Extended Reality (XR) - Page 36

Leap Motion has teased the future of human-computer interfaces with their new Project North Star, a prototype headset that some of the virtual world, overlayed in the real one.

North Star is a full augmented reality platform that Leap Motion says "allows us to chart and sail the waters of a new world, where the digital and physical substrates exist as a single fluid experience. The first step of this endeavor was to create a system with the technical specifications of a pair of augmented glasses from the future. This meant our prototype had to far exceed the state of the art in resolution, field-of-view, and framerate".

Inside, North Star rocks two low-persistence 1600x1440 displays at 120FPS with a huge 100-degree field of view. Leap Motion includes a "world-class" 180-degree hand tracking sensor that is "a system unlike anything anyone had seen before".

The Vive VR headset will turn two years old on April 5, and HTC is celebrating with a batch of free VR games.

Having played VR quite a bit on my Vive headset I notice that there's a third cost barrier outside of the PC gaming hardware and headset cost: the cost of the games themselves. Most VR games are about $20-30 a pop and offer limited, smaller-slice interactive experiences. Which is actually fine in terms of content, but the content-price ratio doesn't exactly match up sometimes. So I try to snag up any free games I can when I can.

If you're like me, then you're in luck: the Vive team is giving out $50 in free games from April 5-8 on its Viveport platform, as per an official Vive blog post. The games themselves don't look amazing, but if done right any VR game can be fun.

HTC has bowed to tons of feedback and will offer an Vive Pro bundle that includes sensors and controllers for $1099.

In a recent blog post, Vive General Manager Dan O'Brien confirmed the Vive Pro was essentially meant to be an upgrade for existing Vive owners rather than an entry-level option for new buyers, and that's why the company initially offered the $799 headset-only SKU.

Following a big hubbub over the $800 headset's pricing without the extra peripherals needed to actually make it work, the company will sell a Vive Pro Starter Kit for $1099. For comparison's sake the original HTC Vive launched in 2016 for $799 but included two controllers and lighthouse sensors for room-scale VR. The main selling point of the Vive Pro is its upgraded 1440 x 1600 resolution alongside built-in audio, the latter of which is missing with the original headset.

Sony has shaved off $100 from its PlayStation VR starter bundle.

The PlayStation VR bundles have gone through lots of iterations through the years, but now might be the best time to pick one up if you're in the market. The base PSVR bundle, which includes a headset, PS Camera, a demo disc and a copy of the DOOM VFR game, has been discounted to $299 (notice the lack of PS Move controllers). If you want a more complete PS4-powered VR experience then Sony's bigger $349 bundle is for you: it includes a headset, a PS Camera, 2x PS Move controllers, and Skyrim VR to boot. The latter of which is a pretty big deal--Bethesda packed the full Skyrim experience into a VR experience.

But this permanent $100 discount could indicate Sony is readying a new PlayStation VR headset--the same way HTC lowered the cost of the Vive VR while announcing the more advanced Vive Pro. We know that Sony has patented new advanced VR controller technology that should accompany a refreshed PSVR headset, which should in turn roll out alongside the company's next-generation PlayStation system.

At $799, the Vive Pro isn't going to be cheap (and it doesn't come with lighthouse stations or controller wands).

HTC today announced the new-and-improved Vive Pro headset will launch on April 5 for $799, and pre-orders for the VR HMD are now live. The Vive Pro marks the successor to 2016's HTC Vive, and features upgraded 2880x1600 resolution in its dual OLED panels, built-in headphones, dual front-facing cameras, as well as DisplayPort 1.2 and USB Type-C connectivity.

The $799 Vive Pro purchase actually doesn't come with controllers or lighthouse sensors for room-scale VR or the new wireless adapter--only the headset. "Includes headset, cleaning cloth, link box, power adapter, DisplayPort™ cable, USB 3.0 cable, mounting pad, user guide, safety guide and warranty card," as per the HTC Vive website.

In a move that shouldn't surprise anyone, Bethesda Softworks today announced Skyrim will soon be playable on an HTC Vive headset.

"Last November, Bethesda Game Studios took their epic fantasy masterpiece to the exciting new frontier of virtual reality with the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR on PlayStation VR. Now, Skyrim VR comes to a new platform - PC using SteamVR - on April 3," the dev wrote on a Bethesda.net blog post. Naturally Skryim VR is priced as a full AAA game at $59.99 (how many times has Skyrim been re-released since 2012? We've lost count now...)

That Skyrim VR even came to PSVR in the first place pretty much told everyone it'll come to at least the Vive, and probably not the Rift considering the company's stance on the headset. Bethesda's re-release approach with Skyrim: Special Edition and the new Creation Club mod storefront see the devs branching out even more, and it shouldn't be surprising that their VR ports will come to more than a single platform.

It looks like VR displays about to leap into the future, with a new report from Android Police that Google and LG will be unveiling a totally next generation VR display at the Display Week 2018 trade show in late May.

A new advanced program for the expo has been released, teasing that Google will have a presentation that will detail new "18 Mpixel 4.3-in. 1443-ppi 120-Hz OLED Display for Wide-Field-of-View High-Acuity Head-Mounted Displays". First off, we have a huge 18-megapixel display with a whopping 1443 PPI, OLED panel, and huge 120Hz display. OMG, I'm gushing.

Android Police says that with a display size of 4.3 inches and huge 1443 PPI, we should expect the resolution of the OLED display to reach somewhere around 5500 x 3000, which is absolutely mammoth. Mix in the 5500 x 3000 resolution with the super-fast 120Hz refresh rate and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp graphics cards that cost $1200 each will be needed in SLI.

Qualcomm has announced a new reference design for a Snapdragon 845-powered VR headset, with the new mobile Snapdragon 845 system architecture boasting the bleeding edge tech that Qualcomm has.

The new Snapdragon 845 VR headset packs two displays that are pumping out 1024 x 1152 at a huge 120FPS, which makes Qualcomm the first to market with an SoC-powered VR headset at 120FPS, right? Comparing Qualcomm's mobile VR offering, the HTC Vive Pro packs a higher-res 1400x1600 per eye display, but at 90Hz.

Inside is the Snapdragon 845 which packs an 8-core Kryo 385 CPU, Adreno 630 graphics, dedicated Hexagon digital signal processor (DSP), Spectra 280 image signal processors (ISP) and even 3D audio support. Qualcomm says that with this mobile VR powerhouse we can expect it to drive 4 million pixels per eye.

Hidden Path Entertainment, an American game developer has launched a completely free-to-play version of its upcoming VR real-time-strategy game.

The game titled Brass Tactics Arena will be offering infinite access to online play as well as co-op and a single player experience. Think of this free-to-play version as a demo of the full game, it is merely just a taste of what you could have if you decide to purchase the full version.

Players will be glad to know upon downloading the 'demo' they will have access to six hours of the single-player campaign as well as access to three game-play modes and finally a whole 20 maps to play on. Check the below images if you want to see some screenshots from the game.

eBay has announced that this year they will be bringing augmented reality to their website, the company is currently in development of an AR tool kit.

According to a Fortune Report, eBay will be working towards bringing AR to the consumer market as an assistant when buying items. An example of this would be if a buyer wanted to see how an item would look or fit such as a new set of tires on a car, they would be able to project that image in the desired space before purchasing.

Another addition that eBay are working on is the same principal as the tires but instead from the sellers point of view. Sellers will be able to view what packaging and box size they need to ship their specific item, this will be done by AR appearing over the item of sale until the correct size of packaging is chosen.

Magic Leap is going on a semi-marketing campaign (but probably not) on its upcoming Magic Leap One headsets, with the elusive startup teasing multiple editions of their AR glasses for different levels of consumers and professionals.

According to Magic Leap boss Rony Abovitz, the cheapest Magic Leap headset will have a starting price of a "higher-end mobile phone to higher-end tablet". He continued, saying "I think we're trying to establish certain tiers - we're not going to be a single-product company over time".

Abovitz said that the Magic Leap One "creators edition" headset will be coming out this year, will be somewhere in the middle of Magic Leap's price range. Abovitz continued "We will have a product line in that price point probably for the company's history, and we'll probably have some above and we'll have some below. We'll have even higher-end [versions] for hyper-pro, and then we'll have wide mass-market" products".

Magic Leap wants to change the world with their next-generation Magic Leap One headset, with the Florida-based start up teaming with the NBA and Turner Sports to stream NBA games through an app that will be available to Magic Leap One "Creator Edition" owners.

The experience sounds very much like a VR-type of experience, with Magic Leap One owners getting to see and feel how it would be with courtside seats at an NBA game. NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained: "Before we got involved with Magic Leap the goal was to replicate the courtside experience". Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz teased: "It takes everything you love about normal television and amplifies it".

Abovitz continued, where he said "Imagine being able to conjure up, four, six or eight screens. You're seeing all of that in stats and data. Let's say this amazing moment and there's a twirl dunk that smashes the backboard and all of a sudden that shows up". Now how the hell could you say no to that?!

Sony has filed new patents for upgraded motion controllers, likely for its PlayStation VR headset.

The PlayStation Move controllers that Sony currently uses for its console-powered PlayStation VR headset are years old and are due for an update. Apparently Sony agrees, and has filed patents for new controllers that are quite similar to the Oculus Touch controllers used by the Rift headset.

The new PS Move (might be called something else) iteration sees a joystick added on, and a kind of knuckle strap that's seen on HTC's next-gen "Vive Knuckles" prototype controller for the Vive headset. The most interesting thing, though, is how the patent says the controllers will be tracked by the headset itself--not the PlayStation Camera sensor--which strongly indicates a new PS VR headset is in the works.

At CES 2018, HTC announced its new Vive Pro headset, which bumps the resolution of the VR peripheral along with a few other nifty features. But will gamers need a beefier rig to support it? Not technically, but it might be a good idea to look at upgrades regardless.

Although the Vive Pro will actually retain the same minimum PC spec requirements as the Vive (GTX 970 or R9 290, 8GB of RAM, Intel i5-4590, etc), you probably shouldn't try to skate by with the bare minimum--especially with bigger studios like Bethesda porting over Fallout 4 and Doom to the platform. Sure you'd be able to functionally run the game, but there's no guarantee of good performance, and any kind of stutters or hitches can seriously break the immersion.

Interestingly enough an HTC rep says the recommended specs for the Vive Pro haven't been set in stone yet. In fact the PC requirements for the new headset are likely to shift above the classic model, but the minimum specs will stay the same. "We have a minimum spec and a recommended spec, we haven't revealed recommended yet but those are two different things," senior HTC VR marketing manager J.B. McRee told Upload VR in a recent interview.

CES 2018 - I don't think I know a person that wouldn't at least like to try out seeing a concert or sports game in VR, which is something NextVR is advancing in leaps and bounds.

NextVR wants to bring concerts and sports games to VR, where it has just unveiled a new six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) movement to their on-demand VR services. This means that if a player or referee is in the way of something specific you want to see in a game, you can just lean to the sides to see what's going on.

You don't even need a VR headset for some of NextVR's tricks, with the company preparing a new augmented reality feature that will deliver content to your smartphone, and have it play out in your environment. This won't be coming until later in the year, but it will have NextVR on many more devices when it happens.

The recent adoption of VR headsets is being taken quite healthily by the gaming community, as we move into the new year Sony wants to reward those that purchased their PlayStation VR with a wider choice of games, in fact they expect "over 280" titles by the end of the year.

Reported by Nikkei, Sony expects to bring much more titles to the VR library, by the end of 2018 the company wants to hit "over 280" titles. As we are experiencing the bleed-in effect for VR into the gaming community we can expect some of these games will not be as amazing as something like Resident Evil 7 or Skyrim in VR, as developers are still trying to flesh out ideas that utilize the full VR experience.

While some games might be a little disappointing this isn't going to stop Sony's updates to the PSVR software, the headset and the VR experience is only going to get better with time, so by the end of 2018 I'm sure we will see some massive improvements in not only the games coming to PSVR but also to VR experience as a whole.

CES 2018 - HTC announced their higher-res Vive Pro headset at CES this year, but also announced their own wireless adapter for the current-gen Vive, making the wired VR experience wireless.

HTC's own adapter is powered by Intel's WiGig technology, which lives on a huge 60Hz band, which aims for the lowest latency and interference right now. HTC won't be releasing this new wireless VR adapter for the Vive until the summer, and they haven't shared a price on it just yet either.

We don't know about battery life with the wireless adapter, but anything over an hour or two would be impressive. TPCast has their own wireless Vive adapter and sell it for $299 without around two hours of battery life, just for comparison.

CES 2018 - Facebook was on the stage during Qualcomm's CES 2018 press conference, announcing that the new Oculus Go, a standalone VR headset that is powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor, and built by Chinese giant Xiaomi.

Hugo Barra, Facebook VR boss who used to work for Xiaomi, announced that Xiaomi is Oculus' hardware partner for the new Oculus Go VR headset. Xiaomi is also forging ahead on its own Mi VR Standalone headset specifically for the Chinese market, powered by the same internals as the Oculus Go, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821.

There aren't any more specifics on the Oculus Go just yet, but we should have pricing and more details in the coming weeks.

CES 2018 - HTC were rumored to unveil their new Vive Pro headset at CES, and here we are - with the new Vive Pro aimed at fixing some of the problems that the first-gen Vive headset had.

HTC has bumped the resolution of the dual-OLED panels in the new Vive Pro to 2880x1600 (1400x1600 per eye, and 615PPI) which is a huge 78% increase from the 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye) of the first Vive. The increased resolution will make text clearer and visuals pop, with HTC now the leader in VR headset resolutions against Oculus and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

Next up, HTC included something I've wanted since using the retail Oculus Rift: a redesigned headstrap and built-in headphones. The Vive Pro features a headset that has a sizing dial that lets you balance the headset so that it doesn't feel like it's top heavy at the front.

It appears HTC is teasing a new re-vamped version of its Vive virtual reality headset ahead of the bit Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Despite not really taking off as a majorly accessible gaming device, the Vive (and the Oculus Rift for that matter) aren't going anywhere any time soon. VR is here to stay, even if it's still not fully matured as a big part of the games and interactive industry, and now the Vive-makers at HTC have pretty much said a new headset is on the way.

In an extremely well-timed Tweet, HTC made a pun regarding New Year's resolutions with a Vive graphic thrown in for good measure. This pretty much leads us to believe that a new headset is on the way with expanded resolution. This could be the new next-generation Vive headset people have been talking about for a while, or it could be a refresh that pushes the OLED panel resolution past the 2160 x 1200 of the original.