The New York Times is bringing its signature crosswords game into augmented reality. The media company announced this morning it’s launching a new AR-enabled game, “Shattered Crosswords,” on Instagram, where players will be able to solve clues by finding spinning broken crossword pieces in AR. When the right vantage point is achieved, players will find...
Category: The SSVAR blog
SSVAR blog talking about virtual reality,augmented reality and mixed reality.
Googling for ‘Baby Yoda’ will bring him into your living room via augmented reality
Google has been all about the fun little augmented reality Easter Eggs lately, with a bevy of search terms triggering Halloween-themed AR experiences back in October. Ghosts! Jack-o-lanterns! Dancing skeletons! Now they’ve got another one. Rolled out just in time for tomorrow’s Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, this one brings The Child (or, as...
Google Launches TensorFlow 3D Using LiDAR & Depth Sensors for Advanced AR Experiences
After the mobile augmented reality platforms of ARKit and ARCore moved Google’s previously groundbreaking Project Tango (the AR platform that gave us the first smartphones with depth sensors) into obsolescence in 2018, we’ve seen a bit of a resurgence of what was then a niche component for flagship devices. Samsung revived the time-of-flight sensor with...
Quest, PC VR Games Discounted In Lunar New Year Sales
Several Oculus Quest and PC VR games are discounted this weekend on Steam and the Oculus Store. Both the Steam and Oculus sales are here to celebrate the Lunar New Year, with PC VR titles available on the former and Quest titles on the latter. As is standard for Quest sales, some items are available...
Facebook’s Bosworth Discusses Store Restrictions And Virtual Desktop
In another one of his Instagram AMAs, Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth discussed the status of Virtual Desktop’s pending App Lab submission and the requirements surrounding Oculus Store content. Bosworth acknowledged the Virtual Desktop submission is still pending, but expanded a bit more on the context behind Oculus Store content....
OceanCraft Oculus Quest Livestream: Co-Op VR Survival Live!
We’re taking to the stormy virtual seas with today’s livestream. Join us as we go live with OceanCraft at 4:30pm GMT/8:30am PT! This interesting little multiplayer game hit SideQuest earlier this month (note that’s actual SideQuest and not the new Oculus App Lab feature) and we’re keen to check it out. OceanCraft tasks two Oculus...
8 investors discuss social gaming’s biggest opportunities
The gaming industry has had plenty of watershed moments in 2020 as consumer entertainment habits have shifted in response to the pandemic. One trend has been the crystallization of MMOs as social entertainment hubs that serve more needs for users than ever before. Following my survey of gaming-focused investors on trends in the AR/VR world...
BadVR is using government grants to build a business that’s independent of venture capital
When the Los Angeles-based extended reality data visualization company BadVR first heard that one of its earliest benefactors, Magic Leap, was about to shed 1,000 jobs and was fighting for its life, the young startup was unfazed. Despite the very public ties that BadVR had to Magic Leap, as one of the enterprise applications on...
Watch: Creepy VR Game A Wake Inn Has A Release Date
We’ve been following creepy VR horror game, A Wake Inn, for a little while now, and now we finally know when we’ll be able to play it. Developer VR Bros this week confirmed that the title will hit Steam on February 25th. To mark the occasion the studio also revealed another small trailer for the...
Watch: VR Adventure Naau: The Lost Eye Hits Early Access This Month
Naau: The Lost Eye, one of the games we featured at last year’s Upload Summer Showcase, launches in Steam Early Access very soon. The VR adventure game arrives on February 25th, and there’s a promising new trailer to prove it. In Naau, players explore the titular world, fighting fantastical enemies and solving puzzles. The trailer...