Blog V Reality: October 2018

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

13 Best Rift, Vive, and Windows VR Horror Games To Play Right Now

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With Halloween right around the corner, we felt like it was time to start rounding up some of the very best PC VR horror games and experiences out there on Rift, Vive, and Windows VR. Ever since the PC VR headsets launched back in early 2016, almost three years ago, it’s become a go-to destination for some of the best and most terrifying VR horror games out there, even securing some high-profile exclusives. But don’t let this be the only list you look at — Steam has close to 200 titles that fall under the VR horror umbrella.

For this list we’re focusing specifically on games you can play either on Rift, Vive, or Windows VR. You can see our lists for Oculus Go and PSVR below:

15 Best Oculus Go VR Horror Games and Experiences

13 Best PSVR Horror Games and Experiences

The following experiences are all listed in alphabetical order:

A Chair in a Room: Greenwater

Price: $24.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive

Review Synopsis:

The one-man studio of Wolf & Wood delivers one of Vive’s scariest games to date in A Chair in a Room: Greenwater. I spent about 3 hours tip-toeing my way through the story and still get goosebumps when I think about the things I saw on my adventure. You’ll experience your fair share of jump scares throughout the experience, that’s for sure, but it’s the stalking dread and terror permeating the world as a whole that will truly chill you to the bone. A Chair in a Room: Greenwater is a wonderful proof of concept for utilizing room scale VR technology to the fullest in a methodical horror setting.

Alien: Isolation

Price: $10 (Store) (Our Impressions)
Platforms (Unofficially Supported): Rift, Vive

Alien: Isolation is a great game, but this is an unofficial VR mod. Like many survival horror titles it seems to have gotten better as time goes on as the subtle intricacies of its design are slowly uncovered and appreciated. Some people even regard it as the best-ever game based on the popular Alien series of films. I tend to agree with those people. I can honestly say that Alien: Isolation is still a top-tier VR survival horror title.

Arizona Sunshine

Price: $39.99 (Steam) (Our Review) (Dead Man DLC Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive, Windows VR

Review Synopsis:

Vertigo Games proved that even in the most saturated genre we’ve seen for VR games this year — shooters with zombies — there was still room for something fresh. Arizona Sunshine combines the narrative power of a fully-featured 4+ hour campaign mode, with the intensity of a wave-based horde mode, and then adds multiplayer to both experiences. The protagonist’s witty humor make it worth recommending on his charming personality alone, with enough depth and variety to keep people coming back for several hours. By doing so many things so well, Arizona Sunshine quickly rose to the top of the pack as the best overall zombie shooter we’ve seen yet in VR.

The Brookhaven Experiment

Price: $19.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive, Windows VR

Review Synopsis:

The Brookhaven Experiment builds on the foundation of its popular demo and establishes itself as one of the premiere VR zombie shooter experiences on the HTC Vive. It doesn’t have a deep or engaging narrative, but between the Campaign and Survival modes there is enough content to satisfy fans of all experience levels. The new maps, enemies, and weapons take what was an already scary game and cranks things up to a downright hair-raising degree of terror.

Duck Season

Price: $19.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive

Review Synopsis:

Duck Season is more than a tribute to a beloved retro game; it’s a love letter to an entire era of pop culture and childhoods well-spent on a healthy dose of screen watching. As a showcase for VR it does a brilliant job of highlighting the tech’s current strengths with small, intimate environments that breathe authenticity and organic storytelling that never pulls you from the experience. I can’t wait to see how Stress Level Zero applies what it’s learned here to something that pushes the medium even further.

Edge of Nowhere

Price: $19.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift

Review Synopsis:

Minor annoyances aside, this heart-racing journey is full of stop-and-stare moments of sheer scale and intensity. You’ll find yourself holding your breath in anticipation for whatever the next moment of terror holds as the sweat builds on your palms and the hair on your neck continues to rise. At the story’s climax, you’re left questioning not only the events that transpired, but also your own sanity as well. Edge of Nowhere is an uncomfortably personal and unnerving horror experience unlike anything else I’ve seen inside of a VR headset. This is an Oculus Rift exclusive that is not to be missed.

I’m ultimately left knowing that the best way to end things would be with the legendary words of H.P. Lovecraft himself, as written in At the Mountains of Madness, “I could not help feeling that they were evil things — mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss.”

The Exorcist: Legion VR

Price: $24.95, Complete Series (Store) (Our Review)
Platform: Rift, Vive

Review Synopsis:

The Exorcist: Legion VR is without a doubt one of the best VR horror experiences available. The slow-building tension is expertly paced, each and every scare feels visceral and dangerous, and the sheer sense of terror you feel while methodically exploring the richly detailed environments is staggering. It honestly felt like I could hear the voices inside my own head and I could feel the heat from my crucifix as I stared down the faces of demon and eradicated the evil within. The Exorcist: Legion VR will turn even the most hardened horror fans into whimpering piles of fear.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Price: $29.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive

Review Synopsis:

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR Edition is a remarkable achievement in visual and sound design. It’s a great example of how to port a non-VR third-person action game to the immersive realm of HMDs that not only stays true to the source material, but enhances the experience in meaningful ways. If you haven’t played Hellblade before, there is no better time than now and if you have, then this is an engrossing way to re-experience Senua’s journey from a new perspective.

Killing Floor: Incursion

Price: $29.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive, Windows VR

Review Synopsis:

Killing Floor: Incursion isn’t the best zombie game I’ve played in VR (that would still go to Arizona Sunshine) but it does a lot right. The unsettling atmosphere is pervasive through each level and the excellent gameplay mechanics between melee and gun combat feel visceral and satisfying. While it does clock in a bit shorter than I’d have liked with only four levels, they are each large and fun to explore. I absolutely recommend that you grab a buddy for some insane co-op fun and lop off a few zed heads for a good time.

Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul

Price: $29.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift, Vive

Review Synopsis:

Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul is a relatively solid VR horror game. There is a strong foreboding sense of terror, a thickly developed atmosphere, and excellent use of sound and lighting to convey a real sense of fear. The adaptive scare system also works well, for the most part, and keeps you guessing. However the poor control system, occasional bugs (which will likely be addressed soon with patches,) short length, and inconsistent pacing keep it from being as successful as it could have been.

Organ Quarter

Price: $24.99 (Store)
Platforms: Rift, Vive, Windows VR

Synopsis:

Designed for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive along with non-VR options, the game is a first-person survival horror set in a bleak, deserted city, not too dissimilar to the iconic town of Silent Hill from Konami’s celebrated series. The player is cast as an isolated man that leaves his home for the first time in months to find his world completely transformed. You’ll be looking for a means of escape, and will solve puzzles and battle twisted enemies with limited ammo to do so. In the developer’s words, it’s “Resident Evil by way of David Cronenberg and David Lynch.”

Transference

Price: $24.99 (Store) (Our Review)

Platforms: Rift, Vive, and Non-VR

Review Synopsis:

There is a lot to unpack in Transference. It deals with several heavy themes that will likely make players uneasy, and from what I can tell, that’s sort of the point. Ubisoft and SpectreVision have mixed the stylings of Black Mirror and The Matrix with a twisted vision of the future that feels dangerously honest and realistic. While I’d have certainly loved for it to be a bit longer, I also appreciate how well-paced and polished it feels at the same time. It’s not without its flaws, but Transference is an unforgettable VR experience that I won’t soon forget.

Wilson’s Heart

Price: $29.99 (Store) (Our Review)
Platforms: Rift

Review Synopsis:

In the end, what makes Wilson’s Heart truly unforgettable is simply how amazing it is to experience. There’s a real story being told here and it’s being told with more technical skill and narrative charm than any other VR game to date. You’ll be thinking about this adventure long after the credits roll and the headset comes off.

Despite the occasionally repetitive moment of combat, Wilson’s Heart is a must-play game that elevates narrative, visuals, sound, and gameplay for VR experiences to an entirely new level. Your time as Robert may have been a nightmare, but it’s a nightmare you’ll be eager to revisit again, and again, and again.

Tagged with: rift, Vive, windows

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Skyrim VR Livestream Archive: Resident Evil And Other Horror Mods

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Update: This post was originally published on April 13th, 2018 (Friday the 13th) but has been republished today as an archived livestream for Halloween.

Original: Happy Friday the 13th! In celebration of one of the spookiest days of the year (still not as scary as Halloween, even though both have their own titular film franchises) we’ve decided to do something a little bit different for our Skyrim VR mod showcase livestream today. Last time we found the Master Sword and other Zelda items, but this time it’s all about horror mods!

We’re going to explore the creepy mansion from Resident Evil rebuilt entirely inside Skyrim, take on some cursed children’s toys, and fight an iconic enemy from another popular horror game series. You’ll have to tune-in to find out who!

We’re aiming to start the stream pretty much as soon as possible so if you’re reading this then we’re either streaming already or getting ready to stream — unless it’s over! That means we’re starting right around 3PM PT. And unlike in past VR game streams, this won’t just be on YouTube. We’re going to use Restream from now on to hit both YouTube and Twitch at the same time!

We’ll continue livestreaming VR games a lot more often now and you can see our archived streams all in this one handy Livestream playlist over on the official UploadVR YouTube channel (which you should totally subscribe to by the way). We’re also rebooting our Twitch channel now as well. You can watch our big showcase here or our gameplay of a voice control mod in action here.

Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and what you want to see us do, specifically, in Skyrim VR for PC. Comment with feedback down below!

Tagged with: Bethesda, livestream, resident evil, Skyrim VR

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Report: Oculus Planning ‘Rift S’ Iterative Upgrade For 2019

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TechCrunch is reporting Facebook’s leadership chose not to pursue former CEO Brendan Iribe’s “complete redesign” of the Oculus Rift in favor of a “Rift S” that could arrive in 2019 and would likely feature a tracking system similar to the one on Oculus Quest.

The narrative TechCrunch writer Lucas Matney is reporting across two stories suggests the Oculus co-founder is leaving Facebook “partially” due to “decisions surrounding the cancellation of a next-generation” project with the code name of “Caspar.”

In its place will be a project “possibly” called the “Rift S”, according to Matney’s reporting, which includes a “minor” upgrade to resolution.

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After canceling ‘Rift 2’ overhaul, Oculus plans a modest update to flagship VR headset

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Facebook’s virtual reality arm may soon find itself in the unfamiliar position of playing catch-up with hardware competitors.

Last week, TechCrunch reported that Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe had decided to leave Facebook partially due to his “fundamentally different views on the future of Oculus” and decisions surrounding the cancellation of a next-generation “Rift 2” project.

The company’s prototype “Rift 2” device, codenamed Caspar, was a “complete redesign” of the original Rift headset, a source familiar with the matter tells us. Its cancellation signified an interest by Facebook leadership to focus on more accessible improvements to the core Rift experience that wouldn’t require the latest PC hardware to function. Iribe did not agree with the direction, with a source telling us that he was specifically not interested in “offering compromised experiences that provided short-term user growth but sacrificed on comfort and performance.”

Former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe sharing details on the Oculus Rift in 2015

In the wake of the overhaul’s cancellation, the company will be pursuing a more modest product update — possibly called the “Rift S” — to be released as early as next year, which makes minor upgrades to the device’s display resolution while more notably getting rid of the external sensor tracking system, sources tell us. Instead, the headset will utilize the integrated “inside-out” Insight tracking system which is core to Facebook’s recently-announced Oculus Quest standalone headset.

The “Constellation” tracking system on the current-generation Rift offers precise accuracy thanks to the static external sensors that track the headset and Touch controllers. While the Insight system would likely offer users a much more simplified setup process, a clear pain point of the first-generation product, “inside-out” tracking systems have greater limitations when it comes to the lighting conditions they work in and are generally less accurate than systems with external trackers.

While Oculus has long led the way on hardware advances, this release could be seen as the company playing catch-up with competitors like Microsoft, which has partnered with OEMs including Samsung, Lenovo and LG to release headsets on its Windows Mixed Reality platform that also feature inside-out tracking as well as higher resolution displays than the Oculus Rift.

“While we don’t comment on rumors/speculation about our future products, as we shared last week, PC VR remains a part of our strategy and is a category we will continue to invest in. In addition to hardware, we have a robust software roadmap and are funding content well into 2020,” an Oculus spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introducing the $399 Oculus Quest

There are some clear benefits for Oculus pushing iterative hardware in an iPhone-like “S” manner, especially around affordability, as a more drawn out device life cycle gives both Oculus and PC component manufacturers time to reduce VR’s high barrier to entry in terms of cost.

The cancellation of its Caspar “Rift 2” project, does suggest a less aggressive pace of innovation for the company with its flagship premium VR product. The move away from a redesign could alienate early adopters and send them to other platforms. It could also lead Oculus into a situation where new titles that take advantage of the latest systems aren’t compatible with Rift hardware.

At its Oculus Connect developer conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared that the Oculus Rift, Quest and Go represented “the completion of its first-generation of VR products.” As Zuckerberg continues to double-down on his long-term goal to bring 1 billion users into VR, the need to build the Oculus user base is growing more important but it’s unclear how essential the company believes leading the high-end PC VR market is to defining that early mainstream success.

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Every Choice You Make Is Life Or Death In This Daydream Impact VR Experience

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How would you react when faced with the starkest of choices?

Most of us have been lucky enough to have never experienced urban conflict first-hand. VR, however, can give us a sense of what the chaos looks – and feels – like, allowing us to better empathize with the millions of people who live this reality everyday.

VR has been used multiple times to help showcase the dreadful consequences of the ongoing Syrian conflict. In 2015, American entrepeneur Chris Milk brought us Clouds Over Sidra, showing audiences how VR technology could be employed as a powerful “empathy machine,” a term he used to describe the medium during a TED talk that has since gathered over 1.5 million views.

The theme was also explored from different angles through BBC animations such as We Wait and Enter the Room, which were the first projects produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

ICRC’s The Right Choice takes the technology even further, providing users with one of the first interactive VR experiences offered by the humanitarian sector. The film is a product of the Google Daydream Impact Project which aims to make a positive difference in society through the application of immersive technologies such as VR and AR.

In the experience, you’re placed next to a Syrian family trapped inside their home due to the rampant urban warfare currently making its way through their community. The title reflects on the families terrible reality, forcing viewers to make split-second decisions in a life or death situation. In the face of an attack, you have a choice as to how you approach the deadly scenario. Sadly, none of your choices lead to a truly positive outcome, an unfortunate reality for many civilians caught in the center of war.

“New technology, including virtual reality, can be a powerful tool to help a large audience understand the human cost of war,” believes Jennifer Hauseman, director of communications and information management at the ICRC.

The Right Choice was filmed in Lebanon with guidance from ICRC workers who had direct experience of the Syrian conflict. It was produced in collaboration with several creative agencies such as Don’t Panic London, Visualise and Stoked Films.

By polling users of the experience, the ICRC wants to understand more about people’s perception of urban warfare and learn how VR can influence behaviour and build empathy around those affected by war.

“This film asks: What would you do if you came under attack?” explains Christopher Nicholas, ICRC’s project lead for the film. “Virtual reality transports viewers from the comfort of their homes to the horrors of the battlefield in a visceral and powerful way,” he adds.

The Right Choice is a direct result of I Saw My City Die, a report published by the ICRC in 2017 that highlighted the impact on civilians of fighting in cities and towns in Syria and Iraq and revealed how urban offensives accounted for eight times more conflict-related civilian fatalities than ongoing fighting or fighting in other areas. Put simply, urban conflict accounted for 70% of all civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria during that time.

The main purpose of The Right Choice is to test VR’s ability to build empathy for those who are still trapped in active war zones. By surveying people in major global cities once devastated by war, the ICRC hopes to discover whether or not it is possible to change an individual’s perception and incite behavioral change. Audience insights from this experience has the potential to affect future investment in VR as a critical tool for educating people and raising awareness, as well as action, for various humanitarian issues.

”It can be hard to raise awareness around some situations – especially when they are distant. We are thankful to have partnered with ICRC to leverage VR to give insight into a complex situation, and helping give a voice to those left behind,” concludes Sarah Steele, VR Program Lead at Google.

The Right Choice is available for download now via the Google Playstore and the iOS Apple Store.

Image Credit: Red Cross

The post Every Choice You Make Is Life Or Death In This Daydream Impact VR Experience appeared first on VRScout.

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AR Costumes – Disney Introduces Auto Augmenting Outfits

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Disney Research Hub debuts a practical new method for overlaying watertight digital costumes onto standard RGB images.

In a short video posted to the official Disney Research Hub YouTube channel earlier yesterday morning, Disney Research introduced AR Costumes, a new method of AR capture that automatically overlays a “watertight” digital costume onto a subject’s body from just a standard RGB image.

Using a combination of techniques referred to as “pose matching” and “inpainting,” Disney’s team is able to render the digital outfit over the subjects clothing with detailed precision.

In a publication provided by the company via disneyresearch.com, the team goes into further detail regarding the proper methodology for easily removing unwanted artifacts with little to no costume parameterization work via a relatively painless inpainting technique.

They go on to demonstrate the technology by outfitting several subjects in tight, futuristic space suits, allowing them to strike a variety of heroic poses without any revealing artifacts.

“To our knowledge, our approach is the first to deliver plausible watertight costumes from RGB imagery only, and is compatible with mobile devices,” the company states in the description of the video. “We believe this can serve as a useful baseline for future improvements and comparisons.”

Of course, like any budding technology, there are some limitations. While the program does do an excellent job of covering the subjects real-world clothing, a fair amount of warping does generate around the subject’s body as a result of the augmentation. It’s a relatively minimal effect, but a noticeable setback regardless.

According to the publication, Disney Research is working to improve their current method with more powerful pose and shape estimation. The hope is that one day the program will be able to augmented costumes with exaggerated proportions and even operate in real-time.

Those interested in learning more about this exciting new technique can check out Disney Research Hub’s official publication on the subject.

Image Credit: Disney Research Hub

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From the road to your wrist, see how Android has evolved over the past 10 years

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Android started out as just a mobile operating system, but 10 years in it's pretty much everywhere. Check out our round-up of all the different Android variations that have cropped up so far, and what might be coming in the future.

The post From the road to your wrist, see how Android has evolved over the past 10 years appeared first on Digital Trends.

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Leap Motion reportedly screwed up Apple acquisition talks, twice

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Augmented and virtual reality startup Leap Motion was close to being bought out by Apple, but killed both deals, and may now be teetering on the edge.Read More

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5 Scary VR Videos To Spook Yourself Silly With This Halloween

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If, like me, you’re one of the more cowardly VR enthusiasts out there, then you probably don’t want to jump straight into one of the many, many terrifying games available on VR headsets this Halloween. If you are feeling on the brave side this year, however, you could test the waters with a VR video instead.

Below are five VR videos that the best of us will be able to tackle on this spooky day. So jump under some blankets, get yourself a spinning chair and pull your headset on at your own peril; I salute anyone that has the stomach to click play.

The Conjuring 2

What’s scarier than a nun, right? Well, actually, quite a lot of things, but this 360 video still makes a pretty good case for stepping away from the light this Halloween. Not really sure about the jukebox at the end, though.

The Nun

Oh my god the nun is back. It’s the same nun! I think? I don’t know, I never watched The Conjuring. Anyway, in this one you need to run. Yes, that’s right, you must run from the nun.

It: Float

Want to revisit last year’s excellent reboot of Stephen King’s It franchise? Wait, you do? What the heck is wrong with you? Well, save yourself an hour or two and experience the scares in this 360 video that really makes you float.

A Haunted 360 Roller Coaster

If its scares AND simulation sickness you’re after then, by all means, jump aboard this terrifying ride in which you’ll plunge into the depths of the ocean to face off with vicious sea monsters. Okay it’s not exactly Hereditary but do you want to be eaten by an enormous beast? Thought not.

The Exorcist

Okay back to the movies. This one’s based on The Exorcist. You know what that means; scary little girls smiling about how much they love Satan, or something. I just watched this one with my eyes closed.

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Legends of Catalonia Is An Intriguing New Take On Virtual Tourism For PSVR

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So far we’ve seen virtual tourism take its place in VR largely as a series of idyllic 360 videos, but Legends of Catalonia has some other ideas about how to win the hearts and minds of holidaymakers.

Set to launch on PSVR this Friday, Legends of Catalonia is produced by Virtual Voyagers in partnership with the Catalan Tourism Agency, which encompasses the northeastern region of Spain including cities like Barcelona. Rather than simply getting the viewer to explore pretty places, though, the experience retells famous stories from the region within VR. The aim is to give viewers a sense of the region’s history and culture as a teaser of what to expect in a visit. Check out the trailer below.

One such story is the legend of Saint George who, as you may now, found himself in a deadly brawl with a dragon that earned him his own holiday, Saint Georges Day, which is widely celebrated in Catalonia. Virtual Voyagers brings that story to life in VR. Elsewhere there are interactive minigames and the chance to see Barcelona’s prized Sagrada Familia within VR. The experience even brings Catalan’s famed Michelin star chefs, the Roca brothers, into VR for the first time.

Virtual Voyagers used photogrammetry to capture six different locations across the region and also recorded actor’s performances with motion and facial capture. The impressive Making Of video below showcases the sheer amount of work that went into it.

“The project has been absolutely challenging because of several factors,” Virtual Voyagers CTO Jose Infantes explained to UploadVR. “The first was the short time available to develop an experience like that, especially for a platform like PSVR, that requires extensive optimization and a very a strict QA & publishing process.”

Virtual Voyagers began working on the experience in mid-May, so it had to be flexible in order to pull off what it wanted to achieve in time. Infantes explains that the team traveled all over Catalonia on a tight schedule, whilst also working had to refine and optimize performance capture for PSVR ahead of release. “I can say this is mostly like a rock group picking up the bandwagon for the tour,” he said of the team’s work. “We were about to rent a tour bus for it! I think this can only be done with a very special team.”

Legends of Catalonia is launching on November 2nd on PSVR for free.

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5 Incredibly Spooky VR Games to Play This Halloween

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It’s that time of the year again, when you bring out the big bag of candy, put on your spookiest outfit, and turn off the lights and pretend no one’s home. It’s Halloween!

And to celebrate, we rounded up five of our favorite VR games which span a number of horror sub-genres:

Resident Evil 7 biohazard (PSVR)

If you own a PSVR, you might look no further than Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 biohazard (2017), one of the best VR adaptations on the PlayStation Store currently. Sorry folks, but the version on Steam doesn’t have VR support, so PSVR only for now.

Description: Set within a sinister plantation mansion in modern day Dulvey, Louisiana where the twisted Baker family resides, players experience the terror directly from the first person perspective for the first time in the Resident Evil series. Embodying the iconic gameplay elements of exploration, atmosphere, and tense combat that first coined “survival horror” some 20 years ago, Resident Evil 7 biohazard delivers a disturbingly realistic horror experience.

Link: PlayStation Store (PS4, PSVR)

Arizona Sunshine

Zombies popping out left and right, dwindling ammo, there’s not much more to say about Vertigo Game’s multiplayer shooter Arizona Sunshine (2017). Ok, maybe one thing: practice your headshots.

Description: When you hear a flash of a human voice on the radio, your hopes surge – there are survivors out in the blistering heat of the post-apocalyptic Grand Canyon state! Armed with your motion-controlled weapons and the scarce ammo and consumables you find along the way, navigate the hordes of zombies coming for your brain in your search for human contact.

Links: PlayStation Store (PSVR), Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Oculus Store (Rift), Viveport (Vive, Rift)

Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul

Oh, great. More creepy haunted houses. I better walk around and hope I’m not murdered. To death. (It’s an adventure game from VRWERX)

Description: Armed with a battery hungry flashlight, you find yourself exploring what appears to be a quiet average looking home in a woodsy neighborhood. Before long, you discover you’re not alone as you discover the clues unraveling the horrifying mystery of what’s gone on in this house and struggle to survive the terror that hunts you.

Links: PlayStation Store (PSVR), Steam (Vive, Rift), Oculus Store (Rift)

A Chair in a Room: Greenwater

It’s an oft overlooked oldie (relatively speaking, it’s from 2016), but it’s still a goodie. A Chair in a Room (2016) from Wolf & Wood Interactive is more of a puzzle game with some horror elements to it than a pure horror game as such, but it still has plenty of creepy atmosphere to sop up on the spookiest of holidays.

Description: Explore your surroundings as the protagonist of your own horror story as you immerse yourself in this tense VR thriller set in America’s Deep South. Navigate your way through your memories, piecing together the clues and puzzles, to solve the mystery of how you have awoken in the sinister Greenwater Institute, known only as Patient No.

Links: Steam (Vive, Rift)

Duck Season

Stress Level Zero’s Duck Season (2017) is a bit of a mix between ’80s nostalgia and twisted horror; the contrasts here between fun and happy memories and dark imagination of you, a kid at home trying to play the Duck Hunt-inspired game-within-a-game, borders on the schizophrenic. Truly unsettling.

Description: The game of your dreams just dropped, DUCK SEASON, a hunter with ridiculous graphics. Luckily, it’s summer vacation and Mom just surprised you with a one day rental of it! Unfortunately, as you binge play it becomes apparent that all is not right with Duck Season…

Links: Steam (Vive, Rift), Oculus Store (Rift)

The post 5 Incredibly Spooky VR Games to Play This Halloween appeared first on Road to VR.

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Facebook Files For Massive New Reality Lab Buildings – Report

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It sounds like Facebook is planning to ramp up its R&D in VR and AR even more.

The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that the company has filed a plans for a 650,000 square foot site holding two new office buildings in Redmond, Washington. According to the report, these will house the Facebook Reality Labs team, which is the new name for the Oculus Research division headed up by Michael Abrash. The project has been given the elusive labeling of ‘Building X’ and could get underway in May. The report claims Facebook is looking at opening in late 2021.

If true, it looks like Facebook isn’t backing down in its R&D work for both VR and AR. Reality Labs has been hiring staff for years now and in 2018 showcased its work on a new Oculus Rift-style PC VR prototype named Half Dome. The experimental headset pushes beyond the limitations of its predecessors with a 140-degree field of view (FOV), varifocal displays and eye tracking.

Facebook Reality Labs currently has 67 jobs listed in Redmond, many of which concern both VR and AR. In his talk at Oculus Connect 5 last month, Abrash detailed the latest progress the company had made in several areas including new display innovations, reproducing humans virtually and creating even more realistic audio for VR.

Much of this work won’t be seen in a consumer product for years to come but, as these new plans suggest, Facebook looks to be in it for the long-term.

Tagged with: Facebook Reality Lab

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Oculus Quest May Not Quill’s Art, But Not Its Creation Mode

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The virtual art you make via Oculus’ Quill app should someday be viewable inside the company’s new Quest headset.

Quest was introduced last month as a standalone VR headset with six degrees of freedom (6DOF) inside-out tracking comparable to what’s seen on Oculus Rift. As such, Oculus is bringing Rift games like The Climb and Superhot to the platform when it launches next year, but we haven’t yet heard about any VR creation apps, which are some of the most impressive and versatile experiences on the platform. We had hoped that Oculus would be able to get all of Quill and its sister sculpting app, Medium, onto Quest, but that might not be the case.

As Road to VR reports, Facebook Android VR Engineer Pierre-Antoine LaFayette yesterday confirmed that Oculus is working to bring Quill artwork to Quest during a talk at the XRDC event. That said, it doesn’t sound like the full experience will be ported over.

In his talk LaFayette gave a detailed explanation of how the Quill team was able to optimize existing artwork and get it running on Quest, though it didn’t sound easy. File sizes needed to be reduced before being sent to a custom renderer built on top of Android. Compromises on visual fidelity, which more traditional VR games are embracing to fit onto Quest, aren’t as easy to make when you’re aiming to keep an artist’s vision intact, though.

LayFayette later told Road that it wasn’t yet decided how Quill artwork might end up on Quest, be it through a dedicated viewer app or another service. He did say, however, that its framing as a professional tool might keep the creation mode from ever arriving on the headset. Somehow we think the limited power of the all-in-one device might stop that from happening too.

That’s a real shame, given that apps like Quill and Tilt Brush are amazing tools that showcase the power of VR. Perhaps we could see a new, dedicated VR creation app taking the platform’s limitations into consideration?

Oculus Quest launches next spring for $399.

Tagged with: Oculus Quest, quill

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Lenovo agrees license with Sony after practically copying PSVR design

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Sony has signed a two-year patent licensing agreement that allows Lenovo to use the PSVR design for its Mirage Solo VR headset. Some virtual reality enthusiasts might have expected that from the moment Lenovo launched its standalone Daydream device....

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IMAX Shutters VR Experience Centre in New York, No New VR Investment in 2019

Skybound Launches New VR Horror Series Delusion Via Samsung VR

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Skybound Entertainment’s latest VR experiment is set to scare your socks just a little after Halloween.

On Friday, November 2, the company will launch its four-part 360-degree series, Delusion: Lies Within on Samsung’s VR video app. You’ll be able to watch it in a Gear VR headset, or on a browser of your choice. As we reported earlier in the year, the series is based on plays produced by a horror company also named Delusion over the past few years. The experience aimed to involve audiences in new ways to scare them like never before and now it wants to do the same in VR.

The VR version takes us to the American South during the 1940s. It follows two fans trying to find their favorite horror author, who was recently reported missing. It had originally been billed as a 10-part series lasting over an hour overall, though Variety reports that each of the four episodes will last just eight minutes.

Skydance is doing a lot of work in VR and AR right now, also lending out its popular The Walking Dead franchise to phone-based AR games and location-based VR experiences. Elsewhere, the team at Skydance Interactive have been busy building a full VR game in mech battler, Archangel.

The entire series will be available for $4.99. Variety notes that a second season is also possible.

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Sony Licenses PSVR Headset Design to Lenovo for New Mirage Solo

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Sony and Lenovo announced they’ve signed a two-year patent license agreement that will allow Lenovo to base a future VR headset off the PSVR industrial design.

Lenovo says the PSVR design will be used in the making of a new Mirage Solo VR headset.

It’s unclear what Lenovo specifically needs from the four year-old headset design, as the company’s Daydream standalone headset Mirage Solo already utilizes a number of design elements popularized by PSVR, including a remarkably similar halo strap and focus-adjustment mechanism.

It’s more likely however that the patent licensing will allow Sony and Lenovo to more closely share design insights as they both look towards the next generation of devices.

Yao Li, vice president of Lenovo Consumer Tablets and Smart Devices Product and Business Management, says the agreement will allow the companies to “work together to greatly enhance the design sophistication and appeal of the rapidly expanding VR field, and is an outstanding example of how great consumer brands in the VR industry can work together to benefit the consumer VR market.”

Lenovo currently boasts three consumer devices in the area of AR/VR including Lenovo Mirage Solo, Lenovo Mirage AR headset, and Lenovo Explorer, the company’s Windows VR headset.

The post Sony Licenses PSVR Headset Design to Lenovo for New Mirage Solo appeared first on Road to VR.

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Bulletin Board

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Training the Next Generation of Doctors and Nurses

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Facebook Working to Bring ‘Quill’ Artwork to Oculus Quest

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

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Five VR Experiences For An Extra Spooky Halloween

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Celebrate Hallows’ Eve right this year with these terrifying horror-based VR games.

The day has finally arrived. After receiving weird looks from your various neighbors last year, you’ve finally accepted the fact that you’re too old to be trick-or-treating. Personally, I think 27 is way too early of a cut-off point, but that’s neither here nor there.

So what can a full-grown adult do to properly celebrate this oh-so special night of horror and mischief, you ask? If you’re looking for a good fright, most would recommend a handful of scary movies or a haunted house. This year, however, I challenge you to take things a step further with a marathon of unsettling VR experiences guaranteed to get you in holiday spirit.

We searched high and low for the spookiest VR games available in virtual reality and have assembled a small list of some of our favorites. Below is just a small selection of the many horror-based VR games currently in circulation.

RESIDENT EVIL 7 VR [PlayStation VR]

A pivotal turning-point for the legendary franchise, Resident Evil 7 ditches the series infamous third-person “tank” control gameplay in favor of a more fluid first-person experience, adding a refreshing change to a tired formula. The title also scales back the outrageous storyline featured in the original franchise for a more intimate, at times “realistic” scenario.

This switch to an FPS perspective made the experience a perfect addition to the PlayStation VR, serving as one of the most polished AAA VR titles available on the console-powered headset. In terms of full-length horror experiences, there are very few VR titles that can hold a candle to this exceptional game.

THE FOREST VR [Steam VR]

Best described as Minecraft’s troubled younger brother, The Forest plops users into a dense forest peninsula populated by a tribe of cannibalistic mutants. Users must craft weapons and shelter to survive, gathering resources during the day and building fortifications at night.

The Forest VR brings survival crafting horror to the next level, letting players experience the terror of being surrounded by a group of flesh-hungry tribesmen. Even as you’re cowering in the corner of a pitch black cave as a group of hunters close in on your position, you’re still somehow having a great time.

DRUNKEN BAR FIGHT: HALLOWEEN [Steam VR]

Okay, so maybe this isn’t exactly a true horror experience, or even remotely scary, but how could I not include the Halloween update to one of VR’s most outrageous physics-based experiences? Whereas the original Drunken Bar Fight has players taking on crowds of drunk bystanders, this Halloween rendition introduces hordes of zombified patrons, alcoholic beverages with magical side-effects, and a slew of anti-monster weaponry.

Again, not exactly a terrifying VR experience, but still an absolute must try for anyone who enjoys casually beating up a zombified horseman with a broken pool cue.

NO WAY OUT: A DEAD REALM TALE [Steam VR]

The newest title on our list, No Way Out: A Dead Realm is a spine-chilling VR puzzler that tasks players with escaping a haunted house filled with ghosts, blood-thirsty wolfmen, an army of spiders, and, of course, plenty of unsettling clowns.

Realistic graphics combined with plenty of upsetting visuals and time-trial puzzles keep you constantly on your toes as you attempt to navigate your way out of the nightmarish manor. No Way Out: A Dead Realm Tale is the perfect option for any user searching for a truly terrifying VR haunted house.

ALIEN: ISOLATION VR [Oculus Rift]

While not technically an official VR release, the VR mod for 2014’s Alien: Isolation somehow manages to make the survival horror game even more horrific. Using the MotherVR modification, users can immerse themselves even further into the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of bad ass alien slayer Ellen Ripley, as she attempts to escape a pack of deadly Xenomorph’s.

Rest assured, you haven’t experienced true fear until you’ve sat feeble position underneath a blood-soaked desk as a seven-foot alien skulks around you.

The post Five VR Experiences For An Extra Spooky Halloween appeared first on VRScout.

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Sony’s PSVR Headset Design Licensed By Lenovo For The Mirage Solo

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A three paragraph press release issued by Sony Interactive Entertainment and Lenovo suggests the companies quietly resolved a disagreement over the latter’s use of Sony’s PlayStation VR headset design.

Lenovo’s Mirage Solo headset is an intriguing developer kit which is getting upgrades by way of a new Google add-on that will give the standalone headset a pair of 6DoF hand controllers. The way the headset balances weight distribution and tightens for a snug fit, however, bears a striking resemble to Sony’s headset, as you can see here:

At left is the Lenovo Mirage Solo, which started shipping in 2018. In the center is a patent image from Sony with dates listed on the patent going back to 2014 and 2015. At right is the Sony PlayStation VR headset which started shipping first in 2016.

The release suggests the outcome — a two-year patent licensing deal for PSVR’s industrial design — was viewed by Sony’s Riley Russell, Chief Legal Officer, as the best one for “helping the VR industry expand.”

“The industrial design for PS VR has been widely acclaimed, and that was the result of years of hard work by PlayStation engineers,” according to Russell’s prepared statement.

It is unclear whether the agreement covers future headsets, but it seems possible Lenovo could double down on the Daydream ecosystem in 2019 with a new headset that features two 6DoF hand controllers. We’ll be curious to see a.) if that headset actually comes to pass and b.) whether it bears any continued similarity to Sony’s design. We’ll also be curious to see if any other agreements are announced by companies with headsets which bear more than a passing resemblance to Sony’s.

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