Atek Grid, formerly owned by the company behind the CloudServe OpenSim hosting company, has been bought by the Tampa-based Florida Web Council, Inc. CloudServe will continue to run the back-end technology for the grid and manage the hosting. Atek Grid is large in land area — the equivalent of 4,447Read More →
Press release: The Dark Ride Project — Saving classic haunted attractions using Virtual Reality Since the 1970s, hundreds of ghost trains and haunted house rides have closed across the USA and they are now an endangered species. The Dark Ride Project captures the last of the world’s dark rides using virtual reality, sharing theirRead More →
Update: Genesis Grid has since been rebranded as Genesis Metaverse. The Genesis Grid, formerly hosted by Avi-Labs, has left that hosting company in the wake of recent problems and launched its own OpenSim hosting service. It will be hosting its own grid, as well as that of another former Avi-Labs customer,Read More →
China’s Alibaba online retail giant told China Daily that it is developing virtual-reality-enabled mobile payment technology, which could allow users to pay bills in a 3-D virtual world by nodding their heads or making other gestures to log in payment accounts. Read the full story here. The company. which is known as China’s Amazon,Read More →
MetaWorld, a multi-user virtual world, will add virtual reality creation tools and allow exporting of objects and launch a marketplace. The MetaWorld Pioneer Edition is currently in pre-alpha and users can pre-order it for $9.99 for early pioneer access. It will be released later this year with support for the Samsung Gear VR. Later on,Read More →
Avi-Labs, the hosting company behind the AviWorlds grid, has been hacked, according to Josh Boam, the company’s technology manager, but grid data should be recoverable. “Everything is saved,” he said. According to Boam, company founder and owner Alex Pomposelli has been out of touch for the past few days. “IRead More →
OSgrid celebrated its ninth birthday this weekend, but the events did not go smoothly on OpenSim’s largest and oldest grid. OSgrid has had some technical issues over the past few days, grid president Dan Banner told Hypergrid Business, starting with login in problems on Friday. Users were still able toRead More →
Tangle Grid is hosting the Steam Expo starting from August 1 to September 25 where creators can showcase their items and visitors can see items being displayed. In addition to the exposition for creation, the grid hosts live DJing every Friday at the exposition from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Read More →
As the virtual and augmented reality space heats up, so does the number of conferences. Check out the latest technologies and network with industry leaders at these coming events. Below are a number of events organized in the virtual and augmented reality industry this year, which will take place inRead More →
New York-based Become Inc., launched a crowdfunding campaign last week for Veeso, which promises to be the world’s first virtual reality headset with built-in cameras that track facial expressions. The $70 Cardboard-compatible headset will work with both iPhones and Androids, with delivery estimated by the end of this year. ItRead More →
Leap Motion CTO David Holz spent more than an hour and a half last Thursday night answering questions about virtual and augmented reality in front of an audience of more than 200 avatars in AltspaceVR‘s virtual environment. He said that we’re about to see transparent, sunglasses-style virtual and augmented headsetsRead More →
Press release: More than 50 percent of consumers likely to purchase from brands that sponsor virtual reality, according to Greenlight VR Greenlight VR’s latest consumer survey reveals positive feelings for VR among users and nonusers alike, suggesting a powerful opportunity for marketers and other content creators. SAN FRANCISCO — Greenlight VR’s latestRead More →
Canada’s Tek Gear Inc. is offering a free virtual reality headset to anyone who wants one — as long as they pick up the shipping charges. “We’ve been in the VR business for over 24 years, delivering high end immersive solutions to military, medical, industrial and research institutions worldwide,” said TonyRead More →
Several grids did not report numbers this month, resulting in a drop in active users of 3,209. Avination was down this month, as were Virtual Dream, My Virtual Community, and Cyberface. Some grids, such as Activity Ds stopped providing active user numbers. In addition, eight of the top ten most popular grids lost activeRead More →
Artificial intelligence could help make gesture recognition systems more effective, according to researchers at Purdue University. The system they created, Deep Hand, requires less processing power than other approaches, they said in a paper released this spring. It can allows users to perform a range of tasks such as picking items, driving virtualRead More →
The number of non-exportable items on the Kitely Market dropped this week, while exportable products continue to rise, according to statistics released today by Kitely. The difference between the two was the second highest in history. The first, in November of 2014, came after Kitely significantly improved market functionality andRead More →
Last week, Linden Lab said that it was no longer working on its Oculus Rift viewer for Second Life, dashing OpenSim user hopes that eventually their viewer would be open sourced and be a usable virtual reality access option for their grids. However, CtrlAltStudio’s David Rowe says that he is updatingRead More →
On Friday, Virtuix, the maker of the Omni virtual reality treadmill, announced a joint venture with Hero Entertainment, a billion-dollar Chinese game publisher and developer of Crisis Action, the most popular mobile first-person shooter game in China with more than 400 million players. Hero will convert Crisis Action to VR gameplayRead More →
More than 40 percent of people under 35 have a “keen interest” in virtual reality, according to a report released by GlobalWebIndex on Friday. Interest decreases by age, but even with people aged 55 to 64, 20 percent said they were interested in virtual reality, demonstrating the potential size of the market.Read More →
Two virtual reality arcades, Immersion Arcade and IVirtex opened in June in Illinois, offering players the chance to play games on the HTC Vive headsets. Immersion Arcade costs $10 for 15 minutes, and up to $60 for two hours, and currently offers 19 different game titles, from Zombie game to Job Simulator. InRead More →
UK-based eeGeo Ltd, an 3D mapping software company, has opened its platform to developers to help them create map-based virtual and augmented reality applications. “There’s a meaningful link between a true 3D environment and inducing presence,” eeGeo CEO Ian Hetherington told Hypergrid Business. “If you can induce presence, people will spendRead More →
OSgrid was down on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week when the grid was no longer able to access its asset services, but other grids probably don’t need to worry about the same thing happening to them. “It was an issue with the cluster and was not related to OpenSim,”Read More →
The$200 Insta360 Nano VR camera, which will be available for purchase on July 30, clips to your iPhone and uses two fish-eye lenses to take 360-degree photos or videos. You can see some videos that have been taken with the camera here. It works with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plusRead More →
Part of the reason the HTC Vive gets such great reviews — and costs so much — is that it does positional tracking. When you walk around wearing the headset, you walk around inside the virtual environment as well. Mobile-based headsets, on the other hand, require you to move usingRead More →
Two new virtual reality applications for medical patients can help them relax in waiting rooms and get information about their medical devices. Zocdoc, Inc., a site that helps patients find doctors, has placed headsets in a few of doctors’ offices in New York City so that they can watch relaxing 360-degreeRead More →
UK-based education company Macunx VR has passed its Kickstarter goal of $4,308 — or £3,000 — with two weeks of its campaign still to go. The company plans to build a virtual reality Unity-based platform that will allow users to create and share virtual memory palaces. A memory palace is essentially a mental library forRead More →
The third hypergrid Treasure Hunt officially began on Friday, with 14 grids participating. It will run through August 6, so there’s plenty of time for both hunters and grids to jump in. Prizes include $25 cash, Linden dollars, and Bluetooth MP3 speakers, Holland Woodenshoes key chain, and a HipHop Band T-shirt. For moreRead More →
Philip Rosedale’s virtual world startup High Fidelity has announced the launch of its Marketplace this week. Registered users can now upload new content again. The Marketplace has also been redesigned, with a new submission flow, hosting for all associated assets, and ability to like items, the company said. However, thereRead More →
Littlefield Grid, DigiWorldz and ZanGrid are holding big bashes to celebrate this year’s Fourth of July holiday, America’s Independence Day. Littlefield Grid party on Stonehaven Party Isle Littlefield Grid’s Fourth of July party started Thursday, with a beach barbeque, dancing, live music and DJ, food, swimming, rides, fireworks and free party favors.Read More →
Amsterdam-based paint company AkzoNobel has opened a virtual reality customer center in Slough, U.K., where retailers can experiment with different store layouts. “The center will enable us to help customers visualize and experiment with new design options,” said Matt Pullen, managing director of AkzoNobel UK and Ireland, in a statement. TheRead More →
Santa Clara-based EchelonVR has launched an Android application that works with Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR to help heavy equipment dealers to showcase immersive models of their products to customers before they make purchase decisions. The application, which is available as a free download for Android, is particularly useful for tradeRead More →
Pygmal Technologies launched a beta version of SPACE, a computer user environment that aims to replace monitor screens with virtual screens. The application, now available for download for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, is currently free, and Pygmal CEO Xiao Jia told Hypergrid Business that the price will remain low, in order to attractRead More →
Press release: Invrsion Presents Shelfzone, The Virtual Reality Solution For Large-Scale Retail Trade And Consumer Package Goods Italian company creates virtual reality solutions for B2B using HTC Vive technology Milan – inVRsion, the Italian start-up which develops virtual reality solutions for business, officially presents ShelfZone. This new solution, created usingRead More →
Press release: AppliedVR Brings Therapeutic Virtual Reality Content To Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles – AppliedVR, an industry leader in improving the healthcare experience with scalable therapeutic virtual reality content, today announced its partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a leader in providing high-quality healthcare, to introduce the technology in itsRead More →
Another surgery video platform, GIBLIB, which serves medical students and doctors, has jumped on the virtual reality train. The company partnered with camera manufacturer 360fly and live streaming service LIVIT NOW to broadcast the first-ever live hernia surgery in virtual reality. The surgeon was Dr. Shirin Towfigh, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hernia specialist. ThisRead More →
Google Expeditions, previously only available to select schools, is now available to the public, at no cost. “The app is available today for Android and will be available for iPhones and iPads soon,” the company announced earlier today. The app is designed to be used by both teachers and students. Teachers wouldRead More →
On its tenth anniversary, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is adding a new element in to its conference program, a science fair. “Educators from all disciplines and levels are invited to participate,” outreach committee head Lorraine Mockford, also known as LoriVonne Lustre in-world, said in an announcement. “If you are interested in includingRead More →
In case you missed it, OSgrid has been holding weekly meetings every Saturday at Wright Plaza, after a long period in which communications between grid managers and residents were problematic. “We restarted it about three months ago,” said grid treasurer Lawrence Roberts on the Inworld Review last week. “It’s been well-attended, andRead More →
California-based 360-degree camera startup, 360fly, released a satirical ad Thursday featuring a Donald Trump look-alike, a big wall, and what many saw as insensitive stereotypes of Mexican immigrants. The ad was accepted by DIRECTV, FOX News, local FOX LA, but was rejected by NBC, Viacom, ABC LA, LACBS, LAABC, and other media houses. According 360fly,Read More →
Press release: Virtual Reality Developers Conference Announces First Standalone Event in November 2016 Expanded focus on games, entertainment, brand experience, and innovation after sold out inaugural event at GDC SAN FRANCISCO — The Virtual Reality Developers Conference, the premier event for creators of immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences, today announcedRead More →
Trading Advantage President and CEO, Larry Levin, made the first ever live virtual reality commodity trade using Oculus Rift, a virtual reality system that completely immerses the user inside virtual worlds. As one of the premier trading organization in the nation, Trading Advantage is leading the industry with its innovativeRead More →
Press release: Greenlight VR survey reveals U.S. consumers are most interested in using virtual reality for travel, entertainment, events, home design and education. San Francisco — The latest consumer research from Greenlight VR reveals non-gaming categories, including travel, home design and virtual education, top of the list for virtual reality use cases currentlyRead More →
Vrse, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality film startup, has raised $12.56 million and changed its name to Within, said company founder and renowned music video producer Chris Milk in a post last week. The company received Series A round of funding from 21st Century Fox, Andreessen Horowitz, Vice Media, Tribeca Enterprises,Read More →
Amsterdam-based VR developer WeMakeVR and MDLinking.com, a Dutch startup with a secure communication platform for doctors, announced a service last week that creates picture-in-picture virtual reality videos of surgeries. “This way of capturing surgeries can help students get a much better understanding of the roles and interactions within the medical team,” Avinash Changa, CEO and founderRead More →
Unimersiv has launched a new virtual reality platform for educational experiences, joining Google Expeditions, Nearpod VR, and Fieldscapes VR. It is currently available for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, with support for other mobile-based platforms still to come. “We are planning on supporting Cardboard but definitely want to make theRead More →
Motion sickness is one of the big usability problems plaguing virtual reality today, and if you don’t want to attach electrodes to your head, there might be a simpler, easier solution — narrowing the field of view. Researchers at Columbia University discovered subtly making the image smaller during in-world motion wouldRead More →
Social virtual reality pioneer vTime added support for the Oculus Rift and added a business-focused meeting space. The app was already available for Gear VR and Android. It is a free application. Both the new consumer and developer kit 2 versions of the Oculus Rift headset are now supported, the company said in theRead More →
The Global Learning Forum is scheduled to take place this Friday, June 17, at the SOC StudioX’s in-world campus auditorium from 1 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. Central Time. The topic is the role of cyberspace and integrated learning environments. The event is open to all hypergrid visitors. Hypergrid teleport to metaverse.austudiox.com:9000. It will featureRead More →
The Kitely Market is now delivering content to 138 different OpenSim grids and mini-grids and merchants are continuing to increase the amount of exportable content available on the platform. There are currently 7,486 product listings in Kitely Market containing 14,134 variations, of which 9,237 are sold with the Export permission.Read More →
Best Western International, Inc. recently announced it will use virtual reality to allow customers tour guest rooms, hotel lobbies and other amenities at any of their North American hotels in immersive 360-degree video before they check in. “Walking into a lobby or guest room leaves an indelible impression on what kind of experience will follow,Read More →
CAMBRIDGE — Virtual reality technology company VirZOOM Inc. announced early access product shipments globally to pre-order customers starting this month. The system includes the VirZOOM Bike Controller, the VirZOOM Arcade suite of VR exercise games downloadable from the Steam Store, a free PC game controller emulator, a free SDK forRead More →
Avi-Labs, the OpenSim hosting company that grew out of the AviWorlds grid, has added OSgrid region rentals and OAR sales to its previous set of grid hosting services and managed server rentals. OSgrid regions go for $5 per month for 15,000 prims, with no setup fee, one of the lowest prices available. Two-by-twoRead More →
Press release: Getty Images deepens its commitment to immersive content with new virtual reality business The launch of the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group brings high quality VR and 360 content to everyone, satisfying the growing appetite for immersive content Getty Images, the world leader in visual communication, has todayRead More →
Microsoft’s Windows Holographic mixed reality operating system will be open to developers and manufacturers, the company announced last week during Computex 2016. Third parties will now be able to develop augmented and virtual reality devices, personal computers, displays and other accessories using Windows Holographic, a version of Windows 10 that can support both augmented realityRead More →
OSgrid residents who plan to exhibit at next month’s anniversary celebration can now claim their parcels on the OSG9BW, OSG9BN and OSG9BE regions, grid president Dan Banner announced today. The exhibits can be constructed off-site and brought over or built right on location, he said. There is a limit of 676Read More →
More than $3.4 million worth of virtual reality headsets were sold this year in India during the first quarter of the year, according to a report by market intelligence and advisory firm 6Wresearch. According to their report, growth was driven by advancements in computer technology and internet connectivity coupled with increasing investmentsRead More →
The Great Canadian Grid is continuing to suffer from on-going distributed denial of service attacks. DigiWorldz grid founder Terry Ford, whose company also provides hosting services, has been working on securing the Great Canadian Grid’s infrastructure since the attacks first began about a month ago. His company does not host theRead More →
Baofeng Mojing, the world’s leading virtual headset manufacturer, has released a new viewer that incorporates Leap Motion gesture control. The Baofeng Mojing 5 Plus was announced at a press conference in Beijing yesterday, along with the Baofeng Mojing 5, which does not have the Leap Motion controller. Both headsets haveRead More →
Today, Scope AR announces its augmented reality platform for repair manuals at the Augmented World Expo. WorkLink enables companies to provide interactive and augmented reality repair manuals to field technicians or other employees so that they can repair equipment, perform maintenance, or assemble machinery on the factory floors easily and quickly. WorkLink and the company’s other product, theRead More →
Press release: Voice Control, Gesture Control, and See-through Displays Are Top Electronic User Interface Innovations BOSTON, MA – With Apple, Google, and Microsoft sharpening their focus on electronic user interfaces, voice control, gesture control, and see-through displays are emerging as hot spots for innovation, as are newer form factors inRead More →
ZTE has officially released the Axon 7, the first smartphone with support for Google’s new Daydream virtual reality platform. Right now, it’s only available in China, but is expected to hit the US in mid-June for around $450, and will be available from ZTE itself, as well as Amazon, Best Buy, NeweggRead More →
The second OpenSim Treasure Hunt concluded on May 25 with 122 participating regions, up from just 86 in the first hunt. The number of participating grids increased as well, from 22 to 26, Tangle Grid co-founder and hunt organizer Leslie Kling told Hypergrid Business. There were also many returning participants, sheRead More →
AvayaLive Engage, one of the three major enterprise-focused virtual environment platforms, is shutting down the company announced. Avaya is no longer accepting new customers, and service for existing customers will end when their current contracts expire. The platform is shutting down because the browser are no longer supporting the requiredRead More →
OSgrid will hold its birthday celebration and fundraiser on July 30 and 31, the grid’s board told residents at a membership meeting last Sunday. OSgrid, which is turning nine this year, is the largest and oldest virtual world running on the OpenSim platform. The birthday celebration will also include music and other events, withRead More →
Just a week after Google unveiled its new virtual reality platform, Daydream, the first compatible headset has hit the market. Mumbai-based ConvergeVR Tech Labs Pvt. Ltd.’s headset is now available for order as a developer’s kit preview edition. The ConvergeVR DK3 headset costs 2,099 Rupees, or about US$31, plus delivery fees. The company willRead More →
AltspaceVR, the leading virtual reality social platform, announced a new event tool today, FrontRow, that can scale up to tens of thousands of simultaneous users. The technology will make its public debut tomorrow night with comedian Reggie Watts, who currently leads the house band for The Late Late Show with JamesRead More →
Since it first launched in early 2011, Kitely has been the only major grid not to publish its stats, instead providing them by email to Hypergrid Business on request. That changed today, as the grid began publishing its land area and total registered users on its login page. This isRead More →
China-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus gave away 30,000 free OnePlus Loop VR headsets today, manufactured in partnership with AntVR. The Cardboard-compatible headset is reminiscent of the Gear VR in its design, and is a significant upgrade from last year’s giveway, which was a Cardboard-compatible headset made of actual cardboard. Like lastRead More →
A Brazilian team has launched a new grid and OpenSim hosting company, offering local payment and support options. OpenSim Brasil offers hosting for full grids, starting at 230 Reals, or about US$64, with a 100 Real setup fee, for an eight-region grid. The AllCity grid, currently has 25 regions andRead More →
Delightex, a Munich based firm that builds virtual reality platforms, released the CoSpaces app this week, which allows users to explore and share virtual reality spaces with other users on iOS and Android devices and Google Cardboard-compatible headsets. This is in addition to the company’s web-based application that allows users to create virtualRead More →
Pornhub’s March launch of a channel dedicated to virtual reality content put a big stamp of approval on the technology, since it’s the most popular site for adult content on the Web. But there only had a handful of content providers to start with. That’s changing quickly. Last month, PornqueenVR launched withRead More →
Google Expeditions, the virtual reality version of the 1990’s TV series The Magic Schoolbus, has reached over one million students, Google announced today. Google Expeditions was launched last spring, and is now in eleven countries. There are more than 200 virtual trips available to such destinations as Buckingham Palace and the Great Barrier Reef. TheRead More →
A day after Google announced its Daydream virtual reality platform, companies are rushing to be the first to declare their support. Unity, which has long been a key platform for Google Cardboard applications, was at the Google I/O developer conference this week. Unity CEO John Riccitiello came on onstage to confirmRead More →
EBay has launched the world’s first virtual reality store, in partnership with Australian retailer Myer. It works with all Google Cardboard devices, and the company is also giving away Shopticals, a branded headset made out of Cardboard. You can download the app for iPhones and for Android devices — but onlyRead More →
A startup that allows a smartphone’s own camera to be used to track hand gestures has received a $20 million investment. Chinese technology conglomerate Kuang-Chi will invest in Israel-based provider of software-based machine vision and gesture recognition technology eyeSight Technologies, the company said in a statement. Currently, gesture controllers are only available for high-end,Read More →
In a survey of more than 2,000 tech-savvy US consumers conducted late last month, 40 percent said that they planned to buy virtual reality headsets in the next two years — but that price was an issue. In addition, 61 percent of the respondents, who were mostly young and male,Read More →
Google announced a new operating system for virtual reality that will run on new, compatible Android phones, the company announced at its annual developers conference today. The platform is called Daydream and seems to include some of the features of the Samsung Gear VR platform, including a virtual environment thatRead More →
The crowdfunding campaign for a Virtual Lisbon grid is up and running again, asking OpenSim users to contribute just $1 each to the project. The founder, Carlos Loff is an experienced virtual worlds builder and community manager, and has been active in Second Life since 2007. This is his fourth tryRead More →
The Virtual Life Grid has turned on hypergrid connectivity, the grid announced in a press release today and on Twitter. The grid’s hypergrid address is now virtuallifegrid.com:8002. For those interested in learning more, the grid will be holding a general meeting for residents on May 28 at 2 p.m. Pacific at the Virtual LifeRead More →
If there was any doubt, two new reports out this week confirm that we have the first killer app for virtual reality, and it’s watching videos. That might come as a surprise to people who expected immersive, first-person games to be more attractive, or virtual meetings and socializing. However, watching videosRead More →
Virtual reality trailblazer Oculus VR has launched its VR for Good program, offering support to students, filmmakers, and nonprofit organizations looking to create immersive films. The first part, aimed at high school students in the San Francisco area, is a six-week program designed to help students explore careers in the sciencesRead More →
The total number of standard region equivalents dropped this month on OpenSim’s public grids due to a large cleanup of orphan regions on Metropolis. The grid removed around 1,600 unused region reservation slots from its grid map. The total number of standard region equivalents on the public grids is now 56,535,Read More →
Samsung’s Gear VR had 1 million users last month, reported its content partner, Facebook’s Oculus VR. Oculus also reported that Gear VR now has 250 apps, including the recently-added Minecraft. The average user spends 25 minutes a day using the headset, which was released six months ago. Media the killer appRead More →
The Kitely Market reported a new high in the number of product listings, and the share of those listings that are exportable to other grids was also higher than ever. The Market currently offers 13,703 different variations on 7,201 products. Of those variations, 8,909 are exportable to other grids. ExportablesRead More →
Home interior design firm Decorilla recently launched an Android and iOS application that allows users to do virtual walthroughs of interior designs using Google Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headsets. The company is also planning to extend coverage to Oculus and Samsung Gear VR headsets. The company started with Google Cardboard because Cardboard-compatible headsets areRead More →
The Great Canadian Grid and DigiWorldz have been hit by a cyber-attack that has taken the grids offline on Saturday. There should be no damage to the grids themselves. Both grids are now back up. “Everything is good and I am now in the process of doing updates on all the serversRead More →
Corrections: Well this story made people mad! But when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Here are three corrections: 1. The question of who is handling the finances is a he-said, she-said situation. If the she-said side of it is right, then associating an innocent person’s name with this mess is theRead More →
Daden Limited, a U.K Based firm that creates immersive learning and visualization systems, is planning to add a dozen new virtual locations to its recently released Fieldscapes VR, an educational virtual tour app for Android devices. Fieldscapes VR also allows users to create their own virtual learning environments, no coding required. In addition,Read More →
Samsung, Sony, HTC, and Oculus will lead other brands in shipping about 9.6 million units of virtual reality hardware in the global market this year, to surpass previous estimates of $2 billion in sales and reach around $2.3 billion, International Data Corp. predicted in a new research report, not counting salesRead More →
Despite acceptability and huge interest among investors to adopt virtual reality, the technology is still in its learning phases and lack of technological standards across the industry and bandwidth issues will certainly derail its tipping point, according to a research report released by Greenlight VR last week. At the same time,Read More →
The Mobius Grid is seeking $2,000 in donations in order to port the Phlox script engine to standard OpenSim. The Phlox script engine was created by the InWorldz grid and donated to the community last fall. The open source community page for Phlox is located here, on GitHub and is distributed under theRead More →
Press release: New platform enables user-created social VR experiences SAN FRANCISCO – Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, today announced that applications have opened for an upcoming “Creator Preview” for Project Sansar, the new platform for user-created social virtual reality experiences. Interested 3D content creators can now apply at ProjectSansar.com and acceptedRead More →
The Dutch VR development studio Verum Visum LP has launched a Kickstarter for an interactive documentary, Chornobyl360, that will allow users to experience the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in an immersive way and interact with living witnesses from 1986. The Kickstarter was launched on April 26 on the 30th anniversary ofRead More →
Women account for only seven percent of all the active and participating investing partners in the top hundred venture firms globally, according to a report released this week. And only 38 percent of the top hundred venture firms have any female investment partners at all — 28 percent of the firms haveRead More →
Merchants who sell virtual goods on the Kitely Market can now automatically share the revenues they receive with third parties, both for individual listings and for individual variations of those listings, the company announced this week. “Merchants have been asking us to add support for automatically splitting marketplace store revenue betweenRead More →
OSgrid cleaned out about 1,000 dead region reservations from its grid map, but there was still a net gain in land area this month, with the public OpenSim grids adding the equivalent of 679 standard regions, for a new land area total of 57,612 standard region equivalents. OSgrid is the largest andRead More →
Dan Banner was appointed president of OSgrid at the end of March, following a previous term as treasurer. Former president James Stallings, who is also known as Hiro Protagonist in-world, has stepped down from that position, but will remain a board member. “I have gone back to working full timeRead More →
Alkonost Development, a London-based independent research and development start-up mostly focused on virtual reality and augmented reality, has launched the beta version of Extended Workspace, a virtual reality interface that allows users to use hand-tracking systems to interact with virtual environments with the entire hand — including fingers and fingertips — suchRead More →
Rochester Institute of Technology‘s Magic Spell Studios which recently announced that it will partner with Crytek, a Germany-based video game developer, to bring virtual reality laboratories in universities around the world is also exploring other technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting to make kits that offer a rangeRead More →
Nvidia, which recently announced its Iray VR and Iray VR Lite to enable photorealistic panoramas and light-rich visuals, walkthroughs and scenes in 3D virtual spaces on personal computers and mobile devices, will start to support Iray VR Lite as a standard feature set on its Maya, Cinema4D, Rhino, and 3DsRead More →