E McNeill is a virtual reality developer based in San Diego, California who is working on a cyberpunk hacking game known as Darknet. Originally intended for the Oculus Rift, McNeil is now also porting the game to Samsung’s mobile Gear VR headset. Running the game at the required 60 FPS on a cell phone is a challenge that takes creative optimizations; McNeil shares some of his inventive solutions.
Oculus have prescribed that for this generation of its VR headsets, the target experience is resolutely a seated one. This means that racing games are a match made in heaven for the DK2. And, after a period of drought for VR racers, Kunos Simulazioni’s visually sumptuous racer Assetto Corsa was recently updated to RC1 and with it came Oculus Rift DK2 support.
Riftmax Theater is one of the most interesting projects currently underway for virtual reality. The software acts as a theater for both videos and live performances, where users can come together from across the world to watch a film or be part of a live production, all with the immersive power of VR. The developers have been supporting the community with their software since the early days of the Oculus Rift and are now headed to Kickstarter to take it to the next level.
Guided Meditation is a free Oculus Rift DK2 app which transports players to beautiful environments while gentle narration instructs meditative techniques. If we didn’t already have enough evidence from serene titles like Eden River HD, Guided Meditation is all the proof we need to see that ‘VR Relaxation’ will become its own genre.
Cineveo is a virtual reality movie theater for the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 that allows users to watch existing 2D and 3D media. The software has been recently updated to version 0.9.5 which adds a much desired file browser, support for the latest Oculus SDK, and several other tweaks.
We recently covered a (at that point unnamed) VR project by developer Tomáš “Frooxius” Mariančík, the mind behind the stunning ‘Sightline’ VR series of demos. The project fused Leap Motion skeletal hand tracking with Oculus Rift DK2 positional tracking to produce an impressively intuitive VR interface. Now, a new video of the interface shows impressive progress. We catch up with Tomáš to find out some more about this mysterious VR project.
While virtual reality is a great tool for entertainment, it’s about more than just games and movies. It has the potential to assist in treatments during therapies in the medical related fields as well. Even now, researchers are beginning to experiment with the ability of VR to treat phobias and anxiety using recently available consumer-level VR hardware.
Second Life is one of the biggest, if not the biggest user-generated virtual world. With tens of thousands of players spending time and money in the world at any given moment, it’s not surprising that there would be demand for a more immersive way to interact with it. This week, the developers behind Second Life officially updated the game with Oculus Rift DK2 support.
Don Rider is the inventor of the Mad Genius motion controller which caught the attention of the VR community when prototypes of the system were first revealed. Rider has taken his creation to Kickstarter to refine and miniaturize the design for proper manufacturing. The VR community had plenty of questions about the system and we went directly to the source to get them answered.
Sword Art Online is a popularly acclaimed modern action-anime based around virtual reality. It’s proven inspiring enough for one fan to create an Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra prototype which allows players to dodge and block bullets while firing a pistol, much like the ‘gameplay’ depicted in the show.
Earlier this week, Recode reported that Google is “set to lead a huge investment in Magic Leap.” The article cites “sources” which say that Google could be leading a $500 million funding round for the company, possibly including capital from Andreessen Horowitz which previously invested in Oculus. Magic Leap has been in stealth mode since its inception and no one seems to have a concrete idea about what their “Cinematic Reality” tech is. We went digging to see what we could uncover.
The gaming world is pivoting towards virtual reality as more and more conferences and festivals begin playing with VR. This momentum was extremely prevalent at this year’s IndieCade in Southern California as about a quarter of the booths contained virtual reality headsets.
IndieCade is an annual gaming festival in Culver City, California which attracts hundreds of game enthusiasts from all over the world. This year, Oculus VR strolled in with a custom chromed-out virtual reality filled trailer that dazzled the attendees throughout the event.
Alien: Isolation is Creative Assembly‘s stab at moving a beloved movie franchise into a compelling interactive experience. Early word on the title was that, unlike the execrable Aliens: Colonial Marines before it, Isolation was something a bit special. What’s more, at GDC earlier this year, Oculus proudly showed the triple-A title in a VR enabled version that terrified all who played it. Alien: Isolation was the virtual reality hit of the show and with good reason.
Buried toward the end of Michael Abrash’s must-watch keynote at Oculus Connect was the announcement of a new research division within Oculus which Abrash says is the “first complete, well funded VR research team in close to 20 years.” He says that their mission is to advance VR and that the research division will publish its findings and also work with university researchers.
