Extended Reality (XR) - Page 62

There have been some changes to the OSVR project, with the team updating the specifications of their Hacker Development Kit. The Razer-led OSVR project has also updated the software and API, which is now capable of using NVIDIA's GameWorks VR technology.

The biggest difference is the new 5.5-inch silver-screened OLED display, packing a 1920x1080 resolution with 120Hz refresh rate. OLED technology has a higher response rate to the individual pixels, which will result in a much lower persistence experience. The optics module has also been modified, with a larger eye box that makes it easier to slip the OSVR headset on, as well as increasing comfort.

Inside, there's still the same two lens system that reduces geometric distortion by 13%, with the sensor hub being integrated so that it takes up less physical space. It includes an accelerometer, gyroscope and a compass. There's also two USB 3.0 headers which are perfect for expansion, another USB 3.0 connection has been added to the outside of the OSVR, too.

This time last year we were at the NVIDIA Editor's Day where we got the chance to test out Epic Games' at the time 'Car Flip' VR experience. This ended up being 'Showdown', one of the best VR experiences at the time.

Well, now Epic has released the Unreal Engine 4-powered Showdown experience, which you can download directly from the Epic Games Launcher. The cinematic, bull-time action "experience" is compatible with the Oculus Rift, Sony's Project Morpheus and HTC Vive. If you have an Oculus Rift DK1 or DK2 headset, you need to download this right now and check it out.

Final Fantasy 15 has seen lots of transitions during its storied development, including an experimental phase centered around immersive VR experiences.

Instead of forcing gamers to strap on an Oculus Rift for hours on end, Square Enix toyed with the idea of using VR for certain sections of the game in order to immerse players into the overall experience. "We had tested out utilizing VR," Square Enix's Hajime Tabata told IGN at PAX 2015. "At the time we were looking into it, we felt that it could potentially work as a passive experience for a portion of the game utilizing VR."

In the end, the devs decided that VR just wasn't a good fit for their action-based RPG--especially with that finicky targeting camera which would induce dizzying motion sickness."We felt that it would potentially make sense for a segment, but in terms of the overall game in itself, the entire game, we didn't feel that having that headset on for the entirety of the game and that experience would match what we were aiming for with XV. It's a very long game [and] you'd wear that headset for hours."

With its near-limitless potential, virtual reality remains one of the most exciting new tech innovations in recent memory--but Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey concedes that the transition to VR will be a very slow-going process.

Accessibility remains one of VR's principal hurdles, as higher-end hardware is required to generate the illusion of total immersion. Headsets like the Oculus Rift pretty much act like advanced peripherals with the computer shouldering the brunt of the workload, and most everyday consumers just aren't ready to shell out for a beefier rig--ontop of the HMD's cost.

"I mean the question is: how fast can virtual reality really take off? Right now, it requires a fairly significant investment in computing hardware, a pretty high-end PC," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said in an interview with TrustedReviews. "Virtual reality is going to take a long time to become something that's truly mainstream."

If you were excited about getting your hands on the HTC Vive headset sometime this year, you're going to have to have a lot of luck on your side to just get your mitts on one this year.

HTC has told Engadget that they "have a limited number of units by the end of the year, with more to come in Q1 2016". But not all is lost, as this is HTC's first time manufacturing a VR headset, and it has a lot more going on inside and outside of it compared to the Oculus Rift. But those numbers are scary, as I'm guessing they'll be in the tens of thousands of units.

On the other hand, it'll be great marketing to sell them all out quickly and have people wanting the Vive after hearing all of the, hopefully great feedback on them when they reach the general public later this year.

During the 2015 Intel Developer Forum, Razer has announced it is working with Intel to include its RealSense technology platform for virtual reality and video game streamers.

Utilizing RealSense, consumers can expect better game broadcasting and VR gaming capabilities, including the ability to change backgrounds while streaming. Intel RealSense-powered cameras provide motion and gesture recognition, 3D scanning, providing an immersive experience.

"Razer is excited to be working with Intel, using Intel RealSense technology to help pioneer work for game broadcasting, as well as with VR, with support from the growing OSVR movement," said Min-Liang Tan, co-founder and CEO of Razer. "Gamers will, we expect, be able to enhance their broadcasting and VR experience in unprecedented ways."

Epic Games wants to see its Unreal Engine 4 become the chosen platform for creating virtual reality applications, with the game studio fully embracing VR. In fact, "almost every one of the Oculus demos" shown to the public was "probably built in the Unreal Engine," according to Epic Games.

"It's easy to be excited about it. A lot of the guys, especially on the game side, there's a bit of fatigue," said Ray Davis, GM of the Unreal Engine 4 business at Epic Games, in a statement to GamesBeat.

It's not just about game studios with large budgets able to create content using Unreal Engine 4, but consumers realistically evolving into creators themselves. Hopefully, VR is able to help drive that interest in the future:

As a kid I always dreamed about a more futuristic, immersive laser tag experience that would let me enter the game and gun down virtual baddies. Now with the advent of VR tech, the future is here, and a company called Zero Latency aims to transport players into a chaotic first-person shooter sim to make our childhood wishes come true.

Zero Latency's VR gaming suite is comprised of an open 400square meter room specifically designed to let up six-players roam freely. Like any shooter sim experience every player has their own gear: an Oculus Rift DK2 headset stems to an Alienware Alpha PC stuffed in a backpack, and last but not least we have the wireless plastic gun whose VR version is a high-powered rifle that mows down zombies. Body movement is tracked by sensors outfitted on the Rift and the gun that curiously resemble Sony's PlayStation Move tech, relaying signals to mirror in-game transitions.

"Zero Latency VR is the experience the future of immersive gaming," the YouTube video description reads. Imagine a game that doesn't feel like a game. Where your body is the controller. And your mind believes it's real. The digital and real-world meshed seamlessly together, to transport you inside the virtual like never before. When you move, the game moves with you. Pure immersive mayhem with the freedom to get up and go."

Expect Samsung to launch the new Gear VR headset "soon," but an exact launch date remains "a surprise," according to Jong-Kyun Shin, Samsung President and CEO of the mobile division.

Samsung has faced pressure from dropping smartphone and tablet sales, and hopes its VR platform - co-developed with Oculus VR - can offer a strong boost. The first Gear VR was compatible with just the Note 4, and the next model will be supported by the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge+.

The Korean electronics company elected to work with Oculus VR instead of try to create its own VR technology independently, and hopes developers will pick up the $200 model currently in development. The new generation wearable is lighter, its physical design altered to support the new Samsung devices, and should be more comfortable than the first edition.

Palmer Luckey, the original founder and inventor of the Oculus Rift, believes famed director James Cameron is not correct about the long-term potential of virtual reality for movies and entertainment.

In late October, Cameron described the excitement around VR as "a yawn," and questioned content creation and interactivity of the format.

"He is incorrect. All you have to do is try virtual reality to understand that it goes beyond anything you can do, even on a 3D television or a 3D movie screen," Luckey said in a statement to IGN. "Being surrounded, feeling like you're actually present in a virtual world, it gives you a much more compelling canvas to tell stories with than having to frame everything into a small rectangle you just watch it. I think that speaks for itself."

Microsoft is pushing forward with its HoloLens wearable smart glasses, but there is no timetable when it will be launched. Instead, the company wants to make sure developers have a proper chance to create apps and services, while Microsoft listens to feedback.

"What we know with HoloLens is we need to get it into the hands of developers, that's where you're going to get the best feedback early on," Spencer told Eurogamer. "I don't think we're far away from that - I'm not announcing dates - but we're not far from that. In terms of it being too good to be true - the technology will evolve."

Microsoft wants holograms to become more practical, for consumers and in the workplace, hopefully providing a full immersive experience. Don't expect Microsoft to overhype HoloLens, with the company planning "to be deliberate about what it is," according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Activist news organization Ryot is giving virtual reality supporters a 360-degree view of Syria, with its "Welcome to Aleppo" three-minute film. The journalist who captured the footage used six cameras and a 3D-printed gimbal placed on a tripod in one of the most dangerous regions of the world.

"VR will definitely be used for entertainment, porn, video games, all of that," said Christian Stephen, the global editor responsible for filming the video in Syria for Ryot, in a statement to the AP. "It can also be used to genuinely communicate stories around the world in desperate need of reaching people. The fatigue that has come with photos and videos of explosions and people crying has numbed people to the reality of the world, especially in Syria."

Stephen admitted trying to capture the footage was a daunting task, with regime and rebel snipers taking aim at the odd contraption - and those responsible for leaving it unattended. "It's an incredibly harsh environment to work in normally, but when they see you running around with a tripod and an alien device on top of it, they are going to try and kill you."

EverDisplay Optronics (EDO) has crafted the world's first 6-inch 4K UHD Super AMOLED smartphone panel specifically aimed at optimizing the growing mobile VR sector.

EDO's new panel packs in up to 734 PPI in a compact scale with an Ultra-HD resolution of 3840 x 2160. While these specs are overkill for everyday smartphone use, they offer tremendous advantages to virtual reality applications and gaming.

Thanks to the low latency (a huge must for keeping the illusion of virtual reality) and optimized visuals like real darkness with superb contrast ratio and minimal hazardous high-energy blue ray, the panel is a perfect fit for VR. "Visually a person immerses himself into a faux real surrounding by means of VR devices," says EverDisplay Optronic's CEO Dr. David Chu. "To do so, it requires exponentially higher PPI in display, far beyond what current market offers. Using today's UHD (4K) display turn-on as a launch pad, EDO is determined to enter the VR market."

Although VR is largely regarded as the hot new tech for gaming, Microsoft's Hololens has huge potential to make AR a very real combatant against devices like the Oculus Rift. One of the key paths to doing so revolves around seamless multiplayer interaction through AR, and Microsoft has tapped its online juggernaut service Xbox LIVE to power these experiences.

At Gamescom 2015 Microsoft Games Evangelist Jaime Rodriguez revealed that the Xbox LIVE API would be fully functional across every device in the Universal Windows Platform, which includes Windows Phones, Windows 10 PC's, Xbox One consoles and the new Hololens AR headset.

This effectively means that Xbox LIVE online multiplayer could eventually be available on the AR-ready Hololens. Imagine playing Minecraft with friends across the globe via holographic images overlayed across your home, hacking at projected trees and building titanic castles in the sky...I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

Oculus is teasing a new 'multiplayer' mode for its VR application Oculus Cinema, an app that pits users into a virtual cinema so that they can watch movies and TV episodes on a massive, virtual screen.

During a talk with Road to VR, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said that the idea behind Oculus Cinema was to always have VR users experiencing the movie together, just like you do when you go to the cinema. Luckey continued, saying that the app will continue to receive more social features in the coming months, such as avatars and a remote multiplayer function, so that users won't need to be in the same room.

The new social VR cinema experience will be pushed onto the Gear VR, which you'll need a Samsung Galaxy smartphone to use, but it will eventually reach the retail Oculus Rift headset when it launches in early 2016.

Basemark has announced that it has teamed up with Crytek, the studio behind the Crysis franchise and the gorgeous CryENGINE, for a new real-world VR benchmark.

The new VR Benchmark will stress test your machine, providing you with a score that will determine if you can play VR games on the various VR HMDs coming out in the near future. With the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive (SteamVR), StarVR and various other VR HMDs on the horizon, Basemark is in a very lucrative spot with VR Benchmark.

Basemark's new VR benchmark is built on the foundations of CryENGINE using DirectX 12, and starts at 1920x1080. The benchmark will stress test your hardware to maintain a great VR experience at 60FPS, 75FPS, 90FPS or 120FPS. VR Benchmark will test out various latencies such as your input latency (from the tracker and the controller to your application) and the to-the-display latency (application to photon latency).

Autodesk has announced a new Stingray game engine, with full support for the Oculus Rift out of the box when it launches later this month on August 19.

Autodesk is better known for its computer visualization tools for architecture, engineering, CGI and more with software like Maya and 3DS Max, but this venture into the gaming world is going to be a big one. Stingray will see Autodesk doing everything in-house, instead of using Autodesk software somewhere along the game-making procedure, pulling assets in from other game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine. The company is pitching Stingray to game developers as a way of providing seamless interoperability between Autodesk's software, with a "one-click workflow and live link".

Stingray will launch with full support for the Oculus Rift DK2 headset out of the box, with Autodesk referring to the DK2 as one of Stingray's platforms that will support "Deployment and Testing". This means Stingray will allow developers to view their projects through the Rift during development, where they can then publish a game that's compatible with the DK2 with ease.

The Apple Watch didn't give the wearables market a significant boost like some analysts hoped for, but there is plenty of great growth opportunity thanks to virtual reality. Even though there have been very few VR product launches this year, shipment volumes will reach 14 million units in 2016, according to TrendForce's Topology Research Institute (TRI).

VR video games cost less to create than VR movies, and with the appeal of audiovisual in regards to VR, there is huge sales potential. Game developers have plenty of incentives, such as low cost and minimal time investment, to create VR game titles - and it seems like only a matter of time before VR-centric games hit the market.

"VR hardware's market positioning is clearer than smartwatches," said Jason Tsai, wearable device analyst at TrendForce. "Since VR device's strongest feature is providing users with an immersive audiovisual experience, its early application will be related to gaming."

No Man's Sky is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and anticipated games in recent memory--its magnificent interstellar sci-fi themes awaken the inner space pirate in all of us, not to mention the cosmic beauty of an infinitesimal procedurally-generated universe made of billions of celestial bodies and planets just waiting to be explored.

And what better way to experience such a galactic adventure than with VR? Hello Games' Sean Murray agrees that No Man's Sky would benefit tremendously from VR support, and has shown a lot of interest in the possibility. "Morpheus, Oculus...There's nothing more cool and sci-fi than VR and a big procedural universe," Murray continued in a recent interview with EDGE magazine. "I think that, for the people who want to just explore, and even for the space combat and things like that, it would be a good fit. Let's put it that way."

Acknowledging the sensitive nature of pre-release juggernauts and the deal with Sony, Murray wasn't able to get into specifics: "I don't know what I'm allowed to say. [VR support] is something we're thinking about."

Veteran Halo and Destiny alums have split from Bungie's studios to chase new virtual-reality dreams, forming their very own new studio called Endeavor One.

"We are artists, writers, designers, engineers, cinematic wizards, gamers, friends and professionals," reads the studio's credo on its official website. "We are makers who passionately believe in the future of VR and AR."

Shortly after their formation, the ex-Bungie team is ready to release their first VR-ready endeavor called Jump, which centers around players leaping around futuristic cityscapes--a concept that seems quite revolutionary and could be quite exciting for the immersive virtual platform. The object of the game is to reach the tallest skyscraper with as few jumps as possible while each city--New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Tokyo, etc.--hustles and bustles in modernized flair.