Space Pirate Trainer – Page 5 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 5, 2016

Oculus Touch Launch Bundle Includes Five Titles

The day is almost here, where Oculus Rift owners can start using the company’s motion controllers Touch for the first time in their own homes. There are plenty of videogames available with several free ones available to get owners started. If you’ve got the spare cash after buying your Oculus Touch then you might want to checkout a special bundle deal Oculus has put together for the launch.

The Oculus Touch Launch Bundle features five titles which can be purchased together for a 25 percent discount off the total cost of buying them individually. And these aren’t any old videogames that you may not have heard of, some of them will likely be high up on many gamers lists. These are Space Pirate Trainer, I Expect You To Die, Kingspray Graffiti, SUPERHOT VR and The Climb.

superhot vr - first screenshots 8

Space Pirate Trainer offers a no holds barred first-person shooter (FPS) experience, offering wave after wave of flying robotic enemies to destroy. Gaining highscores on local and global leaderboards is the main aim, and it’s very highly rated on Steam for HTC Vive.

I Expect You To Die is a puzzle game in which players are elite secret agents attempting to survive deadly situations. As an elite agent players must race to thwart the evil Dr. Zor without succumbing to the traps and tricks that are there to cause their demise.

Kingspray Graffiti allows players to unleash their inner artistic side, all whilst being on the right side of the law.

SUPERHOT VR is an FPS with a twist. Stand still and the world around players moves in super slow motion, allowing them to plan a route of attack through an onslaught of enemies, dodging bullets and other obstacles. Being to move an it all speeds up again.

The Climb is one of Crytek’s AAA virtual reality (VR) titles. Pitting players against mountains ranges, as they try to ascend to the top without falling off.

The deal can be found on the Oculus Store for £69.99 GBP, and for any further Oculus Touch news, keep reading VRFocus.

December 5, 2016

New ‘Space Pirate’ And ‘Fantastic Contraption’ Trailers Go Beyond MR

How would you show a friend what VR is like without putting them inside a headset? It’s not an easy question to answer, but two new trailers released today might have the best solution yet.

So far, mixed reality has proved an effective way of capturing the magic of VR in a trailer. That process involves filming a player in real life and overlaying their image into the virtual environment they’re playing with. It successfully communicates what someone is doing in VR, and has been adopted by the likes of HTC and Oculus, though it looks a little strange. They also require a lot of equipment and setup. Now Kert Gartner, an indie game trailer maker is experimenting with what he thinks is a better way of showing VR.

Featured in these new clips are Space Pirate Trainer (above) and Fantastic Contraption (below), two games that fully utilize room scale VR on the HTC Vive and, from tomorrow, the Oculus Rift. In both the player appears not as themselves but their in-game avatar. It’s essentially just filming in third-person, though it does mean the game needs its own avatar.

Writing on his blog, Gartner said that filming in this way was more “cost effective” and less time consuming. Filming the experience included using a third Vive controller as a camera (a technique used for non-VR game Battlerite), and controlling a virtual one with an Xbox One gamepad. You can see how the Space Pirate video was made with a behind the scenes look below.

Gartner compared this technique to the work James Cameron did on his acclaimed blockbuster, Avatar. “Now we can do basically the same thing for the cost of a Vive, another controller, and a bit of development work,” he said. “It’s incredible that we can basically film a live virtual action sequence in my basement! The next step will be getting more than one virtual camera in the room so we can have a few people filming at once!”

Tagged with: fantastic contraption, space pirate trainer, third person, trailer

November 24, 2016

Space Pirate Trainer Confirmed as Launch Day Title for Oculus Touch

With the launch of Oculus Touch less than two weeks away more and more titles are being confirmed for its launch. Oculus has stated in a recent blog posting that it’ll be announcing over 50 videogames for the motion controllers soon, but some developers are already confirming their support. The latest comes from I-Illusions with its popular HTC Vive title Space Pirate Trainer.

On its Twitter account the studio confirmed as much, saying that Space Pirate Trainer will be a day one release. It will be available through both Steam and Oculus Home, and for those that have already purchased it on Steam the developer notes: “the Steam version you have already should be compatible with the Oculus and Oculus Touch thanks to Open VR.”

Space Pirate Trainer image 3

Space Pirate Trainer has been one of the leading virtual reality (VR) gallery style first-person shooters (FPS), receiving ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ feedback on Steam since its day one launch on HTC Vive.

In the videogame players must defend themselves from an endless waves of droids, with two pistols to duel wield with multiple loadout settings or switching to a shield and pistol. They’ll to need dodge incoming lasers whilst taking down the enemies to achieve as big a high score as possible.

With the Steam Black Friday sale going on it maybe a good time to pick up the title to play on Oculus Touch. There’s currently a 20 percent discount available dropping the price from £10.99 GBP down to £8.79.

For all the latest news on Space Pirate Trainer, keep reading VRFocus.

October 9, 2016

The 2016 Proto Awards: See Who Took Home VR’s Biggest Honors

Virtual Reality does not have many comprehensive award shows, but the Proto Awards just might be the closest thing the industry currently has to The Oscars many of the VR scene’s most elite designers and personalities gathered toghether at the AVALON theater in Hollywood for one purpose: to name the most impressive experiences of the year.

Tonight’s biggest winners include Space Pirate Trainer and Tilt Brush. Check the list below for the full list of honorees:

Best Social Experience:

Lecture VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.

AltspaceVR – AltspaceVR (Winner)

Rec Room – Against Gravity

Pool Nation VR – Perilous Orbit & Cherry Pop Games

New Retro Arcade: Neon – Digital Cybercherries Limited

Speech Center VR – Cerevrum Inc

Best Mobile Experience:

The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh – Borrowed Light Studios

Ctrl – Breaking Fourth

Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke

Pearl – Google Spotlight Studios

Tactera – E McNeill (Winner)

Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces

Most Transportive Experience:

Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.

The Climb – Crytek

ADR1FT – Three One Zero

Old Friend – Tyler Hurd

theBlu: Season 1 – Wevr (Winner)

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue – Ben Vance, Wevr

Best Game:

Raw Data – Survios

The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed – Cloudhead Games

Job Simulator – Owlchemy Labs

The Climb – Crytek

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)

Bullet Train – Epic Games

Best Interaction Design:

Job Simulator – Owlchemy Labs

Waltz of the Wizard – Aldin Dynamics

SoundStage – Logan Olson

Tilt Brush – Google

Rec Room – Against Gravity

Fantastic Contraption – Northway Games & Radial Games (Winner)

Most Innovative:

Pixel Ripped 1989 – Pixel Ripped Inc

Tilt Brush – Google (Winner)

Blocks – Leap Motion

VR Noir: A Day Before the Night – StartVR

The Lab – Valve

FIREBIRD: La Peri (Book 1) – Innerspace VR

Best Original Score:

Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke

Pearl – Google Spotlight Stories (Winner)

Pixel Ripped 1989 – Pixel Ripped Inc

Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.

Windlands – Psytec Games Ltd

The Rose And I – Penrose Studios

Best Live Action Experience:

Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces

Hard World for Small Things – Wevr

Zoolander Infinity – David Rosenbaum, Jaunt

Waves – Wevr

The Presence – Pseudoscience Pictures

The Argo File – Argos VR (Winner)

Best Sound Design:

Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)

Trials on Tatooine: A Cinematic Star Wars Experiment – ILMxLAB

Chronos – Gunfire Games

Reeps One: Does Not Exist – Aurelia Soundworks

Land’s End – ustwo games

Best Educational Experience:

Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd. (Winner)

Lecture VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.

GravlLab – Gravitational Testing Facility & Observations – Mark Schramm

House of Languages VR – Fox3D

C O S M Worlds Within Worlds – Dynamoid

The Field Trip to Mars – Framestore VR Studio & McCann

Best Student Experience:

We Are Alfred – Embodied Labs

Shining360 – Claire Hentschker

Lions & Deer – Lean House Media

Chapel – Dean Moro and Lauren Krikorian

Fruit Golf – Coal Car Studio (Winner)

My real virtual body: Body Swapping in virtual reality – Alice Chirico

Best Music Experience:

Soundscape – SNAKE Productions

Old Friend – Tyler Hurd

Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces

Grace – MacInnes Scott

SoundStage – Logan Olson (Winner)

Apex – Arjan van Meerten

Best Art Direction:

Kismet – Psyop

FIREBIRD: La Peri (Book 1) – Innerspace VR (Winner)

Chronos – Gunfire Games

Apex – Arjan van Meerten

Cosmic Trip – Funktronic Labs

theBlu: Season 1 – Wevr

Best Narrative Experience:

Waves – Wevr

Knives – Adam Cosco

The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed – Cloudhead Games (Winner)

Pearl – Google Spotlight Stories

The Martian VR Experience – Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Innovation Lab, RSA Films, The Virtual Reality Company

Kiya – Emblematic Group

Best Independent Experience:

Tactera – E McNeill

SoundStage – Logan Olson

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope – Croteam

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)

Shape Space VR – Zen Parade – Kevin Mack

Windlands – Psytec Games Ltd

Best User Interface:

Dota VR Hub – Valve

Envelop VR – Bob Berry

Orian Trail VR – Schell Games

Transport – Wevr

Modbox – Alientrap (Winner)

Speech Center VR – Cerevrum Inc

Best Overall:

Tilt Brush – Google (Winner)

Raw Data – Survios

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions

Bullet Train – Epic Games

Modbox – Alientrap

The Lab – Valve

The Founders’ Award:

Dr. Thomas A. Furness III

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So what do you think? Did the best experiences win or get snubbed? Let us know in the comments below!

September 9, 2016

Upcoming Space Pirate Trainer Beta Update Release Date Revealed

Last month developer I-Illusions revealed an upcoming beta update for its virtual reality (VR) title Space Pirate Trainer. In a posting via its Steam page the studio detailed new weapons power-ups and more would be added to the title, but didn’t divulge when it would be available. Now the release date has been announced, next Wednesday 14th, September 2016.

New features and improvements coming to the title include better gameplay and graphics, new weapons, new enemies, more powerups and sound improvements.

Space Pirate Trainer image 1

Added to the weapon roster will be an Ion Grenade Launcher, Shotworks and the Voltron. The Voltron is a melee weapon that includes a plasma link mode. This enables players to grab and pull droids towards them making them easier to shoot, or simply smash them into the environment. The Voltron can also redirect pulse lasers back to their origin. The new enemies will be a Scout and a Heavy droid, while the powerups will include a machine gun, shield, missiles, gravity field and homing bullets.

Players will also be able to select waves, enjoy a party mode, and for those that like a challenge there’s hardcore mode. One of the main differences in hardcore mode will be the exclusion of bullet time which usually kicks in when players are getting swarmed by enemies.

Space Pirate Trainer is currently in Steam Early Access for HTC Vive with a retail price of £10.99 GBP

For all the latest news on Space Pirate Trainer, keep reading VRFocus.