At Facebook’s F8 developer conference, Oculus today announced it’s both overhauling and rebranding React VR, the company’s open-source JavaScript library that lets developers create cross-platform WebVR experiences. Now dubbed React 360, the company says the framework now “provides clearer prioritization for our future roadmap.”
Oculus Go, the company’s $200 standalone VR headset, launched at Facebook’s F8 developer conference yesterday to much fanfare—likely because everyone in attendance got one free. Now that anyone can get their hands on one, Oculus founder and ex-employee Palmer Luckey took it upon himself to post a single image of the headset laid bare, revealing a few interesting bits including what might be a replaceable battery.
Beat Saber (2018) is finally here, the block-slicing rhythm game that puts two lightsabers in your hands and tasks you with using your Jedi powers to slice to the beat. Less than a day since release, one Twitch streamer has already modded his Oculus Touch controller to play Darth Maul-style, aka with a single double-bladed lightsaber.
While high-end headsets like the Rift and Vive use external sensors for positional tracking, the Windows VR headsets use a fully ‘inside-out’ solution which eliminates the need for external trackers and simplifies setup, but certainly makes hand-tracking more challenging. While the Windows VR headsets are often criticized for the precision of their hand-tracking, I was surprised to find how well they hold up in practice even with a fast paced, highly active game like Beat Saber (2018).
Microsoft released its April Windows 10 update yesterday, and with it comes the official launch of SteamVR support for Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets.
Quill, Facebook’s VR painting and animation tool, is now getting a new and immersive avenue for sharing artwork created in the application. With today’s update, users can now share their artwork into Facebook Spaces, letting friends experience it together. Facebook VR artist Goro Fujita created a new short film animated in Quill and shared in Spaces as an example of the new capability.
Today at Facebook’s F8 developer conference the company announced a new partnership with RED Digital Cinema, a high-end digital film camera company, to create a VR camera based on Facebook’s Surround360 technology.
NextVR, the live event VR broadcasting company, today announced a partnership with Oculus to bring live VR events to Oculus Venues, the company’s upcoming social viewing app that will allow mass viewing of events such as sports, concerts and comedy.
Nearly seven months after its announcement back in October 2017, Oculus Go, the company’s first standalone VR headset, is finally here. The company’s thesis is that this affordably priced unit, which doesn’t rely on a docked smartphone, will make for a more seamless mobile VR experience. But does it go above and beyond Gear VR? Read on to find out.
Oculus Go, the company’s $200 standalone headset, is finally here. While the headset retains much of the basic functionality of Samsung Gear VR, including access to the communal Oculus app store, there’s a few neat ergonomic updates to the headset that aim to set itself apart. Case in point: Oculus Go drops Gear VR’s focus wheel, and provides a few ways to use your own glasses.
Following today’s Oculus Go launch announcement at Facebook’s annual F8 dev conference, the company also revealed that Rooms, the social VR space first launched on Gear VR, is getting revamped to inaugurate Go. The company announced two upcoming apps as well: Oculus Venues – a previously teased social event viewing app for Go and Gear VR, and the newly revealed Go-exclusive Oculus TV – a big screen TV environment and launchpad for other streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu. A new gallery app is also coming from Oculus, aptly named Oculus Gallery.
Beat Saber (2018), the unbelievably slick VR rhythm game that tasks you with slicing blocks in mid-air with a pair of lightsabers, released today in Early Access. We’ve got our Early Access review here so you can learn more about the game, but what about the heart-pumping soundtrack behind it?
Facebook’s F8 developer conference is getting ready for its two-day event starting today. Here’s how to catch the keynote livestream.
Beat Saber is a single player rhythm game in Early Access that puts two lightsabers in your hands and tasks you with one of the funkiest, most stylish Jedi training regimes this side of Alderaan. Slicing incoming blocks to the beat, it’s hard not to dance a little bit too in this intuitive, but ultimately difficult-to-master game that some consider a cross between Guitar Hero and Fruit Ninja.
Facebook’s annual developer conference F8 starts today. While the company launched the long-awaited $200 Oculus Go standalone headset there this morning, it wasn’t certain if the rumors were true, that F8 attendees would be receiving a headset for free. Spoiler alert: they did.
