Last month it was confirmed that E McNeill’s strategy/puzzle videogame Darknet would be getting a release which subsequently happened on June 8th 2017. At the same time however it was also confirmed that the title, which we first previewed on VRFocus back in 2014 as an Oculus Rift title, would also be coming to the Google Daydream smartphone based head-mounted display (HMD). This has now come to pass, as the game, though seemingly not yet announced as out is available on the Google Play Store priced at £8.99 (GBP).
Darknet is a cyberpunk styled videogame that sees you take on the identity of an elite hacker, who goes on a tear through the web on a mission to steal data via any means necessary without being traced. Using everything from exploits in systems to worms and viruses in order to get in and get out with the digital goods. The popular title, has accumulated over 100,000 hours of playtime on the Gear VR version alone, according to its developer.
As VRFocus described in our initial preview, “Darknet is quick to learn but compelling in it’s mastery. Learning the path that your viral attack will take while also predicting the movement of the security systems is an enjoyable and rewarding task, and when given the opportunity to initiate more than one attack on a single node timing and accuracy become incredibly important.”
You can see a trailer for the videogame below. VRFocus will bring you more news on the various VR projects being undertaken by E McNeill in the near future.
Taking place at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, Google I/O is an outdoor developer festival that lasts for three days. On May 17th – 19th, there will be hands-on learning, tech keynotes, and insight on Google’s latest developer products in the 2nd annual event.
The festival will also be home to the Google Play Awards and it has undergone a bit of change. Last time New York Times VR represented for the AR/VR industries with a win in the Most Innovative category (Within was also nominated) but, this year, there are entire categories dedicated to virtual and augmented content.
For 2017, the Google Play Awards categories have expanded from 10 to 12 to include Best AR Experience and Best VR Experience. Those nominated for the VR category exhibit “optimal use of the Daydream UI” with the AR nominees being recognized for “harnessing the creative and imaginative technology of AR”.
Having dedicated categories such as these will stand as solid exposure not only for the experiences nominated but for the availability of VR and AR content on Google platforms. The hope is that the casual consumer will be paying attention, give some of this content a try, and remain open to new experiences utilizing this tech in the future.
In celebration of Google Play's fifth birthday, the company published lists of its top five most-popular games, apps, music, movies, and books since the platform's launch in 2012.
For its first few months of availability, Google only worked with a select group of developers on Daydream-compatible apps. While the approach allowed Google to work closely with partners and carefully curate content for the new platform in its opening months, it also severely limited the number of apps one could download for the new headset ecosystem through the Google Play store.
That’s about to change. Starting today, Google is opening the doors for all developers creating apps along the company’s guidelines to submit. The change in policy could dramatically shift momentum in mobile VR, with Samsung recently announcing it sold 5 million Gear VRs to date as we wondered whether Daydream was off to a rough start. Many of Daydream’s apps were showing very small install numbers.
More options on software should represent a good thing for consumers as the Daydream ecosystem grows to support additional headsets and phones, all of which should be compatible with one another. That said, curation and VR is a tricky balancing act. If an app on your phone breaks it is just an inconvenience, but a VR app with problems can make the person wearing a headset feel ill. Additionally, too many apps can make it hard to find the quality content hidden among a number of copycats — a common problem in mobile app distribution as a whole.
We’re curious to see what effect this change has on the overall Daydream ecosystem as it evolves. There are undoubtedly some very skilled developers who have been unable to get their apps on Daydream because of Google’s approach so far, but likewise there might be a lot of low-skill developers waiting to push their incomplete software into VR for a few extra bucks. We may also see even more ports of Cardboard and/or Gear VR apps onto Daydream as well.
We’ll keep you updated as we sort through both the good and bad in the coming wave of Daydream VR content.
Google's giving presents a little early this year -- the company announced the best apps, books, movies, and shows of 2016 on Google Play. The winners represent global top-trending content and they span six categories,
360-degree videos are the most accessible means to show the benefits of immersive content, even if you don’t think they’re “real” virtual reality. In absence of an actual headset, users can swipe across their touchscreens and get a feel of how the open-ended perspective can benefit entertainment, news reporting, and even security. That can be a bridge into virtual reality headsets, opening up to a growing collection of experiences.
Nokia, a huge information technology company founded in 1865, has developed their own tool for 360-degree filming: The Nokia OZO. It’s designed to be an end to end tool that simplifies the process and, via press release, Nokia has announced a content partnership with Sony Pictures.
“VR is an exploding medium that is rapidly changing how we communicate and bringing a deeper connection to how we experience content,” said Nokia’s vice president of Digital Media Paul Melin. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and its talented storytellers to apply our technology and create experiences only possible with OZO – like 3D 360 live VR broadcast.”
Sony Pictures recently appointed a Senior VP of Virtual Reality and they previously teamed up with Reality One to create VR content as well, so their endorsement and excitement for the budding industry comes as no surprise. Nokia is even helping Disney bring their biggest franchises to immersive screens.
From Nokia, the OZO streamlines the 360-degree recording process by syncing 360-degree video and audio into one file and offers wireless functionality through a cartridge that combines memory storage and battery. It’s SDK (software development kit) also provides creators with a device that can output to all the major platforms. Being such a powerful yet lightweight tool (9.3 lbs with battery) lends to its versatility across many scenarios and the partnership with Sony will yield additional gear and technology to inspire high-quality content.
Sony will also be integrating OZO playback directly into their Privilege Plus content ecosystem and Scot Barbour, VP of Production Technology at Sony Pictures, spoke to the company’s confidence in OZO, “Nokia’s OZO camera and its suite of professional tools are an excellent solution for content creators because they seamlessly integrate into established production processes and workflows, and enable the real-time capture and broadcast of VR content.” The Privilege Plus application is currently available via Google Play.
Game Cooks is an independent Games studio founded in Beirut by two Lebanese brothers – Arz and Lebnan Nader. Since 2011 they’ve released over a dozen successful mobile games on iTunes and Google Play, but HOVRfor Gear VR is their first foray into virtual reality.
They’re now keen to see how mobile VR can enhance immersion and engagement for the highly addictive casual games they specialize in making.
“The real ‘Eureka!’ moment came earlier this year when we went to this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) and were just blown away by how fast things were moving in the VR space,” says Lebnan Nader. “We knew we had to get in on that action, and started jotting down ideas on the flight back from San Francisco. By the time we landed back in Lebanon we set the team straight to work on those concepts.”
The transition to VR development turned out to be quite smooth, since Game Cooks was already working with the Unity engine on their previous mobile titles. Considering their portfolio, it made sense to focus on Mobile VR and the Samsung Gear for this first project, but Nader stresses that the team is also keen to explore other VR platforms in future.
The idea they settled on (which is admittedly inspired by their fondness for the Mr Robot TV series) takes you into an alternative dystopian world where humanity’s collective mind has been hijacked. You are one of a group of international hackers competing to decipher “The Serve” – the enemy’s mind-control tool. You race through this world on a hoverboard at breakneck speed, outrunning other hackers to deliver that crucial intel to the highest bidder.
“Most other VR games we’ve seen focus more on a first-person perspective and open-world, exploratory aspects of the environment, but we wanted to explore a different side to VR gaming, giving people an action-packed, time-sensitive mission that frames and gives a sense of urgency to that experience. We believe that narrative works to make the game even more immersive,” Nader explained.
You start the game by choosing between 4 characters, then hopping onto a hoverboard which takes you into the fast-paced game environment. Once there, you pursue three main objectives which will feel familiar to anybody who’s ever played an endless runner: Reaching the finish line, outrunning the bots hot on your heels, and achieving a high score, which you can boost by performing artistic maneuvers – such as grabs, jumps and other special tricks – and collecting extra elements like battery packs and power-ups.
Early on in the process, the Game Cooks team realized that using a first-person perspective in such a fast-paced game could easily trigger dizziness, causing disorientation and even nausea. The solution was to use a 3rd person perspective, which also opened up a lot more interesting design possibilities: “We felt that this gaming dynamic worked to give the player more options and feel more in control of their character,” adds Nader. “We enabled a much broader range of movement and maneuverability than would have been possible if using 1st person perspective, as that can quickly become uncomfortable for the player. We also thought quite carefully about the scale in the environment, and decided to make it a bit bigger than you would have in a normal game in order to increase immersion.”
It’s an interesting experiment into how you can still create that sense of full immersion which is central to VR while using a 3rd person perspective.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. One big technical obstacle they tackled in development was the strain of rendering particle systems. For those not familiar with the term, a particle system is a technique that uses a large number of very small 3D models and other graphic objects to simulate “fuzzy” or chaotic phenomena such as explosions, smoke, and abstract visual effects. As a workaround they created a frame-by-frame animation of this particle system that they were then able to use throughout the game without compromising on the visuals. They also developed an AI system that tracks the user progress so that the pursuing bots never get too far ahead or behind the player, keeping a constant competitive edge.
Another consideration in such a fast-paced VR game was the speed factor. Typically, the acceleration/deceleration issue is something that developers stay clear from because of the tendency to cause motion sickness, but they believed that speed would have a big impact on the player experience, so didn’t want to shy away from it, explains Nader.
“The team actually took it as a challenge to find a way around that problem. We came up with a system that jumps the speed in one shot and creates an impact on the player without disorienting them.”
The game has been very well received so far, being shortlisted for Google Play’s Indie Games festival last month. The most interesting thing about HOVR is how it blends a well-established format with a new medium. It will be exciting to see whether it inspires other game developers to follow suit and update the formats which we know and love, and adapt them into to virtual reality experiences.
HOVR is now available on the Samsung Gear VR for free. You can find more information about the game at its official website.
In August Nival VR revealed its latest virtual reality (VR) project in the form of InMind 2. At the same time the studio also held a closed beta for the project. Since then the developer has changed its name and most recently opened up the beta for anyone to play via Google Play along with a new trailer.
Nival VR was originally a research and development group at Nival which has now been spun off into its own company Luden.io. InMind 2 is now Luden.io’s flagship VR project, looking at brain mechanisms and emotions.
InMind 2 is an adventure videogame of sorts, exploring the chemistry that governs human emotion. Taking inspiration from the Disney/Pixar movie Inside Out, InMind 2 follows the story of John, a teenager with his life ahead of him and all the decisions that entails. Players take part in the process of John becoming an adult, shaping who he becomes later in life. There will be key moments in the videogame which will affect John’s path, opening up new interests and relations for him along the way. This path isn’t fixed, so John can grow up to be an astronaut, a famous actor, an athlete or anything else.
If you’re an Android user who owns a Google Cardboard head-mounted display (HMD) then you can dive into John’s world now as the beta is freely open to download on Google Play. Luden.io is also keen to point out that InMind 2 is compatible with Google Daydream, but that’ll have to wait until Daydream is launched, the date should be revealed this coming week.
InMind 2 will also support a variety of VR platforms including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Gear VR and iOS in the future. Until then take a look at the trailer below, and keep reading VRFocus for all the latest InMind 2 updates.
In an age where people rarely buy physical albums anymore, music videos are today’s cover art; they connect memorable imagery to sound, and function as vehicles to spread songs beyond where they would go on their own. As a testament to their power, music videos sometimes becomes as iconic (or even more so) than the music they’re tied to (think Gangnam Style).
The music video genre has always been about spectacle and pushing creative boundaries; in some cases, music videos transcend their role as a marketing vehicle and push into the territory of art.
What better place to engage viewers with powerful and memorable imagery than the immersive medium of VR?
Google, through a collaboration with Queen, has given us an excellent case study in the future of the music video and just how well the genre can work in virtual reality.
The experience, which “offers a journey through frontman Freddie Mercury’s subconscious mind,” is filled with diverse imagery from hand-drawn animation to motion capture to CGI. The changing visuals reflect the song’s distinct stylistic segments, which range from opera to rock. It isn’t just a 360 video either, it’s a fully 3D experience rendered in real-time, with 3D audio, and has subtle interactive elements depending upon where the user is looking.
Google, Queen, and Enosis VR, a production studio heavily involved in the development of the experience, talk about creating the Bohemian Rhapsody Experience:
The impressively crafted visual journey, created in large part by Enosis VR, employs lots of impressive hand-drawn animation. This at first seems out of place (flat, 2D animation in an immersive 3D experience?), but it turns out to be so well executed that the Bohemian Rhapsody Experience serves not just as proof for the future of VR music videos, but secondarily as a showcase for how such animation can not only survive, but thrive in virtual reality.
Darknet is a cyberpunk styled videogame that sees you take on the identity of an elite hacker, who goes on a tear through the web on a mission to steal data via any means necessary without being traced. Using everything from exploits in systems to worms and viruses in order to get in and get out with the digital goods. The popular title, has accumulated over 100,000 hours of playtime on the Gear VR version alone, according to its developer.
