Tag: VR

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Before and After Reality

I’m doing something a bit different and writing my thoughts on Apple’s headset both before and after their WWDC conference, which took place yesterday. I’m no prognosticator but I have a lot of questions. Let’s dive in. Before It’s Friday, June 2 and I am completely intrigued by all this “Apple VR / AR / headset” news. Is it bunk? Maybe. But there are a few things going on leading me to believe, now more than ever, that Apple is announcing its next hardware platform on Monday. It comes down to a simple observation: Where there’s Apple smoke, there’s Apple…

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Is Anyone Still “Trying to fall in love” with Horizon Worlds?

In yet more proof (like we needed any) that Facebook Meta is still falling quite short in making their virtual reality world Horizon Worlds a thing, Wired reporter Eric Ravenscraft tells his tale of trying to hold a holiday party inside that system. Spoilers: it was a big mess. For starters, organizing an event using Horizon Worlds is far from intuitive. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to add people to a group—without having to add coworkers as friends on my personal Facebook account. I eventually found an obscure tool that lets you generate a…

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Lying Legs

As Facebook Meta continues its push to convince you that VR is really really really the wave of the future, they made an announcement last week that legs were coming to their Horizon Worlds experience. There was a whole demo around this feature. Avatars have only been floating torsos up to this point. It isn’t a stretch to think that adding the rest of a body would be desirable. Meta’s live tweets even had a tweet that only said “Legs”. I’m not even kidding. There’s only one problem: the demo was completely fabricated. Ian Hamilton at Upload VR has more.…

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Sony’s Coming for Meta with PSVR2

Facebook Meta isn’t the only game in town when it comes to virtual reality. In an approach based in… reality, Sony is developing their second PSVR hardware for the application people would actually use: playing games. Sony released its first edition of the Playstation VR add-on to the PS4 back in 2016. While it was not a massive success, it was good enough to do what they promised. PSVR allowed for immersive gaming using only a pair of Move controllers, the PS Camera, and your existing PS4. Out the door, the entire kit (minus the PS4) was only $300. This…

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Meta *REALLY* Wants To Convince You It’s The Next Big Thing

Facebook Meta has been hard in their efforts to get you to know about “the metaverse”. Basically it’s VR. That’s it. That’s their plan. Yes, this is a simplification of what Zuckerberg is doing, but they are investing a ton of time into this. Over at The Verge Adi Robinson, who usually handles anything related to VR, goes through all the prototypes that have been developed. There’s 24 in all. Most are just proofs of concept. None will ship. All are efforts to be a leader in what they think is the next “big thing”. Meta described Half Dome’s tech…

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Reggie Speaks

Whether we know what Facebook Meta’s “metaverse” is or not, it’s impossible to ignore their push into virtual reality. There have been lots of responses to what they’re doing, but this one strikes at the heart of what is going on. Reggie Fils-Amie, the former President and COO of Nintendo of America gave his take on the metaverse at the SXSW conference. “Facebook itself is not an innovative company,” Fils-Aime told Emily Chang. “They have either acquired interesting things like Oculus and Instagram, or they’ve been a fast follower of people’s ideas. I don’t think their current definition will be…

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Meta-less VR

With all the hullabaloo about the metaverse and Facebook Meta pitching it non-stop, it is a breath of fresh air to see a VR announcement that doesn’t come from Zuckerberg. Sony revealed the second iteration of their Playstation VR system that will release later this year. Kyle Orland from Ars Technica has more. As far as significant design changes, the PSVR2 will now offer a lens adjustment dial that can slide each lens side to side in order to match the player’s interpupillary distance. Getting a good match there can be key to providing a sharp focus and preventing eye strain…