VR is now a little bit more accessible as HTC recently cut the price of the HTC Vive by $200 following Oculus Rift’s price cut to $399 after testing the pricecut by running several promotions over the summer.

According to the press release, the HTC Vive will now be permanently priced at $599. With the exception of a PC, the $599 HTC Vive package will include everything you’ll need to get started including the HTC Vive headset, two wireless controllers, two base stations and other accessories. HTC will also include a free trial to Viveport, which allows customers to obtain VR content on a subscription model and will also include Google Tilt Brush, [...]

Ask anyone who’s played a game in VR and they’ll immediately tell you that one of the biggest issues with VR today is that the headset needs to be wired in. Not only does this create a potential safety hazard, but it also significantly detracts from the experience, especially if you end up pulling your brand new $3,000 gaming laptop off the table in the heat of battle.

In order to solve this issue, DisplayLink recently demo’ed their DisplayLink XR wireless VR system which will allow gamers to use their existing HTC Vive headset, Oculus Rift and other VR headsets wirelessly.

DisplayLink’s XR system is based on Intel’s WiGig [...]

Google as finalized the acquisition of Owlchemy Labs, the studio responsible for the beloved Job Simulator.

The move is undoubted to expand Google’s focus on VR. With the release of Android 7 Nougat, Google released Daydream VR for Android phones. It’s also actively participating in the development of VR content for other platforms such as the HTC Vive. With the acquisition, Google is looking to leverage the small but experienced team of developers at Owlchemy Labs to further improve VR content.

In the Owlchemy Labs’ blog post, the team stated that the acquisition does not mean the end of content development for other platforms.

The [...]

With development of games, productivity, shopping, social media, and other applications for VR growing by the day, there is no doubt that VR is on track to becoming the next big thing in tech. However, the biggest barrier to the “real VR”, aka VR on PC, is the pricetag of entry. In addition to the hefty price of a brand new VR headset from Oculus or HTC, you also need a PC that can handle VR which unfortunately is a huge turn-off for many looking to get into VR for the first time.

However, in a new announcement at GDC, Oculus looks to change at least the price of entry for their lineup of VR headsets and accessories as they’ve recently announced [...]

As expected, HTC did not have a second generation Vive headset to display at their CES 2017 press conference however, they did have quite a bit to talk about for both hardware and software for the HTC Vive. According to HTC, their overall 2017 is to build out the Vive ecosystem with both hardware and software to add additional capability to the headset as well as make VR content easier to access for all audiences.

On the hardware front, HTC announced two new accessories – the Vive Tracker and the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap.

 

Vive Tracker #gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: [...]

Microsoft has been in the VR/AR market for quite some time with their HoloLens, but with a pricetag starting at $3,000, it’s far too expensive for the general customer.

At Microsoft’s recent press event, Microsoft is trying to change that as they’ve recently announced that they’re working with a number of hardware partners including HP, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer to begin introducing a new line of VR headsets starting at just $299. This significantly undercuts popular VR headsets such as the HTC Vive which costs $800 and the Oculus Rift which costs $600.

The new VR headsets are a part of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Creator’s [...]

A couple weeks ago, Oculus announced a cheap $499 VR ready gaming PC in partnership with boutique PC builder CyberPowerPC and it looks like HTC is ready to fire back with a VR PC partnership of its own.

According to a recent announcement, HTC is partnering up with HP to announce a VR gaming bundle which includes the HTC Vive headset along with the HP Envy 750-415VHR PC for $1,499. Specs on the HP Envy 750-415VHR include an Intel Core i5-6400 Quad Core CPU, 8GB DDR4 memory, Radeon RX480 graphics card, and 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD. The bundle will also include two VR games which include theBlu: Encounter and The Lab.

The new HTC Vive Ready HP Computer Bundle is [...]

$2,000 Gaming Build for VR and 4K Gaming

Lately, we’ve had quite a few readers ask about 4K and VR gaming builds and honestly we’re not that surprised. With PC hardware powerful enough to support VR coming down in price, VR headsets now readily available for purchase, and more importantly a ton of awesome awesome VR games available and on the way, VR gaming has seen quite a bit of growth this year and it’s projected to grow exponentially in the next few years as well. Similarly, 4K gaming has seen some massive growth as well especially as prices on 4K monitors have gone down quite a bit in price over the past year with a number of monitors such as [...]

When it comes to smartphones, Sony’s offerings aren’t exactly all that great, but Sony’s imaging products on the other hand are among the best in the business.

According to President of Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp Yasuhiro Ueda, Sony is ramping up production of their CMOS image sensors to meet increased demand from smartphones. In order to meet demand, Sony will increase monthly production of CMOS image sensors from 70,000 to 73,000 wafers, the maximum combined production capability of their 5 image sensor manufacturing plants. This includes sensor shipments from their Kumamoto factory which was damaged during the earthquakes earlier [...]

Today at Oculus Connect, the company’s CEO, Brendan Iribe announced a new, much lower minimum requirement for running VR games using the Oculus Rift. This advancement is thanks to a technology called Asynchronous Spacewarp or ASW. This feature effectively allows a system to deliver a stable 45 frames per second, and then doubles it and fills in the gaps in order to hit the 90Hz target for a smooth VR experience. This is a very similar technique to the “Interleaved Reprojection” technology which is employed by the HTC Vive.

Oculus Rift New Minimum Specifications Nvidia 960 or greater (down from Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater) Intel [...]