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Wednesday, 1 May 2019

Boneworks Gameplay ‘The Same’ With Oculus Touch Controllers As Valve Index Controllers

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Boneworks is a great demonstration of the Valve Index Controllers, but it also has full support for the Oculus Touch controllers used on Rift and Rift S.

On Twitter today Stress Level Zero developer Brandon Laatsch showed off a first person view of Boneworks with Touch:

Boneworks is a detailed sandbox physics shooter developed by Stress Level Zero. SLZ previously developed multiplayer vehicular shooter Hover Junkers [7/10] and nostalgia filled arcade adventure Duck Season [8/10].

Boneworks takes VR object interaction and physics to the next level- every object is simulated with their physics engine. We went hands on with Boneworks at GDC and wrote that it feels like the first next generation VR game.

While the Index Controllers track each finger individually and allow the user to let go, the Touch controllers use a secondary analog trigger to track the middle finger and grip. To grab an object, users hold in that trigger. For Boneworks this seems to allow for the same interactions as Index controllers. Laatsch claims “gameplay is the same regardless of hardware.”

Last month in response to fan queries on reddit, Laatsch detailed the extent of the game’s support for the Touch controllers compared to the Valve Index Controllers:

I develop Boneworks every day using the Touch controllers since the majority of users will be using Touch or controllers with similar analog grip input. Others at our studio use Knuckles and other controllers.

Boneworks will have feature parity regardless of controller choice. Obviously, finger tracking is visually nice and a controller that you can release when throwing is immersive, but it doesn’t effect the gameplay.

While it seems that the Index will offer the best possible Boneworks experience, Laatsch’s comments seem to indicate that if you can’t stomach the price, the $399 Rift S should work well too- assuming the inside-out tracking holds up.

Tagged with: Boneworks, oculus rift, oculus rift s, oculus touch

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Want to Check Out Frieze? All You Need Is an App and a Headset.

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Viveport Infinity Adds Support For Index And Rift S, Offers Freebies

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With all the big news from Facebook and Valve yesterday, HTC doesn’t want to go unnoticed. To that end, it’s offering freebies for people that pick up the new Oculus Rift S and Valve Index headsets.

Over the course of June, anyone that signs into HTC’s Viveport platform with either of these two headsets (or the original Rift), will get two free months of Viveport Infinity. Infinity is HTC’s VR subscription service that offers unlimited access to over 600 different VR games and experiences. Unlike the old version of the Viveport Subscription, there’s no limit to how many titles you can download per month.

Infinity is a good place to sample some of VR’s lesser-known gems. While it might not feature hits like Beat Saber and Superhot VR, it has got great games like Transpose and Windlands 2 as well as more diverse apps like Tilt Brush. There’s also some decent member’s benefits. This week, for example, members can claim a free copy of Rockstar’s L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files.

If you decide to continue on with Viveport Infinity after your free trial it’ll cost you $12.99 a month. You can get it for a little less with an annual subscription too.

It’s a nice promotion, although yesterday’s news has us asking where exactly HTC’s Vive Cosmos has got to. We haven’t heard much at all about the PC VR device since its launch in January and, if people are buying a bunch of new headsets in May and June, surely HTC might want to give them a reason to hold on a bit longer?

Tagged with: viveport infinity

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HTC is Giving Away 2 Free Months of Viveport Infinity to Owners of Index & Rift Headsets

Oculus Quest Comes With Demos For Beat Saber, Creed And More

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The news is finally out; Oculus Quest, Facebook’s new VR headset, arrives on May 21. Over 50 titles are being lined up for the big day. But, given that you’ve just spent $399 on a new headset, you might be hoping to try a few games before you buy them. Well, good news; Quest comes loaded with five playable demos.

Oculus detailed what’s coming pre-loaded on the headset in yesterday’s blog post. Five titles will have samples ready and waiting, including arguably the biggest VR game of all, Beat Saber. Beat Games’ smash hit will offer the tutorial and two songs with varying difficulty levels to get to grips with. Beat Saber is one of VR’s most instantly addictive games, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself heading to the Oculus Store after trying this one.

Two new Oculus Studios games are also included in the mix. The first is Journey of the Gods, a cute little action role-playing game with a gorgeous art style. You’ll get “condensed versions” of the opening tutorial and boss fight here. Sports Scramble, meanwhile, is the latest from Armature. It’ll offer a tennis match either against an AI or friends online.

Next up for shooter fans is an arcade classic, Space Pirate Trainer. The long-loved wave shooter offers its first level in this demo along with a boss fight. Finally, we have a boxing match in Creed: Rise to Glory. We love Creed on PC VR but thought it was actually one of the weaker Quest ports we’ve seen so far. Still, now you can make up your own mind before you decide whether to pick it up or not.

It doesn’t sound like Oculus will be giving away any full games for free at Quest launch, but don’t forget the headset will come with cross-buy support. That means many of the games you bought on Rift via the Oculus Store will be ready and waiting on Quest. Yay, free games!

Tagged with: Beat Saber, Creed: Rise to Glory, demos, Journey of the Gods, Oculus Quest, space pirate trainer, Sports Scramble

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Valve is Selling a VirtualLink USB Type-C Adapter for Index

Oculus Sells Out Of First Three Days Of Quest And Rift S Stock, New Preorders Ship May 24

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Facebook opened preorders for the Oculus Quest and Rift S yesterday, with an initial shipping date of May 21. After one day of preorders, the website now provides an estimate of May 24 in the USA- indicating that the first three days worth of stock have sold out.

Orders placed early yesterday still show a shipping date of May 21, so this isn’t an overall delay- it’s simply stock being sold to preorders.

Of course, this doesn’t really tell us anything about how well Quest and Rift S preorders are selling. We don’t know the production rate or how Facebook has allocated stock between retailers. But being sold out of two days of stock already probably does indicate the launch wasn’t a total failure.

The fact that both headsets are the same amount delayed does however seem to indicate that neither product under or over performed relative to each other. Valve announced pricing and specs for its Index PC VR system just before Rift S preorders opened, but the $999 pricepoint means it doesn’t seem to have dampened demand for Rift S.

While we may never know exact sales figures for either headset, we will be able to get an idea of Rift S sales relative to other PC headsets when the June Steam Hardware survey is released in early July. The Steam Hardware Survey records which headsets are connected to the PCs of users which opt in.

Both headsets will be sold at Best Buy stores, but given this stock availability it’s unclear how easy it will actually be to pick one up on launch day.

Tagged with: facebook, Oculus Quest, oculus rift s

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