Funomena’s Oculus Touch Indie VR Puzzler Luna Will Demo at PAX West 2016

Luna was mentioned a little while ago when we reported on 30 titles set to launch with Oculus Touch this Fall, and now it will finally be playable at a public event this weekend at PAX West 2016, featuring in the Indie Megabooth.

This indie title is a virtual reality (VR) puzzler that uses the Oculus Touch controllers, and players are encouraged to observe, listen, customise, and interact with a storybook world. This world is inspired by origami, minimalist illustration, abstract sculpture, and stop animation.

luna funomena

The story that brings this title to life is as described by the developers, Funomena, themselves: “The game begins when a young Bird is lured from its nest by a mysterious Owl, whose hypnotic song convinces the Bird to swallow the last piece of the waning moon. Blown far from its nest by the ensuing storm, Bird wakes up in a scrambled, unfamiliar and lonely place.

“To help the Bird find its way home, players must first look to the stars. Here, they help untangle the mixed-up constellations of Bird’s memories, which appear as tangled webs of stardust floating in the night sky.”

As well as the title itself, there is said to also be the usual freebies that come along with this event, so if trying out this title on the Touch controllers isn’t enough, then your innate sense of wanting free goodies may kick in.

Luna will be available at the Oculus Touch stations and at the AMD booth if you are looking for other opportunities to come by it during PAX West 2016.

For more on the latest events in VR, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.

Björk to Release Multiple VR Experiences as She Tours

Earlier this year Björk claimed to have made the world’s first virtual reality (VR) album with the HTC Vive, where she released VR videos that complemented her latest album. Now, she is carrying on the trend and releasing many, many more VR instalments as she tours around.

It was shared on Björk’s Facebook profile that she has already created four VR videos that are ready to be released, and she will go on to release more with every city she visits, starting with London.

bjork

Although it wasn’t in VR, Björk delivered the conference to announce this in real-time as she was reimagined in 3D using Unity.

On the post, Björk talked about how technology is enabling women to work outside the hierarchical system, and how technology personally helped her. She went on to say (all grammatical errors her own): “VR is helping making a new stage free of politics where sound and vision is swirling free in 360 fully liberated . i found vulnicura a helpful material to work in VR because of its old fashioned heartbreak saga , the narration in it is the most stubborn of my albums so i felt it could take on the experimentation of where VR is now . benefitted from 2016-ing it . and because of vulnicuras one singular selfpitying voice to work with many directors gave it more point of views.”

If you are in London, you can check out the debut of Björk’s Digital Exhibit at Somerset House starting on 1st September.

‘Pool Nation VR’ Gets NVIDIA Multi-Res Shading Support and More in Latest Patch

Good news for NVIDIA GPU owners today as Pool Nation VR was updated to include support for Multi Res Shading alongside other feature additions and improvements.

See Also: ‘Pool Nation VR’ Review
See Also: ‘Pool Nation VR’ Review

Pool Nation VR is a firm Road to VR favourite, with our own Garret Bullard awarding the title a very respectable 4.7/5 in his recent review, stating that the game is “responsive, looks good, and is great simulation of the game we all know and enjoy. If you enjoy pool and have a friend with an HTC Vive this game is a must.”

Now, the developers Cherry Pop Games and Perilous Orbit have released a patch which adds some significant enhancements to the title. Chief among them is the implementation of NVIDIA’s proprietary Multi-res Shading rendering method. According to the patch notes:

“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. 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. “

pool nation vr review (3)

Steam users are already reporting significant performance gains allowing them to ramp up super-sampling by 33% or more, which massively increases the quality and clarity of the visuals in the game.

The developers haven’t stopped there either. Darts is now its own fully fledged mini-game, Skreeball has been improved, and a collection of usability improvements have all made this patch along with a change to the layout of the play area. Cryptically, the patch notes ask “Hmmm… I wonder why we’re readying the map with more spaces and machines” which might suggest there are more minigames on the way.

Hopefully these updates will introduce more people to one of the best VR experiences available. If your interest is now piqued, you can buy Pool Nation VR for HTC Vive on Steam right here.

The post ‘Pool Nation VR’ Gets NVIDIA Multi-Res Shading Support and More in Latest Patch appeared first on Road to VR.

HTC makes $5 million investment in VR gaming startup Steel Wool Studios



HTC is continuing to invest heavily in building up the virtual reality ecosystem that it hopes to one day dominate. Steel Wool Studios, an Oakland-based gaming studio made up of Pixar veterans with a few decades of animation experience under their belts, announced today that it has closed a $5 million round of Series A funding coming entirely from HTC, the manufacturer of the Vive… Read More



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