CCP Teases New Footage of ‘Project Arena’, a Purported ‘VR eSport’ for Touch and Vive
Project Arena, a prototype game now in development from CCP, was teased today by CCP Games at Fanfest 2016, the company’s annual gathering in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Meet Strangers in VR and Create Beautiful Things Together
What if you could take the magical sense of creativity evoked by Tilt Brush and share that with someone else, online, simultaneously, using nothing but your hands for input? That’s the ethos behind developer Mike Harris’ latest project, StrangersVR.
‘Skywand’ Uses VR and Autonomous Drones to Capture the Perfect Shot
Once upon a time if you were a filmmaker who wanted an aerial shot, you paid a hefty fee to charter a helicopter and brought a camera along for the ride. Today, filmmakers can use virtual reality to pre-plan and deploy an autonomous drone which will fly off and automatically capture the desired footage, thanks to Skywand. Sometimes it really does feel like we’re living in the future.
How to Make Your Own Mixed Reality Video for VR Racing
Mixed reality videos, demonstrating the power of virtual reality without a headset, are all the rage it seems. Marcel Pfister, the racing enthusiast behind a recent, astoundingly effective example, shares how he pulled it off in his latest video.
Using VR to Treat Lazy Eye with ‘Vivid Vision’
It’s not every day that someone gains an entirely new sense, but James Blaha did just that. He created a virtual reality vision therapy experience that essentially cured his lazy eye and enabled him to see in 3D for the first time in his life. When I first interviewed James in May 2014, he was hesitant to make any claims that this was an effective treatment beyond his own personal experience, but nearly two years later James’ Vivid Vision system has shown success in other people with amblyopia and strabismus and is now located in over 20 optometrist clinics around the country.
Review: ‘Technolust’ is a Gritty Cyberpunk Adventure That Leaves You Begging For More
Technolust, like many others in the cyberpunk genre, stands on the shoulders of giants. Taking cues from neo-noir staples like Blade Runner (1982) and William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), the adventure game makes good on its promise to deliver the lovably gritty ‘high-tech, low-life’ atmosphere that cyberpunk fans are after, but in a package that you can digest in a single sitting. The only problem: I need more. A lot more.
Figuring Out Social VR is Key to Mainstream Adoption
Let’s face it, if there is one VR category that has the most potential, the most controversy, and admittedly the most goofiness, it’s social VR.
Tapping Our Primal Fears for Virtual Tightrope Experience ‘The Walk’
At GDC this year, Epic Games had a VR Lounge where they were showing off 10 different VR experiences that used the Unreal Engine. One of those experiences was Create VR’s The Walk VR Experience, where you can walk across a tightrope between the two World Trade Center towers just as Philippe Petit did in 1974. This was created as Sony Pictures’ first VR experience to promote their film The Walk, which was released last September. I had a chance to talk with Jake Black, the Head of VR at Create Advertising, about The Walk VR experience, how it triggers the primal parts of fear in our brain, and how he reacted to it considering his fear of heights.
New Magic Leap Video Shows Your Home as a User Interface
The secretive augmented reality project Magic Leap enjoy their fantastical teaser videos, but their latest takes a more sober tone by demonstrating the potential for the technology as a user interface to your life.
Hands On: The Unspoken and Oculus Touch Made Me a Bad-Ass Wizard
The Unspoken from Insomniac Games wants to use the immediacy of motion controls to give you magical powers and then watch you fight to the death using them. At a special event, Frank He got a chance to go hands on with the Oculus Touch exclusive title and this is what he thought.
A Look at NASA’s Hybrid Reality Astronaut Training System, Powered by HTC Vive
At NVIDIA’s GTC event earlier this month, NASA gave a talk which revealed just how important virtual reality has become to the organisation’s Astronaut training program. This talk includes video demonstrations of NASA’s advanced experiments designed to give workers in space realistic training simulations to prepare them for the difficulties of zero gravity working and space walks.
Samsung’s Nick DiCarlo on VR Roller Coasters at Six Flags
Nine different New Revolution Virtual Reality Coasters open to the general public at Six Flags theme parks around the country this Thursday, April 21st. A couple of roller coaster veterans Six Flags who had seen every roller coaster imaginable and had ceased to be impressed by new theme park rides saw a VR Coasters demo by Thomas Wagner on a pretty mild roller coaster at Orlando’s Fun Spot America while wearing a Gear VR, and it completely blew them away. It made such a bit impression that they made a quick decision to get the technology into 9 different theme parks as fast as they could.
Nick DiCarlo is the Vice President of Immersive Products & Virtual Reality at Samsung, and I caught up with him at SXSW to hear more about the VR Coaster technology syncs their VR experience to each roller coaster, how they’re managing the logistics of Gear VR headsets, and the future of using Gear VR headsets in theme park attractions.
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
I was going to go try out one of the Six Flags VR roller coasters before GDC as part of a Samsung media event, but it was postponed due to bad weather in Dallas that week. I’m fairly sensitive to motion sickness caused by visual and vestibular disconnects, and so the jury is still out for me as to whether or not these VR coasters have good enough tracking and synchronization to not cause sim sickness for those who are already particularly sensitive. Leave a comment down below if you have a chance to try out any of these roller coasters and how sensitive you are to motion sickness from VR locomotion.
Here’s some game play footage from Theme Park Review of a roller coaster on the New Revolution Virtual Reality Coasters
Here’s a 30-second promo for the New Revolution Virtual Reality Coasters at Six Flags
And here’s a 7 and a half minute documentary about bringing these VR Roller Coasters to Six Flags
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How to Natively Record Video and Take Screenshots in Gear VR
If you’re tired of futzing around with 3rd-party screen recorders to capture your Gear VR play sessions, your long wait is over. Oculus has finally pushed an update to all Gear VR-compatible phones on Android 5.0 that will allow you to record video and capture screenshots natively. The new function isn’t without its issues however, so there’s a few things you need to know before you get started.
Halo Composer Marty O’Donnell on the Music and Design of Golem for PSVR
Marty O’Donnell, a composer most famous for his beloved work on Bungie’s Halo Series, talks to Ben Lang about his new developer start-up Highwire Games – whose first title Golem is coming this year for PlayStation VR.
Insomniac Teases Beastly Adventure-Brawler ‘Feral Rights’, Coming to Rift Fall 2016
Insomniac Games today revealed Feral Rights, a single-player VR adventure-brawler set on a mystical island that promises to let you explore your wild side.
