Virtual & Augmented Reality News - Page 1

Facebook has temporarily stopped shipping the Oculus Quest 2 headset. The company said it would resume shipments in August with a new 128GB model. Every Quest 2 headset will also include a silicone cover.

Late last year, Facebook revealed that it was investigating reports of skin irritationcaused by the face cushion on the Oculus Quest 2 headset. The company said it had received reports from a small fraction of its customers of mild skin irritation caused by the Quest 2 headset.

To remedy the situation, Facebook announced a global voluntary recall for the original foam cushion, giving existing Quest 2 owners the option to claim a medical-grade silicone cover that won't trigger any allergies and is easy to wipe clean.

The Oculus Quest 2 is less than a year old, but already it seems like Facebook is getting ready to phase out the smaller version for a slightly larger capacity headset. Facebook may soon replace the Quest 2 64GB with a 128GB option.

Currently, Facebook offers two models of the Quest 2 standalone VR headset. Both versions have the exact performance specifications and features, aside from the storage capacity. The entry model includes 64GB of storage, which is not a lot for a system with games that range from 1GB to 10GB in size. The larger 256GB option carries a $100 higher price tag, making it less accessible and less attractive to new buyers.

A series of leaked images may indicate that Facebook is attempting to sweeten the deal a little bit. Multiple images of a 128GB Quest 2 headset have surfaced online. A pair of pictures on Imgur shows what appears to be new retail packaging for the larger headset. UploadVR noticed a French game news website called GAMERGEN found a retail listing for the 128GB version, which carried the same price as the current 64GB model.

Valve published the second quarter Steam survey results, and the numbers reveal that Facebook is still gaining ground in the VR headset market. More than 60% of SteamVR users have Oculus headsets.

Facebook can thank the popularity of the Quest platform and its Quest Link technology for its recent dominance in the PCVR space. The Oculus Rift and the Rift S account for a sizeable chunk, with 5.4% of users running an original Rift and 18.48% have Rift S headsets.

Oculus didn't sell many Quest headsets (5.23% of SteamVR users), but it has sold a tremendous number of Quest 2 devices in the 9-months that it has been available. Quest 2 users account for an astounding 31.07% of SteamVR users. To put that into perspective, HTC and Valve combined account for 31.9% of all SteamVR headsets.

The global VR headset market is starting to heat up a little bit. Recently, a Russian state corporation called Roscosmos revealed a high-end VR headset with specs that would rival the best on the market.

According to Holographic.space, a Russian tech news website, Roscosmos announced its plans to make a VR headset in February. In June, the company brought its first prototype to the Startup Village conference in Skolkovo, Russia. It also announced its plans for a second device.

The first headset, the Roscosmos XR-1, is intended as a test platform for Roscosmos' technology. The headset's specifications include dual 1440x1444 displays that operate at 90Hz or 120Hz with a 105-degree FoV.

DecaGear revealed that it hit a temporary setback in its production progress. The last component required to build the DecaMove input devices was delayed and set the production back by roughly two weeks.

DecaGear opened pre-orders for the DecaMove controller earlier this year, and the company promised that its first backers would receive their order in June. Unfortunately, due to a delay from one of its component suppliers, DecaMove fell short of that promise.

Fortunately, the delay appears to be a short one, and DecaGear posted in its Discord channel that it expects to have all June and July orders fulfilled before mid-July.

Magic Leap is preparing to launch its second-generation headset, presumably called Magic leap Two, near the end of the year. The company's new CEO has gone on record saying the headset would be smaller, lighter, faster, and cheaper than the outgoing device.

Peggy Jonhson, Magic Leap's new CEO, spoke with Venture Beat recently, and in the interview, she stated multiple times that the next Magic Leap headset would be half the size and 20% lighter than the old headset. The Chief Executive noted that all-day wearability was a goal in the development of the device.

"The first generation was built to be a consumer device. In some ways it didn't quite hit that market, but largely because it's a larger device. There wasn't a lot of content for it. So how do we do things differently with Magic Leap Two. We've made a smaller device, an all-day wearable. It improved on the metrics that our enterprise customers were asking us for - smaller, lighter, faster, cheaper,"

Varjo today revealed Varjo Reality Cloud, an ambitious attempt at creating the foundation of the future metaverse. The company is leveraging the Lidar capabilities of its XR3 headset to enable real-time photorealistic virtual teleportation. This is Varjo's vision for the future of collaboration.

"We believe that Varjo's vision for the metaverse will elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world," said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. "What we're building with our vision for the Varjo Reality Cloud will release our physical reality from the laws of physics. The programmable world that once existed only behind our screens can now merge with our surrounding reality - forever changing the choreography of everyday life."

With Varjo Reality Cloud, not only can you collaborate virtually with people around the world, you can bring others into your space, making it feel like you're sharing the same physical environment. With the Lidar scanners embedded on the Varjo XR-3 headset, users can capture a true-to-life 3D scan of their location, complete with full-color photorealistic texturing and share that with other people with Varjo headsets. Eventually, you'll be able to tap into the Varjo Reality Cloud with any device, including other VR headsets, computers, smartphones, and tablets.

In a bizarre move, Facebook has removed the ability for Oculus Quest users to cast their gameplay experience directly to-checks notes-Facebook from the headset. You now require a computer to stream your Quest.

Facebook started rolling out the v30 update for Oculus Quest and Quest 2 users last week. The new update brings a handful of new features, including multitasking in Infinite Office and tools for people who have trouble seeing specific colours. But, strangely, the update also removed the button to cast your gameplay directly to your Facebook feed.

A Facebook representative provided a statement to UploadVR that confirms the change but doesn't adequately explain the reason. Facebook said that its users prefer to use local casting tools, so it is increasing its focus on local casting tools.

Cyan Worlds today announced the PC VR release window for the total overhaul of its classic puzzle mystery game, Myst. Unfortunately, we don't have an exact date, but we know it's coming in the next three months.

Cyan released the remake of Myst on the Oculus Questlate last year, and since then, the company has been quiet about when we might expect a PC VR version. Of course, we knew it would eventually be available, but until now, we had no idea when. Now we know the game will be available in Q3 2021.

The PC version is currently listed on Steam, and you can put it on your wishlist today to make sure you don't miss the launch. The Steam version of the game will be playable in both 2D and VR modes. There will also be a Mac version that doesn't support VR because Apple doesn't currently support VR headsets on its computers.

Last week, Facebook announced a plan to introduce advertisements in VR content. The idea was presented as a way for small developers to increase revenues to help reach profitability. As you might expect, the announcement drew immediate ire from VR fans which prompted the only developer involved in the plan to back out.

Facebook said it would implement a small-scale pilot with a select few developers to test its in-game advertising system. Multiple studios are said to be involved in the pilot, but Facebook named only one game, Blaston, in the announcement, and that didn't go well for the developer. Within a day of the announcement, Blaston's user rating got blasted with a review bomb. As a result, Resolution Games did an about-face and backed out of the plan to advertise in Blaston.

After listening to player feedback, we realize that Blaston isn't the best fit for this type of advertising test. Therefore, we no longer plan to implement the test. We look forward to seeing you in the arena and hope you try the Crackdown Update that went live today!