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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.
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.
Virtual Reality now: hands-on with the Oculus Rift final development kit
On a sunny Southern California afternoon, Oculus VR's founder, Palmer Luckey, its VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, its press agent, a film crew, photographers and a pair of Engadget's editors occupy a conference room in the company's Irvine headquarters. While it's the first time that most of the group has met in person, they're all here with a common interest. This assembly is gathered to take a look at what is said to be the final development hardware design of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Outside of this intrigued mash-up of press and corporate executives, Oculus' heads-up headset has managed to generate a lot of buzz in a reasonably short amount of time. The original concept was constructed from leftover parts in the garage of a tinkerer who was trying to create an affordable VR experience. Looking to further the Rift's development, the newborn firm took to crowdfunding and smashed its 30-day Kickstarter goal of $250,000 by raising a colossal $2,437,429 this past August. During its early fundraising days we managed to go hands-on with a crude prototype of the equipment which left us yearning to get our hands on a final development model. A few short months later at CES, the company teased a larger, redesigned 7-inch development model, but only allowed us to try out an updated test unit that featured a 5.6-inch, 1,280 x 800 display wrapped in several layers of black gaffer tape. Fast-forward to today and here I am waiting to test-drive that elusive headset that got away from us back in Las Vegas. With all of the buzz surrounding the company's recent VR efforts, it's time for Oculus to put up or shut up.%Gallery-183179%
Valve's Joe Ludwig on the uncertain future of virtual reality and partnering with Oculus
It's a beautiful late winter day in Bellevue, Wash. Instead of enjoying the outdoors, I'm sitting in a rectangular white room with three programmers, surrounded by three walls covered in augmented reality markers. Not that I'm complaining: Valve Software's Joe Ludwig, the programmer in the room who most resembles a member of Anthrax, is walking me through his company's latest work in the world of virtual reality. It's the first anyone outside of Valve will see of the company's VR efforts thus far. As it turns out, the software company is working with Oculus VR to port the tremendously popular free-to-play first-person shooter, Team Fortress 2, to the upcoming Rift development kit. The free update, dubbed "VR Mode," is the latest benchmark in Valve's ongoing hardware initiative. "We think that both augmented and virtual reality are going to be a huge deal over the next several years," Ludwig tells us.%Gallery-183116%
Valve's Team Fortress 2 is Oculus Rift's first game, free 'VR Mode' update coming soon
We've known for some time now that Valve was working on virtual reality support for its perpetually updated free-to-play shooter, Team Fortress 2. The company's even giving a duo of talks at the upcoming Game Developer's Conference on the difficulties of game development for virtual reality. What we didn't know, however, is that said support is also headed to consumers as "VR Mode," and it'll get pushed to PC Team Fortress 2 players "sometime within the next couple of weeks." But how will you play it? Simple: Team Fortress 2 is the Oculus Rift's first official game. Valve programmer Joe Ludwig revealed as much during a recent visit Engadget paid to the Bellevue, Wash.-based game company. "This is a mode that everybody who has a Rift dev kit and access to Team Fortress 2 will be able to play, just on public and in the same servers that everybody else is playing in," Ludwig said. Of course, "everybody" doesn't include Mac or Linux TF2 players just yet. "We don't have a Mac or Linux SDK from Oculus quite yet, but once we get those, we'll get it ported over to those other platforms," he explained. Oculus tells us those SDKs are coming. "The Oculus SDK will only support Windows at launch, but we plan to add support for OS X and Linux as quickly as possible. It's just a matter of time," Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell says. We'll have more from our visit to Valve in the coming hours, so keep an eye out! [Image credit: Michael Clinard]
USC starts a web hub for DIY, open source virtual reality projects
For the sheer variety of virtual reality headsets available, there's been few resources available for those who want to craft their own devices. USC wants to save us the effort of searching around. Its MxR Lab has just launched a showcase of creations and modifications that DIY enthusiasts can build, including open source code for both the devices and integrating full-body motion control through Kinect for Windows or OpenNI. The most ambitious is Socket HMD, a complete 1,280 x 800 headset that involves a 3D-printed shell and custom-assembled electronics. If your own ambitions don't stretch that far, you can still build the VR2GO viewer, which uses iPhones and iPod touch players as the eyepieces, as well as mods for the Oculus Rift developer kit that add stereo cameras or increase the field of view. Yes, you'll need a 3D printer and a knack for programming to get most of these projects going, but you won't have to wait for someone to make them for you -- a big help when many ready-made VR displays are either in development or priced out of reach for the average person.
Oculus, Cliff Bleszinski and more talk VR at SXSW, watch live here at 7PM ET
Virtual Reality is one of this year's big would-be comeback stories, led largely by the runaway success of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter and Valve's recent rumblings on the matter. Not surprisingly, that talk is set to continue at South by Southwest Interactive this week, where Oculus Rift vice president of product Nate Mitchell will be moderating a panel discussing virtual reality as the "holy grail of gaming." The panelists? Oculus VR's Palmer Luckey, as well as former Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski and Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts. We'd say this is one worth watching, and you'll be able to do just that today at 7PM Eastern (4PM Pacific) courtesy of the livestream after the break. We're also live at SXSW ourselves, and will of course bring you any news that may come out of the event if you happen to miss it. Update: Please excuse us, as we were misinformed of the panelists participating (this piece originally stated that John Carmack and Gabe Newell would both be involved). We've updated the post above to reflect the actual lineup.
Project Holodeck gets a virtual hands-on ahead of launch (video)
The team behind Project Holodeck has a daunting task ahead: it has to combine a virtual reality headset, two PlayStation Move controllers and a Razer Hydra into a unified VR input system that somehow feels natural. From what we've seen in Road To VR's hands-on with the system, the group might just pull that off. There's no mistaking the sheer amount of equipment strapped to your head -- not to mention the Lenovo laptop on your back -- but the effort does create an immersive virtualization of the player's body where walking, arm movements and body lean all work more or less as you'd expect. Although significant stretches of development lie ahead, including fully fleshed-out games and the eventual use of an Oculus Rift, there's already teases of potential commercialization and a second generation that would include lighter, sleeker components. Those curious enough to watch two grown men stage a living room swordfight (and provide insightful answers afterwards) can watch the battle after the break, and head to the source for more details.
Stay seated: Valve's Team Fortress 2 ported to virtual reality
If Valve Software's Team Fortress 2 is anything, it's versatile. The company's demonstrating that versatility once more in porting the game to virtual reality goggles, which could result in some serious psychological trauma. Kidding aside, a Game Developers Conference blurb today revealed the internal project -- part of Valve's ongoing wearable computing efforts -- which says the talk, "will describe lessons learned from Valve's porting experience." In another talk, Valve hardware man Michael Abrash is diving into the possibilities he sees in the future of VR, as viewed through his own company's experience. It isn't clear whether Valve is using the much-loved Oculus Rift technology (seen above); the notes of the second talk only detail a general exploration of VR's weaknesses and strengths as they pertain to current technology. One thing is clear: both talks aim to educate game developers on what some Valve employees see as a burgeoning new frontier in game development. We welcome this bizarrely sci-fi future with open arms.
In China, virtual stores may go one step more virtual
I love the concept of virtual stores. You whip out your phone and order merchandise for home delivery, typically using QR codes. We first saw these pop up when Tesco launched one in the South Korea subways. They appeared in the Prague subway system, in Sweden's Jetshop and with Toys R Us' mobile interactive virtual store initiative. Virtual stores have been spotted in Australia, Singapore, Germany, Canada and the UK. The system usually works through large posters of fake store shelves, all labeled with phone-readable codes. When you see items you desire, just point, shoot and order. Customers receive an automated message that confirms the purchase and work with vendors to iron down delivery details. Now, China is joining the virtual storefront revolution. According to Springwise, Unlimited Yihaodian plans to add ecommerce to public spaces, with a virtual virtual store experience. (Yes, you read that right.) The store will actually project over the real world, adding another layer of virtual into the virtual shopping experience. Retailers will be able to cut down on physical plant costs by skipping bricks and mortar and creating a straight path from warehouses to the consumer. It sounds like this may still be proof-of-concept project (if any Chinese readers can figure anything further out, please let us know!) but we look forward to seeing it pan out. Right now, here in Denver, it's 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Heading to a public square to play shopping games with my phone doesn't sound nearly as appealing as competitive shopping in a warm, enclosed subway. In the TUAW newsroom, we're having a debate whether this new option is more weird than cool or more cool than weird. What do you think? Drop a note in the comments and share your opinion.
Epic Citadel and other 'development showcases' for Oculus Rift available with dev kits in March
The impressive Epic Citadel demo we got to explore using Oculus Rift's incredible virtual reality development kit will ship alongside the headset this March, the company tells Engadget. "Any content you can load into UDK [Unreal Development Kit] and Unity, you can load and explore with the Oculus dev kit," we were told, in addition to the Citadel confirmation. And beyond that, Oculus is providing, "development showcases" alongside the dev kits, though it's unclear exactly what that means. We'll no doubt hear more about said showcases as we draw closer to the headset's March dev kit launch.
TMU's virtual body simulates most senses from the comfort of your seat (video)
A lot of virtual reality, quite simply, isn't. It replicates the visuals and sounds, but not much else. Tokyo Metropolitan University's Ikei Laboratory is taking a shot at filling in more of the experience with a new exhibition. Its virtual body seat goes beyond a 3D screen and headphones to include vibrating foot pedals, for recreating the ground, as well as a fan that both produces wind and wafts scents. The demonstrator is currently being used to impress guests with the scents of a Milanese market or the rush of an Usain Bolt sprint, but it could eventually serve a practical purpose for some of the population: TMU sees its chair replacing an environment for those who can't be there in person. About all that's missing is taste, although we don't really need to lick our virtual worlds. Yet.
Proportional VR experiment shrinks man down to rat size, lets us play games with rodents
Sure, you can always play catch with the dog, but what kind of game can you play with a caged rodent? Well, "find the poster," apparently. A team of researchers from Universities in Spain, Germany, Austria, England and the US have put together a virtual reality system designed to let humans interact with rats at the rodent's scale, challenging human participants to find and lead the rodent to a unmarked goal. According to a paper published in PLoS One participants were "beamed" into the rat's environment by linking a head-mounted display and joystick to a rat-sized telepresence robot. Human players were then treated to a proportionally accurate representation of the game arena. The rat was there too, tracked with an overhead camera and represented by a human avatar. Participants were tasked with coaxing their opponent in front one of three posters in attempt to sleuth out which one represents the "winning" position. When both players are in front of the correct mystery poster, a bell sounds and the game ends. The game was primarily created to test a scaled immersive virtual reality teleoperator system, but researchers are optimistic the technology could be used to observe animal behavior from a new perspective. Check out the setup in action after the break, or read on through to the source link below for a detailed description of how mankind and some of nature's smaller creatures can get along in a virtual space.
Oculus Rift developer kits go up for regular pre-order, catch VR procrastinators
Anyone who's been wanting to make a game for the Oculus Rift headset, but hemmed and hawed during the Kickstarter run, now has a second chance. Oculus has kicked off its own pre-order campaign that offers the VR developer kit at the same $300 that it cost for the more proactive among us, or $345 for those beyond US borders. As an added incentive, the first 1,000 who pull the trigger still get a copy of Doom 3: BFG Edition to show what the Oculus Rift can do. Twiddling your thumbs will have cost at least a month -- these new kits won't ship until January -- but the pre-order still means a head start over competing developers that haven't yet seen the virtual light.
Oculus Rift's latest VR headset prototype gets a showing at Gamescom 2012 (hands-on)
"This is the latest prototype," the Oculus guys tell us. That's great, now strap us in. The team decided to make a sudden stop in Germany ahead of appearances back in the US over the next few weeks -- and we're glad, because it meant we got to call in on them and grab some time with the Oculus Rift. If you didn't know, the Rift is a Kickstarter-funded VR gaming headset (stay with us) that's caught the attention of several games developers -- most notably John Carmack. He liked it so much, in fact, that he developed a special Rift-ready version of Doom 3 for the headset and Doom 4 will also be heading to the VR peripheral too. We got to play with the earlier game and while there's a video after the break, we reckon you'll really need to try this in person to fully grasp how the Oculus Rift plays. Check out our impressions after the break. %Gallery-162593%
John Carmack-endorsed Oculus Rift VR project hits Kickstarter, developer kits start at $300 (update: $250k goal met)
We heard late last month that the John Carmack-endorsed Oculus Rift VR headset would be hitting Kickstarter any day now, and it turns out today is that day. The project has just launched on the crowd-funding site with a goal of $250,000. To reach that, the team (led by company founder Palmer Lucky) is offering a variety pledge options, starting with posters and t-shirts for $15 and $25 (or $10 for a simple thanks), and of course the headset itself that is initially only being offered as a developer kit. It will set you back $300, which also includes a copy of Doom 3 BFG, and is expected to start shipping in December (signed kits and a complete bundle are available as well). Those that act fast can also snag one of 100 unassembled prototype kits, which run $275 and ship a month earlier in November. Despite that developer-only status, though, the project is already off to an impressive start -- it's raised over $50,000 as of this writing. You can find the usual video overview of the project after the break.Update: The 100 prototype kits are now sold out, and the project itself has already sailed past the $100,000 $150,000 mark. John Carmack also clarified on Twitter that he's not "backing" the project in any official capacity, only endorsing it as a "wonderful advancement in VR tech."Update 2: And the project has now easily met its goal on the first day. Those interested are still able to make a pledge any time over the next 30 days.
Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to kickstart every gamers' VR dream for $500 (video)
Star Trek: The Next Generation may be coming to your living rooms soon courtesy of some hot new Blu-ray pressing, but one of the most compelling pieces of the technology shown on that series still remains elusive: the holodeck. Don't get down, sunshine, because we might soon be making our first, tentative steps into a virtual courtesy of Project Holodeck. It's underway at USC's School of Cinematic Arts as well as the Viterbi School of Engineering and starts out with a pair of Project Oculus glasses. These glasses, which were shown off at E3 by none other than John Carmack, cram a 1,280 x 800 display into a pair of glasses that present a wide, truly immersive field of view. Pair that with a PlayStation Move for head tracking and a Razer Hydra controller and you have the beginnings of a proper virtual reality environment.An early concept of what the complete system might feel like can be found after the break, a couple of people acting out a sequence from Skies of Arcadia, which could be called a spiritual inspiration for the first game designed for Project Holodeck: Wild Skies. In it, two people "pilot a massive airship through a exotic world of floating islands" -- though whether they look as kawaii as their Dreamcast predecessors remains to be seen. When you might actually get your hands on the system is also unknown, but one piece of the puzzle, the Oculus Rift glasses, are said to be hitting Kickstarter any day now -- for an anticipated price of just $500. Bat'leth and copy of Workin' out with Worf not included.
Canon shows how its Mixed Reality makes virtually anything look real (video)
Remember that Canon Mixed Reality project? For those torn between cold, hard real world, and the sickly sweet virtual one? Due for release this month, Canon's been showing off its purpose-built HMD in real (or is it virtual?) use to DigInfo. Using those stereo cameras and a "free-curve" prism -- along with high-speed image processing -- we get a glimpse at how it generates life-size virtual objects in real-time. While this could benefit a number of scenarios, Canon points to industrial design, where mock-ups are commonly used. This system allows designers to run through virtual versions first, before committing to more time intensive physical models. Working on something where this could be handy? Canon also says there will be an SDK for developers coming soon. Head past the virtual break for the real video tour.
Canon overhauls Mixed Reality platform with new head-mounted display
Canon's been fiddling around with augmented (or mixed) reality for some time now, but the company just took things to the next level. A new AR headset announced today is less stylish than that other soon-to-be-released wearable tech you've likely heard about, yet certainly more sophisticated than its bigger brother. The controller sees visual markers through dual on-board cameras and projects virtual objects onto two corresponding displays set right above the eyes, marrying the virtual world to the desert of the real. You can gaze from any angle and even manipulate the virtual projects with what looks to be a plastic, magic ice cream cone. The glasses are set to release next month and, while Canon hasn't assigned a price, all the planned applications are decidedly industrial, making us think they won't be cheap. So, you probably won't be using em' to scope out the various Layars around your hood.
NTT DoCoMo's augmented 3D chat system lets you have your virtual cake
Google's Project Glass has garnered lots of attention among Earthlings and Saiyans on the augmented reality front. Now NTT DoCoMo is serving up its take on the subject -- a tablet-based interface it calls the "Live 3D Communication System." An augmented version of video chat, the system lets users create virtual objects via speech and also check out 360-degree views of virtual environments by moving their tablet around. Use of a special range-imaging camera also allows the software to add people within virtual spaces. The technology is a prototype so it's still a bit rough around the edges. For folks pining for a future with holodecks, however, this is the kind of baby step that's likely needed to make such dreams a reality (though, to be honest, you'll probably be long dead before a real holodeck comes to fruition). Folks whose appetites aren't quite satiated by the video from the Wireless Japan 2012 show can also check the official Japanese promo in all its cake-filled, cheesy glory after the break.
