Waltz of theWizard, an uncommonly high-quality VR wizard experience from Reykjavik-based Aldin Dynamics, just got an update today introducing a new locomotion system and a “significant” expansion to the potion-mixing magical experience including an entirely new area full of traps and supernatural guardians.
Aldin details the update in a blog post, where they introduce
‘Telepath’, a new VR locomotion style that combines elements of teleporting and linear movement. Critically, Aldin maintains Telepath “encourages greater physical engagement and simultaneously minimizes risk of discomfort.”
According to the company, Telepath is a path-based system that lets users instantly define where to go and how to get there with a wave of the hand. Effectively it functions a bit like a user-defined on-rails teleport that speeds-up forward motion when you make natural, running hand gestures. Much like the zero-G locomotion scheme seen in games such as a Lone Echo (2017)or Climbey (2016), tying artificial movement to real-world motion significantly reduces the discomfort associated with VR locomotion.
Aldin continues:
Artificial locomotion may never feel like an adequate substitute for physical movement, but there’s no solid way around play area limitations. For now our best option is to make VR locomotion systems that feel as natural and unintrusive as possible, for the broadest range of users.
Telepath’s basic implementation comes alongside a new area just outside the Wizard’s tower, which lets you engage in basic combat with some very imposing figures.
Aldin Dynamics remains one of the most experienced VR studios in the world, launching software on Oculus developer kits and Gear VR. It’s Ghostline VR analytics software, showcased in Waltz of the Wizard, was also used in the construction of games such as SUPERHOT VR (2017) and The Gallery: Call of the Starseed (2016).
Waltz of the Wizard currently holds a [10/10] rating on Steam with over 200,000 owners, beating out Valve’s own demo experience The Lab (2016) and making it the most popular VR-only game on the digital marketplace.
You can download Waltz of the Wazard for free with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on Steam here.
John Gaeta, known for his work as visual effects supervisor on The Matrix trilogy and for launching Lucasfilm’s immersive media branch ILMxLab, is joining the mysterious augmented reality start-up Magic Leap.
As reported by The Verge, Gaeta says he’s joined Magic Leap as Senior Vice President of Creative Strategy. “It will be a new chapter in a long story for me of pursuing frontiers that I think will one day create compelling experiences for people,” he told The Verge.
As the senior VFX supervisor on The Matrix trilogy, Gaeta pioneered the series’ iconic camera technique ‘bullet time’, the results of which nabbed him an Academy Award for Visual Effects and a BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Effects in 2000, both for The Matrix (1999).
Going on to become executive creative director and co-founder at ILMxLab in 2015, Gaeta set out to expand the ‘galaxy far far away’ to immersive platforms including AR and VR. To wit, ILMxLab and Magic Leap announced a “collaboration lab” last year at the WIRED Business Conference, a strategic partnership that would see the companies work together on immersive experiences using Magic Leap’s technology.
Gaeta says he’ll continue to work with the ILMxLab team on its Magic Leap projects in his new role.
We sat down with Gaeta at GDC last year to figure out where AR and VR fits in the existing cinema landscape of storytelling. Gaeta told us his team was “very interested in changing the way films are made,” saying that immersive media could be used to “step inside films before they’re made”—somewhat foretelling a time when the relationship between traditional media and its virtual counterpart becomes more intertwined.
Referring to his new position at Magic Leap, he says “[i]t’s something that I think I can grow as a creator and innovator, and I feel, always, I have a role to help enable others to grow in some of these new platforms, [a]nd Magic Leap is a company that really wants to foster enabling people to be creative in new spaces.”
Magic Leap has yet to show its AR tech to anyone outside the confines of a non-disclosure agreement, but the company recently revamped their website, saying they want to “[take] you with us on this journey to launch.” Shortly afterwards, the company announced a Series D investment round of $502 million, bringing its total investment to $2 billion. A recent report contends the Magic Leap headset could between $1,500 and $2,000, and is set to ship its first device “to a small group of users within six months.”
Update (10/27/17, 9:50AM PT): An earlier version of this article referred to Gaeta’s new position as SVP of Creative Strategies and has been correctly adjusted to SVP of Creative Strategy.
Pimax, the company aiming to deliver three flavors of its high field of view (FOV) headset via their Kickstarter, have recently blasted past the $2 million funding mark. With only a week left in the crowdfunding campaign and now more than $2.45 million to their name, the company has reached arguably a more important milestone: they’ve surpassed the original Oculus Rift Kickstarter, becoming the top funded VR headset campaign in existence.
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t mean as much as you think it would.
Pimax’s recent passing of Oculus’ Kickstarter, which tallied a total of $2,437,429 with 9522 backers at the time of its September 2012 conclusion, could mean many great things for the China-based company. Oculus of course went on to become one of the major players in the burgeoning industry, and as Pimax further normalizes its brand with Western markets after having already successfully delivered on its “4K” VR headset, it’s clear the company has intentions of becoming the next big player in VR too. Like every large project though, the devil is invariably always in the details. Further funding, aggressively committing to R&D, and attracting internal talent—all of these things can make or break a young startup as it attempts to offer something truly bigger than itself.
Pimax accessories, image courtesy Pimax
Even though Pimax technically surpassed Oculus’ Kickstarter, historical context matters. Firstly, a Kickstarter is a good litmus test to gauge the public’s general interest, but when it comes to shipping something as complex as a VR headset, it’s only just a starting point. In Oculus’ case, that successful litmus test gave them the momentum to raise a $16 million Series A in 2013 and a $75 million Series B later that year. Followed by their $2 billion Facebook buyout in 2014, this garnered the young company access to effectively unlimited funds. (It also doesn’t hurt having John Carmack as your CTO, who joined the company early on as an adviser.)
As with the Oculus Rift DK1, the money Pimax has raised through Kickstarter is likely only going to be enough for them to ship a preliminary product, and won’t provide the funds for the vast support mechanisms and level of R&D that Oculus had on its march towards DK2 and eventually the consumer Rift. The question remains whether Pimax can attract more future investors as it rides the momentum of its Kickstarter—providing their headsets deliver a rock-solid experience in the hands of backers to begin with.
To Pimax’s credit, it doesn’t have the burden of developing a tracking standard, which is provided by Valve’s freely licensed Lighthouse positional tracking, or the underlying support software thanks to Valve’s OpenVR API. This is offset somewhat by a level of expectation inherent to a consumer product, and not a developer kit like the DK1 Rift. It wasn’t until the consumer Rift came along that Oculus started shipping replacement parts and servicing units, as the dev kits were sold without a warranty or the option of purchasing something as simple as new lenses—an incredible cost saving measure that let them sell headsets without the sort of obligations that come part and parcel when selling consumer hardware.
image courtesy Pimax
As Pimax surpasses Oculus’ original Kickstarter, it only really signifies consumer interest in the ‘next generation’ of VR. Although Pimax calls their headsets “8K” and “5K”, they actually respectively feature dual 3,840 × 2,160 LCD panels and dual 2,560 × 1,440 LCD panels. The standard “8K” headset also actually upscales a 4K signal to 8K, hence the “8K” in quotation marks. An “8K” X is also on offer that removes the upscaler, and making it capable of accept 8K input, but the headset’s effective per-eye 4K resolution remains the same. Questionable marketing aside, these display resolutions are quite a bit higher than Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which both offer dual 1080 × 1200 OLED displays.
The real fanfare though comes from the headsets’ reported 200 degree FOV, and ability to hook into Valve’s SteamVR tracking solution, making it both the first consumer-grade high FOV headset and the first publicly available headset outside of HTC Vive to use Valve’s room-scale positioning tech.
New Vive base stations built with Valve’s SteamVR tech
Norman Chan and Jeremy Williams from Tested got a chance to go hands-on with version 2 “8K” prototype, saying that the wide FOV was impressive, although there was some noticeable in-software stretching of the game they demoed, Fruit Ninja (2016), that made things less-than immersive. According to Tested, resolution in the headset is noticeably higher and the screen door effect was present, although minimal, with Williams exclaiming “if I’m watching a movie, this is the headset I want.”
As Pimax stands on the shoulders of giants with a valid product in hand, it remains to be seen if they can craft the obvious consumer interest into a business that will make them leaders in the field over time. Either way, we’ll be following their next steps closely to see if Pimax becomes the next big thing in VR, and we should know that soon enough.
Update (10/27/17): It was incorrectly reported earlier that the 5K headset will feature OLED panels. This is true in current prototypes, but the full production version is said to contain the same type of LCD offered in the 8K headset.
Space Pirates and Zombies 2, a single player, space-based survival-exploration game from indie studio MinMax Games, is officially heading out of its year and a half-long stint in Steam Early Access on November 7th, including its fully featured VR port that supports the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
The third-person Space Pirates and Zombies 2 (SPAZ 2) may differ in gameplay mechanics from its top-down predecessor, Space Pirates and Zombies (2011),but it also includes a virtual reality mode that lets you play the entire game with SteamVR-compatible headsets.
In SPAZ 2, you must survive in an evolving post apocalyptic Galaxy where fuel is scarce, and you have to scavenge to survive. Hundreds of fleets populate the Galaxy, all with their own AI captains imbued with the ability to do everything you can.
Because resources are inherently scarce, factions form and split, conflicts erupt due to starvation; stronger factions establish and defend territories, set up resource hubs, and establish star bases. Some factions become bandits to survive.
According to MinMax, when factions meet, “combat is usually the result. While the strategic side of SPAZ 2 is about exploration, territorial control, and faction building, the action side of SPAZ 2 is about ship construction, tactics, and salvage.”
Game Features
200 persistent Captains that are able to do everything the player can, including forming dynamic factions, building structures, controlling territory and going to war.
A truly living galaxy that is not player-centric, developing differently each game through the interactions of the agents.
Build your own faction from nothing.
Randomly generated modular parts. Build the mothership that suits your play style, on the fly, in seconds.
Strategic ship building. The mass, location and shape of parts all matter, making ship design a meaningful decision.
A fully physics-based 3D environment where everything is destructible, takes damage from impacts, and can be grabbed and even thrown at enemies.
Check out the gameplay video below to get a better sense of what the game has to offer VR players.
Epic Game’s Unreal Engine is making it easier to create for augmented reality in the newest 4.18 update, now including official support for Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore software dev kits, and support for SteamVR on Mac.
‘Production-ready’ support for Apple’s ARKit working on iOS11 was initially announced during Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X unveiling last month. Epic has however provided experimental support in their game engine for ARKit since Unreal Engine 4.17, but the new 4.18 update represents what Epic calls “significant changes” since the prior version went live back in August.
Announced on the Unreal Engine blog, the company says they’ve “streamlined workflows [for ARKit projects] making use of existing framework components, added robust handling of the passthrough camera, and increased fidelity by improving performance and prediction.”
Unreal Engine 4.18 now contains official support for ARCore developer preview too, Google’s answer to ARKit that provides a similar AR function to Google’s new Pixel 2 smartphones and soon more Android phones running 7.0 Nougat and above including Samsung S8 line.
In the 4.18 update, the game engine also includes native SteamVR support on Mac, making the same well-worn PC interfaces available on Mac and adding the ability to easily transfer projects between the two platforms.
Apple announced Valve was bringing SteamVR support to Mac during the company’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) back in June, showing the audience the power of the company’s new VR Ready 27-inch iMac. Apple featured a demo running on the HTC Vive that was created by Industrial Light and Magic. Using Epic’s Unreal Engine VR Editor, they showed how developers could build VR content inside of VR itself, using Star Wars assets.
Unreal’s support for SteamVR on Mac comes alongside support for Metal 2, Apple graphics API which is getting the special VR treatment too. Apple says Metal 2 can bring up to a 10x increase in draw call throughput over the prior version, and it will include a VR-optimized display pipeline.
Augmented Empire (2017), Coatsink’s cyberpunk RPG, launched earlier this summer exclusively on Samsung Gear VR. Now the studio, which is also known for the Esper puzzle game series, has released a mini-documentary featuring its cast of high-caliber voice actors, including Kate Mulgrew, Nick Frost, and Doug Cockle.
While the mobile VR platform has its graphical limitations, oftentimes its things like storytelling and voice acting that set a game apart from the pack, and Augmented Empire has it in spades. Coatsink’s mini-documentary takes you into the studio to see the actors hard at work, and even hear a bit about their experiences playing their roles.
Featuring Kate Mulgrew as ‘Jules’ (Voyager, Orange is the New Black), Nick Frost as ‘Chris’ (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and Doug Cockle as ‘Mund’ (The Witcher: Wild Hunt, Horizon: Zero Dawn), Augmented Empire throws you head-first into New Savannah, a city starkly divided by class.
As the player, you control your team from the armchair of your secluded hideout, all in effort to overthrow the corrupt elite. Controlling several characters through the game’s ‘augmented reality’ interface, you follow the story of the world of top-tier citizen, Willa Thorne, on her journey to lead a team of misfits and criminals to survive the world’s brutal underbelly and callous ruling class.
We haven’t had a chance to review Augmented Empire, but our friends over at UploadVR gave it a solid [8/10], saying the game is “a rare treat for a mobile VR game in that it offers a ton of content, a compelling narrative, and cleverly designed encounters that really challenge you while maintaining a fun and well-designed gameplay loop.”
When games insufficiently deliver on critical features, modders tend to fill in the gaps with their own solutions—part and parcel of the gaming world. Doing exactly that, but for the Oculus Store, a third-party website finally lets you filter the store’s content by every Rift game currently on sale and even see every free Rift experience neatly listed from A to Z.
Created by Reddit user ‘SecretGibbon’, Oculus Store Spoofer delivers something the Oculus Store simply doesn’t: a full alphabetical list of every game on the store, its price, a list of every free game, and the option to see what’s on sale right at this very moment.
While the Oculus app offers more flexibility when it comes to searching games, the company’s web portal is still sorely lacking in a search function, presenting only a smattering of game categories that you have to wade through in order to find whatever game or experience you’re looking for. Up until now, to find anything outside of the Oculus app, you pretty much had to manually Google search ‘Oculus‘ + ‘the name of the game‘.
To find every free game, simply type ‘free’ into the search field. A filter menu also lets you find all games currently on sale including their original price and new sale price. The site still doesn’t let you filter by genre, which could make it a little more useful, but when it comes to seeing a sober, un-curated list of what’s available, we haven’t seen anything as easy.
Oculus is serving up its Rift Core 2.0 beta sometime in December which will see a complete overhaul of Home and likely the Store too, so here’s to hoping the Oculus web portal gets a make over as well.
Just in time for the spookiest time of year is a new VR fan remake of Five Nights at Freddy’s (2014) that brings some of the horror of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza to room-scale VR. Although it only gives you two nights (and an “extra special” Halloween night), there’s no better price than ‘free’ for a quick pre-Halloween thrill.
Created by indie dev ‘Dielji’ for the HTC Vive with support for Oculus Rift + Touch, the demo places you in the back office of Freddy’s, the kid-friendly fun time pizza joint complete with animatronic sing-song robots.
Following the original Five Nights at Freddy’s, your job is to watch the security cameras from your monitor with only a small amount of electricity available each night, putting you in precarious situation of keeping the lights on, the security cameras working, and the security doors closed from the screaming wrath of the possessed animatronic beasts. If Freddybear or his pals aren’t where they should be, you’ll have to switch through each monitor feed to stop them in their tracks.
While there are several VR fan remakes available going as far back as the Oculus Rift DK1 days, the most famous of which is One Night at Freddy’s, this seems to be the first room-scale adaptation.
Deiji maintains the demo, which is rightly named Vive Nights at Freddy’s, will be expanded to a full 5+ nights, “and may include a few twists and turns of its own.” The demo even features a clever resizing tool so you can fit the game’s room-scale-sized back office to your individual playspace.
Using the trigger of the Vive controller, remove the time card for the night you wish to play from the time card receptacle located to the right of the punch-clock. Insert your time card into the slot on the underside of the punch-clock, then firmly press the button on the top of the punch-clock to begin the night. Hold the power button down to keep the monitor on (gotta conserve power after all!) and press the buttons below the monitor to switch feeds. There are buttons next to the doorways on your right and left to control the doors and hallways lights. Good luck!
Note: Other people watching your gameplay will see a map showing the locations of the animatronics and other useful information. If you prefer to keep your viewers in suspense, you can toggle this display on and off by tapping the “M” key on your keyboard.
Microsoft today announced the opening of its Mixed Reality Capture Studios and a ‘Mixed Reality Academy’ in the company’s San Francisco Reactor dev space.
Microsoft has a number of Reactors, or physical spaces that are open and free of charge to host technical events like hack-a-thons and meet ups; available across five spaces in four different locations—San Francisco, New York, London, and two locations in Redmond, WA. The San Francisco location, located at 680 Folsom in SOMA, will play host the flagship Mixed Reality Capture Studio and the company’s first Mixed Reality Academy.
Microsoft’s first MR capture studio in Redmond has recorded thousands of performances and turned them into ‘holograms’ over the course of its 7 years of existence, capturing the likes Buzz Aldrin, George Takei, Reggie Watts, and Max Frost to name a few.
The ultimate goal with Mixed Reality Studios, says Microsoft, is “to make high-quality holographic captures accessible for mixed reality creators everywhere.”
The company is also licensing their MR capture studio, with the first licensed location opening in London in partnership with Hammerhead and Digital Catapult. Microsoft expects to license its MR capture studios in other major markets worldwide.
The Mixed Reality Academy aims to provide an opportunity for developers to get their hands on code, tutorials and lessons. Alex Kipman, chief inventor of HoloLens, says the MR Academy “serves as a community hub for creators to come together, collaborate, learn, and help us fuel this new era of computing – the era of mixed reality.”
One of the big barriers to buying flash sale bundles is the selection of games available. What if you already own one in that almost perfect bundle that has you salivating at the nearly perfect price? Oculus plans to address this with a dynamic pricing scheme that gives you a discount if you already own a game in an otherwise bundle-spoiled batch.
Oculus revealed earlier this month at Connect, the company’s annual developer conference, that Home is getting a complete overhaul as a part of their Rift Core 2.0 beta headed to users in December. While the company is pushing less incremental updates to the current version of Home in preparation for the new social version, the beta roll-out of Rift software version 1.20 is making its way today to users via their public test channel (PTC) including news of dynamic bundling.
Announced by Oculus community manager ‘cyberreality’ via the Oculus Rift forum, the company’s flexible bundle pricing will update with an additional discount to account for the value of the app(s) you already own. According to cyberreality, your personalized bundle price will always appear in the Oculus Store automatically.
There aren’t any official multi-publisher bundles currently on the Store, so there’s no way to test it out at the time of this writing, but if you want to get the latest in updates and features from Oculus, you can take part in the PTC by simply toggling the switch in your Settings through the 2D Store interface. You can always revert to the stable branch by toggling off the PTC switch.
You can bet there will be holiday season bundles popping up sometime between now and the release of the Rift Core 2.0 beta update, so keep an eye on the Oculus blog for incoming deals, and of course your friendly neighborhood Road to VR.
