Extended Reality (XR) - Page 54

Crytek's impressive VR demo 'Back to Dinosaur Island' is now available on Steam, with the Oculus Rift DK2 exclusive VR demo requiring the Oculus Rift DK2 (with SDK v0.8) in order to run.

Not only that, but you'll need an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller in order to play it, as the mouse and keyboard are not supported (what the hell, Crytek?). Crytek explains Back to Dinosaur Island as: "Mysterious landmarks on the horizon and stunning vistas on every side combine to immerse gamers in an entirely new reality". You can grab Back to Dinosaur Island here, while the minimum system requirements are as follows:

Sony admits that its PlayStation VR won't be as robust as PC-powered VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, and affirms the PSVR isn't made for hardcore enthusiasts.

Sony isn't playing coy with the PlayStation VR. The Japanese console-maker outright says that the Oculus Rift (and HTC Vive by implication) is more powerful than its PS4-powered PSVR headset, but waves the age-old trade-off that consoles are much cheaper than high-end PCs.

"If you just talk about the high-end quality, yes, I would admit that Oculus may have better VR. However, it requires a very expensive and very fast PC," PlayStation executive vice president Masayasu Ito told Polygon. Ito goes on to say that the PlayStation VR is meant for everyday consumers and probably won't meet the high-spec needs of enthusiasts. "The biggest advantage for Sony is our headset works with PS4. It's more for everyday use, so it has to be easy to use, and it has to be affordable. This is not for the person who uses a high-end PC. It's for the mass market."

Earlier this year, SuperData predicted that some 38.9 million VR headsets would be sold by the end of 2016 - well, it looks like they've had some time to think, and have reduced their VR forecast by 30%.

The research firm expects console VR to reach a larger audience than PC, with the company expecting worldwide VR revenues to hit $3.6 billion - 30% less than the $5.1 billion it predicted in January. SuperData's Director of Research and Insights Stephanie Llamas explained to GamesIndustry.biz: "Since we published our original figures, we have had a number of conversations with both hardware and software developers, as well as access to newly public information".

Llamas continued: "We previously overestimated PC and mobile hardware penetration and underestimated console hardware sales. Console will be high-end VR's white horse since it has lower hardware requirements, easier set-up and lower pricing. PlayStation's 35 million-plus users are also a far larger accessible audience than that of high-end PCs, which tops off at about 17 million".

Virtual reality is almost here, and Sony's PS4-powered PlayStation VR will be the first console-ready VR experience on the market. But what about the games? According to Sony, we can expect to pay as much as $59.99 for a single PSVR game, and the games won't be extensive AAA experiences, they'll be small and experimental.

In a recent interview with Polygon, Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida says that PlayStation VR games will cost "anywhere from $10 to $60". We know that Sony has plans to release more than 100 games throughout the headsets lifecycle, with the games described as "simple, passive experiences".

"At this point, VR is about creating new experiences, and we don't need as much content--asset creation. That's where it takes the largest number of resources," Yoshida said.

The VR revolution is here, with the Oculus Rift launching on March 28 and the HTC Vive on April 5. Sony is behind with its PlayStation VR, with no release date revealed yet. We expect this to change at the Game Developers Conference next week, though.

In a new interview with developer Alfonso del Cerro, the founder of Pentadimensional Games over their new indie superhero game Megaton Rainfall, we have some new details on the PlayStation VR. Megaton Rainfall will be one of the very first games on the PlayStation VR, with del Cerro explaning: "Sony showed a lot of interest in our game since they played it at GDC 2015. They were looking for projects por PSVR and I was showcasing MR at the Indie Megabooth".

He continued: "Since then they have been very friendly, they helped us with the visibility, showing the game in videos, their blog, and events like PlayStation Experience and next week at GDC 2016. They even offered an exclusivity deal so I'm happy with them. And of course being one of the first games for PlayStation VR will give the game a lot more visibility".

Amazon has their fingers in nearly every type of media there is. They have a successful games studio, a television and movie studio that's working on several exciting new projects, a hardware division that's had great success and now they're breaking into virtual reality.

At least so far as a job announcement that's been posted on Glassdoor seems to indicate. They want to help integrate VR into their Amazon Video projects, probably to dive into something new while others are still planning how they'll attack it as well.

The job posting says they're looking for a senior software development manager to lead a team to build a VR experience within Amazon Video. So far Netflix and Hulu have VR apps that give you a sort of theater experience, though this may be more than just a VR-centric app, and more a full-on VR video experience right from their own internal player. My guess is that they want to expand their web application to include a VR hub for those that make VR and possibly even integrate that into their own video projects.

Designed as a promotion between Samsung and Six Flags in order to promote the brand new Gear VR hardware, users now have the option to wear this device while literally riding a roller coaster.

While some users and companies have made pneumatic roller coaster seats that move and jostle in conjunction with VR headsets, this literal roller coaster ride pits you as a fighter pilot battling against all odds, with the real g-forces of the roller coaster assisting in the whole sensory-overload experience.

As seen on Gizmodo this promotion is set to kick off on March 10, with it set to extend to Six Flags sites in Arlington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Lake George, Montreal, San Antonio, Agawam (Massachusetts) and Upper Marlboro (Maryland).

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has fired off some shots in Apple's general direction, saying that the current Macs aren't powerful enough to provide a good VR experience.

Luckey was speaking with Shacknews at the time, saying that in order for Oculus to provide Mac support for the Rift, Apple will need to release a Mac with enough GPU horsepower. Luckey said: "If they ever release a good computer, we will do it". The Oculus founder and flip-flop wearer said that that current Macs are just no good, as they don't have the right combination of hardware.

Luckey added that Apple "doesn't prioritize high-end GPUs", so even if you dump $6000+ onto a new Mac Pro with AMD FirePro D700 graphics "it still doesn't match our minimum specs". Oculus doesn't want to support Macs because of the lack of high-end GPUs, as they wouldn't be capable of playing VR games at the intended resolution and 90FPS frame rate. But, if Apple does decide to throw in better GPUs inside of future Macs, Luckey added "like they used to for a while back in the day", then Oculus might change its tune.

One of the things that excites me about AMD and its newly-formed Radeon Technologies Group, is that they're looking to the stars - especially when it comes to their next-gen Polaris architecture, and virtual reality. WCCFTech recently interviewed Guennadi Riguer, one of the lead software architects of LiquidVR. Before this, we had RTG boss Raja Koduri say that AMD wanted 16K @ 240Hz for "true immersion".

Riguer started off his talk with the site saying: "We at AMD are very passionate about graphics, VR with its high graphics demands is particularly exciting. However, VR is more than just pretty graphics. As a platform, it has the capacity to revolutionize how we interface with computers and provide a whole range of new experiences we haven't even imagined. Because of that we see VR as more than 'just another cool technology' and we firmly stand behind the efforts to bring immersive, unique experiences to Radeon users through continued innovation of LiquidVR".

The thing that piqued my interest, was that Riguer teased AMD is chasing 16K @ 144Hz... which is just completely crazy, but in a good way. He said: "LiquidVR is a set of technologies that has a very clear mission: to take maximum advantage of GPUs to enable rich and seamless content. As VR technology evolves, so will LiquidVR - we have a robust roadmap that will tackle a wide range of issues the industry already talks up as the next set of challenges we'll be facing. We believe that with LiquidVR, AMD has helped the industry to take a first big step in this wonderful new immersive world called virtual reality".

First we saw Coca-Cola convert 12-pack cartons into DIY virtual reality headsets, now the fast-food moguls at McDonald's are doing the same thing with their Happy Meals.

Big Macs and golden arches may be the furthest thing from your mind when you think about VR, but for a limited time, McDonald's is transforming its legendary Happy Meals into a Google Cardboard-style VR HMD. The kit, called Happy Googles, folds together to make an enclosure to slide in your mobile phone, and comes with a lens pack to simulate VR.

Unfortunately, Happy Googles may not see a widespread roll-out. McDonald's plans to ship some 3,500 units in Sweden later this month to accompany the country's "Sportlov" holiday, and a special VR skiing game will be released as well. If things go well in Sweden, we could see the kits ship overseas.

With the Oculus Rift pre-orders kicking off, and HTC starting their Vive pre-orders in the last 24 hours (and selling over 15,000 headsets in less than 10 minutes) - Microsoft is still around with its HoloLens, if you forgot. Microsoft is offering pre-orders on the HoloLens Development Edition for $3000, with pre-orders taking place today - with a launch date of March 30.

Reddit user 'Shooob' posted some details from a now pulled article on Fortune, with information on the launch titles for HoloLens. The pulled post had quotes from Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Kudo Tsunoda, and according to 'Shooob': Fragments, Young Conker and RoboRaid will be included with HoloLens - where they will "showcase the gaming capabilities that augmented reality opens up". Additionally, Shooob says: "Early purchasers of the new hardware will include game developers, and Microsoft is looking to create an ecosystem of software that will help it sell the consumer version of HoloLens down the line".

As for the games, Fragments "puts gamers in the middle of an augmented reality crime drama that unfolds in their living room. Players are able to investigate clues and solve crimes by interacting with characters that sit on their couch and talk directly to them". The explanation on Fragments continues: "As a holographic platform highlight, Fragments demonstrates how creators can build characters and storylines that drive a higher level of emotional engagement and attachment than you can with any other medium. Fragments blends the line between the digital world and the real-world more than any other experience we built. When your living room has been used as the set for a story, it generates memories for you of what digitally happened in your space like it was real. It is an experience that bridges the uncanny valley of your mind and delivers a new form of storytelling like never before".

An interesting leak yesterday seems to point towards the HoloLens having some very fascinating interactive, personal, experiences, particularly a game called Fragments.

HoloLens is getting an interactive crime-drama style game where you'd search around the real-world, with the HoloLens attached to your face, looking to clues to solve the various mysteries of the game. It first appeared in the Windows Store along with several other HoloLens enabled apps, but those were promptly removed. Information about it was posted in a blog post on Fortune, though that was taken down very quickly. A new blog post from Microsoft explains the new HoloLens experiences that are launching with the development edition of the device.

Thankfully a cached page is still available and explained exactly what kind of experience Fragments seeks to provide. "Fragments puts gamers in the middle of an augmented reality crime drama that unfolds in their living room. Players are able to investigate clues and solve crimes by interacting with characters that sit on their couch and talk directly to them." Kudo Tsunoda, the corporate VP of Microsoft, further explained how they want this to be a personal experience, one that potentially adapts to the available space. No two crimes will be the same, in other words.

HTC will open up the pre-order flood gates for its Vive headset in a few hours, but how much will it cost outside of the US? The US pricing is $799, but for a country like Australia it's been bumped up to $899 - without shipping. With the dollar conversion right now, we're looking at around AU$1261 without shipping - add another $100-$150 for shipping and we're at $1400 or so.

What about the rest of the world? The HTC Vive will cost £689 in the UK, while Canadians will expect to pay CAD$1149. Here's a breakdown of the rest of the pricing for the launch countries that the Vive will be hitting when it launches in April:

MSRP

For those with an awesome childhood, you might remember the Powerglove. Well, Sony has just filed a new patent for a finger-tracking flex sensor, which sports a separate contact sensor that registers when the wearer touches a physical object, and a communications module that sends the data to a VR headset.

Sony's new patent says that the Powerglove-like controller is "a trackable object that is configured to be illuminated during interactivity" with "at least one inertial sensor for generating inertial sensor data".

With the controller on, "users collaborating may use their gloves to touch objects, move objects, interface with surfaces, press on objects, squeeze objects, toss objects, make gesture actions or motions, or the like".

The Game Developers Conference kicks off on March 14, with Valve announcing it will be hosting a programming session called "Advanced VR Rendering Performance". In this session, Valve will talk about maintaining 90FPS in VR applications, without resorting to reprojection techniques.

The session teases: "Reliably hitting 90 fps in VR is a significant challenge. This talk will present a method for adaptively scaling fidelity to consistently maintain VR framerate without using reprojection techniques, even on very low-end GPUs, while also having the ability to increase fidelity for high-end GPUs and multi-GPU installations. Valve's Aperture Robot Repair VR experience that was shown at GDC 2015 required an NVIDIA 980 to maintain framerate, but this talk will use that same experience as an example of how we now adaptively scale fidelity to maintain 90 fps on an NVIDIA 680, a 4-year-old GPU. The end result is an engine that appears higher fidelity throughout the experience, a lower GPU min spec, increased art asset limits, and a system that allows developers to stop focusing on framerate and instead spend their time increasing the quality and performance of their renderer while consistently maintaining framerate".

Developers will walk away from the Advanced VR Rendering Performance session with "several methods for adaptively scaling fidelity to keep their VR applications in framerate without using reprojection techniques". the Advanced VR Rendering Performance session with "several methods for adaptively scaling fidelity to keep their VR applications in framerate without using reprojection techniques".

During a recent AR/VR presentation, Sony's Dr. Richard Marks revealed more details on Sony's PlayStation VR headset. According to one of the slides, the PS4 is actually 60% more powerful than equivalent PC hardware.

"This isn't my number, this is some middleware people that said that the PS4 console is 60% more powerful than a same-spec PC. This is because of all that direct access you have and knowing every piece is exactly what it should be, and not having any variability. You can just tune things and effectively get about 60% more performance," Dr. Marks said during the talk. Other details include a 120Hz refresh rate, Unity integration, always-on reprojection to reduce latency, 100-degree FOV, and less than 18ms latency with no "screen door" effect.

A PSVR developer corroborated the slide in a recent Reddit post, saying: "PSVR is extremely close to being on par with Vive and the Rift w/ a gtx970 based on the tests I've done. The team from Epic (Nick & Tom) have also stated the same in at least one of their VR Twitch streams. If your app runs at 90Hz on a PC with a gtx970 then you should be very close to 60 on the ps4. And with the 120Hz reprojection applied it's glassy smooth."

Sony is holding a special invite-only press event at GDC 2016 where it may reveal the release date of its PlayStation VR headset.

Now that we know the Oculus Rift is $599 and ships in March and HTC's Vive is $799 for a release in April, there's only one missing link to the VR puzzle: Sony's PlayStation VR. The Japanese console-maker is expected to follow its competitors by announcing pricing and launch info at its exclusive GDC event next month.

Past speculation hints the PlayStation VR could cost anywhere from $400-600, with Sony saying that the PSVR will be "priced as a new gaming platform". Gamers are hoping that the PSVR will be as low as $299, but that seems like an especially low estimate, especially considering the headset's cutting-edge OLED displays.

Valve has released a standalone SteamVR performance test utility that benchmarks your system to see whether or not it's ready for the upcoming VR revolution.

The program itself runs through an amalgamation of the Portal VR demo from Valve, assessing whether or not your system is optimized for a full VR experience. You don't need a headset in order to run the demo, and after it's complete it'll show you the assessment with an average fidelity score and whether or not the framerate dropped below 90FPS, the refresh rate of the HTC Vive, which is the partnered VR platform.

Oculus and HTC have already released their recommended requirements for their headsets, but it's still very nice to have a benchmark capable of telling us pointedly whether games will generally run well in VR. Of course, different games will have different requirements and this only runs on Source Engine 2, which isn't the most demanding.

Microsoft has much higher hopes for its wearable headset, HoloLens, than it did for its Kinect camera. HoloLens creator Alex Kipman said during a TED talk in Vancouver that HoloLens might be consumer ready, but Microsoft wants to have plenty of things to actually use with HoloLens before it hits the market.

The company doesn't want a repeat of Kinect, and even though it had big sales of around 10 million units in two months, the sales dived, and ultimately this was because of the lack of software and uses for Kinect. Kipman said: "It was not a pleasant experience", adding that Kinect "was just not ready". He hopes that HoloLens can't steer away from the brick wall that Kinect hit, with developers diving into the HoloLens market and pushing for longevity with the headset.

Kipman continued: "If a consumer bought [HoloLens] today, they would have 12 things to do with it. And they would say 'Cool, I bought a $3,000 product [Note: That's the price of a development kit, not a final MSRP.] that I can do 12 things with and now it is collecting dust". He added: "When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it. It could be as soon as we say 'yes,' and it could be as long as a 'very long time".

HTC will reportedly begin taking pre-orders for its Vive headset on February 29, with the first VR headsets from HTC and Valve hitting consumers on April 1 - days after the Oculus Rift begins shipping to consumers on March 28.

Then we have news from Japanese site S-Max that HTC will announce the official Vive pricing at Mobile World Congress, which kicks off in Barcelona, Spain in a few hours time. HTC will unveil a slew of new smartphones, but I think MWC is going to be a very big deal for them this year thanks to the Vive.

Now, for price. The Oculus Rift is priced at $599 and only includes an Xbox 360 controller, not the awesome Lighthouse controllers and sensors that are included with the HTC Vive. The only rumor we have on the pricing for Vive has it hovering at the $1500 mark, which sounds extremely high, but isn't that high considering what you get in the box. The Vive ships with the awesome Lighthouse controllers, which could be sold separately for hundreds of dollars. Oculus won't be shipping its Touch controllers for the Rift until later this year, and the Rift is still $599 - the Touch controllers should cost somewhere between $199-$299, according to our estimates.