NextVR, formerly Next3D, have announced a $5 million funding round designed to grow the company and develop their virtual reality live-broadcast technology. The company has been working with Samsung on Gear VR since before the reveal, and its stereoscopic 360 content will be pre-loaded onto the device for users to enjoy.
Considering that Samsung Gear VR is yet to go on sale, the breadth of content announced thus far is impressive. One thing that is clear however, Samsung and Oculus clearly see this device as much as a video delivery device as a gaming platform. But details on what video content will look like on the platform and how it’ll be delivered are somewhat thin on the ground. We’ve got 10 images from content produced exclusively for im360VR, the platform that will be used by Samsung to deliver and let you play 360 video content on the Gear VR.
As the world’s best selling game, there’s serious demand for Minecraft in virtual reality. While developer Mojang is busy with things other than VR, some enterprising folks have been unofficially adding Oculus Rift support to the game since the DK1 with the excellent mod Minecrift. Now the team has made available a preview build supporting the Oculus Rift DK2, including full positional tracking.
Pollen from Helsinki based developer Mindfield Games is an immensely promising ‘Oculus Rift Optimised’ story driven adventure set on Saturn moon Titan. I got a chance to catch up wit of the Mindfield team at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany and try an early version for myself and also sit down for a chat to find out more.
VRTGO is the UK’s first dedicated VR Conference and is set to highlight the UK’s importance in both the gaming industry at large and the fledgling industry of virtual reality. The one day event comes to the Baltic Centre in Gateshead on September 11th, Road to VR will be there.
Although Samsung hasn’t announced an official price or specific release date for Gear VR, the new VR headset has appeared on the website of an authorized Samsung retailer priced at $245. Samsung has launched an official Gear VR microsite, though they aren’t yet taking pre-orders.
Dr. Llŷr ap Cenydd is the developer of two well known Oculus Rift demos: Ocean Rift and (my personal favorite) Crashland. As an expert in procedural animation, Cenydd has imbued his creatures with beautiful and organic animation that’s convincing and unscripted. In a guest article, he explains some of challenges and benefits of procedural animation and explains its importance in virtual reality.
Today’s flood of content announcements following Samsung’s Gear VR announcement is starting to look like a procession of VR’s old guard classics. Darknet, Oculus Rift enabled hacking game originally conceived during an Oculus sponsored VR Jam competition (and finally coming first place) is on it’s way to Samsung’s new VR headset.
Oculus VR has released an updated version of their SDK, the Oculus SDK v0.4.2 Beta. The update includes new firmware, with a fix for the Rift DK2’s built-in latency tester, a chromatic aberration fix for headsets using the minimum eye relief, and more.
Following the Samsung Gear VR announcement and the official reveal of the “deep and integrated partnership” with Oculus, the company’s CEO, Brendan Iribe, confirms that Gear VR is but one of many ‘Powered by Oculus’ devices to come.
The virtual reality community is truly one of grassroots growth. Meetup groups for VR developers and enthusiasts are springing up around the world. A new group, VRDC, is bringing a VR meetup to the United States capital. The group’s first gathering will be held on September 8th at 6:30 PM.
Alongside being a guest contributor to RTVR through his A Wider FOV article series; Kevin Williams is a well-known figure in the immersive entertainment community—steering his consultancy KWP, he also is the chairman of the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment Network Association (DNA), and more recently he has been associated with the launch of the latest Head Mounted Display (HMD) to enter the VR fray—in this feature he explains the thinking behind this move and the implications for the VR community in-general with this latest development.
With more than one billion downloads on mobile platforms, the Temple Run series is one of the biggest games in the mobile space. The developer behind Temple Run, Imangi Studios, is bringing a virtual reality version of the game to Samsung Gear VR.
In a brief announcement made via the /r/oculus subreddit, developer Justin Moravetz says that the once troubled Oculus Rift project Proton Pulse will finally be released in full on the new Samsung Gear VR headset.
Starting in just 10 minutes is a special edition of the Rev VR Podcast, the Samsung Gear VR Roundtable. Joining your host Reverend Kyle will be developers Justin Moravetz and E. McNeil, along with Cymatic Bruce and myself, Ben Lang.
