Sprint Vector, the upcoming VR footracing game from Raw Data (2017) studio Survios, went into closed beta last week. Now with a few multiplayer matches under my belt and a number of solo challenges (and possibly some overextended elbows), it’s clear the studio’s so-called “adrenaline platformer” is aiming to impress with a number of new modes, some new mechanics and a thick coat of polish.
OrbusVR, the indie VR MMORPG, is now on Oculus Home, allowing for crossplay between it and the Steam version which launched last month.
If you haven’t touched your Lenovo Mirage AR headset since Christmas, now may be the time to jump back in for the latest content expansion to the lightsaber-intensive Star Wars: Jedi Challenges.
One of the current barriers to immersion for high-end VR headsets is being tethered to a powerful PC. For now, there are two options if you want to eliminate that pesky cable: a special wireless adapter, or a backpack PC to let the rendering happen directly on your person. Here we take a look at a range of VR backpack computers and what they offer.
After talking to a lot of independent VR storytellers, Kaleidoscope VR’s René Pinnell identified that funding was one of the biggest blockers for continued experimentation. Cinematic VR pieces do not have many established distribution channels yet, and so a lot of the funding has come from larger headset manufacturers like Oculus and select brands like Intel.
While HTC is planning to launch the Vive Pro headset itself starting in Q1, the full package including the headset, controllers, and new SteamVR Tracking 2.0 base stations won’t come until later in the year. Until then, here’s a glimpse that comes to us from Alvin Wang Graylin, HTC’s Vive China president, who recently took the kit to a Vive developer meetup in the region.
Oculus Research, the company’s R&D division, recently published a paper that goes deeper into their eye tracking-assisted, multi-focal display tech, detailing the creation of something they dub a “perceptual” testbed.
It’s amazing how well SUPERHOT (2016), the unforgettably stylized action game, worked when translated to virtual reality. Now, the developers at SUPERHOT Team are looking to get more hands on deck as they dive deeper into the world of VR development.
Light Field Lab, a company founded by ex-Lytro veterans, announced the successful completion of a $7 million seed funding round that will help the company further develop a light field-based holographic display. The seed round was led by Khosla Ventures and Sherpa Capital, with participation by R7 Partners.
Varjo is a relatively new name to the VR scene, but the company is certainly making a buzz, having quickly raised some $15 million in venture capital touting the promise of delivering a VR headset achieving retina resolution at the center of the field of view. But how exactly does it work? A new graphic shows the key tech behind the company’s headset.
Limitless, a company developing content and tools for creating cinematic VR experiences, has joined Lytro to build out tools for combining light-fields and real-time rendering directly in game engines.
SPHERES, a three-chapter space experience from Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures, was just bought by VR finance and distribution firm CityLights in what Variety describes as a “seven-figure deal.”
Following their appearance with a new “8K” prototype at CES 2018, Pimax’s latest update says that backers won’t see their finished headsets until Q2, delaying the initially expected delivery date by several months.
Ahead of the 2018 Game Developers Conference in March, the organizer, UBM, has released their sixth annual State of the Game Industry survey, offering insight into the thoughts of some 4,000 game developers. While many developers may not be ready to bet on VR as a foundation for their game dev business, 33% of developers are ‘most interested’ in VR headsets over all other platforms, beating out interest in mobile and even the Xbox One (and One X).
