Road to VR

CCP Games: How ‘Sparc’ is Made to be a ‘Real Sport’, Not a ‘Sports Game’

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Mar 2, 2017

Sparc (ex-Project Arena) is somewhat of an oddity in the VR space. While some developers are focusing on recreating certain real-world sports like minigolf or tennis, Eve Online studio CCP has gone a different direction by creating an entirely new sport, one that you could call a true “VR native.” After popping into the game, which mostly retains the core gameplay we first saw at last year’s Eve Fanfest, I sat down with Morgan Godat, executive producer of the company’s VR Labs, to learn more about what makes Sparc spark.

Windows Mixed Reality Dev Headsets Ship This Month, VR Content Coming to Xbox Scorpio

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 1, 2017

Acer-Windows-Mixed-Reality-Development-Edition-headset — Acer's Windows Headset, image courtesy Acer

The Acer Windows Mixed Reality Development Edition headset is shipping this month, the first HMD to include the inside-out tracking technology pioneered on the HoloLens. This marks the beginning of the rollout of Microsoft-endorsed VR headsets that support ‘world scale’ tracking and ‘mixed reality’ apps.

Oculus Announces Significant Price Drop for Rift and Touch

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Mar 1, 2017

In an aggressive move that’ll help lower the bar of entry still further for VR, Oculus have announced sizeable permanent price drops for both the Oculus Rift headset and Oculus Touch controllers, both now cut by $100 each.

‘Robo Recall’ Review

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When the Robo Recall title screen first appears – a voice calling its name out like a boxing ring announcer while the electro-rock soundtrack builds in the background – arcade aficionados could be forgiven for thinking they had stepped into an alternate universe where Sega’s legendary arcade divisions were still churning out hits to this very day. That’s the company in which Robo Recall belongs.

Unlike an arcade machine you won’t need a stack of shiny coins to play this shooter. If you own an Oculus Rift, it’s being brought to you absolutely free of charge.

Oculus’ Jason Rubin on Wireless VR “the Wrong Direction for Right Now”

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 1, 2017

wireless-htc-vive-accessory-tpcast — TPCast's first generation device, image courtesy TPCast

Speaking at GDC 2017, Jason Rubin described VR wireless technology as “compressed, not perfect, and expensive” and “the wrong direction for right now”. Rubin’s task at Oculus is to deliver compelling VR content, and believes that hardware features such as wireless, while desirable, simply add to the cost of a product that is already considered too expensive.

NVIDIA PhysX Demo Shows Rigid Body Physics Interactions on a Massive Scale

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Mar 1, 2017

The demo, presented at NVIDIA’s event yesterday where they announced the new GTX 1080 Ti, covers a large area brimming with opportunity for physics-based interactions, a field of seemingly infinite boulders and a bulldozer created to show off the sort of scale that GPUs can drive interactions for rigid body simulation.

NVIDIA Announces ‘FCAT VR’ Frame Analysis Tool to Help Demystify VR Performance

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Mar 1, 2017

nvidia-gtx-titan-x-pascal-10-series-1 — NVIDIA's GTX Titan X GPU

The latest version of NVIDIA’s FCAT VR analysis tool is here and it’s equipped with a wealth of impressive features designed to demystify virtual reality performance on the PC.

Valve and SMI are Working to Add Eye-Tracking Support to OpenVR

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 1, 2017

Eye tracking experts SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) have collaborated with Valve to bring their technology to OpenVR. Eye tracking-enabled HTC Vive units are being shown at GDC 2017, as part of an R&D effort to integrate eye-tracking support into Valve’s OpenVR API.

Watch: Six Minutes of ‘Mage’s Tale’ Gameplay Shows Real Promise

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 1, 2017

Mage’s Tale is a VR Action RPG set in the world of classic fantasy RPG The Bard’s Tale. It is being shown at GDC 2017 for the first time on Oculus Rift and Touch and here’s six minutes of gameplay footage to whet your appetite for the title.

Survios’ New Title ‘Sprint Vector’ Could be a Watershed Moment for VR Locomotion

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Mar 1, 2017

When it comes to VR, best practices say that the player’s in-game movement should be static, and if the player needs to move, it should be within their physical space, or through some locomotion method that’s comfortable in VR, like blinking or teleportation. Then along comes Sprint Vector, the latest title from Survios, the developer of Raw Data, which smashes those best practices with surprising success.

NVIDIA Announces GTX 1080 Ti, Purportedly 35% Faster Than GTX 1080 at $699

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Feb 28, 2017

Tonight NVIDIA has announced the top dog of their GeForce GTX graphics cards, the GTX 1080 Ti. The new Ti model succeeds the GTX 1080 to become the flagship GPU of Nvidia’s consumer line.

‘AR/VR Austin’ 2017 to Explore Political Climate & Its Impact on the VR/AR Industry

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Dominic Brennan

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Feb 28, 2017

AR/VR Austin returns for its third successive year, presenting a mini-conference named ‘Alternative Realities’. Taking place as an unofficial event during the SXSW 2017 festival on March 11th, this year’s event will question the impact of social and political change on the AR/VR industry.

AMD GPUs to Support Asynchronous Reprojection via SteamVR

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Dominic Brennan

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Feb 28, 2017

Announced at AMD’s GDC 2017 press conference, Radeon GPUs will support Asynchronous Reprojection on SteamVR in the next update. The technology helps to maintain smooth head motion when framerate drops below the headset’s refresh rate.

Oculus Reveals 6 New VR Titles for Rift & Gear VR at GDC 2017

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Dominic Brennan

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Feb 28, 2017

Debuted at GDC 2017 and announced via their official blog, Oculus offer a first look at some of the titles coming to Rift and Gear VR in 2017. This includes 6 new game reveals across multiple genres, with 4 optimised for Touch and 2 “must haves” for Gear VR.

25 Minutes of New ‘ARKTIKA.1’ Oculus Touch Gameplay

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Feb 28, 2017

Launching exclusively on the Oculus Rift in Q3 2017, ARKTIKA.1’s polish and presentation has quickly risen it up the ranks to one of the year’s most anticipated VR titles. And though it’s still months away, we’ve got a new glimpse at a chunk of the game’s opening mission.

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