Following this week’s news that AltspaceVR, one of the first social VR platforms, is shutting down, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who is no longer with the company, queried the community to ask if he should seek to save AtlspaceVR from closing.
Oculus has been on the receiving end of vocal criticism about its practices of funding the development of VR content with the requirement that it be exclusive to the Oculus platform. For many owners of the Rift’s rival, Vive, the biggest point of contention is that Oculus’ PC platform is only compatible with the Rift, which means the exclusive games the company funds can’t be played by the Vive without an unofficial workaround. However, Oculus say’s they’re interested in opening the door to their platform to any third-party VR headsets that want to come in.
‘Parties’ is a long awaited feature on the PC version of the Oculus platform that lets players form small groups to be able to talk to one another across VR apps. The feature is now rolling out to the Oculus Public Test Channel on PC, an opt-in test version of the software ahead of the full public rollout.
NextVR, a platform known for its VR live broadcasting of sporting and concert events, is creating original VR content in the form of a suspenseful show called Paranormal Evidence. The California-based VR broadcast company developed the program, described as “a virtual reality investigation exploring the unexplained phenomena reported at notoriously haunted locations.”
This evening AltspaceVR has announced it will be closing its doors for good on August 3rd. Founded in 2013, the social VR platform was one of the first to come online and connected tens of thousands of users monthly across a range of headsets.
When Ark Park was first revealed back in 2016, we were told it would be an educational experience allowing players “the opportunity to truly appreciate and understand dinosaurs in their natural habitat.” That seemed odd at the time, given that the title is a spinoff of Ark: Survival Evolved, a game that’s very much about survival and killing. A new trailer for Ark Park shows that the game will be something much different than initially expected.
Felix & Paul Studios, among the top VR video production companies out there, today launch their longest film to date on the Oculus Rift and Gear VR. Miyubi transports viewers back to 1982 where they see the world through the eyes of an eponymous Japanese robot toy. The studio may point to the film’s length as its leading achievement, but Miyubi is visually some of the best looking VR film we’ve seen to date, but is that enough to warrant 40 minutes inside?
The mantra goes: If it’s possible, someone will eventually build it. That statement rings true for everything from the weird and spastic games like Mosh Pit Simulator or hardware add-ons like the pulsating haptic skin from Omnipulse, and while I’m just not sure why ’80s Norwegian synthpop band A-ha really needed to be realized in AR, I feel so much better about the world now that I’ve seen it.
The Institute of Noetic Sciences was founded by Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell after he had a mystical experience on the way back from being the sixth man to walk on the moon. After finding a description of his spiritual awakening experience as a “samadhi” within the ancient Vedas, he decided to start a science institution dedicated to studying the nature of consciousness. Consciousness is the “hard problem” in that there’s no widely accepted theory for how the mind is connected to the body, but IONS has been on the frontiers of researching this mind-body connection over the past 44 years.
The impressively popular social VR game Rec Room recently received a ‘Fancy Pants’ update, adding more than 100 new items for players to customize their avatars. As detailed on the game’s Steam news page, the update fixes a number of bugs, increases the level cap along with retuned XP rewards and level curves, and adds new community event features.
HTC today announced a new variant of its Vive standalone VR headset which is aimed specifically at the Chinese VR market and will tap the company’s Viveport content platform as the official app store for the headset. Meanwhile, in the US & EU markets, the standalone Vive headset is backed by Google’s Daydream ecosystem.
TheWaveVR, a social music platform for VR performances, debuts its third major show, this time bringing EDM duo HEAVYGRINDER into VR for a live and interactive virtual reality concert. You can join the fun for free tonight, July 26th, at 7PM PT (find your timezone here).
The Wizards is a single-player spellcasting combat game from Carbon Studio, the makers of Alice VR. The game is set to launch in Early Access on Steam for the Vive and Rift this Friday, July 28th. A new Early Access launch trailer shows what’s in store for aspiring spellcasters.
Sony today announced four new titles for PlayStation VR at the annual ChinaJoy Expo in Shanghai—all of which have been confirmed to make it over to Western audiences. The games come as a result of a partnership between Sony Interactive Entertainment and what they call “some of Asia’s most exciting developers.”
