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Save over $500 on this fantastic high-end gaming laptop. Stock is strictly limited though.

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For today’s livestream we’re playing realistic military sim VR shooter, Onward on Oculus Quest! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.

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Onward aims to be the ultimate VR FPS for those after an authentic-style military simulation. This is more like Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six than Call of Duty. Now that it’s been out for a full day we can verify the gameplay is just as fun as ever and we can’t wait to see how it evolves on Quest.

Our Onward on Oculus Quest VR livestream is planned to start at about 11:00 AM PT and will last for around an hour or two, give or take, depending partially on how well-behaved my small toddler child will be while left alone. We’ll be hitting just our YouTube and I’ll be streaming from my Oculus Quest, which will be using a Chromecast Ultra wireless cast signal, plugged into a Capture Card, to get the footage to my PC. I’ll do my best to keep up with chat by checking my phone when possible.

If you missed our launch day stream, you can catch that right here from yesterday.

You can watch the stream embedded via YouTube right here. Set a reminder if you’re reading this early!

You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!

And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.

The post Onward Oculus Quest Multiplayer Livestream: Tactical VR FPS Action! appeared first on UploadVR.

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The first night in Grounded can be terrifying, but with these helpful tips maybe you can scream a little less.

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The developer of Polybius is bringing its latest VR game to Steam this August.

Llamasoft, a UK-based studio headed up by famed game designer Jeff Minter, is launching Moose Life on August 12th. A Steam page for the game is already up and running, which confirms the game will support Rift, Vive and Index. Check out some trippy gameplay Minter himself recorded earlier in the year.

If you know Llamasoft, then you’ll probably know what to expect from Moose Life. As with Polybius, Tempest 4000 and others before it, the game is a psychedelic ‘trance shooter’ in which players are subjected to a blaze of neon glory as they blow enemies into colorful neon particles. It’sd rooted in arcade origins with an emphasis on giving players a strong audio/visual sensation. Judging by that video, it’ll certainly achieve that goal.

As the name suggests, this time around you’ll be playing as a moose. At the very least, we couldn’t get you to name another VR game that casts you as a moose, right?

“Moose Life is the latest step on our journey into euphoric trance,” the developer notes on the Steam page. “Created in the style of an 80s arcade game, but in fully immersive 3D/VR. You’ll feel like you are inside the mind of Eugene Jarvis Himself.”

It’s reassuring to see the team still making VR titles. In 2018, Minter noted that its last VR game, the then-PS4/PSVR-exclusive Polybius hadn’t “made a penny”. The game later came to Steam, though it’s not clear if it found more success there.

The post Polybius Dev’s Next Psychedelic VR Game Is Moose Life, Arrives In August appeared first on UploadVR.

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These are the best cheap gaming laptop deals you can score, including picks that ring in at less than $500.

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Several of these make small tweaks to the game, while others offer players a completely new world to explore.

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The VR Download is UploadVR’s weekly show about all things VR and AR, streamed from our virtual studios!

We’ll be talking about Onward, which just came to Oculus Quest and Pistol Whip which just came to PSVR.

The News Discussion this week:

• Sources: New Oculus Quest Has Adjustable Lenses For IPD
• Frostpoint Is A New Multiplayer AAA VR Shooter From inXile, Creators Of Wasteland And Mage’s Tale
• Microsoft Flight Simulator VR Support Confirmed For Fall, But Only On Reverb G2
• Facebook’s Oculus Store Now Accepts OpenXR Apps

At the end of each show, we discuss a Hot Topic. This week’s: How Much Does Graphical Realism Matter in VR?

As always, episodes are available for listening on Apple, Google, Spotify, TuneIn/Alexa, Stitcher, and more within 24 hours of airing.

The post The VR Download: Quest 2 IPD, Frostpoint, OpenXR, Onward’s Port appeared first on UploadVR.

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Cloudhead Games may have added a couple of extra days onto the original launch window but PlayStation VR owners can now relish in the visceral gameplay that is Pistol Whip. Check out VRFocus’ gameplay video at the bottom to see the title in action.

There are plenty of first-person shooters (FPS) and rhythm-action videogames out there for virtual reality (VR) headsets but Pistol Whip has carved a niche all of its own ever since its initial launch at the end of 2019 for PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest.

Offering a bold, colourful aesthetic which pulses and vibrates to the pounding soundtracks, all 15 ‘Scenes’ have made it through to PlayStation VR. Set on rails, you journey through each level shooting enemies in time with the music for maximum points, with an auto-aim set as default to enable that god-like, superhero feeling of being unstoppable.

Whilst shooting or gun butting nearby enemies, you’ll also need to watch out and dodge incoming bullets – which are relatively slow motion. If a scene is too easy or too hard then delve into the modifier section to alter the gameplay, adding a second gun (which reduces your score) or switch off the auto aim (which increases the multiplier).

VRFocus thoroughly enjoyed playing Pistol Whip, saying in its review: “Pistol Whip is huge amounts of fun even on the easiest difficulty setting, suitable for VR players no matter their skill level.”

Now that the PlayStation VR launch is complete Cloudhead Games’ next release will be the ‘Heartbreaker Trilogy’ update coming in August, adding 3 new abstract, colourful, and highly-musical scenes, 2 new modifiers and new customization options. That will be followed by the two-part ‘Action Pack 1 / The Concierge’ update in Q4 2020.

Pistol Whip is available now via the PlayStation Store for £23.99 GBP/$24.99 USD. For further updates on the latest content, keep reading VRFocus.

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For today’s livestream we’re playing realistic military sim VR shooter, Onward on Oculus Quest! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.

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Onward aims to be the ultimate VR FPS for those after an authentic-style military simulation. The PC version excels in this regard and even though the Quest version is downgraded, it’s still a blast. It also features cross-play with PC for all game modes!

Our Onward on Oculus Quest VR livestream is planned to start at about 10:30 AM PT and will last for around an hour or two, give or take, depending partially on how well-behaved my small toddler child will be while left alone. We’ll be hitting just our YouTube and I’ll be streaming from my Oculus Quest, which will be using a Chromecast Ultra wireless cast signal, plugged into a Capture Card, to get the footage to my PC while Jamie and Zeena join in via webcam to hang out and help out with chat.

You can watch the stream embedded via YouTube right here. Set a reminder if you’re reading this early!

You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!

And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.

The post Onward On Oculus Quest Launch Day Livestream: PvP And Co-Op VR Shooter! appeared first on UploadVR.

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Onward is now available on Oculus Quest with full cross-play for the existing PC VR version. But developer Downpour Interactive is changing elements of the PC original to make this possible.

An update going live for PC VR players today will physically change the game’s maps to match the altered versions of them that appear on Quest. We’ve had access to Onward since July 27th, but cross-play support was not enabled during review testing. And there’s a good reason for that: some of the maps are actually pretty different. Not just in terms of visuals, but also geometry. As in, the maps physically differ on Quest.

Look at these two shots from one of the game’s most popular maps, Quarantine, for example. You can clearly see two vehicles in the PC version (pre-Quest release) and one in the Quest. The destroyed plane at the back of the map is also placed differently. Every map retains the same overall look and feel, but similar changes can be spotted across the game.

Downpour confirmed to us, however, that today’s PC update will change the layout of some maps to mirror the Quest tweaks. “Due to the Quest having some rendering limitations compared to PC, we had to slightly change some of the layouts of maps,” studio founder and Onward creator Dante Buckley told us. “These layout changes will be on both PC and Quest, to keep things fair.” Buckley also said that the developer will continue to address graphical inconsistencies post-launch.

Again, the map layouts aren’t dramatically different, though if you’re an Onward veteran any change is likely to have big implications to your playstyle. We’ve asked Downpour if the original versions of the map might be retained for non-crossplay maps.

What do you think about Onward’s map changes? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Onward PC Maps Updated To Match The Quest Version For Cross-Play appeared first on UploadVR.

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When Cloudhead’s latest title debuted on Oculus Quest and PC VR last year I awarded it my first 5/5 rating after spending dozens of hours pistol whipping through its 10-song launch collection. Pistol Whip hit a bullseye and it is only getting better with time.

This arcade shooter is instantly fun and endlessly challenging, with the auto-aim default making you feel like a can’t-miss action movie sharpshooter seconds after picking a scene. Built-in modifiers like “Deadeye” remove that superstar feeling, though, and in its place is an exhausting and rewarding grind to master both aim and rhythm.

Since launch the developers added five more scenes — Akuma, Full Throttle, Dark Skies, High Priestess, and Religion — each adding its own distinct and beautiful landscape to the growing library of hand-crafted scenes that make Pistol Whip so different from other rhythm games like Beat Saber.

That’s what PSVR buyers get at Pistol Whip’s launch on Sony’s PS4 in mid-2020 and it is still every bit the 5/5 game I fell in love with last year. Everything in that review stands, plus new modifiers added post launch which make it easier to practice and additional options to tweak gun cosmetics.

Graphically, I found visual differences between PSVR and other platforms incredibly minor, though I did miss the smoothness and comfort of 2019’s Valve Index with its high frame rate and fine tuned IPD adjustment while spending time in Sony’s 2016 headset. I captured the below comparison video showing Black Magic captured on PC VR, Quest and PSVR.

Cloudhead isn’t done with Pistol Whip yet by a long shot and the Canada-based studio is doubling down on its roadmap for this game with the upcoming Heartbreaker trilogy of songs coming very soon and the Concierge campaign due for release later this year. That means Pistol Whip might be the perfect swan song addition to a PS4 library that can occupy players through the transition to PS5.

Of note for PSVR owners is that camera placement is incredibly important in Pistol Whip. Unlike Beat Saber where the boxes come in tightly packed bunches that aren’t very forgiving, sometimes in Pistol Whip you have time to turn around and take out a missed target. That’s obviously a risky maneuver with a Move controller in your hand and only a single dual-eye camera directly in front of you. PSVR owners will probably enjoy their time with this game dramatically more with a careful high camera placement that offers more tracking coverage for this infrequent, but sometimes necessary, effort to correct a mistake and increase score.

Pistol Whip PSVR Review Verdict:

Pistol Whip’s multiple difficulties and modifiers like Deadeye and Dual-wield add depth to a game that’s more addictive and satisfying than Beat Saber. The 15 scenes included at the time of this review are all in the same general musical style and a bit of variety would be nice, but that might be coming with future updates. Pistol Whip is the game that brings me back to my VR headset again and again and I expect to keep playing through every update Cloudhead has planned for it.

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Pistol Whip is available starting today on PSVR for $24.99.

For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines. Agree or disagree with our Pistol Whip PSVR review? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Pistol Whip PSVR Review: Cloudhead’s Incredible Shooter Hits Its Stride On PS4 appeared first on UploadVR.

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The moment a lot of you have been waiting for is finally here; Onward is now available on Oculus Quest. But how does it stack up next to the PC VR original. Find out in our Onward graphics comparison.

Best strap yourself in for this one.

Onward Graphics Comparison

For starters, let’s point out that getting Onward to run on Quest at all is a huge achievement, especially with a solid framerate. That alone, paired with the wireless freedom of the headset, will give lots of people lots of reasons to love this port. But there’s no escaping the heavy sacrifices made to get it here.

Functionally, all of Onward is here. Well, most of it is – certain maps have been tweaked from the PC VR versions to fit them onto Quest, but the original editions are also being edited to enable cross-play from PC to Quest, too. You can see just a few of those differences in this article, but we’re here specifically to talk about graphics and, truthfully, this is one of the rougher Quest ports out there.

In the video above we walk through three of the online shooter’s levels (take note, this is the pre-patch version on PC). They range in differences but we’ll start out with Suburbia, which is essentially Onward’s answer to Call of Duty’s Nuketown map. The conversion is perhaps the most striking in the entire port.

There’s a lot to go over here, and it’s best left to the video above. But even at a glance, the differences are night and day. Suburbia suffers from dramatically scaled-down foliage; there are no trees to speak of and the once colorful plants lining houses have been reduced to tiny green blobs. The surrounding border has been drawn right in, making the map resemble more of a laser tag course than a real-world location. In motion, you’ll notice some hefty texture pop-in, too, particularly as you approach the red car there.

Heading inside, it’s much the same story. You’ll notice a lot of missing items and changed objects, plus the map is missing a bunch of other details like smoke pluming in the distance and even fire effects from one of the houses are completely gone. This washing machine here offers a clear example of the texture pop-in we’re talking about.

Our other two maps are much the same. Pay close attention to Quarantine, for example, where even some building architecture is radically changed, and there’s a huge difference in lighting contrast, too. On the first floor of the construction site, the ceiling overhead covers a teammate in shadow when there are clearly lots of light sources coming in. We’ll leave you with this particularly damning enemy model which sort of speaks for itself.

Again, even with all these cutbacks, Onward is absolutely playable on Quest and for many hardcore fans these blemishes might not be of much concern. Plus there are incredibly impressive technical accomplishments like getting scopes to work. But you might need to ask yourself how important the presentation aspect of a game is before you pick up this port. If you value that aspect, you might want to hold off on Onward on Quest at this early stage.

What do you make of our Onward graphics comparison? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Onward: Oculus Quest vs PC VR Graphics Comparison appeared first on UploadVR.

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Multiplayer shooter Onward releases today for Oculus Quest. Technically, this is an Early Access release, as you’ll be informed when you first boot the game up. However, Facebook doesn’t officially allow Early Access content on Quest and the game’s store page doesn’t designate it as an early version. With that in mind, we’re treating this like a full launch. If you’re curious what we think so far, here is our Onward Oculus Quest review-in-progress!

[This is an unscored review-in-progress. Crossplay was not available to test pre-launch, nor was there a player population to accurately test matches. This review will be updated and scored very soon.]

Onward: The Definitive Military Sim FPS

Anyone that’s ever had a passing interest in VR shooters has probably heard of or seen videos of Onward. Nearly four years since it originally released on Steam for HTC Vive, then getting ported to every other PC VR headset, it’s still often regarded as the gold standard for VR shooters. It was originally created by a solo developer, Dante Buckley, who dropped out of college to make his dream game a reality. Since then he’s built a studio around the game and hired a team of developers.

With its realistic setting, intricate gun mechanics, and focus on hardcore tactical teamplay rather than quick respawn-based game modes, Onward has made a strong name for itself.

Read More: Onward and Upward: How A College Dropout Built One Of The Best VR Shooters

With the release of Onward on Oculus Quest, it marks a big moment for Downpour Interactive. Not only is the Quest a fully wireless, roomscale headset that offers immense freedom in terms of positioning your body while playing and freely moving around your environment, but it’s a standalone mobile-powered device. It’s essentially smartphone hardware powering a VR shooter that allows up to 10v10 battles. That’s pretty impressive, no matter how you look at it. Getting Onward on the Quest at all is a huge technical achievement.

But overall, the end result is a bit mixed. On the one hand it absolutely feels like Onward on PC. Even with just four front-facing cameras, the tracking is impressive here and does a very good job of keeping up with your hands and letting you handle your equipment however you’d like. I was surprised by how good it feels after putting most of my hours into the game on Vive and Rift CV1 in years’ past.

The tutorial does a great job of demonstrating how to handle weapons and locate items on your body as well as getting your feet wet with a short match against some AI enemies. The amount of anxiety found in Onward when you’re pinned down behind cover, fumbling to reload your weapon, is honestly extraordinary. Even after you get your bearings it’s extremely intense.

When you’re being shot at your vision forms a cone with the outer edges of your field of view darkening to simulate the feeling of suppressing fire. This vision tunneling lets you know you’re under attack and puts a slight artificial limit on your vision to help fuel the adrenaline.

Kneeling behind cover or to prop up a bipod on a window frame feels fantastic. At one point when I was practicing my sniping at the shooting range, I leaned over the edge of my real life couch since it was the same height as the in-game sand bags and got an extremely immersive sensation.

I’d also like to call out the Spectator Cam because it’s the best viewing mode in any multiplayer VR game I’ve seen yet. Back in the bunker you can either watch through the eyes of whoever is left alive on your team, view a third person version of the camera to see their character, or take control of a remote drone flying around the map to see aerial views of everyone left alive. It’s such a clever system that works super well, even if you never intend to play competitively.

Two other small things that Onward has that I don’t think get enough attention are the walkie talkie and tablet. On your left shoulder you can squeeze the walkie talkie to talk to your teammates across the map, complete with the appropriate audio filter and sound effects. Reaching up to click the button and saying things like, “Over and out,” never stops feeling authentic.

I also really love how the game uses your tablet. Behind your back you can grab it to pull it out and see a real-time overhead map of the level, objective locations, and during some game modes key information that you’ll need to upload data during matches. Rather than showing this stuff in a HUD, forcing you to grab the tablet as a physical object is just excellent.

Content Is King

All the content is the same (other than the map changes that are being pushed to PC as well for parity) including weapons, game modes, and mechanics during games. If you’re playing solo you can visit the shooting range to take shots at an assortment of stationary and moving targets, you can explore maps without enemies to learn the layouts, and you can queue up for solo game modes like Hunt and Evac. In Hunt games you pick a map, set a difficulty, and choose a number of enemies with the objective to track down and eliminate them all.

The same two game modes are also available in co-op, so you can bring friends along for either of those mission styles. During the review week pre-release I spent most of my time in solo and a bit in co-op, getting a feel for things again. Other than some wonky animations when my buddy would do things like go prone on the ground or move their arms rapidly, it was great. Communicating and coordinating the best line of sight and good sniping positions while trying to defend a destroyed hotel room was a blast and the mad dash to the chopper at the end of an Evac game was exhilarating.

For competitive PvP game modes there are three to pick from: Uplink, Escort, or Assault. In Uplink one team is trying to reach a satellite dish where they must input a code and transmit data, the defending team tries to stop them; escort tasks one team with getting a VIP safely to an evac point while the other tries to prevent it; and Assault is all about holding an area while trying to upload a code from the tablet.

There’s also a wide assortment of maps available created by Downpour that can be used in solo, co-op, or PvP games, including day/night variations for a handful of them. In total, if you count the day/night versions as their own maps, there are 11. My personal favorite is probably the Subway station because it reminds me of the Battlefield 3 Metro map. They’re all great though with a good mixture of large, open areas and more confined maps to encourage frequent firefights.

Custom workshop content like custom maps were not available at the time of this writing on Quest, but will be added in a future update.

There are also special Social game modes that cycle on an ongoing basis, but those won’t be live for another week. Some examples include Spec Ops, which pits a team of fast running knife wielders against pistol wielders or the Call of Duty classic, Gun Game, in which each kill cycles through new weapons. Some of the Social modes include respawns.

Overall Onward has an excellent amount of content and with the new influx of Quest players that can all connect and play with PC players there should be a large and active community. Lots of people still play Onward on PC so it bodes well. It’s missing a dedicated story campaign or mission-based levels like Zero Caliber, but it’s got more than enough going on to tide you over if you’re comfortable diving into online matches.

That being said, I honestly really do wish it had a basic, dedicated Team Deathmatch mode. Onward is incredibly immersive and realistic, but sometimes I want to just run around, battle it out, and be able to quickly respawn back into the fight. The Social playlist offers stuff along these lines, but it’s not always an option for what you want and isn’t there at launch.

The selections of guns feels like an embarrassment of riches. Before rounds you can choose either Rifleman, Specialist, Support, and Marksman and they’ve all got their own set of primary weapons to pick from like the AUG, M16, M1014 P90, M249 light machine gun, AK274U, Makarov, and RPG launchers, to name a few. I’m not a gun expert, but Onward still has, to this day, the best weapon handling of any VR shooter I think. It feels incredibly realistic, but isn’t unforgivably rigid with hand placement and movements.

Not The Onward You Recognize

So in terms of listing everything the Quest and PC VR versions include, they’re virtually identical versions. But that isn’t the case visually.

I’m not the kind of person that usually cares too much about graphics in games. I still regularly play retro games, I’m a Google Stadia apologist despite occasional streaming hiccups, and I’ve been known to lower resolution in games often to preserve framerate and performance. It takes a lot to put me off of your game visually.

With all that being said, it pains me to say that Onward on Quest just doesn’t look very good.

Perhaps the feeling is amplified by the fact that it looks so very excellent on PC and the bar was set astronomically high. After playing other Quest ports like Robo Recall, Espire.1, and Phantom: Covert Ops, I fully expected major visual differences. I was ready for that. But Onward still hit me by surprise.

I expected textures to be lower resolution, foliage to be less dense, and plenty of effects to be altered. Quest is just not very powerful compared to the likes of a top-tier gaming rig, I get that. But the texture pop-in here is just ridiculous. While walking down streets and alleyways suddenly walls, floors, buildings, vehicles, and everything else will morph and shift their designs to a slightly higher quality version the closer you got.

It’s common in video games to use a lower-quality texture at a distance, but the designs are fundamentally different in some cases. Like the waist high cover I was running to might suddenly morph so that the top row of bricks is destroyed, making it less useful as an example, or the car in the street will change shape once I approach it, revealing that I can just barely spot an enemy from a distance that maybe can’t see me because of which texture they might be seeing.

In a game like Onward, visuals matter a lot in terms of not only map awareness and line of sight, but also in terms of locating cover, spotting enemies, and more. The less detail on the environment, the harder it is to spot enemies that are literally wearing camouflaged clothing 100-yards away.

We’re told the developers will continue working on the visuals to make them better, but the fact that the maps are literally getting patched on PC to alter their layouts and resemble the Quest versions more closely tells me more corners are needing to be cut than the team probably expected a year ago when this port was first announced.

Onward On Oculus Quest: Review-In-Progress Verdict

This is still a review-in-progress because as of the time of this writing we have not tested cross-play and have not seen how the servers function once live. With that being said, Onward on Oculus Quest is definitely going to make a lot of Quest gamers happy. It lacks the visual fidelity of the PC version, which is a major hindrance, and is missing community content and Social playlists as of now. In summary, it feels like just a ‘decent’ port of an otherwise ‘great’ VR game. That being said, the core of what makes Onward, well, Onward, is still here. Gun handling feels great, tracking seems solid, and there’s a wide assortment of maps and several game modes to pick from.

Assuming the multiplayer side of things holds up with cross-play, we’ll update and finalize this review with a score very soon.

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Final Score and Pro/Con List TBD

 

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Onward on Oculus Quest is available as of today. It is not a cross-buy title, but it does support crossplay with both the Oculus Home for Rift and Steam versions.

For more on how we arrived at our scores, read our review guidelines. Agree or disagree with our Onward for Oculus Quest review? Let us know in the comments below!

This is our scale, once we do arrive at a score:

The post Onward On Oculus Quest Review-in-Progress: Lock And Load Without Wires appeared first on UploadVR.

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Having launched its Epic Megagrant initiative last year the company has awarded over $42 million from the $100 million fund. Today, the latest beneficiary from the virtual reality (VR) industry is enterprise headset manufacturer Varjo.

Varjo has received a MegaGrant to help further its mixed reality (MR) support for Unreal Engine, mainly focused on the Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition. The $10,000 headset launched back in December, a combination of the original VR-1 device coupled with two 12mp cameras on the front, enabling users to switch between MR and VR modes.

“Varjo currently provides one of the most advanced mixed reality hardware and software solutions for demanding industrial use,” said Sebastian Loze, industry manager for simulations at Epic Games in a statement. “We are excited to soon have mainline support for Varjo products in the primary Unreal distribution to continue delivering the highest-end visualization for our customers. The addition of new mixed reality features in Unreal Engine enables a new class of application development.”

The headset manufacturer has always focused on the enterprise market for commercial, government, and academic organizations. Its headsets have been used in automotive design, to train pilots and astronauts and help in clinical research. Customers include Volvo Cars, Boeing Starliner, FlightSafety International, and Lockheed Martin.

“We are thrilled to have this support from Epic Games to expand our delivery of mixed reality solutions for the most demanding enterprise VR/XR applications through Unreal Engine,” said John Burwell, global lead of simulation and training at Varjo.

“With OpenXR as the target interface, developers will, for the first time, have access to the industry’s most advanced enterprise-grade mixed reality features to support composing real and virtual environments for a wide variety of applications,” Burwell continued. “Planned features include full support for Varjo’s photorealistic visual fidelity, eye tracking and real-time chroma keying. The resulting solution is likely to position Unreal Engine as the most advanced platform for enterprise mixed reality development.”

Neither Epic nor Varjo have revealed how much was awarded. As further details on Varjo future developments are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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The nasty glitch prevented players from beating the game

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VR esports tournament organizers VRML (VR Master League) announced the prize pools for the next seasons of their Onward, Echo Arena and Pavlov leagues, with prizes valued up to $12,000 USD across the three titles. Plus, select matches will be broadcast live in Oculus Venues each weekend.

VRML has consistently organized tournament seasons for some of VR’s biggest competitive games, but this latest prize pool is the biggest cumulative pool yet. VRML says that the increase is thanks to more sponsors and partners, however it’s important to note that the pool is only valued at $12,000 — not all of that is cash prizes. However, VRML wants to ensure that opportunities for competitors to win cold hard cash remain available where possible, and so will be contributing to a cash pool themselves for Onward and Echo Arena.

The prize pool distribution is split as follows:

• Onward: $5,520 USD (including $1500 USD in cash, contributed by VRML and Downpour Interactive)
• Echo Arena: $3545 USD (including $1400 USD in cash contributed by VRML)
• Pavlov: $3,060 USD (no cash prize included)

For Onward, this tournament season is the tenth organized by VRML. Pavlov, on the other hand, is in its seventh season with VRML, and Echo Arena its second, resuming after a hiatus.

Perhaps even more exciting is the announcement that select Onward and Echo Arena matches will be broadcast in Oculus Venues each weekend, allowing spectators to watch VR esports action in VR itself. The Echo Arena matches will continue to be broadcast in Venues each Saturday, having already begun on July 19. Onward matches will be viewable in Venues on Sunday, starting from a TBA date in August.

It’s an exciting development for the VR esports scene — will you be tuning in to catch any of the matches? Let us know in the comments. On the other hand, if you’re interested in competing instead, you can read more and sign up on the VRML website.

The post Oculus Venues To Broadcast VRML Tournaments For Echo Arena, Onward appeared first on UploadVR.

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When it comes to energetic virtual reality (VR) titles you’ve got a fair amount to choose from, even on Oculus Quest. But if you’re looking for an immersive workout, something tailored towards helping you stay healthy whilst not feeling like a chore that list does rapidly decrease. In this space VR fitness specialist, FitXR’s BoxVR videogame has made a name for itself, officially launching last year across a range of headsets. So why is VRFocus reviewing it now? Well, BoxVR has now been rebranded as the company name, FitXR, adding reworked visuals and new ways to keep you motivated. Plus we didn’t previously review the experience so now seemed like a good time.

The core mechanics in FitXR haven’t changed from its former self. At its heart, this is a boxing workout providing a variety of sessions to suit most players, whether you want something long and gruelling or a quick blast to wake you up in the morning. What has changed is the fact that FitXR is more grown up, its developed a maturity over the last year, moving away from a boxing rhythm-action experience and into the realm of a professional virtual workout; sounding and looking the part in the process.

Gameplay is all about jabs, hooks and uppercuts with obstacles to make you squat or lean side to side so there is that element of a full body workout. To ensure these are actual workouts and not some casual videogame warmup where you’re waving your arms trying to burn calories FitXR has actually teamed up with fitness instructors. Not only to maximise the effectiveness of each session but to also pep you up if you’re flagging.

From FitXR’s virtual gym foyer you’re presented with three big screens with various ways of selecting a workout. The left hand screen promotes the ‘Class of the Day’ which tends to be the lighter, shorter workouts at around 10 minutes long. In the middle are the ‘Recommendations’ if you quickly want to dive into one of the classes and then the ‘Class List’ is the full selection, broken down so you can select the instructor, time, genre of music and intensity. The selection is decently varied but you will find certain combinations won’t work, for example a particular instructor might not be available under Electronic music for example.

This precise approach means that customisation options are few and far between. There are additional music packs – payable DLC – if you want to expand the roster with more intense or rock tracks. However, there’s no way (that VRFocus could find) of adding your own music if you really prefer a particular style to keep you motived whilst training which seems like a glaring omission when compared to rivals in this field.

So with the selection available – there are over 100 tracks to be fair – what are the actual workouts like? As expected they’re quite the upper body session even on the moderate setting and 10 minutes in the sweat has easily kicked in and the arms are already beginning to tire; there was no chance of completing the really long 30+ minute workouts! What’s great is there’s no barrier to entry, most people know how to throw a punch or duck out the way so you don’t need to really learn anything, just simply keep up.

Like any rhythm-action title FitXR features a scoring and streak system to encourage you to hit the various targets in time and in succession, thus adding a replay factor to go back and improve. Miss or poorly time a punch and the streak will reset, so you have to build it back up. After numerous sessions there definitely seemed to be a discrepancy in the hit window as punches that were in time and correct should’ve landed but didn’t. It doesn’t remove the effectiveness of the training just infuriating when it happens.    

There are solo and multiplayer modes, the latter adding in ghost characters to train with. Most noticeable is the instructor. Trying to bring a little of the real world into the training session, they’ll offer words of encouragement which can help if you’re properly flagging although for the most part it came across a little hammy. A digital avatar might improve that factor, pushing you on rather than a voice in your ear.

What does come in handy are the metrics showcasing stats like calories burnt and time played across the day, week and month. Great for those trying to keep track of their fitness and how much their VR regimen is working.

As an addition to your workout routine FitXR has plenty to offer. It’s like a drill instructor where everything is done by the book because the system is tried and tested. While the title doesn’t have the flair of Synth Riders or the sheer insanity that is Beat Saber’s Expert+ it can still hold its own in the VR fitness world, just make sure you have some sort of cover for Oculus Quest’s foam facial interface.  

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Real-time ray tracing has arrived and it's here to stay. The list of supporting games is growing all the time.

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The latest Stuff Pack is a great and versatile addition to the base game, and it doesn't cost a fortune.

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Gadgeteer, the VR puzzle and Rube Goldberg machine game, will be leaving Early Access on all platforms on August 27. The full release will include the launch of several new features, including the ability to share and play levels online.

The game, developed by Metanaut, released in Early Access for PC VR in April last year, followed by a Quest release in October. The game currently features a campaign and sandbox mode and is about creating and solving puzzles using marbles, dominoes, wooden blocks and a bunch of different gadgets. It’s essentially a limitless Rube Goldberg machine game in VR, allowing you to create and solve amazing contraptions in bigger, better and easier ways than you could in real life.

 

However, the full release will see the game updated to version 1.0, including extensive and new online level sharing and downloading support. Players will be able to upload their Gadgeteer levels online, ‘Like’ and bookmark others’ creations and sort through categories for hot, new or popular levels. You can even filter levels by sandbox or puzzle, depending on what kind of experience you’re looking for.

To help players create puzzle levels akin to those in the campaign, a new ‘Puzzle Designer’ feature will also launch in the full release. This will let you create obstacles and restrict which gadgets can be used to solve the level, just like in the campaign. 40 new gadgets, which are currently being tested in beta, will also be available in the full release, including items like rubber duckies, bowling balls and bars of soap.

While Gadgeteer was already fairly fleshed out, these new level building and online sharing capabilities should significantly open up the game and provide players with heaps more replayability for a long time to come.

The full release is scheduled for August 27, but existing owners of the game who wish to try out the new features early can sign up for an open beta in mid-August.

The post Gadgeteer Leaving Early Access August 27 With New Online Level Sharing appeared first on UploadVR.

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Superbright announced that the first in-game event for In Death: Unchained has begun and will run until August 4th. The top 10 scores achieved by Oculus Quest players during the event will be immortalized in-game, as permanent recognition of their achievement.

In Death: Unchained released for Oculus Quest last week, and Superbright has already rolled out updates that make some minor graphical improvements. The team also laid out some vague details regarding it’s plan for future Unchained content yesterday, including a new in-game ‘Hall of Fame’ event.

The Superbright team have now revealed that the event is live and available for In Death: Unchained players on Oculus Quest. Any player can compete, with the top 10 players at the end of the event period receiving their name and score immortalized on a stone plate in-game, in Sanctuary.

We’re excited to announce The First “In Death: Unchained” Archery Contest. pic.twitter.com/BuHn8GLhOl

— Superbright (@SuperbrightVR) July 28, 2020

Any score achieved between now and 11:59pm PST on August 4 is eligible, but the event is an archery contest only — that means you’ll have to use the default bow and arrow and not the crossbow in order for your score to be recognized. Superbright will update the scores every day on social media at 10am PST, and also teased that additional prizes and surprises will be revealed throughout the event.

If you’re interested in competing but haven’t tried the game out yet, you’re best off starting as soon as possible — the more you progress, the easier it will be to achieve higher scores, and the competition will probably be quite fierce.

If you’re on the fence about In Death: Unchained, or not sure what it’s all about, check out our review — spoiler, we liked the game quite a lot.

The post Legends Of In Death: Unchained Archery Contest Runs Until August 4 On Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

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The latest version of the long-running Microsoft Flight Simulator was announced at E3 2019 with an update last month confirming an August launch. When it came to VR support the team behind the project Asobo Studio hadn’t initially considered it but were looking at the possibility due to community feedback. Now it has been confirmed Microsoft Flight Simulator will indeed include VR functionality later this year.

The news was confirmed by Polygon and in a rather unusual move, none of the usual headsets were mentioned. Instead, Asobo Studio and Microsoft have teamed up with HP to make Microsoft Flight Simulator a launch title for the Reverb G2. At the moment there’s no official launch date for the new headset other than ‘Fall 2020’, as a previous September date is said to be an unofficial estimate by HP.

Built-in collaboration with Microsoft and Valve, the HP Reverb G2 will offer 2160 x 2160 per eye resolution, a 114-degree field of view (FoV), inside-out tracking and off-ear speakers to provide spatial audio; all for £525 GBP. VR flight sim fans who own other headsets needn’t worry as the studio has noted that HTC, Oculus and Valve devices will eventually be compatible.

“The very first piece of feedback that came out of [our announcement at E3 was], ‘Oh my God! This is going to be the best VR thing ever. They better have VR!'” Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, told Polygon. “We immediately said, ‘Yep, we’ve got to do this now.’ We put a team on it, and then partnered with HP.”

Regarding the HP Reverb G2 launch, Neumann did go onto to say: “There was a time when it was actually supposed to be in July, but it’s moved from then. Now they have a new date — I want to say it’s September. I’m not even sure. But we just wanted to respect the fact that they own their date, and we’re going to ship with them.”

Microsoft Flight Simulator is scheduled for a PC release on 18th August 2020, available in three versions with pre-orders now live. As further details regarding VR support is announced, VRFocus will let you know.

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Metanaut launched its first virtual reality (VR) title Gadgeteer into Early Access a little over a year ago, adding new features like the recent Color Toolhead. Now the studio has announced v1.0 of the videogame is nearing release, arriving next month with a bunch of requested gameplay options.

When the update lands it’ll finally add a feature Metanaut has long talked about and fans have been looking forward to, Online Sharing. They’ll be able to upload their creations and play everyone else’s, whilst having the ability to ‘Like’ and bookmark their favourites. Players can find news ones by filtering between Puzzle and Sandbox types as well as browsing Hot, Popular and New categories.

Another new feature is Puzzle Designer. Capable of providing an endless stream of challenges from the community, players have the ability to create obstacles in their levels or limit what gadgets can be used. They can also test solutions for their machines before uploading them online.

There will also be a bunch of cool new gadgets to play with, 40 in fact, such as the rubber ducky, bowling ball, and slippery soap bar which are being tested in the open beta.

“We set off to create a charming VR game with endless possibilities and infinite replayability. With the full release of Gadgeteer, I’m happy to say we’ve reached our goal of creating the ultimate puzzle and sandbox game for VR,” said Peter Kao, CEO of Metanaut in a statement.

VRFocus reviewed the Oculus Quest version last year, saying: “Gadgeteer isn’t going to be for everyone, much like being a watchmaker. It’s finicky, time-consuming and puzzling all at the same time. They’re also the reasons why Gadgeteer is a puzzle gem for Oculus Quest.”

Gadgeteer will leave Early Access on Oculus and Steam on 27th August 2020, retaining its retail price of $14.99 USD. For any further updates on the title, keep reading VRFocus.

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Great news; Microsoft Flight Simulator VR support has been confirmed, but only for one headset right now.

Polygon confirms that the ultra-realistic flight sim will add support for the upcoming HP Reverb G2 headset when it launches later this fall. The game itself is launching on August 18th but won’t have any VR support at that point.

Microsoft Flight Simulator VR Support Confirmed

Reverb G2 is being produced in partnership with Microsoft itself under the company’s Windows Mixed Reality platform, so starting here does make sense. That said, the game is coming to Steam so it could be that VR support releases only optimized for G2, but still available on other headsets. Either way, developer Asobo Studio says it will work on support for additional headsets after the Reverb integration launches.

Microsoft Flight Simulator VR support has been long requested by the community following the game’s reveal. In fact, Asobo said support was “very high” on its priorities list in late 2019. The game uses ultra-high resolution aerial imagery from Bing Maps and machine learning technology to generate incredibly realistic-looking images of the world that look ideal to visit in VR.

The standard edition of the game includes 20 planes and 30 airports to visit at launch but there are expanded editions with increasing numbers of both. You can check out the options here.

The HP Reverb G2, meanwhile, has the attention of VR enthusiasts with its 4K display and improved ergonomics, designed with the help of Valve and integrating features seen in the Index headset. It’s got four-camera inside-out tracking and redesigned Windows VR controllers too. Suffice to say we’re looking forward to it, though we certainly hope official VR support flies onto other headsets in the near future, too. The headset doesn’t have an official date but costs $599.

Will you be getting Microsoft Flight Simulator when VR support finally arrives? Let us know in the comments below!

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