Supernatural from startup Within looks to be a bit like Beat Saber meets OhShape and BoxVR, with subscription pricing and a solid focus on getting you fit in an Oculus Quest.
The title was just announced by Oculus and Within with a launch planned for April 23. The software will be priced at an “introductory rate” of $20 per month with a free trial, according to the announcement post. It includes a mobile app for your phone and can pair with an Apple Watch to track heart rate during your exercises.
In the trailer above you can see how it makes use of the wireless freedom of Oculus quest with the software telling you when to turn your body 90 degrees to hit targets coming from the sides.
“We had the choice of doing a discrete one-time fixed price download with a locked amount of workouts, that would allow you to add more workouts and songs through DLC packs,” Within Founder & CEO Chris Milk explained in the Oculus blog post. “That works well for games but didn’t feel like the best approach for a fitness system, particularly given one of the big things we are solving for is helping people find, stick with, and ultimately love their exercise program.”
According to the blog post, the maps calibrate “to your personal range of motion” so targets, lunges, and squats should adjust “based on how your body is comfortable moving.” The title also includes “expert coaching from real-world trainers” and is said to include music from popular artists.
We’ll have hands-on impressions and thoughts for you about Supernatural when it launches later this month.
VR fitness platform YUR is levelling up at-home workouts during COVID-19 isolation with the launch of a virtual watch in several Oculus Quest games and on PC.
The YUR.watch, as it’s called, is a new interface that mimics a real-life smartwatch, attached to the user’s wrist. It counts the calories you burn off while playing games. It also keeps track of a heart rate estimate calculated on your height and weight, and it’ll count the number of squats you do over a play session. Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be able to keep track of your daily targets and rise through a levelling system to unlock new tiers of watches.
Previously YUR integration on Quest came by way of SideQuest, which gave you a floating menu in-game. But the watch is being natively integrated into Quest apps via updates. I tried it out with Synth Riders, which you can see in the video below.
After a quick play around, the watch seems like a pretty fantastic addition for any VR gamers that want to keep fit. Being able to track progress persistently across multiple games is a huge advantage, and the interface can be summoned and disregarded with a flick of a wrist. There’s no physical interaction, which is a shame given that it could allow for great UI control, but understandable given you don’t want it to interfere with gameplay.
Right now the watch is officially integrated into Sairento VR, Racket: Nx and Synth Riders, with support for the excellent OhShape arriving tomorrow. We’d definitely like to see it get added into more Quest games in the future. On PC, though, the watch can be more easily integrated into games, as evidenced by this excellent Half-Life: Alyx GIF.
Will you be using YUR.watch to keep fit in VR while you stay indoors? Let us know in the comments below.
As most people are having to stay indoors at the moment virtual reality (VR) is a great way to pass the time. For those that like to stay active titles like BoxVR are ideal for burning a few calories and Oculus Quest users are in luck, developer FitXR is about to release the first DLC next week, adding more content to help you stay healthy.
The new Essentials Pack adds 60 minutes of new music with a selection of genres from happy house to hard rock, which should suit most peoples tastes. FitXR has included a selection of new workouts to keep long term fans entertained.
“BoxVR continues to introduce people to a brand new way to work out which is immersive, accessible and most importantly fun. We’re really excited to bring the Essentials Pack to our dedicated and vast community of players, giving them new ways to enjoy BoxVR,” said Sameer Baroova, Co-founder of FitXR in a statement.
One of the launch day titles for Oculus Quest, BoxVR is a rhythm-action videogame offering energetic workouts based around boxing. Where you can jab. hook and uppercut your way through short intense workouts or longer sessions designed to test your stamina. It featured on VRFocus’10 Best Fitness Apps For A VR Workout alongside the likes of Beat Saber, Thrill of the Fightand Synth Riders.
Originally designed around a single-player experience FitXR has included a multiplayer aspect for a more competitive workout. Up to six people are able to tackle the same workout together, competing for the top score. Of course, you’re still able to track your progress across any of the modes, so you can see how many calories you’ve burned over time. You can also create your own workouts to mix things up.
BoxVR is available for multiple headsets, not just Oculus Quest. The “Essentials Pack” will be available for Oculus Quest from 26th March. For further updates on the latest fitness apps keep reading VRFocus.
The application, available on Steam, can display a realtime overlay on any game with fitness and workout stats including calories burned. The YUR dashboard will also allow you to look at your workout history in VR, alongside personal achievements and leaderboards across VR games.
The application is designed to work with any VR game or experience and will allow you to estimate your calories burned while in VR. YUR claims that the calorie estimation is very accurate. This PC VR application continues YUR’s expansion across a range of VR headsets. In September, it launched a beta application for Oculus Quest that could similarly track calories across the headset, however, it could only be installed via SideQuest. Certain PC VR games, such as Synth Riders, also previously supported YUR integration, however this new YUR desktop app will work with any VR experience, without native developer integration required.
In addition to the new desktop app, YUR is also releasing a 2.0 update to the Quest version, which increases stability, accuracy, and visuals. The update will be available through SideQuest.
After the early access launch today, YUR will work on expanding the app to include a leveling system and integration with an accompanying website. These features are planned to be included in the full release when the app leaves early access in the new year.
Have you tried any of the YUR fitness trackers already? Let us know what you think.
One of the surprise benefits of virtual reality (VR) gaming is its ability to get players moving, burning calories and therefore help make them get a little healthier in the process. There are titles which are tailor-made for helping gamers keep track of those calories like BoxVR but what about the videogames which don’t. That’s where YUR comes in, and tomorrow the desktop app will launch to make your VR fitness goals a reality.
YUR has actually been around for a few months now in a limited form. The calorie tracking app first appeared during the summer when Synth Riders released an Early Access update for its rhythm action experience, allowing PC VR players to see approximately what they had burnt. Then in September YUR Inc. announced the completion of a funding round which also saw the YUR app arrive for Oculus Quest via Sidequest.
With the addition of YUR on Steam, the app offers a realtime activity overlay onto select VR videogames. Using YUR Inc’s. patent-pending technology to estimate calories burned, the app is compatible with the following VR titles:
The app has its own dashboard so you can keep an eye on numerous stats and fitness goals. YUR Inc. also mentions the app supports Bluetooth heart rate monitors. Currently, only BTLE heart rate monitors Polar H10 and XOSS optical armband have been tested. Fitness trackers like Apple Watch, FitBit and Android Watch aren’t supported due to the fact that they don’t broadcast the BTLE heart rate profile.
The announcement also conincides with an update for the Oculus Quest version. Updated to 2.0.4 on Sidequest, the new version is more in line with the PC edition, featuring new charts with additional details, new overlay designed by Carize and Quest Link support via the PC app.
The YUR fitness app will be available from tomorrow, 4th November via Steam Early Access. For further updates on the latest VR fitness advancements, keep reading VRFocus.
There are a growing contingent of virtual reality (VR) titles aiming to help players either get fit and lose a few calories or simply help them move more than they normally would when playing a videogame. Fit Reality will be adding to that line up with its multi-discipline app Viro Move. Today, to let players get a taste of the experience the studio has released a demo via Steam.
While the demo won’t include all the features of Viro Move it will allow you to test the main aspects of its gameplay, namely the shooting, boxing and swordplay elements. These are the core components, offering a variety of gameplay aspects when other VR titles only feature one.
Noting that: “Viro Move was specifically designed to provoke natural and healthy physical fitness movements across the whole body while having fun,” game modes will include each style individually as well as mixed, challenging players to switch between them on the fly, upping the challenge significantly.
A VR videogame that makes you move and sweat is one thing but if you take your fitness seriously you’ll probably want to track calories. Viro Move will actually do this calculating caloric loss every step of the way. You’ll be able to track your progress and manage the data, especially useful when looking to target fitness goals.
VRFocuspreviewed Viro Moveduring Gamescon 2019 in August, finding that: “Fit Reality certainly wants to enter the VR market with a bang and Viro Move is definitely going to do that. If you thought other fitness titles made you sweat wait until you get hold of Viro Move, when that will occur is another matter altogether.”
Like the final version, the demo of Viro Move will support Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets. Support will also be coming for HTC Vive Cosmos, PlayStation VR and Oculus Quest. Available now on Steam, the demo will also be coming to Viveport soon. Currently, Fit Reality hasn’t confirmed a launch date for the full version.
Rhythm game Synth Riders is coming out of early access and getting a full release update on PC VR, alongside a release on Oculus Quest. Both the Quest version and the full release update for PC VR will arrive on October 31st.
The game was initially released into early access for PC VR in July last year. Since then, the developers at Kluge Interactive have doubled the number of songs available in the game and introduced an open-source beat map editor. The PC VR version is also one of only a few games that officially support in-game integration of fitness tracking tools from VR fitness company YUR. Given that the game is quite active and can be a good workout, the integration is useful for getting an idea of how many calories you’re burning while playing and measuring your Synth Rider sessions.
The Quest version will benefit from launching with all of the improvements and additions that Synth Riders received over the last year or so in early access. Quest users will have access to 30 songs, 4 difficulty levels and varied game modes, including regular, boxing, endurance and force modes. Kluge Interactive also confirmed that the Quest version will also support the official beat map editor and include an exclusive song for Quest users. However, it sadly won’t launch with multiplayer or global leaderboards.
The Quest version will also be slightly cheaper than the PC VR version of the game, at $16.99 compared to $19.99 on other platforms.
Will you be picking up Synth Riders this Halloween? Let us know in the comments.
There are plenty of virtual reality (VR) titles that claim to be good for your fitness, getting you moving and sweating. But for those who want to take exercise a little more seriously and track various stats including metrics like calories burnt, that’s where things get a little more difficult. Which is where VR fitness company YUR comes in, having recently raised $1.1 million USD.
VRFocus first came across YUR when rhythm action videogame Synth Riders added native YUR.FIT integration several months ago. This week has seen a double announcement from YUR, not only the $1.1 million in pre-seed funding led by The Venture Reality Fund and BoostVC but also the beta release of the YUR app for Oculus Quest via Sidequest.
Created by Cix Liv and Dilan Shah, YUR uses patent-pending calorie tracking software to encourage a healthy lifestyle, installed directly onto headsets. YUR has also created a beta mobile companion app so users have the ability to track their activities while outside of VR, syncing to Apple Health and Google Fit.
“We are building YUR to be the Peloton of the future by making fitness a game,” said Cix Liv, Co-founder and CEO of YUR, in a statement. “Gaming and fitness have always been our biggest passions, and we believe there’s a growing community of people who want to combine these two passions as well.”
“YUR has an impressive founding team with strong roots in VR, gaming, and app development. We’ve already seen how the fitness community has come together during YUR’s beta phase, and we’re excited about the future of the company in this growing market,” adds Marco DeMiroz, Co-founder & General Partner of The Venture Reality Fund.
The YUR.fit app for Oculus Quest can essentially turn any videogame on the headset into a fitness experience, tracking the calories on any app. Ideally, YUR will be used in titles such as Beat Saber which are highly energetic but lack that additional fitness information. For those wishing to use VR apps to burn calories titles like BoxVR are already available, while new ones such as Viro Movewill soon be arriving. For more updates on VR fitness, keep reading VRFocus.
The Nintendo Switch is getting a new experience designed to help you stay in shape. Ring Fit Adventure uses your body's movement to move through a world and defeat dangerous enemies.
VirZoom pairs VR with an existing stationary bicycle or bike trainer to create workout experiences. Read our full review of using it with Oculus Quest to find out whether it’s worth a try.
When we first reviewed VirZoom’s exercise-bike VR programs, they had just launched for Rift, Vive, and PSVR. The idea is that you pop on your headset, fire up your stationary bike or load your bike into a bike trainer, and either choose to explore with VZFit Explorer, wandering through Google-Maps-supplied 3D landscapes, or play games in VZFit Play. A sensor tracks your bike’s cadence, the rotations your pedals make in a minute, and uses that to transmit speed to your in-game avatar.
This year VZFit moved from those platforms to the Oculus Quest, building in positional awareness of your headset for the first time. It also works on the Oculus Go. In addition, the company announced that it was changing its pricing model, offering VZFit games for free on a rotating basis, one free VZFit Explorer ride, demos of all rides, and reducing annual memberships for premium access to all experiences from $119.95 down to $99.95 per year. (A monthly version for $9.95 remains.) Premium membership includes unlimited multiplayer action.
As of the time of this writing, VZFit is no longer available for any wired headsets.
Both VZFit Explorer and VZFit Play use the headset and a $99 VZFit Sensor Kit, which includes a sensor that attaches snugly to one pedal crank with elastic bands, and a thumb button that clips onto your handlebars for easy controls while riding. If you’re used to using the Oculus UI, navigating menus is a snap. You can opt for an included tutorial or dive right into the games or ride experiences.
VZFit Explorer puts you in the middle of curated rides through Google’s Street View, with some provided by VirZoom and some created by Premium users. Selections ranged from the first couple of Tour de France stages to scenic rides in more than a dozen locations including Arizona, snowy wastelands, and Ireland.
Because this is a dynamic recreation of Google’s sometimes-wonky Street View 360-degree photography, VZFit Explorer contains some artifacts. Stitching between sections of the landscape around you isn’t always fluid, 3D objects are typically rendered as flat when you approach, and the nice trail-of-dots pathing guide that VZFit Explorer puts in to guide you can sometimes seem to lead to a wall right up until the moment you hit that point and everything straightens out.
All that said, this is a surprisingly immersive experience, and it’s easy to lose track of time wandering through cool-looking landscapes. Whether you’re pedaling across icy tundras or red-rock deserts, VZFit Explorer truly does add something to your workout. Pair it up with your favorite tunes and it’s at least as entertaining as those reruns you’ve been binging on Netflix.
The replay value here is nearly infinite, assuming that VirZoom and other users — or you! — continue to supply routes to take. The only major drawback in terms of usability is that tight turns are incredibly hard to do, particularly if you’re using a bike on a bike trainer (where you don’t want to lean too far for fear of torquing your wheels). The positional use of the headset means you lean to turn, and the natural thing to do is to lean your body, not just your head.
This means there’s a little learning curve (and some neck flexibility) required to handle turning in game if you don’t have one of those fancy stationary bikes that lean with you. There was at least one VZFit Explorer map where I gave up midway through because it included a hairpin turn. There was just no way I could turn sharply enough to do more than bump up against the invisible walls at the edges of the encounter without backing up repeatedly.
For more gentle curves, the app does a great job of tracking headset movements, making minor adjustments as you ride. The speed varied with pedal cadence in a way that feels natural, and the overall experience feels easy and fun.
VZFit Play takes this same concept and gamifies it, putting you in nine experiences: for example, in a tank, on horseback in the Wild West, riding a flying Pegasus or helicopter, or driving a race car. These experiences are fun novelties, and crank up the adrenaline of the ride. I especially enjoyed the Pegasus encounter — the horse’s transition between gaits and launches into flight were both smooth and visually entertaining.
The best games, like the Pegasus encounter or “Le Tour” (a fun competitive ride with other virtual bicyclists) don’t require heavy use of the A button. Even with VirZoom’s button clipped to the handlebars, it can be a trial to use for those games where you are required to hold it down for extended periods to aim and shoot lassos or rockets. We especially appreciated the subtle positioning changes made possible by the Quest when doing Le Tour — it made passing or drafting other riders for a speed boost a snap.
Comfort:
VR comfort varied widely between VirZoom’s VZFit Explorer and VZFit Play experiences. Explorer was typically a small challenge, especially since there is no coasting — stop pedaling and you stop immediately on screen, helpful for when disorienting downhills might get the best of you. For VZFit Play games, anything on land (Le Tour for biking, race cars, Wild West horse riding) poses little discomfort, even for VR newbies. Flying games including the Pegasus and helicopter experiences could be more disconcerting, but were still handled appropriately.
Some VZFit Play games are more replayable than others (Le Tour, despite being simple, might be one of the most engaging in the long term for exercise), and they all step up the aerobic challenge. I was sweating happily after just a few minutes of giving these games a go, and hour-long sessions flew by in a snap. And truly, that’s the point of using VR while cycling — to forget that you’re stuck indoors and just enjoy the ride.
Final Say:Worth Trying
The good:
Interesting, varied landscapes and potentially endless replay in VZFit Explorer,
Positional sensors in the Oculus Quest make turning more natural,
A painless, entertaining way to break a sweat.
The bad:
Google Street View stitching can be awkward,
Tight turns are physically difficult or impossible,
Pedal crank sensor batteries die quickly.
A stationary bike is by definition a restricted experience. But the addition of positional awareness means that steering can often be a more natural endeavor with the updated VirZoom apps, and skipping the wires makes the rides feel more real.
VirZoom’s VZFit Play and VZExplorer Explorer are available for Oculus Quest and Go. They require the purchase of a $99 VZFit Sensor Kit. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
