‘Archangel’ is Free this Weekend on Rift, Access Now Available
Archangel (2017), the single-player mech shooter from Skydance Interactive, is hosting a free-access weekend starting today, going until Monday at 3:00 AM ET (local time here).
Bethesda Gives a Peek into ‘Fallout 4 VR’ in Crash Course Intro to Game Mechanics
In preparation for Fallout 4 VR’s upcoming December 12th launch on HTC Vive, Bethesda takes us through our paces with an intro to the game’s control scheme, base building mechanic, and V.A.T.S. focused combat, giving us a quick preview of what to expect next week.
‘Resident Evil 7: Biohazard’ Nabs ‘Best VR/AR Game’ at The Game Awards 2017
The yearly fanfare of the Game Awards has come and gone, leaving Capcom with the award for Best VR/AR Game for their massively successful horror-adventure Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), a game that equally supports both PSVR and traditional monitors.
Hands-on: Striker VR’s Latest Haptic Gun Prototype Brings a Host of Improvements
Striker VR is developing a haptic gun peripheral for out-of-home VR attractions, which has the most powerful and responsive recoil that I’ve ever tested. The company’s latest prototype, a verification model as the company nears its first manufacturing run, brings a host of improvements.
Sony Has Sold Over 2 Million PSVR Units Worldwide Since Launch
As a testament to the strength of high-quality VR with a relatively low entry price, Sony today announced they’ve sold more than 2 million units to consumers worldwide as of December 3rd, 2017.
‘Sprint Vector’ Closed Beta Launching in January, Intel to Sponsor eSports Tournament
California-based VR developer Survios has revealed their upcoming action game Sprint Vector will launch in closed beta in January 2018. The game will feature in eSports tournaments before its official launch, including the Intel-sponsored Alienware VR Cup.
Google Shares New Research into Foveated Rendering Techniques
Display resolutions are growing, but the graphical processing power to serve these displays with content isn’t growing at the same rate. Enter foveated rendering, a technique commonly held as one of the next logical steps in making VR headsets more immersive. While the idea itself is well understood; track the user’s eye movements and only render the most central area to the eye in high-definition, leaving the rest to fuzz in the peripheral unnoticed, it isn’t a fully solved problem at this stage. To that effect, Google Software Engineer Manager Behnam Bastani and Daydream Software Engineer Eric Turner recently posted a quick overview of a few techniques in the company’s nascent foveated rendering pipeline for AR/VR. Here’s a slightly less technical version:
Owlchemy Labs to Unveil Next VR Game Tonight at The Game Awards
Charged up from the multi-million dollar success of Job Simulator (2016) and its more recent game Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017), Owlchemy Labs recently revealed they’re teasing their next VR game at this year’s Game Awards.
HTC Announces Pricing, Pre-order Date & Specs for Vive Focus Standalone Headset
HTC today announced more specifics around Vive Focus, the company’s standalone mobile VR headset for China-based customers.
Apple Manufacturer Quanta Signs Deal to Mass Produce Lumus AR Display Modules
Quanta, a Fortune 500 company and one of the world’s largest original design manufacturers, has signed an agreement to mass produce AR display modules from Lumus, a company specializing in AR displays based on ‘waveguide’ optical technology. Lumus says the move “marks a significant step toward mainstream adoption of AR eyewear,” and expects consumer-priced AR headsets with Lumus tech to hit the market in 12 to 18 months.
Designing the Future Through Sci-Fi World Building
VR represents a shift from telling stories to building story worlds that people experience and interact with. There is a process of world building and experiential design that first creates the conditions of the environment, and then the full context of that world helps to drive the narrative design of the stories that can be told within it. This process of building futuristic, sci-fi worlds requires a holistic understanding the co-evolution of technology and culture that takes a lot of imagination to visualize solutions to intractable problems embedded within the fabric of this new world, and then to imagine what new and even more complicated problems will have been created in that future. Monika Bielskyte of All Future Everything is a digital nomad who travels the world searching for the latest technological and cultural innovations so that she can build these sci-fi worlds imagining the cultural and technological context of the near-future for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and even urban planners and politicians from governments and cities.
New Report from ILMxLab & Disability Visibility Project Shares Insights on VR Accessibility Design
The Disability Visibility Project recently published a report that highlights the accessibility issues relating to VR users with disabilities. This follows a survey created by Disability Visibility Project founder Alice Wong in partnership with Lucasfilm’s ILMxLab, which covered user experiences, accessibility issues, and ideas about VR for people with disabilities.
Oculus Rift Core 2.0 Update Now Available in Beta – Hands-on with Home & Dash
Announced back in October, Oculus is launching the Rift Core 2.0 update today in beta, a major overhaul to the platform’s underlying experience. The update not only rebuilds the default ‘Home’ environment with huge customization potential, it also introduces ‘Dash’, a new take on the former Universal Menu, which also allows you to use desktop PC applications from within any VR app.
‘High Fidelity’ Makes First Strides into its Blockchain-based Digital Economy
High Fidelity, the social VR app founded by Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, recently launched Avatar Island – the first of many future in-world stores stocked with digital assets for its users to buy. While purchasing digital items like hats and t-shirts may not be anything out of the ordinary for fans of its spiritual predecessor Second Life, the store is showcasing High Fidelity‘s more recent development: its own cryptocurrency and a blockchain-based ledger system, both of which aim to pave the way for a functioning in-world economy.
Oculus Flash Sale: Get up to 75% Off on 80+ VR Titles, Sale Lasts Today Only
It’s been exactly one year since Oculus launched Touch, the motion controller that made Rift a truly competitive room-scale headset. To celebrate, the company is hosting a dedicated flash sale of up to 75% on 80+ major Touch titles. The sale expires today (December 6th) at 11:59 pm PT (your local time).
