Military Contractor ECS Awarded Grant to Build VR Army Medic Trainer with Advanced Haptics

Military contractor, Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS), has received a grant from the federal Small Business Innovation Research program—likely ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million—to pilot a virtual reality training program for U.S. Army medics.

Founded in 1997, ECS is a Florida-based contractor which builds digital training and other tech solutions for the U.S. military.

The company today announced that it has received a ‘Phase II’ grant from the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, an annual fund of more than $3 billion which aims to support private companies in developing new technologies that both fit federal needs and show potential for commercialization.

The grant is to support the development of a virtual reality training program for U.S. Army medics under the umbrella of the Army’s ‘Synthetic Training Environment System’ program (which employs digital training of all sorts).

SEE ALSO

HapTech is Aiming its Electromagnetic Haptics at Military VR Training

While ECS didn’t announce the amount of the grant, SBIR documents say that most Phase II grants range from $500,000 to $1.5 million. The company skipped a Phase I grant, which is smaller and focused on the initial concept, while Phase II focuses on building a functional prototype.

ECS says its VR medic training program is designed to integrate with the Army’s existing Tactical Casualty Combat Care procedures.

The VR training program will include “multi-player integration, instructor dashboard and analytics, STE integration, and a training effectiveness evaluation,” the company says.

Image courtesy ECS

ECS plans to partner with the Mayo Clinic to guide the medical aspects of the system and with HaptX to employ the use of the company’s advanced haptic gloves to increase the realism of the VR training program.

HaptX—which makes perhaps the most advanced haptic gloves presently available—has been positioning its product toward virtual reality training and other non-consumer applications. In late 2019 the company announced that it raised $12 million in funding to continue development of its gloves.

Image courtesy HaptX

Bulky but impressive, the HaptX gloves offer both force-feedback and detailed haptics. Together, the glove can both lock the wearer’s hand in a position which simulates the feedback provided by a physical object and create convincing sensations of touch with an array of micro-pneumatic haptics across the palm and fingers. We most recently got to try the HaptX gloves in 2018.

SEE ALSO

Hands-on: HaptX's VR Glove is the Closest I've Come to Touching the Virtual World

ECS hopes that using the gloves will make its VR training program more effective by enhancing the realism of the simulation and allowing trainees to feel the sensations of holding virtual tools and interacting with patients.

For now the project is in the pilot phase, but if proven effective it could be rolled out widely for Army medic training in the future.

The post Military Contractor ECS Awarded Grant to Build VR Army Medic Trainer with Advanced Haptics appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/ecs-vr-army-medic-trainer-grant-haptics/

Inspired by ‘Mirror’s Edge’, ‘Stride’ Looks to Bring Smooth Parkour Action to VR

In development by studio Joy Way, Stride is a VR parkour action game built atop an impressively smooth and immersive locomotion system. With inspiration from Mirror’s Edge (2008), Stride is an intriguing indie project due to launch this Summer.

Update (July 7th, 2020): Stride developer Joy Way has offered up some additional details on the scope of the game.

While the studio has announced that the game will come to Steam, Oculus PC, and Viveport, it also told us that it has ambitions to bring Stride to both PSVR and Oculus Quest. However, the studio says this isn’t certain yet as the PC launch is the priority and the studio has yet to engage the platform holders about the matter.

Regarding the game’s scope, the studio tells us that it’s targeting “several hours” of story content, plus additional missions. Following the game’s release, the Joy Way plans to add “additional modes that will allow players to spend more time in the game after [completing] it.”

Stride is expected to see a “late Summer” release date for the full game (no Early Access), though the studio has yet to provide a specific date.

Original Article (April 24th, 2020): Locomotion in VR games is still in a state of rapid development and exploration. While ‘standing-only’ games and teleportation are inherently quite comfortable, users still want the freedom of being able to explore large worlds in ways that feel natural. Smooth, stick-based locomotion has become increasingly common, but the best locomotion systems seen in VR so far make much more use of the player’s body than simply tilting a stick with their thumb. Games like Lone Echo (2017), Sprint Vector (2018), and Stormland (2019) are prime examples of immersive VR movement systems which are immersive, freeing, and comfortable.

Stride is ambitiously attempting to bring parkour in the style of Mirror’s Edge into VR. And while we can’t say how comfortable the movement system will be without trying it for ourselves, it’s encouraging to see how much the game implements physical movements by the player rather than simple stick locomotion. Here’s prototype footage captured by the game’s developer:

Speed running alone looks like it could be plenty of fun, but studio Joy Way released a new teaser trailer today which reveals that the game will incorporate combat, and further shows Stride leaning into the sharp, high-contrast visual style of Mirror’s Edge.

The studio is promising that Stride will also have a story for players to follow. The game is due to launch across Steam, Oculus, and Viveport this Summer (per the teaser art) but the specific combination of platforms and headsets (ie: Rift via Oculus or SteamVR? Quest?) isn’t known yet, though we’ve reached out to the developer to learn more.

The post Inspired by ‘Mirror’s Edge’, ‘Stride’ Looks to Bring Smooth Parkour Action to VR appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/stride-teaser-parkour-vr-mirrors-edge/

‘Ready Player One’ Book Sequel Coming November 24th

Ernest Cline’s breakout novel Ready Player One is getting a sequel on November 24th, which is slated to delve back into the massive multiplayer VR world of the OASIS.

Aptly named Ready Player Two, the upcoming book is being published by Penguin Random House subsidiary Ballantine Books.

It’s already available for order on and available for pre-order on Amazon, both in Kindle and hardcover format.

Released in 2011, Ready Player One casts a dim vision of the year 2044. Like much of humanity, Wade Watts lives most of his life connecting to the massive multiplayer ‘OASIS’, which acts as a VR escape amid famine and social unrest. It’s a tale of ’80s nostalgia which flows recursively back into fashion thanks to the very Willy Wonka-esque prize hunt the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, left behind him after his death. That’s the bare bones, no spoiler version of it anyway.

RPO has celebrated its fair share of success; it spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was adapted into a film, produced by Steven Spielberg.

Image courtesy Entertainment Weekly

Another big endorsement: Palmer Luckey, Oculus founder and inventor of the Oculus Rift, liked the novel so much that in the early days all Oculus employees received a copy of the book. Of course, not everyone appreciated it.

i dislike Ready Player One, for a lot of reasons; one of those reasons is that at oculus (circa 2015?) all new employees were given a copy & told it was the future of VR. so i started performing a sort of trash collection service & using them to prop up my trackers at work. pic.twitter.com/9Efdt1EQlN

— Katie Chironis (@kchironis) January 17, 2020

Besides the book’s page count (384) and ISBN, there isn’t any further info on Ready Player Two just yet. The cover shows a single Pitfall (1982) style character lunging for what appears to be a diamond—so definitely some amount of ’80s references to play off of here.

Love it or hate it, it’s going to be interesting to see whether Cline has changed his views on virtual reality since writing the first in the series, which came two years before the original 2012 Oculus Kickstarter campaign and resultant relaunching of VR headsets into the consumer market.

The post ‘Ready Player One’ Book Sequel Coming November 24th appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/ready-player-one-book-sequel-coming-november-24th/

What Is Iron Man VR Like? Review on PSVR!

I finished Iron Man VR this week on the PSVR, so this video is my final review of the VR game. Thanks to PlayStation for providing us a review copy of the game. ► Check out our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary ► Subscribe to see more videos like this one → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 In this video, I won’t spoil the main story, but I am going to describe the story using the description on the PlayStation Store. I will also share my thoughts on the gameplay mechanics, like what the flying and combat mechanics feel like and I will pick apart what a mission looks like but without telling you what these missions entail exactly. Hopefully, this spoils as little as possible and gives you a good overview of the game so you can decide for yourself if you want to buy it! TIMESTAMPS 00:00 What Is In This Video 00:58 Game Story Introduction 01:56 Story Thoughts 03:20 Gameplay: Flying & Combat Mechanics 04:53 Gameplay: Central Hub & Out-Of-Suit Gameplay 05:45 Gameplay: Missions & Objectives 08:10 Immersion 09:36 Comfort 10:26 Replayability 10:58 Summary & Conclusion 11:36 Outro LINKS * - Get Marvel's Iron Man VR here: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-CUSA15345_00-MIMVRGAME0000001 - Free demo available here: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-CUSA18224_00-MIMVRDEMO0000001 SUPPORT THE CONTENT ► Become our Patron (includes exclusive rewards) → http://bit.ly/PatreonCasandChary ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (includes exclusive rewards) → http://bit.ly/JoinCasandChary ► Check out our VR Merch → http://bit.ly/casandchary-merch USE OUR LINKS TO SUPPORT US ► VRcover → http://bit.ly/CCVRCover ► VR Prescription Lens Adapters (5% discount code: "CAS&CHARY") → http://bit.ly/CCWidmoVR ► Oculus Quest Comfort Counterweight (5% discount code: "CAS&CHARY") → https://bit.ly/studioform500 ► Play PC VR games with your Quest (10% discount code: "JWGTCASCHARY") → http://bit.ly/CCRiftcat ► More on our website → https://casandchary.com/discount-codes-affiliate-links/ OUR GEAR Our VR equipment → https://www.amazon.com/shop/caschary Full PC Specs → https://casandchary.com/vr-equipment/ 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: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1tmq8Y3jC7gNGvW7asmv1Q - Wintceas - Studioform VR - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - Steve Dunlap - Thomas M. Rice - Andy Fidel - VR Balance - Nathan Schmidt MUSIC Music we use is from Epidemic Sounds → http://bit.ly/CCEpidemicSound DISCLAIMER We got a review copy of the game from PlayStation. Links in this description may contain affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases from these links (without costing you more). VR on! - Cas and Chary VR #ironmanvr #psvr #casandchary

‘Walking Dead’, ‘No Man’s Sky’ & More Top PSVR Games Discounted During PlayStation Summer Sale

Looking for a new VR adventure to help beat the heat? Sony just launched its summer sale across the US, EU and UK regional stores which is bringing low prices to a bunch of top PSVR titles.

There’s a few really great titles that have dropped by a significant amount such as The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Creed: Rise to Glory, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted, Gun Club VR, No Man’s Sky (which is fully PSVR-compatible) and more.

Check out the list below for a good place to start. The sale lasts until July 23rd, so keep an eye on the PlayStation Summer Sale site for all of the games currently discounted.

Title	USD	‎EUR	GBP
Ace Combat 7 Deluxe Edition	$28	NA	NA
Arca’s Path	$10	‎€8.50	£7
Bound	NA	‎€7	£5.60
Chess Ultra	$4.50	€4.50	£3.50
Concrete Genie	NA	€15	£12.50
Creed: Rise To Glory	$12	‎€10	£8
Electronauts	$8	‎€8.40	£6.80
Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted	$17	€17	£16
Gun Club VR	$10	€10	£8
Here They Lie	NA	€8	£6.40
Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes	$9	€7.50	£6
No Man’s Sky	$25	€20	£17.50
Paper Beast	$19.50	€19.50	£16.25
Resident Evil 7 biohazard	$10	€10	£9
Rise of the Tomb Raider	Free for PS+	Free for PS+	Free for PS+
Rush VR	$10	€10	£8
Sprint Vector	$12	€10	£8
Star Trek: Bridge Crew	$10	NA	NA
The Inpatient	$10	NA	£8
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners	$32	€32	£26.40
Trackmania Turbo	$10	€9.90	£8.25
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood	NA	€7	£5.60

*NA indicates that the sale isn’t happening in that region, and MSRP still applies.

The post ‘Walking Dead’, ‘No Man’s Sky’ & More Top PSVR Games Discounted During PlayStation Summer Sale appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/walking-dead-no-mans-sky-top-psvr-games-discounted-playstation-summer-sale/

Dev Tool Uses Quest Hand-tracking to Quickly Model Realistic Hand Poses for VR

Grabbing objects in VR may be one of the medium’s most fundamental interactions, but making it work well isn’t as easy as you might think. Developers often need to spend time hand animating the hand model so that it appears to hold each object in a realistic way. Developer Luca Mefisto is building a smart tool which uses Quest’s hand-tracking to enable developers to motion-capture hand-poses, making the whole ordeal quicker, more realistic, and ultimately more immersive for players.

Some VR games employ various methods of ‘dynamic’ animation to create realistic hand poses when players grab objects in VR (Lone Echo, for instance). Generally that’s proprietary tech, which means any developers wanting to do the same would need to build a similar system from scratch (not an easy task).

Rather than do that, some games cut out the hand-posing problem entirely by simply making your virtual hands disappear when you grab objects (Vacation Simulator, for instance).

Developers that want to keep the player’s hands visible need to create hand-poses manually so that when you grab an object, your virtual hand grips the object in a realistic way. It’s not that this is a difficult task per say, but it can be immensely time consuming.

At minimum you need one custom hand-pose for every uniquely shaped object in a given game. Even then, consider how many different ways players might want to hold a single object… even if you cut out unlikely poses, you still may need four or five poses for a single object to cover the most obvious grips.

SEE ALSO

Three Totally Creative Uses of Quest Hand-tracking

VR developer Luca Mefisto wants to make this whole process quicker and easier—allowing developers to make more realistic poses in less time. He’s building a tool which smartly leverages Quest’s hand-tracking feature to allow developers to take a ‘snapshot’ of their own of their own hand gripped around virtual objects.

The tool then allows developers to define valid positions for the pose, allowing the hand to snap realistically to the nearest valid position on the object.

Objects can also have multiple poses and grabbing points to cover different ways of grabbing the same object (like the scissors below).

Though the tool requires Quest’s hand-tracking for creating the poses, Mefisto says the hand-pose tool will work for games that employ hand-tracking or controllers.

Though the tool is so far unnamed, the developer plans to release it as an open source project to the VR development community. You can follow Mefisto on Twitter to see updates on the tool’s development and keep an eye out for its release.

The post Dev Tool Uses Quest Hand-tracking to Quickly Model Realistic Hand Poses for VR appeared first on Road to VR.

Ream more: https://www.roadtovr.com/tool-quest-hand-tracking-pose-grab-luca-mefisto/

Pimax VISION 8KX UNBOXING - The Final 8K X is here!

Pimax 8KX Unboxing is here! This is an in-detail unboxing of the final and mass production Pimax 8KX VR headset unit. The VISION 8KX is the flagship of Pimax VR headsets and sets a new bar of visual fidelity and VR immersion with true 4K resolution per eye, wide FOV, high quality audio, improved design and ultra comfort! Pre-order your Pimax VISION 8KX headset here (pre-orders starts shipping in August): https://bit.ly/Pimax8KX-Preorder Learn all about the Pimax 8KX and the full Pimax range of VR headset at: https://www.pimax.com Visit our official Pimax subReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pimax_Official/ And our official Pimax Community Forum: https://community.openmr.ai/