Samsung VR – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 29, 2017

Samsung: New Gear VR and Controller Launching April 21st for $129

On stage today at Samsung’s Unpacked Event in New York, the new Gear VR with controller finally got a launch date and price. The new 2017 Gear VR and Controller combo,announced alongside the Galaxy S8, will be available April 21st for $129. A Controller, which can be purchased separately for people that already own an older Gear VR headset, will set you back $39.

Pre-orders for the new Gear VR and Controller combo, as well as separate Controllers, will be available on the Samsung website.

Oculus, the principle partner of the Gear VR mobile platform, will also be rolling out their “biggest mobile platform update yet,” saying they’ve rebuilt Oculus Home from the ground up. The company says that this has reduced load times by up to 3x.

17530996_197209414102515_7726058540963463168_n

17632934_414659045561228_6852218487922753536_n

17629460_414777862215299_8016450131773620224_n

17634140_1014379628694549_7699327751139885056_n

Oculus is promising 70 new titles with controller support “coming soon” with nearly 20 titles to choose from in April, and 50 more to follow over the next few months.

Oculus say zombie shooter Drop Dead, puzzle game Rangi and SingSpace will be receiving support for Controller, including Oculus Rooms.

The single-handed controller, much like the Daydream VR controller, will provide motion tracking. Engagdet’s Devindra Hardawar got a hands-on with the controller, saying “the motion tracking felt fairly accurate, but mostly I was struck by how it felt in my hand. It has a slightly angle orientation, and your fingers naturally fall on the large trackpad on top and the trigger button on the back. That trigger, by the way, differentiates it from the Daydream View remote, which only has a trackpad and a few buttons. It makes the controller more in line with the Oculus Touch and Vive gamepads, and it’s a big help for most VR shooting titles.”

This story is breaking. We’ll be updating with new information as it comes out.

The post Samsung: New Gear VR and Controller Launching April 21st for $129 appeared first on Road to VR.

January 5, 2017

Samsung Gear VR Install Base Has Passed 5 Million Headsets

Samsung confirms 5+ million Gear VR headsets are now in use worldwide, announced at their CES 2017 keynote. The Gear VR headset launched in November 2015, and was the first high-quality VR solution for smartphones.

In his opening speech at CES 2017 this week, Samsung Electronics America president Tim Baxter announced that the company now has “more than 5 million” Gear VR virtual reality headsets in use. Designed in partnership with Oculus, the Gear VR hardware platform delivered the first high-quality mobile VR solution back in November 2015 (beating the consumer version of the Oculus Rift to market) and has only recently received notable competition in the form of Google’s Daydream platform.

Baxter also highlighted the success of Samsung’s Gear 360 camera, which ‘empowers people to create their own 360 videos and images’, and revealed that consumers have viewed over 10 million hours of video in VR.

In a wide-ranging keynote that covered Samsung’s major products, services and partnerships for 2017, including Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), Quantum Dot TVs, home appliances, and wearables, this brief mention of existing ‘Gear’ products was the only reference to VR in the entire presentation.

There was no sign of their standalone VR headset, which was confirmed to exist at the Samsung Developer Conference 2016, however its rumoured ‘Odyssey’ name did appear in the reveal of the company’s very first gaming laptop range, called the Notebook Odyssey. While GPU specs for the 17-inch version have not been finalised, it is likely to be VR-capable. This marks the beginning of a new line of Odyssey-branded gaming products, so there is still potential for an Odyssey VR headset.

The full Samsung press conference can be watched here.

The post Samsung Gear VR Install Base Has Passed 5 Million Headsets appeared first on Road to VR.

October 21, 2016

‘Invsible’ From ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Director Arrives On Samsung VR

As virtual reality grows, visual experiences tailored toward the technology’s unique level of immersion become more and more commonplace. 360-degree videos are being used for product promotion, education, live events, and more in an effort to give a more involved perspective compared to our usual rectangular videos. Today, Samsung has announced a full-fledged drama series coming exclusively to Samsung VR before its wide release on other platforms.

The 6-part miniseries is directed by Doug Liman, the director behind the Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Edge of Tomorrow. Many virtual narrative experiences are delivered in small samplings, with popular films like Suicide Squad, The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, and The Conjuring 2 all having brief VR interactions on the Samsung VR platform to promote the full 2D films. Invisible, though, will be a high production show asking viewers to stay for a full feature. Thankfully, the supernatural premise seems interesting enough to stick around for:

Invisible tells the story of an old New York family, the Ashlands, whose tentacles reach into the largest corporations and governments in the world. Although they control a large portion of the world’s economy they exist in relative ambiguity. They move without being seen and somehow without being known. That’s because select family members have the power to make themselves invisible. The cause of their invisibility remained a mystery, until now. Groundbreaking genetic research is about to break the code and expose their secret.

Invisible is available today on Samsung VR and will be available on Jaunt VR on October 27th. The show stars Sofia Black-D’elia, Olivia Boreham-Wing, Michael Siberry, Austin Caudwell and Lewis Cancelmi and is produced by Julina Tatlock, who previously produced the tv show “Who Cares About Girls?”. The show’s writer, Melisa Wallack, is known for the film Dallas Buyers Club which featured Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner.

October 20, 2016

Supernatural Drama Series Invisible Arrives on Samsung VR

The advent of virtual reality (VR) has lead filmmakers to explore new avenues in what can and can’t be done in creating immersive content. Most 360-degree experiences are shorts as studios, producers and actors get used to a camera that can see everything. Today Samsung has announced a new 360-degree series called Invisible, a limited time exclusive to the Samsung VR platform.

Created in collaboration with Jaunt and Condé Nast, Invisible is a supernatural drama series following a mysterious American family. The synopsis explains: “Invisible tells the story of an old New York family, the Ashlands, whose tentacles reach into the largest corporations and governments in the world. Although they control a large portion of the world’s economy they exist in relative ambiguity. They move without being seen and somehow without being known. That’s because select family members have the power to make themselves invisible. The cause of their invisibility remained a mystery, until now. Ground-breaking genetic research is about to break the code and expose their secret.”

The programme has been directed by Doug Liman and Simon Crane (top stunt coordinator and 2nd Unit Director: Star Wars Rogue One, Unbroken, Edge of Tomorrow, World War Z, Men in Black 3, Hancock), Julina Tatlock, Jerome Sable and Michael Litwak. Invisible stars Sofia Black-D’elia, Olivia Boreham-Wing, Michael Siberry, Austin Caudwell and Lewis Cancelmi.

The Samsung VR app – which can be downloaded from Google Play – is best used with the Gear VR head-mounted display (HMD) for the most immersive experience, but the app can equally be used without a headset. While Samsung VR users will get the content first, next week on 27th October the series will also be available via the Jaunt app.

Take a look at the trailer below, and for further details on Samsung VR and Gear VR, keep reading VRFocus.