Interesting articles about VR – week #22

Oculus’ Exclusive Superhot VR comes to HTC Vive

Oculus has announced that one of its best VR games called SuperhotVR is now applicable for HTC Vive users. The game has been officially released on Oculus Store in fall of 2016, and now the company brings it to the Steam Store.

---

Table of Contents – Best Virtual Reality Headsets

Have you ever found yourself baffled when searching among the top virtual reality headsets? Here is a buyer’s guide that will make things easier for you and help you find the right VR 3D headset for yourself.

---

Touching the Future: The Importance of the Physical Realm in Virtual Reality

One of the more iconic images to come out of Tribeca Immersive was a shot of two women, one wearing a headset, embracing as part of an experience called “Draw Me Close.” The experience was one of several at the festival that involved using touch and smell to augment what was happening inside the headset, and is likely a harbinger of a broader trend for VR — the idea that we need to incorporate all of our senses in order to have a truly immersive experience.

---

NFL Audibles to Augmented Reality for Fan Experience

Beginning in November, National Football League (NFL) fans visiting New York’s Times Square can come as close as any civilian can to stepping onto a professional football field. All for less than the price of a pair of cleats.

---

Sociospatial Narrative

I wonder if one barrier to realizing virtual reality’s storytelling potential is that we don’t all agree on what “story” even means.  
When you ask a typical person what a story is, he or she is apt to say something along the lines that a story has a beginning, middle, and end, or that it involves a hero and antagonist. These can certainly be attributes of a story, but I’m more inclined to probe this question by meditating on what a story actually does.

---

What is Facebook Spaces?

Facebook has announced its new Virtual Reality experience – Facebook Spaces. We take a look at how it works and what advantages does it offer over the traditional social media experience.

---

Seattle designers seek $50K on Kickstarter to build Spektra, an interactive VR experience room

Promising a “fun, mind-bending experience with friends that doesn’t involve legal marijuana,” a new Seattle-based Kickstarter project called Spektra is looking for funding so that it can build out a virtual reality experience room.

---

The New 1.15 Oculus Rift Update Provides Further Support for Roomscale

Oculus has been on top of its duties in releasing regular updates for their Rift platform. The company has been making sure that they can deliver new functions that community members are wanting out of the VR headset. The latest update 1.15 comes with many new bells and whistles including performance upgrades for roomscale support.

---

How Google’s Latest VR Moves Are a Major Blow to Oculus’ Mobile Strategy

Last week at Google’s I/O 2017 developer conference the company made a number of new announcements which are very exciting for VR consumers. Within the industry though, the announcements represent somewhat of a repositioning of industry players, one that puts Oculus’ mobile strategy in a rough spot.

---

How I fought for my virtual life and saw esports’ future at the first national VR gaming tournament

My hands are shaking. But I know that these kinds of events are driven by sugar and adrenaline, so I ignore my nervous muscle twitches and stuff a couple more Oreos into my mouth, one package of many on a table laden with pizza, sugary drinks, and various packaged sweets. Familiar foods to fuel the gods of esports. 

---