In an interview with the Gaming Business Review, an online site ran by M2 Publishing, Tim Sweeney detailed recent developments in Epic Games, as well as his visions of the future.

The interview obviously took place during Game Developer’s Conference 2015, which is traditionally held in San Francisco, CA. We highly recommend that you head there and read the whole interview, but we could not miss out on a question that is shaping the industry right now:

GBR: How big do you see virtual reality becoming over the next five to ten years as a business?

TS: Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will literally change the world. They will be the next computing platform.  There’s a market for billions of these devices because everybody who has a smartphone today will — perhaps in as much as decade from now — much prefer entertainment in a completely immersive experience that takes advantage of your entire field of view and has full body input through miniaturized cameras and other technologies.  But we’re in the early days of it now.  Let’s be clear, everything is in the development kit stage.  It is for early adopters and what we’re seeing now is really just the Palm Pilot to the platform that will evolve into something iPhone-like in its quality.

There’s no point in denying it, after seeing billions of dollars earned by 3D movies which rely on ‘cheap tricks’ to achieve depth (try finding animated feature movies without 3D being the ‘default’ option), next step will bring us technologies such as Microsoft Hololens, production versions of Facebook-owned Oculus VR (John Carmack keynote) and second-generation Google Glass, which is developed in near-secrecy by the search giant and a practical monopoly in glasses, Italian giant Luxottica.

After operating for almost 20 years as an independent studio, Epic Games made waves across the gaming and development community when they accepted an investment from Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700) last June (2014). The Chinese powerhouse paid up $330 million for 48.4% of the company, setting the valuation just a bit below $680 million.

Tim Sweeney continued to be the CEO, while his lifelong business partner Mark Rein still continues as in his role of Vice President.  Not selling themselves outright like idSoftware did with ZeniMax Media, Epic Games continues to be independent studio, consisting out of product (games) and technology development units. Their recent announcement about making Unreal Engine ‘free’ opens a path for even more ‘premium freemium’ titles which base their revenue model on microtransactions.

The post Tim Sweeney: Virtual Reality will Literally Change the World appeared first on VR World.

Virtual reality is undoubtedly an immersive feast for the eyes, and accompanied by surround sound headphones that pump in realistic high-def sounds to our ears, users are pulled into a digital world.

But what about our other senses? What about those who actually want to smell their digital universe?

The attachment is a novel idea, but as you can see it’s a rather bizarre piece of hardware that traps your visage in a claustrophobic mask that looks quite uncomfortable.

The FeelReal Mask is a curious VR peripheral that aims at injecting more “reality” into your virtual reality sessions by simulating the sense of smell to virtual reality (yes, really). It will also deliver minor temperature fluctuations to simulate hot air, wind and even water mist.

It’s rightly labeled as a “mask” considering when you strap it on to VR hardware you’re pretty much obscuring your entire face, trapping your features in a bizarre claustrophobic contraption for the sake of “total immersion”.

The FeelReal Mask as showcased at GDC 2015. (Photo Credit: The Verge)

Since you’re mouth will be completely covered up, the mask features a Bluetooth microphone to ensure you’re not completely vocally cut-off from the outside world.

It seems like a novel concept from the start, but once you see what you have to go through to get your senses doused in the “full VR presence”, the FeelReal Mask will most likely scare everyone off. Smell is an inherently important sense, and is more closely tied to memory than any other of our five senses, so successfully tapping this reservoir could lead to potential interactive gold.

But how does the mask work? Loaded with a cartridge that produces seven unique smells that waft through “odor generating vents”, the oddity is tethered to the headset by Bluetooth and powered by a battery with a four-hour life cycle.

Hot and cool air are funneled through dual-sided vents along your upper cheekbones to simulate wind and the like, whereas the water mist lightly sprays at separate dual-sided vents along your cheeks.

The “odor generator” is right under your nose–like literally right under your schnozz while wearing the headset–and delivers the following scents:

• Ocean
• Jungle
• Fire
• Grass
• Powder
• Flowers
• Metal

The mask is attachable to just about every piece of VR tech out there including the Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus, Valve’s Vive headset and even Zeiss VR One.

The Verge tried out the hardware at GDC 2015 and likened it to “smell-o-vision” for VR.

The publication described it as “strapping a foam block over your mouth and nose, putting yourself at the mercy of its air vents,” and saying that it’s basically a “gas mask arranged into a little smiling face.”

While the FeelReal Mask is certainly a unique specimen in terms of adding smell to VR, we’ve seen other peripherals that aim to bring total immersion to the virtual world.

Hardware like the Dexmo exoskeleton from Dexta Robotics and the mo-capping CyberGlove are helping bring the sense of touch to virtual reality, laying the framework for technologies that could very well introduce hardware of Lawnmower Man-like proportions.

But I think senses like smell (and taste for that matter) are best left to the real world.

The post FeelReal Brings Sense of Smell To Virtual Reality appeared first on VR World.

The biggest companies in the Augmented and Virtual Reality space are coming to Austin on March 16 for AR/VR Austin.

Attendees at AR/VR Austin will have the chance to try out the latest VR displays and controllers from Seebright, OSVR, and Sixense. AR/VR Austin is a cooperative effort by the sponsoring companies, organized by Praevidi with help from Upload and SVVR.

“Augmented and Virtual Reality are at the peak of anticipation but the most up to date technology has only been experience by a small number or developers and enthusiasts. This is an opportunity for visitors to Austin for SXSW Interactive and the Austin tech community to experience these cutting edge technologies for the first time,” said Simon Solotko, the CMO of Augmented Reality Pioneer Seebright and co-founder of Praevidi, in a statement.

The state of the art in immersive content will be on display at AR/VR Austin with demonstrations from Jaunt, Littlstar, Rewind and a host of independent content and game developers.

“The impact of Immersive content, and cinematic VR in particular, will be profound this year.  The ability to experience music, education, travel and narrative as if you were ‘there’ is a game changing event in the way people consume content,” added  Scott Brock, VP of Content at Jaunt, in a press release. “SXSW and AR/VR Austin present the perfect opportunity to meet with the creators and storytellers that will push this new medium forward and to share some of our latest work.”

Tickets are available now from Eventbright.

The post AR/VR Austin Brings Leading Augmented and Virtual Reality Developers to SXSW appeared first on VR World.

After launching Android TV and Android Auto last year at Google I/O, it looks like this year’s agenda for Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will focus on Android in virtual reality. According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, Google has tasked “tens of engineers” to work on a version of Android tailored for virtual reality.

With Facebook (which owns Oculus), Sony, Microsoft, Samsung and now Valve showing interest in the medium, it is clear that VR is a major area of focus for major tech companies. At this week’s  Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, VR products and services took center stage, with the medium referred to as the future of gaming.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that Google will be giving away Android for VR for free, much like other flavors of the operating system. At last year’s I/O, Google demoed the $20 Google Cardboard, which is essentially a low-cost DIY solution that allows you to turn your smartphone into a 3D viewer. The cardboard unit has a tie-in software component that goes by the same name. Clay Bavor was partly responsible for Cardboard, and he will be joined by Jeremy Doig in leading Google’s VR efforts.

Details are light as to what exactly is on offer with the operating system, but with this year’s I/O scheduled at the end of May, it is likely we’ll hear more about Google’s plans for virtual reality then.

The post Google Is Getting Into Virtual Reality With A Custom Version Of Android appeared first on VR World.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) has recently confirmed that the Project Morpheus VR headset will require a wired connection to “ensure high-speed data transfers”.

Speaking with Gamespot at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015), President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida had some interesting things to say about the company’s new virtual reality peripheral.

According to Yoshida, Project Morpheus’ internal hardware is “pretty much done”, but the Japanese console-maker will continue to add in “lots of tweaks and improvements” before it’s ready to ship.

Earlier at GDC Sony slated an early 2016 release window for the VR headset, revealing a slew of specs and a brand new prototype to be demoed at the event.

But there’s something the prototype assets seemed to leave out: the required wire that tethers the headset to the PlayStation 4, and an extra box that will basically process the image data directly to the headset.

Although its a prototype model, this press pic doesn’t adequately portray the headset’s required direct-wired connectivity.

During the interview Yoshida state that Sony won’t be releasing a wireless flavor of Project Morpheus, stating that wired HDMI connections were a must to transfer full 1080p HD at refresh rates of 120Hz–which is responsible for that “immersive VR feel”.

Essentially a wired connection is required to maintain the headset’s reduced latency rate (less than 18 milliseconds) to keep that authentic virtual presence. If there’s too much lag, the illusion of VR breaks down entirely.

It’s worth mentioning that all VR headsets, from the Oculus Rift to the newly announced HTC Vive, will be wired to their respective sources.

Since Project Morpheus’ source is the PlayStation 4, that means an extra bit of hardware is needed to ensure the PS4’s only HDMI out slot isn’t taken up by the headset.

Sony will ship the Project Morpheus with an external “Processing Box” that attaches via HDMI and USB, and currently has its own power input, meaning things are going to get even more trip-worthy.

Yoshida says that the 1080p video signals are being sent to the headset, meaning data is being fed from the PS4 through the external processing box and out towards the headset.

Richard Marks, Sony’s Director of Research and Development, explained what the external box actually does in a recent interview with Tested at GDC 2015:

“We call it a PU, and it’s a box that takes the output from the playstation 4 and it splits it, splits it for something for the headset and something for the television.

And it does this conversion of the 120Hz output of a PS4 that something a TV can display, and it doesn’t get warped. That let’s the people in the room that are there to see what you’re seeing.”

According to Digital Foundry, the Processing Box “features a processor that runs the social screen – an external display output that takes one of the stereoscopic views, ‘undistorts’ the image, zooms into the main area of interest and beams it out via HDMI to your HDTV”.

Essentially Morpheus will need to be tethered to the console by way of this external processing box at all times in order to function, which seems to go against the sleek, stylish form factor that Sony tries to depict.

So in order to operate Project Morpheus you’re going to need an ecosystem of PlayStation products: the PlayStation Camera, the PlayStation 4 that powers it, the external processing box, and a DualShock 4 or PlayStation Move controller to interact with it.

And, of course, the VR headset itself.

One of Sony’s major tenets with Project Morpheus is a “user friendly design”, but instead of focusing on environments outside of VR, they just ensure the headset is physically comfortable to wear.

Good news is the controllers will be wireless, but they’re a modified version of the PlayStation Move free-hand peripherals which are basically Sony’s answer to the Wiimote. The DualShock 4 is also compatible with the headset if you prefer a more direct gamepad approach.

Bear in mind the recent photos of the Project Morpheus are prototypes, and they’re not finalized, so that’s probably why we aren’t seeing the dangling HDMI cord or the extra processing box in any of the photos.

While this isn’t something that will necessarily inhibit your experience with Sony’s VR hardware, it can help you better understand the logistics of the device and how to weigh your expectations before 2016.

Yoshida also had something to say about Project Morpheus’ games library. It looks like Sony is having a hard time winning over publishers to the new hardware, as AAA has its thriving home base centered on the current console and PC platforms.

The Project Morpheus looks quite sleek in this state, but it’s non-operable. The reality resembles something a little different.

“Large publishers tend to wait until there’s enough of an install base,” he said, discussing how VR is still an early gambit for most big-name publishers. To help resolve the gap, Yoshida affirms that Sony’s first-party studios are making VR-ready games for the platform.

In any case, let this be a reminder that it might be too soon to get super excited about virtual reality.

Thing are going to be messy, and there are going to be cables and peripherals everywhere–look at the Vive’s ecosystem that’s comprised of the SteamVR Lighthouse, Vive Controller, the VR headset, and the fact that you’ll need to wire it up to a PC.

And it’s likely going to be expensive, too. So tamper your expectations and save your cash, and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction.

The post Sony: Project Morpheus VR Headset Won’t Be Wireless appeared first on VR World.

Virtual Reality is quickly becoming more and more immersive, but there’s one problem that ruins the illusion: lag. When a user moves their head and the virtual world doesn’t respond as quickly, the illusion is ruined.

This is where AMD’s (NASDAQ: AMD) new Liquid VR API comes in. Liquid VR uses a number of different methods to make sure the VR headset is responsive as possible. These methods are Latest Data Latch, Asynchronous Shaders, Affinity Multi-GPU, and Direct To Display. All of these methods are optimized for AMD GPUs, and support multiple GPUs working in-sync.

Latest data latch promises to reduce the latency by increasing the efficiency of CPU-GPU parallelism. With this method the GPU would be provided a bigger buffer of data from CPU, making more rendered data available so less rendering time would be needed to display virtual worlds.

Moving on to asynchronous shaders, these allow the GCN shaders on the GPU to warp the image of a user’s viewpoint before sending it to the VR headset to further reduce latency. Effectively for every viewpoint the VR headset requests, the GPU will create more data than required so re-rendering isn’t necessary.

The Affinity Multi-GPU feature allows GPUs to work together in creating the stereoscopic image. Effectively each GPU would render a single eye’s viewpoint before combining them into one stereo 3D image.

Finally Direct to Display is simply a plug-and-play feature allowing cross compatibility of VR headsets with Radeon GPUs.

All in all Liquid VR is a promising early step towards a much-needed API for VR gaming. As this API matures AMD will have no trouble getting VR headset vendors on board.

The post AMD’s Liquid VR SDK Aims to Take the Lag Out of VR appeared first on VR World.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida took the stage at GDC 2015 today to unveil new details on the company’s Project Morpheus VR headset, including specifications and a 2016 release window.

“Project Morpheus will be launching as a consumer product the first half of 2016,” Sony said in a recent Tweet.

A new prototype was revealed on-stage, along with “near-finalized specs” that underlines the VR headset has very low latency that’s registered at under 18 milliseconds to increase “immersion in virtual reality”, and features new dual 5.7 inch 1920 x  1080 OLED displays with a 120 Hz refresh rate.

“Our goal with VR is to deliver a sense of presence, making the player feel as though they’ve stepped inside the world of a game. The new Project Morpheus prototype brings us closer to that goal, as it improves the visual experience and tracking accuracy, both of which are critical to achieving sense of presence.”

The prototype also sports more accurate position tracking thanks to three new LED’s for a total of nine LED’s for “robust 360 degree tracking”.

• OLED display: In exchange for the 5 inch LCD, the new Morpheus VR headset is equipped with a 5.7 inch 1920 X RGB X 1080 resolution OLED display. This new screen expands the field of view and enables low persistence, removing motion blur.

• 120hz refresh rate: The previous refresh rate spec has been doubled for this new prototype, which means games for Morpheus can be rendered at 120fps. When combined with the OLED display’s high refresh rate and the power of PS4, Morpheus is able to output amazingly smooth visuals.

• Super low latency: We know how critical low latency is to delivering a great VR experience, and we’ve reduced latency to less than 18ms, about half of what the first Morpheus prototype had. Low latency is critical to deliver a sense of presence, at the same time making the VR experience comfortable to players.

• More accurate tracking: To make positional tracking more precise, we’ve added three LEDs to the headset – one on the front and two on the side – for a total of nine LEDs to support robust 360 degree tracking.

• User-friendly design: We’ve made the Morpheus VR headset easier to put on and take off, with a single band design and quick release button. The headband supports the weight of the unit on the top of your head, so there is no pressure on your face. Other components have also been adjusted and configured to make the headset lighter, so that players do not find the headset cumbersome or uncomfortable to use.

As revealed before, Project Morpheus will be compatible with the PlayStation 4 and will feature PlayStation Move-like peripherals for wireless controller input.

It’ll be interesting to see how Project Morpheus continues to take shape throughout the months, and how Sony aims to finalize the peripheral’s design.

While VR might still be new in various ways, it looks to be the undisputed future for gaming as a whole, but Sony will have its work cut out for them when they take on big rivals in the VR sector like Valve’s and HTC’s Vive as well as the Oculus Rift.

The post Sony’s Project Morpheus VR Headset Coming First Half of 2016 appeared first on VR World.

Valve has confirmed that it won’t be holding a big press conference at GDC 2015 today, contrary to rampant internet rumors of a Half-Life 3 reveal on 3/3 at 3pm.

The news comes straight from Kotaku, who spoke to Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi to confirm the whole thing is a “big mix up”. Valve apparently has no plans to hold any kind of huge press conference today at GDC.

It turns out the confused 3pm “event” is actually a game physics presentation from Valve programmer Sergiy Migdalskiy that aims at teaching “fundamental elements and practical considerations for using collision detection and physics simulations in games”

How did this happen?

HTC and Valve have teamed up to make the Vive VR headset a reality, leading to speculation that Half-Life 3 could be a perfect launch title.

On the heels of HTC (TPE: 2498) ‘s big announcement in partnering with Valve to make their VR headset “Vive” a reality, gamers started speculating that Half-Life 3 would be a perfect game to release on the new peripheral. It could be a match made in heaven, and it would certainly shake up the games industry.

Then a particular BBC News article came up that seemingly cemented the news. The article had a quote from HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang saying that “We are co-operating with Half-life, and I think… I hope, you know, it will be on it.”

This little bit of interview text had gamers speculating rapidly across forums and social media, fueled to an inferno thanks to this little tidbit in the BBC article:

“Valve is expected to provide more details about the launch at its own presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on Tuesday.”

In reality, Wang’s words have been misconstrued; she “hopes” that Half-Life will be on the Vive VR headset–but we all know how far rumors have been known to reach. Plus the BBC article in question has been updated with the following text that pretty much nixes hope.

“But the BBC understands that Valve’s own employees were surprised by Ms Wang’s comments as they were not working on a Half-life game for the new helmet at the moment,” an update on the article reads.

The part about a press conference on March 3 at 3pm was mostly fabricated by Reddit posts, which then spread across to Twitter and pretty much had the entire gaming world expecting to see a Half-Life 3 reveal in the afternoon.

Chances are that if Valve’s own marketing director says that it’s a “big mix up”, then it most assuredly is.

This is just another one of those failed Half-Life 3 rumors that drove the internet into a frenzy, and we’ll likely see more rumors spawn until Valve issues some sort of concrete news.

Source: Kotaku

The post Valve Won’t Be Holding GDC 2015 Press Conference After All appeared first on VR World.

Today Valve formally announced Vive, its virtual reality headset, to the world and delivered details on how the Steam-powered hardware will impact the world of VR.

To make its peripheral a reality, Valve has tapped Taiwainese smartphone maker HTC (TPE: 2498) to manufacture the hardware.

Originally prototyped at ValveVR, Vive is the finalized form of the company’s virtual reality hardware. Vive will make use of Steam VR’s tracking technology as well as tap into the platform’s array of games–but Valve has plans to embrace a wide scope beyond gaming.

With Vive, the partners claim that users will be able to literally be able to seamlessly walk around and explore the VR space thanks to the Full Room Scale 360 Degree Solution, “inspect objects from all angles and truly interact with your surroundings”.

“A gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor combine to precisely track the rotation of your head on both axes to an accuracy of 1/10th of a degree, allowing you to look around the virtual environment naturally.”

To tap into the full potential of Vive you’ll need to hook up a pair of SteamVR “base stations” to track your movement, pretty much giving a motion capture effect within a limited 15 feet x 15 feet space.

As for visuals, Vive VR headset will simulate 1200 x 1080 high-definition images at 90 frames-per-second on two screens over each eye, promising to fill your field of vision “in all directions”.

But you’ll need to hook up your own headphones for audio immersion, as the Vive is an eyes-only experience.

As for input, HTC is creating specially designed “simple and intuitive” wireless controllers to interface with Vive, which will be fully tracked to simulate user input within the virtual space. The HTC VR Controllers will be sold and packaged in pairs.

What kind of games can Vive VR host?

A recent thread on NeoGAF showcases a very such game that could fully tap into the potential of the Vive headset. The Gallery, and upcoming project from from Cloudhead Games, looks to be a leading example as to what developers can pull off on the platform.

Below we a quote from the game’s press release that talks about what Vive means for the dev team:

“We now have a hardware target that matches the original vision for The Gallery: Six Elements. To unleash the user into full, volumetric, 360 roomscale experiences with motion control!

“The HTC and Valve VR experience offers hardware so precise and exacting that we now have the fidelity in our mechanics that we did not have access to before. You will not believe this tech until you get a chance to use it yourself. This is something to be excited about!”

But it’s not all about gaming. Valve wants to help bridge the gap between virtual reality and actual reality to change our lives.

Vive can be used to aid in communication between people across the world, simulate travel to foreign countries, and a million other possibilities.

The company is also partnering with entertainment producers like HBO and Lionsgate Films to bring immersive video experiences to the device.

Valve has already shipped out Beta versions of the Vive Developer Editions out to a variety of game devs including Vertigo Games, Bossa, Cloudhead Games, Dovetail Games, Wemo Labs, and more.

“HTC Vive is real, it’s here and it’ll be ready to go before the start of 2016,” Cher Wang, Chairwoman of HTC, said in the official press release.

Be sure to drop by the Vive VR homesite for more information or to sign-up for e-mail announcements.

The post Valve Announces Vive VR Headset Powered By Steam VR appeared first on VR World.

Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) has in its patent library a smartphone-based VR headset, nearly identical to Samsung’s (KRX: 005935) Gear VR headset.

While it may seem that Apple is trying to beat Samsung to the punch in patenting a smartphone-based VR headset, this is actually not the case. According to Apple Insider, Apple actually filed a patent for such a device in 2008. US Patent No 8,957,835, filed in September 2008 and granted February 17, 2015, describes a “head-mounted device that is worn on a user’s head and configured to integrate with a removable portable electronic device.”

“For example, a user may couple a personal electronic device, such as the iPod … available from Apple Inc of Cupertino, Calif, or the iPhone … also available from Apple Inc of Cupertino, Calif, to the head-mounted device via a cable or wire,” the filing reads.

As you can see from the illustrations, the headset has a separate hand-held controller that looks like an older iPod unit.

What are Apple’s intentions?

For its part, Apple has not shown much of an interest in the emerging virtual reality market. While other consumer electronics companies have made inroads to developing their own headsets and supporting ecosystem the same can’t be said from Apple.

It could be that at one time Apple was exploring developing such a device, but plans were killed at the executive level. In response to press inquiries about Apple’s VR ambitions, the company has said that it not everything it patents will go to market.

A more cynical analysis of the situation might be that Apple sensed the coming VR wave and decided to expand its patent library before its competitors to bring products to market with hopes launching patent related lawsuits against them. However, courts are becoming more hostile to companies that choose to patent troll so this may not be the most likely scenario.

The post Apple Patented a Smartphone-Based VR Headset — in 2008 appeared first on VR World.

During the Windows 10 showcase, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today revealed its very own contender in VR hardware: Project HoloLens.

Project HoloLens is a headset that ultimately aims to merge projected holographic overlays with VR, with a host of practical applications.

Using the device, users can interact with projected 3D images that are “blended with your real world” and can “integrate with your physical places, spaces, and things”.

Essentially the goggle-laden headset can project semi-transparent holograms onto real-world objects, and users can create, shape and share their personalized images on a whim. This means that any environment could be a potential digital canvas for a wide variety of activities.

HoloLens opens up a veritable galaxy of possibilities, and the technology is rife with potential.

Gaming, for one, could be completely revolutionized with this technology. Imagine being able to project your favorite game via a portable screen on any surface–breaking gaming outside of the screen itself.

The new technology is powered by Windows 10, and Microsoft affirms that HoloLens is completely wireless with intuitive voice and gesture controls. Along with the holographic display, spatial sound will immerse users into their own creations for a genuine VR experience.

Project HoloLens’ images are entirely made up of specifically manipulated light particles rendered by the device’s “light engine”.

As Wired puts it in their hands-on preview, “light particles bounce around millions of times in the so-called ‘light-engine’, then the photons enter the goggles’ two lenses, where they ricochet between layers of blue, green and red glass before they reach the back of your eye.”

Exact details on Project HoloLens are scare at this point, and development on the technology is still in its early stages. VR in itself is still an early frontier, as the pioneering Oculus Rift headset is still being refined and tweaked, and it might be years before HoloLens is ready for consumer use.

We’ll likely hear more about HoloLens’ other practical applications–like gaming–during the Games Developer Conference (GDC 2015) in March.

The post Microsoft’s HoloLens Merges Holograms With VR appeared first on VR World.

After launching the Gear VR last year in collaboration with Oculus, Samsung (KRX:005935) has announced a content store for the virtual reality headset called Milk VR at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show. The offering – a continuation in the oddly-named Milk line of audio and video services offered by the South Korean manufacturer – aims to be the first content delivery service tailored for virtual reality, and will offer video content in a 360-degree viewing format.

Samsung has stated that it will be providing an array of content – streaming as well as downloadable – for the Gear VR (and any VR headsets the brand may launch in the future) with Milk VR, which is available in the Oculus store on the headset.  The content store will be broken down into two categories, with the “fresh” category highlighting the latest additions, and a “trending” section, through which users can browse the most popular videos available. Currently, all videos on the store are free, although there will be plans to monetize content at a later stage.

The South Korean vendor is looking to add content creators to the service, and has said that it is working toward securing deals with Mountain Dew, National Basketball Association, Red Bull and Skybound Entertainment and others. The NBA has stated that it will offer a mix of game action as well as behind the scenes footage through Milk VR, and Skybound Entertainment has revealed that a TV show shot entirely in VR is in the works.

Initially, the amount of content available on Milk VR will be sparse considering that the Gear VR headset itself is still in its nascent stages, but as momentum builds, it is possible that we’ll see a wide variety of content make its way to the service. VR as a medium for entertainment is certainly exciting as it allows content creators to find new ways to engage with their audience, while allowing users to fully immense themselves in the visuals.

Furthermore, launching a service such as Milk VR when the medium is still in its infancy gives Samsung the potential to build an ecosystem of content around the platform. In the initial stages, Samsung will be looking at metrics like user engagement rather than overall sales to gauge the success of its service.

With growth coming to a crawl in the phone segment, Samsung is looking to other mediums to drive growth in the coming years, and initiatives such as Milk VR may just be the catalyst that Samsung needs to secure a foothold in this segment. Much of Samsung’s success with Android was down to timing, and the South Korean manufacturer will be looking to achieve a similar feat in the field of virtual reality.

The post CES 2015: Samsung Starts to Build an Ecosystem of Content Around the Gear VR appeared first on VR World.

The new Samsung (KRX:000830) VR headset add-on for use with only its Galaxy Note 4 has arrived for sale on Samsung’s store for $199.99.  The device is power by Oculus-driven software to provide an immersive virtual reality experience using the Note 4 Super AMOLED display and the device itself to run the software.

Samsung stirred up a lot of talk earlier this year with the announcement that it was going to have an add-on for the Galaxy Note 4 that would make the pair a VR headset.  The Samsung Gear VR Innovator edition just popped up on the store for sale at Samsung’s website.  The good news is that this is only a $199.99 investment for those who already have a Galaxy Note 4.  The bad news for those who want to try it out and do not already own a Galaxy Note 4, is that the Gear VR  will only work with the Note 4.  This add-on most definitely will help to get more people buying the Note 4 than would if there wasn’t the Gear VR add-on.  This is a good move by Samsung for not only helping to drive VR innovation, but also to help its bottom line.  The Gear VR has access to Oculus store to have access to a fresh supply of ever growing content.

The Gear VR Innovator Edition comes with the headset, a carrying case, a replacement face cushion, a lens cloth, 16GB microSD memory card with the starter content pre-loaded, SD card adapter, user manual, and the warranty statement.  The controls that the headset has are a touchpad, a dedicated back button, focus adjustment wheel, volume keys, and a phone lock button.

Right now for those who purchase the Gear VR Innovator Edition there is two coupon codes to help get a discount for accessories.  The Samsung Gamepad is $30 off with the coupon code STAVR1, and the Samsung Gear Circle headset is $20 off with the coupon code STAVR2.

The post Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition On Sale Now appeared first on VR World.

Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) fans that want a virtual reality headset will no longer have to suffice with just strapping a iPad to their face, as the company appears to be hiring for a proper push into the VR space.

According to a job posting first spotted by Mashable, Apple is in the process of hiring an App Engineer that will specialize in creating “high performance apps that integrate with Virtual Reality systems for prototyping and user testing.”

While Apple does have patents in its library for a VR headset, it does not appear that such a device is close to production yet. Apple’s supply chain is notoriously leaky, as the constant rumors and leaks on the iPhone 6 have shown, so if something was in production we would have known about it for quite some time. Historically speaking, Apple is not a fan of hardware partnerships so it’s unlikely that the company would be opening up iOS to compatibility with other vendor’s equipment.

It might be that Apple is simply exploring the issue and would like an experienced hand to help develop mockups to explore the potential feasibility of building such a device. The iWatch, after all, had a protracted development cycle with a release that’s still not confirmed. Expect the same for any VR device coming from Apple.

The post Apple Getting Into The VR Market? appeared first on VR World.

Virtual Reality is the future of computing. At least that’s what Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) thinks. In Facebook’s Q3 2014 earnings guidance call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the company’s big push to build and develop VR and augmented reality technologies as part of what it believes will be the major evolution in computing platforms in 10 to 15 years’ time. “Every 10 to 15 years, a new major computing platform arrives and we think that virtual and augmented reality are important parts of this upcoming next platform,” he said.

Oculus, the VR company that Facebook acquired for $2 billion, started out as a crowdfunded campaign for the VR goggle Rift and its attendant games and apps. That particular business model — raising money and validating market interest through crowdfunding campaigns — has met with mixed reactions amongst the investor and entrepreneur community. While sought as a means to determine the viability of a product, it has also drastically affected the investment environment for startups. Because crowdfunding backers are not investors that take stake in a company, nor angels who infuse money for the sake of development, the dynamic in starting a product-based company has changed. Questions like accountability have arisen, for instance.

We have sought insights from Murray Newlands, a San Francisco Bay Area-based entrepreneur and PR strategist who has also written for Entrepreneur, INC, VentureBeat and India-based YourStory. Murray has collaborated with Forbes contributing writer Drew Hendricks in a book called How to Get PR for Your Startup: Traction, in which they detail how to deal with the media in pitching products and companies, as well as building a brand image that can take one’s early-stage startup into success.

Murray Newlands

VR World: Can you share some trends among startups today? What particular habit or focus do successful startup founders/teams share?

Murray Newlands: Lean startups are a big trend right now. Funding is moving later in the cycle and investors now expect to see some traction with customers before they are willing to invest in an idea.

VRW: Are there any particular industries that we should be watching out for? For instance, in recent times, messaging apps have been hot. If I were an entrepreneur, is there any field or market you would recommend that I should be focusing on?

MN: Wearable technology has been very popular for the last year; however, I think the internet of things more generally is taking off. Smart home devices are starting to come to the forefront with things like NEST and other home connected devices.

VRW: What are the trends amongst the VC community in the Valley? How is this affecting entrepreneurs in that part of the world and elsewhere? Do you think there is still a disparity between the Valley and other regional startup hubs, in terms of availability of capital, or is this gap shrinking?

MN: VC’s are not investing at later stages than they have been. This is causing angel rounds to be bigger and more prominent. Right now VC’s are raising large rounds, which is increasing the valuations in the Bay area. Increasingly VC’s are looking globally for great investment opportunities.

The post Will VR Be the Next Big Thing in Computing? An Interview With Murray Newlands appeared first on VR World.

In its latest earnings guidance, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) highlighted the company’s big push to build and develop VR and augmented reality technologies as part of what it believes will be the major evolution in computing platforms in 10 to 15 years’ time. “Every 10 to 15 years, a new major computing platform arrives and we think that virtual and augmented reality are important parts of this upcoming next platform,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the investor guidance call.

It seems convenient for Facebook to make this bold claim, says entrepreneur and PR strategist Murray Newlands, co-author of How to Get PR for Your Startup: Traction. In an interview with VR World, he says that the social network is obliged to say VR is the future of computing platforms, given its huge investment in acquiring the hardware startup and its plans to develop the ecosystem around it. “Having spent a lot of money on Oculus, I think that Facebook needs to say that is where the future is.”

Given the fast-changing nature of computing and technology, however, the future of computing is still fair game for enterprises and startups alike. “I think it is very hard for anyone to predict where we will be and what will be hot in three years, let alone 10 to 15 years. If Google, Facebook and Apple knew where we were going to be in 10 to 15 years they would be spending a LOT more money on just that one thing.”

Startups: Focus on Both Traction and Business Model

Newlands also talks about startup marketing, crowdfunding and the changes in the venture capital community, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is based. He says venture capitalists are increasingly looking to fund entrepreneurs at latter startup stages. This might mean a crowding-out effect for early-stage startups looking for early funding rounds. However, mature startups often mean less risk and better potential for actually gaining traction and profit.

In terms of marketing, Newlands finds concern in how some startup companies are focused on gaining traction first, but leave the business model for later. Investors also need to see potential profitability rather than just market share, he says. Newlands cites the case of MySpace, which had millions of users, but eventually fizzled out after being overtaken by other social networks. “Having tens of thousands of users is a great sign, but not does not necessarily mean profitability.”

Given the recent trends in crowdfunding, Newlands says this method of raising money may not necessarily work for everyone. “People also need to recognize that a successful crowdfunding campaign takes a lot of time,” he says. It may only run for 30 days, but they will need to prepare for a lot longer than that beforehand.” In fact, crowdfunding has been criticized by some quarters as a way for trivial products to proliferate, but without adequate accountability (say, if the product fails to ship on time). Newlands does praise crowdfunding as a good “litmus test for success” for one’s business.

Read the full interview on BSN*’s sister site, VR World.

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For as immersive as Oculus Rift is, the fourth wall — the boundary between what’s virtual and what’s reality — breaks when the user is forced to use a game controller to interact in the virtual space. Now, one project called Nimble Sense seeks to add a level of immersion to virtual reality by allowing users to use their hands to navigate through and interact with virtual reality.

The Nimble Sense is a camera-based system from San Francisco-based startup Nimble VR with hand tracking technology, in some ways similar to the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox. It attaches to the top of the Oculus headset and has a 110-degree field of view. Nimble VR, the company backing the project, says it will also be compatible with PCs allowing the user to have a Minority Report style control over their apps.

“The power of virtual reality puts you into a different world, and now with Nimble Sense you can bring your hands with you” said Robert Wang, a Founder of Nimble VR, in a press release. “Anywhere you look you will be able to see and use your hands with a new generation of games and applications designed to let you naturally interact in virtual reality.”

“This degree of interactivity is essential for experiences like Ethereon where puzzles are the backbone of the game design and require an intricate level of interaction,” added Tony Davidson, developer of the VR game, Ethereon now on Kickstarter. “With only a few basic commands I’m able to define the interactions needed for a given puzzle by using the provided SDK – no other technology offers the ease of use or more natural form of interaction than the Nimble Sense – for both user and developer.”

The Nimble Sense camera system and a bracket for attaching to an Oculus Rift DK2 are now available on Kickstarter for $99 to early backers. Nimble VR is seeking $62,500 to make the device a commercial reality.

The post Nimble Sense Tries to Break Through the Immersion Gap in VR appeared first on VR World.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has published its third quarter 2014 results, in which its revenues, growth and earnings have surpassed analyst expectations for the period. Notable in its report is a stark change in how the company monetizes its advertising network. First, ad impressions have fallen, but revenues per impression have increased, signifying improvements in quality and engagement. Second, mobile is on the rise, growing from almost 50% in Q3 2013 to 66% in the recent quarter. With an established collection of assets like WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook is likewise set to make a big push for its cross-platform ad network throughout 2015.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed the company’s near-, medium- and long-term strategies in an investor guidance call, and he says the company expects a drastic shift in computing platforms in 10 to 15 years’ time. Facebook is banking on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to play a big part. “Every 10 to 15 years, a new major computing platform arrives and we think that virtual and augmented reality are important parts of this upcoming next platform,” says Zuckerberg. He cites how Facebook is working closely with developers and device-makers like Samsung in order to shore up support for Oculus, the Rift and its VR platform.

Much work has to be done, however. “It needs to rich a very large sale — 50 million to 100 million units — before it will really be a very meaningful thing as a computing platform,” Zuckerberg says, regarding the traction that AR and VR needs in order to be considered relevant.

Read the full story on VR World’s sister site, Bright Side of News*.

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The Oculus Rift presents many possibilities in the realm of entertainment, and one particular interesting application is the transformation of static visual media, such as movies and shows, into dynamic, almost tangible environments. The concept might feel surreal, but if you’re curious as to what a 360-degree movie might look like this way, then wonder no further, because Zero Point is about to show us what it is all about.

Zero Point is the creation of Condition One, and is a 15-minute documentary that details various information about virtual reality, how it started, and how we came to the level of VR immersion that we have today. First announced last week, this documentary is advertised as the very first movie that would incorporate the free 3D VR elements of the Oculus Rift. That’s right, it means that you can fully explore and view the virtual world around you as the documentary goes on.

Completing the short documentary required a slightly different approach to standard filming. Aside from using a custom 360-degree VR camera to shoot the film, the documentary also used 3D sound techniques. The level of immersion allows the viewers of the documentary to feel the locations as if they are actually there.

In virtual reality, video games and simulations are one thing, but VR movies and shows are completely different, in the sense that it has a modified level of freedom (at least compared to what the previous two applications can offer). The viewing immersion is there, however it would conceptually feel as if someone is leading you, rather than you taking the steps yourself, which makes for a rather bizarre experience, something that we might just see in Zero Point.

Zero Point works on both Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2. The documentary is finally out now, and if you’re interested to catch the 360-degree movie viewing experience, you can head on right over to Steam. It is currently on sale for about $11.99 until November 3, and about $14.99 after the promo period.

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Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has published its third quarter 2014 results, beating analyst expectations for revenue, earnings per share and growth. However, with executives advising during guidance that 2015 will be a year for investment, stock price dropped 10% in after-hours trading in anticipation of said period of big expenditure.

In Q3 2014, Facebook’s revenue of $3.2 billion, well past analysts’ expectation of $3.12 billion. This comes mostly from advertising revenue of $2.96 billion and payments and other fees of $246 million. Ad revenue grew by 64% compared with the same quarter last year, while payments grew 13% compared to the same period. EPS is $0.43, beating the expected $0.40.

During this quarter, 66% of ad earnings are from mobile, compared with 49% in Q3 2013, signifying growth in Facebook’s ability to monetize its mobile assets.

Facebook counts 1.35 billion users to date, up from 1.32 billion in the second quarter and up 14% year-on-year. According to the company, daily active users (DAU) grew 19% year-on-year to 864 million this quarter. Mobile DAU, meanwhile, grew 39% to 703 million.

Moving out of the box

Notable in this quarter is a stark change in advertising figures. Fewer Facebook ad impressions are reported, with impressions falling 56%. However, the company has earned more per ad, mostly due to the improvement in ad quality.

Earlier this year, Facebook expanded its advertising initiatives to applications outside of Facebook’s own assets, which enabled third-party app and software developers to monetize their apps and content through Facebook. This is actually in line with the company’s medium-term strategy of expanding its reach as a platform, rather than simply a walled-off social network.

This quarter, Facebook also shared figures from WhatsApp, the chat application it acquired for $22 billion. The chat network lost $138.5 million during the quarter and earned $10.2 million. However, with 600 million monthly active users, WhatsApp will be part of Facebook’s mid- and long-term strategy of building a persistent platform for user engagement.

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