Oculus Link For Quest Code Already Present In Latest Rift PTC Software

The latest Public Test Channel release of the Oculus Rift software contains references suggesting support for the upcoming Oculus Link feature for Oculus Quest, based on code found by UploadVR.

We are now in the release month for Oculus Link and we confirmed with Facebook the company would issue updates for both its PC-based Oculus software and the firmware running the Oculus Quest as part of the release of an Oculus Link Beta.

Oculus Link was announced at Oculus Connect 6 back in September. The Oculus Quest is a standalone wireless Android-based headset, but Link will allow owners to also use it as a PC VR headset by connecting it to a VR-ready PC via a USB 3.0 cable with a Type-C connector on at least one end.

Most USB 3.0 cables are much shorter than on a standard PC VR headset, and the exceptions tend to be thick and/or not particularly flexible. Facebook will be offering its own custom 5 meter fiber-optic USB 3.0 cable with Type-C connectors on each end for $79 for users wanting the best PC VR experience on Quest. In some cases the official Link cable should be able to charge Quest while in use as a PC headset, which alternatives may not be capable of.

Facebook suggested Link should work with Rift-compatible content offered through Steam, as well as Oculus content bought outside the Oculus Store. On the Oculus Store, however, developers should be able to opt out to their games being playable on Quest via Link. This might be used by developers which don’t support cross-buy between Rift and Quest.

Want to know more about Oculus Link? Check out our article on what to expect.

Code Found

We found several references to Link in the Oculus code, including functions which check for issues and check if an app has opted out.

When trying to use a USB 2.0 connection, or a USB 3.0 port isn’t providing enough bandwidth, the software will display the following message to the user: “Try using a different USB 3 port. If that doesn’t work, you may need to use a different cable. Note that the charging cable that came with your Quest is not compatible with Oculus Link (Beta). Visit the Oculus Support Center for more info.

If your headset is connected properly, the software should prompt “Add your Oculus Quest to your PC to access Rift apps, games and experiences.”, which should bring you to a setup wizard in the Devices tab — just like the Rift and Rift S. From there, it should act just like a regular Rift family headset.

If trying to use Link with a Quest running an older incompatible firmware version, the software would display: “Oculus Link (beta) requires the latest Quest software version. Please put on your headset and go to Settings to install the software update.

We also found a function that checks if a developer opted out of Link support. If so, the software should display the warning “This app is not compatible with Oculus Link (beta)“. We believe this code only checks Oculus Store apps.

We only tested a couple individual pieces of software with Oculus Link at OC6 and we don’t yet know how the software will function with content from “Unknown Sources.” We’re looking forward to testing Oculus Link over an extended period of time and we know our readers are looking forward to the update as well. We’ll bring you the latest on Oculus Link as soon as we have it.

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Community Download: Will Pistol Whip Have The Same Impact As Beat Saber?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we want to know what you think about the potential success of Pistol Whip.


We’re big fans of Pistol Whip [Steam page] here at UploadVR; the game launches on November 7th. Not only did we help Cloudhead Games announce it during our first-ever E3 VR Showcase back in June, but we enjoyed our preview time with it and have shot mixed reality videos to show it off in style.

As it turns out, the last time a rhythm-focused VR game was heavily featured using mixed reality videos it went on to become a smash-hit success: Beat Saber. Pistol Whip has a lot of the same core principles, even if the actual moment-to-moment gameplay and level designs are incredibly different.

So that brings us to this week’s topic: Do you think Pistol Whip will have the same impact as Beat Saber? Why or why not? Having played the game a bit, I’m not sure yet. Custom songs won’t be much of a thing and most people agree that’s a huge selling point for Beat Saber, plus Beat Saber is more kid-friendly and it got hot at the same time that LIV was first debuting mixed reality capabilities for content creators.

But at the same time it’s fiercely addictive, makes you feel cool, and is certainly polished to a glistening sheen when compared to most other VR titles.

What do you think? Does it have what it takes to become the next viral VR sensation? Let us know down below!

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Panther VR Finishes Kickstarter Campaign Fully Funded

Panther VR finished its Kickstarter fully funded at €16,246, just slightly over its €15,000 goal. The game is a new stealth action game from Wolfdog Interactive, the developers behind Skyworld and VR Dungeon Knight.

The developers describe the game as a “stealth action sandbox” with unlimited generated missions that allow you to plan your approach with different weapons and gadgets. You can play the levels in one of two ways – full stealth or full combat. The first will see you remain undetected, taking out enemies one by one, while the second will engage you in a full blown firefight with the alarms raised.

The game is currently in a playable state in pre-alpha – all the footage from the trailer embedded above was recorded in-game. Some backers who contributed to the “Instant Access” tier will be able to play the pre-alpha build shortly, whereas others will have to wait for the game to launch into alpha or beta, depending on the tier level they backed.

The Kickstarter’s funding did not reach any of the listed stretch goals, which started at €20,000.

Panther VR is available to wishlist on Steam, and will be available to purchase in early access at some point in 2020. It will launch on Rift, Vive and Index systems for now, but the developers are “are still open to the idea” of PSVR or Quest versions of the game in the future.

Did you back Panther VR? What do you think of the footage we’ve seen so far? Let us know in the comments below.

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New The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Footage Shows Off New Orleans

Skydance Interactive released a new behind the scenes video last week showing some stunning new footage of The Walking Dead’s Saints & Sinners‘ environments, set in New Orleans.

The VR game was announced back in July, with a release date initially set for this year. That date has since been revised to January 23, 2020, which is still not too far off.

We went on hands-on with the game last month and we were quite impressed, with Aron highlighting the survival-based combat and the difficult ethical decisions he had to make during the demo. He also noted that the stylized version of New Orleans had him “eager to explore more” upon the game’s release.

A new video from Skydance Interactive, embedded above, delves further into that stylized New Orleans setting, showing some beautiful new footage and explaining why the team chose the city when starting development.

“I think the resilience of the city, we all know it,” said Davidson Cole, one of the game’s writers. “That’s something we’re trying to explore in terms of the human side of things. The Walking Dead is all about resilience as it is, and then you magnify that with a city that has proven extreme resilience over the years.”

They also gave a look at the player’s home base in the game, which is set in a cemetery bordered by high walls (which then affords the convenience of having no walkers in sight). Within the cemetery, there’s a customized church bus stocked with weapons and maps to help you out.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners will release on January 23, 2020 for the Rift, Vive and Valve Index

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Minecraft Earth Launches In More Countries, Now Available In Canada, South Korea, Philippines

The Minecraft Earth release schedule seems to be speeding up a bit – just a few days after the last batch of countries, the new AR mobile game is now available in Canada, South Korea and the Philippines.

The game, while still in early access, is now available publicly to anyone in Australia, Mexico, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines and Iceland. The release schedule is gradual, rolling out a few countries at a time. With Canada, Australia and South Korea now on the map, it looks like we’re getting closer to a release in some of the bigger markets like the US and the UK.

Minecraft Earth is Microsoft’s response to the mobile AR craze that started with Pokemon Go. You’ll have to get out of the house and explore the real world and use AR to build structures and complete “adventure” events set in the Minecraft universe. You can also collect materials, craft items and smelt resources just like you can in the original version of Minecraft, but not without a few changes to adapt it to the AR-based mobile platform.

I’ve been jumping into Minecraft Earth here and there since the Australian release last week, and it’s definitely an interesting spin on existing AR-based mobile games like PoGo or Wizards Unite. You can expect a first impressions piece, and other Minecraft Earth content, coming soon.

Have you been able to dive into Minecraft Earth already, or are you still waiting for the game to release in your country? Let us know in the comments below.

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Transformers VR Coming To Arcades From Minority Media

Pull on a headset and roll out; there’s a Transformers VR game on the way to arcades.

Time Machine VR developer Minority Media just announced Transformers: VR Battle Arena in collaboration with Hasbro. It’s a PvP shooter for up to four players in which you get to embody your favorite Autobots (or Decepticons).

Transformers VR

Players are tasked with recapturing shards of the all-powerful allspark, battling it out across three landscapes. Whoever has the most shards at the end of the round is the winner. You stand on levitating platforms that glide around city landscapes.

As you can see from the screenshots, the game is based on classic Gen 1 Transformers designs and not the Michael Bay movies (much to our relief). Characters include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron. There isn’t any footage of the game to share yet.

Transformers VR will debut at the IAAPA Expo in Orlando, which kicks off on November 19. No word yet on when and where the experience will be available, though Minority Media does say it will continue to expand the experience with new modes, environments and characters. Don’t hold your breath for a home release, either; this is strictly for VR arcades for now.

Back in 2017 we reported that Minority Media was placing its bets on VR arcades. It’s an unexpected move for a company initially known for obscure indie gems like Papo & Yo. The company’s rig gives four players their own space to stand and shoot in. For this particular game participants will wield gun-shaped controllers.

Will you be seeking out Transformers VR? Let us know in the comments below!

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New Unity Plug-In Claims To Boost Visual Clarity Inside Vive Pro Eye

Vive Pro Eye’s eye-tracking technology already employs foveated rendering to provide visually richer VR experiences. But now one company claims it can push those results even further without any additional hardware.

Digital imaging company Almalence just announced the Digital Lens for Vive Pro Eye. It’s a Unity plug-in that accesses the headset’s eye-tracking data. Almalence says it takes this data and “increases the visible resolution and removes chromatic aberrations across the entire field of view”.

Chromatic aberration is a term that refers to distorted images caused by wavelengths of colour not reaching the same focal plane. It can lead to blurry images with colored edges.

Here’s an image the company itself provided of the Digital Lens’ effects. Note that we haven’t seen the Lens at work for ourselves; we can’t verify if the effect is really as strong as this image suggests.

And here’s another found on their website. Again, this is all materials Almalence itself provides.

The plug-in is available now for free to Vive Pro Eye users upon request as part of a testing phase. Potential commercial contracts will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

Given its dependence on eye-tracking, it won’t make any difference to other VR headsets out there. Almalence also says the plug-in adds less than a millisecond of latency to VR.

Of course, Vive Pro Eye is an enterprise-level headset, so it won’t mean much for VR fans at home. But we’ll definitely be interested to see if developers and companies using the plug-in discover a big improvement or not.

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Beat Saber Teasing New Reveal For Next Week

It looks like we’ll have some Beat Saber news to share next week.

Beat Games recently put out a tweet simply mentioning a date, November 7, and a GIF of a red beat. The beat is moving from one side to another and the background behind it is blurred, but appears to be moving.

To us, it seems like this could be hinting at the 360 degree levels we’ve been waiting on for a while. Beat Games first revealed this feature at E3 in June. It turns the game on its head, quite literally. Notes fly in from all angles, getting you to twist and turn rather than just looking down a straight line.

When we played it we said it really transforms Beat Saber into a new kind of experience.

Back at E3 Beat Games said this feature would likely only be available for Oculus Quest. Quest, of course, doesn’t require any wires, so you won’t be tripping up as you spin around. That said, the developer did say that it was looking into other forms of support for wired headsets, perhaps implementing 180 degree levels instead of 360 degrees.

The only question is will this feature go live next Friday or will we simply get a release date for it? Beat Games did say support was coming this year, so we’re hoping it will be out that day.

November 7 will be a big day for VR in general. That’s the same release date for Pistol Whip, the frantic new rhythm action game from Cloudhead Games. The two games are set to go head-to-head for the virtual crown of rhythm action games, then.

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The Upload Holiday VR Showcase Goes Live 9AM PT November 27

It’s time to get hype; The Upload Holiday VR Showcase is coming your way at 9am PT/12pm ET/5pm BT on November 27 2019.

Yup, we finally have a time to add to the date we announced alongside the VR Download and Culture Show last month. If you’re in the US be sure to be up bright and early or sitting down for your lunch break. If you’re in the UK, get home from work ASAP. Better yet, call in sick. Get your friends to do it too.

HolidayShowcase_MainAd

This will be our second VR Showcase following the hugely successful launch of the E3 VR Showcase back in June. We were overwhelmed with the response to that show and we couldn’t let 2019 go without doing another one.

So what is The Holiday VR Showcase? Think of it as a Nintendo Direct or State of Play broadcast… exclusively for VR. We’ll be going over a bunch of announcements and fresh looks for games still to come in 2019 (yes there’s still a few!) and some titles set for 2020. We’ve lined up a fun list of titles with some great surprises in store!

For this showcase, expect to go in-depth with some of the titles we announced back at E3 and get a closer look at gameplay with the help of developers themselves. Keep an eye on Upload in the coming weeks because we’ll be announcing some of the things we’re showcasing in the run up to the big day!

What are you hoping to see at our Showcase? Let us know in the comments below!

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Optimistic About VR But It’s ‘Taking A Bit Longer Than We Thought’

It’s been a big year for VR at Facebook, launching the Oculus Quest, Rift S and announcing several new features and services at OC6 a few months ago. However, Michael Abrash also made it clear that the arrival of true next generation VR headsets is “not any time soon.”

In Facebook’s Q3 2019 Earnings Call this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to a comment from a stockholder indicating that they feel Facebook’s vision for VR and AR “has taken a bit longer than expected to materialize.”

According to a transcript, Zuckerberg’s response to the question was as follows:

On VR and AR, you’re right that this is taking a bit longer than we thought. And I’m still optimistic. I think that the long-term vision and the reasons why I thought this was going to be important and big are unchanged. So we’re seeing a lot of people use these products and love them. And because of that, I think that we’re still going to get there.

Obviously, the fact that it’s taking a little longer than we’d thought, it cuts both ways. On the one hand, that, of course, means that the future might be a few years further out and that it might be more expensive to develop because we’ll be funding this for a bit longer until it gets there.

But on the other hand, from our perspective, we’re not a company that has traditionally done hardware or built operating systems or these kind of products. So every year that we get to practice and get better and build our brand around Oculus in terms of in terms of building the best products that we can in the space, I just think that we’re going to be better off when this is really ready to be a completely mainstream thing with hundreds of millions of people using it.

You’re right that Quest is growing and doing quite well. We are — we’re selling them as fast as we can make them. The demand has been strong, and the content is starting to pick up, both on the AAA really high-quality side and some of the Indy [sic] stuff that I think is quite good. I’m just — I’m very excited about what we’re seeing and very optimistic about the future.

Some of the comments echo what we’ve heard Zuckerberg say in previous earnings calls.

It is also notable that at the beginning of the call some Quest-related sales information was given. “Payments and Other Fees revenue was $269 million, up 43%. This year-over-year growth was driven primarily by sales of new products, notably Oculus Quest.”

To see what else Zuckerberg has said about VR over the years, you can read this summary. The full Facebook Q3 Earnings Call transcript and audio files are also available to view online.

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