The latest Oculus Connect event has generated a lot of news, announcements and excitement. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the company’s intention to get 1 billion people into virtual reality (VR), so a new emphasis on the social aspects of VR is no surprise. As part of this strategy, a new multiplayer experience will be available to users of Facebook Spaces.
Created by Resolution Games and based on its successful VR fishing title Bait! Facebook Spaces users will be able to try out Bait! Arctic Open, which will allow friends and family to fish together and compete to see who is the best. The title has been designed to integrate smoothly with Facebook Spaces, to et users feel like they are sharing the same room.
“Facebook has created an exceptional, social VR experience with Spaces – working towards overcoming a huge hurdle in VR by making it more interactive. We’re honored to be working with Facebook to explore how to merge gameplay with the Spaces environment,” said Tommy Palm, CEO and co-founder of Resolution Games. “The team has been amazing to work with and Spaces offers the unique social experiences and other mechanics to take engagement in VR to a whole new level.”
Resolution Games’ VR fishing title Bait! has previously been made available as a single player experience on Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, proving to be a hit and surpassing 1 million players, placing it in a very select group. Facebook Spaces launched earlier this year as Facebook and Oculus’ answer to the perceived social isolation of VR.
“We’re turning Bait! into much more than a game and making it a social experience where people come together, no matter where they are in the world, around one of the most bonding actions possible – fishing,” added Palm.
VRFocus will bring you further information on Facebook Spaces as it becomes available.
The opening keynote at the fourth annual Oculus Connect developer conference delivered several new product announcements from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, VP of Virtual Reality Hugo Barra, and others. This included new standalone VR hardware, a new price for the Rift, and many software and game reveals.
At $199, Oculus Go is a low-cost, all-in-one standalone headset launching in early 2018. On stage, Hugo Barra claimed that the headset was designed to deliver the “best visual clarity of any product we’ve ever built”, using a “fast-switch LCD” at 2560×1440 and an “all-new, custom optical design”. The lenses are an evolution of the ‘hybrid’ optics found in the current Rift. Sharing the same controller input set as Gear VR – a single controller and rotational-only tracking – apps will be “binary compatible”, working on both systems. Essentially, Oculus Go is an enhanced, standalone version of Gear VR.
Project Santa Cruz developer kits coming in 2018, we go hands-on:
Image courtesy Oculus
Described as the “first, complete, standalone VR system with full inside-out tracking and hand presence”, Santa Cruz developer kits will be available next year. The company revealed various improvements to the latest prototype, including brand new 6-degrees-of-freedom controllers, similar to Touch. Unlike Oculus Go, Santa Cruz is designed as a high-end, standalone system, with full positional tracking on both headset and controllers, but will be limited by the performance of its on-board mobile PC. Check out our hands-on impressions here.
‘Oculus Dash’ is a total interface overhaul, supports desktop apps:
Nate Mitchell, Head of Rift, described how Oculus has been rebuilding the core software from the ground up over the past year, introducing various improvements to ‘Rift Core 2.0’. Most significantly, Oculus Dash is a total overhaul of the Rift user interface, designed specifically for motion input. It combines the existing functionality of Home and the Universal Menu, while allowing access to traditional desktop apps. Mitchell claims Dash will offer “best in class performance and visual quality,” for PC apps in VR, setting the platform “on a path to replacing real monitors entirely.”
Oculus Home also completely rebuilt:
The Rift Core 2.0 update also brings a brand new Oculus Home space, with a more realistic visual design, with “state of the art lighting” and “dynamic soft shadows”, powered by Unreal Engine 4. This is customisable with toys, furniture, artwork and achievements, and is designed to be a persistent, social space, with the potential to create shared spaces in the future.
Rift receives permanent price cut:
Photo by Road to VR
Hugo Barra, Vice President of Virtual Reality at Oculus announced a permanent price cut of the Rift and Touch bundle to $399. The package still includes the same hardware bundle of headset, two sensors, two Touch controllers, and “six free apps” – although there are actually several more free apps available on the Store.
Today at Oculus Connect 4, the company’s annual developer conference, Oculus revealed the Project Santa Cruz ‘Prototype 2’ standalone VR headset, including 6DOF motion controllers. Though it might not look obviously different at a distance than the original prototype showed off last year, up close it’s clear that it’s actually a big step forward, including new lenses and a new display.
Following the Project Santa Cruz announcements during the keynote, including that dev kits will be in developers hands within the next year, I got whisked away to a behind-closed-doors demo of the latest version of the headset. Though the company announced another standalone headset today, Oculus Go, Project Santa Cruz is a different device entirely; it represents the company’s work on a high-end standalone offering (whereas Oculus Go aims for the low-end, more like Gear VR). And while Oculus Go has already been productized and is set to launch next year for $200, Project Santa Cruz is still in the prototype phase.
Quickly, to clear up any confusion, let’s be clear that Santa Cruz is a standalone headset. That means it doesn’t rely on a PC for anything—it has everything on board that it needs for VR, including power and compute. That’s different than a wireless headset, which would be untethered, but still rely on a host PC to do the rendering and computing. Because Santa Cruz is a standalone headset, the idea is that you can use it anywhere, and the inside-out tracking ought to give you essentially unlimited tracking volumes.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, back to the demo. I wasn’t able to take any videos or pictures, but I got a fairly close look at the device and I can tell you what I saw and experienced.
One more quick note: the headset I tried today had stamped on the front, ‘Santa Cruz Prototype II’, and so I’m going to call it the Santa Cruz P2, whereas I’ll call last year’s prototype the P1.
Hardware Changes From P1 to P2
Image courtesy Oculus
Form Factor
So, while the Santa Cruz P1 was essentially a Rift that was hacked together with a mobile compute/battery module attached to the back, and a new faceplate featuring the inside-out tracking tech on the front, the Santa Cruz P2 has a completely reworked form-factor which builds the compute/battery components directly into the display enclosure. So there’s no big bulge on the back like there was with the P1.
Display & Lenses
In addition to condensing everything into the display enclosure, the headset appears to be using a new, higher resolution display and new Fresnel lenses. Like the Rift, the P2 retains a hardware IPD adjustment slider, but unlike the Rift, it also has volume buttons on the bottom.
Hidden Integrated Audio
The P2 has integrated speakers but they aren’t over-ear like the Rift, instead they are hidden in/near the headstrap; you can’t really see them, but you can hear them (and so can anyone standing nearby). I did notice 3.5mm audio jacks on the left and right of the headset, suggesting you’d be able to plug your own headphones in for a better and more private listening experience. Folks from the Santa Cruz team told me that the audio solution for the P2 isn’t finalized yet, so we could see this change.
Head-mount and Ergonomics
The head-mount on the P2 is also all new. While the P1 was using the same head-mount as the Rift (rigid straps with the triangle in the back), the new straps are rigid at the front but become soft and rubbery as they progress around the back of your head. While the Santa Cruz P2 appeared a little bulkier and felt a bit heavier than the Rift, I’m actually quite surprised at its size and weight considering everything that they’ve had to pack inside the display enclosure.
Controllers
As for the new P2 controllers, Oculus says that the same team that made Touch build the Santa Cruz P2 controllers, and it shows—they feel and work just like you’d expect with Touch, except now there’s a trackpad on the top portion instead of a joystick and buttons.
Experience
Display & Lenses
Upon donning the Santa Cruz P2 I was immediately impressed with the new display and lenses. Although there was plenty of aliasing present (after all, this is a VR experience running on mobile compute hardware), the resolution was a big step up from the Rift. The pixel fill factor also seemed quite good, doing a lot to reduce the screen door effect. Mura correction also seemed very good, further enhancing perceived clarity, though for mura I need to get a look at a wider variety of scenes than I had time to see this time around.
Given how dark the black colors were on the display, I’d be willing to bet we’re looking at an OLED panel, which suggests the Santa Cruz P2 could be using a 2,560 × 1,440 display from Samsung (similar to those in their Gear VR smartphones). It can be tough to gauge, but I feel like I could see a faint bit of flicker from the display (some people are more sensitive to flicker than others), which makes me think the refresh rate of the P2 is not as high as the 90Hz that we’re used to on the Rift. More likely (especially given the increased resolution and limited compute resources) the P2’s display is running at 75Hz or possibly lower.
Tracking
Oculus told me that tracking on the P2 had been a major focus since the P1 was shown last year. Using wide angle cameras mounted on the corners of the display enclosure, the headset integrates four independent views for inside-out tracking, and now the same cameras doing the inside-out tracking also track the P2 controllers, similar to the Windows VR headsets.
The cameras enabling inside-out tracking on Santa Cruz are placed a the corners of the front plate | Image courtesy Oculus
The company says they’ve worked to further increase the field of view of the cameras to create the largest tracking area they could in order to reduce the chance that the controllers would exit the tracking volume.
Oculus says the green sphere represents the tracking volume for the Santa Cruz P2 controllers | Image courtesy Oculus
The tracking was quite good, and allowed me to walk confidently around a huge area of roughly 20 × 10 feet (the only thing that was stopping me from going further was the physical walls of the room). I’m so used to being inside of tethered headsets that it felt incredibly freeing to keep walking after several steps, when I would otherwise be approaching the edge of the playspace in most other systems.
Oddly, I did notice a very small but consistent jitter when standing still and looking at nearby static objects. I say “oddly” because I don’t recall seeing the same jitter on the P1 headset last year. I mentioned this to some of the nearby Oculus folks involved with developing Santa Cruz, and they were surprised to hear that I could see any jitter; they encouraged me to return for another demo to take a another look (which I will, and come back to update this article if I see anything different).
Generally speaking, major players in the VR space (including Oculus) say that you need sub-millimeter tracking precision in order to avoid any visible jitter. If that’s true, then I’d have to guess that the Santa Cruz P2 prototype isn’t quite that precise. It’s close though, and arguably ‘good enough’ as it’s quite a bit more precise than PSVR (which has had no trouble moving units even with its greater than sub-millimeter tracking precision).
Despite the jitter, I didn’t see a single instance of ‘jumping’ (where the tracking system is briefly confused) in the head tracking which is a good sign. Granted, like last year, the demo room I was in (decorated like the inside of an apartment) didn’t have anything shiny on the walls, like mirrors or windows, which can be particularly challenging for optical tracking systems. So we’ll still have to wait and see how performance holds up in truly real-world conditions.
Controllers
Image courtesy Oculus
Last year at Connect, the Santa Cruz P1 just showed off inside-out headset tracking. This year with the P2 they have thrown 6DOF controllers into the mix. These look a lot like Touch, except with the tracking ring flipped upside down. That’s of course to make the hidden IR LED markers more visible to the on-headset cameras, whereas Touch wants to make them visible to off-headset cameras opposite the user.
The controllers have a comfortable grip that feels very similar to Touch, including the trigger and hand-trigger. The major change other than the placement of the tracking ring is a trackpad on the top of the controller rather than buttons and a joystick (for now the trackpad is not used). And the controllers seem lighter.
Overall, the tracking felt very responsive, and, at least in the demos I played, it felt almost identical to using Touch. However, I did notice that my hand seemed to jump a bit when moving from one camera’s view to the next, similar to how a moving object doesn’t always pass seamlessly through a stitching line in a 360 video.
For the kind of demo I played (Dead and Buried)—mostly casual shooting gameplay—it may not matter that much if the player’s hands tweak their position somewhat as they pass from one camera view to the next. I could however see this being a bother for some situations, like art and design applications, where, for instance, you wouldn’t want your brush stroke to get a kink in it as your hand moves between camera views. So we’ll have to hope this can be smoothed out if Santa Cruz is going to work well for all VR applications.
Audio
The decision to use integrated speakers in the P2, rather than headphones, was probably made with the aim of creating a headset with low weight, high portability/durability, and quick setup. If the P2 used the same on-ear headphones as the Rift, you might be worried about them breaking off if you throw the headset in your backpack. By removing them, they’ve potentially created a more robust product, not to mention reduced the weight, and a quicker fit when you put on the device.
To me the speakers sounded high in treble and without much bass; definitely a worse soundstage than I’m used to with the Rift. It also seemed much harder for me to understand where the spatial audio was coming from within the virtual world. Though, again, I can appreciate the thought behind this approach.
Thankfully, the 3.5mm headphone jacks (yes, plural) should mean that players can their own headphones if they like. There’s a 3.5mm jack on each side of the headset, and presumably they’re both mono jacks which would, together, offer left and right channels. I would hope that each jack could potentially also handle stereo audio output so that users could use their own headphones rather than be stuck with proprietary headphones with separated left and right audio plugs.
Ergonomics
As I mentioned, I was actually pretty impressed with the size of the P2 headset given everything that they’ve crammed into it. That said, it still feels a little bigger and heavier than the Rift, so I hope they can cut that down yet further before launch.
The new stretchy rubber head strap actually seemed quite comfortable to use. Not only was it easy to put on, but the rubber can better conform to the back of your head, whereas the shape of the Rift’s rear rigid head strap (the triangle area) is really only ideally suited for someone with one particular head shape (since it can’t flex).
And whether it is objectively better or not, it feels easier to pull the P2’s rubber strap into the optimal position, whereas with the Rift’s rigid strap I see people mis-fitting it constantly; so if Santa Cruz sticks with the rubber strap route, it could be a net positive to comfort simply by making it easier for more people to figure out the optimal fit. Of course, it really takes more time with a headset to assess true long term comfort.
– – — – –
Feel free to drop a note in the comments below if you’ve got additional questions about my time with the Santa Cruz P2 headset.
Oculus VR’s Santa Cruz was originally revealed at Oculus Connect 3, San Jose, last year. Today the company offered an update on the all-in-one head-mounted display (HMD), and a year in development has brought about some big changes. While the underlying technology appears on-par with the debut a year ago, the HMD itself has benefited from significant change.
The Santa Cruz HMD – now known as Project Santa Cruz – is essentially a redesigned version of last year’s cobbled-together HMD. It’s no longer an Oculus Rift with a micro-computer attached to the rear, and instead a HMD in it’s own right: it’s lightweight, soft to the touch and of a much better build quality. It’s also surprisingly small. In the first touch and use, the Santa Cruz HMD feels lighter and smaller than the Oculus Rift.
This is of course a big deal, as Project Santa Cruz involves mounting all of the compute power within the frontend of the HMD, alongside the tracking cameras. Maintaining comfort through balance would be difficult, but here Oculus VR has pitched the compute power to a standard which, although inferior to a high-end PC, is more than capable of outdoing any of the current mobile HMDs. Oculus VR aren’t being drawn on specification just yet, but did reveal to VRFocus that the current internal processing power is higher than most smartphones currently on the market.
This was evident in the first of two software demonstrations available. Featuring Bogo, a character that appears very similar to some of the aliens that appear in Oculus Rift launch title Farlands, the player can interact with the creature by offering fruit, stroking its head and playing fetch with a stick. Movement is of course encouraged and the tracking holds up perfectly well with both fast and deliberate forward, backwards and sidesteps. This demonstration was obviously designed to showcase the Santa Cruz HMD’s six degrees of freedom (6 DoF) tracking as Bogo would freely move around the player in all directions.
Of course, one of the biggest new additions on this front is the motion-controllers. Offering the same 6 DoF tracking as the HMD itself, the controllers sit somewhere between Oculus Touch and the motion-controller launched for the Samsung Gear VR earlier this year. A touchpad is accompanied by Home and Back buttons, while a trigger and grip button are positioned for index and fore fingers. The same Constellation tracking seen on Oculus Touch controllers is in place, and while they won’t be tracked when behind the player due to the HMD-mounted cameras, the volume in which they can be tracked remains impressive.
Much like the HMD itself, the motion-controllers are of a decent build quality. Lighter than Oculus Touch and ergonomically designed to fit comfortably within a normal holding position, they currently operate using regular AA batteries. VRFocus was informed that the controllers are in fact less far into development than the HMD and will likely see significant changes prior to launch, but even at this stage they appear to be comfortable and perfectly capable of delivering a high quality immersive experience.
One year on, Project Santa Cruz has answered a lot of questions about the future of the technology, but has also posed many more. Oculus VR has suggested that Project Santa Cruz will act as a third pillar between mobile and high-end VR, but how will that pillar be supported? How will it be priced? And, with HMD sales still not setting the world on fire, how can the company avoid cannibalising their own sales next to the Oculus Rift? It may be yet another Oculus Connect until those questions are answered, but right now the hardware is looking ready to take up the challenge of heading towards a consumer market.
Sanzaru Games’ Marvel Powers United VR was the surprise announcement of San Diego Comic Con 2017, and since then has benefited from a constant stream of attention. Now, at Oculus Connect 4 in San Jose, the developer is hosting 4-player team sessions, allowing attendees to jump into the guise of one of their favourite Marvel superheroes like never before.
In this demonstration version the players are assigned a random character, though are able to choose a different superhero if they so wish. The Hulk, Crystal, Black Bolt, Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool and more are available in this limited preview build, each with unique attributes and a special moveset of their own.
Played in first-person, the demonstration of Marvel Powers United VR began with the hub area in which the player can choose which type of match they wish to enter; as well as access supplementary assets, such as battle records and a dancing Groot. Jumping into a local match (four PCs were synced for each match) VRFocus was cast as the Hulk; and an appropriately smashy time was set to be had.
The Hulk’s moveset is appropriately brutal, relying on slow and heavy attacks delivered in close proximity. Basic punches – performed simply by swinging your arms – will do some damage, but grabbing and throwing your opponents in a similar fashion to Robo Recall will break enemies with ease. Despite being very slow moving, a teleport attack is available that will launch the player forward and create an area-of-effect upon arriving at the destination. This will damage those affected, but also stun enemies not fatally wounded by the impact.
A second playthrough was made with Deadpool, which delivered a faster and more familiar first-person shooter (FPS) experience. One more keenly suited to those playing Marvel Powers United VR for the first time. SMGs, heavy pistols and katanas can be called upon at any time (with a cooldown period, which is sadly made less-than-obvious) and once ammunition is exhausted can simply be thrown away; in fact, the katanas can be used as projectiles along with shuriken should the player be in the position of waiting for a cooldown to end. Deadpool also has a teleport manoeuvre which has a much longer range than Hulk’s, but does far less damage upon impact.
The core gameplay loop of Marvel Powers United VR is to have the team of players defend a central objective. This begins simply by fending-off waves of increasingly varied and powerful enemies before evolving into a fetch-quest in which players must gather power cells. The final evolution of the formula sees boss characters enter the fray, requiring much more co-operation and a greater mix of skillsets to takedown.
This formula essentially makes Marvel Powers United VR a sort of co-operative MOBA. The players work together to defend waves of enemies as they build their own powers before executing on larger scale enemies. It eschews the tower defence ruleset of strategy-over-action and instead opts for a more immediate experience, and does so with the ideal that players can work together while still playing their own little battles with the enemy AI. The only real issue with this at present is that there’s no sense of depth on offer – is there more to each character than the four basic attacks? Marvel Powers United VR is part-FPS, part-MOBA, and with that looks to be an enjoyable experience for both VR newcomers and Marvel fans alike, but those familiar with the VR medium will have to wait and see if Sanzaru Games end up with just another wave shooter. Albeit one Marvel flavoured.
When the Oculus Rift was first launched it existed in a seas of tech demos and proof-of-concept ideas, with most developers cautiously dipping a toe in to the new medium. Windlands therefore stood out, not just for its smooth, stylised aesthetic, but also simply for being a full videogame. Now developer Psytec Games have announced that the sequel is on its way.
Attendees at the Oculus Connect event have had the opportunity to get hands-on with a demonstration of the sequel, titled simply Windlands 2. The smoothed-off style has remained, bringing the curved trees and hills reminiscent of early platform titles into the virtual reality (VR) realm, but the developers have made some subtle improvements to add a touch of polish fitting for a sequel.
The main new feature that has been added to the sequel is the introduction of co-op. With the idea of social VR being high on the agenda of many VR developers, but especially for Oculus owners Facebook, this does not come as a huge surprise
.
The introduction of co-op means that significant changes have been added to combat mechanics. The new elements include a bow and arrow which can be summoned and shot in a similar manner to how the central swinging mechanic works. This new mechanic becomes an important tactic in defeating some bosses.
Windlands 2 will still be able to be experienced as a single-player, but Oculus and Psytec Games have been keen to integrate the co-op elements.
A release date for the title has not been confirmed, but it expected to be some time in 2018. The announcement trailer is available to view below.
VRFocus will bring you further information on Windlands 2 as it becomes available.
Ubisoft today announced that Space Junkies, the multiplayer arcade VR shooter, is going into closed beta in early 2018. We got a chance to go hands-on with a more developed prototype of the game at this year’s Oculus Connect, and while many of the basics haven’t changed much from our time with it at E3, it’s certainly shaping up to be a fuller experience with more crazy guns and at least 4 giant arena-sized maps for the closed beta.
In a 2v2 team deathmatch, I got a chance to see what a real battle feels like in Space Junkies, asthe last time we played it was in a more demure setting with only the developers to shoot down. True to its main selling point, the match was fast-paced and featured a mad grab for the most powerful guns which float in predetermined spots in the zero-G map.
image courtesy Ubisoft
I also got a chance to play a free-for-all deathmatch, which took place in the same sprawling, meteor-encrusted mining facility as the earlier prototype, but according to Ubisoft, the map had been expanded further to give the players more hiding spots and cover from incoming fire.
Guns are greatly varied, some of them requiring two hands to pump or fire. You start out with a whimpy pistol on your hip, but you can wait for the random gun generator to give you something better before you spawn on the map. Guns like rocket launchers, OP lasers, and Gatling guns predictably take a long time to reload and charge up, but pretty much do major damage.
image courtesy Ubisoft
There’s also a light sword and shield that you can carry, but unlike the earlier version of the game, the sword was no longer able to deflect gun blasts. I would have loved to have played a swords-only match to see just how reliable the weapon is when faced with another sword-wielding player, but alas, I’ll have to wait until the closed beta takes effect in a few months to see if anyone will agree to a momentary cease fire.
Despite being on the same horizontal plane as the rest of the combatants, having the full 3 dimensions at your disposal creates an interesting dynamic, as you can never tell where the shots will come from next. As long as you’re not boosting around and going normal speed, you’ll be undetectable to the opposite team, meaning combat may evolve into a less intense hide-and-seek match of popping out behind cover and quickly retreating to safety instead of going to the center with guns a’blazing.
You can register for the closed beta here. Ubisoft says they’re aiming for a spring 2018 release on Oculus Rift+Touch, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.
It has been a busy day for announcements, and the day is still not over. Low-gravity sci-fi arena shooter Space Junkies is looking for intrepid players to don a jetpack and sign up for its Beta test.
First announced by Ubisoft at E3, Space Junkieshas been described as a fast-paced arena shooter that lets players put on that elusive and desirable token of futuristic technology, the jetpack, and zoom around a low-gravity orbital arena, known in-universe as ‘Orenas’, to shoot enemies.
Since the arenas are in orbit, players will be dealing with microgravity, able to use this to their advantage to fly around in 3D space using their trusty jetpack, or moon-jump out of harm’s way, with the added complication and disadvantage of knowing that foes can approach you from any direction, so hiding behind cover is no longer as simple as it once was.
Ubisoft have said that the physics and microgravity can mean a split-second decision can cause a complex chain reaction that can lead to disaster or victory, and that destructible environments and dynamic lighting are being included so the arena can change and react to player actions, something which could change the dynamics of a match.
Attendees at Oculus Connect 4 in San Jose are being given to try out the title in hands-on demonstrations, and interested HTC Vive and Oculus Rift users can sign up for the Beta by visiting the official Space Junkies website.
The official Space Junkies trailer is available to view below.
VRFocus will bring you further news on Space Junkies as it becomes available.
The critically-acclaimed and all-around-fun zero-G space esport Echo Arena is getting more gameplay modes as Echo Combat was announced today at Facebook’s Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, California.
As Oculus’ fastest title to hit $1 million in sales, it’s no surprise developer Ready At Dawn would want to continue to expand the game and the universe. While a brief teaser trailer was shown today, not much was revealed about Echo Combat, but the tagline “zero-G combat takes flight” evokes images of guns and other weaponry being added to the mix. As Head of Content Studios Jason Rubin put it, “Echo Combat is a new multiplayer, zero-gravity, first-person shooter expansion to Echo Arena.” We also learned it should be available in 2018, but no price point was disclosed.
In other Echo-universe news, Rubin revealed that there would be more Lone Echo coming soon, as the story of Jack and Captain Liv would continue. Again, no details were shared, only the cryptic “wait for a big announcement shortly.”
We’re at Oculus Connect 4 for the next couple of days, so be sure to check back with UploadVR for more from the show.
Today Oculus Connect has returned for its fourth annual showcase, with event attendees able to get their hands on some of the latest titles and listen to talks covering future ideas and advancements in virtual reality (VR). Of course the main showpiece is the keynote speech which opens proceedings, and there’s been plenty going on with Bellevue-based game developer, Camouflaj’s first VR videogame being announced, République VR.
Camouflaj has rebuilt its award-winning stealth title for PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and Android from the ground up for virtual reality (VR). République VR is set in a dystopian surveillance state, where the player must use their VR device to hack into the nation’s elaborate network and guide a captive woman on a treacherous journey to freedom.
“From the very beginning, the team set out to build the quintessential mobile VR game,” said Camouflaj designer, Ryan Payton in a statement. “We are so excited to finally lift the veil on this incredibly challenging project. I’m happy to say that the hard work has paid off—République VR plays and looks absolutely stunning despite the obvious hardware limitations.”
République VR will include all five episodes of the stealth series when it launches this winter for Gear VR, compatible with Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8, whilst supporting three input methods: touchpad, motion controller, and Bluetooth controller.
VRFocus will be at Oculus Connect 4 (OC4) for both days, so come back for the latest news and announcements.
The Hulk’s moveset is appropriately brutal, relying on slow and heavy attacks delivered in close proximity. Basic punches – performed simply by swinging your arms – will do some damage, but grabbing and throwing your opponents in a similar fashion to 
This formula essentially makes Marvel Powers United VR a sort of co-operative MOBA. The players work together to defend waves of enemies as they build their own powers before executing on larger scale enemies. It eschews the tower defence ruleset of strategy-over-action and instead opts for a more immediate experience, and does so with the ideal that players can work together while still playing their own little battles with the enemy AI. The only real issue with this at present is that there’s no sense of depth on offer – is there more to each character than the four basic attacks? Marvel Powers United VR is part-FPS, part-MOBA, and with that looks to be an enjoyable experience for both VR newcomers and Marvel fans alike, but those familiar with the VR medium will have to wait and see if Sanzaru Games end up with just another wave shooter. Albeit one 
.
