HTC Teases Vive with Improved Resolution, Debut at CES Next Week
HTC today shared a teaser image which appears to indicate a forthcoming new model of the HTC Vive with improved resolution.
Sony Releases PSVR’s Top 10 Most Downloaded Games of 2017, ‘Job Simulator’ Tops the Chart
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 Opens Downtown Disney Location Today Hosting New Star Wars VR Experience
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 to Debut ‘Blade’ Smartglasses at CES Next Week
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.
‘Cold Iron’ is a Puzzle-based Shooter Coming to PSVR, Vive & Rift January 30th
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 Announces Improved ‘Blackhawk’ VR Foot Controller, Shipping in Spring for $140
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.
New VorpX Feature Makes non-VR Games Look and Play Better in VR
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’ to Launch on SteamVR Headsets January 15th, PSVR Version to Follow in “a few weeks”
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.
‘Tribe VR DJ School’ Trains You to Mix Music on Real Equipment
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.
Oculus ‘Handheld Controller’ Passes FCC Testing, Possible Oculus GO 3DoF Controller
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.
Steam Winter Sale Ends Tomorrow, Up to 80% Off on Top VR Titles
It’s that time of year again, when you gather all the cash you should have spent buying other people gifts and blow it all on discount games on Steam. This year’s haul is pretty great too, with up to 80% off on gaming bundles and the top names in VR gaming.
CCP Studio Behind ‘EVE: Valkyrie’ Acquired by Sumo Digital
Sumo Digital, an independent game studio based in Sheffield, UK, announced they’ve taken on CCP Games’ Newcastle studio, the branch primarily involved in the production of EVE: Valkyrie (2016).
4 Virtual Reality Desktops for Vive, Rift, and Windows VR Compared
While it’s all too easy to lose ourselves in the countless VR worlds at our fingertips, sometimes we just need to access the desktop and get things done in Windows. Thanks to a few innovative apps, this is possible without removing your headset.
VR in the ’90s: Bootstrapping the Commercial VR Industry
Linda Jacobson got into VR when she helped organize the 1990 CyberArts International gathering of artists and technologists who were using virtual reality technologies. She edited a compilation of CyberArts essays from that first gathering, and she also documented the Garage Virtual Reality DIY VR maker movement of the early 90s. In 1995, she became a VR evangelist at Silicon Graphics where she helped to sell VR into enterprise VR applications including engineering, architecture, construction, medicine, military training, automotive, aerospace, heavy equipment manufacturers, and oil and gas companies. The enterprise companies and applications of VR during this time period were pretty secretive and proprietary, but Jacobson was on the front lines traveling around the world seeing a huge range of different virtual worlds and use cases for VR.
7 Companies Aiming to Cut the Cord on High-end VR Headsets
Today’s most immersive virtual reality systems, like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, rely on a bothersome tether to send power and high fidelity imagery to the headset at low latency. But everyone agrees a dangling cable is not only annoying, it’s an immersion detractor. The demand for a solution to this issue has spurred the creation of no less than seven solutions (and counting) hoping to make a wireless link between the high-end host PC and the headset.
