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HTC Vive launches dedicated VR store for everything besides games
HTC is launching a new app store for its VR hardware. Viveport escapes beta testing today, showcasing all the other VR possibilities besides survival horror, shooting and such. The company is promising the hub will show off art, creativity tools, education apps and more -- hoping to surface things that might get lost in the depths of Steam's bigger catalogue. The store also includes Viveport Premieres: content that's debuting on the Vive headset, including Google Spotlight Stories' Petal, Stonehenge VR, The Music Room and more.
The best of the Tokyo Game Show 2016
The biggest gaming show outside of the US, the Tokyo Game Show has a different atmosphere that's all its own. While it's contracted and shrunk over the last few years, the heat and interest in virtual reality has reinvigorated the show -- regardless of the lack of an official Xbox or Nintendo presence. Sony may have already revealed two new consoles in the last month, but it wanted to remind everyone that it has a virtual reality headset coming out. In short: lots of VR, PlayStation and domestic-centered games, sprinkled with just enough weird.
'Rick & Morty' co-creator unveils his first VR game
Squanchtendo Games, the recently founded VR studio from "Rick & Morty" co-creator, Justin Roiland, has just unveiled its first game: Accounting. But don't let the benign name fool you, this virtual reality experience appears to be just as ingeniously deranged as its animated predecessor. Squanchtendo collaborated with Crows Crows Crows game studio to create the game which, according to the Squanchtendo release, only took about a week to craft. It is available for the HTC Vive for free through Steam VR. Details are thin as to what exactly you do in the game -- besides account, of course -- but you can bet there's going to be a whole lot of messed up shit in there.
Futuretown's modular platform turns VR into simulator rides
When we last met Futuretown's CEO Johan Yang back in February, his startup appeared to be merely a virtual reality game studio, with its popular title Cloudlands: VR Minigolf currently owning 30 percent of the HTC Vive market share. Today, the company is entering the hardware space by announcing its 5D Totalmotion at the Tokyo Game Show. This aptly-named device is a cylindrical motion feedback machine that can fit any module on top to simulate different types of scenarios, such as riding, standing and seated experiences. To demonstrate these, Futuretown also announced four new VR games: Whiteout: Ski VR, Infinity Rider: Motorcycle VR, Wave Breaker: Surf VR and Stallion Adventures: Horse Riding VR.
JBL's Everest Elite cans let you hear actual reality in VR
Normally when you're tooling around in a virtual world, you want the experience to be as immersive as possible. But there's a downside to being cut off from the outside world -- what if the phone rings or the pizza guy starts knocking or a crazed ax murderer breaks in the back door? Well, if you happen to have a pair of JBL Everest Elite headphones and an HTC Vive, you'll be able to take that call, receive that pizza or head Mr. Choppy off at the stairs. All without taking off your ear cans.
Live out your lumberjack dreams in a VR chainsaw simulator
Virtual reality can teleport you into space, the bottom of the ocean and, soon, a version of Boston devastated by nuclear war. On the flip side, the immersive medium can be used for more primitive occupations and pastimes. Remember this forklift truck simulator from Gamescom? Well, now there's something (potentially) even better: Limberjack, an ultra-realistic chainsaw simulator. With a Vive headset and two wand controllers, you can grab one of man's favorite weapons and cut some branches from a downed tree. In the professional lumberjack world, this is called "limbing," and is used regularly as part of logging championships.
Viveport Development Awards offers cash prizes for VR apps
How do you attract developers to a fledgling virtual reality content delivery service for a VR headset that already has a shopping platform? With half a million dollars in cash and prizes, of course! Today, HTC announced the Viveport Development Awards: a contest with a $500,000 prize pool designed to attract developers the HTC's global VR app store.
VR game developers prefer the HTC Vive, grapple with nausea
The decision to get a high-end virtual reality headset is as much about the software selection as the technology itself. So which platform is getting the most attention from developers? Apparently, it's HTC's Vive. A UBM Game Network industry report shows that 49 percent of VR developers are targeting the Vive, while 43 percent are writing software for the Oculus Rift. And the gap gets wider when it comes to the next game from these studios -- nearly 35 percent are building for the Vive, while a little over 23 percent are aiming at the Rift.
Bigscreen's 'VR LAN party' comes to the Oculus Store
Bigscreen's promise to bring the environment of a LAN party into virtual reality is becoming more credible, now that it's also available in the Oculus store. The free software has been "completely cross-platform" since launch, ready for sharing with friends using Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, and now you can get it in a new place. As the name implies, it syncs a virtual space so people can show what's on their desktop to everyone else, even if they're not physically looking over your shoulder.
Thin gaming laptops will run VR with NVIDIA's new chip
Nvidia has just taken the wraps off a trio of laptop GPUs based on its new "Pascal" chip architecture, the GeForce GTX 1060, the 1070 and the 1080. While the 1080 is by far the most impressive, it's the humble 1060 that could make the biggest impact on the market. Why? Because it facilitates using a virtual reality headset like the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift on a reasonably small laptop.
HTC switches up the Vive VR pack-in games
To help soften the blow of the HTC Vive's $800 price tag (or, lord help you, the $1200 Business Edition), the company has struck deals with studios to give you free games with each headset purchase. They just shook up their SteamVR bundle, keeping Tilt Shift but swapping out Fantastic Contraption and Job Simulator for a new duo of games. Buyers will get codes to download the titles from the Steam gaming service.
HTC's Viveport is an app store for VR experiences
In a bid to highlight immersive virtual reality experiences outside of games, HTC has announced Viveport, a new app store for its Vive headset. While Steam will remain the place to go for Vive VR games, Viveport will serve as your one-stop shop for things like education, travel, news and a wide variety of other experiences. It'll be available on the web, mobile, Windows and, of course, right from within the Vive. HTC is launching a developer beta for Viveport soon (sign up for access here), and it plans to release it to consumers later this fall.
Intel scientist teases depth-sensing 'horn' for HTC Vive
Intel scientist Dimitri Diakopoulos revealed a sneak peek of an interesting depth sensing camera that attaches to HTC's Vive headset. "I felt that VR needed a solid unicorn peripheral with six additional cameras," he tweeted. The device, presumably based on Intel's RealSense tech, may be designed to track your hands or keep you from bumping into things. He mentioned that each camera weighs 10 grams (0.35 ounces), and said the design maintains the headset's original balance point.
HTC Vive owners can finally face the void in 'Adr1ft'
It may be a few months late, but the day is finally here: Adr1ft, Adam Orth's VR orbital survival simulator, is now available for the HTC Vive. The Oculus Rift launch exclusive was originally planned to launch on SteamVR back in May, but was delayed to build an experience unique to the HTC Vive and its motion controllers. The wait may have been worth it -- the game's creator says Vive's motion controls have changed the game in dramatic and unexpected ways.
Spectate in style with VR spectator mode for 'Dota 2'
If you're typically someone who prefers to watch matches of games like Dota 2 unfold from the sidelines, you might consider viewing them in an entirely different way. As part of The International 2016 Compendium update, Valve has finally released the Dota VR Hub, which will allow you and your friends to view live matches and replays in VR.
New in our buyer's guide: All the phones (just the good ones)
It took us a while, but now that we've reviewed the Moto Z, we think we're done testing flagship phones until the iPhone 7 or next Galaxy Note come out (whichever arrives first). With that in mind, we can now confidently say that the following phones belong in our buyer's guide: the Samsung Galaxy S7, the HTC 10 and the iPhone SE. (Sorry, LG, maybe next year.) While we were at it, we also inducted the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, since we likely them more or less equally. And, in the less-expensive realm, we added the Roku Streaming Stick in the A/V category. Head over to our buyer's guide hub for all the details on these and many more. That's it for now, but stay tuned -- who knows what we'll add after the next gadget-reviewing frenzy.
'Star Wars' VR experiment comes to HTC Vive on July 18th
You don't have to wait much longer to live out you dreams of wielding a lightsaber in virtual reality. HTC and Lucasfilm have revealed that Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine, their VR gaming experiment, will be available on July 18th through Steam. And it's free as long as you have an HTC Vive, so it won't cost more to role-play a Padawan. The no-cost move isn't surprising (this isn't an in-depth game), but it's welcome if you've been hoping to find a new showcase for your headset.
Jesus is coming... to virtual reality
Producers have been fretting about how to do feature films in VR, because the format doesn't lend itself to traditional Hollywood techniques. However, it's about to be used on one of the best-known tales of all time for Jesus VR -- the Story of Christ, slated to arrive in Christmas, 2016, according to Variety. The 360-degree, 4K film will work on all major VR platforms, including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear and PlayStation VR. Produced by Autumn Products and VRWERX, it'll tell the story of Christ's life from baptism to crucifixion.
HTC's Vive business is now run by a new subsidiary
HTC has seen its share of ups and downs and CEO shuffles in the past few years. Now, with its virtual reality division looking strong on the back of the HTC Vive release, the Taiwanese company may be prepping to spin off that lucrative business into its own wholly-owned subsidiary called "HTC Vive Tech Corporation."
Oculus stops preventing VR games from working with HTC's Vive
In a big move for openness in the VR landscape, Oculus has stepped back from its position of blocking its games from working on the HTC Vive. The company quietly issued an update for its desktop software today which strips away the headset exclusivity check that has caused VR fans so much consternation, Ars Technica reports. That limitation pushed the developers of the Revive tool, which lets Vive owners play Oculus games, to completely crack Oculus's DRM last month. But in response to today's news, the Revive devs have dumped their DRM cracking technology.
