uSens Offers Position Tracking For Mobile VR With SDK, Dev Kits For Fingo Series
Pokémon Go Players Want More Augmented Reality (SURVEY)
In a previous blog post, we looked at the different areas that contributed to the success of Pokémon Go including the Pokémon brand, geolocation and Augmented Reality. Now a recent survey by Vasona Networks shows that most Pokémon Go players want more Augmented Reality.
According to the survey of Pokémon Go players:
- 23% say the most exciting part of the game is playing outside, while an additional 17% cite the AR aspect as most exciting;
- 69% plan to play future versions of the game, while 24% are unsure of future usage; and
- 67% play at least a few times per week, of which more than 33% play daily.
The future Pokémon Go features that survey respondents said they were most hopeful for would cause the app to have a more significant data impact. When asked which one feature they most look forward to:
- 39% said map overlays;
- 26% said real-time syncing to see location and progress of friends;
- 21% said characters that can react to player actions;
- 9% said in-game video chat; and
- 6% said to be able to live stream game commentary.
There are other interesting responses from the survey that can be found here.
The post Pokémon Go Players Want More Augmented Reality (SURVEY) appeared first on Zugara.
Apple Patented An iPhone Compatible Wireless VR Headset
The Wizdish ROVR Promises an Alternative Treadmill Solution to VR Simulation Sickness
The 9 Best Oculus Rift Games That You Can Play Right Now (Touch Update)
The Oculus Rift is amazing. And this month it got even more amazing. Oculus Touch released on December 6 and boy, oh boy, did it bring some fantastic games along with it. In the face of such an incredible innovation we realized we had to update our top Rift games list to include these new offerings.
We’ve got nine games in particular for you that we think are the absolute best games this system has to offer in the post-Touch era. Before we get started there are just a few caveats. We will not be including the original pack-in titles like Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie for consideration — even though both are great games — because they already came with most headsets. We’re also not including simplistic free experiences such as Farlands, First Contact, or Oculus Dreamdeck.
Titles on this list are in no particular order, they’re all recommended equally. Let’s get started!
Windlands
Windlands is great. No, let me try that again. Windlands is amazing. Still not good enough? Okay, one more try. Windlands is so good that if I didn’t have certain people in my life willing to say “Hey man, we haven’t seen you in a while” or “You do know you need to wash your clothes right?” I would probably still be playing it right now.
Developed by Psytec Games, Windlands is a title that provides everything VR gaming needs right now. Addictive gameplay? Check. Beautiful visuals? Check. Compelling atmosphere? Oh yeah. And to top it all off Windlands now comes with a free Touch update that transitions the already mesmerizing, gaze-based grappling hook gameplay into a hand-controlled experience. This is the closest we can get to being Spider-Man people.
What truly makes Windlands amazing however is that it’s not just an amazing video game, it’s an amazing virtual reality video game. It could only work in VR. A game where you swing around like Spider-Man in first person piecing together the mysteries of an ancient world sounds fun in 2D, but in VR on the Rift it becomes something else entirely: legendary.
Note: This game is also available on the HTC Vive but I prefer to play it on the Rift. You do a lot of quick head movements in this game and the Rift’s lighter headset and ergonomic design make that experience a lot more enjoyable. The Touch controllers also feel more comfortable.
DiRT Rally
D1RT Rally is officially bumping Project Cars off of this list as our number one racing game for the Rift. Don’t get me wrong, Project Cars is beautiful and impressively immersive but DiRT edges it out with grittier gameplay that feels perfectly suited for the unique benefits of a VR headset.
The white-knuckle turns and moment-by-moment decision making that take place in DiRT Rally‘s off road races translate beautifully into VR. Every last second hairpin turn or horrifying rollout is felt inside that headset. This makes every victory feel satisfying, electrifying, and hard won. Combine this with a steering wheel accessory and you’ve got yourself a recipe for never seeing your children again.
And always remember: don’t cut.
The Climb
If you read about The Climb on paper it’s not going to do the game much justice. Sentences like: “You look around to place a set of disembodied hands on a mountain and grip handholds by holding down the shoulder buttons,” do little to capture the heart pounding exhilaration that The Climb provides.
The original, gamepad control scheme, despite some finicky moments, brilliantly immerses you in a rock climbing mindset with just two buttons. I held on to those triggers tighter than Rose held onto that floating door in Titanic that could clearly fit two people.
Now The Climb also has a free Oculus Touch update which makes scaling these facades more immersive and engaging than ever. Trust me, if you fall in The Climb, you will definitely remember it. You feel so one with nature in this game as well, which is an odd, but wonderful, thing for a video game to be able to do. So now you can tell your mom you don’t need to go outside. You have The Climb.
The Unspoken
Before The Unspoken we were skeptical how real-time, online multiplayer would work for the Oculus Rift. After, The Unspoken we know the answer: it freaking rocks.
The Unspoken is the third game in Insomniac’s trilogy of VR titles for Rift this year. It puts you in the Chuck Taylor’s, scarf, and trench coat of a modern sorcerer trying to evade a shadowy cabal in the dark streets of Chicago. Despite its loose story, The Unspoken is entirely an online multiplayer game (with the exception of a few, limited, offline practice modes).
You’ll spend your time choosing between three unique classes, customizing a load out of spells and artifacts, and perfecting your technique on the battlefield. The Unspoken is addictive and fun with a fantastic use case for the new Touch controllers. Whether you’re hurling a fireball or levitating a police car, it all feels natural and exhilarating on Oculus’ new platform.
Matchmaking also happens within seconds rather than minutes which was a major pre-launch concern for this game. Dive in, master your magic, and see if you’ve got what it takes to be named the greatest VR wizard in the world.
Arizona Sunshine
If you’ve ever sat around with your friends and played, “How would we survive the zombie apocalypse?” then Arizona Sunshine is a must play. Developer Vertigo Games transports you directly into the sun bleached deserts of Arizona. The landscapes would be quite beautiful if they weren’t crawling with legions of the undead.
Armed with only a handful of firearms you’ll need to scavenge for food, ammunition, and shelter as you make your way through the infested landscape in search of refuge from the endless hordes. Arizona Sunshine‘s gameplay is visceral and satisfying with a wonderfully voiced protagonist and a story that makes you feel the desperation that comes at the end of the world.
There are also difficulty modes that scale the zombie damage and ammo scarcity. These culminate in the almost impossible to beat “Apocalyptic Mode” which will make you think hard before taking every shot. The online horde mode is a blast with friends and the gunplay and reload mechanics keep you feeling actively involved in your own survival.
In a market flooded with Zombie shooters Arizona Sunshine stands a decapitated head and shoulders above the rest.
Obduction
Obduction is the game that gave me my new fear of windows. Developed by Cyan, Inc. — the makers of the legendary PC title, Myst — this title brings exploration and storytelling to new heights for VR gaming in general.
In Obduction you find yourself exploring a ghost town that seems plucked straight out of the old west. The only catch? It’s on an alien planet and you have no way to get home. So begins hours of discovery, mystery, and intriguing puzzles.
Obduction is a thinking players game. If you want to blow things up or shoot big guns then this may not be the title for you. But if you’re hungry for an adventure you’ve come to the right place. But don’t forget: nothing is ever as it seems.
Dead and Buried
Let’s move from a metaphorical Ghost Town to a literal one. Dead and Buried, the first full game developed outright by Oculus Studios, is a multiplayer, online shooter with a twist: you’re already dead. You’ve been brought back to life by a mysterious specter to, as he puts it, “take out some bad guys…or some good guys.”
D&B has a wealth of game modes for you to explore including team shootouts, quick draw contests and cops-and-robbers style heists. There’s a variety of weapons and cover strategies to play with in each mode so grab a few friends and settle the ghostly west with your brains, your brawn, and plenty of hot lead.
Edge of Nowhere
Insomniac is one of the most prolific gaming studios operating today with massive hits like Ratchet & Clank, Spyro, and Sunset Overdrive in its catalog. Edge of Nowhere is Insomniac’s first foray into the world of VR gaming and represents one of the few titles for the Rift developed by an established AAA developer.
Edge of Nowhere is a psychological, third person thriller that will take you to the limits of not only the freezing arctic, but of your own sanity as well. Expect a few frights and an unforgettable VR experience when playing this one. It’s not to be missed.
Damaged Core
In Damaged Core you play as an artificial intelligence who’s job it is to possess enemy robots and use their unique weapons and skill to defeat the evil “Core” and save the human race. In my opinion, it’s very nearly a masterpiece, and it is the best reviewed game on UploadVR to date. Despite requiring a gamepad to play, the game’s core robot-jumping mechanic (pun intended) creates a deeper sense of freedom and immersion than most “room scale” titles I’ve tried.
Combine that with incredible visuals, an engaging story, and interesting characters and you get one of the most complete and impressive VR titles on this or any platform.
Now stop reading and start playing!
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12/26/16 Update: This list has been updated by adding DiRT Rally, Arizona Sunshine, Obduction, The Unspoken, and Dead & Buried. To make room for these games, we’ve removed Technolust, Project CARS, Blaze Rush, Air Mech Command, and Defense Grid 2.
8/30/16 Update: The list has been expanded from 7 games to 9, opening up 2 new spots. Edge of Nowhere and Damaged Core are the two newly added titles.
This article was originally published on 05/03/16.
Tagged with: 7, Airmech, best, blaze rush, defense grid, Games, gaming, list, oculus, project cars, rift, seven, Technolust, top, video games, windlands
Spacefaring multiplayer RPG ‘Eve Online’ will be free to play on PC in November
Developer CCP Games promises "big, fundamental changes" on PC for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Eve Online. It plans to drop its subscription requirements for the first time while enabling a new free-to-play gameplay structure.
The post Spacefaring multiplayer RPG ‘Eve Online’ will be free to play on PC in November appeared first on Digital Trends.
HTC Invests $5 Million In VR Startup Steel Wool Studios
Scientists Have Created a Way For People to Enter VR Scenes By Digitalising Their Bodies
When capturing footage for virtual reality (VR), or more 360 video, people and figures are often quite flat and not very detailed. German scientists have now created 3D reconstruction technology that claims to pick up the finest details of anybody who sits in front of its many cameras.
Fraunhofer HHI researchers have created a set of multiple cameras which create a “perfect three-dimensional impression” which claims to pick up as much detail as what you could if you were to look at the real object or person.
As well as its camera technology, there are deeper configurations that ensure top quality reconstructions. Algorithms can extract depth information from the camera images, which is necessary to create an accurate 3D image. As the person is scanned and calculated, they are then transferred into the virtual world where you can even see detail such as creases in clothing.
The cameras take a few seconds to process all of this, and this can be quickly forgiven as “the illusion is perfect” as every gesture is recreated seamlessly, and you can even interact directly with the virtual scene you are scanned into.
Future plans for this technology include a spread across different applications, such as video conference calls, and even for television entertainment, as the viewer would be able to take in not only the scene, but be in it, too.
This technology is on show at IFA in Berlin, Germany, as well as in IBC in Amsterdam.
For more on the latest developments in VR, as well as all the news, updates, and features, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
Confronting the End – ‘The Last Moments’ Gives You the Choice to Live or Die
The Last Moments immerses users in the discussion about euthanasia with a VR film that reveals the process of an assisted death.
Virtual reality and empathy go hand in hand. The very nature of being closed off to the world, void of all peripheral distractions, is an effective aid to focussing on powerful subject matter. Directors are realising that putting you in the shoes of those having to make life or death choices can have a profound effect on the viewer.
One such director is Avril Furness whose short 360 degree film The Last Moments I watched at Grand Central Recording Studios (GCRS) in London. Doning the Samsung Gear VR headset, I found myself in a very ordinary room, bed bound with my emotional wife sitting at the end, trying to offer comfort through tears and jokes, as she was about to become a widow.
A mentor from Dignitas—the Swiss based not-for-profit organisation that offers assisted dying services—robotically described how the cocktail I would drink would put me into a sleep I would never wake up from.
My choice was to continue to live or take the cocktail and die. Out of curiousity I chose the latter, but was surprised to then learn that 86% of real Dignitas volunteers don’t go through to the ultimate end stage.
Furness based the thought provoking film on a script she had penned exploring an overpopulated dystopian future where salesmen sold euthanasia packages door to door, as if some innocuous household product.
During her research, she visited an exhibition called Death: The Human Experience at the Bristol museum which housed a replica of a ward from Dignitas. Sitting in the very ordinary room, Furness described having a profound emotional experience, which she felt could be transferred to others as a 360 degree short film.
Furness studied video documentation of approximately fifteen assisted dying procedures, transcribing the script into one narrative.
“It is not always as bleak as you might think” she said. “In the videos there were lots of nervous jokes and agitation to keep it light hearted for the volunteer. I wanted to bring that out in the script.”
The Last Moments was premiered at a euthanasia conference in Amsterdam, attended by specialists, volunteers and pro right-to-die campaigners. The presentation moved many to tears with one gentlemen not able to watch to the end such was its intensity.
Initially, The Last Moments struggled to get off the ground.
“It was a really difficult relationship with Dignitas at first” admitted Furness. “They were very sceptical and negative. As the conversation developed, they were quite specific about filming in the replica room in Bristol rather than at their premises to ensure this was a tasteful artistic representation of what happens.”
Such was the turnaround, at one point Dignitas even proposed putting a 360 degree rig on a real volunteer to die on camera but Furness wanted to avoid anything that could cross into morbid voyeurism.
The result is a powerful 360 short that stays in your head long after you take the Gear VR off. It is the ordinariness of the environment and the procedure that is at odds with the gravitas of the situation. The contrast of the emotion of your loved one and the clinical nature of the Dignitas mentor is just as difficult to process.
Looking at the experience from a production standpoint, I really appreciated how passionate and supportive the companies involved in the project were. The Last Moments was a collaboration between Framestore, VISYON 360, Grand Central Recording Studios and theatre company Punchdrunk, which would have had a fraction of the budget of the productions they would typically be involved with.
With just three hours to shoot the entire sequence, a GoPro 360 rig was placed on a mannequin with an ambisonic microphone. The 3D audio was vital for the realism of the experience led by Steve Lane and George Castle of GCRS. This was their first commercial foray into virtual reality, having traditionally worked on sound design for high end movies and commercials.
Looking back Castle reflected “It was relatively early into our foray into the VR world and a great learning experience. What excites me is what is possible now compared to 6 months ago is massive.”
Lane is equally excited to work on sound design for VR projects, appealing for a more standardised process. “Spatial audio is great but there isn’t a defined format. We can chose from four or five delivery methods so that is going to have to become a more streamlined process. With The Last Moments we only had to consider the Samsung Gear VR but in the future I would love to see software coming to market that makes this possible. We are having to use an older Oculus Rift development kit headset because Pro Tools is only Mac compatible but the new Oculus is only PC compatible. It’s just all over the place at the moment.”
Framestore were bought in to do the post production under the guidance of Executive Producer David Hay and VISYON 360 did the final stitching for the piece that was painstakingly as close to the real procedure as possible, right down to the labels on the bottles.
There was genuine altruism behind the project and a reminder that virtual reality can excite and bring out the best of pioneers keen to showcase the power of the medium.
The Last Moments is currently touring festivals and will be made available on YouTube 360 once the tour is over.
The post Confronting the End – ‘The Last Moments’ Gives You the Choice to Live or Die appeared first on Road to VR.
‘Rigs’ Campaign Mode Confirms The PS VR Launch Title Has More Than Just Multiplayer
