Category: pimax

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Massive No Man’s Sky: Beyond Update Is Now Live With Free VR Support

The wait is finally over: Hello Games just officially released the Beyond Update for No Man’s Sky which includes a massively overhauled multiplayer infrastructure, tons of new features and game mechanics, a multiplayer “Nexus” hub, and, most importantly, complete VR support.

As of the time of this writing the update is live for PS4 players and is rolling out soon for other storefronts.

If you’ve got the game on PS4 or PC already then Beyond, just like all previous overhaul updates, is entirely free to download. Luckily, it’s not half-hearted  VR integration either. Instead, they’ve redesigned how you interact with the world and allowed players to carry over their entire save file or even play online with other players (VR or otherwise) in the same universe.

For those hungry for more details while the update downloads, make sure and check out our full breakdown of everything we know so far as well as our latest hands-on preview of the VR update and a long, detailed interview with Hello Games head, Sean Murray, about the past, present, and future of both VR and No Man’s Sky itself.

If that’s not enough for you, engage in some of our discussion topics, such as whether or not No Man’s Sky is the most important VR game launch so far and what you plan on doing first once the VR update is on your hard drive, ready to go.

Finally, if you don’t own the game already and are eager to jump in and start exploring, then you’re in luck because No Man’s Sky is currently discounted across both PS4 and PC for 50% off. You can pick it up off of the Humble Store, Steam, and PSN at that rate until August 21st next week.

Let us know what you think of No Man’s Sky VR support once you get a chance to try it down in the comments below!

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No Man’s Sky VR Release Date Confirmed For This August

No Man’s Sky: Beyond, which includes complete VR support for the entire game, finally has a confirmed release date for this August 14th.

That’s less than two weeks away in case you didn’t realize. In less than two weeks you can plop on a VR headset and take off for space to explore the stars, visit far-away galaxies, or explore entire planets from top to bottom. And we can tell that a lot of you are excited as well.

Sky’s The Limit

Earlier this year Hello Games announced No Man’s Sky: Beyond, a new overhaul of the game that would include revamped online features and VR support. A third and final component of the release is still under wraps for now. We should know a bit more about No Man’s Sky VR before the date, hopefully, to further whet appetites.

The No Man’s Sky VR release date news is exciting, but not too surprising. Just yesterday we learned about the game getting rated by the ESRB and Sean Murray made comments about the massive scope of the game not far before that.

Since No Man’s Sky is a procedurally generated game world that means that it’s functionally limitless. The game holds billions of planets in its digital universe, all ready to be mapped and explored. Players can even terraform planets and build structures. Or you can focus on the game’s core objective, gradually making your way to the center of the universe. Either that or just, y’know, do whatever you want. Hello Games has even gone the extra mile and implemented hand controllers like PlayStation Move. The Beyond update will be free to all existing owners.

No Man’s Sky VR is coming to PSVR and PC VR headsets on August 14th. Let us know if you plan on playing down in the comments below! Once it launches, we plan on founding Planet Upload somewhere with a nice green sky.

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No Man’s Sky: Beyond Gets ESRB Rating, Summer Release Imminent

No Man’s Sky: Beyond, which includes the No Man’s Sky VR update, is now rated by the ESRB which implies an imminent release date.

Not long ago No Man’s Sky: Beyond was rated by the Australian ratings board and now the ESRB, spotted by Wario64 on Twitter, the North American game ratings board, has weighed in as well. Unsurprisingly, just like every other version of the game, it’s rated T for Teen.

We still don’t have a specific release date for No Man’s Sky VR announced, but they did say it would be coming this summer. The original game released three years ago on August 9th, but next week seems a bit too soon without an announcement yet. Hopefully it won’t be much longer, though — we loved the brief time we spent hands-on with it on PSVR and HTC Vive Pro.

Sean Murray from Hello Games has spoken very highly of his game’s VR support, stating that he and the rest of the team have wanted to include VR from the very beginning. Unlike Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR, Borderland 2 VR, and other non-VR games that get ported, No Man’s Sky VR is actually just an update to the entire base game. No new purchases required if you own it already and the multiplayer functionality works between both VR and non-VR players. That will immediately make it one of the most widely owned VR games once the Beyond update (all of which is also free) finally launches.

No Man’s Sky VR will support PSVR and PC VR headsets. In our discussion topic last week we asked what you intend to do first when finally playing No Man’s Sky VR with its release quickly approaching. Let us know here as well down in the comments below!

The post No Man’s Sky: Beyond Gets ESRB Rating, Summer Release Imminent appeared first on UploadVR.

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Sentenced Is A Medieval VR Execution Game About Guilt

Sentenced is one of those games that hooks you the moment you hear its premise. You play as an executioner in medieval times, carrying out bloody beheadings at the whim of authoritarian Lords. But rather than simple shock factor or melee combat, Sentenced is focused on exploring a very specific theme: guilt.

Take a look at the first trailer below, which sets the tone for this narrative-driven title. Made by indie developer Samuel Gordon, Sentenced places you in the fictional European city of Ulrichshafen. In your role you’ll face several scenarios that will test your loyalty to authority and weigh in on your personal conscience.

“I’m a descendant of German-Jewish WW2 refugees,” Gordon explained in a prepared statement. “Listening to my Grandfather’s stories growing up drove me to try and understand how a social system can create conditions that enable atrocities such as those committed by the Nazis to take place. I believe that understanding the behaviour of individuals within hierarchical power structures is essential to ensure that such tragedies do not repeat themselves.”

The aim, then, is to bestow a heavy sense of guilt on player actions. Sentenced aims to do this with the help of VR, having you look victims in the eye seconds before you physically swing your sword. As for how much choice they have in the matter, Gordon says to expect something similar to the likes of Papers Please.

“In regards to player agency, the game is set up in a similar manner to ‘Papers Please’, where the assumption is you’ve been hired to do a job, and if you don’t do it you’ll be fired,” Gordon told UploadVR. “However, there are plenty of opportunities and different ways for the player to refuse to co-operate, and consequences for those actions.”

Overall it sounds hugely promising. Sentenced is due for release on PC VR headsets sometime next year. You can wishlist it now on Steam. We’ll be following it closely.

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Rift/Vive Gap Shrinks In June Steam Hardware Survey Results (Sort Of)

We took a month off in May (forgive us! E3!) but June’s Steam Hardware Survey results are in. Put simply, they don’t show much change in the overall landscape.

The Oculus Rift still leads the charge with 44.12% of the overall VR headset usage on Steam. Pairing the 40.76% share that HTC Vive has with the 1.66% share of the Vive Pro, HTC is at 42.42%. That’s a difference of just 1.7% between the two headsets. That’s about half of last month’s difference of 3.82%. However it’s not as simple as it all seems.

vr headsets june 2019 steam vr hardware survey

We still don’t know if this month’s results include the Oculus Rift S in its findings. We’ve reached out to Valve to ask, but given the results group the Vive and Vive Pro differently it doesn’t seem likely. It even has separate listings for Rift’s DK1 and Dk2 headsets. Similarly, we don’t know if these results include the newly-launched Vive Pro Eye. And, of course, they clearly don’t include Valve’s new headset, the Index, which started arriving on people’s doors right at the end of June.

If Rift S isn’t included, then it’s not surprising to see Vive gain ground. Oculus stopped selling the original Rift months ago now in preparation for Rift S launch.

Rounding out this month’s results is Windows VR’s 11.13% share. That’s a modest jump over last month’s 10.99%.

Either way, we’re still looking forward to when these headsets are properly indexed (pun intended) on Steam. The survey is optional and not a definitive means of reporting on the VR market share, but it’s the best we’ve got as it stands.

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Gamescom 2019 VR Games Showcase To Highlight Six Upcoming Games

Despite rising popularity, VR has always struggled to standout at major gaming events. That’s why we put on the first ever E3 VR Showcase last month. Next month, though, a number of independent VR developers will band together to showcase their latest projects at one of the industry’s biggest events – Gamescom.

The 2019 iteration of the show, hosted in Cologne, Germany, will be the first to feature The VR Games Showcase, presented by Perp Games. The showcase will feature the likes of Fast Travel Games (Apex Construct), Neat Corporation (Budget Cuts), Carbon Studio (The Wizards), Survios (Creed: Rise to Glory), Resolution Games (Bait!) and Cortopia Studios (Wands). Each will be showing off new titles on their way to headsets in the near future.

Focused on media and content creators at its first event, the showcase will offer hands-on time with games and access to their developers. For VR, this is an unprecedented unification of studios. It’s something that Andreas Juliusson, Marketing & Communications Manager at Fast Travel Games, says needs to happen.

“During my years as marketer in the flat screen gaming industry, I got to see the value in being present at the biggest gaming conventions where media and content creators gathered,” Juliusson said. “The reality for most VR games developers today however, with the industry still relatively young, is that we often do not have the financial resources or the expertise to make an impact on these events by ourselves.

“This got me thinking: What if I would reach out to other studios in the same situation as us and ask them to join forces in a combined initiative, where we could share costs and efforts? I was immediately met with massive interest and soon after, we found a sponsor in global games publisher Perp Games who helped bring the initiative to life. Come August, six awesome developers are premiering with ‘The VR Games Showcase’ together at Gamescom and we could not be more excited!”

In its first event, the showcase is only open to members of the media and content creators. Juliusson says, however, that if the show is successful it will come to other shows and maybe to the public.

So what can you expect at the show? We’ve rounded up the announced titles below.

Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency

Neat Corp and Fast Travel Games’ unexpected sequel was one of the big reveals at our E3 VR Showcase. This event will offer the first hands-on with the project.

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets

This is another offering from Fast Travel. It’s an adorable-looking puzzler that plays with small-scale VR. Again, first hands-on is on offer at the show.

Acron

The latest from Resolution Games, Acron is a fast-paced multiplayer title between VR and mobile users. Its crazy brand of action will be playable at the show.

The Wizards: Dark Times

This is a standalone expansion to Carbon Studios’ successful magical VR game, The Wizards. We had a CG trailer at the E3 VR Showcase, but first hands-on is at Gamescom.

An Adventure In Wonderland (Name Not Final)

an adventure in wonderland vr cortopia studiosThis is the first we’ve heard about the new game from Cortopia Studios. Full details are expected to be revealed during Gamescom itself.

The Walking Dead Onslaught

More VR zombie-slaying awaits in the latest VR title from Survios. Onslaught promises to bring together the team’s past learnings for a truly gory shooter experience.

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Pimax Announces Improvements to “5K” Plus and “8K” Headsets, Updates on Accessories

Pimax is continuously tweaking their lineup of wide field of view VR headsets in effort to hone in on a finished product. To that effect, the Beijing-based company has just issued a new statement detailing some material refinements coming to new “5K+” and “8K” headsets, and some news on the long promised accessories too.

Pimax says in a forum post today that its line of headsets are getting a minor overhaul in ergonomics, bringing with it a new fabric head strap, a more comfortable face cushion with “best viewing distance”, and a different nose pad that aims to improve comfort while reducing light leakage.

Image courtesy Pimax

The quality of life updates however aren’t the biggest changes coming to Pimax’s line of headsets. Serious hardware concerns such as fractured exterior shells, sub-par cabling, and weak headphone jacks are all getting a makeover.

The company is aiming to reduce the incidence of flickering pixels, or what they call the “snow effect”, by introducing a new cable with enhanced shielding. Pimax says they’ll be rigorously screening and testing the cables moving forward. The company has also automated their screening process for optical issues such as dead pixels.

Pimax mentions that they’re bringing improvements to the 3.5mm headphone jack by increasing the soldering strength, something the company says can now withstand “more than 3,000 insertions and removals.”

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The headsets’ housing has also been cause for concern, although Pimax says it doesn’t have anything to do with its remarkably thin plastic exterior. Pimax says that microfractures in the housing mating points were “a low probability issue” caused by the cooling and deburring process, and they’ve reviewed these processes to ensure a more reliable output.

The headsets’ shipping material is getting an overhaul too, with the company stating that they’ve uncovered issues caused during transport and have developed a new packaging design in response, something they maintain is “much more resilient and passes a higher standard shock drop resistance test.”

Pimax Accessories

Pimax says the latest controller prototypes will arrive next month, the Valve Index-style controllers called ‘Sword’ and ‘Sword Sense’. The company says they plan on manufacturing both of these variants—one with a thumbstick and the other with a touchpad—for many years to come.

“Because of this it is important these devices are more than competitive with other marketplace offerings,” the company writes. “As always with Pimax we take into account feedback we see across the VR marketplace and we realize how important it is we get our Pimax controllers ‘right’.”

Image courtesy Pimax

While the floppy head strap is getting an update, the optional Rigid Audio Head strap is now undergoing ergonomics testing too. Still no ETA, but it’s nice that it’s gotten a mention.

Although we thought Pimax was going to beat Valve to the punch by finally selling SteamVR 2.0 base stations on their lonesome, the company says they’re currently in production, but that they’re bundling the base station with their controllers “due to shipping costs.” The set, which includes two controllers of any flavor and two SteamVR 2.0 base stations currently costs a $300 deposit. Again, no ETA on these ones either.

Kickstarter Accessories, Image courtesy Pimax

The headset’s Hand Tracking Module is on a bit of a bumpy road. Promised back in the Kickstarter days, Pimax says that it’s been delayed due to Leap Motion’s acquisition by ULtraHaptics. UltraHaptics is however reportedly restarting production of the module, although Pimax says “this transition has taken some time.”

There’s still no word on when the eye-tracking accessory will arrive, although the company did show it off this year at CES 2019 in January.

Pimax’s continued work on their line of headsets is commendable, but it’s hard not to feel like a beta tester when the company is constantly retooling their product every few months. Even we have a hard time keeping the myriad of hardware updates straight, although Pimax is decidedly still delivering their headsets to consumers and directly responding to criticism.

What’s missing in all of this is an identifiable timeline, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled for concrete info on when prospective users can expect to see these updates in future Pimax headset iterations.

The post Pimax Announces Improvements to “5K” Plus and “8K” Headsets, Updates on Accessories appeared first on Road to VR.

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Pimax Debuts Sword And Sword Sense Controllers With Battery Swapping

Pimax Debuts Sword And Sword Sense Controllers With Battery Swapping

As its high-resolution VR headsets tend to attract businesses and detail-focused customers, Pimax has been working on controllers with enough performance to match its displays. Today, the company announced two separate options — Sword and Sword Sense — which differ somewhat in features while sharing one big benefit: their batteries can be swapped on the fly, so users needn’t pause their VR sessions to recharge their controllers.

From behind, each of the Sword controllers looks something like a futuristic sword hilt where the guard ring floats around the bottom rather than the top. Users grab the grips, then see the guard rings surround their closed palms while their fingers access triggers and controls. Pimax says the controllers have been through multiple iterations to achieve optimized balance, comfort, and weight while grasped.

On the standard Sword, users get trackpads and 6DOF motion tracking. The higher-end Sword Sense also includes 6DOF capabilities, but swaps trackpads for thumbsticks and touch panels, and adds sensors so the guard rings can detect movements from all five fingers. Both models are compatible with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Lighthouse tracking, and each controller includes a 900mAh rechargeable lithium battery.

“These new controllers represent the next step for Pimax in offering top notch hardware to end users and B2B customers,” said Pimax’s North American and European head Kevin Henderson. “The balance these controllers have in your hand and the level of comfort will certainly please a lot of VR enthusiasts.”

As always with Pimax, the key question with the Sword controllers is going to be actual availability. The company says that Sword is slated to begin mass production “soon” and will “ship out in quantity” during the second half of 2019, with pricing yet to be determined. But that’s for the standard Sword, not the “flagship controller” Sword Sense, which doesn’t have either a release date or price. The company says only that it “aims to offer killer package deals” along with its 5K+ and 8K headsets, which notably suffered from extended production delays — but ultimately delivered superior display resolution to earlier VR headsets.

This article by Jeremy Horowitz originally appeared on VentureBeat.

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Pimax Officially Unveils its Sword Series VR Controllers

It has been quite the week for virtual reality (VR) hardware announcements and that train isn’t stopping just yet. Pimax has chosen this week to announce its very latest motion controllers, the Sword Series.

Pimax Sword Series
Pimax Sword (left), Pimax Sword Sense (Right)

Pimax’s motion controllers have been through many iterations, appearing at past events in one form or another. The most recent was CES 2019 where VRFocus found that the ones on display were only dummy models, but did look very similar to the ones pictured.

The controllers come in two versions, the Sword and the Sword Sense. The main difference being that the Sword controller has a trackpad, while the flagship Sword Sense controller has sensors for finger tracking and a thumbstick with a smaller trackpanel on the face. Looking quite similar to the Valve Index controllers with a little more flair on the tracking ring, the Sword Series also has an adjustable strap which goes around the back of the hand allowing players to let go of the controller when throwing a virtual object for example.

Other features include a replaceable and rechargeable 900mAh lithium-ion battery. “Many of our users have complained to us that while being immersed in VR, they often find the controllers suddenly dead and then they have to go back to the real world to recharge the controllers. In this situation, they have to always remember to charge the battery. These are the main reasons for the development of a replaceable and rechargeable battery.” said Kevin Henderson, NA and EU Head of Operations, Pimax VR in a statement.

Pimax Sword Series

“During the development of the new controllers we joked the most popular prototype resembled a swashbuckling sword and the name stuck. These new controllers represent the next step for Pimax in offering top notch hardware to end users and B2B customers looking for designs that are both attractive and robust. The balance these controllers have in your hand and the level of comfort will certainly please a lot of VR enthusiasts.” Kevin adds “Our goal is to provide the best VR experiences available and as we release these new controllers along with the latest lighthouse technology this will allow us to offer complete VR systems that are more expandable and versatile than any other VR offering.”

The Sword Series works with both 1.0 and 2.0 SteamVR Base Stations, and they’re expected to be available in the 2nd half of 2019. They can be pre-ordered from the Pimax website now in four combinations depending on whether customers want two trackpads, two thumbsticks or one of each. Plus Base Stations are included in the price, a mear $300 USD for any combination.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Pimax, reporting back with the latest updates.

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Pimax Creates Rugged Versions of its 8K, 5K Plus and 5K OLED Headsets for Commercial use

While virtual reality (VR) headsets are fairly durable pieces of kit, they do tend to be designed for home use rather than public, which can lead to undue wear and tear. To combat this Pimax has announced a new rugged version of its three main head-mounted displays (HMD), the 8K, 5K Plus and 5K OLED. 

Pimax RE

The new series of headsets are the Pimax 8K RE, 5K Plus RE and 5K OLED RE, all focused business and location-based entertainment (LBE) use. While the outside has a stronger more hard-wearing design, with improvements such as water resistance, a rigid headstrap and thicker cabling, the internals are still the same with a 200-degree diagonal field of view (FoV) and the high-resolution screens the company is known for.

Currently, Pimax has yet to confirm when the new versions will be made available to business customers, or how much each will cost in comparison to the standard models. If you happen to be at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) this week Pimax is there with some samples to showcase.

In addition to the new rugged headsets, Pimax has also announced a new partnership with Ecoplants, a company which specialises in 3D scanning for PBR (Physically Based Rendering) material. The pair will be at GTC 2019 to present a new VR application that aims to tap into various industries. It’ll include features such as hand tracking, inside out position and rotation tracking, as well as hundreds of digital asset’s produced by Ecoplants.

Pimax RE

Kevin Henderson, Head of US Operations and Spokesperson for Pimax VR, said: “With the announcement of our new RE series, our goal is to redefine the value proposition for ruggedized B2B VR headsets to encourage and promote powerful commercial use cases together with our current and future customers. We believe that in partnership with more innovative companies like Ecoplants, we will be able to achieve the goal of delivering VR2.0 to the business market.”

As Pimax continues to expand, VRFocus will bring you all the latest announcements from the company.