Mint Virtual Reality

This week is extremely light on new Vive  releases, most developers and publishers likely making the smart decision to stay out of the way of Steam’s infamous Summer Sale. The big highlight from this week is Zombie Hobby, a zombie shooter with a unique art style that only equips you with household items.

In the meantime, if you missed the previous iteration of this list, you can see those new releases here. And don’t forget that UploadVR has a Steam community group, complete with a curated list of recommendations so that you don’t have to waste any money finding out what’s good in the world of VR.

We also have a top list of the absolute best HTC Vive games — which is updated every few months with the latest and greatest options.

New HTC Vive Releases on Steam

Puttyface, from the3dCrew

Price: Free

Puttyface gives you platform for creative freedom, giving you molds of putty to smash, morph, push, and pull in VR.

Recommendation: It’s a free creative platform so definitely check it out.

Spider-Man: Homecoming VR Experience
Price: Free

It’s finally time to put on the webs and become Spider-Man for the first time in VR. This tie-in experience to the upcoming Homecoming movie gives you just a taste of what it’s like to be Peter Parker, letting you fire off different types of webs and have a close encounter with the villainous Vulture.

Recommendation: Sadly, the Spider-Man experience isn’t really worth checking out even though it’s free. It’s short and uninspired.

Lost Legends: The Pharaoh’s Tomb, from Escape VR LLC

Price: $2.99 (Currently Discounted)

In Lost Legends, you’re trapped in a tomb with an ancient Pharaoh and must figure out how to escape. There are a collection of puzzles you must solve as you seek out the hidden passage out of your predicament.

Recommendation: This is another escape experience worth your consideration, especially at that price. 

Block Rocking Beats, from Sander Sneek, Jochem de Klerk

Price: $10.04 (Currently Discounted)

Block Rocking Beats is your virtual sound studio where up to three players can play in a virtual band. You can play, record, and share your creations.

Recommendation: This is a cool and fun social music experience. Grab  it if you have interested buddies.

Distant Nightmare, from Field Of Vision

Price: $1.59 (Currently Discounted)

Distant Nightmare pulls you into a dark world of a child’s nightmare. You must ride your bike through the mysterious world to survive the night and wake up.

Recommendation: It’s not expensive and has a solid, creepy atmosphere. Worth a look if you like this genre!

 Zombie Hobby VR, from Pointlight Games

Price: $17.99 (Currently Discounted)

There are plenty zombie shooters in the VR ecosystem, but this one has a different flavor. Zombie Hobby forces you to use affordable objects in your daily life as weapons to take down zombies with a unique design style. It looks a little like zombies invaded Superhot VR.

Recommendation: This zombie shooter brings a unique style worth checking out.

TublerVR, from Reto Kolly

Price: $13.19 (Currently Discounted)

TublerVR is an environmental puzzle game where you must help tublers grow, activate bridges to allow passage and collect the rare blue mushrooms.

Recommendation: Don’t grab it just yet but keep an eye on it throughout Early Access.

End of the Road VR, from Barracuda Disaster

Price: $5.99

End of the Road takes you to a dark, misty forest for an atmospheric adventure. Explore your surroundings, unravel its secrets, and survive your circumstance.

Recommendation: Solid atmosphere that’s worth a look if you don’t mind getting spooked.

High clear VR, from FiveStarGames

Price: $13.99  (Currently Discounted)

High clear VR is a badminton experience with realistic physics and a collection of mini-games. There’s a match mode featuring four characters and a funny mode with different styles of play including football and fishing.

Recommendation: If you’re looking to play some badminton this isn’t a bad option.

Trainscape, from Bit Toys

Price: $14.99  (Currently Discounted)

Fancy a few model trains? Trainscape is for you. In this game, you can build a track, decorate with props and buildings, place your trains, and watch them go.

Recommendation: If you’re running out of room for your model trains, here’s a solid replacement.

Gunball, from REDspace

Price: $9.74  (Currently Discounted)

Gunball is an absurd and exciting new sport where you serve up balls and shoot at them to propel them through goals for points. Tap your hand-eye coordination and chase the high-score.

Recommendation: Good arcade fun. Check it out as a party game the next time  friends are over.

Ghost Ship, from Gone Coyote

Price: Free

This is a full CGI cinematic VR experience where you get to explore a ghost ship.

Recommendation: It’s a short, 2-minute experience, but hey nothing to lose!

VRTGO, from VRLive

Price: Free

VRTGO is a platform for artists to share their stories and experiences directly with their fans around the world. Here you’ll find 360-degree concerts and other interactive music experiences.

Recommendation: Add this to your collection of VR content aggregates. 

New HTC Vive Releases on Viveport

Front Defense, from Fantahorn Studio

Price: $19.99

Front Defense is an arcade-style shooter that takes place in the final days of World War II’s European theater. Duck, dive, shoot, throw grenades, and man-mounted guns as you fight against enemy advances.

Recommendation: It’s a decent concept that doesn’t quite impress.

 

via Mint VR

There really isn’t much new stuff on the Oculus Home store for Oculus Rift and Gear VR users this week. However, there are plenty of new things to check out over on Steam for Rift users. Bigger stuff should be coming soon while the Summer of Rift promotion continues.

If you missed the previous entry of this list you can see those new releases here. UploadVR has launched the ‘UploadVR PS VR Community’ on PlayStation 4! Join up, find other gamers to play with, and engage in discussions with them.

Also, don’t forget to check out our list of the 9 Best PlayStation VR Games if you need any extra inspiration.

New Rift And Gear VR Releases For Oculus Home

Spider-Man: Homecoming VR Experience, from Sony
Price: Free (Rift)

It’s finally time to put on the webs and become Spider-Man for the first time in VR. This tie-in experience to the upcoming Homecoming movie gives you just a taste of what it’s like to be Peter Parker, letting you fire off different types of webs and have a close encounter with the villainous Vulture.

Recommendation: Sadly, the Spider-Man experience isn’t really worth checking out even though it’s free. It’s short and uninspired.

The Lost, from PocketMemory

Price: $2.99 (Gear VR)

If you remember Dead Secret it was basically a murder-mystery style adventure game. The Lost looks very  similar, with a crime scene of  its own, although with  noticeably less Western-focused  influence. It appears to be adapted from  a previously released Google Cardboard version.

J Sports VR, from JSports

Price: Free (Gear VR)

This is another Gallery app, which means it wasn’t curated as well as the Oculus Home store. The description page isn’t even in English, but basically this is just a lobby for you to hang out and  watch sports videos in.

Recommendation: Skip, most of our audience likely won’t understand what this is about or for.

New Oculus Rift Releases On Steam

Block Rocking Beats, from Sander Sneek, Jochem de Klerk

Price: $10.04 (Currently Discounted)

Block Rocking Beats is your virtual sound studio where up to three players can play in a virtual band. You can play, record, and share your creations.

Recommendation: This is a cool and fun social music experience. Grab  it if you have interested buddies.

Distant Nightmare, from Field Of Vision

Price: $1.59 (Currently Discounted)

Distant Nightmare pulls you into a dark world of a child’s nightmare. You must ride your bike through the mysterious world to survive the night and wake up.

Recommendation: It’s not expensive and has a solid, creepy atmosphere. Worth a look if you like this genre!

 Zombie Hobby VR, from Pointlight Games

Price: $17.99 (Currently Discounted)

There are plenty zombie shooters in the VR ecosystem, but this one has a different flavor. Zombie Hobby forces you to use affordable objects in your daily life as weapons to take down zombies with a unique design style. It looks a little like zombies invaded Superhot VR.

Recommendation: This zombie shooter brings a unique style worth checking out.

Ghost Ship, from Gone Coyote

Price: Free

This is a full CGI cinematic VR experience where you get to explore a ghost ship.

Recommendation: It’s a short, 2-minute experience, but hey nothing to lose!

 VRTGO, from VRLive

Price: Free

VRTGO is a platform for artists to share their stories and experiences directly with their fans around the world. Here you’ll find 360-degree concerts and other interactive music experiences.

Recommendation: Add this to your collection of VR content aggregates. 

Tagged with: new releases, Oculus Home, steam

via Mint VR

ZyXEL pushes its Armor Z2 network router as a workhorse, and even sells a dedicated wireless extender. But can these combined devices cover the whole home?

The post ZyXEL Armor Z2 review appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

It’s a busy time to be a PSVR fan! There’s a healthy amount of games on offer for Sony’s headset this week, and some of them are really worth checking out. If you’re a fan of shooting things then we’ve got plenty to check out. If you’re a fan of wall-crawling… well maybe still skip Spider-Man VR.

If you missed the previous entry of this list you can see those new releases here. UploadVR has launched the ‘UploadVR PS VR Community’ on PlayStation 4! Join up, find other gamers to play with, and engage in discussions with them.

Also, don’t forget to check out our list of the 9 Best PlayStation VR Games if you need any extra inspiration.

Arizona Sunshine, from Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive
Price: $39.99 (currently discounted)

If you’ve been craving another full FPS following Farpoint then Arizona Sunshine is here to answer the call. Wake up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse in the heat of the Arizona desert and make your way through its canyons as you fend off hordes of the undead. Supports PS Move, DualShock 4, and the PSVR Aim Controller.

Recommendation: The game’s definitely watered down from its PC release, but it’s still a lot of fun. Grab it.

Ancient Amuletor, from Ti Games
Price: $19.99 (currently discounted)

A tower defense game where you are the tower. Choose from a handful of classes and defend a series of crystals from incoming enemies using guns, spells, or a bow and arrow. Cooperative multiplayer for up to four people gives the game a social edge and the PlayStation Move controls put you in the experience more completely.

Recommendation: Amuletor is fun, though it’s a little light on content.

Spider-Man: Homecoming VR Experience
Price: Free

It’s finally time to put on the webs and become Spider-Man for the first time in VR. This tie-in experience to the upcoming Homecoming movie gives you just a taste of what it’s like to be Peter Parker, letting you fire off different types of webs and have a close encounter with the villainous Vulture.

Recommendation: Sadly, the Spider-Man experience isn’t really worth checking out even though it’s free. It’s short and uninspired.

Cavernous Wastes, from Pounching Kitten Games
Price: $9.99

This one’s probably going to slip under your radar, but if you like six degrees of freedom (6DOF) shooters then it may be worth checking out. Jump into a vehicle and explore maze-like caverns, fighting off enemies. Visually it’s not very impressive but its gameplay could be a winner for the right person.

Recommendation: Fans of the 6DOF shooters should check it out.

Tagged with: Ancient Amuletor, arizona sunshine, new releases, Spider-Man

via Mint VR

Gunheart is a high-quality upcoming cooperative VR shooter from Drifter Entertainment coming to Rift and Vive later this year. When we got the chance to go hands-on with the game last month we loved the inventive setting, creative weapons, and solid gunplay, but felt a little underwhelmed by the focus on teleportation-only movement.

Luckily it looks like that’s only one of the movement options in Gunheart according to this new development video from the team. You can see more details in the video below:

In the video we can see teleportation still used as an option, especially for getting up onto tall structures, but there is a new “Strafe” feature now as well. This lets the user move around the environment freely and even sprint at a higher speed if needed. Mixing the two together will help players be more agile than ever while avoiding the swarms of enemies.

You can see more from Gunheart in the gameplay announcement trailer below. Let us know what you think of what you’ve seen so far down in the comments!

Tagged with: Drifter Entertainment, Gunheart

via Mint VR

USA TODAY has been a prominent figure in the creation of immersive content having created virtual reality (VR) news show VRtually There and livestreaming the Presidential inauguration. This week sees the network release its latest project, a fusion of 360-degree storytelling with VR interactivity aboard the USS Eisenhower.  

USS Eisenhower VR transports viewers into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on board the aircraft carrier during one of the biggest combat training exercises in recent Navy history, allowing users to freely explore stories via an detailed scale representation of the ship.

“USS Eisenhower VR” showcases the amazing visuals and human drama of an aircraft carrier in a totally new way. Audiences can launch off the deck in an F-18, explore the control tower and hangar, and meet the sailors who make it all happen. The 360-degree scenes are unprecedented. It’s the most ambitious reflection yet of our ongoing commitment to telling amazing stories in VR,” said Robert Padavick, Director of VR / 360-degree video, USA TODAY NETWORK in a statement.

With filming taking place over three days aboard the USS Eisenhower, USA TODAY NETWORK partnered with Nokia to film flight operations using its OZO camera. Crews also captured scenes in the cockpit of a F-18, in helicopters during a major resupply operation, and below deck. Interviews with commanders, pilots, and sailors reveal the drama of an aircraft carrier before deployment.

The fully interactive Eisenhower VR experience can be found on Viveport for HTC Vive. There’s an interactive version available on Google Daydream through USA TODAY’s “VR Stories” app, plus 360-degree videos on USA TODAY’s YouTube and Facebook channels, and within the Littlstar app for Samsung Gear VR and PlayStation VR.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of USA TODAY, reporting back with the latest announcements.

via Mint VR

Editor’s Note: Valve has started shipping the prototype Knuckles controllers to select VR developers in limited quantities. UploadVR hasn’t gotten its hands on a pair just yet, so we’ve reached out to the development community to see what they think. This article is a contribution from Denny Unger, Co-Founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Cloudhead Games, the studio behind The Gallery: Episode 1 – The  Call of the Starseed and Episode 2 – Heart of the Emberstone. 

---

User interfaces in virtual reality start with your hands. We know that now with the Oculus Touch and the HTC Vive, but even when VR was simply a screen strapped to your head many felt that hands were the future. We began to develop The Gallery on the first Oculus devkit with the Razer Hydra (a Sixense technology) to deliver surrogate hand tracking and body presence back in 2013. And when Valve invited Cloudhead and the first wave of developers to see what would eventually be known as the Vive, Valve showed a commitment to that same vision. Now Valve has invited us and a new wave of developers to begin working with their latest prototype—the SteamVR Knuckles, a wearable VR controller that tracks not just your hand, but each finger too.

Back in 2014, we didn’t realize exactly how accurate SteamVR tracking was—the whole notion of roomscale VR was almost incomprehensible. Up until that point, there was still some motion latency in VR, so you never felt completely attached to the actions in your hands. But once the SteamVR Lighthouses started tracking objects in a 3D space, it was a deep and immediate connection of, “Holy crap, that’s actually my hand in VR.”

Our goal then was to deliver an experience where the player doesn’t have to think about the controller, and has only natural, gestural interactions. We wanted to demonstrate why this kind of input—your hands themselves—was meaningful. When we received our first Vive devkit (wired at the time) we were taping them to our hands in order to feel more immersed, and we even spoke to Valve about crude ways they could strap the controller on.

Those early Vive prototypes already showed an incredible level of fidelity, capable of measuring the tiniest fraction of a movement. It’s like the Moore’s Law of motion control; each incremental improvement in tracking brings with it new possibilities. So as soon as you have that kind of fidelity with your hands in VR, you need your fingers to be more purely represented. And that’s what the Oculus Touch started to do by bringing capacitive, gestural input to the controller.

Where Touch differs from what the Knuckles offer, however, is that you’re still pushing a binary button in the end; Touch feels more grounded in traditional gamepad design. Specifically, you always feel like you’re holding something with buttons—and that works perfectly for gun games and sword games. But the Knuckles take that further by removing the abstractions of first-gen VR inputs. Even though it looks like a more complicated device, it’s actually a much simpler one.

With the Knuckles, you’re not holding a controller; it simply straps to your hand and rests in your palm. If you relax your hand into a natural flex, the controller stays put and keeps tracking your fingers. If you reach out to grab an object in VR, your hand wraps around the base of the controller, giving a tangible feeling of grabbing something. That physicality is something you don’t get from data gloves, or vision based inputs without any device, and that feeling can then be fine-tuned with haptic feedback. Plus, you’re not passing around a sweaty data glove between your friends.

When reaching out to an object with the Knuckles, I’m not thinking about the controller I’m holding in my hand, because I’m not holding one. I’m not thinking about how to use my fingers either, because they’re not assigned to a button press. I’m not even thinking about my hand, and that’s where the magic comes in—I’m just thinking about grabbing the object, as I would in real life. That entire grasping motion is represented in VR, whether I pinch with two fingers, scoop with my hand, or close my fist around it. The Knuckles track your fingers by the distance they are from the base of the controller (your palm), and represent that movement in VR. It’s second nature.

As developers, when we receive prototype hardware like the SteamVR Knuckles, it makes us want to push the capabilities. In the past, that’s meant radically rethinking our stack of interactions and locomotion systems—virtually redesigning the game. We’ve written about what these kinds of changes have meant for The Gallery in the past, but the long story short is that new controllers like the Knuckles aren’t just affecting the complexity of interactions. We now have new possibilities for game mechanics and design that haven’t and couldn’t have been done before. It’s to be seen how these controllers will impact Heart of the Emberstone in September, but they’ll be a core focus in designing Episode 3.

Think of an interface-heavy app like Tilt Brush. Dials can be intuitive, but using your fingers is organic. There’s a possibility for gestural movements to call functions and navigate dense data; there could be an entire language built out of using your hands to manipulate paint brushes and pencils and sizes and colors. Once you take the mental load of an interface off the player—once they stop thinking about the controller—you can leverage that partition into experiential design and organic controls.

The kind of technology that the SteamVR Knuckles offer is not just impactful to the future of input in gaming, but also the future of output. I can go to a social VR space and point to something, or offer a peace sign, or tell somebody to hang loose without having to think about it. The controller doesn’t guess your gesture, or snap to a new position, it represents your fingers based on the distance it calculates. The more natural and intuitive the interface, the less we think about hardware. And the less we fixate on hardware, the more present we can be in VR.

Prior to the Knuckles, hardware developers were looking for something that would be more broadly accepted by the general public. Something that resembled a Wiimote, like the Vive wands, or something that when put together resembled a gamepad, like the Touch controllers, meant that VR input was familiar. Strapping an alien device to your hand in first-gen VR would have been too much too fast. But I think it took the evolution of those two controllers to get VR to the point where the public could be comfortable with the idea of a controller strapped to your hand.

There are so many moments in life in which using your hands is a vital part of the experience. There are implications for education and communication—with audiences who don’t generally understand videogame controllers—because the SteamVR Knuckles open the door to that broader audience. These are pick-up-and-play controllers where you don’t have to think about the input, you just reach out and interact in virtual space.

User interface in virtual reality starts with your hands. And once users are empowered in that way, and don’t have to be told how to use the technology, the next generation of virtual reality is here.

—

This is a guest post not produced by the UploadVR staff. It’s a contribution submitted by Denny Unger, the Co-Founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Cloudhead Games. No compensation was exchanged for the creation of this content.

Tagged with: Knuckles, prototype, valve

via Mint VR

Videogame and app developers looking to get utlise virtual reality (VR) playback within their product have a number of ways to do so. One of those ways is via Nokia’s OZO system and the Finnish communications and electronics company is looking to expand support even further in the latest version (1.3.0) of its OZO Player Software Development Kit (SDK) as it looks to bring support for all major platforms to OZO – including those currently in development as for tthe first time Nokia is extending support to the Windows Mixed Reality platform. Other additions include support for newly implimented 180 degree videos.

Microsoft are continuing to make a push in the realm of mixed reality (MR) with its forthcoming series of headsets, with the head mounted display (HMD) being made in partnership with Lenovo being recently confirmed for a Christmas release at Unite Europe 2017.

Nokia’s OZO camera was also recently used as part of a trial MR broadcast of a medical live stream as part of a joint project “Media meets Medicine” between Nokia and Finland’s Helsinki University. Elsewhere it also launched a new project within VR called “Healthier Together”.

You can find the full listing as given by Nokia below and for more queries about OZO SDK use more information can be found on the Nokia OZO FAQ.

Supported Deployment Platforms

• Oculus Rift
• HTC Vive
• Gear VR (Oculus Mobile)
• Cardboard / GoogleVR for Android & iOS
• Windows Mixed Reality (preliminary support)

Development Platforms

• Windows (for Rift, HTC Vive, Android)
• Mac (for Android, iOS)
• Unity Game Engine plugin

Mixed Reality

• Mixed Reality API with Color and Depth buffers that allow you greater control to enable mixed reality experiences.
• Chroma keying (or “green screen” compositing) functionality to build incredible CGI backgrounds in your mixed reality experiences.

Supports local, streaming, and live playback

• Local playback from MP4 files.
• DirectX 11 support to realize the latest in hardware features on Windows MPEG-DASH, HLS and RTP streaming with ABR for both on-demand and live playback.
• Support for https protocols.

Video Format Support

• Plays all standard 360 and 2D video formats
• Native rendering performance on all platforms
• Frame size: up to 4K per eye (if device supports)
• Frame rate: up to 60fps (if device supports)
• Frame format options:
  • Stereoscopic 360
  • Stereoscopic 180
  • Monoscopic 360
• Projection format options:
  • Equirectangular
  • Lambert
  • Cubemap

Audio Format Support

• OZO Audio 360 spatial content
• First order ambisonics
• 5.0, 4.0, 7.0 surround formats and stereo

VRFocus will bring you more information about further developments within VR, MR and Nokia’s continued projects in both as it becomes available.

via Mint VR

We went straight to the moon for these 5K Overwatch screenshots of Winston's previous home, thanks to the in-game screenshot utility and a bit of work with the custom game creator.

The post We’re over the moon for these 5K Overwatch screenshots appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

Every week VR artists are making amazing new sculptures using tools like Tilt Brush and Oculus Quill. These elaborate artworks go beyond what’s possible in our world, often creating entirely new ones. It would be a shame to let these go to waste, so we’re highlighting four awesome new pieces featured on 3D model site Sketchfab that we’ve come across recently.

This week we’ve got a nod to Dark Souls and some great summer scenes.

A Bigger Splash, by Miguelangelo Rosario

Summer’s here! Or at least it certainly feels like it with this lovely little scene built inside Gravity Sketch. We love the reflections in the window suggesting this is just one small part of a larger Californian setting.

Ancient Civilizations, by Nick Ladd

If you want someone that can demonstrate the immense detail and beauty that’s capable with Oculus Quill then look no further than this astonishing scene from Ladd. The detail on the ancient artifact is incredible.

Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Artem Shupa-Dubrova

Dark Souls might not have ventured into VR yet, but this brilliant piece made inside Tilt Brush shows you just how scary its many enemies would be up close. No element has been spared in bringing the dancer to life. Nice work.

Enter the Rift, by Nick Ladd

Here’s a bit of inception for you. Why not look at the Rift inside your Rift? This great snapshot of current VR technology was built inside Quill using the very tools you see here. My head hurts. Have I gone too deep into VR?

Tagged with: sketchfab

via Mint VR

This week VRFocus reported on Kaleidoscope announcing its virtual reality (VR) fund in a bid to help more creative projects secure funding through investors. Trying to locate finance for such projects isn’t always easy, but one way to do it is through crowd-sourcing like Kickstarter. And that’s the avenue multimedia artist Lucas Masoch has taken for his latest endeavour, a VR experience that aims to visualise a sensory phenomenon called Synesthesia.

Synesthesia ’causes people’s senses to cross, sending certain stimuli from one sense into another. It’s something that only about five percent of the population has’, Masoch notes on his Kickstarter page. “The most common form of synesthesia causes people to see letters to have color. This sentence might look like the rainbow to them. Some can see what temperature looks like and see blue or red streaks floating up their arms, depending on what they’re exposed to… especially when it comes to music.”

Masoch vision is to create an experience that showcases what he and others who have synesthesia actually see and feel by using VR. By mixing music with light and colour he wants to recreate this a realistically as possible by using Red Giant’s Trapcode plugins, and Skybox, possibly even turning it into a platform where he can tell stories with it through the music.

The Kickstarter goal is fairly modest in comparison to other campaigns listed on the site, aiming to achieve $5,000 USD. The funding tiers are unusual in the fact that they will be personalised to the individual backer. So for example the $5 tier would be an animation of you saying your name and how Masoch sees it, or at $100 you will get an entire synesthesia presentation of your favourite song.

Checkout an example in the video below, and for further VR related Kickstarter projects keep reading VRFocus.

via Mint VR

The VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo just wrapped up Monday night in Toronto. The two day conference was packed with simultaneous, back-to-back presentations and workshops from industry leaders such as Microsoft, Google, AMD, The VOID, IMAX, Two Bit Circus, Secret Location, Globacore, Quantum Capture, The Canadian Film Centre, and many more. By the end of the conference, 5 themes on what will guild the VR industry forward, became glaringly clear.

The VR Industry’s Unique Culture Will Fuel Innovation

 

The concept of virtual reality itself magnetizes a certain person. This is the budding technology that innovators, dreamers, and creators see as the mechanism for changing lives. Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport and SVP Virtual Reality at HTC, is constantly sharing his belief that VR “will change the world.” This is our rallying cry around a technology that is in essence a magic hat that a mixing pot of people are building for. And this blend of people is creating a special industry culture.

We need to nurture this culture which is even more apparent when industry leaders converge into conferences like VRTO. Pulkka, Executive Producer for Attractions at Two Bit Circus, and conference speaker, told me about the Two Bit Circus culture. They have a “maker spirit in the team”, a culture of “engineers of fun: who “test new experiences regularly by trying them out with audiences, and then refining them.” And the Two Bit Circus culture is one they want to extend to the consumer as they look to open up multiple locations. Pulkka’s message that he wanted to get across at the conference is that they are “looking for like minded people to meet and talk about the space.”

With technology evolving so rapidly, in my own talk at VRTO on how to monetize VR, I warned attendees to steer clear of innovating for VR. We are in an industry that needs to maintain a focus on solving for the jobs to be done, not the technology, and we also have to preserve our culture of people rallying behind changing the world. Focusing solely on sales gratification will tarnish the culture and hinder its innovation. James Jensen, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at THE VOID, also spoke at VRTO. The VOID builds experience that make you feel as if you’re stepping into a dream. And, with a vision like that, they need to build their own Rapture technology solutions to support it, since no consumer product can do the job to the level that they envision. As leaders in the LBE space, this propels consumer expectations, and copycats, forward. It’s the culture that’s driving the innovation, and building their powerful brand.

It’s Different in Canada

 

The snippet of this image is included for suggestion on placement in the article only – the actual file has been sent as an attachment. I suggest using either of these for the top of the ‘It’s Different in Canada’ section. Both are of MasterpieceVR.

In Canada, the public and private sector are working together to grow the industry.

Under Ana Serrano’s leadership as the Chief Digital Officer of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), her Team is drive Canadian innovation with a blend of government, corporate and private funding, paired with four activities which reinforce each other. First, they are investing in technology and content creating companies for VR, AR, MR and more.  Second, they’re running labs on a range of capabilities in the ecosystems. And, they’re working in the space themselves to build expertise and learnings, as well as sharing their own research findings, in their new quarterly Pulse on VR study that is posted free for the industry to access. Serrano highlighted that the study proves Canadian companies are already monetizing VR.

Experiences like the collaborative 3D sculpting platform Masterpiece VR featured at VRTO, would not necessarily come to life without the CFC’s contributions.

Another Canadian group driving the industry forward for VR innovators, with a significant amount of government backing, is the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT.) VRTO speaker David Dexter is their Operations and Business Development Lead and has worked with major brands like AMD and Secret Location on uncovering solutions for a range of opportunities, such as the inclusion of photorealistic environments, the use of virtual humans, and the development of increasingly interactive volumetric experiences.

The snippet of this image is included for suggestion on placement in the article only – the actual file has been sent as an attachment. I suggest using either of these near Keram’s quote. He is the founder of VRTO.

It’s not just the collaboration and support from government-backed groups. Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Founder and Executive Director at VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo, credits an aggregation of three unique factors that are helping to drive the success of VR in Canada. It’s “the combination of multiculturalism, government subsidized arts and technology innovation programs, and in Toronto particularly, this model of artist run coops that make the power tools available to artists.” This is helping to “discover new uses and applications for the research and the development that they are doing, which I think is really critical to allowing not just technologies but an entire media to discover it’s broader purpose.”

Partner Up

 

The snippet of this image is included for suggestion on placement in the article only – the actual file has been sent as an attachment.

Corporate Vice President of Alliances for AMD, Roy Taylor, flew in to speak at VRTO. But one of his main goals of attending was to “listen, and to learn.” The curiosity of AMD’s charismatic leader also runs deep in AMD’s way of doing business, to monetize VR. Curious to access insights on each of the challenges that will need to be solved for the range of end-users of VR, AMD is offering their product and dollars to partners, in exchange. They’re being offered to help a range of content developers working on everything from medical-related solutions, to a VR experience for the epic Baahabali franchise. The range of content that they are associated with, alone, can empower them with insights on how different consumer groups want to experience VR, through to how to retrain the brain with VR, along with all of the relevant use cases for their growing number of product. And of course, they are getting insights from partners of hardware used to create and experience VR. They’ve even partnered with the CFC on supporting the Masterpiece VR project.

One of AMD’s focuses right now is to better understand the new needs of out-of-home VR businesses, such as allowing for the best playback performance. Taylor is looking to partner with “as many location- based [entertainment centres] as we can scale up to.” They’re already engaged with a few hundred locations in each of the US, Europe and China. Because of the insights they’ve been gathering in field, AMD are working on a concept code-named “LOVR” for location-based VR, that will be an industrial design PC able to withstand industrial temperature ranges and more, based on the needs they’ve identified.

And we can learn exponentially faster with AI. AMD’s Taylor was also clear that “ No way can we develop VR, without at the same time develop artificial intelligence and deep neural networks.” Some interesting partnerships can be developed between the VR and AI industries.

Out-of-Home VR Is Being Monetized, And There Are Ways To Solve for Its Challenges

 

This image is an option.. however I suggest using one of an IMAX VR Centre. It’s the best of the panel shots available. There is a panelist on the right side in the attachment (not below) that had an unfortunately awkward time on stage not being able to answer the questions being asked. If you do use this, from left to right: Charlie Fink (moderator), Joel Zika, Ed Callway, Eyal Kleiner, Aaron Pulkka, James Jensen.

Canadian-born IMAX, The VOID, and the hundreds of VR arcades popping up world-wide, are proof that out-of-home VR has a range of business models that work. Greenlight Insights Analyst, Colin McMahon, is naturally seeing an increased interest in developing them, calling out the Canadian city of Montreal being a new hub of experience development.

But moderator Charlie Fink called attention to the labour, through-put and guest count peak and valley challenges that still need to be solved. Labour is expensive, and right now quite a few people are needed to facilitate the right guest experience. While out-of-home VR has multiplayer options, there are often wait times during peak days. And these locations need to solve for the low traffic outside of the Friday evening to Sunday evening rush.

To solve the problem, IMAX’s Kleiner spoke to the importance of testing in their VR Centres. They’re testing what groups are more profitable to sell to, late-night eSports, dynamic pricing, unique pricing by experience, and even turning their spaces into education centres during the day. The VOID also suggested there may be a solution for integrating more of some of the employee roles, into avatars in the experience itself.

Pay Attention to Untapped Markets

 

The snippet of this image is included for suggestion on placement in the article only – the actual file has been sent as an attachment. Moses Znaimer is a media visonary who has hand a significant influence on the landscape here, and he continues to innovate.

Canadian icon Moses Znaimer also graced the stage at VRTO. His way of thinking has allowed him to build countless successful innovations ranging in medium, playing a major role in building, and evolving, the country’s media landscape. After his talk, a camera crew followed him around as he got hands-on with the range of VR, and AR, content and technologies being showcased. We sat down to talk about how VR will shift the entertainment landscape once again, and for more markets than most content creators are building for right now.

A handful of Znaimer’s media innovations engage boomers, and he sees a great opportunity to build VR solutions for them. His message was clear. “I want to dispel this idea that boomers aren’t interested in kicks, they’re not interested in ‘wow moments’, they’re not interested in deeply shallow things…and they are definitely not slow to adapt.” What will drive adaptation? Znaimer shared the insight that technology that helps Boomers connect more with their family, and friends, is game changing.

This is just one of the audiences that is currently virtually untapped with VR entertainment, and research will tell you there is strong interest from Boomers in a range of types of content. Uncover new segments of consumers to help drive VR forward, and avoid just looking at the obvious demographic splits to more specific experiences consumers have that could benefit from innovative content. AMD’s Roy Taylor cleverly called out our perceived feeling of time distortion in VR, “has promise for long term flights.”

 

via Mint VR

The secretive and fantastical world of magic has long enthralled the public, with magicians like Penn and Teller, David Copperfield, Houdini and many more becoming famous worldwide for their acts of illusion. Now Samsung Gear VR owners can delve into that world of mystery now that Apelab has released its interactive story Break a Leg.

This initial release is actually a pre-cursor to a larger narrative and videogame due to release later this year, with players drawn into the world of Harry Edward Jonas Pablo the 15th, the titles host and former illusionist. Divided between puzzle phases and performances on a stage, players take on the role of an illusionist who has been kidnapped by an unknown species and forced to perform in front of a highly demanding audience.

Apelab created Break a Leg using its narrative tool SpatialStories which the studio built to create interactive animation Sequenced that premiered at Sundance in 2015. In a press release the team explains some of the development behind Break a Leg, saying: “The title started as a Google Project Tango prototype back in 2013 when the team was already exploring mobile interactions with 6DOF configuration. When mobile headsets started to get controller support the team jumped at the opportunity to build a full fledged adventure based on the initial premise.”

Ever since Sequenced was released Apelab has expanded SpatialStories functionality completely upgrading it to support high-end roomscale, mobile + controller and AR configurations. The team is also experimenting with voice commands and IBM Watson as a tool to bring more life to the characters and the environment, all of which will be available inside the SDK release roadmap.

Break a Leg is free to download now for Samsung Gear VR, and when further details are released regarding the videogames full story VRFocus will let you know.

via Mint VR

Lone Echo isn’t the only big Oculus Studios title releasing next month; Coatsink’s Augmented Empire is also on its way to Gear VR.

The turn-based strategy game is releasing on July 13th, the studio confirmed today. Augmented Empire is set on the fictional island of New Savannah, where citizens are divided up by a class system. You follow a band of rebels as they make their way across the island, but really you’ll play as a mysterious chartacter that watches the action from their comfort of their own office — a little like the VR integration in Mike Bithell’s Volume — interacting with the environment around them.

You can check out the game for yourself in this new launch trailer.

We’ve gone hands-on with the game already, and it’s looking like a treat for hardcore gamers looking for something to sink their teeth into on Gear. That’s a rare find not just for the platform but for VR in general. Played with either a gamepad of the Gear VR controller, you’ll find over 10 hours of gameplay with 26 different millions in 60 environments. You’ll have six chartacters to command and upgrade.

Earlier this week Coatsink announced an impressive cast for the game, including the likes of Nick Frost from Shaun of the Dead and Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek: Voyager.

Augmented Empire will cost $9.99/£7.99 at launch.

via Mint VR

A few days ago Coatsink Software revealed new details about its upcoming virtual reality (VR) role-playing game (RPG) Augmented Empire, detailing the stellar voice cast as well as a couple of new screenshots. Well the indie studio has more news to share today, announcing that the VR title will launch next month, exclusive to Samsung Gear VR.

Augmented Empire takes place on an island called New Savannah, set in an isolated neo-noir metropolis whose society has been divided into three tiers by the ‘Citizen Grade System’, with citizens deemed of high value to society living an opulent lifestyle at the soaring heights of the city, while those seen as less savoury have to live their lives in the squalid depth’s.

The videogame mixes up RPG elements with turn-based action. It’ll feature 26 missions across 60 environments which the studio says should provide around 10 plus hours of gameplay. There will be six characters to control, each of which will be upgradable.

As previously reported voicing some of the characters are: Kate Mulgrew (Orange is the New Black, Star Trek Voyager); Doug Cockle (The Witcher Series); Garrick Hagon (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Horizon: Zero Dawn) and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul).

Augmented Empire will be available to purchase for Samsung Gear VR on 13th July 2017 for $9.99 USD, £7.99 GBP and €9.99 EUR.

Checkout the new launch trailer below. For the latest updates from Coatsink Software keep reading VRFocus.

via Mint VR

The new DLC pack for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, called Trial of the Sword, has already been completed by one YouTuber, showing not only that it's possible but that it can be done quickly.

The post New ‘Trial of the Sword’ DLC for ‘Breath of the Wild’ has already been beaten appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

Cloudgate Studios’ well received Steam Early Access launch of Island 359 has lead to a great deal of attention. Experiments with the forthcoming HTC Vive Tracker puck have no doubt helped with the studio’s agenda, but now so too will an Oculus Home release.

 

Stranded alone in the jungle with no easy way out, Island 359‘s unforgiving world can be experienced through several gameplay modes, including Mercenary mode, which sees the player follow the map scrounging for kills, and Big Hunt Mode, a stealth bow-hunt where you’re looking for the big kills of Allosaurs and Triceratops.

Island 359 will come to Oculus Home as an Early Access title next month, bringing with it a never-before-seen vicious Stegosaurus for you to dominate as you equip yourself with all of the recently added weaponry on a new valley map that requires surviving during a thunderstorm. A variety movement modes for increased controller flexibility and varying comfort and reach assist have also been added to increase accessibility.

Island 359 will be available on Oculus Home for $19.99 USD from 6th July 2017. The videogame will launch on sale at 33% off ($13.39). VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on Island 359, including a new hands-on with the Oculus Home edition coming soon.

via Mint VR

Ever since HTC Vive and Square Enix announced a collaboration to release Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur VR last year, VRFocus has been closely following the developments. Then last month the videogame launched through Steam in Japan – and region locked. But there could be hope for a wider release as it’s been revealed the title will be coming to Viveport.

Currently the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is taking place in Shanghai, China, and Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President of HTC Vive, has tweeted an announcement from the event that Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur VR will see a release on the company’s own platform.

Showed Transfomer5 and Spider-Man #VR experience at #MWCS17 and announced #MillionArthur coming to @Viveport ! Kids just love @htcvive! http://pic.twitter.com/ZXsNJINRD3

— Alvin Wang Graylin (@AGraylin) June 30, 2017

No details have been confirmed on when this may occur or whether it’ll be region locked like the Steam release. With plenty of western players always keen to get their hands on Japanese content – there are plenty of festivals focused on Japanese culture – it might no longer be a case of if but when.

Developed by Gree Co, Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur VR has its own unique storyline and content based around the original free-to-play card battle title exclusive to HTC Vive.

As further details emerge, VRFocus will bring you the latest updates.

via Mint VR

Just In Time Incorporated’s Minecraft-style characters may not look inspiring at first, but don’t judge this book by its cover. The trailer for this new HTC Vive game from Second Wind Interactive is pretty hilarious, and you should check it out.

In Just In Time, you put on a special pair of gloves that slow down time. As part of a Death Prevention Insurance scheme, you’ll have to save clients from certain death, be it oncoming cars or even armed attackers. Mess up and things can get pretty bloody. Heck, even if you’re successful it looks like heads will roll. The game’s coming to the HTC Vive on July 27th and we can’t wait to get a closer look at it.

via Mint VR

Unity has helped support videogame developers on all platforms, but it looks like they’ve managed to find a way to simplify the processing of creating a videogame by bringing in new features such as Timeline, Unity teams, Cinemachine and much more. What’s so great about these new features is that it enables teams to work on a videogame together at the same time as well as making it easier for videogame devs to control the way in which characters move, are animated as well as controlling when and where the camera moves. 

VRFocus‘ Nina Salomons talks to Unity’s XR Evangelist Sarah Stumbo about what Unity is doing when it comes to virtual reality (VR). She explains that these new features are not specifically for conventional gaming but also apply to VR videogames. It can be very expensive and very frustrating for developers to have to upgrade, change and optimize their experience for new headsets being released and their subsequent updates. It seems that Unity aims to fix this with the XR Toolkit.

She discusses that the XR Toolkit will help improve inputs, allowing for developers to create a single experience that can be cross-platform and go on all headsets, including Microsoft’s mixed reality headsets. She also mentions that VRTK and how that is a higher level features for virtual reality. What’s very clear is that Unity aims to help support the community, hoping to create an environment and online community where devs can help support each other when building XR applications for the future. Unity 2017.1 is available now in beta, Check out the video below to get more information.

via Mint VR

Blizzard has officially opened pre-orders on StarCraft: Remastered, which will introduce updated high-definition visuals and new matchmaking functionality when it launches on August 14.

The post ‘StarCraft: Remastered’ adds matchmaking and new visuals to the RTS classic appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

Last month VRFocus reported on Swedish indie developer Logtown Studios the completion of its staff and preparing to reveal its first virtual reality (VR) title. Today, that announcement has been made with the studio unveiling Cloudborn for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. 

Cloudborn is a immersive exploratory adventure in which players have to climb and scale the videogame world to uncover the fate of a lost civilisation. Built form the ground up with accessibility in mind, Logtown Studios will provide a wide variety of comfort options and movement systems for users; from arm swinging movement to dash teleport and traditional FPS sliding.

“With Cloudborn we’ve made something bright and colorful that’s mysterious and exciting to explore. Building a game around climbing rather than combat made a lot of sense. VR really allows us to experience some of that curiosity we had as children and that’s what we want players to experience with Cloudborn,” said Alberto Amigo, Game Designer at Logtown Studios.

Logtown Studios plan on releasing Cloudborn on both headsets during September 2017. Additionally, the team also plans on bringing the videogame to PlayStation VR, although no launch date has been confirmed just yet.

Checkout the first teaser trailer for Cloudborn below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

via Mint VR

Did you recently purchase an iPad Pro 10.5, or are you enjoying the 12.9-inch version? If so, we've rounded up 10 of the best iPad Pro games currently available on Apple's mobile platform.

The post The best iPad Pro games will take full advantage of your big screen tablet appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

The SNES Classic Edition is already hotly anticipated, even before pre-orders have become available on most retailers. Is it worth the hype, and has Nintendo learned a few lessons from the NES Classic?

The post SNES Classic Edition hands-on review appeared first on Digital Trends.

via Mint VR

Summer sales are in full swing and you can currently get some good deals on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) isn’t missing out either, at least in the UK.

UK online retailer ShopTo is having a Payday Sale and PSVR is at the center of it. The headset can currently be picked up for £289.85, which is easily the lowest price we’ve seen for it so far. PSVR launched for £349.99 late last year, so that’s a serious saving.

But wait, there’s more. You need the PlayStation Camera to actually use PSVR. That’s now down to £36.85. It’s also a good idea to have a pair of PlayStation Move controllers handy, as they’re used in a lot of games. You can grab two for £59.86 too.

As one final treat PSVR shooter Farpoint is just £17.86, which is a huge saving for a game that launched just over a month ago. That said this is just a standalone copy of the game; it doesn’t include the PSVR Aim controller which provides easily the best way to play. Playing with the DualShock 4 isn’t a great idea.

Looking for more to play with your PSVR games? We’ve got a list of the nine best titles currently on the platform for you to check out too.

via Mint VR

It’s official; we really, really want Valve’s new SteamVR Knuckles controllers. If you’re wondering why then look no further than Cloudhead Games’ new video showing the prototypes in action.

Cloudhead, known for The Gallery series, is one of a few lucky developers to get an early look at these new controllers, and they’ve been very open in sharing their experience with them. Now the team has given us our best look at the kit’s finger tracking yet. Set in SteamVR Home, the studio walks us through some of the gestures made possible with the new controllers. We’d love to get our hands on them for ourselves but Valve isn’t talking about a consumer release just yet. We’re hoping that happens before the end of the year, though.

via Mint VR

It was announced earlier this week that Phil Harrison, co-founder of the PlayStation brand, had invested in UK-based Dream Reality Interactive. Following this revelation, Harrison has offered some interesting sentiments concerning the virtual reality (VR) industry as it stands, and what he sees as essential for the future.

 

 

In a lengthy interview with Eurogamer, Harrison stated: “Sony’s blazing a trail in VR.

“I don’t believe that any of the devices that are on the market today are going to be the winners 10 years from now,” he added. “Meaning, I don’t think any of the devices we see today are going to have the legs to last a 10-year generation.”

Expanding on this opinion – one which is generally considered the most likely outcome by the early adopter VR hivemind – Harrison suggests that commentary offered by his peers may have some truth to it.

“All of the devices need to go through a massive change… and Phil Spencer is right when he says, ‘When you’ve got loads of wires sticking out of your head, it’s not going to be a mass market adoption.’

“There will be a core audience who continues to be “blown away” by VR as it is, but for it really to take hold, the hardware needs improving.”

‘What improvements?’ you may well ask. Harrison, again, appears to agree with the general consensus of those who have been involved with VR since the debut of the first Oculus Rift development kit. Compute performance, weight and ergonomics; nothing that wouldn’t be expected. However, Harrison also believes there’s a limit to public adoption regardless of if/when these problems are solved.

“It’s likely – and this is unproven, nobody knows for sure – there will be a mass-market reluctance to wear a completely immersive device,” he said. “Some people just won’t like the idea of blocking out the outside world, whereas I believe more of the world is going to be interested in a mixed reality: an augmented reality where you can still see, you can still hear – you can still interact with real people but it’s augmented with additional data. That is the end goal.”

 

 

Of course, Harrison is speaking of technology that already exists. Microsoft’s HoloLens provides this experience, but isn’t yet consumer ready. When questioned on this, Harrison told Eurogamer:

“They have made some strong moves in creating an ecosystem for VR through the Windows platform, and there will be hardware providers in Windows’ ecosystem who bring VR headsets to the market.

“But the bet seems to be around Hololens for now, and that’s a pretty impressive piece of technology. The price point means they are positioning it as an enterprise solution today, but over time you could imagine that becoming cheaper, smaller and more mass market.”

via Mint VR