VR Gaming News

Friday, October 27, 2017

‘Waltz of the Wizard’ Gets Substantial Update Today Including New Locomotion Scheme and Combat-focused Area

Waltz of the Wizard, an uncommonly high-quality VR wizard experience from Reykjavik-based Aldin Dynamics, just got an update today introducing a new locomotion system and a “significant” expansion to the potion-mixing magical experience including an entirely new area full of traps and supernatural guardians.

Aldin details the update in a blog post, where they introduce
‘Telepath’, a new VR locomotion style that combines elements of teleporting and linear movement. Critically, Aldin maintains Telepath “encourages greater physical engagement and simultaneously minimizes risk of discomfort.”

According to the company, Telepath is a path-based system that lets users instantly define where to go and how to get there with a wave of the hand. Effectively it functions a bit like a user-defined on-rails teleport that speeds-up forward motion when you make natural, running hand gestures. Much like the zero-G locomotion scheme seen in games such as a Lone Echo (2017) or Climbey (2016), tying artificial movement to real-world motion significantly reduces the discomfort associated with VR locomotion.

Aldin continues:

Artificial locomotion may never feel like an adequate substitute for physical movement, but there’s no solid way around play area limitations. For now our best option is to make VR locomotion systems that feel as natural and unintrusive as possible, for the broadest range of users.

Telepath’s basic implementation comes alongside a new area just outside the Wizard’s tower, which lets you engage in basic combat with some very imposing figures.

Aldin Dynamics remains one of the most experienced VR studios in the world, launching software on Oculus developer kits and Gear VR. It’s Ghostline VR analytics software, showcased in Waltz of the Wizard, was also used in the construction of games such as SUPERHOT VR (2017) and The Gallery: Call of the Starseed (2016).

Waltz of the Wizard currently holds a [10/10] rating on Steam with over 200,000 owners, beating out Valve’s own demo experience The Lab (2016) on Steam and making it the most popular VR-only game on the digital marketplace.

You can download Waltz of the Wazard for free with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on Steam here.

The post ‘Waltz of the Wizard’ Gets Substantial Update Today Including New Locomotion Scheme and Combat-focused Area appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/waltz-wizard-gets-substantial-update-today-including-new-locomotion-scheme-combat-focused-area/

ILMxLab’s John Gaeta Joins Magic Leap as Senior VP of Creative Strategies

John Gaeta, known for his work as visual effects supervisor on The Matrix trilogy and for launching Lucasfilm’s immersive media branch ILMxLab, is joining the mysterious augmented reality start-up Magic Leap.

As reported by The Verge, Gaeta says he’s joined Magic Leap as Senior Vice President of Creative Strategies. “It will be a new chapter in a long story for me of pursuing frontiers that I think will one day create compelling experiences for people,” he told The Verge.

As the senior VFX supervisor on The Matrix trilogy, Gaeta pioneered the series’ iconic camera technique ‘bullet time’, the results of which nabbed him an Academy Award for Visual Effects and a BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Effects in 2000, both for The Matrix (1999).

Going on to become executive creative director and co-founder at ILMxLab in 2015, Gaeta set out to expand the ‘galaxy far far away’ to immersive platforms including AR and VR. To wit, ILMxLab and Magic Leap announced a “collaboration lab” last year at the WIRED Business Conference, a strategic partnership that would see the companies work together on immersive experiences using Magic Leap’s technology.

Gaeta says he’ll continue to work with the ILMxLab team on its Magic Leap projects in his new role.

We sat down with Gaeta at GDC last year to figure out where AR and VR fits in the existing cinema landscape of storytelling. Gaeta told us his team was “very interested in changing the way films are made,” saying that immersive media could be used to “step inside films before they’re made”—somewhat foretelling a time when the relationship between traditional media and its virtual counterpart becomes more intertwined.

Referring to his new position at Magic Leap, he says “[i]t’s something that I think I can grow as a creator and innovator, and I feel, always, I have a role to help enable others to grow in some of these new platforms, [a]nd Magic Leap is a company that really wants to foster enabling people to be creative in new spaces.”

Magic Leap has yet to show its AR tech to anyone outside the confines of a non-disclosure agreement, but the company recently revamped their website, saying they want to “[take] you with us on this journey to launch.” Shortly afterwards, the company announced a Series D investment round of $502 million, bringing its total investment to $2 billion. A recent report contends the Magic Leap headset could between $1,500 and $2,000, and is set to ship its first device “to a small group of users within six months.”

The post ILMxLab’s John Gaeta Joins Magic Leap as Senior VP of Creative Strategies appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/ilmxlabs-john-gaeta-joins-magic-leap-senior-vp-creative-strategies/

Pimax “8K” Surpasses Oculus Rift as Top VR Headset Kickstarter Project, $2.45M Raised So Far

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Future of Invasive Neural Interfaces & Uploading Consciousness with Ramez Naam

Steam Halloween Sale Brings Discounts to 20 Spooky VR Titles Through November 1st

‘SUPERHOT VR’ Devs Confirm More Content in the Works, Now on Sale 25% Off

One of our favorite VR titles, SUPERHOT VR, is soon to get additional content, the game’s developers have confirmed. If the game has been on your list, now might be a good time to snag it thanks to a 25% discount via Steam through November 1st.

In our review of the game, we praised Superhot VR’s “one-of-a-kind bullet-time mechanic that translates phenomenally well to VR.” At the time we were disappointed by the game’s short length despite its enjoyable gameplay. Since that time the creators have launched the ‘FOREVER’ update, which aims to stretch the game’s replayability with new modes, challenges, difficulty levels, and secrets.

Further updates to add additional content are in the works, the game’s developers teased recently via the game’s Steam forum. Responding to a player’s query about adding more stages to the game’s ‘Endless’ mode, the devs offered, “We are working on it ;) But it will be even better.” The scope of that work is unclear for now, but we’ll take all the Superhot VR we can get.