E3 2014: Electronic Arts Press Conference Official Live Stream @ 12:00pm PDT / 8:00pm BST

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Big, bad Electronics Arts, one of the biggest publisher of games throughout the globe are large enough to warrant their own press EA-Logoconference alongside the platform manufacturers. Expect a slew of sports franchises and sequels then. So, why include them in this list? Well, quite some time back DICE, developers of Battlefield and the Frostbite engine said they were looking into supporting the Oculus Rift although nothing public ever came of that. Furthermore, long time VR wish-list participant Mirror’s Edge 2 has had concept art leaked recently, suggesting we’re likely to see more of this game at the show. Mirrors Edge 2 is thought to use Frostbite 2, EA’s engine of choice so it’s possible we may have an incredible VR announcement waiting for us. However, to temper this wild speculation (as that’s what it is), EA have already been clear theOculus Rift would have to have sold significant numbers before it threw it’s hat in the VR ring.

So, perhaps skip this unless you already have an interest in what they’re likely to to show. We’ll of course let you know if these speculations become reality.

Video should appear below.

Watch live video from Twitch on www.twitch.tv

E3 2014: Microsoft Press Conference Official LiveStream @ (9:30am PDT / 5:30pm BST)

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ms_logoMicrosoft and their new Xbox One console have played catchup to it’s primary competitor, Sony’s Playstation 4 in both PR and Gamer Kudos since before it’s launch late last year. Sony’s lead was compounded earlier this year at GDC when their worst kept secret in gaming was finally unveiled, a VR Headset named Project Morpheus. Ever since, people have speculated if and when Microsoft would respond with a virtual reality headset of their own. E3 2014 would be the perfect time to announce and although the chances are slim MS will announce anything VR related, we’re hopeful regardless.

Update: Looks like Twitch are having some serious load issues. For an alternative stream, head over to Spike TV here.

Video should appear embedded below:

Watch live video from Twitch on www.twitch.tv

E3 2014 Day Zero Breakdown – Press Conference Times, Video Streams and What We Might (or Might not) See

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The gaming calendar’s biggest event is now upon us and as usual the hype train is stoked and ready to steam! Although the E3 show floor proper doesn’t open its doors until tomorrow, as has become customary, the big players in the industry are getting in early with their dedicated press events.

We know navigating this explosion of news and event can be a nightmare for readers, so we’ve cobbled together a summary of times and location on the web you can get your VR gaming news fix. These will all have a VR slant as is to be expected. And, as is customary around this time, we’ve also thrown in some thoughts on what we’re likely to see and a healthy dose of wild speculation for good measure. Please note, the breakdown only includes events where we think there’s a chance of some virtual reality related new occurring.

E3 Press Conference Timetable – Including Major Timezones For Easy Lookup

First up, the excellent fellows over at the NeoGaf gaming forum (many thanks to forum user Rösti and DeMatador) have put together a brilliant at-a-glance guide for gamers around the world including all major press conferences in all major timezones. Use this as your go to guide for Day Zero of the conference.

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Press Conference Schedule and Where to Watch the Live Streams

Finally with E3 2014, we have a central respository for event video streaming as Twitch.TV has been nominated the official streaming partner of E3 2014. All the major players are using the service to broadcast their events live although much more will also be covered by Twitch over the coming days. We’ll be posting stories for each of the events with embedded streams for convenience on Road to VR a little later on.

Below we’ve broken down each event and what highlights might be expected, rumoured or what wild speculation we can concoct just for fun.

Microsoft [9:30am PDT / 5:30pm BST] – 90 Minutes

ms_logoMicrosoft and their new Xbox One console have played catchup to it’s primary competitor, Sony’s Playstation 4 in both PR and Gamer Kudos since before it’s launch late last year. Sony’s lead was compounded earlier this year at GDC when their worst kept secret in gaming was finally unveiled, a VR Headset named Project Morpheus. Ever since, people have speculated if and when Microsoft would respond with a virtual reality headset of their own. E3 2014 would be the perfect time to announce and although the chances are slim MS will announce anything VR related, we’re hopeful regardless.

You can watch the Twitch stream here and via the official Microsoft hub page here.

Electronic Arts (EA) [12:00pm PDT / 8:00pm BST] – 60 Minutes

Big, bad Electronics Arts, one of the biggest publisher of games throughout the globe are large enough to warrant their own press EA-Logoconference alongside the platform manufacturers. Expect a slew of sports franchises and sequels then. So, why include them in this list? Well, quite some time back DICE, developers of Battlefield and the Frostbite engine said they were looking into supporting the Oculus Rift although nothing public ever came of that. Furthermore, long time VR wish-list participant Mirror’s Edge 2 has had concept art leaked recently, suggesting we’re likely to see more of this game at the show. Mirrors Edge 2 is thought to use Frostbite 2, EA’s engine of choice so it’s possible we may have an incredible VR announcement waiting for us. However, to temper this wild speculation (as that’s what it is), EA have already been clear the Oculus Rift would have to have sold significant numbers before it threw it’s hat in the VR ring.

So, perhaps skip this unless you already have an interest in what they’re likely to to show. We’ll of course let you know if these speculations become reality.

You can find the Twitch stream here and the official EA Hub page here.

Palmer Luckey Premieres New Oculus Rift Game [Immediately Following EA – approx. 1pm PDT / 9pm BST]

palmer luckey oculus rift price facebook
Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus VR

Gametrailers, the video streaming gaming news channel, are also providing interviews and commentary during the E3 2014 show. Of particular interest to virtual reality fans though is an appearance by none other than Palmer Luckey, who it’s reported will unveil a brand new title for the Oculus Rift – up to now unseen by the public. The game is likely to be the recently announced Oculus VR’s Co-Published Luckys Tale hopefully with a live demo of the game in action. Fingers crossed for even more gaming news from Luckey during the appearance.

Catch the Gametrailers / Spike TV stream here.

Sony [6:00pm PDT / 2:00am BST] – Up to 120 Mins

sony-logoSony became console land’s great white VR hope at GDC earlier this year when they announced the existence of Project Morpheus, a dedicated VR Headset for the Playstation 4. Along with a re-animation of the dorment Playstation Move controllers, Sony demo’d the system heavily throughout the show and it’s fair to say made a very good impression on us. And, although Sony has been very careful to emphasise the development / prototypical nature of Morpheus, it hasn’t escaped people’s attention that it looks an awful lot like a finished product. Combine that with their declaration they’d been working on the project for years and you start to wonder if Sony isn’t poised for a release of their VR entrant very soon, perhaps even this year.

We’re hoping to hear from Sony when Morpheus may go on sale and perhaps even a look at what they plan to release to consumer. In addition, look out for games made exclusively for Project Morpheus at the show and perhaps the appearance of standard games with VR functionality announced during the conference. None of the former of course is confirmed, but we’d be surprised Sony would make such a huge splash at GDC without following up on it at E3. We shall see.

Catch the Twitch feed here and Gametrailers’ coverage here

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And that’s your lot for Day Zero of E3 2014. We’ll of course be bringing you the stories as they break with as much detail as possible. Ben Lang and Reverend Kyle are both on the ground throughout the show to help bring you the latest VR news as we find it. Stay Tuned!

Kevin Williams – A Wider FOV

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This marks the first in a semi-regular feature in what I hope will be covering the wider aspects of the re-emergence of virtual reality into the commercial and consumer sector. My consultancy, KWP, and our news service The Stinger Report are beginning to be invited to a number of events where VR, and those VR headsets hoping to break into the market, are being demonstrated—many of these events would be totally off the radar of most of the VR community. With this series I hope to give a brief snapshot of the action, to give our readers a wider field of view on the immersive entertainment space.

News Bits: Sony’s Project Morpheus Goes Prime Time with Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show

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The mainstream media are slowly warning up to the advent of virtual reality, or at the very least that demonstrating new and exciting ways to play games pulls viewers of the demographics they’re interested in. Now Sony’s Project Morpheus, a new VR Headset developed for the Playstation 4 and revealed officially at GDC this year, has made an appearance to riotous laughter and applause.

jimmy-fallon-sony-morpheusThe Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has in recent years had regular slots on the show designed to showcase new technology and they’ve not shied away from gaming, traditionally an area prime time broadcasters like to steer clear from. In fact, Fallon has played host to the Oculus Rift on more than one occasion, the first time with a pre DK1 prototype back in January 2013.

However, it must be said that Sony’s outing on the Tonight Show was a slickly presented success. If you can gauge success by audiences laughing like drains while their host and a bemused looking Channing Tatum don Sony’s headsets, grab a couple of Playstation Move controllers and flail around like idiots. The pair were playing the now familar ‘Castle’ demo, first seen on the show floor at GDC this year.

After the experience was over, both parties seemed genuinely impressed by what they’d seen. Quite whether the audience had taken on board that what they were watching could be theirs to own within 12 months is another matter. But I think Sony can be pleased with this first foray into the general public’s path. It’ll be interesting to see if it pays off once Sony’s VR solution starts popping up in stores in the future.

News Bits: Jaunt VR 360 3D Camera Spotted Ringside at Boxing Match

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Seems Jaunt VR, the company that specialises in the capturing of 3D 360 Virtual Reality enhanced video, have secured themselves some ringside spots for some knockout virtual reality boxing footage. A prototype Jaunt VR camera array has been spotted perched on a pedestal at a recent Top Rank boxing match. Well, I say ‘spotted’, Jaunt tweeted the tantalising image themselves leaving no further details and our imagination.

Jaunt VR's second camera prototype
Jaunt VR’s second camera prototype

Jaunt VR recently secured $6.8M in venture capitalist funding from various sources, chiefly to complete development and bring to market the company’s 360 3D camera technology, both hardware and software, to market. Does this image leak mean Jaunt are on the cusp of announcing a deal with Top Rank Boxing to record matches in VR enhanced formats? Or is this simply a toe in the water for both companies? As yet we’re unsure, but it does show that there’s appetite in commercial broadcasting to, at the very least, trial this cutting-edge technology.

Jaunt aren’t the only companies pitching their own virtual reality recording technology at the lucrative broadcast sports TV market. Earlier in the year we had a chance to speak to Next3D and try their latest technology. They two are hoping for event-side positions to record immersive sporting experiences for live VR broadcast.

We’ll update you with more details as we find them. In the mean time, are there any boxing fans out there who can name the fight this image was grabbed from? Post in the comments below.

MemoRift Brings Your Retro Arcade Memories to Life in Virtual Reality

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I’ve now been a gamer for, well, far too long now. More than books, movies or television, games have been my obsession for as long as I can remember. For me, growing up is inextricably linked to the games around during that period of my life and arcades held a special fascination.

Arcades back in the 80s and 90s were the place to play games. Unlike today, computing power in the home trailed far behind the likes of dedicated and often cutting-edge gaming hardware that coin-op manufacturers built for the numerous game arcade halls across the world.

Going way back, watching (and listening to) an original Asteroids machine with its mesmerising, monochrome vector graphics and booming, pulsating soundtrack was a world away from the bleeping, BASIC coded homebrew efforts I had on my meagre Acorn Electron back home. Greats like Commando, R-Type, Bubble Bobble and its sequel Rainbow Islands and later Street Fighter all had a special draw with their dazzling colour, smooth parallax scrolling and stunning sound.

Then there were the big ticket cabinets from the likes of Sega, at the times all conquering giants of the gaming industry. Space Harrier, one of the first titles to include a motorised motion cabinet on its Deluxe model was mind blowing to me. 3D Graphics (actually, hardware accelerated 2D sprites) like I’d never seen before, a killer attract sequence and that unforgettable speech sample when you sat down and pressed start “Welcome to the fantasy zone, Get Ready!”.

I’ve tinkered at length with emulators over the years and although these days, home PC hardware is easily able to emulate every Arcade great I ever loved in terms of audio and graphics, something is always missing.

Enter, MemoRift

Sitting down to watch MemoRift’s intro video today (see above) made me realise what the missing piece was, the collective sound of 20+ attract sequences running all in the same space – that wonderful cacophony that has been consigned to distant memory now. Could virtual reality be the missing link for a perfect emulation experience?

In the video, MemoRift developer Roy Lazarovich walks us through the virtual arcade with a myriad standup cabinets all playing their attract sequences and captures that arcade atmosphere brilliantly. By capturing videos of each and every emulated title and then set them to loop, he’s recreated that authentic sound brilliantly.

Memorift is, at its most basic, a front end to emulation. But leveraging the Oculus Rift as your window into this emulation, making browsing your ROM collection an atmospheric walk through nostalgia that nothing else has come close to.

What’s more, Roy has already implemented clever optimisations and options to tweak this experience and ensure machines of all specifications can run the experience. Attract screens can play only on proximity and shut off altogether when running an emulated title.

I’m very much looking forward to getting my hands on MemoRift. However, I can foresee some issues with the model of emulation in virtual reality. Switching between preferred VR control devices and fundamentally incompatible retro devices like micro-switched joysticks and buttons may prove tricky. Plus, the current set of Oculus Rift developer kit display limitations, even low resolution arcade titles that looked best on CRT monitors may not be allowed the pixel perfect representation that retro gamers require to play them at their best.

But Lazarovich’s ambitions for MemoRift don’t end with enhanced emulation. His idea is to give people the ability to build rooms filled with nostalgia – TV, Cartoons, Games, Magazines – anything you need to step back into your past. It’s an intriguing prospect and yet another example of how virtual reality can bring new levels of enhancement to old desires.

There’s no word on release date or public demo’s as yet, but we’ll let you know once we hear anything.

You can find out more about MemoRift over at Roy Lazarovich’s website here.

Rev VR Podcast (Ep. 66) – SVVR, VR Controllers, and Game Design with Matt Carrell and Brian Bullard

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In this episode of the Rev VR Podcast, I am joined by Matt Carrell and Brian Bullard who host the PodVR podcast. Both of them were part of the SVVR Ubercast, and are pioneers in the VR community. We have a great discussion about many hot topics in the VR world.

Senza Peso is a Stunning, First of Its Kind, Virtual Reality Mini-opera for the Oculus Rift

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senza preso oculus rift virtual reality

For those following the virtual reality scene, the name Kite and Lightning will be familiar—a small indie studio behind several impressive Oculus Rift demos. Now, the team has released a visually rich new virtual reality experience that tours users through the environments based on a short film that took five years to produce.

The Elite: Dangerous Community Q&A, Frontier’s David Braben Answers Your Questions

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David Braben
David Braben

The Elite series is legendary. Father to the modern Space Exploration and Combat genre of games, it hailed a new era of involved gameplay with adult themes and expansive universes to explore. Now, almost 30 years after the release of the BBC-B original, Elite: Dangerous promises not only to bring the series back with a bang, but also to allow you to explore it’s universe through the wonders of virtual reality.

Elite: Dangerous is one of the most promising titles yet to feature support for the Oculus Rift VR Headset and has been warmly received by the community that backed the project during a hugely successful crowd funding project last year. Frontier recently celebrated Elite: Dangerous’ Premium Beta release and you can still become a part of the universe with early access here.

David Braben, one half of the original team behind Elite, is behind the new venture and we asked him if he’d be willing to take your questions on Elite: Dangerous as part of a community Q&A. Gladly, he agreed and we asked you for your questions a couple of weeks ago via subreddit /r/oculus and this very website. The response was excellent and the quality of questions high. A selection of the queries you sent us were sent on to David for his replied, and here below are the responses.

John Horn (RtoVR): You’ve mentioned that planets within the Elite: Dangerous universe may feature wildlife. Will those be hand-designed or might you consider generating them procedurally?

David: We’ve not put a lot of thought into this yet, but certainly some elements should be procedural.

monographix (RtoVR): Do you think that, once people have spent significant time experiencing games like Elite: Dangerous in virtual reality, that it may alter our perception of the real world?

David: Just about any form of storytelling (ie games, films books) alter our perceptions a little. That is (partly) why we watch them. VR simply accentuates the experience, and I think in that sense it probably does accentuate the perception change a little too.

Just about any formof storytelling (ie games, films books) alter our perceptions a little. That is (partly) why we watch them. VR simply accentuates the experience, and I think in that sense it probably does accentuate the perception change a little too.

George (RtoVR): Will the Oculus Rift be listed under “Recommended System Requirements”?

David: We already support various add-ons in the game like VR displays, 3D TVs, Track IR, a wide range of joysticks, foot pedals, control pads etc. Elite: Dangerous is a great game with or without these add-ons, and the experience you get with them is additive, certainly, but not essential. “Recommended System Requirements” for any add-on is perhaps taking it a little far, so no.

EdZ (RtoVR): In the beta of ED available to Kickstarter Premium backers, HUD UI elements are rendered inside the cockpit, causing convergence issues when focussing on targets. Will this be changed to infinite-depth rendering in the future?

David: We’re continually adjusting such things, so yes, they will improve with time.

John Horn (RtoVR): Will the planets in ED be procedurally generated using voxels, allowing terrain deformation and ‘digging’ for secrets?

David: No, that’s not the plan I’m afraid. We have considered surface damage to planets, but there are some serious network issues when syncing a whole planet full of voxels.

soap (RtoVR): Do you see many applications for virtual reality outside of gaming? What might those be?

David: Yes. Many. Medical – especially when allowing a doctor to see inside a patient when doing keyhole surgery, as a way of visualising information from an ultrasound scanner. Firefighters or bomb disposal or rescue or exploration – similar techniques using ROVs are already used, but VR might help improve this further. Military. Architectural. Espionage. Virtual Tourism.

I was interested to see the new Parrot AR Drone using an Oculus Rift to allow you to fly virtually.

Appellono (reddit): You’ve been involved in the Raspberry Pi project and bringing the technology into schools to enhance the teaching of Computer Science. Do you see any place for virtual reality in the classroom? If so, what?

David: It can help students visualise many things, so yes, I think there are many applications, much like my answer to the previous question!

chuan (reddit): Given the unfortunate fate of the shelved ‘The Outsider’ project at Frontier, is is likely that some of the ideas for the project might find their way into ED?

David: Like with all our games, the technology is shared, so many elements have already been re-used in other games, and in Elite: Dangerous too, and perhaps more so, once you can walk about.

chuan (reddit): The original Elite was notable for many things, one of which being the longer simulation play time you could clock up which at the time was brand new. How do you feel VR might further alter player’s engagement with games like Elite?

David: It changes the depth of engagement more so than the duration. Personally I find I cannot play for so long with a VR headset, as I need to take it off after a while. I suspect this is more of an issue with the current generation than with the technology in general.

I didn’t like the way in most games in the early 1980s that the odds were hopeless, and eventually you were ground down in a war of attrition. It felt odd you couldn’t run away – but then the games were not designed to allow that.

chuan (reddit): I think it was David that came up with the original demo of a spinning 3D spacehip which lead to Elite being created. Can you briefly chat the conceptual leaps which lead from demo to full game?

David: I put together a simple 3D game shooting spaceships. It had four spaceships and felt dull and repetitive. I didn’t like the way in most games in the early 1980s that the odds were hopeless, and eventually you were ground down in a war of attrition. It felt odd you couldn’t run away – but then the games were not designed to allow that. You got a smart bomb every 5,000 points and an extra life every 10,000. It also felt odd you couldn’t choose. So these thoughts came together with the idea of ‘spending score’. Brainstorming ways of changing this pattern, Ian and I realised we needed to make the player need to finish a mission – even if it meant running from the fight – hence travel. Score being money was not such a big stretch (especially in Thatcherite Britain!), so trading seemed an obvious choice – though both Ian and I thought it might be a bit dull.

Apellono (reddit): With a reported 400 billion (!) star systems in the game, do these systems actually exist on a hard-drive somewhere, or are they all contained as possibilities within the procedural code? Does a star system actually exist before someone visits it?

David: They exist, in the same way they existed in Elite and Frontier. If you simply consider Procedural Generation as a fancy form of compression, then yes they do exist.

beIIe-and-sebastien (reddit): Do you think gaming technology (specifically virtual reality) has now caught up to allow the realisation of your vision of Elite should be? If so, when did you realise this had become the case?

David: To be honest, I don’t think VR is essential to a game like Elite: Dangerous, but it is brilliantly additive. The technology simply continues to get better, so each year it is possible to fulfil more of the vision, and we will continue to do so through expansions and updates. Nevertheless, VR is very helpful in the immersion, especially the rapid spread of Oculus Rift.

Apellono (reddit): At what stage of development was Oculus/VR support included, and what design decisions got shaped or altered by choosing to support VR?

David: We already had some thought about VR, but it was the Elite: Dangerous backers asking for it – and us wanting it too – and the fact we were already well set up to support it through our own engine – that we added it to Alpha 1 on 15th December 2013 – as a sort of Christmas present to the backers, together with Track IR, 3D TV, and anaglyph stereo.

RtoVR: Do you have plans to include support for the Development Kit 2 and in particular positional tracking once it’s available?

David; Well, I did Tweet an image of myself playing Elite: Dangerous using an Oculus DK2… So yes, Elite: Dangerous already supports positional tracking, and DK2.

Thank you to David Braben for taking the time to answer the questions and thanks to you, the community for providing them. Our apologies if yours didn’t make it in this time.

We hope to catch up with Frontier and David Braben when the Road to VR team hits E3 next week, stay tuned for updates.

Control VR is the Virtual Reality Data Glove You Always Wanted, Kickstarter Now live

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If you’ve been following virtual reality news and opinion recently, you’ll have noticed a definite switch of focus for those seeking VR nirvana. Whilst there are myriad hard problems surrounding convincing your mind it occupies a virtual space, the visual element, provided by a VR headset display has now approached the point where presence is now possible. So, once you’ve solved the issue of presenting the virtual world to a player, what’s next on the list?

In one word, input. Whilst VR headset development has seen incredible progress since Oculus launched its Kickstarter, arguably a killer solution for reading a player’s actions has yet to reach the zenith. That’s not to say we haven’t seen progress, with companies like Sixense, YEI, Virtuix, Cyberith and Tactical Haptics all offering different ingenious solutions to the same problem and all seeing the light of day in the last 18 months. We’ve come a long way to be sure.

controlvr-gloves1Well now another solution has launched and it bears more resemblance to how you always imagined your VR gear to look. Control VR is a motion / gesture capture system comprising motion sensors and unique (at present in the consumer space at least) data gloves which track your upper body and finger movement at rotational accuracy, Control VR claim, down to the 10th of a degree.

Using IMU sensors the developers claim were developed in conjunction with DARPA (a claim we’ve yet to verify), sensors at your elbow joint and what looks to be an optical based tracker which sits at chest level attached to a small harness. The video shows demo equipment with mounted webcams, we assume to allow tracking of the player’s core.

The result is an incredibly cool looking way to reach into and intimately interact with the virtual world.

Technical details on the Kickstarter website are a little thin on the ground, but we dug a little deeper into Control VR’s origins.

The IGS Glove Becomes Control VR

Some of you may have seen a video circulating a few months ago demonstrating a great new data glove, being marketed squarely at the virtual reality enthusiast. The IGS Glove from a company called Synertial (aka Animazoo) seems to be the data glove component used in the Control VR system. The below video, from the company’s website, demonstrates in more detail the skeletal modelling used to achieve the impressive looking tracking.

..and in an earlier Control VR video, the IGS monicker is clearly seen on the player’s gloves:

What’s more, the listed CEO (Alex Sarnoff) and CTO (Ali Kord) for Control VR are both founders of Synertial / Animazoo. So it seems Control VR is a way for the company to enter the commercial VR market.

Synertial’s website has a slightly more technical description of the glove itself than available on the Kickstarter page:

Synertial’s systems use IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) which make use of both tri-axial MEMS Gyroscopes and tri-axial MEMS Accelerometers in addition to magneto-resistive magnetometers. The combination of data from all three of these sensors overcomes the issues involved in traditional hand and finger capture.

An impressive array of IMUs, a reflection of how complex tracking the intricacies of the human hand really are. And, if the system is as impressive in person as it is in the extremely promising video demonstrations, we may have just edged even closer to that VR nirvana.

If you’re interested in backing the project, be warned that this cutting-edge tech doesn’t come cheap. The one arm and body tracking solution will set you back $350 and if you want both your hands in the game, the two arm tier is $600. My estimation though is that probably represents pretty good value for money considering the sheer number of sensors in involved here. The company does however point out that its commercial offerings (as detailed on their Kickstarter roadmap) will be much cheaper, and given the rapidly decreasing costs and rising accuracy of emerging IMU technology, we’re inclined to believe them.

Head over to the Kickstarter page here if you’re interested in backing the project. After only a few hours live, the project has already raised nearly $30k of its $250k goal. We’ll keep you in the loop on the campaigns progress.

Are you thinking of backing the project or have you already? Let us know your thoughts on the comments below.

Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe Opens the NASDAQ Stock Exchange

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brendan-iribe-nasdaqThis one flew way under the radar. After the Facebook acquisition, Oculus VR CEO, Brendan Iribe, has been making the rounds in the successful startup track. In April, Iribe joined the opening ceremony of NASDAQ stock exchange as part of the invite-only f.ounders event.

News Bits: Oculus Announces 2nd Self-Published VR Title, Steam Pioneer Joins The Team

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luckys-taleOculus VR have, since the beginning of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter rollercoaster, stated that without good content, VR wouldn’t achieve launch velocity. They put their money where their mouth was back in February when they announced they’d be co-publishing CCP Games’ made-for-VR space combat game EVE Valkyrie as a flagship title. Now, the company has announced the next title to receive the published-by-oculus seal of approval and it’s called Lucky’s Tale.

The title is apparently an adventure game that’s built from the ground up for virtual reality and the Oculus Rift and is being developed by a company called ‘Playful’. Little else is known about the new game and it’s doubtful we can glean much from Playful’s previous title ‘Words with Friends’, a multi-player scrabble clone – which is apparently extraordinarily popular amongst the social-network fuelled casual gaming arena. Whatever the game turns out to be, it’s great to see Oculus continuing their drive for great, made for VR content to push their Rift platform. It perhaps gives us a glimpse as to where Oculus see their revenue coming from in the long term, given their pledge to try and sell their VR Headset hardware as cheaply as possible.

Paul Bettner, founder of Playful says of the venture “Virtual reality — I mean truly accurate, comfortable virtual reality — is the most important thing to happen to interactive entertainment in decades”. We’re not going to argue with him.

Moar Recruits!

John Holtman, Oculus VR's new Head of Platform
John Holtman, Oculus VR’s new Head of Platform

Frankly, if more than a couple of days passes without more news of Oculus hiring some talented individual, we start to feel restless. So, inevitably, Oculus have announced that they’ve hired the super talented Jason Holtman. Jason is yet another Valve veteran, one who helped pioneer digital game distribution back when DRM was a filthy term amongst PC gamers. Jason helped make Valve’s Steam platform a reality and joins Oculus as their ‘Head of Platform’.

Given Holtman’s CV and the somewhat non specific nature of his new job title, it may well be that he’s joined Oculus to help them build their own digital distribution platform. Oculus states that he’ll be “..building the world’s best developer and player VR ecosystem”. Sounds as if Oculus are positioning themselves for world domination, or at the very least to build an incredible developer publishing portal for gamers to consume VR titles from.

Two Reasons You Will Want to Buy a New Gaming Rig for the Oculus Rift CV1

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oculus-rift-computer
Photo Credit: Sergey Galyonkin (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Here and there I see threads pop up around the web asking what hardware ought to be bought in preparation for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift (also known as the CV1). If you’re looking to get top virtual reality gaming performance, and the most bang for your buck, you’ll want to pick up a new gaming rig for the Oculus Rift CV1. Here’s why.

VRLA Meetup to Host E3 VR Mixer Next Week in Los Angeles

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VRLA_E3_MIXERNext week at E3 2014, the VRLA Meetup will be hosting the VR community at a VR Mixer event near the Los Angeles convention center. The doors are open to anyone (21+) interested in VR!

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