Nvidia: kostenloses FCAT VR Benchmark Tool für VR veröffentlicht

Was kann meine Grafikkarte in der virtuellen Realität? Diese Frage stellten sich bislang viele Nutzer von VR-Software, die wirklich alle Daten ihrer Grafikkarte ermitteln wollten. Gestern enthüllte Nvidia, dass sie ihr neues Tool FCAT VR für alle User kostenfrei an den Start bringen. Nachdem die Grundversion von FCAT sowie Entwicklern als auch Gamern seit Jahren gute Dienste leistet, bekommt diese nicht nur eine Auffrischung, sondern den entsprechenden VR-Support gleich mit obendrauf.

Benchmarking: Nun auch in VR

Mit dem kostenlosen Werkzeug FCAT hatten Spieler wie Entwickler bislang die Möglichkeit, die Bilder pro Sekunde, Bildwiederholungsraten oder das Pacing der eigenen Grafikkarte zu messen und Probleme nachzuvollziehen. Ab sofort können sich auch Nutzer einer der zahlreichen VR-Brillen einen präzisen Eindruck davon verschaffen wie die Performance der Grafikplatte ausfällt.

Damit liefert Nvidia die erste App, die im Bereich Benchmarking einen holistischen Ansatz fährt und sich klar von den Mikro-Lösungen der Vergangenheit absetzt, mit denen sich VR-User bis dato herumschlagen mussten. FCAT VR liefert Leistungsdaten aus Treiberstatistiken und zahlreichen Tools der Hersteller wie beispielsweise Event Tracing for Windows, Events for Oculus Rift und SteamVR’s performance API data for Vive und fasst sie im entsprechenden Analyse-Programm übersichtlich zusammen.

MSI GTX 1080
Total*: 635,94 EUR Versand*: 5,95 EUR s. Shop Preis kann jetzt höher sein.
Total*: 587,99 EUR Versand*: 1,99 EUR s. Shop Preis kann jetzt höher sein.
Total*: 810,99 EUR Versand*: 0,00 EUR s. Shop Preis kann jetzt höher sein.
Total*: 810,99 EUR Versand*: 0,00 EUR s. Shop Preis kann jetzt höher sein.
Total*: 764,50 EUR Versand*: 5,60 EUR s. Shop Preis kann jetzt höher sein.
Abruf der Informationen: 16.03.2017 15:51:28 | Bitte Disclaimer beachten

Nvidia hat bereits angekündigt, in den kommenden Tagen einige Videos zu veröffentlichen, in denen die Software eingehend erklärt und selbst für Laien verständlich gemacht werden soll. In Kombination mit dem aktuellen Material, in dem Tom Peterson von Nvidia einige Worte zur Technik von FCAT VR verliert und den Unterschied zwischen „New Frames“, „Dropped Frames“ und „Synthesized Frames“ deutlich macht, soll somit der Einstieg in die neue Benchmark-App erleichtert werden.

FCAT VR ist ab sofort für Entwickler, VR-Fans und Technik-Fanatiker verfügbar und kann über den Presseserver von Nvidia kostenlos heruntergeladen werden. Dort findet ihr darüber hinaus Guides zum Benchmarking und Review.

(Quelle: Nvidia)

Der Beitrag Nvidia: kostenloses FCAT VR Benchmark Tool für VR veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

‘Raw Data’ Early Access Review, Now with Oculus Touch Support

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.


Raw Data Details:

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.

Gameplay

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.

bishop-and-saija-raw-data-social

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.

Raw Data - Screenshot - Dual Wield

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.

Immersion

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.

bishop-and-saija-raw-data-social
See Also: 5 Minutes of Blistering ‘Raw Data’ Gameplay, Steam Early Access July 14th

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.

Comfort

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.

Oculus Touch Impressions

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.

oculus-touch-3

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.

Updates

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.


road-to-vr-exemplar-ultimate-by-avaWe 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.

SXSW 2017: Framestore’s Advice For Producers Considering VR Projects

SXSW 2017: Framestore’s Advice For Producers Considering VR Projects

The Film and Interactive disciplines at SXSW are home to many VR experiences and they often intersect. As a matter of fact, the interactive nature of cinematic VR experiences is a quality that’s underestimated by those employing the efforts of production teams. We discussed this and other VR topics with Christine Cattano, Framestore’s Global Head of VR, during SXSW.

The Framestore crew is, collectively, some of the best minds in visual effects and VR having not only created virtual spaces inspired by works such as Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, but also creating immersive experiences like the actual magic school bus we reported on back in August last year. At SXSW, Cattano will be speaking at the “Wrapped Up In The Big Screen” session about the evolution of cinematic entertainment marketing. Cattano points out that, during the last couple years, marketers have been tapping VR platforms during the promotional run for a film or a TV show.

“I think now we’re starting to see a bit of an evolution of that,” she says. Now teams beyond marketing are thinking of ways to use the immersive platform not only during the promo window but the in-home release and maybe even in-between sequels if a film has multiple installments. “We’ve really seen this extension in the thinking and timeline for how people are looking at [VR experiences], which is great because it opens up new resources to content creators and production companies.”

VR and AR also brings a unique set of challenges for creators, one that producers may not truly take into account when green-lighting them, according to Cattano.

“What’s a challenge [for production teams] is the marketing timelines that they work within,” Cattano says. “We’ve had to do several of our projects within an 8-week time frame. That’s not really optimal for creating a piece of interactive software ultimately. You want to give yourself time for user testing, feedback, and prototyping to make sure that the experience that you’re designing is powerful and it’s doing things what you want it to do.”

The message seems to be that those in charge of doling out cash to build VR experiences for a particular movie or TV show need to understand that creators are still working with legacy platforms in the building process and it is simply not realistic to stick them with the same windows of time to finish a project that non-VR teams work with. This is especially true if those VR experiences are also interactive. These professional teams, especially an experienced company like Framestore, have a solid grasp of what does and does not work in these experiences as well as how long it realistically takes to bring it to fruition.

Cattano also suggests “putting a little bit more control in the hands of the content creators to really steer how you approach things.”

Despite these barriers, the Framestore crew continues to be one of the leading collaborators with filmmakers for high-quality interactive VR. Though they couldn’t share exactly what’s in the works, they suggest staying tuned for a big announcement.

Tagged with: , ,

Raw Data comes to Oculus Touch today

Survios’ first-person shooter (FPS) Raw Data has been a big success for the studio on HTC Vive. It’s got a ‘very positive’ rating on Steam and just over a month after it launched in mid-2016, the developer announced the title has already brought in $1 million USD in sales. Then in February Survios revealed the videogame would be coming to Oculus Rift and Touch. That day has now arrived.

Raw Data will be available through early access on Oculus Home just as it is on Steam. To support Oculus Touch Survios has re-engineered the title, optimising it specifically for the device’s two and three-camera tracking. And as first announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017, Raw Data now has cross-platform co-op allowing Oculus Rift and HTC Vive users to play together for the first time.

Raw Data (3)

“We’re thrilled to officially welcome the Oculus player community to Raw Data,” said James Iliff, Survios co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. “With VR still a young, niche industry, it’s crucial right now for the entire community to be united regardless of platform. We believe VR is ultimately going to be a platform-agnostic medium, and we’re showing our support for that shift starting with Raw Data‘s new, cross-platform compatibility. And that’s just the beginning: we’re going to do everything we can to create content for the entire VR community.”

Additionally, both platforms will also get several new features. Characters Saija and Boss have both been balanced with new and reworked abilities, and there’s a new mission ‘Cataclysm’, which aims to be the most challenging mission so far with players finding themselves on a massive moving elevator whilst fending off waves of enemies.

It might not be as easier a launch on Oculus Touch with Raw Data facing some stiff competition from Epic Games’ Robo Recall. Another robot shooter, Robo Recall also launched this month and for free, with VRFocus giving it 5-stars in its review.

Raw Data is available in Early Access on Steam and Oculus Home for $39.99/£29.99 GBP, there will also be a 20 percent discount available for a limited time.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Raw Data and Survios, reporting back with the latest updates.

VRTV’s weekly recap includes Samsung Price Drops, a VR gaming convention in VR and more

For VRTV’s fourth episode there’s been plenty going on in the virtual reality (VR) industry during the last seven days. The weekly news roundup is full of stories you may have seen or completely missed, covering the entire breadth of what’s going on.

Whilst there’s no major events taking place but in the news this week there’s been price drops from Samsung, Oculus has had one of the lawsuits against it dismissed, Esper developer Coatsink will be supporting the new Gear VR controller, in-VR plans to be the first VR dedicated convention to be solely attended in VR and loads more.

This week has also seen Nina review I Expect You To Die, interview World War Toons developer Studio Roqovan and talk to Nordic Trolls about its upcoming RPG videogame Karnage Chronicles.

Checkout the next episode below for further info, and stay tuned to VRFocus  and VRTV for more news and videos.

Trinity: Die erste interaktive Sci-fi-Serie in VR

Von Stop-Motion zur virtuellen Realität. Das VR-Produktionsstudio UNLTD hat sich den vor allem für Animationsfilme bekannten Regisseur Patrick Boivin geschnappt und plant ein innovatives Pionierprojekt: Die erste TV-Serie in VR. Trinity wird das gute Stück heißen und uns in eine Zukunft ohne Menschen entführen, in der es heißt: Androiden gegen fiese Singularität – Round One.

Trinity: Mehr als nur eine statische 360° Erfahrung?

Im Rahmen des South by Southwest Festivals, das seit dem 10. März in Austin stattfindet, hat sich das Studio erstmals zum neuen Virtual Reality Projekt geäußert. Dabei standen vor allem die Schwierigkeiten, mit denen Filmemacher in der virtuellen Realität konfrontiert werden, im Vordergrund. Um das Pilotunternehmen in die Tat umzusetzen, greift UNLTD sogar auf ihre ganz eigene Kameratechnik zurück, die eigens für Trinity entwickelt wurde.

Es ist die Rede von einer interaktiven Engine und 360° Scripting, um die bisher primär passiven VR-Erfahrungen zu übertrumpfen. Konkret bedeutet dies, dass ihr während der Episoden im Raum umherlaufen könnt, um deutlich differenzierte Perspektiven innerhalb der Serie einnehmen zu können. Das Ziel: Eine Immersion, die weit über das hinausgeht, was bisher erlebbar war.

John Hamilton, UNLTD Mitarbeiter und Produzent der Serie sprach auf dem Festival, das Film, Musik und andere interaktive Medien wie Virtual Reality abfeiert, von einer nie dagewesenen Erfahrung:

We are able to allow viewers to move around within an episode of Trinity in a way that hasn’t been seen before in virtual reality.

Auch der Regisseur, zuletzt für Dragon Baby und den Trailer zu Lego Cars 2 verantwortlich, zeigte sich optimistisch und ist gespannt auf die Herausforderungen, die eine Serie in der virtuellen Realität mit sich bringt. Bereits der erste 2D-Trailer, den ihr euch unten anschauen könnt, beweist eindrucksvoll, welche Intimität und Immersion mit dem Projekt einhergehen könnte:

The trailer showcases the intimate and involved feeling created when entertainment meets virtual reality.

Die Sci-Fi-Serie Trinity wird in fünf Episoden a 15 Minuten für die großen VR-Plattformen verfügbar sein. Der Pilot soll ausgewählten Partnern bereits im Herbst zugänglich gemacht werden. Wir sind gespannt, welche Ausmaße das Pionierprojekt annehmen wird.

(Quelle: Engadget)

Der Beitrag Trinity: Die erste interaktive Sci-fi-Serie in VR zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti vs. 1080 VR Performance Review: Supersampling Showdown

NVIDIA’s latest GPU is here and it offers a big performance bump, but what exactly does that power deliver the VR gaming enthusiast? We pit the new Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti against the GTX 1080 to see just how far each card can enhance VR image quality through supersampling.

It’s frightening the pace at which the GPU industry moves. Here we are, less than one year after Nvidia launched its brand new line of 10-series ‘Pascal’ architecture graphics cards with the GTX 1080, back with a new card which promises to not only outgun its predecessor by a significant margin, but on paper matches the performance of Nvidia’s flagship GPU, the ludicrously pricey and powerful Titan X.


Table of Contents


NVIDIA’s GTX 1080 Ti – the Titan X Killer?

The new GTX 1080 Ti is here and offers a step change in performance when compared with the last generation, Maxwell architecture GTX 980 Ti.

980ti-vs-1080ti-table

This is certainly impressive, and you can see why Nvidia are keen to emphasise the progress that’s been made since the 980 Ti’s launch in 2015. But the real story here is that this new card’s closest performance stable mate is the current generation $1,200+ ultra-enthusiast card, the Titan X. In fact, the GTX 1080 Ti is built around the same GP102 GPU used in Nvidia’s Titan X released last year. With 12 billion transistors, GP102 is “the most powerful GPU Nvidia has ever made for gaming.”

GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti_Block_Diagram_1488855502
1080 Ti block diagram shows the card’s underlying architecture

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ships with 3,584 CUDA Cores, 28 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), and runs at a base clock frequency of 1,480 MHz, while the GPU Boost clock speed is 1,582 MHz. And as we’ll discover, there’s quite a bit of headroom in both memory and core base clocks. The 1080Ti sports 11GB of GDDR5X VRAM, just 1GB shy of the Titan X, and that’s a spec shaving that you’re very unlikely to notice, even when gaming at 4k or supersampling at extreme levels. In other words, the 1080Ti just made the Titan X effectively obsolete.

Bear all of that in mind, and consider that the new GTX 1080 Ti shipped last week for $699, the same price as its GTX 1080 predecessor went on sale for just 10 months ago. It’s also launching at this price a mere 8 months after the 10-series Titan X, owners of which may justifiably feel their wallet wincing at their short lived performance supremacy.

Testing Methodology & ‘FCAT VR’

The world of cutting edge GPUs may move quickly, but one of the reasons why virtual reality remains fascinating is that it’s moving even faster. Last year’s GTX 1080 review opened with an apology of sorts, stating that as VR itself was in its infancy, we had no tools to record metrics at the level of empirical detail which standard PC gaming enthusiasts take for granted. As of this week, we’re allowed to publish benchmarks based on the newly released FCAT VR tool from Nvidia, a new frame analysis tool which records VR runtime data in detail and lets us peek under the hood at if and when VR rendering safety nets like Asynchronous Spacewarp and Asynchronous Timewarp/Reprojection are kicking in under load.

SEE ALSO
NVIDIA Announces 'FCAT VR' Frame Analysis Tool to Help Demystify VR Performance

As the 1080Ti is considered a high-end GPU for dedicated enthusiasts, we wanted to really get to grips with the benefits such extreme performance could provide VR gamers. Whilst current generation headset displays are limited in terms of overall pixel density (meaning a visible panel structure), one of the biggest immersion breakers are jaggies (aliasing) caused by a low target render resolution. We’ve therefore concentrated our VR benchmarking efforts to test the limits of the GTX 1080 and 1080Ti and their ability to supersample the image to extreme levels. Supersampling is a compute intensive way to reduce aliasing (the appearance of obvious pixels or stepping on a digital image) by first rendering at a much higher resolution and using that extra detail to down-sample to a lower resolution, but one of a much higher resultant quality. Supersampling is the easiest way outside of game-specific rendering options to improve image quality and immersion.

As man cannot live on VR gaming alone, we’ve also assembled a selection of visually sumptuous and computationally taxing games. each benchmarked with tests designed to highlight the raw grunt each card possesses.

gtx-1080ti-full-card-image-large

Overclocking

Although we’ve only had limited time with the 1080Ti thus far, we did manage to ascertain what we think is a stable (and fairly generous) overclock on our supplied founders edition unit. Pushing the core clock to +170Mhz above base with an additional +400Mhz bump for memory, we cautiously kept fan speed fixed at 80% with temperatures maxing out around the 80-85 degree mark. These numbers are provisional, but provide a healthy boost to performance and that’s with no additional cooling or voltage applied – and they proved stable. We’ve included overclocked results in some of the benchmark breakdowns. Interestingly – for those of you squeamish about damaging such a pricey piece of hardware – you actually only need to lift the cap on the card’s power and thermal throttling limits to realise some significant gains.


Testing Rig

exemplar-2We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar 2 Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar 2 is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.

Test PC Specifications:
SuperNOVA 850 G2 Modular Cables, 80 PLUS® Gold
MAXIMUS VIII GENE LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 mATX Intel Motherboard
Core™ i7-6700K Quad core (4 Core) 4.0 – 4.20GHz TB, HD Graphics 530, LGA 1151, 8MB L3 Cache, DDR4-2133
ACX mITX CPU Cooler
16GB (2 x 8GB) HyperX Fury PC4-17000 DDR4 2133MHz CL14
500GB 850 EVO SSD, 3D V-NAND, 540/520 MB/s
1TB Barracuda®, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache
2 x 120mm Quiet Case Fan, 1500 RPM, 81.5 CFM, 23 dBA, White LED
Custom 20-Color LED Lighting w/ Remote
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Edition

Continue to ‘Standard Gaming Benchmarks’ >>

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The Future of Play: How Intel And The ESL Are Helping Bring Virtual Reality To ESports

The Future of Play: How Intel And The ESL Are Helping Bring Virtual Reality To ESports

While traditional eSports aren’t going away, many companies are building the foundation for a virtual reality subset. The current eSports numbers are staggering. According to Newzoo, of the 1.3 billion gamers worldwide, 256 million are eSports fans today. That number will grow to 385 million by 2017. ESports generated over $493 million in revenues last year and are expected to jump to $696 million this year.

When you look at the gaming landscape, the only thing as “hot “as eSports is virtual reality. Newzoo forecasts global virtual reality and augmented reality will generate $569 billion by 2025. And gamers will be a big part of that revenue, with projections of spending $100 billion on VR hardware by 2018.

Record-Breaking Numbers

So it should come as no surprise that the world’s largest eSports company, The Electronic Sports League (ESL), and one of the giants in both the tech and gaming markets, Intel, are already laying the groundwork for virtual reality eSports. The eleventh season of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) eSports tournament just concluded in Katowice, Poland over two sold-out weekends this month. Over 173,000 people attended and another 40 million people tuned into the livestreams across Twitch, Twitter, and a dozen television networks globally. IEM Season 12 will kick off its year-long tournament tour schedule on May 6 in Sydney, Australia.

ESL and Intel partnered with Sliver.tv to broadcast IEM Katowice in 360-degree video as part of a 2017 contract that will include seven global eSports events across ESL One and IEM. At Katowice, the included a first-person virtual eSports stadium experience delivering an immersive 360 VR space that includes live stats, replays, and scores in real-time. The VR stream featured a 200% growth in peak concurrent viewers compared to IEM’s first virtual reality live stream in Oakland, with 340,000 total unique viewers tuning into the VR broadcast.

The tech companies first experimented with 360-degree broadcasting across Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Dota 2 at ESL One New York and IEM Oakland last fall. More than 130,000 unique viewers tuned into the IEM Oakland VR streams. Sliver.tv has a separate deal with DreamHack to bring seven of its global 2017 eSports events to fans in 360. That deal kicked off with Dreamhack Vegas last month, which means eSports fans will be able to virtually attend 14 events this year using any VR headset.

Frank Soqui, general manager of the enthusiast desktop group at Intel, told UploadVR that Intel has invested in companies like Voke and Replay people fans of all sports want to look around and enjoy a 360-degree experience.

Redefining How Viewers Enjoy eSports

“We want to bring the audience into the immersive experience from a VR perspective through apps like Sliver.tv,” Soqui said. “Just because existing eSports games like League of Legends and CS:GO aren’t native VR games doesn’t mean we can’t use Sliver.tv to get people inside. We believe eSports will quickly evolve from watching competition from a flat screen perspective and will include virtual reality. I don’t know how many games will start taking existing designs and move to VR, but a lot more games will show up inherently designed with VR in mind.”

Intel actually showcased several of these potential VR eSports titles in Katowice, including a game being developed in Warsaw, Poland by HyperVR called Hyper Arena. While the game developer had a 1 vs. 1 version of the TRON-inspired disc-based HTC Vive game playable at the Intel Showcase at the Katowice International Conference Center, Lukasz Kur, founder and general director at HyperVR, said the studio is creating multiple additional levels that add new locales as well as a variety of weapons to the mix. The ultimate plan, according to Kur, is to release the game in 2018 with 2 vs. 2 gameplay. Beyond that, Kur would like to expand the gameplay into a 5 vs. 5 gameplay experience, which he believes will be perfect for team-based eSports. The game’s being designed to allow spectators to sit and watch the physical competition inside the virtual arena.

“Just imagine a full stadium of people who are watching gladiators rumble inside a virtual arena, when not only reflex and concentration matters but also physical muscle strength, agility, balance and creativity to finish off your opponent with style,” Kur said. “Hyper Arena VR is a perfect balance between sport and eSport.”

Intel is also showcasing a number of other eSports titles that could find a place into the tournament this year or beyond. Insomniac’s Oculus Touch spellcasting game, The Unspoken, made its second straight tour stop in Katowice (following its debut at IEM Oakland), alongside Ready at Dawn’s Lone Echo and Croteam’s Serious Sam. These games were featured in eSports tournaments open to the public in Katowice – complete with prizes.

“These games were developed with VR in mind and we’re starting to see the eSports angle emerge,” Soqui said. “Developers are starting to think about what kinds of VR games they should be creating that incorporate eSports fans into the experience. With Sliver.tv we at least have the audience inside of the game, but now we’re starting to see developers create games specifically for VR eSports.”

Intel also hosted VR games throughout the two-weekend event, which also featured a VR Festival Day on March 5. Vertigo Games’ zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine, Ubisoft’s Star Trek Crew Commander and Survios’ cooperative shooter Raw Data were among the titles playable for visiting eSports fans who attended from across Europe.

According to Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL, two things will happen in the coming years as eSports evolves. One is that almost every game will have a competitive online aspect to it. And the other thing is there will be growth in the diversity of games.

“There’s a very small number of top games that people play today, but that will grow to include more games,” Reichert said. “And more professional eSports teams will be playing different types of games. Some of those games will be in VR, where you play standing with a controller and other input mechanisms that we haven’t even invented yet. The viewing experience could change as spectators wear VR headsets. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this all develops over the next 20 years. Like everything in gaming, it changes quicker than anything else does.”

Getting Active

Soqui said to succeed in eSports, VR games have to be really compelling from a viewing perspective like these giant tournaments that CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota 2 attract.

“I expect to see a lot of experiments and small local eSports things spring up,” Soqui said. “How fast it gets to that depends a lot on the fan base and how immersive it is. But you can see developers already interested. The great thing about VR is that it can bring new players into the market, and introduce a new audience to eSports.”

Lee Machen, director of developer relations at Intel, said one role IEM will play moving forward is ensuring that everyone has a chance to experience VR around the world.

“People who try VR are usually blown away by the experience,” Machen said. “There are a few things that have limited the growth of VR to date and one of them is how to get more people have that first ‘Oh my God’ VR experience.”

Intel showed off its Project Alloy wireless VR head-mounted display to eSports fans. That technology debuted at CES 2017. Soqui believes Intel’s Y-Gig technology, which debuted at Mobile World Controller, will also find a place at IEM moving forward, while that tetherless VR tech could also free up more competitive eSports play inside virtual reality in the near future.

As ESL and Intel map out the global stops for the 2017-18 tour schedule, VR will be a mainstay for eSports fans to play games, watch livestream eSports from the arenas and potentially become the future of eSports competition – at least on the smaller tournament stages for now.

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WeMakeVR unveils new surreal 360 short Ashes to Ashes

WeMakeVR, a virtual reality (VR) production company based in Amsterdam has launched its latest project, a 10-minute immersive film that mixes CGI with live-action filmmaking called Ashes to Ashes. 

Shot entirely in one take, Ashes to Ashes began as an internal experiment before being further developed at the VR Days Europe in 2015. The film tells the story of a dysfunctional family dealing with the death of their paterfamilias and his unusual dying wish to have his ashes blown up.

WeMakeVR - Ashes to Ashes

Viewers watch the proceedings from the perspective of the grandpa’s urn, showing the tensions within the family which become increasingly apparent as the story unfolds. Ashes to Ashes is a surreal on the layers of reality, as the film progresses the set changes in real-time exposing the crew and actors.

Ashes to Ashes can be viewed on Jaunt, the WeMakeVR app (for Android and iOS) or the AvroTros VR app. The Jaunt app is free to download for iOS, Android, Samsung Gear VR, PlayStation VR, Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and major desktop browsers.

WeMakeVR’s previous work includes a 360-degree video detailing open hernia repair, and a collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger for its ‘Fall 2015 Collection’.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of WeMakeVR, reporting back with its latest projects.