AltspaceVR, a social virtual reality platform, has launched a talk show focused on women in virtual reality that is taped before a live audience — well, live virtual audience. The show was launched on March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day, to celebrate and capture some of the wonderful storiesRead More →

It seems unfair, but there are some people out there who seem to have the trust of their customers, no matter how many times they let them down. And other, completely decent, honorable grids can’t seem to get any respect. Part of the problem is that many honest, reliable, hard-workingRead More →

Google Cardboard-compatible viewers are a great choice for people who want to experience VR but don’t want to shell out the hundreds of dollars that the big-name headsets cost. In fact, these viewers can start at just $5, and are pretty good for watching VR videos and playing casual games.Read More →

If your virtual reality headset doesn’t come with a QR Code, check this list to see if we’ve got your headset listed. Many headsets are sold under different brand names, so a QR code listed under a different brand name may work fine if the picture of the headset looksRead More →

Active user numbers on the OpenSim hypergrid  crossed the 80 percent share mark this month, reaching a new record high, while the hypergrid share of land area reached 95 percent, another new record high. The hypergrid gained 1,781 new active users to reach a new high of 30,655, or 81Read More →

The world seems to have hit a tipping point when it comes to immersive environments, and the pace of change is exploding. These changes have been dramatically reflected in the readership of this site over the past couple of months. My life is about to change dramatically as well. SoRead More →

It has often been the so-called vice industries that have driven forward new technologies. This will also be the case with virtual reality, where we are already seeing it shaking up the gambling sector. Sectors such as gambling were among the first business use cases for the internet, and tendRead More →

myVR, a social virtual reality platform from the folks at myWebRoom, has opened the platform to allow brands and marketers create and publish in-app branded experiences. For instance, companies can place branded videos and images on virtual televisions accessible by other users in the virtual rooms, game developers can availRead More →

One of the devices that generates the greatest interest among the tech community at the moment is Microsoft HoloLens. By revolutionizing the way we perceive reality-altering solutions, the technology that stands behind HoloLens is as fascinating as it is complex. In simple terms, it can be described as the mergingRead More →

My role in my school district, involves working directly with classroom teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade to help them create effective learning experiences with technology. Recently, I’ve become a fan of what virtual reality brings to the classroom. I came across CoSpaces through Twitter at the start of this school yearRead More →

Updated: January 19, 2018 Virtual reality is still in its very very very early stages. The headsets are bulky or uncomfortable, the interfaces aren’t really there yet, there isn’t that much content, and the experiences can sometimes give you motion sickness. But you need to try it anyway, and haveRead More →

Press release: vTime Now the Most Widely Available VR Social Network with Launch on Google Daydream Liverpool, UK –  vTime, the VR Sociable Network, today becomes the most widely-available VR social network in the world as it launches for Google Daydream. Used by people in 195 countries, vTime is theRead More →

More than 70 virtual and argumented reality companies will showcase their products, innovations and demos at CES 2017, starting this Thursday in Las Vegas. The full list of those exhibiting in the gaming and virtual reality category can be found here and include new virtual reality headsets, 3D cameras, motion and eyeRead More →

It seems that everyone has been getting virtual reality for Christmas — and posting the reaction videos on YouTube: And on Twitter… Holiday 2016 VR Reactions   Here at Hypergrid Business, we normally get between 3,000 and 4,000 people a day looking for Google Cardboard QR Codes — on Sunday, thatRead More →

I’ve been doing the stats report every month — without a break — since mid-2009. With nearly 300 active grids, many of which don’t have standard stats pages, the amount of work going into this has become unmanageable. It eats up parts of several days of my time, contacting everyone,Read More →

This past year has been a troubling one for OpenSim, with slowing growth rates and increasing concerns that OpenSim will be sidelined by advances in virtual reality platforms. Active users numbers went up, but at a slower rate than in any of the previous years, and a steep decline fromRead More →

An industry group and individual vendors are working to fix the problem of incompatibility across multiple virtual reality content hosting, distribution and advertising platforms. Currently, advertisers, publishers and brands often have to create native applications for each of the platforms to distribute and monetize content to as large audience asRead More →

If you missed the panels from last weekend’s OpenSim Community Conference, you can now catch up with some of them on YouTube. OpenSimulator Core Developer Panel A discussion of key issues facing OpenSim developers, with Avacon founder Joyce Bettencourt, OpenSimulator core developer Robert Adams, core developer Michael Cerquoni, OpenSim core developer andRead More →

It’s not too late to order virtual reality presents for the holidays — and they don’t have to cost a lot of money, either! Once you get your headset, click here for instructions on what to do next. Here are some of my favorites — and I’ve personally tried these,Read More →

According to a new survey by Parks Associates, nearly 50 percent of U.S. broadband households who try a virtual reality headset plan to buy one. In addition, 3.5 percent of broadband households, or about 3.4 million households, already own a virtual reality headset. Despite the recent media attention to virtual reality,Read More →

Press release: vTime Becomes The Most Widely Available Virtual Reality Social Network As It Launches on iPhone LIVERPOOL, U.K. – vTime, the VR Sociable Network, today brings its flagship mobile VR title to iPhone, making it the most widely-accessible social network in virtual reality. Available to download for free from the AppRead More →

Virtual reality pioneer Oculus will be releasing Quill, a free virtual reality drawing program when it launches its Touch controllers on December 6. Quill seems to be Oculus’ answer to Google’s award-winning Tilt Brush virtual reality drawing application, currently only available for the rival HTC Vive platform. Quill was first unveiled last January atRead More →

Updated: August 10, 2017 Do want to give a VR headset as a gift to someone with an iPhone — or buy one for yourself? You can. You won’t get the best possible mobile experience, however, since the two best headsets — the Samsung Gear VR and the Daydream ViewRead More →

Unlike Android VR games, which work reasonably well with standard, off-the-shelf Bluetooth controllers, iPhones are a bit more temperamental. Regular Bluetooth controllers don’t work. What you do get are some work-arounds, but they only work with a a tiny handful of the thousands of VR apps and games in the iPhoneRead More →

There are a lot of 360-degree videos out there and more arriving all the time. They seem to be a killer application for virtual reality. Even the lowest-cost mobile-based headsets — the kind you get for free in a cereal box — do a good job with 360-videos because they’reRead More →

Press release: Registration is now open for the 4th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference AvaCon is pleased to announce the third annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, to take place virtually on the OpenSimulator Conference Center grid on December 10 and 11, 2016. The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community surroundingRead More →

Search marketers can now use Google’s VR View, Street View and Cardboard Camera apps to capture, upload and optimize 360 degree videos, virtual reality videos and images for better and easier visibility on search engines with Street View and hence without the need for a native mobile application or virtual realityRead More →

Today, most virtual reality avatars are very basic, cartoony figures, with a limited range of motions and expressions. Vendors are working to change this, and make avatars more realistic, with facial expressions that reflect those of that actual users. The technology that makes it possible involves facial, body and eyeRead More →

Back in early October, I ran out and bought the new Google Pixel phone the day it came out, and immediately put through an order for my free Daydream View VR headset. Last week, as all the other tech journalists were writing their reviews, I had to sit and grindRead More →

Dacuda, a 3D scanning and room-scale virtual reality company is partnering with  brain technology company MindMaze on a new headset that will offer positional tracing and improve social interactions in virtual environments. The new MMI headset is due out later this year and will work with Android and iOS smartphones. It will useRead More →

SkyLifeGrid, launched after the most recent collapse of AviWorlds, has now merged with the Sinful Grid. However, SkyLife will continue offering hosting services, owner Josh Boam told Hypergrid Business, on the SkyLifeHosting.com website. SkyLifeGrid originally launched as Digitaleisure in late August with a controversial offer to migrate content from the AviWorldsRead More →

Press release: Space, a new virtual world, launched today with free regions LONDON — Space, a browser-based virtual world platform from Sine Wave Entertainment, opened to the public after two months of private beta and seven years of development with a free region offer. “Space is built for the creative community,” said Sine WaveRead More →

More big names names are jumping on the 360-degree video bandwagon. This fall, there were announcements from the NFL, the BBC, Sky, USA Today, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. National Football to launch new VR video program on Thanksgiving The National Football League, in partnership with Google and NextVR, announced last week that they are bringing NFLRead More →

Purdue University has received a patent for putting a picture of a nose at the bottom of a virtual reality display — and is selling the licenses to use this idea through partner Virtualis LLC. We normally all have the tip of our noses in our field of view, thoughRead More →

Disclosure: This camera was provided free by GeekBuying. After discovering that Chinese manufacturers were making some of the best Google Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headsets in the world, and at super low prices, I was curious if the same was true for 360-degree cameras, as well. So far, the answer seems toRead More →

AltspaceVR, a pioneering social virtual reality platform, announced today that it will be now offering virtual reality replays of live events. The full virtual reality environment is recorded, as well as the performances, so that future visitors will be able to experience the event as if they were there. “YouRead More →

Update: My daughter used the camera a couple of times, and then it stopped working. When she turns it on, the display window just says “Error” and it does not connect to WiFi or to its smartphone apps, and no combination of restarting or button pressing seems to make the messageRead More →

The US virtual reality market revenues will reach $38 billion in annual revenues by 2026, after an “inflection zone” over the next five years, according to Greenlight Insights, Inc. Of that, 62 percent, will be hardware revenues, and a third of total industry reviews will be in the enterprise marketing. On theRead More →

Thanks to the CoreVR option on the Matterport 3D application, real estate and hospitality companies who have Matterport Pro 3D cameras can now capture 3D models of their locations, upload them, and convert them into virtual reality for free until end of this year. Those spaces will then be ready forRead More →

Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs has given $10 million for a virtual reality project to the Washington Leadership Academy, a public charter school in the heart of Washington, D.C. The prize was one of ten such XQ Super School prizes awarded this year. “The prize money will be used inRead More →

There’s a battle raging now for who will be the dominant platform of the coming virtual reality metaverse. Facebook, which has been getting a big chunk of the media attention with the Oculus Rift Kickstarter and its $2 billion acquisition, has suffered a few blows lately, even as rival GoogleRead More →

Three things that you might not think go together — riding a Harley through the main drag at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, virtual reality, and the American Association of Retired Persons. But here’s the latest sign that virtual reality is rapidly becoming a new medium for all demographics and interest groups. WatchRead More →

Press release: University of Notre Dame and NextVR Deliver Football in Virtual Reality for the First Time Legendary collegiate football program teams with leading virtual reality content provider to present highlights from Oct. 15 Notre Dame vs. Stanford game NOTRE DAME, Ind. — University of Notre Dame football and NextVR,Read More →

Three 360 degree films — the Peal, Help and Real — demonstrated that immersive storytelling can pack a big emotional punch. The three films took the top prizes at the FIVARS 2016 Awards last month at the Virtual Reality Toronto event. The Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories featured 30 titlesRead More →

Press release: IMAX and ODEON & UCI Cinemas to launch first IMAX VR center in Europe Groundbreaking Agreement Ushers in Next-Generation of Immersive Entertainment Experiences to ODEON’s Printworks Multiplex in England LONDON – IMAX Corporation today announced an agreement with leading European exhibitor, ODEON & UCI Cinemas Group, to installRead More →

It was a busy week for virtual reality announcements this week. Following on Google’s Pixel and Daydream presentation earlier in the week, Oculus showed off new hardware and software at their annual Oculus Connect conference in San Jose. The company showed off new controllers, Watch the official Oculus Connect presentationsRead More →