Road to VR

Hands-on: ‘Kat Walk’ Proves That VR Treadmills Are Getting Better, but Still Aren’t Perfect

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Aug 25, 2017

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 and Crytek Explore New & Novel Methods of VR Locomotion

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Aug 25, 2017

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.

Acclaimed VR Puzzle Game ‘FORM’ Now Available for Oculus Rift

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Aug 25, 2017

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 ‘Warehouse Scale’ VR Arena Comes to MGM Grand in Vegas

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Dominic Brennan

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Aug 25, 2017

zero-latency — Image courtesy Zero Latency

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 Says Its Wacky VR Chicken Frying Experience Will Really Be Used for Employee Training

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Dominic Brennan

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Aug 24, 2017

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’s AR/VR Team Just Keeps Growing

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Aug 24, 2017

daydream-view-8 — Google's Daydream View Headset and Motion Controller | Image courtesy Google

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.

Hands-on: ‘Chroma Lab’ is a Mesmerizing Physics Sandbox and a Simple But Stunning VR Showcase

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Dominic Brennan

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Aug 24, 2017

chroma-lab — Image courtesy Sean Tann

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.

bHaptics’ TactSuit Promises Better Actuator-Based Haptics at a Lower Price-Point

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Aug 24, 2017

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.

Release Dates & Platforms for ‘Skyrim VR’, ‘Doom VFR’, and ‘Fallout 4 VR’ Revealed

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Dominic Brennan

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Aug 23, 2017

fallout-skyrim-doom-vr — Image courtesy Bethesda Softworks

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.

Hands-on: ‘Stifled’ Oozes Style With Its Terrifying Visual Re-imagination of Echolocation

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Aug 23, 2017

stifled2 — image courtesy Gattai Games

Stifled is an upcoming first-person horror game from Singapore-based studio Gattai Games. Heavily featured at this year’s Gamescom, in no small part thanks to their partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment that’s seeing a number of Asian-born titles coming West, we got a chance to pop in and see just what the five-person developer team have accomplished.

Hands-on: ‘Skyworld’ is a Charming Turn-Based Strategy Game With Fast-Paced Real-Time Interludes

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Aug 23, 2017

skyworld (2) — Image courtesy Vertigo Games

Skyworld, a turn-based strategy game from Arizona Sunshine (2016) developers Vertigo Games, was initially introduced to the world as a demo during HTC Vive’s first public showing back in GDC 2015. At this year’s Gamescom, we got a hands-on with the ostensibly near-finished game, which should be releasing soon if the developers want to hit their Fall 2017 launch date.

Massive Particle Simulation Playground ‘Chroma Lab’ Launches on SteamVR

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Aug 23, 2017

VR design is still in the very early stages, but something that we know leads to immersion in VR is interactivity. One developer is taking interactivity to the extreme with Chroma Lab, a VR experience now available on SteamVR that lets you play with hundreds of thousands of simulated particles in real-time.

Preview: Not Much Memorable in ‘Remember: Remember’

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Aug 23, 2017

remember remember moth + flame (3) — Image courtesy Moth + Flame

Everyone agrees: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is a maddeningly good film. It is too good to tolerate, nearly. There is no one who does not think this; it is True. But everyone knows it’s missing something, and Kevin Cornish knows what that something is: aliens. But Cornish not only knows this, he’s actually set out to do something about it with Remember: Remember, a convoluted, if not altogether unappealing VR short.

Hands-on: ‘The Talos Principle VR’ Feels Like It’s Come Home in Virtual Reality

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Aug 22, 2017

thetalosprinciple — image courtesy Croteam

The wildly popular puzzler The Talos Principle (2014) from Croteam is soon to be making its way to VR in a separate version, playable on SteamVR-compatible headsets; i.e. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Getting a chance to go head-first into Talos VR at this year’s Gamescom, I walked in asking myself if I actually wanted to spend the 20ish hours it takes to beat the game, in VR; and if given the choice between the two—the monitor and the VR version—that I would prefer to play in a headset instead of on a flatscreen. While my 20 minute demo didn’t exactly answer that question in full, a few things have certainly changed about how you interface with the game, making it a necessarily slower, but much more immersive experience to boot. And you know us, we like immersion.

‘Doom VFR’ Devs Detail Gameplay, Setting, and Locomotion in New Video

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Aug 22, 2017

In 2016, Bethesda announced it was working on a Doom VR project, and earlier this year at E3 the company revealed it as Doom VFR. Due to launch in Q4 2017, a Q&A video with the game’s developers shines more light on the kind of gameplay and world that players can expect.

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