Tag Archives: VR

Train2Game News Descendent Studios open source UE4 plugins

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Descendent Studios, makers of Descent: Underground, announced the open-source release of several Unreal Engine 4 plugins they developed for the game.
The studio rolled out their GitHub repository on the heels of last week’s announcement that Descent: Underground won an Open-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) Fund grant from Razer. Descent: Underground was the first high-end action title to natively support all of the major desktop VR headsets: OSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.

“We use open-source tools and libraries in the development of Descent: Underground,“ said Descendent Studios’ CTO, Jason “Stormwind” Spangler. “We wanted to give something back to the development community by making some of the code we’ve created available.”

Among the new open-source offerings for Unreal Engine 4 is “Blinken,” which adds support for color-changing peripherals like Razer’s Chroma line, AlienFX, Logitech G in both Blueprint and C++. Other plugins facilitate XMPP chat support, more robust configuration menus, and ping time displays. The repository also features contributions, additions, and fixes to a number of other open-source projects, such as the OSVR-Unreal plugin, nodervisor, discord-xmpp, and more. Descendent’s GitHub repository is available at https://github.com/DescendentStudios.

The Early Access version of Descent: Underground is available at http://www.descentunderground.com, Steam, and other online resellers. The game already features a number of multiplayer competitive and cooperative game modes, among them a horde-style “Survival” mode, and a tongue-in-cheek capture-the-flag mode called “Miner Mayhem”. Single-player “Survival” and “Vs. Bots” modes allow offline play in advance of the upcoming storyline campaign.

Descent: Underground is also bundled with the OSVR HDK2 VR headset now through Sept. 19, while stocks last at http://www.razerzone.com/store/hdk2.

Train2Game News VRTGO 2016 Announced

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The organisers of VRTGO have announced the return of their popular future-gazing VR conference and expo.
Entering its successful third year, VRTGO is one of the most established industry VR conferences in the world. This year, VRTGO is going BIG.

This event will see an array of exciting demos that will show the power of VR for business as well as entertainment. In addition, the people who are creating the best hardware and content for this emerging frontier will all be showing their latest and greatest.  Attend and learn about the future potential of virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

Sign up for the early bird all access pass today – click HERE.

The conference will welcome talks from Framestore, Hammerhead, Epic Games, Rewind Studio, ARM and many more.

“VR is pushing the boundaries of interactive experiences to a level only dreamt of in sci-fi, we are constantly developing magical new ways for people to be immersed in new worlds.  An example includes our award winning “Field Trip to Mars”, where school children were taken to Mars in a school bus.  We will be attending VRTGO to share our projects and meet other VR specialists”, said Karl Woolley, Head of VR Studio, London, Framestore.

Steve Jelley, Joint MD of Hammerhead VR said, “we pick and choose our events carefully and we’re excited to be exhibiting at VRTGO this year as they always have an engaged audience, and speakers that bring lots of insights into our rapidly expanding industry.”

Carri Cunliffe, conference director said, “We are excited to have so many great companies involved and we will be announcing more very shortly.  As always, we will have provocative panel discussions, outstanding speakers and amazing demos. This year, social VR will be a main theme as its emergence is changing the worlds of business and pleasure alike.”

See www.vrtgo.co.uk to buy tickets and see more information.

Train2Game News PlayStation VR at EGX

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Sony Computer Entertainment UK have announced that PlayStation®VR will be at EGX this September, giving fans the opportunity to experience the immersive world of Sony’s innovative virtual reality headset ahead of its 13th October launch.
Visitors to the PlayStation stand will have the opportunity to get hands on with a selection of highly anticipated PlayStation VR titles including RIGS Mechanized Combat League and PlayStation®VR Worlds with more to be announced in future.

To avoid disappointment, visitors can pre-book appointments for a PlayStation VR demo at EGX. Bookings will be made available on http://trypsvr.com/.

Taking place from the 22nd-25th September at the NEC in Birmingham, EGX attendees will also have the chance to play Gran Turismo Sport™ before it speeds onto PlayStation®4 for the first time this November.

All PlayStation VR demo participants will need to be in possession of a valid EGX ticket and be 12 or over. Further PlayStation VR demo slots will be available on http://trypsvr.com/ in the run up to EGX, with a limited number of walk-in demos available across the four days.

For further information on PlayStation®VR visit playstation.com/psvr or follow us @PlayStationUK.

Train2Game News Develop Brighton

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Tandem Events confirmed both PlayStation VR and HTC Hive developers will showcase its headsets at Develop:Brighton this year. The attendance of HTC and Sony add to the strong presence Virtual Reality will have at this year’s conference and expo.
On the expo show floor, a number of VR titles will be on display for attendees to try:

    PlayStation VR Worlds (Sony) – a collection of five different VR experiences that have all been built from the ground up exclusively for the PS VR headset.

    Here They Lie (Sony) – a dark psychological horror experience that transports you to a terrifying, surreal world inhabited by strange and malevolent creatures.

    Sociable Soccer (Tower Studios) – the well-known football title, now brought to virtual reality.

    Radial-G Racing Revolved (Tammekka) – an exciting sci-fi racer using Oculus Rift.

    Battlezone (Rebellion) – designed for the next wave of virtual reality devices, Battlezone gives you unrivalled battlefield awareness, a monumental sense of scale and breathless combat intensity.

    Unseen Diplomacy (Triangular Pixels) – part of the Indie Showcase, Unseen Diplomacy casts you as an elite member of the British Espionage Tactical Initiative, defeating the plans of evil-doers around the world. With a real-life obstacle course created by Vive HTC environment, you will run and roll, sneak and solve your way through volcano lairs and moon bases.

    A Chair in a Room: Greenwater (Wolf & Wood Interactive) – part of the Indie Showcase, explore your surroundings as the protagonist of your own horror story as you immerse yourself in this tense VR thriller set in America’s Deep South.

    Windlands (Psytec Studios) – part of the Indie Showcase, a first person grappling hook exploration game. Soar through the ruins of a fallen world and discover the secrets of the ancients.

During the conference on Tuesday, Oculus’ head of Developer Strategy, Anna Sweet, will deliver the Evolve keynote on how the new medium of VR will help reinvent traditional genres while creating entirely new games and experiences.

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, Tandem Events has added a brand new dedicated VR track has been added to the conference that will explore every aspect of VR across all disciplines. Sessions will be delivered from the likes of Google, Bossa Studios, nDreams, Hammerhead VR, Valve, Rebellion, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Virtual Reality developer Dave Ranyard.

“We’re very excited to have such a wide range of Virtual Reality games and speakers at this year’s event,” commented Andy Lane, managing director of Tandem Events. “VR is the buzz of 2016 and this year’s conference and expo will showcase some of the very best talent the sector has to offer.”

Develop:Brighton is Europe’s leading game developer conference taking place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole from Tuesday 12 July to Thursday 14 July. Other highlights include talks from industry visionaries Hideo Kojima and Mark Cerny on Wednesday morning and a #askrami session with Rami Ismail of Vlambeer to close the conference.

To view the full conference programme and to find out more details on purchasing passes visit www.developconference.com

Train2Game Develop VR Panel

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Tandem Events has confirmed the creation of a new advisory board for its new VR conference and expo taking place in November.

The advisory board is made up of seven VR professionals who will help the team at Tandem Events to curate a conference that is both compelling and informative.

The panel is a mixture of developers from inside and outside the games industry and steer the conference programme that will include sessions on the VR and AR opportunities outside of games.

The seven advisory board members are:

Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO, nDreams
Sam Watts, Operations Lead, Make Real
Jonathan Newth, CEO, Focal Point
Solomon Rogers, Rewind:VR
Jamie Macdonald, Co-Founder, Mindwave Ventures
Keith Russell, VR Consultant
Steve Jelly, Joint MD, Hammerhead VR

“At Mindwave Ventures we see great potential in the use of VR for amplifying the impact of existing therapies in mental healthcare,” commented Jamie Macdonald, co-founder at Mindwave Ventures. “Develop:VR recognises that VR is not just about games and brings together the wider VR community from different industry sectors. If you’re doing VR you’ve got to be at Develop:VR.”

Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO of nDreams added, “Develop:VR is a great opportunity for virtual reality developers to share their insights and expertise with the community, and it’s fantastic that Develop recognises the importance of VR as an emerging medium by giving it such prominence at the conference. I’m delighted to be speaking about developing for the next generation of mobile VR at this event, and we look forward to dissecting our two original games for Daydream, Google’s platform for high-performance mobile VR.”

Andy Lane, managing director, Tandem Events commented, “From our years of organising Develop:Brighton we know what makes for a great event so we’re really excited about Develop:VR. With our advisory board we’ve got a stellar line up to help us cultivate a conference programme that’ll help our delegates realise the potential of VR and AR both inside and outside the games industry.”

Develop:VR is brand new event focusing on new commercial opportunities that Virtual and Augmented Reality present to today’s game developers, together with highlighting the tools and techniques needed to produce chart-topping VR and AR content.

Train2Game News Michael Bay working on VR

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The Rogue InitiativeThe Rogue Initiative and Michael Bay have announced a partnership to develop original entertainment properties with a focus on virtual reality and interactive hardware.

The new collaboration will produce immersive, virtual adventures offering gritty, danger-close action coupled with Michael Bay’s signature style and storytelling that fans all over the world have come to expect from his blockbuster action films.

This is Bay’s first foray into interactive entertainment; he will direct and The Rogue Initiative will produce and develop original content in cinematic-style VR.

Pete Blumel, co-founder and CEO of The Rogue Initiative, said: “I’ve enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Mr. Bay and couldn’t be more excited to work with him and truly leverage his unique vision and incredible depth of experience to this amazing new medium. We’re all absolutely thrilled to be working with such a cinematic powerhouse in the field of action entertainment.”

Bay said: “I’ve known Pete for a long time, and he’s put together a great team. I’m excited about building new visual worlds for this innovative medium with them.”

Cathy Twigg, co-founder and Chief Production Officer of The Rogue Initiative, said: “We take a comprehensive approach in producing our IP for the entertainment landscape, specializing in film, television and interactive experiences with a focus on virtual reality. This enables The Rogue Initiative to align with our partners in expanding our IP to various other platforms and media. We’ll be bringing this approach to the properties we co-create with Mr. Bay as well.”

The Rogue Initiative officially launched earlier this year with several projects in development.

The company will seek further investment and strategic partnerships to develop its slate of upcoming cinematic, interactive VR, film and television projects for platforms and distribution channels, including Sony Playstation, Oculus, HTC Vive, Samsung GearVR, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, feature film, network and cable television.

Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder and CBDO of The Rogue Initiative, said: “We are producing entertainment properties for a global audience and continue to seek investors and partners internationally that would like to collaborate in developing and distributing our content.”

Michael Bay will join The Rogue Initiative as a strategic advisor, along with veteran film and television Producer Lynda Obst (whose credits include Interstellar, Contact, Sleepless in Seattle) as well as other recently added advisors, including Cliff Plumer (President, Jaunt Studios at Jaunt VR), Matthew Cohan (President, Bay Films), and Cody Simms (Executive Director, Disney/TechStars).

For more information about The Rogue Initiative and its collaboration with Michael Bay, please visit therogueinitiative.com.

Train2game News Global VR Gaming Challenge

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Steel Media, publisher of Pocket Gamer, is delighted to reveal the launch of a brand new VR competition created in association with DeePoon, the leading VR company in China.

The Global VR Gaming Challenge is a new initiative setup to identify the best new VR games development talent and concepts, from UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, and help bring them to the world’s biggest VR market, China.

The challenge will include a total of $35,000 worth of cash prizes up for grabs for the winners, alongside VR hardware for all longlisted teams, and an expenses paid trip to ChinaJoy, Asia’s biggest game show in Shanghai in July, for the developers that are shortlisted.

This competition is open to all Independent developers, providing their game / concept is suitable for mobile VR, and will be unreleased prior to 28th July 2016. A full detailed set of rules can be found at the following link.

In order to enter, developers must submit a one page description of their game / concept, alongside any artwork and video assets available via the Global VR Gaming Challenge website.

After an initial entry period, expert judges from the industry will create a longlist of nominees in June who’ll then be provided DeePoon hardware and a month to hone their games before a final judging session on 15th July creates a shortlist of developers who’ll all be invited to ChinaJoy (flights and accommodation paid) to pitch at the final in Shanghai.

Those interested can also find a full breakdown of the competition’s timeline at the following link.

Through this competition Steel Media and DeePoon collectively hope to not only help the development of brand new VR concepts, but also in deepening the ties between China, Europe, and the rest of the world within the video game industry.

Train2game News VR Tourism

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Realities, the first VR tourism experience to hit the global market, is released today as a free download.

The users can wander within photorealistic landmark environments from around the world. These places have been scanned using photogrammetry to capture every last detail. Graphine’s texture streaming technology ‘Granite SDK’ makes it possible to visualize this scanned content at the highest quality available while still only requiring a PC with the minimal specifications for VR. Users of Realities use the app’s innovative locomotion methods to explore these photorealistic environments.

realities.io is another addition to the list of leading content creating companies that use Granite for their VR projects. Other VR companies using Granite are Sólfar Studios with Everest VR, Nurulize with Nu Reality and companies like Oculus and The Mill with undisclosed projects.

“The need to display photo-realistic content at the most detailed quality level, while keeping a solid very high frame rate is a requirement from all companies that want to create state-of-the-art content for virtual reality. We are proud to support more and more companies like realities.io that use Granite to deliver extraordinary experiences to the consumers with unseen graphical fidelity.” affirms Aljosha Demeulemeester, Graphine’s CEO.

realities.io’s CEO Dominic Eskofier confirms: “With Realities, we put real, mesmerizing places 1:1 into Virtual Reality and make them fully explorable – at a quality level that we couldn’t achieve without Granite. Walking around in Realities’ unique environments is the closest thing to actually be at the places we capture – thanks to the great performance and extreme texture resolutions we get from Granite in Unreal Engine 4.”

Realities released today on Steam and is available for free to all VR users.

Granite is available as a standalone SDK that can integrate in any engine and as a plugin for Unreal Engine 4 and Unity3D.

More information on the web site:

www.graphinesoftware.com/blog/realities-released-on-vr-stores-includes-granite

Train2game News PlayStation VR at EGX Rezzed

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Sony Computer Entertainment UK is pleased to announced that PlayStation®VR will be available to demo at EGX Rezzed during next month’s London Games Festival giving fans the perfect opportunity to experience Sony’s latest entertainment innovation ahead of its October launch.

Taking place from the 7th-9th April at the Tobacco Dock in London, visitors to the PlayStation stand will have the opportunity to experience the upcoming PlayStation VR exclusive software titles recently shown at GDC, and available to demo for the first time in the UK including RIGS: Mechanized Combat League and THE PLAYROOM VR. Additional titles available to demo on the stand include PlayStation®VR Worlds and the first UK hands on opportunities with the VR reboot of first-person tank warfare classic, Battlezone, and first-person puzzler SUPERHYPERCUBE, which will launch first on PlayStation® VR.

In order to experience a PlayStation VR demo at EGX Rezzed and to avoid disappointment, visitors will need to pre-book their appointment.

To be notified when the PlayStation VR demo booking system is live follow @PlayStation UK on Twitter or sign up to receive updates at https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/explore/playstation-vr/get-updates . 

All PlayStation VR demo participants will need to be in possession of a valid EGX Rezzed ticket and be 12 or over. A limited number of walk-on demos for THE PLAYROOM VR will also be available across the three days.

Visitors to the PlayStation stand will also be able to try a range of the best digital exclusive games coming soon to PlayStation 4 including Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch, Heavy Spectrum’s Shadow of the Beast, Dino Dini’s Kick Off Revival, Invent Games’ Strength of the Sword, Housemarque’s ALIENATION and Dreadbit’s Seraph.

For further information on PlayStation®VR visit playstation.com/psvr or follow us @PlayStationUK.

Train2Game News VR World Congress in Bristol

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The UK’s largest VR event VR World Congress will be held in Bristol, UK, on 12th April 2016.

This year, the UK is set to stage its largest ever VR event as organisers Opposable VR announce the VR World Congress – http://vrworldcongress.com/.

Featuring two talk tracks and a diverse expo, the VR World Congress will host 600 leading developers, innovators, exhibitors, and speakers. Supported by headline sponsor AMD, attendees can expect to meet high profile experts in the industry alongside intriguing up-and-coming names for the future.

VR World Congress organiser Dan Page from Opposable VR said: “It’s great to finally announce our new conference. The overwhelming success of our South West VR conference (SWVR) last year inspired us to think bigger and better for 2016. We’re proud to be bringing some seriously awesome key names and brands in VR from around the globe to Bristol, the hub of VR development in the UK.”

There will be two talk tracks; a Main Track focusing on key players in the VR industry, and a Tech Track designed for developers and hardcore VR enthusiasts. Speakers already confirmed include James Valls from Rebellion, David Fernádez Huerta from ‘Land’s End’ and ‘Monument Valley’ developer ustwo, Paul Deane from the BBC, and AMD’s Roy Taylor, The Third Floor, and Lloyd Digital, with more to be announced soon – for the full list of speakers, visit the VR World Congress website – http://vrworldcongress.com/speakers/speakers/

The VR World Congress will have a dedicated expo space, with exhibitors including nDreams with ‘The Assembly’, Frontier Developments exhibiting ‘Elite: Dangerous’, Block Interval who will be showing the first 7 minutes of their forthcoming adventure game ‘Life of Lon’ on the Oculus Rift DK2, and StarShip who will be showcasing vTime; the VR sociable network that allows anyone, anywhere to socialise with family and friends in virtual reality. See the full VRWC expo line up here -> http://vrworldcongress.com/expo/exhibitors/

Tickets are on sale NOW (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vr-world-congress-tickets-19277355088 ). The VR World Congress will take place on Tuesday, 12 April 2016 from 09:00 to 17:00 at the Bristol Marriott City Centre, UK.