The Virtuix Omni is well on its way to being the first consumer-facing VR treadmill to hit the market, with the first shipments set to go out in next month. In the mean time, Virtuix is keeping the hype alive with a new video demonstrating its use with Fallout 4 in VR, using the VR injection driver VorpX.
John Carmack takes up his role as VR educator once again as he takes a technical deep dive into new Gear VR title Bazaar and analyses, ruminates on and illuminates where the developer could make changes to improve their design and technology approach.
Elite:Dangerous is evolving and the first in a series of expansions, named Horizons, will be available on November 30th – bringing with it a host of new features. One exciting addition is the first inclusion of official HTC Vive / SteamVR support in the upcoming beta release, the development team have revealed.
Sixense’s wireless motion controller system STEM and its protracted development process seems finally to be nearing an end. To that end, the company have released 3 new videos of demo games early adopters will receive along with their hardware.
VRGO, the wireless motion controller using inertial input that you sit on, has passed it’s £20,000 Kickstarter goal and has announced a stretch goal to provide a customised version of the chair.
One of the finest virtual reality experiences around has just got a whole lot cheaper as Frontier Developments joins the holiday sale madness and slashes the price of it’s space epic Elite:Dangerous by 67% to just £9.99 ($15).
Matthew Terndrup is a virtual reality journalist and content creator who’s interested in exploring how the combination of psychedelics & virtual reality can help the process of self-discovery. Matt traces the influence that psychedelics have had in helping to shape key technological innovators including the inventor of the mouse Douglas Engelbart as well as Steve Jobs. Matt has been investigating the history of VR and psychedelics, and has found that there are indeed some interesting connections. He talks about some of the VR experiments by psychonauts Terrence McKenna and Timothy Leary, as well as some of the potentials for using psychedelics for creative inspiration and the amplification of psychedelic experiences.
Two up-and-coming VR development teams behind two extremely promising made-for-VR games have relvealed they are to team up. Psytec Games, makers of Crystal Rift, has announced that the duo behind Windlands, a first person VR grappling hook action title, are to join the company.
If you’ve gotten a hold of a Gear VR recently, then you’ve probably already downloaded near everything in the store on your visual buffet through the first consumer-ready virtual reality headset. If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving with a family get-together, the right set of apps and a few hard-won tactics will let you show everyone why you’ve gone crazy for VR—and why they should too.
Domna Banakou is a Ph.D. student studying with Mel Slater at the Event Lab in Barcelona, Spain. She’s been researching different aspects of the virtual body ownership illusion in order to investigate the short-term and long-term impacts of embodying virtual avatars which have different qualities than your physical body. Specifically, she found that embodying the avatar with childlike proportions can result in an overestimation of the sizes of virtual objects. She also has found that it’s possible to create the illusion of attributing things that appear to be coming from your avatar, but that you hadn’t actually said. There are a number of potential implications for how the virtual body ownership illusion through VR can alter our sense of self and identity, and Mel Slater’s Event Lab is on the forefront of investigating these questions.
Most of my regular listeners know that I have recently taken a job in the architectural visualization world. I have moved to Seattle to work for a company called Studio 216, and am very thankful for the opportunities provided to me. In this Thanksgiving episode, I talk to my boss, Boaz Ashkenazy, about how Studio 216 is using VR to lead the arch vis world into the future.
Whilst all of geekdom simmers with hot anticipation awaiting a brand new entry in the Star Wars movie franchise, ILMxLabs and Google are about to drive the hype further with a new virtual reality experience, based on Star Wars:The Force Awakens – and it’s out soon!
Here we go again. A decade ago, it was online video that changed everything. Now virtual reality is set to change the world once more. As we approach the Q1 2016 Oculus Rift release date, you can literally see and feel the excitement build on a weekly basis.
Meso VR, an educational project created by Dallas based studio Eightfold VR, introduces you to the world of the Maya by taking you back to 900AD to see one of the ruins brought to life.
