Speaking during a session at GDC 2018 last month, Richard Forster, Senior Team Lead at Sony’s Research & Development West group, chronicled a range of explorations in advanced livestreaming and sharing features for PSVR.
Kat VR, the China-based company behind the 2015 Kickstarter-funded KAT Walk VR treadmill, announced last month that a new mini-version of the low-friction VR treadmill would be hitting Kickstarter soon, and that above all it would be “affordable.” Today the company published pre-order prices on the Kat VR website, and it’s unfortunately a bitter pill to swallow: with the lowest early bird discount of 50%, the minimum price is $1500.
Oculus is heading into its third week of ‘Rift Gold Rush’, a prize-winning extravaganza marking the two-year anniversary of Rift’s launch. To get a chance to win this weekend, just pop into a public match in Echo Arena (2017) during the specific entrance window.
I visited Mozilla’s offices last October to chat with A-Frame co-creator & co-maintainer Diego Marcos about the current state of WebVR. Marcos has since left Mozilla in order to work on the Supermedium WebVR browser, which creates a desktop VR browser designed for the Vive or Oculus to easily go in and out of viewing WebVR content as a seamless VR experience. Supermedium is a breath of fresh air to be able to seamlessly traverse amongst a curated set of WebVR proof of concepts, and the link traversal and security paradigms of WebXR are still open questions.
Teardown experts iFixit have disassembled the new Vive Pro to see what they could find. In addition to confirming that the headset’s new displays are made by Samsung, the organization also gave the headset a favorable repairability score.
vTime, the social VR platform, today announced the closure of a $7.6 million (£5.4 million) Series A funding round led by Deepbridge Capital with included investment from Liverpool, UK-based institutional loan and equity provider MSIF.
The Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping complexes, is now home to VR Park, an indoor theme park spanning two floors and over 75,000 square feet of space, offering a wide variety of VR experiences, including several physical rides. At the opening of the park we went hands-on with the main attractions, many of which utilise the high-resolution, high-FOV StarVR headset.
Google this week introduced a new “High Quality” option for their Jump Assembler, an automated 3D 360 video stitching service for creators shooting with Jump cameras. The new approach brings more accurate stitching with enhanced depth maps resulting in sharper 3D output.
Realities is a VR photogrammetry showcase featuring detailed photogramatic scans from a handful of interesting locations around the world. In collaboration with Canadian television channel TV5’s documentary series Terre d’Exploration, the first of three new scenes from the Canadian wilderness is available today, with the others set to unlock later this month, coinciding with episodes from the show.
Bethesda’s recent flatscreen-to-VR ports, Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR, face a few common challenges in terms of immersion. Neither are perfect, but at this point in time, both games represent something VR users haven’t had yet: vast and rich open-world adventures that offer a high degree of customization and replayability—so called real AAA VR games. Here I’m going to attempt to break down Bethesda’s flagship VR games into some more identifiable parts so we can see who comes out on top: food for thought for the PC VR gamer who is on the fence between the pair.
This week at NAB Show in Las Vegas, the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), the international committee behind the titular image compression standard, unveiled JPEG XS, a new format that is touted as a lower energy compression solution that provides higher quality images at low latency over broadband networks such as 5G.
Bandai Namco has teased One Piece fans for some time now with images and trailers of the PSVR exclusive experience One Piece: Grand Cruise. The company has now given a firm release date in North America and Europe: May 22nd.
Infinadeck is an active omni-directional VR treadmill that lets you walk in any direction. Compared to others, which generally rely on low friction surfaces to emulate the act of walking, Infinadeck’s design actually has a tread that moves beneath you, leading to a much more natural gait. Having stepped on the latest Infinadeck prototype, the VR treadmill is making strides toward a truly compelling solution for artificial locomotion in VR.
Studios Frame Interactive and Robot Invader today announced Dead Secret (2015), the Gear VR title that later landed on PC VR headsets, is finally making its way to PSVR.
Last month Killing Floor: Incursion (2017), the co-op zombie shooter from Tripwire Interactive, made its transition from Oculus exclusive to multi-platform title when it launched via Steam with support for HTC Vive and Rift. Now, the zombie-splattering sci-fi horror game is headed to PSVR too.
