Interesting articles about VR – week #52

THE DARK SIDE OF VR

WHY DO I look like Justin Timberlake?” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on stage wearing a virtual reality headset, feigning surprise at an expressive cartoon simulacrum that seemed to perfectly follow his every gesture.

Fove cofounder talking about VR in 2017

Lochlainn Wilson, CTO and cofounder of Fove has spoken about Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) during the interview to VRstatus. He hardly believes that from a hardware perspectives the upcoming 2017 won’t be a year of major new HDMs.

VR and AR dev spaces are starting to pop up everywhere

We’ve seen a steady stream of physical spaces devoted to VR and AR popping up recently — hubs where VR and AR developers can share resources, experiment, and network.

UNITY BOSS: VR WILL BE MAINSTREAM BY 2020

2016 was the year when a new wave of virtual reality peripherals launched. Despite this, the costs have been high, with few games being made, and the sales haven’t really stunned anyone. The technology just isn’t there yet, in many people’s opinions.

The Best VR Headset for Your Phone So Far

Smartphone VR headsets are a great way to try virtual reality without spending a fortune. They’re the only midrange options between cheap cardboard and expensive, complicated desktop VR devices. In our testing, Google Daydream View narrowly beat out Samsung Gear VR as the best mobile virtual reality headset. It’s comfier to wear and comes with a hand-tracking controller that makes gameplay easier and more immersive. However, the competition is so close, and the tech so new, that you can’t go wrong picking whichever headset works with your phone. (Our main picks only support a handful of Android phones each; iPhone users don’t have good VR options yet.) If you don’t have a phone that works with either, VR isn’t enough reason to buy one, but it could be a factor next time you buy a phone.

Virtual Reality Can Leave You With an Existential Hangover

When Tobias van Schneider slips on a virtual reality headset to play Google’s Tilt Brush, he becomes a god. His fingertips become a fiery paintbrush in the sky. A flick of the wrist rotates the clouds. He can jump effortlessly from one world that he created to another.

Second Life’s creator is building a ‘WordPress for social VR’

None of this is real. The rocks, the stars, the enormous transmitter standing upright like a needle. It’s all a mixture of pixels presented by the Oculus Rift. As I stand on Mars, I urge my senses to surrender to the illusion. I long to be Matt Damon, growing potatoes in a makeshift greenhouse. In reality, I’m standing in a “scene” created by Linden Lab for Sansar, a new virtual-reality platform. A few feet to my left is chief executive Ebbe Altberg, standing in a dinosaur outfit. His avatar waves goofily, breaking my dream within a dream. I can’t help but sigh, accepting once more that I’m just a virtual sightseer.