If you’ve yet to hop on the VR train, here’s a shot at scoring a free HTC Vive system and some swag from the 2017 International Dota 2 Championships. This giveaway is open to those in North America, Europe, and Taiwan.
Star Citizen may be the world’s most ambitious Early Access project (and quite possibly the next textbook example of Development Hell). For those still holding their breath, the company has recently affirmed that VR support is still planned as an eventual feature, and the game’s developers say that a new UI design is made with VR in mind.
Independent game developer and publisher Pawmingo Games has revealed Cat Sorter VR, an absurd game about rebuilding ‘defective’ cats. It will be playable at CatCon 2017 (naturally) in Pasadena, CA this weekend, and launches on Steam and Viveport on August 29th.
Oculus Connect 4, the company’s fourth annual developer conference, is set for October 11th and 12th in San Jose, California. There, Oculus will share with developers some of its latest research and developments, including what’s coming to the company’s VR Audio SDK.
The NFL continues to maintain its strong relationship with VR technology, now employing the STRIVIR platform to train some officials. According to a report by SportTechie, the virtual reality training company has been working with the NFL’s Officiating Development Programs for the past nine months, presenting game scenarios in a VR headset from a referee’s perspective to supplement the limited opportunities for real-world practice.
Custom avatars in social VR add a lot of fidelity of identity expression and creative flair in applications like VRChat or High Fidelity. Morph3D is a custom avatar solution that offers a number of free avatars within VRChat, but they also have a custom tool where you can customize your own virtual avatar. I had a chance to catch up with Chris “DeepRifer” Madsen, Morph3D’s head of VR/AR at GDC where we talked about some of the reactive avatars that they’re working on.
Ever wanted to go to a Coldplay concert? If you own a Gear VR headset, you’ve got a free ticket for the VR livestream of the band’s ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ performance next week.
Speaking on an Entertainment Weekly radio show to be aired on August 15th, actor Jeff Bridges, star of Tron (1982) and sequel Tron: Legacy (2010), suggested that a third Tron feature should be “the first virtual reality movie.” Posted in a short entry on the Entertainment Weekly website, writer Clark Collis explained that he was prompted to ask about Tron rumours by Bridges’ new collaboration with Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski in upcoming movie Only the Brave.
Happy day for Rez (2001) fans—with no prior announcement, the modern remake, Rez Infinite (2016), launches today on PC with optional support for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. In addition to a 20% launch discount which prices the game at $20 for the first two weeks, players will also nab the Digital Deluxe DLC package for free.
Google’s team at Daydream Labs have been prototyping ways of animating objects and characters in Blocks, the company’s recently released VR modelling tool. In a recent entry on the Google Blog, senior UX engineer Logan Olson describes how it could give users the power to “create expressive animations without needing to learn complex animation software.”
Now that the latest release of Firefox supports WebVR on the Vive and Rift by default, you may be wondering what you can do with it. Here’s three examples worth checking out.
Batman: Arkham VR (2016) is both the first VR Batman game, and the first VR title from developer Rocksteady Studios’—you wouldn’t know it though, given the game’s excellent visuals and well crafted VR design. If you haven’t had a chance to become the Batman just yet, you can pick up the game at a big discount through August 22nd.
Oasis Games have announced a September release for whimsical VR puzzle-platformer Light Tracer, in a recent post on the PlayStation Blog. The game involves guiding the Princess up a giant tower from the perspective of a ‘godlike entity’, solving puzzles and defeating bosses using an interesting motion control system.
The education-focused Mars 2030 launches today on SteamVR for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, soon to come to PSVR. With 40 square kilometers of explorable terrain, the experience successfully achieves its main objective: to make the user feel like they are on Mars. However, while its stunning canvas has great potential, its execution currently suffers from a lack of features, and a number of technical problems.
