Varjo, the Helsinki, Finland-based creators of high pixel density VR/AR headsets for enterprise, today announced it’s closed a $54 million Series C funding round. The company says it will use the funds to accelerate the global expansion and development of its XR hardware and software products.
Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, today announced that it’s laying off 250 employees, apparently shuttering the team responsible for most of its web-focused XR development. Hubs, the company’s web-based social VR app, will continue forward.
Noda is a ‘mind-mapping’ app that uses VR’s unique affordances for spatial brainstorming and information organization. Launched initially Early Access in 2017, later this year the 1.0 release of the app will add multi-user functionality and switch to a freemium model with core functionality free for everyone. A Quest version of the game is planned for release in 2021.
Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing is a VR racing game based on the popular anime, and it’s launching first on Oculus Quest on October 13th, 2020.
The Valve Index supply seems to be normalizing somewhat after the big COVID-19 world manufacturing slowdown, as all supported countries are now seeing shipping dates ranging from just two to four weeks on some packages.
Facebook Reality Labs, the company’s R&D division, has been leading the charge on making virtual reality avatars realistic enough to cross the dreaded ‘uncanney valley’. New research from the group aims to support novel facial expressions so that your friends will accurately see your silly faces VR.
The end for Oculus Go is nigh. The latest Oculus SDK (v19/1.51) no longer supports the company’s first true standalone VR headset.
Firefox Reality, Mozilla’s made-for-VR web browser, has been available on standalone devices for some time now, featuring support for Oculus Quest, Oculus Go, HTC Vive Focus, and Pico standalones. Now Mozilla has brought its WebXR-capable browser to PC VR headsets with its new PC Preview version.
Star Wars: Vader Immortal, a well regarded narrative action game first released as an Oculus exclusive, was earlier this year announced for PSVR. Now the Star Wars: Vader Immortal PSVR release date is confirmed for August 25th.
Hitman III, the next game in the long running stealth action franchise, has been confirmed to include optional PSVR support for the entire game and World of Assassination trilogy.
Ever wonder how VR tracking systems really stack up? A research and engineering group called the Virtual Dimension Center (VDC) in Fellbach, Germany conducted a study recently that reveals just how accurate some of the top VR headset’s are when it comes to tracking their respective motion controllers.
Beat Saber has often been described as being ‘like Dance Dance Revolution but for VR’, and it seems that couldn’t have been more prophetic, because here we are with the FeetSaber mod which basically turns the game into DDR.
While there’s a handful of VR-compatible flight simulator games out there, few of them are made from the ground up for VR—and none quite like VTOL VR. Originally launched in Early Access in 2017, the 1.0 version of the game has finally been cleared for takeoff.
Dreams (2020), the VR-compatible game-maker tool suite, has unleashed a ton of creativity since it launched on PS4 earlier this year. You may be (very wisely) planning on skipping the trip to Disneyland this summer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a head-first dive into the classic Indiana Jones ride with the help of Dreams PSVR mode.
