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Tuesday, April 13, 2021
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Elite Dangerous Will Feature VR Support

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"Elite Dangerous now Features VR Support "

The games’s VR mode will be launched on the 28th of March and will support HTC Vive and Steam VR.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Sadly, there are only a couple of games which you can play on the new VR platform. HTC Vive VR headset comes with three games, which are not exactly games, but applications which are meant to show you how great it will be to play stuff in VR. Elite Dangerous will feature VR support, which means that now you can turn your room into a huge cockpit.

First thing first. Elite Dangerous will launch its VR support on the 28th of March. With the launching of the VR feature, Elite can indeed be called a multi-platform game, being available on Windows, Xbox One, Mac and soon on VR.

Now, on to more serious matter. What is Elite Dangerous? Well, to put it in simpler terms, it’s another pew-pew, shields down, thrash that intergalactic freak space simulation game.

Like any decent space sim, Elite allows the players to run around the galaxy aimlessly, seeking fortune, fame or a quick death at the hands of space marauders. The also has a cool trade and diplomacy system, which lets the player sell the stuff he or she picked up from space.

Space combat looks beautiful, and it kind of reminds players of X5 or the Descent series. Quest-wise, the players, will have to fulfill quite a lot of quests to rank up and to unlock dynamic updates, shield, weapons and the usual.

Moreover, the game is awfully similar to X3 or X5 regarding space exploration. To explore regions of space, players will have to travel to a conduit-like structure that propels the ship into hyperspace.

According to the game’s developer team, when Elite: Dangerous will be launched it is bound to support the HTC Vive platform and even Steam VR.

And here’s another piece of good news. If you already bought the stand-alone version of the game along with the Horizons expansion pack, then you can get the VR version of the game for free. And, as an incentive, the company is also offering the VR HMD for all the games out there who want to squeeze even more from their gaming experience.

Furthermore, according to the company, players will be able to play the game in co-op mode, regardless of platform, meaning that you can now engage in large space battle or space exploration mission with your buds playing from any of the listed platforms.

As always, we are eagerly waiting for the first review clip for the VR platform to see if it’s time to switch to VR or not.

Photo credits:youtube

Dodocase Showcases Nylon SmartVR Headset

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"SmartVR might be the Next Cardboard"

The SmartVR will cost around 28 bucks, making it one of the most affodable VR headsets.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – SmartVR seems to be the next hit after Cardboard. After hearing about McDonald’s releasing its affordable VR headset, it would appear that another tech company has taken an interest in providing the customers with a cheap alternative to full-blown VR devices like the Oculus Rift.

The new tech company which recently declared that it is more than eager to join the VR master race is called Dodocase. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, then here are a couple of facts about the company.

Dodocase is a San Francisco-based tech company that manufactures high-quality leather cases for iPhones and iPads. Aside from its name, it would seem that the tech group is pretty popular, especially among celebrities and politicians. In fact, in a recent blog post, the company boasted that its last client was none other than Barack Obama.

Well, it seems that the company had a little change of heart, meaning that manufacturing phone cases was just not enough. And so, Dodocase proudly announced that it will soon be entering the VR market with a new VR headset concept.

The novel concept is called SmartVR and, according to the company, the project will be partially crowdfunded. Craig Dalton, Dodocase’s CEO said that the company started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

However, Dalton said that the company decided to begin the crowdfunding campaign to pay for the materials involved in SmartVR’s construction. Now, we’ve stated that the project will be partially covered by crowdfunding.

Dalton said that the campaigned was designed to raise approximately 100.000 bucks by the end of June. Should the campaign fall short at the end of June, the product will be launched nonetheless.

What is Smart VR?

SmartVR is a new project involving cheaper ways to get access to the new VR technology. Greatly inspired by Google’s Cardboard VR, Dalton and his team of techies wanted to create a product that’s even cheaper, more robust and resilient.

And so, the Smart VR was born. According to the same CEO, the new headset is manufactured from a combo of nylon and synthetic polymers. Moreover, when the device becomes available on the market, it will be compatible with almost every smartphone out there.

Concerning the price tag, Dalton declared that the product is now available for pre-purchase. Those who are interested in a cheaper alternative to Oculus Rift of HTC Vive VR can order his SmartVR device for only 40 dollars.

SmartVR isn’t called smart for nothing. Apart from its small price and awesome specs, the headset can be folded numerous times and carried in a pocket.

Well, we understand that it’s not exactly VR, but it still beats the alternative of paying 800 bucks for a VR headset and three games.

Photo credits:youtube

Apple Plans on Making Its Entrance into the VR Market

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"Apple Plans on Making Its Entrance into the VR Market"

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) has purchased several VR-oriented companies and enlisted the help of Doug Bowman in order to develop its own VR devices.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – We are actually on the verge of stating the obvious when we say that VR is the next big step in technology. It’s no wonder that more and more companies have begun to conduct extensive research in this field. And even Apple plans of making its entrance into the VR market branch.

Imagine that someday you will be able to play visually appealing video games without having to use any physical controller. Moreover, you won’t even need an LCD display to do that. All that you will require is a console or a computer and a VR headset. And this isn’t even the end of the story. It seems very likely that, in the near future, VR headset won’t even need the presence of a mediating device such as a computer or a console.

The way things are shaping we could be looking at the birth of a whole new mentality. If reality isn’t enough for you, then virtual reality is the escape route. Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and Microsoft’s HoloLens are just two ways of seeing where the road will take us.

Not wanting to fall behind, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) plans on making its debut in the virtual reality arena and has taken many steps to ensure that the end product will not only match that manufactured by its competitors, but it will surpass it in beauty and in grace.

For this reason, Apple announced that it had recently bought another VR-oriented company called FlyBy Media. According to the most recent gossips in the tech world, the company, which currently operates under Apple’s banner, was involved in a VR-oriented research project called Project Tango. While working on the project, the company’s mandate was to develop new software for Google’s 3D technologies.

After a change of heart, FlyBy Media has joined Apple in order to conduct extensive research on VR and AR technologies. In regard to this new market, Tim Cook, Apple’s appointed CEO, declared that it can’t yet view as a niche, but it does seem interesting.

Apple plans on making its entrance into the VR market, and for this reason, the tech giant purchased several smaller companies specialized in virtual reality related technologies. And to top it all up, Apple even decided to enlist the help of Doug Bowman, the foremost researcher in the field of virtual reality technology.

Bowman, together with Apple and former FlyBy will pool their intellectual resources in order to come up with affordable and mobile VR solutions. Presently, the company is focusing on developing AR-enabled devices, which will help the customers navigate through the world used a visual computer interface.

Photo credits:www.pixabay.com

Oculus Will Purchase Pebbles Interfaces

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Oculus Will Purchase Pebbles Interfaces

Oculus will purchase Pebbles Interfaces in a deal that has been estimated to be worth about $60 million by the Wall Street Journal. Oculus said that Pebbles Interfaces has been developing sensor systems, algorithms and custom optics in order to track and detect hand movement for a long time now.

Nadav Grossinger the CTO at Pebbles Interfaces said that the company focused on forcing the limits of the technology of digital sensing in order to boost the future of computer-human interaction with the help of computer vision and micro-optics. He said that they hope to perfect the data that can be gathered from optical sensors. This will help virtual reality reach the next level. Grossinger added that the company always believed that visual computing will end up being the next major platform we get to see in our lifetime and the company is very thrilled to begin working alongside the team at Oculus in order to realize this vision of the future.

Pebbles Interfaces has recently added its technology inside the virtual-reality set created by Oculus, which lets users interact with the unit by using finger and hand gestures. The technology developed by Pebbles Interfaces allows users to see their own hands and arms while wearing the virtual reality headset.

Pebbles Interfaces is the latest extension in the portfolio from Oculus, along Carbon Design, the designer behind the Xbox 360 controller. The product engineering and industrial design team from Seattle was bought by Oculus for an unknown amount last year in June.

Oculus bought in July RakNet, a networking middleware system company and started to open source its C++ library. This was part of the deal made with the company. Oculus also welcomed the addition of the Nimble VR, 13th Lab, and a motion-capture band manned by only one person called Chris Bregler last December. This year in May, Oculus also bought Surreal Vision a team of three people who focus on real-time reconstruction of 3D scenes.

Facebook purchased Oculus itself last year in March for a sum of around $2 billion. At the moment of the acquisition, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook, said that even though mobile is today’s most favorite platform, the company is entirely ready for what new platforms tomorrow might bring.

Mark Zuckerberg said that Oculus has the opportunity to create the best and most social platform created and it is capable of changing the way people communicate, play and work.

Image Source: blogs-images.forbes.com

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