VR Arcade – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

April 14, 2020

Oculus Quest SDK Reveals Colocation API Is In Development

Code found by VR developers in the Oculus Unity Integration reveals Facebook is working on a shared-space “colocation” API for Oculus Quest.

The code was first spotted by developers at Bentham Realities a few weeks ago while working on their upcoming title Hermetika VR. Yesterday, the same code was separately spotted by Gerald McAlister from RGB Schemes, a startup working on VR games & tools.

UploadVR searched through past versions of the Platform SDK and determined that these additions were made in version 1.40.0, which shipped in August 2019.

Colocation means having multiple Oculus Quests sharing the same playspace. Facebook showed off an “arena scale” prototype of this at Oculus Connect 5 in late 2018, but no further development has been shown since then.

Based on the description of the technology at the time of the OC5 demo, it likely works similarly to the colocation features already present in Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. Inside-out tracking generates a useful byproduct- a point cloud of static features in the room. Machine learning algorithms can find shared unique patterns in the point clouds of multiple devices and thus align the virtual spaces. The process requires no external sensors, base stations, or specific markers.

At home, colocation could be used to build “frictionless” local multiplayer VR experiences. Ideally, if two members of a household each own an Oculus Quest, developers could allow them to quickly enter a LAN same-space multiplayer session.

For location-based VR experiences that take place over a large space already like at a VR arcade, a colocation API for Quest could bring down the cost significantly. Today, each user typically needs a backpack PC as well as a headset, and an expensive external tracking system is often used to track the weapons/tools.

Facebook sells Quest to businesses for $1000 per headset (including business warranty & support), whereas a backpack PC alone costs around $3000. An OptiTrack setup for these locations requires tens of thousands of dollars of cameras too.

The spotted colocation code is part of the Oculus Platform SDK component of the Oculus Unity Integration. The Platform SDK gives developers access to features which leverage the Oculus store and servers. This includes leaderboards, achievements, cloud storage, matchmaking, and more. On Quest, Platform SDK features are only available to developers who have passed Facebook’s pitch submission process.

That could indicate that colocation will only be available to select developers. However, Facebook could ship a local testing version to spur innovation from the community — much like with controller-free hand tracking.

Of course, working on a feature is never a guarantee that the feature will ship. While it’s fairly likely Facebook will eventually ship a colocation feature, it may be delayed by current events or never ship at all.

What kind of games would you want to play in a shared playspace? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Oculus Quest SDK Reveals Colocation API Is In Development appeared first on UploadVR.

March 16, 2020

Community Download: Will The Coronavirus Kill VR Arcades?

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’s Community Download, we want to hear what you think about the Coronavirus and its impact on VR, specifically VR arcades.

It’s way past time to take the Coronavirus (COVID-19) seriously. Here in the United States, governors across the nation are urging restaurants, bars, and any other in-person business to transition to delivery and remote work as much as possible, even going so far as shutting them down in some states. Many employees at companies across the country are working from home as well to limit social contact.

We’ve already started noting some impacted businesses. Locations like Two Bit Circus are closing down (temporarily) for now, while others like The VOID are not (yet) but we expect this to continue hitting industries such as VR arcades fast and hard. It’s unclear how large and far-reaching the impact will be at this time.

How much worse do you think this is going to get? Will the coronavirus (COVID-19) have a big enough impact to totally wipe out the location-based VR sub-market, or at least severely cripple it? If not in the US with big companies like The Void, what about in China, where most consumers don’t have the space or money for VR at home?

Beyond location-based markets, COVID-19 is already impacting VR as a whole too. The Quest is struggling to stay in stock due to production issues, the same goes for the Index, E3 2020 in June has been canceled, conferences are moving to in-VR events, GDC 2020 is postponed, F8 is canceled,

Let us know what you think about this in the comments down below!

The post Community Download: Will The Coronavirus Kill VR Arcades? appeared first on UploadVR.

March 15, 2020March 17, 2020

VR Arcades Close Due To Coronavirus: ‘Never Have We Faced A Moment Quite Like This’ (Update)

Update: Since original publication, this story has been updated with new information regarding Dreamscape Interactive and The VOID.

Two Bit Circus in Los Angeles closed its location for the month, and a VR tournament cancelled the portion of its event to be held at VR arcades, as the response to the coronavirus shifts on a daily basis.

On March 13, before the closure, the Los Angeles entertainment venue sent an email saying Two Bit Circus installed a thermal camera at the park entrance and planned to check the temperatures of employees and guests, intending to turn away anyone deviating from normal temperatures. A fever is one of the primary symptoms associated with COVID-19 and Two Bit Circus is a Los Angeles-based entertainment venue featuring a number of VR-based attractions, like a Terminator Salvation VR ride, the Birdly flying experience and VR pod seated motion platforms running games like Battlezone VR.

By March 14, however, the location was closed through at least March 31.

Responses to the spread of COVID-19 are changing on a nearly daily basis with a series of social responses and new measures by governments worldwide. A national emergency was declared by the White House in the United States on March 13 while sporting events, like the NBA and MLB, have suspended or delayed their seasons. Television shows also paused production or stopped recording with live audiences as corporations institute work-from-home policies.

VR arcades and attractions are fairly new businesses facing some difficult realities even before the spread of COVID-19. Each headset can only transport one person at a time to a virtual world and physical locations are typically forced into high-rent areas to get the foot traffic arcades need to maintain a constant flow of new guests. Some arcades featuring off-the-shelf headsets also compete against new home experiences. The $400 Oculus Quest, for example, provides fully wireless VR and some incredibly popular games competing with roughly $25 for an hour with a tethered experience at an arcade. These tough realities led a number of VR arcades to close over the last few years, like the IMAX VR arcade effort.

And now the locations which survived face their toughest challenge yet — the spread of a virus.

On Friday March 13 the arcade portion of a tournament for Pistol Whip — one of VR’s best pick-up-and-play arcade games — was cancelled just as the Virtual Athletics League holding the event was nearing 200 arcades participating in the competition. An online portion of the event will continue.

“The impacts from the coronavirus are still unknown, but as arcade owners, we have traded private messages back and forth over the past few weeks. It’s been a nerve-wracking couple of weeks for us all,” reads a note from Ryan Burningham, CEO of the league and an arcade operator. “VR arcades, in general, are not huge businesses. Most are operated to support themselves and their owners’ and staff’s families. From one business owner to another, we are seeing corporate cancellations, some arcades (especially in Europe and all over Asia) having to close due to mandatory restrictions being put into effect. The VR arcade industry is quite young, but never have we faced a moment quite like this.”

I’ve reached out to Dreamscape Immersive, SandboxVR and The VOID which all feature backpack-powered untethered VR projects at locations worldwide. The companies feature attractions built around some internationally recognized properties, like Marvel’s Avengers, Star Wars, and Star Trek. I’ll update this post with more comments and updates.

The VOID responded quickly on Saturday March 14 to say they are welcoming guests “as usual” while they “implement additional preventative measures in order to ensure the health and safety of our communities.” I confirmed on Sunday March 15 the Downtown Disney location for The VOID remained open while nearby Disneyland closed for the month.

“We maintain a high level of cleanliness throughout our sites and are continuing our thorough cleaning and sanitation procedures for all equipment used by guests,” a statement reads sent by The VOID on March 14. “Additionally, we have increased the frequency of our cleaning and disinfection procedures in all common areas and are continuing to provide hand sanitizing stations in all of our venues. We have also imposed companywide travel restrictions and limitations for the sake of our employees and partners. As the situation continues to evolve, we are prepared to enact additional health and safety protocols.”

On Monday, March 16, Dreamscape contacted UploadVR to confirm the immediate temporary closure of its Westfield Century City location, in accordance with LA-based order. The venue hopes to reopen on March 31st, but will “reassess as needed.” In an Instagram post, Dreamscape encouraged customers who purchased advance tickets for the next few weeks to contact them directly for refunds.

On Tuesday, March 17, The VOID contacted UploadVR once again to update their stance. As of the evening of March 16, The VOID has made the decision to temporarily close all The VOID locations in North America, effective immediately as a precautionary measure. According to a company representative, The VOID “is working with guests to reschedule pre-booked tickets, as well as offering guests exclusive offers for future visits. Additionally, during this time The VOID will continue to compensate location team members. The official statement from The VOID will be viewable on thevoid.com, along with specifics on the closures and additional details on pre-booking refunds.”

The CDC on March 15 recommended ” that for the next 8 weeks, organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States.”

This article was updated on March 16 to include Dreamscape closure information and again on March 17 to include The VOID closure information. Let us know what you think about all this in our latest Community Download discussion.

The post VR Arcades Close Due To Coronavirus: ‘Never Have We Faced A Moment Quite Like This’ (Update) appeared first on UploadVR.

February 19, 2020

Sandbox is Building an SDK so Anyone Can Create for Its VR Attraction Platform

Sandbox VR, the location-based VR attraction, will be opening up to third-party developers soon, as the company will be releasing an SDK for its Sandbox ‘holodeck’ VR attraction platform.

Sandbox operates a number of VR locations in major cities across North America as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, and Jakarta. Combining both branded content such as its Star Trek: Discovery experience and in-house developed games, Sandbox offers its experiences in 20-minute gameplay chunks for around $40 per person, accommodating up to six people per session.

The company says in a blog post that anyone with the know-how will soon be able to develop new VR experiences for its location-based attractions using its upcoming SDK.

Company CTO Idan Beck says its Sandbox SDK will have capabilities like “high-performance inverse kinematics, rigging, and motion capture capabilities,” and will include support for Unreal Engine, Unity, and Native.

Sandbox’s locations make use of a few technologies that developers likely don’t have, such as the company’s haptic guns and its multi-camera motion capture system. Sandbox says however that developers can create using more modest setups such as an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

Since professional motion capture can cost thousands of dollars, Beck says the company’s framework is going to “abstract away that component and put in placeholders so you can still build for VR without these expensive systems, with full confidence that things will translate correctly when deployed to our full-body motion-captured holodeck.”

Atari to Open Game-themed Hotels Across the US with “the latest in VR and AR”

Atari will soon be opening hotels in the United States that feature what they call “the latest in VR and AR.” The move comes as a part of a recently announced deal with GSD Group, an innovation and strategy agency, which will see game-themed Atari Hotels come to several cities across the United States.

According to a press statement, the first location is slated to break ground in Phoenix, AZ sometime later this year. Additional hotels planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose.

In addition to the AR/VR focused facilities, the company says select Atari Hotels will also feature “state-of-the-art venues and studios” for esports events.

The project is being led by GSD Group; True North Studio, a Phoenix-based real estate developer, and Steve Wozniak’s Woz Innovation Foundation are helping to develop the first Atari-brand hotel.

VRLEO Brings Competition to Out-of-Home VR with Ingenious Arcade Kiosks

VRLEO is a company based in Los Angles and Shanghai that’s looking to shake up the out-of-home VR scene with its arcade kiosks. At CES this week we got a chance to go hands on with the company’s flagship product, the LEO cabinet system, which includes a few novel technologies that aim to give it an edge over the competition.

These sorts of VR kiosk systems aren’t exactly new in principle; we’ve seen VR arcade cabinets as early as 2018 promising ‘fully-automated’ VR experiences, be it pop-ups in airports worldwide or dedicated Beat Saber machines. The problem is that these units are rarely truly self-serviced machines—average users who’ve never used VR before simply don’t know what to expect, and the onboarding process and cleaning is usually done by a human attendant. Granted, a single attendant can wrangle a number of devices, but a true self-service VR machine that everyone intuitively understands (and can’t inadvertently destroy) is still on the horizon.

To some extent that also goes for LEO too despite it being marketed as an entirely self-service machine. Its clear however that the company is thinking hard about how to offer a system that you might leave unattended to the mercy of your bog standard mall rat, and it’s approaching that with some interesting techniques we haven’t seen in similar kiosks. Currently operating machines in China, Vietnam, and the US, the company says that the kiosk is already present in arcades, malls and even a subway station in Shanghai. Although that sounds pretty strange from a Western perspective, Shanghai’s subway system has gads of single-serving karaoke machines and other such confangled devices that may otherwise be summarily abused in somewhere like New York, Washington DC, or Philadelphia.

Based on a Windows VR headset from Lenovo, the system has a novel retraction system that brings the headset up to an overhead housing stocked with powerful UV lights, something founder and CEO Patty Lui says takes under 30 seconds to sterilize the headset entirely. A sort of clamping overhead headstrap is a clever one-size-fits-all solution, something which was not only born out of convenience of not having to tighten a strap system, but also to avoid messing up a user’s finely quaffed hair. That said, I wouldn’t want to use it for longer sessions as it doesn’t clamp down nearly tight enough for a truly secure fit.

Another unique innovation: the sides of the cabinet are actually magnetic, something Lui says still needs to be tweaked so users can intuit where to put the return the controllers after the session is over. A custom controller housing contains magnets for storage and a large cage and rubber grip that protects it from the inevitable wear and tear of a public device.

You’ll notice in the photo below that the controller’s thumbstick is deactivated with a thick plastic cover, reducing it to its trigger, thumbpad, grip buttons and home button. Neither of the games I played used anything but the trigger, which made it feel more like a glorified lightgun—a sensible move to make VR sessions quick and easy for people who may be otherwise overwhelmed.

The company provides five arcade-style games which were developed in-house, although VRLEO has a scheme whereby third-party developers can sell slimmed-down arcade versions of popular games such as Beat Saber, which vendors can buy for a one-time licensing fee. A cloud-based content management system can be controlled via smartphone over the Internet, which includes full hardware diagnostics, remote game library management, and full up to date specs on how much a vendor is earning.

A large touchscreen lets you select games, which also provides a brief description and a few quick on-screen instructions before you start to help you figure out how to operate the whole thing. That’s a lot of kit, although it will cost you. VRLEO is selling its kiosk for $28,800 for a single unit, and going down to $18,000 at its cheapest when purchased in a bulk of 40.

Although LEO had a few hiccups, like having to blindly replace the controllers by myself when the game was finished, my reservations about self-sufficiency inevitably lie not in LEO, but rather in the lowest common denominator of its prospective user. Having seen any Nintendo Switch demo station at Walmart ought to give anyone pause about what the true fate of an unattended VR system: scratched lenses, greasy facial interfaces, twisted and frayed cables. Surely such a system would need someone to make sure it’s in good working order on a regular basis. It raises the question: will there ever be a truly public VR kiosk like you might see in those nearly indestructible arcade lightgun games of years past, many of which still function today thanks to their purpose-built robustness? I really can’t say, but it seems VRLEO is trying its hardest to get very close.

The post VRLEO Brings Competition to Out-of-Home VR with Ingenious Arcade Kiosks appeared first on Road to VR.

December 6, 2019

VR Days Europe 2019 Interview: Free-roaming VR With Vicon

Originally starting out in motion capture (mocap), hardware and software solution specialist then turned its attention to virtual reality (VR) and location-based entertainment (LBE). Offering a range of solutions for VR arcade owners, this culminated in the Vicon Origin system which launched in 2018. At the recent VR Days Europe event in Amsterdam, Vicon was in attendance to showcase its latest top-of-the-line camera, the ViperX. Vicon’s Product Manager Tim Massey was on hand to explain more.

Vicon - ViperX

During the two-day expo in November Vicon had the biggest presence of any individual company with a massive play area in partnership with VR Arcade, designed for up to four players to team up and fight waves of zombie hordes. In combination with the ViperX tracking system, the setup used mobile backpack PC’s, Oculus Rift’s, and gun controllers for that added feel of realism.

Obviously the main showcase was the new ViperX camera system which has been designed for larger-scale VR locations. The Viper series has been designed with VR in mind, with the original Viper camera featuring a 2.2 MP resolution, a visible coverage range of 8 meters and a latency time of 3.2ms. The new ViperX keeps the same low latency time whilst upping these other features. Offering an improved 6.3 MP resolution, the big gain is in its visible active marker range, now up to 18 meters.

The LBE industry has seen massive gains over the past few, with more locations appearing and bigger franchises getting involved. Recently Dave & Buster’s location in the US saw the arrival of Terminator: Guardian of Fate in addition to Star Trek: Dark Remnant and Men in Black: Galactic Getaway. While The VOID has now launched Jumanji: Reverse the Curse. Here in the UK Bandai Namco Entertainment has brought Godzilla VR over from Japan.

Vicon Origin

Massey notes how Vicon has witnessed this growth, seeing its Origin system expand from one customer with seven sites to eight customers running 51 sites worldwide, all in the space of 12 months.

Check out the full interview with Vicon at VR Days Europe 2019 below. And for further updates on the LBE industry and its latest innovations, keep reading VRFocus.

November 4, 2019

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).

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!

The post Transformers VR Coming To Arcades From Minority Media appeared first on UploadVR.

October 29, 2019

Synthesis VR Brings Swords of Gargantua to VR Arcades Worldwide

Regular readers of VRFocus may have noticed a spate of articles relating to the location-based entertainment (LBE) industry recently. The sector is growing very much in tandem with the consumer market as VR’s popularity gains momentum. The latest videogame to venture across from home headsets to VR arcades is Yomuneco Inc’s. Swords of Gargantua, care of distribution platform Synthesis VR.

Swords of Gargantua

They have announced a partnership to distribute the sword fighting title to LBE venues worldwide, available immediately to arcades using Synthesis VR.

VR Arcades will be able to host up to four players at once inside Swords of Gargantua, where they’ll need to work together to fight waves of heavily armoured enemies. They’ll be able to wield a number of weapons, from swords, nunchucks and axes to throwing blades and morning stars. Shields are also available for a more defensive strategy. Each has its own particular strengths and weaknesses in battle, like the short sword which is ideal for facing large groups of weak enemies. While a longer sword has more power, great when facing a single strong enemy because of the reduced attack speed.

When not in combat, players will be able to hang out in the multiplayer lobby where they can practice with different weapons. Other amusing additions include the ball and cup weapon, and miniaturized figurines of the characters.

“Swords of Gargantua is a very realistic swordplay action game that is fun for the whole family. It is already a very popular game, and I believe bringing Swords of Gargantua to all the VR locations worldwide is going to benefit the arcades in a big way, attracting new customers and retaining customers which is a big issue when it comes to arcades. Games like Swords of Gargantua make this happen and we are pleased to announce the availability globally through SynthesisVR,” said Shabeer Sinnalebbe, CEO of Synthesis VR on the partnership.

2019 has seen Synthesis VR add some major content and features to the platform. These include Wargaming.net’s World of Tanks VR and Vive Studios’ Front Defense and Front Defense: Heroes. To further enhance the player experience Synthesis VR partnered with Blueprint Reality Inc. to utilise its MixCast technology so visitors can receive mixed reality (MR) photos and videos of their gameplay sessions. As further content is added to the Synthesis VR platform, VRFocus will let you know.

October 23, 2019

Virtuix And HP Sponsor $100,000 Prize Pool For Omni Arena VR Esports

Virtuix and HP announced that Omni Arena experiences will host a $100,000 VR esports prize pool in 2020, doubling the prize pool from this year. Omni Arena is a VR esports attraction that straps users into a harness while in VR and allows them to run on the spot in a treadmill-like manner, affording them free multi-directional movement in the game world.

Omni Arena attractions are available to the public in 12 different countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, UK and the USA. You can view the full list of available locations on their site.

omni arena vr

The prize pool is shared globally across all locations, and will likely be split across the year in various small contests that run for limited amounts of time. For example, the current schedule for 2019 shows a contest running from October 24-27 for the game Core Defense, which you play in a team of 2. To compete, you just have to play the eligible game during the contest period at any of the Omni Arena locations. Your team’s scores will be placed on the global leaderboard, and there are cash prizes for the top global leaderboard rankings during the contest period.

For this upcoming tournament next week, first prize is $1,000 and an HTC Vive system. This year, the total prize pool was $50,000 across the year. With that amount doubled in 2020, you can expect some even higher cash prizes or more frequent tournaments.

To see upcoming tournaments for the remainder of 2019, you can visit the Omniverse site. Will you be participating in one of the contests next year? Have you tried the Omni Arena system before? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The post Virtuix And HP Sponsor $100,000 Prize Pool For Omni Arena VR Esports appeared first on UploadVR.