Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D - Page 138

All the latest virtual reality and augmented reality plus 3D related news, with everything related to gaming headsets & plenty more - Page 138.

Follow TweakTown on Google News

Reload Studios, the ex-Infinity Ward developers, tease new VR shooter

Anthony Garreffa | Nov 6, 2014 1:29 AM CST

A few months ago we heard that some of the developers from Infinity Ward had formed Reload Studios, a VR-based first-person shooter studio. Reload Studios is now teasing its upcoming multiplayer VR shooter, which will arrive as a VR first-person, arena-based multiplayer shooter which currently has no name.

Founder and CEO of Reload Studios, James Chung, has said that the studio is aiming at VR as the primary platform for their unnamed shooter, acknowledging the challenges that building an FPS for VR gives them. Chung said: "Our focus is on virtual reality because you can't just port or make a non-virtual reality game and expect it to work. The games on VR have to be made from the ground up. So we are making a game from the ground up to make sure it will work on VR".

Although an FPS from the ex developers of Infinity Ward, who focused on FPS titles like Call of Duty, is something that isn't breaking the mould, making a VR-focused FPS is. Chung continued: "Trying a shooter in VR is actually difficult because nobody has a solution on how to make the experience compelling, especially on the controls issue. A lot of people have a lot of points on what not to do, but not a lot of people are coming up with what to do. And that's the side that we're trying to resolve".

Continue reading: Reload Studios, the ex-Infinity Ward developers, tease new VR shooter (full post)

Oculus to launch the Rift within 'months, not years away'

Anthony Garreffa | Nov 4, 2014 9:29 PM CST

Everyone is wondering when Oculus VR will launch their consumer Rift headset, with its current broad ETA being 'sometime in 2015'. But after his speech at the Web Summit 2014 in Dublin, Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe said that the Rift is months away from a consumer launch, not years away.

He said: "We're all hungry for it to happen. We're getting very close. It's months, not years away, but many months. We've gone out there and set this bar and said, 'We want to get it right.' We don't want it to be four or five years. We're eager for this to happen". Many months could still see it being released late next year, and during an investors meeting last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and owner of Oculus VR said that the Oculus Rift could only be "meaningful" as a computing platform if it sold 50 million to 100 million units over the next 10 years.

Continue reading: Oculus to launch the Rift within 'months, not years away' (full post)

Oculus urges Sony to solve motion sickness problems before launch

Michael Hatamoto | Nov 4, 2014 8:30 AM CST

Facebook-owned Oculus VR doesn't plan to release a consumer headset until motion sickness-related issues are resolved, according to company officials. Some users said they suffer from motion sickness while wearing the headset and playing video games or watching movies.

"We're really looking forward to this as an industry that takes off... A number of companies will come in, even companies we haven't heard of yet two or three or five years down the road," said Brendan Iribe, Oculus VR CEO. "At the same time we're a little worried about some of the bigger companies putting out product that isn't quite ready. That elephant in the room is disorientation and motion sickness. We're encouraging other companies, particularly the big consumer companies, to not put out a product until they've solved that problem."

Without naming Sony directly, it would appear Iribe is speaking of the Japanese electronics giant - which unveiled Project Morpheus earlier this year. Virtual reality isn't necessarily a new technology, but only recently became a realistic goal, as hardware and software makers look to the budding market.

Continue reading: Oculus urges Sony to solve motion sickness problems before launch (full post)

Oculus VR showed off Alien: Isolation, Superhot and more at PAX AU

Anthony Garreffa | Nov 4, 2014 3:14 AM CST

PAX AU 2014 - Oculus VR is a company I just have to meet at any trade show I go to, with PAX Australia 2014 being no exception. The now Facebook-owned VR startup was showing off four different titles at the show, where we jumped on two them: Alien: Isolation and Superhot.

The crowd at Oculus VR was absolutely huge, and it never slowed down. Other than the League of Legends crowd, Oculus had the biggest crowd.

Alien: Isolation was just the tech demo that was shown off at E3 2014, with Oculus Rift support baked in, but it worked incredibly well for something that wasn't built for the VR headset from the ground up. Superhot is similar, in the way that it wasn't built for the Rift, but worked incredibly well.

Continue reading: Oculus VR showed off Alien: Isolation, Superhot and more at PAX AU (full post)

NASA wants to create a Holodeck using the Oculus Rift for astronauts

Anthony Garreffa | Oct 17, 2014 1:31 AM CDT

Floating around in space can't be all that fun, and after being up there for days, weeks, or months on end, you'd get pretty bored, right? Well, NASA is looking at solutions to this boredom, where it is looking at creating a VR holodeck, using the Oculus Rift.

Scientists over at the University of Dartmouth's Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation lab (DALI) have been working on this type of software and technology since 2001, where they recently received a grant of $1.6 million from NASA to fund their work. They are now on a mission to create virtual environments and digital therapists to de-stress astronauts in deep space, as well as help manage inter-personal conflicts, if they were to arise.

Dartmouth research professor Lorie Loeb said in a press release that the team was working on multi-sensory experiences, something that included smells and sounds that would "trick the brain and make people feel as if they are in a variety of beautiful and calm settings, such as with their family at home or strolling on the beach". Not only that, but the team is working on digital therapists that would "assess and manage psychosocial problems to prevent them from becoming serious enough to jeopardize a mission".

Continue reading: NASA wants to create a Holodeck using the Oculus Rift for astronauts (full post)

Shadow of Mordor's 6GB VRAM texture pack barely changes visual quality

Anthony Garreffa | Oct 14, 2014 3:23 AM CDT

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has an insane Ultra HD texture pack, with a requirement of 6GB of VRAM from your GPU. But, by the looks of a comparison between the Ultra HD texture pack, and High settings, there isn't much of a change in visuals.

The Ultra HD texture pack is a separate 3.7GB download, but when enabled, apart from requiring 6GB of VRAM, it doesn't seem to look much better. There are some comparison screenshots above, and below, which compare both the Ultra HD texture settings, and the normal High setting within the game, that doesn't require 6GB of VRAM.

In the screenshots, the top half is the High settings screenshot, while the bottom shot is from the Ultra HD texture pack enabled version of the game.

Continue reading: Shadow of Mordor's 6GB VRAM texture pack barely changes visual quality (full post)

Alien: Isolation works with Oculus Rift after couple of simple tweaks

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Oct 8, 2014 11:06 PM CDT

Oculus VR did demo its Oculus Rift headset using 'Alien: Isolation' during E3 2014. It looked very promising and gave a taste of the good things to come. But nobody knew if Creative Assembly's latest sci-fi survival horror game was just few keystrokes away from making the game work with Oculus Rift. Although this counts as 'unofficial' Oculus Rift support, the company behind the game did say that the game won't be supporting VR at the time of launch.

That didn't stop a group of Reddit users to com together and see if they can make the game support VR. As it turns out, they didn't really have to make a lot of efforts since the coding was already present. There are few issues, but as an end result VR works nicely for a game which doesn't have official VR support. The game also has positional tracking as seen during the demos of Oculus Rift's Development Kit 2.

Neither SEGA nor Creative Assembly said anything about the latest finding by the Reddit users, but the unofficial support is far from perfect, as expected. According to latest updates by the Reddit user, the game crashes due to a CPU problem from their end.

Continue reading: Alien: Isolation works with Oculus Rift after couple of simple tweaks (full post)

Warner Bros will let you check out the Batcave through the Oculus Rift

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Oct 8, 2014 9:04 PM CDT

Warner Bros and DC Entertainment are making the virtual reality version of the Batcave so that you can check out Batman's underground crib in VR, with the help of the Oculus Rift.

The Dark Knight's VR Batcave is based on classic '90s cartoon series called 'Batman: the Animated Series'. The VR interaction will also be made compatible with other VR devices along with Oculus Rift. The company that will be responsible for this project is Otoy, but the series' original producer Bruce Timm is also involved in the project.

Warner Bros' Sam Register said "We are continuously exploring new and exciting ways to tell stories and share experiences with audiences around the globe, and we're excited to be working with Otoy on this cutting-edge adaptation from Batman: The Animated Series". He continued, "More to the point: It's super-cool, eye-popping stuff, and fans are going to love it. We can't wait for them to have the chance to see the Batcave from the show again - for the very first time."

Continue reading: Warner Bros will let you check out the Batcave through the Oculus Rift (full post)

Microsoft 'also working on an investment' in VR, a tease of Xbox VR?

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 28, 2014 1:30 AM CDT

During an interview with Japanese site AV Watch, Xbox boss Phil Spencer had some interesting things to say about Xbox, and more. There was a question thrown in about VR, which is the most interesting part of this interview.

When asked about the potential and rumored spin off of the Xbox brand from Microsoft, Spencer replied with: "Creating the appropriate tools, finding the right developers, we have gathered such a great community. With Xbox 360, our efforts were crowned by considerable success. And I'm committed to the success of Xbox One. In the past six months Xbox One has changed. We introduced to gamers the version without Kinect and broadened the choice. We will continue to update the system, and starting with Japan we're launching in new markets. The launch in Shanghai in China will happen next week, and I believe that by such changes we'll gather an even bigger audience".

Spencer also talked about VR, where he said good things about the competition in Oculus and Sony, but teased that Microsoft is working on its own VR tech for Xbox, but isn't ready to talk about it just yet. Spencer said: "The industry as a whole continues to invest in research and in new elements. New technologies invite us to explore new gaming world's. I believe that Kinect, voice and virtual reality are those key new elements. That's why I'm glad that Sony and Oculus are investing in VR. We're also working on an investment of our own, but it's not at a stage in which we can talk about it yet".

Continue reading: Microsoft 'also working on an investment' in VR, a tease of Xbox VR? (full post)

Samsung Gear VR's content will be controlled by Oculus

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 25, 2014 11:24 PM CDT

Samsung is soon to launch its Gear VR device, alongside the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, but what about the software and games that will float onto Samsung's first VR device? That will be controlled by Oculus.

First, you'll need the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, followed by (of course) the Gear VR headset itself, and finally, in order to get it all working, the software will be coming from Oculus. Oculus' vice president for Mobile told Polygon: "On Gear VR, there will be an Oculus store and that's how you'll get Gear VR applications". This means that there is no way for developers to release games through the Google Play, or other Android stores for Gear VR. Cohen added: "No. You'll need to go through Oculus storefront for mobile VR".

While this might sound strange, it gives Oculus the control to keep the quality of the content at a much higher grade. Second, it provides Oculus, and Facebook, with profits from the sales, in the same way Valve takes a cut of profits from each game sold on Steam. Cohen added: "We'll have a lot more details about this later, but it's going to be something that's very developer friendly. Our goal is to be the platform, to provide the tools that developers need, and to bring the users in," he stated. "And that it will be as painless as we can make it".

Continue reading: Samsung Gear VR's content will be controlled by Oculus (full post)

Newsletter Subscription