A recent study by Facebook IQ, in which people completed one-on-one conversations in VR, concluded that most people respond positively, and introverts in particular feel more comfortable. Facebook IQ is a team established to assist marketers in understanding the way people communicate online and offline.
During a Q&A on Reddit, Valve head Gabe Newell affirmed that the company is continuing development its own first-party VR content, as well as exploring interests in new technologies which could play a part in Valve’s future.
Late last year at Steam Dev Days, Valve talked about a new and improved design for the SteamVR Tracking / Lighthouse base stations, a core component of the Vive’s tracking technology. Now the company says it plans to launch the new version later this year.
Florida based SynergyWiz is designing a third-party head-mount for the HTC Vive which uses a PSVR-stlye ‘halo’ mounting design for added comfort, and offers the much desired visor flip functionality.
OSSIC debuted their latest OSSIC X headphone prototype at CES this year with one of the best immersive audio demos that I’ve heard yet. OSSIC CEO Jason Riggs told me that their headphones do a dynamic calibration of your ears in order to render out near-field audio that is customized to your anatomy, and they had a new interactive audio sandbox environment where you could do a live mix of audio objects in a 360-degree environment at different heights and depths. OSSIC also was a participant in Abbey Road Studio’s Red Incubator looking at the future of music production, and Riggs makes the bold prediction that the future of music is going to be both immersive and interactive.
At CES 2017, Intel was showing off more of its Project Alloy VR headset, including a roomscale multiplayer demo featuring ‘merged reality’, where the game environment adapts to your physical surroundings.
Trebuchet, or not to trebuchet? There really is no question when it comes to Siegecraft Commander, a tabletop strategy game that combines traditional real-time strategy (RTS) elements with a unique base-building mechanic that’s designed to significantly change the way you create structures and attack enemies. By making you physically fling—as in, put in a slingshot and shoot out—everything from explosive barrels to defensive buildings like outposts and armories, Siegecraft successfully gameifies the most banal part of traditional RTSs and summarily smothers what might otherwise be a dynamic and interesting game.
To many, the question of an Apple AR or VR headset has become a “when” rather than an “if”. The President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios thinks 2017 is the year that Apple introduces its first immersive device.
Frank He goes hands-on with Huawei’s first Google Daydream compatible headset at CES 2017, one which takes cues from both the Samsung and Oculus engineered Gear VR and its closest stable mate, the Daydream View headset.
Immersive content agency Purple Pill has announced a VR interface design competition and is offering $10,000 in cash prizes to those who create the best virtual reality interfaces.
Sansar, a virtual world platform from the creators of Second Life, will open its doors to everyone in the first half of 2017. Developer Linden Lab explains their new approach to virtual worlds, and the many ways they plan to enable creators to make money with compelling virtual experiences.
Frank He goes hands on with PiMAX’s ludicrously high-spec 8k, 200 degree FOV prototype at CES and find the company has some innovative solutions to some of the substantial challenges driving a headset like this poses.
Virtual reality has the potential to enable so many amazing utopian futures, but it also has the potential to become one of the most intimate surveillance technologies that could create a Big Brother dystopia of political and economic control. But if privacy considerations are built into virtual reality technologies from the beginning, then Accomplice investor Sarah Downey argues that the metaverse could actually be one of the last bastions of privacy that we have in our lives.
At CES 2017 Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon 835 processor and along with it a solid focus on the mobile VR market. We got a chance to test that new focus by going hands on with Qualcomm’s latest reference hardware and find impressive inside-out tracking using just the phone’s onboard sensors.
Own Gear VR or Daydream View? Then you’ve got access to free courtside seats to this Tuesday’s forthcoming Timberwolves vs. Spurs NBA game live… in VR of course.
