Borderlands 2 VR (2018) is finally headed out of PSVR exclusivity, with launch on PC slated for sometime this Fall. The PSVR version, which debuted on PS4 late last year, is also getting a massive DLC drop for free, coming September 6th.
At PAX West yesterday, Gearbox Software announced that the free DLC campaigns coming to PSVR in September will feature a bevy of content including: Captain Scarlet and Her Pirate’s Booty, Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage, Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt, and Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, according to Eurogamer.
Additionally, you’ll also be able to play Creature Slaughter Dome, the Mechromancer and Psycho classes, all five Headhunter DLC packs, both Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Packs, and the Vault Hunter Heads and Skin packs.
SEE ALSO
'Borderlands 2 VR' Review – An Ok Version of a Good Game
And yes, the so-called Bad Ass Mega Fun pack (BAMF pack) DLC is also headed to Borderlands 2 VR for PC.
Other than that, there’s not much else to go on at this time for the PC version. Neither its publisher 2k Games nor developer Gearbox Software has mentioned which platform it will land on, be it Steam, Epic Games Store, Oculus Store or otherwise. We assume the standard SteamVR-compatible headsets apply, although it hasn’t been specified yet.
It’s also unknown whether it will bring co-op play to the game, as it’s sorely lacking in the PSVR version. We’re hoping for yes, although it’s possible the studios want to maintain basic feature parity with the PSVR version (pre-DLC).
Together we explore how to tame animals in No Man's Sky Beyond. Too bad, we can't ride them yet. Hopefully, they will add that later, so instead we tried riding an Exocraft for the first time!! ► Check out our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 We are in love with No Man's Sky Beyond in VR. Do you enjoy the game too? Then come hang out, help us, or get help from the community 🖤. We are doing the same setup as last time, showing you both of our views to share the multiplayer experience the best as possible. Welcome to our weekly Virtual Reality live stream! Usually, our live stream is centered around one topic, but you can come to ask us anything. Or just come hang out and discover the beautiful worlds of VR with us. Our live stream schedule is every Friday at 9 PM CEST (GMT+2). MORE NMS LIVE GAMEPLAY ► Watch part 1 here → https://youtu.be/d2eKcaDjj4c ► Watch part 2 here → https://youtu.be/aKSsW5Yp8OE OTHER NMS VR VIDEOS ► No Man's Sky Beyond - VR Overview & Performance Tips & Tricks → https://youtu.be/Bd2EOlgpuM0 ►No Man's Sky VR - 20 Tips and Tricks For VR Players → https://youtu.be/3TF0F-A3qF4 LINKS ► Get No Man's Sky on Steam here → https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/ SUPPORT US Subscribing and watching our videos is by far the BIGGEST support you can give us. However, if you want to do more - you can also become a booster or our champion! All donations will go to improving the channel. BUY US A DRINK & BOOST THE CHANNEL ► One-time donation → https://goo.gl/BM3zV7 BECOME A CHAMPION ► Become a Patron on Patreon (includes exclusive rewards) → https://goo.gl/5Bp3FW ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (rewards and get a Champion's badge on YouTube chat) → https://goo.gl/8Ji5dp DISCOUNT CODES & AFFILIATE LINKS ► Support us by using our VR Discount Codes & Affiliate Links → https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ OUR SPECS - Our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary - More info here → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ SOCIAL MEDIA 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k 💬 Twitter → https://twitter.com/CasandChary 💬 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/casandchary/ 💬 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/casandchary/ A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their fantastic support: - artArmin - Baxorn - Olemartinorg - Studioform VR - Wintceas - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - D Coetzee VR on! - Cas and Chary VR DISCLAIMER - Links in this description may contain affiliate links. You don't have to use them, but if you do, a small referral fee will go to this channel supporting the content.
Road to VR is running a survey with our partner Gamer Network to better understand our audience. Your participation is entirely optional and anonymous, but we’d be thrilled if you’d share your responses with us.
You may recall that Road to VR partnered with Eurogamer parent company Gamer Network in 2017. In an era where many publications are allowing paid and sponsored content to increasingly bleed into editorial, this partnership allows us to create an important firewall between editorial and advertising activities on Road to VR.
The Readership Survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is shared across Gamer Network sister sites. It covers a range of topics: your gaming tastes and habits, what gaming equipment you own or intend to buy, which gaming sites you read, your other and so on. The survey is anonymous and we won’t be able to tell who you are by the answers you give.
The survey helps us build an accurate picture of our audience and what they care about, so we know who we’re talking to. It also helps make sure there’s advertising on the site that’s relevant, and in so doing it helps us pay the bills and continue to bring you great coverage.
Sony is taking down a few beloved games from the PlayStation Store tomorrow, including Driveclub, Driveclub Bikes, and Driveclub VR.
Servers are said to remain online until March 31st, 2020, however the Driveclub series and their DLC will be removed from the store starting tomorrow.
At the time of this writing, European-facing PlayStation Stores have already removed Driveclub VR, although the US store shows it still available for $15.
Driveclub VR is one of the few VR titles to have a physical disc, so if you’re still looking to jump into the game post-delisting, you’ll at least have a few more months to do so before the plug is pulled for good on its optional online gameplay.
Sony says in its decommissioned games page that once the ax swings on March 31st, and the servers are officially unplugged, all Driveclub games will lose the ability to use season passes online, represent Clubs online in multiplayer events or tours, play online multiplayer and compete in challenges, create your own events, and compete in leader boards, or share stats and player progress.
Driveclub VR joins StarBlood Arena (2017) as another Sony-published VR title that just didn’t make the cut for continued store listing.
Google has released to researchers and developers its own mobile device-based hand tracking method using machine learning, something Google Research engineers Valentin Bazarevsky and Fan Zhang call a “new approach to hand perception.”
First unveiled at CVPR 2019 back in June, Google’s on-device, real-time hand tracking method is now available for developers to explore—implemented in MediaPipe, an open source cross-platform framework for developers looking to build processing pipelines to handle perceptual data, like video and audio.
The approach is said to provide high-fidelity hand and finger tracking via machine learning, which can infer 21 3D ‘keypoints’ of a hand from just a single frame.
“Whereas current state-of-the-art approaches rely primarily on powerful desktop environments for inference, our method achieves real-time performance on a mobile phone, and even scales to multiple hands,” Bazarevsky and Zhang say in a blog post.
Google Research hopes its hand-tracking methods will spark in the community “creative use cases, stimulating new applications and new research avenues.”
Bazarevsky and Zhang explain that there are three primary systems at play in their hand tracking method, a palm detector model (called BlazePalm), a ‘hand landmark’ model that returns high fidelity 3D hand keypoints, and a gesture recognizer that classifies keypoint configuration into a discrete set of gestures.
SEE ALSO
Indie Dev Experiment Brings Google Lens to VR, Showing Real-time Text Translation
The BlazePalm technique is touted to achieve an average precision of 95.7% in palm detection, researchers claim.
The model learns a consistent internal hand pose representation and is robust even to partially visible hands and self-occlusions.
The existing pipeline supports counting gestures from multiple cultures, e.g. American, European, and Chinese, and various hand signs including “Thumb up”, closed fist, “OK”, “Rock”, and “Spiderman”.
Google is open sourcing its hand tracking and gesture recognition pipeline in the MediaPipe framework, accompanied with the relevant end-to-end usage scenario and source code, here.
In the future, Bazarevsky and Zhang say Google Research plans on continuing its hand tracking work with more robust and stable tracking, and also hopes to enlarge the amount of gestures it can reliably detect. Moreover, they hope to also support dynamic gestures, which could be a boon for machine learning-based sign language translation and fluid hand gesture controls.
Not only that, but having more reliable on-device hand tracking is a necessity for AR headsets moving forward; as long as headsets rely on outward-facing cameras to visualize the world, understanding that world will continue to be a problem for machine learning to address.
Digital game storefront Humble Bundle is offering DiRT Rally for free, now through September 1st. The version of the game being given away is via Steam with official support for the Oculus Rift, though unofficial support for other SteamVR headsets should work via the Revive mod.
The version of the game being given being given away is via Steam, which officially includes support for the Oculus Rift. Other SteamVR headsets like Vive and Index should work via the Revive mod.
While the game works fine with a gamepad, like all sim racers, Dirt Rally is going to play best and feel the most immersive with a proper wheel and pedal setup, and we’ve got a great selection of picks to get you started right here.
If you’re hungering for more VR racing sim options, you can also check out Project CARS 2(2017), which is currently on sale at a 75% discount at Humble Bundle. The game is also via Steam and officially supports Index, Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets.
NextVR, the VR livestreaming event app, is now available on Oculus Quest for free, which is said to come alongside a new technology that promises clearer and sharper video rendering.
The studio calls the new rendering technology ‘PAVE’, which is said to enable new features like enhanced in-experience graphic overlays (e.g. stats, instant replays) and forthcoming multi-user interactions such as multi-user game trivia during timeouts.
Previously, NextVR content was only available on Quest via the Oculus Venues app, which provides communal viewing of select real-time live events. In contrast, the NextVR app is a single-user experience that also provides replays and extra content too.
“NextVR is pairing our newest rendering technology with Oculus Quest to provide an outstanding fan experience.” said David Cole, NextVR co-founder & CEO, “We’re launching with a collection of experiences that best demonstrate the capabilities of our technology including a show this September 10th hosted by Pete Davidson recorded live at Gotham Comedy Club in New York City.”
SEE ALSO
Oculus Quest Content Library Tops 100 Games & Apps
In addition to Quest support, the studio is also adding an exclusive ‘Best on Quest’ channel with a curated group of “new and optimized experiences,” among which is the NBA Finals Game Six Highlights with access to the Toronto Raptors locker room celebration, NHRA Drag Racing, Day to Night Timelapse and select concerts.
NextVR’s supported platforms now include Oculus Quest, Samsung Gear VR, PSVR, Google Daydream, Windows VR headsets, Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index.
Check out the schedule below for NextVR’s 30 Days of LIVE Events:
Sunday, 9/1 | shallou in Concert | 6pm PT
Monday, 9/2 | Wood & Wire in Concert | 6pm PT
Tuesday, 9/3 | Erika Wennerstrom in Concert | 6pm PT
Wednesday, 9/4 | UCB: Comedy and Magic | 6pm PT
Thursday, 9/5 | Live From Gotham Comedy Club | 6pm PT
Friday, 9/6 | SoFar Sounds | 6pm PT
Saturday, 9/7 | HIRIE in Concert | 6pm PT
Sunday, 9/8 | jackLNDN in Concert | 6pm PT
Monday, 9/9 | UCB: Big Grande | 6pm PT
Tuesday, 9/10 | Gotham Comedy Club Featuring Pete Davidson | 7pm PT*- *Exclusively on Oculus Quest, Go and Gear VR
Wednesday, 9/11 | Batsu! | 6pm PT
Thursday, 9/12 | Live from Gotham Comedy Club | 6pm PT
Friday, 9/13 | UCB: Mystery on Fyre Island | 6pm PT
Beat Games, the studio behind the popular block-slashing rhythm game Beat Saber (2018), today released a free update that brings with it six new playable tracks to the game, and a few new features and improvements too.
The OST Vol. 3 music pack is now live on all supported platforms, which includes Steam (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index, Windows VR headsets), the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
Original Soundtrack Vol. 3 includes:
Origins – by Jaroslav Beck and Jan Ilavsky featuring Mutrix
Reason For Living – by Morgan Page
Give A Little Love – by Pegboard Nerds
Full Charge – by Pixl
Immortal – by Slippy
Burning Sands – by Boom Kitty
Before jumping in for some block-slashing fun, you can also preview, download or stream OST Vol. 3 from multiple services, including Apple Music, Google Music, Amazon, Spotify, and more.
SEE ALSO
'Beat Saber' Scoring Explained – It's All in the Technique
Today’s update also includes new features and improvements for the game including:
Color scheme (for notes/sabers, obstacles and lights) override and customization.
Level environment override.
More precise swing angles detection.
Improved lighting.
Tweaked note jump start positions and speed in Expert+ difficulty for Crystallized, Cycle Hit and WHAT THE CAT!?
Minor fixes in WHAT THE CAT!? beatmaps.
Fixed bug when game doesn’t start properly if player data gets somehow corrupted.
There’s a few great VR party games out there, including the reigning champion Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (2015), although I think a new game is poised to take the VR Party Crown. Resolution Games, the studio behind Bait! (2016) and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019), released arguably their most promising title yet today, the unique couch co-op game Acron: Attack of the Squirrels!
We haven’t had access to a review copy before launch, although I did get an extended chance to go hands-on with a near-final version at Gamescom last week, which showed off a couch co-op experience that was not only extremely well-balanced, but one that you can truly break out at parties for hours’ worth of fun.
Acron supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Oculus Quest. If you’re like me, you’re constantly looking for great Quest titles, and this one easily ranks among the best out there, especially as one of the few VR party games that, in my opinion, has really nailed what makes async VR gaming fun and accessible.
In case you haven’t heard about Acron, here’s the gist: a single player wears a VR headset and takes the role of Giant Tree Guy, who has to defend against an onslaught of tiny squirrels that are eager to steal all four of the golden nuts. You can do this by tossing one of three ammo types that spawn in front of you, which will either slow down or knockout the pint-sized enemies. If a squirrel pal gets too close, you can also physically grab them and toss them around like rag dolls too.
The squirrels, played by up to four users on mobile devices, have special abilities too though, which come in handy when Giant Tree Guy is accurately throwing a large number of projectiles. Depending on which of the four squirrels you choose, you can deploy a shield, dig a transport hole to get you closer to the base of the tree, sprint super fast, or build Lemmings-style bridges to help you get closer to the golden nuts. With all four squirrels working in concert, a less than attentive Tree Guy can be easily overwhelmed in the madness of it all.
The squirrels also constantly respawn, so it’s a race against the clock to either attack or defend the precious nuts. I can’t stress enough how important it is to communicate between team members so you aren’t all rushing with the same squirrel type, and have a cohesive plan.
There’s also fun extras like mushrooms that become jumping pads, pumpkins that serve as cover, bushes so you can get sneaky, and dynamic environments that change to create temporary obstacles such as watery moats that appear and disappear periodically. A total of six maps offers a variety of scenery though, with some favoring the squirrels and others more straight forward for the Trees.
Games are password protected, and can be played both locally and over the Internet, although it’s much more fun to have a bunch of people over scrambling to see who’s going to be the Tree next. Games can be played with a minimum of at least two other players.
SEE ALSO
'Rec Room' Reveals New Virtual Obstacle Course Mini-game 'Stunt Runner'
All of this culminates into an extremely fun time that will no doubt have you fighting over who gets to be the Tree next, and who is maining the chunky little squirrel, Chunk, way too much.
Check out my play session below, which features me and the Resolution Games team getting pretty rowdy. There may be some appearance of lag in the video, although this is chalked up to the studo’s capture method, which includes the views of each mobile player and the POV of the VR player, yours truly. The game played very smoothly, both on mobile and in VR.
We have a proper review incoming, so check back for a deeper look of what make ‘Acron: Attack of the Squirrels’ tick.
Currently, there are no VR headsets in the same price range with a wider field of view than the Pimax 5K Plus and the Valve Index. So let's compare them! Timestamps below. ► Check out our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 On paper, the specs of the Pimax 5K+ and the Valve Index are pretty similar. So if you are looking to buy one of these high-end VR headsets, then you might want to know what the differences are and which one you should buy. Support us by buying from our affiliate links *: Pimax 5K Plus → http://bit.ly/2NB4D48 TIMESTAMPS 00:01 - What is this video about and what headsets are we comparing? 00:55 - Display Clarity 01:58 - Screen Door Effect (SDE), Glare, Sweet Spot 02:44 - Refresh Rate 03:13 - Interpupillary Distance (IPD) Adjustment 03:39 - Field Of View (FOV) 05:01 - Performance 05:45 - Tracking 06:04 - Audio 06:36 - Comfort 07:30 - Build Quality 07:45 - Cables & Ports 07:54 - Glasses Fit 08:33 - Pricing & Our recommendation LINKS ROV Test app → https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359389601 SUPPORT US ► Become our Patron (includes exclusive rewards) → https://www.patreon.com/casandchary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (includes rewards, like a Champion's badge next to your name) → https://goo.gl/8Ji5dp ► Support us by using our VR Discount Codes & Affiliate Links → https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ OUR EQUIPMENT - Our microphone (COMICA lavalier) → https://amzn.to/315uW6V - Our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary - More info here → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ SOCIAL MEDIA 💬 Twitter → https://twitter.com/CasandChary 💬 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/casandchary/ 💬 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/casandchary/ 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their fantastic support: - artArmin - Baxorn - Olemartinorg - Studioform VR - Wintceas - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - D Coetzee VR on! - Cas and Chary VR DISCLAIMER * Links in this description may contain affiliate links. You don't have to use them, but if you do, a small referral fee will go to the channel, supporting the content at no extra cost to you. If you use it, thank you very much. * The Pimax 5K Plus was sent to us for free by Pimax. Per our guidelines, no review direction was received from them. Our opinions are our own. * We bought the Valve Index ourselves. #valveindex #pimax5k+ #pimax5kplus
HTC today announced that Viveport, the company’s digital distribution platform for VR games, now supports Valve Index. Much like their previous promotion for Oculus Rift users, Valve Index owners will be able redeem two free months of Viveport Infinity, the platform’s Netflix-style subscription service that lets you play any and all participating games for a monthly fee.
Throughout the month of September, both new and existing Viveport Infinity members who own a Valve Index can redeem two free months of Infinity, which includes periodic discounts on games as well as access to premium Viveport Video content.
HTC says Valve Index members will gain access to “hundreds of top-rated VR titles” including Ninja Legends, A Fisherman’s Tale, Apex Construct, Fujii, Gun Club, Angry Birds VR and I Expect You To Die.
SEE ALSO
Viveport Has Earned a Second Chance Thanks to Infinity
To activate your free trial, simply head to this page to download Viveport, make sure you Valve Index is plugged in, and accept the free offer once you’ve booted up Viveport.
And if you’ve heard bad things about Viveport, you may want to check again before writing it off entirely. It’s changed quite a bit since it was launched three years ago, and I personally think Infinity has helped earn Viveport a second chance. Whatever the case, the two free month trial period should give you more than enough time to figure out whether Infinity is right for you.
The inclusion of Index support brings Viveport at near-parity with Steam in terms of headsets supported, which also includes HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows VR headsets.
Social VR activity hub Rec Room today introduced a new mini-game called ‘Stunt Runner’. Looking a bit like Sprint Vector, the game will have players speeding through a virtual obstacle course.
Set for launch in September, ‘Stunt Runner’ will pit four players in a virtual race with wall running, climbing, vaulting, bouncing, and more.
‘Stunt Runner’ will come as a free update, joining a host of other mini-game activities in Rec Room, a widely cross-platform social VR app which also allows players to build their own user-generated rooms and activities.
SEE ALSO
Studio Behind Social VR App 'Rec Room' Raises $24 Million in Funding
‘Stunt Runner’ will also support non-VR Rec Room players; developer Against Gravity has steadily rolled out non-VR access to the game, currently available on PC, PSVR, and iOS
Arizona Sunshine (2016) was supposed to get its biggest DLC mission to date yesterday, ‘The Damned DLC’, however Vertigo Games says fans will have to wait a little bit longer than they initially expected.
It’s unclear exactly when The Damned DLC will be released, as the studio has only said it’s “coming a little later this year.” It was scheduled to release on August 27th, a date that was announced at E3 2019 back in June.
The Damned DLC, which will be the largest DLC mission to date, is said to feature a large and completely new environment including a massive dam, cramped hallways and dodgy stair shafts.
The Damned is said to precede the events of the main story as well as the latest paid DLC which came out in May 2018, ‘Dead Man DLC’. This chapter of the game sends you and a team of US Special Forces to reactivate the generators of a massive hydroelectric dam to restore power to the military’s nuclear missile systems.
“It’s important for us to deliver a game that is polished to our quality level. Unfortunately, that means getting ready for release is taking longer than anticipated,” the studio says in a press update.
Vertigo Games has still yet to release Arizona Sunshine on Quest as previously promised, which will also receive the Damned DLC expansion. It’s possible the studio is waiting to release both the new DLC and the news of Quest support concurrently, as the cross-play co-op game would likely benefit from fuller servers as a result.
Arizona Sunshine supports PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Windows VR headsets.
A little more than three months after the launch of Oculus Quest, the company’s first fully tracked mobile VR headset has 100 games & apps to call its own.
Though all under the same brand, the Oculus Quest, Rift, and Go headsets each have separate content libraries.
Rift has been available for more than three years and has hundreds of apps to its name; Oculus Go inherited the Gear VR library which means it also has hundreds of titles available. Quest, meanwhile, launched at the end of May with its own brand new content library totalling some 50 games and apps at the time.
In the three months since, the Quest content library has just about doubled, reaching 100 games and apps as of Tuesday.
Here’s a look at the 10 best rated paid Oculus Quest apps, and their prices:
Of note: only one of these titles was a new release for Quest (Shadow Point), all others were released previously on other VR platforms and ported to Quest. In fact, all of the other titles in the list were released in 2018 or earlier. The oldest title of the bunch is Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes which was first released with VR support on Gear VR in 2015.
Meanwhile, the very popular Beat Saber was just two places short of the top 10, but still holds a record of its own as Quest’s most reviewed title with 3,908 reviews at the time of writing.
The top rated Quest title, Moss is also the most expensive among the top 10, which have an average price of $21. Among all Quest apps, OrbutVR: Reborn and TOKYO CHRONOS are tried as the most expensive at $40.
SEE ALSO
Zuckerberg to Shareholders: 'Quest is selling as fast as we can make them'
While that decision was met with some developer controversy over the walled-garden approach, Oculus has achieved its objective, at least as far as user reviews are concerned.
A Road to VR analysis shows an average user review score of 4 out of 5 stars for Quest apps. That’s compared to an average of 3.6 out of 5 stars for the more than 850 Oculus Rift apps. While that doesn’t seem like a massive difference, it’s worth noting that 69% of the titles in the Quest store are rated 4 stars or higher, while the same is true for only 41% of Rift titles.
Firewall Zero Hour (2018), the PSVR exclusive & team shooter from First Contact Entertainment, is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a six-day free trial for PS Plus members.
Starting tomorrow, August 28th, and going until September 2nd, the six-day free trial will give you access to the entire game including the latest maps, weapons, characters, and equipment.
First Contact is also doing a Double XP event during the six-day trial, giving everyone a reason to play if you’re still intent on leveling up.
If you haven’t had a chance to play, Firewall Zero Hour was released last year to much fanfare; it not only drummed up strong support with PSVR owners by offering one of the first classic team-based shooters on the platform, but also took a prime spot in a PS Aim hardware bundle at the time too.
It boasts a continuously growing number of maps that 4v4 teams can duke it out in—one team defends while the other infiltrates. The game typically costs $20, so it’s definitely worth jumping in for free while you can.
Looking for tactics? First Contact game director Damoun Shabestari has rounded up the top-10 strategies used inFirewall Zero Hour, which could give you a head start as you battle against novice and veteran players alike.
Ramen VR, a new indie studio, launched a Kickstarter recently to help fund an ambitious new MMO called Zenith, a game currently being built for both VR and desktop users.
At the time of this writing, the Kickstarter project has secured over $170,500, a far cry from the original $25,000 funding goal proposed when the project launched two weeks ago. There’s still 30 days left until the project comes to a close, with the next stretch goal coming at the $200,000 mark—the promise of more than one playable race at launch.
Zenith is said to head into Early Access sometime in August 2020.
Although the fledgling studio hasn’t publicly shown much in the way of gameplay, the team, which is made up of developers who previously worked on VR multiplayer shooter Conjure Strike, has managed to attract a fair bit of attention in the venture capital space for their efforts, having now secured additional Y Combinator funding of a reported $134,400, according to Crunch Base.
This puts the team’s overall funds to over $300,000 currently, which admittedly pales in comparison to standard MMOs built for PC, which can span into the tens of millions in development dollars. Very few VR games have had the luxury of those sorts of funds, so it will be interesting to see what the team can do on the shoestring budget, or if they’ll be able to attract more VC cash along the way.
Billed as a cyberpunk-themed MMO put into VR, the team says they’ve been inspired by a number of works of fiction including games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Nier: Automata, anime like Sword Art Online and Castle in the Sky, and books such as Snow Crash, Ready Player One, and Rainbow’s End.
“These worlds were integral parts of our lives but it always felt like we were seeing those worlds through a small window. We’re building Zenith because we want to you to experience living in these worlds,” Ramen VR says.
SEE ALSO
Valve Index Now Available for Immediate Shipping in 30 Countries
To bring the game to life, the studio is collaborating with Improbable, the makers behind the cloud platform SpatialOS. This, the studio says, will make it “much easier to build an MMORPG,” and that it will allow them to build a world with “real physics, complex AI, and a landscape that evolves and is shaped by players and NPCs alike.”
Since the studio was founded earlier this year, Ramen VR says they’ve already built seven prototypes of the game, and have been running user playtests with their Discord community for over a month.
Zenith is targeting release on Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, HTC Vive, Valve Index, PSVR and desktop PC. The studio maintains all versions of the game will include cross-play.
It’s been a year since Japanese studio MyDearest and LA-based studio Sekai Project successfully concluded their Kickstarter for Tokyo Chronos (2019), the VR mystery game told through the lens of a visual novel. Now, the studios are getting ready to launch the game on PSVR.
Tokyo Chronos is slated to land today, August 26th, on the PlayStation Store exclusively for PSVR. The game first launched on the PSVR platform in Japan on August 22nd. As far as we can tell, no official release date has been set for the international version. We’ve reached out to Sekai Project for clarification and will update this once we know more.
The game, which was led by Kazuma Miki, a producer behind VR-centric anime series Sword Art Online (2012), previously launched on Quest, Go, and PC VR headsets back in March. The game has since garnered a ‘Very Positive’ user rating on Steam, and a near five star-rating on the Rift, Quest, and Go platforms respectively.
The game is centered around eight childhood friends trapped inside a strangely deserted Shibuya, where time has mysteriously come to stand still. The message, “I am dead. Who killed me?” appears along with the ominous statement: “To kill, or not to kill ─ YOU decide.”
Tokyo Chronos boasts 5,000 lines of voice-acted dialogue in Japanese to go along with English subtitles, making it ether an exercise in reading the visual novel or brushing up on your Japanese skills: something the ‘subs-over-dubs’ anime contingency should be just fine with. There are multiple pathways through the game, and multiple endings as well, the studios say.
At the time of this writing, there’s currently no pricing available for the US PlayStation Store version, although the Mexican store quotes a $50 US price tag. We should know more when Sony flips the switch later today.
Google Lens is great for when you want to quickly translate a menu written in a foreign language, or visually explore the world around you simply using your Android smartphone. In effort to bring some of those machine learning functions into a VR environment, Twitter user ‘Phasedragon’ recently showed off a new workaround that lets him use Google Lens in VR.
As reported by 9to5 Google, Phasedragon demoed Google Lens in VR by translating a few bits of Korean text from what appears to be a recreation of a Korean train station. Considering however it’s using the full Google Lens suite of tools, we bet a lot more is possible.
To do this, Phasedragon says in a followup tweet that he “just hooked together a few apps,” and tried “a bunch to see which ones worked.”
Phasedragon, also known for tinkering with VRChat on his YouTube channel, says that he initially tried Microsoft Translate to step over some integration issues, but concluded that Microsoft’s version was “simply not as good as Google Translate.”
In the implementation Phasedragon used Sparkocam to capture the desktop and export as a virtual webcam. He then used Android Studio Emulator to run Google Lens, and OVR toolkit to display it in VR.
Although it’s admittedly an impressive bit of software kitbashing, and not anywhere near an official use case, the thought of being able to bring some of the AR functionality of Google Lens into VR is pretty exciting to say the least. Should Google ever invest time into making an official Lens overlay for VR, it could lead to new and exciting types of games, as developers come up with novel ideas of leveraging Google’s machine learning in their creations.
MRTV, the YouTube channel led by Germany-based VR enthusiast Sebastian Ang, launched a Kickstarter recently to create what he calls the MRTV Headquarters, which will invite the paying public to step in to try out a variety of the most recent VR headsets on offer. The location is set to open in Dortmund, Germany where Ang will also be moving his dedicated studio as well.
Launched in mid-August, Ang is offering pre-sales for tickets via the Kickstarter page, which will let curious would-be VR headset owners take a 90-minute spin in many of the most up-to-date VR headsets out currently. Ang says he’ll be personally available to show MRTV Experience-goers through their chosen 90-minute slots.
Ang is promising to showcase a number of VR headsets in his library, including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift S, Samsung Odyssey Plus, Vive Pro, HP Reverb, Valve Index, Pimax 5K Plus, Pimax 5K XR, HTC Vive Cosmos, and StarVR One, a headset intended for the enterprise sector.
In a wave of community support, the €3,000 goal was reached in only seven minutes of the project going live on August 17th, Ang writes in a community update. Within 24 hours of the project’s launch, it had already doubled its funding goal to €6,000 (~$6670 USD).
SEE ALSO
'The Matrix' Sequel Announced With Roles Reprised by Keanu Reeves & Carrie-Anne Moss
At the time of this writing, the MRTV Headquarters has garnered over €13,700 ($15,300), bringing with it a number of stretch goals including more VR PCs and upgraded camera equipment, which Ang says will allow him to shoot the next season of MRTV in 4k.
Other stretch goals include purchasing a Magic Leap One for the MRTV Experience space if it reaches €15,000, and buying a Holo Lens 2 at the €18,000 mark too, making it one of the few places where consumers can experience the full range of AR/VR headsets currently on the market.
Ang is planning to hold MRTV Experience’s opening party fundraiser at the Dortmund, Germany on October 5th, 2019. The opening day fundraiser starts at €90, which includes entry, snacks, and soft drinks. An opening party livestream will be available for some lower-tiered backers who can’t make it for the festivities.
Pre-sale tickets (not including the opening day fundraiser party) are currently still available starting at €64 (~$71). Check out the Kickstarter here for more information.
Light Field Lab, known for its advancements in light-field display technology, successfully completed a Series A funding round, scoring the firm over $28 million in venture capital to manufacture and distribute working products. The investment round was led by Bosch Venture Capital and Taiwania Capital. Light Field Lab hopes to build large scale light-field displays capable of offering a ‘holodeck’-like experience.
At a cursory glance, light-field displays are essentially holographic panels that, asTechCrunch’sLucas Matney puts it, are akin to advanced 3D TVs. Unlike 3D TVs, however, light-field displays don’t require special glasses to enjoy the ‘3D’ element.
Initially founded by a group of ex-Lytro employees, Light Field Lab is already notable for having secured $7 million in funding for R&D on light-field displays in January 2018, two months ahead of Lytro’s shuttering.
SEE ALSO
Google's 'Welcome to Light Fields' VR App Reveals the Power of Volumetric Capture
“The company aims to bring real-world holographic experiences to life with up to hundreds of gigapixels of resolution, including modular video walls for live event and large-scale installations,” states an official release.
The consumer market isn’t likely to see any such light-field display technology in their homes for some time, in favor of a more immediate focus on creating value within the commercial sector—where location-based entertainment sits directly under the crosshair.
Valve today said that it’s vanquished the backlog of the Valve Index headset orders, making the complete package immediately available to be bought and shipped in all 30 countries where the headset is sold. Previously the company was projecting that backorders wouldn’t ship until the end of September.
Update (August 24th, 2019):Valve said Friday that the Index headset is now “fully in stock and shipping in all available countries!” The headset was facing a backlog of orders for some time following its launch earlier this year. Index is currently available in 30 countries (full list here), and Valve says they have plans to expand regional availability in the future.
Index is sold in several packages, the ‘full kit’ (which includes the headset, controllers, and base station trackers), a kit which includes the headset and controllers without base stations, and a standalone headset kit. While all three of these packages containing the headset are immediately available for purchase, it seems that the stock of Index controllers may still be constrained, as the standalone controller package still asks customers to ‘Reserve’ an order to be later notified of availability. Meanwhile, the standalone base station package appears to be immediately available.
Original Article (July 25th, 2019): Valve announced today that the Index ‘full kit’ (which includes the headset, controllers, and base station trackers) is ready for immediate shipping in the US. At launch, the $1,000 full kit was quickly backordered and wasn’t estimated to ship until the end of September; the company said that “initial quantities were outpaced by demand.”
The other SKUs (the headset and controllers without base stations, and individual packages of the headset, controllers, or base stations) were also backordered so far that Valve eventually stopped taking orders or offering an estimated shipping date altogether and instead asked customers to reserve their spot in line to be notified of availability. All SKUs except for the full kit and the individual base stations remain backordered with an option to reserve a spot for ordering, but Valve says they will soon have immediate availability of those as well.
Valve also expects that Index hardware will become readily available in international territories as well. Currently the headset is available in 30 countries across the US and EU (a complete list can be found here), though it isn’t clear if or when they will expand into other regions. We’ve reached out for more info.
Apparently coinciding with the increasing availability of the headset, Valve put Index front and center on the Steam store front page for all to see, with a “Get it now” call to action and a $500 advertised price (the cost of just the headset alone).
Valve said prior to Index’s launch that the headset would see a “limited initial release” to the US and EU first, and that the company would ramp up their manufacturing and expand availability based on demand; this is perhaps the first sign of that ramping process.
We are in love with No Man's Sky VR so let's explore this massive universe again with all of you! We also showed BOTH of our Point of Views today to show what NMS VR multiplayer is really like. ► Check out our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Welcome to our weekly Virtual Reality live stream! Usually, our live stream is centered around one topic, but you can come to ask us anything. Or just come hang out and discover the beautiful worlds of VR with us. Our live stream schedule is every Friday at 9 PM CEST (GMT+2). LINKS ► Watch part 1 here → https://youtu.be/d2eKcaDjj4c ► No Man's Sky Beyond - VR Overview & Performance Tips & Tricks → https://youtu.be/Bd2EOlgpuM0 ►No Man's Sky VR - 20 Tips and Tricks For VR Players → https://youtu.be/3TF0F-A3qF4 From today's live stream: ► Get No Man's Sky on Steam here → https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/ SUPPORT US Subscribing and watching our videos is by far the BIGGEST support you can give us. However, if you want to do more - you can also become a booster or our champion! All donations will go to improving the channel. BUY US A DRINK & BOOST THE CHANNEL ► One-time donation → https://goo.gl/BM3zV7 BECOME A CHAMPION ► Become a Patron on Patreon (includes exclusive rewards) → https://goo.gl/5Bp3FW ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (rewards and get a Champion's badge on YouTube chat) → https://goo.gl/8Ji5dp DISCOUNT CODES & AFFILIATE LINKS ► Support us by using our VR Discount Codes & Affiliate Links → https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ OUR SPECS - Our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary - More info here → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ SOCIAL MEDIA 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k 💬 Twitter → https://twitter.com/CasandChary 💬 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/casandchary/ 💬 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/casandchary/ A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their amazing support: - artArmin - Baxorn - Olemartinorg - Studioform VR - Wintceas - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - D Coetzee VR on! - Cas and Chary VR DISCLAIMER - Links in this description may contain affiliate links. You don't have to use them, but if you do, a small referral fee will go to this channel supporting the content.
Carbon Studio, the Poland-based team behind The Wizards (2018), is bringing a standalone expansion to the series to PC VR headsets early next year called The Wizards – Dark Times. We got a chance to go hands-on with a 10-minute slice of Dark Times here at Gamescom 2019.
I had an opportunity to pop into the original Wizards back when it arrived on Early Access in 2017, and although the team has since released the full version into the wild, now dubbed The Wizards – Enhanced Edition (2018), I haven’t really had the chance to jump back into the magical realm of Maloira to experience for myself just how enhanced it has become during its year in Early Access. So while I’m not a professed disciple of the series, I can say that on its own merit that the Dark Times demo I played checks some significant boxes in a few departments, the most noticeable of which is its more intuitive spellcasting system and its cohesive and striking visuals.
Moreover, the game is said to be more of a linear adventure and less arena-based, offering what Carbon calls a “short but lore-rich story from Meliora’s chronicles,” making it less of a points-driven wave shooter and more of a proper dungeoning experience, replete with its own story line.
The demo (played on Rift S) plopped me into a post-tutorial level, giving me a few spells at my disposal, including gesture-based spells such as fireballs, frostbow, throwable ethereal shields, and a force push that can knock down enemies.
Although this sounds pretty similar to the old system, Dark Times is also bringing secondary functions to many of its spells. For example, the frostbow can be transformed into two powerful frost-spears by simply bringing your hands apart.
What is radically different about Dark Times though is these spells do elemental damage more in line with standard RPGs, i.e. an ice attack can freeze an enemy in its path so you can transition to a more powerful spell to deal more damage. Mixing the elemental spells is also more intuitive too: freezing an enemy with a few frost-arrows or well placed frost-spear will freeze them, and a fire spell will again release them.
It gets a little more complicated than that though, as it also depends on which environment you’re in at any given time. If you’re sloshing around in a wet spot along the path, enemies standing in water will automatically become resistant to fire magic, but also be more vulnerable to lightning spells too. You can replicate this vulnerability at any time by freezing an enemy, lighting them on fire (which makes them wet) and then shocking them with a lightning spell—something that provides a little more realism and solidity to the world.
SEE ALSO
'Vanishing Realms: The Sundered Rift' Expansion Revealed, Launch Imminent
The studio maintains that all of the game’s spells have been reworked to play different roles in typical combat situations, which in end effect aims to get players to think more tactically about the spells they should use, and not continuously mashing the same ones over and over.
Besides the spells themselves, which did feel simple and reliable to use, I was also pretty impressed by the visual side of things too. In comparison to the studio’s previous titles Alice VR (2016) and the Early Access version of The Wizards, Carbon seems to really be hitting their stride with Dark Times, as lighting, textures, art direction, voice actors, and overall performance are all pretty much on point. Of course, a 10-minute demo can only reveal so much, although it looks like the standalone continuation of the series has really puts its best foot forward here.
The Wizards – Dark Times is slated to launch in Q1 2020 on the standard slew of modern SteamVR-compatible VR headsets. Carbon Studio is also planning an Oculus Quest version, and says that a PSVR version is also a future possibility.
Down The Rabbit Hole is an upcoming VR game based on the universe of Alice in Wonderland. You never know what you'll find in Wonderland!! ► Check out our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Today, we are showing a demo of Down The Rabbit Hole by Cortopia Studios. This is a VR game based on the universe of Alice in Wonderland, where you will be able to meet the iconic characters like the smoking Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and the Armored Cards. I wanted to show this game because I think the devs made good use of the power of Virtual Reality for this genre. Down The Rabbit Hole will be available on PSVR, PC VR, and Oculus Quest. Support us by buying from our affiliate links *: Oculus Quest (US) - https://amzn.to/2H5ECGx Oculus Quest (UK) - https://amzn.to/2Jip6Zg Oculus Quest (NL) - http://bit.ly/2QlCpd2 (Coolblue) SUPPORT US ► Become our Patron (includes exclusive rewards) → https://www.patreon.com/casandchary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (includes rewards, like a Champion's badge next to your name) → https://goo.gl/8Ji5dp ► Support us by using our VR Discount Codes & Affiliate Links → https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ OUR EQUIPMENT - Our microphone (COMICA lavalier) → https://amzn.to/315uW6V - Our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary - More info here → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ SOCIAL MEDIA 💬 Twitter → https://twitter.com/CasandChary 💬 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/casandchary/ 💬 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/casandchary/ 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their amazing support: - artArmin - Baxorn - Olemartinorg - Studioform VR - Wintceas - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - D Coetzee VR on! - Cas and Chary VR DISCLAIMER * Links in this description may contain affiliate links. You don't have to use them but if you do, a small referral fee will go to the channel, supporting the content at no extra cost to you. If you use it, thank you very much. #downtherabbithole #oculusquest #aliceinwonderland
Seminal VR film trilogy, The Matrix, is returning to the big screen once again. The series famous for introducing ‘bullet time’ and expanding the world’s collective imagination regarding the ‘what-ifs’ of virtual reality and AI is coming back to life for a fourth iteration.
A fourth Matrix film is set to be written and directed by Lana Wachowski, one of the original directors, reports Variety. Expected to begin production in 2020, the film will has been confirmed to include the return of Keanu Reeves (as Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss (as Trinity).
For those out of the loop, The Matrix series prevalently depicts a virtual reality prison in which humans are trapped and fed on by a race of sentient machines. Meanwhile, the unassuming office worker Neo, master hacker Trinity, and shadowy liberator Morpheus establish a human resistance both inside and outside of the virtual program.
'Ready Player One' Behind-the-scenes Shows How Spielberg Used VR in Production
Totalled together, the original Matrix trilogy has topped $1.6 billion at the global box office since the first films release in 1999. It’s uncertain whether the fourth film will exist as a prequel or sequel, given the state of things at the end of the original trilogy, or whether Laurence Fishburne will reprise his role as Morpheus.
While some fans have already been spotted asking around for Warner Bros. Pictures to produce a VR tie-in experience, no such thing has been announced.
