Extended Reality (XR) - Page 40

NVIDIA has been pushing its GeForce technology into the VR world since Oculus and HTC headsets were in development stages, and now Jason Paul - the General Manager for VR Strategy at NVIDIA has said some interesting things about the future of VR tech.

Paul was interviewed by UploadVR during GTC 2017, where he talked about his estimated roadmap for VR headsets, and how their resolutions would improve. Paul said: "I actually sat down and did the math one time. Based off how many pixels we would need to be able to push and mapping that out alongside our upcoming new GPU releases, it would take us about 20 years to achieve resolutions that can match the human eye".

Sight is a "highly difference sense" says Paul, with our eyes detecting "even the smallest inconstancies in its perceptions" adds UploadVR. In order for VR to reach a resolution where our eyes wouldn't be able to tell the difference between reality and virtual reality - taking away the weight of the headset, etc - it would take GPU development another 20 years to get there.

HTC has been ahead of Oculus with room-scale VR since it launched the Vive, but now Oculus are stepping it up with the Rift and will "fully support" room-scale VR, something that requires 3 sensors in total.

Oculus announced the news on their community forum, something that is already in pre-release testing, and is available in the Public Test Channel of the Oculus software. What's different with the new room-scale Rift goodness, is that you'll need 3 sensors compared to the 2 that are required for Oculus Touch, while the Oculus Rift itself includes a single sensor in the box.

Oculus software has "fully supported" three-sensor Rift setups, but it has been in 'experimental' form with v1.14 of the Oculus software, with a few users reporting issues with tracking and calibration. The new v1.15 software will "fully support three-sensor configurations for larger room-scale setups", while Valve has updated the setup wizard for three-sensor configurations "based on the latest data".

With the PC hardware market changing nearly daily, it's refreshing to hear that HTC won't be releasing another Vive headset in a rush, with HTC Vive General Manager Daniel O'Brien fielding some questions about Vive 2 recently.

During an interview with Digital Trends, O'Brien said: "We're always continuing to listen to developers, what they think is the most beneficial next-generation improvements and that's how we're solving the next headset and when that will come to market". He continued: "It's not about picking a production cycle and timeline, it's about bringing really meaningful innovation that helps the developer community to create compelling new experiences".

HTC was talking about improving and upgrading the first-gen Vive, where O'Brien said that the lighter cable made the Vive a "more comfortable mid-generation" change and that there's "no harm in us doing that". O'Brien added that: "When it comes to major jumps like resolution, that's new-new products".

If you've read any of my recent Halo articles, you know I'm not a fan of 343 Industries--I personally believe they are butchering the franchise--but it appears the company might get a chance to redeem itself with shifts in management.

Dan Ayoub, who's been involved with the Halo universe for over 7 years, has left the series--and 343 Industries--behind to work on Microsoft's Mixed Reality initiatives. Ayoub's presence with Halo started back in 2010 with his role as executive producer of Halo: Reach, and then took the title of 343 Industries Studio Head of External Development for almost three years. Ayoub's departure marks the second high-ranking exec to leave the company this year, with ex-Chief Operating Officer Matt McCloskey leaving back in January.

"Today we're sad to be saying bon voyage to one of our own, as Dan Ayoub - who's worked on Halo games since Halo: Reach all the way back in 2009, bids us, and the gaming industry, a fond adieu. Dan is set to begin a new adventure within Microsoft in Mixed Reality, where he'll be pursuing one of his passions...the empowerment of education through technology. Although Dan will be staying in the Microsoft family, and won't be heading too far, our 343 family will miss his wit, wisdom and effort throughout the years. But Halo Wars 2 and its forthcoming DLC are in the safe hands of Dan's team, with some wonderful DLC and other surprises still to come," 343i said in an official blog post.

GTC 17 - NVIDIA is always showing off incredible new technology at its own GPU Technology Conference, and this year is no different with a new system shown off that is capable of driving multiple VR headsets at once.

It's just a proof of concept right now, with the system running 4 x NVIDIA Quadro P6000 graphics cards on 4 x virtual machines, all on HTC's Lighthouse tracking system. The 4 x Quadro P6000 graphics cards feed their GPU horsepower into HTC's Vive Business Edition headsets, making it perfect for professional multi-user VR systems in amusement parks, cinemas, and arcades.

Tom Kaye, Senior Architect at NVIDIA explains: "The possibilities are endless. With the addition of remote management and reliability features, such as multiple templates, clone on boot and remote rebuilds, we could see system builders working to create a robust, ready-to-deploy multi-user VR appliance".

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was effectively booted out of the real-world of Oculus not too long ago, and the billionaire VR startup founder is now parading around in Japan in a bikini... yeah, I know.

Luckey was in Japan for the spinoff from Anime convention Machi Asobi that has morphed into a VR festival, where he was hanging out with his girlfriend and spotted by eager fans. Luckey was dressed as Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which The Verge reports that the character like to wear a bikini because "she breaths through her skin".

Just over a year after opening, Oculus is closing down its Oculus Story Studio - the film division of the VR company. Jason Rubin, Facebook's VP of Content, announced the news in a blog post.

Rubin said that Oculus has "decided to shift [its] focus away from internal content creation to support more external production", adding that the company will continue funding third-party filmmakers' VR projects instead. The company promised $250 million to developers, and will now dosh out $50 million for non-gaming VR experiences.

Oculus Story Studio made some great VR content in its short life, with Henry winning an Emmy for outstanding Original Interactive Program - something both my young daughters positively loved. Oculus will continue to pump out "video tutorials, production and distribution tips, as well as best practices for VR development. It will also provide developers chances to connect with other creators and bigwigs in the industry", reports Engadget.

This isn't a surprise to me, as I can feel it in my bones that Apple is working on AR/VR/MR technology - but thanks to an unfortunate injury at the Apple campus recently, we now kinda know that Apple is working on a new headset.

An incident report from last month made its way onto the internet, with Gizmodo reporting a story titled "Impact Descriptions Reported in [Santa Clara Valley] from Last Month". The report had some new details on the hotly-rumored AR project, something that UploadVR founder and one of the most finger-to-the-pulse of AR/VR/MR movements in the industry, Robert Scoble, has been talking about for ages now.

Apple's purported headset has been designed, at least so far, to overlay a 3D image onto your eye. The report said: "After BT4 user study, user advised study lead, that she experienced discomfort in her eye and said she was able to see the laser flash at several points during the study. Study lead referred her to optometrist and secured prototype unit for analysis".

Facebook held its F8 conference yesterday, with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg opening the F8 developer conference with the announcement that the social media giant is making the camera "the first augmented reality platform". Zuckerberg added: "We see the beginning of a new platform".

How does it work? Well, the camera is the first AR platform that has new AR features that will be baked into Facebook's apps as camera options, with Zuckerberg showing off virtual images popping up off of the breakfast table. Zuckerberg also teased "showcased object recognition, adding steam to a coffee mug, and placing a virtual rain cloud above a planet. Then we saw information about a wine bottle on-screen. Gaming, meanwhile, is another consideration that will be coming later this year", reports UploadVR.

Facebook promises that their new AR platform will be "open", with Zuckerberg adding that the closed beta is available today, but "It's going to take a while for this develop". More exciting things are coming, with Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer also discussed the process of creating the AR tech, with algorithms that let camera identify basic moving objects, and more.

AMD and Bethesda Softworks recently teamed up in a "long-term strategic partnership to rapidly advance game technology development, fuel new PC game experiences, and reshape the gaming landscape," meaning AMD is privy on some of the "big and crazy projects" Bethesda is working on, including Fallout 4 VR. From what AMD has seen so far, Fallout 4 VR is a total game-changer.

A few weeks ago I predicted that Fallout 4 VR would be the "killer app" that virtual reality so desperately needs; that must-have game that sells VR headsets the way Halo Combat Evolved sold original Xboxs back in 2001. According to AMD corporate vice president Roy Taylor, Fallout 4 VR is to virtual reality what Super Mario Bros. 3 is to NES, or Sonic the Hedgehog is to SEGA Genesis.

"[Fallout 4 VR] is a ground-breaking VR title. It will change the way we think about VR. It will be an industry changer," Taylor told MCVUK at this year's VR World Congress.

Facebook is solidifying itself against HTC and Valve with the securing of an ex-Apple veteran to run its Oculus VR division, with the social network hiring Michael Hillman, a 15-year veteran of Apple.

In his position at Apple, Hillman had senior engineering and design roles, working on consumer products like the iMac. With Oculus wanting to get into a better swing of things with its VR headset platform with the Rift, hiring an ex-Apple veteran who launched consumer products to run your VR division is a good idea.

Facebook has been acquiring key VR talent for a while, recently acquiring Hugo Barra from Xiaomi to oversee their VR division. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that VR is the next big thing after smartphones, an interesting statement considering Rift sales haven't been too good yet - even though the hardware is actually quite high-end considering its a first-gen device.

Warner Bros. Pictures has just signed an "strategic partnership" with HTC Vive, that will see HTC being the "exclusive VR partner for all content, online and offline activities" for the upcoming release of 'Ready Player One' from legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

Ready Player One has been one of, if not the most anticipated movie to be shifted into the VR realm - and is teased as a "sci-fi action thriller that unfolds largely within the virtual reality space", making for perfect VR content. HTC will provide "multiple pieces of VR content tied to the world of Ready Player One" in VR, with the VR content available through HTC's software portal, Viveport.

There will be location-based entertainment for Ready Player One, as well as high-end PC-based VR and mobile versions. Blair Rich, President of Worldwide Marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures explains: "The virtual reality world within Ready Player One is extremely advanced, sophisticated and engaging, and with Vive, we chose the best system to represent the future of VR. Vive is the perfect partner to bring that to life and also has the broadest reach to global markets for the use of VR in home, mobile and offline channels. We're delighted that HTC Vive will be partnering with Ready Player One and very excited to work with them leading up the movie's release in Spring 2018".

Keen on trying VR, but put off by the price? Newegg has your back with a special offer.

PC-powered virtual reality, while the definitive way to experience VR, is quite expensive. An HTC Vive costs $800, and an Oculus Rift will run you $599--and those are just the headsets. That price doesn't count the VR-ready PC you need to experience the new frontier. But Newegg's new promotion gives you a free GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 GPU with the purchase of an HTC Vive.

AMD's Radeon RX 480 is two video cards above the Vive's minimum Radeon R9 290 requirement, but it's worth mentioning the free GIGABYTE RX 480 is a 4GB model and not the more expensive variant with 8GB of VRAM. Still, though, it's a pretty sweet deal for anyone who's on the fence about VR adoption, and the free GIGABYTE RX 480 is valued at $185 MSRP.

NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference is always a massive technology overload, something I love more and more every year - but at GTC 2017, the company will be awarding $30,000 in cash and prizes for the winners of its VR Content Showcase.

NVIDIA's upcoming VR Content Showcase will see submissions of VR content that isn't gaming, and either has plans to - or already uses NVIDIA GPU technology, including GameWorks, DesignWorks, or VRWorks. Submissions will be accepted for another week, ending on March 15.

There will be 10 teams participating in NVIDIA's VR Content Showcase, with each developer receiving space on the show floor to show off their VR content at GTC 2017 - not only that, but they will need to make a presentation in front of a set of judges, for the consideration to win the prizes on offer.

GDC 2017 -Acer is one of the many OEMS who partnered with Microsoft to make cheap and accessible VR/AR headsets, and now the company has unveiled the fruits of its labor.

Acer's new Mixed Reality headset is now ready for developer testing, and the company has revealed the specs of the HMD:

"We are pleased to be working with Microsoft to deliver these first-ever Windows Mixed Reality development kits, to help developers realize the potential of the Windows Mixed Reality platform, and to further enrich the experience when Acer's Windows Mixed Reality headsets for consumers and commercial customers ship later this year," an Acer spokesperson told us.

MWC 2017 - Samsung has announced the next generation of their VR headset powered by Oculus.

The new Gear VR comes with a Controller (yes, capital "C"), similar to the one that is used in Google's Daydream. The company stated that the Gear VR with Controller expands Samsung's virtual reality ecosystem and makes it easier for consumers to enjoy Gear VR experiences.

The Controller has a touchpad and a number of buttons (trigger, home key, back key, volume key) allowing the user to "point, drag and drop, tilt, shoot, among other actions, while the Trigger allows for enhanced gaming experiences."

Valve's Doug Lombardi today announced that LG has partnered with the Vive-maker to craft a next-gen virtual reality headset.

LG is aiming to make quite a splash with its first-ever VR HMD. The VR HMD is "designed to deliver high fidelity, next generation VR experience," and a prototype will be showcased and demoed at GDC 2017. LG has partnered with Valve and the new headset will leverage the company's established Steam VR platform.

Technically this isn't the first VR device LG has made: the company rolled out the LG VR 360, a mobile-powered entry-level virtual reality headset, but this new prototype will be a dedicated head-mounted display versus a slot-in style device.

The court battle between ZeniMax and Oculus saw Oculus handing over a swift $500 million when the jury found Oculus had violated a NDA, and illegally used code from ZeniMax.

Well, this could just be the start of a legal battle that is much bigger - as ZeniMax has asked the court to block Oculus from using the stolen code. If this happens, it could stop the sales of a massive chunk of games that use the technology. Oculus is of course appealing the case, saying that the prior ruling was "legally flawed and factually unwarranted".

If the judge grants the injunction, Oculus would be forced to write new code for their SDK - replacing the stolen code it is still using from ZeniMax. This would have large effects across the market, as it would hurt the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR products, both of which use the ZeniMax source code.

Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon 835 VRDK program alongside the news that it had teamed with Leap Motion, a company that has been on the edge of hand tracking technology.

The partnership between Qualcomm and Leap Motion is an interesting one, that could reshape the control methods used in VR: as the companies are demonstrating Qualcomm's own positional tracking technology, with Leap Motion's hand tracking tech. This partnership could lead to "natural human computer interaction" for standalone Snapdragon 835-powered VR headsets, and as Qualcomm puts it: "sets a new standard for mobile VR content development".

Tim Leland, VP of Product Management with Qualcomm, said: "As we deliver the new Snapdragon mobile platform for greater immersion with untethered virtual reality HMDs, natural user interfaces like hand movements will help consumers more intuitively interact with VR content, therefore we're delighted to be working closely with a VR technology leader like Leap Motion. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 was designed to combine six degrees of positional tracking, high VR frame rates, immersive audio and enhanced 3D graphics with real-time rendering in a compact, stand-alone headset for the ultimate VR experience".

Samsung will be unveiling something different at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain next week - from their in-house tech incubator C-Lab.

We should expect four devices shown off with Relúmĭno, Monitorless, VuildUs, and traVRer. These four different technologies are all intriguing, a nice direction for Samsung to see what could stick around in a few years.

Samsung's strangely named Relúmĭno is a "smart visual aid" for the Gear VR that will benefit the visually impaired so that they could read and watch TV with "new levels of clarity".