Designing a VR Experience for Streaming Spectators on VREAL

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Tadhg-KellyWhat are the game design considerations for creating a VR experience that will be compelling for not only the primary player, but also the spectators who may be watching it on a livestream with VREAL? This was the big question that I discussed with VREAL’s Director of Developer Relations Tadhg Kelly, who has been collaborating with VR developers to make sure that an experience works for both third-person spectators as well as the primary player.

OSVR Launches Pre-orders for HDK 2 VR Headset, Begins Shipping July 29

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Starting today OSVR is taking pre-orders for the HDK 2, the modular, open source ‘Hacker Development Kit’ VR headset which the organization says will ship starting on July 29th.

Five Theories of Motion Sickness Triggers in Virtual Reality

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jason-jeraldWhen people dream about what they want to do in VR, it inevitably involves actually moving around within a virtual environment. But VR locomotion triggers simulator sickness in a lot of people, and solving it is one of the biggest open problems in virtual reality. NextGen Interactions’ Jason Jerald wrote a comprehensive summary of much of the pertinent academic research about VR in The VR Book, and in Chapter 12 he summarizes the five major theories of what may cause simulator sickness.

Valve’s Only VR Title, ‘The Lab’, is the Highest Rated Game on All of Steam

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Among more than 9,000 games on Steam, Valve’s VR title The Lab is heading the platform’s list of top rated games.

‘Mr. Robot’ 360 Experience Set to Stream to all Major VR Headsets For Limited Time

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photo courtesy of the USA Network

Mr. Robot fans take note: a special one-time-only 360 experience is headed your way for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Gear VR and Google Cardboard-enabled smartphones exactly at 10:45 AM PST on Thursday, July 21st.

‘The Assembly’ Review

The Assembly is a first-person adventure game that wants to put your moral fiber to the test. Much like a novel, the game alternates back and forth between two characters: a brilliant neurologist entering the shadowy research institute eponymously dubbed ‘The Assembly’, and an equally brilliant virologist trying to get out. As both characters, you come to better understand why the mysterious organization was driven to the shadows, and why it should probably stay there.

Hands-on: NVIDIA Launches GTX 1060 and Benchmarks Against AMD’s RX 480

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Today marks the launch of NVIDIA’s GTX 1060, the least expensive of the company’s 10-series GPUs so far revealed. According to Nvidia, the GTX 1060 matches the performance of the former flagship card, the GTX 980, but at only 120 watts. Starting at $249, the 1060 faces off against AMD’s $199 RX 480.

Oculus Rift Growth Spurt Halts HTC Vive Market Share Expansion

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Image created by Road to VR

There’s been a lot of talk about the latest data from Valve’s latest Steam Hardware & Software survey, most of it drawing erroneous conclusions about overall market share of VR headsets while missing out on a very interesting data point.

Analysis of Valve’s ‘Lighthouse’ Tracking System Reveals Accuracy

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Image Courtesy Doc-OK.org

Valve’s ‘Lighthouse’ tracking system affords the HTC Vive a ‘room-scale’ tracking space for the VR headset and its controllers through the use of area-sweeping lasers. But exactly how accurate is it? Oliver Kreylos, a VR researcher at UC Davis, has a great analysis of the system which tells us that and much more.

New Darth Vader VR Experience Coming from ILMxLAB, Here’s a Quick Peek

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During an ILMxLAB panel at this years Star Wars Celebration event in London, Batman movie writer David Goyer was introduced as working on a full Star Wars narrative VR experience that focuses on the series most recognisable villain, Darth Vader.

‘Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine’ is Released for HTC Vive 18 July

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See Also: Hands-on: Star Wars ‘Trials on Tatooine’ Let Me Wield the Iconic Lightsaber

Just announced at a Star Wars “Meet ILMxLab” panel at the Star Wars Celebration expo in London, Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine will be released for the HTC Vive on Steam for free on Monday 18 July.

New Oculus Touch Features Detailed in Latest Oculus PC SDK 1.6 Release

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Oculus’ latest Software Developer Kit (SDK) has just been released, and adds support and documentation for a brand new ‘Enter’ button on the left controller not yet seen in the wild.

XBox Head Phil Spencer Sends Mixed Messages on Project Scorpio and VR

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Photo courtesy Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica

Microsoft unveiled ‘Project Scorpio’ to the world at E3 this year, stating that it would provide the Xbox platform enough power to run high fidelity VR experiences. But a recent interview with Xbox head Phil Spencer seems to show a company still unsure about its future in VR.

Report: Google Ditched Plans for High Spec Oculus Rift Rival

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Google had a high-end, standalone virtual reality headset in the works that was recently ditched in favour of the Android-centric ‘Daydream’ VR platform, a new report suggests.

New HTC Vive Version May Be Coming This Year, Report Suggests

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HTC Vive

The SteamVR powered HTC Vive virtual reality system may see an updated “HTC Vive 2.0” before the end of the year according to a report citing suppliers to the Taipei based firm.

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