Microsoft today announced a bevy of information regarding their upcoming Windows VR headset launch, which will see headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo coming this holiday season starting at $400. Revealed today by HoloLens chief inventor and project lead Alex Kipman, the Windows VR headsets have been confirmed to work with at least 67 apps—including games, experiences, and 360 video platforms.
Microsoft’s HoloLens already has a physical input device, the HoloLens Clicker, but in a recently published patent, we may be getting a peek into what the company was initially planning before they decided to include each HoloLens with the tiny 3DoF device.
Alien: Isolation (2014) is a survival horror game that’s rich detail, atmosphere, and tense moments make it a great candidate for terrifying VR experience. A new mod has been released which adds VR support to the game for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Following several months of delays, the last we heard from Meta was that they expected the Meta 2 AR dev kit to begin “volume shipping” in August. Now as we approach the end of the month it appears that the company is confident about ramping up shipping and says the headset’s $950 pre-order price will expire on Monday, August 28th, after which it will be raised to $1,500.
It’s been a good week for fans of FORM: the game has made its way to the Oculus store (and received Rift support on Steam), and now the developers have confirmed work on a new VR project.
Dr. Skip Rizzo heads the Medical VR Research Group at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has been exploring how to use VR for psychological treatments, cognitive assessment, motor rehabilitation therapy, as well as interactions with virtual humans. He’s been on the forefront of using virtual reality to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder with virtual exposure therapy.
Despite completing a successful Kickstarter back in August 2015, there still aren’t many Kat Walk VR treadmills outside of Asia, let alone the premium version specially built for out-of-home facilities like theme parks, malls, and cruise ships. The short reason: it’s just too damn heavy, and shipping it from the manufacturing plant in China isn’t easy. Acting as the sole distributor for Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, the Netherland-based reseller Virtuo VR took to this year’s Gamescom to show off their flagship product, the Kat Walk Premium VR Treadmill and Kat PC Control Station combo, a hefty all-in-one commercial unit built with high traffic, as well as a high price (€11,900) in mind. As a note, both the smaller consumer version and the commercial version sans computer retail for significantly less.
Oculus has teamed up with Crytek to share a series of VR game design learnings. The second and latest post in the series explores eight prototype methods for moving or rotating in virtual reality.
Release in June, FORM is a VR puzzle game which has received top marks for its imposing, dream-like architecture and geometric puzzles. Now the game is available for Oculus Rift via both SteamVR and the Oculus store with a discount for the next week.
Zero Latency’s new installation at the MGM Grand’s massive Level Up gaming lounge marks another positive milestone for the Melbourne-based company and out-of-home VR technology. The Las Vegas facility opens on September 8th, offering untethered, eight-player VR entertainment across a 2,000 square-foot arena.
KFC has revealed a curious trailer for The Hard Way: A Virtual Reality Training Experience, an ‘escape room’ game designed for VR. While it may seem like a rather smart marketing campaign at first glance, the world-famous fast food company apparently has real plans for incorporating the VR experience into its employee training program.
Google first started its venture into virtual reality with Google Cardboard back in 2014. Since then we’ve seen the company’s ambitions in VR and AR continue to grow with the introduction and launch of the Daydream headsets in 2016, and new standalone Daydream headsets coming later this year. A look at the company’s job listings so far this year reveals Google’s expanding commitment and investment in VR and AR.
Chroma Lab is a mesmerising particle simulation and a simple but stunning VR showcase, using a custom physics engine to calculate the fluid-like behaviour of more than 100,000 particles. While there are no ‘game’ elements, indie developer Sean Tann has created is a well-crafted ‘sandbox’ that offers a number of useful options to tweak or significantly alter the experience.
Gamescom is one of the few truly gargantuan expos dedicated to gaming, holding within its massive Zeppelin hanger-sized halls all manner of ostentatious booth featuring all the big names in gaming. But it’s not all glitz, cosplay, and long lines at Gamescom. Back in the more demure B2B area, only accessible to trade visitors and press, was bHaptics, a Korean startup that recently joined HTC’s Vive X Accelerator Program specializing in actuator-based haptic devices, all of which ideally fit together to create a greater sense of immersion for VR games and experiences.
In the build-up to QuakeCon 2017, which starts tomorrow, Bethesda has announced launch dates for their three major VR titles for the holiday season. Skyrim VR (PSVR) launches first on November 17th, followed by Doom VFR (PSVR, Vive) on December 1st, and finally Fallout 4 VR (Vive) on December 12th, rounding out what promises to be a very merry VR holiday.
