Extended Reality (XR) - Page 42

The day has arrived - Oculus Touch controllers are available! From today, December 6th, you can order them online and at the time of writing this article, estimated shipping is between December 16th and 21st. The shipping date is the same for all 22 countries where Oculus delivers its VR controllers.

Pre-orders started on October 10th and those who pre-order them should expect their controllers between today, December 6th and December 15th. Some users have reported that their controllers already arrived.

The Oculus Touch controllers will make the Rift VR experience more immersive and closer to that of the HTC Vive. The price of the two VR headsets is also almost the same, with the difference of only one dollar. Oculus Rift is priced at $599 and the Oculus Touch $199, so the combined price of the Oculus experience comes to $798, while the HTC Vive's price is $799.

Zotac's new $1,999 VR Go backpack brings self-contained, untethered and desktop-free virtual reality gaming to the market.

The Zotac VR Go backpack has higher-end hardware that enables "full desktop VR" including an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 video card, a 2.8GHz Intel i7 6700T CPU (can be overclocked to 3.6GHz), 16GB of DDR4 RAM at 2133MHz (supports up to 64GB RAM), and a single 240 GB M.2 SATA SSD with a clear 2.5-inch drive bay for storage. The wearable PC backpack weighs about 11lbs, and has a unified cooling solution made up of both passive and active fan cooling, with the GeForce GTX 1070's 16nm Pascal-based architecture sporting optimum heat and power efficiency under load.

One of the major selling points of the Zotac's VR-ready PC-in-a-backpack is its hot swapping batteries. The backpack can run for two hours on a charge, and comes with two 6600mAh Li-ion batteries that can be hot-swapped back and forth and charged independently of one another.

Ubisoft has officially announced they are connecting their VR platforms, allowing players on PSVR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive to team up or play against each other.

Their Eagle Flight already supports cross-platform play (currently available on PSVR and Oculus Rift; will be out on HTC Vive on December 20th), and this is just the start. Werewolves Within is scheduled for release on December 6th and Star Trek: Bridge Crew is coming on March 14th, and both will be available for all three platforms at launch.

David Votypka, senior creative director at Red Storm, said in an official statement:

Sometime in 2018-2019, we're going to get to the point where a company called Magic Leap are going to release the next big thing in consumer electronics, a mixed reality headset that only a handful of people in the world have used so far.

This hasn't stopped the company from spending $1 billion "perfecting a prototyping" that projects an image onto your retina using an optics system that is built into a magical piece of semitransparent glass. Magic Leap's headset, which still doesn't have a name, will also double as a data-gathering device blasting images onto your retina.

Magic Leap will constantly gather information, scanning your room for items and obstacles, listening for your voice and any other voices in the room, eye-tracking, and it also keeps an eye on your hand movements. This is where things get cool, as Forbes report that the mixed reality objects displayed are "aware of their environment and have the ability to interact with the real-world". They continued, adding: "On Magic Leap's hardware a Pokémon might escape capture by ducking behind your couch or, assuming you live in a "smart" home, turning off your lights and hiding in the dark".

Microsoft's venture with Oculus has manifested, bringing Xbox One game streaming to the Oculus Rift VR headset this December.

Oculus Rift owners won't actually be able to play Xbox games in full VR, but instead broadcast games directly from your Xbox One console to the Rift headset in a kind of theater-like auditorium that projects the gameplay on a giant screen similar to PlayStation VR's Cinema Mode. Gamers will need to download a special app in the Oculus Store in order to broadcast Xbox games

"Today marks an evolution in our ongoing partnership with Oculus, as Rift owners will be able to stream their Xbox One library to Rift with the new Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app, including fan favorites like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3 and Halo 5: Guardians, the biggest sports games, indie darlings, Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games, and more titles coming in 2017," reads the official update on the Xbox blog.

://HTC is celebrating the Black Friday sales with a $100 discount on its VR headset, acting as warning shots to the Oculus Touch controllers which are still not here - with the HTC Vive dropping to just $699 from its original $799 price, for an extremely limited time.____

Serious Sam has been around for quite some time, but the VR version made this game even more globally recognizable and popular. Created and developed by Croteam, Serious Sam is one of the best VR games I've tried.

I met with Croteam, the developer of Serious Sam, at this year's Reboot InfoGamer in Croatia and first thing I noticed were huge lines of people who wanted to try the game. And why not, Croteam had the most attractive booth at InfoGamer - a huge mixed reality display where you could watch gamers inside virtual reality.

At this year's Reboot InfoGamer, I got to try out Starbreeze's John Wick: Chronicles, a highly anticipated VR game. There is a lot of hype around this game, which isn't surprising since the game is based on the wildly-popular movie John Wick starring Keanu Reeves.

Earlier this week, I talked to Almir Listo from Starbreeze who clarified that the in-game action in set in between the two John Wick movies. He noted that they are actively working with Lionsgate Studio on the game, and they are very happy with their cooperation, which resulted in this amazing game.

The John Wick movie is filled with action, and when you transfer that into virtual reality, you get a whole new level of entertainment.

IMAX plans to create at least 25 interactive virtual reality content experiences for virtual reality over the next three years. The VR content will be available in their VR centers which will open as a part of their cinemas. The company announced that they have secured $50 million for this project.

IMAX is already cooperating with Swedish Starbreeze on virtual reality content and the StarVR device. Starbreeze is at the moment promoting their VR game John Wick: Chronicles at Reboot InfoGamer in Croatia and they told us they are very pleased with their partnership with IMAX.

IMAX, which is already in advanced discussions with numerous content developers - including Hollywood studios and gaming publishers - intends to utilize the cinema-grade virtual reality camera that it is currently developing in partnership with Google for several of the projects.

Holy crap... HTC has just announced a tether-less VR upgrade kit made by TPCAST, one of the first 33 companies that joined the huge Vive X Accelerator, and a preview version of the kit was displayed at Alibaba's "11/11" global shopping festival in Shenzhen, CHina.

In a chat with UploadVR, China Regional President of Vive at HTC, Alvin W. Graylin said that there are absolutely no wires in the video above. He said that the wireless experience would "greatly improve" the overall Vive experience, with no "noticeable difference" when it comes to latency.

The wireless kit for the HTC Vive will have a standard battery, with a bigger battery to be made available in the months after launch. We're looking at around 1.5 hours of power from the battery, with the bigger battery sitting your pocket when it's released. HTC expects the enthusiast Vive users to buy the wireless module, although arcades and VRE (VR Experience) use cases would be perfect.

On the first day of Reboot InfoGamer, the biggest waiting lines were in front of Starbreeze's booth where the company is showing John Wick Chronicles, their highly anticipated VR game. The game should come out in February, around the same time as the second John Wick movie which Keanu Reeves stars in.

I talked to Almir Listo from Starbreeze who clarified that the in-game action in set in between the two John Wick movies. He noted that they are actively working with Lionsgate Studio on the game, and they are very happy with their cooperation, which resulted in the amazing game.

In the game, you jump into the shoes of John Wick and go through different missions full of gunfights. Listo highlighted that they wanted that each player 'becomes' John Wick while playing, so they paid special attention to the details.

In the past five years, Reboot InfoGamer has grown into one of the largest gaming shows in Europe. Last year, more than 50,000 visitors attended the event, and this year the organizers of the event expect even more gamers.

This year, Reboot InfoGamer will feature more than 600 gaming units, newest gaming hardware and hundreds of VR devices. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the latest gaming titles, daily giveaways, and cosplay contests.

Next to the games that have already been released, fans will have the opportunity to try the titles such as For Honor, Gran Turismo Sport, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, RAID: World War II, Solstice Chronicles: MIA, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Steep, and many others that should have their debut sometime next year.

Although Microsoft's new "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio Xbox console supports VR gaming, Microsoft plans on waiting until the VR market matures with better games and headset tech.

Xbox division head Phil Spencer has a clear idea on what he wants for Project Scorpio's VR games, and the current selection of virtual reality titles aren't just cutting it. Microsoft has no plans to follow Sony's footsteps with the PlayStation VR, which cashed in early on VR to make a more accessible console-powered VR headset that delivers "simple, small passive experiences".

Spencer describes existing VR games as more like "demos and experiments," and he's not wrong: the tech is still quite early, and so is the software--that required killer app doesn't yet exist. With a 6TFLOPs GPU that's likely built on AMD's new Vega graphics architecture to enable 90FPS in VR, Microsoft has essentially future-proofed Project Scorpio for the types of "killer" VR games that don't really exist yet.

Quantic Dream is one of the only game developers left that makes games that feel oh-so-different, but Quantic Dream boss David Cage recently talked with GamesIndustry.biz and had some interesting things to say about VR.

Cage said: "We have all VR systems installed in the studio, and I encourage my teams to try them out. We've downloaded every game on every system to try and understand where people are right now, what works, and what doesn't work, and what we could bring to this medium". Cage added: "The idea is not to do VR for the sake of doing VR. It's about saying something on this medium that hasn't been said already".

When it comes to the sense of presence that VR can give gamers, game developers will have to do more to trick gamers' brains into thinking that the virtual reality they're in, is more real than 'just a game'. Cage continued: "If there's a character in front of you, your brain thinks they're actually there. So suddenly there's a distance you're trying to keep when you talk to them".

At its Windows 10 event, Microsoft today announced a partnership with third-party tech giants to make cheap and accessible VR headsets. Could this be the starting point for VR gaming integration on Microsoft's new 4K-ready Project Scorpio Xbox console?

Microsoft is currently taking the initial steps to plot out VR support for its upcoming "monster" Project Scorpio console, which will support VR gaming experiences. We originally predicted that Microsoft's Project Scorpio would be compatible with the Oculus Rift headset for VR gaming, especially given the company's partnership with Oculus.

But now it looks like Microsoft could be going off on a tangent, and laying out plans to have another hardware giant build its VR headset. At the very least, though, Redmond is laying out the underlying software that will bind Project Scorpio's VR headset together with the Universal Windows Platform, and its Augmented Reality HoloLens will be along for the ride.

Microsoft has announced they are partnering with top PC makers, such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, ASUS, and Acer, to build VR headsets. Although some of the listed companies have made their VR devices, none of them is a major player in the virtual reality are, where the market is run by HTC's Vive, Facebook's Oculus Rift, Samsung's Gear VR and Sony's PS4-powered PlayStation VR. Interestingly, Microsoft worked closely with Oculus in the past, but that company isn't listed as one of Microsoft's partners for the new VR headsets.

Microsoft was a bit stingy with the information regarding their new VR headsets, but we do now the VR headsets' prices will start at $299, and they will come to the market in 2017. The headsets will ship with 6-degrees of freedom sensors, which also includes inside-out tracking.

The headsets will work on Windows 10's Creators' Update, coming in early 2017. This free update will bring a lot of 3D features and represents companies push into augmented and virtual reality.

ZOTAC has made its VR backpack official during its unveiling event in Hong Kong, announcing the new VR GO backpack, which features an awesome design, more user-friendly functionality, and enough CPU and GPU horsepower to play every VR game on the market.

ZOTAC was showing off the VR backpack at Computex 2016 earlier this year, but it wasn't in its final form. The official VR GO backpack is lighter, more durable, and easier to use - something you can see from ThinkComputers' video above. Inside of ZOTAC's new VR GO backpack is a full NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card, and a hot-swappable battery for longer-lasting VR gaming on-the-go.

Ther's also HDMI and USB ports at the top of the VR GO backpack, so you won't be fumbling down the sides or at the bottom to get your VR headset plugged into it.

Xiaomi has unveiled their second VR device today in Beijing, and it looks much better than their Mi VR Play, revealed this summer.

The new device, simply named Mi VR, is stunningly beautiful and at first glance, and its design reminds me of PlayStation VR. The Mi VR will work with Xiaomi's latest phones, including the Mi 5 and Mi Note 2.

Xiaomi says the new virtual reality headset comes with a motion sensor that will keep latency low at 16ms, and a 9-axis inertial motion controller.

Google has purchased Eyefluence, a startup company that specializes in eye-tracking technology,

Google plans to fold Eyefluence's unique eye-tracking VR optics software tech into its new mobile-powered Daydream View VR headset. The software uses "vision-driven, intuitive eye-interaction" to discern quite a bit of information from users, chiefly whether or not HMD wearers are interested in what they're seeing or not. We're not 100% sure how Google will leverage Eyefluence to build a new optics solution for Daydream VR, but we could see some interesting convergences happen, including eye-controlled interfaces

"At Eyefluence, we are engineering the ability to transform intent into action through your eyes. Leveraging eye biomechanics and the eye-brain connection with the first-ever eye-interaction technology solution for HMD devices, we are expanding human potential and creating new possibilities in VR, AR, and MR worlds," reads the company's website.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been out and about talking about the Xbox Scorpio over the last couple of months, but now Spencer is teasing games for Microsoft's upcoming wearable: HoloLens.

During an interview with Play-Asia, Spencer was asked about Microsoft's adventures into VR gaming and HoloLens, where Spencer said: "Oh absolutely, There is a lot of talks in the back concerning playing games in MR! VR does allow you to enter a virtual world but only within a certain space, MR however further establishes this by blurring the lines between Reality and the virtual world. It sounds scary but it just shows how much can be created and enjoyed".

He added: "We can't get into the specifics at the moment but we can say for sure that everything is going swimmingly at this current stage!"