Extended Reality (XR) - Page 34

Today the new Valve Index VR headset was revealed, showing off hardware boosts in HMD tech, base stations, and controllers.

The new PC-powered Valve Index offers a nice performance leap over gen one HTC Vive headsets. Internal specs have been upgraded, including a panel boost to dual 1440 x 1600 resolution LCDs, up from the original Vive's 2160 x 1200 resolution. Valve has taken great efforts to reduce VR sickness by significantly reducing the headset's lighting illumination period by five-fold over previous Vive headsets, dropping it down to as low as 0.330ms and "allowing imagery to remain just as sharp when your head is in motion as when you're standing still."

The Index can maintain an explosive 144Hz frame rate, but Valve says this refresh rate is experimental and the headset will mainly run at 120Hz in newer games and 90Hz in older Vive titles.

Sony has lots of neat ideas for its PlayStation VR headset, and some of them actually sound pretty fun.

Sony helped pioneer VR gaming so its no surprise they're exploring unique avenues to the immersive platform. VR has yet to become mainstream, though. Sony's own cheaper, more accessible console-powered headset only captured 4.6% of the PS4's huge 90 million install base. But all that could change with the right kind of killer app or experience, and the games-maker could be onto something big here.

In a 2017 patent that was published this month, Sony outlined one of the most interesting use cases for VR: multiplayer gaming en masse. The patent would essentially let gamers not only watch live events like esports tournaments or big venue-based affairs, but participate in them using PSVR headsets. The HMD would essentially act as both as a virtual ticket and a viewscreen that emulates VR Chat levels of interactivity while also maintaining gaming features like a HUD. Sony could combine both spectatorship and gaming into one immersive online experience.

Nintendo's new Switch-powered VR headset will interact with some of its best-selling games.

VR is coming to the Nintendo Switch, but not in the way you think. Rather than take on competitors like Oculus or HTC with a dedicated peripheral, the Switch's VR kits are more like Google's low-cost cardboard kits. Gamers can buy Labo VR kits and assemble their own headsets and weird, wacky peripherals like a bird, an elephant trunk, and even a gun to interact with special VR games. But Nintendo isn't missing out on the golden opportunity to breathe new life into some of its best and brightest Switch games using VR.

Best-selling Switch games like Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild will have special VR compatibility with the headset. Each game plays differently in VR: Super Mario Odyssey, for example, has three special mini-games made specially for VR, whereas Breath of the Wild offers a more immersive theater mode experience.

In April, Valve's new enterprise-grade Vive Focus Plus brings high-end standalone VR to the commercial world.

The Vive Focus Plus, the beefier cousin to the Vive Focus, is a portable but potent VR HMD built specifically for industry professionals rather than consumers. The comfy all-in-one headset is powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor and doesn't need a PC to operate, and is geared towards training simulations across multiple disciplines as well as interactive virtual conferences. It's also built for developers who need a real-time platform to test out builds of their apps, projects, games and other interactive VR media.

Now Valve and HTC reveal key pricing and specs of the Vive Focus Plus, confirming new boosted fresnel optics that boost visual clarity. The HMD sports a 3K resolution (2880x1600) AMOLED display with a 75Hz frame rate and a big 110-degrees FOV. Outfitted with camera sensors, the Vive Focus Plus offers six degrees of freedom for room-scale movement tracking, making interactivity in VR spaces more fluid.

Valve's mysterious new HMD has finally been confirmed, but there's still a lot we don't know.

Today Valve put up a website for a new VR headset called Valve Index, hinting at a more powerful HMD by calling for gamers to "upgrade their experience." A nebulous May 2019 window is also mentioned, which is presumably when the Index will be revealed, but no details or specifications were revealed.

What's interesting is how the Vive brand isn't found on the headset. It appears Valve is making and shipping their own HMD and may not be teaming with HTC for this one. The headset seems to match last year's leaked prototypes, which said the Index would deliver Vive Pro's 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye (2880 x 1600 pixels combined) resolution alongside with a boosted 135-degrees FOV. The Index also sports two tracking cameras.

Ryff is moving into its stride in 2019 with a new deal inked with Perfectomundo Tequila, with Paul Oakenfold entering into a new deal between Ryff and Perfectomundo Tequila which will see tequila brand morphed into "various forms of entertainment together starting Spring of this year".

The new deal with Ryff will see the company using its technology to integrate the Perfectomundo branded tequila into movies, TV, and streaming social media. Perfectomundo will be seamlessly integrated into content by Ryff, something that the company is quickly becoming the star of. Integrating big brands like Perfectomundo and securing deals with Grammy Award nominated DJs is a big deal for Ryff, which is made up of champions from the industry from companies like AMD, NVIDIA, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks.

Paul Oakenfold commented on the deal, saying: "Ryff's' new technology is really a game-changer for Perfectomundo. I've always thought that there was a huge opportunity for brands to utilize branded entertainment to create a unique personal relationship with our customers. And now, together we will help to prove this theory".

Sony today announced it's PS4-powered PlayStation VR headset has sold over 4 million units worldwide, proving that dedicated VR is still a small market.

VR took center stage at Sony's new State of Play stream showcase, confirming the games-maker is far from done with virtual reality gaming. The company is still dedicated to providing a steady stream of interesting and varied content to engage PSVR owners and spark headset sales, including the massively anticipated No Man's Sky VR. But despite it's efforts, Sony has only sold 4.2 million PSVR headsets worldwide across the PS4's massive 90 million-strong installed base, meaning 4.6% PS4 owners actually bought a VR headset.

Patents indicate Sony plans to release a more powerful PlayStation VR headset to accompany its new next-gen PlayStation 5 system.

UPDATE: Hello Games confirms No Man's Sky Beyond will bring free VR to PC players too via Steam VR.

Hello Games wasn't kidding when they said No Man's Sky Beyond would deliver "radical new ways to explore the universe."

No Man's Sky's cyclopean new free expansion Beyond not only brings a huge overhaul to the space sim's online mode, but a feature we've wanted to see for a long, long time: VR support. During its new State of Play stream, Sony today announced that No Man's Sky Beyond will include PSVR support when it launches in Summer 2019.

Nintendo's handheld-console hybrid is getting virtual reality support...but it's not a dedicated headset. VR will be a constructive Labo kit with many transforming iterations.

Nintendo recently announced its Labo VR kits for the Switch, showing a refreshing new take on a rather niche market. Switch Labo VR kits see gamers building their own interactive toy-like peripherals including a bazooka blaster, an elephant faceplate with flexible trunk, and even a bird. JoyCons are slotted into the tough cardboard creations for motion tracking, and the Switch gets combined with a VR goggles attachment that slots into each Toy-Con creation.

Each cardboard creation is a kind of makeshift controller that has its own software, complete with 360-degree viewing and interactivity. As demonstrated in Nintendo's recent Labo VR deep dive video, the Toy-Cons do some nifty and rather goofy things to bring small slices of delight to consumers. There's a wind pedal you stomp on to jump as a frog in a puzzle game. There's a bazooka you use to shoot fruit into hippos mouths with. There's even a bird creation that has you soaring the skies.

Today at GCD 2019, Oculus announced the new Oculus Rift S virtual reality headset.

The Oculus Rift S isn't a dramatic jump over the existing Rift insofar as power, and isn't what you'd expect from a true next-gen successor. If anything the Rift S is an iterative refresh over Facebook's original HMD and serves as the new dedicated desktop-powered model. The Rift S will sit higher above the middling self-contained $199 Oculus Go in the company's VR hierarchy.

The Oculus Rift S has quality-of-life upgrades across the board including convenient Oculus Insight inside-out motion tracking built right into the headset, alleviating the need for external sensors. Using five sensors built into the HMD, Oculus Insight tracks and maps out physical environments in real-time to preserve immersion for room-scale VR experiences. The Rift S' visuals have been upgraded too.

Qualcomm will reportedly be showing off new standalone wireless VR headsets at GDC 2019 according to the latest rumors, and they will also be able to connect to your PC.

The new reference design VR headsets from Qualcomm are reportedly called Boundless XR, which is a new reference design headset that will not only offer 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) but they'll also work with your PC through a super-fast 60GHz connection, and will be powered by Qualcomm's own Snapdragon 845 processor.

Qualcomm claims that latency will be low at 16ms, and should take some of the processing heavy lifting from your PC thanks to the on-board Snapdragon 845, but we don't know how much it will offload. The PC or console that you're connecting the Qualcomm VR headset will need to support 802.11ad Wi-Fi, and run Qualcomm's own software.

Today Nintendo announces an affordable and accessible solution to VR: a mass-market Labo kit specially tailored for its Switch console.

A bit ago we reported the Switch could get VR support via its innovative-yet-simple Labo cardboard kits, and this turned out to be true. The VR "headset" isn't like PSVR or Oculus Go; instead they're lower-end Toy-Con VR Goggles that create the illusion of VR. A Switch is slotted into the cardboard kit and special software adjusts the screen for VR gaming. Internal JoyCons tracking allows users to shoot cardboard blasters at aliens and other interactive activities.

Nintendo plans to release two new kits on April 12 that allow consumers to build their own VR experience. The base Nintendo Labo: VR Kit retails for a cool $40 and includes plans to make a blaster, the Toy-Con VR Goggles, and the "headset" to hold everything in place.

Sony will begin ramping up towards its next-gen PlayStation 5 reveal later this year, which I'm sure will coincide with the reveal of a next-gen PlayStation VR 2.0 headset, but before we get to that point let's discuss the latest from Sony.

In a new interview between Game Informer and Sony Network Entertainment International's Vice President and COO, Shawn Layden, we are beginning to receive information about the next 10 years of PSVR development. In the interview, Layden says the next 10 ye ars of PSVR development will be "dramatic", comparing the evolution of VR to the adoption of smartphones.

In the beginning, smartphones were expensive and didn't really have everything we needed in smartphones but over time they evolved into the how-do-we-live-without-them situation we find ourselves in today. Layden explained: "With PSVR, what I like about it... there have been very few times in my career - and I have been working in technology since the late '80s - when you get to be part of a truly 1.0 experience. The problem is nowadays, people's expectations and [attention] spans are so short. Now it's, 'Oh! PSVR, that's great! When is it going to be this size?"

Microsoft looks to preparing for the announcement of its next-gen HoloLens headset, something the Redmond-based giant teased in a new trailer simply titled '2.24.19 #MWC19' on YouTube.

The new HoloLens is reportedly codenamed Sydney, and should be lighter, more comfortable, feature a better display and more powerful internals over the original HoloLens. Microsoft will most likely update the built-in sensors of the new HoloLens, and an updated Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) which will reportedly have AI acceleration features.

We are expecting Microsoft to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 inside of the next-gen HoloLens, replacing the Intel Atom that powered the original HoloLens. Microsoft will most likely unveil its new HoloLens headset during Mobile World Congress 2019, on February 24 specifically. Until then.

Oculus might have its all-in-one Quest headset coming in Spring 2019 for $399 on the way, but now rumors are starting back up about the next-gen Rift, something that will reportedly be called "Rift S".

The news is coming from Upload VR that said it found new filenames in Oculus' PC application that teases Rift S, with the outlet saying they found the Rift S mentions in the UI code. These mention tease that the purported Oculus Rift S headset would feature built-in cameras, removing the need for external cameras that take up additional USB ports and power.

TechCrunch reported last November that the Rift S name was a possibility, and that it would roll out with inside-out tracking. The built-in cameras would allow Rift S owners to walk around in an environment without the external accessories and setup required, with a bunch of VR accessories that are in development rolling out with inside-out tracking support as it makes it much easier to get into the VR world either at home, work, or on-the-go if you take Rift S with you.

Sony's PlayStation VR continues pushing consumer interest in virtual reality and sparks sales in 2018's holiday quarter.

The PS4-powered PlayStation VR headset helped push 2018's total virtual reality revenues up to $3.6 billion, according to figures from analyst firm SuperData. The data clearly shows that consumers favor lower-cost hardware that's more accessible than enthusiast PC-powered models. In 2018's holiday quarter, Sony's VR HMD sold 700,000 units worldwide, followed by the wireless $199 Oculus Go with 555,000 sales. More demanding VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive sold 160,000 and 130,000 units respectively.

The PlayStation 4's staggering 91.6 million install base is a major factor in PSVR adoption and serves as a widespread foundation; so many people already own a PS4 that buying into the VR ecosystem is made much easier and less expensive than the Rift's of Vive's total PC-and-headset cost. Of course Black Friday sales also helped push PSVR adoption.

Facebook has dropped its PC-powered VR headset permanently down to $349 across all regions.

The Oculus Rift is now just a fraction of its original cost, hinting big things are to come from the VR giant. The Rift and two Touch controllers can now be had for $349 across retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, representing a mighty 41% price drop from the Rift's $599 debut in 2016.

This new reduction makes sense from a business perspective. The Rift is the company's core dedicated PC-based headset and soon will be joined by an all-in-one standalone HMD, the Oculus Quest. This diversification allows for more options and accessibility for consumers, widening VR's overall reach.

CES 2019 - In conjunction with a ton of other VR announcements, HTC today revealed a new eye-tracking variant of its $799 Vive Pro virtual reality headset.

Unlike the Vive Pro, the Vive Pro Eye isn't really made for consumers or enthusiast VR gaming experiences. Instead HTC hopes businesses in the enterprise sector will leverage the headset's built-in eye tracking technology for research and development and training scenarios. That doesn't mean it can't be used for VR gaming and apps, of course, and we could see some nifty interactive content roll out thanks to the Pro Eye. The new eye tracking headset is PC-powered and features the same specs as the Vive Pro (90Hz refresh rate, 1440 x 1600 resolution dual AMOLED panels) with the added bonus of eye-tracking sensors.

"Vive Pro Eye is targeted at the enterprise market where eye tracking has a number of immediate benefits-from performance, to accessibility, to improvements in training applications," HTC wrote in an official press release. "It will also benefit developers by minimizing computing resources needed to render high-end VR environments."

CES 2019 - HTC's new Cosmos VR headset can be powered by both a PC and mobile handset.

Meet VIVE Cosmos, VR made for everyone. Easy setup. Comfortable design. Modular capabilities. VIVE Cosmos goes beyond everything you could want in one device.

Today HTC announced its latest VR HMD called Cosmos, an interesting headset aimed at accessibility and comfort. The device looks like a mini Vive Pro and features inside-out tracking, but it's main selling point is a kind of expansive modularity. The Cosmos is primarily a dedicated headset for PC VR experiences and tethers to a desktop or laptop, but a smartphone can apparently be hooked up to it for on-the-go or mobile use (although Vive has yet to detail this feature). This could mean the Cosmos has varying power and perf, similar to a Nintendo Switch's docked vs undocked performance discrepancy.

CES 2019 - HTC's new Viveport Infinity subscription will serve up over 500 apps and games across Vive and other VR headsets, the company today announced.

HTC described Viveport Infinity as the Netflix of VR, but we think of it more like Microsoft's GamePass subscription. The service will give gamers access to over 500 VR-ready bits of content across a wide spectrum of interactive genres, including games, shows, movies, and apps. Interestingly enough, the service supports headset families like Vive, Rift, and other partnered headsets across various vendors.

"It's very similar to Netflix of VR. You have access to over 500 apps including popular games, indies, education, and entertainment," HTC said during its live stream at CES 2019, as per Road to VR. "It's the best value in VR. If you bought 50 apps, it would be $1,000. This let's you access 500 for a fraction of the cost."