Following a prototyping phase started in 2019, Microsoft and the United States Army have announced they are moving to a production phase of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), based on HoloLens 2 technology, through a contract worth up to $22 billion.
In 2019, Microsoft announced it was working with the US Army to prototype and test the IVAS system, an AR headset designed for both training and live battlefield use, based on Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 technology.
Image courtesy Microsoft
What started as a $480 million deal has now ballooned into a contract worth up to $21.88 billion, according to Microsoft, with an initial five year timeline and an option for an additional five years.
The US Army announced the contract last week as a “fixed price production agreement to manufacture the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)” aimed at moving the project into a “production and rapid fielding” phase.
According to the US Army, the IVAS system is designed to streamline existing vision-enhancing and immersive training capabilities into a single platform.
“The suite of capabilities leverages existing high-resolution night, thermal, and Soldier-borne sensors integrated into a unified Heads Up Display to provide the improved situational awareness, target engagement, and informed decision-making necessary to achieve overmatch against current and future adversaries,” the US Army writes. “The system also leverages augmented reality and machine learning to enable a life-like mixed reality training environment so the Close Combat Force can rehearse before engaging any adversaries.”
Both Microsoft and the US Army paint the IVAS project as a “non-traditional” collaboration between the Army and a technology company, rather than a defense contractor. The organizations claim the direct collaboration has significantly increased the speed of development for the project.
The Information reports Snap will ship AR glasses to developers & creators, with an announcement planned in May.
Founded in 2011, Snap inc has never made a profit. The Snapchat app has over 300 million active users. Some financial analysts expect the company will reach profitability this year.
Snap has shipped three smartglasses products to date, branded Spectacles. The models so far don’t have any form of display system – they function solely as a wearable camera, exporting captured clips to the Snapchat app.
Current non-AR Snapchat Spectacles (v2)
Spectacles 2 added water resistance but Spectacles 3 dropped that feature, instead adding a second camera for 3D video capture and effects.
Based on The Information‘s reporting, it seems like Spectacles 4 will make the jump from smartglasses to AR glasses, with a display system and spatial tracking capable of overlaying “filters” on the real world.
There’s no mention of hand tracking or a controller – the report suggests the specs will continue to be controlled by the Snapchat app on a smartphone.
Spectacles 3 is priced at $380, suggesting an AR model could be priced much higher. Snap’s reported focus on developers & creators could buy it time to get a lower cost product available for consumers.
Snap’s cofounder reportedly said this to investors:
“To fully realize this idea of computing overlaid directly onto the world will require a new device: a completely new kind of camera that is capable of rendering digital content right in front of us, with the power to instantly and continuously understand the world as our own eyes do, and all in a light, wearable form factor”
[Update 3/31/21]: Today the developers announced that the start dates for its upcoming Preview Weekend, Early Bird Alpha, and Second Alpha tests have all been delayed. Previously everything was going to kick off in just a couple of weeks, but now the Kickstarter-exclusive Preview Weekend isn’t slated until May 1-2 with the Early Bird Alpha picking up on May 3-9, followed by the Second Alpha on June 14-20. Beta dates are still TBD.
According to the update blog post, “over 100 improvements” and fixes are planned over the course of the 2-week delay to make sure it’s as polished and bug-free as possible. For more on upcoming VR MMO Zenith: The Last City, watch or read our 45-minute deep dive interview:
[Original 3/10/21]: Today, pre-orders have officially gone live for Zenith: The Last City, an upcoming MMO that will launch on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest, as well as for non-VR PC platforms. The first preview weekend and early bird alpha tests are coming next month.
There are three different tiers you can pre-order, depending on how eager you are to get into the game: Standard ($30), Deluxe ($40), and Collector’s Edition ($60).
Here’s the breakdown on what’s included in each edition:
If you are a Kickstarter backer or founder, or decide to purchase the Collector’s Edition, then you get access to all alphas and betas, no questions asked. The same also applies to the first 1,000 people that buy the Deluxe edition. Deluxe buyers that miss the “first 1,000” cutoff will have to wait until the second alpha and beta periods.
Additionally, Kickstarter backers and founders will get a two-day weekend headstart on the Early Bird Alpha with a special ‘Preview Weekend’ coming very soon from April 17-18. After that, the first ‘Early Bird Alpha’ period runs from April 19-26 with the ‘Second Alpha’ running from May 31 – June 6. Dates for the Early Bird Beta and Second Beta are not set yet and all dates are subject to change.
There is still no launch date set for Zenith: The Last City, but according to developers Ramen VR it’s planned to release this year for PC VR, PSVR, and Quest — as well as non-VR PC.
Stay glued to the Zenith Twitter for the latest news and let us know if you plan on picking the game up down in our comments below!
Pavlov Shack Beta, the free standalone Quest version of the popular PC VR shooter, is out now on App Lab! No sideloading required.
Pavlov Shack Beta—Oculus App Lab for Quest
Today is an exciting day for Quest owners because now, finally, one of the most popular PC VR games out there has its port available on Oculus Quest without the need for sideloading from a PC. Pavlov plays a lot like Counter-Strike, meaning that it’s a very fast-paced shooter that requires quick reflexes, careful aiming, and real skill to have much success. According to the Store page, it includes 4v4 competitive and social game modes.
The official Store release is still in the works, but this at least means you can download the game, get updates, and play offline or online easily without needing to plug into a computer at all. It’s much, much simpler.
Earlier this week developer davevillz revealed that the official Quest store version would cost $24 when it launches later this year and will eventually have cross-play support with the forthcoming PS5 PSVR 2 version of the game. PC VR will remain, for now, entirely separate.
Previously, Pavlov Shack Beta was available on SideQuest for free to sideload to your headset. It was by far one of the most popular apps on the entire website with nearly half a million downloads as of the time of this writing. Considering the sideloading requirements and hoops to jump through, that’s a lot of downloads.
If you decide to give Pavlov Shack Beta a try on Quest now that it’s on App Lab, let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Today BigBox VR revealed that battle royale VR shooter Population: One is getting ‘Private Rooms’ in a Beta form this Friday at 12PM PT for custom game lobbies.
Population: One—Private Rooms Beta
You can see in the image above what it will look like in-game. You’ll be able to select either ‘Create’ or ‘Join’ from a menu. When you click ‘Join’ you’ll be able to easily find Private Rooms that friends have setup or join a Private Room based on a specific room code.
When you join a Private Room, you can hangout in the lobby for as long as you want, select who is on a team with who, and compete with as few people as you’d like. You can even pick War Mode or the standard 3-person Squads mode.
To get more insight about the new feature, we spoke with Gabe Brown, Co-Founder and CTO at BigBox VR:
“Giving the players control over the game mode so they can play between squads and war mode and their own private room, but they can also play on the teams that they want is really important to us. So if they wanted to, they could be like, ‘Okay, it’s a my family versus your family,’ or, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to play in a squad with Bob and Christine so let’s go play a match with them.’ They have a lot of control. We made it really easy for people to create rooms. Just from the Matchmaking menu, you can select it and create a room. That person that creates that room becomes the room leader and they can share their room by giving out a room code. So it’d be like ABC 234 would be an example room code. That allows anybody with that room code to be able to join the server. They can tweet it out, they can put it on a Facebook group. [We] would love to see streamers put it on their stream so they can interact with their fans. There’s a number of uses there for people to coordinate esport tournaments. It’s really interesting because now people can get together whenever they want as part of that.
The best part too is we’ve kind of have this hybrid mode, it’s like you have that room code. But we also have some room privacy features that allow you to mark the room open or closed. If the room is open, it allows anyone that you’ve invited to the server. Like, let’s say you join my server and I have the room privacy set to open, that allows you to invite anyone on your friends list to join the server as well. And then anyone that’s on your friends list will see in private room on your friends list, and you can join directly from your friends list. So your friends list in the main menu also doubles as a private server browser. You can see all of your friends that have their room privacy set to open and you can join easily. It makes your friends list super easy to go find people who are in those private rooms and go join them. Also, if you just want to have a private moment with some friends or you’re just hanging out or whatever you want to do, you can also set the room to closed where only the room leader, the person who created that room can invite people and you can only join if you have that room code.
We’re really excited about that because it really just opens it up to for people who have a large friends list or people who just want to interact with their community or wants to coordinate their own tournaments. It’s endless possibilities for people to come together and play Population: ONE the way that they want.”
Exclusive Offer For NEW Players
You read that correctly. BigBox VR created a coupon code for UploadVR readers that are new players to Population: One. All you have to do is redeem the code ‘UPLOADVR’ on your account between right now and April 7 at 12AM PT and you’ll get 750 Bureau Gold in-game currency for free. That comes out to about $10 worth of currency, which is just enough to buy the Battle Pass and skip a level at no charge.
NOTE: BigBox VR has informed us that if you’re an existing player that has had the game installed for 1 week or longer, then this coupon code will not work. This is for new players only.
Also, this is not an affiliate code, we do not get any kickback from you using it. It’s purely just a gift from BigBox VR to reward our readers. Have fun!
Population: One is available now on Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets for $30 with cross-play. For more details, check out the official website. Keep your eyes peeled on the official website for a big Private Rooms FAQ once the feature launches later this week.
Correction: Due to a miscommunication a previous version of this story stated the referral code was for all players; the referral code is for new players only.
[Update 3/31/21]:Hellgate VR is out now on PC VR via Steam with a 20% launch discount price of $28 until April 7, at which point it will be available at its normal price of $35. We haven’t tried it yet, but all six user reviews so far are negative. You can see some impression footage from Paradise Decay right here.
[Original 3/22/21]:Hellgate VR is back with a new listing on Steam and a new trailer showing actual gameplay footage. We still don’t have a date, but apparently it’s hitting PC VR this month with Rift and Vive support.
Back over four years ago we heard about Hellgate VR, a prequel game that was slated to release at the beginning of 2018 presumably for PSVR and PC VR. It missed that window by over three years, but seems to be back from hell once again with a new planned release of this month only on PC VR via SteamVR as far as we can tell.
The original Hellgate: London was an ambitious online action-RPG looter shooter hybrid from some of the minds behind the Diablo series. You can play a stripped down and gutted re-release single-player only version on Steam now. The premise for the game, originally, was similar to how Destiny works now, although it was far less polished, less ambitious, and much more demonic. One of the big features in Hellgate was that it was a semi-procedural world that got shuffled a bit each time you left a region—just like in the Diablo games.
I was actually a pretty big fan of Hellgate: London, particularly the intricate loot system that really made you feel like you were growing in power. It was also nice to see a fresh take on the “beat back the demons of hell” concept.
All that being said, Hellgate VR is nothing like the original game. From what I can tell looking at the trailer, GIFs, and screenshots, is that it appears to be a glorified wave shooter with a thin veil of a story. I’m not going to hold my breath that this can bring the Hellgate series back to life and push it forward into a new generation of gaming, but I’ve been wrong before.
We’ll have to just cross our fingers that this sees the light of day because beyond the Steam page there is next to no new information about this game across the last four years.
Hellgate VR does not have a specific release date yet, but according to the Steam page it’s apparently coming to PC VR with Rift and Vive support sometime before March 2021 is over.
Let us know if you plan on checking this one out down in the comments below!
Alvo is a military-themed fast-paced competitive VR shooter coming first to PSVR next month, followed by Quest and PC VR after that. Currently it’s aiming to release on PSVR on April 12 after months of beta testing, but the date could shift slightly depending on approvals from Sony.
Alvo VR Gameplay
From what we’ve seen Alvo looks comparable to the likes of Pavlov and Contractors in that it’s much faster pace than something like Onward or Firewall Zero Hour. Movement flexibility is a big part of Alvo, which is why everyone will be able to jump and slide just like you can in non-VR games like Call of Duty. However, of those four games listed only Firewall Zero Hour is on PSVR so there’s far less FPS competition compared to other VR platforms.
In the new footage above (provided by the developers) there’s about five minutes of Search & Destroy gameplay from the point-of-view of someone playing on PSVR using the Aim Controller and then the rest of the video is someone on Rift showing PC VR footage. Briefly, you’ll see the camera fly around in spectator mode, which will be a PC VR-exclusive features to help with esports broadcasting—similar to the spectator cameras in games like Echo Arena and Onward.
The PC VR and Quest versions should be coming this year as well, but they don’t have dates yet. For Quest, they’ve already done a lot of the optimization across the maps to get it ready. It’s worth noting that the Quest edition will be sideloaded on SideQuest (and eventually App Lab) at first if full Store approval isn’t granted. But hopefully being on PSVR will already mean the game is in good enough shape for the main Store.
In a Discord conversation one of the developers told me that they were targeting April 12th as the launch date on PSVR, but it could shift depending on some factors and timing. There will be full cross-play between all three platforms when the time comes.
HappyGiant announced its release schedule for Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual!
The title published by Big Sugar is planned for Oculus Quest release in June this year for $29.99, followed by release on Steam and Viveport Infinity later this year and PlayStation VR in early 2022.
For those unfamiliar, Sam & Max is a wacky media franchise created by Steve Purcell focusing around the titular duo of private investigators. Previous iterations of the characters spanned comic books, TV, and video games, and we got a good look at the first gameplay from the game late last year in the video below. Its been quite a few years since there was a videogame version of the title and we’re excited to see how the franchise transfers to virtual reality.
According to the developers the title “blends the banter and classic crime-solving adventure elements for which the duo is known with specialized Freelance Police training exercises, resulting in a fresh, eclectic experience that is unique to the medium.” HappyGiant’s team includes Purcell who is consulting on the game design, art, and story, as well as some veterans from LucasArts.
“HappyGiant has assembled an all-star team of LucasArts veterans, and created a game dripping with nostalgia, as well as being on the cutting edge of VR Gaming”, said Nick Alfieri, CEO of Big Sugar, in s prepared statement. “Whether you are an old school Sam & Max fan, or new to the franchise, this game has something for everyone.”
Are you looking forward to this one? Lets us know in the comments below.
NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS) is a technology native to RTX cards which, through the power of onboard AI, can intelligently increase the resolution of rendered frames in games. DLSS is actually now available for VR, and we’re just starting to see more games support the performance-boosting tech—namely, the Stalker-inspired survival shooter Into the Radius VR (2020).
DLSS is a feature available on RTX 20/30-series GPUs, but must be included by individual developers. Now about six months after the release of the DLSS 2.1 update, which included support for VR headsets, developers CM Games took a step as one of the first to include support for the technology.
Granted, Into The Radius isn’t the absolute first VR game (or rather, VR-supported game) to adopt DLSS. Only two months after DLSS 2.1 released with VR support, battle simulator War Thunder (2013) announced it had enabled DLSS as well, however users found mixed results when playing the game in VR.
What does DLSS do exactly? Road to VR’s Ben Lang describes it best in his initial reporting on DLSS for VR:
The goal is to achieve the same resolution and level of detail as a natively rendered frame of the same resolution, and to do the whole thing more efficiently. Doing so means more graphical processing power is available for other things like better lighting, textures, or simply increasing the framerate overall.
For instance, a game with support for DLSS may render its native frame at 1,920 × 1,080 and then use DLSS to up-res the frame to 3,840 × 2,160. In many cases this is faster and preserves a nearly identical level of detail compared to natively rendering the frame at 3,840 × 2,160 in the first place.
If you’re looking for something more visual, War Thunder released a side-by-side comparison of how the game looks with DLSS toggled on and off. This is of course a flatscreen comparison, but the basic concept is the same.
We’re hoping to see more PC VR games support DLSS, however the global shortage of 30-series cards, and 20-series cards only providing meager performance increases over the 10-series in traditional rendering cases, may have made it too niche for a majority of developers to spend time on.
Do you know of any other VR games which have included DLSS? Let us know in the comments below!
The development cycles of Facebook’s own VR content, published under the Oculus Studios banner, are getting longer, and the company says you’ll see “bigger, more complex” games as a result.
Mike Doran, Director of Production at Oculus Studios, said as much on Reddit this week. Following up on comments he recently made about Studios’ content pipeline in the next three to seven years, Doran clarified that development cycles for these periods are starting to become longer than they previously might have been.
“As far as content goes, we’re working on games now (and have been for a while) that are launching in several years,” Doran said. “The average development cycle for Oculus Studios VR titles is getting longer and you’ll start to see bigger, more complex games as a result.”
Doran also assured that new Studios content will be coming within the next two years, not just over the course of the next three to seven.
It’s true that some Studios projects have seen tight turnarounds in VR’s early days. In 2017, for example, Facebook aimed to release one new VR game a month and, when the Oculus Rift released in 2016 Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games released three titles over the course of its first year. But the company has also already published some of these bigger titles; Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was first announced in 2017 and didn’t release until late 2020, whereas Ready at Dawn’s Lone Echo 2 has now been in the works for close to four years, having first been teased at Oculus Connect in 2017.
So expect to see perhaps fewer Studios releases as often as you used to but, hopefully these new titles will answer the call for deeper experiences that really capitalize on what’s possible with VR.
Most VR fitness apps either target a dedicated, professional experience or provide exercise as an incidental side-effect of gameplay mechanics. Gym Masters wants to fuse those ideas.
Gym Masters is now running a Kickstarter campaign, where it’s looking to raise $11,707 by the end of April to release on Oculus Quest. The game brings players to Gym City, where they’ll enrol in gyms with the aim of working out and becoming a champion. Check out the Kickstarter trailer below.
To do that, you’ll take part in a bunch of fitness-focused minigames. In one, you’ll be punching soda cans and dodging pizzas thrown at you from the back of a car, whereas others will have you sprinting on a treadmill using your arms or catching flies with an electric swatter. On top of the fitness-focused gameplay, players will also be able to customize their own gym to build the workout experience they want.
Gym Masters certain has some really interesting ideas on gamifying exercise, though it’s tough to know it will work out without seeing more gameplay. VR fitness has proved to be a big part of the industry over the past year as Oculus Quest has risen in popularity and people have sought new ways to workout indoors. But games like Beat Saber are getting people in shape because they’re addictive, whilst apps like Supernatural work for people that want more routine. Can Gym Masters find a balance between the two?
If you are interested in backing, it’ll cost 10 Euro (about $1.17) to get pre-release access to the game, or 15 euro for the planned Oculus Store release (though that does assume the game’s been approved for sale on the Quest store). If it meets its goals, the studio hopes to release the full title in Q3 2021, though there’s also stretch goals for a PSVR version of the game and hand-tracking support.
Will you be checking out Gym Masters? Let us know in the comments below.
The latest update to Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky seeks to give the game a more objective-driven experience for those that want it.
Launching today, the No Man’s Sky Expeditions update adds a new mode of the same name in which players start out fresh on a given world. You’ll have a different set of starting gear compared to what you’d use in the standard campaign, but also a new set of challenges and objectives to complete as you travel along a path through the universe that the game itself has mapped out for you. Check out the trailer explaining the new mode below.
As you play through Expeditions you’ll earn badges and rewards that can transfer across other save files. In the trailer you can spot objectives like collecting a certain amount of ancient artefacts or making it a certain way through the galaxy. Completing these tasks might earn you new parts for base building or customization options for your character. Expeditions will have a seasonal structure, too, so you’ll find new types to take on over time.
Overall it looks like the update might help give some players a sense of direction in the game, which can be infamously intimidating when starting fresh for the first time. You can find more info about Expeditions here.
As always, though, there are plenty of other tweaks included in the latest update to further enhance No Man’s Sky. Hello Games says the HUD has been completely refreshed for a “cleaner and more legible appearance”, which we’ll certainly be interested to check out in VR. Weekend Missions are also coming back and the Analysis Visor has a new Target Sweep option that lets you identify new elements of worlds to help uncover new missions.
In truth, it’s starting to get harder and harder to keep up with the dizzying amount of new content coming to No Man’s Sky. It was just a month ago that Hello Games introduced pets to the experience and, in January, the team issued a patch to greatly improve the visual fidelity of the PSVR version on PS5. But the team isn’t done yet, so don’t expect it to be too much longer until we’re hearing about yet more updates.
Snapchat has been selling its Spectacles camera-glasses since 2016. Now on its third generation, the Spectacles glasses capture video from a first person perspective, but don’t actually include a display; the video captured has to be played back on a smartphone or elsewhere and the user can add Snapchat AR filters after the fact.
Now the company is preparing to launch a proper AR version of its Spectacles glasses, according to a report by The Information citing sources ‘familiar with the company’s plans.’
Snapchat’s Spectacles 3 are sleek camera-glasses, but lack displays. Adding them, and the sensors required for true AR functionality, will require significantly more bulk | Image courtesy Snapchat
The Spectacles AR glasses are said to initially be targeted toward developers, which the company hopes will build filters and other applications ahead of an eventual consumer offering.
During an interview with Bloomberg this week, Facebook Reality Labs VP, Andrew Bosworth, said that Quest 2 has outsold all Oculus headsets combined, a significant milestone for a headset which has only been available for five and a half months.
Andrew Bosworth | Image courtesy Facebook
Adding to a handfulofQuest 2milestones that Facebook has reported in recent months, this week Facebook Reality Labs VP, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, told Bloomberg reporter Emily Change that he believes Quest 2 is beginning to go beyond an early adopter audience and into the mainstream.
In response to Chang’s question about when VR will begin to see mainstream traction, Bosworth said:
“If you look a little closely, I think it’s starting to happen right now. The fact that Oculus Quest 2—in just a few months on the market—has outsold not just its predecessor, but all of its predecessors combined, is a tremendous indicator that we are now at that point where we have broken through from the early adopter crowd to an increasingly mainstream crowd.”
This is indeed a significant milestone, especially considering that Quest 2 has only been on the market for five and a half months, while the company’s first headset launched five years ago. Here’s a quick timeline of Oculus headsets:
Rift – March 2016
Go – May 2018
Quest & Rift S – May 2019
Quest 2 – October 2020
We’re guessing that Facebook is not including in the calculation Samsung Gear VR—which was an early smartphone-based Samsung VR headset made in collaboration with Oculus—though we’ve reached out to the company for comment.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Bosworth said that Quest 2’s price point was a significant factor in its growing traction; he said the company’s first VR headset, Rift, had an all-in cost of nearly $2,000 if you count the Touch controllers (which were sold separately for some time) and the PC required to power the headset.
Hand tracking first became available on the Oculus Quest back in late 2019. Out of enthusiasm for this new input method, I published a demo of Cubism to SideQuest with experimental hand tracking support only a few days later. Needless to say, this initial demo had several flaws, and didn’t really take the limitations of the technology into account, which is why I decided to initially omit hand tracking support from the full release of Cubism on the Oculus Store. It took more development, leaning on lessons learned from the work of fellow developers, to build something I was happy to release in the recent Cubism hand-tracking update. Here’s an inside-look at the design process.
Thomas is a Belgian-Brazilian VR developer currently based in Brussels. Although his original background is in architecture, his current work in VR spans from indie games like Cubism to enterprise software for architects and engineers like Resolve.
In this article I’d like to share some things I’ve learned when tackling the challenges specific to Cubism’s hand interactions.
Optimizing for Precise Interactions
Cubism’s interactions revolve around placing small irregular puzzle pieces in a puzzle grid. This meant the main requirement for hand tracking input was precision, both in picking up and placing pieces on to the grid, as well as precisely picking out pieces from a completed puzzle. This informed most of the design decisions regarding hand input.
Ghost Hands
I decided early on to not make the hands physics-based, but instead let them pass through pieces until one is actively grabbed.
This avoided clumsily pushing the floating puzzle pieces away when you are trying to grab them mid-air, but more importantly, it made plucking pieces in the middle of a full puzzle easier since you can just stick your fingers in and grab a piece instead of needing to figure out how to physically pry them out.
Signaled by their transparency, hands are not physical, making it easier to pick out pieces from the middle of a puzzle.
Contact Grabbing
There are several approaches to detecting a users intent to grab and release objects, like focusing on finger pinches or total finger joint rotation while checking a general interaction zone in the palm of the hand.
For Cubism’s small and irregular puzzle pieces however, the approach that seemed to handle the precision requirements the best was a contact based approach, where a piece is grabbed as soon as thumb and index intersect the same piece and are brought together over a small distance, without requiring a full pinch.
Similar to the approach in The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets, the fingers are locked in place as soon as a grab starts, to help give the impression of a more stable looking grab. The piece is parented to the root of the hand (the wrist) while grabbed. Since this seems to be the most stable tracked joint, it helps produce a steadier grip, and guarantees the piece stays aligned with the locked fingers.
Piece is grabbed when thumb and index intersect it and are brought together slightly. Rotation of index and thumb are then locked in place to help give the impression of a stable grab.
As soon as a piece is grabbed, the distance between thumb and index is saved, and a release margin is calculated based on that distance. Once thumb and index move apart beyond that margin, the piece is released.
Several safeguards try to prevent unintentional releases: we don’t check for release when tracking confidence is below a certain threshold, and after tracking confidence is re-gained, we wait several frames until checking for release again. Fingers are also required to be beyond the release margin for several frames before actually releasing.
Debug visualization: during a grab, the initial grab distance between fingertips is saved (outer red circle). The piece is released when the real position of the fingertips move beyond a certain margin (blue circle).
There is also a system in place similar to Vacation Simulator’s overgrab method. Due to the lack of haptic feedback when grabbing a piece, it’s not uncommon for fingers to drift closer to one another during a grab. If they close beyond a certain threshold, the release margins are adjusted to make releasing the piece easier.
Try it yourself: to see these debug visualizations in-game, go to ‘Settings > Hand Tracking > Debug visualizations’ and turn on ‘Interactions widgets’.
Debug visualization: If fingers drift to each other during a grab over a certain threshold (inner red circle), the release margins are re-adjusted to make releasing the piece feel less “sticky”.
One limit to this approach is that it makes supporting grabbing with fingers other than the index a bit harder. An earlier implementation also allowed grabbing between middle finger and thumb, but this often led to false positives when grabbing pieces out of a full puzzle grid, since it was hard to evaluate which finger the player was intending to grab a specific piece with.
This would not have been an issue if grabbing revolved around full finger pinches, since that results in a more clear input binary from which to determine user intent (at the cost of a less natural feeling grab pose).
Midpoint Check
Besides checking which piece the index and thumb are intersecting, an additional check happens at the midpoint between index fingertip and thumb fingertip.
Whatever piece this midpoint hovers over will be prioritized for grabbing, which helps avoid false positives when a player tries to grab a piece in a full grid.
In the example below, if the player intends to grab the green piece by its right edge, they would unintentionally grab the yellow piece if we didn’t do this midpoint check.
Left: thumb, index & midpoint between fingertips are in yellow → grab yellow. Right: thumb & index are in yellow, midpoint is in green → grab green
Grabbing the Puzzle
Grabbing the puzzle works similar to grabbing puzzle pieces, except it is initiated by performing a full pinch within the grab zone around the puzzle.
The size of this zone is dynamically increased when switching from controllers to hands. This makes it a bit easier to grab, and helps reduce the likelihood of accidentally grabbing a piece in the grid instead of the grid itself.
The grab zone around the puzzle expands when switching from controllers to hands, making it easier to grab. Although it requires a full pinch, grabbing the puzzle works similar to grabbing puzzle pieces.
Dynamic Hand Smoothing
The hand tracking data provided by the Oculus Quest still can have a bit of jitter to it, even when tracking confidence is high. This can actually affect game play too, since jitter can be much more noticeable when holding the puzzle grid or a long puzzle piece by the edge, making precise placement of pieces on the grid harder.
Smoothing the tracking data can go a long way to produce more stable looking grabs, but needs to be done in moderation since too much smoothing will result in a “laggy” feeling to the hands. To balance this, hand smoothing in Cubism is dynamically adjusted depending on whether your hand is holding something or not.
Try it yourself: to see the impact of hand smoothing, try turning it off under ‘Settings > Hand Tracking > Hand smoothing’.
Increasing the smoothing of hand positions while holding objects helps produce a more stable grip, making precise placement on the grid a bit easier.
Pressing Buttons
One thing I noticed with Cubism’s original hand tracking demo was that most people tried pressing the buttons even though that was not supported at the time. Therefore, one of my goals with this new version of hand tracking was to make the buttons actually pushable.
Buttons can be hovered over when a raycast from the index finger tip hits a collider at the back of the button. If the index finger then intersects with the collider, a press is registered. If the index intersects the collider without first hovering it, no press is registered. This helps prevent false positives when the finger moves from bottom to top.
There are a few more checks in place to prevent false positives: the raycast is disabled when the finger is not facing the button, or when the player is not looking at their finger when pressing.
Try it yourself: to see this debug visualization in-game, go to ‘Settings > Hand Tracking > Debug visualizations’ and turn on ‘Interactions widgets’.
Debug visualization: a raycast from the index tip checks whether the finger is hovering over a button. To help prevent false positives, interaction is disabled when the finger is not facing the button, or when the player is not looking at their finger.
Guiding Interactions
One of the main challenges of building any interaction for hand tracking is that, in contrast to buttons on a controller which are either pushed or not pushed, there are many different ways people may try to approach an interaction with their hands while expecting the same outcome.
Playtesting with a diverse set of people can help you learn how people are approaching the interactions presented to them, and can help refine the interaction cues that guide them to the expected gestures. Playtesting can also help you learn some of the outliers you may want to catch by adding some interaction redundancy.
Interaction Cues
There are several cues while grabbing a piece. When a user first hovers over a piece, their index and thumb take on the color of that piece, both to indicate it can be grabbed, and to signal which fingers can grab it (inspired by previous work by Luca Mefisto, Barrett Fox, and Martin Schubert). The piece is also highlighted to indicate it can be grabbed.
Several cues also indicate when the grab is successful: the fingertips become solid, the highlights on the piece flash, and a short audio cue is played.
Various cues both on the hand and the puzzle piece guide and confirm the grab interaction.
Buttons have several cues to help indicate that they can be pushed. Much like with puzzle pieces, the index fingertip is highlighted in white once you hover over a button, indicating which finger can interact. Like they did with controllers, buttons extend outward when hovered, but this time the extended button can actually be pressed: once the index touches it, it follows the finger until it is fully pressed down, at which point an audio cue confirms the click.
A subtle drop shadow on the button surface indicates where the position and distance of the index to the button and helps guide the press interaction.
Various cues guide interactions with buttons: buttons extend outward when hovered, the index fingertip is highlighted, a drop shadow shows where the tip will interact, and the button follows the finger when pushed.
Interaction Redundancy
Since some people may approach some interactions in unintended ways, it can be good to try and account for this where possible by adding some redundancy to the ways people can use their hands to interact. Interaction cues can still guide them to the intended interaction, but redundancy can help avoid them getting unnecessarily stuck.
When it comes to grabbing pieces, a few playtesters would try to grab pieces by making a fist at first instead of using their finger tips. By having the colliders cover the entire finger instead of just the fingertip, a decent amount of these first grabs will still be registered.
I should note this approach still needs some improvement, since it also introduces some issues producing unintended grabs in cases when there are a lot of pieces floating around the play area. A better approach in the future might be to also perform a check on the total finger rotation to account for fist grabs instead.
Though grabbing is designed around fingertips, colliders on index and thumb cover the entire finger to help catch different forms of grabbing.
With buttons, there were a few playtesters who would try pinching them instead of pushing them. In part this seemed to occur when they previously learned how to pinch buttons in the Oculus home screen, right before launching the game.
For this reason, buttons can also be clicked by pinching once they are hovered, and hopefully cues like the highlighted index and drop shadow will eventually guide them to pressing the buttons instead.
Pinching while hovering over buttons also registers as a click.
The first button players encounter when using hands also explicitly states “Push to Start”, to help transition people from pinching to pushing after coming from the Oculus Home menu.
Teaching Limitations
Although the quality of Quest’s hand tracking has improved over the last year, it still has its limitations — and a player’s awareness of these limitations can have a big impact on how good they perceive their experience to be.
Cubism implements a few ways of teaching player’s about the current limitations of hand tracking on Quest.
When the player first switches to hand tracking (either at launch or mid-game), a modal informs them of some best practices, like playing in a well-lit space and avoiding crossing hands.
When a user switches to hand tracking, a modal informs them about limitations and best-practices. The “Push to Start” instruction helps teach new users that buttons can be naturally pushed in this game.
It is important to acknowledge that most people are likely to immediately dismiss modals like this or quickly forget its guidelines, so signaling why things can go wrong during the experience is also important.
In Cubism, hands will turn red to signal when tracking was lost. In some playtests, people would keep one hand on their lap and play with the other, and be puzzled why their lap hand would appear frozen. To help inform cases like this, a message is displayed on the hand to clearly state why the hand is frozen if tracking loss persists. If tracking is lost specifically because the player is crossing their hands, the message changes to inform them not to do that.
Left: hands turn red when tracking is first lost. Middle: when tracking loss persists, a message informs the player about what is going on. Right: if tracking is lost due to occluded hands this is also indicated
For more seasoned players, or players who prefer playing with one hand, this feature can be replaced in the settings by having hands fade out when they lose tracking instead, more closely resembling the behavior in the Oculus home menu.
The red hands and warning messages can be replaced in the settings by fading hands.
Future Work
Hand tracking on Quest still has its limitations, and though Cubism’s support for it is already in its second version, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Regardless, I’m excited to start exploring and supporting these new input methods. In the short term, I think they can help make experiences like this more accessible and easier to share with new VR users.
Mixed reality footage captured on an iPhone with Fabio Dela Antonio’s app Reality Mixer gives an idea of what it may be like to play Cubism on an AR headset in the future.
In the long term, there seems to be a good chance that hand tracking will be the go-to input for future standalone AR devices, so hopefully this update can be a first small step towards an AR version of Cubism.
Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever is the latest Zombieland game spinoff and a first in several ways for the series. Read on for our full Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever review down below.
Aside from being the first Zombieland game in VR, it also does away with Double Tap Road Trips’s shoot-’em-up mechanics in favor of an arcade light-gun approach. It’s an approach that works better than expected overall, though some lacking visuals and other wonky issues keep Zombieland VR from being as good as it could be.
Zombieland VR Review –The Facts
What is it?: Arcade-style light-gun inspired wave shooter in VR with a sense of humor Platforms:Quest, other coming soon Release Date: March 25th, 2021 Price: $19.99
As you’d expect from the Zombieland series, Zombieland VR places most of its emphasis on gameplay instead of story. The zombie apocalypse is finished, people have emerged from their bunkers, and they figured they may as well have some fun now the world is shattered beyond hope of reasonable repair.
Enter the Zombieland Invitational, a frenetic, bloody competition to see who can shoot the most zombies in a set time. It’s an on-rails light-gun game and a nice change of pace from VR’s heavier zombie experiences.
You’ll start by customizing your hands and going through a short, but helpful tutorial that acquaints you with Zombieland VR’s basic mechanics — sort of. Each mission introduces at least one new mechanic and gives you perhaps a single split second to learn and react, while some others, including interactable items, receive no explanation as to what they do at all.
It’s good when games push you to experiment with the environment. However, with Zombieland VR’s fast pace, taking just a second too long means you’re likely overrun with zombies and either failing the course or losing valuable points. I’d have appreciated a more detailed tutorial or a prep mission with more room for learning before each course with a rundown of what features to look for.
Zombieland settles into a familiar and compelling loop after the tutorial. Challenge a course, survive (hopefully), and exchange points for upgrades. You’re encouraged to clear them as fast as possible. Each course is fairly short, consisting of five or so main areas strung together by movement points and crammed with zombies. Naturally, the flow feels reminiscent of light-gun style arcade games—minus the quarters.
Normally, I’m not a fan of replaying courses for higher scores, but Zombieland VR was different. The short length makes replaying painless, and beyond that, it’s just fun.
Zombieland VR gives you a handgun to start with and unlimited ammo. Headshots trigger the game’s signature Adrenaline feature, where time slows down and you can, ideally, string together more headshots for better combos. It sounds easy, sure, but there’s usually a horde of zombies running at you. Adrenaline won’t last long, so it turns into a balancing act between increasing your combo count and eliminating the nearest danger.
You’re inevitably left with a sense that you could have done better, turning replays into a personal necessity instead of a chore.
Slick gunplay and a substantial weapon pool help ease the burden as well. You get a secondary weapon after your first mission, and there are plenty more to unlock as you clear each stage’s challenges. Dual wielding, targeting zombies on both sides simultaneously — it’s essentially an action-hero dream.
The only issue with Zombieland VR’s guns is how the secondary weapon activates. You’re supposed to lower your non-dominant hand and press the grip button, but the game is fiddly about recognizing when it’s in the right position. Oddly, the issue was less prominent sitting down, and the opposite is true for reloading the handgun. It was smoother standing up.
Your reward for surviving courses and clearing challenges is toilet paper. That’s better than it sounds, though. As your companions tell you, toilet paper is the most valuable item in the apocalypse, and you’ll exchange TP to modify weapons.
Apparently, the game’s zombies raided every grocery store imaginable before succumbing to zombification, since they drop TP at a satisfyingly heavy rate. Stringing together combos and nailing headshots rewards you with bonus TP, as does eliminating multiple zombies at once, so there’s always something new you can do after a course — assuming you don’t keep failing them.
There’s a dizzying array of upgrades and weapons to work with as well. You can do the usual things, such as increasing ammo capacity, but you can also unlock personal upgrades, including a line of sight for your weapons and modifications to the Adrenaline system. Light-gun games can get boring fast, but Zombieland VR’s course variety, rewards, and upgrades keep it engaging for longer than you might expect.
One discomforting thing I noticed is that it seemed like I was gunning down quite a few Black zombies. In my experience some of the zombie waves seemed to include more Black ones than others, at least enough that I noticed it. Two editors at UploadVR checked and didn’t notice it as an issue in the first few levels and another reviewer at another publication that we spoke to also did not notice it as an issue in his entire playthrough, but I felt it worth mentioning since it stood out to me.
Zombieland VR Review –Comfort Settings
Zombieland VR doesn’t include many comfort features, though they aren’t necessary anyway. You can choose to sit or stand, pick your dominant hand, and turn subtitles on. However, it often positions subtitles in the periphery where they’re difficult to see. Most of the dialogue is non-essential though, so it’s more of an annoyance than an actual hindrance. Movement is nearly instantaneous in Zombieland VR, making it a good choice for those new to VR or with motion sickness sensitivity.
Finally, it’s worth noting how Zombieland VR looks — which is not that great. The chunky, cartoonish aesthetic works for the environments, but it makes character models seem primitive. It’s an issue not helped by frequent mismatching of dialogue and lip movements. You aren’t looking at them much, admittedly, but it does give the game more of a low budget feel.
Zombieland VR Review — Final Verdict
Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever isn’t trying to reinvent VR or the zombie game, and that’s just fine. The action is fast and enjoyable, level design encourages replaying, and you’re never short of something to upgrade or the means to upgrade it. Some finicky reloading, less than stellar character models, and skimpy tutorials keep it from being an essential game, but if you can look beyond that, you’re in for a much more entertaining light-gun game than meets the eye.
For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines. This review was conducted using a digital code provided by the publisher on a Quest 2 headset.
