There wasn’t any mention of Samsung getting into the Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ program when it was announced last year, which saw OEMs like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo tapped to create VR headsets around the same reference design. A recent leak however, showing a rendering of a Samsung-built VR headset emblazoned with a “Windows Mixed Reality” symbol, suggests otherwise.
ARQUA! was one of the ARKit launch applications that was designed by VR veteran Isaac “Cabibbo” Cohen, and it has the same indie charm and shader art aesthetic as his previous VR experiences of Blarp! (2016) and L U N E (2016). ARQUA’s gameplay involves you creating a rainbow aquarium by playing with kelp plants, schools of fish, and 3D rods that you place around your space by turning your body into the controller. Cabibbo is really interested in providing users of his AR experience with an experience of agency, creation, and beauty in a way that recontextualizes their relationship to their surrounding environment.
We knew that Google was working on adding VR capabilities to its mobile version of Chrome since last year. Now with the release of Chrome 61, Daydream VR users can browse websites and also continue to enjoy the quick and easy VR experiences delivered via WebVR.
Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV fishing game for PSVR just got a new English language teaser trailer. The Japanese version was teased on stage at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) this past week.
Appearing this week on the stage of Oculus competitor HTC at the Tokyo Game Show, Oculus founder emeritus Palmer Luckey affirmed that he’s continuing to work on projects within the VR industry.
Intel is investing in the future of immersive computing through their Virtual Reality Center for Excellence. They’re pushing the boundaries of high-end of VR gaming experiences, pursuing initiatives to help VR reach critical mass, and exploring how RealSense depth sensor cameras and WiGig wireless technologies fit into the VR ecosystem. I was able to demo an early prototype demo of an HTC Vive game rendered on a PC and transferred wirelessly to a mobile headset, and it’s part of a research project to search for additional market opportunities for how high-end PCs could drive immersive experiences.
The Fallout 4 VR hype machine is slowly ramping up to full speed, as the company today released a talk with the game’s Lead Producer Andrew Scharf about some of the finer points of retrofitting the entire game for VR headsets.
Bechtel, the global construction and engineering company, and Industrial Training International (ITI), the training and technical service company known for their work in creating VR versions of the industry’s heavy equipment, are collaborating to recreate even more crane types for VR training.
For OpenVR-compatible headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, watching streaming 360 video from from your browser is now as simple as clicking a button and putting on your headset. This is all thanks to Opera’s latest version of its developer browser, which now supports 360-degree video playback in VR headsets directly via a built-in player. The company also says they’re planning to integrate full WebVR support in the future.
At this year’s Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC), HTC announced a number of changes to Viveport to celebrate the one year anniversary of the app store and its subscription service. Developers will receive a 100% revenue share between October and the end of the year, Viveport Arcade Manager enters open beta, and a new toolset called the Viveport Scene SDK has launched.
Hallelujah is a new experience by VR film studio Within that’s captured using Lytro’s latest Immerge light-field camera which captures volumetric footage that makes for a much more immersive experience than traditional 360 video. Hallelujah is a performance of Leonard Cohen’s 1984 song of the same name, and mixes the latest in VR film capture technology with superb spatial audio to form a stunning experience.
VRChat, one of the earliest social VR apps, announced that they’ve completed a $4 million Series A investment round lead by HTC’s Vive group. Joining HTC are venture capital firms Brightstone VC, GVR Fund and Rothenberg Ventures.
Intel is scrapping plans to launch the Project Alloy headset as an open reference design, citing lack of partner interest.
