oculus

Oculus and Facebook made a lot of announcements at Oculus Connect 6 in September, but one of the biggest announcements was that Oculus Quest would be getting a hand tracking feature. With hand tracking, users will be able to ditch the controllers and use their hands to interact with objects in VR. Originally scheduled to go live at some point next year, Oculus has moved up release and will be launching the hand tracking update for Oculus Quest this week.

Continue Reading

Facebook has acquired Beat Games, the company behind hit virtual reality game Beat Saber. The acquisition will help Facebook 'bring VR to more people around the world,' the company said as part of its announcement. Beat Saber's team will join Oculus Studios as part of this deal but will independently operate in Prague. What will happen to Beat Saber? Not much, so don't worry.

Continue Reading

Back during Oculus Connect 6, Facebook announced that it would be bringing Oculus Link to the Oculus Quest. At the time, the company didn't give us a release date for the future, but today is the big day. Oculus Link has landed on Oculus Quest in beta, giving you a chance to tether your Oculus Quest to your PC to tap into that extra horsepower.

Continue Reading

There are few game developers who have achieved rockstar fame as much as the two Johns of the former id Software. And of the two, one is moving on from games or at least from working on games directly. John Carmack will always be remembered for his pioneering work not only iconic franchises such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D but also for pushing the computer gaming industry as a whole. At 49, however, he wants to be remembered for something else as well: making an impact in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Continue Reading

Oculus may have its Rift S as its premiere VR headset but that requires users to be tethered to powerful and immovable PCs. It did launch the Oculus Go and later the Oculus Quest this year but while the latter is designed to be independent and capable, it was far less useful because of its software. As promised last month, Facebook-owned Oculus is rolling out a new firmware that brings a ton of new features that finally make its premiere standalone VR headset.

Continue Reading

Fandango is bringing its FandangoNOW on-demand video service to the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest virtual reality headsets, the company announced on Wednesday. The arrival will enable headset owners to access their favorite shows and movie news through the headset, essentially offering viewers their own private entertainment room -- one literally strapped to their face.

Continue Reading

Today, Facebook took the stage at Oculus Connect 6 and made some big announcements about Oculus Quest. The biggest was unquestionably Quest's incoming hand tracking mode, but it's being joined by plenty of other new features in the coming months. One that's sure to get some attention from the Quest-owning public is a new feature called Oculus Link.

Continue Reading

The waiting line outside the next social network just started, taking the form of a Beta sign-up for what's called Facebook Horizon. This social network experience was announced this morning at Oculus Connect, and detailed soon after initial announcement as a virtual reality project aimed at the year 2020. This isn't like your average social media brand launch - this social network is in VR, and lets you fly an airplane.

Continue Reading

Oculus Connect 6 is underway, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a lot to say about the company's newest VR headset, the standalone Oculus Quest. In addition to touting the Quest's success thus far, Zuckerberg also revealed that Oculus Quest will soon be capable of hand tracking. That, importantly, means that users will soon be able to leave the controllers behind and use their Quest with only their hands.

Continue Reading

The game goes by the name "Acron: Attack of the Squirrels!" and it ties together VR gameplay (for one player) with smartphone gameplay (for 2+ other players). The game puts the VR player in the role of the evil tree, while the 2-or-more other players are squirrels. The tree attacks the squirrels.

Continue Reading

Today we're running down the just-released details of Oculus Connect 6. This event will take place at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, California. Dates for Oculus Connect 6 are September 25 and 26, 2019. The event promises to be a major moment in the history of both Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality with keynotes, presentations, and talks with big names like John Carmack and Respawn Entertainment. Given the latest notes from Carmack, this event promises to be a shock to the senses.

Continue Reading

Virtual reality is great for videos, games, and new experiences but if the technology is to be practical for the next wave of computing, platforms need to offer applications that let users also be productive. While office suites might be out of the question, web browsing is fortunately in a position to bridge the gap between entertainment and productivity. And fortunately for users of the new Oculus Quest, Mozilla just made Firefox Reality available for them.

Continue Reading