WeArVR

April 3, 2018

Searching For Mobile VR: Places You Can Get Apps Easily On Android And iOS

If you have just picked up a virtual reality (VR) headset or even put together your first Google Cardboard you may be interested to know where you can find all the best VR applications available right now. There are millions of apps available in the app stores across Android and iOS, but sorting out the ones that are VR apps can be a big challenge.

Works With Google Cardboard Rather than sorting through thousands of results it could be easier to browse through VR apps in a single place through the use of categories. Going to a single VR store that only contains VR apps instead of the other generic apps on the App Store and Google Play Store could save you a lot of time.

Comparing three VR apps platforms available on Android and iOS:

Some of the best places to simplify your search is with the help of apps like WearVR, the iVROX VR Store and the Google Cardboard app. Rather than using the App Store or the Google Play, these are stores that can display only the latest in VR apps from both major marketplaces. Downloading these VR stores will eliminate all of the generic applications and ensure that you can quickly find VR apps compatible with your device.

We did a quick comparison between these three to help you choose your favourite VR app platforms available right now:

The WearVR marketplace is a listing of over 1000 VR games and experiences. It was founded in 2014 in Atlanta, USA and in Leeds, UK. WearVR offers a wide range of great experiences including 360°. This app stands as one of the leading independent reality application stores available right now. It features apps of almost every type including social apps, horror apps, immersive VR games, multiplayer experiences and more. If you want to try out a series of immersive worlds this is an application with massive compatibility and all the latest apps that can be added to the system as soon as they are launched.

Cardboard App

Cardboard is a Google product and it’s created to help you source apps that are VR compatible. The app was launched in 2014 with the Google Cardboard VR system by Google California. By installing the cardboard app libraries, you can sort through a wide range of content that’s compatible with your VR device. The app sends out notifications for new VR apps which could suit your interest. Some of the most popular applications that are available on Cardboard include Exhibit, Arctic Journey, Photo Sphere, Tour Guide and Earth. As Cardboard is a Google product however, it doesn’t offer the best support for iOS devices.

iVROX VR Store

This VR Store is designed to help you discover the best in video contents and VR apps that can work with any VR device powered by Android or iOS. It was developed by iVROX in 2017 under this Franco-British company specialised in VR. Through this platform, you can find hundreds of games, 360° videos and VR apps all compatible with your smartphone. Rather than sorting through thousands of listings, the VR store by iVROX puts them all at your fingertips and simple to download on your device.

The categories available in this platform include a top 20, action, horror, simulation, social, camera apps, video players and more. The store is consistently adding new experiences. The iVROX VR Store that gets updated quite often features an astounding number of videos and apps that can lead to hundreds of hours of VR exploration.

iVROX VR Store Getting started with these stores just means finding and downloading any one of these VR stores from the App Store or the Google Play Store. They can look somewhat similar to the typical stores, only that they will display just VR compatible applications. With so many different categories available you can have the same wealth of choice that you did in a classic app store but without having any apps that might be incompatible or not in VR.

One of the best parts about using these new app listings is that there is no need for the complicated sorting and going through the other app markets.

With a market that can install just as easily as any other app on the smartphone, these stores remain one of the easiest ways to find the best VR content for your device with a compatibility rating on the VR experience. Ultimately, when it comes to having better VR experiences on any smartphone device, using a specific VR store function for finding apps remains one of the best paths to take. Check out Wearvr, the iVROX VR store and the Google Cardboard app to start improving your VR experience in finding new applications.

January 19, 2018

Update Your Oculus DK1 and DK2 Demos, Win $10,000

There were dozens upon dozens of virtual reality (VR) experience and videogame demos available for Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 and Dev Kit 2, and the fact is that many of them have been lost to time now. Indie developers, one-man teams and those simply tinkering about out of interest created so much content for the early Dev Kits, and the fact is that most of these demos are no longer playable on more modern head-mounted displays (HMDs).

Well WEARVR are apparently sick of not being able to play the demos and experiences of yesteryear on modern retail devices, and as such are offering a bounty of $10,000 for a high quality update to one of your older VR demos.

WEARVR is a site that was founded thanks to the wealth of interesting demos available for early VR HMDs, and they don’t want to lose all of the content that was created; “These early demos are what compelled us to launch WEARVR and give the experiences the dedicated audience they deserved,” says WEARVR COO, Andrew Douthwaite. “Having tried and tested nearly every DK1 and DK2 demo out there, it’s sad to see that some of them haven’t made it to the consumer headsets. However, it’s understandable when you consider that these were largely created by new, or one-person teams.”

What they’re called the WEARVR Remastered Competition, the challenge sees VR developers enhancing and updating their old Dev Kit content and making it fully functional with the latest HMDs.

Douthwaite doesn’t want to lose the legacy of how VR started and became mainstream; “What we’re trying to do with REMASTERED is give new VR users an opportunity to try these short experiences that helped the new VR industry grow so fast, as well as creating a bit of nostalgia for the VR veterans.”

“There are many developers who, perhaps, created a demo with no intention of selling it. This gives them an opportunity to monetize their demos, through WEARVR, whilst having the added bonus of prize money for best in class,” concludes Douthwaite.

If you want to enter your own VR software for consideration, you can do so on the WEARVR website. The closing date is May 1^st 2018, so get in fast.

It’s a good opportunity for early VR devs to revisit their earliest projects, and hopefully get paid for them too, if they win or decide to update the software to a saleable point. For all of the latest on VR demos and money making opportunities for you developers out there, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.

January 18, 2018

WEARVR Launches $10,000 Competition to Bring New Life to Dev Kit-era Apps

As Oculus has pushed out iterative runtimes to support its consumer hardware, many of the beloved early VR experiments have fallen to the wayside, languishing without support and lost in the annals of defunct software. To remedy this, WEARVR, an independent virtual reality app store, announced a new competition challenging seasoned VR devs to update their original Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 demos, games and experiences, and bring them back to support the latest VR hardware.

Dubbed the ‘Remastered Competition’, WEARVR is challenging developers to enhance, update and re-engineer their original Oculus DK content “to make it contemporary with new releases and fully functional on the latest headsets, including the Oculus Rift CV1.”

far from consumer-ready experience, Oculus SDK .05.01

The independent app store, which hosts a number of ‘legacy’ DK1 and DK2 experiences and games, is offering up cash prizes totaling $10,000 to the best Remastered virtual reality content submitted to the WEARVR app store before 1st May, 2018. Check out the rules and conditions here.

“These early demos are what compelled us to launch WEARVR and give the experiences the dedicated audience they deserved,” says WEARVR COO, Andrew Douthwaite. “Having tried and tested nearly every DK1 and DK2 demo out there, it’s sad to see that some of them haven’t made it to the consumer headsets. However, it’s understandable when you consider that these were largely created by new, or one-person teams.”

“What we’re trying to do with Remastered is give new VR users an opportunity to try these short experiences that helped the new VR industry grow so fast, as well as creating a bit of nostalgia for the VR veterans,” Douthwaite continues. “There are many developers who, perhaps, created a demo with no intention of selling it. This gives them an opportunity to monetize their demos, through WEARVR, whilst having the added bonus of prize money for best in class,” Douthwaite concludes.

Developers interested in reviving their early projects can enter here.

The post WEARVR Launches $10,000 Competition to Bring New Life to Dev Kit-era Apps appeared first on Road to VR.

January 17, 2018

Remaster Your DK1 And DK2 Content To Win A Share Of $10,000 In This Contest

If you’re a VR or AR content creator that developed experiences for either the Oculus Rift DK1 or DK2, then you could potentially win up to $10,000 for remastering your content for the CV1 in this new contest from WEARVR. The deadline for entries is May 1st, 2018, at 12:00PM BST.

Back before the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive officially launched almost two years ago, the Oculus Rift had a series of developer kits that content creators used to make some of the world’s first true consumer-facing VR applications. The DK1 and DK2 were the predecessors to Oculus’ CV1 and early adopters of the technology were treated to some absolutely groundbreaking and imaginative creations for the time.

A lot of those experiences have been lost to the evolution of the internet though. The fact of the matter is that a lot of these apps aren’t even compatible with the CV1 and then after Oculus shut down the Oculus Share website that was used to house all of those creations it was unclear what would happen to many of them.

Lots of apps have since been polished, expanded, and released as full games and experiences, but many of them have also been forgotten. Now thanks to WEARVR, there could be a resurgence on the horizon.

The contest rules are as follows:

The original content must have been made available for the Oculus DK1 and/or DK2,
Your Remastered Competition entry must work on the Oculus Rift CV1,
Your entry can also be remastered for the HTC Vive or other contemporary VR platforms as well, but must include the CV1,
The entry must include some manner of enhancement over the original (visuals, audio, controls, content, etc) that makes it contemporary with new releases on the Oculus platform,
Finally, read over the Terms and Conditions for additional details.

WEARVR will select the four best remasters as the winners and split the $10,000 between them. If you’re interested in submitting a piece of remastered content, just fill out the form on this site and register for a WEARVR developer account.

What are some of your favorite pieces of DK1 and DK2 content that you’d love to see remastered for CV1? Let us know down in the comments below!

Tagged with: contest, cv1, dk1, dk2, WEARVR

December 12, 2017

Climax Studios VR Collection Heading to Pico Headsets

Though much attention has been directed towards the upcoming standalone virtual reality (VR) headsets from Oculus and HTC Vive, the existing standalone Pico headsets have been somewhat neglected. This might change with the announcement that Climax Studios are bringing their collection of VR titles to the platform.

Climax Studios are a well-known videogame developer based out of Portsmouth, UK who have produced a number of VR titles, such as Gun Sight and Bandit Six. The studio have partnered with independent VR content platform WEARVR to bring four of its VR titles to the Pico Goblin.

Banditsix_Screenshot_Daydream

The Pico Goblin, like other standalone VR headsets, seeks to occupy the middle ground between smartphone-powered VR such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream and high-end, expensive VR devices such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift by offering premium content on a platform device that won’t break the bank. As noted by the VRFocus hands-on, the device is well-built, lightweight and shows promise, though its current content library needed some work.

The latter point is being addressed thanks to the work of WEARVR and Climax Studios, who will be bringing Bandix Six, Salvo, Gun Sight and Hunter’s Gate to the Goblin, with WEARVR handling the porting process and publishing.

“We are very excited to be bringing our mobile VR catalogue to Pico’s Goblin all-in-one headset. With Bandit Six, Salvo, Gun Sight and Hunters Gate you have a great mix of titles and it’s the first platform that you can play all four in one place!” said Climax Studios CEO Simon Gardner.

Pico Goblin rear image

“We are thrilled to add more awesome content to the 60+ titles on the Pico platform and allow people to experience Pico’s insanely easy-to-use headsets,” said Pico Interactive VP of Business Development Paul Viglienzone.

VRFocus will bring you further news on the Pico Goblin as it becomes available.

October 16, 2017

Win an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive Plus Games in WEARVR’s Latest Competition

Really like virtual reality (VR) and the possibilities the technology offers but don’t have the cash for an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive? Well, VR app store WEARVR is currently running a worldwide competition until the end of October where one lucky winner will get to chose one of the aforementioned headsets and a bunch on videogames as well.

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is head on over to the WEARVR competition webpage, identify all six of the videogames and apps pictured, then post the names on social media. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit — whichever you prefer, and just remember to tag WEARVR in it with #VRinspired and/or @mention WEARVR so they know. Winners will be notified by a direct social message so following the store might be a good idea.

Oculus Rift - HTC Vive mixed image

The first prize is an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift (whichever the winner prefers), plus the six titles and apps they correctly identified. Five runners up will also receive each of the six videogames.

The competition has now begun, the closing date for entry will be 31st October, 2017, with the winners being announced on 1st November.

Good luck, and keep reading VRFocus for all the latest news and announcements.

August 10, 2017

How to find VR apps

It can be hard to keep up with all the new virtual reality apps coming out. But, if you’re just starting out, it can be equally hard to find good ones to start with.

Here are my favorite resources.

Best review website: WeArVR

Every tech pub, including Hypergrid Business, will occasionally review virtual reality apps. But relying on those reviews is hit-or-miss, and top-ten style articles are typically out of date soon after they come out.

In my opinion, the best website to find reviews and ratings of the largest variety of apps, for all major VR platforms, is WeArVR.com.

WeArVR.

They include Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, OSVR, Samsung Gear VR, Daydream, Cardboard apps for both Android and iOS, and even Windows Phones and the IdeaLens K2 all-in-one headset. To be fair, though, the Windows Phone section is mostly YouTube videos, not standalone apps.

In addition to selecting the apps for a particular platform, you can also filter by category. The site currently has more than 30 categories, including kids, puzzle, arcade, RPG, flying, horror, multiplayer, and so on.

After you’ve picked your platform and category, you can also sort by newest, rating, or popularity. The site also shows prices, and has links to the download pages.

There are currently more than 3,500 apps listed on the site, making it the most comprehensive review site out there that is dedicated specifically to virtual reality apps.

It doesn’t include every single app out there, however. For example, it only lists about 40 Daydream apps, out of more than 200 that are available now.

Other VR app listings

Another site that lists virtual reality apps and allows you to sort by release date, popularity and rating is Appzoom.

It currently lists nearly 300 Cardboard apps for the iOS platform, and over 1,700 Cardboard apps for the Android platform.

The site also shows 64 apps for Daydream VR. However, it pulls up everything with “Daydream” and “VR” in the description, including games that say “Daydream support coming soon.”

Appzoom.

My biggest problem with the site is that clicking the “download” button doesn’t take you directly to the app store, but requires you to create an account on the site and log in. So you wind up having to search for the app’s title directly in the app store.

VR Heads Daydream apps list.

Meanwhile, while VRHeads is more of a general site about virtual reality, it has a great page for Daydream owners — “Every Daydream app you can install right now, and a look at what comes next.” They’ve got over 200 titles on this list, with prices, and the links take you directly to the Google Play downloads. However, you can’t sort by rating, release date, or popularity here — it’s just a simple list.

Another list of Cardboard VR apps is the Stooksy VR-Spektiv App Database, which currently lists 340 apps and lets you sort by title, category, price, operating system, and when the app was last updated. However, the newest app on this list is from last January.

For iPhone owners, check out the VR-iPhone Virtual Reality Game List for iOS Devices, which currently shows more than 300 apps and lets you sort by name, genre, and price.

Official app stores

Some platform also have their own online app stores. Here are the links:

Neither Apple nor Google has a dedicated VR section in their official app stores, but you can search for “VR” in their mobile apps, or, with Google Play, on their website. For iOS apps, it’s easier to do a Google search instead, such as “rollercoaster ios vr app.”

There are currently 250 apps that come up for “VR” on Google Play, but the search isn’t very effective. For example, it doesn’t bring up the Hulu app, which supports Daydream, nor the HBO Go VR app. The “Featured Cardboard Apps and Games” list is even less useful, with just 27 apps at current count.

Some platforms also come with built-in app stores. For example, Daydream’s home screen lets you find and download apps, as does the Gear VR.

Mobile apps that help you find other VR apps

Another option for finding Cardboard apps for your Android phone is to use apps designed for that purpose.

Here are the top ones:

Cardboard: The official Google Cardboard app (also available for iOS), downloaded more than 10 million times. I hardly ever use this app, though, since the selection of apps and demos is so tiny.

Fulldive VR – Virtual Reality: A nice platform for finding VR apps and videos for both Cardboard and Daydream. It also has an iOS version. It’s been downloaded more than a million times and is made by the folks who make the Durovis Dive, one of the earliest mobile VR headsets on the market. I don’t like their headsets, but I do like their app.

VR Store: More than 1,500 VR apps listed that you can browse by category and sort by ratings and number of downloads. It also has a list of over 1,000 VR videos. This app itself has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

VR Apps and Games: VR apps and 360 videos, downloaded more than 100,000 times. Has a search option, but doesn’t have filters or categories, and doesn’t show how popular the apps are, or their ratings.

I’ve tried a few other apps in this category, but they only had a handful of apps in their listings — not worth the time it takes to download them. If you know of any apps or online app directories that have a decent catalog, let me know in the comments!

November 24, 2016

Nintendo, Marvel, Charles Cecil & More to Discuss VR at Business Rocks in Manchester

Business Rocks, a Manchester based event taking place 3rd – 4th May 2017, has revealed a new virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stage. Including a line-up of speakers and panellists from all corners of the videogame, app development and VR/AR industries, tickets for Business Rocks are available to purchase now.

Business Rocks

Business Rocks is inviting attendees to meet some of the world’s biggest VR and AR influencers, pioneers, writers and industry experts as they debate the future innovations and opportunities of both mediums. The VR/AR Stage will feature Sanem Avcil with a keynote session entitled “Most impressive things in Virtual Reality”, with the line-up of speakers also includes:

Greg Everage, Sr. Manager, Creative Services at Nintendo, Charles Cecil, CEO, Revolution Software, Fabian Nicieza, Creator of Deadpool and Marvel Comics, Daniel Corey, Writer, IP Creator, DangerKatt Creative Studio, Mark Gerhard,Co-Founder & CEO, PlayFusion, Andrew Douthwaite, COO, WEARVR, Sanem Avcil, Founder, PoliteHelp & VR Influencer, Sol Rogers , CEO/Founder, REWIND:VR, James Dean, Managing Director, ESL, Luciana Carvalho Se, Chief Evangelist, Racefully, Sami Hamid, VR Producer & VR Lab Director, Glitch Studios, Tobias Barvik, VR Director, Glitch Studios and Eric Huang, Development Director, Made in Me.

Tickets for Business Rocks are currently available from £99 GBP at the event’s official website. VRFocus will keep you updated with further additions to the Business Rocks line-up.