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Submission + - Unreal Engine and Unity to get NVIDIA's New VR Rendering Tech (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NVIDIA has announced that Unreal Engine and Unity will see integrations of its new Simultaneous Multi-projection rendering tech which the company says can yield “a 3x VR graphics performance improvement over previous generation GPUs”. NVIDIA recently introduced the technology as a unique feature of its latest series of GPUs built on the 'Pascal' architecture. According to the company, Simultaneous Multi-projection allows up to 16 views to be rendered from a single point with just one geometry pass, whereas older cards would need to add an additional pass for each additional view. This is especially beneficial for VR rendering which inherently must render two views for each frame (one for each eye). With Simultaneous Multi-projection built into Unreal Engine and Unity, game creators will have much easier access to its performance benefits.

Submission + - Creator of Minecraft Develops Experimental VR Project (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Despite his on-again off-again relationship with VR headset maker Oculus, the creator of Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson, has developed an experimental virtual reality project that leverages WebVR technology to run directly within a browser using a Rift DK2 headset. Notch contributed $10,000 to Oculus' 2012 Kickstarter, and even traveled from Europe to visit the company in its early days. After Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014, his enthusiasm dwindled, saying "I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook." One month before selling his own company to Microsoft for a similar sum, he said he was "officially over being upset about Facebook buying Oculus."

Submission + - HTC Vive Consumer Release Date Announced, Second Developer Kit Coming in January

Submitted by Will Mason
Will Mason writes: The long awaited HTC Vive VR headset finally got a release date, April 2016. This comes despite the reports at launch that the headset would release this year. In addition, HTC plans to unveil a second developer kit for the Vive at CES this year. Recently, HTC's head of marketing, who said on stage that the product would launch this year, jumped ship for the elusive Magic Leap start up in Florida.

Submission + - Studio Behind 'Little Big Planet' Confirms Next Title Coming to PlayStation VR (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As the company's first title, 'Little Big Planet' was a breakout hit for the studio Media Molecule. The franchise saw three major games across the PS3 and PS4, two mobile versions (for PSP and PS Vita), and a number of spinoffs. But now Media Molecule hopes to make lightning strike twice with the forthcoming genre-eluding title, 'Dreams', which enables players to create and animate inside of the game world using the PlayStation Move. After several months of question dodging following the game's initial announcement, the studio has finally confirmed at Paris Games Week that Dreams will support PlayStation VR.

Submission + - PSP Oculus Rift emulator puts players inside of virtual reality PSP games (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 'PPSSPP VR' is an emulator that specially adapts PSP games for use in the Oculus Rift VR headset (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oculus.com%2F). Going beyond merely showing a large screen view of the game in a virtual environment, PPSSPP actually puts you inside of the game with a full field of view, just like made-for-VR titles, including headtracking and true stereoscopic 3D. The emulator comes from the same author as Dolphin VR (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdolphinvr.wordpress.com%2F), the Wii & Gamecube emulator with VR support.

Submission + - Google Releases Open Source Plans for Cardboard v2 Virtual Reality Viewer (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After revealing an improved version of Cardboard (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fget%2Fcardboard%2F), the super-low cost virtual reality smartphone adapter, Google has now also freely released the detailed design documents, encouraging people to use them for projects ranging from DIY fun to full blown manufacturing. The v2 version of Cardboard is easier to assemble, has larger lenses, a universal input button, and is bigger overall to support larger phones.

Submission + - Epic Games Talk Optimization: Getting 'Showdown' to 90 FPS in UE4 on Oculus Rift (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Oculus has repeatedly tapped Epic Games to whip up demos to show off new iterations of Oculus Rift VR headset hardware. The latest demo, built in UE4, is 'Showdown', an action-packed scene of slow motion explosions, bullets, and debris. The challenge? Oculus asked Epic to make it run at 90 FPS to match the 90 Hz refresh rate of the latest Oculus Rift 'Crescent Bay' prototype. At the Oculus Connect conference, two of the developers from the team that created the demo share the tricks and tools they used to hit that target on a single GPU.

Submission + - New Oculus SDK Adds Experimental Linux Support and Unity Free for Rift Headset (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Oculus, creator of the Rift VR headset, has released a new version of their SDK which brings with it long sought after support for Linux, which the company says is "experimental". Linux support was previously unavailable since the launch of the company's second development kit, the DK2 (http://www.oculus.com/dk2/). The latest SDK update also adds support for Unity Free (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Funity3d.com%2Funity%2Fdownload), the non-commercial version of the popular game authoring engine. Previously, Unity developers needed the Pro version—costing $1,500 or $75/month—to create experiences for the Oculus Rift.

Submission + - DC Entertainment Bringing Batman Experience to Gear VR and Oculus Rift (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by muterobert
muterobert writes: Today it’s been announced that Warner Bros., DC Entertainment, and OTOY are collaborating to recreate the iconic Batcave from Batman: The Animated Series in virtual reality for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift. OTOY is providing what they call “holographic video” technology to render the scene in a way that’s true to the Batcave of the classic 90s show.

Submission + - Experiment Shows Stylized Rendering Enhances Presence in Immersive AR (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: William Steptoe, a senior researcher in the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group at University College London, published a paper detailing experiments dealing with the seamless integration of virtual objects into a real scene. Participants were tested to see if they could correctly identify which objects in the scene were real or virtual. With standard rendering, participants were able to correctly guess 73% of the time. Once a stylized rendering outline was applied, accuracy dropped to 56% (around change) and even further to 38% as the stylized rendering was increased. Less accuracy means users were less able to tell the difference between real and virtual objects. Steptoe says that this blurring of real and virtual can increase 'presence', the feeling of being truly present in another space, in immersive augmented reality applications.

Submission + - The Oculus Rift DK2, In-Depth Review and DK1 Comparison (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Benz145
Benz145 writes: The hotly anticipated Oculus Rift DK2 has begun arriving at doorsteps. The DK2s enhancements include optical positional tracking and a higher resolution panel, up from 1280×800 to 1920×1080 (1080p) and moved to a pentile-matrix OLED panel for display duties. This means higher levels of resolvable detail and a much reduced screen door effect. The panel features low persistence of vision, a technology pioneered by Valve that aims to cut motion artefacts by only displaying the latest, most correct display information relative to the user’s movements – as users of the DK1 will attest, its LCD panel was heavily prone to smearing, things are now much improved with the DK2.

Submission + - Google Adds Virtual Reality Street View Mode to Google Maps for Android (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the launch of Google’s Cardboard VR smartphone adapter at Google I/O 2014 earlier this week, the company hopes to kickstart VR development for Android. In addition to the Cardboard app, Google has pushed out and updated version of Google Maps which includes a VR mode for Street View.

Submission + - Killing Zombies in VR with the Latest Version of Project Holodeck at E3 2014 (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by muterobert
muterobert writes: Ben Lang from Road to VR goes hands on and heads in with virtual reality technology company Survios' newest version of untethered VR system 'Prime 3'. He moves around the virtual space, holding and reloading weapons as you would in real life.

"At one point while playing, I was wielding the shotgun with two hands, with the table of weapons was on my right side. Several zombies were approaching and I needed a bit more fire power. I dropped the shotgun, reached over with my right hand to grab the tommy gun off the table, then virtually tossed it from my right hand to my left hand (because I’m a lefty), then pulled my pistol out of the holster with my right hand and continued to shoot both weapons."

Submission + - Duo Sneak an Oculus Rift Onto Roller Coaster for a Wild Ride (roadtovr.com) 1

Submitted by bobbrocolli
bobbrocolli writes: Equipped with a hidden laptop and Oculus Rift, O’Driscoll may be the first person to have ever gone on a ‘Real VR’ roller coaster with perfect motion feedback. The duo’s system displayed a virtual version of the exact same roller coaster that O’Driscoll and Forder were on. With some practice they managed to sync the virtual reality roller coaster to the real rollercoaster.

Submission + - Build a Smartphone VR Headset That Plays Oculus Rift Games and More for $20 (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Not everyone can drop a few hundred dollars on a VR headset, but that doesn’t mean they can’t experience VR! For those with the time and a bit of handiwork skill, this DIY guide from guest writer Ohaple will show you how to make a smartphone-based VR headset for as little as $20. Along the way, you’ll learn the hardware and software basics of a VR headset.

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