Category: Oculus Home

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Rift Developers Can Now Grant Custom Oculus Home Items As Achievements

Rift Developers Can Now Grant Custom Oculus Home Items As Achievements

Developers of Oculus Rift games sold on the Oculus Store can now grant custom Oculus Home items as achievements. Users can decorate their virtual homes with these achievements and even show off them off to friends.

Facebook first announced this feature at Oculus Connect 5 back in late September. Since then it’s been trialed with Superhot VR, Moss, Echo Arena, Job Simulator, OrbusVR, and Arizona Sunshine. From today, all Rift developers can create and grant 3D models as achievements.

Of course, achievements aren’t the only way to get custom items for your Oculus Home. Back in June, Oculus started allowing users to import their own 3D models into Home. Shortly after, the company added an ‘Export to Home’ feature to the Oculus Medium sculpting app.

Like with user-created custom items, custom developer items must be in the glTF file format. glTF is a free open standard from the Khronos group, the same organization behind Vulkan and OpenXR. Items can include looping animations, but the total file size must be under 15MB. They also have to be tied directly to achievements; you can’t grant players extra rewards for anything not linked to the system right now.

Achievements as actual items in VR may make earning them much more compelling for gamers. In the past, showing off your achievements meant a friend scrolling through a 2D list on your profile or exhibiting them as framed posters inside Home. But now you can show them off in much more personalized ways when inviting a friend around to your virtual home. You can pick one up and hand it to them, if you really want to boast.

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Oculus Details Improvements for November’s Platform Update

Oculus tends to update its virtual reality (VR) platform on a monthly basis, with October seeing Custom Developer Items, dynamic lighting and physically-based renderers among other additions. For November there’s a new pirates collection and Dash UI improvements.

Oculus Home Pirate theme

Overall look and feel of Dash has now seen an upgrade, bringing enhanced accessibility to settings. Now you can hover over the right side of the belt for instant access to volume controls, Touch status, battery life, and to re-centre your view.

Custom 3D Objects have seen an update, ‘introducing the ability to add embedded panels into your custom objects. Now you can stream PC desktop windows from any item of your own design,’ notes the company.

And for those who love to sail the seven seas, rum in-hand, there’s a new pirate collection available to decorate your virtual home. This sees floor and ceiling materials, decorations, furniture, and outfits now on offer.

Oculus Pirate Avatars

To unlock a starter set of decorations simply log into Oculus Home before 1st December. You’ll also be able to find rare artefacts like the Captain’s Throne, Skull and Crossbones, or Benjamin, a poor landlubber that’s been turned into a candle inside of reward packs as you spend time in Oculus Home throughout November. Avatar’s get new clothing and accessory options, like a tricorn hat and a leather vest.

Don’t forget that about the newly launched Oculus Referrals Programme either. This allows current owners to refer a friend to get them a 10 percent discount off of an Oculus Rift or Oculus Go headset. In turn, the referee gets Oculus Store credit towards their next purchase.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Oculus and its winter deals, reporting back with the latest updates.

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The Biggest VR Releases Of The Week 10/28/18

The Biggest VR Releases Of The Week 10/28/18

Last week we had a massive new VR shooter hit Early Access in the form of War Dust, putting 64 players on the same map in two teams of 32 each. This week, there’s nothing quite that ambitious. Instead, we’ve got a free edition of one of VR’s most visually striking shooters, an Oculus Go port of Daydream’s best game, a PSVR tourism app, and a mesmerizing VR short about an ancient healer.

These are your biggest VR releases for the week of October 28th, 2018. For all of October’s VR releases check out this massive list and look forward to November VR releases here.

Seeking Dawn: Free to Play Edition, from Multiverse
Price: Free, Platforms: Rift, Vive, Windows VR

Seeking Dawn is a gorgeous VR game, but its gameplay never quite does enough to back up the extreme visual fidelity. We had plenty of issues with the game when it first launched earlier this year, but now there’s a new free version, complete with multiplayer support, that’s basically a wave-based survival mode. And it’s Halloween themed because why not!

Read our full review of the paid game here.

The Bond, from Axis Studios
Price: Free, Platforms: Rift, Vive

The Bond is a visually stunning, free, VR short about an ancient healer and her connection with all living things – good or evil. Far away, in an alien forest, a TiaMuati and her faithful beast seek out a sacred glade. Here she can connect with the web of life – and see the world through other’s eyes. But there’s an imbalance – a dark presence. As the forest’s guardian she must confront it… and you’re coming with her.

Legends of Catalonia, from The Greyskull Company
Price: Free, Platforms: PSVR

VR tourism hasn’t really hit its stride yet and it’s typically rare on PSVR, but this app is really, really impressive. You can visit famous locales around Barcelona like never before in this world. From the Store page: “Enter an epic adventure, traveler. Catalonia awaits you and you must help the knight Sant Jordi to recover the secrets of his lost diary. Join an adventure in the hands of illustrious travel companions and overcome the challenges that await you in a world of dreams, legends and fantasy.”

Eclipse: Edge of Light, from White Elk
Price: $9.99, Platforms: Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR, Daydream

Review Synopsis:

If you hadn’t guessed by now I was really rather fond of Eclipse. I even see it as a sort of spiritual successor to Ustwo Games’ excellent Land’s End on Gear VR, only more ambitious. White Elk took a lot of risks with the game’s design that pay off in spades, from the smart use of Daydream’s controller to giving players full control over their movement. The result is a memorable sci-fi adventure that kept me fully engaged from start to finish, and left me feeling like I’d really explored an alien world. This isn’t just the best game on Daydream, but one of the best mobile VR games full stop.

Read our full review of the original Daydream version here.

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Oculus Home 2.0 und Dash: Update mit zahlreichen neuen Features ab sofort erhältlich

Die Rift-Core-2.0-Software hat offiziell die Beta-Phase verlassen und wird nun für die Nutzer/innen ausgerollt. Das neue Oculus Home 2.0 inklusive Oculus Dash beinhaltet zahlreiche Verbesserungen und Features sowie UI-Optimierungen und eine individualisierbare Home-Umgebung.

Oculus Core 2.0 – Oculus Home 2.0 und Dash offiziell erhältlich

Bereits auf der Oculus Connect 5 kündigten die Devs den Release der neuen Core-2.0.-Software an. Mit zahlreichen Performance-Optimierungen, UI-Updates und einer anpassbaren Home-Umgebung, die zeitgleich als virtueller Versammlungsort für bis zu acht Personen dient, soll das neue Oculus Home 2.0 zu einer Wohlfühloase in den digitalen Gefilden werden.

Oculus-Home-2.0-Oculus-Rift-Connect-5

So wird die bisher karge Eingangspforte in die virtuelle Welt zum individualisierbaren Wohnzimmer. Dafür stehen zahlreiche Themes zur Auswahl. Ob jahreszeitbedingte Sommer- oder Herbstthemen oder Gaming-relevante Inhalte, für jeden Geschmack ist etwas dabei. Die dazugehörigen Einrichtungsgegenstände können nach freiem Belieben genutzt werden. Sollte euch etwas fehlen, könnt ihr eigene 3D-Objekte und -Modelle importieren. Nebenbei erhalten alle Nutzer/innen die sich bis zum 31. Oktober einloggen ein Halloween-Deko-Set zur gruseligsten Jahreszeit – Spooky!

Oculus-Home-Oculus-Core-2.0-Oculus-Dash-Rift

Zusätzlich könnt ihr ab sofort insgesamt 32 freischaltbare Gegenstände in derzeit 9 verschiedenen VR-Titeln finden, um euren Trophäenschrank damit aufzuwerten. In folgenden Titeln könnt ihr diese finden, wobei Weitere in Zukunft folgen sollen:

  • Loco Dojo
  • Moss
  • SUPERHOT VR
  • Echo Arena
  • Brass Tactics
  • Ready At Dawn
  • Lone Echo II Trailer Experience
  • Job Simulator
  • OrbusVR
  • Arizona Sunshine

Damit eine reibungslose Performance gewährleistet wird, wurde die gesamte Umgebung überarbeitet. Dies hat auch optische Vorteile, denn nun erwarten euch dynamische Lichteffekte sowie physisch reale Renderings.

Oculus-Home-Oculus-Core-2.0-Oculus-Dash-Rift

Zudem sorgt das neue Dash-Interface für einfache Navigation zwischen Apps und PC mit nur wenigen Klick. Auch hier wurde, neben den optimierten Oberflächen und Anpassungen der beliebtesten Features, an den Leistungsanforderungen geschraubt, um das Management-Tool problemlos im Hintergrund laufen zu lassen. Neben ergonomischen Optimierungen sowie Verbesserungen am Oberflächen-Design beinhaltet das Feature nun auch experimentelle Settings. Darin werden zukünftige Funktionen zum Testen bereitgestellt.

(Quelle: Oculus)

Der Beitrag Oculus Home 2.0 und Dash: Update mit zahlreichen neuen Features ab sofort erhältlich zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Oculus Home 2.0 And Dash Exit Beta, Now Rolling Out To All Rift Owners

Oculus Home 2.0 And Dash Exit Beta, Now Rolling Out To All Rift Owners

When the Oculus Rift launched back in mid-2016, its system software and store were criticized for the relative lack of features compared to other platforms and stores (such as Steam). In fact, the software couldn’t even be installed to any hard drive other than the system drive (nor could VR games/apps from Oculus’ store).

In the following years, Oculus slowly added the missing features such as custom install folders, ratings & reviews, a wishlist, refunds, and cloud save support. However, the core experience of the “Home” environment and the Rift’s in-VR menu system remained the same until in late 2017 at their Connect 4 conference, when Oculus launched the beta for Rift Core 2.0. Now, Oculus is taking it out of beta and rolling it out to all Rift owners.

Oculus Home 2.0 brings customization and social

Oculus Home 2.0 is a total revamp. Instead of the old static environment where the user was locked to one position, Home is now customizable with hundreds of objects and textures. From within VR, the user can spawn and place these objects, or even import their own models from Medium or their PC. It now uses Unreal Engine with dynamic lighting and physically based rendering, which delivers a more realistic look, but with a performance penalty. This extra performance hit has led to complaints from Rift owners on lower end systems, and even the creation of Oculus Homeless, a tool which replaces Home 2.0 with a blank grey room.

At Connect 5, Oculus also announced custom developer items, letting developers add unlockable objects for Oculus Home in their game. The developers of Superhot VR, Moss, Echo Arena, Job Simulator, OrbusVR, and Arizona Sunshine have all already added such unlockables. It’s worth mentioning as well that SteamVR Home has had custom environments, collectible items from games, and the ability to explore the Home space for quite some time already.

But arguably the biggest change to Home from before is that it is now social. Whereas the old Oculus Home was isolated to the user, Home 2.0 lets up to 8 Rift users hang out in each others homes in real-time using their Oculus Avatar.

Oculus Dash brings desktop windows into VR

The other major component in Rift Core 2.0 is Dash. With the old Rift system software, if the user wanted to control something on their PC or bring up a traditional app like their browser, they needed to take the headset off and do this with their monitor. The competing SteamVR platform had a virtual monitor view from its menu system, as well as apps like OVRDrop.

With Dash, a virtual view of the user’s monitor can be brought up at any time (in Home or in any VR app). But better yet, specific desktop windows can be “pulled out” of the virtual monitor and “pinned” in place, so even when the Dash menu is closed they will remain. This allows for use cases like watching Netflix in Elite Dangerous (as if your ship had a TV), or for positioning the chat of a livestream behind you in Robo Recall.

In this latest releases of Core 2.0, Home has received Dash integration. This allows users to pin windows onto virtual TVs and monitors in VR, and similar to the free cross-platform app Bigscreen, the contents of these windows can be seen by other users in the space via streaming.

Oculus tell us that Dash uses low level APIs developed in cooperation with NVIDIA and AMD which should theoretically make the performance hit much less than using existing techniques.

Additionally, Oculus are using the underlying technology behind Dash to bring traditional PC software into VR, which they’re calling Hybrid Apps. Hybrid Apps promise to let developers bring their software to VR without the normal cost and complexity of a true VR port, but it is yet to be seen how widespread the adoption will be.

With Core 2.0, Oculus’ direction for the future of their PC VR platform is becoming clear: Oculus wants Home to be your central, personalized hub for coordinating multiplayer sessions, and wants Dash to one day kill the need for a physical monitor. In fact, Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash has said that this concept of a social VR workspace with infinite virtual windows is his ideal use case for VR.

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‘Oculus Home’ Update Brings New Improvements, Social Features & More to All Users

Rift’s new system software, previously known as Rift Core 2.0, is now rolling out to everyone, bringing with it a number of performance improvements, UI updates, and a more customizable Oculus Home area with support for up to eight people.

First teased at Oculus Connect 5, the new update includes more performance improvements that now allow everything down to minimum spec computers to run Oculus Home and Dash smoothly.

Rift Core 2.0 beta branch users have been privy to a custom home area since last year, with plenty of random items to unlock for visiting Home each week, and more recently, the ability to import your own 3D creations. But now playing games and unlocking achievements will get you game-specific items too, such as animated objects, sculptures, trophies, and avatar clothing—all of it now available on the default stable branch.

 

A total of 32 unlockable objects are available across nine titles, including Loco Dojo, Moss, SUPERHOT VR, Echo Arena, Brass Tactics, Job Simulator, OrbusVR, Arizona Sunshine, and the Lone Echo II Trailer Experience. Oculus will soon allow developers to create Home items commemorating pre-orders, specific purchase incentives, and participation mementos.

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All Rift users can now invite up to eight friends simultaneously for social hangouts and co-watching events that include any content you can cast from your desktop.

Here’s a quick guide on how to visit a friend’s Home:

To visit your friend’s Home:

  1. Open the Oculus app on your computer.
  2. Click your name from the bottom left menu to open your Friends List.
  3. Select the friend whose Home you want to visit.
  4. Click “Visit Home”, then put on your headset.

To visit your friend’s Home from within VR:

  1. Open the Oculus app on your computer and put on your headset.
  2. Press the menu button on your left Touch controller to access the Home menu.
  3. Select Places from the left sidebar.
  4. Point at the Home you want to visit, press the grip trigger on your Touch controller to grab the Home’s sphere, and then break the sphere to teleport to that Home.

To invite friends to your home, simply click on Social and click your friend’s name to send them an invite.

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Oculus Launch Rift Software Update

Oculus Connect 5 at the end of September brought with it a whole bunch of announcements, with the pick of the bunch obviously being the reveal of the Oculus Quest. The finalised vision of that which was begun with the Santa Cruz prototype head-mounted display (HMD).

However, it wasn’t just new hardware that was discussed at this year’s Oculus Connect, the evolution of the current software sets was also very much a topic of discussion – and, after being previewed at the event, Oculus has pressed the button to roll out the latest version of the Oculus Rift’s software package. (Previously known as Rift Core 2.0.)

The update brings with it both new features and optimisations for previous ones. Performance has been improved, the user interface upgraded and there are changes within Oculus Home which is now more customisable than ever before.

“This new software release marks the culmination of months of work and the start of an exciting new phase for Rift.” Confirmed Oculus VR in their latest company blog focusing on the update. “From here, we’ll continue to evolve features and functionality on a monthly basis.”

Such evolution will be achieved in part through the Rift’s new system interface called Dash, which will not only be bringing Rift users greater access and control of both their apps and PC but that will also include what Oculus is calling Experiments. As the name suggests, this toggleable addition showcases a number of potential upcoming features for users to test and feedback on.

Oculus Home Unlockable - Loco DojoThe big update for Home includes Custom Developer Items – unlockable pieces of art, in-game objects and all manner of other things related to your favourite virtual reality (VR) videogame. From a statue of Quill from Moss to the latest addition to the ranks, an animate statue of the Grand Sensei from Loco Dojo. This makes 32 unlockables in Home across nine very different titles. The other seven being Lone Echo II, OrbusVR, Arizona Sunshine, Job Simulator, Echo Arena, Brass Tactics and SUPERHOT VR.

Oculus have also been getting in the holiday spirit – as have a lot of developers since October began – by debuting a new spooky décor for Home (seen above).  You can find a list of key features in the update, as revealed by Oculus below.

VRFocus will bring you more updates about the ongoing changes to Oculus Home in the near future.

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The Future of Oculus Home Will Have Plenty More Incentives

This week saw Oculus announce a raft of new improvements for its Oculus Home platform. Designed to further advance the user experience while in virtual reality (VR) the new Core 2.0 updates saw performance enhancements, achievements and Oculus Dash redesigned for better ergonomics. But that’s not all, as Oculus has even more incentives planned for Oculus Rift users.

Oculus Home Models

Using a new feature called Custom Developer Items, studios will be able to create unique items for players to collect by completing achievements. This option is now available for the following videogames: Arizona Sunshine, Brass Tactics, Echo VR, Lone Echo, Job Simulator, Moss, OrbusVR, and SUPERHOT VR, so long as you’re signed up to the Public Test Channel, other wise you’ll have to wait until next month.

But Oculus wants to take this a step further. In a session titled ‘The Future of Home for Rift: Developer & Roadmap Updates’  Nancy Xiao, Product Manger, Oculus Home, revealed that developers will soon be able to grant rewards for more than just achievements, looking along the lines of pre-order bonuses, or specific purchase incentives like when buying DLC for example. Or when studios host an event or tournament they’ll be able to give out participation mementos.

This will likely lead to limited edition items that may become highly sort after, although that then begs the question, will friends be able to swap or trade items with each other in the future, much in the same way PC players sell and trade weapons skins or other ancillary items?

Oculus Home summer

With these features alongside being able to bring friends into your home and new expressive avatars, Oculus is greatly expanding the use functionality of its platform. From a simple store with community features to an actual digital hub for users to customise and share.

As Oculus Home continues to be improved and expanded upon, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Oculus Connect 5: Oculus-Mobile-App erhält Rift Support; Home und Dash erscheinen Anfang Oktober

Im Zuge der Oculus Connect 5 wurde bekannt gegeben, dass die mobile Oculus-App für iOS und Android ab sofort ebenso die Oculus Rift unterstützt. Zudem verlässt die System-Software Core 2.0 offiziell die Betaphase. Damit erscheinen die neuen Versionen von Oculus Home und Oculus Dash Anfang Oktober.

Oculus Connect 5 – Oculus-Mobile-App unterstützt Oculus Rift

Oculus sorgt zukünftig für eine bessere Vernetzung seiner Software. Auf der OC5 gab das Unternehmen ein Update mit integriertem Rift-Support für die mobile App für iOS und Android bekannt. Dadurch ist es nun möglich auch ohne PC über das Smartphone mit Freunden aus der Desktop-App zu chatten, Neuigkeiten zu verfolgen oder den Shop zu durchsuchen. Auch der Einkauf sowie die Installation von Spielen für den Computer sind nun unterwegs möglich.

Die neue App ist kostenlos für iOS und Android in den entsprechenden Stores erhältlich.

Oculus Connect 5 – Core 2.0 verlässt Beta-Phase: Oculus Home und Oculus Dash erscheinen Anfang Oktober

Ebenso wurde verkündet, dass die Betaphase der Core-2.0-Software abgeschlossen wurde. Die neue Version ist ab sofort auf den Public Test Channels verfügbar und steht zum Download bereit. Der offizielle Release soll Anfang Oktober stattfinden.

Oculus-Home-2.0-Oculus-Rift-Connect-5

Die neue Software ermöglicht es nun, die Home-Umgebung nach freiem Belieben einzurichten. Dabei könnt ihr auf eine Vielzahl an Themes mit eigenen Gegenständen und Umgebungshighlights zurückgreifen. Unter anderem ist beispielsweise ein tropisches Sommer-Theme mit dazugehörigen Einrichtungsgegenständen nutzbar.

Oculus-Home-2.0-Oculus-Rift-Connect-5

Ebenso ist es möglich, eigene 3D-Modelle und -Objekte zum Dekorieren zu importieren. Auch sammelbare Gegenstände und Trophäen aus VR-Spielen, -Apps und -Erfahrungen sind präsentierbar.

Oculus-Home-2.0-Oculus-Rift-Connect-5

In folgenden Titeln könnt ihr zunächst Achievement-Gegenstände sammeln:

  • Arizona Sunshine
  • Brass Tactivs
  • Echo VR
  • Job Simulator
  • Lone Echo
  • Moss
  • Orbus VR
  • SUPERHOT VR

Zudem dient der virtuelle Eingangsbereich zukünftig als Versammlungsort für euch und eure Freunde. Insgesamt acht Personen können sich zeitgleich innerhalb einer Zone aufhalten. Außerdem ist es per Dash möglich, seinen Bildschirminhalt für die Besucher/innen freizugeben. Damit dies reibungslos abläuft, haben die Devs die gesamte Umgebung komplett überarbeitet. Nun erwarten euch dynamische Lichteffekte und weitere optische Features mit reibungsloser Performance.

Oculus-Home-2.0-Oculus-Rift-Connect-5

Auch Oculus Dash wurde komplett überarbeitet und bietet nun optimierte Oberflächen und Anpassungen der beliebtesten Features. Auch die Leistungsanforderungen wurden verbessert, um das praktische Management-Tool ohne Probleme im Hintergrund laufen zu lassen. Per Experiment-Reiter könnt ihr zudem kommende Features jederzeit durchstöbern und austesten.

Oculus Connect 5 – Zukünftige Projekte vorgeführt

Zudem wurden die neuen expressiven Oculus-Avatare vorgestellt, die uns zukünftig auch in der Home-Umgebung erwarten sollen. Diese ermöglichen dank realistischen Gesichtsanimationen eine verbesserte Kommunikation innerhalb der VR.

Neben den neuen Avataren arbeiten die Devs derzeit an den Hybrid-Apps, die es ermöglichen zwischen 2D und VR zu wechseln.

(Quellen: Oculus Blog | Video: Oculus YouTube)

Der Beitrag Oculus Connect 5: Oculus-Mobile-App erhält Rift Support; Home und Dash erscheinen Anfang Oktober zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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The Biggest Rift, Vive and Windows VR Releases of the Week 08/22/18

The Biggest Rift, Vive and Windows VR Releases of the Week 08/22/18

It’s time to suit up and take the fight to the enemy. That’s right, Marvel: Powers United VR is finally available to buy on Oculus Rift this week. Other than that it’s not a huge week for PC VR, but there’s definitely some interesting stuff to check out.

Marvel: Powers United VR, from Sanzaru Games
Price: $39.99 (Rift)

The long-awaited Marvel VR game finally arrives. Step into the suits of your favorite heroes and take on hordes of baddies in this wave-based action game. Though it certainly has its charms, we found Powers United VR to be a little underwhelming.

Read our full review and detailed character guide.

Soviet Lunapark VR, from Mundfish
Price: $18.99 (Rift, Vive)

This strange VR wave shooter from Atomic Heart developer Mundfish finally comes out of Early Access this week. Explore an abandoned Soviet theme park with friends and fight off the hordes of crazy mechanical creations that still dwell within. Lunapark has striking visuals and loads of charm, and might just be worth your time.

Arrowborn, from Kung Fu Robots
Price: $14.99 (Rift, Vive)

Yep, more archery in Early Access. But Arrowborn does at least have its own spin on the genre, pitting players against each other in competitive shooting ranges that make you go for the high score. You can customize loadouts and more, too. Definitely worth a look for archery fans. We’ll have more thoughts on it via an in-depth hands-on and some gameplay footage soon.

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