Extended Reality (XR) - Page 47

If I had seen the below video as a child, I may have eagerly chosen engineering as my career. Make Magazine has not only uncovered the top secret prototypes hiding in Valve's VR labs, but their interview with engineers Alan Yates and Monty Goodson is downright inspiring. The pair behind a significant majority of the HTC Vive's early research and prototyping make it look genuinely fun. Sure, they're reserved on camera, but you can see little moments where childlike glee still escapes.

Yates and Goodson give the world a rare glimpse into not just the creation of the Vive and Lighthouse tracking system, but also the research that got them to the starting line. Valve solved a lot of crucial problems before modern VR could become a thing, and amazingly, a bunch of the early prototypes were essentially assembled from cheap parts they purchased from Amazon -- even hard drives from the trash bin. Others were 3D printed and hacked together.

You'll want to watch for "The Susan," an early part of Valve's research into discovering how vestibular ocular reflexes work. They carved out the inside of a Lazy Susan, mounted a modified gaming monitor to it, and then placed it over their head with a bunch of wires and sensors. Through this crazy contraption, they learned how your eyes and the vestibular system in your ears (that detects motion) worked together.

EVE: Valkyrie is the game that got me hooked on VR, and while it's an exceptional game that showcases the immersion VR is capable of, it's a little light on content. That recently changed, as developer CCP has released the first major, post-release update called Carrier Assault. And it's 100% free.

Unlike before, that giant carrier that's been mocking you is now open to attack, and it'll take coordination and some twitch dogfighting skills to wear it down and take it out. Here's how the battles unfold, as explained by the developers at CCP:

Stage 1: Skirmish

Only days ago, I was chatting with our Senior Editor Anthony Garaffe about the uses of virtual reality beyond gaming. I suggested we're only a couple years away from being able to attend the Superbowl from the sidelines using a Gear VR or Google Daydream headset. His idea was a bit more ambitious: bounce around from seat to courtside at a basketball game, or even view the action from the rim! Well guess what? The Sacramento Kings' new stadium has had its wireless infrastructure built with that very idea in mind.

The Sacramento Kings' new stadium opens in October, and boasts a high capacity Wi-Fi system with 1000 access points that's capable of blasting out 225,000 Instagram photos per second, according to team vice chairman and co-owner Paul Jacobs (who's also executive chairman at Qualcomm). And while social sharing was obviously high on their priority list, Jacobs tells TechnologyReview that being able to experiment with virtual reality was a must.

"Whether they're way up in the high seats or they're in a box but not sitting courtside, you still want to give them that courtside experience," Jacobs said.

Mobile VR like the Samsung Gear VR or Google's Daydream has two limiting factors right now that prevent it from being as immersive as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The first is horsepower, but that's something the mobile market makes advances in rapidly. The second is the lack of positional tracking (being able to track a person around a room). That second obstacle has already been solved by Stereolabs, and that solution -- the ZED camera -- is already shipping to developers.

(Author's note: The video represents the camera's ideal functionality. From what we know, it has not yet been elegantly implemented for mobile, though the company is working on that.)

The ZED is a depth sensing camera that currently attaches to any mobile VR headset. A pair of RGB cameras talk to an external GPU, and Stereolabs' custom software calculates a real-time depth map based on the disparity between the images. It's a technique called stereovision, and it actually trumps IR-based technologies like Microsoft's Kinect or Intel's RealSense because it can work outdoors, and over long distances.

I'm someone who zealously champions virtual reality. I'm also a gamer who thinks gaming in VR is the best thing since the Nintendo Gameboy. But when people ask me what will propel VR into the stratosphere and get the technology into homes, I have one confident response: "I'm not sure, but it won't be video games." Today, Greenlight VR's 2016 Virtual Reality Consumer Report has been published and lends some solid data to my speculation. Interestingly, games don't even crack the intended use scenarios.

Greenlight VR polled more than 1200 random people aged 18-60 about a wide range of VR-related topics, including their personal interest in a number of use categories, their attitudes toward adult content in VR, and their purchase intent over the next 12 months. Interestingly, the results indicate that gaming is lower on the list -- not 2nd, not 3rd, but 6th.

Taking the lead are travel, tourism, or adventure (73.5%), movies and recorded videos (67.3%), live events (67.0%), home design (65.9%), education (63.9%), and gaming (61.0%).

Raw Data was one of the first Vive games I played, and was instrumental in my love affair for HTC and Valve's awesome virtual reality system. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to try the latest build at E3. Fortunately for all of us, developer Survios sent over some short clips to rub in how much fun the game is.

In Raw Data, you're tasked with infiltrating shady manufacturer Eden Corp, stealing their data, and mowing down hordes of evil robot minions in wave-based FPS combat. It's also playable with a friend in co-op.

Survios describes Raw Data as an "Active VR Multiplayer Sci-Fi Combat" game and yea, that's pretty accurate. From dual-wielding blasters to striking down hordes of robots with futuristic Katanas, Raw Data is a blast, but the developers have also programmed in a ton of [physical movement that just feels great to pull off. Slashing, shooting, deflecting, ducking, dodging, and throwing make you feel like a badass.

I'm unfit to be a space pirate, that much is clear. And HTC has the video to prove it. Call it performance anxiety, but my virtual pew-pew skills were sorely lacking at E3. What wasn't lacking was the cool factor of stepping into a small green screen studio, strapping an HTC Vive onto my head, and knowing that within seconds of finishing the demo, there'd be a cool clip waiting for me.

Mixed Reality footage is a cool trick pioneered by Northway Games (for Fantastic Contraption) and perfected by Valve and HTC. There's no denying how magical that launch trailer for the HTC Vive was, particularly because it best conveyed how it felt to be in VR, surrounded by the game world, short of actually donning headset and going for it.

At E3, HTC had attendees step into their makeshift Mixed Reality studio and play a few minutes of Space Pirate Trainer VR. They pointed a secondary camera on them and utilized capture cards and free software like OBS to blend the two realities together. Seemingly within seconds of finishing my session, screenshots and the above footage was ready for me to download.

A few lucky people got to try PlayStation VR at a handful of Best Buy locations during E3 week, but now Sony is dramatically expanding the reach of its demos. How dramatically? Beginning June 24 the PS4 virtual reality system will be available to try in 300 locations across the United States.

Demo attendees will get to go hands-on with PlayStation VR Worlds, EVE: Valkyrie, Headmaster, Battlezone, and SUPERHYPERCUBE. More game demos will be added leading up to PS VR's launch in October, and hopefully those will include the newly announced PlayStation VR titles from Sony's E3 press conference.

Want to try it on for yourself? Visit this URL, punch in your zip code, and Sony will spit out store locations close to you, including the hours it's available to play each day. Sony is definitely going all out to get PlayStation VR maximum exposure at retail. Have you tried it yet?

The Serious Sam franchise has always done one thing exceptionally well: balls-to-the-wall FPS action focused on twitch reflexes, overpowered weapons, absurdly large hordes of demons, and unapologetic brutality. So when Croteam announced they were bringing their shooter to virtual reality, I may or may not have literally jumped up and down with excitement. I recently played a small slice of an early build of Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, and it's almost everything I expected from a Samuel Stone adventure.

I played using the Oculus Rift and its forthcoming Touch controllers, but a demo station was also set up with an HTC Vive, and the developers tell me they're currently talking to Sony about getting the game onto PlayStation VR.

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope finds the titular action hero traveling from planet to planet to fend off Mental's endless hordes of demon warriors, and it's no surprise that (as always) Sam is basically the universe's last hope. Fortunately, Sam's packing a fairly deep arsenal of weaponry and skills, all of which are upgradeable between missions, lending a nice sense of progression to the game that's absent from most "shooting gallery" style VR games right now. In fact, this is the most fleshed out shooter I've seen, particularly for the HTC Vive, as most of the FPS style games on that system are just a single level. Croteam has clearly been busy. Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope will launch with at least 8 worlds and a slew of guns when it debuts this summer on Steam Early Access.

E3 2016 -- During an interview with TweakTown at E3, HTC's VP of VR Content, Joel Breton, talked to us at length about the state of the Vive and virtual reality. While we're busy transcribing that awesome conversation, we wanted to highlight something that jumped out at us and got us more than a little excited: the suggestion that playing games like Grand Theft Auto in VR is less a pipe dream and much closer to reality.

One of virtual reality's big challenges is locomotion. Right now we can't move through an open virtual world without physically moving ourselves. If we do, a large amount of the population is prone to "VR sickness" or discomfort caused by a mismatch between your inner ear system and what your eyes are relaying to your brain. That's why so many VR games right now invoke the "blink" system that allows us to teleport around. That's understandably not as immersive.

During my interview with HTC's Joel Breton, I asked him if he's seen anything in development that gets us closer to being able to play something like a Grand Theft Auto realistically, or any sprawling open world title in VR. A mechanic that lets us move through the environment fluidly. His response was encouraging.

From the beginning, Valve has insisted on building SteamVR with openness in mind, with the goal of supporting any virtual reality hardware and not just the HTC Vive. To that end, they've already updated SteamVR with support for the Oculus Touch controllers which launch before the end of 2016.

The news comes via Swedish game developer Daniel Nyberg, who included a screenshot of SteamVR's Status window, showing two Oculus Touch controllers and two Oculus sensors (the second one will release alongside the Touch controllers to provide 360 tracking and negate occlusion). Replies to the tweet from other VR developers indicate that they can do roomscale with Oculus motion controller hardware right out of the box, even for games designed with the HTC Vive in mind.

Things are definitely heating up in this space. As fantastic as Oculus Touch is (I played several new experiences at E3 and look forward to writing about them ASAP), the VR community is quickly sending a message to the company that their closed ecosystem is unwanted.

E3 2016 -- I'm kind of old school. When someone drops the phrase "music visualizer" I'm reminded of pulling up Winamp on my Windows XP machine, firing up some Crystal Method, and unleashing those full screen trippy visuals. Well, VR is going to change the game for people who like to trip out or just relax with their music, and Harmonix seems a good choice for the company to execute it.

The motivation for Harmonix Music VR was the company's desire to help people better appreciate music through virtual reality. Some of what's waiting for you is passive, and some is interactive.

I had about 30 minutes with Harmonix Music VR during E3 this week, and here are my quick impressions of 4 of the experiences on offer when it releases alongside PlayStation VR on October 13th.

E3 2016 - Sony really ramped up its PlayStation VR push at E3 2016 this year, with PSVR launching on October 13, will there be shortages? According to Sony, it looks like there could be.

According to President and Group CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Andrew House, who told CNBC: "We have growing confidence that we'll be supply constrained with this product, but we'll do our very best to meet demand. Virtual reality is a medium that's in its infancy. With such a nascent, very new form of storytelling, it's difficult to predict what user uptake is going to be".

It looks like we could expect stock shortages on the PlayStation VR, but that's to be expected. Both Oculus and HTC didn't have the best roll outs, but HTC has since recovered, promising that it will ship Vive headsets within 72 hours of ordering.

It was only a few days ago that we reported Croteam, the developer of Serious Sam VR, was approached by Oculus with an undisclosed sum of money to make the game an exclusive for the Rift. Well, the community went ape sh*t, and it has created enough of a storm that Oculus has now officially addressed it.

Oculus said in their statement: "We regularly offer developers financial grants to help fund early development of new titles to accelerate development or expand the scope of the game. In some cases, we exchange funding in return for launching on the Oculus Store first, with the expectation that the game will go on to launch on other platforms. In the case of Croteam, at no time did we request that they stop development for other platforms, and we look forward to seeing Serious Sam be successful across the entire VR".

Croteam CTO, Alen Ladavac added: "I want to clarify some of the inaccuracies about our relationship with Oculus. Oculus did approach us with an offer to help fund the completion of Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope in exchange for launching first on the Oculus Store and keeping it time-limited exclusive. Their offer was to help us accelerate development of our game, with the expectation that it would eventually support all PC VR platforms. We looked at the offer and decided it wasn't right for our team. At no time did Oculus ask for, or did we discuss total exclusivity or buyout of support from Vive. We look forward to supporting Rift and Vive".

E3 2016 - Nyko is known for video game accessories, but starting today they're venturing down the virtual reality path as well.

Its first VR product is the VR Guardian, a "boundary system" that lets you set a safe zone for gameplay so that if you're about to trip over something or hit a wall, sensors and wristbands (chargeable) will tell you so. Powered by Bluetooth, Guardian will ship this autumn and sell for $100.

Then there's the VR Motion Band, a set of wristbands that alleviate muscular tension and stress and promote circulation so the side effects of long VR sessions -- nausea, dizziness, and headaches -- aren't an issue (or at least less so). The Band should be especially useful for those prone to nausea on car rides, boats, rollercoasters, and so on. Like the Guardian, it will ship in autumn, but will only cost $10.

E3 2016 - When Microsoft announced the Xbox Scorpio, I have to admit, I was a little shocked. I didn't expect the company to pump that much horsepower into a console, with 6TFlops of performance - compared to the piddly little 1.32TFlops offered on the current-gen Xbox One console. Microsoft's Xbox Scorpio console is 4K-ready, and waiting for VR gaming, too.

During an interview with Wired, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that Microsoft wants to "enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there", in regards to VR. He said that HTC could have their Vive headset, and others like Oculus with their Rift headset, have it work on the Xbox Scorpio. This is great news, and I'm actually proud of Microsoft for this, as the reason is because the company is "not focused on a first party VR hardware device right now".

Spencer said that the PC is the best place for VR right now, saying: "The best place for VR innovation is the PC. I think developers should still go focus on the PC, because I think that's a great place to innovate. What we're doing... is we're able to take some of the PC innovation that we see... and bring it to the console space, to enable those magical experiences on Scorpio when it launches".

E3 2016 - The E3 2016 madness continues, with Microsoft admitting it's not working on its own VR headset right now, as it's "not focused on an first party VR hardware device right now".

The news comes directly from Xbox boss himself Phil Spencer, during an interview with Wired he added that the company hopes to "enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there". It's still very interesting to see Microsoft not attempt to make its own VR headset, and let other companies come in and have their headsets work on the Xbox. But hey, it makes sense on the other hand, because Microsoft owns Windows, and Windows wants to be everywhere, right?

Microsoft is better being open like this, than being a closed book and not allowing any VR headsets to work on the Xbox but their own. The Xbox Scorpio is a beast, with 6TFlops of performance compared to the 1.32TFlops of the Xbox One. It's also powered by a 14nm FinFET design provided by AMD, with AMD also having an SoC inside of the new Xbox One S console.

E3 2016 - Pool Nation VR is definitely one of the most interesting games I've seen in a long time, with it hitting the #10 spot on Steam's 10 bestselling games right now.

The game launched on the HTC Vive yesterday, and is currently discounted down to $16.99, with no sales figures provided at this time. This is the first time a VR exclusive game has hit the Top Sellers list on Steam, with the latest numbers on the recent Steam sale indicating there are around 50,000 HTC Vive units out there right now, with a 72-hour ordering system now in place. Considering the $799 price tag, gamers don't seem to mind coughing it up to play on something so transformative as the Vive.

Pool Nation VR is a billiard simulator - which is hard to believe, but it plays incredibly well on the HTC Vive. There are other games like it, but nothing identical - you can even pick up the random beer bottles hanging around and throw them around - you know, just like you would in real life?

E3 2016 - If there was a money maker out there for VR, it would be a VR game set in the Batman world, right? Well, Rocksteady Games is here with Batman: Arkham VR, an exclusive to the PlayStation VR which will be released in October alongside the PSVR itself.

It was only a couple of days ago that we reported on Batman - A Telltale Series, which will be arriving next year - but what will Batman: Arkham VR provide? Details on the gameplay side are still sketchy, and the same goes with the setting of Batman: Arkham VR. The entire game could be first-person, but we could see some third-person gameplay, also. We'll have more details in the coming months, with Batman: Arkham VR dropping on the PlayStation VR in October.

E3 2016 - Sony has just unveiled the new PS VR Aim Controller, a new peripheral exclusive for the PlayStation VR, with Sony saying that it can handle realism better than competing VR controllers.

Sony has said that hte new PS VR Aim Controller features 1:1 direct tracking and aiming that is meant to make the controller perform just as it would in real life. The immersion created with the PS VR Aim Controller should be much better than the traditional controller available for the PS4 or the Move controllers, with the PS VR Aim Controller being used with the in-development PlayStation VR title Farpoint.