Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Virtual reality works best when you’re totally immersed in the experience. So what’s it like to play hyper-fast racer Radial-G in a wind tunnel, buffeted by an 80mph gale? We found out.
The post Virtual reality racing in an 80 mph wind tunnel is cheek-flapping good fun appeared first on Digital Trends.
Uber Entertainment’s ‘second generation’ made-for-VR game Dino Frontier launches on August 1st for PSVR. Detailed in a new post on the PlayStation Blog, the game will be available digitally for $29.99, with a 20% pre-order discount for PlayStation Plus members.
Announced at last year’s PlayStation Experience event, this promising title, described as a “light simulation” rather than a full RTS, presents a novel mix of ‘Wild West and Jurassic eras’ from a tabletop VR vantage point. Forrest Smith, co-director of Dino Frontier says “We’ve strived to push the boundaries of VR interaction. There’s no other game like Dino Frontier. Reaching down into a vibrant world to pick up tiny people is a magical experience.”
The charming new trailer shows many of the core gameplay features, with the player assuming the role of Big Mayor, towering above the frontier settlement, directing settlers to gather resources, capture and train dinosaurs, as well as the motion controller integration and camera controls. Dino Frontier is Uber Entertainment’s second major VR title, building on the success of PSVR launch game Wayward Sky.
The post ‘Dino Frontier’ Launch Date and Gameplay Trailer Revealed appeared first on Road to VR.
Games that are specifically developed for VR are always going to look and play the best in a VR headset, but let’s face it, most of us probably have huge libraries of traditional games, and you may be wondering “Can I play regular games on the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive?”—the answer is yes (with a few caveats), and here’s two ways you can do it.
VorpX is a made-for-VR ‘3D injector’ which adapts non-VR games into a VR compatible view. The program supports both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and works with “more than 150 DirectX 9, 10 and 11 games in stereoscopic 3D and many more without.” This list shows popular games which are known to work with VorpX.
For supported games, the program gives you a 3D view through the headset and headtracking (including positional tracking), which makes it feel like you’re looking around inside of the game. Some games don’t support positional tracking which means only head rotations will be tracked.
Although this can be an amazing way to play many of your favorite non-VR games in VR, the truth is that—depending upon the game—it won’t be as good as playing a made-for-VR game, for two major reasons.
First, games not specially made for VR will feature traditional movement like running with the keyboard and turning with the mouse. For many users, this sort of movement can lead to nausea, though sensitivity varies greatly from person to person and game to game.
Second, games not made for VR will do things to the game camera which are not comfortable when the game camera is your head (thanks to the headset): traditional games will often take control of the camera to zoom around during cutscenes, or send it falling or spinning when you die. In VR this can be quite uncomfortable, as if someone was taking your head and yanking it around. Non-VR games will also often attach a HUD to the camera as well as a gun, which will feel like those elements are ‘attached’ to your face, so as you turn your head your gun goes with it.
It’s possible to have a great experience in many games this way, especially if you spend some time tweaking VorpX’s variety of options (there’s plenty of guides out there to help you get the settings just right for specific games), but be weary of the fact that games not made to be played in VR can be less than comfortable when played in a VR headset.
Instead of wrapping the view completely around you as if you were standing inside the game, another option is to play traditional games on a virtual cinema screen. This is great for playing non-VR games that aren’t comfortable or simply aren’t suited for a full VR mode (like games played from a top-down or side-scroller perspective). In such a mode you’ll see your game as if it was played on a big screen TV, which can actually be quite immersive depending upon how big you make the screen.
VorpX 3D Cinema Mode (Included with VorpX)
VorpX has a virtual cinema built-in, which is nice because it means you’ll have the ability to play many games in a full VR mode or a more comfortable mode on a virtual screen, all in one package.
SteamVR (Free)
SteamVR has its own built-in virtual cinema mode which Valve calls Desktop Theater. Inside you’ll see a big virtual display which can be resized. To launch games inside of SteamVR’s Desktop Theater, just launch SteamVR first (the little ‘VR’ icon at the top right of Steam), then launch a non-VR game from your library like usual (or use the VR interface). As far as we know, only games that support Steam Broadcasting are compatible.
Bigscreen (Free)
Bigscreen is another virtual cinema option with a cool twist. In addition to being able to see your computer desktop and play games on it in VR, in Bigscreen you can invite other VR players into your virtual space so that you can talk to each other and see each other’s screens, as if you were hanging out at a virtual LAN party. Bigscreen is available on both Steam and the Oculus Store, which means Rift and Vive players can play together.
Disclosure: Road to VR has an affiliate partnership with Vorpx.
The post Two Ways to Play Non-VR Games With the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive appeared first on Road to VR.
HTC announced a partnership with TPCast to create a wireless adapter that lets users move around without tripping over wires. Now, it appears that TPCast is set to release its solution by the end of April after a bit of a delay.
The post TPCast wireless adapter for HTC Vive scheduled to ship by end of April appeared first on Digital Trends.
Raw Data, a first-person combat game from Survios currently in Early Access, is one of the most fast-paced and exciting games out for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch right now. Far from being a simple shooting gallery, Raw Data gives you an impressive range of abilities and physical agency, making you feel like you’re in real danger. And if you can master the controls, you’ll feel like a superhuman badass too.
Official Site
Developer: Survios
Publisher: Survios
Available On: HTC Vive (Steam), Oculus Touch (Home)
Reviewed On: HTC Vive. Oculus Touch
Release Date: July 15th, 2016 (Vive) – March 16th, 2017 (Touch)
Note 03/16/17: The article has been updated to include impressions of the game’s recent support for Oculus Touch. You’ll find those impressions in a section at the bottom. The article is otherwise untouched, save the insertion of ‘Oculus Rift/Touch’ where needed. Because of the herculean effort of updating every Early Access review to reflect changes, you’ll see that initial impressions are left intact, but you’ll also find a section below discussing updates since the game’s July 2016 launch on Steam.
Note 07/18/16: This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game only at its current Early Access state and will not receive a numerical score.
Eden Corp, your standard “we’re not evil” evil corporation, is oppressing the world, and it’s your job as a member of hacker group SyndiK8 to infiltrate them. Choosing your character—the gun-wielding ‘gun cleric’ Bishop or the katana-swinging ‘cyber ninja’ Saija—it’s your job to extract massive amounts of data and defend vulnerable data cores so you can expose Eden Corp for what they really are, a “we say we’re not evil, but in all actuality we’re super evil, and you probably should have known that already” type of company.
Oh. And they have killer robots.
Although Raw Data is essentially a wave-shooter, it’s anything but simple, as it presents an engaging blend of tower defense elements, special unlockable moves, and a multiplayer mode that will have you battling alongside your friends on Steam or Oculus Home. Yes, that’s cross-platform, folks.
There’s a real sense of immediate danger in Raw Data too. I don’t know if it’s the fact that the game’s robot adversaries are well over 2 meters tall, or that they creep forward with seemingly no regard for their own safety, or that they’re constantly firing lasers at my face, or that when they come up to you they start punching you in the face—but it’s safe to say that Raw Data put me in a real panic the first few times I played.
If you choose Bishop, it’s best to practice with your pistol back at the starting point before you jump right in, because once you’re in a mission the learning curve gets steep fairly quickly. Because robots. Are. Everywhere. And if you don’t immediately understand how to reload consistently, you’re due for a robo-beating.
Later on in the game I learned how to reload my pistols instantly by touching them to my hip/ lower back, but the early manual reloading—using one hand to pull out a magazine and slide it into my pistol—was pretty frustrating. Several times while ducking behind a barrier to hide from an onslaught of baddies, I ended up swapping my empty pistol into my non-dominant shooting hand somehow, which is super frustrating when you have a load of enemies firing laser and punching you in the face. It happened consistently enough to make me more aware of how to carefully reload, and also keep an eye on my bullet counter so I didn’t run dry of bullets in time of need.
Then again, if you do screw up somehow by reloading, you can always punch them. No, really. You can punch a robot in the face to death. This is great when it works, which isn’t all the time though, and the same goes for Saija’s swords.
Using the sword should probably be the easiest, and most gratifying of the two, and Saija’s energy katanas sound good on paper if you’re the sort of person who wants to dispatch your enemies up close and personal ninja-style. I didn’t feel like they always worked as they should though, as slashing at a target sometimes didn’t register a hit. Thankfully you can also fire range weapons like ethereal shurikens, and even toss your swords like boomerangs, which are both reliable. If only up-close combat was.
Whether you’re slicing or shooting though, detaching an evil robot’s head from its body and seeing purple fluid spurt out gives me a clear sense of accomplishment. And getting through all four, which took me well over 3 hours, was an even bigger one, requiring me to recruit the help of a friend to accomplish.
Since it’s in Early Access, there are currently only two heroes (see update section), but Survios told us that at least two more are coming out with the game’s full release. They also gave us a better look at the individual abilities and weapons in our deep dive with the Raw Data devs if you’re interested in a more detailed look at the game.
As far as VR first-person shooters go, Raw Data is probably the most feature-rich out there. The world is cohesive and clearly approaching what I would call ‘AAA level’ of polish. That said, there are a few things that may thwart your attempts at feeling fully immersed in the space, all of which are no real fault of the game itself.
Avatars in multiplayer are kind of wonky. Because both the Vive and Oculus Rift only has three tracking points (the headset and two controllers), Raw Data is essentially making its best guess at the position of your full body. It does this by using inverse kinematics (IK)—a method of predicting how your joints bend—and then cleverly blending animations to smooth out any accompanying strangeness. That doesn’t always stop elbows and knees from bending the wrong way though in VR, making you look weird to your friends in multiplayer. This is however pretty much unavoidable when dealing with full body avatars using the Vive’s provided gear, so you certainly can’t knock Survios for putting their best effort forward.
Robots sometimes clip through you. On one of the levels (I won’t say which as to avoid spoiling the fun) you’re introduced to crawling, zombie-like robots. Their beady glowing eyes stare at you as they crab-walk in from the darkness, predictably scaring whatever bejesus you may still have retained from the previous level. That is until they jump at you and clip through your body, breaking the illusion. It’s clear that AI just isn’t good enough yet to guarantee that enemies will react to your physical movements, or anticipate where you’ll be next.
These are relatively minor gripes when talking about immersion, and aren’t unique to Raw Data.
Teleportation is one of the best ways to get around in VR in terms of comfort, and Raw Data has a special take on it that has some interesting trade-offs. You don’t actually blink-teleport, but rather you quickly glide to your chosen spot. Because the game uses plenty of particle effects, and the transition is quick enough, danger of motion-induced VR sickness (aka ‘sim sickness’) is pretty minimal, but more than you would experience with blink-teleportation. This, I felt, keeps you more present in the game by letting you keep an eye on the action as it happens around you so you can better plan your next split-second attack.
With the exception of Saija’s jump move, which launches you in the air for high-flying downward strike, the game is surprisingly comfortable for what is shaping up to be one of virtual reality’s greatest first-person shooters.
According to Survios, the Oculus version of Raw Data—which for now only seems accessible through Oculus Home and not Steam— has been “completely optimized and reengineered specifically for its two- and three-camera tracking and Touch controls.”
If you have three or more sensors, you’re likely to experience the game’s room-scale glory just like the Vive, letting you turn around and slash and shoot with nary a care for your IRL direction. However, if like most people you only have two sensors, you’re in for a bit of a learning curve to get past the Touch controller’s biggest out-of-the-box limitation: occlusion.
To combat this, Survios has enabled a 90-degree snap-turn, aka ‘comfort mode’ to go along with the game’s frenetic teleportation scheme as well as an ‘arrow guardian’ to help you recognize when you’ve turned completely around and are about to lose Touch-positional tracking. The arrow guardian isn’t at all annoying thankfully—i.e. no audio cues, or big ‘TURN AROUND’ signs to block your line of sight so you can take a quick shot at an incoming robot. It simply flashes a neon arrow to get you turned back around, something that may seem garish in any other game, but works well in the high stress, 360 environment of Raw Data.
Raw Data is still in early access, meaning small things like button mapping aren’t final. That said, I had trouble with this aspect of the Touch-compatible game.
To snap right, you press the ‘A’ button on your right controller; and to snap left, the ‘X’ button on your left—logical and simple. In the thrill of the fight though, I kept instinctively wanting to use the joy stick for this like many other games. Also, because the left snap is mapped to ‘X’, I kept accidentally mashing ‘Y’ which brings up a menu screen, effectively rendering my reloading hand useless until I could figure out what I did wrong. I concede that sometimes I have what is called in the medical field as ‘dumb baby fingers’. Again, three sensor setups won’t suffer my dumb-baby-fingered plight, as you can play the game with the knowledge that your Touch controllers will be tracked in room-scale.
Despite the dumb-baby-finger learning curve and having to pay closer attention to the new arrow guardian, Raw Data on Oculus Touch can be just as fun as the Vive version.
Survios has pushed several updates for the game while still in Early Access, including a new shotgun-wielding hero (‘Boss’), greatly improved multiplayer, and a new mission called Cataclysm which the studio promises is “the most challenging level to date.” According to Survios, players on both platforms also gain access to several brand-new features, including a balancing of new and reworked abilities for heroes Saija and Boss.
You can check out all of those any more on Raw Data’s Steam announcements page.
Summary: Raw Data is a heavy-hitting, fast-paced game that’s more than just a simple wave shooter. While it presses all the right buttons with atmosphere and feel, the game is on the bleeding edge of virtual interaction, which sometimes doesn’t work as well as it should. Despite its technical flaws, it’s one of the best VR shooters for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch out currently.
We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.
The post ‘Raw Data’ Early Access Review, Now with Oculus Touch Support appeared first on Road to VR.
Star Citizen‘s Senior Graphics Programmer Ben Parry has dropped a disappointing bombshell regarding the status of the crowdfunded title’s long awaited VR support, indicating that players may be waiting some time for it to emerge.
Star Citizen was the first title I ever wrote about on Road to VR, way back in the mists of 2012. The reason? The title was one of the first big titles to not only promise VR support, but to make it a specific feature of its crowdfunding campaign, a $12M stretch goal to be exact.
Star Citizen of course passed that $12M goal with ease, such was the desire for the sort of no holds barred, detailed PC-centric space combat simulation amongst the gaming community. The current funding total for Star Citizen now stands at a staggering $142,569,464 from over 1.7 million donors – surely the most successful crowdfunding campaign of all time.
Of course, the problems with setting specific goals for a project, especially if that project happens to be the development of a game is that, even with the best of intentions, those goals can prove tricky to meet with delivery dates becoming ever more fluid as time passes. Star Citizen is a case in point. Its original scope in 2012 was that of a relatively simple cockpit-based space combat sim, but this has since morphed into something of a monster, with the likes of first person exploration joining mountains of feature creep added as more and more money poured into the project.
We reported towards the beginning of last year that CIP’s founder Chris Roberts’ had affirmed that VR support was still being worked on and that he “would be expecting it to get up to speed with the most recent [VR] stuff sometime early next year,” meaning Q1 2016.
So what is up with that VR support then? Well, Cloud Imperium Games‘ (makers of Star Citizen) Senior Graphics Programmer Ben Parry, responding to a question on just that subject a few days ago and stirred up a small hornets nest in doing so. Asked “With the new [Amazon] Lumberyard Engine and its easier to use integration functions, will we be seeing more talk of possibly moving back toward VR support for this game?”, Parry responded “Sorry to say, do not hold your breath for this. Ignoring the render tech for VR itself (which given the work we’ve done, would definitely be a read-and-rewrite job, not a merge-this-file job), making a game properly VR compliant takes a lot of work at the design and testing level regardless of the engine used. We’d probably need to get the framerate up a bit higher too, come to think of it.”
The statement caused a few eyebrows to rise, with some forum posters taking the comments to mean VR support may have been cancelled altogether. Parry however was quick to clarify saying “Sorry for any misunderstanding, my point was that some of the key obstacles to VR support aren’t about whether the engine has the technical capability for it. That kind of thinking leads to, well, this guy explains it better than I do. I’d prefer we don’t accidentally and permanently ruin anyone’s ability to enjoy VR.”
So virtual reality support is still on the cards, but we may be waiting some time for it. Another poster asked if VR support would make it into Star Citizen after the game took its finished form, to which Parry responded “I wouldn’t say finished. It’s a balance. It certainly adds an extra % time tax to every feature that involves drawing things or player interaction, for specialised testing and the inevitable bug fixing.” He took to Reddit to further clarify his original statement, re-affirming that VR support was not off the table.
It’s understandable VR implementation takes a very distant back seat to the actual completion of a game of course, that much is obvious. What’s more, it’s clear Parry has taken onboard the by now dominant view that VR support isn’t something you duct tape to the back of a project, it needs care and attention. This at least is an attitude that should be applauded.
The post Star Citizen Senior Dev on VR Support “Don’t Hold Your Breath” appeared first on Road to VR.
VR exclusive online military simulator Onward has been wowing room-scale VR audiences since its inception and now lone developer Dante Buckley has been invited to continue development under gaming giant Valve’s roof.
One of the most abmitious virtual reality titles to appear since the HTC Vive’s release, military simulator Onward from solo developer (aka Downpour Interactive) Dante Buckley has consistently provided a glimpse at the potential of the first person shooter genre in virtual reality. The game has been revered by the VR community for some time but now the developer has received an altogether different accolade, the endorsement of Valve and the chance to go and work at the gaming giant’s offices.
In an update to Onward‘s Steam page, Buckley says “The past few months have been amazing. Onward has grown a lot since August 30th, and will continue to progress even more in 2017!” thanking the community for their continued support. He goes on to say ” I do have one big announcement for you today: Valve has invited me to work on Onward at their offices in January, this means that many more awesome developments are coming in Onward’s future!”
The announcement is worded in such a way as to indicate Buckley will be enjoying Valve’s hospitality and presumably office resources, but is unclear as to the full nature of the arrangement. Clearly Valve has deemed Onward a key title for SteamVR and it would seem a fair assumption to make that it might provide input and more substantial support to see the title mature.
Either way, it’s great news for Buckley and of course fans of Onward as it seems inevitable the title’s development will see a significant boost from his close proximity to the heart of the gaming giant, now heavily focused on building a compelling content catalogue for its growing SteamVR audience. Congratulations to Dante! We look forward to seeing where Onward goes from here.
Onward is available via Steam’s Early Access program here and you can keep up to date with the game’s growing community here.
The post Valve Takes ‘Onward’ Developer Under its Wing appeared first on Road to VR.
This is ‘Ninja Run VR’, and its yet another take on the ever present problem of user locomotion in VR experiences. But, as crazy as the concept looks, there may be some method to its madness.
The question of how best to allow users of VR apps, games and experiences to move around a virtual space is still a hot topic among players and developers. Right now, those titles which require user-controlled movement through a space seem to be settling on some form of VR teleportation – i.e. the point and click approach. But whilst this method is certainly one of the best for avoiding nausea in motion sick prone players, there’s no doubt it lacks the immediacy of linear motion and further more, it can be somewhat laborious to use if you’re wanting to travel large distances.
Now, a developer has come up with a new take on the problem, one that on the surface may well look, well, a little “batshit crazy”. The developer’s name is Sean Hall (whose previous claim to fame is the DIY HoloLens) and his technique is called Shaolinja or ‘Ninja Running’. The technique takes inspiration from a thousand anime and martial arts movies which depict the historical agents of assassination, which often portray the ninja running with arms swept back behind, leaning forward as they go – you can see this demonstrated in the video embedded at the top of this page.
“In many popular anime and cartoons, characters depicted to be moving very fast are often illustrated with their hands and arms trailing their torso in the direction they are moving,” Hall tells us, “Even though is is unrealistic, it does induce the notion that the person has a super power to move very fast.” Hall’s idea then was to adopt the pose for us in VR. “With my locomotion, the user is allowed the luxury of immersing themselves in a system where they possess that super power. Because moving is tied to muscles and the inner-ear, simulator sickness is profoundly reduced.”
The developer has begun to flesh out his concepts too, this has resulted in a demo experience which adopts the technique. He’s released this demo to the public in order to garner more feedback and to gauge whether other developers working on VR experiences would be interested in incorporating it. You can also download the system as a Unity plugin via the asset store here. The project even has its own landing page on Steam, known as ‘Shaolinja’ right here.
So yes, this new locomotion does seem a little ‘out there’ at first glance, but the more I thought about it, the more I reckon Sean may be onto something. Whether he’ll convince other creators to join him in his experiment remains to be seen, let us know in the comments below if you’re considering taking a look.
The post ‘Ninja Run’ May Be the Craziest VR Locomotion Technique Yet appeared first on Road to VR.
Microsoft has enabled a long promised feature for their games console the Xbox One, the ability to stream games into a VR environment via a headset attached to a PC.
Microsoft has been making significant strides to strengthen its offerings and stance on immersive technologies. The company has made several significant announcements regarding Windows 10, partnerships with Valve and more recently revealing Windows will host several new affordable 3rd party virtual reality headsets in 2017.
More significantly, last year it revealed that its next games console, codenamed ‘Scorpio’ will be built with hardware designed to supply “high fidelity virtual reality” to a console audience and will arrive some time in 2017. Scorpio is of course Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s recent ‘mid-cycle’ console refresh with the PS4 Pro, a souped up version of its predecessor which delivers near 4k and HDR gaming as well as promised (albeit ill-defined) visual enhancements to games built for the company’s recently launched PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset.
In the mean time, another Microsoft promise which may have been forgotten by many, has now been kept – enabling the feature for Xbox One games console owners to stream Xbox One games to their PCs and to play those games inside a PC attached VR headset. The announcement originally formed part of a special media event which saw the reveal of Oculus’ consumer Rift VR headset as well as the recently launched Oculus Touch motion controllers. Forming part of a deal to ship Xbox One wireless gamepads with every Rift, a short demonstration was made during the presentation depicting a gamer donning a headset and enjoying Forza Motorsport projected onto a large, virtual screen whilst that user was wearing an Oculus Rift. As such it should be clear this functionality is only available for Oculus Rift and (of course) Xbox One owners. This feature was enabled yesterday.
The ability to play Xbox One games on a screen larger then many could afford in real life is an interesting idea, and indeed we’ve written before how effective this technique can be in practice, but it of course should not be confused with ‘real VR’. To put it less glibly, the immersion benefits for playing games this way will probably be largely minimal for most – specially those used to VR experiences in general.
Those who wish to try it (and we’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below), can grab a new app from Oculus Home. The system offers multiple environments in which to view games as well as adjustable viewpoints.
Nevertheless, as much as this new feature will be regarded by many in the VR community as a gimmick, it does once again affirm Microsoft’s commitment to the immersive gaming space and provides a stopgap to more a more concerted, conclusive step into the VR space with Xbox Scorpio and the expansion of Windows powered VR headsets next year.
The post Xbox One Owners Can Now Stream Games in VR Via PC appeared first on Road to VR.
At PAX West, Reload Studios made a strong push for cultivating World War Toons as a VR eSports title. They were livestreaming a couple of shoutcasters announcing a four-on-four player capture the flag game of World War Toons, which is a free-to-play, VR first-person shooter. This was all preparation for Twitchcon this past weekend where they were on the expo floor with the same configuration, except with PlayStation VR headsets instead of Oculus Rifts.
I had a chance to catch up with Reload Studios CEO James Chung at PAX West where we talk about motion sickness with VR first-person shooters with different VR comfort options, their integrations with the Virtuix Omni, their free-to-play business model, and VR eSports as well as the future of streaming in VR.
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
Here was Reload Studios’ setup at PAX West:
Music: Fatality & Summer Trip
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