Virtualitics is new company started by NASA JPL and Caltech alum. offering a new platform to leverage the immersive properties of virtual reality in order to better aid human comprehension and use of ‘Big Data’.
Google has put out the welcome mat and unlocked the doors to all developers wishing to develop apps for their Daydream VR platform, but in order to keep the standards high have also issued a “Quality Requirements” guide.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has tapped Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s current Global VP, for the position of CEO at Oculus VR. Barra will be tasked with not only leading Oculus, Facebook’s subsidiary, but all of Facebook’s VR projects. Barra will be replacing Brendan Iribe who stepped down from the position last month to head the company’s PC VR group.
Deus Ex fans with VR hardware can rejoice as developer Eidos Montreal have launched a new, free VR experience based on their latest title in the series, Mankind Divided, and it’s quite the looker.
The Official PlayStation Blog has shared Sony’s most downloaded games of last year. This includes a dedicated list for PlayStation VR, representing almost three months of software sales since the hardware launched in October. PSVR now has more than 50 titles supporting the headset, check out the most downloaded in 2016 below:
EXOS is a new haptic enabled VR glove which uses force feedback to deliver the sensation of physicality when inside immersive applications.
3rd Eye Studios is a new VR developer team formed from Remedy Entertainment alum and they’re working on a new, original made-for-VR anthology inspired by 70’s sci-fi television shows. Here’s an exclusive first look at some of the first art for the game.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is an undeniably fun VR party game that you can play together with a big group with only one VR headset. Now the game has added much requested support for both Vive and Rift’s VR controllers.
Achieving a wide field of view in an AR headset is a challenge in itself, but so too is fixing the so-called vergence-accommodation conflict which presently plagues most VR and AR headsets, making them less comfortable and less in sync with the way our vision works in the real world. Researchers have set out to try to tackle both issues using varifocal membrane mirrors.
According to a report by The Verge, HTC’s VP of Design is leaving the company to join up with Google’s Daydream VR team.
Over the course of the last 50 years, capital markets have significantly codified a generational model approach consumer technology products. New “generations” of products are expected to come at a regular pace and provide increased features and reliability at the same prices. But depending upon the product type, the typical life cycle from one generation to the next can vary greatly. With the first wave of VR headsets now available to consumers, the time will come for the next generation to be announced and eventually launch. But when?
RaceRoom Racing Experience has received a major update that introduces Vive and Rift support through SteamVR. The update also includes a number of improvements and adds new content to this often underappreciated racing sim.
Pearl (2016), a 360 animated short film from director Patrick Osborne and Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP), has landed an Academy Award nomination for this year’s best animated short film, making it the first VR film in the running for an Oscar.
HTC announced earlier in January that they’d be giving away 1,000 Vive Trackers to developers. Applications to get your hands on one of the Trackers are now open through February 7th.
Owlchemy Labs recently announced that Job Simulator has grossed over $3 million, making it one of the most successful indie VR titles to date, and so it’s worth reflecting on some of the design principles of agency and plausibility that have proven to be some of the key affordances of the virtual reality medium. I had a chance to talk to Owlchemy Labs’ Cy Wise at PAX West where she shared with me some guiding principles for Job Simulator as well as some of the more existential reactions from users questioning the nature o reality.
