Virtual Reality

Google first announced that a YouTube app was “on the road map” shortly after Vision Pro’s February 2024 launch, although it never gave a specific release window, leaving users searching for alternatives beyond simply opening YouTube in Safari, which notably didn’t include native support for spatial video.

The official YouTube app, which is now available on the App Store, now gives Vision Pro users access to every YouTube video and Short, which includes access to all of the regular YouTube features, such as subscriptions, playlists, and watch history.

Triangle Factory announced that its Battlefield-inspired VR shooter Forefront is finally coming to PSVR 2.

There’s no release date yet beyond the studio’s initial announcement, however Triangle Factory has confirmed that when it does, the 32-player shooter will “support cross play with other VR platforms.”

Currently, Forefront is available in early access across all other major VR headsets, including Quest, SteamVR, and Pico headsets. And it’s done very well for itself in the last three months since it launched into early access.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/58929215

ThrillSeeker covers Fluxpose and how it works for full body tracking using magnetic tracking.

He discusses the history of magnetic tracking and the pros/cons of the tech.

He found that 3 trackers didn't do too well, 5 trackers were okay, and 8 trackers were great.

The head tracker has to be in a very specific spot, otherwise tracking will suffer.

It uses some EMF filters to try to minimize interference with metallic objects and does okay with it, even better if you have more trackers.

Tracking is comparable to a base station.

He recommends that you don't buy the Vive Ultimate Trackers (you'll be dealing with problems unless you own a very modern Vive Headset).

Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) added experimental PC VR support to Star Citizen late last year, taking a first step in fulfilling a more than decade-old promise. Things are getting increasingly serious though after the release of its second post-VR update.

Update Alpha 4.5 initially brought a VR theater and full VR mode to the game in December, which lets users play the bulk of the game in PC VR headsets for the first time, including walking, flying, EVA, combat, and using menus.

Granted, it’s still a (very) experimental mode, which initially required some users to even add VR config lines to the game’s directory to get it working, done in addition to keeping track of keybinds to cycle through VR modes on the fly.

Now the studio has released Star Citizen 4.6, adding for the first time an official VR option in the settings menu, making managing and enabling VR mode at startup a much easier affair.

So far I've just been checking out free games to get a feel for the system, but it looks like I have a 3 month pass for Horizon+ ready to activate, so I can try some other stuff once I have an idea what to start with.

I've been having some fun with Ironstrike and War of Wizards so far. I like the concept of the virtual CCG in Cards & Tankards, though it does seem like it's going to try and bleed money like most "free" card battlers.

Cortopia Studios and Beyond Frames Entertainment announced that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is coming to Quest 3, SteamVR and Pico headsets this Spring.

There’s no specific launch date yet beyond the spring release window, although the studios announced that players hoping to get an early hands-on will be able to get their first taste with a free, single-player PC VR demo later this month.

As a part of Steam Next Fest, the demo will feature the first 15 minutes of gameplay, letting you come to grips with each playable Turtle. The limited-limited demo will be available from February 23rd to March 2nd.

Breezy can now turn a 3DOF (degree of freedom) device into a 6DOF device by augmenting the missing positional data from a webcam. Spoiler! It is not the cam strapped to my face – this is just for the demo you can watch on my blog, on PeerTube or YouTube.

The cam, that I used for this task, is sitting on my monitor. How this works? Well not with magic! This requires a somewhat decent webcam – really anything from the last decade should suffice – and OpenTrack, of course.

OpenTrack is a head-tracking application with multiple tracker plugins. One of it’s plugins is the Neuralnet Tracker, an AI powered extension that comes with a bunch of different head pose models to choose from. With a webcam connected this can now locally run the detection model with very low latency – so it’s usually blazing fast on most systems!

This alone is already 6DOF and is used a lot for gaming already – so what does Breezy do with this? Simple! It reads the forwarded data via an UDP listener, a very quick way to transmit data on a local network or system [and complements it’s own rotational data with the missing positional data].

With this a Breezy user still gets the rotational data from the XR’s very sensitive IMU, that is short for Inertial Measurement Unit btw, and the not so important positional data sent from OpenTrack.

This works of course only while the webcam can still see the user. So sadly no walking around while using this.

And the best thing? It can also send the data back! This means that the very same combined values can be forwarded – e.g. to a computer game – benefiting from the best available data sources for rotation and position.

That’s not the main use case, of course, and only of importance for some nerds like myself. This is mostly relevant for the productivity features of Breezy, because sometimes a text may be too small to read with the glasses on. We do no longer have to increase the font size – we can now simply lean in! That is a feature that is usually only available with glasses, that come with little cameras of their own, so they can have native 6DOF support. And when I say native I mean that such glasses usually also outsource exactly this calculation to the connected computer. It’s my understanding that this seems to require a lot of computation power, which is something many XR users with the more modern devices complain about.

Well not so much with OpenTrack and the Neuralnet tracker, that utilizes the ONNX runtime under the hood. That’s a high-performance, cross-platform engine to power exactly such models locally. The runtime automatically makes use of the best available hardware acceleration, if there is any.

Overall I’m rather hyped about this feature – especially because I’m using the OpenTrack output option of Breezy for quite some time now, to get a VR like experience with stereoscopic 3D rendering in Side-By-Side mode. I can now keep using my older XR glasses and still enjoy this more modern 6DOF feature. This is rather expensive hardware after all.

And all that on Linux PC!

Breezy xr_driver: https://github.com/wheaney/breezy-desktop by https://www.youtube.com/@WayneHeaney

Official Announcement XR desktop with 6DoF + multiple displays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFLmjpjF-rA

One of the things that has not evolved much in these 10 years of consumer VR is the Field Of View. Some companies are working hard to solve this problem, and one of my favorites is for sure Hypervision, a startup with a deep expertise on the topic that has been able to produce optical systems for VR headsets with a very wide FOV. If the just-announced Lynx R2 has the widest FOV among all standalone MR headsets, it is because it uses lenses designed by Hypervision. At United XR Europe, I was able to try the latest optical systems by Hypervision, including a crazy one with more than 200° of horizontal FOV!

When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.

Meta has already started rolling out Quest’s v85 update on the public test channel (PTC), making it the first major update since the company revealed it was shaking up Reality Labs in a bid to shift focus to AI and smart glasses.

According to the v85 patch notes, the update is set to retire ‘Horizon Feed’, which released with v57 in late 2023, bringing a mishmash of user-created Worlds, apps, games, and Reels.

The update is also set to make Navigator the default UI, which overhauls the platform’s dock-based UI for a more mobile-style launcher overlay.

Now, Meta is rolling out ‘Surface Keyboard and Touchpad’ as an experimental feature on Quest 3, which allows users to input text and control a mouse by simply mapping them to a desk or table.

Another feature is the newly redesigned activity bar, which is said to allow for quicker and easier access to controls like recording, calls, and media.

Other updates include the ability to temporarily hide virtual hands via quick actions, customize the Quest 3S’ action button to trigger preferred system actions with short or long presses, and scan for malware.

Gaijin Entertainment knew exactly what it was doing when it came up with the name Aces of Thunder. Yes it very obviously references its own ubiquitous military mega-arena, but for flight sim fans of a certain vintage, there is a special reverence for what was later marketed as the Great Warplanes Series. These games, for those too young to have experienced them, were a DOS-era series that started with Red Baron and were quickly followed in the early 1990s by Aces of the Pacific and Aces Over Europe. My nostalgia goggles may be a little foggy, but I believe all three were exceptional. Of course, thirty years on, Aces of Thunder can never claim to be part of that great lineage, but just as Red Baron was arguably the greatest WWI flight sim of its day and its sequels were the twin masters of the WWII skies, I’m happy to report that Aces of Thunder continues in that same ancient tradition of being among the very best at what it sets out to do.

The modern era of VR started a long time ago, and a wide range of commercial headsets have proliferated on the market since then. If you don’t want to buy off the shelf, though, you could always follow [Manolo]’s example and build your own.

This DIY headset is known as the Persephone 3 Lite, and is intended for use with SteamVR. It’s got the requisite motion tracking thanks to a Raspberry Pi Pico, paired with an MPU6500 inertial measurement unit. As for the optics, the headset relies on a pair of 2.9-inch square displays that operate at a resolution of 1440 x 1440 with a refresh rate up to 90 Hz. They’re paired with cheap Fresnel lenses sourced from Aliexpress for a few dollars. Everything is wrapped up in a custom 3D-printed housing that holds all the relevant pieces in the right place so that your eyes can focus on both screens at once. The head strap is perhaps the only off-the-shelf piece, sourced from a Quest 2 device.

While mainstream virtual reality (VR) is currently perceived as a tool for video games and entertainment purposes, developers and construction experts are finding practical applications for the technology in their field. Implementing virtual reality in construction has opened several avenues for improving design, pitching projects and enhancing training and safety. These aren’t “distant future” ideas; companies are successfully implementing these technologies today.

VR in construction has evolved beyond initial design and project visualization to incorporate advancements powered by artificial intelligence (AI). These innovations are making VR tools smarter and more intuitive, enabling real-time adjustments and predictive analytics during design and training processes.

The construction industry is undergoing a technological revolution, leveraging advancements in virtual reality, AI and smart tools to optimize every aspect of the building process. From streamlining design and improving safety measures to managing labor costs and enhancing customer experiences, these innovations are transforming challenges into opportunities.

As these tools become more accessible and integrated, construction promises to be safer, faster and more precise, setting new benchmarks for creativity, efficiency and sustainability in the industry.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces launched the largest amphibious assault in history, turning the tide on the beaches of Normandy, eventually winning the Second World War against the Axis powers. This defining moment came to be known as D-Day. Countless accounts of it have been recorded since, making it a key point in history where democracy prevailed. In the process, it has spawned books, movies, and now, a vivid virtual reality exhibition called D-Day VR Museum. Where this experience succeeds is in using every possible medium that a headset allows: from a traditional exhibit all the way to walking through recreated iconic locations and making the player relive the paratroopers' airborne landings.

The Facts

What is it?: An interactive VR museum about the D-Day invasion. Platforms: Steam Release Date: Out now Developer: Lichtblau IT Publisher: Diverently GmbH Price: $14.99

Based on recent layoffs many had been wondering if this was the beginning of the end for Meta’s VR plans, but the company has reaffirmed that it’s still working on new tech in the space – including new hardware and a possible AI integration that’s truly sci-fi.

Speaking to investors following its latest quarterly earnings report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t talk too much about VR, perhaps unsurprisingly, instead focusing on smart glasses for which sales have “more than tripled” in the last year.

Initially not a great sign for VR’s future. However, Meta CFO Suan Li turned our hopes around when responding to a question from Deutsche Bank’s Benjamin Black on Reality Labs.

She said, “We continue to have optimism in the future of VR,” adding, “We are investing continually – going forward, rather, in building future headsets.” She said this before putting a slight damper on our VR hopes by explaining what we already knew, that “consumer adoption of VR has generally been on a slower growth path than wearables, and we are rebalancing our Reality Labs portfolio to reflect this. “

No more detail than that was revealed about these “future headsets”, but leaks have pointed to two possible devices that will land in 2026 and/or 2027.

One would be a ‘Quest 4’ that’s a large but more typical upgrade on its predecessor, and again come with a higher end and slightly lower end model like we saw with the Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

On one hand, it’d be easy to look at the goings-on (Meta’s layoffs, their almost complete lack of mentioning VR at Meta Connect 2025, and the probable lack of new Quest hardware this year) and proclaim, “VR is cooked.” We’ve implied as much, and there’s validity to that grim statement, to be sure. But there’s a counterpoint to that forecast, too, and it’s that maybe (just maybe) VR doesn’t even need Meta to begin with. Case in point: all of the great VR hardware as of late.

Take the Lynx R2 VR headset, which was officially revealed just this week. While the Lynx says the R2 won’t be available to order until this summer, there’s a lot to entice anyone interested in VR. The headset crushes the Quest 3‘s field of view (FOV), for one, offering a 126-degree FOV compared to the Quest 3’s 110-degree FOV. It also does something that Meta would never; it’s making its headset open-source. Lynx says it’s releasing schematics for the R2, which should help anyone who wants to mod the device do so more easily than Meta’s Quest. It’s early days, and there’s no price or official release date yet, but the hardware is promising—and Lynx isn’t the only one.

The thing is, there’s a chance that VR was never really meant to be such a massive category. As great as the experience can be, these aren’t devices that most people want to use all the time, and any company pitching one that way (looking at you, Apple Vision Pro) hasn’t really gained much traction. What if—and hear me out—VR wasn’t meant to go mainstream? Maybe it’s just a niche thing, and that’s okay?

Survival horror is a genre that excels in virtual reality. The atmosphere and desperation translate to the headset as players venture into the dark and immerse themselves in creepy and dangerous environments.

“Dread Meridian” is the latest entry to the medium. It launches today on Meta Quest and Steam devices. Published by Level Infinite and developed by Kukrgame, it puts players in the shoes of Daniela, a researcher who travels to a remote island during a 1930 arctic expedition in search of her missing twin sister, Isabella.

Luke Ross, the prolific VR modder, was recently involved in a DMCA takedown issued by CD Projekt for his paywalled Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod, which the studio claims breaks its terms of service. Now, Ross has removed access to all of his various VR mods in response.

Patreon immediately removed Ross’ Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod following the DMCA takedown earlier this week, seemingly running afoul of the game’s ‘Fan Guidelines’, which state that content created by the community should have “[n]o commercial usage.”

Like many of Ross’ VR mods, Cyberpunk 2077 was only available to active Patreon subscribers who pay $10 per month to not only support Ross’ ongoing work with his R.E.A.L. VR mod suite, but also to gain access to a number of VR mods for popular flatscreen games, including Elden Ring, Far Cry, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Ghostrunner.

In the wake of the Cyberpunk 2077 controversy, Ross has effectively pulled all VR mods from his Patreon, the reasons of which he details to his Patreon supporters (via Reddit) in a message titled “Under attack”.

Lynx has unveiled the Lynx-R2, a significant upgrade over its original R1 mixed reality standalone which aims to capture the enterprise and prosumers market.

he France-based startup considers R2 is a significant step forward, featuring new aspheric pancake lenses from Hypervision which are said to deliver 126° horizontal field-of-view (FOV)—notably larger than R1’s 90°, or Quest 3’s 110° horizontal FOV.

Paired with dual 2.3K LCD displays delivering more than 24 pixels per degree (PPD) at the center, R2 is said to deliver “crisp text and image rendering for industrial and medical use cases.”

While the new standalone headset features the same flip-up design as its predecessor, R2 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, offering substantial gains in GPU and AI performance over R1, which was introduced in 2021 with the older Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1.

Other features including 6DOF head tracking, hand-tracking, controller and ring tracking, plus a full-color four-sensor Sony camera array that also includes depth sensing for advanced computer vision.

There’s no official launch date yet. Lynx says R2 will be available for order “starting this summer” via the official Lynx portal as well as authorized enterprise resellers.

i have a quest 2, and its terrible after many years of use, its controllers have so so so many problems and my game keeps crashing mid vrchat freaky sesh with the fuzz (furry huzz)

so should i get a quest 3? my birthday is on march the 6th which is rather soon so i could get it then but at the same the quest 4 might get announced and released this year in October or november so should i just wait it out or nah

when the steam frame was revealed i was so hyped! coming from a quest 2 i thought that i will finally be able to get a vr headset that can compete with pc vr but standalone! maybe il stop being kicked out of vrchat lobbies for being on the cheaper and more affordable platform compared to a pcvr settup that could cost potentially thousands!

but no, its just a -very good- wireless headset that can play things standalone but not very well. i heard that it cant even play the flat screen game Hollow night silk song well. also due to ram shortages it could cost over 800£ compared to the 500 i thought it was going to be.

I made a deal with my mum that i will not get anything for christmas, and she will get me the steam frame for my birthday on march 6 :D. im probably going to get a quest 3 like i was originally going to get for Christmas. maybe il get metro awakening and bonelab with it aswell (instead of sailing the 7 seas lol)

Starting a couple of days ago, my Rift S decided to black screen with a desktop notification "Hardware Notifcation - Meta Quest Link isn't working"

Audio worked, and the device showed green dots in the Meta app for the headset and controllers, but on putting it on the display would not light up and the notification popup was received.

I tried:

• fully uninstalling and re-installing quest apps
• upgrading graphics drivers
• unplugging all other USB devices
• trying all sorts of combinations of USB ports and Display ports

I had given up thinking it was broken but..

Today I found the linked article TLDR: https://piunikaweb.com/2026/01/19/meta-quest-link-isnt-working-correctly-error/

Adding a firewall rule to block OculusDash.exe from connecting outbound fixes this issue.

Hope this is some help to others who may be having the same issue.

edit: missed link