A new “Big Rooms” update to desktop sharing app Bigscreen will allow a host to share their computer screen with dozens of people in VR. Since it launched in March 2016, Bigscreen offered rooms where up to four people could share their desktops with each other. Some major updates shipped since then, including high quality...
Tag: #VR #AR
Google launches ARCore Developer Preview 2, will kill Tango on March 1
Google today launched ARCore Developer Preview 2, which you can download now from developers.google.com/ar and use to create AR experiences on Android. At the same time, the company announced it is ending support for Tango, its first augmented reality platform. ARCore is an Android software development kit (SDK) that brings augmented reality to existing and...
How Phil Rosedale will use blockchain to power the Metaverse
High Fidelity recently unveiled Avatar Island, a virtual reality domain where users can buy and sell items based on a blockchain service. Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity, sees it as the latest evolution of virtual worlds and virtual life. While at Linden Lab, Rosedale created Second Life, one of the earliest and most successful virtual worlds, in 1999....
The DeanBeat: How Canada’s game industry is thriving, one Cuphead at a time
I spent a few days at the Montreal International Game Summit this week, where 2,600 game developers gathered to talk shop. It was, once again, a good place to visit to hear about what is going right with gaming. It was a change of pace to hear about how valuable gaming has become to a...
Drawboard’s position-tracking pen writes in virtual reality
We’ve all tried writing in VR but, with the way we hold our Oculus Touch controllers and HTC Vive wands, it’s an awkward experience at best. Drawboard wants to change that for the better. Drawboard’s creators call this new peripheral a pen, but it also reminds us of the type of stylus you might use on a...
Why does Norman Reedus have a throat baby in Death Stranding? GamesBeat Decides
It was a busy week in video games. The Game Awards unleashed its “world exclusives” on Thursday, and we dive deeply into all of the announcements from that show on this week’s GamesBeat Decides podcast. On this episode, GamesBeat IndieBeat editor Stephanie Chan and VentureBeat managing editor Jason Wilson join host Jeffrey Grubb. The trio...
HTC’s Vive Focus standalone VR headset launches in China on December 12
While there’s still no word on a western release, HTC’s first standalone VR headset, the Vive Focus, finally has launch details for China. The company confirmed today that pre-orders for the headset, which runs on its new Vive Wave platform, will start on December 12th, with first shipments expected in January 2018. You can pre-order...
AR and VR could be educational — and profitable — tools for museums
GUEST: Museums are wonderful institutions and treasures to society with a serious and important mission to preserve our history. What major city doesn’t boast at least one incredible museum that local communities and traveling visitors alike can enjoy and learn from? Although significant as centers of culture and history, museums are a difficult business. For...
The IndieBeat: TSA Frisky comes out of a student incubator and into our VR headsets
Air travel can be particularly nightmarish during the holidays. But indie studio Out There Entertainment has found humor in one of the many indignities you’ve been forced to endure: Going through airport security. In its debut virtual reality game TSA Frisky, you play as a frantic Transport Security Administration employee, tasked with scanning harried passengers and...
Snapchat’s first desktop app, Lens Studio, lets anyone create AR Lenses
Snap is today introducing its first ever desktop app in the form of Lens Studio, a Windows and Mac application for designing Snapchat Lenses. By way of a quick recap, Snap rolled out its machine learning-based Lenses feature back in September 2015, giving users a funky way to share images of themselves with terrifying effects planted...