May 23
DARPA, the US government’s R&D arm, is looking to Oculus Rift to make cyber-warfare more approachable to the American military, immersing the military in 3D representations of target networks. Part … Continue reading
May 23
DARPA Is Using Oculus Rift To Build The ‘Mega Man Battle Network’ Of Cyberwarfare
Posted in: Today's Chili
In a surprising amount of futuristic visions of how hacking will work in the future, the experience is immersive, rather than something done hunched over a computer looking at lines of code scroll by. DARPA appears to agree with the full-body submersion vision of hacking’s future, as it’s working on an Oculus Rift-based interface for use by U.S. military hackers, one part of its Plan… Read More
May 22
Samsung is prepping an Oculus Rift competitor of its own, according to a new report by Engadget. The Korean electronics giant is no stranger to stepping into emerging market categories, and virtual reality appears to be next on the docket, as Samsung is said to be currently building a VR headset with a planned announcement date of this year. The hardware is already with a group of early… Read More
May 22
Chuck E. Cheese Testing Oculus Rift
Posted in: Today's ChiliGrowing up, few things on the planet would make me clean the house faster than a promise of Chuck E. Cheese for lunch after I was done with chores. Back in the day, Chuck E. Cheese was one of the biggest arcades around and you could eat pizza and spend coins on arcade games until you went broke.
The restaurant has announced that it will be trialing the Oculus Rift headset in a handful of locations for the next six weeks. Sadly, the trial doesn’t involve letting everyone try the VR gaming headset as a game. Rather it comes as part of a birthday package that puts kids into a virtual ticket booth rather than a real one.
In the virtual ticket grabbing booth, the kids will get to pick up virtual tickets to win prizes. The experience is built inside by the chain’s Ticket Blaster booths, which blow hundreds of tickets around that kids can catch and cash in, but instead of grabbing actual tickets, kids wearing the Oculus Rift grab virtual tickets with their head movements. This sounds like a pretty cool idea, though it’s too bad parents won’t get to try it out.
[via CNN]
Apr 22
We have less than a year to go before Back to the Future II’s hoverboard prediction is debunked. But thanks to virtual reality, we might be able to simulate the feeling of riding a hoverboard. Game developer Kieran Lord aka Cratesmith recently showed off an early build of his hoverboard simulator for the Oculus Rift.
Kieran is making the game using the popular Unity game engine. He’s using a Wii Balance Board to control his game.
If you have an Oculus Rift, a Wii Balance Board and a Mac, you’re in luck: Kieran shared an early build of his game through Dropbox. You can find out more about the game on Kieran’s Reddit thread.
Apr 21
Fans of the Star Trek universe, heads up! Literally, of course, since here we are with something from the Oculus Rift that might make you get lost for hours on end as you explore the bridge of the USS Voyager from the Star Trek series. Just to recap, the Oculus Rift happens to be a virtual reality headset that is being developed at the moment, enabling gamers to be able to immerse themselves in their favorite games, being in the virtual world for an enhanced gameplay experience. I would suppose it is not too much different from what most modern day city folk do these days – walk and drive around while looking at their smartphones, communicating on tablet over the dining table without carrying out a real world conversation with those around.
The Oculus Rift would be able to up the ante even further, and the USS Voyager bridge program is the brainchild of a certain Thomas Kadlec. Kadlec shared, “I’m a huge Oculus Rift fan, Star Trek fan, and Unreal Engine 4 [software framework for the development of video games] fan.So I just figured I’d mix those all together!”
This particular USS Voyager bridge demo enables one to “walk around a fairly accurate recreation of the Voyager’s bridge … [staring] out into space as you whiz past distant stars.” It would be cool if there was a segment programmed within, as your ship gets attacked halfway and you would need to respond by issuing commands from the bridge itself.
Oculus Rift Gives You A Taste Of The USS Voyager Bridge , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gaming, Oculus Rift, star trek,
Apr 21
Remember Marty McFly’s hoverboard in Back to the Future II? Well, we might not be able to stroll into any store at the moment in order to pick up a hoverboard and ride it home, but this does not mean that one is unable to experience something like that, courtesy of clever coding as well as the Oculus Rift hardware.
Developer Kieran Lord (who also goes by the handle Cratesmith on Twitter) has made good use of Oculus Rift as well as a Wii Balance Board in order to give one an experience as close as possible to riding an actual hoverboard.
Lord shared, “The way I’m imagining the hoverboard physics is slightly different to the BTTF maglev skateboard. It’s more a snowboard with a ‘virtual slope’ of the front/back angle of the board. If that works and feels good the player could just get up a ton of speed and then stomp their back foot to get the same effect as going over a jump ramp.”
The Oculus Rift hardware, when coupled with the right kind of coding, would definitely be able to help us experience new environments, as well as give even the dying a chance to be able to relive some of the more soul soothing moments in their lives.
Oculus Rift Lets You Enjoy Hoverboard Action , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gaming, Oculus Rift,
Apr 21
Thomas Kadlec has recreated the USS Voyager’s bridge for Oculus Rift—the ultra-realistic and totally immersive virtual reality headset recently bought by Facebook. Watch it in action in this video.
Apr 19
“It is reality!” this very jubilant expression is what cancer patient Roberta Firstenberg had to say about her first Oculus Rift experience. Grandmother of game artist Priscilla Firstenberg, Roberta was … Continue reading
Apr 16
Facebook Acquisition Will Make Sense In A Year, According To Oculus VR’s Founder
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhen Facebook announced their acquisition of Oculus VR, we’re sure the company was not expecting such a huge amount of backlash for both developers and consumers alike. Oculus VR has reassured gamers that Facebook will be allowing them autonomy and given Facebook’s previous acquisitions such as Instagram, we have no reason to believe Facebook has any intentions of meddling.
In a recent video interview (transcribed by the folks at GameSpot), Oculus VR’s founder, Palmer Luckey, stated that the acquisition by Facebook will make sense to its critics a year from now. “Knowing behind the scenes what’s going on and what we need money to do and what we’re going to be able to do with this deal, I know for myself that it’s the best that we could possibly do.” (more…)
Facebook Acquisition Will Make Sense In A Year, According To Oculus VR’s Founder original content from Ubergizmo.
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