Virtual Reality

Sony has announced Black Friday deals on Playstation products, including Playstation VR 2, on the Playstation Blog.

Offers are valid from November 22 to December 2, 2024 and include hardware discounts via Playstation Direct and at participating retailers. Offers will vary by region and retailer, but an image on the Playstation Blog suggests that Playstation VR 2 could be up to 40 percent off.

We won't know for sure until November 22, when the offers appear on the official Black Friday website and Playstation Direct website.

This year's deals include PSVR 2 as well as other hardware such as PS5 consoles, Dual Sense wireless controllers, Pulse Elite wireless headsets and Pulse Explore wireless earphones. In addition, a wide range of software will be discounted on the Playstation Store.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is out now, and we've verified that it has VR support at launch. However, like many others, we're unable to get past the loading screen, due to server issues that Microsoft has acknowledged in a public statement: "We are aware of user reports of long initial loading times into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

With so many users initializing the sim concurrently, we have a large number of server requests. We are working to help resolve the issues as soon as possible.

For users whose initial load is past 90% and no longer progressing, we recommend a reboot. Otherwise we advise waiting to allow the loading to proceed as normal."

Two years ago, Valve told The Verge it wanted a successor to its cult classic Steam Controller, whose incredibly customizable buttons and touchpads paved the way for the Steam Deck handheld PC. Now, Valve watcher Brad Lynch claims a Steam Controller 2 — codename “Ibex” — is actually getting made.

His sources tell him the Steam Controller 2 is currently being tooled for mass production, and it’s apparently not the only new Valve gamepad on the way!

Remember the long-swirling rumors about Valve’s standalone “Deckard” VR headset, the one that could be an inexpensive Meta Quest-like wireless alternative to the aging Valve Index? Lynch has discovered references to a new wand-like “Roy” controller in Valve’s SteamVR code, and his sources say that Roy is now aimed at mass production as well.

What’s more, “Roy” may have enough buttons to double as a Steam Controller gamepad when it’s not acting as your hands in VR. Unlike the Index wands, they’ll apparently have a D-pad, bumpers (aka shoulder buttons), and a full set of ABXY buttons for traditional gaming as well.

Currently in closed early access, Orion Drift packages in Gorilla Tag’s immersive movement mechanic with some of the action of the now-defunct sports game Echo VR, promising to serve up an activity-packed social VR space for up to 200 players.

Now, Another Axiom says it’s opening Orion Drift to Quest users for a server scalability test that’s set to last two days: November 20th – 21st. Doors open at 10AM PST on November 20th—check your local time here. […]

In the meantime, you can already grab Orion Drift on the Horizon Store, which supports Quest 2 headsets and above.

Let's first take a look at where virtual reality is today.

Meta has sold well over 20 million Quest units, but the more important question is how many people are using the devices on a regular basis. The VR platform had about 6 million monthly active users in October 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal report, though more recent numbers aren't available.

It is doubtful that the number of active users has reached ten million or more, but even if it has, it shows that virtual reality is still far from being a technology that many people use actively, especially outside its largest market, the United States.

What does mass adoption actually mean?

The question, of course, is how do we define mass adoption? Are we talking about 50, 100, 500 million active users, or even something on the order of smartphones? The answer would be different for each of those numbers.

I don't want to commit to a specific number, so I'll put it this way: VR will be adopted by the masses when it is useful in people's everyday lives and outperforms other technological devices in terms of usefulness, rather than being primarily entertainment.

Meta Quest does not do this yet. Currently, the most popular uses for the headset are gaming, social, and fitness. Games are entertainment. While the latter two applications can be considered useful in a strict sense, there are numerous alternatives to VR headsets. The added value of VR is not great enough for the masses to be social or exercise primarily in VR headsets.

VR headsets need to become full-fledged computers

I believe that VR headsets will not be ready for mass adoption until they mature into lightweight, easy-to-use, general-purpose computers that allow you to do your work more efficiently than other computers.

Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro are still a long way off. The devices must be significantly lighter and smaller (ideally less than 150 grams), provide a flawless view of the physical world, and establish an entirely new input paradigm that can replace touch input as well as mouse and keyboard.

If we look at where we are today, it is clear that we are only at the beginning of VR's evolution, and I would imagine that true AR glasses could achieve these critical features sooner than VR headsets, but we'll have to see.

Finally, I'd like to say that I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if VR headsets don't reach mass adoption, at least not to the extent that the majority of people use them on a daily basis. They can be a successful product and enrich the lives of many people without becoming the next big computing platform.

At the moment, the market is not there yet and is too dependent on Meta, but I hope that will slowly change over the next decade.

Most of you know about the MS8K by now. For those who do not: it is a new Lighthouse PCVR headset from a Panasonic spin-off called “shiftall”. The headset sports two 4k microOLED panels, pancake lenses, motorised IPD adjustment, Diopter adjustment and a very sleek overall design that weighs in at only 185g.

I had a whole afternoon with the device at the shiftall headquarters in Tokyo and could check out whatever I wanted on their 4070super PC they had set up for this test session. And yeah, I really wanted to try out Microsoft Flight Simulator, since it has become one of my favourite things to do in VR.

And I am happy to tell you that the experience blew me away. This was the best experience I have ever had in MSFS. Period. What made it so good? The immersion in this headset is just so fantastic, the headset ticks so many boxes:

Visuals - more pixels than the Apple Vision Pro, also microOLED. And the beautiful thing is: really good lenses. Much better pancake lenses than in the Bigscreen Beyond. You get a really good edge to edge clarity here and much less glare. The lenses are very comparable with the Quest 3 lenses. Now since this also has a near perfect binocular overlap and a standard FOV (around 100h), you simply get the best visuals that I have so far seen in VR. Yes, even sharper than AVP and that with DisplayPort. Exactly what we VR enthusasiast crave.

Comfort - the headset is just so incredibly comfortable. It’s a soft strap that is designed in the halo way. So the headset is not pressed against your eyes but hovers in front of them. And the gasket itself is comparable to that of the PSVR2, so it is just there to keep the light out. Nice. Also, there is eye relief, so you can get the lenses as close to your eyes as you want, or leave more room if that is better for you. Real IPD adjustment is built in as well and its realised with motors. You set up your IPD in their software and the lenses move to the correct position. Nice! Also there is even diopter adjustment. All that in a package that only weighs 185g. It was so comfortable I forgot I was wearing it.

Downsides - Yes, there are downsides, too. We do not yet have the perfect headset. In my opinion, it is not a very bright headset. It is very comparable to the brightness of the Bigscreen Beyond. So if that is alright for you, this one will be too. But yeah, there are without a doubt brighter headsets out there. The team tells me that the pre-production unit I was using still did not show me the highest brightness yet. It was configured to be as colour-accurate as possible and that meant it was not optimised for brightness. They say they can give us 10 to 15% more brightness in the production unit. Other than that, there is no audio. So you have to take care of your own audio. I personally prefer audio that is built-into the system, or at least an audio strap like the great one of the Bigscreen Beyond.

Overall, I walked away impressed. I truly believe this is the next go-to headset for PCVR enthusiasts who simply want the best visuals that are possible right now. I personally can’t wait to get it for MSFS 2024 and actually all of my other PCVR games!

We’ve all seen Silent Hill 2 flourish over the years. When Team Silent carefully crafted this incredible survival horror experience, players would end up playing the game endlessly for well over a decade. It’s such a highly cherished game that there was plenty of concern when Konami finally unveiled that a remake was coming. Now that it’s here, fans are able to breathe easy, as it’s quite a stunning game to play.

Bloober Team worked extra hard to ensure that it met fans’ expectations when Silent Hill 2 was released. It’s a very well-done game, and I suggest playing it if you are at all intrigued. However, if you have the game on PC and want to get a little more immersed, this VR mod might do the trick. Thanks to Videogamer, we’re finding out today about a mod that might take you further into this nightmarish hell.

Praydog released a VR mod for the game, and it looks like something you will want to try out cautiously. The gameplay features smooth movement and the ability to use melee weapons accurately. Depending on where you swing, it will allow the melee weapon to pinpoint an area on the enemy’s body carefully. You’ll get a small look at the mod in action from the X post embedded above.

We wish that there was an official VR mode release for this game. But perhaps even the development studio wasn’t keen on bringing this level of horror to players. Regardless, those brave enough to take on the challenge can now do so with the mod. Meanwhile, the rest of us might be waiting to learn more about what the next thrilling Silent Hill installment will offer.

The well-known graphics card manufacturer Nvidia is venturing into new realms. As DigiTimes reports, the company is developing its own ARM-based processors for the PC market. The launch is planned for September 2025 - a strategically clever time, as Qualcomm's exclusive rights for Windows-on-ARM will then expire.

Nvidia definitely has the technical expertise: Years of experience in the areas of graphics processors, AI and ARM architectures form a solid foundation. The company is pursuing two potential approaches for the new chips: A mainstream variant with integrated graphics or a powerful gaming CPU combined with a separate graphics card.

New opportunities for mobile PC VR gaming

The potential impact on mobile PC VR gaming is particularly exciting: powerful and energy-efficient ARM processors could create the basis for a new generation of gaming laptops. These would be ideal for PC VR gaming, for example with your Meta Quest 3 — without having to sacrifice mobility.

The greatest challenge will be software support. Modern games and VR applications must run smoothly on the ARM architecture. This is where Nvidia could benefit from its close relationships with the gaming industry.

Meta has added an important puzzle piece to Horizon Worlds, as the company has quietly rolled out its premium digital currency on the social VR platform in the US, UK, and Canada.

Roblox has Robux, Rec Room has Tokens, and Horizon Worlds now has Meta Credits, letting users buy in-world digital goods from creators, such as avatar outfits and access keys to premium worlds. Unlike Quest Cash, Meta Credits can’t be used to buy hardware or accessories, just stuff in Horizon Worlds.

While it’s a big step, this isn’t the official start of the Horizon Worlds economy. Meta has been experimenting with monetization on Horizon Worlds since 2022, allowing users to buy digital goods directly with their local currency. The difference with Meta Credits (like all premium tokens) however is the all-too familiar obfuscation of the amount of real-world money being spent.

Apple has released a new immersive music video from The Weeknd featuring his latest single ‘Open Hearts’, which is available exclusively on Vision Pro for a limited time.

Captured in Apple’s Immersive Video format, Open Hearts serves up 180-degree immersive views and spatial audio set to eponymous single from the Canadian pop artist’s upcoming album ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’.

With Metro Awakening, Vertigo Games delivers a gripping post-apocalyptic shooter that tells a successful prequel story over twelve chapters. No prior knowledge of the Metro books or games is required, making it easy to jump in.

The interaction with the world and the gadgets works really well. The handling of the weapons is convincing. Most of the fights are exciting, and the soundtrack is well arranged. Plus: There are plenty of scary moments thanks to the great play of light and shadow and the mutant enemies you'll confront.

Graphically, the Quest version performs quite well, without reaching the quality of Batman: Arhkam Shadow. For a visual comparison between the Quest 3 and PSVR 2 versions, take a look at the linked article.

However, I hesitate to give the game a full recommendation. The level design and the locations are not varied enough for me, especially in the later parts.

Other points of criticism include the sometimes predictable actions of the enemies, the unfair distribution of save points, and the fact that there are far too few creative puzzles. However, if you can overlook these flaws, you will be entertained for seven to nine hours at a good level.

Little Cities: Diorama is the first mixed reality version of the cozy city builder. Its creator Purple Yonder developed the Vision Pro version together with nDreams studio Near Light.

Gears & Goo is a tower defense game developed for Apple Vision Pro by Resolution Games (Demeo, Blaston, Racket Club).

2023 was an excellent year for VR games, and 2024 will even surpass it in terms of quality and especially quantity.

Since October, the number of releases has increased so much that even we are struggling to keep up. Our inboxes are overflowing with announcements of new VR games and updates to existing titles. At times, it feels like developers have been waiting two years or more to release their products at the same time.

The timing is no coincidence: The low-cost Meta Quest 3S was released in mid-October, and VR studios are naturally hoping for a bumper holiday season. Of course, it would be foolish not to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

There are currently rumors that game sales are not as strong as some established VR studios had hoped for with the launch of Quest 3S. Generally, two factors are being cited: the merging of the App Lab and the Quest Store, which has eliminated curation, and Meta's recommendation system, which is said to prioritize Horizon Worlds content over third-party titles that studios have been working on for years. Both of these factors could have led to lower visibility in the Horizon Store and therefore lower sales.

Another possible factor for the alleged decline in sales could be that Meta is currently throwing so many high-quality VR games at new customers for free that they have no reason to buy new VR games, which of course hurts the ecosystem.

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone (2021), the hit arena battler from indie studio Doborog, is bringing the game’s voxel slice-em-up action in a new VR-exclusive sequel next month, coming to Quest and PC VR headsets.

Called Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, the new single-player VR experience includes a thick slice of the series’ unique combat and action-based storyline, where players fight to the death against killer robots—which just so happen to be very frangible.

Doborog says in Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, players take on the role of Blink, a teleporting robot who is the newest ‘looprunner’ gladiator forced to compete in Crashloop, a deadly roguelike combat sport.

bHaptics, the South Korea-based VR haptics creator, announced it’s launching a refreshed lineup of its most popular haptics hardware, which are said to support over 270 titles across Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR headsets.

The company today announced pre-orders for three new accessories: TactSuit Pro, TactSuit Air and TactSleeve.

Pre-orders for all three are set to launch today, November 12th, and go until November 26th.

Cyborn, the team behind VR sci-fi adventure Hubris (2022), announced it’s releasing mixed reality city builder Wall Town Wonders on Quest 3 next week.

Coming November 21st to Quest 3 and Quest 3S, Wall Town Wonders promises to turn any room in your house into a magical miniature town.

Supporting hand-tracking, the mixed reality game lets you interact with tiny characters as you help them rebuild and customize their world, rightfully built across your real-world walls.

Wall Town Wonders also promises to bring “a peaceful environment where you can progress at your own speed,” which includes a variety of quests, mini-games, and hidden surprises.

The studio says it’s cued up post-launch seasonal content, letting you keep your little town fresh with new themes, events, and special decorations for the game’s 100 unique buildings, 40+ characters, and variety of skins and decorations already available at launch.

You can pre-order Wall Town Wonders on the Horizon Store for Quest 3 and Quest 3S at a 10 percent discount, which is regularly priced at $20.

"Do you think VR and AR have a lasting future, or is it a fleeting phenomenon?"

"Hello Marc

Virtual reality existed long before the current wave that started in 2012, and was used for simulation, visualization, design, research, and training. With the advent of low-cost, consumer-oriented VR headsets since 2016, these areas have grown, and I expect virtual reality to remain a fixture in these areas regardless of market developments in the coming years and decades.

The more interesting question you probably were aiming at is whether virtual reality will be able to establish itself in the consumer market in the long term, with so many media, gadgets and digital forms of entertainment vying for our attention.

As I wrote last week, the VR market is currently dominated by Meta. Meta Quest is the leading VR platform where most developers make their money. I believe that as long as these developers remain profitable and Meta stays in virtual reality, virtual reality will continue to exist and grow as a consumer-oriented entertainment and computing platform. But these are ifs.

Meta has made virtual reality relatively successful with aggressive investments and subsidies, distorting expectations and prices at the same time. If Meta took into account the cost of R&D and added a healthy margin, VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3S would easily cost twice as much or more. We don't know how much money Meta spends on the VR division alone, but it's safe to assume it's still a money-losing business. Until that changes and other manufacturers can turn consumer virtual reality into a profitable business, I remain cautious about making long-term predictions.

For now, those who benefit are the developers who make a good profit from VR games (and there are many, rest assured), and of course, we consumers who can get hardware and software at an incredible value ratio. However, we should be aware that Meta is essentially still investing in virtual reality and can also stop that investment with likely devastating consequences for the fledgling computing platform. What is true for virtual reality is even more true for augmented reality, which is much further away from true mass adoption and profitability.

Do I think VR and AR can become mainstream in the long term? Absolutely. But I can't say when that will be. As someone who has been a journalist in the industry for almost ten years and has followed the technological developments, I no longer think in terms of years, but decades. From that perspective, we may still be at the very beginning.

Kind regards,

Tomislav

If you’re one of the few remaining PSVR owners looking to use the original 2016 headset on PlayStation 5, you only have a few more days to request your free PS Camera adapter, as Sony is discontinuing the device later this month.

Sony released its PlayStation Camera Adapter for free in 2020 to help bridge the gap for PSVR users looking for a console upgrade to PS5, which notably didn’t offer full PSVR support out of the box.

The PlayStation 5 HD Camera that launched alongside PS5 can’t track the original PSVR headset or PS Move controllers spatially, requiring the additional adapter.

DIG VR delivers an entertaining light sim with a great sense of humor, and it's out this week on Quest. Read on for our full review.

Comedy is a tricky thing to do successfully in games. Away from the luxury of scripted cutscenes where timing is strictly controlled, pulling off effective laughs can be difficult in a user-controlled medium. You wouldn't expect hilarity from a power-digging light sim and yet DIG VR has some of the most relatable British humor I've ever seen in a VR game.

Apple has finally dropped the ultrawide virtual display for Vision Pro in beta, giving the existing virtual display feature the ability to stretch to wide and ultrawide widths for extra screen real-estate. Out of the box it’s impressive, but default MacOS window management makes it kind of a pain to use. But with the right third-party window manager, it’s even better than I hoped for.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know just how useful the new ultrawide feature would be. I’ve used Vision Pro’s virtual desktop feature many times before. It’s a great way to get some extra screen real-estate out of my MacBook Air (M2). But it was limited in that it could only really act like a single, large 16:9 monitor.

My productivity workhorse is my desktop PC on which I’ve used two side-by-side monitors for years. For a power-user like me, having the extra width to have multiple things on screen at once is great; constantly minimizing and maximizing apps is a pain. I also combine my dual monitors with additional virtual workspaces, meaning I can group applications together on a specific workspace for a specific task.

I’ve yet to make the leap to a single ultrawide monitor over dual monitors. They’re pretty damn expensive and physically take up a lot of space.

But with a little software update, Apple just gave me an ultrawide monitor that I can take with me wherever I take my Vision Pro. The ultrawide setting essentially gives you two 16:9 monitors side-by-side, but without the seam in the middle if you were using dual monitors.

The update optimizes the tracking algorithms and improves system stability and performance with new and optimized features. Users can also look forward to a host of new features such as smartphone mirroring, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support, as well as improved hand and motion tracking.

Let's get this straight up front: The Vive Focus Vision isn't a competitor to the Meta Quest 3, or the recently released Quest 3S. At $999, how could it be? Instead, it's another stab at the high-end VR market for HTC Vive, an audience it's cultivated since the launch of the first Vive headset in 2016. While Meta has leaned more towards cheaper and more mainstream VR headsets over the last decade, HTC Vive has done practically the opposite, aiming for VR gearheads and enterprise customers with PC headsets like the Vive Pro 2 and feature-rich standalone models like the Focus 3.

You can think of the Vive Focus Vision as a cross between the Focus 3 and last year's goggle-like XR Elite. It's a standalone headset with two 16MP color cameras for mixed reality, built-in eye tracking and automatic interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment. It could also be appealing to PC gamers with its $149 DisplayPort wired streaming kit, which gives you an uncompressed view of high-end VR experiences like Half-Life: Alyx.

As intriguing as its new features are, though, the more I tested the Focus Vision, the more it felt like a missed opportunity for HTC’s Vive VR platform. For one, it's running the same Snapdragon XR2 chip as the Focus 3 and Quest 2. That chip originally debuted in 2020, and it simply seems inexcusable in a high-end headset today. Both the $300 Quest 3S and $500 Quest 3 sport the XR2 Gen 2 processor, which is 2.5 times faster than the original chip and also has up to eight times faster AI processing. For a high-end headset at the tail-end of 2024, I would have expected HTC to at least match the power of far cheaper competitors, or – even better – to include Qualcomm's newer XR2+ Gen 2 chip.

The Focus Vision is also still using older Fresnel lens optics, which are prone to artifacts and light bleeding, instead of the sharper pancake lenses in the Quest 3. At least HTC shoved in 12GB of RAM this time around, compared to the 8GB found on the Focus 3 and Quest 3. And the company still has a resolution advantage over the Quest 3: The Focus Vision delivers 2,448 by 2,448 pixels per eye, compared to Meta's 2,064 by 2,208 pixels per eye. HTC Vive's 120-degree field of view also delivers a greater sense of immersion than the 110-degree FOV in the Quest 3.

"At Survios, we pride ourselves on delivering a world-class gaming experience to our players. To ensure that Alien: Rogue Incursion meets these high standards and delivers the Alien VR experience that fans and players expect, we have made the difficult decision to delay the game's release on meta platforms until early next year. The Playstation VR2 and Steam versions of the game will still be released on December 19, 2024."

Gargoyle Doyle is the latest creation from director Ethan Shaftel (Ajax All Powerful) and won the prize for best VR film at this year's Annecy Animation Festival.

Here's how his L.A.-based studio easyAction describes the story of Gargoyle Doyle.

"Doyle is a grouchy, self-important gargoyle with a chip on his shoulder – quite literally, as he was damaged in a fall during installation above the cathedral’s main entrance. Relegated to a back alcove with other irregular gargoyles, Doyle resents the hand life dealt him, especially the fact that he is stuck two feet from Chet, a decorative metal rain gutter. Chet is the yin to Doyle’s yang, a chatterbox optimist who never shuts up. Ever.

Doyle and Chet watch the world change around them as their alcove falls into disrepair. Hundreds of years later, as bulldozers surround the cathedral for demolition, both must confront who they really are and what their lives add up to."