#176 Rift Exclusive Marvel VR Arrives This Week; Magic Leap One Creator Edition Coming Soon; Beat Saber’s First New Song; Jack Ryan At Comic-Con
Exclusive Oculus title Marvel Powers United VR arrives July 26 for around $40. The game’s arrival also comes alongside a new retail bundle for the Rift. Players can embody 18 heroes from the Marvel universe including Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Black Widow, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Black Panther and Thor. If you...
Lenovo Mirage Solo Review
I’ve already given some preliminary thoughts on the Mirage Solo, but now that I’ve had a chance to work with one, I wanted to provide a verdict. Comfort I previously criticized the Mirage Solo for being uncomfortable compared to the Oculus Go. This turns out to be a fairly personal thing. The difference is in the facial...
#175 Unity’s “Project MARS” & Niantic’s Real World Platform; Updated SteamVR “Knuckles” Controller; Table Tennis With North Star
There were multiple announcements this week about cross-platform AR frameworks. Niantic, makers of Pokémon Go, revealed their new “Real World Platform”, which will enable developers to make games with contextual awareness of the real world. In addition to existing features like geocaching that underpin their current game, the...
#174 E3 2018; ARKit 2 Insights; ‘Budget Cuts’ Released
As usual, VR was a bit quiet at E3 this year. It’s hard to say when that will change. I believe a big part of the problem is still the friction involved in getting these systems up and running. The most successful tethered system is PSVR, precisely because once it’s set up, it’s easier to keep it set up and ready. Yet...
#173 ARKit 2 Announced at WWDC; Oculus Connect 5 Announced; Big LBE Expansions
Apple announced a new version of ARKit at WWDC on Tuesday. The relevant part of the keynote begins at the 15-minute mark. New features include support for Pixar’s Universal Scene Descriptor support. Apple calls it USDZ; the ‘Z’ refers to it’s deliver as a .zip file. The format is open but it immediately lead to...
#172 Eyes-On With Ultra High Resolution VR Display Panels
It’s Display Week in Los Angeles, which means the convention center has been colonized by display manufacturers showing off their latest panel innovations. This is primarily a trade show for suppliers to connect with consumer electronics manufacturers while their engineers present their latest research in nearby conference rooms. I...
#171 Google I/O; Microsoft Build; Beat Saber Triumphs
This last week saw the Google I/O and Microsoft Build developer conferences. Neither company made much mention of virtual reality, but both had some news about their augmented reality efforts. Microsoft Layout & Remote Assist Microsoft showed off an app called Layout which is meant to help design floorplans in a real world context...
#170 F8 & VRLA; Oculus Go & Lenovo Mirage Solo
It’s been a busy week for VR with two major conferences and two standalone headset releases. Facebook started the week with F8, their general developer conference, where they announced the long-awaited release of Oculus Go (every attendee went home with one). Friday and Saturday brought VRLA and the release of the Google Daydream...
#169 New Apple VR Rumors; ‘Alien: Descent’; Mozilla Hubs; Metalenses
Earlier this week I had a chance to try out the new Alien: Descent experience, which opened its first location at The Outlets at Orange mall in Orange, California, a few minutes away from Disneyland. It was a very impressive experience with a lot of freedom-of-movement, and you can read my review of it here.
Alien: Descent Review
I had the opportunity to try out the new location-based VR experience Alien: Descent today (Fox has been promoting April 26th as “Alien Day” for the past couple of years – 4/26 relates to the moon LV-426 where Ripley’s confrontation with the Xenomorphs begins). It’s Not Perfect, But The Best LBE VR...