The DigiWorldz grid has rolled out a new viewer for its residents, based on the Alchemy Viewer, and included Qarl’s mesh deformer functionality. The mesh deformer is a crowd-funded project that successfully raised more than $5,000 from users in Second Life and OpenSim on Indiegogo in 2011. In 2013, InWorldz hired formerRead More →

Dahlia Trimble, an OpenSim core developer who’s been with the project since the summer of 2008, announced today that she is leaving. “I am sad to announce that I will be leaving OpenSimulator Core,” she told fellow developers. “I’ve been finding lately that I no longer have a use forRead More →

Press release: OSVR Confirms Pre-order Date for Hacker Development Kit; Launches Content Discovery Platform Software platform reveals 65 new supporting companies including Legendary VR and NVIDIA’s Gameworks VR BERLIN – Organizers of Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR), an open software and hardware platform for virtual reality, today announced development ofRead More →

Update 2: The community meeting transcript is here, and the Bright Canopy service will probably be coming back only for a limited number of users until the Amazon price fluctuations are dealt with. Update: The company will hold a community meeting Saturday morning in Second Life to answer user questions.Read More →

The world’s first full-length feature film to be shot completely in 360 degrees, “Career Opportunities in Organized Crime,” has begun filming in Baltimore. A documentary-style comedy about the Russian mafia, the movie is helmed by first-time director Alexander Oshmyansky, and features mostly unknown actors. The movie is scheduled to be released next year.Read More →

Although the first consumer version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is not scheduled to be released until the first quarter of 2016, some Hypergrid Business readers have shelled out for one of the preview developer kits — or know someone who has. If you’re one of these lucky people, here are sevenRead More →

Press release: ReelTime Revolutionizes Virtual Reality – Launches ReelTime VR Mobile App Worldwide Featuring Megs McLean SPRING HILL, FL – ReelTime announces the release of the ReelTime VR app and production suite, and a virtual reality film of country artist Megs McLean. ReelTime VR is available as a free app for iPhone, Android, and BlackberryRead More →

Technology altering the way companies conduct business is nothing new. From devices like iPads, to the use of social media as a marketing tool, advances in technology have made running businesses more efficient. Now there is another emerging technology that is delivering promising results in every industry that’s tested it—virtualRead More →

The United Nations teamed up with Vice News and the VRSE virtual reality platform to deliver a new documentary about Ebola, Waves of Grace. The documentary can be watched online as a standard 360-degree video, or in immersive virtual reality by those who have Gear VR or a Google Cardboard-compatibleRead More →

Although some Vive virtual reality headsets will be shipping late this year, most consumers probably won’t see them until 2016, according to a press release. “Later this year, HTC will offer the first commercial Vive units via a limited quantity of community and developer systems, with larger quantities shipping inRead More →

It’s been a good-news, bad-news summer for Virwox, the European virtual currency exchange that used to dominate third-party Linden Dollar trading. On August 1, all third party Linden Dollar trading officially came to an end. And, before that, the Avination grid cut off its ties with Virwox, and warned users not to trade theRead More →

Storytelling is a valuable form of human expression that has been around since the very ancient times. Story itself is essential to so many art forms, and theater is one of them. We have written before about how virtual reality could be applied to journalism and immersive storytelling. Theatrical “storytellers” are yetRead More →

Press release: Scienverse creates virtual reality world that combines VR apps and social network; Kickstarter campaign starts in 2 weeks THE HAGUE – Scienverse officially announces its project of creating a virtual reality world built with Unreal Engine 4 that provides a platform for third-party virtual reality applications combined with a nextRead More →

Editor’s Note: AviWorlds, an OpenSim-based virtual world, launched a sister hosting company in late June, Avi-Labs. At Hypergrid Business, we’ve been hesitant to recommend it because it had no track record and no customers, and its parent company has a long and turbulent history of instability. Today, however, we have aRead More →

Kitely, the largest commercial OpenSim grid, has rolled out a new region monitoring tool for its users, and published a new guide for detecting and fixing world performance problems. The grid has also added a Web-based option to manually stop a running world, the grid announced earlier this week. “As aRead More →

What better way to marketing a Canadian independent science-fiction horror musical than with a creepy virtual reality trailer? Load up this video in a immersive headset — like one of those in our big virtual reality headset list here — and keep an eye on the creepy guy sitting inRead More →

  When Zumba burst on to the scene in the early 2000s, it dramatically changed fitness in America. The company cemented its place as a juggernaut within its industry through innovative practices, and its founders haven’t lost that sense of innovation. Today, the company is exploring how to keep theRead More →

Since June, Wells Fargo has been putting virtual reality Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 headsets on consumers at local events across America as the San Francisco bank works to build brand awareness in a fun way. It’s called the Together Experience tour, and has consumers playing a virtual maze game andRead More →

Bright Canopy will come out of invitation-only pre-release phase on August 29 and will make its Second Life cloud-based streaming service available globally for $17 a month. The Texas-based company allows users of the globally popular virtual world Second Life the means to enjoy it without the need to invest in high-end gamingRead More →

Upload VR and Greenlight VR has ranked companies by venture capital investment, and Magic Leap was in the lead with nearly $600 million of total investment. The ranking was based on a Greenlight VR report released in late July. In the past five years — not including acquisitions such asRead More →

Zero Latency opened the doors of the world’s first virtual reality gaming arena in Melbourne, Australia yesterday. Players carry a backpack containing a computer and wear an Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 headset and carry a gun controller. Sessions are 50-minutes each, and run in the evenings and weekends forRead More →

Press release: Unity Technologies Unveils Vision Virtual and Augmented Reality Summit SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Unity Technologies announced Vision Virtual and Augmented Reality Summit, a new conference focusing on the development of Virtual and Augmented Reality products across industries with the mission of bringing together artists, engineers, programmers, designers, musicians, directorsRead More →

Despite the August heat — at least, here in the northern hemisphere — total region counts, user numbers, and monthly actives were all up in OpenSim. Or perhaps it was because of the heat, as people opted to stay inside, at their computers, in the air conditioning. There are nowRead More →

The Kitely Market hit another milestone this month, with a new total of 10,162 different item listings grouped into 5,030 different products. This is up from 9,971 different listings a month ago. Of the listings, 6,080 are exportable, or 60 percent. Kitely groups items together, so that, say, a red versionRead More →

As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to use a smartphone-and-Cardboard combo as an Oculus Rift replacement so that I could walk around my OpenSim builds without having to shell out $350 for the Oculus development kit. It’s not that I’m cheap — okay, yes, I’m cheap — butRead More →

Restaurant owners looking for an edge in a crowded market and hungry diners that would like more, or better detailed information about eateries now have a virtual reality option. Recently, YouVisit launched YouVisit Restaurants as a free app for the Samsung Gear VR headset. The app allows anyone with aRead More →

For many years, former IBMer Justin Clark-Casey has been the eternally-youthful face of OpenSimulator development and the president of the Overte Foundation which oversees OpenSim licensing issues. Then, on Sunday, the Justin Era ended with a post on his blog, Everything that has a beginning has an end, in which he saidRead More →

There are many reasons why a region might be slow to load, but one of the hardest to address has been that of slow scripts. OpenSim doesn’t make it easy to discover which particular scripts are contributing the most to lag — but that is about to change. Kitely hasRead More →

  The British band Foals recently released the first music video filmed entirely with GoPro’s new virtual reality spherical camera. Android users with Google Cardboard-compatible headsets can watch the entire video, “Mountain At My Gates,” in immersive virtual reality, but the video can also be seen in traditional 360-degree mode as well. Click here toRead More →

Press release: 3rd Rock Grid to transition to Podex 3rd Rock Grid is going through a number of changes as part of a transition to a new ownership model. One of the changes will be to transition away from directly managing their currency, the Geode, otherwise known as the GO$.Read More →

Update: In August, I bought a FiiT VR 2S, and that is now my new favorite. Another headset I’m recommending is the BoboVR Z4 headset, which has a 120-degree field of view, built-in headphones, and a built-in control button. A new virtual reality headset came in the mail for me today, the C1-Glass fromRead More →

The Transport Systems Catapult, one of seven technology innovation centers established by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, has opened a “Visualisation Laboratory” in the town of Milton Keynes where virtual reality technology will be used to help generate innovation and overcome problems in the UK’s transport network. The laboratory is builtRead More →

Sphericam, a mid-range 360-degree camera, completed its Kickstarter today with over $460,000 raised on a campaign target of $150,000. This means the project achieved its first two stretch goals — producing the camera in multiple colors, and making it dust-proof and water-resistant. The tennis-ball-sized camera was priced at between $1,300Read More →

Most people who’ve traveled the hypergrid have had the experience of not being able to bring stuff back home, or of mysteriously not being able to take content to other grids. Recently, a number of different OpenSim developers have taken on the fight, and have been reporting progress. Crista LopesRead More →

I’ve never sat through an entire presentation dedicated to the launch of a new phone before, and I probably never will again. But the OnePlus 2 launch last night, from Chinese firm OnePlus, was an unusually compelling and intimate experience. Presented completely in virtual reality — or, for those withoutRead More →

AltspaceVR, which offers multi-user virtual reality software, announced that it raised an additional $10.3 million in venture capital, bringing total funding to $15.7 million. “We’re working hard to make AltspaceVR the most natural and fulfilling way to communicate online, and the additional resources will help us get there faster,” theRead More →

Combined revenue for head mounted displays, and virtual reality accessories and content will increase from $108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 142 percent, according to a new report from Tractica. “Getting users to experience virtual reality technology firsthand, and therefore trulyRead More →

The Immersive Education Initiative today announced the official IMMERSION 2015 speakers, exhibits, presentations, and workshops. Featuring nearly 100 sessions about virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, wearable computing, brain interfaces, and more, IMMERSION 2015 is open to the public from 7 September to 10 September. Day passes  are available forRead More →

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Nokia today announced OZO, the first commercially available virtual reality  camera designed and built for professional content creators and the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions from Nokia Technologies, the company’s advanced technology and licensing business. “We’re thrilled to introduce OZO to theRead More →

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – Epic Games, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity based in London, has concluded the Big Data VR Challenge, awarding $20,000 to LumaPie. This international team created a VR visualization of study results of environmental and genetic factors that have shaped the development theRead More →

Let me tell you how my sales demo goes. At first, clients design a house extension using a simple web app, which also offers  a real-time 3D preview. People get excited because they see form and factor evolving interactively, and they can really imagine what their house extension will lookRead More →

The Adult Metaverse community on Google Plus was the fastest-growing OpenSim community over the last two months, gaining 121 new members for a new total of 866 users. OpenSim Virtual was in second place, with 108 new members for a new total of 1,511. This meant that OpenSim Virtual comfortably retained its place asRead More →

So you want to try out some of the new virtual reality apps coming out, or you want to watch movies in 3D, but aren’t quite ready to shell out real money for a real headset. I don’t blame you. The technology is evolving quickly — by the time the headset arrives,Read More →

Late last year, Destination British Columbia filmed British Columbia’s raw wilderness with 360-degree cameras to create The Wild Within VR Experience for the Oculus Rift. If you don’t happen to have an Oculus Rift developers kit, you can watch the behind-the-scenes video below about how the virtual reality experience was filmed.Read More →

The world’s first virtual reality product launch — for the OnePlus Two smartphone — is scheduled for 7 p.m. Pacific on Monday, July 27, and the app is now available for download from the Google Play store. The app works in combination with a Google Cardboard or other compatible virtualRead More →

AviWorlds, a grid best known for closing repeatedly with no warning, is on a mission to rehabilitate its public image as a member of the OpenSim community. The grid has hired OpenSim developer Quill Littlefeather, has begun donating code and patches to the OpenSimulator project, and is offering custom viewersRead More →

Car companies have been getting into virtual test drives lately. There’s the Volvo XC90 Experience, for example. And Mercedes VR for Cardboard for Android phones. And Subaru Motorsports, also for Android — look for the videos with the 360 symbol, and select the virtual reality headset mode. But this Castrol EDGERead More →