Having tracked the emerging consumer VR market for more than three years now, it’s hard to believe how fast it’s taking off. VR is steadily transforming from a promising technology to a disruptive one. And the proof is now plain for anyone to see: some of the biggest tech companies in the world have deemed the water fine and jumped in.
Today Samsung has announced that it’s adding a new member to the company’s family of curiously named ‘Milk’ services. ‘Milk VR‘—joining Milk Music and Milk Video—aims to offer a destination for curated VR video on the company’s Gear VR headset.
Two little games have been making a big splash with the VR community as of late, with their classic Micro Machines gameplay and solid Rift DK2 integration. Leading this pack of ‘tiny racers’, BlazeRush and Toybox Turbos showcase a masterful use of third-person point of view in a space once populated almost exclusively by first-person experiences, raising the question: are tiny racers here to stay?
During a recent virtual reality hackathon at OCVR, I was able to try out a crazy contraption called the Virtusphere—essentially a giant acrylic human hamster ball that lets the user feel like they are walking through a virtual world. It was an intense and exciting experience that I will never forget.
At Sony’s PlayStation Experience event earlier this month, the company brought together four prominent folks from the game industry to chat about the future of virtual reality and Sony’s ‘Project Morpheus’ VR headset for the PS4.
VRClay, the digital sculpting software built for virtual reality and motion sensing peripherals, has just launched the first public beta.
Epic Games, creators of the Unreal Engine game authoring software, plan to include support for Samsung’s new Gear VR headset in the next major version of the software.
Another video has surfaced within the past few days of VRClay, sparking more curiosity around the only 3D modeling software currently designed to be used in virtual reality. We reached out to the team behind the software and were granted an exclusive hands-on with closed beta before it heads out to the general public.
In the spirit of Christmas, some members of the VR community have mashed up their passion for virtual reality with today’s holiday. We offer a quick roundup of some of our favorite Christmas VR creations.
A new VR version of the classic 2011 mobile game, Temple Run, has just been released and is now available on Samsung Gear VR. Like all of the titles that currently populate the Oculus Store, the game is free to download.
vorpX, the 3D driver that can add Oculus Rift VR support to your games, has just received a major update. Version 0.7.5 brings with it a raft of updates including full support for some of the year’s biggest games.
Eden River, a virtual reality relaxation experience, is now available on both Steam and Google Cardboard. The game, which essentially replicates the experience of floating down a lazy river, was produced by indie game studio Unello Design as an effort to elevate the artistic side of gameplay while creating a space for quiet reflection.
From Canadian developer Space Bullet Dynamics comes a mech action shooter built from the ground up for the Oculus Rift VR headset. This is Vox Machinae, and it looks extremely promising.
One of virtual reality’s greatests strengths—that it’s a unique and unprecedented experience for most—is also one of its greatest weaknesses when it comes to marketing the technology. Without actually trying VR for themselves, how do you sell someone on the experience? Clearly this is known by Samsung as the company has taken their new VR headset to America’s largest mall to spread the word of VR.
