Road to VR

The White House on the AI Revolution: Policy, Privacy, & GPUs

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May 27, 2016

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to disrupt so many different dimensions of our society that the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy recently announced a series of four public workshops to look at some of the possible impacts of AI. The first of these workshops happened at the University of Washington on Tuesday, May 24th, and I was there to cover how some of these discussions may impact the virtual reality community.

Existing Phones Unlikely to Qualify as ‘Daydream Ready’, Says Google, VR Fans Should Wait to Upgrade

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May 26, 2016

Google’s ambitious Daydream VR platform for Android hinges on a combination of hardware and software to enable a high quality VR experience. To ensure the desired level of performance, Google will certify phones of a certain minimum specification as ‘Daydream Ready’. But the company says that even today’s top phones are unlikely to qualify for the title.

Microsoft Preparing VR Capable Xbox One for Use with Oculus Rift, Reports Suggest

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May 26, 2016

Microsoft may be preparing a new, much more powerful version of their Xbox One games console codenamed ‘Scorpio’ to power the Oculus Rift some reports are suggesting.

‘Project Ghost’ Lets You Bend Time Whilst Dual Wielding Lightsabers

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May 26, 2016

A new early prototype game for the HTC Vive is aiming to bring your time-shifting, lightsaber wielding dreams to life with Project Ghost, a new game, early in production, which mashes together so many individually cool ideas, some of them have to work!

Modbox Update Brings Room-scale VR Game Building with New Mod Support

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May 26, 2016

Modbox, the physics sandbox title where you’re free to create whatever insane contraptions you like, alongside a friend, has expanded its scope. The team are to deliver a big update in June that expands ability for users to mod the title, with the first example a neat looking dungeon construction system.

Preview: ‘Buzludzha VR’ Gives New Life to an Abandoned Soviet Megastructure

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May 25, 2016

The imposing Buzludzha Monument in central Bulgaria once invoked infallible power, a power that once rested with the nation’s Communist Party. The brutalist megastructure, opened to the public in 1981 and later abandoned after the lifting of the iron curtain, now lies in ruins, with the grand mosaics of the dear leaders chipped from their walls, and the domed ceiling reduced to little else than a metal framework. But what if the Bulgarian government revived the building? What then?

Reminder: Reggie Watts Brings Act to AltspaceVR May 26th, RSVP Today

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May 25, 2016

Didn’t get the memo that the critically acclaimed comedian/beatboxer/musical magician Reggie Watts is coming to VR? There’s still time to sign up for the AltspaceVR event, which is being billed as “the largest attended event in VR ever.”

AltspaceVR Debuts Key Tech to Massively Scale Virtual Events

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May 25, 2016

AltspaceVR has today announced FrontRow, a new feature of the social VR platform which opens the door for mass-attended events in virtual reality.

Netflix Prototypes Retro Room-scale Streaming Video Store

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May 25, 2016

Netflix engineers working on ways to bring their video streaming service into the immersive realm have released this video of their prototype room-scale virtual reality reality experience modelled on an 80’s VHS video rental store. Yes, it is as odd as it sounds.

Google’s Nathan Martz on Developing with the Daydream SDK

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May 24, 2016

Nathan Martz is a product manager for Google’s Daydream SDK, and I had a chance to catch up with him to talk about what developers need to know in order to get started in developing for Daydream, which will be released in the Fall. Road to VR has a great article covering some of what’s needed to build the DIY Dev kit, which Nathan refers to as the “Build Your Own Dev Kit” (BYODK). Or you can follow along the instructions here. I talk to Nathan about the 3DOF Daydream controllers, SDK features, AndroidVR, as well some of the other of the other tips for getting started in developing for Daydream.

Platform Politics: Inside the Oculus and ‘Revive’ Dilemma

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May 24, 2016

oculus-rift-cv1-e3-2015-paul-james — See Also: Platform Politics: Inside the Oculus and ‘Revive’ Dilemma

Revive is an application that allows select VR games exclusive to the Oculus Home platform to be played on a rival SteamVR-powered HTC Vive headset. A recent update to Oculus Home crippled Revive, an act that has caused outrage in the VR community. What does Revive actually do under the hood? Who’s behind it? And are Oculus really doing anything wrong anyway? We take a look at the story so far and speak to Revive‘s author LibreVR to dig a little deeper.

VR Audio Specialists ‘Two Big Ears’ Acquired by Facebook

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May 24, 2016

In surprise news, it seems that the British company behind the excellent 3DCeption spatial audio pipeline Two Big Ears, has been acquired by Oculus’ parent company Facebook in a move set to see their technology included alongside Oculus’ to deliver what the Two Big Ears call “best in class VR audio”.

Oculus Setting Up London Team to Build “Really Cool Stuff”

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May 24, 2016

Oculus is coming to the UK in a significant way it seems, as they prepare to open a dedicated base in London with a team that’s apparently gearing up to build some “really cool stuff” for virtual reality.

Alan Yates Says Rift’s Core Features Are a “Direct Copy” of Valve’s VR Research

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May 23, 2016

In a revealing statement on Reddit, Alan Yates, a Valve employee who works closely on the company’s Lighthouse tracking system, claims that the Oculus Rift headset is largely derived from Valve’s research.

Google Daydream Leads on the Future of Mobile VR

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May 23, 2016

daydream vr headset — Daydream headset

Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” but what happens if there’s a shift from the Information Age to the Experience Age? Google’s Daydream mobile VR platform is part of that answer. It’s Android’s next phase moving beyond the minimum viable Cardboard VR viewers, where it’s starting to really leverage the Android hardware and software ecosystem to help bring virtual reality to the world at scale.

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