Rhythm music games Synth Riders and OhShape teamed up for a five-song music pack featuring songs from Caravan Palace.
The new pack is available separately from today in both apps featuring the five songs listed below from the French electronic band:
“Lone Digger”
“Wonderland”
“Miracle”
“Rock It For Me”
“Tattoos”
In case you are unfamiliar, OhShape and Synth Riders are both rhythm games that offer a different take on the genre from Facebook’s market leader Beat Saber. The studios behind the rhythm games have teamed up for songs in both games before but this is a fully fledged downloadable music pack partnered with a single artist. Synth Riders made an experience for the Wonderland track while OhShape offers a new stage with visuals inspired by Caravan Palace. You can check out the below preview video showing Synth Riders:
The Caravan Palace Music Pack is available for purchase separately in each game on Steam, Oculus Quest, and Viveport priced at $7.99 for the bundle or $1.99 per song. If you don’t own the games yet, there should be a week-long bundle for both on the Oculus Store offering them together at a discount of 25 percent.
Synth Riders launches on PlayStation VR headsets later this month following the addition of songs from The Offspring and Muse. Check out our interview with Kluge Interactive CEO Arturo Perez in March about the development of Synth Riders:
Will you be checking these songs out? Let us know in the comments below.
Rezzil is bringing its athletic training platform to Oculus Quest later this month.
Rezzil Player 22 is a follow-up to the recently-launched Rezzil Player 21, which was exclusive to SteamVR. But, whereas that game was primarily a soccer simulation platform that used SteamVR Trackers to follow your feet, Rezzil Player 22 features a range of exercises based around using your hands and head for coordination and improving fitness.
It’s not an actual soccer simulator this time, then, but Player 22 features a number of different minigames aimed at improving your reactions and accuracy and tracks your progress. The developer says that its platform has been tested by “elite sportsmen and women, coaches and teams”.
At launch the game will have three main drills, based around activities like heading balls. These will ask you to do different things like getting the ball through rings or passing to players. There’s also a reaction wall in which you hit lights as soon as they appear and a basketball-based minigame. Outside of the drills, there’s a brick-breaking game in which you use a paddle to hit a ball and score points.
Rezzil itself is planning to support the platform with updates and DLC in the future, too. A new game mode will be added soon, and there will be expansion packs for the existing content, too.
TRIPP, the Los Angeles-based startup behind the eponymous VR meditation app, has secured a Series A investment amounting to $11 million.
The investment, which was announced via TechCrunch, was led by Vine Ventures and Mayfield with participation from Integrated. This brings the company’s overall outside funding to $15 million, with its first $4 million secured back in September 2017.
With the aim of reducing everyday stress and creating mindfulness, TRIPP delivers a sort of gamefied meditation experience that focuses on breathing exercises, trippy landscapes, and calming sound frequencies.
According to TRIPP CEO Nanea Reeves, the app serves as a “low-friction alternative that can deliver some of that [psychedelic] experience in a more benign way.”
The app is available on Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift as a subscription service ($5 monthly, $15 annually), but also a one-time $30 purchase on those platforms as well as PSVR.
Reeves tells TechCrunch that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped consumers “dial into the importance of mindfulness and mental health awareness.”
What’s more apparent though is the pandemic has caused a rapid shift to at-home entertainment, that has consequently also seen investment dollars flow more freely to VR startups. Some of the highlights over the past 12 months: social VR platformRec Room garnered $100 million, China-based headset manufacturer Pico raised $37 million Series B+ financing, and startup AppliedVR got $29 million to pursue FDA approval for its VR pain management software.
Subscription-based VR fitness apps like Supernatural and FitXR have also taken the limelight as they were tapped to fill the void left by gym closures. On the platform side of things, Facebook has also not only included platform-level fitness tracking on Oculus Quest headsets, Oculus Move, but also outfitted thousands of its employees with Quest 2 as a way to get them up and moving while still at home.
FitXR, the subscription-based VR workout app for Oculus Quest, launched its third in-game exercise regime which brings High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to the mix.
HIIT is the FitXR’s third ‘studio’, which follows the addition of in-game Box and Dance studios. The developers say the new HIIT studio includes instructor-led exercises and reaction-based fitness games like professional F1 driver reaction training.
Divided into two main areas, the company says its new ‘Fitness Activity’ classes are based on functional movement and incorporate different directions for specific muscle groups. The ‘Reaction Activity’ classes require speed and quick reactions as you punch at a grouping of fast-paced targets.
Unlike rhythm-based games, HIIT is based on completing blocks of exercises. The studio says it provides “higher calorie burn, increased metabolic rate and improved oxygen consumption.” Like the rest of the FitXR app, HIIT can be played in either solo or multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode is a real-time group workout of up to 6 people.
FitXR is available for a free seven-day trial, although you’ll need to sign up for the $10 per month service to get it. The game only recently switched to the subscription-based model; if you owned it when it was a one-time purchase with optional DLC, you’ll need to pony up for the full subscription to unlock the rest of the workouts—or move on to a number of other top non-subscription fitness apps.
FitXR is today launching its third form of virtual workout – high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises.
Traditionally, HIIT workouts have people exercising in short, sharp bursts and then resting for a few moments before starting up another activity. When we spoke to FitXR last month the company told us its take on HIIT was designed to really push the intensity of what could be done with a VR workout.
The activity gives players a mix of exercises that include reaction-based minigames and more directed workouts with the help of an instructor. These are mixed up each time you play to give you a different and varied experience. The exercise revolves around you hitting orbs that light up on a board as quickly as possible, but the range of motion is designed to target different muscle groups. You can get a quick glimpse of the mode in the tweet below.
FitXR Launches HIIT
Our NEW HIIT studio launches tomorrow and 3 intro classes will be available to all regardless of whether or not you’re a member We are so excited to share it with you until then, turn post notifications on so you can be the first to know when the update hits! pic.twitter.com/ZWjrzOKR1e
HIIT joins FitXR’s boxing and dance workouts and is the first exercise to be added since the platform introduced a new subscription service. The subscription turns the app into a free download but lets existing customers keep all the content they previously purchased but provides daily workouts across its range of activities and re-introduces real-time multiplayer. As the tweet above notes, you’ll get three introduction classes to try even if you aren’t a member with today’s update.
We haven’t tried out HIIT for ourselves just yet but we’ll be sure to test it in the coming days. Are you going to try out this new FitXR exercise? Let us know in the comments below!
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK with many struggling with being stuck at home, unable to see friends and family. Whilst lockdown restrictions are slowly being rolled back that doesn’t mean everyone’s wellbeing instantly improves overnight. There are various ways to improve your mental health and virtual reality (VR) can be part of that process, from exploring the great outdoors to engaging in some light fitness. So here are a few recommendations for when those stress levels begin to rise.
While you should get out for the odd walk when (and if) you can, there are plenty of studies that highlight the fact that even doing some light exercise can help lift your mood. And this doesn’t need to be intensive workout sessions as long as you’re moving. Naturally, the more often you do exercise, and for longer periods, the greater the effect.
The UK’s Mental Health Foundation also highlights the positive attributes of getting closer to nature, finding that “More than half of UK adults saying being close to nature improved their mental health.” You might not think VR and nature go hand-in-hand but they definitely do if you know where to look.
Tackling fatigue, stress or anxiety with VR
Guided Tai Chi
Perfect as a form of exercise as well as being able to refresh your mind and spirit, Guided Tai Chi provides over 200 workouts, allowing you to select 20 scenic locations and the music to go with each session. These can range from a quick 3-minute warm-up all the way up to 60-minute Tai Chi endurance marathons. On Oculus Quest you even have the ability to use hand tracking for a more natural experience.
Ecosphere
An interactive collection of 360-degree videos, Ecosphereis a nature documentary series. Featuring content from the jungles of Borneo to the rich coral reefs of Raja Ampat, viewers will be able to see a diverse selection of wildlife created in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Beat Saber
A rhythm-action videogame every VR player knows and has probably played, Beat Sabercan help you work up a sweat on its expert difficulty levels. With its simple yet addictive gameplay Beat Saber is easy to zone into and forget about the outside world, slicing and dicing coloured blocks to your heart’s content. There are even multiplayer and 360-degree modes when you really want to turn things up a notch.
Nature Treks VR
Keeping with the nature theme, Nature Treks VR is just what you want to explore the great outdoors in VR. Get up close with 20 different animals across a range of environments where you can control the weather and time of day, activate audio visualizations and more. Music plays over each scene of you can turn it off to hear the soothing sounds of nature.
Synth Riders
Another rhythm-action title to help get the blood pumping and loosen those muscles is Synth Riders. Rather than all the hectic slashing of Beat Saber, Synth Riders is a fluid, orb matching experience that helps to stretch your body to a variety of music, from synth-wave through to Muse. The videogame also features a 360° Spin Mode and a cross-platform multiplayer for up to 10 people because it’s nice to get a few mates involved.
Tripp
An award-winning meditation app, Tripp offers 40+ meditative experiences with a mobile app to help personalise and track your Tripp’s. “TRIPP uniquely integrates game play mechanics, breathing exercises, beautiful visual landscapes and sound frequencies. Based on scientific research and used in several clinical studies.” So get comfy on the sofa and enjoy a relaxing journey in VR.
Wander
As you might expect from an app called Wander, this is all about travelling the world and being able to visit locations like the gardens of the Taj Mahal or the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Using data from Google StreetView, you can navigate around using voice controls as well as other input methods. Plus, if you want to learn something along the way Wander features Wikipedia integration.
Where Thoughts Go
A very existential, award-winning social experience, Where Thoughts Gois the work of indie developer Lucas Rizzotto. It lets you uncover the dreams, fears and secrets of other players by waking up creatures – and also leave your own for others to find. Unusual and highly thought-provoking,“These anonymous stories are revealing and inspiring, encouraging reflection and introspection,” explains the synopsis. “Participants have no way to discern who they are hearing from, only how considerate and sensitive each and every person is.”
Real VR Fishing
Time for more VR videogame fun. Fishing has always been considered one of those relaxing, Sunday afternoon past times and with Real VR Fishing, every day can be Sunday. Designed as a realistic fishing simulation, you can head to real-world fishing locations to cast off and see if you can get a bite, on your own or with friends. You’ve got your own aquarium to put the fish you’ve caught in and there’s even a web browsing option so you can pull up YouTube and listen to some tunes out on the water.
National Geographic Explore VR
Last on the list is National Geographic Explore VR an interactive experience where you can explore two locations, Antarctica and Machu Picchu, Peru. In the frozen wastes of the southern continent, you can kayak around icebergs and search for a lost emperor penguin colony. While in Peru wander through digital reconstructions of the ancient Inca citadel, encounter alpacas and take photos of your journey.
It’s becoming easier and easier to get fit at home rather than traipsing down to a gym – which are all currently closed – with plenty of ways to make the whole process a lot more fun. That’s been a core part of FitXR’s methodology, initially starting with boxing workouts before expanding into dance sessions. Today, the company has announced the next step in its bid to evolve the FitXR app, adding more content as well as moving to a subscription-based model.
From today, FitXR on Oculus Quest will become a membership-style app with new members given a 7-day free trial to see if they want to join up and pay $9.99 USD a month. If you’re already a FitXR user you’ll be given a 90-day free membership to try out the new features. But don’t worry if you’re not interested in signing up. You’ll still have access to all the content previously bought, you just won’t get the new stuff.
With a new model comes a bunch of new content to keep you coming back. Users will find a new class everyday, choreographed by a team of professional fitness instructors, and new environments; SkyPack with day and night settings, and the Dance Floor Studio three home destinations – The Loft, The Locker Room and The Arena. One of the big additions is multiplayer. Where the previous dance workouts saw others join you, this time seven friends can workout together, with the ability to chat before, during and after class.
“FitXR was founded with an aim to make fitness approachable, and fun, for all,” said Sam Cole, Co-Founder and CEO of FitXR. “The FitXR community has always been at the heart of every decision we make, as we read every bit of feedback from our customers and are inspired by the life-changing transformations they are having. We had always intended to follow a subscription model to enable us to continually update and add new features, and now via Oculus, that is possible.”
“Oculus launching subscriptions represents a coming of age moment for VR, as developers can provide significantly more value to their customers. FitXR is offering an unequalled virtual fitness club, challenging traditional ways of thinking about fitness,” Cole continues. “Members can now meet new people, workout together and achieve the real gym experience while at home. We’re excited for FitXR customers, new and old, to try for themselves what we have been working on and to learn what FitXR has in store for them in the near future.”
When it comes to future plans, FitXR will be launching its new HIIT studio in May so you can engage in highly competitive High-Intensity Interval Training classes. FitXR is also collaborating with Warner Music so that it can provide a constant stream of new music to members.
Currently, on every other VR platform, FitXR is still known by its original name, BoxVR. That’s going to change with the team saying: “For the FitXR Steam, Rift and PSVR communities, we’re working to launch the membership model and related upgraded content in the near future.” So for continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Encouraged by the growth of the Oculus Quest platform and its success within it, FitXR is the latest VR fitness service to turn to a subscription model inside a VR headset.
The app, developed by a London-based team of the same name, is today turning into a free download and launching a new $9.99/£9.99 a month subscription plan that offers new features and brings back some other requested aspects. Launching today are daily workouts, the reintroduction of improved real-time multiplayer, licensed music and new environments to exercise in. Coming soon, meanwhile, is, FitXR’s third main form of workout, high intensity interval training (HIIT).
FitXR Subscription Revealed
Crucially, if you’re an existing FitXR user, nothing’s being taken away from you. Over web call, FitXR’s Sam Cole confirmed to me that all of the content you’ve already accumulated will remain in place. In fact, you’re actually be getting more – you’ll get 90 days free access to the subscription and the restoration of multiplayer will apply to existing customers whether they choose to then stay on or not.
The online functionality is also getting a bit of an upgrade. Long-time users of FitXR will recall that the app used to have real-time multiplayer when it was called BoxVR and offered only the boxing game. When FitXR made the transition to the remodelled app it replaced this feature with ‘ghost data’ of your friends, and you could no longer join up with them in real-time. Now the feature is coming back with support for up to seven players and things like voice chat and you can also see your friend’s virtual head and hands to one side as you work out.
I tried it out in the video below, and it was great to see this element back in both the boxing and the more recent dancing activity. Especially in the latter, taking part in the game as a group activity helps instil a welcome sense of community and motivation that you get in a real dance class.
Daily workouts, meanwhile, will be spread across the app’s activities, starting with boxing and dancing and moving to HIIT once it arrives. These will be designed and choreographed by professionals and make use of FitXR’s new licensing deal with Warner Music. The app will be focusing on new artists featured on the FFFR label from DJ Pete Tong for now, though FitXR plans to flesh it out with new offerings in the future.
Finally, the HIIT workouts are due to arrive sometime in April. This sounds like one of the most interesting parts of the update, as Cole explained to me that HIIT was built around pushing the boundaries of how intense a VR fitness experience can be. I haven’t tried it for myself, but I did see what looked like a virtual game of whack-a-mole as one of the exercises. If this experience can come up with a bunch of VR-native activities that get you working out in innovative ways, it could be the most significant addition to the app yet.
While these features are all launching on Quest, FitXR is also planning to update the PC VR and PSVR versions of the app which are still in their BoxVR iterations. A Steam launch is aiming for May and a PSVR update hopes to arrive sometime in Q2. Looking forward, Cole also confirmed that other types of activities are in development and that the team is keeping an eye on developing features like hand-tracking.
In February, Facebook’s Mike Verdu revealed that FitXR was one of Quest’s top non-gaming apps, with one of the highest retention rates on the platform. He added that “their sales have increased 535% YoY in Q4 2020, and their weekly active users have grown 4x since Quest 2 launched.” Clearly, the company sees that as proof enough it can take on other VR fitness subscriptions, like the $19-a-month Supernatural.
VirZOOM has been in the virtual reality (VR) fitness game for quite a while now, starting off with a bike controller in 2016. But hardware – especially VR peripherals – is a difficult business to be in, seeing VirZOOM pivot to being a software company that allows you to cycle around the world on a standard exercise bike. Today, VirZOOM has announced the launch of VZfit, its complete fitness app for Oculus Quest.
Fitness has become an exciting part of the VR industry, with apps like Supernatural and FitXR heavily promoting their healthy credentials whilst others including Beat Saber, Synth Riders, Audio Trip and more equally provide energetic sessions which can be tracked using Oculus Move or YUR. But they all tend to be rhythm action experiences, whereas VZfit is still sticking to its cycling roots whilst expanding its potential by removing the bike altogether.
VZfit‘s unique feature is the use of Google Maps so you can cycle around almost anywhere in the world, following pre-created routes or your own. If you have an exercise bike then an additional cadence sensor is all that’s required to connect the app to the bike. However, VZfit’s latest addition is the ‘exerboard’ which allows you to follow a virtual trainers workout routine with feedback and encouragement along the route.
“We wanted to combine the limitless possibilities of the world around us with the limitless possibilities of VR,” said Eric Janszen, Co-founder and CEO, VirZOOM in a statement. “Take a selfie at the Coliseum or in front of the Sydney Opera House, or simply take a trip down memory lane – whatever location you choose, with VZfit a world of adventure is literally at your fingertips. Our experiences have always been an exhilarating mix of the real world and the fantastical, but this is the most accessible VR fitness app that uses global exploration as a key motivator, making it so fresh and engaging that exercise almost becomes the side product. Especially in a time when none of us can travel in reality, it already has our community completely hooked.”
“After the success of VZplay and Explorer, we wanted to reduce the friction of needing special cardio hardware so we could expand our reach to anyone wanting to stay fit and healthy,” adds Eric Malafeew, Co-founder and CTO, VirZOOM. “We also wanted to expand beyond pure game play to tap into those travel aspirations and the endless options available to us in the real world.”
VZfit is available today for Oculus Quest. The app is free to download with a 7-day trial period available to test it out. After that it’s a subscription service costing $9.99 USD per month with VirZOOM also planning on rolling out a discounted annual membership in the near future. For further updates on VZfit, keep reading VRFocus.
VZfit launches its subscription fitness service this week on the Oculus Store for Quest with smart bike and Google Maps Street View integration.
The workout service hits the Oculus Store on April 15, though it was previously available for Quest outside the store. VZfit’s focus is on transporting users to exercise virtually anywhere around the world using Google Maps Street View.
The street view data is taken and mapped onto the environment around you, allowing you to work out in any environment and move along roads while exercising just like real life. The developers, VirZOOM, say there’s over 10 million miles of street view data to explore using the app, which also allows you to workout with a friend and create your own virtual exercise routes.
VZfit has Strava and Fitbit support, alongside connectivity with “most smart bike devices and trainer sensors.” The app works with and without cardio machines — there are full body workouts as well — but you’ll also be able to purchase a cadence sensor (VirZOOM recommends this one) if you want to connect the app to a stationary exercise bike that doesn’t have smart bike functionality.
VirZOOM says the app is aimed at “mid-level fitness groups who are looking for regular, 30-minute exercise sessions.” Beta testing on thousands of Quest users suggests most users are in their 30s or 40s, with an “almost even” split between males and females.
The app is adopting a subscription model with a free 7-day trial and then $9.99 a month. A discounted annual membership rate will be “available soon”. Developers say the service also supports popular music that can play during your workout through feed.fm and you can have “unlimited” family accounts through a single Oculus ID.
VZfit is available April 15 on the Oculus Store for Oculus Quest.
We are so excited to share it with you until then, turn post notifications on so you can be the first to know when the update hits! 
