised an additional $7 million in seed capital, bringing its total capital raise to $8.5 million. The studio is focused on bringing classic real world games—like bowling—into VR with an emphasis on social play.
Facebook today announced that its XR conference, Facebook Connect (previously called Oculus Connect) will be held on October 28th. This is the second year running that the event has been in an online format due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Carrier Command 2 launched earlier this month alongside a separate version including full VR support. While the non-VR version of the game sits at a ‘Mostly Positive’ 75% user rating, the VR version quickly tanked to a 27% ‘Mostly Negative’ rating. A desire to cram VR into the game with limited testing and a lack of feedback from experienced VR players is the root cause. While developer Geometa is working hard to deliver fixes, this avoidable stumble right out of the gate hampers the odds of success for the VR version.
Myst (2020) developer Cyan Worlds announced today that its VR remake of the game is finally due to launch on PC later this month.
