From duct tape prototype, right through the developer versions to the final product, we've seen the Oculus Rift from its inception through to its consumer version, but not so with rival VR headset, the HTC Vive. Fortunately though we have VR Product Specialist at HTC, Shen Ye, tweeting out images of …
Read More »Nvidia and AMD both show off prototype hardware at VRLA
VRLA kicked off over the weekend and it seems that both AMD and Nvidia showed up with prototype hardware. Nvidia went to the event armed with a Light Field Display headset while AMD and PC builder Falcon Northwest came to the event with PCs featuring the long-awaited dual-Fiji GPU. Nvidia's …
Read More »Elite: Dangerous won’t have official Oculus Rift support, will focus on SteamVR
Frontier, the studio behind the space sim, Elite: Dangerous, has confirmed that the game won't include official Oculus Rift support. However, the team will be focussing on supporting Steam VR and the HTC Vive headset. In a statement sent out to Eurogamer, Frontier said: “we've supported VR for years now …
Read More »Ubisoft partners with Elijah Wood studio for VR content
Ubisoft has big plans for virtual reality, with a number of games in the works that will be compatible with both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. However it isn't stopping there, as it's just announced a partnership with Elijah Wood's production company, SpectreVision, most known for horror films …
Read More »Court rules lawsuit against Oculus founder to go ahead
Today a US judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against Oculus co-founder, Palmer Luckey, will go ahead. The lawsuit comes from a company known as Total Recall Technologies, which employed Luckey in 2011 to build a head-mounted display, prior to the Oculus Rift Kickstarter in 2012. Total Recall Technologies claims …
Read More »Derren Browne’s VR Thorpe Parke ride uses the HTC Vive
Although virtual reality has a lot of potential for giving us amazing gaming experiences in the home, there's also huge potential for more advanced entertainment at bespoke locations. Take the upcoming re-imagining of the ghost train in a partnership between Thorpe Park and Derren Brown, utilising virtual reality to enhance …
Read More »Google is now getting serious about VR
Google is looking to get involved in the Virtual Reality space as well, following on from the likes of Facebook/Oculus, Sony and HTC/Valve, Google will now be stepping up its efforts with a dedicated VR division, headed by the boss behind the Google Cardboard headset, which was the company's first …
Read More »HTC Vive pre-orders to open up next month
Just last week Oculus began gearing up for the launch of the Rift with pre-orders opening up and shipments due out in March. However, there is another big VR launch on the way in the next few months- the HTC Vive, which will also have its price and ship date …
Read More »How foveated rendering could lower VR’s minimum specs
In-case you weren't aware already, running a virtual reality headset is not something many PCs can do. In-fact, based on the recommended specifications, it's something only a few per cent of PCs can do. That won't always be the case though, with incoming software tweaks making it so VR could …
Read More »Palmer Luckey insists that Oculus isn’t making profit on the Rift
Yesterday, pre-orders for the Oculus Rift officially went live, revealing a £499.99 price tag that caught many people off guard and left some questioning exactly why the Rift ended up being so expensive, particularly since the development kits came in at around the $300-$350 mark. However, Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey …
Read More »Oculus Rift goes on sale for £530
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is now available for pre-order, priced at $600 (£530 inc. shipping the UK). This is vastly more than the originally projected $300-$350 cost for the consumer head mounted display (HMD), but we were warned previously by Palmer Luckey and several others involved in its …
Read More »Oculus Rift to come with DK1-style carry case
The commercial release of virtual reality hardware is closer than ever before and with the announcement of Oculus Rift CV1 pre-orders opening up on 6th January, the hype train is hitting maximum speed. To help fan the flames of its boiler, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey announced that much like the …
Read More »You will be able to pre-order the Oculus Rift in two days
It has been a long journey but the wait is finally coming to an end as Oculus has announced that pre-orders for its finished Oculus Rift headset will go live in just two days time on the 6th of January. Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey will also be hosting a Reddit …
Read More »HTC’s Viveport VR app platform launched
HTC's Viveport online store for virtual reality games, experiences and applications was learned about in mid-December through some investigative digging from fans, but it now looks to be available. Although there are no apps listed of yet, the system itself appears to be up and running, with libraries for purchased …
Read More »Samsung will show off new ‘Rink’ VR motion controller at CES
CES is going to have a lot of virtual reality hardware and software on show. HTC/Valve will probably showcase the final version of the Vive headset, Oculus is expected to announce the final price and specifications of the CV1 Rift and Samsung has now announced that it will be showing …
Read More »Consumer Oculus Rift will have built-in DAC and headphone amp
One of the more noticeable (read: exterior) changes from the Oculus Rift DK2 virtual reality headset, to the CV1 launch model, is the inclusion of built-in headphones. Provided earcups don't have much of a reputation for strong sound reproduction with other products, but Oculus assures us the Rift will do, …
Read More »The Oculus Rift is on track for Q1 launch
Next year is set to be big for virtual reality, we'll have the HTC Vive in April, the PlauStation VR headset in the second half of the year and perhaps most excitingly, the final version of the Oculus Rift in the first quarter. Palmer Luckey and the Oculus crew have …
Read More »Palmer Luckey hints that Oculus Rift CV1 may be quite expensive
While we won't be getting an Oculus Rift pre-order option this side of Christmas, we're not far away from being able to put money down on a first-generation, commercial VR solution. That stack of cash may be a bit taller than we initially thought though. In a number of tweets over …
Read More »ASUS and Gigabyte may launch own VR headsets in 2016
Internal component, system and peripheral manufacturers, ASUS and Gigabyte, are working on their own takes on virtual reality headsets according to a new report. Expected to debut in 2016, the headsets will come from ASUS internal developments we're told, while Gigabyte's will come out of a partnership it has with Chinese …
Read More »Oculus VR now sending out CV1s, SDK 1.0 to launch-day developers
Oculus VR has known about virtual reality's chicken and egg problem since day one. Without games and experiences ready to play, nobody would buy a VR headset, but without VR headsets, nobody would develop them. It's assuaged that issue with developer kits over the past couple of years and to make sure …
Read More »HTC Vive delay because of a ‘very big technological breakthrough.’
Even though Oculus VR had a big lead in with fans of the head mounted display (HMD) technology, Valve and HTC have gone a long way to garnering their own following with the Vive and its Room Scale VR set up. However they've taken some flak as of late, as …
Read More »HTC Vive shown off with finger tracking and a gun in live demo
Tracking our hands in virtual reality has been something all of the big VR makers have been working on for the past year or so. Oculus has its Touch controllers which will release soon after the Rift CV1 and Valve/HTC have their motion tracking controllers, which will come with the …
Read More »Mozilla releases A-Frame making VR web developing easy
As much as the idea of walking around websites, rather than interacting with them on a 2D display might seem like a relic from a '90s future-tech story (anyone remember Net Force?) it's actually something that some are already experimenting with. It's hard though, so Mozilla has developed a technique …
Read More »Oculus Rift CV1 will require four USB ports, 64bit Windows
It was way back in May 2015 that we were given a sneak peak at what the recommended specifications for the Oculus Rift CV1 headset would be and they weren't insubstantial: a GTX 970, i5-4590 and 8GB of RAM. You also needed two USB 3.0 ports, but that's now been …
Read More »Crytek has another VR game in the works: The Climb
Crytek's announcement that it was turning its Return to Dinosaur Island prototype demo into a full-game, virtual reality experience for the PS4 and perhaps other platforms later on was exciting news, but it's not the developer's only VR production that's in the works. It's also working on a game that …
Read More »HTV Vive is the VR must see at Multiplay i56
Although Oculus is the darling of the virtual reality world, HTC's Vive headset has been making waves since it started shipping out to developers who wanted to build games and experiences for its commercial release. However the general public have had a chance to play around with the headset and …
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 »Nvidia launches two SDKs to bring GameWorks to VR
Nvidia has been increasing its focus on virtual reality this year and now the GPU maker has launched two new software development kits known as GameWorks VR and DesignWorks to help developers build VR experiences. These SDKs include technology capable of bumping up performance as much as 50 percent in …
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 …
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