VR workouts won’t get you ripped, but they’re engaging and can keep you fit
Exercising at home can be a chore. That's where virtual reality comes to the rescue as a healthy distraction that'll keep you fit.
FitXR DLC für Oculus Quest lässt euch boxen und tanzen
Im Laufe des Tages werden direkt zwei DLC für FitXR auf der Oculus Quest und Oculus Quest 2 veröffentlicht.
FitXR DLC für Oculus Quest
Mit Absolute Dance und Absolute Box werden heute zwei neue DLC für das Spiel FitXR für die Oculus Quest erscheinen. Beide Pakete werden mit jeweils 7,99 Euro zu Buche schlagen.
In Absolute Box müsst ihr im Takt Bälle zerschlagen und in Absolute Dance müsst ihr versuchen, Choreografien zu erlenen und umzusetzen. Beide DLC sollen einen Umfang von ca. vier Stunden bieten.
FitXR ist auch auf andren Plattformen erhältlich. Auf dem PC und auf der PSVR wird der Titel jedoch als Box VR geführt. Die Umbenennung in FitXR ist bisher nur auf der Oculus Quest umgesetzt. Für Box VR werden jedoch auch die neuen DLC nicht erscheinen und es ist fraglich, ob das Team noch Energie in diese Versionen stecken wird.
Hier findet ihr FitXR für die Oculus Quest und Oculus Quest 2 und hier findet ihr unseren Langzeittest zur Oculus Quest 2. Die Oculus Quest 2 ist derzeit in Deutschland nicht verfügbar. Ihr könnt sie jedoch bei Amazon Frankreich bestellen.
Der Beitrag FitXR DLC für Oculus Quest lässt euch boxen und tanzen zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
FitXR Gets Boxing And Dancing DLC Packs On Quest Today
Oculus Quest fitness app FitXR is expanding its roster of workouts with two DLC packs for its core activities today.
The Absolute Dance and Absolute Box activities will be available later today for $7.99/£7.99 each. Both packs add an hour of content to their respective activities; boxing has you punching notes to the beat while the new dancing mode has you following a virtual instructor. The Dance pack has four new workouts that focus on full-body exercise, conditioning, cardio and aerobics whilst the Box pack features another four that focus on different areas of the body. Both are fuelled by different types of music tracks, too.
FitXR DLC Drops Today
This is the first DLC drop FitXR has seen since the launch of its dance exercises last year. The app used to be known as Box VR before it was rebranded on Quest last year. It still remains as Box VR on PC VR and PSVR, and there’s no sign of updates to either of those two versions of the game yet.
FitXR faces growing competition on the Quest platform, though. The beginning of the year saw HoloFit come to the platform and services like Supernatural offer subscriptions for personalized daily workouts. No doubt the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has boosted VR’s use as an at-home workout solution. FitXR hopes that, by adding new activities to its existing platform and providing a steady stream of DLC, it can stay on top.
Will you be checking out the new FitXR DLC? Let us know in the comments below!
Absolute Box and Absolute Dance DLC Packs now Available for FitXR
With its mixture of boxing and dance workouts, FitXR offers energetic gameplay for those looking to burn a few calories on Oculus Quest. Today, FitXR has seen the launch of two new DLC workout packs, Absolute Box and Absolute Dance, to further enhance the experience.
FitXR‘s dance workouts arrived in October 2020 to help provide cardio fitness and body conditioning for the entire body. Absolute Dance is the first DLC to be released for this mode, containing over an hour of new workout classes. The following four classes are designed to be high intensity yet easy enough for beginners to try.
- Parachute – A complete body conditioning workout, great to pair with a box session
- Wild – Dance cardio session with classic hip hop moves
- Kokaracha – Body conditioning with lots of squats, lunges, and side steps
- Stormy Weather – Aerobics and cardio focused
As for Absolute Box, there are now more ways to work up a sweat punching targets to improve your speed and endurance.
- Lasers And Stuff – a cardio based endurance challenge
- Sweat On Me – work on your speed, reaction time, and hand eye coordination
- Comma Get It – lower body focused to help strengthen legs
- Bad – combines lower body, speed, and complex combinations
“We’re really pleased to bring new DLC packs to FitXR for both existing fans and new users of our platform. We know what a difficult time it is at the moment and how fitness can play an important role in protecting people’s mental and physical wellbeing, so we’re excited to offer new and engaging ways to get fit from home,” said Sameer Baroova, Co-Founder of FitXR in a statement. “We also know how much our users enjoy a breadth of different classes, which is why we’ve looked to expand both our box and dance offerings. We will continue to evolve and improve our virtual studio to help create the most immersive and engaging fitness experience possible. We’re really keen to hear what our users think of the new classes!”
Both DLC packs feature varying soundtracks from rock, hip hop, electro, and pop genres. Absolute Box and Absolute Dance arrive today retailing for £7.99 GBP each. For further updates on the fitness app, keep reading VRFocus.
FitXR’s Latest Update Adds New Environment, Glove Adjustment & Streak Mode
Since FitXR’s rebranding for Oculus Quest during the summer, the British virtual reality (VR) developer behind the title has continually enhanced the experience with new updates. The latest one to arrive has now added a bunch of features including a new environment and gameplay mode.
Offering a breath of fresh air from the normal FitXR studio setting, you can now choose to workout in the Sky Park; an urban rooftop space with views of the city skyline.
For those that want to tweak the gameplay FitXR now offers glove adjustment so you can reposition your gloves to create improved calibration. Helpful when delving into the new Streak Mode. Here you can select between Training Mode – where any successful punch is counted – or Power Mode, where only explosive punches count towards a streak.
“We’re really pleased to bring a new environment to FitXR fans and continue to improve the experience for our community through our latest update,” said Sameer Baroova, Co-Founder of FitXR in a statement. “This update is the first of many to come and continues our aim of constantly evolving and improving our virtual studio to create the most immersive and engaging fitness experience possible. We’re confident we can continue to make each workout a unique experience for players so exercising on FitXR is fun, exciting, and effective at its core.”
There are also a bunch of small tweaks such as improved hit detection, more accurate recording of statistics, and an improved filtering system for selecting between different types of workout and classes.
In its original review, VRFocus said: “As an addition to your workout routine FitXR has plenty to offer. It’s like a drill instructor where everything is done by the book because the system is tried and tested. While the title doesn’t have the flair of Synth Riders or the sheer insanity that is Beat Saber’s Expert+ it can still hold its own in the VR fitness world.”
Last week VRFocus announced that FitXR won the Most Promising XR Startups category in the inaugural The Better-Than-Reality Awards. For further updates from the team, keep reading VRFocus.
All the Winners from VRFocus’ Better-Than-Reality Awards 2020
What a year it has been for the XR industry, with both highs and lows felt across the board as companies deal with remote working conditions, lockdown restrictions and much more. So in October VRFocus decided to launch its very first awards showcase, celebrating the best of what the industry has to offer; all with a little twist, public voting. So now it’s time to reveal who the lucky winners are.
Dubbed The Better-Than-Reality Awards, there were eight categories up for grabs, ranging from the consumer-focused ‘Best VR Game of 2020’ to business solutions and rising stars in the XR space.
Whilst some categories were almost dead certs having redefined AAA VR gaming, there were still a few surprises considering all the winners were chosen by the public.
VRFocus’ The Better-Than-Reality Award winners:
- Most Promising XR Startups – FitXR
- Favourite VR Hardware – Oculus Quest
- Best VR Game of 2020 – Half-Life: Alyx
- Best Enterprise Solution – Magic Leap
- Best AR Application – Styly AR – Psychic VR Lab
- Best LBE Experience – Transformers: VR Battle Arena – Minority Media
- Global Impact Award – A Predicament of Pangolins – Habitat
- XR Top XR Influencer – MRTV
Time for a few words from our award winners:
“For us, building a Half-Life game from the ground up for Alyx was always about bringing that universe back in an exciting way, and to do that through VR was a rewarding process. But the positive feedback from fans of Half-Life is truly the most rewarding part, and we are just super grateful for the community support,” said Robin Walker, Programmer / Designer at Valve Software.
“We are extremely honoured that STYLY received the Best AR App award, and we are incredibly grateful for this recognition from VR Focus and the AR community. STYLY continues to move forward, taking on new challenges in XR. We are very proud to be designing and building a new XR world in Tokyo, Japan, with incredible XR artists and content creators from around the World,” said Ryohei Watanabe, CMO of Psychic VR Lab Co., Ltd. “It is an ambitious goal, but we are incredibly excited to bring VR, AR, and MR content together in a spectacular showcase in the heart of Tokyo. We hope that everyone can come to Japan to enjoy this XR world. Once again, we are honored and grateful for receiving this award, and thank you to everyone who helped make STYLY the Best AR App!”
“We are thrilled that VRFocus’ readers named Transformers: VR Battle Arena as their favourite location-based VR experience in a category filled with such worthy competition,” noted Vander Caballero, CEO of Minority Media. “This just goes to show the power of a great brand and social gameplay in attracting players, even in these challenging times.”
“I’m truly honoured to receive the Top XR Influencer 2020 award! Thank you! My mission with MRTV though is not to “influence” my viewers but rather to give them all the information they need so they can make their own educated purchasing decisions!,” said MRTV’s Sebastian Ang. “Therefore I’d rather call myself an XR Content Creator! This award shows me that the community appreciates independent XR content on YouTube! Thanks again to everyone who voted for MRTV!”
“It’s a huge honour to take home the award of Favourite VR headset for Oculus Quest 2. We’ve seen an incredible response from the VR community since launch in October, and to know this award was voted for by the public means a lot. We’re looking forward to delivering more incredible Quest 2 content in 2021 for people to experience,” said Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy, Product Manager, Oculus Quest 2.
“We’re extremely excited that FitXR has been announced as the winner of the Most Promising XR Startup award, as given by VRFocus. This is a great win for us so thanks to everyone for their votes and continual support for FitXR,” said Sam Cole, CEO & co-founder, FitXR. “We’re focused on continuing our mission of creating a virtual reality exercise experience that remains fun and effective at its core and have lots of exciting updates in store for the FitXR platform in 2021. Next year is going to be huge so keep your eyes peeled!
Congratulations to all of VRFocus’ The Better-Than-Reality Awards winners and their contribution to the industry. Best of luck to everyone for 2021!
FitXR’s Dance Mode Takes A Scrappy Step Toward A VR Gym
It may not be as polished as I was hoping, but FitXR is slowly taking the steps to become a true VR gym with its latest update.
Formerly BoxVR, FitXR updated earlier this year to angle the app towards a broader range of exercises. With the most recent update, boxing is no longer the only activity in the game; you can now get your groove on too.
These new dance workouts include a number of energetic tracks for you get in-step to, mirroring a virtual dance partner. If you’ve played Harmonix’s Dance Central, you’ll know what to expect here; try and keep up as someone much more skilled than you shows you how it’s done.
FitXR’s take on the mode is much more energetic than Dance Central’s though, encouraging you to move your entire body and not just mirror hand movements. In more intense sessions, you’ll be shifting side-to-side, leaning from one side to the other and throwing your hands around pretty erratically. Even after a three-minute track I felt my heart starting to pump. You’ll definitely need a lot of safe play space if you’re to get the most out of these exercises, though.
All that said, the dance mode isn’t quite as polished as some of its competitors. Dance Central employs a gorgeous art style that feels in-step with the game’s rhythm and Supernatural uses live-action recordings of instructors to get around the difficulties of 3D animation. But FitXR just kind of brute forces it with full 3D character models that look, well, pretty PS2-ish.
The game also doesn’t give you quite enough information to feel like you’re properly keeping up. Dance Central, for example, has a core set of moves that are telegraphed to one side to help keep the flow going. In FitXR, I never really knew if I was doing exactly what the instructor wanted me to do, and felt as if my end of level score wasn’t really something I could go back to knowingly improve upon.
But, presentation aside, FitXR is growing into something exciting. Most VR workout apps focus on a singular means of movements to keep you active. They work a treat, but we should all be working out in different ways with a touch of variety. FitXR is becoming something that really can offer that. I’m hoping we’re not too far off from this becoming the definitive destination for VR workouts, though it definitely needs a lick of paint if that’s to happen.
FitXR’s Dance Mode is available now for free to anyone that owns the game. Will you be checking it out? Let us know in the comments below!
The VR Job Hub: Dimension, Rec Room & FitXR
Every weekend VRFocus gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
| Location | Company | Role | Link |
| Remote | Dimension | Senior Real-Time Environment Artist | Click Here to Apply |
| Newcastle, UK | Dimension | Studio Head (Newcastle) | Click Here to Apply |
| Remote Job | Dimension | Senior Programmer (UE4) | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Data Analyst | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Game Designer, User Generated | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Principle Software Engineer, Games Server (Azure) | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Senior Graphics Engineer, Core Game Platform | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Senior Software Engineer, Games Server (Azure) | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Senior Software Engineer, Interactions and Gameplay | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Senior Software Engineer, Unity & Games Development | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Software Engineer, Trust & Safety | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Web Developer, Player Community Site | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | QA Tester | Click Here to Apply |
| Seattle, WA | Rec Room | Product Manager, Growth | Click Here to Apply |
| London, UK | FitXR | Content Creator – VR Community (Fitness and Music) | Click Here to Apply |
| London, UK | FitXR | Lead Mobile Engineer | Click Here to Apply |
| London, UK | FitXR | Senior Backend Engineer – Game Services | Click Here to Apply |
| London, UK | FitXR | Senior Software Engineer (Unity3D Applications) | Click Here to Apply |
| London, UK | FitXR | Senior UI Artist | Click Here to Apply |
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Get a Healthy Groove on With FitXR’s new Dance Workouts
Exercise classes are a fun way to work out in a group rather than purely going full bore in the gym. However, with the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, they’ve become a rarity. Helping bring that joint cardio workout feeling into the home, FitXR will be launching dance workouts for its Oculus Quest app.
Adding more variety to its standard boxing workouts, FitXR’s new dance routines are designed for full-body aerobic exercise. You mirror a virtual trainer’s moves as accurately and as energetically as possible, with a high score system encouraging that effort.
The update will feature 60 minutes of dance workouts including four beginner classes and four intermediate classes across three dance styles. Cardio dance focuses on rhythm and the coordination, cardio conditioning concentrates on endurance while body conditioning looks at bodyweight strength to work your entire body.
“The addition of dance to the FitXR studio represents our continual ambition to provide users with a virtual place they can go to achieve their fitness goals but importantly to have fun whilst doing it – and all without leaving the house. We know that when it comes to exercise, people will only stick with something if they enjoy it, and that’s exactly what we’ve created with our latest offering,” said Sameer Baroova, Co-founder of FitXR in a statement.
“Dancing is a great way of letting your hair down and having fun whilst exercising at the same time, and as dancing has been somewhat off the menu in 2020, we felt there was no better time to make dance the latest edition to the FitXR service,” Baroova adds.
Previously called BoxVR, the title was rebranded to FitXR for its Oculus Quest launch this summer. In September the first DLC arrived adding 20 new rock tracks and more workout routines.
FitXR’s new dance-inspired workouts will be available for Oculus Quest and Quest 2 from 5th November 2020 as a free update. For further announcements from FitXR, keep reading VRFocus.
BoxVR Successor FitXR Getting Free Dance Workouts
FitXR, the successor to popular VR workout app, BoxVR, is soon to get its second type of activity – dance workouts.
BoxVR was updated to become FitXR back in August of this year. The free update retained the same core boxing mechanics as the original but built a new UI and features around it, while removing some other content. At the time, its creator (also named FitXR) noted that this was a first step in building the platform out to include a more diverse range of activities for a varied workout. Dance workouts are the first to be added. Check out the teaser trailer below.
FitXR Dance Workouts Revealed
Landing on November 5th as another free update, the dance workouts include 60 minutes’ worth of exercise. As the trailer shows, the usual floating notes will be replaced with a virtual instructor to guide you through four beginner and four intermediate classes. Dancing comes in three different types: one to learn the moves, one to focus on endurance and one to build strength. We’ve asked FitXR if there are plans for more classes via DLC.
We thought the FitXR update took a few steps forward and one step back when it first released, but the promise of new types of workouts had us intrigued, especially given that most other VR workout apps like Supernatural mainly focus on one type of exercise.
The dance workouts will be launching on Oculus Quest and Quest 2. No word yet on possible PSVR and PC VR support – those two apps still remain in the BoxVR stage.
Will you be checking out FitXR dance workouts? Let us know in the comments below and make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel for more coverage.