virtual reality

It was inevitable that Facebook would eventually leave a more tangible mark on its Oculus VR business but it still ruffled some feathers when it was revealed that to even use an Oculus headset, one would need to have a Facebook account. Facebook probably presumed everyone these days has one and that Oculus users, both present and future, also do. That's apparently not the case and now Oculus Quest 2 buyers are left with a temporary paperweight while waiting for their new Facebook accounts to be unblocked after being banned for practically no real reason at all.

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It's no secret that exposure to nature, such as a walk at an orchard or a hike at the nearest park, offers mental health benefits, as well as some other potential benefits, including reduced cortisol hormone levels and decreased blood pressure. What about during winter when the trees are barren or during a global pandemic requiring social distancing, though? That's where television and VR come in.

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Just last month, Facebook made a big splash in the VR and AR scenes with new products and a new direction for Oculus. Discontinuing its original standalone VR headset, the social media giant launched the Oculus Quest 2, boasted to be lighter both in size and price but also more powerful and more capable. Now that headset and its accompanying parts are available for anyone to buy and use. All they need is a Facebook account to get started.

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A new home virtual reality treadmill could help turn your living room into a Holodeck, with the Virtuix Omni One offering a consumer version of the infinite-walk tech. Omni Pro made waves for its ability to unlock virtual environments for limitless exploration - regardless of the size of the room you're in - thanks to its omni-directional treadmill system.

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For simulator fans, the latest iteration of the well-aged Flight Simulator could be the franchise's biggest release yet and in more ways than one. The complete set of launch assets spans 10 dual-layer DVDs and that's not yet including the updates that will be released in the months and years to come. It may also be the first of its line to finally reach virtual reality utopia now that the technology is pretty much ready. And if you are similarly ready with the hardware, you can try your luck in signing up for a closed VR beta tester now.

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It was, like Thanos, inevitable but some might still get some feels with the revelation that Daydream VR is truly no more. At least not as far as Google is concerned. The writing on the wall has been there since last year so it was really only a matter of time before Android officially dropped support for Google's remaining VR platform and with it goes the last remaining bastion of smartphone-powered VR headsets.

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HP today announced that the Reverb G2 VR headset will soon be the at the center of a new platform called the HP Omnicept Solution. The HP Omnicept Solution includes the Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition and a matching SDK that gives developers "an ecosystem to create hew hyper-personalized, engaging, and adaptive VR experiences for enterprises." Even though the Omnicept Solution is still some time off, the capabilities of the platform HP described today sound pretty impressive.

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This afternoon the developers at Cyan revealed a new version of the classic PC game MYST. This game is a "brand new version of Myst, completely re-imagined for modern game systems and - for the first time for any game in the Myst series - including optional VR support!" If you're a fan of the original MYST series, please feel free to flip out with happiness.

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Virtual reality has always carried the stigma of being more of an entertainment-centric technology. With Facebook at the helm of one of the two biggest VR platforms today, that identity seems to get even more cemented, just with a dash of social networking on top. At Facebook Connect, what was previously and lovingly called Oculus Connect, the social media giant unveiled a new Infinite Office feature that is clearly trying to say that VR is for serious work, too.

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Oculus announced today that they'll discontinue the Oculus Rift line of VR headsets entirely. The only current Rift device available from Oculus is the Oculus Rift S, but that'll soon be over as Oculus focuses all its efforts on single headset: Oculus Quest 2. This does NOT mean that there'll be no PC-based VR.

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The Oculus Quest 2 was revealed today with a redesigned body, next-generation Touch controllers, and a new higher-resolution display. This version of the Oculus Quest was released for approximately $300 - or $100 less than the launch price of the original Oculus Quest. Pre-orders for this headset are open as of today, and shipping begins on October 13, 2020.

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It seems that Facebook is starting the work week off with an unexpected bang. Earlier today, the company published a couple of videos about the Oculus Quest 2, revealing a decent amount of information about the upcoming VR headset. This definitely isn't the official reveal Facebook is likely planning, and indeed, there are a few key details about the Oculus Quest 2 that these videos leave out.

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