What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Publisher 2K Games will enter the virtual reality marketplace in October with the launch of its fairground-themed minigame compilation Carnival Games VR, which follows up on a series of successful releases for the Nintendo Wii.
The post Step right up! ‘Carnival Games VR’ is the first virtual reality title for publisher 2K appeared first on Digital Trends.
2K Games has been less than committal to the new medium of virtual reality (VR) thus far, with the publisher’s CEO suggesting that the technology is too ‘anti-social’ before stating that the company will be ‘first in line if VR takes off’. However, it seems that there’s more bubbling under the surface, as VRFocus has learned that 2K Games has a VR title set to be ready for the launch of PlayStation VR.
The Carnival Games videogame series is one which has continuously proved commercially successful on motion-control platforms, debuting on the Nintendo Wii and seeing outings for the Xbox 360’s Kinect and PlayStation 3’s PlayStation Move devices, amongst many others. According to sources close to 2K Games, next to join that line-up will be PlayStation VR and HTC Vive.
Carnival Games VR, according to information VRFocus has received, is set to launch on HTC Vive and PlayStation VR this October. An Oculus Touch compatible version has also been discussed, though there is no confirmation that this edition exists at present.
Other details, such as which experiences will be available as part of the package, pricing and whether or not the videogame will see a retail package alongside a digital release, are not yet available. VRFocus has reached out to 2K Games for comment and will update this story with any response received.
Update: Following the publication of this article an official confirmation came via the way of the PlayStation Blog, which confirms the digital-only release date of 28th October 2016, as well as detailing the minigames included: Alley Ball, Ring Toss, Golden Arm, Down The Stretch, Pop Darts, Shooting Gallery, Climbing Wall, Shark Tank, Funnel Cake Stacker, Swish, Haunted House, Fast Pitch.
A busy financial press release might not be the most interesting of things to read but it’s in such you often find information not just on the present but the future too. Such was the case with today’s release from veteran internet communities builder NetDragon Websoft Ltd.
In going into detail about their second quarter/first half financial results NetDragon, who have a history of establishing major games related portals specifically in the Chinese market revealed their plans and confidence in both Virtual Reality
(VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
“In particular, we expect our Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies to play a major role in our upcoming launches of new games.”
It isn’t just games that in the field of entertainment where NetDragon sees potential. Education it also sees as a major platform and has invested in both AR and VR tools to assist in the classroom. The first of these is a new VR classroom application simply called VR Editor which will act as the flagship product in the new range. Due out later on this financial year it will as part of the package come with a number of experiences, or as the release terms them ‘scenarios’ and NetDragon aims to build these up into a comprehensive 3D learning-resource library.
AR is also a part of the picture, thanks to the already launched AR editor called AR Wiz which NetDragon hopes developers will use to create new experiences as well as infuse in-development projects with AR functionality. NetDragon also specifically mentions an ongoing project with ARHT Media to develop online-to-offline (O2O) social services through the use of hologram related AR technologies. The company notes that it it has made significant progress in its negotiations to secure potential influential speakers to be recorded in this manner.
“Looking forward, we expect to continue the current momentum and reap the rewards from the broad investments we have made into our games and education businesses in terms of research and development efforts as well as mergers and acquisitions that have granted us access to technologies and new markets.”
VRFocus will bring you news of any future developments.
It was reported not too long ago that Damaged Core, developed by High Voltage, was to release yesterday. Along with this release it was also announced that consumers would also get access to the beta build of High Voltage’s upcoming collectible card game (CCG), Dragon Front.
Not much was shared before about Damaged Core, but in the latest Oculus blog post there is much more detail, and the concept might be something that sparks interest for its unique twist. The title is a first person shooter (FPS) where the player takes the role of a human-friendly AI where they can teleport into enemy robots and effectively self destruct them, following a hostile machine uprising.
The title is described as “well-paced”, where it offers a balance of risk and reward. As you take over your enemies, you must take them down and jump to safety before you yourself are taken down.
Dragon Front, however, is a completely different kind of title, but it is still High Voltage working with Oculus Studios, so this partnership seems to be much more deeply set than a one-title partnership. This CCG lets players battle it out against each other where all that matters is skill level and how well their units perform when they come to life. There are boss battles between players and competitive leader boards, and players can choose from 280 characters, 80 different encampments, and more than 100 spells.
However, time’s running out as this offer for Dragon Front is only available during its launch week, which will finish on 6th September at 11.59 PT. Damaged Core is available for the Oculus Rift for $29.99 (USD).
For more on the latest releases, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
CherryPop Games has today released a new update for the hugely popular Pool Nation VR on HTC Vive. In addition to updating the existing mini-games available and teasing new ones to come, Pool Nation VR has become one of the first virtual reality (VR) videogames to integrate NVIDIA’s multi-res shading technology as standard.
Pool Nation VR launched earlier this year to significant critical acclaim. Quickly developing a core audience amongst HTC Vive early adopters, CherryPop Games is aiming to expand upon this success with an upcoming PlayStation VR release. An Oculus Rift version of the videogame compatible with the forthcoming Oculus Touch is also on the cards, but has not yet been officially confirmed.
“Multi-Res Shading is an innovative rendering technique for VR whereby each part of an image is rendered at a resolution that better matches the pixel density of the lens corrected image,” reads the latest update post on Pool Nation VR’s official Steam page. “Multi-Res Shading uses Maxwell or later architecture features to render multiple scaled viewports in a single pass, delivering substantial performance improvements in pixel shading.”
Other updates to Pool Nation VR include the darts and skreeball mini-games being improved, additions to the map with more air hockey tables – in which the developer has teased the fact that more space has been made for future machines – and other bug fixes and optimisations.
Pool Nation VR is available for HTC Vive now, with a PlayStation VR release aimed for alongside the launch of the PlayStation 4’s VR platform itself. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on Pool Nation VR and other VR videogame titles from CherryPop Games and their development partner, Perilous Orbit.
Kaleidoscope Summer Showcase Vol. 1 is an event going on in the capital of the UK where both the art and science of virtual reality (VR) will be admired with various showcases and plenty of talks, and it will all take place one week today.
The event, hosted by VR marketing company Virtual Umbrella, will consist of two different sections: the Official Kaleidoscope Selection Vol. 1 where there will be over 20 new VR experiences, and the Community Showcase selection which opens up its display to local VR creators who have been invited to share their works.
As described by the event organisers themselves in a press release: “The virtual reality film and art scene is bursting in London and the Kaleidoscope Summer Showcase is a fantastic opportunity to bring together local innovators and curious individuals to discover, share, and promote the work of VR artists and creators, exploring the talent and diversity within VR as an art form.”
The confirmed set of speakers that will be attending includes CTO of Breaking Fourth, Peter Short, who created Ctrl; Erfan Saadati, Head of VR from Surround Vision, who has created 360 degree interactive pieces for Sky News; Phillip Day, Creator of Whirligig, a VR player and publishing tool of VR and 360 video; and Kim Majkut, a BAFTA nominated freelance Creative and Director with companies such as BBC, Nickelodeon, and Nissan, who specializes in immersive visual storytelling.
Tickets are now available to purchase from its official Eventbrite page for £10 (GBP) – plus a fee of 84 pence. Doors will open at 6.30pm on the 6th September, and the event will wrap up at 11pm.
For more on the latest events going on in the industry, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
Acer and Starbreeze AB today announced at a global press conference in Berlin that they have started to ship StarVR virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMD) to IMAX Corporation in preparation for the opening of the IMAX VR Center in Los Angeles, expected later this year, and others in the near future. This marks the first commercial availability of the Star VR HMD.
Earlier in 2016, Acer committed to delivering a small volume of units of StarVR HMDs this year with mass production of the devices to commence in 2017. On hand at the press conference were Bo Andersson Klint, CEO at Starbreeze and Rob Lister, Chief Business Development Officer at IMAX Corporation.
“We’re extremely proud to be able to show the first manufactured units of the StarVR headset produced in our collaboration with Acer. Since announcing the StarVR headset in 2015, we’re finally at a place where we can see the pieces of our vision coming together. From day one we’ve been convinced that we can deliver premium experiences with premium hardware. The search for great partners sharing the same vision was long, but we’re happy to be able to lay down these two fundamental parts in Starbreeze VR-ecosystem together with Acer and IMAX. We can’t wait for people to start experiencing world-class virtual reality in the StarVR HMD and at IMAX VR centers,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO.
Starbreeze has recently disclosed details of the ramping-up for VR software development, incorporating two big film and television franchises, John Wick and The Walking Dead, into the company’s short-term VR software release strategy. Several partnerships have secured placement of the StarVR HMD in out-of-home VR experiences, similar to this first shipment to IMAX.
“With this shipment to as important a player in the entertainment industry as IMAX, we are absolutely thrilled that we are well on our way in bringing the virtual reality experience to the next level and to the world” said Jason Chen, President and CEO at Acer. “The realization of the most premium VR experience ever offered isn’t just our dream, but one of an entire ecosystem that encompasses hardware makers, videogame developers, theater companies, filmmakers and many others. [sic]”
Chen highlighted at the global press conference that movies and videogames have exceedingly become ever more closely entwined. The lines are blurring between movies and videogames, and are moving beyond just two mediums that have traditionally only complemented one another. He said they were converging to become a more dynamic, immersive form of storytelling, and virtual reality would feature prominently in this development.
StarVR is a unique HMD, delivering 210-degree horizontal field of view. The HMD is not currently targeting a consumer audience and no further details concerning commercial availability have yet been announced, but of course VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
uSens is a Silicon Valley start-up which was founded in San Jose, California in 2013. It has a team of researchers and developers of advanced user interaction technologies who aim at finding better and more efficient ways for people to interact with an ever-changing, rapid-paced global community.
Now, uSens is taking a step forward in developing natural hand-and-head tracking technologies for Augmented and Virtual Realities and for this purpose it has announced the open beta of its software developer kit (SDK) and pre-order availability for its new Fingo hardware series at a launch event in San Francisco.
uSens has launched its uDev network for the developer community to help them integrate the company’s industry-leading, industry-out 26DOF hand tracking and 6DOF head tracking technology in their ARVR projects. uDev offers the developer kits that are fully stacked and support the popular integrated development environments (IDEs) and the work flows. At the present, uSens supports technologies like Unity 3D, Java, C++, and C# for mobile and PC developers.
uSens empowers the developers to create the most naturally interactive 3D experiences by integrating the hardware and software with the content makers and the platform. The company will go online to showcase the demonstrations of new content and technology along with the developers.
Fingo
uSens consists of a Fingo series that offers an advanced 3D human-computer interaction capability for the mobile as well as tethered systems that includes Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard. The users can enjoy their favorite apps without much of the power consumption or dull performance on their mobile devices by attaching this module to the front of an HMD.
There are three kinds of Fingo- entry Fingo, Color Fingo, and Power Fingo which enable the developers to integrate their developments with the technologies mentioned in the above paragraphs with different DOFs according to the Fingo used by them.
uSens CTO and co-founder, Dr. Yue Fei says that they are mainly focused on the inside-out hand and position tracking tools that offer flexibility and ease of use. With this, the developers can easily customize and support the craft of the most realistic and immersive experiences in ARVR.
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