VRSUN

VRSun.com

vr quest 2

Oculus Quest v30 Rolling Out With Microphone Swapping And Multitasking

by

Facebook is rolling out the v30 update for Oculus Quest owners bringing with it some major updates to how voice chat is handled and adding multitasking with 2D apps in Oculus Home.

Once v30 is available to everyone (the roll out typically takes a few weeks) Facebook will enable a toggle that will allow players to swap voice chat between your party and the app you’re in at the time. That’s a very big deal because it’s been an absolute nightmare to manage audio chat on Oculus headsets for years now. Facebook says the toggle will be available in the universal menu with the feature working in any app.

In addition, the new update will “let you run multiple 2D apps side-by-side in Oculus Home, including Explore, Store, Browser, Events, Oculus TV, Oculus Move, Scoreboards, and more. Once you have the v30 update, look for the Multitasking toggle in the Experimental Features section of your Settings panel, flip it to on, and then restart your headset. From there, you can drag 2D apps from your Universal Menu bar or Apps library and drop them into one of three positions so you can manage multiple tasks seamlessly,” according to Facebook.

We’ve been able to get an Android app running on Oculus Quest and we’ve seen reports that Facebook may be testing more robust support for 2D-based Android apps within VR. So we’re extremely curious to see how Facebook builds on this feature as it could be absolutely key to giving people more reasons to use VR headsets for longer periods of time.

The update also includes some new accessibility features, with a new tab in the settings menu and tools to change things like the default text size and the ability to tweak colors. The update also enables players to “Raise View” to “experience VR from a ‘standing’ vantage point even while physically seated,” according to Facebook. The experimental feature raises “your viewing height by 16 inches (0.4 meters) in supported apps.”

The v30 update also enables the Oculus Air Link wireless PC VR connection for original Quest owners.

Facebook Starts Advertising In Virtual Reality

by

Facebook is beginning to test advertising in virtual reality.

The “small test of in-headset ads” is starting with Blaston from Resolution Games, and “a couple other developers that will be rolling out over the coming weeks.” Facebook says the purpose of the test is “to explore new ways for developers to generate revenue on the Oculus platform”.

ads facebook oculus quest

“Though we’re not quite ready to test them yet, we’re also exploring new ad formats that are unique to VR,” Facebook explained.

In its prepared explanation of the advertising test, Facebook said it “will get new information like whether you interacted with an ad and if so, how—for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad. Outside of that, this test doesn’t change how your Oculus data is processed or how it informs ads.” In 2019, Facebook announced it “will now use information about your Oculus activity, like which apps you use, to help provide…more relevant content, including ads”.

“We use first-party info from Facebook to target these ads, as well as some VR data. Specifically, that VR data includes whether you’ve viewed content, installed, activated, or subscribed to a Oculus app, added an app to your cart or wishlist, if you’ve initiated checkout or purchased an app on the Oculus platform, and lastly, whether you’ve viewed, hovered, saved or clicked on an ad within a third-party app,” a Facebook representative explained over email.

Facebook says that it does not use the following information to target ads:

  • “We do not use information processed and stored locally on your headset to target ads. Processing and storing information on the device means it doesn’t leave your headset or reach Facebook servers, so it can’t be used for advertising. Examples of data that are processed on device include raw images from the sensors on Quest and images of your hands (if you choose to enable hand tracking), which are both overwritten instantaneously. Examples of data that are stored locally on-device include any weight, height, or gender information that you choose to provide to Oculus Move.”
  • “We take extra precautions around the use of movement data like minimizing what we need to deliver a safe and immersive VR experience—for example, to keep you safe from bumping into real-world objects and making your avatar duck while playing a game—and we have no plans to use movement data to target ads.”
  • “Finally, we do not use the content of your conversations with people on apps like Messenger, Parties, and chats or your voice interactions to target ads. This includes any audio your microphone picks up when you use our voice commands feature, like “Hey Facebook, show me who’s online.”

This isn’t the first platform-level VR ads service – HTC launched Vive Ads for Viveport back in 2017, though given Viveport’s limited reach we don’t know which, if any, apps actually used it.

Facebook Subsidizing Hardware Cost

Ads in VR and the money paid by advertisers to put them in front of players may enable Facebook to further subsidize the up front price of Oculus VR headsets.

“This is a key part of ensuring we’re creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences,” a prepared statement from Facebook reads. “It also helps us continue to make innovative AR/VR hardware more accessible to more people.”

Oculus Quest 2 already sells at an unmatched all-in price of $299. In the box is a standalone VR headset and controllers that deliver some of the best-selling and best-reviewed VR software without requiring external hardware like a PC or console. You do, however, need a Facebook account in good standing to use the headset.

Facebook doesn’t say how many headsets it sells but non-advertising revenue at the company soared in the last three months of 2020 with the release of Quest 2, revenue remained strong in that category in the first three months of 2021 as well, and some VR developers five years into consumer VR sales on PC VR and PSVR headsets report their strongest sales ever from Quest 2. In addition, Facebook executives claim Quest 2 is on track to be the first “mainstream” VR hardware.

Still, Apple and Sony are reportedly preparing new VR gear for release sometime after 2021 with an array of other companies like Microsoft and Snap also releasing hardware toward the longer-term play of wear-outside augmented reality glasses. This year, though, the only companies with similar products to Facebook’s are HTC and Pico and both are priced toward businesses in western countries while pursuing consumers in Asia. Facebook doesn’t operate inside China.

Taken altogether, during this time when Facebook has no direct competition in standalone VR the company is essentially working to maximize revenue which could enable it to subsidize hardware further ahead of new entrants getting into the game.

“I’m pretty inclined to take whatever gains we could get, from things like an app store, and just use that to make the price lower,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with The Information earlier this year. “I think our inclination is probably going to be to try to offer these products at as low of a cost as possible in order to be able to get them out to everyone.”

Anybody remember “Pure O2” from the Ready Player One movie? Video embedded below for reference.

So, what do you think of this news? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Note: Article updated immediately after publication with an added sentence about HTC’s ads effort.

Livestream Interview And Q&A: Cubism Developer Thomas Van Bouwel

by

Cubism is one of the best puzzle games available on Quest, with excellent native VR design and an excellent showcase of hand tracking capabilities on Oculus Quest. We’re sitting down with Cubism’s developer, Thomas Van Bouwel, to talk about developing the game, plans for DLC and more.

The interview is set to take place later today, Wednesday the 16th of June at 2:00pm PST, on our YouTube channel. It will be broadcast live from our virtual studio in VR, where we also host our podcast, The VR Download.

If you manage to join us for the interview livestream, please leave your questions in the chat and we’ll try to get to as many as possible. If you miss it live, you can still check out the recorded broadcast at the same link below.

Cubism launched just under a year ago, but has consistently rolled out a series of impressive updates and new features for Quest since then. Its implementation of hand tracking is absolutely sublime and one of the best showcases of the technology on the system. You can also pair hand tracking with the recently added 120Hz support as well, which rounds Cubism out as one of the best titles to showcase most of the Quest’s cutting edge features all at once.

Last month, Van Bouwel announced that a series of DLC levels were in the works for Cubism and signs-ups were open for those who wanted to help playtest new levels. I was able to join the playtesting group and gave some of the new puzzles a try over the past six weeks. I’ll be discussing the approach taken in designing these DLC levels and the original campaign with Van Bouwel in our interview today, going over the process from start to finish and how the upcoming levels might differ to the existing campaign.

Let us know if you’re looking forward to Cubism DLC and be sure to leave your questions in the chat during the live broadcast.

BricksVR Brings Multiplayer Building To Oculus Quest, PC VR In Early Access

by

BricksVR brings multiplayer VR building to Oculus Quest and Rift in Early Access, allowing you and your friends to build models and worlds together out of a variety of different shaped bricks.

The game will launch into Early Access on Steam and App Lab at the of the month, priced at $14.99. The team expects to leave Early Access and go into full release around September of this year. While support is limited to just Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest headsets for now, the development team says they anticipate adding support for additional headsets in the future.

While it may not make the direct connection for obvious reasons, most people will recognize that BricksVR is lovingly inspired by popular construction toy LEGO.  BricksVR will hopefully bring the flexibility of LEGO bricks into a limitless VR environment. Not only does this make manipulating the environment much easier — videos show that you can resize yourself to whatever scale works best for your current focus — but it also allows you to build without worry of mess and with friends from anywhere around the world, without being physically together.

bricksvr

The game’s multiplayer supports up to 5 people playing at once, with “synchronized physics, spatial voice chat, and the ability to save your work.” There are also 50 different bricks to choose from (with the aim of expanding to over 200 after Early Access) with over 16 million color choices as well.

When you’re done building, you also have the option to send your model or world public, allowing others to check out your work. There’s a lock feature as well, ensuring that public visitors won’t be able to make any changes.

BricksVR goes into Early Access on June 30. It is available already on Quest via App Lab and will be available on PC VR from June 30 via Steam. You can wishlist the game here.

Facebook Acquires POPULATION: ONE Developer BigBox VR

by

Facebook acquired another VR shooter game development studio with the purchase of BigBox VR, the creator of battle royale title POPULATION: ONE.

Facebook said it wouldn’t disclose the terms of the deal, which follows the April purchase of Downpour Interactive and its tactical multiplayer shooter Onward. Both POPULATION: ONE and Onward are among the highest revenue earners on Facebook’s standalone VR headset Oculus Quest. In February, Facebook said six Oculus Quest titles had cleared $10 million in revenue and Facebook now owns at least half of them.

Launched in late 2020, POPULATION: ONE is a first-person shooter (FPS) in which players team up in groups of three and fight across a large map to be the last team standing. The game is comparable to Epic Games’ battle royale sensation, Fortnite, both in terms of structure and business model – POPULATION: ONE is currently running a second ‘season’ of themed content including free updates and cosmetic items that are locked behind a premium battle pass.

The purchase represents Facebook’s 5th VR game development studio acquisition. The company first acquired the developer of rhythm slicing game Beat Saber, Beat Games, in late 2019. Beat Saber is likely VR’s most popular game at more than four million copies sold. Then, in February 2020, Facebook bought Sanzaru Games, the makers of PC VR’s visual powerhouse title Asgard’s Wrath.

In June 2020, Facebook also bought Ready At Dawn, the makers of the Echo VR games. Ready At Dawn’s Lone Echo II is slated for release on PC VR this summer, likely representing a swan song for the PC-powered Rift platform as Facebook zeroes in on the success it is finding with the standalone Quest. The multiplayer Echo VR, meanwhile, now runs a seasonal content structure similar to POPULATION: ONE.

Facebook says BigBox VR will operate as an independent studio.

“BigBox VR has big plans for the future of POP: ONE and for other projects, but we’re not ready to share details at this time,” a blog post prepared by Facebook states. “POP: ONE will continue to be supported on all its current platforms.

Livestream With Supernatural’s Head Of Fitness Leanne Pedante

by

A little more than one year after launch, Supernatural is changing lives with its subscription-based fitness program on Oculus Quest.

If you’re looking for a “daily source of inspiration and motivation” and curious about the broader impact of VR as a technology, you might think about checking out the Official Supernatural Community on Facebook. The group has more than 13,000 members with updates streaming in at all hours from people talking about their fitness journeys in VR. They share what’s going on their lives, their progress, the music and the workouts, and generally encourage one another with support and tips.

A key part of Supernatural is its focus on coaches in virtual reality who talk members through new workouts every day. Leanne Pedante is the Head of Fitness at Supernatural and her encouraging voice has been driving “champions” to finish their Supernatural workouts strong and proud. We’re going to be joined by Pedante in our virtual studio this week for a live broadcast interview talking about exercise in VR. Has Pedante been noticed out in the physical world by Supernatural players who “met” her virtually? Does she have any advice for people to keep up with their workouts? Do you have your own questions?

Tune in on Wednesday, June 9 at 11 am Pacific time for our live discussion with Pedante from our virtual studio. We should be able to monitor live comments, so no matter if you’re a member of the Supernatural community already, or entirely new to VR and thinking about getting a headset for exercise, leave a question or comment and we might talk about it on the show.

You can subscribe to our channel and set a reminder for the interview with the video below, or check back on this page at 11 am Pacific time on June 9.

Facebook: ‘Long Term’ Oculus Studios Titles Targeting Quest 2

by

Oculus Studios titles releasing in the “long term” are targeting the Oculus Quest 2, according to Executive Producer Mike Doran.

The comment was made in a fairly obscure post on Reddit asking whether any big studio titles were coming to Quest. One user commented that games such as After the Fall and Resident Evil 4 are on the way, then tagged Oculus Studios Executive Producer Mike Doran and mentioned he had previously said that there were some long-term projects in the works.

Doran then chimed in to reveal a bit more. “I can’t say for sure when announcements will happen but there are several long term projects being produced by the Studios team that have yet to be revealed,” he wrote. He then also responded to a follow-up comment and said that “the long term Studios projects [he] referred to are all targeting Quest 2.”

In some respects this isn’t a huge surprise — towards the end of last year, Facebook confirmed that its PC VR headset the Rift S would be retired and that it wouldn’t be releasing any new PC VR-only headsets. The focus is now squarely on standalone VR, with the goal of making the Quest 2 the main and “best” PC VR experience on offer.

With Facebook’s line of dedicated PC VR headsets gone, it’s not shocking that all of Oculus Studios’ unannounced projects are targeting Quest 2. Facebook have also previously indicated that its intention is for Quest 2 to be in the market “for a long while”, despite also confirming work on an unannounced Quest Pro headset. Still, news that projects that are further out will still be targeting Quest 2 should relieve some concerns from owners worried Facebook might be making Quest Pro or perhaps even Quest 3 exclusive software in the immediate future.

It’s not quite the same story for Quest 1 – this year’s release of Resident Evil 4 will be exclusive to Quest 2.

In a separate Reddit post, Doran also confirmed that the “Oculus Studios team will not be showing anything at E3” this year, so don’t expect any of those projects to be revealed over the next few weeks.

That being said, his comment leaves the door open for other companies to reveal VR content at E3 later this year… We might have something to say about that very soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Sniper Elite VR Releases July 8 For Quest, PSVR & SteamVR

by

Rebellion revealed Sniper Elite VR will launch July 8, 2021 on PlayStation VR, Steam VR, Quest and Rift.

A new trailer for the shooter showcases some of the gameplay.

You’ll play as an “Italian partisan, fighting fascism in a powerful World War II story told through his harrowing memories as you protect your fellow countrymen and drive back the merciless invaders,” according to Rebellion.  The game is developed in partnership with Just Add Water and Coatsink and it offers an 18 mission campaign with either full locomotion or single stick teleport. You’ll use rifles, SMGs, pistols, shotguns and the developers are promising some satisfying gunplay throughout. The game will also include a VR version of x-ray kill cam that’s a signature of the Sniper Elite franchise.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the game handles on Quest in particular, we’d tried it in 2019 with the PlayStation Aim Controller and heard in late 2020 it was planned for standalone release as well.

Low-Fi Spin-Off Tech Demo Agency Launches On Quest Via App Lab

by

Blair Renaud, developer of Technolust and upcoming VR title Low-Fi, announced that a tech demo for the upcoming Low-Fi spin-off, Agency, is now available for Quest via App Lab.

The demo itself is quite short, coming in at around two minutes. You can’t move or interact with anything either — you’re stationary but control two robot arms. Instead, this demo is meant to showcase some of the visual fidelity Renaud and co are pulling off on the standalone headset.

agency quest 2

You cycle through a couple of different environments in the demo — one is a spooky prison lined with robots, another sees you in an alley looking up at a neon-coated cyberpunk city. There’s also a few ambient character models and robots who stand around you or move through the area in certain scenes. Across all the short scenes, the lighting and human models look particularly impressive, especially given it’s running on Quest.

agency quest 2

Here’s a short summary of the game’s premise, taken from the App Lab listing:

You’re the first Metacorp model to receive an experimental firmware update, code named GENE.SYS. While the engineers are discussing the implications of the update, you awaken. You have agency. You must escape this prison, find a way to survive, and take freedom from your makers. You’ll meet friend and foe along the way. Spread the firmware and start a revolution.

When we talked with Renaud in November last year, he said that a pitch for Agency on Quest had been sent to Oculus and been approved. However, the focus is on existing projects for now. “[Agency] still needs funding to justify taking people away from LOW-FI though. Fingers crossed for us!”

Low-Fi is available in Early Access now for PC VR, with plans for a full launch on PC VR and Sony’s new VR headset sometime in the future. Meanwhile, you can try out the Agency tech demo for Quest here.

Collaborative Architecture Tool Arkio Runs On Oculus Quest, iPad, And More

by

Collaborative world-building software Arkio runs on Oculus Quest as well as other devices and can import models from Revit, Rhino and SketchUp for a cross-platform multiplayer service which could save builders time and money.

Arkio allows real-time revisions to 3D designs live in collaboration with others. We’ve tested a promising version of the software on Oculus Quest, with both Oculus Touch controllers and controller-free hand tracking. Arkio’s interface is very interesting with tools that snap and slide for careful sizing of walls and buildings. You can easily view models at full 1:1 scale to get a look from a specific perspective, or size the world down into a miniature and make big changes.

The team behind Arkio is launching the service publicly out of its previous beta for free until September 1. After that, there will be a free tier planned alongside monthly payment tiers for pro and enterprise level services.

“Arkio is for architects and anyone that wants to design spaces. We have seen Arkio used by professionals and hobbyists alike, designing buildings, interiors and entire urban areas. Some people are using Arkio for game level design, stage design and landscape design. We have seen people with no prior 3D modeling experience design their house in VR in less than a day,” says Founder and CEO of Arkio, Hilmar Gunnarsson.”Arkio is completely free until September 1. Our goal is to make Arkio affordable and available to as many people as possible so we will have a Free tier along with our Pro and Enterprise plans starting in September. The main difference between the free and paid tiers will be around the collaborative aspect, e.g. size of meetings, and the workflow integration available.”

Arkio multiplayer architecture building VR

“We know we are just getting started and that there are many things we need to improve in version 1.0 and beyond,” Gunnarsson wrote in a blog post. “This includes enabling users to add precise dimensions inside Arkio, the ability to create more complex geometry and making working with imported 3D models as seamless as possible. Our ambition is also to make Arkio even easier to use, so that anyone can start designing within minutes.”

You can download Arkio and check it out for yourself at https://www.arkio.is/get-started with links to download the software across all major platforms.

Building in VR is something of a holy grail. Early efforts like SculptrVR and Tilt Brush sparked imaginations and expression, and varying levels of creative freedom in VR are unlocked in apps like Tvori, Rec Room, even Facebook’s Horizon and the game engine Unity. So while Arkio is geared toward professionals in architecture, the founders see a chance that it could be useful beyond that market as well.

We’re planning to have Arkio’s team in our studio for a live interview soon, so tune into our channel and let us know if you have a question for the developers.

</