With the impending release of commercial virtual reality headsets from the likes of Oculus and HTC/Valve, much talk has turned to what content will be available at launch. Some games and experiences have been announced as Oculus exclusives, but according to the company founder, Palmer Luckey, they won't be exclusive …
Read More »Here is what you may need to run Elite: Dangerous with SteamVR
Back in September, Frontier Studios announced that it was working on a version of Elite: Dangerous for virtual reality. The game would become part of SteamVR and support devices like the upcoming HTC Vive, which is set to release to consumers sometime next year. However, we didn't have any definitive …
Read More »First stand-up comedy show takes place in virtual reality
Although Nokia's Ozo 360 degree camera rig has us all excited for experiencing real events from the comfort of our own home, what's to say that the performers even need to go to a venue? That's what happened yesterday in the VR social application, AltSpaceVR, which hosted its first stand-up …
Read More »Nokia’s virtual reality camera rig tips the scales at $60k
Nokia isn't a company that's been particularly relevant for some time now, only really breaking headlines in recent years when it sold its smartphone division to Microsoft in 2013. However now it's looking to reinvent itself with the launch of a virtual reality camera known as the Ozo, which delivers …
Read More »Apple buys up marker-less motion capture firm, Faceshift
It's looking more and more that Apple is looking to enter the VR market with content, if not eventually hardware too, as it's been confirmed that it has purchased Faceshift, a company that's motion capture tech is being used in the new Star Wars film. That capture technology is unique, …
Read More »Virtual reality motion sickness more of a problem for women
Although you would certainly be the odd one out in most social groups to suggest there was a good reason to treat the different sexes any differently, there are undeniable physical distinctions. One of them appears to be that virtual reality motion sickness is more keenly felt by women than men, …
Read More »VR and Google Glass helped surgeons in pioneering operation
Polish doctors have become the first in the world to use virtual reality and a custom built application to help unblock a coronary artery. Instead of traditional catheter based percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) which uses 2D X-Ray images for guidance, surgeons were able to look at a 3D representation of the …
Read More »Crytek’s Dinosaur Island VR game is free on Steam now
Earlier this year, Crytek impressed us all with its Dinosaur VR demo. Now, you can play it for yourself, as the studio has released Back to Dinosaur Island for free on Steam. The game has been built from the ground up to take advantage of the Oculus Rift, so you …
Read More »This iPhone case doubles as a virtual reality viewer
Virtual reality is growing and there is a big push for it on smartphones, thanks to products like the Samsung GearVR and the Google Cardboard. The YouTube app even supports virtual reality headset viewing from smartphones now, something that Figment is looking to help push with its iPhone case, which …
Read More »Dungeons and Dragons kit lets you role play in virtual reality
You would think that with the advent of virtual reality, gamers around the world will embrace the third dimension of gaming, stepping into fantasy worlds to battle enemies, level up and have adventures with one another; and they will. But as the social side of VR starts to ramp up, …
Read More »PlayStation VR specs officially confirmed
Sony has been working on PlayStation VR (formerly Project Morpheus) since 2013. We already knew that the company had the final specification in mind, it was just waiting for developers to build a solid library of launch titles. Now, Sony has shared that final specification with the world, with a …
Read More »YouTube now supports VR video, app supports Cardboard
YouTube today announced that it would be bringing two new features to the service, both of them being virtual reality related. For a start, YouTube now fully supports virtual reality video playback, meaning content creators with the right equipment could upload some pretty interesting experiences. Additionally, the YouTube mobile app …
Read More »Palmer Luckey says cables will be a ‘major obstacle’ to VR success
Virtual reality is on its way with the first consumer oriented headsets and games due out next year. However, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey still knows that there is more work to be done before virtual reality can be truly successful, one obstacle that he recently spoke out on was the …
Read More »Oculus Rift CV1’s 360 degree Touch tracking may be problematic
Although one of the big touted features of the Oculus Rift consumer release headset (CV1) is 360 degree tracking, it may not be entirely perfect. So much so in-fact, that when the hand-tracking Touch controllers are released at some point next year, some experiences will need to be completely retooled …
Read More »Virtual reality theme parks you can play at home aren’t far off
If you've ever been on one of those ‘4d' experiences at Disney Land, Universal Studios or any other number of theme parks and hotels around the world, chances are it was made by Landmark Entertainment, a company well known for its immersive real-world experiences. But those theme park rides are …
Read More »AMD on VR open standards, Liquid VR bonuses
The writing is on the wall at this point: virtual reality is happening. Enough people have tried early Oculus hardware, there's enough money behind it and there's enough developers for at least one generation of consumer hardware and from there the sky's the limit. The main graphics card players, Nvidia …
Read More »Oculus Rift to sell five million units next year
The consumer version of the Oculus Rift is finally coming out next year and it looks like analysts are already predicting big things for the virtual reality headset. According to analytic firm, Suisse, Oculus will sell as many as five million Rift headsets within its first year on the market, …
Read More »Oculus Toybox demo shows how VR may make us kids again
There are lots of things that have people excited about virtual reality. There's the potential for a return of light-gun games, where we spend our time gunning down hordes of enemies with pin point accuracy; horror games where we wet ourselves in fear at a terror that is quite literally …
Read More »Sony buys up company that could track next-gen VR movements
Softkinetic Systems is a company that's been working on an interesting 3D sensing technology for some time now. It uses lasers to track the time of flight of light, much like sonar does with sound waves, and uses it to track people, objects and actions in a 3D space. While that holds …
Read More »Virtual reality set designs help Bollywood film makers
Although commercial grade CGI is incredibly expensive to develop, sets aren't cheap either. Some Bollywood directors have been playing around with a middle ground however, whereby they create sets virtually first, before developing them in the real world and adding in the computer generated effects later. Beyond making 360 degree …
Read More »Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Walkthrough: Neuro
Virtual reality is easily one of the most exciting frontiers in gaming and technology right now. We stand on the cusp of entering a whole new universe which we can explore not with a mouse and keyboard, but with our eyes, ears and – when the hardware is released – …
Read More »AMD, Dell partner with Oculus for ‘Oculus Ready’ PCs
As if we needed any more indication that we are mere months away from the biggest virtual reality hardware launches ever, AMD and Dell have announced a partnership with Oculus VR, to bring to market “Oculus Ready” desktop and laptop systems, to make it quick and easy for those that …
Read More »Palmer Luckey: Oculus Rift will cost more than $350
As Oculus VR gets closer to release of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, more details emerge about the hardware itself as well as about its price. According to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, the company did not want to make any trade-offs in terms of quality, which …
Read More »Sony: VR entertainment will have great future in the coming 20 years
Shuhei Yoshida, president of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment, compares PlayStation VR platform to the original PlayStation and claims that in 20 years’ time virtual reality experience will evolve as dramatically as 3D games have evolved since the original PlayStation. “As a developer, I am super-excited about the potential …
Read More »Ideas worth spreading: VR director commentaries, with the director
Not every news story needs to be cutting edge news, but they do need to be interesting. Take the idea of making director and crew commentaries on films and TV shows that bit more exciting, by having them not only record their vocal thoughts on the content, but their visuals …
Read More »Oculus VR: Consumer VR headset will cost ‘at least $300’
Oculus VR finalized specifications and release timeframe of its first Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for consumers back in May, but the company has always deliberately declined to disclose the price of the device. At its Oculus Connect conference earlier this week the firm indicated the low end of the Oculus …
Read More »Oculus VR initiates ‘Oculus Ready’ PC program
It is not a secret that far not all personal computers are able to run video games with virtual reality headsets. At the Oculus Connect 2015 conference, Oculus VR introduced its “Oculus Ready” PC program, which is designed to help those, who want to get a new PC, which can …
Read More »Samsung is launching a new, cheaper GearVR this November
Samsung is betting bigger on virtual reality this year, as it plans to release another version of its GearVR headset. This year's latest model will launch in November with a slight re-design and a much lower price. Oculus is once again in charge of developing the headset, which will rely …
Read More »Elite: Dangerous is coming to SteamVR and HTC Vive this year
Later on in the year, HTC and Valve will be releasing a small number of Vive virtual reality headsets for purchase, before a larger launch next year. One of the first games headset buyers will be able to play is Elite: Dangerous, which is getting an update for SteamVR compatibility …
Read More »Sony’s PlayStation VR headset will cost like a new game console
When Sony Corp. unveiled its project Morpheus early last year, it was clear that the company was very serious about equipping its PlayStation 4 video game console with a virtual reality head-mounted display. The PlayStation VR device will finally hit the market in 2016 and will be accompanied by a …
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