Blade Runner Sequel to Release October 2017 With Oculus VR Experiences
The long rumoured sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner is coming soon and it’s to be joined by virtual reality experiences via Oculus.
Oculus Says Walt Disney Studios Collaboration Will “Set a Higher Bar for VR”
Among the swath of announcements made at Oculus Connect 3, one of the fleeting but important pieces of content-related news is that Walt Disney Studios is working with Oculus to create a series of VR experiences based on iconic characters and franchises.
Oculus Will Cover Unreal Engine Developer Fees Through First $5M in Revenue, Per Game
Oculus covered a lot of ground during their opening keynote at Oculus Connect 3 this week; among many exciting announcements, one of interest for Unreal Engine developers might be how Oculus says that they’ll cover the royalty fees for any Unreal Engine applications on their store, up to the first $5 million in gross revenue.
OTOY Demos Lightfield Streaming From the Cloud
Jules Urbach, CEO of OTOY, believes lightfields are the endgame of virtual reality. Essentially a way to digitally record all light reflected from a real or virtual object, lightfields seemingly enable feats of technological magic, from being able to view near-photoreal quality scenes from any angle within the capture volume to actually being able to dynamically relight actors in real time. OTOY believes that lightfields solve many of VR’s rendering challenges and has been investing itself in them heavily. Road to VR guest reporter Nate Kozak spoke with Urbach about the company’s new lightfield streaming.
Hands On: ‘Lone Echo’ Nails Zero-G Movement in VR With Oculus Touch
Frank He gets his hands into Ready at Dawn’s first VR title and finds Lone Echo to deliver one of the best zero g experiences yet seen in VR, all thanks to clever design and of course the Oculus Touch motion controllers.
Facebook Founder Says Company Invested $250M in VR Content, Will Invest $250M More
At Oculus Connect’s opening keynote today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to drive home the company’s commitment to the virtual reality space. How much commitment? Some $500M worth.
Getting Social – Oculus to Offer Persistent Avatars Across Multiplayer Games
Up until now, multiplayer games on Oculus Home have relied on their own individual avatar selectors, meaning you couldn’t have the exact same avatar in two different apps. In an effort to socialize the entire platform, Oculus is introducing an avatar editor that will let you style a single avatar and use it across multiple apps.
Final Touch Battery Life Improved 40% Over Original Prototype, Up to 30 Hours of Use
At a session breaking down the design of Touch during Oculus Connect, designers of the controller explored the choices that drove the form and functionality of the device.
Oculus Announces $49 Earphones Accessory for Rift, Launching December 6th
At today’s Oculus Connect keynote, a number of new hardware announcements were made, including the reveal of a new pair of Oculus ‘Earphones’ that replace the removable headphones that come with the Rift.
Oculus Connect: Talk “Designing Touch” Live Blog @6pm PST
Oculus Touch is almost with us, but as launch day now approaches, how exactly did the unique half-moon VR controllers come to be? This talk from Oculus’ Industrial Designer Peter Bristol looks to explore the challenges and decisions that went into making the devices.
New Oculus Render Tech Cuts Entry Level VR PC Costs to $499
Keeping games chugging along at 90 frames per second (fps) while rendering modern graphics is a tall order, which is why building a VR-ready computer is pretty much impossible with less than $600. Well, now the minimum spec—at least for Oculus—seems to be a little more affordable, more so than their previously stated GTX 970 – Core i5 4590 ‘recommend spec’ that is.
Hands-on: Oculus’ Wireless ‘Santa Cruz’ Prototype Makes Standalone Room-scale Tracking a Reality
On stage at Oculus Connect 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased that Oculus is developing a new, standalone, wireless VR headset with inside-out positional tracking. Following the keynote, I was whisked away behind closed doors to see the so-called ‘Santa Cruz’ prototype in action.
Oculus Wants You to Talk With ‘Parties’ and Play in ‘Rooms’
Remember that friends list you made back when you got your Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Rift? Yeah. It’s been pretty useless. Today Oculus announced that they’ll soon be turning on social with the help of two new social app functions.
