SDC 2014 has just kicked off and at the opening keynote, Samsung have just announced that, alongside their new Note 4 based VR Headset, they’ve also got a 360 Stereoscopic 3D camera, designed and built to capture video for virtual reality.
Today at Samsung Developer Conference 2014, the company has announced that their mobile VR headset, Gear VR, will launch in early December, just in time for the holiday season.
John Carmack, famed developer and Oculus CTO, is known for being open and frank. Having prodded Minecraft developer Mojang on the topic in the past, now that the company has changed hands following its sale to Microsoft, Carmack has once again reached out publicly to ask what needs to be done to get Minecraft on Gear VR.
Synthesis Universe is a rare thing, a virtual reality game which has been in development for over 3 years. Paul James goes hands-on with the neon infused, futuristic teaser experience for the Oculus Rift DK2 and comes away wanting more. Much more.
The BBC has today released a Google Cardboard VR app which commemorates soldiers that fell in the 1st World War by celebrating one of the most famous poems from that era.
Today is Armistice day, commemorating the agreement that was reached between Allied troops and Germany which marked the beginning of the end of the first world war. 2014 marks 100 years since the beginning of the conflict which lead to over 16 Million people losing their lives.
The BBC have been running a series of programmes across their Radio and TV channels this year that look back on the world’s most horrific conflict. Today, in conjunction with arts and media production company BDH, the BBC have released an Android application which is compatible with Google Cardboard.
‘War of Words’ is a VR application that attempts to put you “..uses virtual reality to take you back to 1916, and into a mindset captured by Siegfried Sassoon in his controversial poem ‘The Kiss’”. The application that’s available on Google’s Play store now, is compatible with Google Cardboard, Durovis Dive and other stereoscopic viewers.
The app uses onboard accelerometers to allow you to glance around a stylised, animated recitation of the celebrated poem, using minimalist animated aesthetics to poignant and arresting effect. The ‘performance’ is certainly short but surprisingly effective.
War of Words executive producer Michael Poole says: “Using virtual reality to explore one of the most hard-hitting poems to come out of WW1 really enhances the power of Siegfried Sassoon’s words. We really hope that people, young and old, will find this an illuminating experience to coincide with the BBC’s Remembrance Season.”
It’s an interesting demonstration of VR’s potent capabilities when tasked with bringing emotive subjects such as this to a new audience. I hope it’s a trend that continues to grow.
You can find the application on Google’s Play store right here.
Earlier this year Mozilla began exploring virtual reality capabilities for the web. Now, they have released MozVR.com, which they call “a VR website about VR websites,” in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Firefox. It uses a virtual reality enabled version of Firefox that can navigate seamlessly through VR worlds built and hosted on the web.
As we’ve written before, Unity was been the platform of choice for most VR development from the very beginning of Oculus VR’s release of the original development kit (DK1). Which subsequently means there is a lot of Unity based games and demo out there. Therefore, the latest Unity SDK Integration update from Oculus which claims to fix judder is very welcome indeed.
Rothenberg Ventures is a venture capital firm located in San Francisco, California. Started in 2012 by Mike Rothenberg, the firm has now invested in over 60 technology companies and was recently part of AltspaceVR’s $5.2 million seed round. Dylan Flinn, investment professional at Rothenberg Ventures, tells me why the VC firm has its sights firmly set on the virtual reality industry.
At Engadget Expand 2014 in NYC I got to take a look at Fove, a head mounted display with integrated eye-tracking. This is an older prototype made some time ago, but demonstrates the core technology and potential benefits of eye-tracking in an HMD.
A project that started life as an exercise in 3DS Max height mapping, had now grown into a full-fledged virtual reality recreation. Step into Deckard’s apartment, as featured in the 1982 Sci-fi classic Blade Runner.
One of the most unlikely ambassadors for virtual reality gaming to come out of Indiecade’s 2013 VR Jam contest, Dumpy Going Elephants has now been released in it’s first DK2 compatible version.
There’s absolutely one constant with virtual reality, it’s a medium that provides an experience that cannot be adequately described. You have you be shown to understand what good VR feels like. It’s a sentiment developer of VR shooter Z0NE took to heart when he headed to Comic-con armed with an Oculus Rift DK2 and a healthy dose of front.
The 1st official virtual reality meetup in Long Beach was hosted at California State University Long Beach on November 4th, 2014 which brought together people from all over the West Coast. LBVR’s foundation is one built on the cross-section of nearby virtual reality communities and glimpses into where the local VR revolution is headed.
