At E3 2014, Oculus revealed a demo Alien: Isolation with support for their Rift DK2 VR headset, and it was a hit. However, it was officially stated that game would not ship with Rift support. Turns out, the developers left the code in the game to enable VR mode and some smart folks figured out how to turn it on with a simple hack.
Most of you know Eric Greenbaum as the lawyer who’s been on the Rev VR Podcast several times to discuss the legal woes of certain VR companies. In this episode, he’s here to discuss ‘About Face’, his VR comfort and hygiene System, as well as several of his other ventures in the VR industry.
The Final Fantasy series of RPGs is one of the longest running franchises of its kind and certainly one of the most successful, selling millions of copies over multiple decades and gaming platforms. Final Fantasy XIII hits Steam for PC today promising revamped visuals. It may also include support for the Oculus Rift, if an option to opt in to the SteamVR Beta is any indication.
Spurred by the current lack of a Linux SDK for the Oculus Rift DK2, a group of developers sought to dissect the Rift’s optical tracking system by reverse engineering the DK2. The information that was tediously corralled together is quite technical so we’ve have rounded up the critical focal points in an easier to read format to show why this community project is important.
After a successful Kickstarter in October of 2013, Sixense is nearing completion of their STEM motion controller. Prior to the first units shipping out to backers, the company it’s releasing 3D printable components which will allow hobbyists and hardware makers to create add-on accessories, like gun, sword, and other attachments, for the controller and STEM Pack.
After 2 years of Oculus putting their collective brains and talents to solving the “hard problems” of VR displays and low latency head tracking, at Oculus Connect this year, we heard a new topic beginning to garner attention: VR audio. Oculus’ recently revealed ‘Crescent Bay’ prototype is the first from the company to include integrated headphones. Well aware that audio in VR needs to be more than mere stereo for Presence, the company also announced that they’re licensing a 3D spatial audio processing technology called RealSpace 3D Audio from Visisonics.
As virtual reality begins to hit the mainstream, more and more production studios are starting to explore the vast potential of creating immersive virtual experiences. One such example is the global digital design company known as Ustwo who is priming up to release a beautiful VR game in December called Land’s End for the Samsung Gear VR.
Early adopters of Samsung’s forthcoming Gear VR headset are in for a treat. The creator of Darknet has announced that the full version of the award-winning game will initially launch for free on Gear VR.
Today it’s been announced that Warner Bros., DC Entertainment, and OTOY are collaborating to recreate the iconic Batcave from Batman: The Animated Series in virtual reality for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift. OTOY is providing what they call “holographic video” technology to render the scene in a way that’s true to the Batcave of the classic 90’s show.
In this episode of the Rev VR Podcast, I invite VR game developer, Sean Edwards to discuss game design, and the outcome of his Kickstarter for ZVR Apocalypse.
Flagship is a RTS (real-time-strategy) game with support for the Oculus Rift that aims to put you in command of a fleet of spaceships. The game is controlled from a first person perspective with the player as the captain working from the bridge of the fleet’s lead ship. Players will command their fleet with the help of the crew and see the action unfold in space around them.
In a paper published by the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, it is demonstrated that stylized rendering can help blur the boundary between real and virtual when it comes to immersive augmented reality applications.
Tomáš “Frooxius” Mariančík, creator of the stunning VR experience SightLine: The Chair, is back! This time he’s demoing an educational prototype that aims to provide an intuitive virtual reality user interface that allows you to reach into VR and control the environment with your hands.
Oculus’ inaugural, dedicated event aimed at bringing together the VR developer community in one place to teach, talk and try VR was by all accounts a great success. But for those of us unlucky enough not to be there (i.e. me) or those that were lucky enough but lacked the ability to clone themselves in order to catch the overlapping panels and talks, Oculus has begun releasing recordings of them all to its official YouTube channel.
Michael Abrash, Oculus’ Chief Scientist, whose expertise in the world of computers could not be done justice in the space of this sentence, is also an excellent orator, consistently delivering enthralling presentations with lessons far beyond the scope of VR alone. In a must-watch keynote presentation from Oculus Connect, Abrash shares insights on the ‘myth of technological innovation’ and ‘existence proofs’.
