The first (almost) full year of full-scale consumer-grade virtual reality is just about in the books. We saw the release of the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, the PlayStation VR, Google’s Daydream platform, the Oculus Touch controllers, and the continued growth of both the OSVR and Samsung Gear VR platforms. Throw in plenty of other...
Category: The SSVAR blog
SSVAR blog talking about virtual reality,augmented reality and mixed reality.
Steam Goes Down For A Bit During The Winter Sale
In a stroke of luck for our collective bank accounts and wallets, but bad luck for developers and those wishing to empty their wallets, it seems like Steam went down for a while today during their massive Winter Sale. Steam sales have become major events within the gaming community and VR consumers were likely looking forward...
‘Rec Room’ Update Adds Private Lounge Space and Invite-Only Activities
A new update to popular Social VR app Rec Room adds a new invite-only space where friends can gather to play new activities in a private space. And now, players can host their own invite-only activities. Normally, when you load into Rec Room, you’ll join a randomly selected lobby full of strangers. When you go to partake...
Oculus Studios’ Dark Days Leaps From Gear VR To Rift
Remember Dark Days [Review: 7/10]? It was an Oculus-exclusive horror game released on Gear VR earlier this year. It was one of the few Oculus Studios titles to appear on only the mobile headset, but this week it’s sought pastures new. The game is now available on Gear’s big brother, the Oculus Rift, for $7.99...
Report: IMAX’s First Cinematic VR Centers Have Been Delayed
As we’ve reported multiple times in the past few months, IMAX’s location-based pilot centers for its VR experiences were planned for launch this year. As you may have guessed, things haven’t quite worked out that way. One of the first pilot tester centers, set to open in an Odeon cinemia in the UK city of Manchester,...
‘Island 359’ Zero Dark Update Adds Trackpad Locomotion, Arcade Mode, and More
One of our favorite Early Access SteamVR titles is getting a whole lot better today just in time for the holidays. The latest Zero Dark update for Island 359 [Early Access Review: 8/10] will add full trackpad locomotion, a new arcade mode, the legendary T-Rex dinosaur, a new progression system, and a massive all around...
‘MasterpieceVR’ Brings Cross-Platform Multiplayer Painting And Sculpting To Rift And Vive
Creating art with several people at once can be a crowded experience. But not in MasterpieceVR. MasterpieceVR from Brinx Software mends the gap between design applications, like Quill and Oculus Medium, by letting users 3D sculpt and 2D paint in environments like an apartment, or a floating island above the clouds. Friends can even talk on...
What Drives Us to Seek Out Immersive Experiences
Featured image from James Cameron’s Avatar. I have always been fascinated by insights into what drives us to make the choices that we do, and what motivates us to stay engaged with an experience. AMC’s Mad Men protagonist, Don Draper, shared his consumer insight in the famous ‘Carousel’ scene, that they were not just selling...
AltspaceVR Brings Live Comedy Show in London to Virtual Audiences Around the World
AltspaceVR held the first UK live comedy show in virtual reality, which marks a significant strategic move for the company as it tries to prove the case for enabling people to attend live events in virtual reality. With mounting competition from platforms like Sansar and High Fidelity (both of which are in Beta at the...
PlayStation VR Games Get Their First Sale In The EU
Oculus has its winter sale, Steam has one too, and Sony isn’t missing out, at least in the EU. The PlayStation January sale is now on for European PS4 owners, and it includes the first sale of PlayStation VR games. 12 games are featured in the sale, all of which were featured at the launch...