On stage today at Samsung’s Unpacked Event in New York, the new Gear VR with motion controller finally got a launch date and price. The new 2017 Gear VR and Controller combo, announced alongside the Galaxy S8, will be available starting April 21st for $129. The motion controller, which can be purchased separately for people that already own an older Gear VR headset, will set you back $39.
Valve’s SteamVR Tracking system is great for VR but certainly not limited to it. For developers, hackers, researchers, and more who might have use for an inexpensive high accuracy, low latency, 6 DOF positional tracking system, it’s possible to use the new Vive Trackers or controllers (even with a single base station) without needing to shell out for the full $800 Vive system.
Held from May 8-11th in Silicon Valley at the San Jose Convention Center, NVIDIA’s GTC 2017 session schedule is chock full of deep tech talks that we’re looking forward to. Among them, Senior NVIDIA Research Scientist Anjul Patney will overview the company’s latest learnings from their study of the ‘perceptually-based’ approach to foveated rendering.
I had a chance to catch up with Oculus’ Nate Mitchell at GDC where I asked him about privacy in VR. Oculus has delegated the design and maintenance of their privacy policy to their parent company of Facebook so that Oculus can focus on providing the best VR experiences and growing the VR ecosystem. Mitchell acknowledges that there are “a lot of potential pitfalls over the future of VR and AR around user privacy” because VR has a “double-edged sword” of providing incredibly compelling immersive experiences, but that “used in the wrong way or in the wrong hands, you can be tracked probably more than you would normally expect to be.”
The Vive Tracker, a ‘puck’-like device designed to attach to objects to track them in VR via the SteamVR Tracking system, went on sale this week after 1,000 units went out to developers earlier this year. One developer aptly demonstrated the tracking performance by juggling a trio of Trackers in VR.
One year ago today, Oculus launched the Rift headset after two development kits and numerous prototypes. Today the company is celebrating with discounts up to 80% on 33 titles that launched in the early days of the headset. The sale runs through April 4th.
Late last year, NBC’s popular late night talk show the Tonight Show with host Jimmy Fallon debuted a new Virtual Reality Pictionary segment which uses the HTC Vive and Tilt Brush. Scarlett Johansson, Michael Che, and Dove Cameron are the latest to step into VR with Fallon.
In-game advertisement (IGA) is a pretty divisive issue; on one hand it provides needed incentive to developers who otherwise wouldn’t have the funds, on the other hand its … advertisement, something most people try to avoid on principle. Now that virtual reality is coming to a wider audience, it seems the medium is mature enough to open the conversation about funding games with ads, something HTC is letting developers enable in a big way with their newly announced VR Ad Service—and VR ads are different. Very different.
Wilson’s Heart, the much anticipated psychological thriller developed by Twisted Pixel and published by Oculus Studios, is due to release exclusively on the Rift on April 25th for $40. In a recent hands-on with the latest build of the game, I got to see how the title’s combat and puzzle mechanics will work.
HTC’s Vive Tacker, the Lighthouse-compatible puck that promises to get more than your hands into virtual reality with a bevy of hardware applications, is now officially available for sale to anyone with $99.
HTC’s Vive X accelerator is a $100 million fund for AR/VR companies that the company announced last year. Today HTC is revealing the second batch of companies that will receive investments and mentorship from the program.
In preparation for Steven Spielberg’s theatrical adaptation of Ernest Cline’s critically acclaimed novel Ready Player One, HTC Vive and Warner Bros Pictures today announced a deal that makes the Vive an official partner for all upcoming VR content for the film. All Ready Player One VR content and experiences will be available on Viveport, HTC Vive’s digital distribution platform.
I’ve written often about the need to push creative boundaries in order for VR to find its voice. Statik is doing just that, with an undeniably unique puzzle game that takes one of VR’s weaknesses and turns it into a strength.
‘Doraemon’ is a popular manga and anime involving a robotic cat who travels back in time to help a young boy. Among Doraemon’s many tricks from the future is the ‘Anywhere Door’ which can be opened to transport people… well, anywhere. A VR take on this idea uses simple props to make a unique VR experience.
This week’s Silicon Valley VR Expo 2017 is set to bring together the core of the VR industry from Silicon Valley and beyond. As VR’s biggest industry event, this year’s event represents the most diverse group of companies from around the world ever to attend the conference.
