What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Drawn to Death, the latest game from God of War creator David Jaffe, is out exclusively for PlayStation 4 this April. The game takes place inside a high school student's notebooks, with his sketches turning into the characters.
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After a hiatus of more than a decade, a fan-made project called TimeSplitters Rewind is set to bring back the intense arcade multiplayer of the classic FPS franchise when it debuts later this year.
The post Trailer for fan-made ‘TimeSplitters Rewind’ project confirms 2017 release appeared first on Digital Trends.
Shortly after the launch of Google Daydream View last year CCP Games Shanghai released Gunjack 2: End of Shift as an exclusive on the platform. A sequel to the popular Gunjack on Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, the followup has now been updated adding four major new additions to the videogame.
With the aim to bring greater depth and replayability to Gunjack 2, the new features are: Challenges, Weekly Shift, a Progression System and a Loadout System. In the Challenge mode players will be matched against others in a competition for the highest score, with a mission mutator altering the characteristics.
Then there’s the Weekly Shift, taking over from the daily shift, where seven procedurally generated new missions will be made available each week, with high scores for each mission displayed on a leaderboard, rewarding the best players.
Gunjack 2: End of Shift’s new progression system utilises both of these two new features, as players complete Challenges and Weekly Shift missions they’ll be rewarded experience. In turn this unlocks new weapons and upgrades including such as the Pyro Slicer gun, the ‘Maelstrom’ Autocannon upgrade, for raw damage and faster reloads and the ‘Carnage’ Flak Cannon upgrade, for a larger area-of-effect.
Lastly there’s the Loadout System with which players can customise their own particular choice of weapons for the Challenges and Weekly Shift game modes, ensuring they’re ideally equipped for the fight ahead.
As a Daydream exclusive Gunjack 2: End of Shift can be found on Google Play for £12.99 GBP. Checkout the new trailer below, and for any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
I met Mona Lisa today. Nice lady: great smile, doesn’t talk much. At all, in fact; things got a little awkward when I introduced myself and she proceeded to just stare at me. And stare, and stare… and stare some more.
I’m not what you’d call a connoisseur of the arts, but I don’t think you have to be to appreciate Art Plunge from Swedish company Space Plunge. Whereas the excellent Woofbert app gives VR users a virtual gallery to contemplate historic paintings, this new experience, launched this week in preview form on Google Daydream and last month on Vive, Cardboard and Gear VR, brings some of the most iconic works of all time to virtual life. While you can look at paintings in a frame, clicking on them will suck you into their worlds to view art like you’ve never seen it before.
It reminded me a mix of both the Woofbert app and The Night Cafe, the brilliant 2015 Oculus Mobile Jam-winning experience that allowed you to explore one of Vincent Van Gogh’s creations as if you were living in its world. Art Plunge works a little different; you can’t move around inside the painting but you can see more than one. In the free preview you’re limited to just Leonardo da Vinci’s timeless masterpiece and Johannes Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, but both are extremely well realized, literally adding layers to works that people have appreciated for hundreds of years.
Vermeer’s piece, for example, lets you glance outside at a riverside down just beyond the open window. Horse hooves click in the distance and the cries of seagulls have you almost smelling the fresh air for yourself. The girl calmly rocks with her breathing, her eyes never moving from the page before her, causing you to ponder just what news she’s been given.
The Mona Lisa, meanwhile, transforms from a window into a beautiful world into a stunning panorama of it in VR. Music from the halls behind you echoes into the room while the woman herself sits with that unwavering expression, which feels more like a knowing glance. You’re basking in a mystery once she has brought to life.
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam is being added to the app next, and the developers are asking fans to have their say in what else should be added over on a Facebook page.
Sadly, a Kickstarter campaign for the app has already come and gone, falling far short of its admittedly ambitious $36,205 (320,000 SEK) goal at just $694 raised. Space Plunge is committed to finding another way to raise the funds to convert more paintings, which I hope it finds success with. Alongside mobile VR, the developer hopes to release the experience on Rift; and we’d certainly like to see room-scale support add a little more depth to the experience, though PC VR is marked as a ‘secondary platform’ and it is a seated experience according to the crowdfunding page.
VR keeps finding new ways to draw me into the classical arts, and appreciate them in ways that I never would have as a simple painting. It’s that effect, no doubt, that companies like Space Plunge want to have on people. If you’re at all interested in that potential, you should let them know.
Tagged with: Art Plunge, Mona Lisa, painting
Starbreeze, a game studio best known for developing The Darkness and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, will be publishing Psychonauts 2. As part of the agreement, $8 million in additionl funding will be going toward the project.
The post Swedish studio Starbreeze to publish ‘Psychonauts’ sequel in 2018 appeared first on Digital Trends.
Hearthstone's next expansion might be dinosaur-themed and headed to Southern Kalimdor to check out the Crater of Un'Goro. It seems there might be some lost secrets there worth discovering.
The post Hearthstone’s next expansion might be called ‘Lost Secrets of Un’Goro’ appeared first on Digital Trends.
VR Sense nennt sich die neue Virtual Reality Box von Koei Tecmo und diese soll nicht nur ein Bild für eure Augen zaubern, sondern das System soll alle fünf Sinne ansprechen. Die Boxen werden mit der PlayStation VR Brille und mit weiterem Zubehör ausgestattet, um alle Sinne zu erreichen.
Aktuell sind für die Box drei Spiele geplant. So soll es eine Umsetzung von Dynasty Warriors, GI Jockey Sense und Horror Sense geben, die auf der PlayStation 4 abgespielt werden. Es ist somit nicht ausgeschlossen, dass diese Spiele auch irgendwann für das PSVR System im Wohnzimmer erscheinen werden. Dynasty Warriors wurde zwar schon vor einiger Zeit für die PSVR Brille angekündigt, doch lange war es still um den Support.
Die Box wird mit einer PlayStation VR Brille, Move Controllern, einem beweglichen Stuhl mit Feedback, Möglichkeiten die Temperatur und den Geruch zu verändern und einer Funktion für sanften Regen ausgestattet. Doch die Move Controller bieten nicht das einzige haptische Feedback. Ihr sollt auch spüren können, wie Käfer und Ratten auf euch herumlaufen.
Ein Preis für die Box ist uns bisher nicht bekannt, aber es soll auch keine Box für das Wohnzimmer werden. Außerdem wissen wir nicht, wie die einzelnen Funktionen umgesetzt werden und wie gut diese Umsetzungen die Sinne ansprechen. Eventuell könnt ihr aber demnächst die VR Sense Boxen in diversen Arcade-Hallen selbst ausprobieren.
(Bild 1: Game Watch Impress / Bild 2: Famitsu / Quelle: Kotaku )
Der Beitrag Koei Tecmo Virtual Reality Box mit PSVR und diversen Feedback-Systemen zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
One of the early criticisms of virtual reality (VR) was that it would be an isolating experience and not a social one, but that’s not the case. In fact there are those out there that think VR can be not just a social experience among friends in the home but part of a much bigger night out. VRFocus is currently in London, holding a game jam in Clapham’s Four Thieves public house. But The Four Thieves is not just a regular pub, it is also the home of The VR Concept, a group looking to bring VR experiences to those on a night out.
We spoke to the team about their goals, how they’re bringing VR to a new audience and giving both the competitiveness of multiplayer with friends and the experience of a trip to the arcade a new twist. One they’re hoping to expand beyond their current location with new experiences – potentially including that being developed today by those in attendance at The VR Concept Game Jam.
VRFocus will be bringing you more updates throughout the next 24 hours of the stories behind the game jam and how the game is developing.
SubVRsive, a virtual reality (VR) content company specialising in the creation of branded experiences has announced the completion of a Series A funding round. This has secured the company $4 million USD in investment.
Funding rounds usually tend to involve several companies or investors, SubVRsive’s on the other hand had just one, communications services company WPP. WPP has been following an investment strategy focusing on three key areas: technology, data and content. WPP’s digital assets include companies such as Acceleration (marketing technology consultancy), Cognifide (content management technology), Conexance (data cooperative), Salmon (e-commerce), and Hogarth (digital production technology).
SubVRsive was founded in August 2015, becoming Emmy-nominated VR company that has worked with leading brands like The American Heart Association, Lionsgate, Procter & Gamble, and Showtime Networks. With the investment SubVRsive will bring the benefits of VR and augmented reality (AR) to WPP’s agencies and brand clients.
Back in November VRFocus reported on IMAX Corporation announcing completion of the first phase of a $50 million VR fund to help finance the creation of at least 25 experiences, of which WPP was a partner.
In addition to the funding SubVRsive appointed Johannes Larcher as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Larcher was previously part of the leadership team that built video on demand service Hulu.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of SubVRsive, reporting back with any further announcements.
Wir haben schon einige nette Spielereien für die HoloLens von Microsoft gesehen, doch nun hat ein Entwickler eine Anwendung demonstriert, die sicherlich einige Herzen höherschlagen lassen wird. Kenny W hat ein Fan-Projekt gestartet, welches euch Portal in die echte Welt holt.
Mit dem Programm könnt ihr die geliebten Portale an die Wände, den Boden oder die Decke bringen und anschließend den Companion Cube (Begleiter-Kubus) durch die Portal schmeißen. Ihr könnt sogar eine Endlosschleife auslösen, wenn ihr ein Portal an der Decke und ein Portal auf den Boden anbringt. Das Video zeigt außerdem, wie beeindruckend bereits das Tracking der HoloLens funktioniert. Selbst die Treppen fällt der Companion Cube elegant herunter und die HoloLens scheint die einzelnen Stufen zu erkennen.
Aktuell ist die Anwendung noch in Entwicklung und wir wissen nicht, ob die Anwendung jemals veröffentlicht wird. Bisher war Valve aber von Fan-Projekten nicht abgeneigt und deshalb besteht die Hoffnung, dass wir die Anwendung auch eines Tages selbst ausprobieren dürfen. Während die Fans schon an den ersten Mixed Reality Anwendungen arbeiten, warten wir noch auf ein komplettes Virtual Reality Spiel von Valve. Zumindest hat das Unternehmen aber bereits verraten, dass an weiteren VR Titeln gearbeitet wird.
Der Beitrag Mixed Reality: Portal für Microsoft HoloLens (Fan-Projekt) zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
