Blog V Reality: May 2024

Saturday 18 May 2024

ICYMI This Week: Neon Squad Tactics, Last Mech Standing, Contractors Showdown & More

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Catching up on the biggest VR news this week? Here's our latest roundup with a few stories you may have missed.

In hardware news, Google briefly demoed its upcoming AI smart glasses at I/O 2024 but didn't reveal its upcoming Android XR platform. Apple Vision Pro is getting systemwide live captions and will reportedly start being sold outside the US, while Immersed gives it extra virtual monitors. Meta announced Quest for Education, it's added an experimental travel mode to Quest 2/3, and Lufthansa will trial providing Quest 3 headsets to business class passengers.

VR gaming had a busy week. Silent Slayer secured a release date, Riven is coming to Quest, Space Pirate Trainer DX got a Quest 3 update, Smash Drums revamped its MR support and Meta's begun making App Lab apps publicly findable. Elsewhere, Masters of Light, Retropolis 2, Blacktop Hoops, Some Assembly Required, Mecha Party and Ultimate Swing Golf were all released, while Stride: Fates and CleanSheet got new ports. Finally, we also saw news for Retronika, OVRDARK, and The Exorcist: Legion VR.

You can find our full coverage here. As always, here are our top five VR news stories that we originally missed:

Neon Squad Tactics Promises Cyberpunk Action Strategy In VR

Developed by Tin Man Games, Neon Squad Tactics takes us to a cyberpunk metropolis called UltraCity. Playable solo or in online co-op, this action-adventure strategy games tasks you with carrying out missions for powerful corporations as you navigate this neon-lit underworld. That's coming to Quest on June 13.

Venture's Gauntlet Is A New VR Adventure Platformer On Quest, Steam & Pico

Following a Steam Early Access launch last year, Venture's Gauntlet will receive a full release update and standalone ports. Coming to Quest and Pico on May 23, the premise involves aging billionaire Adam Venture seeking a capable heir, tasking you with overcoming a series of deadly obstacle courses. That promises a five hour campaign, while more maps and multiplayer will be added post-launch.

Last Mech Standing Enters Early Access On Quest & Steam

Joining an increasing range of VR mech games this year, Last Mech Standing describes itself as a roguelike, arcade-style shoot-em-up. Piloting the Crimson Slayer, you're tasked with defeating colossal monsters called Behemoths. That's available now on Steam Early Access and Quest App Lab.

Consortium VR Offers A Voice Navigated Murder Mystery On Steam & Quest

Previously available in early access, Consortium VR by Interdimensional Games remasters and adapts Consortium. Set in the near-future on a futuristic spaceship, murder mystery thriller sees you playing as a celebrity peacekeeper called Consortium Bishop Six. it involves "using your own voice to shape relationships and navigate choices." The full release reaches Quest and Steam next week.

Contractors Showdown Kicks Off Solo Mode Beta This Weekend

Contractors Showdown solo mode beta test

Contractors Showdown, the battle royale sequel to 2018's Contractors, is beta testing a 'Solo Mode' that's currently live until tomorrow. Alongside jumping into 45-player matches across this 16-square-kilometer map, Caveman Studio is also implementing "optimized circle mechanics," an increased bot presence and giving players a free self-revive needle.

Other Updates

Neko Atsume Purrfect: Kitty Collector update 1.5.0 — Neko Atsume Purrfect: Kitty Collector

After some more updates? Here's everything else we've seen in VR news this week.

Neko Atsume Purrfect: Kitty Collector added a new cat and goodie in update 1.5.0.
ANB_Seth released some brief in-development footage for 'Gunman Contracts - Stand Alone."
VRChat opened signups to the iOS closed beta.
Ghosts of Tabor's latest update adds a cat to your bunker.
Thirdverse (Soul Covenant, X8) launched a 'Publishing Support Service' for global VR game publishers in Japan.
Capsule Critters is a new Apple Vision Pro game from Mythic Realms studio Petricore.
XR Bootcamp is partnering with Meta to host a global XR Hackathon with a $100k prize pool.
Population One kicked off 'The Collection Event' as the last event of Event Series 2.
OVRDARK: A Do Not Open Story is getting a physical release on PS5 this summer.

If you've got an update for a VR game we should know about for this article or future updates, you can use our contact page or email tips@uploadvr.com with details.

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Friday 17 May 2024

2024 Spring VR Gaming News Review: Flat2VR, Laser Dance, Batman & Alien

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VR's biggest year in history is almost halfway over with freshly announced Batman and Alien games incoming just as developers start finding their footing with mixed reality in Laser Dance and Niantic's Hello, Dot.

The biggest trend in VR gaming of 2024, though, is the blurrying line between flat content and VR.

Aided by the UEVR mod, the ceaseless work of Team Beef and the formal announcement of Flat2VR Studios, an assortment of high-selling Unreal Engine games are basically seeing robust VR support turned on inside the titles many people already own.

Meanwhile, the open source project Delta combined with changing Apple policy finally opened the floodgates to emulator support of classic game systems across Vision Pro and other Apple platforms.

Henry Stockdale and Don Hopper have been following the latest for UploadVR using their headsets at home, of course, but they also travelled to San Francisco earlier this year to meet with studio representatives, interview sources, and check out demos first-hand at the Game Developers Conference, with Don offering us a look at Angry Birds in mixed reality from the conference.

Before flying out to San Francisco, Don hopped in the Dune Ornithopter and flew over Arrakis trying to complete rescue missions in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Unfortunately, he failed to complete the grueling final mission and the desert takes the weak.

New label Creature teamed with Cubism creator Thomas Van Bouwel for Laser Dance. Henry's hands-on report highlighted the impressive laser-dodging game as mixed reality's most impressive demo to date. Starship Home is on the way from Creature too as one of Quest 3's first exclusives and, now, just a few months after Laser Dance showed us its cool ideas, Niantic's Hello, Dot wows with even the most simplistic interactions paired with Meta's latest dynamic occlusion.

All these changes are set against one of Meta's most significant foundational changes in years. Instead of a separate early access section with hard-to-find listings, Meta's App Lab system is merging with the main Quest store as Horizon OS takes shape.

Major VR & Mixed Reality Games On The Way

Watch Don and I discuss all this and more in our hour-long live recap video embedded above with teaser trailers for some of the games included.

If you don't have time, the takeaway here is that a drought in VR and mixed reality gaming looks to turn into a flood in coming months as developers start finding out what they can with the XR2 Gen 2 processor, hand tracking, dynamic occlusion, and new tools being made available to them with still-in-development operating systems likeHorizon OS and visionOS.

There are more big announcements and reveals planned for June, including at our own UploadVR Showcase late in the month, which is likely to be followed by a quiet period as many professionals take summer vacations. And during that period, we'll start to get a sense of games are likely to anchor VR buying decisions through the end of 2024

For example, we've got one of VR's most experienced studios Survios looking to follow in Alien: Isolation's footsteps with a terrifying new xenomorph experience across most headsets – Alien: Rogue Incursion.

On top of that, Meta's Camouflaj finally revealed the first look at Batman: Arkham Shadow. Expectations are extremely high for the title following outstanding work realizing the superhero fantasy of rocketing through the air as Iron Man.

2024 isn't even half over yet and these headlines tell a single story – VR headsets are about to have their biggest year in history as developers build faster than ever on TestFlight with Apple, App Lab with Meta, and, yes, even Early Access with Steam.

We'll have more throughout the year and, as of this writing, we're still receiving entries for the next UploadVR Showcase. More to come soon and be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for our live discussions.

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Thursday 16 May 2024

Quest 3 Finally Replaced Index as My Main PC VR Headset, and I Have Valve to Thank

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After nearly five years, I’ve finally moved on from Index as my main PC VR headset, and Valve is the one that made me do it.

Index is a great headset. Between it’s tracking, ergonomics, field-of-view, crisp display, and still industry-leading audio, it’s been hard to give it up—even if it’s resolution is, by this point, very much ‘last-gen’.

Even with Quest 3’s upsides of higher resolution, better lenses, no-tether, more compact form-factor, and no external trackers, I was still reaching for Index when it was time to dive into PC VR. But the release of Steam Link finally put me over the edge; Quest 3 is my go-to PC VR headset.

Steam Link is Valve’s application on Quest 3 (also available on Quest 2) which makes it incredibly easy to wirelessly connect to SteamVR and access all of your PC VR content. It cuts out the Oculus PC software and Quest Link as the middle-man, which made you jump through a few hoops before you could finally get to where 99% of PC VR users actually want to be: SteamVR.

Meta abandoned its Oculus PC platform years ago, and has only barely maintained the software to ensure that Quest Link would continue to work. But they know full well the vast majority of people using Quest Link are using it to get to SteamVR, not the abandoned Oculus PC library.

After using Steam Link on Quest 3 over the last few months, I realized it was steadily becoming the most frequent way I was jumping into PC VR. Right now I’m looking over at my unplugged Index in the corner, and I’m not sure the next time I’ll feel compelled to plug it in. I would still pick Index over Quest 2 even with Steam Link, but Quest 3 and Steam Link have tipped the scales.

It’s of course ironic that Valve’s own software made the difference. And it’s worth commending them for being willing to upend their own hardware to make things better for users—even if those users are using other headsets (Meta also gets a pat on the back for letting a competitor’s app onto their store).

Now Quest 3 is not only the best value in a standalone headset, it’s also the best value in a PC VR headset. That is, assuming you’ve got the right networking and PC to back it up.

Wireless PC VR is super convenient and can work very well, but you absolutely need an optimized network setup and a hefty gaming PC.

If you’re going this route, make sure your gaming PC is directly connected to your router. And your router should be at least Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), but ideally Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax). Ideally your router should also be in the same room that you’re gaming, but as long as its a room or two away, you should be fine.

A PC equipped with at least Core i5-4590 or equivalent, RTX 2070 or equivalent, and 16GB of RAM is also recommended.

– – — – –

Valve made Quest 3 my main PC VR headset; will they ever win me back with a follow-up headset? I don’t think anyone knows for sure right now, not even Valve.

The post Quest 3 Finally Replaced Index as My Main PC VR Headset, and I Have Valve to Thank appeared first on Road to VR.

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Masters of Light Takes A Swing At Gesture-Based Fitness

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Masters of Light is a new gesture-based wave shooter that launches today on the Quest platform, courtesy of the developer/publisher duo ALBYON and COVEN.

Offering gameplay that capitalizes on VR's physicality, Masters of Light puts hand-tracked pseudo-fitness at the heart of this gaming experience. Throughout the roughly two-hour adventure, you will embody an elite cosmic warrior tasked with defeating relentless waves of enemies while rescuing a race of celestial entities.

The game begins by arming players with a few simple gestures with which to wreak interstellar havoc, the core of which is an energy blast released with a punching motion. As the game progresses, new abilities are unlocked, and upgrades to existing powers are earned. Defensive abilities and AOE attacks are also added to the mix, quickly developing into an arsenal that's initially quite satisfying to use.

In the early game, while the waves of enemies are moderate, the gesture-based system holds up well. The gestures are intuitive and responsive, making dispatching enemies with them an enjoyable enough exercise; and make no mistake, exercise it is. With the main weapon activated via quick, repetitive punching, players will swiftly work up a sweat as they progress through the 36 cosmic levels that make up the game’s campaign.

Unfortunately, as the difficulty increases and the screen fills with enemies, the gestures begin to become finicky. This is particularly true of the 'snipe' ability, which is both crucial and unreliable during the later stages. Activating the power at all becomes hit or miss, and targeting specific enemies in the crowd is needlessly challenging. This is thanks in part to an overactive aim-assist system that (literally) doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Despite offering innovative combat mechanics that focus on using hand tracking, Masters of Light is, at its core, an unapologetically simple wave shooter. You stand in place on a floating platform while the action occurs in the 180° in front of you. Leaving a fully interactive 360° play space underutilized feels like a sorely missed opportunity, leaving the game feeling like an experience that would have been more at home in the earliest era of VR gaming’s evolution.

The action is helped along by a driving, '80s-style sci-fi synthwave soundtrack that keeps the energy high as you punch your way through the void. However, this prominent soundtrack leads to the spatial audio cues often becoming lost in the throng of beats and blasts. As a result, trying to use these cues to navigate combat is clumsy, particularly when facing enemies that force you to play in darkness.

Graphically, Masters of Light plays things safely. The cosmic backdrops are well-wrought but lack either the animus or context to truly ground you in this world. The player simply stands on a star-shaped platform, hovering randomly in the depths of space while blasting golden energy into the abyss. The simple enemy design makes it easy to discern what type of attacker you are facing but doesn’t connect enough to make vanquishing them feel as rewarding as it could have.

Overall, Masters of Light offers some decent`fitness-lite’ gaming that showcases hand tracking controls in an innovative way. However, with a core game loop lifted from 2016 and some frustrating inconsistencies with the controls, it falls a little short of the potential that gesture-based combat offers in VR.

Masters of Light is available now on the Meta Quest platform for $19.99, and a Steam release is "coming soon."

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Jumpscare Puzzler ‘Silent Slayer’ Coming to Quest Next Month, Trailer Here

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Schell Games announced its upcoming VR horror-puzzler Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is landing on the Quest platform next month.

Update (May 16th, 2024): Silent Slayer is slated to arrive on Quest 2/3/Pro on June 6th, which is now available for pre-order with a 10% discount off the regular $20.

Additionally, the studio tossed out a new mixed reality trailer that shows off just how creepy the game really is, embedded below. In the meanwhile, if you’re looking for a more in-depth look at Silent Slayer, check out our preview where we went hands-on with the first few levels.

Original Article (February 2nd, 2024): Schell Games, also known for its hit spy puzzle VR series I Expect You to Die, explains a little more about what makes the game tick in the new gameplay trailer, seen at the bottom of the article, which features developer commentary.

In short, it’s all about precision, tension, and the danger of a slumbering vampire being awakened at any moment. Set in a spooky mansion, the developers explain that each chapter of the game is broken into two halves: preparation and execution.

At first, you’ll need to take time preparing to deal with the vampire by consulting the book and assembling an increasingly complex ‘Binding Stone’ puzzle. Then you’ll need to figure out how to take down each vampire by using various tools, and eventually finding its heart and performing a binding ritual to unlock the last magical barrier of defense that keeps the vampire safe from your inevitable stake.

But you’ll have to keep quiet as you play what feel like a decidedly spookified version of Operation; fast movements or loud noises will wake the vampire, leading to what promises to be a pretty nasty jump scare.

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is set to launch on Quest 2/3/Pro this year (see update). While we’re still waiting for a precise release date, you can wishlist the game on the Quest Store here.

The post Jumpscare Puzzler ‘Silent Slayer’ Coming to Quest Next Month, Trailer Here appeared first on Road to VR.

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Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye Beautifully Translates Point-And-Click To VR On Quest & Steam

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Like flipping through the familiar red and blue pages of a well-worn old book, seeing the evolution of point-and-click adventure games going from the pixelated classics of the '90s to some of the recent releases we've seen in virtual reality has been a magical journey. Early games like the Tex Murphy adventures or Myst offered a unique blend of storytelling mixed with puzzle-solving that captivated gamers, and with the advent of virtual reality the genre has found a new dimension to explore.

The recently released Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye is a shining example of a game that not only pays tribute to those classics but also looks to bring new life to a time honored style of gaming. Developed by the team at Peanut Button Studios, Retropolis 2 continues the legacy of its predecessor, The Secret of Retropolis, enhancing the experience we saw in the first game. With every scene and character being hand-drawn and painted in VR, both games stand out as masterpieces of art and storytelling.

A Look Back: The Secret of Retropolis

Before we dive into the world of Retropolis 2, we should take a look back and appreciate where it all began. The Secret of Retropolis, released in 2021, set the stage with its engaging narrative and visually stunning artwork that captured the essence of those old classic film noir detective sagas but this time through a futuristic lens. Players were introduced to a world where mysteries lurk around every corner and, while the game was well received on all platforms it released on, it was fairly short and seemed more like it was trying to give us a glimpse of what might come in the sequel we now have.

Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye builds on this foundation by expanding on the Retropolis universe and both deepening and continuing the narrative from the first game. This continuity and expansion are handled with care, with Peanut Button ensuring fans of the first game feel right at home while also welcoming new players with an intriguing plot and accessible gameplay that doesn't require intimate knowledge of the events of the first game in order to be enjoyable.

Characters and Dialogue: The Heart of the Story

At the heart of Retropolis 2 is a story narrated by the game's main character, Phillip Log, the enigmatic detective with a troubled past. The story unfolds as he tries to unravel a new mystery that has him searching for his one true love, Jenny Montage who's been kidnapped by the games villain, The Magician. Retropolis 2 also introduces a new cast of characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. Similar to those old choose-your-own-adventure books, the dialogue choices you make influence the story being told around you. Those choices also add a bit of depth to the narrative and possibly even a bit of replay value. The dialogue choices can also offers some witty and dark humor in places, which can be a nice break in the story's tense atmosphere.

Graphics and Visual Style: Hand-Painted Brilliance

The visual appeal of Retropolis 2 is immediately apparent from the minute the game starts with everything the player sees in the environments around them being a testament to the dedication and skill of the artists who created this world. The hand drawn environments are richly detailed and character animations and interactions are nicely done conveying emotions and personality. Retropolis 2’s art style is filled with backdrops that are integral to the storytelling. From dimly lit alleyways, to Phillip's office/apartment, every level is crafted with an eye for detail and the use of lighting and shadow is also particularly noteworthy, adding layers of depth to these hand-drawn scenes.

Sound Design and Voice Acting

The sound design in Retropolis 2 is also outstanding and blends nicely with the game's visuals, complementing the mood of each scene perfectly. Musical styles ranging from jazzy tunes coming out of the jukebox in the robot bar, to the suspenseful melodies found throughout the game are perfectly fitting to Retropolis 2's film noir style. The sound effects are also mixed in appropriately and well-timed, some providing crucial feedback during interactive segments and adding to the overall immersion. As for the games voice acting, it's very well done with each voice actor fitting the character they were playing perfectly. This is the one area I felt a sense of lower production value, though, as the presentation lessens the sense of immersion. Voices sounding tinny, hollow and distant makes sense narratively in a world overtaken by robots, but to human ears it's distracting. This is not a deal breaker, but set against the high quality of the music and background artwork, it stood out enough that it should be mentioned.

Comfort and Controls

When it comes to the comfort levels in Retropolis 2, since this game takes place from a static position and the only artificial movement is snap turning, most players should find it a comfortable experience in VR. Retropolis 2 can be played either seated or standing, but since there is no real incentive to get up and move around, we recommend just kicking back and playing it seated in your favorite swivel chair.

As for the controls, they are fairly simple, making it easy for players of all skill levels to dive right in. Retropolis 2 uses a combination of gaze-based interactions and controller inputs for puzzle solving and locomotion that can sometimes require thoughtful consideration, but never end up being so complex that the gameplay becomes frustrating.

Case Closed

Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye is a hand-drawn love letter to the classic point-and-click adventure games that came before it and is a true gift for VR enthusiasts who appreciate a well-crafted story. The game is available to play now for PCVR headsets on Steam and standalone on Quest. We feel Retropolis is definitely a case worthy of taking on, and one that will leave you pondering its mysteries long after the credits roll.

Peanut Button told UploadVR they have the story worked out for a third installment in Retropolis with work beginning on an Apple Vision Pro release for the existing chapters.

We'll have more coverage of Retropolis soon.

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Stride: Fates Takes VR Parkour To PSVR 2 & Steam Today

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Stride: Fates brings action parkour to PSVR 2 and PC VR today.

Released last November, Stride: Fates is Joy Way's standalone sequel to Stride which initially began life as a free update. Following on from the Quest version, Joy Way confirmed its action parkour game coming to both Steam and PSVR 2 with promised visual improvements and 90fps performance.

The Steam and PSVR 2 versions won't include February's mixed reality update - a seven-mission campaign sees you protecting your home as you extract data from drones. However, Joy Way states the Steam release comes with the first DLC and Concrete Jungle DLC. While the first DLC is ready to go, PSVR 2 players won't have immediate access to the Concrete Jungle DLC.

Stride: Fates is available now on the Meta Quest platform, while the Steam and PSVR 2 versions follow later today. The publisher confirmed Steam players eligible for a free copy of Fates will receive it via email on launch day.

Notice: This article was initially published on March 29, 2024. It was updated on May 16 to reflect the PC VR and PSVR 2 launch.

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Wednesday 15 May 2024

AR Content is Coming to Google Maps, But It Won’t Matter Until There’s a Headset to See it Through

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Google today announced it’s starting a pilot program that will soon allow select partners to create AR content and display it within Google Maps. While it seems like an important step for Google on the way to owning a piece of the ‘all-day AR glasses’ future, it’s unclear just where it’s all headed for the company in the near term. Because compared to Meta and Apple, Google still seems unable to commit to a coherent XR strategy.

Starting in Singapore and Paris later this year, Google is essentially elevating content built in its Geospatial Creator platform to the world stage, as it will soon allow select partners to publish their AR content connected to physical landmarks via Google Maps, which you can view through both Lens and Street View.

The hope, it seems, is it get mobile users engaged with AR content by searching for a location in Google Maps and holding your phone up at landmarks, shops, etc. Some of the examples seen in the video below include cultural and historical stuff, but also virtual billboards for private businesses, presenting something of a low poly Blade Runner vibe.

It’s a pretty neat showcase for tourist boards to get behind, and a cool Easter egg for Google Maps users too, but it’s difficult to imagine it will ever be more than that, at least on mobile devices.

While we use our phones for everything, mobile AR applications are neither as immersive as the promo video suggests, nor additive enough yet to really engage with for any meaningful amount of time before the glass rectangle goes back in your pocket or bag. That’s why so many companies are pinning their hopes on functional AR glasses for all-day use; it will remove that frictional boundary and put that AR layer much closer to the forefront to both users and the advertisers trying to reach them.

And as you’d imagine, there was little in the way of XR at Google’s I/O developer conference this year—unfortunately expected after the company canned its AR glasses Project Iris last summer, which also saw the resignations of top leadership, including AR & VR chief Clay Bavor, and head of XR operating systems Mark Lucovsky.

At the time, Lucovsky maintained in an X post his departure was heavily influenced by “changes in AR leadership and Google’s unstable commitment and vision.”

That’s not to say Google isn’t doing XR stuff, but it all still feels like it’s following the company’s usual brand of scattershot Darwinism. We heard about more incremental updates to ARCore, its developer platform for building AR experiences which was initially released in 2017. We heard about how its light field video chatting tech Project Starline will soon become an actual product.

We also got a quick glimpse of a very Project Iris-style device in a video (seen below), which the company simply calls “a prototype glasses device.”

The demo was more about highlighting the company’s research in computer vision and AI assistants with Project Astra though, as there’s no word on what those glasses are beyond that description. Given what we saw, it appears the device is more like a pair of Google Glass-style smartglasses than AR glasses as such. Learn more about the difference here.

The short of it: smartglasses can do things like feed you AI assistant stuff, play music, and show you static information, i.e. not spatial data like 3D models that blend in naturally with the physical landscape. That would require significantly more compute, battery, and more powerful optics than those prototype glasses could hope to provide, which means no interactive maps or more immersive version of Pokémon Go either.

Most of all, we’re still waiting to hear about the Samsung+Google partnership that might bring a Vision Pro competitor from Samsung. Most importantly though, it will be Google’s next big stab at launching an Android-based XR operating system following its now defunct Daydream platform.

The post AR Content is Coming to Google Maps, But It Won’t Matter Until There’s a Headset to See it Through appeared first on Road to VR.

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Retronika Mixes Futuristic Cycling With A VR FPS On Quest

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Retronika mixes real-life cycling controls across futuristic highways with a VR FPS on Quest.

Created by 4Players-Studio, Retronika is an immersive racer game with FPS elements and cartoonish cel-shaded visuals. Set across a mission-based campaign, Retronika requires clearing objectives like defeating a set number of enemies or surviving challenging conditions. Completing each mission unlocks bike upgrades, new weapons and other customizations. Here's the trailer.

Each mission tasks you with navigating a flying bike, using a control scheme mimics steering a real-life bicycle. You're tasked with avoiding collisions with other retro-futuristic vehicles across a dynamically generated, tiled environment. This all occurs while shooting down enemies like drones, weaponized vehicles and stationary turrets. Retronika offers nine weapons each featuring "distinct characteristics," letting you equip two at once.

Previously targeting Q1 2024, a new release window for Retronika remains unconfirmed on the Meta Quest platform. We've contacted 4Players-Studio for more details and we'll update this article if we learn more.

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OVRDARK: A Do Not Open Story Creeps Onto Steam Soon

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OVRDARK: A Do Not Open Story reaches PC VR next week.

Originally announced last year, OVRDARK: A Do Not Open Story is a survival horror VR sequel to 2022's Do Not Open. Playing as George Foster, you must explore Mike Goreng's family mansion and uncover the truth behind your closest friend's suicide. Following its PSVR 2 launch in March, the Steam release now follows on May 23.

OVRDARK requires careful navigation to evade detection from Mike Goreng through stealth gameplay, so you'll often need to stop moving or avoid making sudden gestures. NoxNoctis Studio confirms the game also supports spatial audio, haptic feedback to help navigate puzzles and features minimal loading screens.

Our video producer Don Hopper recently spoke with NoxNoctis 3D Artist and CEO, Adrian Cuesta Esteban, to find out more. Discussing OVRDARK's premise, story connections with Do Not Open and gameplay at GDC 2024, you can watch our full interview below:

0:00

/5:44

OVRDARK: A Do Not Open Story is available now on PSVR 2, while the PC VR release follows on May 23. It's also reaching Pico and the Meta Quest platform at a later date.

Notice: This article was initially published on March 29, 2024. It was updated on May 15 to reflect the confirmed PC VR release date.

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Tuesday 14 May 2024

Apple's Ads Point To Fundamental Features Of Life With VR And AR

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A lot of people felt crushed by Apple's latest iPad ad.

Like a magic trick without the prestige, Apple's much-discussed spot shows an entire stage full of creative tools and instruments smashed down into a thin plate of touch-sensitive glass.

On X, former Apple researcher Sterling Crispin joked "crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators, nice. Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, 'God is dead and we have killed him'".

In another Apple spot, a costumed mandalorian walks down the street to the beat of their own music, straight through the reflection of a mirrored building, and without missing a single step they blast through a crowd of suited men. Free of society as we know it, we then see and hear the first glimpses of Disney intellectual property worn by other people in Apple's universe. Finally, faced with an overwhelming crowd of like-minded Star Wars fans, the mandalorian pulls an iPhone out of their holster to wayfind directly to their clan.

You don't see Apple's answer to Beat Saber and Facebook here? Ok, I get it. Neither of these ads are for games or visionOS, and they don't mention VR or AR, so I guess it's easy not to see the connection. But isn't "find your friends" a pretty direct statement when viewed in opposition to $100 billion of investment spent over the last decade in a new computing platform from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg?

Another spot actually shows Vision Pro in a real-world use case – flying through the air and watching Apple's subscription-attached Napoleon film on a virtual screen larger than anything in first class. In fact, the screen is larger than some movie theaters with a picture that's also probably brighter.

New Apple Vision Pro ad pic.twitter.com/bpedzSmPIi
— M1 (@M1Astra) February 5, 2024

Not pictured? The $3,500 price tag. Instead: "A movie theater. Wherever you are."

Long-time Apple product-marketing director Frank Casanova retired after Vision Pro's launch, according to Bloomberg, and WWDC is coming up next month to unveil the company's next steps. Meanwhile, Apple added a gyroscope-equipped Pencil Pro to the lineup after supporting ultra-low latency audio to Vision Pro in last year's AirPods Pro refresh.

Many felt crushed seeing all those beautiful instruments of creativity from the 20th century smashed by Apple's marketing department with such gleeful abandon. Many others, meanwhile, have somehow decided Apple CEO Tim Cook is already ready to abandon its spatial computing efforts just a few months in. Or is Cook ready pull out all the stops in competition with Meta?

Apple might not use terms like AR or VR very often, but you can still see glimpses of a larger picture in these ads. Viewed altogether, Apple's vision for the future of its computing platforms in VR & AR services is only beginning to surface.

To continue the analogy of a magic trick, Cook made a "pledge" by shipping Apple Vision Pro earlier this year and these ads show us the "turn" in disruptions to creativity, work, and travel. These ads challenge whether the 20th century's tools and social norms were actually the best we could do, and that discomfort you feel in seeing it coming at you is by design.

"Making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back."

And that's why everyone, even the Metamates or Apple haters, await the "prestige" in the third act of this particular magic trick.

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Meta Just Made It Easier for Small Developers to Get Apps Into the Main Quest Store

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Quest users searching the Store will now be able to more easily find games published through its early access distribution channel, App Lab, which previously weren’t visible, effectively giving smaller studios a more level playing field.

Meta is making its operating system and app store available on third-party VR headsets sometime soon, and one of the bigger changes coming to the platform is the blurring of the barrier between the Main Store and App Lab.

Besides offering a way for studios to publish their titles in early access, App Lab also lets any developer who meets basic technical and content requirements ship software on the platform, effectively making it open to studios of any size.

Now App Lab has its own section of the store, making those indie titles and early access games a lot more visible. To boot, App Lab games were previously hidden in the Main Store, but are now showing up in search results, appended with the new ‘App Lab’ section title.

Meta has also removed the previous pop-up warning as well when viewing an App Lab game, replacing it with a smaller note next to the game’s user rating, stating “This app may be experimental or still in development.”

Elevating App Lab games makes a good deal of sense considering how well indie titles like Gorilla Tag have fared through the parallel distribution in the past, which to date is not only the platform’s most reviewed game, but has also generated the most revenue on Quest. It’s likely the company will look to further dissolve the boundaries between Main Store and App Lab as it begins licensing Horizon OS (ex-Quest OS).

The post Meta Just Made It Easier for Small Developers to Get Apps Into the Main Quest Store appeared first on Road to VR.

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Silent Slayer: Vault Of The Vampire Arrives Next Month On Quest

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Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire stakes a release date on Quest next month.

Marking the first VR horror title from Schell Games, best known for Among Us VR and the I Expect You To Die series, Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is described as a single-player "jumpscare VR horror game." Playing as a vampire hunter guided by a mystical book, you're tasked with slaying these fearsome foes with "distinct peculiarities and inclinations" by quietly disarming traps and navigating puzzles. Arriving on June 6, here's the new trailer.

We had positive impressions in our Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire preview at PAX East recently, praising how it "eschews trends in horror game design for something a bit more fresh and compelling."

Silent Slayer forbids any loud noises at the risk of getting caught and killed by your deadly targets. The approach keeps the game’s pace slow and methodical—and extremely tense... It seems like it’s providing enough different types of tasks and actions throughout any given level to keep its fairly simple loop from going stale.

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire reaches the Meta Quest platform on June 6 for $19.99 with a 10% pre-order discount.

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Meta Is Working On A Quest For Education Offering For Schools & Universities

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Meta is working on a platform to allow schools and universities to manage Quest headsets for use in the classroom.

The offering will be similar to the Quest for Business platform Meta launched late last year, which allows mass management, updating, and app management of Quest headsets for a per-device subscription fee.

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Meta isn't announcing the full details of the education offering yet or the name, but says it will "allow teachers, trainers and administrators to access a range of education-specific apps and features, and make it possible for them to manage multiple Quest devices at once, without the need for each device in a classroom or training environment to be updated and prepared individually".

The company claims these features "will save teachers time and allow students to pick up the headsets and get started right away".

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Monday 13 May 2024

New Meta R&D Reveals Shortcut to Ultra-wide Retina Resolution Holographic Displays in XR

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Researchers from Meta Reality Labs, Princeton University, and others have published a new paper detailing a method for achieving ultra-wide field-of-view holographic displays with retina resolution. The method drastically reduces the display resolution that would otherwise be necessary to reach such parameters, making it a potential shortcut to bringing holographic displays to XR headsets. Holographic displays are especially desirable in XR because they can display light-fields, a more accurate representation of the light we see in the real world.

Reality Labs Research, Meta’s R&D group for XR and AI, has spent considerable time and effort exploring the applications of holography in XR headsets.

Among the many obstacles needed to make holographic displays viable in an XR headset is the issue of étendue: a measure of how widely light can be spread in a holographic system. Low étendue means a low field-of-view, and the only way to increase the étendue in this kind of system is by increasing the size of the display or reducing the quality of the image—neither of which are desirable for use in an XR headset.

Researchers from Reality Labs Research, Princeton University, and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology published a new paper in the peer-reviewed research journal Nature Communications titled Neural étendue expander for ultra-wide-angle high-fidelity holographic display.

The paper introduces a method to expand the étendue of a holographic display by up to 64 times. Doing so, the researchers say, creates a shortcut to an ultra-wide field-of-view holographic display that also achieves a retina resolution of 60 pixels per-degree.

Image courtesy Meta Reality Labs Research

Higher resolution spatial light modulators (SLM) than exist today will still be needed, but the method cuts the necessary SLM resolution from billions of pixels down to just tens of millions, the researchers say.

Given a theoretical SLM with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320, the researchers say simulations of their étendue expansion method show it could achieve a display with a 126° horizontal field-of-view, and a resolution of 60 pixels per-degree (truly “retina resolution”) in ideal conditions.

No such SLM exists today, but to create a comparable display without étendue expansion would require an SLM with 61,440 × 34,560 resolution, which is far beyond any current or near-future manufacturing capability.

Étendue expansion itself isn’t new, but the researchers say that existing methods expand étendue at significant cost to image quality, creating an inverse relationship between field-of-view and image quality.

“The étendue expanded holograms produced with [our method] are the only holograms that showcase both ultra-wide-FOV and high-fidelity,” the paper claims.

The researchers call the method “neural étendue expansion,” which is a ‘smart’ method of expanding étendue compared to existing naive methods which don’t take into account what is being displayed.

“Neural étendue expanders are learned from a natural image dataset and are jointly optimized with the SLM’s wavefront modulation. Akin to a shallow neural network, this new breed of optical elements allows us to tailor the wavefront modulation element to the display of natural images and maximize display quality perceivable by the human eye,” the paper explains.

The authors—Ethan Tseng, Grace Kuo, Seung-Hwan Baek, Nathan Matsuda, Andrew Maimone, Florian Schiffers, Praneeth Chakravarthula, Qiang Fu, Wolfgang Heidrich, Douglas Lanman & Felix Heide—conclude their paper saying they believe the method isn’t just a research step, but could itself one day be used as a practical application.

“[…] neural étendue expanders support multi-wavelength illumination for color holograms. The expanders also support 3D color holography and viewer pupil movement. We envision that future holographic displays may incorporate the described optical design approach into their construction, especially for VR/AR displays.”

And while this work is exciting, the researchers suggest they have much still to explore with this method.

“Extending our work to utilize other types of emerging optics such as metasurfaces may prove to be a promising direction for future work, as diffraction angles can be greatly enlarged by nano-scale metasurface features and additional properties of light such as polarization can be modulated using meta-optics.”

The post New Meta R&D Reveals Shortcut to Ultra-wide Retina Resolution Holographic Displays in XR appeared first on Road to VR.

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