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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Voxelus, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality firm, has launched its “app store for virtual reality content,” the Voxelus Marketplace, that allows users to sell virtual reality content for the platform’s Voxels in-game crypto-currency. All content is free of charge until April 20 when the platform leaves beta, CEO and founder Martin Repetto told HypergridRead More →

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Developers love the Oculus, Vive, and PlayStation VR because they offer the most cutting edge technology and the highest degree of immersion. But developers are ACTUALLY working on content for the Google Cardboard ecosystem. Don’t confuse the platform for the little cardboard give-away sets, please! There are some VERY niceRead More →

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Press release: Mayo Clinic and vMocion Introduce Technology Which Creates the Sensation of Motion, Transforming Virtual Reality Featuring Mayo Clinic’s Patented Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) Technology, vMocion’s 3v(TM) Platform Now Available for Licensing LOS ANGELES, CA and SCOTTSDALE, AZ —  Mayo Clinic and vMocion, LLC, an entertainment technology company, today announced itRead More →

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Press release: Digital Media Wire Announces Agenda, Speakers and Virtual Reality Innovation & Networking Lounge for LA Games Conference April 19th Annual Industry Confab Brings Together Top Leaders from EA, Sony PlayStation, Twitch, Google, CAA, SGN, Nexon, Tencent, Gamevil, Seriously, Kabam, Ubisoft, Glu, Endemol, Lionsgate, Perfect World, OGA and manyRead More →

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The second multi-grid OpenSim Treasure Hunt begins in two weeks, and there is still time for grids and region owners to participate. Promote your destination by picking up a stand from Hyperica at hg.hyperica.com:8022, Tangle Grid at tanglegrid.net:8002:HG Station 1, or WestWorld grid at westworldgrid.com:8102, or download an IAR fileRead More →

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Beijing-based Baofeng Technology Co. Ltd. has sold more than one million of its mobile-based virtual reality headsets since the beginning of this year, the company told the official China Daily newspaper. That compares to reported sales of half a million headsets last year, making Baofeng the industry leader. White theRead More →

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Press release: Discover How to Build the Smarter — Engaged — High Performance Organization MARICOPA, AZ— Elearning! Media Group, producers of the Enterprise Learning! Conference 2016 (ELC16), the leader in learning and workplace technology media, is pleased to announce its groundbreaking Keynote Speaker for the conference. Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D., President, The GronstedtRead More →

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Hypergrid inventor and OpenSim core developer Crista Lopes, also known as “Diva Canto” in-world, just won the $10,000 prize for software in the public interest from the Tides Foundation, a social justice and sustainability-focused organization. Lopes, who is the first woman to win this award, is also a professor of informatics at the DonaldRead More →

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Press Release: Seanchai Library Announces new EXPLORE in Kitely EXPLORE, Kitely – Seanchai Library pleased to announce the next phase of its EXPLORE program in the OpenSim metaverse, and its real world-virtual world partnership with Tacoma Little Theatre. After the great success of last year’sEXPLORE The Great Gatsby, the partnersRead More →

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Hulu had originally planned to have its virtual reality app for the Samsung Gear VR last fall, but finally released it yesterday. It is a free download on the Gear VR’s Oculus store, and supports both virtual reality films and Hulu’s entire library of traditional 2D videos. There was noRead More →

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Pornhub has launched a dedicated virtual reality porn channel and gave away 10,000 free virtual reality headsets to get people to try it. Totally not safe for work link: http://www.pornhub.com/vr Pornhub says it has over three million videos and attracts over 60 million visitors per day, and, at four million members, theRead More →

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ScanSpace, in collaboration with Paracosm, launched a Kickstarter campaign for an online service that lets users scan and upload real-world environments, turn them into game levels, and share with other players. The company is hoping to raise $125,000, and will add virtual reality support as an $800,000 “stretch goal.” Multiplayer supportRead More →

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Trick 3D has released Floorplan Revolution, software which converts traditional floorplans to virtual reality environment. The tool, first announced in September, supports both mobile virtual reality headsets, including Google Cardboard and Gear VR, and traditional views such as personal computers, tablets, and smartphones. The Atlanta-based company is also planning to create a virtual homeRead More →

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The total land area of the public OpenSim grids increased this month, as did the number of registered users and active users. OpenSim now has the equivalent of 56,933 standard regions, 521,735 total registered users and 33,707 active users on 313 different grids. Kitely was the biggest gainer this month, withRead More →

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The Kitely Market is now offering more than 12,500 different items, 64 percent of which are exportable to other grids, with exports growth continuing to outpace Kitely-only content. “We’re very happy with Kitely Market’s current growth,” Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner told Hypergrid Business. “Last month we reached a record highRead More →

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In mid-December, we were tracking 117 active Google Plus communities related to OpenSim and the hypergrid. As of today, that number has hit 166, of which 53 are new to our list. The largest new communities, with more than 100 members each, are Blender for OpenSim, Opensim Technical, ARiELSIG, Immersive World LearningRead More →

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Press release: VR Sociable Network vTime is Now Available for Google Cardboard in Early Access Liverpool, UK – vTime, the first virtual reality sociable network on mobile, today opens its network to millions more users as it launches for Google Cardboard. The app launches in early access for a limitedRead More →

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Press release: Virtual Reality in a refugee camp: The hopelessness is visible and tangible Next week, the war in Syria will enter it’s sixth year. The conditions in which most refugees find themselves are inhumane and degrading. VR Gorilla and Stichting Vluchteling, a Dutch refugee foundation, show this with four portraits, in virtualRead More →

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Press release Immersv Introduces a Mobile Virtual Reality Ad Platform Dedicated to Helping Consumers Discover Great VR Apps and Content Former Tapjoy and RockYou execs launch innovative platform for the distribution and monetization of mobile VR content LOS ANGELES — Today, Immersv  announced the public launch of its mobile virtual reality advertisingRead More →

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Last month, I wrote a review of the Baofeng Mojing 3, which immediately became my favorite Google Cardboard-compatible headset. Last week, GearBest sent me a new version of the same headset, the Baofeng Mojing 4, so that I could do a review. Disclosure: I got the $44 headset for free,Read More →

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Alchemy Beta 4.0.0 was released this week, with an updated Web browser, a better chat bar and numerous bug fixes. In addition, the viewer now has automatic updates to make it easier for users to stay current. The old built-in Web browser was the Qt Webkit Browser Engine, and it hasRead More →

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Press release: AT&T, Samsung and Carnival Corporation Launch Virtual Reality Cruise Vacation Experience National Initiative Debuts Feb. 19 in 133 AT&T Stores in 37 States, Highlighted by Experiential Event Feb. 27 at the AT&T Flagship Store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile For most, tropical breezes and beaches are out of reachRead More →

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Press release: AP launches virtual reality and 360 video channel in collaboration with AMD The Associated Press will launch a virtual reality and 360 video channel in collaboration with AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) to feature the news organization’s latest advances in immersive journalism. Virtual reality and 360 video transport users into the middleRead More →

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Kitely released a new starting template for customers renting land, the Kitely Evergreen Island, optimized for virtual reality viewers. “Virtual reality requires a high frame rate to maintain the feeling of presence without causing the user to start feeling VR sickness,” Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner told Hypergrid Business. VR sickness, similarRead More →

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Uphold, a Charleston, South Carolina-based virtual currency and cloud payments company, is “seriously studying” the possibility of extending support to OpenSim, Uphold founder Halsey Minor told Hypergrid Business.  The company considers OpenSim to be a significant potential virtual currency market, Minor said. “I’m studying OpenSim closely and consider it very important,Read More →

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Voxelus is planning to expand its virtual reality creation platform with a deal to bring 7,000 3D assets to its marketplace during the second quarter of this year, and 16,000 more during the second half of the year, company co-founder and CEO Martin Repetto told Hypergrid Business. “This is huge news forRead More →

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The total land area of the public OpenSim grids fell by 16,771 region equivalents after Virtual Worlds Grid took down its variable-sized regions, but the total number of active users rose by 1,374 to 33,574 this month. Without the Virtual Worlds Grid statistics, OpenSim would have gained a net of 1,589Read More →

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Wevr has raised $25 million from investors such HTC Corp, Samsung Ventures and Evolution Media Partners to fund the launch of its Wevr Transport, a YouTube-like virtual reality platform that will help virtual reality creators to publish their work and find an audience. The platform will support Google Cardboard, Samsung GearRead More →

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Two years ago, Google gave away a free Google Cardboard kit to all 6,100 attendees at its I/O conference. This week, Valve founder Gave Newell announced that all 1,400 attendees at the sold-out Vision Summit 2016 will get free HTC Vive headsets — each worth several hundred dollars each. Ticket pricesRead More →

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Second Life adult toy merchant Crystal Delights has opened its first retail outlet, in Port Townsend, Washington, and plans to expand into non-adult product lines and use Second Life to help market the non-adult products, company co-founder Andrew Schwartz told Hypergrid Business. “We do not use Second Life currently for market testing, but we still have plans to renewRead More →

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UK teens are ready to buy virtual reality technology, according to a new research report from Greenlight VR, with 71 percent saying that they’ll either buy it on their own or ask their parents to buy it for them. “Surprisingly, 25 percent will spend their own money,” the researchers said.Read More →

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Island Oasis, a three-year-old closed commercial grid, is turning on hypergrid connectivity today. The transition will be discussed at a Town Hall Meeting today. As part of the transition, the grid will also be hiring a part-time events coordinator. Island Oasis’ transition brings the total number of active OpenSim gridsRead More →

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Oculus was the most popular platform with video game developers, according to the latest GDC State of the Industry report. More than more than 2,000 attendees of the upcoming March Game Developers Conference were surveyed, and 19 percent said they were currently working on a game for the Oculus Rift, followedRead More →

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Five million Google Cardboard-compatible headsets have been shipping, Google announced yesterday. The accompanying graphic shows a lot of headsets made out of cardboard, and two — the Mattel Viewmaster and the Goggle Tech C1-Glass — made out of plastic. Google didn’t provide any details about how they track these numbers, andRead More →

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Starbreeze will create a virtual reality arcade in Los Angeles later on this year to give the public access to premium  virtual reality experiences with their recently launched StarVR headset, the company announced in a press release. Called Project StarCade, it will feature OverKill‘s Walking Dead virtual reality experience, although the company isRead More →

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Avi-Labs, the OpenSim hosting company affiliated with Alexandro Pomposelli’s AviWorlds grid, has been slowly but steadily expanding its suite of services. Customers now include 4addiktion Grid, Baller Nation Grid, Sinful Grid, and Loff Virtual Worlds. “We are growing and I think it is time you consider placing us on your list,” said Pomposelli,Read More →

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Jessica Lyon, the head of the Firestorm Viewer project, is now recommending the rival Alchemy viewer for OpenSim users. “Alchemy may be the most compatible viewer to OpenSim right now,” she said, thanks to the efforts of viewer developer Cinder Roxley. Lyon was speaking at a taping of the InWorldRead More →

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Samsung, the maker of the Gear VR virtual-reality headset, is opening a New York studio to produce new immersive experiences, CNET reported. Samsung announced the news at the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah, where virtual reality is emerging as a prominent theme. “One of the biggest trends and themes forRead More →

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Planner 5D, an application that allows home owners, builders, architects and real estate renovators to design homes in 3D, now has virtual reality support for Google Cardboard headsets. The app can be downloaded for free for iOS devices and Android smartphones, but some features require in-app purchases. The application already hasRead More →

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Virtual reality equipment maker Virtuix hosted the first ever multiplayer virtual reality game tournament at CES in Las Vegas. Four gamers played on Omni multi-directional treadmills that formed the Omni Arena, with HTC Vive headsets strapped on and with each player armed with a replica gun. “We feel that active virtual reality is theRead More →

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The total land area of the public OpenSim grids rose slightly this month, and there were nearly 10,000 new registered users, but active user numbers dropped slightly over the holidays. OpenSim now has a record-high of 71,557 standard region equivalents, a record high of 503,152 registered users, and 32,200 activeRead More →

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Merchants continued to expand the number of exportable items listed on the Kitely Market this month, showing an increasing tolerance for selling to the broader metaverse. Meanwhile, the number of items limited to just being used on the Kitely grid shrank for the second month in a row. There areRead More →

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Google Inc, has appointed Clay Bavor as the new boss of its virtual reality team, according to the company’s spokesman Joshua Cruz, in a move seen as the company’s further dive into virtual reality after huge successes with the Google Cardboard. “We can confirm Clay’s new role on the VRRead More →

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The large number of smartphone users in Asia will spur sales of mobile-based virtual reality devices in the region this year, according to SuperData Research in a report released this month. Globally, three out of four early adopters will use smartphones to try virtual reality, according to the report. A totalRead More →

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WakingApp‘s ENTiTi VR is a cloud-based design tool that allows even those without any coding skills to create 360-degree immersive content using a variety of content types. There is also a correspondent viewer for experiencing the content online either on a personal computers or on headsets.  The ENTiTi Creator application isRead More →

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The United States Copyright Office will, from next month, begin taking opinions from the tech industry and members of the public regarding Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allows OpenSim grids and other content-sharing sites to take down infringing material and penalize repeat offenders.   The application of the infringementRead More →

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Oculus VR is now taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift headset, but at $600 it’s about twice as expensive as many expected. The purchase page says the headset will start shipping in May to 20 different countries. By comparison, the developer kit cost about $350. The company says that the headsetRead More →

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Improving virtual reality immersion by increasing the field of view and having more accurate positional tracking will be the battlefield this year, according to a recent report by Digi-Capital. At the moment, the best-in-class of view for virtual reality device screen resolution is 136 degrees diagonally per eye, which is promising given that usersRead More →

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When it comes to investing in early-stage companies, you’re either “friends and family,” an angel investor accredited with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or a venture capitalist. In the past, average people have been shut out of the process because such investments, while potentially extremely lucrative, are also extremely risky.Read More →

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The Adult Metaverse community was the fastest-growing this year, reaching 1,255 members by the end of 2015, followed by OpenSim Virtual, which reached 1,649 members and retained its spot as the top OpenSim-focused community on Google Plus. Four grids made the top-fifteen list growth list: Kitely, OSgrid, DigiWorldz, and the GreatRead More →

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Roundme virtual tour application allows photographers and brands to create, upload and share 360 degrees immersive paranomic photos and multimedia content of real spaces, which users can then visit virtually using Google Cardboard on the web browser or on Android and iOS devices. The application, which already hosts a numberRead More →

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OpenSim gained a record-high 10,013 active users in 2015 — more than double the increase of any previous previous year. By comparison, last year, OpenSim’s public grids gained 2,189 active users last year, 3,652 in 2013, 2,652 in 2012, and 2,671 in 2011. OpenSim also gained 80,702 registered users thisRead More →

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Mozilla, which helped pioneer WebVR last year, is making virtual reality development even easier with this month’s release of A-Frame, a tool that allows developers to create experiences for the desktop, the Oculus Rift, and smartphones with Google Cardboard headsets, Mozilla said in its announcement last week. “WebVR has shippedRead More →

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Just in time for the holidays, Exo-Life Virtual World has released a set of IAR inventory export files, to accompany its collection of ten free OAR region export files. The IAR files include three fully-functional in-world calendars featuring Exo–Life‘s staff and residents. There is also an IAR file of women’s dresses, andRead More →

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The on-demand Kitely grid passed 10,000 regions this month for the first time, and the Great Canadian Grid hit the 1,000 region mark. They helped boost OpenSim to a new record high of 71,360 standard region equivalents, an increase of 326 regions since last month. Overall, OSgrid, Kitely, the Great Canadian GridRead More →

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The Kitely Market saw the first downturn in its listing numbers this month, a result of some housekeeping on the part of management. “We were forced to remove the listings of several merchants who repeatedly failed to follow our product listing guidelines despite our detailed instructions on what needs toRead More →

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Presence Capital Launches With Close Of World’s First Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Focused VC Fund The team of leading VC, games, VR and tech industry veterans announce their inaugural fund of $10 million SAN FRANCISCO — Presence Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on virtual reality and augmented reality startups,Read More →

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The consumer release of HTC’s Vive headset is delayed until April 2016, HTC announced last week. “We will be starting the new year by making an additional 7,000 units available to developers, with pre-orders from the end of February followed by commercial availability in April 2016,” the company said. InRead More →

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The number of OpenSim-related communities on Google Plus is growing, in part due to simple subscription options, easy calendar updates, and Google allowing pseudonymous accounts. Altogether, there are 20 new communities on our list. The five biggest, that are specifically focused on OpenSim are OpenSim, OpenSim Everything, OpenSim Standalone, Collaborative Hypergrid, andRead More →

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Samsung launched a virtual reality web browser last week, Samsung Internet optimized for Gear VR, allowing users to surf the Internet without taking off their virtual reality headset. The app allows users to check email and social media news feeds and read online articles and also supports 360-degree and 3D video streaming, as wellRead More →

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The 2015 Terasem Annual Colloquium on the Law of Futuristic Persons, themed “Moral and Legal Imperatives for Sentient AI,” will take place in Second Life, on the Terasem region, on Thursday, December 10, 2015, with a stellar list of speakers. The four-hour event will start at 9 a.m., Pacific Time, noonRead More →

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Frame, a company that can run any software in a cloud-based browser window — for a fee — is taking over Texas-based Bright Canopy, which offers browser-based access for Second Life and OpenSim viewers. Bright Canopy founder Bill Glover has told Hypergrid Business that he has accepted a position fromRead More →

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San Francisco-based Gameface Labs, the company behind the all-in-one Gameface virtual reality headset, will be part of the Valve ecosystem, CEO Ed Mason told Hypergrid Business. The headset will also support Google Cardboard applications, he said, and will have a virtual world browser that will be compatible with both SecondRead More →

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Kitely, OpenSim’s largest commercial grid by land area, announced today that it will switch all multi-region islands to varregion mode. Currently, customers renting these larger islands on the Kitely grid can choose to have them arranged as a simple group of regions, or in Kitely’s version of the megaregion format, which doesRead More →

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Press release: TrendForce Forecasts VR Market Value to Hit US$70 Billion in 2020 as Innovative Apps Enrich This Industry Consumers’ relentless pursuit for richer audiovisual experience has propelled the popularity of virtual reality devices and drawn in more companies to invest in this market. Furthermore, the competition among the increasingRead More →

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A new Paris-based grid, Utherworldz, is holding its grand opening today —  the second commercial gaming grid in a row to be hypergrid-enabled. In October, Neon Evolution held its grand opening with a fund raiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer, and a $7 special on region rentals. UnlikeRead More →

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Press release: 360Fly to speak at first-ever 360-degree and virtual reality film school  360fly, the world’s only single-lens camera capturing stitchless 360-degree video with interactive and virtual reality viewing capabilities, will send team members to guest speak at the first-ever 360-degree film school at the University of Irvine in OrangeRead More →

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The 2015 OpenSim Community Conference starts this Saturday, leaving just three days to register. Registration is free here, but you can also choose to make a tax-deductible donation to support OpenSim development and get some extra benefits. For example, the “Exclusive Access” ticket, at $35, includes an invitation to a VIP Q&ARead More →

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Select Verizon wireless retail stores will give away a limited number of Google Cardboard viewers to Verizon customers, the company announced today. The giveaway starts tomorrow, December 2, with four different designs featuring BB-8, R2-D2, Kylo Ren, and the new First Order Stormtrooper. There are also companion apps for iOSRead More →

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Crista Lopes has released a new update of the Diva Distro version of OpenSim, used by many individuals and small groups for private OpenSim deployments and hypergrid-enabled mini-grids, to accompany the recent general release of OpenSim 0.8.2.0. Lopes, also known as Diva Canto in-world, is one of the core developersRead More →

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CtrlAltStudio viewer developer David Rowe said he plants to stop work on the viewer, which is the only OpenSim viewer that currently supports the Oculus Rift. Linden Lab has an experimental viewer for the Oculus Rift, but it does not currently work with OpenSim. “I developed CtrlAltStudio viewer as a stop-gapRead More →

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WoofbertVR launched a Samsung Gear VR app this week that will allow users to take virtual tours to marque museums around the world. Powered by Oculus VR, the app is already available for download and first users will enjoy an offer to visit the Courtauld Gallery, which houses one of London’sRead More →

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Quantum Bakery LLC has released an iPhone case that doubles as a virtual reality viewer for iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, but most importantly, one that could turn out as very competitive since it  makes it possible to fit a virtual reality viewer into your pocket.Read More →

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At AVATARFest 2015, a virtual festival celebrating life on the hypergrid, HYPEvents.net launched a website that lists events from all over the hypergrid so avatars can find out what is going on right now, and where. The website scrapes the web and parses event info from grid event calendars. The site provides a singleRead More →

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OpenSim crossed the 70,000 region milestone this month, with a new land area total of 71,034 standard region equivalents. It also crossed the 34,000 active users mark for the first time. OSgrid, Metropolis and Kitely were the biggest gainers in land area, with 1,272, 305 and 297 regions added, respectively. There are nowRead More →

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There are now 6,097 different products listed on the Kitely Market, in 11,847 product variations — 7,189 of which are exportable. Kitely groups items together, so that, say, a red version of a dress and a blue version of the same dress are listed as variations of the same product.Read More →

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Greenlight VR and Touchstone Research released the results of their survey of over 2,000 respondents this past week about attitudes towards virtual reality. Here are some highlights. 1. Gen-Z Rules Despite a perception among some of our readers — or maybe just in my house — kids aren’t all that blase andRead More →

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More than 100,000 students have participated in virtual reality field trips through Google’s Expeditions, and the program is now expanding to 15 additional cities, Google announced Monday. Benefiting from the new move are Alexandria, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Washington DC,Read More →

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Second Life’s economy has a GDP of around $500 million, CEO Ebbe Altberg told The Next Web. According to Altberg, users cashed out a total in excess of $60 million last year. One user has sold around 300,000 virtual dresses at roughly $4 each. By comparison, in 2009, Second Life reported aRead More →

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Press release: Veterans United Foundation and Jaunt Inc. Release Honor 360 Virtual Reality Experiences Bringing National Memorials to Those Aging and Disabled Military Veterans Who Cannot Make the Trip This Veterans Day, Veterans United and Jaunt Bring Immersive, Virtual Honor Flights to US Military Veterans Everywhere COLUMBIA, Mo. — Jaunt Inc.,Read More →