Many of you have asked me, “When are you going to give us your opinion on each of the VR headsets you tried at SVVR Expo 2015?” Well, here it is. OlivierJT, developer of the award-winning Synthesis Universe, joins me as I give a complete breakdown, analysis, and comparison, based on my own personal experiences with each of the headsets.
Coming to our 6th and final installment of our series covering some of the most promising content to come out of the Oculus Mobile VR Jam, we take a look at a mix of games and experiences that not only focus on a cohesive experience, but also employ innovative visual styles.
If you’re a VR enthusiast and one of Amazon’s more than 200 million active online shoppers, you may like to know that Samsung’s headset will soon be officially available for online purchase from the online retailer, and even ‘Primable’ for fast shipping direct to your door.
In May, WEARVR and Road to VR are joining forces to bring you VR goodness from the WEARVR app marketplace, a cross-platform repository of virtual reality experiences. This video gives a glimpse of the top 10 most popular experiences from the last week.
Which is your favorite?
Interested in listing your app on WEARVR? The company encourages you to reach out to info@wearvr.com. In the next few weeks they’ll allow developers to manage their own listings and upload files directly.
VR Karts is a DK2 compatible go-cart racer currently in open beta that delivers familiar gameplay along with a number of smartly designed VR-specific optimizations.
While the initial uptick of Google’s ‘Cardboard’ VR initiative may have exceeded their expectations, the company is now taking a very active approach to guiding the project into the future. The next step for Cardboard, which we expect to hear more about at this week’s I/O 2015 developer conference, may not actually be made of cardboard this time around.
With the exciting new developer features revealed with the Oculus SDK 0.6 earlier this month, it’s great to see Epic working diligently to bring the new version to Unreal Engine 4. The first integration of 0.6 for UE4 comes in version 4.8 Preview 3 which developers can experiment with now.
Oculus today announced that they’ve acquired Surreal Vision, a computer vision company that’s using technology to interpret the real world in a way that can be visualized and interacted with within virtual reality.
Vertigo Games has recently released a teaser trailer for Arizona Sunshine, a made-for-VR zombie shooter targeted for a 2015 release on HTC Vive.
In May, WEARVR and Road to VR are joining forces to bring you VR goodness from the WEARVR app marketplace, a cross-platform repository of virtual reality experiences. This video gives a glimpse of the top 10 most popular experiences from the last week.
Which is your favorite?
Interested in listing your app on WEARVR? The company encourages you to reach out to info@wearvr.com. In the next few weeks they’ll allow developers to manage their own listings and upload files directly.
Epic’s high fidelity Showdown demo was only barely able to hold framerate on one of the most powerful GPUs in the world when it debuted last September. But now, after optimizations for Unreal Engine 4 on PS4, the demo runs on Morpheus at Sony’s 60 FPS VR target framerate—not bad for a game console that’s approaching its two year anniversary.
Oculus have announced that their second ‘Connect’ developer event will take place September 23-35 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, CA and it’s set to prime the industry for VR’s imminent consumer debut.
Oculus’s inaugural ‘Connect’ event last year was a chance for the virtual reality developer community to come together, brush shoulders with both their peers and Oculus staff and get their hands on Oculus’ latest feature prototype, the Crescent Bay.
This year’s event, will follows the recent Rift consumer edition launch announcement and next month’s Pre-E3 “Step into the Rift” press event, and is likely to see Oculus gearing developers up for the Rifts launch in Q1 2016. In fact, the announcement sets a tone designed to bolster VR developers’ confidence who had up until recently struggled to plan their projects in lieu of a solid launch window.
This year’s Connect will feature keynotes from Brendan Iribe, Michael Abrash, and John Carmack, plus everything developers need to know to launch on the Rift and Gear VR.
No itinerary has yet been set, but with not one but two Oculus VR hardware platforms available in the first half of next year (Oculus Rift and Gear VR), there’s no shortage of things to talk about.
As ever, one of the highlights will likely be the keynotes. Expect a signature, schedule-busting keynote from Oculus CTO John Carmack, whose frank and open discussion on mobile VR last year was a must-see for anyone with interest in … well anything geeky at all to be perfectly honest. Chief Scientist Michael Abrash, whose fascinating talks exploring the limits of virtual reality theory rarely disappoint. And of course, CEO Brendan Iribe will likely look forward to key events to follow in the year ahead.
Last years event was unashamedly developer oriented, with minimal press presence and a pre-registration system to ensure the ‘right people’ are in attendance. This year looks to be following a similar course, so if you’re a developer and you’re interested in attending, head over to the sign-up page next month when sign-up forms will be made available.
We’ll keep you up to date on further news as it arrives.
