Play ‘Eleven: Table Tennis VR’ on Rift for Free This Weekend
For Fun Labs, the developers behind Eleven: Table Tennis VR (2016), are hosting a free weekend for Rift players this week on Oculus Home.
Walmart’s Tech Incubator Store No. 8 Acquires VR Startup Spatialand
Wal-Mart, the big-box retail giant, unveiled its Store No. 8 tech startup incubator last year with the aim of researching and investing in emergent tech like AR and VR. Now, Store No. 8 has acquired Spatialand, a startup that has created a platform and toolset for enterprise companies to create VR content.
HP to Launch Enterprise-focused Windows VR Headset in March
HP is bringing out an enterprise-focused version of its Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ VR headset in March. Called the ‘Professional Edition’, HP is pushing out basically the same headset hardware-wise save a few tweaks it considers necessary for VR-use in the workplace.
Open Source Game Engine ‘Godot Engine’ Gets VR Support
The full release of Godot 3.0 is now available, bringing VR support to the engine via a lightweight, 3DoF, ‘Cardboard-like’ solution, and OpenVR support through a GDNative-based plugin. The multiplatform Godot Engine is an open source, non-profit project available to download for free via the official site or through Steam.
Noitom Releases Perception Neuron 2.0 Motion Capture System
Noitom, the Beijing-based company building affordable motion capture systems, announced the release of Perception Neuron 2.0, a hardware refresh of the company’s original tracker which resulted from their 2014 Kickstarter campaign. The company also announced a new product ecosystem which will allow both 1.0 and 2.0 owners to use the tiny 1.2 gram snap-in sensors with specialized straps and a full body mocap, zip-up suit.
Former Mozilla WebVR Pioneers Launch ‘Supermedium’ VR Browser
Supporting HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Supermedium is a new, fully VR browser from the creators of VR web framework ‘A-Frame’ and part of the original Mozilla team behind the WebVR initiative. Available to download on Supermedium’s website, the browser aims to become the new home for lightweight, fast-loading, web-based VR experiences.
Play VR Sport ‘SPARC’ for Free on Rift This Weekend
Sparc (2017), the VR sport from EVE Online developers CCP Games, is hosting a free weekend for Rift players on Oculus Home. Temporary free access has already begun, and will conclude on February 4th at 11:59 PM PT (local time here).
Oculus Go Dev Kit Images Show the Headset to Be Near Consumer-ready
Two images showing a seemingly consumer-ready box containing Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming standalone VR headset, found its way to Reddit and Twitter recently, possibly indicating that launch is right around the corner.
Medieval Roguelike Bow-shooter ‘IN DEATH’ Hits Early Access, PSVR Version in the Works
Sólfar Studios’ new title IN DEATH, launches today in Early Access with a launch week discount. The “roguelike” bow-shooter makes use of procedural generation to create different experience every time you play, the developers say, while players come upon “monsters, mysteries and loot.”
Hands-on: VRHero “5K” Plus Aims for Visual Fidelity Above All Else
VRgineers is a Czech-based startup building a VR headset positioned strictly for the enterprise world. Compared to today’s consumer VR headsets, it’s undeniably huge and heavy, but a hands-on with their latest VRHero “5K” Plus shows that they’re on a path to delivering on their promise of unmatched image quality.
Inside Sundance Hit ‘SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime’ with Director Eliza McNitt
Sundance New Frontier had a solid line-up of VR experiences this year with a number of immersive storytelling innovations including SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime, which takes you on a journey into the center of a black hole. It’s a hero’s journey that provides an embodied experience of the evolution of a star from birth to death with a poetic story written and directed by Eliza McNitt, narrated by Jessica Chastain, and produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures.
HTC: Vive Pro is Targeted at Prosumers and Will Be “more expensive” Than Consumer Vive
VR/AR expert Antony Vitillo (aka ‘Skarred Ghost‘) got an opportunity to speak with HTC Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin recently, and while Graylin predictably couldn’t answer the question on everyone’s mind—”how much is Vive Pro going to cost?”—we learned the headset is definitely targeting a prosumer price range that makes it “more expensive than the existing consumer product.”
VirZOOM Closes $5.5M Seed Funding to Develop Second Generation of VR Bike Kit
VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, announced the successful closure of a $5.5 million seed funding round which the company says will help expand its commercial business worldwide with a second generation of its VZ Module and VZ Sensor, a retrofitting kit for stationary bikes that turns them into VR controllers.
Stanford VR Lab Founder’s Academic Journey with VR, and new Book ‘Experience on Demand’
Jeremy Bailenson founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and his latest book Experience on Demand traces his academic journey through virtual reality. It’s an intellectual memoir that focuses on his personal work in VR, and the insights that VR provides into human communication dynamics, as well as the impact of VR on our identity, empathy, education, medicine, and our ability to understand complex issues such as global warming and our impact on the environment.
Step Inside the Unabomber Investigation in New Interactive VR Experience
If you were alive in the ’90s, chances are you’ve heard about Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, the American domestic terrorist that between 1978 and 1995 killed 3 people, and injured 23 others in a nationwide bombing campaign. Now, HTC Vive Studios and The Newseum, an interactive news museum in Washington, D.C., have come together to produce a VR experience detailing the Unabomber case, which features an interactive inside look at Kaczynski’s infamous Montana cabin where he planned his bombings.
