As is now becoming commonplace, Black Friday isn’t a single day of amazing deals, expanding to a whole weekend and now several weeks. Today, HTC Vive has announced its latest raft of deals, where customers could save up to £250 GBP on the latest virtual reality (VR) hardware.
A the top of the pile for discounts is the Vive Cosmos Elite Full Kit with HTC Vive knocking a whopping £250 off the entire kit. Normally £899, the deal drops the cost down to £649.00, a great all-in-one bundle for those with a VR-capable PC. The kit comes with SteamVR 1.0 base stations and the latest Vive controllers. Specification wise it offers a combined resolution of 2880×1770 (1440×1700 per eye) using an LCD display, 110-degree field of view (FoV), a hinged front to easily drop in and out of VR, built-in headphones and IPD adjustment.
If you’ve already got a SteamVR setup and want to upgrade then the Vive Cosmos Elite headset has £150 off, dropping the price to £399. Or in the same range, the original Vive Cosmos with its inside-out tracking is available with a £200 saving, costing a competitive £499.
HTC Vive isn’t stopping there. Going into its pro range the Vive Pro Full Kit is on sale for £919.00, saving customers £200 on the regular retail price. If you really want to step up further there’s always the Vive Pro Eye with its in-built eye tracking. That’s currently £1,099.00, a reduction of £200.
It’s not just VR headsets HTC Vive is discounting, the Wireless Adaptor Full Pack and Vive Deluxe Audio Strap prices have also been slashed. The Wireless Adaptor is now £209.00 rather than £359.00, whilst the Audio Strap comes in at £79.99, a saving of £30. All these offers are available via the UK website from today until 29th November 2021.
Expect more VR Black Friday deals in the coming deals in the coming days. As they’re announced, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Vertigo Games’ next big title After the Fall is only three weeks away from launch and today the studio has released further gameplay details as well as opening up pre-orders. Alongside a new trailer, it’s been confirmed that After the Fall will feature a PvP mode and that early access will be granted on select platforms.
From today, Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR and SteamVR owners can pre-order After the Fall with a 10% discount, dropping the cost down to £26.99 GBP. That’s for the “Launch Edition” which includes automatic access to the future Frontrunner season, including new a map called “Hollywood Boulevard”, the “Warehouse” PvP arena an unrevealed game mode and a new weapon type.
Depending on the platform early purchasers will gain different benefits. Oculus Quest 2 owners will receive access to the exclusive Fwd to the Past skin whilst Steam players gain access to a closed Steam Playtest. Pre-ordering After the Fall for PlayStation VR and Steam will also net players 48 hours of Early Access as an additional bonus. Plus, on the Oculus platform, there’s cross-buy support between Quest and Oculus Rift.
When it comes to the Steam Playtest players will be introduced to the first Harvest Run mission, taking place between 9 pm PT on 25th November until midnight PT on 27th November 2021.
That’s not all, Vertigo Games has a Deluxe Edition for Steam and PlayStation VR which features:
Automatic access to the Frontrunner season
Digital Artbook
Official Soundtrack
PS4 Theme and Avatars (PlayStation VR)
Exclusive Uncle Bob skin (Steam) or exclusive Ultimate Buster skin (PlayStation VR)
After the Fall is set for release on 9th December 2021 for the aforementioned headsets with an Oculus Quest version slated for 2022. It’ll feature a co-op campaign mode, the co-op Harvest mode and an eight-player (4vs4) competitive multiplayer. VRFocus went hands-on with the Harvest mode earlier this month, finding plenty of potential in this co-op horde mode.
As further details on After the Fall are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.
HTC launched Vive Focus 3 back in late June, a high-end VR standalone with a price tag to match its ambitions as a device meant for businesses. The company recently announced updates to the software experience that will bring a host of improvements, such as support for the new WiFi 6E standard, larger tracking areas, a shared map for easier playspace calibration, and more.
The company announced the full gamut of info in a blogpost. As it is, here’s a quick rundown of the major updates HTC is bringing to Vive Focus 3:
Better PC VR Streaming with WiFi 6E
WiFi 6E is a new standard that operates at the 6 GHz frequency range, and offers a low latency and high bandwidth wireless connection for streaming PC VR content to the standalone headset.
Occupying a different frequency also helps mitigate background WiFi interference. As HTC’s Shen Ye points out, going from WiFi 6 (5GHz) to WiFi 6E allows for a total of 59 separate 20MHz channels, or 7 separate 160 MHz channels. Certification is coming soon, although availability may vary based on your geographic location.
Location-based Entertainment Mode
Location-based Entertainment (LBE) Mode was developed to enlarge the Vive Focus 3’s standard tracking area to make it easier for businesses to make the best of large spaces.
Vive Focus 3 supports a 15m × 15m space out of the box (50ft × 50ft), but LBE mode bumps that up to 33m × 30m (100ft × 108ft). That’s roughly the size of four tennis courts, which opens up more flexibility for VR arcades implementing larger format free-roaming games.
Map Sharing
The new Map Sharing feature lets multiple users share inside-out maps of a given space so you don’t need to setup or calibrate multiple headsets.
This also includes the ability to duplicate a few things specifically from one to all headsets in a group: single boundary/direction/center of map/floor height.
Visual Odometry Mode
Visual Odometry (VO) Mode is a handy shortcut so you can skip the 5-minute tracking set-up, letting users jump straight into the experience without having to draw the tracking volume. It does this by automatically setting the Direction of View and Center of Coordination once a user puts on the headset.
Ye mentions that VO mode is great for experiences where large-scale tracking isn’t really relevant, like single-player arcade games with a static playspace, athletic training, and more simple content viewing.
Conveniently, HTC has made a Hybrid Mode that incorporates both VO and LBE Mode. Start in VO mode for fitting adjustments, and then head into LBE mode to transition to the large-scale experience.
– – — – –
Check out HTC Vive Focus 3 specs below. You can learn more about HTC’s latest standalone here.
HTC’s introduction of Vive Flow in October certainly raised a few eyebrows when it came to where the company was positioning the headset, heading down the line of a wellness device rather than focusing on gaming or enterprise. Even so, developers have seen the potential in the light, phone connected virtual reality (VR) headset, with Psychic VR Lab’s creative platform STYLY adding support.
The news isn’t too surprising considering STYLY rolled out support for HTC Vive’s Viveport platform in September, allowing users to access a huge selection of immersive content built by artists worldwide. STYLY was built around the idea of using XR as an artistic medium, with works ranging from personal museum pieces to pop music experiences and anime comic creations.
While the free STYLY app enables access to these works, STYLY itself is a cloud-based platform where artists can bring their ideas to life using a web browser and then distribute the content via VR headsets, augmented reality (AR) devices and simply via the web. The app is supplied with STYLY Studio, the creative arm of the platform that doesn’t require any programming knowledge to operate.
Launched back in 2017 initially for PC VR headsets, STYLY also encourages creators to try the platform by hosting an annual event called the NEWVIEW Awards. This year’s event will be even bigger with more award categories and a huge $20,000 USD up for grabs for the lucky Gold Award winner.
The HTC Vive Flow is more like a chunky pair of sunglasses rather a bulbous VR headset. Weighing in at only 189g, the device sports a 100-degree field of view (FoV), 3.2K resolution (2x 2.1” LCD 1600 x1600 per eye) and a 75 Hz refresh rate. It connects to your phone either by cable or via Bluetooth – you’ll need the external battery to run it wirelessly – with your phone acting as a 3DoF controller. Vive Flow is now available to purchase for £499 GBP/$499 USD.
The addition of Vive Flow support continues a run of adding compatibility to both VR and AR devices, recent additions include Oculus Quest and Nreal Light. This has all been aided by an $8.5 million USD funding round earlier in the year, allowing the Japanese company to expand its global reach.
For continued updates on STYLY and the latest VR news from Japan, keep reading VRFocus.
During the summer, Prison Boss VR developer Trebuchet launched mystical gardening adventure Winds & Leaves for PlayStation VR. Today, the studio has announced that a PC VR version is on the way with a bunch of visual and gameplay enhancements.
Bringing Winds & Leaves to SteamVR has meant that Trebuchet has increased the graphical fidelity, expanded the draw distance so you can appreciate the beautiful scenery whilst improving the tree and vegetation density so those forests look even more luscious. Additionally, a new roomscale mode has been included alongside a 360-degree rotation setting. Employing roomscale freedom should make planting all those seeds even easier.
“We are thrilled to bring Winds & Leaves to Steam VR players, taking advantage of the PC power to make the experience even more captivating with the farther draw distance and higher vegetation density that we can now render,” said Alexandre Pernot Lopes, Trebuchet Creative Director and co-founder in a statement.
Winds & Leaves drops you into a barren world almost entirely devoid of life. You take on the role of The Gardener, a being who has a unique connection to the trees and plants, even being able to see their interconnecting lifeforce. With a few tools in hand, you need to explore the various biomes and plant trees most suited to the environment, combining seeds to make new varieties ideal for each new habitat. The eventual goal is to entirely restore life to the planet.
To ensure a comfortable walking experience Trebuchet puts you on stilts, rather unique for a VR videogame. That means you have to move the controllers just like walking with a couple of sticks, making for steady, gentle progression.
Reviewing Winds & Leaves for PlayStation VR, VRFocus found that: “Winds & Leaves has some nice ideas and for those looking for a nice tranquil VR experience with some light puzzles, it perfectly suits. The problem is Winds & Leaves can be a bit too quiet. Lush green grass and colour forests are all well and good but they’re still devoid of life, no animals suddenly return.”
Winds & Leaves is set to arrive via Steam on 8th December 2021, supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For further updates from Trebuchet, keep reading VRFocus.
Virtual reality (VR) developer Joy Way caught a lot of VR fans attention earlier this year when it introduced the first teasing footage of AGAINST, a very dark and moody rhythm action experience. While the team noted in a feature piece for VRFocus that the design wasn’t final they’ve now revealed the first full gameplay trailer as well as confirming that AGAINST will be out this year for PC VR headsets.
In comparison to the original aesthetics, AGAINST’s new look has certainly been brightened up and made a little more colourful. It might not be as instantly striking but the new visuals look a lot cleaner and detailed, retaining some of that gritty mood players were hoping for.
The changes are purely visual either. Previously, that dark, film noir approach was inspired by a narrative that involved you battling the mafia in 1930’s New York City. The timeline remains but the enemy has changed in favour of a far more comic book-style approach where you play a detective fighting their way through hordes of enemies working for an evil scientist called Dr. Vice. These can range from ordinary henchmen to more fantastical creatures.
Like any rhythm-action videogame, it’s all about dispatching these opponents to the beat to maximise your score. Unlike others in this genre, you’re given a range of weapons to do this with, whether that’s your bare hands, sword, guns, knuckle dusters and more. In a similar vein to Pistol Whip’s campaign mode, AGAINST will also feature end-level bosses to fight.
Currently, Joy Way has revealed AGAINST will feature seven action-packed levels that can be tackled in three difficulties. Supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index headsets, AGAINST is set to arrive via Steam Early Access at some point this winter. Previously, Joy Way had released a demo of AGAINST but that has now been removed. “Since the release of the demo on Steam, the game has undergone significant improvements during development. Although the core gameplay remained unchanged, we removed the demo, because it no longer represents the final product,” Joy Way said in a statement.
AGAINST isn’t the only VR title Joy Way has in the works. Also in Early Access is parkour experience Stride whilst roguelite shooter Outlieris expected to arrive in 2022. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.
With all that’s happened over the last couple of years, 2019 seems like an age ago. It was that year when VRFocus got its first hands-on glimpse of Vertigo Games’ Arizona Sunshine follow up After the Fall, an action-packed shooter set in the frozen wasteland of Los Angeles. After a few delays, the studio is almost ready to launch the zombie-themed FPS across multiple headsets and VRFocus got another peek at the title and game mode called Harvest.
In actual fact, the demo contained three distinct sections of After the Fall, and as expected offering a different flavour to the proceedings since last we met. Available were the Outlands, and introductory level given players the main gist of the controls, a hub section called The Line where players can meet up and chat before heading out on co-op missions together, which leads us to the Harvest.
If you’ve played Arizona Sunshine you’ll likely have dabbled in the frantic horde mode, a later addition where you have to survive waves of enemies. Harvest is After the Fall’s horde mode of sorts but instead of running around a singular map, players have to work their way through a level, stopping off at occasional safe houses, with the main goal being to collect as much Harvest as possible from dead enemies.
This you can then use in Harvest-o-Matic’s found in safe rooms to purchase useful equipment such as health, pipe bombs and ammunition. It’s a setup most Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood players will be familiar with. You all have to work together because inventory space is very limited, choosing between a health pack or a tasty explosive could mean life or death on those frozen streets.
Before getting there The Line is worth an exploration. It’s like a massive arcade with loads of cabinets in the middle, where you can team up with three other friends before going on a Harvest (AI bots are available to make teams up to 4), head to the shooting range or talk to Luna who runs the place. *Spoiler* As an awesome nod to Vertigo Games’ previous title there are Arizona Sunshine cabinets offering a very basic twin-stick shooter for a quick time killer.
Vertigo Games has been sure to include plenty of accessibility options that are always worth a peruse before heading into the action, as you can play seated or standing, teleport or use smooth locomotion and change how reloading works. It’s the latter that VRFocus instantly had issues with which was a worry so close to launch.
Ammo is located right on your chest, with the belt height adjustable to suit each player’s requirements. You then have the choice of Quick or Advanced reloading, the former consisting of merely bringing the gun to your chest whilst the latter is a more traditional manual VR mechanic, ejecting the magazine, grabbing a clip and cocking the gun. However, when it came to fighting that first ravenous horde of Snowbreed it was an absolute fumble fest. The Quick reloading was intermittent at best, constantly jabbing the gun at the ammo belt until something happened. Advanced reloading, on the other hand, was smooth as butter, feeling natural popping clips out and jamming another in. Additionally, there’s a Harvest multiplier if you choose the Advanced option.
After the Fall also employs and omits several other familiar VR shooter mechanics. Taking a leaf out of Half-Life: Alyx’s book are the wrist pockets, these are your only inventory slots for things like health and explosives. This becomes even more of a juggle once you start locating Floppy Disks, these unlock new equipment by taking them to the Harvest-o-Matic and then completing the run. You can hold up to four weapons if you so wish, one on each hip and one in each hand for that proper gun-toting Rambo look. But you can’t put anything over your shoulder, even the bigger two-handed weapons go on your hip which seems a bit strange. There wasn’t a chance to test how two rifles on each hip and one hand-held would look although we’d imagine the visual clutter might be a bit much. Also, there wasn’t a chance to test the weapon upgrade system which was a shame, that’ll just have to wait for the full review.
Even with those grumbles, the gameplay was exactly as hoped, fast and at times unrelenting, with Snowbreed clambering through walls, across ceilings or just plain smashing through stuff like a bulldozer. It was arcade action at its best, ziplining across buildings, gunning down corridors or monsters then in those moments where you could take a breather exploring rooms to find useful loot and collectables. Aside from the base slow and fast Snowbreed there were four more specialised foes that would pop up occasionally, Juggernaut, Eater, Brute and Smasher. They’re all tanks in their own right with the Juggernaut able to pick you up, the Eater explodes, the Brute is a super speedy fella whilst the Smasher was the final huge opponent to overcome. Certainly impressive and tough in the first run, how well they work across multiple Harvest remains to be seen.
After the Fall is gearing up to be one of VR’s biggest winter 2021 launches thanks to the wall-to-wall combat. There’s also the impressive feat of co-op, cross-platform gameplay between all supported headsets, which should ensure player numbers for full Harvest runs. Considering how some VR videogames have struggled with this feature, having it available from day one could mean all the difference. After the Fall is coming to Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets on 9th December, so there’s not long to wait to see if it’s been worth those delays.
Cooperative Innovations, the studio behind virtual reality (VR) party title Spaceteam VR, unveiled in early 2020 a project called Curatours. A platform designed to off VR users virtual tours of museums and galleries. Today, the first tour has now gone live, Museum of Plastic 2121, a collaborative effort between several organisations and artists built around the idea that in the future single-use plastics will only be found in museums.
Cooperative Innovations worked alongside South African environmental organisation, The Greenpop Foundation, Street Art organisation, Baz-Art, and the University of Hull whilst being supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions programme. Just like any museum, the Museum of Plastics 2121 is made up of several wings including the Environment wing, Industrial wing and History wing.
With Baz-Art working with artists and communities they created real-world murals alongside 3D paintings for the museum which you can now view. Because Curatours is a social tour platform it offers three types of tours depending on your preference. For the greatest freedom, you can go on a Self-Guided tour at any time you like. Or then there are the Pre-Recorded tours where you’re free to explore with a guide appearing to provide information about that place or the artefact you’re near. Finally, there are Live-Guided tours where you book a time slot to join a group guided by an expert who can answer questions. Tour groups will be around 12-15 people.
“Curatours is a social digital space – it isn’t connected to physical geography, it’s nationless, timeless and unconstrained by physics. Featuring stories and creativity from partners around the world, it’s a space where people can gather, learn and discuss what they’ve learned,” said Emma Cooper, Project Lead at Cooperative Innovations, in a statement. “The whole idea of the Museum of Plastic is to take advantage of the best properties of the Curatours platform and, by bringing a future museum to life, to show visitors a path forward to a better future.”
“Combining the insights from academic research with a creative approach, makes a powerful tool for communication. So it was a refreshing experience to look forward 100 years to imagine what a future plastics world might look like with problems resolved. COP-26 is the perfect time to be taking this look forward,” Pauline Deutz, University of Hull adds. “There have been some gloomy headlines recently, but we should remain optimistic that a better society can be achieved alongside the awareness of how urgently necessary it is.”
To experience the Museum of Plastic 2121 tour you’ll need to download the free Curatours app from Steam which supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets or App Lab for Oculus Quest. Cooperative Innovations will be expanding the experience during November by adding a new museum wing each Thursday. For further updates on the latest innovative VR use cases, keep reading VRFocus.
Once upon a time, virtual reality (VR) developers tried not to spin players around too much just in case it caused any nausea. That worry is very much a thing of the past thanks to better hardware and understanding of how to alleviate it. So much so that rhythm action videogame Synth Riders is about to release a new Spiral Mode across all supported platforms this week.
As the name suggests, Spiral Mode turns the previously flat gameplay environment into one giant tube allowing songs to spiral around for an even more dynamic environment. Possibly the first time this has been done in a rhythm action experience – a few racing titles have this setup – the cylindrical stage will require players to lean their whole body as they weave in and out of the various obstacles.
The mode will task players with unlocking three intensity levels, each with more powerful turns and challenges to match. Developer Kluge Interactive isn’t consigning Spiral Mode to a small section of Synth Riders either,it’ll be available for use in every song and difficulty, compatible with most modifiers and multiplayer.
Adding to the content selection, the studio is dropping a free track called Go! by synthwave duo, Dance With The Dead to celebrate. This ups Synth Riders’ music selection to 55 free songs. That can be expanded further with an additional 30 DLC tracks from the likes of Muse, The Offspring, and Caravan Palace.
“I’m excited to enhance our players’ experience even more with this twist on our gameplay, it’s not like anything we’ve seen in a VR rhythm game before! Personally, I love playing Spiral Mode because the mechanic gives me a feeling of challenge and speed that reminds me so much of skating – one of my favourite hobbies,” says Abraham Aguero Benzecri – Creative Director in a statement. “I hope that Spiral Mode will find many fans among Synth Riders players.”
All the new content will arrive as a free update this Thursday, 28th October 2021 for Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR, Steam, and Viveport users. For continued updates on Synth Riders, keep reading VRFocus.
Virtual reality (VR) is in a constant battle to show how it can be a viable revenue stream for developers and not just a very niche market. It’s why companies such as Facebook – or mainly Facebook – have released figures showcasing the revenue generation of popular titles. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners was one of the biggest VR videogames of 2020 and today, developer Skydance Interactive has announced revenue generated from sales has exceeded $50 million USD across all platforms.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners launched back in February 2020 for PC VR headsets before coming to PlayStation VR a few months later, Surprisingly, Skydance Interactive managed to bring the zombie experience to Oculus Quest in late 2020. And since that launch, the studio has rolled out a selection of updates including Meatgrinderwhich added a horde mode called The Trial. Most recently, the Aftershocks Update dropped a big expansion for the videogame, extending the campaign by several hours.
In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, the main campaign drops you in a partially flooded New Orleans after the zombie apocalypse has destroyed the city. Drifting through town you hunt for dwindling supplies whilst getting caught up in the politics and battles of the townsfolk, not forgetting about the undead menace lurking around every corner. You’re well-armed, of course, with swords and knives for silent kills whilst guns provide a louder, ranged approach.
If you’ve not tried the zombie game yet, VRFocus said in its review of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: “From the very beginning, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners offers a satisfying zombie experience that’s hard to match. Titles like Arizona Sunshine easily fill that need for straight-up arcade action, for when you want a living dead apocalypse with a bit more depth then The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is your new go-to videogame.”
For new players The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners will be discounted for PlayStation VR until 3rd November, over on Steam a discount will run until 1st November. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the survival horror, reporting back with further updates.
