ready player one – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 27, 2021

What Exactly Is Facebook’s ‘Metaverse’ Group Building?

Facebook Reality Labs is “standing up a Metaverse product group”, but it isn’t clear what this actually means.

FRL’s VP Andrew Bosworth announced the new effort in a Facebook post, though it’s light on specific details:

“The Metaverse is already here as a collection of digital worlds each with its own physics to determine what’s possible within them. The defining quality of the metaverse will be presence — the feeling of really being there with people — and FRL has been focused on building products that deliver presence across digital spaces for years. Today Portal and Oculus can teleport you into a room with another person, regardless of physical distance, or to new virtual worlds and experiences. But to achieve our full vision of the Metaverse, we also need to build the connective tissue between these spaces — so you can remove the limitations of physics and move between them with the same ease as moving from one room in your home to the next.“

The group will be led by former Instagram VP of Product Vishal Shah, and will report directly to Bosworth.

Facebook Horizon, the company’s upcoming customizable social VR platform, will be a part of this product group. Horizon will be led by former Head of Facebook Gaming Vivek Sharma.

Jason Rubin is returning to VR to “lead the Content team” in this new metaverse group. Rubin co-founded Naughty Dog , directing Crash Bandicoot & Jak and Daxter. He oversaw Oculus VR content (mostly games) from 2014 until late 2019, when he moved to Facebook’s mobile & web gaming initiatives.

But there’s an important question the announcement didn’t answer: what exactly is this “metaverse” group building?

Horizon?

At first glance you might assume the answer is Facebook Horizon. But Horizon is only a part of this group. As the announcement notes, Horizon’s lead will report to Metaverse lead Vishal Shah.

Horizon was marketed alongside Quest 2 and was originally supposed to launch in 2020, but is currently still in a closed beta. Facebook no longer actively markets Horizon, and hasn’t given any specific updates on its progress.

The only clue in the announcement is “the connective tissue between these spaces“. This seems similar to an answer CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave to CNET back in May – “there needs to be a social fabric that goes across all of the different layers of virtual reality. That’s what we hope to do with Horizon“.

Oculus Quest experiences today are independent Android applications, mostly made in the Unity or Unreal game engines. Horizon’s client is currently just another app built in Unity.

So how exactly could Horizon be the “social fabric” or “connective tissue”?

This description doesn’t seem to match the current siloed app store model, and may suggest a significant strategy shift.

In our most recent hands-on in August 2020, we found Horizon to essentially be a more polished Rec Room with less functionality. Given its lackluster state, is it possible Facebook now plans to significantly expand the scope of the project?

A New Engine?

Protocol reports that the recent acquisition of Unit 2 Games – mostly unnoticed – may play a role in Facebook’s “metaverse” plans. Unit 2 developed Crayta, an Unreal Engine based “collaborative game creation platform” available on Google Stadia & Epic Games. The report also cites a Facebook spokesperson claiming the company “intends to hire hundreds of new employees for the [metaverse] group”.

Crayta certainly looks more impressive than Horizon, but it’s unclear how much of its functionality could be ported to standalone VR headsets.

So how do these two separate efforts, made in completely different game engines, come together? Again, it’s unclear. Could Facebook intend to build its own game engine, one designed for the needs & constraints of an online virtual reality universe?

Such a “metaverse engine” could provide persistent networking, physics, spatial audio, avatars, and hands-on object interactions built-in. If the tools became powerful enough to build entire games, the Oculus platform could evolve beyond its app store model of today. You wouldn’t need to download a new app for each kind of experience, instead – much like the web – you’d just teleport into an experience loaded dynamically.

A ‘Graphics Research’ Facebook job listing listing refers to “custom rendering pipelines driven by UE4, Unity and internal game engines”.

But how would such an engine would be interoperable or in any way open? Here’s how even Zuckerberg described “the metaverse” in an interview with Vergecast this month:

“So I think part of this is, I think it’ll be good if companies build stuff that can work together and go across lines rather than just being locked into a specific platform. But I do think that, just like you have the W3C that helps set standards around a bunch of the important internet protocols and how people build the web, I think there will need to be some of that here, too, for defining how developers and creators can build experiences that allow someone to take their avatar and their digital goods and their friends, and be able to teleport seamlessly between all these different experiences.“

Marketing Term Or Long-Term Goal?

Another possibility is that the “metaverse” is not a specific product, but instead simply a long term vision for Facebook’s re-organized VR content strategy.

Zuckerberg could be directing teams to ensure future funded content leverages Oculus platform-level APIs like avatars, destinations & rich presence – this would keep the app store model but allow seamless & consistent teleportation between installed social experiences as if they were Horizon worlds.

“The Metaverse is already here as a collection of digital worlds each with its own physics to determine what’s possible within them,” Bosworth’s post explains. “But to achieve our full vision of the Metaverse, we also need to build the connective tissue between these spaces”.

But simply streamlining the Oculus platform’s consistency wouldn’t explain a new large top-level product group with hundreds of new hires & experienced executives like Shah & Rubin. Something is being built – Facebook just doesn’t seem ready yet to say exactly what.

What do you think Facebook’s new “metaverse” group is building? Is it an innovative new social platform, a generic marketing term, or something else? Let us know in the comments below.

March 24, 2021

How VR MMO Zenith Is Being ‘Built For VR’ First And Foremost To Feel Like You’re ‘Living A Different Life’

Zenith: The Last City from Ramen VR opened up pre-orders recently which included closed alpha access, but had to close them from the surge in demand. We recently spoke with Ramen VR CEO, Andy Tsen, to get the latest on the game’s upcoming release.

Zenith: The Last City—A True VR MMORPG

Zenith: The Last City is slated to hit PC VR, PSVR, Quest, and non-VR PC this year and aims to be one of the first truly “massive” persistent online game worlds in the same vein as something like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Final Fantasy XIV. Or, in other words, a real VR MMO without compromises. Perhaps not on the same scale as Ready Player One just yet, but certainly channeling that anime-style JRPG aesthetic of Sword Art Online and .hack//sign a bit.

“Zenith is a virtual reality MMO and it has kind of a JRPG East Asian aesthetic,” said Tsen during an interview with UploadVR. “It’s kind of sci-fi fantasy and we want people to be able to come into the world and just explore and have a really positive, fun kind of RPG experience that they wouldn’t have on any other platform except one built for VR. We really think that this is the stuff that people have been wanting for a long time and that’s why we set out to build it…MMO is a term that has been really liberally used especially in mobile,” said Tsen. “And when I say MMO, what I’m trying to say is an MMO in the sense of something like WoW or Final Fantasy XIV, where it will be a large world where you can have thousands of people per shard. Our eventual goal, of course, is to make it even bigger and tie the different shards together to have this infinite world, but we’re starting with just a regular MMO and a regular shard which by itself is hard enough.”

In late 2019 Ramen VR raised over $280,000 via Kickstarter and has since secured additional outside investment to build a team that can work on a game like this. From the footage I’ve seen and what I’ve heard when speaking to the developers, it sounds like they’re on the right track.

“We’re building a full-scale VR MMO; it’s basically a lot of uncharted territory,” said Tsen. “I’m actually a big fan of Orbus and the guys at ATT (A Township Tale). Everybody has their own take on what a VR MMO should be. But what we’re really trying to do is create a top-notch extremely polished core game loop that is really, really fun to play that feels a lot more polished and a lot deeper. That’s our fundamental goal; to create an experience where it feels both familiar to MMORPG players as well as completely unique being in the space of VR itself.”

Early in the game’s development Tsen described the combat as inspired by Beat Saber, but what he meant by that was just that it was real-time action based, not turn-based or target-based like a lot of MMOs typically are. If you wanted to draw comparisons to another VR game, the closest example is probably Until You Fall.

“Zenith is going to feel a lot more like an action RPG than something like Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft where they are basically spreadsheet simulators where you’re pressing macros and you’re doing the whole hotkey dance,” said Tsen. “In Zenith, you literally have to parry enemy’s attacks, throw fireballs, you can slow time, and so on. Of course, all of this is tied together by a gorgeous environment where we’ve spent thousands of hours creating unique props and content and just building a world that feels fully alive and immersive.”

On paper, it sounds similar to what they’ve done in OrbusVR, the first-ever VR MMO. However, that game is a bit more simplistic in its design and visuals, which explains why they were able to launch as early as they did. From what I’ve seen, Zenith seems to aim for taking things up several notches. You can see a lot of that on display in this 30-minute long unedited pre-alpha gameplay video the developers published.

“One of the most important things about VR is a sense of presence and I think that that’s something that other genres outside of VR, where MMOs can’t really reach,” said Tsen. “And so for us, it’s all about that feeling of physical embodiment in the world. That’s why we introduced our recent Population One-style gliding, we have climbing, we have full-body IK. These are things that will make the players feel like they’re really in the world living a different life essentially.”

Zenith: The Last City still does not have a specific launch date or month yet, but presumably they’re aiming to get it out this year. The Closed Alpha period kicks off in April—you can find more information on that here. We’ll keep you posted with more on Zenith as we find out details and will publish more excerpts from this interview (as well as the full interview in its entirety) later this week.

Let us know what you think of Zenith down in the comments below!

November 20, 2020

Watch Bigscreen’s CEO Talk With Ernest Cline About Ready Player Two

Author Ernest Cline is joining Bigscreen CEO Darshan Shankar for a conversation to promote his new book, Ready Player Two.

The sequel is due out on November 24th after 2011’s Ready Player One ignited imaginations with its vision of an 80’s-inspired future taken over by VR. The movie version, of course, came out in 2018 directed by Steven Spielberg. The Q&A session with Cline and Shankar will be streamed in Bigscreen on December 5th at 5 pm Pacific. According to Bigscreen, the event will be free to anyone with the Bigscreen application and a supported VR headset.

“Bigscreen is by far my favorite VR application and it’s also the one I’ve used the most this past year,” Cline said in a prepared statement. “I get together with my friends inside Bigscreen at least once a week to hang out, watch movies, and play games together, even though we’re scattered across the country. I’m so grateful to Darshan and his team for turning something from my imagination into a reality, and for doing it decades before I thought it would be possible.”

We’re interested to check out the new book and see how it stacks up to the original. There’s even been talk of a prequel as well that would explore the founding of the virtual Oasis that’s central to the story. It’ll be a little different reading the sequel in 2020, though, with VR headsets like Oculus Quest 2, HP Reverb G2, and Valve Index in homes around the world transporting people to virtual worlds.

Are you planning to give the book a read? Let us know in the comments.

November 13, 2020

Ernest Cline Considering Ready Player One Prequel Novel Next: Ready Player Zero

Did you know Ready Player Two, the sequel to Ernest Cline’s best-selling Ready Player One, is just a week and a half away from release? It releases on November 24th and the author is already discussing potential plans for the next book in the series: a prequel focused on the creators of The Oasis, James Halliday and Ogden Morrow.

ready player two cover

Ready Player One Sequel and Prequel

We originally learned about Ready Player Two back in July of this year, but the release date seems to have really snuck up on us all of a sudden it seems. If you’re unfamiliar, Ready Player One is a sci-fi dystopian novel about a young man named Wade Watts. In it, Wade and his friends are on an “Easter Egg” hunt across the VR metaverse known as The Oasis, after its creator died and left behind a single “Easter Egg” for someone to find. Whoever finds it wins a ton of money and inherits control of The Oasis.

The novel was adapted into a successful feature film, directed by Steven Spielberg. You can read our review of the movie itself (since, you know, VR) right here.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly that was published this week, Cline explains that he always envisioned the series as a trilogy. The third book, in his mind, would be a prequel about the origins of The Oasis’ creators:

“I’d always envisioned it as a trilogy of stories. One is a sequel, which I’ve just written and then another other one being a prequel about James Halliday and Ogden Morrow in Ohio. It’s a coming-of-age story. It won’t be called Ready Player Three, it’ll be more like Ready Player Zero. I do plan to take a break, but someday I’ll write that book too, which is more based on my own childhood — growing up, playing Dungeons and Dragons and video games as a kid. It’s like Stand by Me. It’s a huge part of my childhood being immersed in all the escapism so that I could write Ready Player One.”

Later on in the interview Cline goes to say that with the release of Ready Player Two, we’ll have the end of the story as he “currently” sees it.

What do you think? Would you read a prequel book about Halliday and Morrow? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

November 13, 2020

Ernest Cline Considering Ready Player One Prequel Novel Next: Ready Player Zero

ready player two cover

Ready Player One Sequel and Prequel

The novel was adapted into a successful feature film, directed by Steven Spielberg. You can read our review of the movie itself (since, you know, VR) right here.

“I’d always envisioned it as a trilogy of stories. One is a sequel, which I’ve just written and then another other one being a prequel about James Halliday and Ogden Morrow in Ohio. It’s a coming-of-age story. It won’t be called Ready Player Three, it’ll be more like Ready Player Zero. I do plan to take a break, but someday I’ll write that book too, which is more based on my own childhood — growing up, playing Dungeons and Dragons and video games as a kid. It’s like Stand by Me. It’s a huge part of my childhood being immersed in all the escapism so that I could write Ready Player One.”

Later on in the interview Cline goes to say that with the release of Ready Player Two, we’ll have the end of the story as he “currently” sees it.

What do you think? Would you read a prequel book about Halliday and Morrow? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

October 1, 2020

Ilysia VR MMO Doubles Kickstarter Goal, First Look At Gear And Weapons Here

Ilysia is an upcoming VR MMO currently in the final days of its Kickstarter campaign. After initially launching with a meager $60,000 target, the team has far exceeded that and is already over double the original asking amount.

As of the time of this writing, Team 21 has just over $125,000 in Kickstarter pledges. Admittedly, if you know much of anything about what it takes to make an MMO, that isn’t very much money. However, the team is small, reportedly very efficient and lean according to themselves, and has clear goals. Time will tell if they can deliver.

We first reported on Ilysia last weekend after I spoke with some of the founding members of the project. Needless to say I’m impressed with what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, so I’m eager to dive in for myself and see how it stacks up.

One of the main things I’ve been most curious about is the gear and equipment system. In games like OrbusVR, which is the first actual MMO in VR, character models are extremely simplistic and all of your gear is managed and seen in a floating flat menu. Same with Skyrim VR without mods and so many other RPGs with VR support.

But in an MMO, especially a VR MMO, I want to be as immersed as possible. Ideally, to really capture that Sword Art Online meets .hack//sign meets Ready Player One vision, we need everything to be interactive and to have gear and equipment visible on a fully-tracked body — not floating hands and torsos.

In some brand new exclusive Ilysia assets provided to us by Team 21, it looks like they’re doing their best to deliver on that front. In the GIF above you’ll see the equipment menu — this is shown to manage what you’re wearing and see what you look like, but once you equip weapons you’ll grab them physically on your body. There are slots for: head, shoulder, chest, arms, legs, hands, feet, rings, neck, back (that means capes! woo!), belt, house key, and mount. Gear will also be tiered based on color, such as: grey (Poor), white (Common), green (Superior), blue (undisclosed tier name), and orange (undisclosed tier name).

There will be one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, ranged weapons, offhand items like books, relics, and totems, and consumable items like food and potions. You can also choose your character’s gender, race, facial preset, hairstyle, and skin tone. All standard fare for the most part.

Here is the belt slot weapon being drawn in-game as an example:

drawing weapon ilysia vr mmo

According to the developers you’ll have two hip slots, two back slots, and two belt slots for weapons and items. Additionally, you can see in the featured image at the top of this article every character is wearing full armor with varied styles, donning a multitude of weapon types, and showcasing a diverse set of character styles.

Since it’s a free form class system, it looks like you’ll be able to have a very open-ended progression system, as shown in this menu:

ilysia skill tree vr mmo

Finally, here are some in-game screenshots that show off the world, various characters in-game, and some battles.

As of now, backers have unlocked 11/14 stretch goals after hitting the $125,000 threshold. This includes full-body VR tracking, mount breeding, a battle royale instance, pet breeding, additional starting zones, and more. Plus, this glorious mount named Handsome Joe’s Prized Pony for all backers:

Ilysia VR MMO Doubles Kickstarter Goal, First Look At Gear And Weapons Here

The remaining stretch goals include a PvP Honor Rewards System ($150,000), Guild XP and Leveling ($200,000), and expanded player-owned Inns / Shops with Skills and XP ($250,000).

What I like about this art style (which I’ve been told is not final and will be improved) is that it reminds me a lot of old-school EverQuest. To me, those are still the glory days of MMOs and the developers claim to be intent on rediscovering that sense of wonder for VR.

Ilysia is slated to eventually release at some point next year on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest with full crossplay between all platforms. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

[Disclosure]: The author of this story, David Jagneaux, pledged to the Ilysia Kickstarter at the $50 ‘Alpha Squire (Early Access – A1) tier. This has not affected his coverage of the game.

October 1, 2020

Ilysia VR MMO Doubles Kickstarter Goal, First Look At Gear And Weapons Here

Here is the belt slot weapon being drawn in-game as an example:

drawing weapon ilysia vr mmo

Since it’s a free form class system, it looks like you’ll be able to have a very open-ended progression system, as shown in this menu:

ilysia skill tree vr mmo

Finally, here are some in-game screenshots that show off the world, various characters in-game, and some battles.

Ilysia VR MMO Doubles Kickstarter Goal, First Look At Gear And Weapons Here

The remaining stretch goals include a PvP Honor Rewards System ($150,000), Guild XP and Leveling ($200,000), and expanded player-owned Inns / Shops with Skills and XP ($250,000).

Ilysia is slated to eventually release at some point next year on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest with full crossplay between all platforms. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

[Disclosure]: The author of this story, David Jagneaux, pledged to the Ilysia Kickstarter at the $50 ‘Alpha Squire (Early Access – A1) tier. This has not affected his coverage of the game.

August 12, 2020

Ready Player Golf Is A VR Golf Tournament In Pro Putt On Quest

Top Golf, a popular franchise of golfing facilities and entertainment venues, is hosting a virtual golf charity tournament inside the Oculus Quest VR golf game it published, Pro Putt. The tournament, named Ready Player Golf, costs a minimum of $100 to enter with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders.

Pro Putt is a VR golf game for Oculus Quest that strikes an intriguing balance between the authenticity of Tiger Woods PGA Tour line of games and Nintendo’s arcade-style Mario Golf. You can download and play the game now for $19.99 to start warming up.

Players can sign up either as a solo competitor or a team of four. If you’re signed up solo it’s at least $100 and a team of four is at least $400. You can donate more if you’d like and all proceeds are going towards Doctors Without Borders and are tax deductible for anyone in the United States.

The event kicks off on September 15th with a virtual Zoom meeting and then officially takes place from September 15th – 16th with an awards ceremony in EngageVR on September 17th. From what we can tell, winners in various categories will receive trophies.

Since this is a VR golf tournament that means all participants are required to obtain their own Oculus Quest and must have access to the Pro Putt game. Interestingly, the website specifically lists a company called Skipti for renting an Oculus Quest if you don’t own one already. We have no insight into this company’s operations or quality of service, but you can sign up on the website for details regarding Quest rentals. I don’t see a price listed nor do I see details regarding regional availability and shipping costs.

If you’re interested in supporting Doctors Without Borders and competing for a shot at winning some trophies and bragging rights, you can sign up for the tournament right here. Registration closes on September 8th.

You can also read our review for Pro Putt here. Then make sure and let us know what you think, and if you plan on participating, down in the comments below!

The post Ready Player Golf Is A VR Golf Tournament In Pro Putt On Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

July 9, 2020

Ernest Cline’s VR Novel Ready Player One Gets a Sequel in November

When it comes to big sci-fi novels from the last decade Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (2011) has to be highly placed, having spent over 100 weeks on the coveted New York Times bestsellers list as well as the Steven Spielberg movie adaption. Fans of the book will be pleased to hear a sequel is on its way, scheduled to arrive this November.

Imaginatively called Ready Player Two, the book is slated to continue on from the original, taking readers back into the dystopian future where humanity spends most of its time in a massive online universe called the OASIS, escaping their normal lives in the process.

Apart from continuing that theme nothing else is known about the plot for Ready Player Two. The book will be published by Penguin Random House subsidiary Ballantine Books on 24th November 2020 and it’ll contain 384. Pre-orders have now gone live on Amazon for Kindle (£9.99 GBP), Hardcover (£20.00) and Audio CD (£20.00) editions.

Launched before consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets were available, Ready Play One became a novel all fans of the technology had to read. Set in the year 2044, the world is riddled with famine, poverty, and disease because the climate is a wreck. The story follows Wade Watts and his friends as his lives his life in the OASIS, obsessively trying to locate a hidden easter egg left by James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS.

Upon his death, Halliday issued a challenge to everyone in the OASIS, as he had no heir whoever found the egg would gain control over the OASIS, as well as his billion-dollar fortune. However, he didn’t make it easy and years have passed with no one succeeding. Of course, that soon changes.

As Halliday grew up in the ’80s there are masses of references to classic videogames and films throughout the story. That does look to have been continued as the Ready Player Two cover does have what it appears to be a reference to Pitfall (1982) a classic Activision title.

With VR being a far more dominant entertainment medium in recent years, it’ll be interesting how the author has taken this on board. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

July 8, 2020

‘Ready Player One’ Book Sequel Coming November 24th

Image courtesy Ballintine Books, Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline’s breakout novel Ready Player One is getting a sequel on November 24th, which is slated to delve back into the massive multiplayer VR world of the OASIS.

Aptly named Ready Player Two, the upcoming book is being published by Penguin Random House subsidiary Ballantine Books.

It’s already available for order on and available for pre-order on Amazon, both in Kindle and hardcover format.

Released in 2011, Ready Player One casts a dim vision of the year 2044. Like much of humanity, Wade Watts lives most of his life connecting to the massive multiplayer ‘OASIS’, which acts as a VR escape amid famine and social unrest. It’s a tale of ’80s nostalgia which flows recursively back into fashion thanks to the very Willy Wonka-esque prize hunt the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, left behind him after his death. That’s the bare bones, no spoiler version of it anyway.