Extended Reality (XR) - Page 76

Over the last year, I have been reporting on Comet ISON, and its impending extremely close encounter with the sun. Yesterday, while many of us were sitting down to dinner tables, and enjoying a nice meal with friends and family, ISON skirted through the very upper region of the sun.

ISON reached perihelion, its closest point to the sun, around 1:30pm EDT yesterday afternoon. Initial reports were that the icy traveler had succumbed to the intense heat and gravity that is present just 750,000 miles from the sun. In fact, all of the images coming out of NASA's SOHO observatory indicated that ISON took a sharp turn into the sun just before perihelion and vaporized.

Fortunately this morning new data has been released that shows that ISON's nucleus or partial chunk of its nucleus managed to survive. In the video above, you can see what appears to be a jet of debris getting flung away from the Sun just a few degrees above the comets entry point. It is still unclear whether or not any of this debris will become visible to the naked eye from earths surface in the next few weeks, but all is not lost. The data that ISON has provided the scientific community is simply massive and will allow scientist to study not only comets, but the suns magnetosphere for decades to come.

Looks like the Oculus Rift won't be coming to consoles anytime soon. Palmer Luckey, inventor of Oculus Rift says the next-gen consoles won't be able to keep up. He mentions the Oculus Rift needs 60 frames per second in 3D and that he sees games are being pushed out at 720p at 60 frames a second.

Palmer Luckey told TechRadar: "Consoles are too limited for what we want to do. We're trying to make the best virtual reality device in the world and we want to continue to innovate and upgrade every year - continue making progress internally - and whenever we make big jumps we want to push that to the public".

He continued: "The problem with consoles in general is that once they come out they're locked to a certain spec for a long, long time. Look at the PCs that existed eight years ago. There have been so many huge advances since then. Now look at the VR hardware of today. I think the jump we're going to see in the next four or five years is going to be massive".

The Oculus Rift is in my opinion, one of the biggest game changing pieces of technology to hit the PC gaming world since the introduction of the discrete GPU. Until now though, the Rift has officially been slated for the PC, but this morning a new report has surfaced that suggest we will be seeing a mobile friendly version quite soon.

Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe spoke earlier this week at the GamesBeat conference held by VentureBeat, and during his speech, Iribe said that his company has plans to launch a production version of the Oculus Rift that is both PC and Mobile compatible. He went on to say that the this version would be lighter and smaller in size than the existing developer units, and that it would be compatible with any device running the Android OS.

Iribe says that Id Software founder and Oculus CTO John Carmack has been working on the mobile side of things and that development is coming along quite nicely. "We have some exciting plans on the mobile VR side as [well as] the PC VR side,' Iribe said. 'We're really looking at hitting the consumer market. We're very excited about what we're seeing," Iribe said. "We were sceptical about how good mobile VR could be on such a small platform, but it's pretty incredible what Carmack has been able to do."

I might be showing my age here, but Myst was one of the most amazing games I ever had the chance of playing when I was young. When I first got the chance to test out the Oculus Rift, one of the first games that I thought would be amazing to play in the VR world was, Myst.

Well, the award-winning creators of Myst and Riven are on Kickstarter right now trying to fund their latest title: Obduction. Obduction is an "all-new, real-time, first-person adventure that harkens back to the spirit of Cyan's earlier games Myst and Riven. Obduction resurrects that incredible feeling of suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a new world to explore, discover, solve, and become part of."

One of the most interesting parts of the Obduction Kickstarter page, is in its FAQ, where the question "What about Oculus Rift support" to which the answer is: "We are excited about Oculus Rift (we have a dev kit) and VR in general, and we'd love to have a stretch goal that heads that direction."

Today Jeri Ellsworth released a new video on her YouTube channel that gave us a look into what has been going on in her world since she was let go from Valve. Jeri says she has been working on a project that was started about two years ago when she was recruited by Valve to develop an all new way to play video games using augmented reality and virtual reality.

To summarize a long story, Jeri stumbled across a neat effect using special image projection glasses and a sheet of retro reflective material. When combined, the two pieces of technology created a beautiful holographic gaming experience that does not cause headaches from eye strain. Jeri said that she had a hard time selling the new discovery to Valve as they did not see how this could fit into the types of games they were developing.

Jeri teamed up with a developer at Valve named Rick Johnson who began developing games for the system in his spare time after hours at Valve. Jeri continued working on the headset and managed to shrink it down drastically and at the same time, she developed a "magic wand" that was used to control characters on the gaming surface. The gaming system became popular and Jeri says that Valve employees would stop by her office at the end of the day and spend hours playing games on the system.

Fractal Design has launched a new website and corresponding mobile app that is unlike any other hardware manufacturer's website that I have seen. The new website is clean and minimalistic, which obviously reflects the company's design ethics. The front page features a large slider that is very informative and quite pleasing to the eye, but the refresh really shines when you download the company's app for Android or iOS.

The app is laid out in such a way that users can quickly find information on the product of their choosing, while at the same time managing to provide a rich and minimal user interface. Things really take a turn towards awesome when you check out the Augmented Reality features that the app offerers. By simply downloading and printing out a "trigger"--a small image that helps the app place the AR image--users can use the app to visualize what a particular Fractal Design product may look like in their home, office, or anywhere the trigger is placed.

Until today, I have not put much stock into Augmented Reality, but the concept that Fractal Design has implemented here really gets me excited. I can see this technology being used for all sorts of things such as when buying wheels for your vehicle or even when shopping for a new water cooling system for your PC. This is definitely the future and I hope that we see more tech companies using this in their apps in the future.

Oculus Rift is incredibly awesome, but it is quite limited when it comes to fully supported games. VorpX has stepped in, unleashing its software which is still in beta, which opens up the world of virtual reality to countless new games.

VorpX works with huge games like BioShock Infinite and Mirror's Edge, but best of all, it works with Battlefield 3. None of these games are built to work with the Rift headset, so there are some workarounds that the team of VorpX has used. This includes clicking in and holding down your middle mouse wheel which will let you "edge peak."

Edge peak allows you to look freely at the edges of your field of view, instead of moving within the game world by moving your head, and the Rift. The list of compatible games with Rift thanks to VorpX is huge, and I'm quite excited to test out a bunch of them this week.

I think that 2014 is going to be the breakout year for virtual reality, with kick-ass products like the Oculus Rift which isn't even close to a consumer launch yet. But, now we have Vision Sensor hitting IndieGogo, which the team give a description of "creates new seeing capabilities for the Oculus Rift."

Vision Sensor is basically augmented reality for the Oculus Rift, which sees two sensors and a sensor attachment cover strapped to the front of an Oculus Rift Developer Kit. It features a resolution of 1280x480 at 60FPS, and weighs just 75g so that it doesn't feel too heavy with the Rift, and Vision Sensor on your head.

The team at Vision Sensor say that there are 3 new possibilities to add to the user experience, with the first being an Immersive AR Experience. The second is Intuitive Operation (Mixed Reality) and the final possibility is Regaining Lost Vision. The first, lets you be in the world of Oculus Rift, but still stay in the real-world through augmented reality.

The finalists of VR Jam 2013 have been announced, which was a joint venture between Oculus VR and IndieCade. If you're lucky like me and own an Oculus Rift headset, you can download 14 of the 20 finalists' submissions, with two dragon simulators to try out.

On September 19 the winning team will be announced, where they will receive a $10,000 grand prize as well as a trip to the Oculus HQ. The winning team will also win a trip to the IndieCade Festival which takes place between October 3-6, where they will have a showcase exhibition of their game. For the full list of finalists, we have:

Today, QNAP Security announced the launch of its latest Linux-based VioStor NVR product. The VioStor NVR VS-2100 Pro+ series is a two-bay tower form-factor NVR that is available in four, eight, and 12 channels and is designed with small to medium business and small office/home offices in mind.

The VioStor NVR VS-2100 Pro+ series features dual-core Intel 2.6GHz processors and 4GB of DDR3 memory to ensure high-performance and stable recording while providing smooth playback from multiple megapixel IP cameras. The series is able to accommodate up to 8TB of high-quality videos encoded in H.264, MPEG-4, M-JPEG, and MxPEG. Full HD 1080p at 180fps video playback is supported thanks to onboard video hardware.

"The global security market presents high demand for HD resolution applications, and QNAP VioStor products are well-positioned for this need," said Amily Fang, product manager of QNAP Security. "The VS-2100 Pro+ series are affordable surveillance solutions for small-scale surveillance deployment scenario such as childcare, elder care, home, parking lot, retail stores, and so on."

This morning Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift, announced a new addition to the team. The company said that id Software co-founder and legendary programmer John Carmack has joined the Oculus team as the company's new Chief Technical Officer. Oculus says that Carmack "is one of the brightest minds of our generation - pioneer, visionary, and industry legend. There are very few people in the world that can contribute to the Oculus Rift and the future of virtual reality like John can."

For those of you who might be too young to remember, John Carmack is the brains behind revolutionary pioneer first-person shooter games such as DOOM, QUAKE, RAGE and Wolfenstein. Carmack is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of 3-D graphics and has recently worked as a programmer in the aerospace industry at Armadillo Aerospace. Carmack prepared a statement which I have pasted below.

Today, we're seening evidence that Microsoft has plans to build its own version of so-called SmartGlasses similar to that of Google Glass. A recent patent application from the software giant shows off what appears to be augmented reality glasses for multiplayer gaming.

The patent shows off what appears to be a pair of normal sunglasses with a camera and microphone mounted in the nose bridge. Sensors would be located at different positions around the frame as well as speakers mounted near the ears. The patent claims device could receive voice commands, track your eyes, calculate depth, and recognize the faces of fellow players.

This patent falls in line with a similar patent by Microsoft recently that details how to augment live events with augmented reality displays. At the moment, it is still unclear if Microsoft has produced any prototypes or if this patent is simply IP.

How many hours did you put yourself through in Atari's 1984 classic, Paperboy? I know I rode through that game for countless hours, and it looks like I might just do it again with Globacore's new title.

Globacare are a creative technology company who specialize in large multi-touch displays, and have unveiled a new work-in-progress, first-person homage to Paperboy, Paperdude VR. Paperdude VR uses Oculus' VR headset, Rift, as well as Microsoft's motion sensor, Kinect. You can see in the video above that player rides on a stationary bike, attempting to throw newspapers into peoples' mailboxes.

Paperdude VR is a great concept, something that might just keep gamers a bit fitter than they are now. Constantly peddling your bike in a game is sure to keep gamers a bit fitter. The more I see on Oculus Rift, the more I want it.

Oculus Rift developer forum user Teddy0K has made a first-person, cover-based shooter using Oculus' Rift VR headset in conjunction with Razer's Hydra motion controller.

Teddy0K shows us in the video (above) that the Hydra wand is attached to the gamer's chest, while the Hydra joystick is placed in your hands and used as your weapon, as well as controlling your forward and backwards movement within the game. The motion-controlled rig allows gamers to perform in-game actions such as ducking behind cover and blind firing over it.

What we see, is an updated version of Teddy0K's HydraDeck Demo. Teddy wrote on the developer forum: "The position tracking adds a tonne to the immersion of being in a virtual world. Please be careful when playing this demo, lots of people try to support themselves on the crates when they try to stand up or when leaning up against a column, but find there is nothing there!"

I've used Oculus Rift HD and I really just don't want to go back to normal reality, but I guess I have to. Oculus VR, the company behind Oculus Rift, and IndieCade are teaming up for a three-week long gaming event called VR Jam.

VR Jam will get developers together in order to create content for Oculus Rift. VR Jam starts on August 2, and ends on August 25 with two categories to compete in. The first of which is 'Selected Developers' and the second, 'Open Call.' Selected developers will compete against hand-picked teams of 10, while Open Call pits any independent developer to register and compete.

Oculus VR and IndieCade will don their judging hats, with winners being announced on September 19. Games will be scored by their innovation and virtual reality design. As for prizes, there will be more than $50,000 in total with a $10,000 prize for the winners of either category. Registration, rules and everything else you need to know about VR Jam is available on Oculus VR's website.

PAX Australia 2013 - When I go out to a bar, I generally drink, like most people do - but would you want to go to a bar and enjoy some virtual reality gaming? Well, Virtual Reality Insanity are hoping you do, as they are opening up a new VR gaming bar in Melbourne, Australia.

We're currently in Melbourne, Australia for PAX AU 2013, and our first meeting was with VR Insanity, where we got to use Oculus Rift in Team Fortress 2. It was my first test with Oculus Rift, and I was blown away. Later in the day we had a meeting with Oculus VR themselves, but this was our first toe in VR water. Team Fortress 2 was phenomenal on Oculus Rift, something that I soon hope to play much more when Oculus release Rift to the public.

As for the VR gaming bar, VR Insanity are going to open up a 6v6 VR gaming bar, which will include Oculus Rift, Onmi, Razer Hydra controllers and more. It's going to be quite kick ass, as there'll be tournaments and matches versus your friends, all in virtual reality. We hope to attend the opening night of this, and should have some content if we get to that point.

PAX Australia 2013 - I have been waiting since Oculus first reached Kickstarter to try out their Rift VR headset, and today my day came. We first went to another booth and tried out the 720p Developer Kit version, which we'll have a video uploaded shortly on.

The first story I wanted to write from PAX AU was about Oculus. We had a 2:30PM meeting but turned up 30 minutes early by mistake, but the Oculus guys were happy to accommodate us. We were sitting there, in one of the smallest booths at PAX AU and while it's small, it had heart and soul, and most of all: passion. We were introduced to Joseph Chen, who is head of Product at Oculus, who mentioned that Nate (the Vice President of Product at Oculus VR) would be on-hand soon.

We were been greeted with the Full HD 1920x1080 version of the Oculus Rift, which is different to the HD 1280x720 version of Rift which is found in the form of the Kickstarter backed Developer Kits. These devices are much higher resolution, but as we were told, are more like 'alpha' units.

I'll be attending PAX AU on Friday, where I'll finally get some hands-on (or is that heads- and soul-on) with Oculus' Rift VR headset. I'll be using the Full HD version, which I'm quite excited about.

But, for now, the company have said that they're going to be releasing Rift to consumers at $300. Most people will look at that and think it's expensive, but consider the price of a Full HD 27-inch monitor, which is around the same price, and it doesn't seem so bad. Moving onto multi-monitor setups, which are even more expensive, it makes Oculus' Rift look like a much better alternative.

During an interview with Edge Online, Oculus' CEO, Brandon Iribe noted how he hopes it would influence how we play games in a better way than next-gen consoles. He talked about the way that Rift will reach the market, acknowledging that "the lower the price point, the wider the audience." It's true, but getting it cheaper than $300 will be hard.

I've expressed my thoughts on next-gen games countless times, with my latest piece here. I truly believe Oculus Rift is the future of gaming, and so do the Game Critics Awards, who chose Oculus Rift as the Best Hardware/Peripheral of E3 2013.

This means that the Oculus Rift beat out both the next-gen consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This speaks volumes about the next-generation of games, with the consoles yet another evolution and not a complete revolution which is what we need. Oculus Rift turns the entire industry upside down, offering the game in virtual reality.

I'm glad that Oculus Rift took the award home, they obviously deserved it. Well done, Oculus VR!

E3 2013 - Oculus VR is kicking off their E3 experience with a major upgrade to the Oculus Rift, which now is able to display the virtual-reality world in full 1080p glory. The company has upgraded the virtual-reality headset not by creating a custom display but switching out the original non-HD display developer units received to an off-the-shelf 1080p HD display used in cell phones.

Early reports are stating that the new display makes a huge difference and the immersive world created actually feels like you're really there. The 1080p screen is actually split in half and each eye sees a 960x1080 portrait display.

Word is that the company was worried about how the switch from landscape to portrait mode might affect games but he said that there have been no issues reported. Additionally they have not noticed any issues in with the existing games created by the 10,000 developers who now have Oculus Rift development kits.