DOOM VFR is finally here! The game is launching for both Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) and for PC VR on Steam. One of the biggest questions leading up to today is whether or not the game would include full, smooth locomotion as a movement option. On the PSVR edition of the game, which we’ve already completed for review (the campaign took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish and there is no multiplayer) and livestreamed for two hours, there are three types of movement. You can play traditionally with the DualShock 4 gamepad plus headtracking while wearing the headset, you can use the PS Move controllers with teleporting and dash movements, or you can play with the PS Aim controller peripheral with either smooth, analog stick locomotion, dash movements, or teleportation.
But if you opt for the HTC Vive version with the included Vive wands as motion controllers, which is graphically superior and features full 360-degree roomscale tracking, you lose the option of smooth, direct movement for locomotion. It’s just like playing with the PS Move controllers in that you can only dash step or teleport — that’s it. Here is the officially provided controller guide sent over to us from Bethesda directly:
The decision seems a bit baffling. The Vive wand trackpad is more than capable of translating inputs into smooth locomotion as seen in countless other VR games, so the absence of VR’s most requested movement method seems odd. Make no doubt about it though, modders will very likely create smooth locomotion hacks and mods on their own, as has happened in the past. Meanwhile, you can currently play a modded version of DOOM 3 BFG Edition with full, smooth locomotion instead if you want.
You can read our full review of the PSVR version right here (it will be updated with thoughts on the Vive version in due time.) While the review does not factor in playing on the Vive platform, the content of the game is still exactly the same on both devices. For comparison, here’s a video of gameplay using the PS Aim gun peripheral on PSVR with full, smooth locomotion:
What do you think of this news? Perhaps Bethesda will patch in smooth movement for Vive as an option. You can purchase DOOM VFR on Steam with official HTC Vive support right now for $29.99. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!
The burning question at the top of every Oculus Rift owner’s mind ever since E3 this year has been: Will DOOM VFR and Fallout 4 VR work on the Oculus Rift, natively, through Steam? Bethesda has been careful with their language ever since these games were announced and the Store pages clearly list only HTC Vive. But now, at long last, we finally have the answer to the first half of that question: No, it does not appear that you can play DOOM VFR with an Oculus Rift, at least at this moment. After we published our full review of the PSVR edition of the game, Bethesda sent us a download code for the Steam version. Officially, the Steam Store Page only lists HTC Vive as a supported headset and it looks like that was intentional.
Anyone that’s tried playing a Vive game with a Rift successfully in the past probably assumed it would “just work” with the Rift, but we’ve found otherwise. When I load the game up on my Vive I get a series of splash screens and logos, photosentitivity warnings, and a loading screen. After that the main menu appears. When I try it using my Oculus Rift however, the game boots me back to the SteamVR Home space in between the loading screen and the main menu.
It never finishes launching the game.
To understand the situation you have to know that Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax, is currently undergoing an ugly legal battle with Oculus’s parent company, Facebook. We’ve covered that case and ensuing trial plenty but we don’t know if that was a contributing factor to preventing Rift access to the game. Ideally, support will arrive sooner rather than later.
Have you tried playing DOOM VFR on a Rift yet? Let us know down in the comments below! We will continue updating this story once we find out more.
An upcoming update will bring a new character-swap feature to Final Fantasy XV. Players will be able to switch between Noctis, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto on the fly, with only a few story-based exceptions.
The possibility for virtual reality (VR) and related immersive technologies to help within the field of education has been discussed on VRFocus many times since we first went live in 2014. Over the last few years we’ve covered many stories about all kinds of education programmes not just in educating schoolchildren but adults too, both in a professional training capacity and as part of a more casual learning experience when tied to institutions such as art galleries and museums. There’s even been some crossover between the fields of education and entertainment, a good example being the work of World of Tanks developers Wargaming, whose ‘Special Projects Division’ works with institutions to educate people about their subject matter.
Whilst both augmented reality (AR) and VR are both used for education perhaps the most common way we see it being used is with 360 degree video, and one video platform focused on learning experiences just announced a new upgrade to bring 360 into the mix.
The service in question in Panopto, a Seattle based firm whose platform specialises in hosting content for universities and businesses. As part of what they are terming a major update for the service as a whole, which also includes the addition of speech recognition in nine languages to their inside-video search technology Smart Search and sees it integrated with both
Rev.com and Verbit.a captioning providers. 360 degree video is added for the first time to allow its customers to upload 360 degree compatible footage and view it either by a compatible VR head mounted display (HMD) or Panopto’s own video player.
“When we originally designed Panopto, our goal was to provide people with an online learning experience that replicated the classroom environment. Support for VR video is the next logical step toward this vision.” Explained Eric Burns, the Co-Founder and CEO of Panopto. “Enabling people to actively explore and engage in their learning environment simply by tilting their phone or turning their head.”
Panopto’s main goal is to helps businesses and universities create searchable video libraries of their institutional knowledge. Recording lectures and talks, seminars and conferences, discussions, performances and other related events. Celebrating its tenth year this year, the service has now clocked up so many videos Panopto claim it to be the “the largest repository of expert learning videos in the world”.
VRFocus will be keeping you up to date with further developments with Panopto’s 360 degree service as we get them.
Combo Studio received significant attention for the team’s first ARKit experience, Pigeon Panic, and now the studio are back with a second release. dARk: Subject One is a short horror story set in the player’s own home using augmented reality (AR).
In dARk: Subject One, players will tear open the rift and step inside and into a dark, parallel universe. Cast as Subject #03; players will soon discover that they are nothing more a test subject given the task of embarking on a dangerous mission to recover a lost colleague. There’s a disturbing, unknown world behind the portal entrance, and the player must discover clues leading to their missing ally, uncovering the dark story behind their colleague’s disappearance.
dARk: Subject One uses environmental elements as key to its design, placing objects in and around your living space to tell its story. A unique take on the horror genre, dARk: Subject One will undoubtedly find an audience hungering for deeper use of the ARKit platform than a simple mini-game, or collection thereof.
Due to the AR elements of the videogames brought about through ARKit, both dARk: Subject One and Pigeon Panic require an iOS device running the iOS 11 firmware. Compatible devices include iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation) and 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
ARKit has birthed a slew of unique AR experiences for iOS devices, including well received titles such as Luden.io’s Arrived and Directive Games’ The Machines. There’s even the suggestion that exciting mobile titles will receive AR elements thanks to ARKit, with Warhammer 40,000: Fireblade set to benefit from the addition of AR technology.
While no further projects have yet been announced, it’s highly likely we’ll see more ARKit applications from Combo Studio in the future. The official trailer for dARk: Subject One follows below and you can be sure VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
Welcome to our round-up of some of the best VR deals from around the web. Note that UploadVR may receive a commission from products listed in this article. For more details on affiliate links and other editorial practices, be sure to check out our Code of Ethics.
Polyphony Digital made its PS4 debut with Gran Turismo Sport a few weeks back and it included some pretty polished, if very light VR content to boot. Basically, you can race any car on any track in 1 vs 1 AI races. It’s not the most abundant of experiences, but it’s still a heck of a lot of fun to play and, with a PSVR and camera for $299, you’re basically getting it for free. You can’t argue with free, can you?
If you just want the PSVR by itself you can get it for $73 off the suggested $350 retail price, but not sure why you’d want it without the camera and free game in the above bundle.
VR is best experienced with a pair of headphones, so why not keep things strictly Sony with these official PS4 headphones. There’s also a hidden noise-canceling microphone so you can chat to your friends for online play.
Bethesda Game Studios are set to launch DOOM VFR for PlayStation VR and HTC Vive tomorrow, and VRFocus has already dug in deep amongst the hellspawn. A standalone title developed exclusively for virtual reality (VR), DOOM VFR is a first-person shooter (FPS) that pushes the genre forward into a new medium.
In DOOM VFR, players take on the role of a recently deceased space adventurer now taking on the role of a cybernetic spirit. Under a top-secret UAC operational contingency protocol, your consciousness is transferred to an artificial brain matrix. Activated by the UAC to fight the demon invasion, your designated purpose is to restore operational stability and use any means necessary to stop the onslaught of demons. Sound easy? It’s not.
Ahead of tomorrow’s launch, VRFocus delivered a review of DOOM VFR, stating: “Ultimately DOOM VFR stands as a fine example of just what can be achieved with the FPS genre in VR as of today, lining-up against Robo Recall as an action-heavy experience that throws the rulebook out of the window.”
Despite being a standalone release, DOOM VFR is offered at a budget price point: just £19.99 GBP at suggested retail price (SRP). Further to that, Amazon is currently offering the title for £14 on PlayStation VR and £12 for the PC edition of the videogame. VRFocus made not of this bargain price point in a recent feature discussing why it’s great for VR.
A video featuring the first 15 minutes of gameplay from DOOM VFR follows below, featuring the tutorial (using two PlayStation Move motion controllers) and the opening of the first mission. Watch as the basic components are taught to the player before hell literally breaks loose.
DOOM VFR is just one of three VR titles coming from Bethesda Game Studios this holiday season, with the recently released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR already proving popular amongst critics and consumers alike and the HTC Vive exclusive Fallout 4 VR set to launch very soon. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on DOOM VFR and other VR titles from Bethesda Game Studios.
The PlayStation VR has eclipsed even Sony's expectations in its first year, in large part due to the strong lineup of games. From Job Simulator to Resident Evil 7, here's our picks for the 12 best PSVR games so far.
Thanks to a new Destiny 2 Ghost skill for Alexa devices, the game features new hands-free voice commands. Players can now ask their ghost about Destiny lore, equip items, send messages to friends, and more.
During E3 2017, Nintendo providing additional information about the upcoming JRPG for the Nintendo Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles 2. We've put together everything we know about the game so far, including names and landscapes.
VRGE has today announced the release of a first virtual reality (VR) docking system designed to charge and organise multiple head-mounted displays (HMDs) and associated controllers. Designed for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, the VRGE dock is at home in the VR-enabled office, retail demo environment, or gamer’s den.
VRGE began as a hardware project on Kickstarter earlier this year and recently completed fulfilling its obligations to the project backers. Fully funded in less than 30 days, with over 300 backers supporting the project for a total of $36,541 USD, the VRGE Kickstarter benefited from the feedback of the VR community culminating in the final, and now user-tested design. Through the Kickstarter backing, the team at VRGE set out to create the most thoughtfully designed and versatile VR storage system.
The result of the campaign and the work from the team at VRGE is a powered dock that can organise, charge and protect current VR hardware, inlcuding Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch, PlayStation VR and PlayStation Move, and the HTC Vive along with its standard motion-controllers.
“As VR enthusiasts, our team seeks out real problems in emerging VR technologies before, during or after the power button is pressed,” said Eric Lagman, co-Founder at VRGE. “Our mission is to create the most coveted designs for our customers.”
VRGE docks are available in two editions – standard or ‘LE’ – with different dimensions for each of the three leading HMDs. Prices start at $95 and range to $125. All docks can be either placed on a desk or wall mounted.
“VR puts us at the doorsteps of new technology portals – including gaming, education, retail, and design – VR has the potential to inspire and influence people and communities in a way the world has never experienced,” said Sean Campbell, co-Founder at VRGE. “We are excited that VRGE can be a part of the rapidly growing VR industry and look forward to evolving with it in the future.”
VRGE VR docks for consumers and business are available starting today at www.vrgevr.com. VRFocus will keep you updated with any new docking solutions from VRGE and other VR accessories.
Game publisher Take-Two has said that loot boxes aren't gambling after controversy surrounded Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront II. Take-Two's NBA 2K18 has come under criticism for its microtransactions, as well.
Echo Arena released earlier this year and we absolutely loved it at the time. The zero-G movement system is fluid and liberating with some of the best competitive multiplayer action of any VR game. There haven’t been a whole lot of game-changing updates since it launched with just one single game mode and map, but this week a new update came out that’s made one big alteration to the flow of gameplay.
As a recap, the goal of the game is simple. You’re on a team of astronauts in a zero-G arena with wrist jets to help propel you around. You can push off of people and the environment to gain momentum as you vie for a floating disc that must be thrown into the other team’s goal. It’s a bit like Quidditch meets soccer without gravity. That’s really about it, but it’s so, so much fun.
Previously after each point the disc would respawn back at the center of the arena for each team to launch forward and try to nab it in what was known as “jousting” for the disc. But with this latest update that’s all changed. After a team scores, now the disc will spawn on the other team’s side of the arena, giving them the first possession right out of the gate. It sounds like a minor change but it has dramatic results. You can see some different launch scenarios in the video above.
When playing Echo Arena a large portion of the game is simply playing keep away from the other team. Rarely do you hold the disc for longer than a few seconds before passing it or taking a shot on the goal because of how fast and frenetic the matches can get. Someone else can easily climb onto you and steal the disc or stun you with a punch to the face. As a result, simply chucking it down to the other end of the arena or bouncing it off of walls to create an opening for your teammates are all viable strategies.
What this change does is create a whole new paradigm to the start of the game. Instead of dashing towards the middle to grab the disc after every point (although it still happens at the start of each match) the receiving team is given a major advantage. You can strategize to all fly together in a tight formation to try and block opponents and stun them as you zip by. Or you can spread out and have one person grab the disc while the others go deep for a long pass.
On the defending team you now have to decide whether you play defensively and wait for them to approach with the disc, or if you attack them head on. Before you wouldn’t have much of a strategy until after the disc was in play, but now, you’ve got to decide your move before you even leave the launch tube. You can see how it impacts Overtime as well down in the video below.
The only real downside to this new change is that it seems to have introduced a bizarre bug (as of last night) somehow that sometimes allows people to spawn into the arena before the match starts, in which case they can easily score before anyone else has even launched. That should get cleared up via a patch soon enough, if it hasn’t already. The update also introduced spectating and some other minor tweaks. Echo Combat, a first-person shooter expansion of the game, is coming next year too.
Are you still playing Echo Arena? It’s free to download on Oculus Home and you can read our full, scored review right here. Let us know what you think of it down in the comments below!
In many ways, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology is still in early days of development. With that in mind, there is great potential for change and is the combines AR/VR undergoing significant growth, as noted in a new report from Global Market Insights.
The report indicates that the market in both VR and AR headsets is expected to grow significantly, with most of the growth owing to the increasing use of VR and AR technologies in industrial and enterprise areas, such as retail, automotive, aerospace, defence and manufacturing. Another area where VR is seeing substantial growth is in education and training, with VR devices offering more realistic and immersive scenarios. One example noted in the report is retail giant Walmart installing Oculus Rift headsets for training purposes at 200 of is US training centres.
Another area where the potential is just beginning to be explored is marketing, where brands and companies are attempting to engage with customers by using immersive technologies as a new platform for advertising. The tourism industry is also engaging with VR technology, as a means to offer customers a glimpse of destinations and accommodations on offer.
One of the significant barriers currently expected to impact the growth of the AR/VR headset market is the current high cost of the technology. Devices capable of high-end VR and AR experiences are high-cost devices, with AR smartglasses often costing several thousand dollars, and tethered VR headsets running to several hundred dollars, a significant expense for consumers, and even small companies.
The report indicates that the highest growth rate will be among AR devices, due to their ability to allow users to see the real world with useful information overlaid on top, a capability that has potential for areas such as healthcare, automotive, quality control and technical support. As the technology advances as costs decline, adoption of this technology is expected to increase gradually as various industries realise the potential of the technology.
The full report can be found on the Global Market Insights website.
VRFocus will continue to report on developments in the VR and AR industries.
Google is taking its biggest step yet toward becoming an important service provider for immersive computing.
The company’s latest move allows people using development software like Unity and Unreal to easily bring 3D objects into their projects from a growing crowdsourced library. Earlier this month Google launched Poly, a repository for objects and scenes created in VR apps like Tilt Brush and Blocks. With its newly launched interface, Poly also becomes a library that’s easy to pull from for a variety of innovative VR creativity apps like Mindshow, Normal, TheWaveVR, AnimVR, Unity EditorXR, High Fidelity and Modbox.
The takeaway? You can now intuitively create something in one VR app and then use it in another VR app without taking the headset off. That’s a big step on VR’s path toward becoming the next platform for personal computing.
What’s The Big Deal?
Think of the way someone might save documents to their desktop and then use pagination software to turn them into a magazine, or how you capture a video and then use an editing program to turn it into a movie with snazzy transitions. When it comes to 3D immersive computing — sometimes called the “final platform” because we interact with it so naturally — there’s no similar process for moving work from one app to another without taking off the headset first. That could begin to change with something like Poly.
There is of course a long road ahead and a lot of improvements still need to be made for VR truly to become the final platform for computing. Today, VR is often mistaken for a peripheral device because you can’t do these seemingly simple things. That’s starting to change with Poly. As an example, you could theoretically build a bunch of objects in Blocks, save them to Poly, switch apps and open them up in Mindshow. Then you animate a cartoon tapping into your acting skills and using props you just made a few minutes earlier in VR. This example is a completely different form of content creation compared with 2D magazine design or movie editing and it draws on a new set of skills and talents to do well, but the trend here is crystal clear. VR as a new computing platform is finally starting to emerge.
The idea with Poly is to make it easy to search, download and bring virtual objects into software ranging from VR and AR apps to workhorse development tools used to create some of the biggest videogames. There are other services like Sketchfab and Microsoft’s Remix that are focused on this same idea, but with this Web-based integration across different apps Google’s Poly might have jumped into a leading position.
Earlier this month, I reported how an artist used a VR-first workflow to build a fully interactive game in just two weeks. That process depended on Unreal Engine’s blueprints, which allows people to add logic and interactivity to a virtual world without requiring knowledge of a programming language. The kinds of VR apps Poly is working with point toward a future in which creation time might be reduced down even further.
It is generally acknowledged among experts that modern virtual reality (VR) technology, both hardware and software, is still in the relatively early days of development. As a result, many parts of the user experience within VR are less than ideal. GameCrew Creative Lab are preparing to launch two products that hope to improve that experience.
GameCrew Creative Lab is a South Korean start-up company that is currently engaged in adding the finishing touches to two software solutions for VR, called GREW AutoFocus and MOSKIT. These two products are designed to provide better focus and depth perception, and also provide analysis data on the potential for VR content to cause simulation sickness symptoms. The company has previously worked on offering software products aimed at developers of VR content, including VR Disaster Trainer and VR Fatigue Reduction software.
The software releases is part of the company’s wider aim to help developers and VR content creators get more performance out of VR hardware and software, as well as enhancing the graphical quality of the content that users perceive.
“VR industry seems to slow down as of late, but I am certain GREW’s two products can be one of the boosters for VR industry,” said Sangho Lee, GREW’s lead researcher. “Our solutions can analyze and pinpoint what is causing motion sickness for any VR content and also enhances content’s graphics quality that user perceives by providing better focus & depth perception as in natural view. Ultimately, our goal is to help users enjoy VR contents without getting motion sickness or eye fatigue.”
Bot upcoming products, MOSKIT and GREW AutoFocus, will support all platforms using the Unity engine, and will also support Unreal Engine and Cry Engine. GREW AutoFocus will be available on the Unity Asset store, while MOSKIT can be obtained by contacting GameCrew Labs.
VRFocus will continue to report on new technology to improve VR experiences.
VRstudios is focused on the future of location-based entertainment. Havingalreadydeveloped customizedVR experiences for the likes of Universal Orlando and Cedar Fair’s Knott’s Berry Farm,the company starts rolling out its own2,400 square footfree-roam multiplayerVRcade systemto locationsin the United States, Canada and Latin America in early 2018.
Terminal 17will be the first adventure that players will be able to get intoat these locations. Check out the new trailer:
I had the opportunity toplayTerminal 17, and learn more about how VRstudios is planning toexpand VRcade locationsand experiences,from CEO Kevin Vitale, and Vice President, Creative Development,Chanel Summers.
InsideTerminal 17
Terminal 17 is aslick, engaging sci-fi blaster adventure, split into two fifteen-minute episodes that can be experienced separately or sequentially by up to eight players at once. If less than eight players are in the experience, the content dynamically scales thealienenemies so that the challenge is still achievable.
Summers describes Terminal 17 as a form of “co-opetition” since players are challenged to work together to overcome obstacles, while also competing against each other for the highest score.
Episode1 takes players throughTerminal 17’s upper levels, as the Team is challenged to power-on the facility, while shooting away enemy bugs,exploring a maze,passing through a deadly obstacle course,using mechanics to activate the communications generator and more. Episode 2 takes players to Terminal 17’s lower levels where players must work together to rescue a character, crack a code, and fight off the bossalienbug from destroying the base. It’s no surprise that a third episode is “definitely an option”according toVitale. Having more episodes allows consumers tospend more time in a certain environmentwhen they visit VRcade-powered locations – they can have a 15, 30, and possibly soona 45-minuteexperiencewith just the Terminal 17 world alone.
VRstudios aims to make content that is entertaining for a wide demographic, andSummershighlighted thatthey did extensive testing with Terminal 17 to ensurethatthe experiences were both fun, and easy to understand how to play. With amusement games, people want to be able to “get in, have a good time, and get out,” according to Summers. They didpay testingand exit surveyswith hundreds of people ranging in age from 13 to their early 80s, analyzing thecommonalitiesin theirfeedbackand tweaking the content accordingly.Vitale mentioned that the inputs from their testingofferedboth technical and narrative learnings.
Model for Expansion
Imet Vitale and Summers at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions(IAAPA)Expoin Orlando this November. It became apparent thatall types of attractionowners from around the worldare increasingly awareof thevalue of integrating VR into their locations,given the relatively lower price than otheramusement ridesand games. VR also can offer many different experiences in the same setup and generates revenue regardless of weather.
While the VR industry searches for the ‘killer app’to accelerate consumer adoption of VR, Vitalebelieves that the killer app is in fact turnkey LBE [location-based entertainment] VR.VRstudios’standardmodel is to sell a full-package solution to venueoperators, including commercial-gradehardwarethat brings their large-format free-roam VR concept to life. The revenue share modelfor VRcade Arenacovers licensing content andthe Attraction Management Platform, AMP. The idea is that expansion can happen rapidly as the upfront costs are covered by operatorcustomers, and ongoing revenue is shared.
The VRcadecloud and server-basedAMP is positioned to add value to the overall package for operators. Operators can easily launch players into the experience and track metrics including duration of play and individual scores. In the future, VRcade can add features to AMP allowing operators to change skill-levels and obstacles in future content, or talk directly to an individual player in the experience. It may also evolve to seamlesslyfacilitate live free-roam Vsports tournaments at multiple locations.
Player Zero is a feature of AMP that adds additional valueoutside of theVR experience. For spectators, it has both an automatic and manual modefor operatorsto showcase different cinematic angles and cool momentsfrom in-game. For guests who want to takehome or share highlights from their experience, each play can be recorded or, in the future, streamed.
Operators can customize the location nameshould they choose, allowing for greater flexibilityto integrate intovenues that may not want another brandaddedinto their pre-existing entertainment location,although VRstudios has ready-to-use branding for those that leverage its name.
New Experiencesfrom VRstudios and Partners
VRstudios plans to release news around new content every 4-6 months, but its SDK can help bring additional experiences to market faster. Operators who own a VRcade system can also commission custom content for their specific location from VRstudios or select third-party developers. If that content is distributed to other locations the original operator can get a cut.
While VRstudios has experience integrating 4D effects into amusement park VR, this isn’t something that they are focusing on in their modelfor VRcade.As a result, they are able to keep system and operating costs down, while still maintaining a social experience that you can only get out-of-home. With that said, some guests of theTerminal 17demo at IAAPA were fooled enough by the audio and visual tricks,that theywere convinced theyfeltwind, andmistakenlythought that there was a real fan integrated into thesetup.
A number of businesses have begun to take advantage of virtual reality (VR) technology to improve various areas of enterprise, including training, manufacturing, quality control and design. Axonom, a provider of visual CPQ software, have developed a VR Design Viewer that lets companies see potential designs using smartphone-powered VR headsets.
Axonom’s product, the Powertrak VR Design Viewer was created for displaying potential room designs and product configurations to customers, using easily available and inexpensive VR smartphone headsets, such as Google Cardboard.
“Our VR Design Viewer strengthens communication and collaboration between business teams and decision makers on complex product configurations and room layout designs – regardless of geographic location,” said Mike Belongie, COO at Axonom. “Teams around the world can leverage mobile virtual reality to make better, faster, cost-effective decisions by exploring 3D product models and custom designed environments in real-time.”
The Powertrak VR Design Viewer is an extension of a previous Axonom product, Powertrak Vroom, which required a high-end VR set up involving a PC-tethered VR system. The company believes that the new smartphone-based system offers more flexibility: “VR hardware tethered to a machine, like the HTC Vive, is very effective on the trade show floor but mobile VR can be used both on-site and shared to decision makers off-site,” Belongie adds. “It’s the most economical and compelling way to distribute immersive 3D product designs and floor space planning layouts to your prospective and existing customers.”
One of the Axonom’s clients who are having success with the Powertrak VR Design Viewer is Zebra Althetics, a training facility outfitter who have used the system to show potential customers various designs of facilities for martial arts, fitness and yoga.
“We’re providing customers with visual tools to select, price, and place types of flooring, mats, and equipment in uniquely designed rooms,” said Kyle Fisher, vice president at Zebra Athletics. “Explore our most famous designs at events, then configure your own unique design and virtually experience it from a mobile device for validation. Powertrak 3D CPQ and VR strips the guess work out of opening or redesigning a training facility.”
VRFocus will continue to report on business and enterprise applications for VR technology.
The best new games for December 2017 include Fallout 4 VR, Doom FVR, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Hello Neighbor. Pick up a few for that special someone ahead of the holidays this year.
The BBC is bringing its VR efforts under one roof to produce all of its immersive content going forward.
The organization today announced VR Hub, which it describes as the new home for VR at the BBC. In the past, the group has released plenty of promising experiences, from 360-degree video add-ons to its incredible Planet Earth II series to interactive VR stories like Turning Forest. Now all future VR efforts will be produced through this new studio via commissions.
The group is headed up by Zillah Watson, who promised that the team will work on “pieces across the range of genres the BBC is famous for.”
“We believe the BBC can bring a unique perspective to VR,” Watson wrote in an announcement blog. “We have an unparalleled position in the lives of the UK population. Every week we reach 95% of the UK population and we have the most trusted broadcast news brand in the world, reaching almost 400m people through the BBC World Service alone.”
As part of the launch, the BBC today released Home: A VR Spacewalk. This immersive experience, developed in partnership with UK-based Rewind, lets players explore the International Space Station in VR, using their hands to pull themselves around a zero-gravity environment. We tried it back at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2016 and found it to be hugely engrossing. It’s available on both Steam with Rift and Vive support and Oculus Home for free.
Look for more from the BBC in VR as we move into 2018, then.
Simulators have been used for decades for training in various areas and industries, from teaching learner drivers road safety basics to the training of commercial and military pilots. Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) has developed a way to enhance simulation training by adding in augmented reality (AR) technology.
The system is designed to allow a trainee to see and interact with physical equipment in the simulator environment, such as aircraft controls, and also see a digitally composited AR environment that can provide a more realistic experience.
The technology has been developed for TRU Simulation + Training, and the technology has been integrated into one of TRU’s products, the Bell V-280 Valor technology demonstrator. This simulator is designed to be a portable simulator that can provide tactile feedback and physical controls. The AR technology has been created using BISim’s Blue IG visualisation system, which can provide the high frame rates needed for best quality immersive experiences, and is also abble to be easily compatible with existing virtual reality (VR) and AR headsets and peripherals.
“TRU is exploring the potential created by emerging AR/VR technologies to offer enhanced, cost-effective training for our customers,” said Troy Fey, VP Technology. “Augmented reality technology presents the opportunity to develop low-cost, highly immersive, portable systems able to provide training at the point of need.”
“The Augmented Reality Visual System dramatically saves costs over traditional visual systems that rely on a matrix of projectors and image generator channels,” said John Burwell, BISim’s Vice President Business Development. “The major benefit of the AR solution is its ability to provide a full field-of-view visual scene using a single IG channel, resulting in a solution that is typically an order of magnitude less cost than traditional visual systems.”
VRFocus will continue to report on new and innovative uses of VR and AR technology.
DOOM VFR is due for release very soon, to the excitement of virtual reality (VR) users the world over who have been hotly anticipating the chance to rip demons apart in glorious VR. For PC VR users, Nvidia have released new drivers to make the experience as good as possible.
DOOM VFR is Bethesda and id Software’s follow up to 2016’s DOOM, this time bringing the experience into VR. The player takes the role of a scientist caught up in the demonic invasion of the UAC Martian research facility. After a bloody encounter with a demon, the player is transferred into the mind of a machine, armed to the teeth to take revenge on the demons infesting the complex.
The developer and publisher have released a list of recommended system specifications for HTC Vive users who wish to engage in combat against the forces of hell:
DOOM VFR Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit or later
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350, or better
RAM: 8 GB RAM
HDD: 17 GB HD space
Video: GeForce GTX 1070, or equivalent
DOOM VFR Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit or later
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
RAM: 16 GB RAM
HDD: 17 GB HD space
Video: GeForce GTX 1080, or equivalent
For users who have a GeForce GTX 1070 or GeForce GTX 1080 to get the best experience from DOOM VFR, Nvidia is recommending users should download the latest Game-ready drivers, which have been optimised to provide a smooth, stutter-free VR experience. Engineers at Nvidia have been working until the last possible moment to fine-tune the new drivers to offer the best possible gameplay. To further reassure users, each game-ready driver is WHQL-certified by Microsoft.
The Nvidia GeForce Game Ready 388.43 WHQL drivers are available through the GeForce Experience desktop application, which also allows users to record or stream gameplay.
VRFocus will bring you further news on DOOM VFR as it becomes available.
Sunsoft, a Japanese publisher of videogames for more than 40 years, is set to make its western virtual reality (VR) debut at the PlayStation Experience, Anaheim, later this month. The company will be bringing Dark Eclipse, a VR-exclusive MOBA which debuted at Tokyo Game Show earlier this year, to the show, playable outside of Japan for the first time.
Dark Eclipse is a MOBA videogame developed specifically for VR platforms; players are immersed in the real-time action without traditional boundary of a 2D screen. The videogame will feature a roster of 20 characters, called Leaders, from which players will choose three to take into battle as they build towers and destroy the enemy base. Developed by a team of MOBA and RTS videogame lovers, Dark Eclipse is designed to offer a new MOBA era in the VR age.
Dark Eclipse was originally confirmed for a western release back in September 2017. The videogame was showcased at the Tokyo Game Show and subsequently Sunsoft issued a tweet to VRFocus confirming that Dark Eclipse would launch in America in 2018. No specific release date has yet been mentioned, nor has there yet been any confirmation of a European release, however the publisher has since updated their target for launch as ‘Spring 2018’.
Sunsoft, an arm of Sun Electronics Corporation, was founded in 1971. Originally working with the likes of Acclaim and SEGA to port titles across various formats, Sunsoft found success in the early 90s with a portfolio of titles including Aero the Acrobat, World Heroes and various licensed titles including Batman, Looney Tunes and Gremlins across a range of arcade cabinets and home consoles. More recently the publisher has made a significant investment in Nintendo Switch, with an entry in the popular Blaster Master series and a port of Waku Waku7.
At the time of confirming a western release to VRFocus, Sunsoft also offered an English language version of the debut trailer for the videogame, which can be seen below. Since then, the publisher has contacted VRFocus regarding hands-on opportunities at PlayStation Experience, set to take place in Anaheim, California, next month. VRFocus will of course keep you updated with all the latest details on Dark Eclipse and any other forthcoming VR titles from Sunsoft.
Jaunt VR is one of the most productive content creation company’s working in virtual reality (AR) at present, having recently released experience such as Free the Nightand Through You, whilst winning an Emmy for its documentary, Collisions. Today, the studio has announced a new partnership with immersive streaming app Hulu VR, to bring a range of titles to the service.
Hulu VR will be getting a total of seven experiences from Jaunt, all of which will be exclusive. Currently only two have been revealed as part of the deal, five-part scripted VR series INVISIBLE, as well as two episodes from the action and adventure series Home Turf.
INVISIBLE is a supernatural drama series following a mysterious American family, the Ashlands, whose reach extends into the largest corporations and governments across the world. Although they control a large portion of the world’s economy they exist in relative ambiguity. They move without being seen and somehow without being known. That’s because select family members have the power to make themselves invisible.
The Home Turf series takes users on iconic adventures all over the world including Iceland and Utah. In addition to the beautiful landscapes on offer, the series follows famous figures including world-renowned slackliner Andy Lewis.
The new deal gives consumers access to a larger library of high-quality and award-winning immersive content across all major devices where the Hulu VR app can be streamed, which includes Google Daydream, PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Additionally, Hulu subscribers can also stream Hulu’s entire library of 2D content, including current season content, past seasons of hit shows, movies and Hulu Originals, in immersive 3D environments.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Hulu VR and Jaunt, reporting back with any further updates.
Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition is free in December for PlayStation Plus subscribers, but you might be disappointed with the other PS4 game. The new lineup of six games will be free starting December 5.
Did you know Sony has its very own PlayStation Awards? We didn’t, but they apparently took place today in Japan, and some of PlayStation VR’s (PSVR’s) best games picked up awards.
This year’s show featured a PlayStation VR Special Award category, which recognized games that have made a special contribution towards the headset over the past 12 months. The winners aren’t super surprising for the most part.
First up is Farpoint, the PlayStation Aim-enabled shooter set on an alien planet. It’s one of the first stabs at bringing a full first-person shooter (FPS) to PSVR, and the Aim controller makes it more immersive than ever, so we’re not surprised to see it pick up an award. The same goes for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which remains one of the best — and easily the most terrifying — games on the platform today despite only have optional PSVR support.
Finally, we have a quirky one: Summer Lesson: Allison Snow. Only released in Japan and China, this bizarre little game has you mentoring school girls and taking them out on trips. Still no word on if this one will ever make its way west, sadly.
Elsewhere, Resident Evil 7 picked up a Gold Prize for selling over 500,000 copies in Japan (both at retail and digitally) as well as a Users Choice award.
You can watch the awards for yourself in English below.
You there! Yes, you! Get your head out of Skyrim for a moment; there’s a new VR game on the block, and it’s got all the action you could ask for.
Yes, Bethesda’s Doom VFR is arriving tomorrow on PlayStation VR (PSVR) and HTC Vive. We’ve just published a lengthy review on the former version (Vive impressions are still on the way). It’s got some issues but, if you still haven’t made your mind up on if it’s for you or not, we’re going to be hosting a lengthy livestream showing the game off today.
Check back to this very post at 7am PT/10am ET/3pm GMT for yours truly running and gunning his way through hell. Warning: it’s going to be bloody.
Black Friday is a period that publishers, developers and hardware manufacturers pay very close attention to. The week-long period around Black Friday has been a positive one for the PlayStation VR this year.
Though Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has been cagey about its official sales figures for the PlayStation VR, but many outlets and retailers have been reporting that, overall, PlayStation VR has been doing very well in terms of sales, even beating out the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and hitting the top spot on Amazon’s Black Friday Top Seller lists.
SIE decided to capitalise on this success for the Black Friday period by offering a number of Black Friday bundles, dropping the price to £249.99 (GBP). There are three bundle variants, all of which contain the headset and PlayStation Camera, along with either a digital code for PlayStation VR Worlds, or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, or Gran Turismo Sport. These bundle offers offered a tempting prospect for those shopping for Christmas presents.
Many retailers, including Smyths Toy Store, sold out of the Black Friday deals, leaving customers searching for retailers who still had the bundles in stock. The inclusion of PlayStation VR Worlds in one of the bundles meant that that title’s position in the UK Gaming Charts took a huge nine-place jump up to No 11 in the charts.
GFK Chart-Track also confirms that sales of the PlayStation VR overall were impressive, almost matching the figures achieved during the PlayStation VR launch week in 2016. With a number of hotly anticipated PlayStation VR titles still awaiting release in 2018, such as Golem and Xing: The Land Beyond, with others expected to be announced at the upcoming PlayStation Experience event, leading many experts and analysts to forecast that the PlayStation VR sales success will continue into next year, at least.
VRFocus will bring you further news on the PlayStation VR as it becomes available.
If you enjoy the odd virtual reality (VR) boardgame or two then you’ll have probably been keeping an eye on developer Experiment 7 and its upcoming title Catan VR which the studio announced work on in September. Scheduled to launch this holiday season, the studio has now opened a call for players to sign up to a closed beta.
A joint project between Catan GmbH, Catan Studio, Asmodee Digital and Experiment 7, Catan VR remains true to the classic, but optimised for VR. Gameplay involves players taking the role of settlers who need to establish colonies on the islands of Catan, acquiring resources to build infrastructure and roads whilst engaging in trade with other players, all with aim of growing large enough to get the ten victory points needed to win.
Featuring both single-player and multiplayer online modes, up to four people can play against one another, whether they happen to be on Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR. They are the only two headsets confirmed so far but Experiment 7 has said additional VR platforms will follow.
“The first time I saw Catan on the Magic Table, I was fascinated by what VR has to offer,”Catan creator Klaus Teuber previously said. “The game I made in our living room with my family 25 years ago in Virtual Reality? It’s incredible. I never imagined actually stepping into the world of Catan when we first started making cut-outs and dreaming about exploring new lands.”
Editor’s Note: A lot of the issues we encountered with Doom VFR on PSVR were down to the limitations of the headset and the controllers. As such, we’ve decided to assign a score just to the PSVR version for now and will update this article with Vive impressions (and potentially a change in score) once we’ve had a chance to try it out.
There probably isn’t a better barometer for how far gaming has come in the past two and a half decades than Doom VFR. It’s nearly 24 years ago to the day that the original classic revolutionized gaming with its 3D first-person view that rooted players in the center of the action and now id Software is bringing us closer to the demon-slaying than ever before with one of the first full VR first-person shooters (FPSs) based on an AAA franchise.
For all our fond memories of Doom 1993, though, it’s easy to forget that it didn’t have all the answers; you couldn’t look up and down, for example, and the game technically only provided the illusion of being in 3D with clever graphical trickery. Somewhat fittingly, Doom VFR is much the same story.
Rather than creating an original adventure from scratch, id has remixed the campaign from the excellent 2016 reboot for Doom VFR. It takes about a quarter of the locations and, from what I can remember, all of the enemies and weapons, dresses them up in a fresh but instantly forgettable story and tweaks the controls to make it as immersive and as comfortable as possible inside a VR headset. The result is a handful of levels forming a two to four-hour-long campaign depending on the difficulty you pick (I played on hard). Each of these will see you travel to different locations at the Union Aerospace Corporation on Mars, which is overrun by demons of all shapes and sizes. Without spoiling anything, you’ll later visit another location seen in the 2016 campaign.
It’s a shame not to be getting an all-new game or a full port of last year’s shooter (Bethesda has ported all of Skyrim and Fallout 4 to VR), though it’s certainly better than nothing. On the bright side, it means that this is a VR game already built upon a rock-solid foundation; Doom VFR’s enemy variety is unmatched in VR and every encounter has its own twists and turns, be it through the sheer overwhelming odds or the verticality of an environment that keeps you on the run.
You’ll blast baddies back to hell with one of three control setups. Firstly, the game’s seemingly designed for two handheld motion controllers (either Move on PSVR or the wands on Vive), which allow you to wield one gun with your right hand and a grenade/grenade launcher with your left. You can also play with a DualShock 4 or gamepad, which assigns aiming of both weapons to head-tracking or, on PSVR, you can use the new Aim controller to handle your right gun, while the left hand is still assigned to your head. Movement also comes in three flavors: a primary teleport mechanic (which can be used to teleport into stunned enemies to shower yourself in their blood), a quick dash to avoid incoming fire, and smooth locomotion for those that can stomach it on compatible controllers.
How much you enjoy Doom VFR is largely going to depend on what platform you play it on and with what controller. Though it was seemingly first designed with it in mind, the Move controls on PSVR are easily the worst way to play thanks to some truly woeful implementation. For starters, there’s no option to turn in increments on the controllers, instead only turning 180 degrees at a time. This gives you just enough freedom to navigate the facility with the teleport option (there’s no smooth locomotion for Move), but in circular rooms it’s incredibly awkward to use, especially in the rush of battle. PSVR’s limited tracking means that, if you fight an enemy off to the side you’ll have to deal with jittery weapons that are more difficult to aim. Vive’s 360 degree tracking, meanwhile, makes this much less of a problem.
Dashing on Move is assigned to the face buttons on the left controller, which themselves don’t actually represent a direction. I often needed to dash out of the way of a heavy hitter, only to press the wrong button and jump right into the enemy, leading to a quick death (though another button smartly pushes enemies surrounding you away by a few meters). When it works, the Move controller feels great, especially as you unleash a storm of chaingun fire into a crowd of shambling zombies, but there are just far too many speedbumps getting in the way of the experience. It’s clear the game was designed with the teleporting, dual-wielding setup in mind but, seeing as Doom requires you to be on the move at all times, smooth locomotion is much more preferable than having to constantly jump across a room (though I would use this mechanic to avoid enemy attacks).
The Aim controller fares just a little better, though it’s still stiff. Its implementation feels very last minute; I couldn’t aim down the sights of a gun without it clipping into my face, and it’s extremely off-putting to see your grenade hand lifelessly attached to the left side of the screen. It’s disappointing id didn’t go back and retool the game to work much more naturally with Aim like Vertigo Games did for Arizona Sunshine; holding a heavy assault rifle in your hands should feel empowering, but it instead comes off as clumsy. The dual analog sticks mean you can use smooth locomotion which makes the game drastically easier (and much more fun) than if you just rely on the teleporting.
In the end, I surprisingly settled on just the standard DualShock 4 controls for the PSVR version. It’s the most solid, dependable way to play the game, with full locomotion and a much better button layout than on either Aim or Move. It allows you to rediscover a bit of that satisfying combat flow that made the original tick, with a few new additions of its own. Teleporting behind a charging enemy, for example, and then quick-turning and firing a rocket into their backs is extremely satisfying. Playing this way gives the game an existential crisis, though, as it essentially means you’re not just playing a shorter, blurrier version of a great shooter from last year. Sadly, that’s about the best the game can muster on PSVR.
There are moments of VR awesomeness to be had, of course; blowing the head off of a Baron of Hell and watching its entire body slam down in front of you had me wanting to high-five the nearest person, while blasting enemies mid-air as you spring off of a launch pad will have you cackling with laughter. But these instances aren’t enough to overlook the far more common moments in which you’re fighting the game’s controls more than you are its demons.
(Editor’s Note: As explained above, this review is solely focused on the PSVR version right now. Additional impressions will be added here once we’ve had hands-on time with the Vive version.)
Whereas last year’s game expertly paced its action, slowly introducing one new enemy or a different weapon at a time, VFR’s short run time throws you in at the deep end from the start. The bulk of enemy types, which teleport into battles set in arena-style locations, show up within the first hour and you’ll find a new gun to play with every 20 minutes or so. It’s like a whirlwind tour of hell, and I often wished the game would take a little time to slow things down, though there are the same secrets and collectibles from last year’s game to hunt for. I also encountered a handful of glitches — one that forced me to reset and replay a 15 minute section — and the UI is somewhat poorly integrated. Objectives, for example, are suck to the left side of the screen and if you try to turn to look at them, they just move further away.
Final Score (PSVR):6/10 – Decent
While Skyrim VR made a great case for the VR port, Doom VFR brings us back to the drawing board. On PSVR, the game has its moments, largely thanks to the foundations it was built upon with the 2016 original. In the end, though, the real fight is with its awkward control setups that eventually led me back to play with just a standard gamepad. Though the foundations of a hugely enjoyable shooter are intact, VFR’s struggle with the platform’s limitations makes it feel like the VR support is holding it back more than anything.
