vr

Back in September at its fifth Oculus Connect conference, the company that started the VR renaissance announced that YouTube VR, Google’s premiere hub for 360, and 180, degree videos, would be coming to the new, independent VR headset and platform. It seems, however, that after the hype and frenzy died down, either Google or Oculus or both forgot to make good their promise. Because it’s only now, almost two months later, that YouTube VR has finally landed on the Oculus Go.

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Valve, best known for the Steam game distribution platform and Half-Life titles, has a rather unusual approach when it comes to hardware. At times it partners with hardware manufacturers and at times it makes its own. It has adopted the former strategy when it came to promoting its SteamVR virtual reality technology via HTC’s Vive platform. Soon, however, it might be switching gears and will be selling its a VR headset and controller pair under its own name, at least based on the latest photos to leak out to the press.

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HTC VIVE has announced a new platform for enterprise customers that includes the Vive Focus, a standalone virtual reality headset targeted at businesses. The hardware is part of a platform and software launching for enterprises in North America and Europe that want to create VR experiences for customers and employees. This marks its expansion outside of Asia.

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VR and AR, especially when headsets are involved, are solitary experiences. Yes, you can join others around some virtual campfire or in a virtual disco room, but everything you see is for your eyes only and no else can experience it first hand. That is unless you let them see through your eyes. The latest update to the Oculus Go does exactly that, sort of. It will let others see what you’re seeing, except they’ll have to settle for watching it the flat screen of your phone or tablet.

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Samsung is starting the work week by announcing something of a refresh for its HMD Odyssey headset. Early on, the original HMD Odyssey took its place as one of the higher-end Windows 10 Mixed Reality headsets, and this new model - dubbed simply the HMD Odyssey+ - builds on that. A lot of things are staying the same, but there are a few improvements worth talking about.

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Traditionally, the middle-child can be the most problematic, but Oculus is hoping that its new Oculus Quest virtual reality headset bucks that trend. Revealed at Oculus Connect 5 today, the Facebook-owned company's annual VR developer event, the Quest slots in-between the existing Rift and Go headsets and, as I eagerly put to the test, promises the best of both.

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This week the folks at ILMxLAB spoke at Oculus Connect 5 about their new title "Vader Immortal." This is a virtual reality experience that takes place in three parts - the first of which is called Vader Immortal: Episode I. In the game, users will travel to Mustafar, to Darth Vader's palace. This experience will take place in the Star Wars universe in the period of time between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope.

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While the Oculus Quest may have been the big-ticket item during today's Oculus Connect 5 keynote, Facebook still took a little time to cover the software side of things. More specifically, the company gave us a launch window for the next version of the Rift's system software. Dubbed Oculus Rift Core 2.0, this new system software is exiting beta today and launching to all Rift owners at some point next month.

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Oculus will launch personalized expressive avatars later this year, adding the ability to show facial expressions and more through the virtual versions of each VR user. It's part of the Facebook-owned company's attempt to reach a billion users, something social network CEO Mark Zuckerberg concedes that Oculus is only around 1-percent of the way to completing so far.

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Generally speaking, air travel is a pretty dull affair that is nonetheless a reality of life for a lot of people. Alaska Airlines announced today that is has a new way for some flyers to pass the time while they're in the air, as it has outfitted some of cross-country routes with VR headsets. More specifically, Allosky headsets from SkyLights will allow Alaska Airlines passengers to watch some immersive VR movies and short films as they fly.

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This week the folks behind Google's Daydream VR universe revealed they'd made a pair of new controllers. These controllers look something like a cross between their earliest Daydream controller and a PlayStation Move - or better yet, just a PSVR controller, but a tiny bit different. These new controllers are not (yet) available to the public, they'll be sent first to game developers and app developers interested in taking VR to a new level.

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Google has revealed new experimental controllers for the Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream. These controllers, which are only available for developers at this time, feature six degrees of freedom (6DoF), bringing "natural and intuitive controls" to the standalone virtual reality headset. Interested developers must apply for a dev kit.

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