Last week Oculus, in conjunction with IndieCade, announced the VR Jam, a virtual reality game design competition for Oculus Rift developers. Today marks the beginning of the competition, which will run through August 25th. All developers worldwide are welcome to join and vie for their share of $50,000 in prizes.
Dynamic Digital Depth, producers of a suite of 3D Driver products to enhance PC media and games by adding stereoscopic 3D support have just announced a new beta release with support for the Oculus Rift.
Last week, gaming charity drive group Omnithon raised $2,367 for the Child’s Play charity. The event was a 48-hour Oculus Rift gaming marathon that was streamed live to viewers — at the end, the team raffled the Oculus Rift to a lucky donor. I spoke with Omnithon member Kyle Owsen to learn more about the successful event.
While the average IPD (interpupillary distance — the distance between your pupils) is around 63mm, there are those on the edges of the spectrum that can have an IPD as high as 78mm or as low as 52mm. And even though you can measure your IPD in the Oculus Rift to make some virtual adjustments, for those far from the average, there’s little improvement to be seen beyond physically altering the IPD of the Oculus Rift. Barry Hill is one of those folks on the edge of the IPD spectrum, and he’s found a great DIY solution to increasing the physical IPD of the Oculus Rift.
Ever wondered what it would feel like hurling yourself from a levitating building miles above the ground whilst surrounded by a neon dystopian futurescape? No? Well we go hands on with an early version of Owlchemy Labs’ Aaaaaaa! Oculus Rift edition and tell you what it’s like anyway.
Indie developer Owlchemy Labs recently announced that Oculus Rift support for their Futuristic Base-Jumping title ‘AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome’. We were intrigued, so we asked their ‘Chief Scientist’ Alex Schwartz to tell us more.
On July 26th, Omnithon will be holding a 48-hour Oculus Rift gaming session, during which they’ll collect donations for the Child’s Play charity. If you contribute to the donation drive, you’ll be entered to win an Oculus Rift developer kit signed by Oculus!
While the vast majority of early Oculus Rift game development is focusing on first-person titles, Super Mega Mega shows that there might very well be room for side-scrollers on the Rift.
Sixense has published a new video showing their forthcoming virtual reality CAD program, MakeVR, in use with the Oculus Rift. 
The software is an ambitious project by Sixense, creators of the Razer Hydra, to combine advanced CAD modeling software with an intuitive control system, powered by the Hydra.
Speaking with Edge, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe confirms that we won’t see the Oculus Rift 2 / consumer version in 2013. Though not necessarily a surprise, this is the first official confirmation of that fact that I’ve seen; there could be a silver lining. Additionally, Iribe talks about the future of VR and how smartphones might play a role.
We’ll be heading to Cologne, Germany on August 21st when the biggest gaming convention in Europe kicks off. Let us know what you’d like to see.
Using the Oculus Rift requires switching back and forth between your normal resolution and the Rift’s 1280×800. The standard method of doing so on Windows requires one too many steps for my taste, so I tracked down a handy free utility that switches between resolutions with a quick keyboard shortcut.
Earlier this month I took a look at Lunar Flight, a game by indie developer Shovsoft, that has been working to integrate Oculus Rift support. I called it “a highly compelling Oculus Rift virtual reality experience ,” definitely one of the best fully fleshed out titles for the Rift. Now the developer has announced that the Lunar Flight Oculus Rift beta is public for anyone with the game to try — better yet, the game is on sale with a massive discount!
Though it’s been a few months since the Zombies on the Holodeck alpha was released, I still think it’s one of the best game experiences in the Oculus Rift thus far. Don’t get me wrong — there are some other really cool ‘experiences’ that folks have made of the Rift, but Zombies on the Holodeck has some real gameplay elements which show what the future of VR gaming might be like. One unfortunate issue with the original alpha was lack of calibration. The team has been working on a new build which greatly improves the gunplay thanks to a calibration system for the Razer Hydra.
