Saturday, October 31, 2020
The SCARIEST Co-Op VR Horror Of The Year... Phasmophobia in VR
WARNING: Turn your volume down... We're going in Phasmophobia in VR - the scariest multiplayer horror game of the year! :'( ► Our VR equipment kit & tips here → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe here → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Phasmophobia is a 4 player online co-op psychological horror. There is Paranormal Activity in houses, farms, and whatever scariest places you can think of. So it's up to you and your team to use all the ghost hunting equipment in order to gather evidence and find out what kind of monster is hunting the place. Today, we team up with our friends: GamertagVR: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnrAvt4i_2WV3yEKWyEUMlg Mike VR Oasis: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmk8NDVMct75j_Bfb9Ah7w ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TODAY'S TOPICS - Cas and Chary both dive in together (cross-play Oculus Quest 2 + Valve Index) - Come chill, hang out & have a laugh at our fear :P ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro Start 09:25 Game Start 13:30 Phasmophobia Gameplay - House 28:57 Phasmophobia Gameplay - Farm House 53:37 Phasmophobia Gameplay - High School (New THE RING inspired Ghost...) 01:16:00 Phasmophobia Gameplay - Road House 01:46:08 Outro Start ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINKS ► Get Phasmophobia (VR & non-VR available) here → https://store.steampowered.com/app/739630/Phasmophobia/ ► Pre-order Oculus Quest 2 (US) → http://bit.ly/quest2-casvr ► Pre-order Oculus Quest 2 (NL - Coolblue) → https://cb.prf.hn/l/784dkp8 ► Pre-order on Amazon → https://amzn.to/2RSxaDi * Some are affiliate links, we may earn from qualifying purchases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NORMAL SCHEDULE Every Friday at: 🕛 1 PM PT 🕘 9 PM CET 🕗 8 PM GMT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT THE CONTENT EXTRA 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 donate. All donations go to improving the channel. BUY US A COFFEE & BOOST THE CHANNEL ► One-time donation → http://bit.ly/DonateCasandChary BECOME A CHAMPION (LONG-TIME SUPPORTER) ► Become our Patron → http://bit.ly/PatreonCasandChary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube → http://bit.ly/JoinCasandChary ► Buy our VR Merch → http://bit.ly/casandchary-merch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUR GEAR Our VR Equipment & Tips → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary Our PC Specs → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ MUSIC Music we use is from Epidemic Sounds → http://bit.ly/CCEpidemicSound ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GET LATEST UPDATES 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 support: 😘 BaxornVR, Wintceas, Studioform VR, Barr'd4Life, Andy, Albert, Ben P., Steve Dunlap, Thomas M. Rice, Andy Fidel, VR Balance, Nathan Schmidt ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER Links in this description may contain affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases (it doesn't cost you more). VR on! - Cas and Chary VR #phasmophobiaVR #phasmophobia #casandchary
Friday, October 30, 2020
Led by Former Oculus Exec, Facebook’s New Cloud Gaming Service Paves the Way to VR Streaming
This week Facebook announced the launch of cloud-streamed games from Facebook Gaming. These are games which are rendered in the cloud and then streamed to your computer. Cloud-based gaming has been seen by the industry at large as a way to make games more widely accessible by making them playable on less powerful hardware. Facebook is also betting that one day they’ll be able to do the same for VR.
Facebook Gaming’s new cloud streaming functionality doesn’t support VR today, but it’s clear that the company is eyeing it up as part of its roadmap.
Not only is the company’s just-launched cloud streaming service headed by Jason Rubin, a former Oculus executive, but VR cloud streaming is being talked about at the highest levels of the company.
Responding to a question during Facebook’s most recent quarterly earnings call this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the intersection of Facebook’s cloud gaming and VR initiatives:
“Over the longer term, I think the VR piece will obviously come into [our gaming strategy] as well. Some of the cloud gaming stuff that we’re doing will, of course, be useful for VR as well, and we’re building a big community around that on Oculus. But [our cloud gaming service]… I do think will be a very exciting growth opportunity and ability to offer a lot of innovation over the coming years,” Zuckerberg said.
Jason Rubin, the former Oculus executive turned ‘VP of Play’ at Facebook, laid out the company’s cloud-gaming vision this week, opening with a not-so-secretive jab at Google’s cloud streaming service, Stadia:
We believe in the long-term future of cloud gaming, but we aren’t going to try to wow you with the wonders of our data centers, compression algorithms, resolutions, or frames per second. Cloud game streaming for the masses still has a way to go, and it’s important to embrace both the advantages and the reality of the technology rather than try to oversell where it’ll be in the future.
Rubin also touched on the reality of game streaming latency as it stands today, knowing that competitive and VR games share exceptionally demanding latency requirements which the service isn’t ready to handle just yet.
It’s critical for us to start with latency-tolerant games so we can deliver a good experience for players across a variety of devices. For the purposes of our beta, that includes genres like sports, card, simulation, and strategy games. This is cloud gaming after all, so even with latency-tolerant games players may notice some glitches. […]
As our beta progresses and cloud technology scales, we’ll increase the variety of game genres. That expansion will start in 2021 with the addition of action and adventure games.
Though Rubin doesn’t mention VR in the Facebook cloud gaming announcement, he explicitly addressed the it in an interview with Protocol earlier this year:
I can tell you this: Nobody is banking on cloud processing making standalone VR headsets viable. We have to make them viable with the chipsets that are in them. But in the long run, cloud solves a lot of problems because it most effectively puts the processing power where it’s needed. Now there’s latency issues, resolution issues, frame rate issues, tons of issues. And it’s a hell of a lot more uncomfortable when it’s a frame that’s right in front of your face than it is when you miss a frame on a TV that’s across the room. So all of these things have to be solved, but no one thinks it’s impossible. It’s a hypothetical that can be done but it’s not coming anytime soon. It is very, very complicated.
Elsewhere he added, “ultimately we’ll throw those processors in a server farm somewhere and stream to your headset. And a lot of people are going to say, ‘Oh my god, that’s a million years away.’ It’s not a million. It’s not five. It’s somewhere between.”
So while we don’t expect that the company will be rolling out VR game streaming in the immediate future, the Facebook is actively positioning itself to be offer the service further down the road.
As the only company in the consumer space with a complete tech stack for VR cloud streaming, the strategy seems sound. While other companies like Amazon, Google, NVIDIA, and Microsoft are building out their own cloud game streaming services, none of them have both a standalone VR headset and a major VR ecosystem for a complete end-to-end solution.
The post Led by Former Oculus Exec, Facebook’s New Cloud Gaming Service Paves the Way to VR Streaming appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-gaming-cloud-vr-streaming-future-zuckerberg-rubin/
Watch: PS5 DualSense Controller’s Impressive IMU in Action
We talked earlier this week about the impressive haptics and IMU in the PS5 DualSense controller, and now we can show you what it looks like in action.
While the PS5 DualSense controller doesn’t currently allow for position (6DOF) tracking, its rotational (3DOF) tracking is very impressive thanks, apparently, to a stellar IMU inside. We broke down why we were impressed earlier this week when we went over the controller’s features:
[…] Sony seems to have found some ultra-precise IMU because, even without any external reference point, the DualSense controller seems almost devoid of drift. That’s counter to my experience with PSVR devices in the past. Even with external tracking from the PS4 camera, I’ve noticed plenty of drift from the headset, PS Move, and PS Aim in various games.
While playing in ‘Cooling Springs’ in Astro’s Playroom the game allowed me to ‘inspect’ an object I found by rotating my controller in space, which would then rotate the object on screen. This gave me a good chance to test out the DualSense motion tracking.
No matter how violently I tried to shake and twist the controller, the on-screen object never lost its ‘forward’ direction—even without an external camera aiding in the tracking. I even sat the controller down in a random orientation for 30 minutes, and then compared the position of the object before and after, and found hardly any change. This shows that the controller’s IMU has very little internal drift and noise.
And now we can actually show you this in action:
You’ll surely notice the latency in the video, but considering this isn’t a VR application (and therefore not tuned for latency) I’m not terribly worried about that.
The really impressive thing we’re seeing here is the controller seems to remember its forward direction with absolutely no problem, even without an external point of reference. With PS4’s DualShock controller (as well as PSVR, PS Aim, and PS Move), the PS4 camera provides the external frame of reference to ensure the devices can maintain an absolute forward direction.
From an IMU alone, knowing a device’s downward direction is pretty trivial because gravity offers a strong directional force which can be detected reliably by an accelerometer. While a gyroscope can reliably tell you when an object is rotating around its axis, it’s still doesn’t have any explicit understanding of ‘forward’, which means its susceptibility to drift is equal to its margin of error.
While not as strong as gravity, there is another force that can be used to help reliably maintain a forward heading: the Earth’s magnetic field. Some modern IMUs incorporate magnetometers to do just that, and it seems like the IMU in the DualSense controller may now include a magnetometer—or perhaps a much more precise one than was available previously.
Although the PS5 DualSense controller doesn’t currently support 6DOF tracking, knowing that Sony already seems to have a great IMU locked down means that future VR input devices from the company stand to benefit, as we explained earlier this week:
Little known fact about VR tracking systems: the IMU does the bulk of the tracking work, even for 6DOF tracking. While an external frame of reference—like a camera for inside or outside tracking—is important for correcting drift over time, it provides comparatively infrequent updates (on the order of 60Hz) compared to the IMU (typically around 1,000Hz).
That means that a good IMU is essential to a highly accurate 6DOF tracking system. And from what I’ve seen with the DualSense controller, Sony has picked a darn good one.
The post Watch: PS5 DualSense Controller’s Impressive IMU in Action appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/watch-ps5-dualsense-controller-imu-motion-tracking/
Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Oculus Quest 2 pre-orders were five times higher than original Quest’
Oculus Quest 2 has celebrated a pretty successful launch, with some developers saying they’ve seen a dramatic jump in both sales and engagement across their games since the standalone headset’s October 13th release. Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed during the company’s Q3 investor’s meeting that Quest 2 pre-orders were actually five times higher than the 2019 original Quest.
Here’s the bit from the transcript, which Facebook reconfirmed with Road to VR:
“This quarter we also took major steps forward in building the next computing platform. We launched Quest 2, our most advanced virtual reality headset, right in time for the holidays. It delivers a real sense of presence — like you’re right there with another person or in another place — and we’ve worked to make it accessible to more people. It’s lighter, faster, has a sharper screen, and a new price point of just $300. Pre-orders have outpaced the original Quest pre-orders by more than 5x and have surpassed our expectations.”
Of course, we aren’t sure of what that base pre-order number really was for Quest 1, however only a few months after it was launched in late 2019 it generated such a big Christmas Day boom in software sales that the company reported nearly $5 million in Oculus Store revenue—an unprecedented number. And that was with hardware backorders projected well into 2020.
In contrast, Quest 2 is still readily available in most places, and is currently only suffering from a comparatively minor backlog of orders on retailer sites such as Amazon.com and Oculus itself, which suggests Facebook is garnering even greater hardware sales in the short term than the original Quest.
The Quest 2 Sales Bump
Since the launch of Quest 2, many games have benefitted from the increase in consumer attention. Titles citing at least a doubling in sales (and some cases octupling) include Angry Birds VR, Apex Construct, Blaston, Bone Works, Pistol Whip, Rec Room, and The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets. There’s likely many more out there too, as other fan favorites such as Superhot VR, Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, Moss, and I Expect You to Die undoubtedly gain new players.
To boot, unofficial sideloading library SideQuest has also seen a dramatic increase in new users, reporting 60,000 unique users and 4,880 fresh signups in only the third day.
Facebook Reality Labs’ Chris Pruett told Protocol a week after its October 13th launch that “[t]he device is selling quite well, faster than Quest did and maybe a little bit beyond what we expected.” At the time, it wasn’t certain just how well it was selling though, but this much is clear: Quest 2 is on its way to making another big holiday boom in content sales that will likely dwarf that of last year’s.
And with greater sales volumes from new users, it’s much more likely that the standalone Quest platform will attract studios which previously passed up VR, meaning we’re going to see more and better games coming.
Whether that means a global increase in software sales across the entirety of the VR gaming ecosystem remains to be seen though. The planned follow-up to PSVR is still nowhere in sight, and despite a number of new PC VR headsets on the horizon such as the HP Reverb G2, Facebook’s retiring of its Rift platform has likely taken the wind out of many developers’ sails to build exclusively with PC VR in mind. Of course, there’s still Oculus Link, which lets Quest owners play PC VR games on both the Oculus and SteamVR platforms, however not all users will have a VR-ready computer capable of playing those games.
In effect, that leaves Facebook as pretty much the only game in town funding VR software, which it’s doing now exclusively for its Quest platform. And that’s definitely ruffled some feathers. Some new and existing users object to the recent forced Facebook login requirement which comes part and parcel with owning a Quest 2—something the ethical hacking initiative XRSI is looking to remedy fairly soon with the presumed release of a verified Quest 2 jailbreak. We’re still waiting to see it for ourselves in the wild, and you can bet we’ll report back when we do.
The post Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Oculus Quest 2 pre-orders were five times higher than original Quest’ appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-oculus-quest-pre-orders-5-times-higher/
New VR Headsets COMING At Unbelievable Prices! VR Update #1
Welcome to the first Update VRiday! I’ll talk about the latest VR news, exciting hardware, games, and just stuff that doesn’t warrant a full video, but we still find interesting enough to share. ► Our VR equipment kit & tips here → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe here → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 There’s just a lot of news that I have to skip because I don’t have enough time for it. So I’m hoping that with this new video format, I can share more of these. IN THIS VIDEO. We got news about exciting new hardware for unbelievable prices, maybe a new headset by HTC? AMD also announced a new GPU with something interesting, the Quest 2 has been jailbreaked, and more news. Timestamps are below as always! I need your feedback. This format won’t be a weekly thing, but more likely a bi-weekly or monthly thing. But what is your preference? And do you want Update VRiday to become a recurring thing? Leave this video a like if you do. If we get enough, we’ll keep doing it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro Start 00:52 Need Your Feedback 01:18 HP Reverb G2 Shipping https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/jjahw9/hp_reverb_g2_shipping/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf 01:49 PSA: Free PSVR Camera Adapter https://camera-adaptor.support.playstation.com/en 02:15 Oculus Quest 2 Jailbreak https://twitter.com/arobertlong/status/1316177057085177857 https://twitter.com/arobertlong/status/1320782260753199104?s=20 03:14 Oculus Quest 2 Elite Straps Snapping https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/jdn0ar/elite_strap_cracked/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/ji0wh1/cracked_elite_strap_no_battery_add_me_to_the_list/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/jggmhy/guess_what_another_cracked_elite_strap/ 04:29 DecaGear 1?! https://www.deca.net/decagear/ https://www.roadtovr.com/decagear-vr-headset-megadodo-simulation-games/ 06:13 New HTC VIVE Headset?! https://uploadvr.com/vive-cosmos-fcc/ 06:46 Incredible OLED Display Technology https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6515/459 07:29 AMD Radeon RX 60 series https://youtu.be/oHpgu-cTjyM 08:09 Game News Start - Star Wars Squadrons, Beat Saber & Population: One Our Star Wars Squadrons Live Stream: https://youtu.be/6HNvynEvkaA Our Beat Saber Multiplayer Video: https://youtu.be/E2fK-CbUAuA Our Population: One Multiplayer Video: https://youtu.be/aBmMK4YuMO0 09:15 Immersed VR - Keyboard Overlay Update! https://twitter.com/ImmersedVR/status/1321801603662385153 09:38 Upcoming Games 10:26 Upcoming VR Events In The Next 2 Weeks https://vrdays.co/ https://vrawards.aixr.org/tickets/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT THE CONTENT (and become our VR Champion) ► Become our Patron → http://bit.ly/PatreonCasandChary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube → http://bit.ly/JoinCasandChary ► Buy our VR Merch → http://bit.ly/casandchary-merch VR DISCOUNT CODES & AFFILIATE LINKS ► ► https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUR GEAR Our VR Equipment & Tips → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary Our PC Specs → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ MUSIC Music we use is from Epidemic Sounds → http://bit.ly/CCEpidemicSound ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GET LATEST UPDATES 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 support: 😘 BaxornVR, Wintceas, Studioform VR, Barr'd4Life, Andy, Albert, Ben P., Steve Dunlap, Thomas M. Rice, Andy Fidel, VR Balance, Nathan Schmidt ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER Links in this description may contain affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases (it doesn't cost you more). #vrnews #updatevriday #casandchary VR on! - Cas and Chary VR
Shadow Creator Unveils AR Headset with Snapdragon XR2 & Nintendo Switch-style Compute Unit
Shadow Creator, a Shanghai-based AR/VR headset manufacturer, has partnered with British AR startup PhotonLens to create a new consumer-focused AR headset for gaming and fitness.
Called ‘Honghu’ in China and branded as ‘Photons’ for the international market, the device sports a very Nintendo Switch-inspired compute unit housing a Snapdragon XR2 processor, Qualcomm’s latest AR/VR chipset which is quickly becoming the standard for standalone devices such as Oculus Quest 2.
Photons are said to focus on active gaming and fitness, and will be available for pre-order worldwide within the next 2-3 months via Kickstarter campaign.
Because the rendering hardware isn’t housed with in the glasses themselves, but rather tethered to a Switch-style compute unit with display, Honghu/Photons are said to weigh only 85 grams, or similar to Nreal’s Light AR headset which made a splash back at CES 2020.
The company says in a recent blogpost that the glasses include a 50-degree field of view (FOV), three camera sensors, SLAM headset tracking, and displays boasting “2.07 million pixels per eye.” Audio is provided by two built-in speakers from Harman Kardon.
The compute unit, which houses the Snapdragon XR2, is slated to come with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of memory, Bluetooth 5 connectivity, USB type-C port, a 3,400 mAh battery, and a 1,080 × 1,200 display.
“With the powerful performance of the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 platform, our latest Honghu MR glasses have achieved a significant performance improvement, which can fully meet the diverse needs of consumers, operators, and industry customers,” Shadow Creator CEO Victor Sun says.
Photons’ two controllers, which clip neatly into the compute unit, offer 6DOF tracking through what the company calls an “innovative hidden tracking light ring” which protrudes from the top of the controllers.
Photons will made available for pre-order via a Kickstarter campaign launching soon—in December of 2020 or January of 2021, the company says.
The post Shadow Creator Unveils AR Headset with Snapdragon XR2 & Nintendo Switch-style Compute Unit appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/shadow-creator-ar-photons-xr2-nintendo-switch/
‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge VR’ to Feature Yoda in ‘Temple of Darkness’ Tale, Trailer Here
ILMxLAB is bringing it’s next VR experience, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, exclusively to Quest on November 19th. Now the studio has given us another look at a standalone story in the game that focuses on the exploits of none other than Master Yoda himself.
Dubbed ‘Temple of Darkness’, the story in Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is set “hundreds of years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” the studio says in an Oculus blog post.
In the Quest-exclusive experience, you take on the role of a droid repair technician who’s crash landed on Batuu as a result of a pirate attack. Transported by the many tales woven by the bartender Seezelslak (played by SNL’s Bobby Moynihan), you step into the role of Jedi Padawan Ady Sun’Zee (voiced by Ellie Araiza) during the High Republic era to work alongside Master Yoda. Yes, that’s actually the original series voice actor and puppeteer Frank Oz you’re hearing in the trailer.
Like all good Padawans, you must confront the darkness that lies within—both literally inside the temple and yourself.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is headed to the Oculus Store for Quest on November 19th. If you haven’t checked out the official trailer, you can see that here.
The post ‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge VR’ to Feature Yoda in ‘Temple of Darkness’ Tale, Trailer Here appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/star-wars-vr-yoda-temple-darkness-trailer/
‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Update with In-game Commentary Likely to Release Soon
Half-Life: Alyx is likely soon to see an update which would add in-game developer commentary similar to previous Valve games.
Fans of Valve games will likely recall the optional in-game developer commentary first added to Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and in later titles like Half-Life 2: Episode One, Episode 2, Portal and others. Half-Life: Alyx is very likely to get a similar mode in an upcoming update.
YouTube channel Valve News Network spotted a listing for a password-protected branch of Half-Life: Alyx called ‘Commentary Beta3’ that was last updated three days ago, compared to the most recent public version of the game which was last updated four months ago. The channel says the appearance of the branch means the update is likely to launch in the near future.
In prior games Valve’s developer commentary mode would spawn little ‘speech bubbles’ throughout the game world which players could click on to play audio recordings of the developers offering up behind-the-scenes commentary on specific parts of the game. It’s not just off-the-cuff remarks either—in Portal 2 the total duration of developer commentary was around 40 minutes of scripted insights.
Valve News Network suggests that the Half-Life: Alyx developer commentary mode is likely to work a bit differently than prior games. Rather than the ‘speech bubbles’, the channel says that previously data-mined files point to floating versions of the headset—which Alyx wears to communicate with Russell—as the vehicle for delivering the commentary. And considering that this is Valve, I’d say there’s at least a 25% chance that the studio gives the commentary audio a little ‘radio distortion’ filter to make it sound like it’s actually coming out of the headset.
For fans of Valve’s work, the developer commentary would likely be a strong pull to play through the game again to discover the insights shared along the way about how the game ended up in its final form. And if that doesn’t do it for you, maybe some of the game’s mods will.
Earlier this year we published an interview with one of Alyx’s developers which gave us a very interesting glimpse in the studio’s development approach. We also got a deluge of behind-the-scenes details—including what happened to other VR games that Valve was working on—from an interactive book published in July called The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx.
The post ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Update with In-game Commentary Likely to Release Soon appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/half-life-alyx-developer-commentary-update/
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Oculus Quest 2 - How To Setup Oculus Link & Tips To BOOST Quality!
Oculus finally lifted the Oculus Link bitrate cap! This means we can boost the graphics of Link, so here's a guide on how to achieve it from the start for the beginners! ► Our VR equipment kit & tips here → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe here → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Oculus Link is what you need to play PC VR games like Half-Life: Alyx or Asgard’s Wrath with your Oculus Quest 2. This is an easy guide for setting it up and tips on improving graphics quality since the default image is quite compressed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINKS Some are affiliate links, we may earn from qualified purchases ► Pre-order Oculus Quest 2 (US) → http://bit.ly/quest2-casvr ► Pre-order Oculus Quest 2 (NL - Coolblue) → https://cb.prf.hn/l/784dkp8 ► Pre-order on Amazon → https://amzn.to/2RSxaDi ► Anker USB-A to C Cable: https://amzn.to/31UFKXz ► CableCreation Active Extender Cable: https://amzn.to/35K5fvM ► Official Oculus Link cable: http://bit.ly/linkcable Other links at the timestamps section! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Start Intro 00:36 Oculus Link Intro 01:09 Oculus Link Recommended Specifications Recommended specifications: https://support.oculus.com/444256562873335/ Steam VR Ready PC Check: https://store.steampowered.com/app/323910/SteamVR_Performance_Test/ 01:27 Oculus Link State 01:42 Oculus Link Recommended Cables ► Anker USB-A to C Cable: https://amzn.to/31UFKXz ► CableCreation Active Extender Cable: https://amzn.to/35K5fvM ► Official Oculus Link cable: http://bit.ly/linkcable 02:22 Cable Troubleshooting 02:45 How To Setup Oculus Link Oculus Home download link: https://www.oculus.com/setup/ 03:38 How To Enter Oculus Link 04:22 Why You Need To Boost Graphics Manually 05:25 How To Increase Graphics Quality Part 1 - Check Version First 06:27 How To Increase Graphics Quality Part 2 Oculus Developer Hub documentation: https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/tools/odh/ 09:29 Oculus Link Bug + Impressions 09:46 How To Exit Oculus Link ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT THE CONTENT (and become our VR Champion) ► Become our Patron → http://bit.ly/PatreonCasandChary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube → http://bit.ly/JoinCasandChary ► Buy our VR Merch → http://bit.ly/casandchary-merch VR DISCOUNT CODES & AFFILIATE LINKS ► ► https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUR GEAR Our VR Equipment & Tips → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary Our PC Specs → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ MUSIC Music we use is from Epidemic Sounds → http://bit.ly/CCEpidemicSound ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GET LATEST UPDATES 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 support: 😘 BaxornVR, Wintceas, Studioform VR, Barr'd4Life, Andy, Albert, Ben P., Steve Dunlap, Thomas M. Rice, Andy Fidel, VR Balance, Nathan Schmidt ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER Links in this description may contain affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases (it doesn't cost you more). #oculuslink #oculusquest2 #casandchary VR on! - Cas and Chary VR
‘Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall’ Coming to PC VR & Quest Next Year
Carbon Studio, the developers behind The Wizards and Alice VR, today announced they’re working on a new made-for-VR game in the Warhammer universe.
Called Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, the VR exclusive is set to launch on PC VR and Oculus Quest sometime in 2021.
With Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, this makes for the second Warhammer universe game coming to VR following the announce of first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, which Pixel Toys is planning to release sometime this year.
There’s still little known about the Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall so far. Here’s Carbon Studios’ description:
Become a mighty Lord-Arcanum, wielder of storm magic, and lead a Stormcast Eternal task force to recover your brethren’s lost souls. Walk the lands of Shyish and battle forces of Nighthaunt using a variety of melee weapons, powerful staves, and motion-based abilities and magic.
In the adventure RPG-style game, you’ll be able to battle with melee weapons and “powerful staves to combat forces of Nighthaunt,” the studio says on the game’s Steam page.
The studio says it will include a full story campaign set in the realm of Shyish following the Necroquake. There’s also a teaser trailer, linked below.
The post ‘Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall’ Coming to PC VR & Quest Next Year appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/warhammer-age-sigmar-tempestfall-pc-vr-quest/
‘Blair Witch: Quest Edition’ Review – Real Psychological Thrills Worthy of the Name
Games built on film franchises are rarely good for a reason. Many suffer from comparatively lower budgets and seem to fundamentally lack creative flexibility. More often than not, this ends up leading to a clumsy replication of the source material and a big disappointment on the part of the player. Thankfully, this isn’t true for Blair Witch, the story-driven psychological horror game first launched on PC in 2019, and now rebuilt for Oculus Quest. The VR port is a bit rough around the edges, but even with its momentary jankiness and lower graphical fidelity it delivers a dark, bone chilling story that forces you head first into insanity.
Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition Details:
Available On: Oculus Quest
Release Date: October 29th, 2020
Price: $30
Developer: Bloober Team
Reviewed On: Quest (2019)
Gameplay
Rebuilt for VR, Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition immerses you in the haunted forest first conjured up in The Blair Witch Project (1999), the breakout ‘found footage’ horror film which spawned a slew of sequels, books, and video games.
Taking on the role of ex-policeman Ellis, you join a search party for a missing boy who’s gone missing in Maryland’s Black Hills Forest, a place where even daytime feels dark and claustrophobic. Things aren’t as they seem though, as Ellis battles with demons (both literal and personal) and marches deeper into his own troubled past as he picks up a trail leading to the boy. No spoilers here, but there’s multiple endings depending on actions you take throughout the game.
The game suggests wearing headphones for a more immersive experience, but you’d be forgiven for sticking to Quest’s built-in audio if you want to keep some filter between you and what lies ahead. Honestly, the game is intense and comes with a trigger warning because of the realistic depictions of post-traumatic stress, and—you know—horrible monsters chasing you through the forest.
Jump scares are few and far between, but are timed well enough to keep you on your toes. In the end, it’s less about fighting the monsters head-on, and more about unraveling the story through the eyes of a man who is recovering from PTSD in the worst place imaginable. You only have a flashlight, old-school cellphone, CB radio, a camcorder to reveal hidden secrets and play found footage, and your trusty German Shepard, Bullet. No guns and no melee weapons.
Although sometimes one of the biggest immersion breakers (more on that in Immersion), Bullet is overall an awesome addition. He alerts you to baddies ahead, uncovers key items, and keeps you on the trail which sometimes isn’t where you’d think to go. It’s so much nicer having Bullet around than a constantly chattering guide to force you through the experience, and also leaves you with your own thoughts on how to accomplish tasks that lie ahead. You can pet him, call him back with your whistle, command him to seek, and let him sniff items to get you on the right trail.
The cellphone is a cool addition too, as you receive calls and text messages that give some flavor to the story. Dialogue between you and your significant other Jess never feels super important to the story, but there are times when an SMS will really creep you out. The radio does essentially the same job to stay in contact with the rest of the search party, albeit without text messaging.
My most favorite addition by far is the camcorder. Found footage scattered throughout the game not only lets you see key moments in the story as they’re captured by a certain antagonist, but also lets you magically conjure elements in your location like a key item, or clear a pathway that was formerly blocked. There’s a few times in the game when looking directly at monsters results in your grizzly death too, which forces you to physically look away from any oncoming demon and follow a trail revealed by the bewitched camcorder.
Outside of using the camcorder there aren’t a lot of puzzles to solve, which is a shame. Puzzles are mostly momentary fetch quests which don’t rely on anything more than a good spatial memory of the level. Inventory is also pretty lackluster, as objects magically disappear from your hands, never to be seen again. Love it or hate it, the game’s body-mounted holsters were always a source of confusion, forcing me to look down to accurately grab the cellphone and not the radio, or the flashlight and not the camcorder. Some physical separation here would have made it much less frustrating. A journal of all your findings was equally pretty useless, and should really only be used if you’re taking the game in much smaller bites than I did.
In the end, it took me around five hours to play straight through, although your mileage may vary as you seek to unlock multiple endings. Immersion-breakers aside, I really enjoyed my time with Blair Witch. Its apparent lack of sidequests makes it worthy of really only a single playthrough and not much more.
Still, it was an intense trip that was soaked with existential dread and phycological terror. Sure, you can die and be thrown back to your last checkpoint, but it’s the bumps in the night and the unexpected thrills that definitely leave its mark.
Immersion
While the story and overall basic structure of the game’s one-way trip through Black Hills Forest is really well done, some of it felt somewhat shoehorned into VR. Cut scenes are done via immersion-breaking 2D windows which I really wish simply weren’t there.
Gripes aside for a moment: the games tension comes in a wide assortment of flavors that really seeps into your reptile brain. Creepy bumps in the night scare you away from the periphery of levels, dilapidated interiors force you to confront grizzly deaths, and the threat of meeting a demon around any corner is very real. Disjointed bits of the game confused you, and keep you wondering what’s real, or if any of it’s real in the first place. Photos of supposed victims litter the world, and you’re always left guessing if you’ll find your own polaroid snapshot among the bunch. Ok, more gripes now.
One of the biggest things you’ll notice is overall graphical quality. On the original Quest, it’s predictably lower than the PC or console versions as most levels are muddy and samey feeling. I’m still waiting on receiving my own Quest 2, so I wasn’t able to verify whether the headset’s extra horsepower from the Snapdragon XR2 significantly improved render distance and texture quality, two of my main gripes. Bloober Team says Quest 2 improves the quality of textures, 3D assets like dog fur, and foliage density.
The king of jank though is undoubtedly Bullet, which is a crying shame. Oftentimes I’d find him running at full clip into a cluster of trees, where he’d remain in his infinite forward bound. He’s sweet and helpful, which offsets this a bit, but seeing him run through a minecart or robotically readjusting to get through obstacles was still a let down. You can pet him, tussle his ears and even feed him for a laugh, but there’s hardly ever a peaceful moment when it really makes sense to take the time.
As is, it’s still pretty amazing what the studio was able to do on the modest Quest 1 hardware. Much of the game is dark and very foggy, which forces you to focus on near-field objects. It’s not to say you can’t sense the game chunking away and loading the bits just outside fog—there was definitely some jank there, as trees would pop in and out of view at times. Loading screens are also a bit of a pain, as you’ll be stopped multiple times throughout any of the 17 chapters to load a new section. Thankfully there isn’t any backtracking, so these screens only really appear in about 20-minute intervals.
Comfort
While the game has been re-engineered around the need for VR support, and many of the standard locomotion and comfort options are available, level layout requires you to go up and down inclines like hills and bumps in the road, which can be a little uncomfortable. One instance of an impossibly twisted house was a turn off, although fairly brief.
Both hand and head-relative forward locomotion is available alongside the ability for smooth forward and teleporting. Comfort-specific stuff, like variable snap-turn and VR blinders are also available to keep you from feeling too queasy as you make your way through the densely-packed levels.
Thankfully the game comes with both standing and seated standing modes, which comes with a manual height adjuster for fine-tuning.
The post ‘Blair Witch: Quest Edition’ Review – Real Psychological Thrills Worthy of the Name appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/blair-witch-vr-quest-review/
PSVR Owners Can Now Request a Free Camera Adapter for PS5 Compatibility
Sony has finally revealed how and when PSVR owners can get their hands on a camera adapter to make PlayStation VR compatible with PS5.
Sony will provide PSVR owners with one free camera adapter to enable support for the headset on PlayStation 5, and has posted some details here in an FAQ.
Head to the PlayStation Camera Adapter registration page to put in the request if you plan to use PSVR with PS5; you’ll need the serial number on the PSVR Processing Unit.
The camera adapter is necessary to use PSVR on PS5 because the PS4 camera is required for the headset, but the PS5 console lacks the correct port for the PS4 camera. Unfortunately the newer PS5 camera won’t work.
The adapter is provided free of charge, including shipping, and Sony is limiting to one adapter per household. It connects to the USB port on the back of the PS5 console, while the other end has the correct port for the PS4 camera.
Delivery may take up to two weeks, according to Sony, and initial availability of the adapter will vary depending upon region:
- Japan: End of October
- Americas: Mid-November
- Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand: Mid-November
- Asia: Early December
Sony is also starting to include the camera adapter with new PSVR retail units, though so far only in Japan.
As for PSVR 2, Sony has been incredibly tight lipped. We’ve spotted some interesting hints that the company is still actively working on VR, and its willingness to support PSVR on its next-gen console is a good sign that the company still wants to serve VR customers. In the past the company has said that it wouldn’t launch a new headset at the same time as a new console, so we’re not expecting to hear a next-gen headset announcement until further down the road.
The post PSVR Owners Can Now Request a Free Camera Adapter for PS5 Compatibility appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/psvr-ps5-compatibility-camera-adapter-request/
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Hand Physics Lab Oculus Quest Review - a celebration of SideQuest
Got a comment, question, or just want to chat? Then please do so via Twitter... https://twitter.com/ukrift Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: Quest 1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
AMD Announces Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs with USB-C “for a modern VR experience”
AMD today introduced the Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT graphics cards based on its latest RDNA 2 architecture. With a release date in November and prices starting at $580, AMD is aiming to compete directly with NVIDIA’s latest 30-series GPUs. And—better late than never—the RX 6000-series cards include a USB-C port to “power head-mounted displays with just one cable for a modern VR experience.”
Before we dive into details, here’s the release date, price, and basic specs of each card:
| RX 6900 XT | RX 6800 XT | RX 6800 | |
| Price | $1,000 | $650 | $580 |
| Release Date | December 8th, 2020 | November 18th, 2020 | |
| Compute Units | 80 | 72 | 60 |
| Game Clock (GHz) | 2.02 | 2.02 | 1.82 |
| Boost Clock (GHz) | 2.25 | 2.25 | 2.11 |
| Memory (GDDR6) | 16GB | ||
| Connectors | DisplayPort 1.4 w/ DSC*, HDMI 2.2 w/ VRR*, USB-C* | 2x DisplayPort 1.4 w/ DSC, 1x HDMI 2.2 w/ VRR, 1x USB-C | |
| * connector counts unspecified | |||
See a detailed spec comparison here
Based on its new RDNA 2 architecture, AMD is positioning its 6000-series cards to compete directly with Nvida’s latest 30-series GPUs in price, performance, and features.
Infinity Cache, Ray-tracing, and Smart Access Memory
New to the 6000-series cards, ‘Infinity Cache’ is 128MB of memory directly on the GPU die. AMD says the cache acts as a “bandwidth amplifier” for the rest of the card’s memory; 16GB of GDDR6 combined with the 128MB Infinity Cache increases “effective bandwidth” by up to 3.25 times compared to the same amount of memory without the cache.
“This global cache is seen by the entire graphics core, capturing temporal re-use and enabling data to be accessed instantaneously. Leveraging the best high frequency approaches from Zen architecture, AMD Infinity Cache enables scalable performance for the future,” the company explains.
The 6000-series cards also introduce hardware accelerated ray-tracing with one ‘Ray Accelerator’ per Compute Unit. The card’s ray-tracing tech is based on the DirectX 12 Ultimate implementation; AMD says developers can mix and match rasterization and ray-tracing effects, with “an order of magnitude” improvement in ray-tracing operations compared to the last generation of Radeon cards.
The company is also introducing a unique feature for users who pair AMD’s 6000-series GPUs with the company’s own 5000-series Ryzen CPUs. Called Smart Access Memory, the company says the feature allows the CPU to access more of the GPUs memory at once, resulting in a performance boost of a few percentage points depending upon the title. While not a groundbreaking change in performance by itself, it’s essentially ‘free’ (if you have the right combination of hardware), and a smart way to leverage the company’s broader hardware portfolio.
A VirtualLink to the Past
AMD’s own versions of the Radeon RX 6000-series cards include USB-C across the board, which, for VR in particular, would allow the cards to support the VirtualLink standard—a USB-C ‘alt-mode’ which was designed to provide VR headsets with data, power, and video through a single port.
Indeed, the company’s marketing says the port can “power head-mounted displays with just one cable for a modern VR experience,” though the timing is pretty odd given that the VirtualLink standard was initially introduced in 2018 and has since been abandoned. On the flip side, Nvidia was early with support for VirtuaLink by including USB-C ports on its first wave of RTX 20-series GPUs, only to eschew the power on the latest 30-series cards.
Still, as far as we know, a USB-C port on the RX 6000-series cards should mean that VirtualLink devices could work just fine, and headset makers could always devise their own single-cable headset connection based on the card’s USB-C port.
Variable Rate Shading
The RDNA 2 architecture of the 6000-series GPUs also supportS Variable Rate Shading which allows fine-grain control over the shading rate from one frame to the next. This can be used to essentially lower the resolution of some parts of the scene (say dark areas or those without much detail) while maintaining full resolution in important, or high detail parts of the scene.
For VR headsets specifically, the Variable Rate Shading feature opens the door to more precise foveated rendering, which could be static (to match lens distortion) or active (to align with eye movement). AMD hasn’t shown its own VR-specific solution (like Nvidia’s Variable Rate Supersampling) but the underlying tech to support this kind of foveation is there under the hood.
– – — – –
We’ll be looking forward to getting our hands on AMD’s 6000-series cards to see how they handle upcoming high-resolution headsets like HP’s Reverb G2 and memory hungry games like Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020).
The post AMD Announces Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs with USB-C “for a modern VR experience” appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/amd-radeon-rx-6900-xt-6800-xt-price-release-date-specs/
Hyper Dash Oculus Quest Review - a celebration of SideQuest
Got a comment, question, or just want to chat? Then please do so via Twitter... https://twitter.com/ukrift Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: Quest 1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Crowdfunded AR Startup Tilt Five Secures $7.5M Series A Investment
Tilt Five, the startup behind the eponymous AR headset for tabletop gaming, today announced it has secured $7.5 million in Series A funding.
The funding round was led by SIP Global Partners with participation from BITKRAFT Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, and games industry veteran Ken Birdwell, who is known for his previous work on the Half-Life series at Valve. Jeffrey Smith of SIP Global Partners is said to join Tilt Five’s board of directors.
The company says its Series A will be used to hire additional employees, build partnerships, and expand available content.
Founded in 2017 by Jeri Ellsworth, Tilt Five launched its Kickstarter campaign late last year hoping to attract $450,000 to bring its AR headset to life. Within only 24 hours Tilt Five was fully funded, going on to garner over $1.7 million throughout the month-long campaign. Including current pre-orders for the AR headset, this brings the startup’s overall funds to nearly $10 million.
Tilt Five uses a similar projection-based technology to Ellsworth’s first AR headset system, CastAR, which attracted $15 million in venture funding before closing down in 2017. Similar to CastAR, Tilt Five includes AR glasses, a special retroreflective game board, and a 6DOF wand controller—all of which is made to work with multiplayer interactions in mind, both local and online play.
Tilt Five’s tech isn’t based on the same sort of wave-guide optics as conventional AR headsets though, which gives it a few important benefits over conventional designs; the headset actually projects the image via two head-mounted micro projectors and tracks the wand controller via inside-out sensors.
This allows Tilt Five to achieve a reported 110-degree field of view, which is far and away larger than HoloLens 2, Magic Leap 1, or even the Nreal Light headset. Also, because it relies on PC, tablet, or smartphones to drive the experience, it only weighs 85 grams. Still, it’s limited to the playspace of the special gameboard, however judging by the startup’s early crowdfunding success, it’s clear there’s plenty of tabletop gamers out there looking for a more immersive experience.
“Tilt Five was founded on the idea that we can bring family and friends together to play in the real world, enhanced with the magical capabilities of immersive 3D technology,” said Jeri Ellsworth, Tilt Five CEO. “While the tech giants invest billions in far-off solutions, this investment expands our ability to deliver on a proven set of technologies resulting in an affordable, social and wearable device.”
Tilt Five says it’s ramping up production now with the intent of shipping kits to Kickstarter backers and pre-order customers over the next two quarters. It’s base model kit currently available for pre-order, Tilt Five XE, includes a pair of AR glasses, a game board and single wand— priced at $359. Larger format kits including three AR glasses, three wands and a gameboard, are said to arrive sometime next year.
The post Crowdfunded AR Startup Tilt Five Secures $7.5M Series A Investment appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/tilt-five-investment-ar-glasses/
Ubisoft’s VR Space Sim ‘AGOS: A Game of Space’ Launches Today
Ubisoft is today launching its latest VR title, AGOS: A Game of Space. The made-for-VR space sim is set to support PC VR headsets across Steam and the Oculus Store.
Update (October 28th, 2020): With seemingly little fanfare, Ubisoft is today launching AGOS: A Game of Space on Steam and the Oculus Store for Rift. Through Steam, the game supports all major SteamVR headsets, including Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.
We have a review copy in hand, however we haven’t had enough time between receiving it and playing it for our review. Stay tuned for more as we make our way through Ubisoft’s latest stab at multiplayer VR. The original article announcing the game follows below:
Original article (September 10th, 2020): In AGOS: A Game of Space Ubisoft says that players will embark on “an interstellar journey to reach a new habitable planet. Players will become the AI operating the last ship to leave a condemned Earth, guiding a group of survivors across eight unique stellar systems to find a new home.”
The AGOS announcement trailer shows players customizing modular probes for various tasks, though it isn’t quite clear if the probes are controlled in first or third person. Players can expect to “explore, scavenge resources, unlock new technologies, and face the perils of space to maintain life on board your ship during this extraordinary journey to save humankind.”
Despite only just being announced, AGOS: A Game of Space has a release date of October 28th (little more than a month away). The game is exclusive to VR headsets, and will be available on Oculus PC (Rift, Quest via Link) and SteamVR.
– – — – –
Some may recall news last year that Ubisoft was spinning up production of a new AAA VR game, with some reports suggesting that the company had signed a deal to develop Oculus-exclusive VR games based on Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed. Given the scope of AGOS, and its lack of existing IP, this seems likely to be another project altogether.
While most major game development studios haven’t yet committed significant resources to making VR games, Ubisoft has done pioneering work in the VR space with five titles already released to in-home VR users. Additionally the company’s Ubisoft Escape Games brand has also developed several out-of-home VR escape rooms.
Surprisingly, considering the studio’s pedigree, Ubisoft’s VR titles so far have largely fallen short of achieving ‘must-play’ status, and their focus on multiplayer has left many of the games to languish without a stable population of players. AGOS appears to be a single-player game, so perhaps Ubisoft has finally learned the risks that come with multiplayer-only VR games.
The post Ubisoft’s VR Space Sim ‘AGOS: A Game of Space’ Launches Today appeared first on Road to VR.
Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/ubisoft-agos-game-of-space-release-date-trailer/
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At $600K, Tundra Tracker Smashes Kickstarter Goal in Less Than 24 Hours
Tundra Tracker, the SteamVR Tracking tracker in development by Tundra Labs, has well exceeded its $250,000 Kickstarter goal in less than 2...
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Tundra Tracker, the SteamVR Tracking tracker in development by Tundra Labs, has well exceeded its $250,000 Kickstarter goal in less than 2...
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Today, we're testing the HP Reverb G2 live in a 'normal' consumer room (our living room)! Come hang out & have a cozy cha...
