Google launched Poly earlier this month, a new platform for browsing and downloading 3D objects and scenes. While Poly enjoys full integration with Google’s popular VR creative tools Tilt Brush and Blocks, now the company has released Poly API to make accessing the growing collection of 3D assets even easier, and Poly Toolkit to make importing them into AR/VR projects easier too.
Sunsoft, the Japanese publisher and developer, today announced their multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) for PlayStation VR Dark Eclipse will be launching Spring 2018. If you’re heading to Sony’s annual PlayStation Experience next week you’ll be able to get your hands on a demo.
At Slush 2017, Helsinki-based Varjo Technologies today announced an additional investment of $6.7 million from the Finnish business development group Tekes to continue development on their “human eye-resolution” display for VR headsets. The company also announced they’ll be shipping their first Alpha Prototype to a number of development partners before the end of year.
Oculus Go, the upcoming standalone VR headset from the makers of Rift, is now arriving to developers looking to get a jump start on creating apps for what promises to be an affordable VR solution at just $200.
Google’s newly announced Daydream Impact program is a philanthropy project that provides organizations, nonprofits, and advocates for change with resources, tools, and training to create immersive VR content to support their cause. Instead of just creating advertisements, organizations using the program can now immerse users into a situation, with the hope of generating a greater empathetic response in viewers than traditional media.
Virtual experiences through virtual, augmented, and mixed reality are a new frontier for computer graphics. This frontier state is radically different from modern game and film graphics. For those, decades of production expertise and stable technology have already realized the potential of graphics on 2D screens. This article describes comprehensive new systems optimized for virtual experiences we’re inventing at NVIDIA.
Hold onto your extendable plastic lightsabers, kiddies, because ILMxLAB and Lucasfilm recently announced a new Star Wars–themed VR experience, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay — Astro-Mechanic for the Resistance. While the experience was originally only announced to debut… for some reason… in Nissan car dealerships, the experience is now set to launch next week on SteamVR, Viveport, and Gear VR.
HTC today announced its third batch of AR/VR startups backed by the company’s Vive X accelerator program. A total of 26 new companies from across the world have been selected to participate in the program with the goal of “building and advancing the global VR/AR ecosystem.”
Elevator … to the Moon! (2017) has been available for Oculus Rift and Gear VR since its release in October. Now, the stylish low-poly puzzler is available on SteamVR headsets via Steam, including HTC Vive, Windows VR headsets and Oculus Rift.
Doom VFR, id Software’s upcoming standalone VR game, is nearly here, coming December 1st for PSVR and HTC Vive. It looks like the studio is turning up the nostalgia to 11 with the latest revelation that the game will also feature classic maps lifted from the original Doom (1993).
Arizona Sunshine (2017) on PlayStation VR, the zombie shooter from Vertigo Games, just got a free DLC update that includes two additional maps for its survival-style endless Horde mode.
Williams-Sonoma Inc has announced that an agreement has been reached to acquire Outward Inc for an all cash consideration of $112 million. Williams-Sonoma Inc is a US-based high-end retailer of home furnishings and kitchenware, associated with stores such as Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, PBteen, West Elm, Rejuvenation, and Mark and Graham. Outward, founded in 2012, is a 3D imaging and augmented reality technology company focused on applying this technology to the home furnishings and decor industry. Outward provides visual merchandising to make shopping experiences more interactive and engaging.
Getting kids excited about learning isn’t easy, especially when the little glowing rectangle in their pockets provides endless distractions. Enter Titanic VR, a new educational experience by Immersive VR Education that brings the sunken wreckage of the RMS Titanic to life once more.
Created by Berlin-based indie studio EntroPi Games, Vinyl Reality recreates a traditional DJ setup in virtual reality that gives you everything you need to start learning how to spin.
Penn & Teller’s Desert Bus VR is finally here, letting you take the wheel of a crappy old commercial bus for a mind-numbing 8-hour trip from Tuscon to Las Vegas. It’s not great (at all), but it’s built for a truly noble cause.
