What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Corsair has officially launched its first prebuilt gaming PC, the Corsair One, which crams a lot of power into a relatively small form factor, but carries a high price tag as a result.
The post Corsair’s first prebuilt gaming PC — a small, potent powerhouse — now shipping appeared first on Digital Trends.
As the technology behind virtual reality (VR), both the hardware and the software continues to develop at a pace so to do the companies behind it. The studios, products, and individuals involved continue to evolve. The studios their working practices, the products their scope and rage of creative vision, whilst the individuals evolve their talent and skills bringing new ideas to the forefront. Everything evolves.
2016 was for Studio Roqovan, like many other creators, a busy one. They too evolved at the beginning of October, rebranding themselves from Reload Studios. Their cartoonish VR shooter World War Toons was released, and was a PlayStation VR launch title.
It too continues to change, which we looked in our first chat with the team on Monday. This time however Nina talks to CEO James Chung, who discusses how the team are continuing to improve the game. Studio Roqovan’s work with Boulevard (the former Woofbert VR) and their virtual museums. Chung also gives his thoughts on where VR is going.
VRFocus will be back soon with another interview.
The Rival 500 takes aim at MMO and eSports mice by providing a host of new features, but is a strong design enough to stand up to the competition?
The post Steelseries Rival 500 review appeared first on Digital Trends.
'Mass Effect: Andromeda' doesn't take romance lightly, even if you can opt for the occasional hookup. Here's what it takes to flirt and create lasting relationships with the characters of BioWare's latest space epic.
The post A Complete Guide to ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ Romances appeared first on Digital Trends.
A new company called Nomadic specialising in creating immersive entertainment installations for retail venues has just announced it is opening its doors.
The company was founded by veterans from companies such as Apple, ILM, Disney and Electronics Arts. Nomadic aims to create large-scale untethered virtual reality (VR) installations in retail locations and other communal spaces
The idea is to use modular construction to create VR experiences within the constraints of the location, that can be easily updated and reconfigured for new content without the need for extensive construction or remodeling work.
Nomadic aims to complement the VR experience with set design, staging, physical props, music and elemental effects to increase immersion.
“We’re creating a new medium of entertainment,” said Nomadic CEO, Doug Griffin. “Our goal is simple – for everyone to walk away saying ‘wow!'”
“We’ve developed a platform that adds monetary value though increased foot traffic and repeat engagement,” said Kalon Gutierrez, Head of Growth for Nomadic. “Nomadic’s modular VR solution gives content and location partners around the globe the opportunity to provide local communities with an unparalleled entertainment experience.”
VRFocus will bring you further news on Nomadic and other new VR companies as it comes in.
Many people in the virtual reality (VR) industry believe that inside-out tracking is the future of consumer-grade HMDs. We’ve seen prototypes from Oculus with Santa Cruz and Intel’s Project Alloy-powered devices and now Sony is dipping their toes into the inside-out tracking race. Today we caught wind of a new Utility Patent Application from Sony Interactive Entertainment that would allow for inside-out tracking of interactive VR devices.
The full patent application was originally filed back on December 6th, 2016, just two months after Oculus’ Santa Cruz prototype was announced. The patent application’s Abstract is difficult to parse, but what’s being described sounds similar to existing prototypes and methods of using an inside-out tracked VR headset:
“Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for generating an interactive space. One method includes operations for associating a first device to a reference point in 3D space, and for calculating by the first device a position of the first device in the 3D space based on inertial information captured by the first device and utilizing dead reckoning. Further, the method includes operations for capturing images with a camera of the first device, and for identifying locations of one or more static features in the images. The position of the first device is corrected based on the identified locations of the one or more static features, and a view of an interactive scene is presented in a display of the first device, where the interactive scene is tied to the reference point and includes virtual objects.”
What’s interesting is that the creators of the patent are listed as George Weising and Thomas Miller. Weising has been at Sony in some capacity for over 10 years as a Senior Designer at Sony Santa Monica and now an Executive Producer at Sony Interactive Entertainment. In the case of Miller, he’s actually not with the company any longer, having left in February of 2016 after over 15 years as an Engineer — he’s been a Lead Software Engineer at Magic Leap ever since. The patent wasn’t filed until 10 months after he left.
Oddly enough, the below mock-up is the only image included in the patent application, which introduces more questions on its own than answers, since that device looks awfully similar to a PlayStation Vita or PlayStation Portable (PSP).
We’ve seen other patents from Sony as they continue to experiment in VR, such as a Vive-like tracking system that would presumably allow for roomscale movement. It’s also worth noting that filing a patent in no way means tech is necessarily being actively worked on since Engineering teams work on new ideas and file new patents all the time.
What do you think of this news? Would you buy a PlayStation VR (PSVR) 2.0 with inside-out tracking? Let us know down in the comments below!
Tagged with: PSVR, Sony Interactive Entertainment
After a long wait, Cyan’s Obduction [Review: 8/10] finally came to the HTC Vive yesterday, complete with motion controller support. Fans had been patiently waiting for this version of the game since the Rift edition launched last year but, sadly, it appears lots of people are having issues with it.
Multiple users have taken to Reddit to report issues with the game’s performance when running inside the Vive. It appears that, across a number of PC setups, people are finding issues with reprojection, resulting in stuttering screens even when playing on the lower graphics settings.
We reached out to Cyan itself to ask about these issues. Studio CEO Rand Miller himself had this to say:
We’re reading all comments! Like we did with PC and Rift, we’ll continue to update and optimize Obduction for Vive. Being a small indie dev, we can test some combinations of hardware, but it’s not until release that some issues show up.
Obduction VR definitely takes some horsepower to run, but we’ve found that adjusting settings can usually provide a satisfactory experience for most situations, and we’ll continue to optimize. (And of course make sure your drivers are the latest and greatest.)
As for navigation – we realize that in these early days of VR that almost everyone has a different preference depending on their performance, comfort, and experience. We will continue to add options so that each player can get the navigation experience that suits them.
Thanks for the comments and support!
Cyan also brought Oculus Touch support to Obduction with yesterday’s update, those users don’t seem to be reporting any issues on this side. The developer will also be releasing a PlayStation VR version of the game later down the line.
Tagged with: cyan, htc vive, obduction, rand miller
A lot of people can’t spend more than four or five minutes in VR without getting tired and needing to come out, but Australian YouTuber Jack McNee wants to spend well over a full day inside an HTC Vive.
Why? For the same reasons anyone does something for a stupidly long amount of time; to break a world record and to raise money for charity. McNee wants to add his name to the Guinness World Records for the Longest Videogame Marathon on a Virtual Reality Game System, and he won’t even be doing it from the comfort his own home. Instead, he’ll kick off his attempt at The VR Corner in Sydney on April 1st (we’re pretty sure this isn’t an April Fools), and he’ll be streaming the whole thing in an effort to raise money for The Reach Foundation. The organization works with young people, and McNee wants to raise at least $1,000 to help them do so.
To set a new world record McNee has to spend longer than 25 hours, 24 minutes, and 18 seconds inside VR. That’s the time currently held by the UK’s Georgie Barrat, who took on the record for The Gadget Show. But McNee wants to go a step further and spend a total of 36 hours inside VR. In that time, he’ll be inside Google’s Tilt Brush creative app, creating art at the request of an audience online. Others are welcome to come and watch him during his attempt.
If he’s successful then we’re willing to bet he’ll hold the record for some time; we certainly don’t have any desire to spend over a day and a half inside a headset. Still, with so much time to kill we might get creative with our Tilt Brush requests for McNee.
Tagged with: htc vive, Jack McNee
Timecode Systems has revealed a new method to combine two of its products, the SyncBac Pro and Blink Hub to make filming virtual reality 360-degree footage easier.
The SyncBac Pro is an accessory for the GoPro camera system that allows wearable cameras, professional cameras and audio devices to be wirelessly synchronised together using long range RF signals. Blink Hub is a device which enables remote monitoring and control of camera systems. A new update coming to the Blink Hub will introduce a virtual reality feature that allows several GoPro cameras to be treated as if they were a single camera.
In a statement, a representative of Timecode had this to say: “Over the past few years, more and more video production companies, advertising agencies, and broadcast networks have started experimenting with VR filming, but integrating 360-degree content into professional production workflows has been time-consuming due to the manual process of synchronising the multiple streams of non-timecoded footage. The main challenge of using 360-degree content more in television is being able to capture and produce VR content to the same standards, and with the same efficiency, as mainstream multicamera filming methods. Whether there are six or 24 cameras in a spherical array, this solution takes the guesswork out of VR filming by making it easy to view, monitor, and control every camera centrally from a single screen on any smartphone, tablet, or Mac.”
Timecode system will be demonstrating the new technology at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, which will take place on 22nd-27th of April at the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
VRFocus will keep you informed on further development in 360-degree filming.
Nintendo has issued an official statement regarding the cause of the left Joy-Con connectivity issues plaguing the Switch, vowing that there's no inherent design issue, but a "manufacturing variation."
The post Nintendo explains Switch Joy-Con connection issues in official statement appeared first on Digital Trends.