Mint Virtual Reality

Earlier this week VRFocus reported on a statement from Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, suggesting that 11 Daydream compatible smartphone handsets would be available before the year’s end. It now looks like two of those handsets are already available on the market, as Google has revealed the roll out of a compatibility update for both the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The Daydream-ready update is rolling out now to @SamsungMobile Galaxy S8 and S8+. Explore new worlds with #Daydream. https://t.co/KaRNJEcURi http://pic.twitter.com/PEeC6RfyyZ

— Google VR (@googlevr) July 31, 2017

Samsung were one of the first smartphone manufacturers to announce support for the Google Daydream platform, but have been relatively slow to integrate this into their consumer handsets. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ recently received an update which, according to Android Police, specified ‘Google Daydream Compatibility’ in US service provider T-Mobile’s patch notes.

According to Android Police, the documentation soon received an update stating that Daydream compatibility would be coming to both the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ soon. However, the patch notes were updated again and removed any mention of Google Daydream.

While that uncertainty has now ended don’t expect that update to appear straight away. As is a common occurrence with big mobile updates – such as a new version of Android – users will see this rolled out slowly, depending on the mobile carrier as to when they may see it.

Adding Daydream compatibility to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ makes these two handsets the first to be compatible with both the Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, potentially making them the first choice handsets for virtual reality (VR) aficionados. VRFocus will keep you updated with any further information regarding Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ Daydream compatibility.

HP announced a super high-end backpack PC powered by some of NVIDIA and Intel’s high end chips to power wireless VR for serious commercial use cases.

The 10.2 pound wearable PC includes a dock so it can be used as a high-end desktop workstation which can be removed and strapped on to become a wearable PC. It includes a pair of on-board batteries that can be swapped out one at a time so people can stay inside VR for long periods.

The system costs $3,295 and will be available starting in September.

Updates to come.

The moment millions of VR enthusiasts have been waiting for has finally arrived: Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones are now 100% Daydream-ready. This means the Galaxy S8 line of phones are the first ever to support both the Oculus-powered Gear VR ecosystem and Google’s budding Daydream platform.

We first found out the support would officially be coming back in May of this year with some hints that it was just around the corner only a couple of weeks ago and now today Google made it official with an announcement GIF on Twitter linking to the Google blog.

The Daydream-ready update is rolling out now to @SamsungMobile Galaxy S8 and S8+. Explore new worlds with #Daydream. http://pic.twitter.com/PEeC6RfyyZ

— Google VR (@googlevr) July 31, 2017

If you don’t have the update yet, be patient. Roll outs like this usually happen in phases and can take a little while.

This update now makes the Galaxy S8 one of the most attractive VR devices on the planet from a development perspective. With over 5 million potential users on the Gear VR and however many thousands (or millions? Fingers crossed?) already own a Daydream View and will soon be purchasing one (they’re only $63 on Amazon right now and come with a controller) the market is more ripe than ever before.

When we originally reviewed the S8 in conjunction with the new Gear VR + its controller, we called it the best mobile VR combination available. That’s still true and now with Daydream support, the S8 is even harder to beat.

With regard to Daydream-ready devices, Google’s own Pixel is of course on the list, as well as the Moto Z, Mate 9 Pro, Axon 7, and soon the ASUS ZenPhone AR. However, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the only phones that support both Daydream and Gear VR on the market.

What do you think of this news? Do you own both a View headset and a Gear VR that you still use? Let us know down in the comments below!

Tagged with: Daydream, Galaxy S8

VRFocus have already reported on the challenges that are facing virtual reality (VR) and its continued development with regards to human vision and perception, but little so far has been said about the similar problems facing augmented reality (AR) as that area also continues to grow and develop. Graphics card manufacturers Nvidia are taking on that very issue.

Nvidia Inventions, the Research and Development area of Nvidia, are working on two areas that are relevant to VR and AR. The first involves what researchers have dubbed ‘varifocal displays’. As discussed by Michael Abrash in his Oculus Blog post, fixed-focus VR and AR displays can present a problem to human vision, using new research, Nvidia re working on a new type of optical layout that uses a holographic back-projection to display virtual images. This new technology could also lead to VR and AR displays that are thinner and lighter than currently available headsets.

Another project that Nvidia are working on in collaboration with the University of North Carolina, Saarland University and Max-Planck Institute involves a deformable membrane mirror for each eye which means the mirror can be adjusted depending on where a separate -eye-tracking system sees the user is looking.

Nvidia are also working on Haptic feedback systems to enhance the immersion of VR and AR. One prototype system is a VR controller that allows users to experience different textures as they play, its soft skin able to produce force-feedback as well as replicate the feel of different materials and textures.

The second project involves a squishy foam sword such as children might play with, which can transform in a moment to feel like the solid cord-wrapped handle of a katana, or the sold metal of a broadsword hilt. Nvidia have already integrated those two types of haptic controllers into its in-house VR Funhouse experience, so users can feel the solid hit of a mallet in whack-a-mole, or feel the recoil of a gun in a shooting gallery.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news of research into new VR/AR display and feedback methods.

Elite: Dangerous is one of the most complex, detailed, and engrossing space flight simulators out there right now. The first time I tried to fly a spacecraft in that game resulted in me crashing into the docking bay before I could even get out into the sea of stars. But with practice I got the hang of it and eventually was exploring the galaxy like a true commander.

The game is currently available on PC, Mac, Xbox One, and PS4. However, the only way to play it in VR currently is to play it on PC using a Rift or Vive. The developers at Frontier Developments are doing their best to try and bring PlayStation VR (PSVR) support to the PS4 version of the game, but it’s a work-in-progress that’s “not there yet in terms of quality.”

That being said, PSVR support is actively being worked on. But just like any developer their resources can only go so far. They have to prioritize features that serve the community best and one way of figuring out where to spend time working on future updates is to just see what the community wants most.

Reddit user WilfridSephiroth created a survey posted on the official Elite: Dangerous subreddit designed to see exactly which platforms most people play on and to determine which future updates players are most excited about. Notably, PSVR is listed as one of the options.

But to be clear, the user that created and posted this survey is not a member of the development team, and is simply doing this to help raise awareness.

You can find the survey to fill out right here, which only takes about two minutes. Make sure to go ahead and select PSVR in the section at the end if you want to see the game on PSVR next. There is no guarantee that this will actually guide Frontier’s development roadmap, but letting the devs know where the community stands is never a bad thing.

Tagged with: elite dangerous

It was back in 2015 that Fusion Media Group (FMG) announced a partnership with NASA on a virtual reality (VR) experience called Mars 2030 in an attempt to simulate the experience of being the first astronaut to arrive on Mars. For those keen on heading to the Red Planet, Mars 2030 has launched on Steam for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and OSVR.

Designed to be the most realistic VR Mars experience yet, FMG used Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to model terrain from a custom HI-RISE conversion, integrating real-world Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data that covers 15 square miles (40 square kilometers) of Martian landscape.

To add to the immersive visuals the experience utilises ambisonic audio filtered to match Mars’ atmospheric pressure and sound propagation, alongside an original score from the London Symphony Orchestra that features situational music cues designed to heighten the emotion of exploring the Red Planet.

“Since its inception, Fusion and now Fusion Media Group has made experimentation with new forms of storytelling like Mars 2030 a priority. We know young audiences are inherently curious, which makes this immersive VR project an exciting first step for us,” said Julian Reyes, Director of VR/AR at FMG Studios in a statement. “It’s been humbling to collaborate with some of the leading authorities on Mars human mission planning, weaving their exciting research into our experience and providing a glimpse of Martian contact to the first generation of explorers who will actually set foot on Mars.”

The Mars 2030 VR experience on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift is available for $14.99 USD/ £10.99 GBP, with a PlayStation VR version coming soon. A non-VR version for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro will also be available. For educators and students the experience will be free of charge due to the NASA Space Act Agreement.

For all the latest space-based VR experiences, keep reading VRFocus.

Augmented reality (AR) is still in its infancy, and while both Unreal Engine and Unity have made efforts to support ARKit, a cross-platform pipeline similar to that available for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive stills seemed some way away. However, that’s all changed with independent developer Egor Bogatov’s UrhoSharp.

UrhoSharp, a .net-based engine which runs on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and SharpReality, with support HoloLens, has now been updated to include support for ARKit. This essentially means that developers can write their application once and deploy on both the leading AR platforms.

UrhoSharp is powered by Urho3D is a free lightweight, cross-platform 2D and 3D game engine implemented in C++ and released under the MIT license. UrhoSharp supports C# and F# to create videogames and applications that run on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Unix, which includes both HoloLens and ARKit.

Developers interested in creating content for both HoloLens and ARKit should check out the official documentation for UrhoSharp, as well as the sample project made available by Bogatov. VRFocus will keep you updated with further support for AR software development.

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If you have ever wanted to command armies of knights as you assault a castle’s walls, or face other warriors in contests of jousting, archery and sword, then upcoming virtual reality (VR) strategy title Wonfourn may be the videogame you have been looking for.

Wonfourn is an adventure strategy hybrid that puts the player in the role of a firstborn child of a great family who must prove themselves worthy by taking part in an epic quest. Players have over 30 island nations to explore, each containing its own missions and objectives. Players can learn sword-fighting, archery and jousting as well as take part in trading and commerce, seeking out new trade routes for more profit, and beating back bandits and pirates along the way.

Players can take control of a battleship to sail the seas, overseeing the battle from the ship’s deck, with VR offering the immersive experience of feeling the deck move beneath you as the cannons roar. Players can use loot gathered from battles to invest in new weaponry and armour, or use the Blacksmiths Forge to craft it yourself.

The title is planned for release on Steam sometime in November 2017 for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Oculus Rift users will need the Touch controllers, as the title uses tracked motion controllers. A price point has not yet been established

Further information and updates can be found on the Steam page. An announcement trailer is also available to view below.

VRFocus will continue to bring you updates on Wonfourn and other Steam VR titles as it becomes available.

Moto Mods, the snap-on accessories compatible with Lenovo's Moto Z2 Play, Moto Z Force, and Moto Z2 Force, add a lot of value without adding a lot of bulk. Here, we've rounded up the best Moto Mods in existence.

The post 6 Best Moto Mods for Moto Z Play, Moto Z2 Play, Moto Z Force, and Moto Z2 Force appeared first on Digital Trends.

I’ve used my eyes to interact with a virtual world before, but startup Neurable just enhanced that experience by reading my thoughts too.

At SIGGRAPH this week the Boston-based startup is showing its modified HTC Vive which include EEG (Electroencephalography) sensors along the interior of the headstrap. This is combined with eye-tracking technology from German firm SMI, which may have just been acquired by Apple. The EEG sensors’ comb-like structure dug through my hair to subtly make contact against my scalp where they detected brain activity. It is definitely alarming to hear someone outside VR say my brain is looking good.

What followed was a brief training session where a group of objects floated in front of me — a train, ball and block among them. Each time one of them rotated I was told to focus on that object and think “grab” in my mind. I did so a number of times for several of the objects.

Afterward there was a test. I was told to just think of the object I wanted. I tried not to stare directly at the object I wanted but five out of five times the correct object was picked as I thought about it. A sixth time the wrong object was selected but it occurred as someone was talking to me and I was distracted. As I refocused, almost immediately the correct object moved toward me.

In the video above you can see each of the objects flash. Neurable CEO and President Ramses Alcaide says they are able to detect these flashes in my brain even though they register subconsciously. He said the eye tracking inside the headset wasn’t active during the training and test portion of the demonstration. It became active during the next portion of the demo meant to show the potential of the system in a game environment. Here’s how Neurable describes it:

Neurable is debuting Awakening, a VR game preview made in partnership with eStudiofuture, at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles. Awakening is a futuristic story reminiscent of Stranger Things: you are a child held prisoner in a government science laboratory. You discover that experiments have endowed you with telekinetic powers. You must use those powers to escape your cell, defeat the robotic prison guards, and free yourself from the lab. The game allows you to manipulate objects and battle foes with your mind, and is played entirely without handheld controllers.

According to Neurable, this works using machine learning to interpret “your brain activity in real time to afford virtual powers of telekinesis.” The company offers an SDK so Unity developers can integrate the system into a game.

I was able to select a group of objects on the ground of my holding cell just by thinking about them and then use them to try and escape. I was offered some hints from outside VR to escape the room but the selection with my mind worked to grab the objects I wanted. As I moved into a lab, I looked around at the counter tops and thought about the objects to toss at a robot approaching me. One of them was a keyboard. As I thought the word “grab” it floated toward me. Object after object I tossed at the incoming robots until I progressed through to the end of the level.

“We have two modes. Pure EEG mode, which just determines the object you want and brings it to you directly, and we have a mode that is a hybrid BCI [brain-computer interface] mode, and in that mode we can use the eyes as a type of mouse where you can move your eyes near…the object you want to select,” said Alcaide. “From there your brain tells us which one you clicked on.”

In the video above you can see me sort of covering my face as a kind of surprised reaction each time the system correctly identified which object I wanted. I was frankly in shock — I really didn’t expect it to work as well as it did. Both this brain-computer interface and the earlier eye tracking demo I tried felt like true super powers.

According to Alcaide, Neurable raised around $2 million and has 13 employees.

“I think the future of mixed reality interactions is an ecosystem of solutions that incorporates voice, gesture control, eye tracking and the missing link to that entire puzzle which is brain-computer interfaces…we need some sort of system that prevents the action from happening until the user wants it to happen, and that’s where brain-computer interfaces come in,” said Alcaide. “In my opinion mixed reality cannot become a ubiquitous computing platform like the iPhone, or like the computer, until we have brain-computer interfaces as part of the solution.”

Tagged with: Neurable

Earlier this month VRFocus reviewed PlayStation VR wave shooter Ancient Amuletor. This first-person shooter set in a fantasy-tinged version of ancient history puts the player in the role of one of four heroes. Watch how Rebecca fares as a Gunner in this new gameplay video.

The aim of Ancient Amuletor is simple – the player needs to defend the glowing crystals for hordes of attacking enemies, cutting them down with weaponry in hand, and using traps and strategic positioning to make sure none of the enemies get through.

The action is controlled using the PlayStation Move controllers, as it said in the VRFocus review: “The title is controlled using a pair of PlayStation Move controllers. This makes most of the actions nicely intuitive and immersive. Movement is handled by a simple teleport system that allows you to bounce to various fixed locations around the map. Being in the right place at the right time becomes part of the strategy. As does laying down traps once those become unlocked, as those can slow down enemies enough to allow the player to easily pick them off.” You can read the rest of our review Here.

Watch Rebecca have fun cutting down undead foes in the video below. For more gameplay videos, keep watching VRFocus.

Last year several virtual reality (VR) veterans from Epic Games, Oculus and Microsoft announced the formation of a new studio, Drifter Entertainment. Then a couple of months ago the team revealed development on its first VR title, a co-op first-person shooter called Gunheart. For those that have been keeping a close eye on its progress they’ll be happy to know the title has now arrived on Steam Early Access for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift with Touch support.

Supporting full cross-platform compatibility between the two headsets, Gunheart aims to combine the fun of summer sci-fi blockbuster movies with the gameplay of Gears of War and Halo. Players are cast as robotic bounty hunters earning a living by exterminating aliens across the galaxy. As they do so, the cash they collect can be used to upgrade their rig, whilst amassing a large arsenal of weapons and unlocking abilities. While Gunheart can be played single-player, going on the hunt in a team of three will unlock greater rewards.

In its current early access form Gunheart’s campaign is fully playable with over nine weapons to choose from, each with its own unique upgrades, several enemy types and support for 3 player co-op. Drifter Entertainment has also included a 10-player deathmatch “Brawl” game mode.

The title will see a full release within the next six months. “The final version will include additional game modes, new weapon types, and of course new enemies to battle against. We also plan to introduce many more options on how players can customize both their weapons and their rigs as well. On the competitive side we intend to add support for spectating, streaming, leaderboards, and unique unlocks for players,” states the studio.

If you want to dive right in, Gunheart can be downloaded from Steam for £26.99 GBP for either headset.

As for any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

After spending so much time in VR over the past year and a half I’ve come to accept a lot of different things about this budding industry and one of the biggest learnings is that VR is always better with friends. No matter what the experience is if you throw in multiple people then it’s almost always a better time for everyone involved.

Gunheart is a new VR game from industry veterans that have worked at Epic Games and the title takes the multiplayer concept truly to heart (pardon the pun.) You take on the role of a bounty hunter that goes on missions with other mercenaries to earn money which can be used at the central hub cantina-style location. The launch trailer does a good recap of the various activities available:

When I first went hands-on with Gunheart a couple of months ago it was a short co-op demo where I and two of the developers had to make our way through a series of enemy waves to the end of the mission. But now in Early Access there is the promise of much more content, such as PvP battles, and more varied cooperative missions. Since my demo, they’ve also added full smooth locomotion options in addition to teleportation movement.

What stood out the most during my early demo was just how fluid and satisfying the gunplay felt, so with an infusion of more content to play and a nice variety of weapons to use, Gunheart could quickly become a go-to multiplayer offering for the VR scene.

As of today, Gunheart is officially available in Early Access on Steam for $34.99 with support for both Rift and Vive. What do you think of the game so far? Let us know down in the comments below!

Tagged with: Gunheart

AltspaceVR might be coming to a close, but new social VR app Sansar is pushing on with the launch of a creator beta today.

While Sansar, developed by Second Life creator Linden Lab, is billed as a social experience just like AltspaceVR and others, it’s got a unique hook that it hopes will turn into the app into a platform for plenty of new VR content. Users won’t just be able to meet up and hang out in virtual spaces but also build their own worlds using assets from an online store. It’s that creation element that Sanser is opening up for others to test today.

Sansar wants everyone to be able to build their own worlds, not just those with development experience. In its limited preview, the beta saw more than 1,700 creations from its 2,000 users making the virtual worlds they’ve dreamed of exploring. Over 50 users, represented as virtual avatars, can explore these worlds together. Earlier this month Linden Lab announced that it was integrating IKinema technology for natural avatar movement within these worlds.

People that make their own assets will be able to sell them on a digital storefront for Sansar Dollars — which can then be cashed out on PayPal — with the ability to monetize entire worlds coming later down the line. Building worlds is done outside of VR, but then you’ll be able to head into them using your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

Take a look at the video below showing how just one of many creators is already using the platform.

This beta will be free for all, though users can get additional creation capacity and customer support for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99. This week Linden Lab will be hosting a range of events to showcase the power of its platform, including tours of certain worlds, a chance to meet celebrated astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and even the chance to shoot virtual hoops with an NBA star.

We’ll be eager to see how Sansar performs in its early days, especially in light of last week’s unfortunate AltspaceVR news.

Tagged with: Sansar

Regular VRFocus readers will likely know about Linden Lab and it’s social virtual reality (VR) platform Sansar that’s currently in development. Designed as a place that’ll enable everyone to create, share, and ultimately monetize social experiences for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, over the last few months the project has been in a creator preview with 2,000 developers building content. Today Linden Lab has announced the opening of the creator beta for Sansar, allowing anyone to dive in and create content.

Sansar is free to use for those with a compatible head-mounted display (HMD), with additional capacity and customer support available to creators through paid subscriptions, starting at $9.99 USD/month.

The studio has revealed several other details regarding Sansar’s open beta launch. As the platform is designed to bring people together, more than 50+ avatars can be within an experience in Sansar at any given time, and automated instancing allows creators to reach unlimited audiences.

“Sansar democratizes social VR,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab in a statement. “Until now, complexity and cost has limited who could create and publish in this medium, and Sansar dramatically changes that. It’s been inspiring to see the thousands of virtual creations that have already published with Sansar during our limited preview, and I’m looking forward to the explosion of creativity we’ll see now that we’ve opened the doors in beta.”

As previously reported, Linden Lab has teamed up with IKinema to use its inverse kinematics tech allowing for avatars in Sansar to mirror users’ full-body movements. Linden Lab also partnered with Speech Graphics to enable the complex facial animation of the avatars to be synced to what is said in the mic.

To help creators advertise and share their creations each Sansar experience will have a unique link that can be shared across Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs, basically whomever the creator wishes. The platform will also enable users to earn money by selling, renting, or charging for access to their experiences through the Sansar Store for Sansar Dollars (S$). As development of Sansar continues, in the future Linden Lab will allow creators to be able to monetize entire experiences.

For the opening of the beta, the platform will host a week of launch activities so that users can experience what Sansar is all about. This will include an appearance by Buzz Aldrin in the Apollo Space museum, curated tours by Egyptologists of the lost Tombs of Tomanokin, and a free throw tournament with an NBA star.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Sansar, reporting back with the latest updates.

Sansar Pricing & Subscriptions

Since Apple announced its entry into the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) spheres there has been much speculation on if and when Apple will be releasing its own VR headset. Though there is some evidence that there are plans for a Google Glass-style AR headset, so far there has been little to suggest that Apple are planning a VR headset. So one company has taken matters into its own hands to produce a VR headset compatible with iPhones.

The Google Daydream and Samsung Gear VR are primary compatible with Android smartphones, and though the Google Cardboard will work with iPhones, its capabilities are limited in comparison. Enter The Bridge, a VR and mixed reality (VR) headset compatible with the iPhone.

Claiming to offer inside-out tracking, along with six degrees of freedom positional tracking and full room-scale VR experiences, the Bridge headset was created by San Francisco-based startup Occipital. Compatible with the iPhone 6, 6s and iPhone 7, the headset offers a resolution of 326 PPI with a refresh rate of 60fps.

The headset bundle comes with a custom bluetooth controller, a structure sensor, bridge controller and the head-mounted display and costs $399 (USD) from the Occipital website. The software that powers the headset, referred to the Bridge Engine, allows developers to craft mixed reality apps such as the one used for Occipital’s demonstration, which involves a tiny robot called Bridget, who races across and around real world objects to retrieve a virtual ball thrown by the user, something which the team at Occipital believe is just the tip of the iceberg.

Full details on what apps will be compatible with The Bridge headset has not yet been confirmed, though further information, including the ability to purchase the headset, can be found at the Occipital website.

VRFocus will bring you further news on The Bridge and other Apple-related VR and AR devices as it becomes available.

Square Enix launched a new update for Final Fantasy XV, bringing it to version 1.13 and it adds the long-delayed exosuits that fans have been excited for, as well as bringing back the Moogle Chocobo Carnival for a few weeks.

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At this point Apple’s interest in AR is well-documented; the company’s upcoming ARKit platform, due to arrive with iOS 11, is likely a precursor to something much bigger. A new patent from the company published this month shows you exactly what bigger could be.

The patent discloses a method of displaying points of interest in the real world using AR. Through the screen of an iPhone, for example, you might be able to spot iconic landmarks in a city, similar to something we’ve already seen from one iOS developer. The idea itself is hugely promising and is shown multiple times throughout the patent, with a tablet at one point recognising and virtually labelling the various features of the interior of a car. But later diagrams show something more interesting: the same system running on an AR headset.

Two images in the patent (above and below) show a user wearing this headset, with the one below showing them interacting with the virtual imagery using their hands, too.

The patent goes on to describe these images as showcasing ‘semi-transparent’ screens for a head-mounted display as an example of a ‘state of the art’ application of its technology. The points of interest are shown on the display and a user can move a finger to overlap the corresponding annotations to interact with them. The patent does note that this method of input can occlude virtual images, though, and that using your hand for a long period of time can be uncomfortable.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen an AR headset or something similar mentioned in Apple’s patents, though it is the first time we’ve seen a potential form of input listed. With ARKit already showcasing a lot of great AR content, we can easily envision Apple one day releasing a headset to compete with the likes of HoloLens and Magic Leap. Right now if feels more like a question of when rather than if.

Last week HTC announced a new all-in-one head-mounted display (HMD), the Vive Standalone, would see release in China later this year. Today, a representative of the company has confirmed to VRFocus that this HMD is in fact the same announced at Google I/O back in May 2017.

The HTC Vive Standalone will include all processing and storage on-board the device itself, removing the need for a smartphone to be inserted into the HMD or tethering to a nearby PC. However, the only technical specification revealed thus far is that the device will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and that the device will be packaged with a three degrees-of-freedom (3DoF) controller, similar to that of the Google Daydream controller.

At the time of the announcement many wondered how the HMD aimed towards the China market would differ from the previously announced unit for western audiences. VRFocus has confirmed that the differences will simply be that of software distribution; the China market will receive their content via Viveport while the western audiences will have access to the Google Daydream library. This alternate distribution chain is due to Google’s lack of penetration in China, according to a HTC representative.

Both versions of the HMD will launch within the 2017 calendar, though no specific dates or price points have yet been announced. VRFocus will be following developments on the HTC Vive Standalone very closely, and will keep you updated with further developments.

It has become very clear that the Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago did not exactly go the way the organisers hoped. Long lines, lack of connectivity, poor organisation and a server crash all marred the event. Niantic Labs attempted to placate attendees with a refund and free in-game currency, but some Pokemon Go players took it further by launching a Class Action Lawsuit. In response to the problems experienced in Chicago, Niantic have decided to postpone the European Safari events.

Despite Niantic Labs previously promising that all its planned Summer events would go ahead, the Pokemon Go Safari events in Copernhagen and Prague, which were due to take place on 5^th August are to be postponed, as are the similar events in Stockholm and Amsterdam which were due to take place on the 12^th August. The Japanese event also due to take place in August is still going ahead as planned, along with the events planned for September in Germany and France.

Niantic Labs have released a statement saying that the company is hoping to improve the gameplay experience for users at those events, most likely in an attempt to avoid the problems that occurred at Chicago.

“In order to guarantee the best possible gameplay experience for European Trainers, we have decided to postpone the events in Europe scheduled for August 5 (Copenhagen and Prague) and August 12 (Stockholm and Amsterdam) until a date later in the Fall,” Read the statement from Niantic Labs, “No other scheduled events are affected including the event scheduled for Yokohama, Japan on August 14 and the events scheduled for September 16 in France, Spain, and Germany. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you understand that our priority is to ensure a great experience for Pokémon GO Trainers in Europe and around the world. Trainers that might have questions regarding the Safari Zone events should visit the help center.”

There has been no confirmation on what the revised dates for the August events will be, though Niantic Labs have said that Pokemon who are rare to the European region will be appearing ‘for a brief time’ during August.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Pokemon Go and its related events at it becomes available.

In a way, Alien: Isolation was one of the first games to support VR. All the way back in 2014, two years before the consumer Oculus Rift would release, Oculus headed to E3 with a playable demo of the game for its shiny DK2 headset along with other games like Lucky’s Tale.

The demo was a terrifying experience, taking a slice of the first-person horror game that aimed to capture the dim atmosphere and chilling scares of the first Alien movie. Sadly, full support never made its way into the game and developer Creative Assembly has since moved onto new projects. Around release, DK2 owners were able to get the game running on their headsets with makeshift support, but it was impossible to do the same on the consumer VR headsets released last year. That is until now.

A team of modders has just released an alpha version of MotherVR, which allows the entire game to play played using either an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Simply download this patch, copy the DLL file from the archive into the game folder and you’ll be ready to go (provided you have bought the game itself, of course). That’s still with a gamepad, mind you; the team has done a great job converting the original game into the uncharted territory of the VR port, but it sticks with the original controls (mouse and keyboard are also compatible).

Be warned, though, this isn’t a professionally-made VR port, and thus you can expect some comfort and immersion-breaking issues throughout. If walking with artificial locomotion isn’t your thing then you’ll have to give this one a miss and, even if you’re not, forced camera turns and other issues might get your stomach rolling a little. If you’re up to it, though, there’s a lengthy and worthwhile campaign to see through, and staring down the iconic Xenomorph in VR is truly a frightening ordeal. You can even play the DLC expansion that released later on, retelling the events of the original movie.

This is probably as close as you’ll ever get to playing the full game in VR, so show the team some support if you can.

We’ve known for some time that Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) Gran Turismo Sport would launch with PlayStation VR compatibility, but to what degree has remained a mystery. That has now changed, with SIE committing to offering a virtual reality (VR) mode at the launch of Gran Turismo Sport later this year.

While expectations of full compatibility may be a bit far fetched, it appears that Gran Turismo Sport’s VR mode may be more limited than that of the popular Driveclub VR. According to SIE, the included VR Drive mode will offer only 1 vs. 1 races. An update to the Gran Turismo Sport page on the official Gran Turimso website reads:

“The game is compatible with the PS VR, providing the user a 360 degree 3D environment to experience. There is a dedicated VR Drive mode in the Arcade Mode where you can drive one on one races as though you are really sitting in the driver seat, surrounded by a real car interior. [sic]”

Gran Turismo Sport will launch exclusively for PlayStation 4 in October 2017, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on the included VR Drive gameplay mode.

When I tried the latest installation of The VOID earlier this year in Utah I encountered what I think is likely the pinnacle of immersion possible in 2017, with one major limit.

The VOID’s system is wireless and its relatively lightweight backpack PC actually enhances immersion because it fits with a narrative they concocted of becoming a fully equipped Ghostbuster. The head-mounted display features specifications and clarity matching consumer VR headsets like the Rift and its tracking system, powered by long-time motion-tracking company Optitrack, is seamless in allowing freedom to move around multiple rooms so you can find objects and walls exactly where you expect them to be. Even the gun you hold becomes part of the immersive experience as it transforms in VR into part of your proton pack for catching ghosts.

The limitation here is that only the gun and headset are tracked throughout VR. An approach called “inverse kinematics” is used to guess at the positions of the body, arms, hands or legs. If you go through the Ghostbusters virtual world with other people their bodies might not be represented in the correct positions. For example, a friend’s leg could be bending backward in an awkward way that reminds you what you’re seeing is faked. And when you reach out with your hands to touch the wall you don’t see your own arms reaching out.

A new puck-sized accessory on the way from Optitrack could put this limitation in the past. One puck could be permanently placed on the backpack to center the position of the body and one could be placed on each foot to track feet. This alone would be a major step forward and slipping on the feet trackers would likely add only a few seconds to the critical load-in time that’s essential for a company like The VOID to turn a profit.

Two more Optitrack pucks on each hand or arm and the use of Leap Motion (which recently got big funding) or gloves could provide the final bit of finger tracking for complete full-body immersion.

HTC is developing its own tracking puck that’s already been distributed to developers that could perform many of these same functions. HTC’s partner in developing the underlying “Lighthouse” tracking technology, Valve Software, is getting close to rolling out a second generation that could ultimately provide competition for Optitrack. The latest camera from Optitrack tuned for these kinds of large-scale VR installations costs around $1,500 and dozens of them are needed to cover the largest installations. First generation lighthouse base stations retail for $135 with the second generation expected to be even less expensive.

“Lighthouse could be a low cost competitor for us, we haven’t seen that technology used in wide scale,” said Optitrack’s Chief Strategy Officer Brian Nilles in an interview with UploadVR. “We’re just gong to have to wait and see.”

Nilles maintains that Optitrack’s reliability that comes with developing its technology over many years will give it an edge, and he hinted that as time progresses even more finely tuned cameras could be developed that might make hardware even more affordable for VR arena or arcade operators.

“That’s not our last camera for VR either,” he said.

He said the tracking pucks won’t start shipping for 1 to 2 months and the price hasn’t been set yet.

Tagged with: Optitrack

Videogame modders can do remarkable things, as VRFocus previously reported with the Half-Life 2 VR mod. A modder on Reddit has released an Alpha build of a mod that allows horror title Alien: Isolation to be played in virtual reality (VR).

A poster on Reddit going by the name Nibre has released an early Alpha build of a mod on to Github that allows users who own Alien: Isolation on Steam to be able to play the title in VR using an Oculus Rift headset.

The mod is currently only available for the Oculus Rift and is recommended for Seated play only, since there is no Snap Turning or teleportation movement, only free movement and slow turning. Motion control has not yet been implemented, and can currently only be played with an Xbox controller or a keyboard and mouse combination, though keyboard and mouse lacks a re-centering option. The developer is working on introducing HTC Vive compatibility, and hopes to introduce some basic HTC Vive function ‘soon’. Room scale play is also planned for a later date.

Since the mod is an Alpha build, there are some known issues, such as the monitor screen remaining black and not showing gameplay, though the Headset is functioning. Using the Oculus Mirror function is a workaround for this. The Menu can also sometimes appear off-screen, though the menu still functions and some objects can sometimes spawn too ‘close’ to the player to be properly focussed on. The developer is aware of these problems and is working to correct them.

Reception to this mod on Reddit has largely been positive, and a slew of requests to reward the modder for their hard work has prompted them to open their Paypal account to donations.

Further information can be found on the Github page.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on VR videogame mods.

It’s VR to the rescue yet again, as a new app built by a University of North Florida student could dramatically improve cancer treatment.

VRvisu was created by Jason Smith, who also works as an assistant professor at the university. Using MRI scans, the app recreates a patient’s tumor inside VR at an accurate scale. The doctor is then able to pull on a headset and inspect the tumor in detail, with relevant information appearing in breakout boxes within the virtual space. Helping doctors to better understand the nature of a patient’s cancer better at an earlier stage can assist them with treatment and surgeries going forward.

Smith has been using an HTC Vive for the project though, instead of the kit’s position-tracked controllers, he can be seen on News 4 Jax using a Leap Motion sensor for hand-tracking. This allows him to more realistically handle the virtual tumor.

Smith has been working on the project for about five months as part of his university project, but it’s only in prototype form right now. Much of the work was done at home. He plans to continue building it out and could potentially find other applications for the software in the future. It’s a little too early to tell if this kind of project could roll out for global use, but it looks like the foundation of something important is there.

VR is finding plenty of use as a healthcare tool with similar applications. In some cases, doctors are also using 3D visualizations to help better inform patients of their conditions, while in one case a heart scan brought to life inside Google Cardboard even helped save a baby’s life. Expect to see plenty more reports of this kind of use of the technology going forward.

After launching its mega update for the mainstream market, AMD is providing a huge update to its Radeon software for professionals. The update includes better support for creation software and driver switching capability.

The post AMD updates its professional Radeon software with driver switching capability appeared first on Digital Trends.

The tallest building in the United Kingdom, The Shard, now offers a VR experience on its viewing platform. Developed by VR firm Happy Finish and using the Oculus Rift, visitors can experience a roller coaster-like corkscrew slide at 100 miles-per-hour that will take them around the tower and over London. Guests sit on a moveable sloped platform while in VR, which uses gravity to aid immersion.

The Shard also boasts a second VR experience, using the HTC Vive and 360° footage collected during its construction. Developed by INITION, and aptly titled Vertigo, this second exhibit puts guests at the top of the Shard and even features fans to give the feeling of wind buffeting players high above the city.

Every skyscraper that dominates a major city’s skyline offers some viewing platform. From Tokyo Tower to the Burj Khalifa, these places often feature technological attractions to justify their entrance fees. But the Shard is unique in its use of VR. Advance tickets to the Skydeck run £25.95, and the VR experiences are free until August 4th, after which they will cost an additional surcharge.

This is not the first time the Shard has been the subject of a VR experience. In 2015, the firm Visualise captured 360° footage from the building and used Gear VR to place attendees in the skies of London at the World Travel Market trade show.

Although it might feel like just the blink of an eye, this month marks the one year anniversary of the release of Pokemon Go. The Augmented Reality (AR)-based phenomenon broke all records for mobile apps and managed to earn five Guinness World Records in the process, prompting many to declare it the Watershed moment for immersive technologies. Niantic is celebrating this milestone with a surprisingly low-key in-game event, giving users a chance to augment their Pokedex with a Pikachu sporting Ash’s famous baseball cap. Fans also got the chance to enjoy a real-world Pokemon Go experience in the form of ‘Pokemon Go Fest’ in Chicago, allowing them to access exclusive in-game content and achievements.

Before Pokemon Go burst onto the scene in July 2016, technology was mostly confined to underwhelming iPad apps and unwanted add-ons to camera software on smartphones. AR has been floating on the edges of the public consciousness for years now, but it didn’t have that ‘killer app’ to really push it over the edge into the mainstream. The various types of hardware required to produce and view high-end AR and VR experiences are generally widely available to both developers and the general public, however content really is key. Up until Pokemon Go there wasn’t an IP with enough star-power to pull in a large audience, let alone keep them! Even after a year, there are still an estimated 5 million active daily users of the app, and people are beginning to realise the power of the technology they carry in their pockets.

Snapchat sends AR viral

Several high-profile social media applications are beginning to incorporate AR into their user experience. Snapchat was the first mainstream social site to begin utilising AR to not only augment the user’s voice and appearance, but also their environment. The amusing, shareable images and videos were an instant hit, and many snaps created using the technology went viral. It didn’t take long for rivals Facebook and Instagram to launch their own versions of Snapchat’s flagship feature, in the form of AR Studio and Face Filters respectively. While this initially prompted backlash and accusations of copying from some, it’s undeniable that the more accessible AR technology is, the faster people will begin to adopt it into their daily lives. These sort of apps really could be the catalyst for mainstream adoption of immersive technologies.

Apple is shaking up the AR scene

The VR and AR industries have been waiting for an offering from Apple for some time now, especially after news broke of all the patents and hiring that was going on behind the scenes. With the release of ARKit, Apple has opened up the world of Augmented Reality development. Projects that once took boutique companies months and thousands of dollars can now be done by someone working out of their bedroom within a matter of days, if not hours. In fact, some people have predicted that this could end up killing off a whole generation of AR studios. There have already been some great examples of people using the technology, and happily these projects cover a lot of different industries; everything from gaming, to architectural visualisation, art, world-building and entertainment.

As is often the way with Apple products, the base technology in ARKit has been around for a few years. However, Apple is able to take those existing ideas and turn them into something great. The Apple brand is powerful, and lends a certain weight to new and emerging technologies. ARKit will be available on Apple devices running iOS 11, opening the platform up to a huge potential user-base. Could this be the starting point for full AR adoption?

And this is the issue: members of the public who may not have a great deal of experience with higher-end technology are able to get their hands on Augmented Reality demos with minimum effort and understanding. They literally just have to reach into their pocket. In contrast, Virtual Reality (VR) can be much harder to access. The high-end fully immersive experiences usually require a high powered PC, with a complicated set-up and a large financial investment. And for some, just putting a headset on is a step too far. VR is still widely considered to be a technology that’s out of reach to everyday consumers.

Ease of use is often important for adoption of new technology, and this is an undeniable advantage that AR offers over VR. Augmented Reality is also able to incorporate social elements with ease –  just look at how Snapchat has turned it into a fully sharable experience –  whilst VR has been criticised for being isolating. Also, by losing your eyes and ears you become confined to a limited space, and while that does mean you can be fully transported to any environment, it also removes the ability to access this sort of experience on the move.

So does this mean that Augmented Reality will kill off Virtual Reality? Well, no. AR and VR are two separate mediums, and conflating the two does both a disservice. Both have their own distinct advantages, disadvantages, and will possibly end up with their own distinct user bases. VR is unparallelled for transporting users to other words, and delivering experiences that you simply wouldn’t be able to access without the technology. AR is much more user-friendly, easily accessible, and available to use anywhere and everywhere. They’re not the same thing, and that’s ok: they don’t have to be. What really matters is knowing when to use each one, and how.

Origin PC refreshed its EVO15-S PC gaming laptop along with its NT-15 professional laptop with Nvidia's Max-Q-enabled graphics chips. The gaming model now supports the GeForce GTX 1070 while the NT-15 relies on Quadro graphics.

The post Origin PC beefs up two of its notebooks with Nvidia Max-Q-based graphics appeared first on Digital Trends.

Tom Beardsmore, CEO of Coatsink tells VRFocus about turn-based tactical role playing (RPG) game Augmented Empire for Samsung Gear VR. Think XCom meets virtual reality (VR), designed purely for VR. Blending traditional top down asymmetric RPG perspective with first person elements for storytelling. The Gear VR has three degrees of freedom – so you will not be able to move around the map or peek in closer, however that might be coming in the future.

Augmented Empire’s story revolves around an island called New Savannah, an isolated neo-noir metropolis whose society has been divided into three tiers by the ‘Citizen Grade System’. Its 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 depths. For the most part you play a girl called Willa, who had worked her way up to upper echelons of society, only to find it all come crashing down in an instant.

A team based game you get to choose between various different characters you meet on missions, tapping a bar to maximise hits or critical attacks on enemies, or dodging them in a tactical asymmetric map design. Depending on how you interact with your team members in the dialogue tree you’ll have one of the three possible endings for the game.

Coatsink, who have been working in VR since 2013 on games such as Esper and Esper 2 will be also be releasing a free update for Esper 2  to support Oculus Touch controllers for the Oculus Rift in the next couple of months. They also recently released a short experience A Night Sky, a VR puzzle game that makes the most out of the new Gear VR controller as well as the Samsung S8.

VRFocus previously interviewed company COO Eddie Beardsmore about the game, and VRFocus‘ writer Peter Graham gave it a full five stars in his in-depth review earlier this month. You can find out more in this interview with CEO Tom Beardsmore above.

People often ask when VR will get its own Halo or Super Mario 64. That’s not what Jesse Schell thinks the technology needs, though. Instead, he’s waiting for VR to get its own Space Invaders.

Not literally, of course; Space Invaders is a little dated and there are actually several VR clones for it already. What Schell, known for his time at Walt Disney Imagineering and now heading up Schell Games, means is that VR needs the product that gets others to believe in the platform, much like Space Invaders did for videogames decades ago.

“I think, if there’s going to be a breakthrough title — I think VR is looking for its Space Invaders,” Schell told VentureBeat in a recent interview. “It wasn’t until I really started looking at video game history that I understood how important Space Invaders was.”

He talked about how Space Invaders not only got arcade owners to believe in the power of gaming but helped fuel the growth of home consoles with just how much attention it drew and a licensing deal with Atari that brought the game into the living room too.

“But I feel like that’s where VR is now,” Schell added. “We’re waiting for that Space Invaders moment, that thing that makes people really fall in love with it.”

“For that to come, it’s going to need to be cheap. It’s going to need to be on a very accessible platform. It’s going to need to be social. I feel like, probably, something social that crosses over with the PC — and possible mobile and console — is going to be the key.”

Schell Games already has a few VR titles to its name, including last year’s I Expect You To Die. It might not be VR’s own Space Invaders, but it’s a lot of fun. Schell didn’t say whether or not his team was building what it thought could be that killer app, but assured that the company is still planning what it’s going to build for VR in 2018. We’re very much looking forward to seeing what that is.

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope provided a nice hit of nostalgia for PC gaming veterans when it appeared as an Early Access game on Steam last year. Allowing you to take on an onslaught of bad guys pulled straight from the first Sam games, The Last Hope at its core was a simple wave-based shooter- albeit one with creative weapons and no small amount of style.

A new update released by Croteam VR over the weekend aims to add a bit more depth to the game, adding items and power-ups. Now, instead of just choosing the right weapons for the right enemies, players have access to a skill tree with both passive and active abilities. They can purchase these talents alongside guns and ammo in the in-game shop. Completing planets will earn skill points to spend on both the new ability tree and weapon upgrades.

A post announcing the update on Steam and Croteam VR’s own website described what players can now try for themselves: “Lay waste on your enemies with tactical orbital lasers and plasma cannons, slow down time, create holographic decoys, release swarms of flying quadcopters, unleash an army of spiders, place minigun turret defenses or simply create giant explosions!”

This update is the follow-up to the major Arcadia update, released last month, which added new weapons and a new planet to the game. The most recent update included no information about when The Last Hope will leave early access.

Right now the only way to get hold of Sony’s Aim Controller for PlayStation VR (PSVR) is to buy it as part of a bundle with VR first-person shooter (FPS), Farpoint. We’re eager for a standalone edition to go on sale but it looks like it already has… at least in Taiwan.

Members of r/PSVR have uncovered a standalone version of the device that’s already hitting stores in Taiwan. It’s available online and was already spotted in-store too. It costs $1880 NTD, which works out to about $62.26 USD or £47.50 GBP. That’s not dramatically cheaper than the $79 RRP for the Farpoint bundle, which of course also gets you an extra game, but it remains to be seen if an unconfirmed localized release could be any cheaper.

We’ve reached out to Sony to ask if this standalone version will be coming to the west anytime soon. Fingers crossed.

Chances are you’re still hunting for a controller. The bundle has been out of stock pretty much since Farpoint launched back in May and Sony hasn’t responded to previous requests to find out more about fresh stock. That’s lead some to resell units at ridiculously jacked up prices. That said, we’d still recommend showing some patience instead of trying to import one of these units; you may still end up saving a bit of money. Plus Farpoint is worth playing and is one of only a few games to support the device thus far.