Today Oculus announced that its SDK for the Rift supports Asynchronous Timewarp (ATW). While that sounds like something that keeps the TARDIS from smashing into a star, it's actually going to make virtual reality seem so much smoother.
Source: Oculus
Let's face it: if you grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, you probably see virtual reality as just a stepping stone toward the Holy Grail of simulation, the Holodeck. It's no surprise, then, that Reddit users illogical_cpt and Bradllez have found a way to bring the Holodeck to VR. Thanks in part to work from Psyrek, they built a Holodeck grid for Steam VR that serves as an extremely appropriate background while you're between games. It's not going to be as vast or immersive as the "real" thing, and you'll need a compatible headset (like the HTC Vive) to even give this a try. Still, it's a pleasant reminder that science fiction and reality are much closer than they used to be.
Via: Kotaku
Source: Steam (1), (2), Reddit
Matt Hughes took his own life in the fall of 2012. He was a freelance reporter covering the video game industry, and before he committed suicide, he sent emails to some of his editors, noting that he wouldn't be able to turn in more stories for one simple reason: He'd be dead.
His suicide surprised nearly everyone who worked with him. Speaking with Kotaku days after Hughes' death, his former editors said things like There weren't any red flags and This was a complete shock. Hughes wasn't the only person in the video game industry to take his own life that year, and as the tragedies piled up, it became impossible to ignore their commonalities. Complete surprise. No one knew. She seemed fine.
For Russ Pitts and Susan Arendt, two editors who had worked with Hughes and regularly interacted with dozens of other freelance reporters, these suicides were more than a shock. They were a wakeup call.
Unlike on other platforms that have access to most every song in the franchise's archives, Rock Band 4 for the PC comes with no previous DLC content. As such, Harmonix has added an additional tier to its fan-funded Fig campaign that would give backers at that level every single song in the Rock Band DLC library. The only hitch: you're going to have to shell out a whopping $2,500 for it. Well, that and the campaign still needs to raise another 2/3rds of its $1.5 million funding goal in the next 11 days.
Via: Polygon
Source: Harmonix (Fig)
When Street Fighter V launched last month, it was criticised by the press and fans alike for its lack of in-game content. The engine and mechanics were solid, but it lacked the story mode, tutorials and several online features present in Street Fighter IV. While not a complete fix, a free patch dropping on March 28th should add some of the worst omissions. A new Challenge Mode, for instance, will add "demonstration" tutorials aimed at beginner, intermediate and advanced players. These will culminate in "trials" designed to test your knowledge of basic and pro combos.
Source: Capcom Unity
Mixed reality games -- which combine VR and AR -- are about to become very mainstream when the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets ship in just a few days. For Twitch streamers who want to do justice to the first wave of such games, there are myriad new technical challenges (and costs). Luckily, the team that brought the us the delightful mixed reality building game Fantastic Contraption has put together a guide on streaming in the new format.
Source: Northway Games