Google Acquires Owlchemy Labs, VR Game Studio Behind ‘Rick and Morty VR’, ‘Job Simulator’
In an interesting move, Google has acquired Owlchemy Labs, makers of the multi-platform hits Job Simulator (2016) and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017).
As far as VR game studios go, Owlchemy Labs is not only one of the most senior, but...
Valve and Pixvana Bring High-quality Adaptive VR Video to Steam, Beta Launches Today
Pixvana, makers of the cloud-based 360 video creation studio SPIN, today announced that their software services—integrated at the core of Valve's own Steam 360 Video Player—will be launching today into beta. This effectively lets SPIN users publish their VR videos directly...
NVIDIA Demonstrates Experimental 16,000Hz AR Display
While virtual reality surely has high performance requirements to maintain a comfortable experience, immersive AR may ultimately require a greater level of performance if we're to achieve the theoretical ideal.
While virtual reality can get away with comfortable and immersive...
In First Interview Since Leaving Oculus, Founder Palmer Luckey Talks VR’s Mobile Future, Facebook, and Cosplay
Having founded Oculus in 2012 and been an important face for the company throughout its growth from fledgling startup to $2 billion acquisition by Facebook and beyond, it was a shock to see Palmer Luckey leave the company just...
This Pulsating ‘Haptic Skin’ is Somewhat Creepy, Mostly Awesome
Omnipulse is a new haptic technology out of Cornell's Organic Robotics Lab which uses an array of embedded pneumatic actuators to create haptic feedback which feels quite 'organic' compared to the more 'mechanical' of many other haptic technologies out there....
Microsoft Technical Evangelist on Presence in VR Game Design
The Microsoft Build conference starts this week, and I expect that we'll be learning more about the HoloLens as well as Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality operating system. Microsoft has been evangelizing about virtual reality the past couple of years...
Preview: ‘Arden’s Wake’ the Latest Work From ‘Alumette’ Creator Penrose Studios
Penrose Studios’ latest VR film work, Arden’s Wake: The Prologue, has debuted at TriBeCa Film Festival’s Virtual Arcade. As “Prologue” implies, Arden’s Wake will be released in episodic form, though the final number of 'episodes' in the series, as...
VirZOOM Partners With AMD to Bring VR Fitness Bikes to Locations Across the Globe
Pedaling a stationary bike is kind of a sad metaphor for life: try as you may, you're never going anywhere. But thanks to virtual reality, there might be an exercise machine coming to your local gym or arcade that...
NVIDIA Shows How Physically-based Audio Can Greatly Enhance VR Immersion
Positional audio for VR experiences—where noises sound as if they are coming from the correct direction—has long been understood as an important part of making VR immersive. But knowing which direction sounds are coming from is only one part...
High Fidelity is Architecting for VR Privacy with Self-sovereign Identity
Philip Rosedale has been thinking deeply about how to architect large-scale, distributed virtual worlds after experiencing many bottlenecks as the founder of Second Life. His new metaverse venture, High Fidelity, is taking a much more distributed approach with how it's...
