Oculus CTO: Last Year’s Keynote Hints Upcoming Announcements, But ‘many pain points remain unresolved’

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Image courtesy Facebook

John Carmack doesn’t mince words. The legendary developer, who for several years held the role of Oculus CTO but now maintains a less formal “consulting CTO” arrangement, says that his keynote presentation at last year’s Facebook Connect conference foreshadowed some of the announcements that can be expected at the event next week. But the announcements won’t come without some personal reservations as “many of the challenges and pain points for me still remain unresolved,” he says.

Facebook Expands Access to ‘Venues’ Beta Ahead of Connect Next Week

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Image courtesy Facebook

Facebook dropped the Oculus prefix for its social VR event viewing platform, rebranding it to simply Venues—another ostensible move to minimize the Oculus name (eg: Facebook Connect now, not Oculus Connect). Now the company is widening access to Venues in preparation for their upcoming flagship social VR offering, Facebook Horizon, which will likely have a bigger reveal at Connect this year.

‘Until You Fall’ to Release on PSVR & Oculus Quest Later This Month

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Image courtesy Schell Games

The VR hack-and-slash roguelite Until You Fall may still be in Early Access on SteamVR headsets for a bit longer, however developers Schell Games today announced that a 1.0 version of the game is set to launch later this month on PSVR and Quest.

‘Vacation Simulator’ Takes on the Gig Economy in ‘Back to Job’ Update Today

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Vacation Simulator (2019), Owlchemy Labs’ laid back sequel to the madcap VR hit Job Simulator (2016), is getting its first big DLC drop today on SteamVR headsets and Oculus Quest.

‘Modbox’ 2.0 Overhaul Brings Powerful Tools to the VR Game Creation Sandbox

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Image courtesy Alientrap

It’s been a while since we heard about Modbox, the Early Access game creation suite for AR and VR headsets. Now the long wait is over, as the Modbox 2.0 update is here, which arrives free to all owners of the original version.

HTC Vive Focus with Next-Gen XR2 Chipset Appears on Geekbench

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Image courtesy Qualcomm

A newly posted Geekbench score may point to what HTC has up their sleeves next for Vive Focus, the company’s class of standalone VR headsets.

Casual 3D Puzzle Game ‘Cubism’ Set to Launch Next Week on Quest, Rift, & Steam

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Cubism is a casual VR puzzle that plays a bit like a 3D version of Tetris. The game is due to launch on September 17th on Quest, Rift, and Steam. A future update will add hand-tracking on Quest.

PlayStation Store PSVR Spotlight Sale Brings Big Discounts to Over 100 VR Games

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PSVR & PS Move controllers | Image courtesy PlayStation

If you were saving up to buy a PlayStation 5 when it launches this holiday season, you may need to save a little more, as one of the biggest PSVR game sales to date just kicked off today. Over 100 VR games are currently on sale, which goes from now until September 24th.

‘Echo Combat’ Not Currently in the Works for Oculus Quest

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Image courtesy Ready at Dawn

If you were hoping for the Rift-exclusive team shooter Echo Combat (2018) to eventually make its way to Quest after developers Ready at Dawn ported the zero-G sports game Echo VR, you’d better not hold your breath.

Someone Recreated ‘Fall Guys’ in VR and It’s Actually Awesome

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Image courtesy 'HairyManLegs'

Although Fall Guys (2020) is only available on PS4 and PC, it wasn’t long until a dedicated fan came along to recreate a few of the knockout-style game’s levels in VR.

NVIDIA’s DLSS 2.1 Supersampling Now Supports VR, Could Significantly Boost Fidelity

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Image courtesy NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS) technology uses AI to increase the resolution of rendered frames by taking a smaller frame and intelligently enlarging it. The technique has been lauded for its ability to render games with high resolution with much greater efficiency than natively rendering at the same resolution. Now the latest version, DLSS 2.1, includes VR support and could bring a huge boost to fidelity in VR content.

HTC CEO Yves Maitre Steps Down After Less Than One Year

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Image created using photos courtesy HTC

With less than one year at the company’s helm, HTC announced that Yves Maitre is stepping down as the company’s President and CEO.

Rumor: HP is Building a Reverb G2 Model with Eye, Mouth, & Face-tracking

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Image courtesy Aggiornamenti Lumia

HP announced its Reverb G2 headset earlier this year and plans to ship it this fall. Another, rumored version of the headset referred to as the ‘Omnicept Edition’ is said to include eye, mouth, and face-tracking.

AR Glasses Startup Nreal Secures $40M in Series B Financing

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Image courtesy Nreal

Nreal, the China-based company behind the Nreal Light AR glasses, today announced its secured another $40 million in funding.

Social XR Collaboration Platform ‘Spatial’ Now on Oculus Store for Quest

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Image courtesy Spatial

Spatial, the social collaboration platform for XR devices, is now available for public download on Oculus Quest, which includes cross-platform support for HoloLens, Magic Leap One, Nreal, Web browsers, and iOS & Android mobile devices.

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