‘Budget Cuts’ and Physical Room-Scale VR Gameplay on HTC Vive

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Joachim_Holmer_Jenny_NordenborgBudget Cuts is a first-person stealth game that’s one of the more fun and engaging room-scale HTC Vive experiences that I’ve played. You’re an aspiring spy trying to infiltrate a robot-protected building in order to approve your job application. Part of the intention behind this game was to push the limits of physical action that was incorporated into the game play with sneaking around, looking around corners, and peaking over obstacles. There’s also a very unique teleportation method where you can look through the lens of a Portal-like window that you can sweep around an area in order to preview your next teleportation destination. I had a chance to catch up with Neat Corporation’s Jenny Nordenborg and Joachim Holmér at Unity’s AR/VR Vision Summit to talk about their design goals with Budget Cuts, some of their favorite stories and reactions to the game, and some of their future plans. Budget Cuts is expected to be finished sometime later this year.

‘Playthings’ is a Wonderful World of Hamburger Drums and Hot Dog Xylophones

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Before his death, acclaimed psychonaut and technologist Terrence McKenna once said that virtual reality “…is a technology that will allow us to show each other our dreams. We will be able to build structures in the imagination that we cannot now share with each other.” Playthings, a prototype interactive experience from Always & Forever Computer Entertainment, is like the wonderfully manic fever dream of a candy-fuelled pre-teen, and we need to see more.

15,000 HTC Vives Pre-Ordered in 10 Minutes, Now Backordered to May

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The pre-order countdown for HTC Vive is over, but if you’re still on the fence on whether to get that shiny new VR headset, you’re still not too late to pick one up for May shipment.

‘Ninja Trainer’ on Vive is Like Kinect ‘Fruit Ninja’, Except it Actually Works (really well)

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While Fruit Ninja was neat in concept, the performance limitations of the Kinect made it amount to little more than glorified flailing; the latency and lack of precision made you feel more like a parody than a ninja proper. Thankfully, the precision tracking of the latest VR systems is ready to bring out the real ninja inside.

Latest ‘Final Approach’ Trailer Shows New Gameplay and Mini-games

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Phaser Lock Interactive’s title Final Approach, the RTS-style airport management mash up gets a new gameplay trailer showing off much more of what you’ll get up to, including a peek at mini games, fending off UFO invaders and micro-managing mini disasters.

McDonalds Introduce ‘Happy Goggles’, a Portion of VR with Your Happy Meal

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In a move surely to reinforce the message that “VR has arrived”, McDonalds in Sweden are bundling Google Cardboard-esque VR googles with their Happy Meals, assembled from the packaging the food came in.

Alex McDowell on World Building in Storytelling

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alexmcdowellOne of the most inspiring keynotes at Unity’s AR/VR Vision Summit was by Alex McDowell on world building and storytelling. Alex was production designer for Minority Report, Fight Club, & Lawnmower Man, and so he’s been creating imaginal worlds for many years. Alex argues that the process of building worlds can inform and inspire stories, and that storytelling is coming full circle from tribal oral traditions to singular viewpoints and now back to multiple perspectives with immersive experiences. He says that the more multi-disciplinary VR and VR gets over time, then the more rich and profound the experiences are going to become. I had a chance to catch up with Alex after his keynote to unpack some of his innovative world building narrative work that he’s been doing at 5D GlobalStudio and at USC with the
Leviathan Project.

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HP, Alienware, and MSI Among ‘Vive Ready PC’ Partners, Starting at $1,299

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Mirroring the ‘Oculus Ready PC’ program, HTC is now working with PC hardware partners to offer ‘Vive Optimized PCs’. The initial set of systems come from HP, Alienware, and MSI.

The HTC Vive is Available for Pre-order Now

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The HTC Vive VR headset is now available for pre-order from HTC’s website. We tell you where you what it is, where you can buy it and how much you can expect to pay.

Including Controllers, Vive and Rift Could be Evenly Matched on Price

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Natural motion input is the clear future of VR. And while the Rift would seem to lead in price over the Vive, factoring the controllers into the equation will create a very narrow price gap, if any, between the two systems.

HTC Vive Pre-orders Will Receive ‘Tilt Brush’ for Free

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HTC today confirmed worldwide pricing for the SteamVR powered Vive VR headset, due to go up for pre-order tomorrow (29th Feb). They also announced that those pre-orders would receive Google’s virtual reality, paint application Tilt Brush in addition to the two announced pack-in titles Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.

HTC Vive Worldwide Prices Confirmed, €899 in Europe, £689 UK

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The HTC Vive VR system is due to go up for pre-order tomorrow (29th February) and we know the US launch price is going to be $799. But what can the rest of the world expect to pay for the new Valve engineered, SteamVR system? A reported leak from HTC’s own website appears to reveal all.

Developer Pushes Valve’s Lighthouse Tracking to its Limits

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Developers Stress Level Zero, the team behind the HTC Vive shooter Hover Junkers, are known for their VR experiments. But their latest investigation pushes the theoretical limits of Valve’s Lighthouse tracking system, as featured in the HTC Vive.

HTC Vive Has a Hidden Mechanism to Maximize Field of View

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Among the improvements to come to the latest version of the Vive is easier access to a feature that will maximize the device’s field of view between users and be a boon to glasses wearers.

Apps, Airplanes, and More: 5 Predictions for Mobile VR’s Near Future

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Photo courtesy Facebook

2016 has already started off as an exciting year for smartphone-based VR. Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR have been around for a while now and are starting to get large marketing pushes from their creators. I still think we’re in the early stages of this technology and wanted to discuss where I think mobile VR is headed.

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