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Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift
The dream of wearing a lightweight headset, like the Oculus Rift, in order to simulate physical presence isn't limited to the imaginary worlds of video games. One man's vision is that of immersive TV shows, movies and live sports. In fact, David Cole, co-founder of Next3D and an industry veteran who helps content creators and providers produce and deliver 3D, has been using his Rift dev kit to bring TV and film to life since the kits started shipping in March. The company is combining its video processing and compression technology with its experience in content production and stereoscopic delivery to offer what it's called Full-Court. Next3D hopes to leverage its existing relationships with creators and providers to assist them in jumping into the world of live-action VR content. This includes both pre-recorded and live broadcasts. We wanted to see this firsthand, so we jumped at the opportunity to witness the creation of content and experience the results. This trial run of Next3D's stereoscopic, 180-degree field-of-view camera rig, and the post-processing to adapt it to VR, was part of the production of the paranormal investigation show, Anomaly, at Castle Warden in St. Augustine, Fla. Being nearby, we braved the perils of the haunted surroundings to tell you about what we hope is only the beginning of virtual reality content.
Oculus snags $16 million from investors to bring virtual reality to the masses
Oculus announced its first round of funding today, wherein the company secured $16 million from investors specifically aimed at putting the Oculus Rift in consumer hands. The nascent virtual reality hardware company has repeatedly said its end goal with the Rift is to make it a consumer product; currently, only folks who backed the Rift on Kickstarter and those willing to spend $300 on a developer kit have access. A handful of games support the Rift, though more and more developers are promising not just support in their games, but entire games built from the ground up with VR in mind. An HD version of the headset was also introduced at last week's E3 gaming show.Oculus' new business partners apparently see enough financial potential in the Rift to not only invest heavily, but to also take on board positions -- both Santo Politi of Spark Capital and Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners are now on the Oculus board of directors. "What Palmer, Brendan and the team are building at Oculus so closely matches the Metaverse that we had to be part of it. Working with them to get this platform to market at scale will be enormously exciting," Rodriguez said of today's news.The company launched last year with a Kickstarter campaign targeting $250,000 -- the project eventually raised just shy of $2.5 million, and now sells its Rift dev kit outside of the Kickstarter campaign.
Sony's Yoshida: We've got Oculus dev kits, 'I love it'
While the PlayStation 4 doesn't yet support the Oculus Rift, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida is full of love for the VR device. Speaking to Engadget during a roundtable today, Yoshida said, "We've got a couple of the development kits, and I tried it out and I love it." While we've seen plenty of devs showing off their Oculus Rifts, it's interesting to note Yoshida kept the question of future PS4 support open with a "no comment" and, as Engadget notes, a big smile.
Oculus Rift HD prototype VR headset appears at E3, we go hands (and eyes) on (update: video)
We've been impressed with Oculus Rift from the start, and have been following the VR headset closely ever since. The developer edition has been in the hands of devs for a couple months now, and while Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell have certainly received rave reviews of the headset from many, they've also heard lots of feedback about ways to improve it. The number one request from users and devs? A higher-resolution screen than the 1,280 x 800 panel in the dev device. Well, after months of research and tinkering to find the right hardware combination, team Oculus is finally ready to show off a Rift with a 1,080 x 1920 display, and we got to demo the thing.Before heading into the land of 1080p, we got to explore a demo built with Unreal Engine 4 in the existing dev headset. After looking around a snowy mountain stronghold inhabited by a fire lord in low res, we switched to the exact same demo running at 60 fps on the HD prototype device -- and the difference was immediately apparent. Surface textures could be seen in much higher fidelity, colors were brighter and less muddied and the general detail of the entire environment was greatly improved.
Oculus Rift team taps ex-Valver Tom Forsyth, scientist Steve Lavalle
The Oculus Rift team has enlisted the aid of two more individuals: Tom Forsyth, who made a name for himself while working at Valve as a software engineer and on Team Fortress 2; and Steve Lavalle, a robotics scientist from the University of Illinois who has collaborated with Oculus since last September. Forsyth joins Oculus to improve the company's Rift SDK (software development kit) and work on "a few top-secret VR R&D projects." Lasalle is the new full-time principal scientist at Oculus, charged with tackling issues surrounding sensor fusion, magnetic drift correction and kinematic modeling. The Oculus Rift is a Kickstarter-funded personal virtual reality headset. The first Oculus Rift developer units shipped back in March, and will be followed by retail units at an undetermined point in the future. Our own bespectacled Jordan Mallory recently wrote about using the Rift on top of some spectacles.
A bespectacled look at the Oculus Rift
For the most part, being near- or farsighted today isn't that big of a deal. The only cultural zeitgeist folks like me have missed out on recently has been in the resurgence of glasses-required 3D technology in consumer media. And let's be honest, it isn't a tremendous loss. In fact, the Oculus Rift is the only thing on the horizon that is as potentially game-changing as it is unfriendly to glasses. That thing straps directly onto your whole face, there's no way a pair of fashionable specs could fit under there. Well, as it turns out, the Oculus Rift really was accommodating to my Converse frames and their too-old lenses, so much so that for the first time ever I'm legitimately excited about the once-lofty possibility of a virtual reality future.
Valve's Tom Forsyth and robotics scientist Steve LaValle join Oculus team
The Oculus team just got bigger by two, with software engineer Tom Forsyth, formerly of Valve, and robotic scientist Dr. Steve LaValle of the University of Illinois both jumping on board. Forsyth previously worked alongside Joe Ludwig and Michael Abrash on Valve's Team Fortress 2, which has a VR mode specifically designed for the developer version of the Rift. Valve's developers were some of the first to get their hands on dev kits, and Forsyth's considerable experience will be put towards the Rift SDK and a few secret R&D projects. LaValle also has some history with Oculus; he's had a hand in developing VR hardware and software with the company since last September. As Oculus' full-time principle scientist, LaValle will be working on things like sensor fusion, magnetic drift correction, and kinematic modeling. Though the Rift is still a long way off from being ready for consumer use, this savvy collection of industry talent could be a sign that big things are afoot for the VR company.
Half-Life 2 officially supported on Oculus Rift, beta gets shipped to developers
Gordon Freeman, in your head. Well, that's the plan, with Oculus now offering official beta support for a headset-based Half-Life 2. There's a few known issues to iron out already, including an overly-dim UI and issues with the zoom. But even at this early stage, it appears to lack any gameplay deal-breakers we've seen elsewhere. As mentioned by Valve's Joe Ludwig on the Oculus developer forums, however, the current build is a bit rougher around the edges compared to the Team Fortress 2 beta that launched earlier this year. Developers with the necessary Rift hardware can pick up the files on Steam or follow the developments on Oculus' own forums -- but no comments about headcrab hats and wearables, okay?
Minecraft lands unofficial Oculus Rift support (video)
If you're looking for more virtual worlds to explore using the Oculus Rift, MTBS3D forum user StellaArtois has developed something that might strike your fancy: a Minecraft mod dubbed Minecrift that bakes in support for the virtual reality headset. The modification still needs refining, but it already incorporates head tracking and warping. Not only did the intrepid forum goer grapple with the OpenGL API to devise the solution, but they also created the altered software before their own Rift dev kit arrived, relying on others to provide feedback for tweaking. Mojang has has expressed interest in the VR headset and already has one in house, but official support for the Rift doesn't seem close at hand for Minecraft."Would take a lot of work to get it working for Minecraft, but not impossible - especially with the new launcher," Mojang dev Nathan Adams tweeted yesterday regarding the Rift. Click the first source link below to give the mod a shot or head past the break to see it in action.
EVE Online dev reveals Oculus Rift-based space dogfighting 'experience' (update: video!)
It's not clear if Icelandic game studio CCP is extending its crazy MMO, EVE Online, into the world of virtual reality, but the company is working on some form of EVE-based VR application using the Oculus Rift. CCP teased the concept during the keynote event at its Fanfest event this afternoon, showing off what looked like a modern Wing Commander-style space shooter set in the world of EVE (similar to the first-person shooter extension on PlayStation 3, Dust 514), built using the Unity game engine. EVE fansite The Mittani notes from a hands-on demonstration at Fanfest that the game is currently 3v3 dogfighting employing the VR headset and an unnamed "console-style game controller." Sadly, it sounds like the project is little more than an internal curiosity at this point, but color us unsurprised if this pops up in a more polished form down the line. We'll add a video of CCP's presentation to this post as soon as it goes live -- we were marveled by the gorgeous visuals and gameplay promise of a space shooter which employs VR. Several games are currently in development for the Oculus Rift, and Valve's Team Fortress 2 already supports the device. However, the headset that's currently available is a development kit, and not meant as representative of the final retail product. Update: We've added the video from Fanfest below the break!
Oculus' Palmer Luckey on the Motorola StarTAC and living in the meatspace
Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire. Oculus VR founder and designer Palmer Luckey has a go at our weekly set of questions while chatting perception modification and the importance of a meatspace presence. Join us beyond the jump in order to peruse the full collection of responses.
Oculus Rift's Tuscany demo scores unofficial support for Razer Hydra (video)
Oculus Rift's Tuscany demo was built with a good ol' fashioned keyboard and mouse setup in mind, but now it's unofficially scored support for motion controls. Sixense, the outfit behind Razer's Hydra, has cooked up a custom version of the Italian-themed sample for use with their controller, and it gives gamers a pair of floating hands to pick up and manipulate objects. Originally shown at GDC, the tweaked experience is now up for grabs, and can even be played by those who don't have a Rift -- albeit with just the controller's perks. Booting up the retooled package offers users a new 3D menu, giving them options for arm length, crouching, head bobbing and a crosshair. It's not the first project to combine Rift with Hydra, but it certainly helps illustrate the potential of such a setup. Sixense says it plans to release updates and the source code, and it recommends folks sign up for their project-specific email list and keep an eye on their forums for word on availability. Hit the source links below for the download, or head past the break to catch Road to VR's hands-on with the Hydra-friendly Tuscan villa.
Oculight LED hack gives the Oculus Rift a hint of peripheral vision (video)
Although the Oculus Rift is one of the more ambitious attempts at making virtual reality accessible, its lack of peripheral version is all too familiar -- it's much like staring into a pair of portholes. Rather than let the disorientation persist unaltered, though, Hack A Day has taken matters into its own hands. Its Oculight hack puts an RGB LED strip inside the headpiece, with the colored lighting set to match the edge of the screen through Adalight code. The result is much like Philips' Ambilight, but arguably more useful: the virtual world's light "leaks" into the wearer's real peripheral view, adding to the immersion. Oculight clearly isn't for sale and needs a refined installation to create the ideal effect, but the readily available resources will let anyone with an Oculus Rift development kit build their own solution.
Oculus Rift gets torn down by iFixit, adds high repairability to its kudos list
The Oculus Rift VR headset has had a wild ride so far after hitting its Kickstarter goal in a single day, raising a whopping $2,437,429 and gaining accolades along the way to the release of a development kit last month. iFixit (or one of its very trusting friends) was apparently one of those ponying up the $300 for the developer version, and naturally the first thing they did was put a screw-gun to it. The teardown reveals as tidy-looking a design on the inside as the exterior, and iFixit said that it couldn't have been easier to do. The only minor hitch was cables held together by tape which would likely need to be replaced in the event of any surgery on the Rift. It's hard to say whether that ease of access will remain with the final production model, but the way that Oculus has gone about its business so far, we wouldn't be surprised. Check the step-by-step process for yourself at the source.
In conversation with Epic Games' Mark Rein: Unreal Engine 4 support for Oculus Rift (and everything else), and thoughts on next-gen
Epic Games isn't just offering up its ubiquitous current-gen game creation tool Unreal Engine 3 to Oculus Rift developers, but also its next-gen tool, Unreal Engine 4. Epic Games VP Mark Rein told Engadget as much during an interview at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, repeatedly stating he's "super bullish" on the Rift, all the while rocking an Oculus pin on his exhibitor lanyard. "Oh, for sure," he said when we asked about UE4 support for the Rift. "We're working on that now." The Rift dev kit was demoed at CES 2013 running Unreal Engine 3's "Epic Citadel" demo, and Epic's offered support to the Oculus folks since early on, making the UE4 news not a huge surprise, but welcome nonetheless. The next-gen game engine was being shown off at GDC 2013 with a flashy new demo (seen below the break), as well as a version of its "Elemental" demo running on a PlayStation 4 dev kit (shrouded behind a curtain, of course). Rein was visibly excited about that as well, unable to contain random vocal outbursts during the presentation. "It's a war out there, and we sell bullets and bandaids," he jokingly told us in an interview the following day. The quote comes from coworker and Epic VP of business development Jay Wilbur, and it's fitting -- Epic only makes a handful of games, and the company's real money comes from game engine licensees. In so many words, the more platforms that Unreal Engine variants can go, the better for Epic (as well as for engine licensees, of course). "It's a good place to be -- we try to support everything we can. We have to place some timed bets on things that we feel are gonna be the most important to licensees, and also to us where we're taking games. But because the engine is portable -- it's written in C++ -- a licensee can take and do whatever they want," he said.
Oculus Rift dev kits are shipping
Oculus VR people are very carefully putting Rift dev kits into swish-looking cases and shipping them off as of this week. Shipping began on Wednesday, March 27, meaning Oculus met its projected window with a few days to spare.Going by Oculus's projections in line with that March window, Kickstarter backers can expect their kits to arrive by mid-April, and those with pre-orders later in the month. With kits on their way, Oculus also launched a Developer Center site, providing access to the Oculus software development kit, integration for Unity and Unreal Engine, and other useful things like wikis, forums, documents, and videos.We can imagine devs are excited about receiving their kits, but we caution celebrating arrivals with booze. As Rift inventor Palmer Luckey told us, make sure you use the VR rig sober, or be prepared for some unpleasant effects.
PSA: Oculus Rift development kits now shipping, some may have already arrived
Oculus Rift is in the mail! Development kits began shipping to customers on Wednesday, and even if you have yet to receive a tracking number of your own, a kit may very well be on its way. The Oculus team has been "tied up at GDC" this week, which explains the delay in sending out tracking info, but folks taking care of logistics have apparently been hard at work, prepping some 10,000 development kits for shipment. Of course, not every set will be on its way to a developer right away -- it does take time to get that many kits out the door -- but if you're expecting one at your front porch, it's likely to arrive very soon. In the meantime, the Developer Center has opened up to devs, with access to the SDK, Unity and Unreal Engine integrations, forums, wiki and other documentation. The team also published a video of its SXSW panel in full for your enjoyment -- you can catch it just past the break.
Distro Issue 83: Oculus, Valve and a shared vision of virtual reality
Since last August, gamers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Oculus Rift after a stellar Kickstarter campaign that far exceeded its fundraising goal. Of course, with new hardware comes the need for fresh software, and Valve has partnered with the aforementioned outfit to tackle VR. In this issue of our weekly, we take a look at the story behind the Rift, go heads-up with the final dev unit and visit with Valve to chat about the whole lot. Samsung's Galaxy S 4 gets previewed, Hands-On tackles a slew of new gadgets and the Insert Coin: New Challengers winner floats through the Q&A. A tablet mag full of weekend reading awaits via the download links that follow. Distro Issue 83 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Oculus' Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell on the past, present and future of the Rift
As geeks, we have a tendency to let our imaginations run away with us. Science fiction-fueled dreams conjure up images of flying cars, robots and artificial reality. We judge our gadgets by the arbitrary standards of famous speculative works: hoverboards by 2015 and a holodeck in every home. It's a silly and unrealistic way to measure our progress, but it inspires us to build the future we're tired of waiting for. This is the kind of passion we found at Oculus VR headquarters, where founder Palmer Luckey and a platoon of software engineers, hardware gurus and marketing wizards hope to make virtual reality a plausible reality. We sat down with the company's aforementioned founder and VP of Product Nate Mitchell to find out where that passion came from and where Oculus VR is heading.
The Daily Grind: Would you play a VR-enabled MMO?
So next month marks the release of the Oculus dev kit, and if you have no idea what I just typed, think of it as one small step for virtual reality gaming and one giant leap for virtual world fanboy dreamers. While it's too early to say whether the Rift will catch on (or even function adequately), it's not too early to salivate a little bit and have a Daily Grind discussion or two. So, how about it? Would you put on goggles or a headset and play a VR MMO? Why or why not? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
