Here on the Sunday VR Job Hub at VRFocus we like to include the very latest and most up to date selection of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) jobs from around the world. If a developer is working on an awesome new project and need to up the staff or simply looking to expand their core team, we’ll have those vacancies.
| Location | Company | Role | Link |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Level Designer | Click Here to Apply |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Senior Level Designer | Click Here to Apply |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Engine Programmer | Click Here to Apply |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Lead Concept Artist | Click Here to Apply |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Lighting Artist | Click Here to Apply |
| Irvine, CA | Ready At Dawn | Producer | Click Here to Apply |
| Europe, Remote | LIV | Unreal and C++ Engineer (VR) | Click Here to Apply |
| Europe, Remote | LIV | Web Engineer | Click Here to Apply |
| Brighton, UK | Make Real | Senior Unity Developer | Click Here to Apply |
| Brighton, UK | Make Real | Senior 3D Artist | Click Here to Apply |
| Brighton, UK | Make Real | Junior Immersive Learning Designer | Click Here to Apply |
| Brighton, UK | Make Real | XR&D Designer | Click Here to Apply |
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
The Museum of Other Realities is available now in early access for $20.
The curated art museum offers visitors access to a “cross section of the free-ranging experimentation present in the relatively new medium of virtual reality art.” The initial launch includes the work of 12 different artists with numerous updates planned in the coming months.
“Artists with featured work in the Museum are paid and promoted,” the MOR’s description on Steam reads. “Hang out with friends and enjoy a collective experience with new people. We hold regular events, celebrating and fostering a community around this new medium.”
VR artists and creators have been gathering in the museum regularly for many months in what are essentially simulated art gallery openings. If its early access release builds on this community, the MOR can become a new kind of gathering place and community center that promotes a wide range of artists spread across the globe and brought together in VR. You can, of course, check out the art alone as well but there’s a lot of potential in the social experience of sharing the “impossible, interactive, mind-blowing art is a lot more fun with a couple friends,” MOR developer Colin Northway, best known for his work on Fantastic Contraption, wrote in an email to us about the software.
I’ve visited the museum in Valve Index, as well as in other VR headsets, and I’d highly recommend checking it out. If you are interested at all in VR art and the artists making it, buying the MOR and supporting them in early access seems to be one of the best options right now for seeing some fantastic and surprising VR art and supporting the further development of such creations.
Tagged with: Colin Northway, MOR, Museum of Other Realities, Robin Stethem
The post The Museum Of Other Realities Curates VR Art With Early Access Release appeared first on UploadVR.
A major new addition is live now in popular single-player PC VR simulation game Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is inspired by Team Fortress 2 and officially sanctioned by Valve Corporation.
H3VR’s developers at RUST LTD. are adapting the classic weapons from Valve’s 2007 shooter Team Fortress 2. The guns come with a new sandbox map and several game modes “styled as an homage to TF2,” according to developer Anton Hand.
The “Meat Fortress” H3VR update is now live on Steam. That is the same date set by Valve for full reviews of its Index VR headset and controllers.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades sells for $19.99 on Steam and remains in early access after more than three years of development. Developers updated H3VR dozens of times with new objects, interactions and modes and update 72 recently added formal support for the new Valve Index wearable controllers.
H3VR offers a collection of realistically simulated gun ranges and firearms. There are game modes too, like take and hold, offering players an array of sausage-like agents to fight. There’s no multiplayer in H3VR and the hot dog agents you shoot are a long way from resembling humans.
“H3VR is what happens when four best friends who went to art school make a game about guns,” Hand wrote in a message. “There’s a new Sandbox environment with Sentient Sausages cosplaying as TF2 characters, where the Red Hots do battle with the Blue Franks.”
Original article published June 10, 2019. Updated June 28.
Tagged with: H3VR, RUST LTD., Team Fortress 2, Valve Corporation
The post Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Update Adds Original Guns From Valve’s Team Fortress 2 appeared first on UploadVR.
The Video Electronics Standards Association this week released the spec for DisplayPort 2.0, the next generation royalty-free video cable standard.
DisplayPort 2.0 provides a 3x increase in total bandwidth compared to the previous DisplayPort 1.4a. This means the max payload bandwidth increased from 25.92 Gbps to 77.37 Gbps.
Diagram from VESA
Among the potential use cases of the new standard, VESA lists:
Two 4Kx4K (4096×4096) displays (for AR/VR headsets) @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
VESA claims the first products with DisplayPort 2.0 will ship by late 2020.
On the market today, the Oculus Rift S and Valve Index use DisplayPort 1.2 to drive total resolutions of 2560×1440 and 2800×1600 respectively. DisplayPort 1.2 was introduced all the way back in 2010, but is still used today because it provides higher bandwidth than standard HDMI at a reasonable cost.
The HP Reverb and Acer ConceptD OJO use DisplayPort 1.3 to drive their total resolutions of 4320×4320, since 1.2 doesn’t provide sufficient bandwidth.
Due to the decision to use DisplayPort, these recent headsets won’t work on laptops with only HDMI.
Of course, a 4K per eye headset might not require a 4K per eye display stream. Instead, if such a headset used foveated rendering (and it would need to given the huge number of pixels) it could send the high resolution foveal area separately to the low resolution background. In this way, a less expensive version of DisplayPort with a wider install base of supporting graphics cards could be used.
However, at Oculus Connect 5 Facebook showed off research on a foveated rendering system which uses a deep neural network to reconstruct the pixel detail. The company’s Michael Abrash claimed this could lead to a 20x reduction in rendered pixels. However, the reconstructed pixels may need to be sent at full resolution in order to not be noticeable.
But even if DisplayPort 2.0 isn’t used for the next generation of VR headsets, it may lay a foundation for VR headsets further in the future to drive foveal resolutions we can only dream of today.
Tagged with: 4K VR headset, DisplayPort
The post DisplayPort 2.0 Could Enable 4K Per Eye HDR 120Hz VR Headsets appeared first on UploadVR.
“Throughout the history of Valve we’ve had a lot of significant milestones,” Gabe Newell, President and Co-Founder of Valve Corporation, said at the Valve Index launch party on June 27, 2019. “We had Half-Life, which was our first single player game, we had Source, which was our first engine, we had Counter-Strike, which was our first multiplayer game, then we had Steam and the Workshop…and Index is another one of those critical milestones for our company.”
The launch party was a very small-scale event in which Valve employees, including Gabe Newell himself, gathered to showcase the Valve Index headset and its controllers to a small group of randomly selected Index buyers. Those that attended received their headsets on the spot and got a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Valve’s innovative lighthouse tracking technology.
You can watch the entire speech right here:
During the event Newell reflected on the history of the company and what the future looks like with Index releasing publicly.
“It represents a tremendous amount hard work and creativity on your parts,” Newell said, addressing Valve employees. “As you know Index represents a significant breakthrough in the field, the visual fidelity that implies in terms of optical design, panel design, industrial design, all that’s a real breakthrough. Knuckles is hugely important not only for how it’s going to help ourselves and our game partners make their games better, but in how it enables entirely new kinds of games.”
Notably, Newell then took the opportunity to twist the dagger in the heart of millions by making a Half-Life 3 (or Portal 3, to be honest) joke almost too casually.
“But milestones aren’t really the end of anything, they’re really the beginning,” Newell said. “Half-Life led to Half-Life 2, Source led to Source 2, the experiments we did with Team Fortress 2 are what enabled us to build DOTA, Artifact is the reason that we’re able to do Underlords, and so maybe someday the number 2 will lead us to that shiny integer glowing on a mountain someplace. We’ll just have to see.”
The Valve Index headset is starting to arrive on door steps now and you can read our full review on the site. We’ve also got about four hours of streamed content from this week including an Aperture Hand Lab playthrough, footage of Index updates in games like Vacation Simulator, Blade & Sorcery, Onward, and many others. It really does feel like a milestone moment for the whole VR industry.
Source: Reddit User Zee2
Newell then alluded to future improvements such as the potential of lower cost, broadened distribution, better ergonomics, and even untethered, wireless support. You can read more about those plans here.
“What [improving on Index] is gonna enable is the best part of this: when you start seeing new VR games from Valve and from our other partners,” Newell said. “And that’s really where you guys come in. You see it’s very hard for us to develop a product, to work at Valve, without customers. We have to guess. What’s important? What are the tradeoffs we should make? Will this be valuable to you? And we can sort of run a simulation in our head, but it’s so much better when we actually have real customers we can engage with.
“We’re really entering the best time as creators. We’re reaching a time when you guys are involved, you’re not only telling us how we did with Index, you’re teaching us how to make Index better–and that’s awesome. It’s such an exciting time for all of us.”
Tagged with: Gabe Newell, valve, valve index
The post Gabe Newell: Index VR Headset Is A ‘Critical Milestone’ For Valve appeared first on UploadVR.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Valve officially teased its own virtual reality (VR) headset, the Valve Index. Sure, images had circulated the web that the company had one in the works but when an actual formal mention is made, it makes it all the more exciting. Three months later and the Valve Index has now begun shipping to those customers lucky enough (and quick enough) to have placed their pre-orders in May. And in all honesty, you’ve made a great decision.
I’ve been lucky enough to have access to the Valve Index for a month now although I’ve not been able to use it every day namely due to being away at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 earlier this month. I previously wrote a fairly detailed hands-on article for the headset so after spending more time with the device when possible, it was time to write a candid assessment of the Valve Index.
Right from the off when Valve introduced the headset for the first time at a special press event in Seattle the company made it quite clear its intentions for Valve Index. The head-mounted display (HMD) hasn’t been designed to attract more consumers to the market with cheap pricing, it has been designed for high fidelity and all the VR enthusiasts out there. Which is fine, and the pricing does reflect this, but is it really worth it?
Valve has definitely taken a leap out of the modern packaging handbook when it comes to presentation. The full kit comes in a massive sleek, shiny black box which feels weighty and solid enough to sit on (please, please don’t though). Inside is a lovely double layer arrangement with the main hardware – headset, controllers, and base stations – on top and all the cabling and other paraphernalia underneath. The top layer also has handy fabric tabs either side to allow for easy lifting. Very plush and well thought out.
As you’d hope to expect all the kit is well made and put together, the plastic doesn’t feel cheap and it all seems like it could take a knock or two if users aren’t too careful! So far this is also reassuring due to the fact that there are so many moving/adjustable parts to the system. Discounting things like the buttons and triggers, controllers such as the Oculus Touch or the ones for HTC Vive only have a single wrist strap to deal with. The Valve Index Controllers have the fabric strap for the back of the hand which has two points where it can be altered.
Likewise, the Valve Index headset features a ratchet tightening dial at the back, manual IPD adjustment underneath and another dial on the side to move the lenses backwards and forwards depending on preference and whether you wear glasses. For the time being this is all great, a super amount of options to suit everyone, time will tell how well they wear, however.
As a brand new toy to play with the Valve Index just keeps getting better and better. As mentioned, because of all those options to tweak the fit the headset is a joy to use. Very comfortable from the outset, after playing a number of titles such as Beat Saber, Aperture Hand Labs and some Shadow Legend VR continuously I didn’t feel the need for rest or that the HMD was getting too much. This is in part due to a nice balance with a really rugged and well-padded head strap back. A VR headset will always have more weight at the front due to lenses, circuit boards and displays, there isn’t a way around that. Valve does seem to found a happy trade-off currently.
And let us not forget the screen quality. It might not be OLED like HTC Vive but that hasn’t stopped Valve Index producing a feast for the eyes. The custom built full-RGB LCD display offers a resolution of 1440×1600 per eye (same as HTC Vive Pro) and a 120Hz refresh rate. Which to put it bluntly means Valve Index makes VR look awesome. LCD might not be as good on darker scenes as OLED, unable to generate the same black levels but so what. The screendoor effect is massively reduced, colours are bright and punchy and visuals are suitably crisp. If I’m being picky at points straight lines do come off a little jaggy which can only really be improved with even higher resolutions.
In conjunction with the display, the near-field speakers are capable of some sonic beauty so you won’t miss your headphones. I was concerned about external noise on first inspection and disappointed there wasn’t a headphone jack if I didn’t like the audio quality. Unless you’re using the Valve Index in a busy building site I wouldn’t worry, as you’ll barely notice any outside interference. Videogames like Beat Saber showcase the range, clear at the top with some decent bass – just don’t expect sub-levels! The same goes for spatial audio. For example, the elevator speaker in Aperture Hand Labs had just the right distance and hollowness for the environment.
Possibly even more impressive and certainly more fun to play with are the Valve Index Controllers. While the headset ups the ante when it comes to all the variables mentioned against competitors, it’s the controllers that make the entire system what it is and the best reason to consider purchasing. By far these are the most natural to use of any VR system – and that comes from someone who has always liked Oculus Touch – once you’ve got the fit just so (which doesn’t take too long). Aperture Hand Labs is a good place to start, being able to see the individual finger movements and test the pressure sensitivity.
This is all well and good when it comes to Valve’s own title but developers need to optimise their experiences as well. Thankfully, many have done so, with Owlchemy Labs’ Vacation Simulator a good example of the finger tracking tech. Shadow Legend VR shows the grip function off to great effect. I was able to actually grab the sword at my waist which made the immersion levels skyrocket, liberally swinging it and fighting opponents.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to controller dexterity. Dribble a basketball openhanded, roll a bowling ball with more realism, pick up an egg and crush it, swear at an NPC if you so wish. It’s now open season on hand movements, with the only real limit being how well developers can actually deploy these features. If there is one problem it’s not a bad one, you’ve now been spoilt and other controllers just don’t match up. Just as well, they’re certainly not cheap.
When it comes to cost and who would buy the Valve Index there’s one particular market the system is being aimed at, HTC Vive owners. In particular, those of you who’ve owned one since day one or as near as dammit. If you purchased your HTC Vive within the first 12 months of launch (even more so in the first six months), have used it most days, loved owning the headset and now want to take the next step then Valve Index is it, even more than the HTC Vive Pro I reckon. Use your old sensors and just get the headset and controllers. The 2.0 Base Stations are more suited to massive areas and VR Arcades anyway.
Oculus Rift users? If you’ve bought all your VR titles on Steam then yeah go for the full kit, otherwise, don’t bother. As for everyone else just entering the VR field for the first time you’re not going to appreciate what Valve Index offers, Oculus Quest is a better entry point. Unless you have a great wad of cash that’s weighing you down, in which case Valve Index it is (when you can get hold of one).
If you couldn’t tell by now I’m quite fond of Valve’s new HMD. Sure it’s expensive and most gamers aren’t going to be able to afford it and Valve knows this. Have you loved VR for years and can’t go back to pancake gaming on a screen? Then Valve Index is for you. Don’t stress that shipments won’t take place until the end of September 2019, instead use that time to save up and treat yourself to an awesome Christmas present.
Over the next few days the Valve Index will finally start arriving on people’s doorsteps. The headset brings improved comfort, resolution, audio, field of view and more to VR. We’re pretty darn excited about it.
But that’s only one part of Index’s offerings. Also arriving this week are the Index Controllers (previously known as the Knuckles controllers). These long-in-development devices add improved VR finger tracking among other features like analog sticks. Again, we really like them and can’t wait for people to get their hands on them. But what games will you actually be able to play with the controllers?
While almost every SteamVR game should support them in an unofficial capacity, developers are updating their games to officially implement finger tracking support and other features. Below, we’ve rounded up every game that either already has or will soon be getting official Index Controller support. Also note that, if you want to save a little money, you can buy the Index controllers separately and then use them with your HTC Vive.
Tagged with: Index Controllers, valve index
The post Every Game That Supports Valve Index Controllers (So Far) appeared first on UploadVR.
Valve Index is in a class by itself.
This is true in at least three respects:
1.) Fine adjustments to the HMD’s optics and field of view take clarity and visual comfort to levels never seen before.
2.) Basic hand signals as well as grasping and release sensations enabled by wearable hand controllers are unique to Index right now.
3.) SteamVR Tracking is now the only significant consumer-focused movement tracking system working from the outside-in on PCs.
Let’s go through those one at a time.
Oculus Quest cut the cord to enable more movement freedom in VR. Index keeps the cord while refining everything that makes high-end VR so compelling. In particular, Valve’s biggest revelation with Index is its clarity and visual comfort that is unmatched by other consumer VR headsets.
In an original Rift or Vive, for example, you learn to point your head directly at people, objects or text. The edges of those earlier lenses catch so much light and have so many fresnel rings that if you point your eyes at something near the lens’ edge you notice the rings and light rather than the scene beyond. Index changes things. Combined with powerful, startlingly loud, off-ear speakers, I’ll call the Valve Index HMD a no-brainer upgrade from the original Vive in every respect for $500. The screen door effect — the sense that the grid pattern of the pixels is so visible that you are seeing the simulated world through a screen door — is no longer a term that makes sense.
I’ll note the LCD display’s black levels appear as shades of gray in darkened caves or tunnels. That might be a deal-breaker for some but I still prefer the Index visuals overall to those provided by any other headset I’ve tried. The lenses still catch god rays, too, but they seem reduced compared to 2016 headsets and generally disappear in bright scenes.
For new buyers trying PC VR the $1,000 full Index VR Kit (controllers, tracking base stations and HMD) sits at the top of the field versus Rift S at $400.
After living with both Rift S and Index at my fingertips for the last month — as well as HP Reverb — I can say I’ve enjoyed my time with Index more than the others. Of course, I said as much weeks ago. What you’ve probably come here for then is an answer to the question of whether Index is $600 better than Rift S (and Oculus Quest)?
Most people will be satisfied with a Rift S that has easy setup and a nice fit. Still, the extra $600 is going to be worth it for a segment of buyers. The value of the new Index controllers and the interactions it enables remains an unknown at launch, which further complicates my answer.
The Index controllers do for 2019 what SteamVR Tracking did on for the Vive in 2016 — they offer a fledgling new market for developers to explore and experiment in partnership with early adopting buyers. In April 2016 it was room-scale freedom of movement and hand controllers with rudimentary grip buttons. In 2019, Valve is unleashing a new wave of PC-based experimentation centered around the Index controllers.
Grasping, releasing, throwing, shaking hands, throwing a peace sign or flipping a bird — these verbs take on new, more natural and intuitive meanings with the Index controllers. The hand controllers exist in a space between the open air interfaces of Leap Motion and HoloLens and the haptically-enhanced approach of hand controllers and gloves. It is interesting, new and developers are still figuring out how best to implement these new verbs.
While Vive-compatible apps generally work on Index fine, and there are community-generated bindings available, this is no match for developer support of the controllers. There is a range of implementations and developers continue to update compatibility. Gripping the edges of a ledge with your fingertips in Blade & Sorcery is something incredible the developer rolled out just this week, for instance, while the impressive tech demo Aperture Hand Lab is forced into a backward compatibility mode for Oculus Touch controllers because its incredible handshake scene would essentially be broken without it. H3VR doesn’t represent hands at all, for example, while Vacation Simulator gives you nice fluffy fingers with which to throw around virtual objects.
With the Index controllers the journey in VR begins with your hands resting at your sides — fingers open and not gripping anything. There’s the constant reminder of the strap tightly looping on either side of your knuckles, but once you’re wearing the controllers it flips the current interaction paradigm of VR on its head. Your interaction with a virtual world doesn’t have to begin by actively gripping a controller.
This is a new path for VR input available to developers meant to build on the best of the controllers that came before it. We have yet to see broad support for these Index controllers, though, or a must-have application at launch that defines its new interaction paradigm. Is it worth $279? That’s a value proposition that’s changing with each new developer supporting the controllers.
The short history of PC VR since 2016 is that, in April 2016, Valve’s ”lighthouse” tracking technology shipped with the HTC Vive headset and its controllers. This elegant and innovative system depends on non-visible lasers spinning like lighthouses from opposing corners of the room to pinpoint the position of a headset and its controllers. Facebook shipped Oculus Rift at practically the same time in 2016 with a non-tracked gamepad and mostly seated gameplay while supplying some developers with early tracked Touch controllers. Only in December of that year did Facebook finally ship those controllers and it took until April of 2017 for the company to fully support 3-sensor 360-degree setups — essentially matching the feature set Vive supported out of the box a year earlier.
These systems had one big difference though — each additional Oculus sensor required an extra USB port on the PC. The original SteamVR Tracking used one or two stations which only needed to be plugged into power to track objects. Valve Index 2.0 base stations sell for $150 each and it is essential you have at least two. This system, though, is expandable by up to four base stations “creating a larger play area while reducing occlusion.” We have yet to test this expanded scenario, but I set up the 2.0 base stations quickly and at a further distance from one another than the first generation and then mostly forgot about them.
Oculus Rift S essentially erases the cost and setup of external tracking hardware by mounting five cameras on the latest PC-powered headset made by Lenovo. We’ve had several requests to try Echo Arena in Revive, for instance, and we haven’t had a chance to try it yet. As I drafted this review Rift S received a tracking update in its public test channel too. This means that comparing the quality — and value of these tracking systems — is going to be an ongoing task for us.
The difference in price between Rift S and Index is vast, but so is the experience. I’ll have to end this, then, by turning the $600 question around on you — how much time are you going to spend in VR and how important is it to you that time be spent in a headset offering the most comfort and highest fidelity available in 2019?
Tagged with: valve index, valve index controllers
The post Valve Index Review: Aiming For PC VR’s Sweet Spot And Pulling The Trigger appeared first on UploadVR.
If you were one of the quick ones on 1st May then today should be filled with excitement as a Valve Index might be arriving on your doorstep. Announced in March followed by an official reveal in April, the Valve Index is the company’s first branded VR headset whilst introducing the new Valve Index controllers – formerly Knuckles. While the headset itself supports SteamVR – so most virtual reality (VR) videogames on Steam should work fine – Valve has released a list of titles that have been optimised for the new headset/controller setup, just over 30 in total.
When pre-orders went live the Valve Index could be purchased in a number of ways depending on the kit customers already had. The headset by itself, controllers as a pair, or both together (all three options suitable if you own HTC Vive). Or there was the full package with Valve Index, controllers and the new SteamVR 2.0 Base Stations.
If you bought any combination that included the controllers then you’ll want to take a look at this list. The following titles have been confirmed by Valve as optimised for the Valve Index and Valve Index Controllers:
*indicates in Steam Summer Sale 2019
Of course, there are literally thousands of VR titles on Steam which will work with just the headset itself if that’s what you bought. There’s no doubt that plenty of developers will likely be updating their projects to work with the new controllers in the near future, and as best as possible VRFocus will update this article accordingly.
For continual updates on Valve Index hardware and software including Valve’s highly anticipated ‘flagship VR title‘ keep reading VRFocus.
You don’t see a lot of sequels in the VR space yet. Not only is it rare to have a game successful enough to fund and/or warrant a follow-up, but consumer VR headsets just haven’t been around very long yet so developers haven’t had the time. Well, Vertigo 2 from Zulubo Productions is bucking those trends.
The original Vertigo came out in late 2016 and we called it “a decent stab at an indie Half-Life” in VR. Notably, it lacked the polish to be as transcendent as it could have been. If this trailer is any indication, the sequel could be righting most of the wrongs we had with its predecessor:
Not only does Vertigo 2 look like a wild ride, it sounds like one too. This is what the Steam page says:
Deep underground in the reaches of Quantum Reactor VII, you awake to finish your journey home. No closer to your goal than when you first arrived, you must count on the help of the mysteriously familiar stranger who saved your life. On your way towards the center of the reactor, you will have to face bizarre alien flora and fauna leaking from other universes – and deadly android security forces whose job is to purge the Reactor of all life. As you try to determine who to trust, sinister forces lurk just out of sight.
With a branching story hinging on key decisions, there’s no telling what you’ll encounter in this absurd world. The only certainty is that there’s danger around every corner.
We’ll be eagerly awaiting more details on this one. The Steam page says it’s coming in 2020 and it has support for Vive, Windows VR, and Index listed (notably no Rift) but we don’t know more beyond that. Let us know what you think of it down in the comments below!
Tagged with: FPS, vertigo, Vertigo 2, VR FPS, Zulubo Productions
The post Vertigo 2 Looks Like A Big, Bold, And Adventurous VR FPS appeared first on UploadVR.
nDreams, the British virtual reality (VR) studio behind videogames like The Assembly, Perfect, Shooty Fruity and Danger Goat is currently working on a kayak-based stealth experience called Phantom: Covert Ops. The studio attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year so naturally, VRFocus wanted to learn more about what the team has planned.
The studio only revealed the title just over a month ago, mixing both first-person shooter (FPS) mechanics with kayaking – which to VRFocus’ knowledge is a first for VR. As you may expect, you play an elite operative tasked with infiltrating a Cold War naval facility to prevent a rogue militia from launching a global attack. And it just so happens that the facility is completely waterlogged, allowing you to navigate the environment at will.
So the entire experience takes place inside the kayak – there’s no hopping out by the looks of it – and that’s fine because you have everything conveniently placed around the kayak for optimal infiltration. Need a sniper rifle, that’s on board. Need a silenced pistol, yeah that’s to hand. How about some C4 for when you want to create a mess, no problem. All the while you’re paddling away being super sneaky.
Well, you can be stealthy if you choose to be. In Phantom: Covert Ops you can take the subtle approach, hiding in the reeds until enemies go past, taking them out individually when no one else is looking. Or don’t, and start throwing C4 like it was bread for the ducks, creating some sort of scene from any number of war movies whilst unleashing a hail of bullets. The choice is up to you.
Certainly, an interesting concept which is designed to be seated and comfortable for lots of players, VRFocus spoke with Phantom: Covert Ops’ Game Director Lewis Brundish to understand the background behind the title and what players could expect from it.
Check out the full interview below, or take a look at VRFocus’ other interviews from E3 2019 with Oculus’ Jason Rubin, Vertigo Games, Gearbox Software, Ready at Dawn and Digital Lode. For further Phantom: Covert Ops updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades – often referred to colloquially as H3VR – stands out in the saturated sea of VR shooters for a few reasons. For one, it features anthropomorphized sausages as its enemies, making this a relatively child-friendly shooter. Rather than be about respawn rates and fragging enemies, it’s billed more as a gun shooting simulator with hyper-realistic and intricate interactions. It’s also never on sale, owing to RUST LTD’s faith in their product and it’s value – for good reason, too. H3VR has over 70 updates, notably including this week’s Meat Fortress event, all of which have been released free of charge since the game entered Early Access in 2016. It’s this that really makes H3VR stand out from the pack, the exhaustive dedication to iterative improvement.
Anton Hand, CTO of RUST LTD, was kind enough to lend me his time to help explain this phenomenon. H3VR’s Early Access state came about essentially due to Hand’s virality and the HTC Vive’s initial launch. Upon uploading some test footage in early 2016 of him goofing around with gun models in VR, viewers started asking for him to release something to coincide with the Vive’s launch that they, too, could play with. His plan was initially to rush out the “beginning structure of an early access game,” Hand explained, adding that they’d be incredibly open about their intention to update it frequently.
“Something that’s very philosophically ‘us’ is the opposite of the ‘hard sell'”, Hand added, alluding to the fact that they never wanted to pressure people into buying their game only to end up feeling disappointed. They’d much rather their community adopts the approach of “Follow along, we’re doing weekly videos and putting out weekly updates, buy in when/if it looks interesting enough for you to pay for.”
Though they initially planned to leave Early Access some time in 2018, H3VR still hasn’t seen a 1.0 release, because, “The experiments are ongoing and this is a project that [is] reactive to its community, ” as Hand put it. A key example of this is the Take and Hold mode, which “stemmed from [me] wanting to do a lighting test with a modular hallway kit”, and after fans flocked to the mode and expressed their approval, ended up getting “several iterations of improvement,” from the team.
Update #52 was so large that it took them around 3 months to complete and “was the most extensive refactor of the game’s systems that it ever got… especially given the complexity of it, [it was a] more extensive rebuild than a game tends to get,” Hand remarked, adding that “I think a lot of people probably would have just released a brand new game at that point,” but they were determined to see out their vision of H3VR.
I commented that some of these updates were easily expansive enough to qualify as DLC, but questioned why they’d kept everything free. His response was cheerful but he clearly has a strict code of conduct: “I’ve joked for a while that we’re a live service game that you only pay for once… I’m very much not [a fan of the] monetization strategies of our industry, I find them sort of predatory.”
“There are two reasons why these various updates aren’t structured like DLCs that you pay for,” Hand said. The first of which is technical, mentioning that they were strictly aiming for regular updates, so anything that would slow that infrastructure down is an immediate red flag. “The second one is just a general, philosophical/emotional [reason, that] there are people who’ve been following this game for several years who save up their pennies and buy into VR – especially young kids,” and the last thing Hand wants is “little Timmy to buy the game because he got a VR system for Christmas as his one gift,” only to discover that “he doesn’t have 80% of the guns because he doesn’t have the money to buy them for $2.99 each.”
“If you’re a creator and you’re trying to make something that’s a positive part of someone’s day and existence, that just isn’t something you do to other people who you care about,” Hand explained. “If I had to do that to survive making media products, I wouldn’t make media products, I would go be a carpenter or something – I just don’t believe in doing that to people.”
He embellished this with the story of a holiday event that he ran over one December. “I got through my head to do [this] advent calendar where I did an update a day from December 1st to December 25th.” These updates included a hidden advent box that would unlock new guns, grenades, and more for players to enjoy, and despite describing it as a gruelling experience that he’d grossly underestimated the workload for, the response was overwhelming. “I was originally like ‘no, there’s no way I’m ever going to do that [again]’,” but he received some heartwarming messages from the community: “[They told me] how important it was to them, one guy [wrote] ‘you’re the only one that got me anything for Christmas this year.'”
Another recently separated fan felt that the event gave him a reason to keep living “and so I always try to do something special [for] the holidays, and I think even after we hit [version 1.0] for H3VR… I will absolutely keep doing the holiday stuff… because that kind of stuff is so special to some people,” Hand remarked.
If Hand’s passion for his craft was ever in question, you’d need look no further than his YouTube channel. He uploads fairly regular devlog videos and his most recent upload is an excellent example. While discussing the Team Fortress 2 weapons that they’ve implemented into H3VR for the Meat Fortress update, we get a good insight into his perspective. Not only is he incredibly respectful of the source material he’s working with, going to great lengths to maintain as much authenticity as he can while also adapting the guns to realistic physics, but you can hear genuine glee in his voice when he’s testing out the weapons.
He left me with an eye-opening take on the current state of the gaming industry and why live service models are effective: “You’re not actually fighting for anyone’s money, anymore. Actually, you’re fighting for minutes of their time; that’s the commodity now. You are trying to deliver something that’s worth their time, not trying to pick money out of their wallet, because we’ve reached saturation in this industry.”
Another game that surprised me with the depth of free updates is the chaotic Sairento VR, which received a new Oculus Quest spinoff this week. Despite launching in Early Access in 2016 and later releasing in 2018, they still weren’t done iterating on Sairento VR. I posed my questions to Aldric Chang, CEO of Mixed Realms, about their title. “Sairento VR was born of a desire [to] mesh the iconic ‘bullet-time’ scenes from The Matrix, the slow-motion mayhem of Max Payne… while looking and feeling as badass as the Bride from Kill Bill,” Chang explained. “Our mistake was coming out of EA a tad early, but that [didn’t stop] us from continuing to roll out updates.”
They were striving for perfection with their updates, Chang told me, clarifying that “Of course there is no true perfection as a game can always be improved, but we think that we owe it to our fans to at least bring the game to a state where they can play it the way we intended for them to.” This desire to serve their fans was important to them, stating that, “As a game developer, we are clear that we answer chiefly to our fans. We owe any sales and success to them…they deserve the best that we can give them. And if something can be improved, we want to do it.”
Unlike H3VR, however, this approach was never really part of the plan for SairentoVR. Chang and the team “simply felt that we owed it to our fans to make the game as good as we could make it. It was clear at least to us that Sairento still needed improvement in some areas, so we decided to work on them.” He also elaborated on how the fans can – and often should – be a part of this process: “The ‘jump’ mechanic that defines Sairento now… The player feedback was tremendously in favor of making this the default option.”
As with Hand, I asked why these updates remained free of charge, and Chang reiterated a similar sense of morality. “Of course we could have waited to compile all the updates and sold them as a DLC but that would mean delaying the updates. That wouldn’t be right…we had many bugs in the earlier iterations of our game…we wanted to give away the later updates to reward our fans for being patient with us.”
It was humbling to hear this sentiment of loyalty to the fans echoed throughout our interview. “Players don’t want to be told what they can’t experience – only to be shown what they can,” Chang concluded.
Both H3VR and Sairento VR are notable titles that wouldn’t be what they are today without the tireless work of their developers. These are shining examples of how continual iteration can be the ethical future of gaming, and we can only hope other developers follow suit.
Tagged with: H3VR, Hot Dogs Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Sairento VR
The post How These VR Developers Keep Fans Happy With Free Iterative Updates appeared first on UploadVR.
Firewall Zero Hour is an excellent game. We awarded it our Game of the Year for 2018 and consider it one of the very best PSVR games to date and easily one of the best VR shooters so far. When played with the PS Aim controller it offers an immense amount of depth and tactics with an active and deeply passionate community. And it looks like Sony is deciding to start promoting it once again now that the Operation Nightfall update is fully functional.
Earlier this week Damoun Shabestari, Game Director at First Contact Entertainment, announced via a PlayStation Blog post that Firewall Zero Hour would be enjoying a free trial weekend starting today (June 28) and lasting until Sunday (June 30) for anyone with a PSVR headset and PS Plus subscription. This weekend will also offer double XP across the board for all players. With this free trial it’s a great opportunity to test the game out if you’ve been wary or to invite friends into the fold that haven’t tried it yet.
In the same blog post, Shabestari also broke down the intricate design principles and ideas that went into the creation of the game’s latest free map addition, Hangar. The map was introduced in the Operation Nightfall update (there’s one more coming too) and it features some of the most complex designs in the whole game to date.
During our E3 VR Showcase, First Contact Entertainment also announced their next game dubbed Solaris: Offworld Combat, which is coming to both Oculus Quest and Rift later this year.
If you’re new to Firewall Zero Hour, don’t forget to read our review, check out our full guide to all weapons and equipment, and scan the new player intel we’ve published previously to get up to speed. And let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below!
Tagged with: Firewall: Zero Hour, First Contact Entertainment, Operation Nightfall
The post Play Firewall Zero Hour For Free And Earn Double XP On PSVR This Weekend appeared first on UploadVR.
Ubisoft launched multiplayer combat arena experience Space Junkies back in March, and during the course of the following three months released a new content update. As it’s almost the end of June it’s time for Episode 3 with the studio introducing plenty of free content for players to enjoy.
In this update – which applies to all versions (PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift/Rift S and HTC Vive) – players now have access to a new weapon called the Bowminator which can quickly fire three shots at once, or one powerful shot when keeping the string pulled.
There’s a new map called The Jail, geared towards close and medium range combat – great for those who like using the sword. A new Squid variant known as “Mental Mollusk”, plus a new bots feature. Whether you’re new to Space Junkies or just wish to practice a map or using a weapon, now you can offline against a bunch of AI.
Lastly, there are two new modes. It used to be that Space Junkies only allowed up to 2v2 matches but now that’s been increased to 3v3, with lobbies supporting up to six players. The other mode is Chivalry. This is a little mode hardcode than the rest, with players only having access to the bow, sword and shield, old school medieval fighting in space.
“Chivalry was inspired by one of our Gameplay Programmers who likes to Cosplay and play with medieval swords,” explains Ubisoft Producer Adrian Lacey on Oculus Blog. “Players enjoyed close quarter combat in our spherical battlespaces, so we decided to take it a step further by adding the ‘Bowminator’ to increase skill level, encourage precision shooting, and add a tactical layer.”
And that’s it in terms of the Space Junkies roadmap Ubisoft has released. The studio has made mention of a surprise to come but no other details have been made available just yet.
If you’ve not picked up Space Junkes yet then now might be a good time as its currently discounted. On the Oculus Store, it’s retailing for £13.32 GBP (normally £33.99), on Steam its got a 63% saving down to £12.57, and on PlayStation Store its £15.99. For further updates on the videogame, keep reading VRFocus.
Yet another VR essential is making its way over to Oculus Quest next week. Crows, Crows, Crows and Squanch Games’ entirely bizarre VR mind-messer, Accounting +, touches down on July 4th.
Yes that’s right, the most American of all games arrives on the most American of all days. Accounting + is a surreal descent into madness from the mind of Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland. It sees you putting on VR headsets to travel deeper and deeper into strange and twisted realities where you’ll meet uncomfortably aggressive characters and, uh, play the xylophone with some bones.
Check out the trailer for the Quest port below. It also confirms the game’s getting support for Valve’s shiny new Index headset and controllers.
VR veterans will remember Accounting first released for free on PC VR headsets in 2016. It then came to PSVR as the expanded Accounting +, which also arrived on PC late last year. We’ve long been fans of the app’s distinct tone. Accounting + excels at making you feel awkward and uncomfortable in fascinating and funny ways. Plus it’s littered with easter eggs and secrets to uncover, encouraging you to explore every inch of every scene. Trust us when we say there’s nothing quite like it out there right now.
Meanwhile, outside of Quest town, Limited Run games is also launching a special edition of Accounting + on PSVR. It’s got a special coin, soundtrack and a Talking Tree Guy plush that we really, really want. Squanch also recently launched another VR game, Trover Saves The Universe.
Tagged with: accounting, Oculus Quest
The post Accounting + Is Coming To Oculus Quest Next Week appeared first on UploadVR.
A couple of days ago VRFocus reported on John Moores University in Liverpool, UK, announcing plans to launch an MA in Immersive Arts later this year. Which is fine if you happen to live or plan to move to the UK. Not everyone does or can, which is why remote, online courses are popular avenues for learning. This week virtual campus Axon Park has revealed it’ll be running a full semester course taught in virtual reality (VR).
Axon Park has begun a strategic partnership with VR First with the Unreal Engine VR Masterclass being the first endeavour. They’ve brought on board Survios CTO and Co-Founder Alex Silkin to teach the course who will also be supported by the Unreal Engine Team. Survios is well known for a number of VR titles including Raw Data, Sprint Vector, Creed: Rise to Glory and Electronauts, as well as upcoming projects Battlewake and The Walking Dead Onslaught.
Starting on 4th September and running for 14 weeks until 11th December 2019, the course is designed for expert-level developers used to Unity (or other engines) who want to learn Unreal Engine 4 of VR. Classes take place two times per week with the curriculum being project-based. Prerequisites include 3D linear algebra, C++ and access to a VR ready PC and Oculus Rift/Rift S.
“This is not just a simple online class,” commented Silkin in a statement. “This is the first class of its kind. We’ll meet twice a week in virtual classrooms and build amazing virtual reality content together. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with VR since 2012 and contribute to the development of many innovative VR systems over these years. I want to share my experience with the community to make it easier for newcomers to break into the VR industry. I am beyond excited to help students invent their solutions for the still relatively untamed landscape of VR development.”
Thanks to the partnership Axon Park and VR First are also announcing a needs-based scholarship program providing students with low cost or free access to VR hardware and resources through their partner network of 850 universities.
“We are inviting organizations and public institutions internationally to build custom in-VR training with VR First and welcoming our VR/AR experts to become the first generation of certified Axon Park trainers,” adds Rahel Demant, COO & Academic Relations Lead at VR First. “We have already started to prepare a diverse range of in-VR courses to be available in Axon Park starting in 2020.”
Head to the Axon Park website for further information on the course. As more VR courses are created VRFocus will let you know.