Tag Archive

GDC Preview: Manus VR


Posted on March 19, 2016 by Renee Gittins

This week at GDC, I was able to test several virtual reality peripherals that I was excited about. One of those was Manus VR’s glove set, gloved-based controls intended for virtual reality use.

Manus_productphoto

The gloves themselves are lightweight with a battery-pack on the back of the hand. It works by taking advantage of the Vive controllers tracking and using custom flex sensor within the glove. The sensors have two bend areas per finger, allowing for tracking of precise finger movements. Unlike other hand-tracking solutions, such as the Leap, there is no constraint on where your hand movement can be sensed.

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GDC Vive Review: Universe Sandbox ² VR


Posted on March 17, 2016 by Renee Gittins

Valve took over a large section of the Game Developers Conference to show off the Vive and virtual reality games coming soon for the device.

Universe Sandbox ²’s VR mode was one of the stars of the demos. Universe Sandbox ², by Giant Army, has previously impressed me with its gorgeous space simulations, but seeing and interacting with them in virtual reality brought the experience to a completely new level. Planets zipped by my head, I threw suns and moons out into the nether and the rings of Saturn swirled beautiful around me after I displaced the planet.

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Preview: Dead & Buried Multiplayer on Oculus Rift with Touch


Posted on March 16, 2016 by Renee Gittins

A few blocks away from the ongoing Game Developers Conference, Oculus hosted an exclusive preview event for their launch titles and other games coming to the Oculus Rift shortly after launch. One of the games being shown was Dead & Buried, a gunslinger game that makes use of the Oculus’ Touch controllers.

Dead & Buried is being developed internally by Oculus Studios and the noticeable intent of the game is to highlight the Touch controllers. While Oculus has previously showcased their single player mode of the game, at the event they set up four stations with Dead & Buried and placed four players together at a time in a 2v2 shootout. Of the dozens of games at the event, it was clearly the most popular to both play and watch, gathering a bemused crowd of developers and media. 

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HTC Vive Pre-Orders Go Online @ $1200 Canadian


Posted on February 29, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

HTC Vive

The impressive VR system that is aware of your movements across an entire room, the HTC Vive is now available for pre-order and they ship to Canada! If you’ve got $1200 dollars laying around then you too can be one of the first to experience consumer ready Virtual Reality.

HTC VIVE Canada

In terms of hardware specs the Vive’s head mounted display contains two 1080×1200 displays each set for 90Hz – meaning your VR games should no at no less than 90 FPS for an optimal experience. Your movement in 3-D space is calculated thanks to an onboard camera and a separate “lighthouse” sensor pods that is placed within your room.

Anyone have a spare $1200 I can borrow?

Here are the official minimum specs for the HTC Vive:

HTC Vive

  • Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 or better
  • CPU: Intel Core i5 4590 or AMD FX 8350 or greater
  • RAM: 4GB or more
  • Video port: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, or better
  • USB port: 1 USB 2.0 or faster port
  • Windows 7 SP1 or newer

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What It’s Like Entering The World of Virtual Reality With A Vision Impairment


Posted on January 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

R2D2 Google Cardboard

With the Oculus Rift finally available for pre-order it’s easy to argue that the conversation surrounding virtual reality has never really been hotter. With all of the immersive enhancements that products like PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Open VR are providing to players – stereoscopic 3D, head tracking etc. I’ve noticed very little discussion about what VR could mean to individuals with disabilities.  I’m near blind in one eye and after having an interest in virtual reality for a number of years I finally got the chance to try out VR recently. It was a hell of a ride and I’d like to share my experience with you.Read More


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2016 and Gaming: A Year in Preview


Posted on December 28, 2015 by Kenny Keelan

2016featured

As we’re closing in on the end of one year and getting ready to start the next, a lot of people are reflecting on the year that’s past and others are looking at the year to come. I’m one of those looking to the future and I’ll tell you why: 2016 and the coming years after are going to be an extremely exciting time for games. While gaming has always been a longtime passion of mine, I do have to admit that it has felt like, in the last couple generations, innovation and creativity had been been steadily decreasing while market saturation has been steadily increasing. It wasn’t looking good as the market was looking stale and things weren’t change. Sure, there were gimmicks that came and went but nothing really stuck. There were few real surprises and the things that jumped aboard the hype train were mostly games we’d been anticipating and asking for, for years. There was a lot of vaporware, a lot of E3s that came and went that left us wanting more and spending more time laughing at the flaws than celebrating the wonders. In my honest opinion, the fifth generation was the last generation that truly brought us wonders we never thought we’d see possible and all the last couple generations did was expand on that. We never saw anything truly groundbreaking and that’s part of why 2016 is going to be an exciting year: we are going to see a lot of broken ground and whether or not it will be truly successful, we finally see companies going out and taking risks and those are the kinds of moves that change gaming for the better. Follow the jump for our preview of the year to come and what to watch for!

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Virtual Life: VR Games to Make You a Believer


Posted on November 3, 2015 by Renee Gittins

jobsim3

With both the SteamVR’s HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift releasing in the first quarter of 2016, virtual reality hardware has been getting a lot of attention. Yet it is the games for the platforms that really showcase the breathtaking experiences that can happen virtual reality. As a VR enthusiast who has had the pleasure of trying many VR games, both released and unreleased, on the Vive and the Rift, I wanted to share my favorite experiences.

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