It's been a little while since we last heard from Lenovo's VR arm, but today the company is back with a new headset. Today Lenovo unveiled the Mirage VR S3, an all-in-one headset it created with the help of the folks at Pico Interactive. With a 4K display and hands-free functionality that doesn't need the included paddle controller, it sounds like the Mirage VR S3 could be a very capable headset.
Half-Life Alyx is the first major game in the franchise to come out in years but its high requirements made it a no-go for many fans of the franchise. Valve may have boosted sales of its Index VR system and perhaps other compatible VR gear but that is still a small number compared to Half-Life fans still left hanging. Unsurprisingly, there have been a few attempts at getting Alyx to run on screens that are flat as pancakes but this Pancake FPS Starter Kit looks to be one of the most promising and slightly more confusing ones.
Virtual reality is supposed to give the illusion of being in an artificial yet believable world. Given today's technologies, however, that doesn't always look believable not just in graphics quality but also in how things move. Liquids are one of the hardest things to get right and Valve had a simple solution for those in Half-Life: Alyx that involved simply ignoring they even exist. The latest update, however, finally brings some semblance of reality and lets you play with all kinds of liquids that you might not even have access to in the real world.
The HP Reverb G2 represents a team-up of HP, Valve, and Microsoft, to create a virtual reality / mixed reality headset that'll top the rest. This device works with one 2K x 2K resolution per eye, and rolls with a 114-degree field of view. This headset is wired, worked with Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR, and MSFT spatial audio - as well as HP Labs newest spatial audio format.
When consumers hear of 5G and its blazing fast speeds, most will probably think about Netflix and downloads. 5G's full potential, however, isn't limited to just that, of course, and it can enable a whole host of new experiences, including everyone's favorite AR/VR/XR. It's no surprise then that Qualcomm is pushing smartphones powered by its 5G technologies to drive the next wave of lightweight XR headsets that it says will finally arrive sometime within the next year.
It's unclear if the world needs a new virtual reality headset, but former HTC CEO Peter Chou is convinced the answer is yes - and his new project XRSpace comes complete with a full VR world too. Coming out of a three year development process, the 5G-connected XRSpace Mova is an "extended reality" untethered headset that will integrate with the company's new XRSpace Manova social reality platform.
There is no telling when the COVID-19 pandemic will really end but, when it does, it will be a very different world. Work alone is undergoing a shift and some tech companies are seeing a drastically different future at least for some kinds of jobs. Facebook, for example, thinks that computing and work will be not only remote but also virtual. And, of course, it's in a perfect position to push its social platform and products to be at the head of that new wave of computing.
A "one year anniversary" announcement was made this morning by Oculus for the headsets Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. In their excitement for a full year of sales and functionality, Oculus representatives noted that "people have spent more than $100M on Quest content." They also noted that more than 20 titles on the platform have "surpassed the $1M revenue mark on Quest alone," and that 10 of these have now surpassed $2M in revenue over the past year.
Valve's own games have long been popular not just for their intrinsic value but also for their modder-friendliness. That kind of thinking has fortunately also seeped into Steam via the platform's Workshop feature, giving rise to countless mods, some of which grow up to be games in their own right. Now Valve is extending that to its first big VR game, giving modders the green light to take what they can from Half-Life: Alyx for their own twist on the game or even completely new VR experiences.
In a notice on its website this week, Samsung revealed that it will slowly shut down its Samsung XR apps over the next few months, ultimately shuttering them in late September. Some changes have already taken place -- the 360-degree videos are no longer available, for example, and users can no longer purchase premium videos. The company has also suspended updates for the apps.
The latest major acquisition made by iPhone company Apple was that of NextVR, a company that deals primarily in the broadcast of sports events in virtual reality. Users of NextVR's platform in the past have had access to NBA games for basketball, boxing, NHRA racing, WWE (wrestling events), ICC soccer, and other events. This system is still active (for the moment) on the VR platform Oculus GO.
Many things have been postponed or canceled outright due to the COVID-19 pandemic but some things have already been delayed even before the coronavirus hit the global scene. Games, in particular, have been pushed back earlier this year or even late last year for many reasons, including quality of life for developers as well as polishing the game to their satisfaction. Fortunately, it seems that at least one game will finally make its way to players' hands, one way or the other, as Sony Interactive Entertainment just announced when PS VR owners can finally take to the skies as their favorite armored superhero.