Extended Reality (XR) - Page 30

Facebook cannot seem to shut off its leaky faucet. A day after Facebook itself outed the details of Quest 2. someone shared some pictures of the box, which give us even more information about the unreleased VR headset and the games that will launch with it.

The first Facebook Connect event is scheduled for September 16, which is undoubtedly when the company planned to reveal the Oculus Quest 2 standalone headset. Yesterday, Facebook mistakenly published a series of tutorial videos for the new headset, which outed many details, the hardware specifications, form factor, and color. Today, we got pictures of what is presumably the retail box, which in turn outed what comes in the package. The packaging also shows images of two games that we have never seen before.

Earlier today, Reddit user u/charliefrench2oo8, who moderates the r/OculusQuest subreddit, shared images of what they claim is the box from a Quest 2 he found for sale on Craigslist. The headset was reportedly sold before they reached out to the seller, so they could not purchase it or get additional pictures. The two photographs that do exist give us some interesting information, though.

Someone at Facebook is having a bad day today. The cat is out of the bag now. The official announcement for the Oculus Quest 2 headset leaked, on a Facebook website no less. It seems someone was preparing for the Facebook Connect event and accidentally published the reveal videos.

According to UploadVR, the videos surfaced on Facebook's Blueprint website. Facebook had since pulled the page, but not before multiple Youtubers reuploaded the clips.

It's no secret that a new Quest is on the way. Details about the new device have been leaking out of Facebook for months now, including images and production numbers. We now have the details, and they are honestly a bit shocking.

Tactical Haptics recently revealed its Multi-Pose magnet sockets for Oculus Touch controllers, which allow you to change the form factor of your controllers on-the-fly. The magnetic attachments can form several controller configurations.

Tactical Haptics first showed off its modular Multi-Pose magnet socket system at Augmented World Expo in 2019. The technology was bundled in with the company's Reactive Grip Motion Controller, which simulate haptic feedback with shear forces. The company has since separated the two ideas into two separate products. They created a new controller called the SaberGrip, which we already wrote about. They made a consumer-friendly version of the Multi-Pose magnet system that works with Oculus Touch controllers.

The Multi-Pose magnet socket is a sleeve that fits over the Touch controllers to add magnetic attachment points that couple your controllers together in various poses. Each sleeve includes five magnet points positioned at different angles. The design allows for machine gun, shotgun, and rifle configurations and handlebar and gamepad setup.

Tactical Haptics recently revealed the SaberGrip controller, which amplifies VR simulations' immersion with realistic force feedback. The controllers utilize sheer forces to simulate any handle sensation.

Tactical Haptics' SaberGrip is a cylindrical controller that looks somewhat like the hilt of a sword. The device comes in two models: a single-handed option and a two-handed option. Each controller includes a trigger and a single button for interacting with menus or triggering a weapon or tool. Additionally, each controller features two plates on the handgrip that trigger the shear force sensation.

The SaberGrip controllers utilize shear forces to simulate the sensation of interacting with a handle-based tool or weapon. The controllers feature moveable plates on each side on the handle, which move in opposing directions to simulate the flex and vibration you would feel in your hand while manipulating objects. The shear force plates can replicate a sword's weight in your hand while you swing it through the air, or the kickback you would get when you fire a nail into a board from a nail gun.

Have you ever wanted to build your own VR headset? Well, you can now with Relativty's open-source plans. And it will only cost you $200 and a bit of your time.

The Relativty open-source VR headset is the brainchild of Max Coutte and Gabriel Combe; two friends who wanted to develop VR games but didn't have the money a VR headset. Coutte and Combe said they started development on the headset when a few years ago when they were 15. Now the pair are releasing their plans for anyone interested in building one for themselves.

"It still feels a little surreal for us that we did exactly what we wanted since middle school: to build our own VR headset, play with it, experiment with it, and surround ourselves with other VR enthusiasts," wrote Coutte in his announcement post on Producthunt.com.

On September 9, a benchmark score was submitted to Geekbench which may point to an unannounced standalone Vive headset. The posted score, first reported by TechGenyz, suggested a new Vive Focus with better internals is on the way.

The Geekbench 5 results in question list a headset called HTC Vive Focus (XR2), which basically reveals the device's specifications. The result page pegs the process as an 8-core ARM Qualcomm running at 1.8GHz. It also indicates 5.5GB of memory, which is likely 6GB with 500MB reserved for the system.

This information seems to indicate that HTC could be preparing to launch another standalone Vive Focus headset with modern internals. The Vive Focus and Focus Plus headsets never made their way to consumers, but they had some traction in the commercial VR market in the location-based entertainment and enterprise markets. Vive could use a Quest competitor in its lineup, especially with a new Quest seemingly right around the corner. An XR2 powered Focus headset could do the trick.

Ubisoft wants to teach you the definition of insanity all over again, but this time the experience will be much more immersive. Ubisoft partnered with Zero Latency to bring the Far Cry franchise to VR arcades.

"Have I ever told you the definition of insanity?" It's not doing the same thing over and over again; it's doing it over again, but this time in VR. Ubisoft today revealed Far Cry VR: Dive into Insanity, an 8-player VR arcade experience that will take you back to Far Cry 3's Rock Island, home of Vaas Montenegro.

Ubisoft announced the game with a 1-minute trailer that doesn't tell us a much, but it does paint a picture of what you should expect from the experience. The trailer opens up with good old Vaas asking his signature question, so we presume you'll come face to face with him at some point.

Apple's next flagship iPhone will reportedly incorporate the same Lidar technology that Apple debuted in the 2020 iPad Pro. If that is true, we should see awe-inspiring AR capabilities out of the next iPhone.

According to Fast Company, Apple's upcoming flagship phone, the iPhone 12 Pro, will feature the same Lidar technology that the iPad Pro currently offers, which gives the tablet enormous advantages for developing augmented reality experiences.

A Lidar system is an advanced depth perception camera that uses a "direct-time-of-flight" calculation to determine distances at the speed of light. The Lidar system's accuracy on the current iPad Pro enables it to produce incredibly realistic augmented reality experiences that genuinely blend in with reality.

Another Reality, the developer behind the popular VR title Gorn, revealed that the game would be coming to the Oculus Quest standalone VR system. Don't get too excited, though, because the developer is not even speculating about a release date.

Gorn was an early title on PCVR. It hit Steam in early access in July 2017, shortly after the original Rift and Vive launches. It took the developers a couple of years to complete the game, but Gorn left early access in July 2019.

Another Reality was keen to let us know the game is in the works, but the company is unwilling to give us an idea of its release timeline. That may be because the company wants to avoid upsetting people if the game gets delayed. A PSVR version of Gorn was scheduled for release in 2019, but the game's development took longer than expected. Gorn eventually hit PSVR in May this year.

The RealMax Qian augmented reality headset is looking even more impressive now that we know the device's specifications. Not only does it boast a wider field of view than other AR headsets, but it can also convert into a VR device with SteamVR support.

Last week we discovered a video of the RealMax Qian AR headset that showed the headset's 119-degree wide field of view display in action. Today, RealMax revealed the device's general specifications, and now we're even more intrigued about this headset.

RealMax said the Qian would be powered by a Snapdragon 835, would include 4GB of memory and would offer 64GB of storage space, which are the same specifications as the Oculus Quest VR headset. Snapdragon 835 isn't the most recent Qualcomm hardware, but it should handle an AR headset with ease if it can power the Quest. Although the headset also doubles as a VR headset by slipping on a magnetic faceplate, we expect to see comparable VR performance from RealMax's headset.

Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is now available to anyone, not just enterprise companies. You can order the mixed reality headset from the Microsoft Store in quantities as low as one.

Microsoft is finally making the HoloLens 2 headset available to anyone with the means to pay for it. Until now, the device was only available to select customers, and those customers were limited to the largest companies in the world.

HoloLens 2 may be available to consumers now, but we don't expect many people actually to buy one. Microsoft's Mixed Reality technology is awe-inspiring, but it's also quite costly. One of these devices will set you back a staggering $3500.

Mojang just announced that PSVR support is coming to Minecraft, and you won't have to wait for long for the update. It's supposed to be out before the end of the month.

The upcoming Minecraft PSVR patch is a free update for all PlayStation 4 Minecraft owners. Of course, you will need a PSVR headset to enjoy the new way to play the game.

Mojang said that the update would convert the entire game into a VR experience. It's is not just a limited demo like some PSVR titles. As Mojang put it, this is the "100% wholesome full-fat Minecraft" you've known for years.

It appears the Oculus Quest may be discontinued as we lead up to the rumoured reveal of a new replacement model at Facebook Connect this month. The Quest is sold out at most major retailers, and some of them have begun delisting the product. It's even sold out on Oculus.com.

In a search at some of the largest Oculus resellers, we could not find a 64GB or 128GB Quest headset in stock. Best Buy lists it as "Out of Stock." The Quest is no longer sold directly through Walmart, but you can find inflated prices from third party scalpers on Walmart.com. Oculus's Amazon page no longer lists a buy button for the Quest. And B&H Photo has the Quest marked as "back-ordered." UploadVR also confirmed with a UK retailer that the Quest is marked as End of Life and won't be restocked.

The rumours of a new Quest headset have been swirling for months now. The first hint of an incoming Oculus headset was first discovered in March when the Oculus Developer website mentioned a mysterious device codenamed Del Mar. Still, that tidbit of information was just the beginning.

NVIDIA this week revealed the GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics card lineup, and you may have noticed that none of the cards include a USB-C port for VirtualLink support. It turns out that's because the VirtualLink project is dead. Sadly, it never even got off the ground.

The VirtualLink connection was meant to be a revolutionary advancement in VR headset connectivity. It was supposed to be a single USB-C connection, which would deliver the video, audio, USB, and power signals from your computer to your VR headset in a single cable.

The specifications for the VirtualLink connection were established by the VirtualLink consortium, which comprised some of the VR industry's biggest and most important players. Both NVIDIA and AMD were onboard, was were HTC, Oculus, Valve and Microsoft. With that kind of backing, VirtualLink appeared to have a lot of promise when it was announced in 2018.

Vuzix Corporation isn't well known in the consumer market, but it has been a leading name in the enterprise wearable space for years. That's all about to change, though. Vuzix plans to launch a pair of designer smart glasses next year.

Vuzix revealed that it's currently working on its next smart glasses platform, including products that range from a "reasonably priced" consumer-friendly model to higher-end enterprise-focused products.

Vuzix said that its upcoming smart glasses would employ binocular micro-LED displays with waveguide optics to project the virtual image into the user's view. Vuzix didn't give specifics, but it said the new headsets would offer a wider field of view than previous Vuzix smart glasses models.

NVIDIA's RTX 30 Series launch was chock full of exciting details, but you may have noticed one topic that was completely absent from Tuesday's announcement; Jensen Huang didn't say a single thing about virtual reality. But don't worry, RTX 30 series does indeed come with VR advancements; they just weren't center stage.

Following the RTX 30 series launch, NVIDIA hostedQ and A session on Reddit. A handful of company representatives attempted to answer the community's questions about the upcoming graphics cards. One of the questions that came up queried NVIDIA about advancements we might expect from DLSS.

While we won't be seeing a DLSS 3.0 any time soon, NVIDIA released version 2.1 of the DLSS SDK, which includes support for the 8K "ultra-performance mode" on RTX 3090 cards. What NVIDIA didn't say during the launch event is that DLSS 2.1 also brings support for the advanced supersampling technique in VR titles.

Pimax is quite a bit behind schedule in doling out its stretch goal rewards to its Kickstarter backers. People who put money down for a Pimax 5K or Pimax 8K headset in late 2017 are still waiting for their promised accessories, but it looks like the wait is almost over. Pimax's September progress update revealed that stretch goal boxes are going out in the coming weeks.

In the fall of 2017, Pimax launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the development of the company's 5K and 8K ultrawide VR headsets. The fundraiser was such a success that it brought in more than $4 million for Pimax. As part of the campaign incentives, Pimax offered a handful of stretch goals that would give backers additional value if the fundraiser reached certain milestones.

Pimax's stretch goals included several value-adds, including an extra face cushion, a mechanical head strap with built-in headphones, a prescription lens frame, cooling fans, a $100 coupon towards a future wireless kit, three pieces of content, and an eye-tracking module. Once Pimax secured $3 million, it promised to deliver all of these extras to all backers who bought a headset.

It seems Facebook may have ruffled the feathers of the German authorities due to its shift to requiring Facebook accounts for Oculus products. While the company works out an agreement, it has temporarily halted sales in Germany. A German tech news website called Heise.de was the first to break the news.

We reached out to Facebook for comment. A company spokesperson confirmed that it was a proactive measure and provided the following statement:

RealMax is preparing a very ambitious AR device. The company hasn't made an official announcement, but it started showing off previews of what the upcoming RealMax Qian can do.

According to RealMax, the Qian AR headset offers a 119.3-degree field of view, which is outrageous for an AR device. To put that into perspective, Microsoft's HoloLens 2 gives you a 52-degree viewport to see holographic content. The RealMax Qian gives you a broader view of the virtual world than most VR headsets.

We don't know much about the RealMax Qian other than the field of view. The company has not revealed any headset images, nor has it talked about the hardware specifications. We wouldn't expect to see the hardware on the market any time soon, though.

Infinite Productions today released an open-source tool that measures the field of view of VR headsets and compares the readability of text in each. The utility doesn't have a name, but it captures each test's results and saves them in a comparison database.

Jan Horsky, one of the co-founders of Infinite Productions, took it upon himself to build this tool. He said his goal is the build a crowd-sourced database of FOV and readability results. In a tweet about the utility, Horsky noted that he was inspired to build this measurement tool because he felt the existing measurement tools were not accurate. He left his source code open so that the community could amend his work if he turns out faulty.

Horsky is looking for more people to test out his utility to strengthen the database. The more results received, the stronger that database will get.