Today, live event broadcasting specialists NextVR announced three technology advancements to their platform coming this year: six degrees of freedom-enabled content, higher resolution output, and augmented reality support. A sneak peek of the technologies is being shown to media at CES 2018.
Tactical Haptics’ newly developed haptic controller prototype uses mechanical sockets that allow them to be mated in different configurations on-the-fly, in order to match a particular virtual interaction more closely than standard VR motion controllers. The controllers incorporate the company’s ‘Reactive Grip’ technology, a unique form of haptic feedback.
The latest version of Intel’s miniscule ‘NUC’ PC is VR capable, the company says. Thanks to the power of AMD’s discrete Radeon Vega M graphics, the new NUC can power “premium” VR experiences at 90 FPS, says Intel.
According to a report by Silicon Era, Sony expects to increase the number of PSVR games from 150 to 280 over the course of 2018.
HTC made a not so subtle tease today that a new version of the HTC Vive is on the way with improved resolution. While it doesn’t look like this will be positioned as a ‘Vive 2’, here’s what we could see from a ‘Vive 1.5’ when it debuts next week at CES on January 8th.
HTC today shared a teaser image which appears to indicate a forthcoming new model of the HTC Vive with improved resolution.
Sony has compiled a list of the top 10 PSVR games downloaded in 2017. Based on the number of downloads from PlayStation Store (and not total revenue), the list gives us a good idea of what’s been popular with PSVR owners this past year.
The VOID, a company specializing in bespoke VR experiences that go beyond what you can achieve with in-home VR hardware, previously announced the development of the Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire VR experience in collaboration with Disney, Lucasfilm, and ILM’s xLab. The Disney Springs location opened December 16th, while the Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort location opens today.
Vuzix today announced they’ll be unveiling their latest smartglasses at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. Called Vuzix Blade, the smartglasses are more of a heads-up display akin to Google Glass than a positionally-tracked AR headset like Microsoft Hololens or the upcoming Magic Leap One, although the Blade’s styling certainly comes closer to ‘normal’ than many we’ve seen before.
Virtual reality is a great medium for shooters. The problem is, because it’s so natural to virtually transform motion controllers into pistols, the genre is pretty crowded with low-effort wave shooters at the moment. Enter Cold Iron, a western-themed shooter from indie studio Catch & Release that hopes to make a name for itself in the newly coined ‘puzzle shooter’ subgenre.
3dRudder, the company behind the eponymous foot controller for VR, announced its next product; 3dRudder Blackhawk, a newly redesigned device that aims to make input more responsive and intuitive. The company is also reducing their last generation model by $40, bringing it to $100 when the new model goes on sale this spring.
VorpX is a 3D driver which allows users to play their non-VR game library immersively through an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset. Version 17.3.0 brings a new ‘Direct VR Settings Optimizer’ feature which automatically tweaks many titles for optimal VR performance.
The Perfect Sniper is an upcoming tactical shooter from Toronto-based indie studio Sinn Studio that aims to soften the blow of shooting someone in the face with its charming low-poly visuals. First revealed in October via the cinematic trailer above, The Perfect Sniper is now slated to release on January 15th on Steam.
Partnering with DJ Kyroman and music school Pyramind, Tribe VR’s DJ School aims to teach the art of live mixing with real DJ equipment modelled in VR, with the goal of allowing your virtually acquired skills and knowledge to transfer to real life mixing equipment. The app launched in Early Access on the Oculus Store in December.
A mysterious handheld device showed up in an FCC test report recently that may just be the 3DoF controller coming alongside Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming $200 standalone VR headset.
