Mint Virtual Reality

Journal entries are one half of the Archivist trophy, and you'll need all 20 of them to earn it. Here's how.

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Take a break from the screen and learn more about your favorite hobby with these great books on video games.

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The developer will be working on improvements in the meantime

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Oculus Quest’s latest system software makes voice commands available as a beta feature to United States-based English speakers.

Version 18 of Oculus Quest software is beginning to roll out this week and if you have the redesigned universal menu on your Quest “you can find it in Settings > Quick Actions > Voice Commands. The Voice Commands icon is located next to the Microphone icon. Otherwise, you can find it directly in your Oculus home menu.”

You can activate the feature by clicking an icon in the Oculus menu or enabling a shortcut where you double press the Oculus button to activate voice commands. Available commands include “Take a photo” to snap a screenshot while you’re in a virtual world, “start casting” to mirror the headset’s view to another screen, or “turn off” to shut down the headset. “What can I say?” will show you examples of other available commands.

Quest’s software continues to become more feature-filled with new releases pushed out by Facebook. In recent weeks the company made it possible to set up a room-scale boundary with just hand tracking, to change the color of the barrier, and get alerted during room setup to possible objects in your space.

We don’t have the v18 update to Quest just yet to test this out. If you do have the feature already, please let us know in the comments what you think of voice commands on Oculus Quest. Facebook typically rolls out its updates over several days to ensure stability of the release.

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Are your PC games running poorly? Here are tricks we've found that work well to keep your games optimized.

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With a new MMO coming in the future, here’s a round-up of some of the best games from the Lord of the Rings.

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The post Onward Oculus Quest Release Date Announced! appeared first on UploadVR.

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Oculus Quest’s Guardian boundary can now be changed to yellow or purple, if you’re not a fan of the default blue.

This feature was announced back in mid-May. Six weeks later it’s now “rolling out” as part of the system software v18 update.

To change the Oculus Quest Guardian color, just navigate to the Guardian tab.

This isn’t the only update we’ve seen to Guardian recently. Since May, it can now detect objects in your playspace when you first put the headset on in a play session. We’ve even noticed it detecting dogs & cats. It can’t yet warn about these while in VR, however.

The PC-based Oculus Rift S also features the Guardian system, and uses the same versioning system. However, color options are not available on Rift S software v18. Valve’s SteamVR offers a wide variety of colors for ‘Chaperone’, its competing system.

Will you be changing your Guardian color? Or do you want a color not available yet? Let us know in the comments below!

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And Save the World will leave Early Access and be a premium title

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There have been plenty of new virtual reality (VR) content announcements over the past few weeks, especially when it comes to Oculus Quest. Paris-based indie studio Ikimasho will soon be launching its debut title for the headset as well as PC VR devices, a magic-based rogue-lite called Star Shaman.

Players take on the role of the spell-casting Star Shaman whose job it is to preserve and maintain biodiversity across the galaxy. This is put in jeopardy by the Architects of Entropy, beings who wish to create uniform, geometrically-perfect worlds stripped of all their natural resources.

To do this Star Shaman can wield gesture-based spells and use a magical staff, destroying enemies as they travel from planet to planet. Doing so regenerates the planets and then entire solar systems. All the galaxies are procedurally generated so each playthrough offers different challenges.

Because of the fluid, physical nature of the gameplay Ikimasho hired Just Dance choreographer Barbara Chane-Kane to help create natural movements for players. “From a game standpoint, the moves are paramount,” says Ikimasho co-founder Olivier Piasentin in a statement. “Casting your magic and dodging and shooting at your enemies will make you move as you’ve never moved before in VR.”

As players progress through Star Shaman they are rewarded in a multitude of ways, collecting moons, upgrading skills and spells, as well as mana, score multipliers, currency, lives, and new spells and powers.

“VR games have tremendous potential for empowering individuals to bring lessons learned in the virtual world back to the real world,” adds Ikimasho co-founder Yann Suquet. “Add that games are the dominant medium of the 21st Century and you’re left with an incredibly powerful medium with great responsibility.”

Currently, Star Shaman is slated for a late summer 2020 release, supporting Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive/Vive Cosmos and Valve Index. As further details on the videogame are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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It's the first time Nintendo has formally said sorry about the controllers

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After years of teases and then finally a full non-VR release earlier this year, Dreams is finally getting its long-awaited PSVR support on July 22nd, 2020 as a free update.

Until right now the last we had heard about Dreams PSVR support was that it was in the final QA and bug fixing phase back in late April and then VR user testing in May. Two months later, it sounds like the work is finally completed as the update preps for launch.

Ever since Dreams was first announced for PS4 years ago, Media Molecule and Sony have always trumpeted that it would work with PSVR. It didn’t launch with that support, but it’ll be there in less than a month as a free update.

According to today’s PS blog post, this update also will include brand new VR-focused tutorials, how-tos, comfort modes, and kits for creating PSVR games, as well as new content from Media Molecule themselves. When in Create mode, sculpting becomes a much more tactile experience if you have PS Move Controllers as you can use your hands for a one-to-one interactive experience as you build. Interestingly, you do not “need” to be in VR to create for PSVR.

Personally, I’m pretty terrible at making things in these types of games. I never finished anything worth playing in LittleBigPlanet, couldn’t get into Minecraft, then crashed and burned hard in non-VR Dreams. But in the hands of the right people, Dreams PSVR support has a real chance to be, pardon the pun, game changer. I know I’m excited to hit the random button and just see what I can find.

You can get Dreams on Amazon for 25% off right at just $29.99 right here (that’s an affiliate link) or digitally over on the PSN Store for $39.99. And don’t forget to check out the Dreams development roadmap to see what might be coming next.

What will you make for Dreams PSVR? Do you plan on making a VR version of a beloved non-VR game, or maybe a magical place to visit all on your own? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Editor’s Note: This post was updated after publication with additional details.

h/t: Wario64 on Twitter

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At long last, the Onward Oculus Quest release date has been revealed, and it’s not far off at all.

The ever-popular multiplayer shooter will hit Facebook’s standalone headset a month from today on July 30th. You should be able to wishlist on the Oculus Store very soon if not already. Check out the first Quest gameplay in the trailer below.

Developer Downpour Interactive confirmed as much today, also revealing that it worked with Shadow Point and Augmented Empire developer Coatsink on the port of the game. Coatsink has plenty of experience working with mobile VR, releasing one of the first games for Gear VR in Esper, so that makes sense. Downpour has also been working with Unity directly to optimize the port.

Onward is a modern military simulation game with single-player, cooperative and multiplayer modes. The latter option is the game’s main focus, allowing up to 10 players to jump into matches across a variety of modes. The Quest version of the game will feature full cross-play support with the PC VR versions on Steam and the Oculus Store. The game has one of VR’s most enduring online communities already; adding Quest to the mix will likely help bolster that.

For now, the game remains in Early Access on PC. The Quest version of the game will have content parity with all upcoming updates to that version, though Facebook itself doesn’t officially brand games as ‘Early Access’ on Quest. The game will cost $24.99.

The Onward Oculus Quest release date rounds out a busy July for the standalone headset; Five Nights At Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted arrives on July 16th, followed by In Death: Unchained on July 23rd. Something tells us you’ll be finding time for Onward, though.

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Still in Early Access, Downpour Interactive’s military first-person shooter (FPS) Onward has been one of the most successful for virtual reality (VR) headsets. Currently a PC VR-only experience, the studio has been working with Coatsink (Shadow Point, Esper) to bring the title to Oculus Quest, confirming a launch will take place in July.

Downpour Interactive revealed development of the Oculus Quest version just over a year ago, not long after the standalone headset launched. The last 12 months have proven the device is important to support, not only because of the revenue some developers have earned but especially when it comes to multiplayer gameplay and keeping an active, diverse community of players.

Just like the PC version, the Oculus Quest edition of Onward removes common FPS features like crosshairs and mini maps for a more realistic, simulator-style experience. Players have to rely on coordination and communication with their squad to succeed, whether they’re playing on Quest, Oculus Rift or any other SteamVR compatible headset, crossplay support is fully included.

There are solo and co-op, and multiplayer gameplay modes, providing AI opponents to hone those skills before trying a 10-person battle with three objectives to chose from; safe a VIP, control an Uplink station or secure an area to upload a code.

You’ll have a range of realistic weaponry to play with; the modern MARSOC faction has the AUG, M16, M1014 P90 and the M249 light machine gun. While the insurgent Volk forces use an arsenal which includes the AKS74U, the Makarov, and an RPG launcher.

“I’m incredibly excited for Onward to come to the Oculus Quest: to have players be inspired by the freedom of the platform while at the same time experiencing the realism and immersion that Onward brings to the table,” said Dante Buckley Founder, Downpour Interactive in a statement. “And I think I speak for my whole team when I say we’re excited to see our players get their hands on the game after almost a year of development.”

The studios will release Onward for Oculus Quest on 30th July 2020, retailing for $24.99 USD through the Oculus Store. As further details are released, VRFocus will keep you informed.

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Google confirmed it acquired North and its Focals smartglasses platform.

Reports had been circulating in recent days that an acquisition was in the works and now Google formally confirmed the move.

“Today we’re announcing that Google has acquired North, a pioneer in human computer interfaces and smart glasses. They’ve built a strong technology foundation, and we’re excited to have North join us in our broader efforts to build helpful devices and services,” Google’s Senior Vice President of Devices & Service Rick Osterloh wrote in a prepared statement. “We’re building towards a future where helpfulness is all around you, where all your devices just work together and technology fades into the background. We call this ambient computing.”

The team coming on board at Google will stay based in Kitchener-Waterloo Canada, where North is located.

North was formerly known as Thalmic Labs and the group previously made the Myo gesture-based input device that looks vaguely similar to work being done at Crtl Labs, a startup that Facebook acquired last year. It looks like there’s a major gap in tracking robustness between what Facebook acquired in 2019 and what Myo had at launch in 2016 but there’s also a multi-year gap in between the technology developments. Instead of the arm-band, Focals smartglasses became the focus of the work at North.

Focals offered simple notification features similar to a smart watch and a basic display system in a slim pair of glasses. In a statement from the founders of North the company confirmed it would not be shipping the 2.0 version of the glasses.

Google, Apple, Facebook and others continue to build toward a augmented reality platforms but difficult problems need to be solved on a number of fronts before we might see a compelling consumer AR platform emerge in the coming years. Acquiring startups can also have cascading effects on the internal structure and hardware plans at major technology companies, and we’ll be curious to see how North impacts Google’s efforts in AR.

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The release date for Iron Man VR is fast-approaching on PSVR! Marvel’s Iron Man VR, developed by Camouflaj and published in part by Sony, releases this Friday, July 3rd and you can read our full review on Thursday, July 2nd, at 5:00AM PT.

This is one of those rare instances where we actually have an extremely good idea of what to expect out of a game prior to its release. Not only were there several demos we got to attend, there is now also a demo on the PSN Store for everyone to try, we’ve spoken to the developers at length, and generally know what this game has in store.

We can’t say anything else right now about it, but if you’re looking forward to the game’s release you can check out our review and plenty of video coverage right here at UploadVR.com a day before it launches starting at 5AM PT.

As a reminder: Iron Man VR features a brand new story. This is not connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, any existing video games, cartoons, or even comics. The team looked to past stories from the comics for inspiration, but are building this as its own, unique story that’s totally standalone and is not an origin story.

Let us know what you’re expecting down in the comments below!

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Iron Man VR is slated to release exclusively for PlayStation VR on July 3rd. Check out our Iron Man VR coverage hub here for more details on the game, our interview article about the game’s fresh new take on Tony Stark, our latest hands-on impressions, and details regarding the game’s length and scope.

The post When Can You Read Our Iron Man VR Review? appeared first on UploadVR.

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Later this year award-winning studio Aardman will launch Wallace & Gromit’s first foray into augmented reality (AR) with The Big Fix Up. Today, the studio alongside collaborator Fictioneers have announced the voice cast for the upcoming adventure, as well as a couple of new images.

Bringing the AR experience to life will be award-winning British actors Miriam Margolyes OBE and Jim Carter OBE. Margolyes – known for her work playing Professor Sprout in Harry Potter as well as numerous TV and theatre roles – takes the role of BERYL: the Spick & Spanner’s AI bot.

While Carter (Downton Abbey, Shakespeare in Love) will play puffed pie magnate and millionaire, Bernard Grubb. The cast will also include Isy Suttie as the young Lily Hackerby who: “has won the investment of a certain Bernard Grubb who quickly takes the quiet coder under his ample wing,” explains a press release.

Wallace and Gromit: The Big Fix Up will also feature a real person for the first time; Clarissa Kent. A journalist after that big story, she’ll be played by 25 year-old newcomer, Grace Ahmed.

“Delighted to welcome this wonderful voice cast to Wallace & Gromit’s new augmented reality world! I look forward to meeting their characters this Autumn in The Big Fix Up adventure,” said Creator of Wallace & Gromit, Nick Park in a statement.

“We’re delighted with our line-up of characters voiced by some of the best in British talent,” adds Dan Clemo, Co-Founder of Sugar Creative (a co-founder of Fictioneers). “We knew the casting would be incredibly important to get right, and the way in which they’ve given our characters life in this new and exciting way of storytelling is truly wonderful.”

The Big Fix Up sees the duo embark on their latest business venture, Spick & Spanners to ‘Fix Up’ their home town of Bristol. In the mobile app players will be able to work together to aid the pair whilst enjoying in character phone calls, comic strips and more, all from the comfort of home.

Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is due to launch in the UK this Autumn on iOS and Android devices. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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The post Facebook Holographic VR Prototype Revealed appeared first on UploadVR.

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The post Oculus Go Is Gone, Facebook Buys A RAD Studio appeared first on UploadVR.

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The Museum of Other Realities is free to visit until Friday this week as part of the Cannes XR festival, which features a huge selection of artworks and pieces of XR content created across several mediums.

If you’ve never visited the Museum of Other Realities (commonly referred to as the MOR) before, then there’s never been a better time to pay it a visit. Not only is the museum free until this Friday, but there’s a huge display of different XR artworks as part of the Cannes XR festival. The festival itself ran from June 24 to June 26, with some live events taking place. However, the pieces of art selected for the festival are on display until this Friday.

When you enter the museum, you’ll be greeted by a red carpet and some big Cannes XR graphics to mark the event. Heading inside, you’ll find immersive movies, explorable environments, artworks created in Tilt Brush, and much more. With many of the 3D artworks, the Museum lets you teleport inside them and explore them at the intended scale, which is a neat feature.

I spent some time walking around and exploring earlier today, and found some really interesting and creative pieces that could only work in virtual reality. If you’re interested in groundbreaking new forms of art, you’ll want to take a look for yourself.

Be aware though — some of the Cannes XR artworks are additional downloads separate from the base museum, available as DLC on the Steam page. When you add them all up, the download size can be as large as 60GB. If you’ve got a slow connection, you might want to put aside some time to download all the content in full.

The Cannes XR festival is available to view for free in the Museum of Other Realities on Steam until July 3. You can read more about the selected artworks on the Cannes XR site.

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Next-generation haptic technologies have recently appeared in a growing number of consumer devices, including gaming peripherals, digital music instruments, wellness wearables and beyond. Powered by ‘wideband’ haptics, this new kind of miniature vibrating motors are capable of delivering natural, realistic tactile sensations. Whilst these were initially developed with gaming in mind, they have now found their place in surgical training. 

Surgeons have been using VR simulators to learn minimally invasive surgical skills for well over 20 years, gradually benefiting from the improvements in graphics gained from gaming engines and GPUs. This approach to learning manual surgical skills is now set for a huge upgrade, as Swiss medical simulation company, VirtaMed, teams up with Lofelt, a German technology company that develops advanced haptics for natural, realistic tactile experiences.

In 1976, Sega‘s motorbike game Moto-Cross, was the first game to use haptic feedback, causing the handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle. Other racing games added force feedback and rumble haptics to steering devices in the mid-to-late ’80s. In 1997, early haptic implementations within joysticks and controllers were provided through optional components, such as the Nintendo 64 controller’s Rumble Pak or the Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Pro with built-in feedback. Over the past 20 years, simple haptic devices have become commonplace in the likes of game controllers, joysticks and steering wheels. It is fair to say that these devices have not evolved with the precision needed for sensitive industrial environments, such as medical training.

The partnership ushers in a new era of active haptics – where new technologies such as the Lofelt L5 haptic actuator are used to deliver lifelike sensations for surgical simulation. This leap forward removes the dependency on having anatomically correct physical structures, while still providing the surgeon with a realistic tactile experience.

Harry Houdini once said: “what the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.” Today’s simulators include very realistic visuals, with both an anatomical mannequin and the latest in VR graphics showing the laparoscopic view. To boost the realism further, simulators also provide an immersive audioscape that include sounds of patient monitoring equipment captured in the operating room. In other words, haptic feedback adds another layer of sensory input that allows the surgeon to suspend their disbelief that the simulation is any different from reality.

VirtaMed has even been able to design virtual organs that possess their own physical characteristics – such as the liver being much denser than the gallbladder that is next to it. This allows surgeons to clearly distinguish between different organs in a simulated case, and therefore perform operations such as removing the gallbladder much more realistically. And because these virtual organs respond to gravity, when surgeons position their patient via the abdominal model, the virtual organs settle into place as they would in real life. Using such advanced haptics, it is now possible to simulate lifting these organs up, cutting them, or even stopping them bleeding.

The progression of VR (Virtual Reality) and Haptics from gaming rooms to training rooms is quite literally a lifesaver, especially during a pandemic. Training healthcare professionals is vital for all societies, providing us with the nurses, doctors and surgeons of the future. COVID has meant that the global healthcare community has shifted its focus on emergency care rather than education – for painfully obvious reasons. As the world gets to grip with this pandemic we have seen many elective procedures cancelled and the contact between healthcare professionals and patients has been restricted. Under normal circumstances, medical procedures are taught in an apprenticeship model – currently, therefore, many trainees have been left without the ability to train. When we finally return to some kind of ‘normal’ and COVID restrictions have been relaxed, there will surely be a backlog of exams and elective procedures – further reducing available training opportunities. 

The simulators of today, with all of their advanced technology, can certainly provide relief here. And whilst no single element makes a simulator, the haptics, the visuals, the training cases, the metrics and curriculum, can all work together to enable a trainee to progress.

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One of the big hindrances to widespread virtual reality (VR) adoption is the fact that headsets are bulky devices, so a lot of people simply don’t want them on their face. Companies like Facebook are spending enormous amounts trying to improve the form factor of headsets and recently the tech giant unveiled a new research project which uses holographic optics to create a ‘VR Glasses’ device.

Current VR technology uses small LCD or OLED displays alongside lenses to focus the light into your eyes. While this is a proven method, this does require them to be a certain distance away from each other to work, enabling the optics to actually fold the light properly. The knock-on effect is that a VR headset has to be deep to fit all of this inside.

Researchers Andrew Maimone and Junren Wang from Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) will be presenting their new research at SIGGRAPH’s virtual conference this August, a system which uses holographic optics to make a device far thinner and lighter than current models, aiming for that coveted sunglasses-like VR hardware.

Just a proof-of-concept research device at the moment, it uses polarization-based optical folding to mimic that conventional distance but in a form factor that’s less than 9mm in depth. At the same time, the team claim that the field of view (FoV) is comparable to existing VR devices.

This is achieved by using flat films as optics and laser illumination. “Holographic optics compel the use of laser light sources, which are more difficult to integrate but provide a much richer set of colours than the LEDs common in nearly all of today’s VR headsets,” FRL notes in a blog post. Presently the research device outputs in monochrome (as seen in the above-left image) but the team do have a larger full-colour benchtop prototype working (right image). The goal now is to bring full colour to the smaller unit.

Obviously this is still an early research project so there are plenty of other variables to solve such as a power source and processing, would these be on-board or in a separate device like the Nreal Light? Ideally, it would be an all-in-one form factor yet those products are still years away.

VRFocus is still waiting to see if anything comes from Michael Abrash’s Half Dome prototypes plus there’s the smaller Oculus Quest Facebook is reportedly working on. For further updates on Facebook’s VR research, keep reading VRFocus.

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A new update to the developer build of upcoming cyberpunk indie VR game Low-Fi adds a playable SNES arcade cabinet and a handheld Gameboy console.

While the in-game devices won’t ship with emulator cores or ROMs installed, players will be able to supply these themselves in order to get the devices working in-game.

In two tweets from Low-Fi developers Blair Renaud and Noah Rayburn, the Low-Fi team showed off two new easter eggs coming to the developer build of the game, available to Kickstarter backers or those who purchase access online. The videos show a SNES arcade cabinet and a handheld Gameboy console, both running their respective system’s titles via emulation. This fun feature will be available in-game for anyone to try out, after a little bit of set up.

Handheld emulator, available in the next LOW-FI Updatehttps://t.co/7YkHjh0Zej#vr pic.twitter.com/x4ttyOJ6zZ

— Noah Rayburn (@FileCorruptedGM) June 26, 2020

The emulation runs as a LibRetro front end, so the feature won’t be available until players supply their own console cores and game ROMs. Currently, only the TGB Dual core for Gameboy and the snes9x2010 core for SNES are supported.

To get the cores up and running, users will have to download the zip files for their desired core and extract the DLL file inside. Then, they can navigate to their Low-Fi install folder and place the DLL files in /Low-Fi_Data/Libretro/Cores.

Once the cores are in place, uses can place their game ROMs in /Low-Fi_Data/Libretro/Roms/. The Gameboy core supports .gb, .gbc and .sgb files, and the SNES core supports .smc files.

LOW-FI
Will have another undocumented feature in the next update: https://t.co/ocTiqNr3c3 pic.twitter.com/9nsFjsEPLE

— Blair Renaud (@Anticleric) June 24, 2020

Once everything is in the right place, the SNES arcade and the handheld Gameboy should be fully playable in-game and work just like real devices. Low-Fi developer Blair Renaud says the plan is to support more consoles over time, both handheld and cabinets, but the focus is on the more important work and the game’s core mechanics for now.

Elsewhere this update includes a fresh graphics pass, new storefronts, an example dialogue system and other features. You can see the full changelog right here.

The update is available now to those who have access to the developer build.

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Here are the best gaming deals for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch that are available for July 2020.

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These are the best deals on Xbox Game Pass for July 2020.

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Every deal-savvy gamer should shop around for a discounted gaming headset. We've already done the work for you,

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Credits have evolved since Star Wars: Battlefront II's release. Here, we'll show you how to earn them fast.

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The controversial streamer’s channel disappeared, leading to a swirl of rumors. Here's everything we know.

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Ghost of Tsushima is one of several highly anticipated games due in July. Here's our full roundup.

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Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know which superhero you’d love to see in a dedicated VR game next after Iron Man?

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With Iron Man VR releasing in just a few short days on July 3rd, this Friday, it’s an exciting time for PSVR gamers. One of the most well-known and truly iconic superheroes of all-time is entering the immersive realm of VR with his own, dedicated game complete with a robust campaign and lots of depth — at least, according to the developers.

We’ve gotten the chance to take on the role of lots of iconic superheroes over the years in VR, such as Batman in Arkham VR, several Marvel characters in Marvel Powers United VR, and even as Spider-Man specifically in the free Far From Home VR experience. But now we want to imagine what another fully-fledged made-for-VR superhero game would be like that focuses on a single hero.

Superman is one of the most notoriously difficult characters to get right in games, but maybe playing as him in VR would offer that sort of empowerment you’d seek. Or, perhaps a full game building on the web-slinging of Spider-Man could be fun. Teleporting between dimensions and using your hands for magic, like Doctor Strange, could be a blast too.

Let us know what you think! Which superhero do you think deserves their own dedicated VR game next after Iron Man VR?

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Picking an AMD or Intel CPU is a big decision, but as of early 2020, it's much easier than you might think.

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Whether you already game or are looking to get into gaming, we have some gaming deals to help with boredom.

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Looking for a way to pry your children away from the screen?Take advantage of one of these board game deals.

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Acer, ASUS and Razer are all fantastic brands for laptops that offer peak gaming, but can also be used for work (and other play).

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He's working on something with longtime collaborator Yoji Shinkawa

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Sony is also launching a free commemorative theme and a free online multiplayer weekend.

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Facebook’s VR research division is presenting prototype VR optics smaller than any we’ve seen yet for the annual SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference.

The ideas behind the “holographic near-eye display” could one day enable VR headsets with sunglasses form factor- but for now this is solely research with limitations.

Why Are VR Headsets So Bulky?

The primary driver of the size and bulk of today’s VR headsets is the optical design. Magnifying a display over a wide field of view requires a large, thick lens, and focusing it at a viewable distance requires a long gap to the display. After adding the housing needed to contain this system, even the most minimal designs end up over 350 grams.

The standalone Oculus Quest, with a battery, mobile chip and lens separation adjustment, weighs 571 grams. Many people find it hurts their face after a few minutes.

Panasonic and Pico have shown off prototypes of compact headsets using “pancake lenses”, and Huawei has already launched this as a product in China. Without a tracking system or battery, these headsets end up around 150 grams.

However, these current pancake lens designs have a number of unsolved flaws. They block around 75 percent of light which can make the image look dim and washed out. They may also show faint ghost versions of the image slightly misaligned, and this “ghosting” only gets worse as you try to improve the image with a brighter source.

Holographic Lenses

Facebook Reality Labs’ new approach is a thin film where focusing is done by holographic optics instead of by the bulk of the lens. ‘Hologram’ in this context just means a physical “recording” of how light interacts with an object- in this case a lens rather than a scene.

Facebook claims the research may be able “to deliver a field of view comparable to today’s VR headsets using only a thin film for a thickness of less than 9 mm.” The total weight of the display module is claimed as just 18 grams. However, this does not include the actual laser source, and nor do any of the images Facebook provided. “For our green-only sunglasses-like prototype, we measured an overall maximum field of view of approximately 92◦ ×69◦,” according to the research paper.

By using polarization-based optical folding, these ultra-lightweight lenses can be placed directly in front of the display source.

Because holographic elements disperse light, the only practical illumination source is lasers used at specific angles and wavelengths. The researchers were able to “inject” laser light into a 2.1″ 1600×1600 LCD, replacing the backlight.

The prototype is currently monochrome, only capable of displaying the color green. The researchers have a tabletop-sized proof of concept for multi-color, and believe bringing this to the sunglasses prototype is “viable” with further engineering.

The range of colors laser light can deliver (known as the color gamut) is significantly wider than LCD displays, and in fact slightly wider than even OLED, so this would represent a milestone achievement if it could be moved into a head-worn system.

Early Research, Lofty Goals

It’s important to understand that what’s being presented here is just early research for a new kind of display system. If it ever becomes a product, it will also need a tracking system. And unless it connects to your phone with a cable, it’d likely need a battery and mobile chipset too.

Facebook describes this research as being on the same miniaturization research “path” as Half Dome 2 and 3, which it presented at Oculus Connect 6 back in October.

Those headsets are much larger than what’s being shown here, but achieved a wider field of view while also having eye tracking and variable focus. FRL says future iterations of this sunglasses prototype could also be varifocal by moving the lenses on a range of just 1 millimeter. This could theoretically be achieved with tiny piezoelectric actuators.

For virtual reality to reach Mark Zuckerberg’s lofty goal of 1 billion users, headsets need to get significantly more comfortable while increasing realism. While designs like the Rift S “halo strap” can redistribute weight, this is more of a bandage than truly addressing the issue of bulk.

Like all early research, this idea may never pan out. Practical issues may emerge. Facebook is simultaneously exploring a number of novel compact display architectures. If it can make even one work, it could do to VR what LCD panels did to CRT monitors and televisions.

Facebook’s research paper concludes:

“Lightweight, high resolution, and sunglasses-like VR displays may be the key to enabling the next generation of demanding virtual reality applications that can be taken advantage of anywhere and for extended periods of time. We made progress towards this goal by proposing a new design space for virtual reality displays that combines polarization-based optical folding, holographic optics, and a host of supporting technologies to demonstrate full color display, sunglasses-like form factors, and high resolution across a series of hardware prototypes. Many practical challenges remain: we must achieve a full color display in a sunglasses-like form factor, obtain a larger viewing eye box, and work to suppress ghost images. In doing so, we hope to be one step closer to achieving ubiquitous and immersive computing platforms that increase productivity and bridge physical distance.”

The post Facebook Researchers Show The Most Compact VR Optics Yet appeared first on UploadVR.

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South Korean virtual reality (VR) developer SKonec Entertainment tends to focus mainly on the location-based entertainment (LBE) market in its home region. But it does occasionally dabble in the home market, most notably with arcade shooter Mortal Blitz a few years ago. Recently, it has been revealed the studio plans on releasing a multiplayer shooter called Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena for free on PlayStation VR in the coming months.

PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida made the announcement as part of the BitSummit Gaiden 2020 event which is all about indie developers. Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will be a free to play experience coming to PlayStation VR in September with a beta released in August. What wasn’t clear was whether this info is purely for the Asian market or if it’s a global release.

Supporting a single-player mission-based mode as well as the core multiplayer which can have up to four players, Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will include customizable weapons and items to pick up as well as Aim controller support.

In the multiplayer mode players have to teleport between platforms of varying heights to allow you an advantage over a lower positioned opponent. Light walls appear upon arrival to aid in defense but these can be destroyed with enough firepower.

In fact, VRFocus has played a previous incarnation of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena during Gamescom 2019. SKonec Entertainment originally announced Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz as an LBE only experience back in 2018 before taking it to the Cologne-based event the following year.

While there are some graphical differences – this was running on a PC originally – the gameplay looks virtually identical. Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was an enjoyable arena shooter and that was only with 2 players; with four VRFocus would imagine Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena is going to get seriously fast and frantic.

VRFocus has contacted SKonec Entertainment for further information regarding the launch of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena and whether it’ll be global. When’s there’s further info to update you, we’ll let you know.

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The theme park was supposed to open this summer

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Just over a week ago, First Contact Entertainment released new details regarding its next first-person shooter (FPS), Solaris Offworld Combat. Since then the studio has also begun detailing further snippets such as the videogame featuring Aim controller support for PlayStation VR. The most recent sees the team confirm intentions to release a Steam version.

When Solaris Offworld Combat initially arrives in August it’ll only support Oculus Quest and Rift through the Oculus Store, followed by the PlayStation VR version at some point in 2020. There was never any mention of other headsets or platforms.

With Steam now confirmed to be part of First Contact Entertainment’s future plans this adds in the likelihood that Valve Index, HTC Vive/Vive Cosmos and Windows Mixed Reality headsets will gain support at some point in the future.

As a multiplayer, team-based shooter, Solaris Offworld Combat will live and breathe of its player community, so the more headsets it can support the better. Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR likely do have the biggest player bases, hence why they’re already confirmed. Even so, if you are an Oculus Rift owner who loves Steam, then at least you know it’s coming; when is another matter.

Set to offer a 4v4 arena-style sci-fi shooter, Solaris Offworld Combat will feature a core gameplay mode called ‘Control Point’. This entails teams having to work together to hold an area and win the match. Everyone starts with the same loadout, a Sentinel Disruptor pistol, then as they explore the arena they’ll be able to find an even more devastating array of weaponry which can include Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, and Arc Rifles. There will be other pickups like health and shields, all of which appear as holograms from the floor.

Because of the mixture of locomotion controls, you’ll be able to slide along the floor in the heat of battle to grab new armaments on the fly. Solaris Offworld Combat will also include teleport locations known as Jump Points which can be used tactically to quickly traverse the arenas and flank opponents.

Solaris Offworld Combat will hit Oculus Quest and Rift on 27th August 2020. When a released date for the PlayStation VR version is released VRFocus will let you know.

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Last week Iron Man VR developer Camouflaj told us that the upcoming PSVR exclusive featured around ‘8 – 10 hours’ of AAA VR gaming. Now the Iron Man VR trophy list gives us an idea of how that time is divided up.

The trophy list debuted on Exophase over the weekend. If you want to avoid spoilers then we wouldn’t recommend reading it, but the list and icons indicate that Iron Man VR is comprised of 12 missions and an opening prologue.

We got to see that prologue and the first mission in the demo that released on PSVR a few weeks back. Remember, though, that Camouflaj is kitting out the game with optional extras and challenges, taking part in which is likely to push the game to the developer’s estimations.

Other trophies confirm that the game will feature more Flight and Combat Challenges and that you’ll have star ratings at the end of each mission. You’ll also be rewarded for killing a certain number of enemies with specific weapons and completing the campaign of different difficulties. There’s also a trophy for catching a grape in your mouth which will probably be as hard as the basketball trophy in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.

Not long to go now; Iron Man VR debuts on PSVR on July 3rd. Publisher Sony has been releasing a bunch of developer diaries for the game in the run-up to launch and Camouflaj shared plenty of other details with us in our interview.

Will you be chasing every trinket on the Iron Man VR trophy list when the game launches on Friday? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Iron Man VR Trophy List Confirms 12 Mission Campaign And More appeared first on UploadVR.

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Several industries are witnessing a dynamic shift to various online platforms lately, owing to the current lockdown scenario. Copious organizations, schools and other educational institutions find the need to connect remotely, be it for meetings, lectures or even brainstorming sessions. As a result, there are enormous demands for web conferencing services, cross-platform messaging, file-sharing etc.

A Digital Shift Becomes Indispensable

The future is an unpredictable chapter of time. Unforeseeable situations like mandatory work from home policies make telecommuting or remote working indispensable. Thus, the dependence on web-conferencing apps has sky-rocketed.

An eye-opening survey talks about a whopping 70% of organizations having shifted to online methods of recruitment, demanding the processes to be undertaken through a digital lens.

Video conferencing is a pivotal aspect of remote work. However, it poses quite a few challenges:

Throwing Light on the 4 Critical Shortcomings  of Conventional Video Conferencing Applications

1.  Efficient Collaboration Goes for a Toss

Video conferencing is rather static and prevents effective brainstorming, strategizing and collaboration. Mundane screen sharing sessions aren’t going to suffice your complicated project requirements.

This is due to the absence of vital elements like having tea breaks with co-workers, face-to-face mentorship sessions, quick all-team meets and live presentations. As a result, your team is deprived of the entire feel of being present in a healthy, active environment with proactive co-workers.

2.  Boredom is Inevitable

Well, let’s face it: Web conferencing is very similar to watching a video, and boredom is bound to creep in. As a result, employees begin to swim in monotonicity, and the creative juices take a huge hit. Moreover, boredom is also a massive productivity killer.

3.  Motivation Levels Take a Massive Hit

Standard conferencing solutions foster a non-engaging work atmosphere which generally results in motivation dips. Therefore, employees lack the drive to go above and beyond to add significant value to your organization.

4.  The Dark Cloud of Loneliness

Perhaps the biggest con of video conferencing is a feeling of loneliness and being shut out. The social dimension is non-existent, and employees no longer have that unique connection with each other.

Think about it: how would your employees feel if they were to stare at a computer screen all day and indulge in no real instances of socializing?

Well, to maintain peak levels of productivity, there has got to be another more interactive and engaging solution to remote working.

4 Ways Immersive Telecommuting Truly Transforms Remote Working

The action-packed sci-fi novel Ready Player One featured a VR game setting and took the technology world by storm. Fast forward to the present, and here we are: witnessing Virtual Reality taking shape, and this is something beyond just emails, or excel sheets! It’s about creating a virtual space altogether, with customized features tailored to cater to individual requirements of specific industries.

In essence, the central idea is to eliminate feelings of detachedness and foster positive emotions by transforming the mundane remote work atmosphere into a social experience.

1.  Powerful Virtual Capabilities Foster an Immersive Atmosphere

Topped with ultra-real avatars, immersive collaboration platforms impart a state-of-the-art immersive experience that makes employees feel they are “in” a conference room amidst “real” people.

The immersive near realistic environment essentially teleports you where you can present, chat, brainstorm and pitch great ideas. Participants feel immersed and witness an enthralling experience that fosters positive emotions like unity and peace.

For people who derive energy from everyday conversations and an interpersonal connect, an immersive remote work environment proves to be highly beneficial. It effectively mirrors an office setup, and thereby, corporates would witness an increase in productivity, creativity and inner peace.

2.  Ideal Platform for Real-Time & Efficient Collaboration

Ideally, immersive telecommuting is easy to set up as your employees can use simple computers and laptops with standard configurations to enter a virtual space where other real people can join. Here, they can now present or demonstrate ideas, and collaborate effectively.

Also, there’s a wide variety of tools that add more versatility to collaboration, instead of only relying on typical slides and emails.

3.  Vitalizes Productivity Levels

Socializing opportunities and enhanced collaboration lead to higher levels of productivity. As a result, despite mandatory remote working conditions, immersive telecommuting helps your employees maintain peak levels of performance and morale.

4.  Streamlines Operational Efficiency Everywhere

An immersive end to end virtual solution eliminates unnecessary recurring email chains and incomplete knowledge transfer loops. An immersive remote working platform helps your organization streamline project planning, and expedite other work processes. The result is generating better returns out of your most precious resource – time.

Moreover, immersive telecommuting also reduces your carbon footprint, thereby making your enterprise eco-friendly.

Throwing light on how an immersive platform is a game-changer for the entire remote working industry, here’s David Whelan, Founder, Immersive VR Education:

“The world has changed much faster than anyone has expected over the past 6 months. Companies, Schools, Colleges and Enterprises around the world have all been shut down and now have to find new ways to communicate and collaborate remotely. Many are now finding the limits of what video-based communications can offer and are seeking better alternatives. The ENGAGE platform brings remote communications and collaboration to the next level and we are delighted to be working with Dr. Sana and her team at TelecommuteX to deliver this service to customers in the middle east.”

Additionally, David also highlighted the impact that immersive telecommuting would have on organizations from a social interaction perspective:

“Using Immersive technologies is a game-changer for connecting people just as the telephone was over a hundred years ago. The telephone allowed you to talk to somebody on the other side of the world. VR/AR allows you to be with somebody from the other side of the world without the need to step outside your door. My development team has been under lockdown for the past 3 months and we hold all our daily standups and meetings inside ENGAGE virtually and it makes a world of difference for productivity replacing the need for endless video calls and emails. It is much easier to simply meet virtually, draw on a virtual whiteboard and present your ideas in a virtual meeting room.  Using immersive technologies will become second nature soon as people will be less inclined to travel so readily for business meetings as they get used to working from home in these challenging times.”

To summarize, immersive telecommuting makes remote collaborations and virtual meetings avenues of socializing amidst productivity. Consequently, it’s the perfect alternative to conventional video conferencing applications.

Therefore, an immersive virtual space is the futuristic core of the ideal remote working platform; such as TelecommuteX (created in collaboration between Munfarid and Engage) – seamlessly infusing the concept of immersive telecommuting into your business ecosystem.

Pondering on how immersive telecommuting will streamline the average remote worker’s routine, here’s Evan Kristel, renowned technology influencer and Chief Digital Evangelist at eViRa Health:

“Prolonged sessions of remote working definitely takes a toll on employees’ mental health. Immersive telecommuting introduces the much needed social sphere that fills up possible voids of loneliness and apathy in the lives of your workforce. As a result, the average remote worker’s day is much brighter and “normal” with an ample amount of socializing opportunities.”

Evan also had an interesting take on the rapidly evolving technological era we are witnessing:

“It’s amazing how technologies have drastically evolved to help us thrive and not just survive in challenging times. Revolutionary technologies plant seeds of hope and positivity for the future of humankind. It’s our duty to embrace these technologies and ensure their widespread adoption & usage.”

Virtual Conferences are Steadily Gaining Traction

As concern over COVID-19 sets in, in addition to telecommuting, virtual conferences have also gained momentum. Known to strengthen professional relationships in both academia and business, conferences have always proved to be a platform for the exchange of ideas, nurturing upcoming entrepreneurs, thereby working towards the greater good. One such example is the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR) that announced an all-virtual venue change.

The Ultimate Solution is Virtual Immersive Collaboration

Striking a healthy balance between the positives of both work from home and working on-site, virtual immersive collaboration proves to be the future of connectivity. Sectors like Logistics, Information and Communication Technology, Education, Food supply and a lot more are adopting immersive telecommuting.

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Skonec Entertainment’s Mortal Blitz series lives on; Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena is coming to PSVR soon.

The latest game in the shooter franchise was announced last week during the Bitsummit Gaiden stream. Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida introduced the title, as you can see in the (Japanese) video below. Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena is an online shooter in which up to four players teleport around nodes on a map, trying to shoot each other in the face.

Each point on a map is guarded with shields that will degrade as other players shoot at them. You’ll have to balance getting a great vantage point with maintaining cover. There are, apparently “hundreds” of customization options for weapons and items, ranging from machine guns to rocket launchers and stat-boosters. There will also be a single-player component with missions, but it’s not clear how this will look right now. The game supports both the DualShock 4 and the rifle-shaped Aim controller.

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will be free-to-play, with an opening beta launching in August. A full release is planned for September. Keep in mind these dates are only confirmed for Japan right now; it’s not clear if the game will be releasing in the US and Europe, too.

We were first introduced to Mortal Blitz all the way back in 2017 with a ho-hum single-player shooter campaign similar to the Time Crisis series. There have also been two iterations for VR arcades in the east that never made their way over here.

Will you be checking out Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena if and when it releases in these parts? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena Is A F2P Multiplayer PSVR Shooter appeared first on UploadVR.

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Both accounts have Microsoft email addresses

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The flag was being used to recreate The Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee

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A statement from Twitch did not confirm or deny the ban

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Kat Walk C, the latest attempt at bringing a VR treadmill to the living room, is off to a great start with its Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign.

The device launched its campaign last week with a $100,000 funding goal. At the time of writing, the campaign has reached $1.2 million in funding with over a month to go before it closes out on July 31st. The Early Bird special deals that offered the treadmill from anywhere between $699 to $899 have all been claimed, with the price now starting at $999. The company behind the device plans to release more discounted tiers, though.

Kat Walk C is similar to other VR treadmills. The kit is a large peripheral that has users standing in a dish, wearing a special pair of shoes, strapping into a harness and then physically walking in VR games and experiences. The idea is to immerse you even further in a VR experience and combat the ongoing issue of locomotion in VR. The device supports PC VR and PSVR headsets and, according to Kat VR, can be used in any game with a free locomotion setting.

There are other VR treadmill options out there, though they’ve largely failed in their mission to bring the concept to people’s homes. Virtuix was there early with its Omni treadmill, for example, but recently refocused its efforts on VR arcades. Kat VR itself offers a number of other treadmills and solutions for enterprise customers.

Currently, the Kat Walk C is expected to be delivered to Kickstarter backers in October of this year. Would you be interested in having a VR treadmill in your home? Let us know in the comments below!

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