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The Godmother of Virtual Reality: Nonny de la Peña
"Print stuff didn't scratch the itch. Documentary didn't scratch the itch. TV drama didn't scratch the itch. It wasn't until I started building this stuff. There was no way I could do anything else. I just couldn't do anything else. I don't know even how to explain that. And I think sometimes I wanna shoot myself in the head that I can't do anything else because it just motivates me. [VR] drives me. This is such a visceral empathy generator. It can make people feel in a way that nothing, no other platform I've ever worked in can successfully do in this way." Let that stand as your introduction to Nonny de la Peña, the woman pioneering a new form of journalism that aims to place viewers within news stories via virtual reality. That vision has culminated in Emblematic Group, her content- and VR hardware-focused company that she runs along with her brother in Los Angeles.
Fox's journey into virtual reality begins with 'Wild'
Virtual reality is going to the movies and Hollywood's excited about it. Or, at the very least, the execs at 20th Century Fox's specialty division Fox Searchlight are cautiously and thoughtfully wading into the deep end of this new medium. For its film Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, the studio has crafted what it's calling a companion VR piece with the help of Montreal-based VR artists/directors Paul Raphaël and Félix Lajeunesse, and it was demoed at CES in Las Vegas this week for select press.
The challenges ahead for Oculus VR as it creates the consumer Rift
"As always, the consumer Rift is in progress and we're making great progress," says Oculus VR Product VP Nate Mitchell. He told me that this week, but you could really pull versions of that response from any of the half dozen interviews we've done with Oculus VR in the past few years. It's the elephant in the room that Oculus brings with it from trade show to trade show: When is this thing going to be a consumer product? There's still no answer in January 2015, as of this year's CES. Will there be an answer in 2015? Maybe! Your guess is as good as ours, but Mitchell offered us something slightly more optimistic:"We're on an awesome path to consumer VR and I do think that 2015 for better, for worse is gonna be a really big year for VR. Even at CES, we're already seeing it. 2015 is gonna be a big year for VR, whether it's from Oculus or otherwise, and we're excited to be a part of it."
Use your feet to fly around a virtual world
Almost every time we've played around in virtual reality, be it of the Oculus Rift or Gear VR variety, we've had a game controller of some sort in our hands. It's necessary to navigate an environment, pop around and generally have a look about. The folks behind 3DRudder want to take that paddle and put it under your feet. At its simplest, the 3DRudder is an unobtrusive circular platform that replaces a D-pad on the controller. It's about 12 inches across and has a halved sphere underneath. Gyroscopes and accelerometers tucked inside track your movements via the pitch and yaw of your tootsies, and it connects to your computer via USB. According to the developers, the primary use they have in mind is for navigating 3D modeling programs like ZBrush or Maya, freeing your hands to switch brushes or change a tool while using feet to get around the scene you're making.
Samsung just added a 360-degree video store to its VR headset
Since launch in early December, the virtual reality headset released by Samsung and Oculus VR has received a steady drip of new content. Each Tuesday, a handful of new apps launches for Gear VR -- new games (Temple Run!), new experiences (a Paul McCartney performance!). Thus far, nothing's been spectacular enough to remark about; the overall selection of content, gaming or otherwise, is still on the light side. This week changes that, with the release of "Milk VR." The free app from Samsung contains a healthy dose of new 360-degree video content, in both streaming and downloadable format. The actual selection of videos is available on a Samsung website of the same name, right here. It's not exactly a flood of videos, but it's a hell of a lot more than the small sample packed in at launch.
Engadget Daily: Sony postpones 'The Interview,' Gear VR review and more!
In case you hadn't heard, things are still going dreadfully south for Sony Pictures. In response to a new wave of threats from its GOP cyberattackers, the studio has been coerced to postpone its December 25th theatrical premiere of The Interview. Find all the deets, and more, in the gallery below. Enjoy.
Looking into the future: Samsung Gear VR review
You can finally buy a virtual reality headset and use it in your home. Right now -- today -- that is possible. It doesn't cost $10,000 and it doesn't come with caveats like, "This is made for developers." Samsung is officially the first to market with an accessible, impressive virtual reality headset, all powered by software from Facebook's recently acquired Oculus VR team. That alone is very exciting: We are standing at the precipice of a new medium, finally technologically possible. Wireless, consumer-grade virtual reality! In your home! Today! Samsung's Gear VR is both an astounding feat and an illuminating vision into our near future; it's the closest anyone's come to making virtual reality into a palatable consumer experience, and a stark example of how far we still have to go before that dream is completely realized.
Samsung's virtual reality headset, Gear VR: what you need to know
Samsung's virtual reality headset, dubbed "Gear VR," is available for purchase as of today. For those not following the last three years of virtual reality's return from obscurity, today is a big day: Gear VR is the first virtual reality headset available to general consumers. Though Sony's PlayStation arm and Facebook's Oculus VR have high-powered development kits in the wild, Samsung's the first major electronics company to go to market with a VR headset. Almost, at least -- the headset's full name is, "Gear VR Innovator Edition." In fact, when you buy the headset on Samsung's website, you have to agree to this condition: "I understand the Gear VR is an Innovator Edition device targeted specifically to developers or early adopters of technology." So, what's the goal with Gear VR for Samsung? And what are its plans for the future? We asked Nick DiCarlo, VP/GM of immersive products and VR at Samsung, in an interview this morning. Head below for his answers, and for the full list of apps coming to Gear VR today.
You can buy Samsung's virtual reality headset right now for $200
Consumer virtual reality is kind of, sort of, almost a reality. It's basically a reality today, actually, as Samsung's virtual reality headset -- "Gear VR" -- is available for purchase online. As previously reported, the headset will set you back $200 and it requires a Note 4 smartphone to act as its screen. The device is dubbed "Innovator Edition" by Samsung, and the Korean phone giant clearly isn't joking around with that phrase: the product order page requires you to acknowledge that you're buying a, "device targeted specifically to developers or early adopters of technology." So, how is it, and should you buy it? When we last used it at IFA 2014, we were impressed (check out our hands-on below the break). Whether you should buy it, however? We can't tell you just yet -- expect a full review of Samsung's Gear VR from Engadget just as soon as we get our hands (heads?) on one. If you just can't wait for the review, here's where you can buy Gear VR right now.
$200 turns your Galaxy Note 4 into a VR headset
Moments after Samsung announced that you could get a Gear VR as early as next month, Oculus released an all-important detail: its price. Oculus and Samsung are selling two versions of its Gear VR Innovator Edition -- the headset alone is $199, but if you want the Bluetooth gamepad as well, you'll have to pony up $249 for the bundle. It's worth noting that this particular Gear VR is designed for the Galaxy Note 4, which you will have to supply yourself in order to get that whole virtual reality experience. Seeing as a Note 4 will likely cost you around $300 on contract and upwards of $800 without, the total Gear VR experience is looking to be quite expensive -- starting at around $500 and almost $1,000 if you decide to go off-contract. That's considerably more than the $350 Oculus Rift DK2, though bear in mind that Oculus has yet to announce the consumer retail price of its Rift headset.
Oculus VR's software development kit for mobile is now available
When Oculus VR hired away legendary programmer John Carmack from id Software, there was a specific intention: Carmack's commitment to virtual reality, specifically as it pertained to mobile VR. The first major fruit of Carmack's work over the past year is now available for you to download, as Oculus VR today announced the release of its mobile software development kit. So, what can you do with it? You can make stuff for Samsung and Oculus VR's joint venture: Gear VR. Specifically, the SDK is meant for use with the Note 4, which powers virtual experiences in Gear VR.
Samsung's Gear VR Innovator Edition arrives next month in the US
If you've been eyeing Samsung's Gear VR headset to pair with that Galaxy Note 4, you might soon be in luck. The company announced today that the Innovator Edition of the virtual reality gadget will be available stateside in December. Of course, the Gear VR is powered by Oculus tech, using that super-sized smartphone's 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display to sort the "fully immersive" experience. In order to properly show off the device, Samsung and Oculus teamed up with the likes of Marvel, DreamWorks, Cirque du Soleil and others to craft VR offerings in hopes of convincing you to commit your funds. We're talking things like a tour of Tony Stark's Lab in advance of The Avengers: Age of Ultron. The first time a Note 4 is connected to the Gear VR, Oculus software will automatically download to the handset for wrangling purchases, watching movies and more. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing, but while you wait, you can opt for updates from Samsung in the meantime.
Archos is launching a GearVR competitor that costs just $40
We may not know how much GearVR will cost, but we're reasonably sure that Archos is already trying to undercut Samsung and Oculus head-mounted effort. The French company is busting out the wittily-named Archos VR Headset, a Rift-like device that's compatible with any smartphone that measures between 5 and 6-inches. The kicker here, of course, is that the device will retail for £25 in the UK, roughly converting to $40, which would put it well beneath the - frankly insane - $200 figure an unnamed Samsung official told VentureBeat during New York Fashion Week. If you're interested in trying one out, it'll be available at some point in November, and we hope that the GearVR isn't too far behind.
Warner Bros is building a holographic Batcave for the Oculus Rift
Like comic books? Then you're probably familiar with the style of Bruce Timm, the father of the DC animated universe -- a specific era (and style) of DC Comics animation projects that started with the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series. If you missed it, it was a fantastic series: Batman had an incredible voice, Robin didn't deal in cheesy catch phrases and Mark Hamill was the Joker. Seriously. Now, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment is bringing Timm's vision of Batman back as an interactive holographic video designed for virtual reality displays: they're building an animated Batcave for the Oculus Rift.
Oculus wants a VR app store for every device you can think of
When we saw the Samsung Gear VR at IFA, Oculus CTO John Carmack showed us a basic version of an app store made for mobile virtual reality. But when the headset ships to consumers sometime later this year, the VR outfit has bigger plans. It's rebranding the current Oculus Share "store" into Oculus Platform and turning it into a launcher of sorts for apps and other experiences, as noticed by TechCrunch. Platform will act as common store across the firm's entire platform including the Rift and mobile. Like the prototype from earlier this month, the store will exist within virtual reality and will house games, apps and stuff like the virtual movie theater, Oculus Cinema.
Qualcomm offers developer support for virtual reality and digital eyewear
Smartwatches may be the most popular wearable products right now, but facewear is certainly on the up and up. Devices like Samsung's Gear VR and the Epson Moverio glasses are either already on the market or will be coming in the very near future, but what good are these devices if developers have limited access to them? Qualcomm's working on a solution of its own by releasing a developer kit for digital eyewear, and companies like Samsung, Epson and others are on board. The new platform, called the Vuforia SDK for Digital Eyewear, is supposed to aid developers in building hybrid virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) apps that are capable of recognizing objects and images that are within your field of view; the company hopes this ability to lay interactive 3D content over the rest of the world will result in handy apps for gaming, education and shopping. The kit will be available this fall as a beta that will only be available to a small group of developers, and the company hasn't specified when it'll be open to everyone else.
Yes, Unreal Engine 4 is coming to Samsung Gear VR too
The latest game development toolkit from Epic Games supports Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus, but what about virtual or augmented reality on mobile devices? That's coming, too -- and apparently pretty soon. Road to VR has noticed that on Epic's publicly-accessible "Unreal Engine 4 Roadmap" task-board two new bits were added to the VR to-do list: Samsung Gear VR and Google Project Tango support. They're labeled as September and October projects, and as Road to VR notes, the VR project category has been empty since Oculus' and Sony's features have been completed. If anything, this yet another example of just how versatile Unreal Engine 4 is when it comes to what the engine's games can run on. Maybe Amazon's Fire phone is up next? After all, there's precedent (sort of).
'Rock Band' creator wants to bend your mind with Samsung's Gear VR
You may have tried VR, but have you ever totally, like really got into it, man? Harmonix, the creator of Rock Band and Dance Central wants to crank Samsung's new Gear VR headset to 11 with an app called Harmonix Music VR. Details are sketchy, but the idea is to don the Oculus-powered device and start playing your favorite tunes. From there, the app will analyze the music and create a "high-resolution event sequence that drives the reactive elements in your virtual world." In layman's terms, we think that means it'll generate "trippy visualizations." Harmonix also used the words "vibrant" and "dreamscape," so we're pretty sure it's going after a certain burgeoning market segment. It'll arrive alongside Samsung's Gear VR later this year, with pricing to follow.
How Samsung's VR headset convinced John Carmack to join Oculus VR
John Carmack's name isn't synonymous with virtual reality just yet. He's still "the guy who led programming on Doom and Wolfenstein" to most folks; the co-founder of acclaimed development studio id Software. And that's exactly why it was such a big deal when he suddenly left id Software last year to join Oculus VR as chief technical officer. Though Palmer Luckey and co. helped sway him with their own Rift headset, Carmack was eventually sold on the gig by Samsung's mobile VR concept: Gear VR. "That was really the prime thing that motivated me to decide: No, I'm gonna devote 100 percent of my attention and focus to Oculus," he told Engadget in an interview this week.
Engadget Daily: Galaxy Note Edge, hands-on with the Xperia Z3 and more!
Today, we take a look at the Galaxy Note Edge's bent display, test drive Samsung's Gear VR headset, go hands-on with the Xperia Z3 and more from IFA 2014! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
