vrAse turns your smartphone into a VR headset (hands-on)
We’ll admit it, when we first laid eyes on vrAse — a smartphone case that gives your handset Oculus Rift-like functionality — we we’re a bit… curious? The ambitious/ingenious project was launched on Kickstarter at the end of last year, and while it didn’t get quite the huge sum that Oculus did, it captured enough imaginations to secure the money it needed. How does it work? An optimized app splits its output into two — side by side. You then slide the phone into the headset/case which has a lens feeding into each eye, creating a large, 3D image. The hardware we saw was just a prototype, but final designs should be ready by summer. We also got to try it on!
In effect, the vrAse is creative use of existing hardware (your phone) and existing software techniques, with some barebones hardware that brings the it all together (the case). The first benefit of this approach is the cost, the vrAse (think VR, case) will retail for around $100 once it fully launches later this year. Another benefit is that by offloading the heavy lifting to your phone, the brains of the operation is effectively endlessly upgradeable. Update your phone, you have a new engine in the machine. Other perks of this method mean you can also benefit from other features that come with a phone such as the camera or microphone.
In our quick demo with the vrAse, we we shown a demo that sits you in a roller coaster. The phone being used was a Galaxy Note, so one with a larger screen, but we were surprised by how immersive the experience was. As we rode around the virtual landscape, we genuinely felt the urge to lean left and right along with it — and the anticipation of a loop the loop was very real! Another demo we were shown used the phone’s camera — so that we could actually see the real world — but the software placed virtual furniture in the room that we could walk around and even change the color of with a voice command to the phone. Apps aren’t limited to working with the hardware either, games, for example, can have an optional 2D mode for when you just want to play on the phone directly.
The experience is perhaps not as fully immersive/slick feeling as the Oculus Rift due to the inherent compromises that come with an open hardware platform, and decentralized software (it’s, of course, open to iOS, Android, Windows Phone and beyond). This should improve, however, once the final hardware is comes to market, and the goal posts become a little more fixed. We were shown how the retail unit will look, but were unable to take photos. As you can imagine, it’s somewhat more attractive than the prototype we saw, and very much in keeping with similar headsets we’ve seen of late.
Walmart’s used games for gift cards trade-in program opens March 26th (video)
After many rumors and even a brief trial program, Walmart is finally following Best Buy, Amazon and, of course, GameStop in taking trade-ins of used games. It will start accepting your old games on March 26th, in exchange for store credit usable at Walmart and Sam’s Club, whether in-store or online. Once it has the games they’ll be refurbished and then this summer, go on sale for “a great low price.” It’s all very familiar if you’ve ever traded a game in before, but Walmart says it will “pay more for used games, sell new and used games for less, and give our customers the flexibility to spend their money how they want.” Your move, GameStop.
Source: Walmart, Walmart Blog
Xbox leader Marc Whitten is leaving Microsoft for Sonos
Microsoft’s launch of the Xbox One has had a rocky start — DRM 180 anyone? — and now Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten is leaving the company. Whitten will become the Chief Product Officer at wireless speaker company Sonos, continuing an executive reshuffling that started with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and also saw former Xbox leader Don Mattrick leave last July. In a note to the fans, he reflected on fourteen years as part of the Xbox team, proclaiming “utmost confidence” in the group and its products — similar to what he told us at CES in January. Microsoft says the rest of the executive team (including Yusuf Mehdi and former Sony exec Phil Harrison) will remain intact and, for now, report to software platform EVP Terry Myerson, who oversees Windows Phone, Windows and Xbox. The news is an unexpected start to this week’s Game Developer’s Conference where we’re expecting to hear about Microsoft’s Xbox One plans for indie game developers and DirectX 12 news — if any execs get a Titan dropped on them we’ll let you know.
Will always love @xbox. Thank you for the well wishes everyone. Very stoked to join the great @sonos team as well. Many emotions today!
– Marc Whitten (@notwen) March 17, 2014
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox Wire (1), (2), Marc Whitten (Twitter)
Google helps devs create cross-platform Android and iOS multiplayer games
The annual Game Developers Conference descends on San Francisco this week, and Google’s wasting no time in sharing its news. For gamers, Mountain View’s said it’ll be launching a “game gifts” service for sending in-game swag to other players, and increasing the number of game categories in the Play store to 18 in the hope you’ll stumble upon titles you might like easier. More important, however, is what devs can do with the new features of Google Play game services, a backend tool for managing leaderboards, achievements and more in Android, iOS or web games. Multiplayer support has been added for iOS games, and via an update to the Unity plug-in, cross-platform multiplayer between Android and iOS devices is now possible. These features have to be implemented by developers, of course, but next time you see that friend who’s always arguing the merits of one mobile OS over another, you might just be able to settle the discussion in-game instead.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google
Twitch kicks off its mobile streaming service with Gameloft
Prior to its recent Xbox One launch, Twitch accounted for 1.8 percent of peak US internet traffic — and it doesn’t even do mobile streaming. That’s about to change, however, as Gameloft’s ultra-popular Asphalt 8: Airborne stunt and racing game is set to arrive on iOS with Twitch functionality. On top of broadcasting, sharing and archiving game play, you’ll be able to use your iOS device’s camera and microphone to stream video of yourself and monitor chat. To kick things off, Gameloft will host a 24-hour livestream today, replete with dev team interviews, giveaways and a walk-through of the options. The update arrives to the App Store soon, but you’ll need to implement Twitch service on a game-to-game basis. The new functionality is optimized for the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina.
Filed under: Gaming
Titanfall graphics test highlights glitches on Xbox One (video)
If there was ever a game that could cope with a few graphical imperfections, it’d be a frenetic multiplayer shooter like Titanfall. But flaws do visibly exist on the Xbox One version of that game, and Eurogamer has highlighted them in a side-by-side video with the PC version. You can see the impact of the console’s lower resolution (1408 x 792) and weaker anti-aliasing, versus the 1080p experience offered by a mid-range Windows gaming rig (with a six-core AMD FX CPU and a NVIDIA GTX 760 graphics card). More noticeable than any of that, however, is the issue of screen tearing: Horizontal slashes that happen when the game drops below the holy grail of 60 frames per second that its creators intended. Like Eurogamer, we really don’t think this does significant damage to Titanfall‘s overall experience — we’re still glued to it — but this is one more notable instance of a mismatch between what developers wanted to achieve in a next-gen title, and what Microsoft’s console was able to deliver.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Source: Eurogamer
Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference
With Google highlighting that 3 out of 4 Android users now use their device for gaming, increased focus has been put on improving the experience for those users. Google has also said that the momentum of their Google Play Games service is continuing to grow, with approximately 4 times the amount of revenue paid to developers in 2013 when compared to 2012.
As part of this move to improve the Google Play Games experience is the launch of new features for the service during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which is taking place this week.
The first change focuses around gamer engagement and discovery with the introduction of game gifts. This is a new service that lets players send virtual in-game objects to anyone in their circles or through player search. The Play Games app has also been updated to allow multiplayer invites to be directly sent, allowing your friends to discover and join your activity. This will be facilitated by the introduction of 18 new game categories to make it easier to find games that consumers want.
Perhaps one of the biggest introductions is the enhancement of the Play Games Unity Plug-in to support cross-platform mutliplayer services, meaning you can be on Android and participate in a multiplayer game against someone on iOS.
Futher improvements see enhancements brought to Play Games statistics on the Google Play Developer Console to provide analytics for developers and their games in the Google Play Store. This will include a dashboard to visualise player and engagement statistics for active users, retention analysis, and achievement performance.
Hopefully these enhancements to the Google Play Games services will entice developers to invest in the Android environment and see some great games brought to the platform. The end-user should also benefit from these changes by being able to engage with the community better, and also participate in cross-platform mutliplayer events.
Let us know your thoughts about these changes in the comments below.
The post Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google Play Games to bring cross-platform multiplayer to Android and iOS at GDC 2014?
Games are one area that Google and Android in general have paid very little attention to in general, though they have taken steps to remedy this recently with the changes they brought in with Google Play Services 4.1 earlier this year (read more about what this changed here). Well, it looks like Google may be bringing in a few more gaming-centric changes in the near future as a blog post recently went up detailing changes to Google Play Games which look to change the face of mobile gaming as we know it and could be announced at GDC 2014 this week.
That blog post was quickly taken down, however we have the benefit of a cached copy to divulge Google’s incoming changes to Google Play Games. The biggest of the changes appears to be the ability to support Android and iOS cross-platform multiplayer, both for turn-based and real-time games. As you can imagine, this is pretty exciting news as bitter rivals like Android and iOS users can now be bitter rivals on the battlefield as well. Other changes detailed in the post include the addition of gifting to Play Games which will enable you to send virtual goods to people in your Google+ circles or standard player search. Google also says there will be changes to AdMob which should help developers make the most of Google’s advertising machines.
Whether these changes actually get announced at GDC 2014 or if the blog post was taken down for some other reason remains to be seen, but it looks like some big changes are due for Google Play Games in the near future. What’s the most exciting part of these changes in your opinion? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: Android Developers Blog via Phone Arena
Kinect and Unreal Engine 4 power Alzheimer’s and dementia care project (video)
Sure, virtual reality and browser-based games are impressive, but Unreal Engine 4′s latest use is a bit more noble: improving the lives of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. The Forest Project uses the game engine, smart TVs and Microsoft’s Kinect 2 tech in an attempt to create a temporary reprieve for those suffering from the cognitive diseases via an interactive, virtual woodland. There’s also a virtual dementia simulation that aims to help caregivers understand first-hand how their patients see the world, possibly improving care as a result. Should the dev team reach its crowdfunding goal, the arboreal environment could be just the beginning, with beach or Christmas-themed environments hinted as possible expansions.
Opaque Multimedia and Alzheimer’s Australia Vic need a fraction of what many modern game budgets command to bring The Forest Project to multiple platforms in early 2015 — $82,000 (AU$90,000). Other details are scarce, but seeing that the team is in San Francisco for this week’s Game Developer’s Conference, we may hear more as the show progresses.
Filed under: Gaming, Science, HD
Source: The Forest Project (Pozible)
Here’s a much clearer look at Valve’s new Steam Controller
You see that image above? That’s the new Steam Controller, headed to SteamOS. Sound familiar? That’s because this is the second iteration of the Steam Controller first unveiled last year. Astute readers might be thinking, “Haven’t I seen this somewhere before?” That’s also a strong possibility, as we got a first glimpse of it back at Steam Dev Days earlier this year (albeit via shaky cellphone camera). Today, however, Valve’s deigned us worthy to see it in high-res glory. Heck, the folks at Valve even juxtaposed the new one (on the left) against the original version of the controller (seen on the right). Sad about that missing touchpad? We are too, but perhaps those fancy new buttons will help make up for it, eh? Head below for a much larger version.
(Click to embiggen)
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals, Software, HD
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