Oculus Rift Games – Page 26 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 19, 2017

‘Heart of the Emberstone: Coliseum’ Demo Offers a Free Taste of the Game’s Telekinetic Powers

Cloudhead Games, the studio known for pioneering several locomotion schemes during the creation of their well-received VR adventure series The Gallery, have just released a fresh demo for their latest game, The Gallery: Heart of the Emberstone (2017). The demo is a sandbox version of the Coliseum level that lets you get your hands on the game’s unique telekinetic powers before committing to the full game.

While dedicated game demos used to be the best way to find out if you wanted to take the full-priced plunge, in this late age of digital content distribution it seems not all developers commit to creating demos for their games, instead making users rely on refunds to get a taste of whatever it is they cooked up.

Cloudhead’s Heart of the Emberstone: Coliseum is now live on Steam for free, making for an easy way to dive head-first into the game’s magical powers, and step inside some of the game’s imposing architecture while you experience a no-spoilers slice of the story.

The studio says the demo was a way to “break up the monotony of the usual arcade fare in VR with a taste of a bigger adventure.”

Heart of the Emberstone is the second episode in the series after Call of the Starseed (2016). As a successor to one of the first room-scale games in existence, the second episode takes you deeper into the ’80s fiction-inspired universe and flushes out what proves to be a story as rich as the cinematic direction teased in the first. Far from being a one hit wonder, the second episode improves on the experience of the first in almost every way.

Find out why we rated Heart of the Emberstone a solid [9/10] in our review.

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December 18, 2017

‘In Death’ is a Medieval Roguelike Bow-shooter from ‘EVEREST VR’ Developer Sólfar Studios

In quite the pivot from virtual tourism experience EVEREST VR (2016), Iceland-based Sólfar Studios has revealed their next VR project, In Death, a VR roguelike bow-shooter that promises procedurally generated crawling for loot and more.

Announced today, Sólfar says that In Death is set in a “godless afterlife”. The studio describes the gameplay as such:

Battle through procedurally generated levels and dungeons in intense ranged combat coupled with a unique locomotion system perfectly attuned to your fighting style.

[…]

A VR shooter with roguelike elements, In Death’s surreal medieval setting is presented in a procedurally generated world with monsters, mysteries and loot. Driven by an achievement-based progression system that advances between sessions, each run is unique, with unpredictable outcomes.

Built on UE4, the studio’s prior title, Everest VR, was visually quite stunning, leaving us with visual high expectations for their new game.

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Sólfar is soliciting signups for a free closed beta ahead of In Death’s 2018 release. You can sign up on the game’s official page. The studio says the game is being made “exclusively for high immersion VR platforms,” which rules out mobile, but doesn’t quite specify which tethered headsets the game will launch on, though the beta is said to be available for Rift and Vive players.

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December 16, 2017

‘L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files’ Workaround Adds Support for Rift and Windows VR Headsets

L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files launched to much excitement yesterday, but it wasn’t long before it was revealed that the game explicitly blocks OpenVR-compatible headsets other than the Vive. Luckily a free, unofficial workaround has been released which adds support for the Oculus Rift and Windows VR headsets to LA Noire VR.

Legendary emancipator of VR exclusives, Jules “LibreVR” Blok, quickly came to the aid of Rift and Windows VR users wanting to play LA Noire VR. Just hours after the game launched yesterday, Blok released the ‘LA Noire Fix‘, a small, unofficial patch which restores LA Noire VR’s underlying support of the Rift and Windows VR headsets thanks to its OpenVR foundation. Rockstar Games had explicitly blocked the headsets from working with LA Noire VR, though its motivations for doing so are unclear.

The workaround released by Blok is a simple .dll file swap which takes just a few seconds to implement; installation instructions are listed on the patch’s official GitHub page. While the patch LA Noire VR fully playable on the Rift or Windows VR headsets, be warned that Rockstar says the game only officially supports the HTC Vive; some unexpected behavior may result from using other headsets, and there’s no guarantee that the company won’t attempt to block workarounds going forward—buyer beware.

Blok is the creator of Revive, a free workaround that allows OpenVR headsets like the Vive to play Oculus exclusive titles. His work is supported by the community via Patreon.

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December 15, 2017

‘YouTube VR’ Finally Comes to PC, Bringing the Platform’s 360 Videos to Vive, Rift, and Windows VR

It’s been a long while coming, but Google has finally launched a YouTube VR app on PC. The app is now available on Steam, officially for the Vive (but also functional with Rift and Windows VR headsets). Google expects YouTube VR to remain in Early Access through 2018 as they continue to develop it based on feedback.

As one of the largest video content libraries on the planet, demand for being able to watch YouTube content in a VR headset has been understandably strong. Google however hung onto YouTube (seemingly in a strategic move) for itself, launching the first official YouTube VR app for the company’s Daydream platform in 2016 (and notably keeping it from competitor Gear VR).

At the beginning of 2017, PlayStation VR was the first tethered headset to see an official YouTube VR app, but it isn’t until now at the very end of the year that YouTube VR has come to Vive, Rift, and Windows VR via Steam. The app, which is free (and Google says will remain so), allows users to watch any YouTube video, 360 or otherwise (including stereoscopic video).

For Vive and Rift users interested in watching some of the interesting 360 video content out there, it’s been frustrating to either need to download a bespoke app for each video, use an unofficial workaround, or simply not have any way of accessing the content at all. As one of the largest 360 video libraries around today, the YouTube VR app on PC will hopefully mean much broader and more seamless access to 360 content across headsets. Gear VR is still left out in the rain for now, as far as an official YouTube VR app goes, but at least users can access and watch content from YouTube.com via the headset’s web browser.

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VR has put Google in a curious place; the company—which is famously web and mobile-first—has now launched a number of PC applications in an effort to forge a path as a pioneer in the VR space. Though Google is also very involved with the development of WebVR, the launch of YouTube VR on Steam suggests the company didn’t feel WebVR was yet mature enough to support the experience they wanted to create.

It took a while, but YouTube VR on PC was largely inevitable. Google may have played things close to the vest for some time, but ultimately the company’s play with YouTube has been to make its content available to the widest group of people as possible; the move is also sensible to support Google’s growing efforts to equip creators with the skills and equipment to shoot 360 content, like the Jump Start program.

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December 14, 2017

‘Mindshow’ Update Lets You Collaborate on Creations with Your Steam Friends

Mindshow, the app that lets you make animated movies in VR, just pushed an update that now lets you collaborate with your Steam friends to create something truly unique.

The new ‘VR Sharing’ function lets you share and remix shows from inside the headset by allowing you to pass your creations back and forth between you Steam friends. It’s a bit like one of those collaborative creative writing prompts you used to do in school, except instead of writing one part of the story and passing it to your classmate, you’re a talking VR Twinkie arguing about taxes with a drunken airline pilot—or whatever else you can come up with using the app’s many characters, props and settings.

The update also included 4 new winter-themed characters, 3 new props (champagne, a sparkler, and a North Pole sign) and an icy Winter Wonderland featuring some excellent outdoor filming spots:

The function was first released to Mindshow’s beta program ‘Astronauts’, which gives you access to experimental Mindshow features like adding more characters to a show, the opportunity to receive promotion on our social media, and other perks to being an early creator.

The developers suggest searching the Mindshow Steam Forums to find more users to share with, since not everyone on you Steam list is bound to be a VR-user. With a few buddies willing to collaborate, you just hop into Mindshow and create a new show, making sure to leave space for your friend to add their part. Once you’re done with your part, just select the yellow ‘Settings’ icon on the hand menu and click ‘Share’. From there, it’ll be uploaded to the Feed for your friends to remix and share back.

You can download Mindshow on Steam for free, which includes support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

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December 14, 2017

‘The Lost Bear’ to Launch on Oculus Rift Before Christmas

The Lost Bear (2017), Odd Bug Studio’s cinematic 2D VR platformer for PSVR, is making its way to Oculus Rift headsets in time for Christmas.

With its charming hand-drawn style, The Lost Bear follows Walnut on her journey home through a strange and abandoned world that’s been corrupted by the toy-stealing Snatcher. Combining both 3D VR environments and 2D platforming, you solve puzzles as Walnut desperately tries to escape The Snatcher’s Hounds on her way back home—all in service to Walnut’s favorite teddy bear.

Released back in September exclusively for PlayStation VR, The Lost Bear currently holds a [4.5/5] star rating on PSN. The studio says in their Rift support announcement that one of their biggest inspirations is Playdead’s hit indie side-scrollers Limbo (2011) and Inside (2016).

Unlike its PSVR release, the Rift version is said to feature motion controller support.

Take a look at some of the mechanics below to get a better idea of how The Lost Bear marries traditional 2D platformer action with the 3D VR world.

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December 12, 2017

‘EVE: Valkyrie’ Winter Update Adds Custom Matches, Spectator Mode & New Map

CCP may have shuttered their VR game-producing branches, but EVE: Valkyrie (2016), the studio’s multiplayer arcade dogfighter set in the EVE universe, lives on with the addition of support for traditional monitors. Launched today across all platforms including PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive comes the Winter Update which includes custom matches, spectator mode, a new map, and support for TrackIR and Tobii for non-VR players.

One of the most important parts of the update is invariably the ability to make your own custom matches. Now you’ll be able to host your own matches on EVE: Valkyrie’s dedicated servers where you can set up lobbies with passcodes, create private invites, and cycle through maps and several game modes. Make every ship ridiculously overpowered, underpowered, use only certain weapons—it’s up to you.

CCP says Spectator Mode lets you either observe a match in progress from fixed hotspots scattered throughout the map, or fly around at will in a third-person ship-anchored POV, although we haven’t confirmed if the last one is capable in VR considering how nauseating it sounds.

‘Archangel’ is Free this Weekend on Rift, Access Now Available

Archangel (2017), the single-player mech shooter from Skydance Interactive, is hosting a free-access weekend starting today, going until Monday at 3:00 AM ET (local time here).

Letting you step into the cockpit of a six-story mech as the main force behind the United States Free Forces’ war against the tyrannical corporation HUMNX, you command an arsenal of weapons to shoot down the enemy and protect a post-apocalyptic America.

Playing as either Gabriel or Gabby Walker, you bond with an experimental mech AI, M1KL, and are tasked with delivering it to the secret resistance facility Deep Mountain.

Gameplay is ‘on-rails’, meaning you don’t really get to locomote around the map, instead traveling through cinematic interludes filled with arcade-style shooting.

While the $30 price tag might have been too rich for your blood at launch back in summer, this presents a good opportunity to jump in and see if it’s really for you or now without. It appears the Steam version is not offering a similar free-access weekend, although Vive users can user Revive to shoe into the game over the next few days too. The PSVR version doesn’t seem to be doing it either, so it looks like only Rift and Vive will be able to take part.

You can find the Rift version here.

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December 8, 2017

Bethesda Gives a Peek into ‘Fallout 4 VR’ in Crash Course Intro to Game Mechanics

In preparation for Fallout 4 VR’s upcoming December 12th launch on HTC Vive, Bethesda takes us through our paces with an intro to the game’s control scheme, base building mechanic, and V.A.T.S. focused combat, giving us a quick preview of what to expect next week.

Presented by Bethesda Community Manager Jessica Finster and Fallout 4 VR Lead Producer Andrew Scharf, the video shows the two main locomotion options: teleportation (which uses action points), and what Bethesda calls ‘direct movement’, otherwise known as smooth locomotion. ‘Direct movement’ mode allows both walking and sprinting in any direction simply by pressing down on the left controller’s touchpad in the desired direction.

When using the snap-turn function, which is ideal for front-facing setups, Finster commented “it seems like there’s movement for everyone,” likely alluding to the Rift’s standard tracking configuration.

Fallout 4 VR makes heavy use of the original’s 2D UI menu system

While Scharf didn’t mention any other comfort modes outside of teleportation and snap-turning, a ‘comfort vignette’ mode can be seen while Finster browses the game’s 2D menus, which could provide a sort of HUD to help keep players feeling more grounded, like you might feel in a cockpit.

Arguably one of the most natural fits for the PC-to-VR port is the game’s Pip-Boy wrist-mounted computer, which lets you flip through its various menus on the fly just like you would if you were really in the Wasteland. Finster admits using it might get tiring though, which prompts Scharf to explain that the Pip-Boy menu can be locked to the user’s point of view so you don’t have to raise your wrist to traverse the games settings. The selection in the menu can also be seen in the image above.

Workshop mode, which lets you build out your base, is shown in the video to be slightly more ‘VR-native’ as well. Presented with a carousel of items to choose from featuring 3D representations of the object, it looks like a nice break from the game’s flatter 2D UI.

One thing we haven’t seen until now is the ability to pistol whip baddies if they get too close. Not being able to affect bad guys when they’re too close is definitely an immersion-breaker, so it’s great to see the game will allow you to flail wildly when you’re out of bullets and AP and still fend off the Feral Ghouls.

Lastly, the video shows a little of what Power Armor is like, where Scharf explains that stepping into the armor “scales you up” so you actually feel larger in the world.

‘High Fidelity’ Makes First Strides into its Blockchain-based Digital Economy

High Fidelity, the social VR app founded by Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, recently launched Avatar Island – the first of many future in-world stores stocked with digital assets for its users to buy. While purchasing digital items like hats and t-shirts may not be anything out of the ordinary for fans of its spiritual predecessor Second Life, the store is showcasing High Fidelity‘s more recent development: its own cryptocurrency and a blockchain-based ledger system, both of which aim to pave the way for a functioning in-world economy.

High Fidelity‘s cryptocurrency, called High Fidelity Coin (HFC) isn’t like other coins. While it can be converted to local fiat currencies or to other cryptocurrencies at popular exchanges, it can’t be mined by users like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but instead will be managed by the company so the number of coins gradually increases as the economy grows.

Boasting stability over volatility, what makes HFC special is the way it ties the exchange of digital goods to the blockchain, or what the company calls the Digital Asset Registry (DAR). Acting as an open ledger, DAR stores information about the ownership of digital assets in virtual worlds, and is used to protect intellectual property by embedding certification related to item ownership into the blockchain itself. This certification is unalterable and can’t be deleted, and contains information on the chain of object ownership, its characteristics, and its entire history – from the very moment it was verified as a valid in-game object.

Avatar Island shop, image courtesy High Fidelity

According to a blogpost authored by COO Thomas Schofield, DAR allows each item to be uniquely identified via a digital fingerprint (a hash algorithm) that he says “could even become a bridge to the real world.” Schofield also calls the launch of Avatar Island “a major step toward building a thriving virtual economy,” and “a major milestone for virtual worlds more generally.”

“In the future, item ownership recorded on the DAR could also be used to translate purchases between the virtual and real worlds. Imagine buying a pair of shoes for your avatar and receiving an unfalsifiable coupon for the same pair of shoes in a real store. The distributed, trusted nature of a blockchain solution makes this possible,” says Schofield.

To get started earning HTC, High Fidelity users must submit new items for sale on Avatar Island via the High Fidelity Marketplace, as well as a request to participate in the closed beta for High Fidelity’s commerce functionality. The company says acceptance to the High Fidelity closed commerce beta includes a starter amount of HFC that can be used to buy items on Avatar Island and from the High Fidelity Marketplace.

High Fidelity supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and can be downloaded free via Steam and directly from the company website.

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