Save 50% on ‘Battlezone’ During Weekend Steam Sale – Now Including HOTAS Support
Looking to pick up one of Steam’s most polished VR titles? Battlezone (2016) is on sale for 50% of the usual asking price through August 7th.
Reflecting on AltspaceVR’s Technical Achievements & Social VR Lessons Learned
AltspaceVR held its final official Good Bye gathering on Thursday, August 3rd after announcing last week that they had run out of money and their investors decided to not invest any more. News of the social VR platform’s closing rippled throughout the VR community over the past week, and some are wondering if it’s any type of bellwether about the overall health of the VR ecosystem. There have been a number of discussion threads on Oculus subreddit, Vive subreddit, and Twitter that had employees chiming in on imminent plans and the challenges of dealing with trolls and harassment in VR.
Valve Sends ‘Knuckles’ Controller Dev Kit to Revive Developer
Valve isn’t being shy about their support for Jules “LibreVR” Blok, the developer behind Revive, a hack which allows the Vive to play games from the Oculus store. Having patched SteamVR on more than one occasion to ensure Revive’s continued compatibility, the company has now sent Blok the Knuckles controller dev kit
New Fresnel Lens From Wearality is Thinner Than a Quarter
Nearly two years ago, Wearality created a unique Fresnel lens for VR headsets offering a claimed 150 degree field of view. The company successfully funded a VR viewer featuring the lens called Wearality Sky through Kickstarter. The company recently revealed a new and improved lens, but this time around they intend to act as a supplier rather than directly selling a viewer to consumers.
VR Design Tool ‘Gravity Sketch’ Launches in Early Access
VR-optimised 3D creation tool Gravity Sketch is now available on Steam Early Access. Developed by a group of design engineers at the Royal College of Art, the software is ‘for everyone’, but its feature set has particular relevance to creative professionals, and could become an invaluable tool for industrial design visualisation.
‘The Lost Bear’ Side-scrolling Platformer Coming Exclusively to PSVR This Month
Odd Bug Studio’s debut title The Lost Bear arrives exclusively on PlayStation VR this month. Described as a “2D cinematic platformer”, the player controls Walnut, a young girl who sets out to save her teddy bear from the Toy Snatcher
VR-based Treatment for Vision Disorders Shows Positive Results in Peer-reviewed Study
Vivid Vision offers a virtual reality based treatment for lazy eye disorders. A new study published in the peer-reviewed BioMed Journal of Ophthalmology finds positive preliminary results which “indicate the potential for a new treatment for adulthood amblyopia.”
Co-op VR FPS ‘Killing Floor: Incursion’ Launches on August 16th, Save 10% on Pre-order
Oculus exclusive Killing Floor: Incursion is due to launch on August 16th. The game is now available for pre-order on the Oculus store for $36, 10% off the $40 launch price.
Researchers Induce Artificial Movement Sensation in VR Using Four-Pole Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation
Shown as part of the Emerging Technologies installations at SIGGRAPH 2017 this week, the GVS RIDE experience demonstrates the effects of four-pole galvanic vestibular stimulation combined with a VR headset. The technology is pitched as a potential alternative to a motion platform, with its ability to “induce tri-directional acceleration” and “enhance virtual acceleration”.
Inception Raises $15 Million Series A Funding Led By EU Media Conglomerate RTL Group
Inception’s ambitions to become the ‘Netflix of VR’ have just received a major boost, with the Tel Aviv-based company closing a $15 million Series A funding round led by media and broadcast giant RTL Group. Launched in October 2016, the Inception app is accessible on leading mobile VR platforms, as well as the Rift and Vive, while PSVR support is ‘coming soon’.
‘Through You’ – Dance as Embodied Communication in VR & Pushing the Boundaries of Editing in VR
Dance is all about bodies moving through space, and it’s something that shows the strength of the VR medium since there’s something that’s lost when it’s translated onto a 2D screen. Lily Baldwin observed how audience members heard the music differently through her expressions as a dancer touring with David Byrne, and she wanted to experiment with using dance a form of embodied communication within virtual reality.
‘Quill’ Development Continues Under Facebook Social VR Team After Oculus Story Studio’s Shuttering
VR painting app Quill, which began its life as an internal production tool for Oculus Story Studio and was eventually released to the public, will see continued development despite the shuttering of the studio back in May. Former Story Studio members continue Quill‘s development under the banner of Facebook’s Social VR team.
Researchers Showcase Impressive New Bar for Real-time Digital Human Rendering in VR
A broad team of graphics researchers, universities, and technology companies are showcasing the latest research into digital human representation in VR at SIGGRAPH 2017. Advanced capture, rigging, and rendering techniques have resulted in an impressive new bar for the art of recreating the human likeness inside of a computer in real-time.
Modest Gains Bring Rift’s Share of Headsets on Steam to a New High Amid Sale
According to the latest figures from Valve’s Hardware & Software survey, Rift has reached its highest historical market share on Steam thanks to modest gains amid an ongoing sale. Despite the new high point, the HTC Vive still holds the majority share.
HP’s New Commercial VR Backpack PC Smartly Docks to Double as VR Desktop
Scheduled for release in September starting at $3,300, the HP Z VR Backpack G1 Workstation is aimed at the commercial market, with high-performance components including an Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia Quadro GPU. It features a smart docking design for use as a VR backpack computer as well as a VR desktop, and includes two hot-swappable batteries for continuous tether-free VR use.
