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Damaged Core launches today from High Voltage Software and Oculus Studios! Damaged Core is a bold new first person shooter that puts you in control...
FetchRss) It was announced late last year that Gran Turismo Sport was going to receive PlayStation VR support, but there was no doubting that this latest instalment of the popular driving series was going to take a fair bit of time to materialise just like most greatly anticipated titles. Now, it has come that we will be waiting just a little bit longer to see the final finish to this title than its original date of November 2016.
It was shared across all of the PlayStation Blogs where Kazunori Yamauchi, Creator of Gran Turismo, announced that Gran Turismo Sport won’t be released until next year. He explains that the title has been an ambitious project, “using latest technologies, such as physics-based rendering and sound simulations, and Scapes photo mode.”
“However, as we approach our planned release date in November, we realize we need more time to perfect GT Sport, which we’ve already dedicated so much effort towards since announcing the title. We do not want to compromise the experience in any way. While we cannot confirm a new release date at this time, we are more committed than ever to making GT Sport the best Gran Turismo game to date.”
Racing titles for the PlayStation VR have been some of the more anticipated, including Driveclub VR, a PlayStation VR exclusive that will be a launch title for the head-mounted display (HMD) in October.
But don’t worry about whether or not you will be able to try out the demos as it will continue to be shown at some of the biggest gaming events around the world.
For more on the latest PlayStation VR titles, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
Gran Turismo Sport, the latest entry in PlayStation's long-running racing series, will not be making its November 15 release date. It will now hit stores in 2017, though no concrete replacement date was offered.
The post ‘Gran Turismo Sport’ hits the brakes, won’t arrive until 2017 appeared first on Digital Trends.
The next big speaker that has been announced for this year’s VRTGO event happening in Newcastle, UK during November is no other than NASA itself, where it will be discussing how virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR).
Doug Ellison, a Producer in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) will be spreaking about some of the lab’s recent work using MR. Carri Cunliffe, VRTGO Director, said in a press release: “We are eager to hear more about how JPL is using VR, AR and MR. They are renowned for using technology in innovative ways and pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve.”
“Destination Mars will be the first large roll out of an MR project in a visitor attraction setting, we can’t wait to see how the public respond to using cutting edge exploration tools to walk on the red planet. I’m looking forward to sharing the lessons we learn with the VR community” said Doug Ellison in a press release. “The language of UX and UI in the VR world is still emerging and evolving. Meeting other creators in the space is a vital part of defining that language so that our users become familiar and comfortable with these amazing new technologies.”
NASA will be speaking at VRTGO on 9th November of this year in the Baltic Centre For Contempotary Art in Newcastle Gateshead, UK.
For more on the latest for VRTGO, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
Damaged Core is a first-person shooter set in the dingy near-future of a robot uprising. The Core, an artificial intelligence recently gone rogue, is destroying the Earth, and you, an AI program fighting on behalf of the humans, must hack your way closer to the Core by jumping from robot to robot.
Official Site
Developer: High Voltage Software, Inc.
Publisher: High Voltage Software, Inc.
Available On: Oculus Home (Rift)
Reviewed On: Oculus Rift with Xbox Controller
Release Date: August 30th, 2016
Being a non-corporeal computer program certainly has its perks, as you’re able to jump into hackable classes of robots and take over their hardware—that is until they’re predictably cut down into a pile of shreds. As Damaged Core‘s distinguishing game mechanic, jumping from bot to bot, it sets it apart from other VR first-person shooters by offering something genuinely unique to the genre, which mostly fall into one of two camps as of late: ported PC games originally destined for flat screens that offer smooth artificial locomotion, and shooting galleries that make you stay in one place. With its ingenious teleportation scheme, Damaged Core is neither and both.
The pace of action in Damaged Core rivals that of non-VR games even in the face of not having the use of your chosen robot’s legs. Among the 17 different classes spanning everything from multiple bi-pedal classes to hover tanks, you learn to zoom around at high-speed using different weapons, blasting the heads off of enemies, and getting your fair share of flak in the process. In fact, except for a single class of robot which has the ability to physically teleport itself around the map, I didn’t spend long in each bot because of how quickly the Core’s seemingly limitless forces react to your unexpected sabotage.
Needless to say, I kept my head (and my chair) on a swivel as I desperately searched for another available host to possess as your vision is slowly obscured over time to signal a fatal error in your hardware—the alternative being one of two options: death, or invariably retreating to one of the game’s many ‘safe zones’, a type of invisible camera drone whose high vantage points also make in-game navigation easier. Because of this, Damaged Core feels closer to the sort of frenetic first person shooters you see on PC and console.
The game tends to rely heavily on escort missions and ‘protect the thing for some reason’ missions as you make your way closer to disrupting the Core’s plans, a plain result of the game’s map structure. Maps are segmented into smaller stages with clear, linear goals that you have to accomplish to move forward like hacking terminals or busting power generators. After a while this can start to feel wooden as you methodically clear out the last wave of robots and hear the guiding hand of your AI-wrangler tell you where to go and what to do next. If you’ve ever played campaign-mode in any given game in the Halo franchise though, the level of hand-holding will be pretty familiar.
AI can be fumbly at moments, as enemies and allies have a knack for staring at walls and getting into corners, which is more noticeable near the end of battle sequences when there are only a few robots left on the map. Two times during the game I had to quit and restart from my last checkpoint to fix an impossible situation—my human allies wouldn’t move forward because there was a single enemy stuck at the beginning of the level just sitting there doing nothing. Because my squad had already progressed and around a corner, and the robot was above my skill level to hack combined with the fact that there weren’t any other baddies in sight, I had to redo that portion of the level. There was a similar occurrence on a train level—mere annoyances, because restarting doesn’t set you back that far, but annoyances non the less.
Damaged Core has eight levels in total which took me six hours to complete. Dying isn’t really that much of a setback, as the game automatically saves in small enough increments to put you back in front of the boss, or before specific mission objectives, so an average gamer should be able to get through well under the 10 hour suggested playtime cited by High Voltage.
Since locomotion in the game is entirely based on teleportation, nausea is basically a non-issue. Rapid teleportation from host to host however can leave you disoriented, making either a swivel chair or a standing position an imperative so you can find your bearings quickly enough to get your guns trained on the right target—and by guns, I mean crosshairs locked to your face.
Personally, I hate gaze-based aiming systems in VR on principle, because they require you to use your neck as a fine pointing device—something it isn’t really designed for—and several hours can be overly taxing on your neck muscles. This is normally true when it comes to slower, more plodding games like VR Solitaire , but faster-paced games like Damaged Core seem to ameliorate this, as you’re constantly moving your head and fluidly readjusting for the perfect headshot.
If you’re prone to neck pains however, this may exacerbate things trying to get on the end-mission leader board, because headshots are prized over all else, and you really do need fine control of your gaze to achieve it.
Using the Xbox One gamepad with Damaged Core, the only supported controller currently, isn’t my personal ideal. I would much rather shoot an offending bot in the head with my own two hands than using my gaze combined with a few choice trigger pulls on the gamepad. That said, Damaged Core does something I haven’t seen in a VR FPS, be it with gamepad or anything other input device. It delivers fast-paced, engaging action in a familiar package that proves to be easy to click into and easy to follow. There were only brief moments when I felt in charge of the battlefield, as the amount and variation of the enemy robots keeps you moving and shooting as fast as humanly possible.
Because of the limited teleportation points, there’s only a handful of moments when you can naturally take in the scale of the world, and really explore for the sake of admiring the game’s well realized backdrop. This is of course an FPS, and I should be more focused on shooting down hover tanks and reloading before I get to my last bullet than looking at a scenery, but this is the trade-off you get with Damaged Core’s past-paced, albeit limiting locomotion style.
An often overlooked piece of the puzzle is sound, and Damaged Core nails it with positional audio and a soundtrack clearly inspired by The Matrix (1999). It’s almost an imperative to keep an ear out for various enemies like ‘deconstructors’, the game’s omnipresent, slow-moving suicide drones. Not only that, but the positional audio helps keep you grounded in the world, giving you a natural point of reference as you pop in and out of enemy bots across the map.
We 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.
The post ‘Damaged Core’ Review appeared first on Road to VR.
Hello everybody and welcome to another VR vs. Your weekly stream of consciousness from yours truly, in which I go into a topic relating to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or somewhere/anywhere around the industry. Last week I talked about how Gamescom was somewhat lacking on the VR news front at a time where it really should be going full tilt in terms of trying to grab the attention and more importantly the imagination of the public at large. Of course that isn’t the only event of note that between August and the October launch date of the PlayStation VR.
To that end this weekend just gone I was at the Insomnia 58 event in Birmingham, not for VRFocus exactly as I was going in my own time and for my own reasons. But it was local. I wanted to see what the event was like, and I also had an additional goal – to see how people were reacting to VR technologies. What games and experiences were being shown, what hardware was busy and so on and so forth.
Here’s the good news: People were buzzing about VR, absolutely buzzing. Everyone who was queuing up was entranced by what they were watching. Whenever anyone strapped on a VR headset for roomscale VR on the HTC Vive people immediately stopped their walking past because they wanted to see how it worked. With the exception of some of the longer session Vives at the back people were always queuing to try it out.
NVIDIA VR Funhouse was on most of the PC hardware booth Vives, which was in hindsight not surprising since it’s directly tied to the components of the PC’s whose power they were both demonstrating and trying to sell. But there was a bit of everything in it and some comedic flailing which popped the crowd.
Tilt Brush was, to me, the surprise hit. Not only was it being demonstrated to a queue of all ages in an area run by ImmersiveMinds – who were doing an excellent job in promoting technology including VR’s use as an educational tool (and whom you can find out about here) – but it was in effect Saturday’s main event over on the main stage where a large crowds of people gathered to see a number of notable YouTubers play Pictionary with the device. And I’ll tell you, the tweets that were going up on the main screen in the run up to the event weren’t about looking forward to seeing so-and-so from the whatsits channel. It was about seeing VR in action. About people interested in the technology. About people saying how fun the idea was and how amazing it all seemed. I felt like getting up on my chair and yelling back towards the main convention area “HEY VR! You’re actually winning the hearts and minds over here!”
I didn’t of course, mainly due to my chair apparently being made out of four q-tips and an 1980’s Tupperware container.
Here’s the bad news: If you wanted to try the PlayStation VR – you know… the next one, the last one of the first wave and in many ways the most important VR system, the chances are you were a bit annoyed. Whilst Sony were there they were booked up in sessions. Fair enough, the only problem being if people didn’t turn up for their slot no one was allowed to take their place. The result being that every time I walked through that Sony area a rather obvious chunk of the PlayStation VR units were not being used and eager punters were being turned away.
“Hi! Can I… try…?”
“Sorry, the session is booked for someone else.”
“Sorry, it’s booked.”
“No, sorry.”
“No.”
They said, with increasing gruffness as they fended off yet another question. I had my sympathies for the Sony staff, as you could hear the frustration in their voices. They were the voices of people who had clearly been saying this all-day for two days and couldn’t do anything about the situation. Unfortunately that frustration wasn’t always understood and I heard around the venue and exiting the area a number of people less than happy about ‘wanting to try the virtual PlayStation headset’. There were kids in tears and upset parents, adults less than happy with how they were spoken to and downright angry with the inability to play.
Over at the #Insomnia58 #PlayStationVR booth you've got Playstation VR Worlds, RIGS, Battlezone and Farpoint. Fully booked tho it seems.
— VRFocus (@VRFocus) August 27, 2016
You know what I never heard once? “Sorry, these are booked sessions – but if you wanted to try PlayStation VR there’s a game called Battlezone over there which you can queue up and try. It’s one of the ones we’re showing here and it’s really good.”
You see Rebellion were also in attendance with their VR reinterpretation of the classic tank game. Something I’ll no doubt be talking about this Friday for VR Moments. It was a busy booth to be sure, but it was a way for people to get a hold of the PlayStation VR and try it. You know, that thing we all agree VR needs people to do? It was a good example of whoever was in charge just not thinking. I mean it’s not as though the official booth was in competition with the Rebellion one after all. Both booths were working towards the same goal: SELL PLAYSTATION VR. Not only that I’ve not heard one bad thing from anyone about how Battlezone feels to play – a perfect combination. Come on SIE. Maximise your reach, utilise options open to you and make sure you get that headset on as many craniums as possible.
In case you were wondering in the end I told some of those people I overheard about the Battlezone booth.
“Thanks.” Said one smiling twenty-something, “I wish they’d told me that!”
Indeed…
Leap Motion, Inc., the US-based company which deals with the development of computer hardware has recently unveiled a beta version of its famous the Interaction Engine, which brings a whole lot of changes when it comes to handling objects in virtual reality.
In other words, reports suggest that the company has developed a new Interaction Engine, which makes it extremely simple for people to clasp objects in VR.
All those people who have experienced Leap Motion hand tracker will be in the right position to explain how it feels to use it. It’s truly excellent, as it allows you to throw things from one place to another. However, the only thing that was missing in it was, it had no provision when it comes to holding objects in VR. And in order to address that problem the company has now come up with its beta version.
Interaction Engine’s early access beta offers an opportunity to developers to create virtual reality environments which can be effectively controlled or manipulated with hands. And that is what makes its Orion tracking system truly unique.
The early version of Interaction Engine was announced by the company earlier in February this Year. It was unveiled with the “blocks demo” which was basically for the company’s updated Orion tracking system.
In the context of finding the joints of users’ fingers, hand-tracking recognition has improved tremendously as it can track them irrespective of their position. On top of that, developers have made it quite simple for users or gamers to interact with objects in the game. This makes it possible for gamers to grab an object and throw it out of their view.
As far as the availability of new developer tools is concerned they are obtainable as a module when it comes to Unity Core Assets.
Through one of its blogs, leap Motion has revealed a lot of information about its new Interaction Engine, wherein it says “But by exploring the grey areas between real-world and digital physics, we can build a more human experience. One where you can reach out and grab something – a block, a teapot, a planet – and simply pick it up. Your fingers phase through the material, but the object still feels real. Like it has weight.”
Considering the fact that, Game physics engines had never been created for your hand, it used to be next to impossible to think about holding an object in your hand and smacking it accordingly. The problem with Game physics engines is that they always try to stop your fingers from clasping the object in VR. And that’s the reason when you try to catch an object in VR it used to slips alway from your fingers.
However, all these problems have been effectively considered and addressed by developers when it comes to the new version of Interaction Engine.
The blog also explains that the Interaction Engine is nothing but a layer that lies between actual-world hand physics and the Unity game engine. In order to allow the object interactions to work effectively, a unique set of physics rules is implemented by the developers in this new Game physics engine. The kind of physics rules that are implemented in it starts working providing the results when you go ahead and try to clutch an in-game object in virtual reality.
It gives a highly realistic feeling when it comes to clutching an object and which satisfies the gamers to a great extent.
The entire purpose of designing the Interaction Engine is to deal with object behaviors and to monitor whether an object clasped by you or not. In addition to that, when it comes to dealing with even more delicate interactions, the blog explains that “a secondary real-time physics representation of the hands” has been implemented.
The best part of using Interaction Engine is that it offers an opportunity to customize a number of features. If required object interaction properties can be easily altered by you such as required position of an object when clasped, placing it to the required position and identifying the situation when tracking is lost etc.
All in all, it looks like it’s a great Game Physics Engine, which will offer you a great VR experience.
The post Clasping Objects In VR Becomes Effortless With Leap Motion’s Interaction Engine appeared first on Infinityleap - Technology stops for no one..
As of August 16, 2016, 'Destiny' players on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 won't have access to any new content, including the upcoming expansion, 'Rise of Iron.' Thankfully, there's an easy way to transfer your character to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, so long as you keep a few things in mind.
The post Five things you should know before importing your ‘Destiny’ character to PS4 or Xbox One appeared first on Digital Trends.
