VR

Facebook is probably one of the last Big Tech companies you'd associate with virtual and augmented reality technologies but it has actually invested a lot of its resources into VR and AR, not even counting its acquisition of VR pioneer Oculus. Of course, Facebook's ideals for VR are more on the casual and social side and its Facebook Reality Labs is working on making that technology be less obnoxious and less uncomfortable, as if you were simply wearing rather large sunglasses.

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So you've got an Oculus Go VR headset and you assumed you'd have support from Oculus for the foreseeable future. So you thought the Oculus Go platform was just another part of the overarching Oculus ecosystem, one that'd have no reason to go away in the future. That's just not true, as Oculus confirmed today in a blog, saying "a fond farewell to Oculus Go."

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Former Apple design chief Jony Ive hit reset on the company's first AR and VR headset project, according to a new report, pushing for a controversial design that traded some performance in favor of portability. Though the Apple smart glasses aren't expected to be launched for another couple of years at least, previous leaks have described a number of different approaches within the Cupertino firm as it readies commercial devices.

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The past five months have seen a lot of sudden changes to how we interact with each other both socially and professionally. There has been an increase in the use of the Internet and computing devices, including smartphones, for work and to keep in touch with friends and families. HTC, however, notes that all these sudden innovations still make humans slaves to flat, two-dimensional screens. It is for that reason that it is launching a couple of XR apps to take that experience to the third dimension, calling it the Next Normal of computing.

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Since the dawn of Star Wars, George Lucas's universe has expanded with stories from across the galaxy - and across time. In Star Wars: Squadrons, the gamer is dropped in to the cockpit of a starfighter at a key point in the history of the Rebellion, and the decline of the evil Galactic Empire. Much like Star Wars: Battlefront (2015), this game takes place (at least in part) just after the battle of Endor, after the destruction of the Death Star II.

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Today we're taking a peek at the release details of Star Wars: Squadrons. This is the newest EA Games / Motive Studios release in the Star Wars universe, centered on 5v5 dogfights in starfighters piloted by New Republic (rebellion) pilots and pilots fighting on the side of the dying Galactic Empire. Now that the Death Star II has been destroyed, and both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine along with it - things are different, and attitudes have changed.

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It seems that the VR and AR pendulum is swinging back to the smartphone side of things. Headsets started out as hulking boxes strapped to your head and wired to a computer but, thanks to Google, some got the idea of shoving a smartphone into that box instead and calling it a day. Realizing the limitations of phones, headset makers like HTC moved away towards standalone devices but may now be moving back to smartphone-powered gear, this time for XR glasses.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Last year, Disney launched its Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park at both Disneyland and Disney World, and now it seems we're going to get a VR game based on it. Today, ILMxLAB announced Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge, a new VR game it's making alongside Oculus Studios. Not a whole lot is known about the game at this point, but it sounds like it'll be releasing sometime this year.

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