Every weekend VRFocus brings you a number of sports and eSports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories as part of This Week In VR Sport. This week, Sense Arena is hoping to improve ice hockey training with a new VR solution, Sansar and Fnatic partner to bring eSports fans a VR hangout space, and extreme sports title Rush VR is making it’s way to PlayStation VR.
Sense Arena Brings VR To Ice Hockey Training
A new VR technology that aims to revolutionize ice hockey training has launched following a test earlier this year with the Boston Bruins and is being boosted by a minor investment from Burins’ right winger David Pastrňák.
As reported by sporttechie, The Czech Republic-based company, called Sense Arena, launched the earlier this week and has official partnerships with a number of organizations in its home country, including the Czech Ice Hockey Association, the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of Charles University in Prague, and the professional hockey club White Tigers Liberec.
The platform provides users with access to more than 70 training drills which are all designed to help players improve their hockey skills, reaction times, cognitive ability, and many more by allowing them to quickly complete and redo the training thousands of times even when off the ice. The solution is using a HTC Vive headset along with specially-engineered hockey sticks with small sensors on them, a mobile computer kiosk, and four other sensors that are placed in the corners of a room to help the platform track all the action.
Sense Arena is hoping to not only provide current players and teams with a new training solution but also provide new players with an engaging way to speed up their learning. Thanks to the analytics and review side of things, it makes it easier for players to see what they are doing wrong and improve on those mistakes in no time. The end goal is to have the technology involved in some of the biggest hockey markets in the world, including the NHL.
As the technology continues to roll out and get adopted by more teams, VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest.
Sansar And Fnatic Partner To Provide eSports Fans A Way To Meet Cyberathletes In VR
Esports organization Fnatic have announced that they will be collaborating with social VR firm Linden Lab’s Sansar so that fans can meet Fnatic eSport athletes in VR.
As reported by venturebeat earlier this week, Sansar is creating the social VR site Fnatic Meta Bunkr which will be a virtual fan hangout designed to enable deeper community engagement. The platform is free-to-access on both PC and VR and the space will provide Fnatic fans with a place to gather together and connect, host events and meetups, meet popular players and personalities, and earn rewards and prizes. Since founding in 2004, the eSports company has won thousands of tournaments across 20-plus games, the most of any organization, and its fan base numbers are in the tends of millions, according to the company, which need a place to connect.
“As a professional esports organisation, Fnatic continues to break the mould from a playing and fan perspective,” said Benoit Pagotto, marketing director at Fnatic: “Just last weekend we claimed our seventh European League Championship Series title in League of Legends, whilst this collaboration with Sansar is a sign of how we’re always looking to enhance the viewing experience we deliver to our growing community of fans worldwide. There’s no doubt that virtual reality within the world of esports is the future of the sport, so we’re incredibly excited to deliver an enhanced more engaging experience to our fans.”
This is not the first partnership that Sansar have set up for their social VR platform as in the past they have introduced it to the Overwatch eSports scene and Greenwall VR.
Experience The Ultimate Thrill As Rush VR Comes To PlayStation VR
Originally released onto the Oculus Rift earlier this year the team at The Binary Mill have revealed that their extreme sports title Rush VR is coming to PlayStation VR later this year. The title sees players put on a wing suit and take flight across snowy terrain in high speed races that see them descending down mountains avoiding cliff faces and trees while hitting the checkpoints.
It isn’t just snow that players will be flying pass as they will be traveling the world and experiencing the thrill of base jumping in rocky canyons, green forest and many more locations complete with a dynamic weather system and day/night cycles. With 90 tracks to master and a number of different game modes including Time Attack and Score Challenge players will need to get use to flying fast if they want to earn the biggest score and take home first place. If that wasn’t enough there are also online leaderboards that mean you can compete with your friends or go head-to-head in 12 player multiplayer matches.
There is no release date just yet for the PlayStation VR release of Rush VR but it is planned to be before the year is out. You can see the announcement trailer below and VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the release in he future.