Jaunt VR Heads to the Red Carpet to Film Guardians of the Galaxy Premiere, Coming to an Oculus Rift Near You

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Jul 22, 2014

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While simulating familiar experiences in virtual reality is interesting in its own right, the technology is also capable of creating experiences that are otherwise impossible—for instance, plummeting to Earth in a futuristic EVA suit while fending off an alien parasite. Vanguard Valkyrie, the first title from Justin Moravetz’s VR-dedicated studio, Zero Transform, is making it clear that the arcade action of decades past will come blazing into the VR realm.

News Bits: Facebook’s $2Bn Acquisition of Oculus VR Now Complete

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Jul 21, 2014

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It’s hard to overestimate the impact the news that Facebook, the social media behemoth, had agreed to acquire Oculus VR an 18 month old startup that Kickstarted virtual reality. Although it’s fair to say that there’s probably no one working for Oculus with illusions about how the news might first be greeted, I suspect more than a few were surprised at the severity and swiftness of the VR community’s reaction.

There were mock pictures of DK1’s being burned, reports emerged of DK2 pre-orders being cancelled in disgust. High profile Minecraft developer ‘Notch’ illustrated his disappointment by declaring all development for the Oculus Rift would now cease. Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR also took some major flak on the subreddit /r/oculus as he explained and defended the decision to sell. It was a fairly tumultuous 48 hours.

But, as is the case with storms, it passed. The influx of VR community ‘outsiders’ took their bile elsewhere, DK2 pre-orders were quietly re-instated and a more reasoned form of debate resumed. When people put aside the knee-jerk response to everyone’s favourite Internet villain acquiring their beloved and plucky underdog and considered what this could mean for the future of virtual reality, it dawned on them that this could well be a very good thing indeed.

One of many 'hilarious' post Facebook acquisition VR Headset mockups — One of many ‘hilarious’ post Facebook acquisition VR Headset mockups

Meanwhile, the legal steps required to complete the process were being made. In April the US’s FCC declared the deal had passed its Anti-trust tests. Now, the California Department of Business Oversight has declared the merger fair – results of the hearing can be found here (WARNING: Legalese Alert!). This concludes the acquisition for the total and rather precise sum of $2,001,985,000 – largely made up in Facebook stock. The breakdown is reported thus:

The aggregate potential amount of consideration to be paid by Facebook in
exchange for all of Oculus VR’s outstanding stock on a fully-diluted basis 8

(the “Total Consideration”) is $460,000,000 in cash and 26,532,083
shares of Facebook Common Stock, of which $60,000,000 in cash (the
“Contingent Cash Payment Consideration”) and 3,460,706 shares of
Facebook Common Stock (the “Contingent Stock Payment
Consideration”) are payable and issuable, respectively, following the
Closing and upon the achievement of certain milestones (the “Contingent
Payment”).

For me, as someone who also ran the gamut of emotions upon reading (and writing) the news, I’m of the opinion that the merger was probably the best possible way to ensure Oculus VR’s vision of virtual reality achieves the momentum required to succeed. Subsequent statements from Oculus indicate the company can now not only focus on acquiring the best possible people but that the long awaited Oculus Rift CV1 (Consumer Version One) will be sold at near cost in order to get people onboard.

Congratulations to the Oculus VR team, I reckon Facebook landed a bargain!

Via: Techcrunch

VRLA’s Latest VR Meetup Comes Just in Time for First Oculus Rift DK2 Shipment – August 16th at New Deal Studios

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Jul 21, 2014

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VRLA is quickly becoming one of the biggest VR meetups in the LA region. After a successful second event this month, the organization is announcing their third gathering at New Deal Studios on August 16th. Hopefully the timing will be just right for people to try out the Oculus Rift DK2 which is expected to be in developer’s hands by the end of this month.

Trinity Magnum Kickstarter Aims at Low-cost Optical Tracking for VR Input Starting at $80

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Jul 21, 2014

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Today the Trinity Magnum launches on Kickstater. While there are a number of other options in the works, the Trinity Magnum is the first to approach VR input on the PC with an optical tracking solution. Priced at $100, the Magnum aims for affordability.

Justin Moravetz (of Proton Pulse Fame) Returns with Vanguard Valkyrie, an Exciting VR-Exclusive Title Kickstarting on the 23rd

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Jul 21, 2014

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It feels like ages ago that Proton Pulse, one of the Oculus Rift’s most beloved early demos, was mysteriously shut down (with backers of the project refunded) after a successful Kickstarter. Justin Moravetz, the mind behind Proton Pulse, is today announcing a new VR-exclusive title called Vanguard Valkyrie. The game takes a completely different approach but maintains the flash and ease of use that made Proton Pulse so alluring.

News Bits: Ambitious New BMX VR Simulator For Oculus Rift Emerges

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Jul 20, 2014

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Chances are, if you remember virtual reality’s first, ultimately abortive attempt to gain traction back in the 90s, you’ll also be a child of the 80s. This means you lived through (and survived) drainpipe jeans, luminous socks, Footloose, Ronald Reagan and BMX Bikes. The latter of course never really went away and found it’s place among fans across the world where the specific type of cycling style lives on.

A small team of developers who still hold a burning passion for the sport are working on what they call “a physics based BMX game”, which might not inspire much enthusiasm in you, gaming history is replete with examples of the genre. Except this particular example, named ‘BMXRide’, promises Oculus Rift support. And to demonstrate how this looks, the team have released a video from an early alpha version of the game – and it certainly looks like an ambitious attempt at bringing a gaming style almost universally represented in the 3rd person.

The results, as you can see from the video above, are certainly interesting – with your BMX riding avatar negotiating various themed obstacles and even pulling off some tricks. It does seem to me that tackling any sort of cycle riding in VR without positional tracking is going to be pretty tough and given that your centre of gravity and body orientation is constantly changing, probably spells a recipe for simulator sickness. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued and look forward to seeing where this goes.

For now, any other details are thin on the ground but the games website does state that an alpha version of the game will be released in August – whether or not this will include the Oculus Rift support demonstrated above is unclear however.

We’ll keep an eye on the title and in the mean time, you can check out BMX Ride’s website here.

News Bits: New Radial-G Demo With DK2 and Mac Support Due For ‘Soft’ Release Next Week

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Jul 20, 2014

Both Ben Lang and I have confessed our love for the classic anti-gravity futuristic racing franchise ‘Wipeout’, and recently Ben waxed enthusiastic about a new Oculus Rift title from UK based developers Tammeka Games. The company launched a £50k Kickstarter for the VR supporting futuristic racer, heavily influenced by Wipeout and F-Zero GX.

Tammeka Games just sent an update to backers stating that a demo supporting both Mac OSX and the soon to be released Oculus Rift DK2 is due for a ‘soft’ release early next week.

We are looking to soft release the Mac single player demo and the PC/Mac DK2-supporting build early next week. If you are a Mac gamer and/or are expecting an Oculus Rift DK2 for Mac/PC to arrive soon, please email info[at]radial-g[dot]com and tell us your system so we can email you a link to the PC/Mac DK2-ready single player demo build!

NB. We have not been able to test this build on DK2 ourselves as we are also waiting for ours to be shipped. Therefore we are looking for feedback from you! Beware: expect bugs!

Sorry Linux gamers, we are still awaiting the fix for the SDK from Oculus VR in order to re-support Linux & Oculus Rift & Unity. We are assured this will be soon!

Recent activity and comments from Oculus VR staff indicate that the first batch of DK2s may ship next week IF Oculus’ DK2 focussed SDK release 0.3.3 comes together as hoped. Frankly, the thought of a 1080p version of Radial-G with head-tracking makes us go a little weak at the knees.

Meanwhile, the games Kickstarter campaign has 12 days remaining at the time of writing and is currently at just over £16k (about $27k). If you’ve ever been even the least bit interested in the likes of Wipeout or F-Zero in the past and you’re VR equipped, you owe it to yourself to check out this Kickstarter.

Surgeon Uses Oculus Rift On Patients, Streams Operation Using Google Glass

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Jul 20, 2014

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One of the joys of writing about reporting from the cutting-edge of a newly reborn technology like virtual reality is that you’re constantly being surprised as what people are finding to do with it. Almost weekly there’s some innovation taking VR in yet another direction I’d not yet considered. Well, here’s one more.

Surgery of any kind is by definition invasive and traumatic and the process can be an incredibly stressful experience for some patients. Those operations that can be performed under general anaesthetic mean that the patient is unaware of the work being performed on them, but local anaesthetic of course leaves them wide awake throughout the operation. This can be at the very least a disconcerting experience and at worst terrifying.

Music during operations has been used for years to pacify patients during operations, it also has beneficial effects for the Surgeon too. The use of virtual reality would then be a logical progression of this practise, potentially offering the opportunity to transport the patient’s aural and visual senses somewhere else entirely for the duration of an operation.

Well, a surgeon (Orthopedic surgeon, Gerardo Garcés) working at the Hospital Perpetuo Soccorro in Gran Canaria, Spain have taken this idea and run with it – performing the first operation where the patient wears an Oculus Rift and a pair of headphones for the duration. What’s more, the operation itself was streamed live thanks to the operating surgeon wearing Google Glass throughout.

Isolating the patient from the alienating atmosphere of your typical operating theatre seems like an excellent way to improve their mental state during and after an operation. Although, choosing the experience that best matches the person might be tricky – you could foresee situations where the patient becomes so engrossed in the VR experience that involuntary physical movement makes surgery dangerous.

Nevertheless, it’s another dovetailing of potential uses for VR that go far beyond the current focus on gaming, and a further reminder of the technology’s rapid re-introduction into the Zeitgeist.

Thanks to the folks over at www.droiders.com who made us aware of the story, visit their site here.

News Bits: Go Off-Road in VR With New WIP Oculus Rift 4×4 Game

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Jul 20, 2014

Seated experiences, that’s the focus of the first wave of virtual reality gaming, at least as far as Oculus VR are concerned. In order to ease the consumer into the wonders of VR and to alleviate limitations of this rapidly evolving technology, the company that’s leading the VR revolution stated that being sat is where it’s at, which means that certain types of gaming are by default a better fit. Those genres that tend to place the player in a fixed seating position – driving games for example.

A new video just appeared demonstrating a new in-development title that offers to throw the player into a rugged 4×4 off-road vehicle and let them race around dirt tracks, over jumps and through obstacles – and it looks like great fun! The visuals are at present rudimentary, but the gameplay itself looks to offer a great mixture of over the top physics and reckless collisions.

The only issue is that the game’s origins are at present a little mysterious. The video is published on a YouTube channel attached to a website called ‘vr-gameplay.com‘, but the site is under-construction with no further information yet available. We’ve written to them to see if we can find out more, because the title shows promise and fills a niche in in VR gaming.

We’ll let you know what we find out. In the mean time, if you’re familiar with the title, please do let us know in the comments below.

News Bits: Oculus VR: “Please Update Your Billing Info” – DK2 Shipments May be Imminent

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Jul 19, 2014

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In the last 24 hours, some of those who secured a pre-order for Oculus VR‘s 2nd Developer Kit (DK2) have received emails from the company requesting that they check their payment and shipping details so that order faced no delays in processing.

We are preparing to start shipping the new Oculus Rift Development Kit 2. Please take a moment to update your billing and shipping information on the Order Management page: https://www.oculusvr.com/sales/.
Incomplete information or errors with your payment information or shipping address will cause shipping delays.

For people that purchased using credit cards, we have already charged a $50 deposit. We will charge the remaining balance to the original credit card shortly before we ship your DK2. If we are unable to charge the credit card on file, you will receive an email notification, but your order will be delayed until we can successfully complete the transaction.
For people that purchased using PayPal, their policy requires us to charge the full amount at the point of sale, so you’re all set. Just confirm your address and you’ll receive your kit.

The process for getting access to your order information most with pre-orders will be familiar with except that Oculus VR have now extended their order page so that you can update credit card details (should the card you originally placed the order with no longer be valid) or switch payment type to PayPal. Instructions for ensuring your information is up to date:

Go to https://www.oculusvr.com/sales/
Enter the email address you used when originally placing your order
Check your email for a link to a page with your order information
Verify or update your shipping address
Verify or update your payment instrument

Those people choosing to switch payment type to PayPal should be aware that the remainder of the DK2 cost (including taxes and shipping – minus the original $50 deposit) will be taken in full from that account. This is not the case for Credit Card users whose cards will be charged once their order is ready for shipping.

If your credit card is still valid and you’ve not lost or had it stolen between your original pre-order you needn’t do anything. However, you can now alter your shipping information to be independent of your billing details.

Pre-orders for DK2 were launched back in March with an enormous 12.5k people placing orders within the first 36 hours of the units going on sale. Recently, Oculus VR announced a short delay whilst it puts the final touches to it’s latest SDK release (0.3.3) which contains full support for the DK2 and its enhancements, positional tracking, time-warping and low persistence of vision. Does this mean that we’ll be seeing shipping notifications next week for the first batches of orders?

If you receive any shipping notification, we’d love to hear from you. Should you get the good news, drop us a line at info@roadtovr.com and your story could make onto the site.

Exploring AR and VR’s Potential: Education and Changing Human Behavior With Virtual Experiences

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Jul 18, 2014

Amy Westervelt is an award-winning environmental journalist who has written for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Slate, and more. Recently she tackled the topic of virtual and augmented reality and its potential to change human behavior. In an article appearing on Climate Confidential, she investigates VR’s impact on conservancy efforts, education, and more. Westervelt’s article is reproduced here with her permission and under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

News Bits: Oculus Connect Conference Tickets Priced at $249

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Jul 18, 2014

Oculus VR has confirmed the price for their inaugural developer conference, Oculus Connect. Tickets will be priced at $249. Oculus Connect registration opened on Wednesday without any pricing information.

Guest Lineup , Attendance Instructions, and Live Stream – Road to VR Live Roundtable Happens Tomorrow, July 18th at 11:30am EST

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Road to VR

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Jul 17, 2014

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Tomorrow (Friday the 18th), Road to VR is hosting a live roundtable discussion inside of virtual reality. Anyone is welcome to be part of the live virtual audience, whether you have access to VR hardware or not. We will be joined by guests from the VR world representing different topics of discussion.

Latest UE4 Release Includes Time-Warping, Couch Knights Demo and is DK2 Ready

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