Become an Avatar-style Earthbender in ‘RUMBLE’, Early Access Coming Soon

While there aren’t any official Avatar: The Last Airbender VR games out there, RUMBLE definitely wants to fill in the gaps with its Earthbending fighting game where, like the series’ telekinetic martial artists, you control the very ground beneath your feet.

Headed into Steam Early Access soon, Rumble is an online PVP game that tasks you with honing your ability to attack and defend by striking different poses, something developer Buckethead Entertainment says are inspired by several styles of martial arts.

“Chain poses together, flowing from one on to the next to create a pose combo! Pose combos have different effects based on the poses used, all combos are unique, and there’s a situation for every single one,” Buckethead says on the game’s Steam page. “You don’t just use attacks, you create them. Train yourself up in the gym and once you’re confident you’ve got what it takes, you can put your skills and creativity to the test in the arena.”

Rumble is slated to launch sometime soon on Steam Early Access for PC VR headsets. Buckethead says an Oculus Quest version isn’t entirely off the table, however the studio still needs to conduct research regarding the game’s performance and tracking on Quest.

The post Become an Avatar-style Earthbender in ‘RUMBLE’, Early Access Coming Soon appeared first on Road to VR.

High Fidelity’s New Smartphone App Can Create Impressive Avatars From Selfies

This new mobile app from High Fidelity (official website) lets you take a quick selfie with your smartphone’s camera and turn it into a full body VR avatar within minutes.

Despite the fact that you can be pretty much whoever and whatever you want to be in social VR apps such as VRChat and High Fidelity, sometimes you just want to be a digital representation of yourself. Especially if you’re using the app professionally or to meet with someone you know in real life, it might be more prudent to present as yourself rather than an outlandish avatar.

High-Fidelity-Virtual-You-Apple-App-Store

That’s where this new mobile app comes into play. The app is called Virtual You: 3D Avatar Creator and it’s available now from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store. All you do is take off your eyewear, brush back your hair, and position your face inside the oval to snap a selfie. After a few questions the app will spit out a 3D avatar that, honestly, looks pretty solid for a first attempt. I only made very minor tweaks to mine, such as general face shape and eyebrows, but it was basically good to go.

One tricky thing about this process is that once you link your High Fidelity account and “send” the avatar to your in-game self, it’s not where you’d think. I spend about 20 minutes searching for the avatar inside the app assuming it would show up somewhere in the “Avatar” menu but for some reason it actually goes to your “Inventory” first. After you click “Wear” it will show up under “Avatar.” Hopefully I save you a few minutes of aimless confusion.

I would prefer more hair options and a few more casual clothing styles, but overall I’m pretty impressed with the results. I snapped the waving pic at the top of this article from the non-VR version of High Fidelity to make things easier. This is what I look like in meat space for comparison to my High Fidelity self:

david jagneaux high fidelity avatar full body david jagneaux high fidelity avatar face

I don’t know if this is enough to, personally, pull me to High Fidelity over the likes of VRChat, but it’s still a really nice feature that I’d love to see implemented in similar fashions across VR. The Oculus Avatar system is great and expressive at what it does, but it’s tough to beat a traditional-style full body avatar like this. It just feels comfortable to wear an alternate version of your own skin.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

The post High Fidelity’s New Smartphone App Can Create Impressive Avatars From Selfies appeared first on UploadVR.

10 Most Amazing And Relaxing VRChat Worlds To Visit And Hang Out In For Social VR

VRChat is, for lack of a better term, infamous.

It’s been around for nearly two and a half years, and has seen traffic ebb and flow with VR’s popularity since then. But let’s assume that the vast majority of Internet frolickers stopped caring about VRChat just short of that insufferable Ugandan Knuckles meme of early 2018. Alas, memes and anime girl tropes a social VR app does not make. Furthermore, VRChat is actually home to a lot of cool, imaginative content. It has everything from live events to games and luxurious hangout spaces; all available on its free-to-explore online platform.

It’s also a bit dense at the front end. If you’re trying to find some cool worlds, you might quickly find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of options available to you, smack dab on the front page of the main ‘Worlds’ menu. That’s why we’ve put together a list of top VRChat worlds that all virtual visitors should check out on their tour of the app’s offerings.

Note that the criteria used here is subjective, and there are so many worlds and so many creators that we probably missed tons of hidden gems. All of the worlds on this list are exploration-focused or chillout areas, so we haven’t dug into any games here. If gaming inside of VRChat is more your speed, we do recommend trying out the Cards Against Humanity world and various climbing challenge rooms, albeit them not officially making it onto our list. Also, if you’re looking for events rather than worlds, check out the VRChat events calendar.

Ready? Let’s get started with our favorite VRChat worlds.


vrchat japan garden shrine

Japan Shrine (PC/Quest) | By: ITOAR

Representing what is supposed to be a spring day, this Japan Shrine map comes complete with various nooks and crannies to sit down and relax in. If lazing back on a park bench or on a pile of cherry blossom petals doesn’t suit your fancy, you can enter any of the pagoda-topped structures and discover recreations of Japanese dining sets and kitsch decor.

vrchat home of time world 1 vrchat home of time world 2

Home of the Time (PC/Quest) | By: fr1ed

How do I summarize Home of the Time? It’s basically a floating island, surrounded by water, and equipped with an automated day/night cycle. The interior space is spacious and homely for a VRChat world. At the top, you can find an area with beds to hang out in. Outdoors, there is an entire garden area with statues, a patio, and greenery.

vrchat the black cat world

The Black Cat (PC/Quest) | By: spookyghostb

Despite being a figment of the metaverse, The Black Cat feels like a public event hall. The kind you might rent out for somebody’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, or a wedding reception. It’s basically a social club in VR, and it’s the kind of place you might go to meet other people before staging an expedition into some other worlds.

VRChat Rest and Sleep world

Rest and Sleep (PC/Quest) | By: LOLI

You might not actually fall asleep while exploring Rest and Sleep, but it certainly provides the kind of atmosphere that’s useful for decompressing and relaxing with others. What stands out here is the relaxing neon blue hue of all of the decorations and furniture pieces in the room.

vrchat sombies hangout

Sombie’s Hangout (PC/Quest) | By: Sombie

You could sum Sombie’s Hangout down to a three-story mingling space set to the backdrop of indie artwork and art deco design. It contains hidden passageways, a bar, and all the VR chess and virtual beer pong you can possibly play in one sitting. If you don’t feel like playing social games, sit down in any of the bean bag chairs and kill time chatting it out with other avatars.

The Great Pug (PC Only) | By: owlboy

As you enter The Great Pug, you can almost smell the old wood, newspapers, coffee, and fried eggs. Everything about the main floor is reminiscent of a venerable neighborhood pub; the earthen green and brown tones plus the framed ‘photos’ of notable guests add a comforting aura that should make you feel like you’re walking through a real restaurant. Bonus points if you head on up to The Roost and cozy yourself by the fire.

If you’re on Quest there is a smaller, alternate version called The Great Pug – West designed to be optimized for the standalone VR headset.

vrchat void club world

Void Club (PC Only) | By: Lycon

Of all the VR nightclubs I’ve been to, the Void Club is easily the most active. Music pumps through the venue all 24 hours a day, and there are almost always other avatars running around and dancing. You can explore various VIP spaces above the dancefloor, but don’t forget to check out the club exterior for some vibrant sci-fi vistas.

vrchat room of summer solitude world

Room of Summer Solitude (PC/Quest) | By: Lucifer MStar

The Room of Summer Solitude is more than just any old bedroom. It’s one of the best-optimized bedrooms in all of VRChat, looking nearly as beautiful in the Oculus Quest as it does on PC. That said, this room is gorgeous. The panorama over Hong Kong is as photorealistic as you’re going to get in VRChat, and taking photos inside of this thing made me feel like a bougie travel photographer.

vrchat a rainy night in world

A Rainy Night In (PC/Quest) | By: Lucifer MStar

A Rainy Night In is the more detailed counterpart to Room of Summer Solitude. It’s a messier experience, and I did feel performance take a hit at various points on my Rift (but not on my Quest, strangely enough). However, there’s just so much more to explore here. Seeing as how well-trafficked A Rainy Night In is, social games are a must. On my first go, I almost missed the mysterious spinning bottle lying on the kitchen counter.

vrchat big al avatar world

Big Al’s Avatar Corridors (PC/Quest) | By: Big Al

A maze filled with over 200 custom avatars from recognizable IPs like Rocko’s Modern Life and The Simpsons? Yes please. Wandering through the seemingly endless labyrinth of Big Al’s Avatar Corridors feels a bit like walking into a Party City before Halloween. If you don’t get totally lost, you might walk out with something you aren’t too embarrassed to show your friends. Of course, showing off your avatar in VRChat is never embarrassing because the entire thing is a non-stop costume party. Go hard.


VRChat is one of the most widely frequented (and free) social apps for PC VR and Oculus Quest headsets. If you haven’t downloaded it, you can find it on Steam or on the Oculus Store. And if you don’t own a headset yet, you can still hop into VRChat and join your friends in any of these worlds from the comfort of your desktop.

Let us know some of your favorite worlds down in the comments below!

The post 10 Most Amazing And Relaxing VRChat Worlds To Visit And Hang Out In For Social VR appeared first on UploadVR.

Oculus: Neues Update bringt expressive Avatare

Das lange angekündigte Oculus-Update wurde nach seiner Betaphase im Februar nun offiziell veröffentlicht, um expressive Avatare mit menschlicher Mimik in die virtuellen Gefilde zu bringen. Das Update bringt simulierte Augenbewegungen sowie eine Überarbeitung der Lippensynchronisation und erzeugt dadurch menschenähnlichere Mikroexpressionen im Gesicht der Alter Egos.

Oculus – Update für expressive Avatare für Oculus-Brillen ab sofort verfügbar

Das Update für expressive Avatare wurde erstmals auf der Oculus Connect 5 angekündigt. Nun folgt der Release für die Home-Umgebungen und VR-Erfahrungen, um die virtuelle Realität ein Stückchen menschlicher zu gestalten.

Mit dem neuen Update erhalten die virtuellen Alter Egos eine Generalüberholung, um ihr Gesicht dank diverser Features zu optimieren. So gehören Sonnenbrillen und witzige Features zum Verdecken der Augenpartie ab sofort der Vergangenheit an. Anstelle von Gadgets strahlen nun echte Augen aus den Gesichtern der menschlichen Repräsentationen entgegen, die sich zudem nach realistischen Bedingungen verhalten. Mit Mikrosakkaden und ballistischen Blickwechseln verfolgen sie künftig ihr Gegenüber und erzeugen dadurch ein authentischeres Präsenzgefühl in der VR.

Oculus-expressive-avatar-update-rift

Image courtesy: Oculus

Zusätzlich wurde die Lippensychronisierung überarbeitet, indem eine maschinelle Lerntechnologie zur Umsetzung der gesprochenen Worte Einsatz findet. Auch hierdurch verhalten sich die Avatare nun deutlich menschenähnlicher in ihrem Sprechverhalten. Weiter bringen Mikrogesichtsexpressionen beim Sprechen zusätzlichen Realismus in die simulierte Umwelt.

Für Individualisten sind Gesichtsanpassungen möglich, um Augenfarbe, Wimpern, Augenbrauen, etc. nach eigenen Wünschen zu verändern.

Das neue Update ist kostenlos für Oculus Rift und mobile Endgeräte, wie Oculus Go erhältlich. Die neuen Avatare sollen bereits in naher Zukunft von vielzähligen VR-Erfahrungen Apps unterstützt werden.

(Quellen: Oculus | Video: Oculus YouTube)

Der Beitrag Oculus: Neues Update bringt expressive Avatare zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Oculus Avatars Are Finally Going Cross-platform

Oculus had announced almost a year ago now that they planned to take their Oculus Avatars system cross-platform. Now, with last week’s release of Oculus Avatar SDK 1.28, the package is finally ready to be deployed cross-platform, meaning that Oculus games also offered on other platforms can use a unified avatar system.

Oculus invested in building a platform-level avatar system to allow users to create a consistent representation of themselves that could be used across various games in the Oculus ecosystem while saving developers from needing to build their own avatar system for each game.

Unfortunately, while they are arguably some of the best looking avatars out there, Oculus Avatars has seen minimal adoption, due in part to the fact that it has been restricted to titles on the Oculus platform. Since cross-platform distribution is critical for developers at this stage in the VR market, implementing Oculus Avatars into apps which would ultimately be distributed on other platforms like SteamVR would mean extra work, as the developer would need to implement Oculus Avatars for the Oculus version of the app, and a separate avatar system for the non-Oculus version of the app.

SEE ALSO
Apple Joins the Impending Avatar Wars With Memoji

With the release of the Oculus Avatar SDK 1.28, developers can finally build Oculus Avatars into their apps for cross-platform use, meaning apps can rely on a unified avatar system whether they’re distributed through the Oculus Store, SteamVR, or elsewhere. This also makes things potentially easier for apps which have cross-play (multiplayer between platforms). Oculus says cross-platform support for their Avatars system has been “one of [developers’] biggest requests.”

Even with the move to cross-platform support, Oculus Avatars themselves are configured at the platform level and tied to an Oculus user account; players do their avatar customizations in Oculus Home rather than inside individual apps. That means that non-Oculus users can’t make their own custom avatars, and will instead be stuck choosing from pre-configured avatars offered through each app.

Oculus says they’re “in the early stages of building out richer avatar support for non-Oculus users,” so perhaps in the future they will also make avatar customization cross-platform (let’s just hope it doesn’t take another year). The company also says they’re continuing to invest in the Oculus Avatars system, including working toward “developer-created avatar content” for game-specific avatar customization.

The post Oculus Avatars Are Finally Going Cross-platform appeared first on Road to VR.

Is Body Image from Perception or Attitude? – Studying Anorexia with VR Self-avatars

betty-mohlerDo patients with anorexia nervosa suffer from body image distortion due to how they perceive their body or is it due to attitudinal beliefs? Betty Mohler has been using VR technologies to study whether body representation is more perceptual or conceptual.

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

Mohler captured a 3D body scan of patients, and then used algorithms to alter the body mass index of a virtual self-avatar from a range of +/- 20%. Patients then estimated their existing and desired body using a virtual mirror screen which tracked movements in real-time and showed realistic weight manipulations of photo-realistic virtual avatars. Mohler’s results challenge the existing assumption that patients with anorexia nervosa have visual distortions of their body, and that it’s possible that body image distortion is more driven by attitudinal factors where patients consider underweight bodies as more desirable and attractive.

Mohler works at the Space & Body Perception Group at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. She’s collaborates with philosopher of neuroscience Dr. Hong Yu Wong to research foundational questions about self-perception like: Who am I? Where am I? Where is the origin of my self? Where is the frame of reference? What is the essence of me? How do we know that there’s an external world? What does it mean to have a shared self where multiple people share the same body experience? What does it mean to have a body? How big is my body? Is it possible to be at multiple locations at once while in VR?

I interviewed Mohler for the third at the IEEE VR conference in Los Angeles this past March exploring all of these provocative questions (see my previous interviews on the uncanny valley and avatar stylization).


Support Voices of VR

Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

The post Is Body Image from Perception or Attitude? – Studying Anorexia with VR Self-avatars appeared first on Road to VR.

James Cameron Talks VR And Cinema

Director James Cameron has long been at the forefront of new developments in film technology. His work on The Abyss pioneered several new techniques involving computer generated imagery, and Avatar was at the forefront of the new wave of 3D cinema, with new technologies being developed for use in the making of that film. However, Cameron remains somewhat sceptical of current virtual reality (VR) technology.

In an interview with YouTube channel Beerdy, Cameron said: “Our method of authoring Avatar involves working in VR, so I work in VR all day every day. Whether a new art-form – a new form of cinema – that’s interactive can be created? I’m waiting for it to manifest.”

However, Cameron later makes it clear he does have an interest in VR technology: “If so much of my bandwidth wasn’t taken up with Avatar, I would be experimenting with VR.” He says, explaining that much of his attention at present is dedicated to his work on the sequels to his 2009 sci-fi film Avatar.

He also clarifies that he doesn’t believe that ‘true’ VR is currently available, and that current definitions for VR tend to refer more to 360-degree films and omnidirectional camera setups. Cameron said he thinks that true VR won’t be possible until full movement and exploration is possible within the virtual space, something that some room-scale videogame titles such as Echo Arena, among others, have already begun to experiment with.

“It takes 100 hours of a massive render farm to do a single frame of an Avatar movie. Show me that in real-time in VR, and that will be what I’ll call true VR.” he said.

You can view the interview clip below.

VRFocus will continue to report on new developments within the VR industry.

Avatar Creation with Morph3D & Social VR Anecdotes from Chris Madsen

chris-madsenCustom avatars in social VR add a lot of fidelity of identity expression and creative flair in applications like VRChat or High Fidelity. Morph3D is a custom avatar solution that offers a number of free avatars within VRChat, but they also have a custom tool where you can customize your own virtual avatar. I had a chance to catch up with Chris “DeepRifer” Madsen, Morph3D’s head of VR/AR at GDC where we talked about some of the reactive avatars that they’re working on. 

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

Chris has tried to explore something new in VR every day for the past four years, and he also shares some of the highlights of his social VR experiences from the last four years.

Editor’s Note: Chris Madsen has previously contributed articles to Road to VR.


Support Voices of VR

Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

The post Avatar Creation with Morph3D & Social VR Anecdotes from Chris Madsen appeared first on Road to VR.