Category: headjack

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The Pico G2 4K Headset now Available in North America and Europe

If there’s one thing the virtual reality (VR) industry and its fans aren’t short of it’s new headsets. HP Reverb arrived yesterday while Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest hit the shelves later this month. And let’s not forget Valve Index of course. Today, Chinese headset manufacturer Pico has released its new device, the Pico G2 4K, for North American and European enterprise use.

Pico G2 4k

Solely designed for business use, the new Pico G2 4K features an LDC display boasting a 3840 x 2160 resolution, with a refresh rate of 75Hz and a PPI of 818, all powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Weighing in at 278g, the headset has 32GB of storage (upgradable with MicroSD cards up to 256GB), 3 degree’s of freedom (3DoF) tracking, plus compatibility with the Pico Store and Viveport for content.

VRFocus went hands-on with the Pico G2 4K during CES 2019 in January, finding that the small amount of content being demoed ‘did look stunning on the new 4K screens’.

In addition to the launch announcement, Pico has also begun a new partnership with Headjack which develops apps and business solutions for the VR market. “As we introduce our new G2 4K headset into North America and Europe, we also continue to align ourselves with leading business services within the VR and AR industry. With Headjack, we felt that both our current and future business partners could easily create and control white-label VR apps through their intuitive tools,” said Leland Hedges, Commercial Director, Pico Interactive, EMEA in a statement.

Pico G2 4k

“Upon hearing about Pico’s VR headsets from our clients and their desire to build out content in an enclosed, branded environment, we did some research into Pico Interactive and saw a perfect fit between our tools and the Pico hardware. We were particularly interested in their native Kiosk Mode found in every headset and were wowed by their latest G2 4K VR headset,” adds Coen Kraaijvanger, Commercial Director at Headjack.

For businesses interested in the Pico G2 4K head on over to the website to make an enquiry. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest Pico headsets, reporting back with any new updates.

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Make Crystal Clear 360 Degree Videos With Headjack, Now Free

We’ve all run afoul of video software that leaves an unsightly watermark on videos. Just go on to the more random, smaller parts of YouTube and you’ll find that a Bandicam watermark on the top of the screen is almost a right of passage, an early YouTuber meme of sorts, and it certainly doesn’t stop there.

The main issue with this of course, is that an ugly watermark isn’t going to give you a professional looking video. This is the conclusion that Headjack came too after a great deal of internal debate. Getting users to try your software but also getting them to pay for it afterwards is a difficult task. They could offer free trials, usage limits, watermarks or limiting features, but all of these just took away from the reasons why users would want to use Headjack is such a good piece of software for creating 360 degree videos. So what’s the solution?

Well Headjack have decided that the way forward is to remove their watermark and all limitations on their software – for all intents and purposes, you can create high quality 360 degree videos using the Headjack software completely for free.

The logic behind this move is that users weren’t going to use Headjack in the field if it was going to leave a watermark on their work afterwards, making it feel like a lower quality production. To rectify this, Headjack made the move to make their software completely free, hoping that users would now use Headjack in their professional productions, giving Headjack software the very best possible chance to shine.

The Cinema feature is now available for all users, too. It allows Headjack to control multiple virtual reality (VR) devices at a distance. This follows multiple requests from users who wished to try the Cinema features before upgrading to the premium version of Headjack. In the free plan, Cinema mode is limited to a single device, but can use up to three in the Pro version of the software.

You can try Headjack for free yourself right here. Bringing the ability to make 360 videos to a greater variety of users can only be a good thing, and we hope to see more from the Headjack software in the future. Meanwhile, you can take a look at 360 videos in our Life in 360 feature, and for everything else make sure to keep reading VRFocus.

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VR Interface Design Contest with $10,000 in Cash Prizes Launched by Purple Pill

Immersive content agency Purple Pill has announced a VR interface design competition and is offering $10,000 in cash prizes to those who create the best virtual reality interfaces.

From gaze-based interaction modalities to laser pointer menus to skeuomorphic knobs and buttons, today’s VR interfaces are all over the place. Even from one motion controller to the next, VR interface designs don’t agree on the best way to pick up and hold virtual objects. It’s going to take time before reaching any sort of consensus on VR interface design, but Purple Pill is hoping to spur things along.

oculus-home
Most of today’s VR interfaces are carryovers from screen-based interfaces

The company has announced a VR interface design contest that begins today and runs until March 15th. Entries will be judged on Usability, Design, Creativity, and Performance. The first place prize is $7,500 in cash and the second place prize is $2,500.

“The majority of interfaces we see in the current generation of VR apps are confusing and rather plain. They’re usually not much more than a floating plane with some text on it,” says Purple Pill’s Nick Kraakman. “With this competition we want to stimulate designers and developers from around the world to come up with fresh ideas about UI’s in VR and create some innovative designs that push the boundaries of this exciting medium.”

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VR Interface Design Insights from Mike Alger

What’s the catch? Well, Purple Pill isn’t quite doing this just out of the goodness of their hearts—entries must be based on the company’s Headjack Unity API, a foundation for creating cross-platform VR apps which include 360 video.

The contest’s official rules require that each entry:

• Is created using the Headjack Template API
• Runs smoothly and without frame drops
• Is submitted during the Competition Period
• Is added to the Marketplace as a Public free template

Although not part of the official rules, Purple Pill says entries “Should have support for mobile VR.” The rules further say that entries can be submitted in the following way:

  1. Sign up for a free Headjack account on https://app.headjack.io
  2. Create a VR Template using the Headjack API found at https://headjack.io/docs
  3. Upload the template to the Headjack Template Marketplace at
  4. https://app.headjack.io/#/templates/my-templates/add as a Public free template

Starting today, participants can submit any number of entries but are only eligible to win one of the two cash prizes. Purple Pill says that the winners will be announced one month after the March 15th submission deadline.

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