Mint Virtual Reality

The wheelchair-compatible gaming device is free to those who qualify for a grant through AbleGamers.

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Even though 2MD: VR Football Unleashed from Truant Pixels is far from a full version of American football in VR, it still shines as an arcade delight when paired with wireless roomscale on Oculus Quest.

It absolutely baffles me why there aren’t more fully-fleshed out and well-funded VR adaptations of real world sports. It seems like a no-brainer. There are a handful of rough, unpolished attempts spread out across Steam, VR Sports Challenge from Sanzaru Games with abbreviated scrimmages, and a few whimsical takes on sports in VR like Sports Scramble, but that’s about it.

In the meantime we’ve at least got fun (albeit incredibly simple) arcade-style VR games like 2MD: VR Football Unleashed to tide us over.

A more accurate title for 2MD: VR Football Unleashed would probably have been something like ‘VR Quarterback Challenge’ or something to that effect because that’s all it actually is. You don’t play any other positions and you don’t have actual control over anything that happens once the ball is snapped other than where you throw it, so it’s not really a full football experience.

When you first load into 2MD VR Football you’ll go through some training exercised to get the hang of the controls. There are some nifty sliders that let you adjust the arc and power of your release so it feels just right for however your arm moves and throws. Releasing the trigger on a controller is a different feeling than letting go of a real-life football, so it can take some practice getting used to things. The training course has well-placed rings that do a good job of helping you get acclimated.

Visually it’s extremely unimpressive. There is little shading in any of the game’s models, all the stadiums more or less look and feel the same, characters are faceless and armless, and it just generally has an almost unfinished vibe to everything. This makes it approachable and not too intimidating, but as a football fan I’d prefer something with at least a bit more detail. The Quest is capable of much more impressive visuals with a better funded project.

Once you’re done there you’re faced with a whiteboard and a marker in the locker room of a 2MD VR Football stadium; this is where things get really interesting. In 2MD VR Football you’re not bound by a playbook at all. Instead, you have eight different plays saved at all times (up, down, left, and right on each analog stick to call audibles at the line) and the white board lets you manually draw each route. This is genius.

Not only does it give you something tactile and physical to do pre-game as preparation, but it really does add an extra layer of interactivity that isn’t even seen in most AAA football games. Unfortunately, team customization isn’t anywhere near as deep. There are a handful of mascots to pick from and then you can adjust the primary and secondary colors of uniforms, but that’s it. You can’t even change team names. Each mascot has their own stadium and theme song, but that’s about it.

The meat of the game is a two-minute drill tournament. You’re given two minutes to drive down the field and score a touchdown to win. If you turn the ball over then it just resets back where you started without putting time back on the clock. It’s a clever format because it ensures that the game is on-the-line at all times, but it’s a bummer you don’t get to catch passes, command a defense, swat down balls, stiff arm defenders, or anything like that.

Playing on Quest was great because when I cleared out room I was able to move around and actually feel like I was evading pressure from defenders. Which made the disappointment even more poignant that the core of the game is just throwing passes and nothing else.

Comfort

2MD: VR Football Unleashed is as comfortable as you want it to be. Realistically, you don’t need to movev artificially at all whatsoever. You’re not required to roll out of the pocket and throw on the run if you don’t want to. You can stand in the pocket and throw passes to receivers and still experience the entire game. But if you do want to move around once the ball is snapped that’s done with the left control stick via artificial smooth movement. Or, if you’re playing on the Quest like I was, just literally run around your play space doing your best Lamar Jackson impression.

Pull the trigger to hike the ball and let ‘er rip. That’s pretty much the entire game. The depth and replayability comes from being able to customize plays back in the locker room, unlocking new mascots, and toying around on the practice field. After each win you’ll go through a bonus stage of ring targets that let you rack up more points for the global leaderboard rankings. Collecting trophies for the locker room is a fun element, but that’s all there is to do in terms of collectibles.

2MD: VR Football Unleashed (Oculus Quest) Review Final Verdict

Make no mistake: 2MD: VR Football Unleashed is not a deep game. It doesn’t have a lot of the features you’d expect out of a VR football experience, but it still manages to be fun and unique game without comparison, especially on Quest, in the right circumstances. There’s something simple and addictive about jumping into a game and driving down the field as quickly as possible to score a touchdown and win the game. As a result, 2MD VR Football boils down the excitement of football and delivers it over and over until your arm is too sore to throw another pass — just don’t expect to find anything other than a surface level recreation of the gridiron here.

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Final Score:     3/5 Stars | Pretty Good

You can read more about our five-star scoring policy here.

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This review was conducted on the Oculus Quest version of 2MD: VR Football Unleashed, which is available now for $14.99. Alternatively, 2MD VR Football is also available on Steam for PC VR headsets for $12.99, Oculus Home for Rift for $14.99, and PSVR for $12.99. The PSVR version also includes multiplayer via a non-VR player controlling the defense on the TV social screen.

The Quest and Rift Home versions are cross-buy so owning one will grant access to both.

The post 2MD: VR Football Unleashed (Oculus Quest) Review: Quarterback Bootcamp appeared first on UploadVR.

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Another Friday means another roundup of new and exciting virtual reality (VR) titles being released on each major headset over the first week of February 2020. Make sure to check out the accompanying YouTube video to get a full preview of each videogame.

Throw Anything – Visual Light

Fight this onslaught of brain-hungry, wall-climbing zombies by throwing any object around you at them – including humans! A mysterious individual known only as “Scientist X” has taken over the world, wreaking havoc on mankind by releasing a deadly zombie virus. It’s up to you to stop this endless cycle of pain in this 6-stage challenge which takes place across various destructible environments. Also featuring rewards for users in the form of powerful weapons.

• Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
• Launch date: 6^th February

Master Bladesmith – Elixir Games

This unique RPG features a combination of both first- and third-person gameplay in VR. Mine for materials and from raw ore materials, shape your own powerful custom swords and protective armour. Featuring full freedom of movement, VR users can put the swords and armour through their paces with a special chamber while building up a personal stash of money and precious artefacts along your journey.

• Supported platforms: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
• Launch date: 3rd February

Straylight – Dr Bloc

In a mechanic built exclusively for VR, experience deadly new worlds in this new VR platforming experience, Straylight. Users must make a deadly journey, avoiding deadly obstacles as you fly, swing and soar through increasingly difficult cosmic worlds, with the simple sole aim of reaching the very end of this universe.

• Supported platforms: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality
• Launch date: 3rd February

Abelana’s Atom Maker – Abelana VR

Users can perfect their understanding of atom composition in this educational VR experience by visualising and putting them together step-by-step in this immersive 3D environment. Learn about the ordering, configuration and grouping of elements within the Periodic Table, along with the history of each element.

• Supported platforms: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality
• Launch date: 4th February

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Ready At Dawn’s arena multiplayer has been available for almost three years now, building up a dedicated community of esports players in the process. Next week will see the start of the Echo Arena VR Master League Season 1 and there’s still time to register. There’s even a Boot Camp taking place on this Saturday for new players or those who want to brush up on their skills.

The VR Master League is based around a ladder system so as not to discourage inexperienced players from participating by coming up against pro teams. This ensures equally matched teams are pitted against one another for a fun, competitive game. A flexible structure is in place enabling team captains to arrange matches at suitable times during each week. A minimum of two are required each week although more can be played.

For this Echo Arena tournament, the matches are set up as 4v4, consisting of three ten-minute rounds. Even if the scores sit at 2-0 the third is still played due to the scoring system.

When it comes to taking part new players can participate as either a substitute, by creating a team or joining an existing team on the Echo Arena VR Master League website. Teams are still recruiting across various regions for those interested. If you are taking part for the first time then you’ll probably want to take part in the boot camp tomorrow.

Beginning at 12pm PT / 3:00 pm EST (8pm GMT) the camp will be taught by C-Jason and IS0LAT3, while special guest instructors VTSxKING and Cruisen will be on hand to teach goalie skills. Sign up to the Echo Arena VRML Boot Camp here and head on over to the Echo Games Discord server to connect with the community.

They’ll be going through the following gameplay basics:

• Shooting practice
• Block drill
• Boop / Kungg shots
• Offensive setups
• Defensive setups
• Goalie skills
• Midfield coverage

If you can’t attend the boot camp coaches are available for individual players or for team mentoring. Just message either Kungg, SingleShot12349, AndyW_ or MoJolly via Discord.

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

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There was a great mix of stories this week, from juicy headset rumors to VR success stories. Let’s jump right into the VRecap!

Okay, let’s state the facts here: These Samsung Odyssey patents are exciting, they’re not yet confirmed to be real, and they’d make me look like Jeff Goldblum in the worst way. It’s incredible how we’ve come so far in reducing bulky designs so quickly over the years, but Samsung is ready to throw it all away. Anyway, if you want to see more about the specs and less about it’s bugginess (get it, because the eyes), check out our article on it.

Oculus received the same Christmas present I’ve been asking for every year: five million dollars. It’s almost unsurprising to hear that they cashed in massively this Christmas – especially following the news of Quest being sold out during the holiday season.

And the last top story for this episode is the correction of the Steam’s VR hardware stats. VR is doing better than ever, we swear.

We’ve had two great ports this week, including Borderlands 2 VR on Index and Audica on Quest. Speaking of Audica on Quest, you’ve got a chance to grab a code for free in this week’s giveaway, courtesy of Harmonix! Enter the competition below for a chance to win – good luck!

GIVEAWAY: Win A Free Copy Of Audica On Oculus Quest!

There have been many great news stories this week but not all of them could make it into this episode, so here’s our honorable mentions for you:

Jesse Schell: ‘If Oculus Quest Can’t Succeed We Should Just Hang It Up’

Unity Now Supports Vulkan On Oculus Quest

February PlayStation Plus Games Include PSVR Shooter Firewall Zero Hour

Unity Deprecates Built-In Support For Daydream, Gear VR, And Valve’s OpenVR

Facebook Releases Beta Fix For Oculus Rift Stuttering Issue (But Not Link Yet)

Three New Free Beat Saber Songs Arrive In New Update From Cametek

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Thanks for tuning in for another VRecap! See you same time next week.

The post Samsung Odyssey Bug-Eyed Patent, Quest’s Big Christmas & Win Audica! – VRecap appeared first on UploadVR.

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Less than a week before The Sims franchise turns 20, The Sims 4, passed 20 million unique worldwide players.

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Harmonix announced the addition of four more DLC tracks to Audica, including tracks from Lizzo, The Weeknd, CHVRCHES and Flo Rida. The tracks are available now, dropping just days after the Oculus Quest version of Audica released. 

In our initial impressions of Audica on PC VR back in early access, we noted that the music library on offer was perhaps one of the weaker points at the time, with most of the music sounding similar and lacking diversity. This was one of the reasons it seemed hard to recommend Audica to anyone who was already enjoying Beat Saber.

However, since then the Audica library has really expanded and added some high profile tracks. As we noted earlier this week, the existing DLC tracks added since early access include high profile artists like Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Maroon 5. Now with this new drop of four DLC tracks, Harmonix is strengthening the selection even more.

The four new DLC tracks include Juice by Lizzo, Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd, The Mother We Share by CHVRCHES and GDFR by Flo Ride ft. Sage the Gemini and Lookas.

The DLC is available on all platforms, including the newly-launched Oculus Quest version of the game. I tried out Juice earlier today and had quite a bit of fun. It’s certainly nice to see rhythm games like Audica invoke such a wide and varied library of different songs – a book that Beat Games could probably take a page out of, in my opinion.

Will you be checking out these new DLC track in Audica? Let us know what you think in the comments.

The post Audica Adds Four DLC Tracks Including Lizzo, The Weeknd, CHVRCHES appeared first on UploadVR.

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If you’ve been following VRFocus’ previous coverage of CES 2020 then you’ll know that hands and more specifically gloves had a definite presence during this year’s show. Teslasuit announced its new force-feedback glove and HaptX was there to demonstrate its microfluidic technology. Another was Bebop Sensors, showcasing its latest Forte Date Glove, which had built-in haptics and Oculus Quest compatibility. Continuing with VRFocus’ interview series, Head of Business Development CJ Wheelock was on hand to discuss the latest product.

Bebop Sensors has attended CES for several years now with VRFocus last testing the Forte Data Glove back in 2018. Back then the glove was more about demonstrating its bend sensor technology rather making a commercial product. In fact, at the time the company said it had no plans of going into full production.

Two years later and things had certainly changed. Not so much in the fundamentals of the Forte Data Glove but the fact that the device is now a viable product which companies can purchase, marketed towards training, simulation and other use cases.

When it comes to the Forte Data Gloves features each device is wireless with bend sensors on each finger and thumb, as well as haptic actuators to create tactile sensory feedback which can be adjusted depending on the developer’s requirements. The gloves themselves can’t be tracked in 3D space so they do require an additional sensor like an HTC Vive Tracker for full 6 degrees of freedom motion. Hence its latest update adding Oculus Quest compatibility.

As is plainly obvious from the images, Oculus Quest compatibility uses the headsets’ controllers mounted to the back of each hand for tracking purposes, great for those users who want a portable training solution with haptic feedback. The gloves also support Oculus Rift S, Windows Mixed Reality, HTC Vive Cosmos, HTC Vive Pro, HTC Focus Plus, and Varjo.

Check out the interview below or for more CES 2020 coverage why not take a look at VRFocus‘ interview with HaptX, our chat with Teslasuit about its new glove, with Spatial regarding its AR collaboration tool, Insta360 and its new ONE R action camera or Pimax with an ever-growing lineup of headsets.

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Earlier this week a rumor started circling, backed by respected outlets, that Resident Evil 8 would return to a first-person perspective.

Naturally, my first thought (and likely yours) was to what that could mean for VR support, which has been absent in the franchise since 2017’s Resident Evil 7. There’s been two admittedly very different Resident Evil games since and no VR support to speak of. The more I think about it, though, the more I’m convinced securing VR support for Resident Evil 8 is an essential step in Sony’s bid to win over skeptics with PSVR 2 and VR on PS5 in general.

Resident Evil 7’s surprise PSVR support — revealed in the middle of its historic E3 2016 press conference — sent a message for PSVR and the wider VR industry. It was an indication that VR wasn’t just going to be home to quirky, experimental experiences and franchises you’ve never heard of (even if, ultimately, the latter category hosts some of PSVR’s best games). More than anything, it was a promise that dedicated gamers would be rewarded for taking a risk on PSVR.

For the most part, Sony kept that promise over the past three and a bit years. Inarguably, PSVR performed far better than many skeptics would have believed, selling over 5 million units and amassing a hugely respectable library of games including big names like Skyrim VR and No Man’s Sky as well as compelling, VR-native properties like Blood & Truth and the wonderful Astro Bot: Rescue Mission.

But, overall, these releases have been few and far between; the last 6 months, in particular, have been noticeably barren for PSVR. August 2019’s release of No Man’s Sky Beyond was the last ‘big’ launch for the platform, and that won’t be followed up until at least the May 2020 launch of Iron Man VR. After that? Well, it may be a long wait for virtual salvation.

For its first run at the VR market, these shortcomings are frustrating, but understandable, especially given PS4’s relative lack of power compared to PCs. The next PSVR will be a headset with far less leniency paid its way. Much of PSVR’s life has been dominated by recurring discussions about how it is ‘early days’ for VR. The headset used decade-old tracking technology during a time when VR game design was still finding its footing. That can’t happen with PSVR 2; it must be a product that’s consumer ready from top to bottom.

But by the time Resident Evil 8 arrives we’ll be in a new era with very different expectations. Titles of Resident Evil’s size and scope made from the things learned after a half decade of VR game design would send the same kind of message Sony sent in 2016, especially when paired with the company’s stable of IP. Sony contends it cares about gamers and the games they play more than other companies, and doubling down on Resident Evil 8 in VR would reinforce that message for a new generation.

And that’s just the start of it. PSVR was also cursed with half-in VR modes like Gran Turismo Sport’s bare bones content. Gran Turismo 7, if it’s coming to PS5, needs to have full PSVR support. That is the level of commitment to the platform we should expect from Sony next generation, the level of commitment it needs to show to prove its serious about making VR a mainstream platform.

There are some quick wins the company could pull off in this category. Ports of some of the PC VR games that have evaded PSVR thus far are a must. Boneworks comes to mind, but Sony also needs to get Half-Life: Alyx running on a VR headset on PS5 as soon as humanly possible. Plus a rejuvenated backwards compatible library, which developers can patch to bring up to PC VR standards, will be essential.

PSVR 2 needs to be where Sony jumps from plucky experiments to a full fledged platform. To do that, it’s going to have to bring out the big guns. Let’s hope we see the company do just that in 2020.

The post Editorial: If PSVR 2 Is To Be A Success, Sony Needs To Bring Out The Big Guns appeared first on UploadVR.

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The post The VR Download EP13: New Odyssey, Walking Dead Crouching, Steam Hardware Survey, VR-AR-MR-XR appeared first on UploadVR.

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This week’s Oculus Quest duo pack offers more savings on some of the platform’s lesser-known gems. You can currently grab I Expect You To Die and The Under Presents at a small discount.

Both games bundled together are going for $35.99, whereas they would have originally cost $44.98. It’s not the biggest price cut, but it’s a nice save to shave a few pennies off of two interesting Quest games. You have until Sunday to take advantage of the offer.

I Expect You To Die is Schell Games’ popular VR puzzler. You play as a secret agent dismantling evil plans from a secret organization. The escape room-style challenges make great use of VR. Plus, Schell Games has consistently added in new levels over the past few years (the final DLC went live in late 2019), significantly expanding the game’s value.

The Under Presents, meanwhile, is a more recent title from Virtual Virtual Reality developer, Tender Claws. It’s a sort of live VR theater in which actors give performances as you explore strange worlds. It has a set amount of content planned before it changes to a more pre-recorded format, so definitely jump into this one sooner rather than later.

The last duo bundle featured Sairento VR and Red Matter. These promotions seem to be doing a good job of highlighting some of Quest’s lesser known games beyond the usual heavy hitters like Beat Saber and Superhot.

Will you be picking up this bundle? What do you want to see in future duo packs? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Oculus Quest Duo Pack Discounts I Expect You To Die And The Under Presents appeared first on UploadVR.

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Gaming-centric online chat app Discord has a lot of uses, but to get the most out of your server, you might want to think about automation. Discord bots can help, taking care of minor functions like listing the rules of your server.

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We all know about Halo and Call of Duty by now, but what about quality titles that won't cost you upward of $60? Check out our picks for the best free first-person shooter games from Paladins to Quake Champions.

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Have ample time on your hands and an unquenchable thirst to beat, battle, and blast your way through worlds of fantasy and sci-fi splendor? Check out our picks for the best free MMORPGs.

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There are special items in Pokémon Go that can help your Pokémon evolve. The issue is they can be hard to find. Here's everything you need to know about special items, including where and how to get them.

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No VRFocus hasn’t gone mad and moved the regular Sunday feature forward a couple of days by mistake (Sunday’s VR Job Hub will still go ahead as per usual), this is a special VR Job Hub as we’re hiring once again. Dedicated to covering the latest virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) news from both the consumer and enterprise industries, VRFocus is now looking to build its team with a new Staff Writer.

VRFocus Staff Writer

VRFocus is now expanding the writing team with a new Staff Writer position for someone who could work with our Senior Staff Writer and Video Producer to deliver timely news updates several times per day. This will include performing to a high standard under very strict time constraints and working variable hours in accordance with the demands of breaking news and the XR industry calendar.

Expectations
• You will act as a news writer and work to deliver informative content in a timely manner for a global audience
• Research leads, patents and other potential sources
• Work with a Video Producer to provide copy accompanying video content
• Maintain a detailed knowledgebase of AR, MR and VR and deliver informed commentary when necessary
• Be responsible for the scheduling of content to ensure maximum readership and engagement
• Be well versed in WordPress and analytics platforms
• Liaise with industry professionals to secure comment, assets and other materials
• Basic/intermediate Photoshop (or similar image editing software) skills a plus

Requirement
• English, journalism or similar degree
• 1+ year experience as a journalist/writer

Job
• Competitive salary
• Based in Shoreditch, London
• Report directly to Senior Staff Writer

Interested applicants apply here.

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Vertigo Games and JayWalkers Interactive brought their popular zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine to Oculus Quest just over a month ago and now the teams have just released to first content update. A free addition to the horde mode, players can now fight waves of the undead in subterranean level ‘Old Mine’.

Arizona Sunshine’s horde mode allows up to four players to cooperate and survive an intense arcade experience, utilising the environment as best as possible to live as long as possible. Trapped in the dark depths of the Old Dutchman Mine, this area provides one of the more terrifying levels in the videogame.

Old Mine a fairly vertical level, with plenty of stairs and platforms to take advantage of, plus a few nicely placed explosive barrels for those larger groups. As with any horde mode map, you’ll need to be continually moving so as not to get cornered whilst looking for supplies. Single- and two-handed weapons, grenades, and ammo are scattered around the mine.

Over on the Oculus Blog Vertigo Games has even listed a few survival tips for newcomers:

1. Get to know the map. Explore as much as you can early on. Knowing where the ammo will be is a big advantage when the Freddies are coming.
2. The Freddies are endless. Before you can clear the first wave, another wave is already incoming! So keep moving and keep collecting ammo—you will definitely need it.
3. Build a solid loadout. A shotgun and a pistol is a good combo. Try to aim for the head to conserve ammo, and when they get too close, use your shotgun to get rid of them fast.
4. Bring a friend—or three. You’re stronger in a party. Having someone watch your back while you reload is vital, and getting that new weapon from a difficult spot is easier with someone at your side.

Another free update will be released for Oculus Quest next month, in the form of ‘Undead Valley’, expanding the horde mode maps even further. While March and April will see paid DLC arrive.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Arizona Sunshine, reporting back with all the latest updates and announcements.

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Zombie videogames are still popular genre for developers to tap, with January seeing the release of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners by Skydance Interactive. And February will continue that trend, albeit in a somewhat different form. After an initial Early Access release on Steam in 2018, followed by a fully finished version later that same year virtual reality (VR) developer Visual Light will soon be porting Throw Anything to PlayStation VR.

Throw Anything is very much a light-hearted arcade videogame, where the action never lets up as you try to defend yourself from waves of hungry zombies. The gameplay hook is that you’re not on the ground trying to get headshots but instead stuck in a highrise building. Rather than being safe and secure, whiling away the apocalypse watching a bit of TV and relaxing on the sofa, these undead are more akin to those in World War Z, they know how to climb. Which means you need to stick your head out the window and knock the ravenous hordes off.

As the name of the title suggests this does mean using anything in the near vicinity as a weapon, lobbing it down and hopefully hitting one or more zombies in the process. This can be as simple as grabbing a guitar to throw or smashing up a sofa to use the parts, the environment is completely destructible. You’ll also find safes to unlock with gold bars inside or freezers filled with frozen food.

There are six stages to work through (one is new) with 5 mid-level bosses and 6 powerful “main” bosses to contend with. The PlayStation VR version also has several improvements to the PC VR version including a more intuitive reward system, rebalanced difficulty, a new item shop and improved graphics. An updated lobby allows you to take a break and throw some darts, shoot hoops and more.

As well as the home version, the studio has signed deals with VR arcade chains VR Junkies in the US and Ctrl V in Canada to bring Throw Anything to locations nation wide.

Throw Anything will be available for PlayStation VR on Thursday, 6th February, retailing for $18.99 USD. Additionally, an Oculus store port is also in the works. For further updates from Visual Light, keep reading VRFocus.

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Say Aloha to a limited-edition Switch based on Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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We've smoked out the best deals, featuring Mario, Super Smash Bros., and more

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Microsoft's consoles are just as capable of streaming movies as they are of playing the latest games. Check out or top Xbox One deals and bundles which include games like Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and NBA 2K20.

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The failure of Anthem couldn't keep Electronic Arts from posting profits in 2019, and the future is bright.

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The Fortnite Cameo vs. Chic overtime challenges are now available. Find out how to visit the lonely recliner.

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Warcraft III: Reforged's updated visuals offer a refresh of the RTS classic, but it's not quite finished yet.

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The PS4 Pro can play all PS4 games, but these titles have been optimized to take advantage of the console's improved hardware.

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When Boneworks (read our full review) released late last year from Stress Level Zero it led the charge in redefining how we interact with virtual objects in digital space. We took some time to speak with Brandon Laatsch from Stress Level Zero about the game’s innovations and successes.

By all accounts, Boneworks seems to have single-handedly ushered in a new era of interaction in VR games. For the next year or two I’d imagine we’ll often discuss types of interaction systems in terms of “pre” and “post” Boneworks. Or in other words, Stress Level Zero did some really impressive and immersive things with the way the game handles physics.

In most VR games before Boneworks when you reach out to touch something your virtual hand passes through it or becomes a silhouette of some kind to indicate you can’t do that. If you try to push open a door it doesn’t work unless you grab the door knob. If you want to shove an enemy you need to grapple them in the right spots and if you want to hit something hopefully you’ve found the right item and swing at something that’s assigned as having collision properties.

It was almost as if we were in the middle ground between traditional video games, limited by buttons and thumbsticks, and VR games, ideally limited only by the range of your body movement. It’s demonstrated best in this pseudo “Museum of VR” you find in the opening moments of Boneworks.

“After Duck Season we had a lot of ideas for what we could do that we felt would be much more mainstream and really push the medium forward, especially physics interaction in VR,” says Laatsch. “We had a lot of ideas from making YouTube videos [with Node] and seeing what people are responding to. Viral marketing is what sells games. What’s gonna sell new technology to people is seeing what their peers and people they relate to are playing and what they think of things. So we’re like, well, it’s very important to consider presentation inside the headset, as well as presentation outside of the headset.”

That’s on display immediately in Boneworks. When you pick up something that’s clearly heavy, like a metal barrel or a two-handed sledgehammer, you have to treat it as such. An early sign posted during the tutorial segment instructs you to pretend you’re lifting something in real life even though there’s not actually anything in your hands. Mime it, if you will.

That not only tricks your brain into moving accurately, but also makes it more entertaining and believable to watch for a viewer — which is crucial not just for selling VR to a consumer, but demonstrating it to friends too.

“We went after the genre of a physics action adventure FPS because it has a long tradition in the game industry of being a strong performer,” says Laatsch. “It’s what Sony goes after for a lot of their big tent pole releases.

“So we wanted to go after that and beyond and really tried to take a stab at being what we think action-adventures genre could become in VR, like, what does VR enable and that’s where the marriage of physics came in. Physics for a game can only go so far with a keyboard and mouse, you know. Following the launch of Half-Life 2 in 2004, you would say, ‘Oh, wow, the  keyboard and mouse is really spectacular for physics input!’ But since then, in over 15 years, not a ton of expansion on physics has happened. You can list off some, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild, you have  Red Faction, a handful of fitness games that have risen to the top, there’s Bioshock, There’s a handful of them, and then in terms of game design, a lot of that stuff somewhat stagnated over the last few years.”

If you draw a line charting the changes in how players interact with digital worlds using keyboards and gamepads since Half-Life 2, that line doesn’t have many fluctuations in it other than the titles Laatsch cites specifically.

Imagine playing a game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (VR or otherwise) with an actual physics-simulated world rather than just a bunch of geometry you walk across and pick up a few items in. Bethesda does a great job of selling illusions, but when you craft a world full of physical interactions the illusion starts to become reality, at least virtually.

“Then we looked at VR input devices, like we have this three 6-DOF tracked devices between the headset and controllers and they’re very accurately tracked,” says Laatsch. This is the input we’ve been waiting for to be able to push things further, right? To push to beyond what’s out there in traditional gaming. And the nice thing too is because it’s your actual body, there are real world limitations to how fast those tracked devices can move. It’s not like the flick of a mouse where you can send your character spinning in a circle super rapidly because in the real world you can only move your hands so fast and you can only accelerate your hands so fast or whip your head so fast. Like there’s actual real world constraints which are tied to your own anatomy, right?”

This is where the miming of actions becomes even more important. In a lot of video games your character learns new abilities and can suddenly swing weapons faster, hit harder, and do unnatural maneuvers that defy the laws of physics. But to instead flip things around and use the laws of physics as the basis for your gameplay puts added stress on your actual body. What looks cool and feels cool are often very different things in VR.

“So we figured this is ultimately where physics can take the next step. Boneworks is not saying, ‘Here’s a complete exploration of what can be done with physics in VR’ though, like no, we think of it as this is the beginning of it.

“And it’s our job and everybody else’s job, hopefully, to now try to go and, as much as I hate to say it, make Boneworks age poorly. Like, we want to look back in 10 years and say, ‘Dang! It was awesome for the first time, but it’s unplayable now!’ That just means that we’ve done a great job here and now.”

“We had to figure out what a longer form VR gameplay session looks like,” says Laatsch. “Like, how fast can you move and how quickly can you do things? Eventually playing just gets way too tiring for long sessions. We had that experience and compared to something like Sprint Vector, where it’s like, everyone only has a few good a few races in them where they’re trying their hardest before they get too tired…In that case, it’s a race. It’s supposed to be exertion. But looking at the action-adventure genre and looking at how we can encourage people to play for an hour-long session or two-hour long session or, you know, whatever…To try to stand, you know, try to be on your feet all day is like a very full day at work, and you come home, then you’re exhausted.”

As someone that often binges VR games to get through them for reviews, I can personally confirm how exhausting many of them tend to be. But as the medium continues to evolve and grow, making room for more physical games (without leaving behind less intensive experiences) is important for innovation.

“Design-wise we wanted to make something, reckoning back to what I was saying earlier about reading well to the 2D viewer as well as to the in-headset viewer,” says Laatsch.

“Ultimately, where does it go? It seems like VR is, you know, we’re getting to a great point in terms of the amount of installed hardware on the PC side of people having CPUs and GPUs powerful enough to buy it. They’re just a headset away and we’re seeing the headset conversion starting to really ramp up with a good assortment of quality headsets out there for them to buy.”

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For more on the evolution of physics in VR, make sure and check out The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which recently released, and Half-Life: Alyx, which is coming soon. You can also read our editorial on why these three games, including Boneworks, are so important.

Boneworks is available on Steam with support for all major PC VR headsets for $29.99. Read (or watch) our full review right here at UploadVR.

The post Blood, Sweat, And Physics: How Boneworks Turns Your Body Into Its Key VR Game Mechanic appeared first on UploadVR.

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Nintendo Switch Online nets you all sorts of benefits, including classic games. Here's what you need to know.

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Blizzard's new policy would prevent players from creating the next DOTA in Reforged and profiting off of it.

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The Nintendo Switch is still flying off shelves, with lifetime sales passing the SNES and quadrupling Wii U.

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On this episode of DT Live, we discuss stories including how the coronavirus is affecting tech operations.

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Valve's digital game platform Steam went offline for hours on January 30, leaving players unable to buy games.

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Xbox Game Pass is the best deal in gaming right now with more than 100 titles across Xbox and PC. In this guide, we're going to break down our top picks.

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The old AMD vs. Intel argument is now muddier than ever thanks to Ryzen, Threadripper, and Core i9 CPUs.

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The Outer Worlds hits the Nintendo Switch on March 6, and could be the only game in the franchise to do so.

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UploadVR’s weekly podcast, The VR Download, is LIVE on YouTube today at 10:30am PST (18:30 UTC)!

Unlike regular video podcasts, The VR Download is broadcast from virtual reality! Our team are together in a virtual space, giving us many of the benefits of a studio even though we live on different continents.

This week’s Hot Topic: What do the terms VR AR MR & XR actually mean? Does it matter?

If you want to know more about The VR Download, head on over to our new webpage for the show!

As always, we’ll also be making it available for audio-only listening on Apple, Google, Spotify, TuneIn/Alexa, Stitcher, and more within a couple of hours of airing.

Watch In VR With Bigscreen!

Every episode, you can watch The VR Download LIVE in virtual reality with an audience of other VR users on any major VR headset (including Oculus Quest and Oculus Go!), via the Bigscreen platform.

Click on the image above to subscribe to the event.

The post Join Us LIVE On YouTube To Discuss The Week’s News & The XR/VR/AR/MR Debate appeared first on UploadVR.

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During Facebook Q4 2019 earnings call, CFO David Wehner revealed that ‘Other’ revenue growth from Q4 2018 was driven by the company’s room scale standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest.

“Other revenue was $346 million, up 26%. Year-over-year growth was driven by sales of Oculus Quest.”

Additionally, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Quest sales “are stronger than we expected” — a statement he has not made about any other Oculus headset.

It’s important to note that “Other” is the smallest section of Facebook’s revenue. The company’s main business is still targeted advertising, which brought in over 98 percent of revenue.

Facebook did not give specific sales numbers for its consumer VR hardware products, and it has never done so.

Comparing To Go & Rift Statements

A year ago, during the Q4 2018 earnings call, Wehner stated that Oculus Go, the company’s previous standalone headset, “contributed” to growth in that quarter. Go is a low end headset which can only track your head’s rotation, not position.

However, Go was also mentioned as also being a notable contributor to costs, in the form of marketing. This likely referred to its celebrity campaign featuring Wiz Khalifa, Jonah Hill, Adam Levine, Leslie Jones, and Awkwafina.

The Quest statement from this week uses the more strong “driven” over “contributed”. However, this has to be balanced with the fact that each Quest sale earns twice the revenue of a Go sale.

Unlike Go, no mention was made of Quest contributing significantly to marketing costs. While Facebook has taken a more games-focused approach with ads such as Defy Reality, the ads without celebrities have also been blasted pretty widely across many channels.

In 2016 after the Rift launch Wehner had very different news, simply stating “It’s not going to be material to our financials this year.” That is the only time the Rift line’s financials have been referred to in Facebook earnings calls.

Quest: The Ideal Middle Ground?

The Oculus Rift delivered a high end positional tracked VR experience back in 2016, and the Rift S continues that category of PC-based VR. But the relatively small existing ownerbase and high cost of gaming computers limit this market’s size.

The $200 Oculus Go delivered on a low cost, completely standalone experience in 2018. But its lack of positional tracking and limited laser pointer controller meant it just doesn’t have the immersion or active content that 6DoF VR can deliver.

Quest appears to deliver on the ideal middle ground. In many ways, it is the type of VR headset Oculus always wanted to build, even before the Facebook acquisition. Fully standalone and wireless, but with room scale positional tracking and tracked controllers.

This lets Quest play the same kind of active room scale games as PC VR, while still remaining relatively affordable. The combination of these factors is the product’s unique offering.

Quest has been consistently backordered since late November. In the US, a Rift S order placed on the official sales site at this time of writing would arrive on Monday, whereas a Quest would arrive four weeks later. Facebook executives stated on multiple occasions that it is building Quest “as fast as we can”.

When Quest was formally announced as a product in September 2018, many in the industry were skeptical that its smartphone processor could deliver compelling enough experiences to drive consumer interest. Those doubts seem to have disappeared as many of PC VR’s most popular titles have been ported to the standalone headset. The graphics are much less detailed of course, but they retain the full body movement and hand-based interactions which work at any level of graphical realism.

The post Facebook’s Non-Advertising Revenue Growth ‘Driven By Sales Of Oculus Quest’ appeared first on UploadVR.

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The Nintendo 3DS is all but dead, but its extensive library of games lives on. These are the best you can get.

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The post Shooting With Our Fingers Using Quest Hand Tracking in Tea For God (Void Room) – Sidequest appeared first on UploadVR.

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One of the biggest use case applications for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in the workplace is that of collaboration, helping teams work together wherever they are in the world and across multiple platforms. One of which is The Wild, a platform specifically designed to help architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms coordinate more effectively. Today, the company has announced an update to its building information modelling (BIM) toolset, adding three new tools.

The new toolset now includes the Inspect Tool so that users can view object-level BIM data on any element in a 3D model), the Visibility Tool to control layer visibility for SketchUp or Revit files, and lastly the highly requested Measure Tool for visualizing and annotating distance in a virtual space.

These new tools continue The Wild’s platform expansion, having released an integration for Autodesk BIM 360, allowing teams to experience their BIM 360-hosted models together. Allowing up to eight people to meet up in a fully synchronized virtual space, The Wild offers native sketching and annotation tools, is compatible with most 3D file types, and integrates with industry-standard tools like Revit, SketchUp and other 3D workflows.

Last year saw The Wild add support for the popular Oculus Quest standalone headset in addition to its availability on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, PC and Mac desktop and in AR form for iOS devices. Companies already using The Wild include Adidas, SAS International, Dillon Consulting, Zoom+Care, Scala, Bora Architects, BNP Paribas, ASD Sky, MacDonald Miller, and Arc’teryx.

While The Wild specifically concentrates on the AEC market, other tools designed to make enterprise projects easier to manage using the power of VR/AR include Spatial, which is a broader platform. Not solely for business – but marketed for that sector, Spatial offers 3D avatars and Microsoft Meetings support.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Wild and its latest updates, reporting back with further announcements.

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I’m very, very fond of hand-tracking on Oculus Quest, even if it’s often utterly broken. Between the empty grasps of thin air and pinches of fingers you can feel something; the beginnings of the future. Tea For God’s new hand-tracking update demonstrates that perfectly, even if it is a bit of a buggy mess.

We knew this side-loaded room scale gem would be getting support for Facebook’s experimental new feature. We just didn’t realize it would be this soon; developer Void Zone released an initial build earlier this week. Tea For God seems like the ideal candidate for hand-tracking as it doesn’t require any artificial locomotion; every step and skip you make must first be made in real life.

Sure enough, moments of Tea For God with hand-tracking are pure magic. Traipsing through the game’s procedural labyrinths, which mystically morph every time you round a corner to ensure you never run out of walking room, is thrillingly immersive. Gone is the familiar curl of fingers around a controller, replaced with hands that intuitively twitch and fidget to mirror your every motion. It’s quite a thing to behold.

It’s when you need to do, well, anything other than walk or push buttons, that things fall apart a bit. The game’s list of gestures, for example, take some memorization and this early version can have trouble picking up specific inputs. Though the absence of controllers is often a delight, you’d kill for one when you need to summon a menu.

Not to mention that firefights are rendered practically impossible. It’s far too easy to obscure the tips of your fingers from the Quest’s cameras, making it a real battle to aim and then squeeze your index finger to fire a gun. I simply couldn’t get the angle I needed to fight far off enemies and, if I did, there was a good chance I then couldn’t get the gun to fire. Fortunately Void Zone did put melee combat in a few weeks ago, making close-encounters much more enjoyable.

There’s much more work to be done, then, but that goes for Quest’s hand-tracking in general, not just Tea For God. This is a jittery, stubborn mess of an experiment. Equally, though, it’s a bit of a marvellous miracle.

The post Tea For God’s Hand-Tracking Update Is A Buggy Marvel appeared first on UploadVR.

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Earlier this month VRFocus caught up with Spatial – which is building a collaborative augmented reality (AR) platform for enterprise use cases – at CES 2020, with the company showcasing its latest version on Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. Today, Spatial has announced the completion of a new Series A funding round, securing the company a further $14 million USD towards development.

The was led by WhiteStar Capital, iNovia and Kakao Ventures with Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus continuing their support. The investment round brings Spatial’s total funding up to $22 million, enabling the company to continue its vision whilst looking towards a fully released product later in the year.

“Last year we saw a strong demand to collaborate in AR/VR from more than 25% of the Fortune 1,000, and we announced our first wave of customers such as Mattel, Purina/Nestle and BNP Paribas,” said Spatial Co-Founder and CEO Anand Agarawala in a statement.

Spatial is making a platform-agnostic tool for people to collaborate in real-time, wherever they are in the world. Supporting a range of devices including Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Quest, Magic Leap One, Qualcomm XR2, Android/iPhone mobile device or desktop, Spatial’s platform offers a range of tools, from being able to put sticky notes on a wall to importing 3D models which other users can grab and resize.

“Spatial’s mixed-reality solution will be a key part of the future of work,” adds Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger. “They’re taking us beyond everyday tools like Zoom and Slack and pointing the way towards what conferencing & collaboration can be like if they were invented today and I’m excited to support the journey.”

One of Spatial’s more unique features is its ability to create 3D avatars of each user from a 2D photo using AI. Hands can be tracked using modern hardware and as features like eye-tracking, lip-tracking and more become more ubiquitous, they’ll also feature.

Spatial featured during the HoloLens 2 launch at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019. As the company continues to grow and expand its product and presence, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.

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AR/VR startup Spatial announced that it raised $14 million in Series A funding, bringing the total amount raised to date up to $22 million.

This latest round of Series A funding was led by WhiteStar Capital, iNovia and Kakao Ventures, along with continued participation from Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger and Zynga Founder Mark Pincus.

Spatial is a cross-device, multi-user VR and AR communication platform. The software allows for collaboration in 3D workspaces using AR and VR devices, regardless of whether users are in the same room or in completely different locations, allowing them to collaborate in the same virtual workspace.

This year at CES 2020 we tried out Spatial’s software for ourselves. You can watch the video embedded above for our thoughts on the technology, as well as some mixed reality footage of what the collaboration software looks like in action.

Spatial supports AR devices such as the Microsoft HoloLens and the Magic Leap One, but also VR devices such as the Oculus Quest, and mobile and desktop devices as well. Spatial aims to support as many devices as possible across all platforms, allowing anyone to collaborate and participate without the requirement of a specific device. Users who are not physically present in the same space are represented to others as 3D avatars which can be generated from 2D photos.

The eventual aim for Spatial is to eliminate the need for physical travel for team collaboration and provide a solution that goes farther than existing remote collaboration tools like Zoom and Slack, allowing users to collaborate in the same physical space no matter where they are in the world.

More information can be found on Spatial’s website. 

The post AR/VR Startup Spatial Raises $14M In Series A Funding appeared first on UploadVR.

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