Avi-Labs expands hosting offerings
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 →
UnicornVR a nice introduction to VR
The UnicornVR headset is an inexpensive, lightweight virtual reality headset with a wide field of view, but is limited in the smartphones it fits. I tried the headset with a Samsung Note 4, a Note 3, the iPhone 5s, the LG G3, and the Samsung Xperia Z1. The Samsung Note 4 wasRead More →
DigiWorldz donates unfinished Mumble code
DigiWorldz has donated unfinished code for the Mumble voice system to the OpenSim community, the grid announced this week. Mumble is an alternative to the proprietary Vivox voice system. Boston-based Vivox Inc. provides high-quality spacial voice to Second Life, the Elder Scrolls, Eve Online, Everquest and many other large multiplayerRead More →
Top Kitely merchant goes all-export, sees no hypergrid ‘bootlegging’
Ozwell Wayfarer’s Worlds End Landscaping and Roleplay store on the Kitely Market is now all-export, the owner announced on the Kitely forums earlier this month. He also lowered prices 30 to 50 percent. “One of the justifications for charging higher prices in OpenSim was because of the potential risk,” heRead More →
Firestorm lead recommends Alchemy viewer for OpenSim
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 →
Lenovo sells 10,000 VR bundles in a second
Lenovo sold more than 10,000 virtual reality headsets as part of K4 Note bundles in 0.9 seconds in India this week. Unlike other similar promotions, which typically feature simple cardboard virtual reality sets, the K4 Note came bundled with a white Ant VR headset. From local media reports, it seems toRead More →
Samsung to open New York VR studio
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 →
Oculus to hit retail stores in April
Customers will be able to try out Oculus Rift headsets before buying them at retail stores in April, reports Road to VR. There’s no word on which retail partners Oculus will be working with just yet, but in the U.S. one suspect is Best Buy, the country’s largest consumer electronicsRead More →
Planner 5D interior design app adds VR walkthroughs
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 →
Virtuix hosts VR game tournament at CES
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 →
CNET founder to launch VR video network
CNET founder Halsey Minor will launch a virtual reality network that will stream live 360-degree video to Samsung Gear VR and Oculus headsets within the next few months. Minor told Hypergrid Business that the new company, Reality Lab, was an opportunity for him to get back into the content industry and toRead More →
Report: Over 200mil VR headsets sold by 2020
Press release: More than 200 Million Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays to be Sold by 2020, According to Tractica Fueled by Gaming, Virtual Reality Adoption Will Also Drive Sales of 52 Million Accessory Devices during the Next 5 Years BOULDER, Colo. — While virtual reality is not a new technology in conceptRead More →
Omni hits the road
The world’s leading virtual reality treadmill, the Virtuix Omni, has begun shipping the devices to its Kickstarter backers last month, saw around $15 million worth of interest from individual investors through SeedInvest, and won at Top Pick Award from Tom’s Hardware at the CES show in Las Vegas (see video below). The companyRead More →
Grid traffic slows over holidays
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 →
OSgrid, Kitely, Littlefield home to most popular hypergrid hangouts
Last week, I held a survey to find the most popular hangouts on the hypergrid. Dozens of people responded and the top three vote-getters were LBSA Plaza on OSgrid, Seanchai on Kitely, and Speakeasy on Littlefield. OSgrid is currently the most popular grid on the hypergrid, with nearly 3,500 activeRead More →
10 fears to let go of in 2016
OpenSim is taking off. Active users grew more than twice as fast in 2015 than in any other previous year. Based on Kitely Market stats, exportable, hypergrid content grew faster last year — five times faster — than non-exportables. And virtual reality is set to explode. With more than 16 millionRead More →
Exportables continue gains on Kitely Market
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 →
Google appoints new VR boss
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 →
Report: Mobile to lead in virtual reality
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 →
WakingApp: Create VR content with no coding
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 →
HTC Vive preorders start Feb. 29
HTC will start taking pre-orders for Vive, its virtual reality headset, from February 29, its chief executive has confirmed. Cher Wang told the Telegraph the company had chosen to refocus on virtual reality and away from smartphones, saying the company was now “more realistic.” The price has not yet beenRead More →
Puppy Bowl goes virtual
If you can’t wait until February 7 to watch Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl XII, you can get a virtual reality preview of it today. Watch the preview reel on Discovery VR or on Animal Planet’s YouTube page (below). You can also download the Discovery VR app for the iPhone and for Android smartphones.Read More →
Space shooter vs. space shooter
So you want to play EVE: Valkyrie but don’t have the $1,500 for a new computer and Oculus Rift headset? Checkout these two cheap alternatives — both of which are available now. End Space VR on Google Cardboard Buy End Space VRÂ for $0.99 for the iPhone or $1.09 for AndroidRead More →
Copyright Office seeks comment on DMCA
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 →
Raytheon offers free Cardboard viewer, app
A new Raytheon-built virtual reality app puts users on a New England hilltop, looking out onto the test range for the company’s new 360-degree Global Patriot Solutions radar. The app, available for both Android devices, and iOS devices, works with any Google Cardboard-compatible headset. Raytheon itself is giving away free Google Cardboard viewers, previously used the technologyRead More →
Oculus Rift to ship in May for $600
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 →
Fibrum headset lightweight, over-priced
The Fibrum virtual reality headset, from Moscow-based Fibrum Ltd., is a lightweight in every sense of the word — except for price. It is certainly the smallest and lightest of the all-enclosed headsets that I’ve tried. The company says it weighs 4.2 ounces. I weighed it, with straps, and it cameRead More →
Report: Field of view, positional tracking to be focus of VR this year
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 →
Virtuix considering individual investors
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 →
Fastest-growing communities of the year
The Adult Metaverse community was the fastest-growing this year, reaching 1,255Â 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 →
We hit 1.5 mil pageviews in 2015
Hypergrid Business saw a dramatic increase in pageviews in 2015, hitting 1.59 million — up almost three-fold from 565,553 in 2014. This was a record high for the publication. The number of unique readers has also risen to a new record, nearing half a million, up from less than aRead More →
VR sales data we can count on
Special thanks to Dr. Jon Peddie and Jon Peddie Research for the fundamental sales data needed to make this analysis possible. More than this, even though this article was originally only intended to be published in JPR’s Tech Watch publication, they agreed to allow this article to be public as everyoneRead More →
Baofeng Mojing 3 best alternative to Gear VR yet
I just received the Baofeng Mojing 3 in the mail, and it’s the best alternative I’ve seen yet to the Samsung Gear VR. Plus, it works with all smartphones — not just the latest Samsung models. It has an excellent field of view of 98 degrees, weighs a reasonable 15 ounces,Read More →
Homido Mini is a super small VR headset
The world’s smallest virtual reality headset has arrived. The Homido Mini weighs half an ounce, and fits into the palm of your hand. When you fold it out it looks like a tiny pair of glasses attached to a plastic clip. The clip goes over your smartphone, like this. ItRead More →
Roundme simplifies virtual tour creation
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 →
Wish list for virtual reality headsets
Having tried more than a dozen virtual reality headsets over the past few months, there are a few features that I now consider to be must-haves — but which seem to be rare to find. If any manufacturers are paying attention, please considering including more of the following in yourRead More →
Fastest growing grids of 2015
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 →
Seasonal events on the hypergrid
With winter in full swing, there are a lot of events coming up on the metaverse. Christmas parties, winter festivals, and New Year’s parties are all things to look forward to. So here is a list of some of the upcoming events for you to mark on your calendar. ChristmasRead More →
Dreamland tops this year’s hosting survey
Dreamland Metaverse outscored the two other major providers in every category in this year’s OpenSim hosting providers survey, while CloudServe, the new kid on the block, scored a close second. Zetamex scored last in four out of five categories. Zetamex also had an ownership change this past year, and hadRead More →
Colopl launches $50mil VR fund
Tokyo-based Colopl has announced the formation of a $50 million Colopl VR Fund to provide support for the virtual reality industry. The Colopl VR Fund is open to funding both Japanese and foreign companies in hardware and software, including headsets, games, video content, development tools, and distribution platforms. It also plans toRead More →
White House releases 3D holiday tour
The White House has released a 360-degree virtual reality tour of its holiday decorations. On an Android smartphone, you can watch the tour in immersive virtual reality with a Google Cardboard set. On iPhones and standard desktop browsers, you can click-and-drag to look in different directions. It’s interesting because it’sRead More →
Mozilla releases A-Frame, an easy VR creation tool
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 →
Pros and cons of new Gear VR
My Samsung Gear VR arrived in the mail, and I’m super stoked. Now I get a chance to try all the cool virtual reality apps that aren’t available for Google Cardboard. And they are AWESOME. Okay, not as awesome as the HTC Vive was awesome — that was Star TrekRead More →
Baller Nation
US$13 per month for a 20,000-prim region on the Baller Nation grid. Vivox voice, hypergrid, in-world currency.Read More →
Five leading VR ecosystems
When investing in a new technology platform, whether that investment is in time or money, nobody wants to invest in a dead-end system. Businesses in particular that put all the eggs in the wrong basket aren’t just wasting their money. They’re also losing market opportunities to other companies which guessedRead More →
Exo-Life offers free IARs, OARs
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 →
Medical education going virtual
A new study predicts “by 2016, half of doctors will be using online and virtual platforms to earn online continuing medical education credits. Such a radical increase — in 2008 numbers put online continuing medical education at 7 to 9 percent – can be easily explained looking at the incredible technological advancements of the recentRead More →
Review of Powis: A step up from plain cardboard
I got my Powis virtual reality headset in the mail this weekend. Although the main body is made out of cardboard, it’s a couple of steps up from a standard Google Cardboard headset. The cardboard itself is sturdier, there’s a comfortable rubber edge where the headset meets your face, and eachRead More →
Kitely, Great Canadian hit size milestones
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 →
Review of Dscvr: Mostly overpriced plastic
I just received the Dscvr virtual reality headset in the mail, from manufacturer I Am Cardboard. At $30, this headset is a reasonable-priced upgrade by I Am Cardboard standards, which sells a plain cardboard headset for $20. But compared to the other headsets on the market, the Dscvr is tooRead More →