Virtual & Augmented Reality news

Due out in just two weeks, Red Matter 2 is promising to up the ante over its already well regarded predecessor, this time being built from the ground up to look as good as possible on Quest 2. We got to sample the game to see how it’s shaping up ahead of release.Developer Vertical Robot has boldly claimed that Red Matter 2 will be the best looking (realistically styled) game on Quest 2, and as we’ve played so far they appear to be well on track to make that a reality. 

The prestigious VR ceremony returns with a live in-person event in Rotterdam, Netherlands.For the past six years, the Academy of International Extended Reality (AIXR) has been recognizing incredible ground-breaking milestones in the VR industry with its annual VR Awards. Past winners have included hardware such as the Meta Quest 2 headset, social media influencers like Thrillseeker, and VR experiences including ILMxLAB’s Secrets of the Empire and Wolves in the Walls from Fable Studio.

Using Presence Platform’s upgraded Hand Tracking API, we introduced Hand Tracking with our most recent update to Myst on the Meta Quest Platform, titled ‘Hands & More’. We’re super excited to finally let folks play Myst on Quest without physical controllers! In this post, we’ll discuss the evolution and iteration of implementing hand tracking in Myst—and in particular, adding more support for it in Unreal Engine 4.27.2.Guest Article by Hannah Gamiel
Hannah

Meta this week released a new demo app called First Hand to showcase the kind of experiences that developers can build with the company’s controllerless hand-tracking tools.Controllerless hand-tracking has been available on Quest for years at this point, and while it’s a more accessible input modality than using controllers, controllers are still the main form of input for the vast majority of games and apps on the headset.
Meta has been increasingly pushing for developers to em

Social party game Among Us rose to viral success in the midst of the pandemic. Calls to bring the game’s ‘imposter-hunting’ gameplay to VR were immediate, and unofficial VR versions of the game sprang up in no time. Now the full blown Among Us VR remake is on the verge of release, and you could get in on the action.Update (August 5th, 2022): Among Us beta signups are now available, promising VR users that playtesting the game will begin “within a few days.&rdquo

Quest’s v43 software update has already rolled out on the Public Test Channel, however now it seems Meta is getting ready to unlock a number of long overdue video capture options, like the ability to record in 16:9 aspect ratio. Additionally, it appears some settings specific to the company’s upcoming headset Project Cambria have cropped up as well.Reddit user ‘deliciouspotato2’ spotted a few menus that Meta may not have intended to release just yet. The settings seen bel

Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion. The home robotics firm, best known for pioneering the robotic vacuum, was founded in 1990 by MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab members Colin Angle, Rodney Brooks and Helen Greiner. Twelve years after its founding, the company introduced the Roomba, a brand that has since become synonymous with the category, selling more than 30 million units as of 2020.
Brooks and Greiner have gone on to found and le

When it comes to geospatial and mapping data and how they are leveraged by organizations, satellites continue to play a critical role when it comes to sourcing raw information. Getting that raw data into a state that can be usable by enterprises, however, is a different story. Today, a Berlin-based startup called LiveEO, which has built a satellite analytics platform to do just that, has raised €19 million ($19.5 million) on the back of strong demand for its tech from companies working