Road to VR

VR Presence Researcher Finds Full Embodiment to be Key Component in Plausibility

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Jul 10, 2017

Mel Slater’s Theory of Presence includes two major components including the Place Illusion (the degree to which you’re transported to another world), and the Plausibility Illusion (the degree to which you believe what’s happening in that world is believable). Presence researcher Richard Skarbez thinks of these two components as “immersion” and “coherence,” and we previously discussed his presence research where he found that both illusions are vital for a deep sense of presence. The place illusion is largely enabled by the objective details of the VR technology with features such as 1:1 head tracking, low latency, and large field of view. But all of the different dimensions of what makes an experience plausible are still widely unknown, not very well researched, and also difficult to isolate and determine.

Best VR Graphics Cards for Rift and Vive

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Jul 10, 2017

vr gpu benchmarking testing comparison (2) — Photo by Road to VR

Looking to get into virtual reality but need to beef up your gaming PC to handle it? Here’s a quick cheat sheet on our current top picks for NVIDIA and AMD Radeon graphics cards suited for virtual reality.

Director of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ is Making a Live-Action VR Horror Series, Releasing Halloween 2017

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Jul 10, 2017

CampfireCreepers17 — image courtesy Future Lighthouse

Veteran horror director Alexandre Aja, known for his work on The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Pirahana 3D (2010), and Horns (2013), is teaming up with Oculus and VR production studio Future Lighthouse to create a 360 live-action horror series entitled Campfire Creepers that takes you into long-forgotten childhood fears.

Here’s 17 Pieces of Free Content You’ll Get With Oculus Rift + Touch

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Jul 10, 2017

While Oculus had a robust day-one launch lineup of more than 50 titles back when Touch initially dropped in December of last year, owning an Oculus Rift + Touch grants you more titles than ever with unfettered access to at least seventeen pieces of spectacular free content.

New ‘Lone Echo’ Launch Trailer

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Jul 10, 2017

Lone Echo, the upcoming zero-G, sci-fi adventure from Ready at Dawn, has a brand new trailer proceeding its July 20th launch date.

Two Ways to Play Non-VR Games With the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive

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Jul 9, 2017

Games that are specifically developed for VR are always going to look and play the best in a VR headset, but let’s face it, most of us probably have huge libraries of traditional games, and you may be wondering “Can I play regular games on the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive?”—the answer is yes (with a few caveats), and here’s two ways you can do it.

‘Lone Echo’s’ Virtual Hands Are an Unexpected VR Innovation

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Jul 8, 2017

Oculus had talked much about ‘Hand Presence’ with the launch of their Touch VR controllers last year, but few games have implemented the controllers in such a way that truly deliver on that promise. Combined with Touch, Lone Echo’s impressive procedural virtual hands take Hand Presence to the next level.

Vive Deluxe Audio Straps Back in Stock on Monday, Vive Pre Adapter Kit Available With Promo Code

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Jul 8, 2017

vive-deluxe-audio-strap — photo courtesy HTC

The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is a more ergonomic strap with integrated headphones for the HTC Vive, and when it launched last month, it was only on sale for less than 48 hours until stocks ran dry in the EU and US. Now the company says not only will it be back in stock for US/UK/EU customers on July 10th, but that a special adapter for the Vive Pre will also be available for free with purchase.

Vive Tracker Used to Create Pressure Sensitive Photoshop Stylus for VR

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Dominic Brennan

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Jul 8, 2017

Developer Jimmy Gray recently posted a short video (see above), showing the latest version of a DIY motion-tracked VR stylus prototype. Using an HTC Vive Tracker mounted above a stylus-shaped unit, a VR stylus can be tracked and rendered, usable in Photoshop and capable of pressure sensitivity.

Group of Men “Marry” Anime Characters in a VR Wedding Ceremony

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Jul 7, 2017

Japan is an exceedingly normal place when it comes down to daily life, but for some reason the culture’s social norms are—how should we put it—famously elastic. As reported by Vocativ, virtual reality played a big part in a recent marketing campaign for an upcoming sequel to the dating sim series Niizuma Lovely x Cation that saw the non-legal marriage between a number of men and their virtual girlfriends interacting through an HTC Vive headset.

BBC’s VR Documentary ‘Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel’ Launches on Rift and Gear VR

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Jul 7, 2017

ERVR_PreviewImage_3_Liberty — image courtesy BBC

The BBC’s newest VR documentary, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, today launched on Gear VR and Oculus Rift. The 13-minute documentary takes you through one man’s memories on a journey back to a defining moment in Irish history, the armed insurrection against British rule during Easter Week, April 1916 that saw the execution of fifteen Irish leaders and internment of more than a thousand people—kindling for the nascent Irish sentiment of self-rule which later manifested in 1922 with the founding of the Irish Free State.

‘Dead Secret’ is Getting a Sequel, Coming Later This Year

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Jul 7, 2017

dead-secret-circle — image courtesy Robot Invader

Dead Secret (2015), Robot Invader’s first-person mystery thriller for PC, Gear VR and SteamVR-capable headsets, is getting a sequel called Dead Secret Circle. The second installment in the series is slated to come to VR and traditional platforms in 2017.

Magik Gallery – Highlighting Artists Using VR as Their Canvas

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Jul 7, 2017

magick-gallery-rift — Photo courtesy Magik Gallery‏

Nick Ochoa curated some of the top artists producing work entirely in VR for the Magik Gallery show that happened in San Francisco, CA on May 20th. It was an ambitious effort to introduce VR creation tools for artists within a fine arts context in the Terra Gallery space. There were physical posters of scenes showed around 15-20 VR stations featuring an individual piece of art, as well as opportunities to try some of the VR art tools like TiltBrush. Most of the VR art pieces featured some dimension of scale or vastness that showcased some of the unique affordances of art within VR, and the intention was to inspire the art scene within San Francisco for how VR could be used as a medium for expression and storytelling. I had a chance to catch up with Magik Gallery founder Ochoa the day before the showing to talk about his efforts to get art within VR to be taken more seriously within the larger art world.

‘Fantastic Contraption’ Gets PSVR Release Date & Price – Exclusive Levels, Native 120 FPS Rendering

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Jul 6, 2017

Fantastic Contraption, one of the first (and still one of the best) VR puzzle games out there, is finally coming to PSVR on July 11th and has been specially tuned for the platform, including unique levels not seen elsewhere and graphical enhancements for PS4 Pro.

Google Announces ‘Blocks’, a VR App Like ‘Tilt Brush’ for Modeling 3D Objects

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Jul 6, 2017

Google wants to make it easier for VR/AR app developers to create 3D objects with its new app revealed today called Blocks, a program designed to let you build assets for the immersive mediums from within the VR headset itself.

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