Foundry10, a Seattle based philanthropic educational research organization, wanted to explore what happens when you bring VR into the classroom. Following a pilot project started in 2015, Foundry10 has now put VR in the hands of 40 schools and community centers around the world, and measured students attitudes toward the technology.
Benchmark specialists Futuremark are launching a new ‘room’ on November 22nd as a free update for VRMark Advanced & Professional Editions. Adding to the existing ‘Orange Room’ and ‘Blue Room’ benchmarks, ‘Cyan Room’ uses a pure DirectX 12 engine optimised for VR.
Palo Alto-based VR/AR startup GridRaster recently announced a nearly $2 million seed funding round to strengthen and develop their mobile VR/AR rendering infrastructure. GridRaster claims to deliver high-fidelity graphics at 10 times the performance compared to standalone mobile platforms, a feat accomplished by a method of cloud computing optimisation called ‘edge computing’.
Skyrim VR is the first to launch in a series of VR titles from legendary game-maker Bethesda (with Doom VR and Fallout 4 VR soon to follow). The title is effectively a port of the now six year-old open-world RPG Skyrim. The usual wisdom is that VR is so new and so different that it can’t be shoehorned into traditional titles. And while not without its flaws, Skyrim VR challenges that wisdom by bringing a heaping helping of a different sort of immersion.
The 2017 Golden Joystick Awards winners are in, revealed last night at the 35th annual ceremony that celebrated the best in gaming this year. Taking the Golden Joystick for ‘Best VR Game’ was Capcom’s horror-adventure Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), a game that equally supports PSVR and traditional monitors.
HTC’s internal development and publishing arm Vive Studios has announced two new games coming to Vive in early December. Physics puzzler Super Puzzle Galaxy from 2 Bears Studio and multiplayer WWII shooter Front Defense: Heroes from Fantahorn Studio will both launch with promotional pricing.
HTC recently announced they’ll be sweetening the pot this Black Friday for potential Vive-owners located in North America by throwing a free Deluxe Audio Strap your way when you purchase an HTC Vive. The deal also includes the previous offer of a free Fallout 4 VR pre-order, bringing the overall savings to $160.
Just in time for Christmas, the much awaited DOOM VFR is getting a PlayStation VR bundle too, giving you everything you need to battle demons from the pits of Hell.
Payday 2 (2013), the popular FPS with four-player co-op, has now updated to include access to the VR beta for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The beta is free, and will see updates in discrete phases, the first of which is now available for owners of the game.
Despite the news that CCP Games is shelving VR for the time being, the company promises that their last title Sparc will not only go on, but CCP is carrying through with plans to launch the game on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
The uni-lettered V is a web-based dashboard that runs inside of the VR apps you know and love, allowing you to access web apps like Netflix, Spotify, Slack, and do pretty much anything else you can do through a web browser. A new update to the V beta brings support for the HTC Vive and other SteamVR headsets.
The Street Fighter franchise isn’t actually in VR yet—not unless you count playing the retro ROMS in New Retro Arcade—but the attendees at this year’s Capcom Cup at Red Bull Battle Grounds in Boston will get a chance to relive the iconic car-smashing bonus stage from Street Fighter II (1991).
HTC today announced consumer availability of Vive Tracker, the tracking module that uses Valve’s Lighthouse tracking standard. The company also announced North American pre-order availability of a number of Vive Tracker accessory bundles that are slated to make their way to consumers in mid-December.
Coco VR, Pixar’s first-ever VR experience, has a pretty specific goal in mind; getting you to see the film in theaters when it opens next week. That’s at least the mindset I had before putting on my Rift, a result of a malaise that comes from playing nearly every ‘brand engagement’ tie-in ever produced for VR (they’re free after all). Popping into the experience and putting me face-to-face with the main character Miguel, it became clear that Coco VR was going to be different.
There is a growing backlash against technology being catalyzed by some of the architects of the persuasive habit-forming techniques. The Guardian does a survey of user experience designers and engineers who are taking drastic actions to curtail their personal technology addiction behaviors, and asking some deeper questions about the ethical responsibility of major companies in Silicon Valley to be socially-responsible guardians of the attention economy. Tristan Harris is one of these former persuasive designers who has formed a non-profit called Time Well Spent focused on gathering quantified data for how happy people are using different mobile apps, and Harris shared some data on Sam Harris’ podcast that people are happy with 1/3 of the time they’ve spent on the most popular apps, but that they’re unhappy with or regret how they’re spending 2/3 of their time.
