Mint Virtual Reality

FPS drops, stuttering, and crashing have plagued PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

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Limited In-game perks give players a reason to buy (more) chocolate bars.

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We first got the chance to try out The Room VR: A Dark Matter back at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) late last year on the Oculus Quest, but that was just a brief show floor demo. The folks over at Fireproof Games recently sent us a multi-hour long preview build so we got the chance to dive back into this dark, mysterious world.

Suffice it to say that, from what I’ve seen so far, it certainly seems like The Room VR: A Dark Matter could quickly become the new standard by which to judge future VR puzzle games. The same way it redefined what was possible in a puzzle format on mobile devices,  Fireproof is pushing boundaries for puzzle games with the same franchise once again, but this time for the immersive format of virtual reality.

Considering the version I played was running natively on an Oculus Quest, I was extremely impressed with the visuals. That being said, everything has an almost noticeable layer of downgrades over the top compared to how vibrant and crisp games on PC VR can look, but that’s understandable.

The demo began on a balcony, which I presume is the very start of the game. It seemed like a typical police station in a tall office building at the center of a busy London street in the 1900s. After the first half-hour or so is when things start to really turn upside down, though. As it turns out, you’ve got to investigate the disappearance of a well-known Egyptologist.

The Room games on mobile were always a bit unsettling, if not a tad creepy, but because they’re mobile games that mostly have you poking around and looking for clues, the inclusion of some light horror thriller elements definitely caught me off guard. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it include jump scares or anything like that, but it’s certainly got an overwhelming sense of uncertainty wile playing it.

The Room VR is only really a Room game in name and thematic consistency since it doesn’t actually take place inside a single room or anything like that. Instead, it spans a multitude of locations and sends players on a vast supernatural journey to uncover the unknown.

Some puzzles are all about trial and error here. I have no shame in admitting that I got stuck pretty early on in the preview build. It’s always one of my worst fears when playing unreleased software for review, but thankfully this was just a preview this time. Whereas a game like Moss or Asgard’s Wrath would have you thinking like a gamer to solve game puzzles, similar to The Legend of Zelda, The Room VR is much more about environmental puzzles, leveraging items you find and use, and combining things together in creative ways.

Instead of moving some blocks around to power up a generator or something silly like that, it would be more like deciphering missing words on a code ledger to unlock a storage box. Having to think in real-world terms rather than looking at everything through the lens of VR, is pretty awesome

Admittedly I did not play the entire multi-hour demo for The Room VR that Fireproof sent me partially because I was pressed for time and wanted to get some thoughts out and partially because I’m saving the nitty gritty details.

The Room VR: A Dark Matter is releasing this coming March 26th, 2020 on Oculus Quest, PSVR, and all major PC VR platforms. You can see more info on the game now at the game’s Steam page. This preview was written after playing a pre-release preview build of the game for Oculus Quest.

The post The Room VR: A Dark Matter Pushes VR Puzzle Games To New Heights appeared first on UploadVR.

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The developers of the To The Top climbing game are encouraged to continue work on their sequel knowing there is a route to release on Oculus Quest without Facebook’s approval.

Last month Electric Hat Games side-stepped Facebook’s decision to not release the app on the Oculus Store for Quest and instead brought their game to the headset via the SideQuest sideloading service and indie game store itch.io for around $15.

Facebook curates what games it allows released on the Oculus Quest store. The company designed the restriction to reinforce for Quest buyers that when they spend money on games and apps the software will deliver a certain level of quality and depth. Some more unusual, risky, or experimental projects, however, are often unable to pass Facebook’s developer relations filter.

Other Quest Paths

There is a kind of loophole which allows Quest owners to freely sign up as developers and “sideload” content on to the device acquired from other places, like SideQuest. This route helps developers test their products with colleagues, friends or family before pitching Facebook.

For a growing number of developers this is also a viable path for an assortment of purposes. Some devs essentially beta test their products this way, like shooting game Pavlov Shack, while the developer of utility software Virtual Desktop offers a patch for his Oculus Store app through SideQuest that adds a major feature some people love.

In the case of To The Top, Electric Hat Games say they sold more than 500 copies of the game through this route in the first month. Daniel Dunham, chief technical officer at the studio, characterized the figure as “pretty good” compared with To The Top’s first month on Steam.

“It also helps with confidence knowing that, when developing for Quest, there is a route to take if full platform support isn’t available,” Dunham shared with me.

Taxes And Fees

The math here is pretty straightforward. $15 per copy minus taxes and fees amounts to around $6,000 in revenue from this route over the first month. Certainly the kind of figure some might scoff at, but keep in mind they released on other platforms first and are also selling additional copies on PSVR, Steam and the Oculus Store for Rift. The devs also gained experience with cross-platform development which might be useful in future work. Dunham added that their new ideas and prototypes, while not outright “approved” for store release by Facebook, do seem to be of more interest to Oculus. 

“We haven’t really made back as much as we put into the port (at least not yet, as time goes on, and if sales stay stable we will eventually),” Dunham wrote. “For us specifically, this was something that our players really wanted, so finding a way to make this happen was really important. As for what’s next, we are already working on a sequel, and this release definitely helps with understanding the market better – even if it’s just a small portion of the market that’s available.”

According to SideQuest creator Shane Harris, since the release of To The Top he saw an uptick in the number of paid projects launching on the platform.

The post To The Top Devs Encouraged For Sequel By SideQuest Reception appeared first on UploadVR.

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VR rhythm game Synth Riders might not be as popular as the juggernaut that is Beat Saber, but it just beat it to one important feature: multiplayer support.

Synth Riders this week got a free update for both its Oculus Quest and PC VR versions. Headlining the patch is a cross-platform multiplayer mode for up to five people in which players can have a dance off for the top spot. Multiplayer supports both the game’s original list of songs and custom songs too, and you can even use modifiers like ‘Sudden Death’ to up the stakes.

In Synth Riders, players throw shapes by grabbing orbs out of the air in time to a beat. It’s a slightly groovier take on the VR music genre, and one that can now be enjoyed with friends.

It’s a feature we’ve been eagerly awaiting in Beat Saber ever since multiplayer was announced in mid-2018. And developer Kluge Interactive knows it; in a prepared statement, Creative Director Abraham Aguero Benzecri said: “We are excited to be one of the first VR rhythm games with multiplayer support, it is a tribute to our community!”

Spicy.

Elsewhere, the game’s entire user interface has been redesigned to be more streamlined, there’s new sound effects, a new song and a new visual stage. Plus PC VR users get new custom-designed avatars. DLC songs are also on the way, so there’s plenty to look forward to for Synth Riders.

Will you be checking out Synth Riders’ multiplayer support this weekend? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Synth Riders Beats Beat Saber To Multiplayer Support appeared first on UploadVR.

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This past week has already seen White Door Games announce the terrifying Cosmophobia and now another equally unsettling virtual reality (VR) horror has surfaced. Drifter Entertainment, the studio behind Robo Recall: Unplugged and  Gunheart has revealed its next project, Lies Beneath for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift.

A survival horror which has been inspired by classics such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Lies Beneath takes place in the sleepy town of Slumber, Alaska.  “Returning college student Mae must fight to save her father (and her sanity) from the terrifying townsfolk and creepy creatures infecting her hometown,” explains the synopsis.

Lies Beneath looks like its going to be instantly terrifying thanks to its visceral cel-shaded art style. “In terms of the world we’ve built, it pretty obviously draws inspiration from the comic world, says Creative Director Brian Murphy on the Oculus Blog. “I think of it as a kind of a cheeky mid-century American Creepfest, mixed with profoundly disturbing Junji Ito-style Japanese horror comic weirdness.”

Gameplay will see players fight hordes of monsters with an arsenal of melee and ranged weapons, from shotguns and pistols to axes, knives and explosives. Drifter Entertainment mixes up the action with puzzles to solve and lore objects that uncover hidden truths to find.

Drifter Entertainment has impressively committed to the storyline by creating two websites dedicated to Slumber. The first is a tourist style ‘Visit Slumber, Alaska‘ site with a nice version about its history. The second is by the Slumber Historical Society, for a Ghost Tour of Slumber’s darker history.

There’s not long to wait for Lies Beneath with the Oculus Quest version scheduled for 31st March while the Oculus Rift edition will arrive on 14th April. Check out the first trailer for the videogame below and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

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The coronavirus is forcing multiple gaming companies including Nintendo and Oculus to halt some production.

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GDC will move to summer after several major game companies dropped out

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

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Fans are dissecting a tweet that features several possible clues

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The mysterious teaser images could be hinting at a new Bully game

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The organizers of the Game Developers Conference postponed the event after sponsors, attendees, journalists, and developers decided not to come due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

In recent days some of the event’s biggest supporters including Epic, Unity, Facebook, Sony, Amazon, and many more, along with a large number of journalists and developers, pulled out of attendance at the event. Many companies encouraged their employees not to travel to the March event in San Francisco.

Here’s the statement from organizers:

After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.

Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we’re genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time .

We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.

Organizers also sent out an email with answers related to questions about the event:

Q: I am a current GDC 2020 paid conference or expo registrant – now the event is not taking place in March, can I receive a refund of my pass money?

A: If you are a currently registered paid passholder, you will be receiving an email about your registration status and any next steps regarding refunds, which conference and expo attendees will be receiving in full.

Q: What is the situation with hotels if I booked through the GDC hotel website/room blocks?

A: Individuals who have made hotel reservations inside the GDC room block will not have to pay penalties or fees associated with their reservations. More information on next steps will be available early next week.

Q: What is happening to the talks that would have been presented at Game Developers Conference 2020?

A: In order to allow our conference speakers to still participate in the event, we are intending to make many of the presentations that would have been given at GDC 2020 available for free online. After speakers (optionally) contribute their talks in video format, they will be distributed on the GDC YouTube channel and the free part of GDC Vault.

Q: What is happening to the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards – will they still take place?

A: We also intend to stream a set of these GDC 2020 talks and the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards via Twitch during the week that the event would have taken place in San Francisco (March 16th to 20th), so that our community can continue to honor & celebrate its best games.

The post GDC Postponed After Almost Everyone Decided Not To Come Due To Coronavirus appeared first on UploadVR.

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There are a ton of games to play on Google Nest speakers, and we've tested them all. We list our favorites.

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Mounts, minions, and plenty of ominous messages await those who master the waves of this deceptive minigame.

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On this Digital Trends Live, we discuss the top stories, including the continued effects of the coronavirus.

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Here's everything you need to know to find the elusive merchant Xur and get some of his exotic loot this week.

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Following teases earlier this week, Gunheart developer Drifter Entertainment just announced its next VR game, Lies Beneath.

As the initial trailer alluded to, Lies Beneath is a horror game, though today we learned it’s published by Oculus Studios and coming to Oculus Quest first, followed shortly thereafter by Oculus Rift. It’s inspired by the likes of Silent Hill and the Resident Evil series as well as horror comics and TV shows like The Walking Dead. Check out another new trailer below.

Set in the fictional town of Slumber, Alaska (which Drifter has mocked up a fun travel website for) Lies Beneath casts players as Mae. Returning from college, she discovers her home overrun with monsters and takes the fight to them in hopes of saving her father (certainly you can hear a little of Silent Hill in that premise). Alongside the action — which looks to have a mix of both melee and ranged weapons — there will be puzzles and exploration elements, too.

For Drifter, it will mark a turning point in VR development with a narrative-focused game. According to the Oculus blog, it’s been in development for nearly two years. The studio cut its teeth on Quest with an excellent port of Epic Games’ Robo Recall, so we’re excited to see what it can do making its very own game for the platform.

Lies Beneath will launch on Quest on March 31st and then follow on Rift on April 14th. Check back for more on the game in the coming weeks. Looking for more VR horror games? The developer of Dreadhalls just announced its latest title, Cosmophobia.

The post Lies Beneath Is A Silent Hill-Inspired VR Horror Game For Quest + Rift appeared first on UploadVR.

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This year the HTC Vive range of virtual reality (VR) headsets will be growing thank to new faceplates for the Vive Cosmos. Before things get a little too confusing there are some deals currently available for UK customers wishing to step into the Vive ecosystem, with Overclockers UK offering the biggest saving yet on the Vive Cosmos.

The online PC specialist retailer is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a sale, discounting loads of products in the process. It just so happens that the Vive Cosmos headset is the only one in the sale, with Overclockers UK reducing the cost by £120 GBP when you enter promocode COSMOS120 at the checkout. This drops the price from £699 down to £579, a bigger saving than the previous Black Friday which only saw a £100 saving.

Certainly the best deal yet for the headset but it’s still way above main competitor, Oculus Rift S at £399. Both have done away with external sensors, offering customers easy to use inside-out tracking – Vive Cosmos boasts a 6-lens system over Rift S’ 4 cameras. One of Vive Cosmos’ main features is its modular front faceplate system with several variants announced last week.

Apart from the standard Vive Cosmos, the company will be releasing a further three models to be sold in bundles and just the faceplates themselves. The Vive Cosmos Elite offers both inside-out and external tracking capabilities using SteamVR base stations, the Vive Cosmos XR is for mixed reality (MR) use cases while the baby of the bunch the Vive Cosmos Play will be the cheapest entry – a price has yet to be confirmed.

Or if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your PC the Overclockers UK’s sale might be a good time to look for parts, VR-compatible GPU’s in particular. The Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super is currently £299.99 rather than £359.99 or how about the Asus RADEON RX 5700 XT for £349.99, down from £479.99.

If you head on over the HTC Vive’s website then you can always save £220 on the HTC Vive Pro Starter Kit which was £1,119, and now retails for £899.

VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest VR deals and updates from HTC Vive.

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The Fortnite Deadpool skin is out now as part of season 2 in battle royale. Here’s how to unlock the skin.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches for Switch on March 20, 2020. Here is what we know about the game.

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Once again, VRFocus brings you another list of both triple-A and independent virtual reality (VR) titles to look forward to over the course of the next week. Owners of every major headset can look forward to a new videogame to add to their collection. Make sure to check out our accompanying video to get a preview of each title.

Timeless Paradox VR – John Jiang

This single-player story-based VR action game is set in a “timeless world.” Playing alongside companion Estel and featuring 9 different boss battles and a unique sword attack system, it’s up to you to restore the flow of time by fixing all “time fragments.”

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

Separation – Recluse Industries

Travel across land and sea, exploring various derelict structures and ruins in search of the elusive Temple Of Sorrow. Hear the echo of your own footsteps as you follow faint sources of light on your lonely quest through mysterious lands solving puzzles. Also featuring an original ambient soundtrack by electronic music artist Vector Lovers.

• Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
• Launch date: 3rd March

Spacewalk Defender – Droidtech

In this sci-fi VR shooter, you must duel wield a host of unique weapons to fend off an endless wave of enemies as they spawn. Featuring enemy waves increasing in difficulty as they spawn, it’s down to you to beat your personal best, or play and compete with players around the world as you climb the leader boards.

• Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index
• Launch date: 2nd March

Fighting Clans – XOCUS

In this VR street-fighting game, you find yourself in debt to the mafia and must survive by fighting your way out of trouble. You receive a date and place for your fight, along with instructions on how to survive. Coming face-to-face with a host of unsavoury characters, it’s up to you to perfect your fighting abilities in this urban environment.

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

XSOverlay – Xiexe

VR Desktop overlay application XSOverlay is an application for software development kit OpenVR and it helps users to access and interact their desktop or individual applications using custom controls in VR. Featuring support for left, right, middle-clicking and dragging abilities, and window movement and scaling. Users can control their media with window editing and help to improve their productivity in VR.

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

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Building or buying a gaming PC is about getting what you need more than what you want. Here's how to do it.

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The Oculus Quest is one of the most popular VR headsets on the market right now. However, as with any electronic device, one day you might want to perform a full factory reset and wipe the headset clean, allowing you to start over and set up the device from scratch. Here’s how to do it.

Reasons To Factory Reset

The Oculus Quest also only allows one user account per device. The only way to switch to a different account is to perform a full factory reset on your Quest. So if you ever want to change Oculus accounts or associate the device with someone else’s account, a factory reset is the way to go.

You might also want to perform a full factory reset on your Quest if you’re experiencing some permanent technical issue that can’t be solved any other way.

Be warned through — performing a factory reset means you’ll likely lose some of your save files and user data on your apps. While the Quest does support cloud save data, it’s up to the developers to integrate the feature themselves. Even if they do integrate the feature, there’s no clear way to determine whether a game supports cloud saves unless the developer specifically mentions it.

There are two options to perform a factory reset on the Oculus Quest.

Factory Reset via the Headset

1. Hold down the power and lower volume buttons on the headset.

2. After around 20-30 seconds, the Quest will reboot and load up the boot menu.

3. Using the volume buttons, highlight the ‘Factory Reset’ option.

4. Press the button button to select ‘Factory Reset’.

Factory Reset via the Oculus App

1. Ensure your Quest is turned on and connected to the same WiFi network as your phone.

2. Open the Oculus Quest app.

3. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab on the bottom right.

4. Click on the tab that shows your Quest and press ‘More Settings’

5. Click the ‘Factory Reset’ button.

6. Confirm that you do want to factory reset your Quest.

Setting Up (again)

Your Quest will now be completely wiped.

You can then use the Oculus app to go through the headset’s initial set up process once again. You can reconnect the same Oculus account as before, or associate the device with a different account.

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That’s everything you need to know about factory resetting your Oculus Quest. Any questions or problems? Let us know in the comments below.

The post How To Factory Reset Your Oculus Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

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Plenty of VR developers are seeing success having launched their games on Oculus Quest. Dreadhalls developer White Door Games is one of those studios.

Nearly five months on since its release Dreadhalls Quest is selling more than all of its other versions combined. White Door’s Sergio Hidalgo confirmed as much in an interview with Gamertag TV to promote the studio’s new game, Cosmophobia. There was some initial confusion as to if the developer meant the game had already sold more than other platforms combined or if it was currently selling more than the other versions. We reached out to Hidalgo, who confirmed it was the latter.

“It still has a way to go before it reaches the accumulated units of Gear/Go, or even Rift + SteamVR,” Hidalgo clarified.

Even so, this remains an impressive feat; Dreadhalls is currently available on Gear VR, Oculus Go, PSVR and PC VR headsets. Granted older versions have been available for years, but the Quest version outselling against around five other headsets is still quite a thing.

Dreadhalls was actually one of the first ever VR games to launch on a commercial headset, hitting Facebook and Samsung’s Gear VR device all the way back in 2015. It’s since amassed over 4,000 user reviews on the Oculus Store and also released fairly early on PSVR and PC VR too.

Quest’s standalone design seems to be proving popular in the fledgling VR industry, with plenty of other developers reporting similar success to White Door Games. The studio’s next game is a sci-fi horror very similar in nature to Dreadhalls, though it will be appearing on PC VR devices first. Quest and PSVR versions could happen after that.

The post Dreadhalls Quest Currently Selling More Than Gear, Go, PSVR & PC VR Combined appeared first on UploadVR.

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If your current army of Discord bots can't do your job, why not learn how to make your very own from scratch?

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Forget your Halos and your CoDs, here are the best free FPS games that don't cost a dime, a dollar, or 60.

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How about a little light VR/AR reading for the weekend? Immersive Perceptions’ Tom Ffiske just launched a new book.

The Immersive Reality Revolution sets out to explain “How virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) will revolutionise the world”. It aims to introduce people to the increasingly complicated world of immersive reality, with all of its various terms, and analyze the different ways in which it’s being utilized.

Topics in the 106-page book include the tech’s use in education, movies and employee training, as well as the prospect of AR glasses and, towards the end, the ethics of both VR and AR.

“My motivation for this book comes in two parts,” Ffiske told me over email. “One, I have covered the industry since 2016 and have collected a bundle of opinions, views, and stories over that time. I’ve come across independent developers who are pushing the boundaries of storytelling. I’ve met art curators who see it as a new art form. I’ve seen companies use the technology as a gimmick, to activate the launch of a whiskey brand when it could have gone elsewhere. The book is a collection of my thoughts and insights on it all.”

Ffiske’s second motivation for writing the book, however, is sourced around a “frustration” with frequent misunderstandings about the nature of these technologies. “I’ve read the torrent of inaccurate articles about ‘when’ VR will go mainstream, or the misdirection that goes on in LinkedIn, and I had enough,” he said. “The industry deserves better reporting, with an honest view of what is happening.”

But, as much as the book is concerned with championing the industry, it also aims to issue a word of caution. “We are entering a new stage where we are investing and using VR and AR, without yet properly considering the impact it will have on people,” Ffiske adds. “How will social interactions change when people wear AR glasses? Can scientists use VR for experiments on patients, or should there be certain rules? While tech companies investigate how we can communicate with our minds, what regulations should we place on them?”

You can get the book via Kindle or paperback from Amazon.

The post The Immersive Reality Revolution Is A New Book Exploring The Future Of VR/AR/MR appeared first on UploadVR.

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There are plenty of rhythm-action videogames available for virtual reality (VR) headsets but they do tend to be solitary experiences. The only way they add a social aspect is through an online leaderboard. Kludge Interactive wanted to go a step further than that with its title Sync Riders, releasing a multiplayer component this week. 

Available as a free update the multiplayer mode allows up to five players (cross-platform) to meet and chat in a lobby, challenging each other to get the best high score on a particular song. The difficulty can be increased by selecting from a range of modifiers such as “Prismatic Notes“ or “Sudden Death”.

“Synth Riders has continued to be developed in active conversation with our community, and we knew early on that we had to give them a way to play together, not only to compete but to have fun with each other. We are excited to be one of the first VR rhythm games with multiplayer support, it is a tribute to our community!,“ said Abraham Aguero Benzecri – Creative Director, in a statement.

In addition to the multiplayer mode Kludge Interactive has also added improvements to the game’s UX and visual style, offering redesigned menus for a smoother more intuitive experience when choosing songs and browsing music packs. As an added bonus the update includes a free song (Nutronic by Code War), brand new custom-designed avatars (PC VR only), sound effects, and visual stage.

Synth Riders arrived last year for multiple headsets on both the Oculus Store and Steam. VRFocus gave the title a four-star review, finding that Synth Riders was an energetic and engaging experience with catchy tracks to get you moving: “What you need to watch out for is a sudden addiction to Synthwave music and the desire to grow a mullet.” Synth Riders also made it onto VRFocus’ “10 Best Fitness Apps For A VR Workout” for those that like to use VR for burning a few calories.

For its next big update, Kluge Interactive will release an “Electro Swing Essentials” DLC including songs from Parov Stelar, Jamie Berry and Electric Swing Circus. Currently on sale with a 35% discount on Steam, VRFocus will continue its coverage of Synth Riders and all the latest rhythm-action videogames.

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Quality MMOs are great for your wallet and can get you some good friends, too. Here are the best free MMORPGs.

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Some of the strongest Pokemon Go critters need special items to help them evolve. Here's how to get them.

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The post The VR Download E16: FB Acquires Asgard’s Wrath, Quest VR Power, Qualcomm XR2 Headset, Xbox VR appeared first on UploadVR.

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Disruptive Games’ multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title Megalith has been available for PlayStation VR for just over a year now, allowing players to step into the shoes of titans to fight it out. It has now been revealed that Megalith will soon be coming to a new platform, Oculus Rift.

The studio revealed the news on Twitter, saying: “Megalith fans! Exciting news is upon us as we expand the battlefield to Steam. We are excited to bring this experience to a new platform with new fans and players! More info coming soon.”

While VRFocus would normally expect a Steam release to include several headsets such as Valve Index, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality currently only the Oculus Rift is listed. It’s great to hear that Megalith is being made available for more platforms but the big question is whether it’ll support cross-play between PC VR and PlayStation VR, a feature that would be vital for community growth.

Megalith is all about teamwork, where players are paired up to fight other teams of titans. There are five starting titans to choose from (Tundra, Cipher, Taur, Aurora, and Hunter), each having their own unique powers and abilities for particular strategic advantages. Powerful by themselves, these abilities become even more effective when combined with your teammates.

The five starting Titans and their abilities are:

1. Tundra: Frost Blast (Primary), Ice Shield, Ice Shackles, Permafrost, Ice Age (Ultimate)
2. Cipher: Bounce Launcher (Primary), Boomerang, Tether Pull, Rupture, Tracker Orbs (Ultimate)
3. Taur: Swipe (Primary), Charge, Acid Spit, Rage Mode, Stoneblock (Ultimate)
4. Aurora: Ethereal Burst (Primary), Chain Lightning, Ion Shell, Tempest, Wrath Of Heaven (Ultimate)
5. Hunter: Crossbow (Primary), Arrow Volley, Explosive Arrow, Talisman, Solar Beam (Ultimate)

Battles must be carefully managed as you need to attack your enemy’s defences whilst protecting your own. And there’s no point being a titan if you don’t have minions to command. To help lead your forces into enemy territory you’ll need to destroy enemy walls and towers so they can then attack the base, with a few specialised siege minions aiding the assault.

When Disruptive Games reveals further details on the PC version of Megalith, VRFocus will let you know.

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As augmented reality (AR) adoption continues to grow so do the use cases. Online retail saw some early adoptions such a Nike using the tech to sell limited-edition sneakers but it has mainly been limited to big global companies. To make it easier for more eCommerce businesses to employ AR, London Dynamics has announced its new AR platform.

In a keynote presentation to attendees of Retail Without Borders London Dynamics CEO and President, Michael Valdsgaard unveiled the new venture, to provide a high-tech immersive commerce solution to increase sales for brands by enhancing the way consumers interact with products digitally.

“We are bringing online shopping back into the physical world by enabling that long-awaited augmented reality revolution,” said Valdsgaard during the keynote. “The evidence of massive disruption buffeting retailers in the UK can’t be denied. The Office of National Statistics reported that as much as 21 per cent of retail sales were made online in December 2019, an increase of six per cent, while over 10 thousand in-store retail jobs were cut in the first weeks of 2020 alone.”

As the former head of digital transformation at IKEA, Valdsgaard helped the retailer adopt AR into its own app several years ago, seeing the potential of the technology. London Dynamics’ platform can create AR integrations for products from wearables to furniture, developing solutions which are platform agnostic and available to everyone.

“With London Dynamics, I want retailers and brands to have an accessible, ‘plug and play’ solution for AR; allowing their customers to make better purchase decisions and convert sales by adding a physical experience to online shopping,” said Valdsgaard. “Without a shadow of a doubt, AR has the potential to entirely overturn the way we look for, buy, and sell things online.”

With AR built into a mobile shopping app, you can not only spin the item around to see it from all angles, but you can also place a piece of furniture in a room or even view a watch on your wrist, helping dispense uncertainties and reducing the hassle of returning items which aren’t quite as expected.

“Lasting change isn’t coming for retail, it’s already here, and AR has similarly arrived to offer a new and powerful way to respond to changing customer demographics and demands.” VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest AR developments as they happen.

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Announced last year at OC6, the latest entry in The Room puzzle game series is a VR title and will launch next month on March 26.

The Room VR will be available on Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR, and SteamVR, and Rift headsets. Unlike many other games, The Room VR will have a simultaneous launch on all major VR platforms, which means that the vast majority of VR users will be able to play the game on the day of release.

The series has traditionally appeared on mobile platforms making this latest installment the series’ first VR title. However, although The Room series hasn’t ventured into VR before, the developers behind it have. Fireproof Games released Omega Agent in 2016, back in the early days of modern consumer VR. The Room VR is designed for virtual reality from the ground up and will be set in the British Museum in London, where players will investigate the disappearance of an Egyptologist.

While at OC6, David Jagneaux from UploadVR went hands-on with the game and enjoyed the demo, noting that the game had “a strong mysterious flavor” that should entice fans of the genre and the franchise. “Similar to the mobile line of The Room games, or even just physical Escape Rooms and VR-themed Escape games you might have played, it’s just as much about interpreting the objects you’re given as it is filling in the blanks,” wrote David.

We also got to interview Barry Meade, the Co-Founder and Director of Fireproof Games, while David ran through his demo in the background, which you can watch above.

Are you looking forward to The Room VR? Which headset will you be playing it on? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Room VR Releases March 26 On All Major VR Platforms appeared first on UploadVR.

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Out of the massive offering of PC games available, we've rounded up the best of all time across genres.

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Facebook cancelled the physical portion of its F8 developer conference which was slated for May due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, COVID-19.

Unity and Epic, the companies behind the two biggest videogame development toolsets, also cancelled their appearances at the Game Developers Conference in March. Earlier Facebook, Sony and a growing list of developers cancelled plans to attend.

We’ve made the tough decision to cancel our on-the-ground activity at GDC 2020, due to current conditions with COVID-19. The health and safety of our employees, partners and friends is our top priority. More info to come on what we’ll be sharing online. https://t.co/xkujzb4v5c

— Unity (@unity3d) February 27, 2020

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was completely cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns and plans for future events and travel are changing on a daily basis as a growing list of public events are affected by health concerns.

Here at Epic we were excited about participating in GDC 2020. Regrettably, uncertainty around health concerns has made it unviable to send our employees, and so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw attendance.

Stay tuned for Epic news and more through other channels.

— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) February 27, 2020

Production of both the Valve Index and Oculus Quest VR headsets were also affected by the coronavirus and questions are being raised about a growing list of products and events planned throughout 2020.

Facebook in particular is expected at some point to accept submissions to its store for its experimental hand tracking while also planning to launch the Horizon social networking service. Those are both software-based advances which could conceivably move forward in the coming weeks and months.

“In light of the growing concerns around COVID-19, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 this year, in order to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on. We plan to replace the in-person F8 event with locally hosted events, videos and live-streamed content,” a statement from Facebook explains.

The global effects of the coronavirus continue to cascade in unexpected ways and cause plans to change on an almost daily basis. We’ll keep you updated with future developments.

The post Facebook Cancels F8, Unity and Epic Pull Out From GDC Over Coronavirus appeared first on UploadVR.

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In a statement today Facebook has confirmed that due to the current worldwide situation involving the coronavirus the company has decided to cancel its annual F8 conference which was due to take place in May. 

In a statement, Facebook has said: “Given the growing concerns around COVID-19, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 2020.

“This was a tough call to make — F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and it’s one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you from around the world — but we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on. We explored other ways to keep the in-person part of F8, but it’s important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn’t feel right to have F8 without our international developers in attendance.”

So while the in-person event will no longer be taking place in San Jose, CA, Facebook is planning to replace the main conference in other ways: “through a combo of locally hosted events, videos and live-streamed content.” More details will be released soon.

While it might be called the Facebook Developer Conference, the event had become a platform for lots of virtual reality (VR) news, most notably during F8 2019 when both the Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest pre-orders went live.

The cancellation of F8 2020 continues a growing trend within the industry due to fears over spreading the coronavirus. The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Spain was cancelled after multiple companies pulled out and many have done so already for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. Facebook, Unity, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), Electronic Arts and Kojima Productions have confirmed they won’t be attending but the organisers are still going ahead at present.

If you want to keep abreast of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation the World Health Organisation has a map tracker putting the total cases at 82,539, with 2,812 deaths recorded. Most of the cases are in China, centred around Wuhan where the outbreak occurred. So far 47 countries have confirmed cases. VRFocus will continue its coverage of GDC 2020, reporting back with further updates.

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Grab your gear, bring your friends, and dive into the best survival games of all time with this handy list.

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Way back in 2014 not long after VRFocus had first arrived on the virtual reality (VR) scene we spoke to Fireproof Games’ co-founder Barry Meade about bringing its popular mobile franchise The Room to VR, with him saying that: “It would be very, very difficult to port.” Well, six years later that’s soon about to become a reality as the studio has just revealed a March launch date for The Room VR: A Dark Matter.

As noted in that previous interview the studio knew it couldn’t simply port the title over to VR headsets so The Room VR: A Dark Matter has been built from the ground up for VR and its special capabilities. First showcased at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6), the title stays in the same universe whilst offering its own narrative twist.

“The British Institute of Archaeology, London, 1908: The disappearance of an esteemed Egyptologist prompts a Police investigation into the unknown,” explains the synopsis. Just like the rest of the series players will be sent to cryptic locations to examine and use fantastical gadgets, all the while slowly unearthing an otherworldly element which blurs the line between reality and illusion.

“After 8 years and four games in The Room series on mobile, we felt it was time to take a step back and try something new. We’ve always been big fans of VR, and the opportunity to bring The Room into virtual reality seemed like a great way to do that,” the team has previously said.

The Room VR: A Dark Matter has been scheduled for release on 26th March, supporting PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Valve Index, Vive Cosmos, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

This isn’t Fireproof Games’ first VR title either. Back in 2016, the team release Omega Agent where players could fly a nuclear-powered jetpack as they trained to become a super spy on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.

One of VRFocus’ Most Anticipated VR Games Coming In 2020, take a look at the latest trailer for The Room VR: A Dark Matter below and for further updates ahead of launch, keep reading VRFocus.

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Your fingers are fitted with tiny hands in the new SideQuest app HandSpace.

The hands can also become floppy, long, small, big, wrong, or kaleidoscopic. The new controller-free hand tracking app from Daniel Beauchamp, aka viral sensation @pushmatrix on Twitter, offers perhaps the most mind-bending use yet of Facebook’s experimental Oculus Quest hand tracking.

We’ve covered a number of Beauchamp’s experiments as the VR/AR development lead at Shopify rapidly prototypes new ideas on the standalone Quest. Each new concept draws massive attention on Twitter, where he first published videos showing the ideas. There was finger walking — an interesting gesture concept that would enable simulated movement by “walking” your fingers from one hand across your other hand’s palm. And there was the detachable hand you could throw across the room and it would “walk” to a destination like the Addams Family’s Thing. In recent days we’ve seen a yo-yo, fingerboarding and more.

HandSpace is the first piece of Quest hand-tracking software you can actually download from Beauchamp. Like most controller-free hand tracking software on SideQuest it is just a small experiment to play around with. You’ll simply clap your hands to switch between different hand styles, including affixing all 10 digits with tiny versions of your matching hand pose.

For those of you with Oculus Quests here is the link to the software on SideQuest and instructions for sideloading content onto the standalone headset from a PC here. For those of you without the headset, or afraid of the strange finger hands, here’s a video I captured showing how it works:

And here are videos of some of Beauchamp’s previous experiments:

 

The post You Can Grab HandSpace On SideQuest With Your Tiny Finger Hands appeared first on UploadVR.

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There’s been a bit of a renewed surge in the videogame industry for revitalising classic titles which were once massively popular. Capcom’s Resident Evil series has seen this on several occasions and Square will soon be releasing the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake. The virtual reality (VR) scene is a little too young to see anything on quite that scale but there are standard videogames rife for a little VR treatment. The latest comes from Wales Interactive which is enhancing a PC puzzle title for new formats, Soul Axiom Rebooted.

Like many reboots, this launch isn’t going to be purely about putting a glossy finish on the previous Soul Axiom as the videogame was only released in 2016. Yes, the visuals have been enhanced thanks to a new game engine but the studio has also added new features such as an objective system and mid-level checkpoints to make the experience less daunting and more manageable. That’s all great yet does it translate into a true VR experience?

First of all Soul Axiom Rebooted seems to have been primarily created for a release on Nintendo Switch, with the PC edition also including VR. Which does mean VR is more of an add-on rather than the sole reason for the reboot. And this is noticeable throughout due to the interaction mechanics which don’t actually involve any motion controls whatsoever, it’s all sticks and buttons, removing that unique sense of presence VR offers (more on this later).

Soul Axiom Rebooted’s storyline is a strange cyberspace thriller involving death, immortality and preserving memories for future generations. The premise is that some company has created a virtual universe called Elysia, where people can upload their memories to either relive them over and over again or for friends and family to remember those that have passed on. You play an unnamed character introduced to this fantastical world, given little reason to why you’re there or what’s going on when things start to get a little twisted.

What Soul Axiom Rebooted does well it tends to do really well at, puzzles and environments. The main hub world looks like a glorious homage to Tron, towering neon-lit buildings of minimal design which stretch into the distance, seemingly devoid of life. There’s a stunning use of light and colour in several areas, a digital dreamscape which is made all the more impressive in VR. In stark contrast, some of the main levels are set in more real-world settings like a jungle, museum, island and other locations. These certainly don’t have quite the awe and spectacle of the hub yet serve their purpose well enough.

There is a real emptiness to Soul Axiom Rebooted due to the general lack of NPC’s, just a lot of walking around going puzzle to puzzle. Once the main puzzles of a location are complete you’ll get video snippets, memories to help flesh out your character. However, it’s difficult to really connect to the person and character in any meaningful way so it’s best to get stuck into the puzzles themselves.

When it comes to this side of things Soul Axiom Rebooted has got you covered. It’s a massive videogame offering hours and hours of gameplay – and that doesn’t mean loads of walking. While recent puzzle titles such as Ghost Giant and The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets are delightful in their design and execution, the gameplay time is painfully short, no worries about that here.

Gameplay mechanics revolve around your hands in a sort of Karate Kid ‘wax on, wax off’ style. For example, the first magical skill you gain is the ability to materialise/dematerialise certain objects, dropping a ramp in to reach a higher level or removing a blockage. Another is a play/pause skill to move objects and stop them in a particular location. These are colour coded into the puzzles for clarity, the former a blue hue and the latter in green.

What’s annoying from a VR perspective is that lack of being able to use your actual hands and arms, with the right and left simply controlled by the corresponding triggers. Be rest assured, anyone who has played even a little VR will instantly want to put their hand out and grab an object or use their powers like some sort of Jedi. There’s none of that here which really negates the need to stand up, playing Soul Axiom Rebooted seated is the wiser choice.

The videogame does also suffer with the odd technical issue, a little bit of latency here and there. Mostly though it was the play/pause ability which became a nuisance. On the occasional puzzle – a tall one involving pipes in the jungle comes to mind – trying to make an object ‘play’ either didn’t work or only partially worked. Infuriating when you know and can see the solution, dragging a puzzle on longer than it should.

Much like Wales Interactive’s other VR titles Soul Axiom Rebooted elicits a mixture of emotions, joy, puzzlement and dab of exasperation. Beautiful and unnerving, Soul Axiom Rebooted has plenty to see and do, great for puzzle fans seeking an expansive experience. Yet the addition of VR does feel like a last-minute inclusion, putting you in an impressive virtual world without the ability to reach out and touch it.

60%

Awesome

• Verdict

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Personalize your gaming experience with our favorite themes. Fan-favorite and exclusive games are included.

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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.

At the end of each show, we discuss a Hot Topic. This week’s is: when, if ever, will Xbox support VR? Is Microsoft making a mistake?

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 On YouTube Today To Discuss The Week’s VR News + When Will Xbox Get VR? appeared first on UploadVR.

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Grand Theft Auto V is best played on PC for many reasons, but these modifications may be the most important.

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One of the most seminal moments in history has been recreated in VR for a new exhibition, open from tomorrow.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic ‘I Have A Dream’ speech can now be experienced inside an HTC Vive Focus Plus at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. We originally reported on the piece in late 2019, but now we’ve got a closer look at it.

The virtual recreation is part of a wider exhibition called ‘The March’, chronicling the historic events of the 1963 march on Washington. The experience was created under the Times Studios banner in partnership with Ryot and Digital Domain among others. Viola Davis is an executive producer on the project.

The March starts with an audio experience introducing people to the civil rights movement. Soon after, you’ll strap on the Vive Focus to find yourself cast as one of the 250,000 people marching, ready to witness the speech. Up to four visitors can view the piece at once. You can get a look into the making of the experience in the video below.

Interested in seeing it for yourself? You can book tickets via the official site right here, though it’s free with museum admission.

If you’re interested in checking the experience out, we’d also recommend seeing I Am A Man, a free PC VR piece that captures the horrifying scenes around King’s assassination in 1968. It’s a tough experience, no doubt, but an equally important piece of VR history keeping.

Will you be heading out to check this piece out? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Martin Luther King Jr.’s Iconic ‘I Have A Dream’ Speech Recreated In VR For New Exhibition appeared first on UploadVR.

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Early Access (EA) on platforms such as Steam has proven itself to be a useful avenue for small indie developers wanting to get their videogame into the hands of the gaming community for feedback, while at the same time clearly stating there’s work still to be done. Some studios have kept their title in EA limbo for years while others work to a shorter time frame, occasionally having to add a little delay here and there. It’s the latter which CM Games has confirmed today, with the full release of Into the Radius pushed back.

The studio had originally planned to leave Early Access by the end of Q1 2020. That changed because: “The feedback and reviews that we’ve gotten so far have encouraged us to put more focus on creating a better tutorial and improving the core mechanics of the game,” notes the team in a statement. So currently there’s no date for the official launch with CM Games expecting to be able to reveal one in Q2 2020.

For those already ingrained in the Into the Radius universe another update is due in March to keep improving those mechanics with the following features:

• New tutorial
• Updated map with new areas to explore
• New Journal (Quest log)
• General UI improvements
• Improved object inspection / interaction UI
• Updated Attachment lock
• Improved climbing mechanic
• Mission Computer will allow multiple missions at once
• Improved projectile physics (Ricochet, Material penetration, Bullet drop distance)
• New Anomaly & Artifact distribution, now Anomalies will often appear in cluster mazes with artifacts in the middle
• Misc. bug fixes

Into the Radius is a post-apocalyptic survival horror for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Some sort of strange event created the mysterious and deadly Pechorsk Radius which few are allowed to enter. Players take on the role of a UN Pechorsk Special Committee specialist trapped inside, looking to uncover the mysteries within.

While the events going on are weird and unnatural the player mechanics are very much set in the real world, with manual reloading of weapons and clips, real bullet physics and more. As further details for Into the Radius are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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A developer is turning Hideo Kojima’s PS4 exclusive epic, Death Stranding, into an Oculus Quest VR game, and it looks pretty cool.

Reddit user KingCeryn revealed a short look at a fan-made Death Stranding VR game this month. The game looks to bring Death Stranding’s sweeping scenery (albeit a little blurrier) and tricky traversal to the Oculus Quest. The trailer is even shot with stylish Kojima flair.

The footage shows a player climbing up ropes and exploring buildings in Bridges outposts. In the original game, players must trek across the United States to deliver supplies to cities, with the aim of eventually reconnecting the country with an established infrastructure.

There’s even a look at the weirdly cute Odradek Terrain Scanner. Sadly, though, there’s no Bridge Babies — the game’s bizarre enemy-scanning tool — in sight, though the character does pick up one of their containers at one point. But we can see some of Death Stranding’s creepy foes, the BTs, hovering around the landscape. We’re not too excited about the idea of meeting them in VR.

Of course, we wouldn’t expect this experience to be as deep as the original Death Stranding. Not only because it’s a fan creation but also the fact that a lot of the game’s core mechanics, like weight distribution on your body, would be really hard to replicate in VR.

KingCeryn does plan to let people play the game in the near future though obviously it won’t ever be for sale as Sony might have a thing or two to say about that.

Kojima himself is interested in VR though, back in October 2019, the developer said he wasn’t “free enough” to be working with the technology right now. Hopefully that changes in the future; we’d love to see what the mind behind Metal Gear Solid could conjure up for VR headsets.

The post Fan-Made Death Stranding VR Game Brings Lengthy Treks To Oculus Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

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Ultraleap’s hand tracking technology has found its way into enterprise virtual reality (VR) headsets like VRgineers’ XTAL or the Varjo VR-2 Pro but for consumers, it was a case of tacking on the Leap Motion controller. But thanks to a new collaboration with Pimax that could soon be a thing of the past.

The two companies have confirmed that all of Pimax’s product range will be able to use a new module which neatly connects to the underside of the headset. That means not only will Pimax’s latest 8K X and 8K Plus flagship headsets be compatible but even the entry-level Artisan will be.

Featuring Ultraleap’s latest hand tracking technology the module specifications include a stereoscopic IR camera that creates an interaction zone of up to 100cm (40″) range, extending from the device in a 160×160[AH1] ° field of view (FoV). It’ll be a plug and play solution working in conjunction with Ultraleap’s software platform.

“We’ve been working with the Ultraleap team for some time now and we are so excited to be able to officially bring this amazing technology to the gaming and immersive computing community,” said Kevin Henderson, COO of Pimax, in a statement. “As the most advanced hand tracking available, we can’t wait to see our supporters play around with this addition and finally have the power of natural interaction for all of their VR experiences. Final production arrangements are well underway and we expect to make these modules available to the Pimax community in Q2 2020.”

“Using our hands, as we do in the physical world, is a fundamental element needed as we interact with the digital world. What’s so important about this agreement is that it means even more people will be able to experience the magic of hand tracking,” adds Steve Cliffe, CEO of Ultraleap.

With the $169.95 USD Ultraleap hand tracking module slated to be available in the next few months, you can head to its listing on Pimax’s website to sign up for notifications.

Pimax unveiled its latest 8K resolution headsets late last year before showcasing them at CES 2020 last month. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Pimax, reporting back with its latest hardware updates.

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