windows vr – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 23, 2020

Apparent Leak: HP & Valve’s New WMR Headset With Side Cams, IPD, New Controls

Prolific Microsoft leaker WalkingCat just Tweeted what seems to be images of HP & Valve’s upcoming new WMR headset and Microsoft’s new VR controllers.

“WalkingCat” has a long history of accurate Microsoft leaks, revealing some of the company’s products and services in the past.

In late March, just after the release of Half-Life: Alyx, HP announced Reverb G2 – a “next generation” headset for SteamVR being built in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft. Not many details were given at the time other than a dark frontal image, and no further details have been officially given since.

Brightening that image showed what looked like the Valve Index’s near-off-ear speakers. WalkingCat’s image seems to show the same.

But that official image only showed the front, so the side and underside of the headset wasn’t visible.

WalkingCat’s photo shows the headset having side cameras and a knob that looks almost identical to the Valve Index’s lens separation adjuster.

In fact, the padding on the front and back of the headset also looks like Index’s. Valve is a partner on this headset, so it would seem like a good idea to reuse these high quality parts.

The apparent next gen Windows MR controllers are shown to ditch the touchpads and change to a more ergonomic design, making them look strikingly similar to Facebook’s Oculus Touch controllers.

This move would help developers because they could use their existing Oculus control scheme instead of needing a WMR-specific input approach.

Assuming this leak is real and HP prices the headset competitively, this headset could be exactly what the PC VR market needs.

Facebook offers Rift S at $400, but its build quality is low, it lacks lens separation adjustment, and the built in audio is low quality. Valve’s Index offers a wider field of view, higher refresh rate, full lens adjustment, premium audio, and controllers you can let go of- but at $1000 the kit’s appeal is price limited.

Windows MR headsets like the existing Reverb and Samsung Odyssey+ haven’t seen much market appeal, with the entire platform making up just 8.5% of SteamVR in April. A core criticism has been the use of only two tracking cameras, which limits the range of controller motion possible in games.

The headset shown in this leak could be the “middle ground” headset many PC VR gamers have been waiting for- avoiding the compromises of Rift S but staying affordably by not using SteamVR Tracking.

As with all leaks, take these images with a huge grain of salt. Even if they are real, they may not reflect the current state of the product. We’ll keep a close eye on HP, Microsoft, and Valve in the coming weeks to bring you any official information.

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March 13, 2020

Hands-On: Spaceteam Is Full Of Absolute Co-Op Choas

There aren’t many more panic inducing activities then being trapped in a chaotic situation with little options to free yourself. If you happen to find yourself trapped on a malfunctioning space station and only have your crew to fly on, as you do in Spaceteam VR, then the situation is even worse.

During PAX East 2020, I got the chance to go hands-on with Spaceteam VR, and what I found was a surprisingly faithful step up from its mobile predecessor.

For those unaware, Spaceteam originated in 2012 as a mobile game, allowing players to participate in a cooperative effort to save themselves and the spaceship they were on. The premise is fairly simple: each player has access to a terminal that receives directions for the other players to do. By working as a team – or shouting at each other, as that often happens instead – the goal is to continue beating levels and keeping your spaceship intact.

In Spaceteam VR, the premise is basically the same, only made much more chaotic thanks to the capabilities that virtual reality allows. Instead of just pressing a touch screen to fix things, you’ll have to actually reach out and interact with the various items at your terminal. Alongside the added three-dimensional twist, being strapped into a VR headset adds a surprisingly difficult component to things. Understanding and reacting to the instructions being yelled to you becomes a bit more difficult when you have to constantly be on a swivel to find exactly what doohickey you’re supposed to press or pull. Combine that with having to shout out other directions while listening for your own, and it provides an extremely frantic but incredibly fun time.

Spaceteam VR

Spaceteam VR features three different difficulties, with the harder difficulties giving players many more controls to be responsible for while amping up just how tough the anomalies that occur are. In easier modes, you might only be responsible for a handful of duties, but tuning things to the hardest difficulty will require you to be on your ‘A’ game. According to Cooperative Innovations, some of the tougher anomalies will include player’s heads shrinking, instructions being presented backwards or with missing letters, and in-game voices on players becoming high pitched and hard to decipher.

Elsewhere in the game, controls are pretty standard for VR titles. You’ll have levers to reach out and grab, buttons to push, and items to grab on the fly as you try to complete your specific instructions. Putting out fires, taking down aliens that try to invade the ship,and having to hammer out mistakes are just some of the many other trials you’ll face while attempting to stay alive. The longer you go, the tougher the challenges you face become, until you eventually find yourself frantically yelling at a teammate to repeat orders as a fire rages on in front of you.

The real draw of a game like Spaceteam VR is in its group play settings a bit like if everything went wrong in Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and Cooperative Innovations seems to have thought of that at every turn. Although the game is primarily meant for virtual reality, players will be able to join in locally on their smartphones or tablets and play along. It’s a great feature that will no doubt come in handy when playing the game, especially because of its six player capabilities. Thankfully for players who don’t have access to a ton of people, Spaceteam VR will also support cross-play between Oculus Quest and other PC VR platforms, in an effort to make the game as accessible as possible to a large base of players.

While Spaceteam VR may not be the most innovative title, but it does offer a ton of replayability and a very fun atmosphere once you dive in. Combine that with the fact that Cooperative Innovations has presented a ton of ways to play, and Spaceteam VR is easily one of the most accessible and fun titles to land on a VR device in some time. There’s no doubt this has the potential to become a big party game in the same vein of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see it happen.

Spaceteam VR

Spaceteam VR is currently set to launch sometime in April, and will be available on Oculus Quest and PC VR, with a PSVR release planned for sometime this year.

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February 26, 2020

Microsoft Says it Hasn’t Given up on the VR Side of Windows Mixed Reality

While Microsoft has been full steam ahead on the augmented reality side of Windows Mixed Reality via HoloLens, the company has had very little to say in the last year about the VR side of its platform. While it may look like Microsoft has largely given up on the effort, the company tells us that it remains committed.

In late 2017 Microsoft launched its Windows Mixed Reality platform, a software foundation built into Windows 10 which supports VR headsets. The company also convinced a handful of its major PC partners—Dell, Lenovo, Acer, HP, Samsung, and Asus—to launch VR headsets attached to the platform.

For the most part all of those headsets offered up identical specs, with the only differences being in outward design (Samsung went a bit further with different displays and lenses), leaving little to differentiate them. Though the Windows VR headsets were the first out of the gate with inside-out tracking, they struggled to compete with incumbents on consumer value, especially in the content department, with many users skipping the Microsoft Store in favor of the much richer content library of SteamVR.

The headsets saw some traction initially, especially as retail discounts made them an attractive budget option. Windows VR headsets peaked at 11.13% of the share of headsets in use on Steam in June 2019, but have been slowly declining since then, down to 8.05% as of January, 2020.

Only two of the initial five Windows VR headset makers followed up their initial headsets with new consumer-facing devices (Samsung’s Odyssey+ and HP’s Reverb). Though they brought some improvements to the table, there’s a widespread feeling that essential elements of these headsets—the tracking and controllers—are ‘last-gen’ compared to contemporary devices.

It’s those very elements which Microsoft has not moved forward since the launch of the Windows VR headsets in late 2017. As the key contributor of the initial reference design (which includes the inside-out tracking system and corresponding controllers) that the Windows VR headsets were based on, Microsoft has shown little interest in modernizing the system so that headsets from its partners can better compete with the likes of Facebook, Valve, and HTC.

Acer: ‘We’re continuing to explore & invest in XR’

Following confirmation of the cancellation of its latest ConceptD OJO VR headset, Acer says it’s still in the XR game.

Earlier this week Acer confirmed that it decided to cancel its ConceptD OJO headset; it had been 10 months since the headset was announced before the company confirmed it had been canned.

Acer’s ConceptD OJO headset | Image courtesy Acer

The company didn’t offer any real details on the reasoning behind the decision, though we speculated that Acer may be shifting priorities away from VR. When we reached out to clarify, the company told us that it still has skin in the game.

“Acer continues to explore opportunities and invest resources in XR-related technologies,” a spokesperson told Road to VR.

It’s a seemingly intentionally vague statement; our read is that the company doesn’t have concrete plans right now but isn’t dropping VR either.

When it comes to Windows VR headsets (like Acer’s), Microsoft is the linchpin as it creates and controls key hardware and software for the WMR platform. However, the company has shown little interest in the VR end of the WMR platform in the last year or two (instead focusing heavily on its first-party HoloLens), leaving headset partners like Acer in the lurch. Without seeing much enthusiasm from the key stakeholder in WMR, it’s understandable that it would be difficult for Acer to make future commitments.

Community Download: When Will VR Be Big Enough For Xbox?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we want to hear from you in regards to Microsoft’s current stance on VR, specifically with regard to Xbox.

During a recent podcast interview Microsoft Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, elaborated on his prior comments last year in which he stated “nobody” was asking for VR support on Xbox. In this latest interview, he went on to explain that it is essentially just not big enough yet and that he hopes it grows to the point of being a “no brainer” for them, but it’s not in the “equation” right now. You can check out the full interview here with Gamertag Radio.

With Sony continuing to push forward with VR as we approach the launch of the PS5 on the back of the relative success of the original PSVR, as well as other big players in the market such as Facebook’s Oculus, Valve, HTC, Pimax, and others, the VR industry is certainly in a position to keep growing. But Microsoft doesn’t seem to agree right now as demonstrated by the backtracking on promised support for the Xbox One X and the relative lackluster debut of Windows Mixed Reality headsets in recent years.

So, the question at hand is: When exactly will VR be big enough for Xbox (and Microsoft) to start actually caring? Does that happen by the end of 2020, or 2021? Or will it be even longer than that?

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

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January 27, 2020

Community Download: Does The VR Market Need A New Samsung Odyssey?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we want to see what you think about the new Samsung Odyssey patent and whether there is a place for it in the current VR market.

Samsung is no stranger to virtual reality. The Gear VR was created in partnership between Samsung and Oculus and delivered a mobile VR experience that was powered by Galaxy smartphones. Since then they’ve also released the Samsung Odyssey and Odyssey+ PC VR headsets. In terms of comparative quality, the Odyssey line is often regarded as one of the best Windows VR devices on the market.

Just recently a new design patent was spotted by 91Mobiles that appears to show a design for a new, more brightly colored style of VR headset from Samsung. According to the images, we can also clearly see two front-facing cameras, similar to the current Windows VR line of devices, as well as two side-facing cameras which should help with tracking volume and accuracy.

You can read more about the patent, the design itself, and what we think of the news in our report on it here. In the meantime, it raises the question of whether or not there is a place in the market for this kind of headset from Samsung at all. Does the VR market need a new Samsung Odyssey?

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

The post Community Download: Does The VR Market Need A New Samsung Odyssey? appeared first on UploadVR.

January 26, 2020

New Samsung Odyssey With 4 Cameras Spotted In China Design Patent

A patent awarded by China’s Intellectual Property Office to Samsung reveals what seems to be a new version of the Samsung Odyssey, with four tracking cameras.

The patent was spotted by 91Mobiles. This is a design patent, rather than a utility patent, so we can only derive information from it visually and by the filing dates.

Odyssey is Samsung’s brand for its PC VR headsets. The original Odyssey launched in late 2017 and the successor, Odyssey+, launched in 2018. Both existing headsets use the same OLED displays as Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Pro, with lens separation adjustment and built-in headphones.

Odyssey headsets are powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) PC VR platform and tracking system. But WMR also supports SteamVR, so they can play most VR games on Steam.

Upgraded Tracking, Intriguing New Design

The patent contains a design drawing sketch as well as two full color renders from Samsung. The images show two bulbous semi-transparent hemispheres on each side of the front. In one rendering they are blue, while in the other they’re red.

A rendering made by Samsung, contained in the patent filing.

While some speculated (based on renders that 91Mobiles included in its post which do not appear to have come from the actual filing) that this headset ditches inside-out tracking for SteamVR “Lighthouse” tracking, looking at the actual drawings and renderings included with the patent this doesn’t appear to the case.

The images clearly show two cameras in the standard positions for a WMR headset, as well as two new cameras on the sides. These extra cameras should allow the controllers to still be tracked when the user is reaching the controllers out to the sides, similar to Facebook’s Oculus Rift S. The cameras appear to be behind the semi-transparent colored material, but it is possible to have materials which are transparent only in one direction, or only to certain wavelengths of light.

The traditional halo strap has been replaced by a hybrid design which has a small halo at the front as well as a traditional Oculus Rift-like headband. This is an interesting approach to comfort that we’re curious to try out.

There is no indication that this is a standalone headset (ie. Oculus Quest competitor). The design appears to feature an adjustment dial and volume buttons, just like the PC-based Odysseys, but there are no extra buttons for power nor any kind of power LED like you’d expect from a mobile device. Integrated headphones would also be an unusual choice for a standalone headset for durability reasons, and there is no sign of a 3.5mm port for earphones.

Is This A Product?

The patent was applied for 3 January 2019- over one year ago. This could mean that the product has had a relatively long development cycle. But it could also mean that the design never made it into a product, or that Samsung withdrew the product before shipping.

Companies frequently patent designs that never make it to market. But in this particular case, Samsung is an experienced hardware company with a rapid release cycle which had already refreshed the Odyssey after one year, and we’re now more than a year on from the Odyssey+.

If this is a product, it could offer fierce competition for Facebook’s Oculus Rift S, a headset for which a main selling point has been having more tracking cameras than WMR competition.

We’ll keep a close eye on Samsung this year for any further teases or announcements.

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November 27, 2019

No Man’s Sky Synthesis Update Includes ‘Host Of VR-Specific Improvements’

When No Man’s Sky Beyond launched in August of this year it took the VR world by storm and Hello Games have quietly been toiling away at updates ever since. Now, the Synthesis Update, is the biggest one since Beyond essentially relaunched the game as a whole.

According to an email received from Tim Woodley, head of publishing at Hello Games, the No Man’s Sky Synthesis update includes nearly 300 different bug fixes and feature updates. It’s essentially an amalgamation of several improvements and changes that just hadn’t made their way into a previous update round yet.

“The Synthesis Update is our eighth major free chapter since launch,” says Woodley. “It’s a stepping stone on the way to much larger plans, but contains a lot of features fans are hungry for.”

no mans sky synthesis ship salvage

While we weren’t provided with the full No Man’s Sky Synthesis patch notes prior to the embargo lifting, but they should be live here if you’re reading this. However, we did get a sneak peek at some of the biggest changes, according to Hello Games:

We’ve added some of our most requested smaller features. You can now upgrade your starship, or salvage ships for parts. Players can own and customise multiple Multi-Tools and create multiple characters in the customiser to switch between.
We’ve matched up features across VR and non-VR, so VR players can now ride creatures and take photos, and non-VR players can drive vehicles in first person. As well as a host of VR specific improvements based on feedback from players.
We’ve streamlined, sped up and clarified lots of inventory and UI issues, including a whole new space map and a Personal Refiner you can use directly from your inventory.
There are new technologies and base parts – we’re excited to see what players do with these, especially with the Featured Bases we recently introduced to show off the best the community comes up with.
We’ve overhauled and optimised the terrain manipulator, with new visual effects and new ways to carve your mark in the landscape. As well as undo functionality and the ability to make a permanent stamp on the world with your edits.
And there are literally hundreds (297 in all!) of other bug fixes / small features / bits of polish that lift and bind the game together.

Let us know what you think of the No Man’s Sky update down in the comments below!

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October 31, 2019

Onward Gets Custom Maps, Revamped AI, And Free Play Weekend

The newest update to military sim VR shooter Onward brings the game up to version 1.7 (still in Early Access) to add custom map support, revamped A.I., and a slew of other updates amidst a 50% discount and concurrent free-play weekend on Steam.

Downpour Interactive announced the update yesterday on Steam and Reddit. Custom map support is a big deal because it’s the biggest bottleneck of new content for shooters like this and was, until now, the main feature that Pavlov (Onward’s main, direct competitor) had that Onward was missing. There is also a Google Doc full of detailed custom content guidelines to follow.

Watch The Onward Update 1.7 Trailer:

Notably, Downpour Interactive even have custom map support on the Oculus Home version of the game, not just Steam. On Reddit the Downpour Interactive Community Manager explained, “This was the hardest part! Since we can’t use Steam workshop, we had to implement a different kind of workshop that would work for both Oculus Home and Steam users. To access the workshop and download user made maps, simply navigate to the workshop tab in the ingame menu. there you can download maps and rate them!”

Perhaps this means custom map support and crossplay is possible on the forthcoming Oculus Quest version too. The developers have even crafted their own custom maps and released key community maps that were created before the update went life that are already available as examples.

The other big piece of this new update is the revamped A.I. which is long overdue. When you play solo or in co-op you can face off against enemies on selected maps, but previously they were quite basic and predictable. This update aims to change that.

Now, enemies have different classes, operate in squads, and are no longer on set patrol paths with the same spawn points. According to the update, “AI will move to cover to react to players, initiate an attack, or to protect themselves from grenades. Rifle squads will patrol between choke points and intersections. Snipers will move to overwatch positions and take cover to wait for players. Assault, CQB, and Light squads will hunt players down.”

Additionally, A.I. sight is now “based on how much of the player can be seen” as well as how far away and how loud they’re being. They can also now use any weapon or attachment that players can.

The full list of updates has tons more included making this one of the biggest and most-exciting updates yet to the over-three year old military sim VR shooter.

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October 31, 2019

No Man’s Sky: Beyond Patch Adds Weekend Missions, Featured Bases, And Bug Fixes

Hello Games provided a new development update on No Man’s Sky: Beyond today, announcing some new features and bug fixes for the popular space-exploration game.

The development update accompanies Patch 1.25, which releases today, and includes new weekend missions and featured bases, among other minor updates and bug fixes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siyBBebPCE0

No Man’s Sky VR Review (Hello Games) – Rift, Vive, Index, PSVR (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siyBBebPCE0)

Weekend missions are probably the biggest addition in this patch. They feature a new chapter available at the Nexus, once a week from Friday evenings (GMT) until early on Monday morning. These new weekend missions will run for “the foreseeable future” and will change every week in No Man’s Sky, naturally, offering something new for regular players on a recurring basis. Hello Games also gave a description of this first mission, starting this weekend, as follows:

“Nada’s spacetime loom has detected a concerning pattern resonating across the universe, and they need help from their explorer friends to investigate. Readings indicate a disturbance in reality, where an anomalous – and possibly sinister – force has begun to leak through to this universe…”

Besides the weekend missions, the next biggest feature for this No Man’s Sky update is featured bases, which will be accessible via the Space Anomaly Teleporter. Hello Games will keep an eye on some of the coolest bases built by the community and select a few as featured bases, which are easily accessible and available for you to visit.

In general, the team also noted that their player numbers are now at the highest they’ve been since launch, with both VR and non-VR modes remaining popular in No Man’s Sky. Hello Games assured players that they’re also still working on a number of requested features from the community behind the scenes, which are still coming but weren’t announced today.

There are also a variety of smaller changes and bug fixes, which you can view in full here.

Are you still exploring the endless worlds and planets of No Man’s Sky in VR? Let us know how you’re enjoying the game since the Beyond update launch a few months ago. And make sure to read our full review of the PC and PSVR versions, plus check our coverage hub for several guides written about the game.

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