Road to VR

‘Wilson’s Heart’ Review

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wilson's-heart — Image courtesy Camouflaj

Wilson’s Heart (2017) is a psychological thriller that takes you on a wild first-person adventure through the mind of a hospital patient recovering from a curious surgery, one that has replaced his live-beating heart with a strange machine. Ripping it from your chest, you find it gives you a growing number of abilities to help you not only fight against your personal demons, but also some very real ones that have passed into the world thanks to experiments done by the brilliant, but clearly insane Dr. Harcourt.

Exclusive: Meta 2 AR Demos Revealed in Full

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Apr 25, 2017

meta-2-augmented-reality — Photo by Road to VR

Outside of a few demonstrations at tradeshows, Meta has only give glimpses of the content on its impressive AR headset dev kit in short clips. During a recent visit to the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters to catch the latest improvements to the headset, I got to see a selection of demo content which Meta has allowed Road to VR to capture and share in full for the first time.

Google Nominates Top AR/VR Apps for 2017 Play Awards

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Apr 24, 2017

This year’s 2017 Google Play Awards include new categories for top VR and AR apps, to which Google has nominated five apps each. The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, May 18th at 6:30PM PT during Google I/O, the company’s annual developer festival.

‘Alien: Covenant In Utero’ VR Experience Launches Wednesday

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Apr 24, 2017

The forthcoming Alien: Covenant movie is getting a VR experience, Alien: Covenant In Utero and it launches this Wednesday on Oculus platforms.

Google Announces Next-gen ‘Jump’ VR Camera, 8K x 8K with Seamless Stitching

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Apr 24, 2017

yi halo jump (7) — Photo by Road to VR

Google today announced what the company is calling the “next-generation” of its ‘Jump‘ 3D 360 camera initiative. In partnership with Google, Yi Technology has created the Yi Halo, a 17-camera clock-synchronized array that is designed to be optimized for Google’s automated Jump stitching process which creates impressively seamless 3D 360 output.

Understanding Predictive Tracking and Why It’s Important for AR/VR Headsets

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Apr 24, 2017

In the context of AR and VR systems, predictive tracking refers to the process of predicting the future orientation and/or position of an object or body part. For instance, one might want to predict the orientation of the head or the position of the hand.

Oculus Teases Unreleased ‘Quill’ Animation Tools

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Apr 21, 2017

Oculus Story Studio Art Director Goro Fujita has teased an unreleased build of the Quill VR paint app with experimental animation features. Released earlier this year, Quill allows users to create still 3D drawings in VR. Using the new animation tools Fujita shows what the app’s animation tools can do.

Oculus ‘Medium’ 1.1 Update Brings Major Improvements

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Dominic Brennan

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Apr 21, 2017

oculus medium dragon — Photo courtesy Oculus

On April 12th, Oculus Medium received the 1.1 ‘Large’ update, which added several highly-requested features, including the ability to import reference images. Medium is Oculus’ flagship creative tool for the Touch motion controllers, recognised for its intuitive sculpting and modelling features.

Zoning AR Permissions with the Mixed Reality Service Spec

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Apr 21, 2017

pokemon-catch-em-all_orig — Photo courtesy Steve Cutts

Mark Pesce is a VR pioneer who has been thinking about networked virtual and augmented reality for over 20 years now. He developed the Ono-Sendai Sega VR helmet prototype, co-created VRML, and presented his Cyberspace Protocol spec at the first Web conference in 1994. This CP spec evolved into the Mixed Reality Services spec, which aims to be a distributed system that would grant geospatial permissions for mixed reality applications.

‘CyberSnake’ for HoloLens is a Reimagining of the Classic ‘Snake’ in AR

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Dominic Brennan

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Apr 21, 2017

Developer Lucas Rizzotto has created CyberSnake, a free game for Microsoft HoloLens. As explained in the game’s launch video (above), the game is inspired by the 2D Snake arcade game, moved into a mixed reality environment, and played in first person.

Watch the First 10 Minutes of ‘Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality’

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Apr 20, 2017

Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017) is finally here, launching today on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. And yes, it’s all the wonderful weirdness of the show mixed in with some seriously fun object interaction courtesy of the game’s spiritual predecessor, Job Simulator (2016).

‘Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality’ Review

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rick and morty vr (5) — Image courtesy Adult Swim Games

You’re dying for season 3 of Rick and Morty (2013) to come out, and the release of episode 1 on April Fool’s Day isn’t helping. You’ve got a fever that only the drunken ramblings of the genius Rick Sanchez and his level-headed, albeit hopelessly outmatched grandson Morty Smith can cure. The good news: Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017) is here to fill the void in your meaningless existence. The less good news: it’s basically Job Simulator (2016) expertly grafted to an episode of Rick and Morty. And you know what? Th-th-th*ugghhb*at’s just fine by me, Jack. Don’t know why I’m calling you Jack all of a sudden. Let’s just get on with the review.

‘Tilt Brush’ Devs Hack Together Virtual Potter’s Wheel with Vive Tracker

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Dominic Brennan

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Apr 20, 2017

A novel use of a single Vive Tracker is to stick it to a rotating platform in order to create a virtual potter’s wheel. Patrick Hackett, co-creator of Tilt Brush, tweeted a short clip of the tracker in action as experimented with by an intern.

A Vest That Can Cure Deafness, and Maybe One Day Give Us Entirely New Senses

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Apr 20, 2017

neosensory — Photo courtesy Neosensory

Back in 2015, Neuroscientist David Eagleman gave a TED talk about the potential to expand and create new senses. He showed off a haptic vest prototype that could translate audio input into an array of 32 vibrating motors that could be fed directly into your body. The signals would reach the brain and create a neural input that is indistinguishable from what the cochlea would produce, meaning that it’s possible to turn the torso into an ear. The principle of sensory substitution shows that the brain doesn’t care where the data comes from as long as it’s structured in the right format and correlated to feedback within the environment.

Oculus Chief Scientist: How and When Augmented Reality Will Transform Our Lives

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Dominic Brennan

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Apr 20, 2017

michael-abrash-f8 — Image courtesy Oculus, Facebook

Michael Abrash, Chief Scientist at Oculus, as-ever delivered an inspiring presentation at today’s F8 conference, this time on the topic of Augmented Reality. AR has received top billing at this year’s event, with Facebook introducing a camera-based platform to develop today’s technology; Abrash’s talk looked further ahead to glasses-based AR which he says will transform how we work and play.

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