News
16 CommentsVR headsets from HP, Dell, Lenovo and more in the works
Several of Microsoft’s manufacturing partners will release new virtual reality headsets alongside the new Windows 10 Creators Update, the company announced during a Windows-centric press conference Wednesday morning. The hardware will come from companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer, and will retail starting at $299.
The headsets will boast “inside-out tracking,” Microsoft said during the event. That allows for the headsets to track users’ movements without using any additional sensors. The PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift hardware each require tracking sensors and cost as much as $800.
“This means there’ll be zero need for a separate room,” explained Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group.
Microsoft is pushing virtual reality,...
Virtual Reality
67 CommentsThe Google Pixel is an amazing phone hidden in a boring body
Google’s drab-looking Pixel line of phones are going to be many things to many people, but it’s hard to overestimate just how important Google’s move into high-end hardware will prove to be for smart phones in general and portable virtual reality in particular.
We were sent a Google Pixel XL, the larger of the two models, in anticipation of the release of Daydream. Daydream is a virtual reality platform that’s set to take the basic ideas behind Google Cardboard a step further. The idea is to create a virtual reality platform that’s not as disposable as Cardboard, while offering a headset that resembles sweatpants much more than it does a piece of technology.
But Daydream isn’t here yet, so let’s talk about the phone. I inserted the AT&T SIM card from my personal phone — an iPhone 6S...
Cover Story
Issue
23
October 26, 2016
25 of VR’s greatest innovators
The people behind a ‘50s VR progenitor, Atari’s ‘80s think tank and other surprising milestones along the way.
Read moreDo you need $80 headphones specifically for VR?
What do you need from headphones in virtual reality?
Turtle Beach thinks it has the answer with the Stealth 350VR Gaming Headset, but at $79.99 they sit in that awkward place in audio where the headset is expensive for a peripheral but mid-tier in pricing for headphones. And it’s marketed directly at the virtual reality market. So what does it do to avoid feeling like an opportunistic cash-in?
I’ve been playing with the headphones for a while now, using them with a variety of virtual reality headsets. I have some thoughts.
Worth the price?
The headphones are light, and my first thought was to equate that lack of weight with cheapness. But it makes sense; this is a piece of hardware you’re going to wear on your head around another piece of hardware you’re going to wear on your head....
News
6 CommentsStar Trek VR game delayed to 2017
Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Ubisoft’s virtual reality game that puts players at the helm of a Federation starship, won’t make its previously scheduled fall 2016 release window, despite developer Red Storm Entertainment giving her all she’s got. Instead, players will boldly go where VR has never gone before in 2017, according to an update on the Ubisoft blog.
“In order to deliver the best game experience possible at launch, we have decided to push the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew to March 14, 2017,” Ubisoft said. “Star Trek: Bridge Crew is designed exclusively for VR and we want to offer a compelling and engaging experience. Command of the USS Aegis is right around the corner!”
Star Trek: Bridge Crew was revealed earlier this year. The virtual reality experience promises to give players...
Report
18 CommentsKeep Talking and Nobody Explodes is PSVR’s best party game — with few thanks to VR
It’s not unfair to say that, in 2016, the video game has superseded tabletop classics in popularity. Funny, then, that it’s the newfangled PlayStation VR headset which helped remind us at Polygon New York of board games’ unadultered, screenless pleasures. After several hours getting into the rhythm of the virtual reality version of Steel Crate Games’ Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, we’d found our new favorite party game, even if most of us had more fun without using the required $400 hardware.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes in virtual reality plays similarly to the standard mobile and Windows PC release from last year; in fact, we’ve played several iterations of it since development began in 2014. One player — the one with that gigantic, comfy headset on their face — is designated...
Report
5 CommentsWayward Sky is a charming PlayStation VR puzzle game you’ll want to play with others
“You are Bess, a young pilot flying with your father when you crash into a mysterious fortress that emerges out of the clouds,” the description for Wayward Sky, a $19.99 launch game for PlayStation VR, explains. “Your father kidnapped and plane in ruins, you set out to explore the fortress and rescue him.”
It’s story that is explained in the game’s opening minutes. Soon after, you’re using your Move controllers, or a DualShock 4 if you don’t mind giving up a bit of interactivity, to point Bess toward where she should go, or to jump down to her size and interact directly with different elements of the puzzle.
It’s a whimsical combination of almost feeling like you’re playing with tiny action figures, only to sometimes directly “touch” the different elements of the puzzles in the game as...
Virtual Reality
15 CommentsHow the hell did CCP cram Eve: Valkyrie onto PlayStation VR?
There’s a moment in the tutorial missions of Eve: Valkyrie where you’re literally shot out of a capital ship’s launching tube, and suddenly, there it is: the infinite reaches of space, pockmarked with huge ships and fighters. It’s a stunning sight in virtual reality — the sense of being inside your ship’s cockpit in deep space is thrilling — but I was used to playing on the Oculus Rift, connected to a beefy, not to mention expensive, gaming PC.
This was all being done on a PlayStation 4. And it looked incredible. Eve: Valkyrie on PlayStation VR isn’t a hacked-down version of the original; it’s a nearly unbelievable port on a system that seems like it wouldn’t be powerful enough to deliver these visuals at a frame rate high enough to be comfortable in virtual reality.
How the hell...
Virtual Reality
20 CommentsPlayStation VR comes with a rather stunning amount of free games and demos
PlayStation VR is one of the most expensive console peripherals ever released, even if one could argue it’s affordable as a VR solution. That puts it in an awkward place in terms of value propositions, but Sony has at least a partial solution to the problem: They are throwing free software at buyers.
It’s a weird situation. Players in general rarely expect demos of any kind outside of a beta here and there for the bigger online games, and bundles with software included usually happen later in the lifecycle of consoles and hardware. But Sony is bucking these trends by including a physical demo disc inside every PlayStation VR box. An actual demo disc! A physical one you can hold in your hand!
The disc features demos of a wide variety of VR games, including DriveClub VR, PlayStation...
News
33 CommentsHow to use PlayStation VR on Xbox One
The PlayStation VR headset is now on the market, and it turns out that the requisite PlayStation 4 isn’t actually required for play with it after all. The Xbox One — and the Wii U, presumably — is playable using the hardware, no hacks or customizations required.
We tested this out ourselves after reading some reports from Xbox One owners about playing the console’s games with the new headset. Connecting the Xbox One to the PSVR is really simple: Just plug the HDMI cable that is meant to go into the PlayStation 4 into an Xbox One instead. (For more detailed setup instructions, Sony has provided several video tutorials.)
If done correctly, turn on the headset to find the Xbox One menu inches away from your face. Obviously the games aren’t optimized for the headset, so don’t expect full...
News
8 CommentsHarmonix Music VR wants to change how you listen to music
“There’s nothing wrong with listening to music however you want to listen to music,” Jon Carter, the creative lead on PlayStation VR’s Harmonix Music VR, told Polygon.
“That said, there is a somewhat nostalgic image — a kid from some bygone era, sitting in their room and getting to know their music collection for hours on end — that serves as something of a driving inspiration for Harmonix Music VR,” he continued.
That’s one of the goals of the project. To get people to put some of their favorite songs on a USB stick, load up a visualizer, and bliss out to the music.
“It feels like an endangered activity,” Carter explained. “When you’re used to constant visual stimulation, like me and basically everyone I know, it can be physically difficult to engage with pure audio, unless it’s...
Virtual Reality
10 CommentsRez Infinite is one of the first masterpieces of VR
Releasing Rez Infinite in virtual reality, long after the original 2001 release date of Rez on the Dreamcast, feels like fixing a 15 year-old mistake.
The premise itself has always been simple: You have an aiming reticle, you line it up with a series of enemies by holding the attack button and then let go to fire your salvo at up to eight targets. Rez is, at its most basic level, a rail shooter with style.
The rhythm game was a classic from the moment it was released. Rez mixed an idiosyncratic aesthetic — you flew through virtual pyramids that moved in time to the pulsing visuals and soundtrack — with the sense that you were having a conversation with the game’s conceit. Everything linked up to the beat of the music, even the timing of your attacks. The way the simple premise was...
News
10 CommentsOculus removes VR support for Galaxy Note 7 over fears of explosions
Oculus is removing Gear VR support for all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices, Facebook announced through emails and on the Oculus website today.
The move comes as Samsung continues to investigate reports of the phone exploding or catching fire.
“If you have bought content in the Oculus store to use with your Note7 and you’d like to be refunded, Oculus will honor that,” according to the statement sent to owners. “More information about the refund process is forthcoming.”
The website listed for how to receive a refund hasn’t yet been updated with those details, but the site does note that the support for the Note 7 has been removed “until further notice.”
Earlier today, Samsung announced it was ending production of the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide. The news comes after months of reports of, and...
Opinion
33 CommentsFacebook’s challenge is simple: Sell more Rifts
Facebook and Oculus have a simple, but very difficult, goal: Sell virtual reality to the mainstream. That involves selling many more Rifts to players who may be skeptical of VR as a whole.
The games and hardware shown at Oculus Connect 3 in San Jose last week illustrate the strategy for how they hope to do this heading into 2017, and it involves selling players on — believe it or not — even more hardware.
It’s not going to be easy.
The Touch
We now know that the Touch controllers will be released on Dec. 6 for $199, and that bundle includes a second sensor and a set of two controllers. The games that Oculus showed off at the event that take advantage of the Rift and Touch combination were more than good, they represent a level of polish and sophistication that the Vive’s sprawling but...
News
15 CommentsThumper is a must-buy PlayStation VR launch title (and it’s not bad on flat screens, either)
You don’t have to play Thumper in virtual reality, but you’re missing out on a large part of the experience if you don’t.
You are what appears to be a space beetle, and you’re being held in an aggressively tight track with walls on either side as turns and bright bars of light fly towards you. The sense of scale (you are in a giant abyss filled with abstract but threatening structures) as well as speed (you seem to be moving at an impossible pace) are key to the game’s aggressive aesthetic.
The developer describes it as “rhythm violence,” and that violence comes through every aspect of Thumper’s design. You’ll feel battered even if you do everything right.
And that’s a feeling that’s enhanced by the virtual reality presentation. It’s why Oculus’ VP of product told us Thumper is the...
Superhot VR is a whole new game, built for the Oculus Touch
Superhot VR will be ready for the launch of the Touch controllers on Dec. 6, and it already feels like one of the best games on the platform. That sort of quality didn’t come easily.
“It’s been redone from scratch, actually,” Superhot Team’s Tomasz Kaczmarczyk told Polygon. Everything happens in slow motion, and time speeds up when you move, just like the original game, but in Superhot VR you can only take maybe a step in any direction during each scene. Time moves slowly until you speed up, and it’s your job to punch the enemies, shoot them with the weapons you find around the environment and dodge their counter-attacks.
The Superhot VR trailer
It feels amazing, and the nature of the action allows you to recreate some pretty intense action scenes. You can punch someone in the...
Virtual Reality
5 CommentsBehold, the Oculus Rift condom
It can be hard to keep the actual virtual reality hardware clean when you’re demoing the experience to dozens, if not hundreds, of people. But Oculus has a pretty good solution: The company kept rolls of what I dubbed “Rift condoms” at every booth during Oculus Connect 3.
The individuals working the show were more than happy to show me the rolls of virtual reality prophylactics, although they didn’t seem to repeat my term for the adhesive strips that would keep the player from feeling the forehead sweat of the player before them.
You could barely see the condoms when they were in use, and they felt similar to the standard Rift cushion, but they could be pulled off with a single motion. You can see one beginning to come off after a particular sweaty session of Dead and Buried below.
...
News
7 CommentsWhich game would an Oculus exec want to ‘steal’ from PlayStation VR?
Oculus is showing off a slate of new games for the Rift in general and the Touch controllers in particular at Oculus Connect 3. But I had a chance to sit down with Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell to pick his brain about the state of VR, and I wanted to know: If he could steal any game from the Vive or the PlayStation VR for the Rift, which game would he want to grab?
It didn’t take him long to come up with an answer.
“I went to the PlayStation offices to try PlayStation VR and I was blown away ... I don’t remember the name of the game but you may be able to tell me ... it reminded me of Rez, but it wasn’t Rez, and I was on this track ...”
I cut in to tell him the name of the game is Thumper.
“Thumper! I played Thumper, actually Otman Binstock, he’s our chief architect, he was...
News
33 CommentsHow many Rifts has Oculus sold?
There is one question everyone at Oculus Connect is asking each other — at least after they ask where Palmer Luckey is — and that’s the sales numbers of the Oculus Rift itself. Is the hardware doing well? Has Oculus sold a million units? Maybe “only” 100,000? No one has has any idea, nor do they even feel like they’re in a solid place to speculate.
I spoke with Nate Mitchell, Oculus’ VP of product, and asked when the company could begin to be more transparent about sales numbers and the size of the market.
“That’s a good question!” he said. He then spent around 30 seconds taking a long swig of water from the bottles located around the table before settling on an answer.
“I would say that we’re far, far from being saturated,” Mitchell stated. “In the next year, with Touch and min spec...
Virtual Reality
17 CommentsOculus spotlights diversity, not Palmer Luckey, at Oculus Connect keynote
Oculus — and by extension, owner Facebook — is spending $10 million on diversity initiatives, the virtual reality company announced at its Oculus Connect 3 event today. This is all the more notable because while Oculus founder and figurehead Palmer Luckey never took the stage, and in fact wasn’t even mentioned, during today’s event, nearly five minutes were spent discussing the VR company’s various diversity efforts.
“It’s no secret that this community needs to be even broader,” Ebony Peay Ramirez, project manager for diversity at Oculus said. “Virtual reality will only succeed if it represents a diverse ecosystem that speaks to different people and opinions. We want to see a wide variety of richer voices. We know that a platform that’s built with diverse thought, personalities,...
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