Extended Reality (XR) - Page 48

Computex 2016 - NVIDIA had some great demos on show at Computex 2016, with one of them being a VR multiplayer game from Insomniac Games called The Unspoken. The Unspoken allows you to conjure a fireball in your hand, and fling it over at your opponent - which I did to our VR Editor, Jason Evangelho.

Insomniac Games is working on two new Oculus Rift exclusive VR games, with Edge of Nowhere, and The Unspoken. Unspoken works with the unreleased Touch controllers, which were a joy to use at NVIDIA's VR Experience section at Computex 2016. Insomniac has managed to blend the worlds of the virtual, the magical, and the real-world with The Unspoken - as it was a huge amount of fun playing against Jason in the game.

I can't wait for The Unspoken to be released, but it not coming to the HTC Vive is a real downer, unfortunately.

E3 2016 - Even with John Carmack in the position of Chief Technology Officer at Oculus, the company is struggling to find itself in a dominant position with first-person VR shooters, or even in the VR space right now.

Well, according to Mario Kotlar, the Level and Game Designer for Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, Oculus offered the developer a "shitton of money" to make Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope an exclusive for the Oculus Rift. Kotlar explains: "It wasn't easy, but we turned down a shitton of money, as we believe that truly good games will sell by themselves and make profit in the long run regardless. And also because we hate exclusives as much as you do". We don't know how much money Oculus offered, as Kotlar wouldn't say.

It would make sense for Oculus to try and secure great, Rift exclusives - but with John freakin' Carmack working for them, why aren't they creating their own? I simply don't understand this at all, Oculus. Ugh.

E3 2016 - Oculus today announced a huge smorgasboard of full VR games will launch alongside the new Oculus Touch controllers, including Superhot, Killing Floor, and Serious Sam VR.

The launch of the Oculus Touch controllers will be accompanied by a huge payload of VR games from some of the latest and greatest virtual reality devs. Oculus hasn't revealed a release date for Touch, promising that it's coming "this year", and plans to reveal a full list of games this fall. The company also announced that Oculus Medium will ship alongside Touch, bringing the "tactile satisfaction of sculpting a world in VR." Check below for the confirmed list, and many more games are on the way.

"Cast spells and unleash magic from your fingertips. Open doors, pick locks, and pull triggers like you're really there. Give your friend a "thumbs up" in VR. This is the power of hand presence with Touch. This is just the beginning-there are hundreds of additional Touch titles in development, and we'll share the full Touch lineup and launch details later this fall."

E3 2016 -- Only a few months into the new generation of virtual reality and tether-free VR backpacks seem to be the new hotness. We've seen one from ZOTAC and one from MSI, but now some heavy hitters are getting in on the portable VR action: AMD and Alienware.

I'm writing this before E3 begins since Alienware sent me a note under embargo, and all I know is that they've developed a "super rare concept design" with AMD and are showcasing it at their booth (#747 for my fellow E3 attendees) in the South Hall of the LA Convention Center beginning Tuesday. Rest assured I will get up close and personal and attempt to steal it gather any information I can.

Alienware is also showing off a VR backpack powered by the new version of their Alpha PC. More details as soon as we know it. Keep an eye on our Facebook feed for any breaking E3 info.

E3 2016 - Games like The Brookhaven Experiment proved that the classic shooting gallery (think games like House of the Dead) is back and better than ever in virtual reality. Croteam is tapping into that with Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. Get ready to shoot millions of bullets into thousands of demons when it launches to Early Access this summer.

In true, blisteringly fast FPS style, Serious Sam has always thrown mobs of fast monsters at you, forcing you to rely on reflexes and skill to survive. Much of that involved a constant forward momentum, but that's not exactly something we can do comfortably in VR yet. That's why Croteam has adopted the shooting gallery angle, which will put you in a standing position, using the Oculus Touch or HTC Vive motion controllers to fend off wave after wave of bad guys, likely with a narrative tying it all together.

And gore. Lots and lots of bloody gore.

E3 2016 -- It's safe to say that when the majority of the world discusses VR, three companies dominate the conversation: HTC, Oculus, and Sony. With today's news out of E3, that conversation probably needs to include another party. That would be Razer who, together with Sensics, are looking to push their Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform further into the spotlight. They're doing it by introducing the 2nd generation HDK 2 VR headset that not only brings OSVR up to spec with the Vive and Rift, but also significantly undercuts them in price.

"What we're doing with the software platform is facilitating the creation of an open virtual reality ecosystem that different companies and brands can include their hardware and software technologies within, "Jeevan Aurol, Product Marketing Manager for OSVR, tells me during a recent interview. "Ultimately, we want to create an ecosystem that's very similar to the PC ecosystem today".

Aurol then calls out how gamers assemble a PC. They choose their GPU, mouse, keyboard, chassis, hard drives, and various other components based on their personal preferences, and they end up with a gaming rig that's customized to their tastes. "We're trying to do that with the VR industry," he says. Razer wants you to be able to walk into a store someday, choose between 20 different VR headsets and 20 different controllers, and just have them work together in harmony. That's their goal for OSVR.

E3 2016 - Ever since the HTC Vive launched, those skeptical of VR have (rightly) said "This cannot succeed without AAA titles." Well folks, Bethesda is here to save the day, clearly demonstrating that they're believers in virtual reality. Both DOOM and Fallout 4 are coming to the HTC Vive in 2017.

The news comes straight out of Bethesda's (now annual?) E3 press conference, where they reminded the audience about the playable version of DOOM III BFG they got up and running on the Oculus Rift at E3 2012, and then announced that the new DOOM was playable immediately after the show on the HTC Vive. Sort of. Our understanding is that you'll be able to explore the environments within DOOM, but we're unclear if Bethesda is releasing a full version of their critically acclaimed FPS. Honestly, a twitch shooter in VR that also requires movement seems like quite a trick to pull off unless it supported a gamepad or keyboard and mouse.

We have an email out to their PR team to clarify.

Best Buy clearly wants in on more of that VR demo action, and curious consumers ultimately win. The retailer is already demoing the Oculus Rift, and now for a limited time they're adding the PlayStation VR to their list of playable virtual reality toys, but only for a limited time.

Best Buy will have kiosks with PlayStation VR systems set up for you to try on June 17th (from 3pm to 7pm) and June 18th (from 12pm to 4pm), and they'll also have staff on hand to answer all your questions. Unfortunately it's far from being visible at every Best Buy store -- we count about 21 scattered across North America:

If you're one of the lucky people close to any of these locations, call your local Best Buy to confirm, and go try some VR! We think that although the PSVR isn't as powerful as desktop-class headsets like the Vive, that the PlayStation option is easily the most comfortable HMD, and Sony is building an impressive library of launch titles.

E3 2016 - If there was a VR game that would entice the Trekkies to come over from the Star Trek universe and step into a virtual one, it would be the just-teased Star Trek: Bridge Crew from Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft.

The company secured Star Trek actors Jeri Ryan, Levar Burton and Karl Urban to don Oculus Rift headsets and step onto the starship on Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Ubisoft will be detailing the game on Monday morning at E3 2016, which is due out later this fall for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and even the PlayStation VR.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew will see four players take on the roles of the captain, tactical officer, engineer and helm officer. Once the crew positions have been assigned to their stations, they will need to work together to complete missions that are both story-focused, and randomly generated. The four players get to decide how to tackle combat and exploration, where they can choose to be stealthy, or action-heavy. Jeri Ryan detailed her experience, saying: "This wasn't anything like you see on the show," said Ryan, a cast member on "Voyager" for four seasons. "When we were shooting it, the bridge set was all plywood and plastic. When you're looking at the ship's monitors, they were either green screens or just big openings in the walls. This was incredible. It's what it would be like if it were real".

Dear Brendan and the rest of the talented leadership at Oculus: You are the reason I love virtual reality. The Rift is the reason I now get paid to write about virtual reality for this very website. I bought an Oculus Rift DK2 after my mind was substantially blown by your product at CES 2014. I'm not covering Rift games and software with hardware I received for free from a PR contact; I rushed to your website and pre-ordered the consumer version in January like everyone else.

Please believe me when I say I'm a devoted fan. The nature of my profession also makes me one of your harshest critics. Let's not mince words: my career hinges on the proliferation and acceptance of virtual reality, a wondrous, world-altering computing platform you were once the proud flag-bearer for. Oculus understandably has a massive influence on the mass adoption of virtual reality, so your continued success is crucial to me. More importantly, I want your product and your business to flourish because I want to experience things that game developers haven't even dreamed up yet. Things that the visionaries of tomorrow will create, given the right platform and a large enough audience. You can call that selfish. You'd be 100% right.

But right now it's time for some tough love because so many things have changed over the last 3 months, and speaking on behalf of your fans, your critics, and your developers, it's time to usher in some dramatic change.

A newly published video on YouTube by a developer known as Felix shows footage of a rhythm game prototype for the HTC Vive, and it reminds me a lot of one of my favorite Nintendo DS rhythm games, Elite Beat Agents.

I've always loved rhythm games, and playing the genre in virtual reality can also double as rather intense exercise (see: Audioshield). What's really interesting about the admittedly early gameplay mechanics here is that, depending on how the various phrases and dots are positioned in 3D space, movement could not just be sequenced to fit the music, but also to choreograph dances.

Granted, the pesky HTC Vive cable might put a damper on that, but it hasn't stopped me from lighting up my carpet playing something like Holopoint, which requires some fast foot work.

Some people cry over things like Final Fantasy VII Remake*. Others shed tears of unbridled joy when they discover the existence of Shenmue III. But I'm one of those weirdos who just sat here and shrieked at the realization that I'll be playing Fruit Ninja -- the original one, from Australian developers Halfbrick -- on my HTC Vive by month's end.

"After the latest VR technology was released, we felt that there was no better game suited to VR than Fruit Ninja," Halfbrick's Adam Wood, product manager for Fruit Ninja VR, told IGN earlier today. "The simplicity of Fruit Ninja with the total immersion of VR creates an experience like no other."

Simplicity and VR get along very, very well. That's because with something like the Vive's hyper-accurate motion tracking, your hands and arms quickly transform into whatever weapon or other implement is in the game world. Nailing targets with a bow & arrow? Perfect. Swinging a sword? Super satisfying. It's also more challenging than you might expect, thanks to the 1:1 tracking.

Harmonix Music VR -- a virtual reality app launching alongside PlayStation VR that teleports you inside a world that reacts to your tunes -- already looked pretty awesome. Now Harmonix has revealed that they're turning Music VR into a dance party.

"The Dance is a brand new world for Harmonix Music VR that lets you to choreograph moves for whacky characters," says Harmonix' Nick Mudry. "Once you've got the party going on the dance floor, you can go to town with a variety of toys at the DJ booth, and even wreak havoc in Giant Mode."

I have no doubt this will be amusing both as player and as spectator. The Dance level will tap into what makes PlayStation VR unique right now among its competitors: an emphasis on social and multiplayer experiences that utilize both the PSVR headset and your television. Next party game confirmed!

By now everyone is beginning to understand that virtual reality is about much more than video games. From medicine to automotive to architecture, a roomscale VR system like the HTC Vive has near-limitless possibilities in the commercial and business space. HTC is poised to capitalize on that with a brand new version of the HTC Vive: A Business Edition that costs $1200, comes with a dedicated customer support line, commercial licensing, and a unique warranty.

"Virtual reality has already proven its appeal among consumers and is now revealing its potential for enterprise," said Olivier Ribet, Vice President High-Tech Industry, Dassault Systmes. "Vive helps us provide our customers from all industries with premium virtual reality experiences that offer unlimited perspectives to inspire product ideation and creation."

Dassault Systemes (owners of 3DS.com -- Nintendo must hate that!) is a company providing other business with virtual universes to test the experiences they're building at any point in the product lifecycle, so it's no surprise they're championing the Vive Business Edition.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that for the majority of people -- those who aren't necessarily all about that fit and healthy life -- one of the major barriers to exercising is that it feels like exercise. A new startup called Black Box VR wants to change how the world perceives working out by whisking you away to imaginary world's and tricking your brain into thinking you're having fun, not merely burning calories for the sake of burning calories. Their mission: create the world's first virtual reality gym.

The company says that only three 40 minute workouts per week can increase your strength, endurance, and overall health. While Black Box VR applauds the "virtual trainer" approach that was popularized in games like Nintendo's Wii Fit, they insist that's not nearly enough. Their gym of the future will integrate resistance training that's integrated into the game experience.

Here's an explanation of how a virtual reality gym would work, in Black Box VR's own words:

Earlier this year I climbed Mt. Everest chickened out of a summit to Mt. Everest thanks to a fantastic combination of real-world photographs, Unreal Engine 4 visual effects, and NVIDIA's VRWorks technologies. Contributing to the realism was a technique called photogrammetry, which essentially is act of using photographs to measure distances and often reconstruct them to create maps or recreations of the world in a 360-degree viewable environment.

Valve actually employed this to great effect in The Lab, particularly a "Postcard" level that puts you and your trusty Fetchbot on top of Vesper Peak in Washington. Now they're bringing the same techniques they used to the masses with Destinations Workshop Tools, free software that lets you create explorable VR environments using photogrammetry, game levels, or just your imagination.

Destinations includes Valve's Source 2 tool (the same one used internally at Valve for game creation), the Destinations viewer (this allows you to browse and explore other user-created levels downloaded from the Steam Workshop), and a bunch of sample destinations like Mars and a world littered with giant popcorn.

Seattle's Getty Images has supplied more than 80 million photos and more than 50,000 hours of stock video footage to graphic designers, press outlets, corporations, and just about anyone needing high quality visual content for a wide range of use cases. They've been doing this successfully for 21 years. So when Getty Images decides they're going to create a new division focused on 360-degree images viewable in VR, I pay attention.

In June 2015 Getty Images partnered with Oculus to publish a wealth of 360-degree photos viewable on the Gear VR and (then forthcoming) Oculus Rift. Now they're taking things to the next level by creating the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group.

"The technology is still in its infancy, as are the business models addressing how to use it, but we can expect to see VR become a leading tool for visual storytelling," Getty CEO Dawn Airey said in a prepared statement.

Sony's PlayStation VR system is getting yet another launch title for this October, this one from a stable of developers boasting a collective 100 years combined experience in the industry. It's a strategy title called Tethered, and it looks adorable.

Let me throw some words on the screen and see if they get your attention. Tethered is created by a bunch of people who founded companies like Evolution Studios and Rage. Along the way they gathered up Kenny Young, whose outstanding soundtrack and audio work can be found in LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway. For inspiration they looked to the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, spliced in some artwork from a concept artist known only as Espen who lives in the mountains of Norway, and wrapped it all up in a strategy-meets-puzzler bow.

Here's the debut trailer:

HTC isn't making Oculus' uphill battle with Rift pre-order fulfillment any easier. The co-creators of the Vive VR headset just dropped us a note saying that the HTC Vive can now be purchased in 24 countries, and all orders ship out to customers within 72 hours of purchase. Compare this to an estimated ship date of August if you were to purchase a Rift today.

"Since beginning pre-orders at the end of February and shipping in early April, we've seen incredible interest in Vive," said Dan O'Brien, VP of VR at HTC. "Working with our retail partners has only enhanced that momentum because more people are able to try the only truly immersive virtual reality offering on the market today."

It looks like any manufacturing delays HTC may have been experiencing are a thing of the past. In addition to the shipping speed upgrade, the Vive will be available to demo in 100 locations throughout North America beginning this June. Currently the Vive is available to try inside 29 Microsoft Store locations; this will expand out to 51. GameStop's Vive presence will increase from 10 to 40. If you're curious to try a Vive (which we wholeheartedly recommend), you can see participating demo locations here.

Ubisoft will add to its already impressive collection of VR games at E3 2016 by debuting two more virtual reality titles, likely during its press conference on Monday, June 13.

The news comes courtesy of UploadVR's Joe Durbin, who received an email from Ubisoft representatives promising that two "previously undisclosed" VR games will be not only announced, but playable on the show floor.

For those not familiar with the virtual reality side of Ubisoft, they've received some early recognition for being pioneers in the space, creating two new IPs with Eagle Flight and Werewolves Within, both fantastic, and both coming to the Oculus Rift.