Virtual Reality

Meta continues its reign as the XR industry’s dominant player, with its most recent moves signaling a shift into a new era for the company—and thus the industry at large. This year saw the introduction of the Meta Orion AR glasses prototype and the Quest 3S headset—two pieces of hardware that are not only crucial to Meta’s future but will be pivotal in shaping the industry’s direction as a whole.

One of Meta’s most significant announcements this year was the unveiling of the Meta Orion AR glasses prototype. Meta has long been signaling its ambitions in the AR space, and the Meta Orion prototype represents a major step toward that vision. With a compact form-factor and an impressive 70-degree field of view, Meta is aiming to push the boundaries of what AR hardware can achieve.

Meta’s Orion AR glasses stand as a benchmark for the state-of-the-art in AR glasses today. Unlike similarly sized AR devices—which suffer from a narrow field-of-view that make content appear constrained—Meta Orion’s 70-degree FoV is just scraping the boundary of ‘wide enough to be useful’. Achieving a compact form-factor and a wide field-of-view in the same package is crucial for making AR feel more seamless and practical in daily use.

It will be years yet before Meta ships something like Orion, but it’s an intentional ‘flag in the ground’ moment for the company.

According to several people directly involved in the production of components, Apple has significantly scaled back production of the Vision Pro since early summer, reports The Information. Luxshare, which assembles the Vision Pro, has been informed by Apple that production may cease in November. Currently, Luxshare is producing about 1,000 Vision Pro units per day, down from a peak of about 2,000 units per day.

According to The Information, this decision indicates that Apple has built up enough inventory to meet demand. So far, suppliers have produced components for about 500,000 to 600,000 headsets.

Market research firm Counterpoint Research estimates that Apple sold about 370,000 headsets in the first three quarters of this year and will sell only 50,000 more by the end of the year.

Apple is now focusing on a cheaper model, known internally as the N109, which could be released by the end of 2025. Apple plans to produce a total of 4 million units of the device, The Information reports, citing a person familiar with the supply chain.

Developed by VitruviusVR, Arken Age is a single-player action-adventure game that's been in development for three years. Set in a terraformed world called the Bio-Chasm that's "filled with unique lifeforms, strange artifacts, and endless danger," you're tasked with investigating the disappearance of this world's divine founder, the Grand Arborist.

The upcoming game promises 25 explorable areas across a 10-hour campaign where you play as a biological alien weapon. Arken Age uses physics-based combat through Arkenite-infused swords & guns to destroy the Hyperion threat, integrating features into your alien body like pickaxes, close-range melee weapons, and quickly deployable inventory items.

Hidden loot, collected scrap, and more can then be used for Hyperion Alloy, letting you purchase items like shields, grenades or ammo. Weapon blueprints are also available for crafting more powerful weapons, which you'll likely need upon encountering the different boss fights. A reinforcements console lets you deploy Hyperion squads as you see fit across the Bio-Chasm, letting you train further.

Arken Age arrives on January 16, 2025, on PSVR 2 and Steam.

An original adaptation of the flatscreen version of the game, Mudrunner VR takes you off the beaten track as you drive heavy all-terrain vehicles. Each comes with its own attachments and characteristics, as you journey across the landscape in an immersive driving simulator.

MudRunner VR launched earlier this year on Meta Quest and has since received updates, adding new content like a playable retro racer. The next update will introduce full locomotion to immerse yourself in the world of MudRunner VR even more. That's arriving with the Steam version and as a free update on Quest today. UploadVR has been informed the Steam release doesn't support steering wheels. At launch, the PC VR version includes eight vehicles, various sandbox environments, and perilous jobs to complete as you survive the harsh terrain. If you like what you hear, Saber Interactive is also offering a MudRunner bundle with both the flatscreen version and the VR version. There's also a story mode for those who want to experience a campaign in this world. MudRunner VR is out now on Steam for $20.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth revealed last week a mysterious wide field-of-view (FOV) headset prototyped in the Redmond, Washington-based Reality Labs offices. Bosworth now reveals the research prototype had something close to a 210-degree FOV, however wide FOV displays are a critical tradeoff the company isn’t ready to make.

And if you were hoping this was the wide FOV Quest yet to come, you’ll probably be disappointed. Bosworth revealed in a recent Instagram Q&A the device is actually a mixed reality headset, however he tempered expectations by calling the prototype “very, very, very low resolution,” which notably featured “giant gaps in the display where there was no image at all.”

Bosworth intimated Meta won’t be chasing after such a wide FOV because there are simply too many conflicting tradeoffs.

“I know how much ya’ll love field-of-view and want more. I’m with you. I like it. I get it, I do. The tradeoffs are so bad. The tradeoffs on weight, form factor, compute, thermals… it’s all bad,” Bosworth said in the Q&A.

A few months ago, Blade and Sorcery's PC version received its 1.0 update, with no launch date for the standalone Nomad in sight. After months of hard work, developer Warpfrog is bringing the 1.0 content to Blade and Sorcery: Nomad, alongside the launch of Citadel, which has been a PC-exclusive map for years.

The 1.0 update adds Crystal Hunt, a progression game mode for those seeking a campaign-based mode. There's also the introduction of skill trees, more spell combinations, and plenty of exciting skills to use for the first time.

This day 1 review can only deserve laughter, after all I have gone insane and I applaude HTC for making someone want to be in an insane asylum after mere hours of use.

Introduction

Obvious disclaimer: I've only had the headset for one day. I'm not a VR expert by any stretch, but I've spent some quality time with the Pico 4 and the Quest 3. So, naturally, I thought, "How bad could the HTC Vive Focus Vision be?" Spoiler alert: I was about to find out.

Moments after pre-ordering the Focus Vision, I stumbled upon discussions criticizing its lenses. "Bad lenses?" I mused. "How bad could they really be?" Oh boy, was I in for an eye-opening—or rather, eye-straining—experience.

Initial Setup

Setting up the headset was like assembling flat-pack furniture without the instruction manual. Sure, I got there in the end, but not without some unnecessary improvisation.

Controller Pairing: The controllers seemed to play hard to get, requiring a bit of back-and-forth before finally agreeing to pair. It felt like trying to connect with a moody teenager. Wi-Fi Issues

The headset's relationship with Wi-Fi was complicated, to say the least.

Despite my Wi-Fi 6E network broadcasting loud and clear, the headset acted like it didn't exist. Other devices connected effortlessly, but the Vive Focus Vision remained blissfully unaware.

After connecting to a secondary 5 GHz network and performing an update, the headset had a brief moment of clarity and recognized the Wi-Fi 6E network—for about 20 minutes. Then it went back to pretending it didn't know it. Battery Performance

The battery life was shorter than your average toddlers attention span.

Within 30 minutes, I received a low battery warning, even though I started at 90%. Impressive, if the goal was to set a record for fastest battery depletion. Maybe it would have lasted longer if i had put on Subway Surfers and a car jumping GTA platforms? Plugging in the charger didn't help; the battery continued its dramatic decline until the headset shut down. Apparently, charging is just a suggestion. The device seemed to come with a hidden "sauna mode," causing the battery to overheat. It’s nice to have warm hands, but not at the expense of functionality. The charger is 1.5 meters long, the first time in my life I wish I was a Pygmy. Lens quality, eye strain

Now, let's talk about the lenses—or as I like to call them, the "portal to migraine town."

The visual clarity was so poor that I double-checked to see if I'd accidentally left the protective cover on. Spoiler: I hadn't. Struggling to focus on the indistinct visuals led to significant eye strain. After a short session, I had a headache that could rival any caused by staring directly at the sun. Software and Interface Challenges

Navigating the headset's software was an adventure in frustration.

Every time I took off and put on the headset, it insisted on showing the IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment screen, commandeering the entire display. It was as if the headset had trust issues with my eyes. Could you not just do the calibration and get on with it? My play space chair faces away from the calibration direction. This meant that accessing the menus required me to stand up and perform a 180-degree turn each time—a great workout, but not ideal for convenience. The wireless streaming experience was akin to watching a slideshow over a shaky dial-up connection. Jitters and lag were the norm, a stark contrast to the smooth sailing with the Quest 3. Exiting SteamVR and turning off the headset caused it to reboot SteamVR, like a clingy app that just can't take a hint. Gaming performance

The gaming experience left much to be desired—and that's putting it kindly.

The frame rates seemed to have an aversion to climbing above 40 FPS, except when I was navigating the menus (which, admittedly, were stunning at this point). Tweaking the graphics settings to their lowest didn't improve matters; perhaps the headset was determined to keep things cinematic. I normally run 80 stable in most games. Enabling face tracking and eye tracking features turned my 7800X3D CPU into a furnace, with usage consistently over 90%. The eye tracking had a mind of its own. If I so much as blinked, my eyes in VRChat would jump around like it was imitating my REM sleep patterns. The face tracker had commitment issues, randomly stopping its function. Unplugging and re-plugging became my new VR ritual. Convenience and usability

Convenience was clearly not a priority in the headset's design.

Controllers: In my mixed VR setup (Quest 3 with Index controllers and Vive 3.0 trackers), I couldn't find a way to turn off the Vive Focus Vision controllers. To avoid controller conflicts in SteamVR, I resorted to hiding them out of sight, like a parent hiding candy from a child. The streaming software incessantly nudged me to set the quality to "Auto." When I obliged, the visual output transformed into a grainy mosaic, reminiscent of a pixelated 8-bit game. Nostalgic? Maybe. Helpful? Not at all. Conclusion

In summary, the HTC Vive Focus Vision offers a VR experience that's more comical than immersive—but not in a good way. Between the battery that drains faster than a leaky faucet, the lenses that could double as a blur filter in Photoshop, and the software quirks that test the limits of patience and sanity, it's hard to recommend this headset over competitors like the Quest 3.

Unless you're in the market for a new headache or enjoy troubleshooting as a hobby, you might want to explore other options. After all, VR is supposed to be a gateway to other worlds—not a source of eye strain and frustration.

I tested in total with 5 games on BOTH headsets: VRChat, DCS, MSFS2020, Pavlov and VTOLVR. The Vive and its streaming software (shitware) didn’t stand a chance. I’m returning tomorrow, and I will never look back to HTC.

The listing on User Interviews, spotted by VR enthusiast Luna, is titled 'Project Pismo: Opportunity to Test NEW Tech On-Site (SF Bay Area)', and the location is listed as a Meta building in Burlingame, California.

The listing describes a "wearable tech device that will record their facial expressions and eye movements, as well as voice capture". The title is particularly interesting because according to a July report from The Information, Pismo is the codename for the in-development Quest 4 family of headsets, consisting of a budget model and a premium model codenamed Pismo Low and Pismo High.

From the first moment you see your pointy ears casting a shadow onto the ground in front of you, Camouflaj invites you to say "I'm Batman." 2016's Arkham VR from Rocksteady was disappointingly brief, and it left me wanting a full-length game for a long time. Following Camouflaj's work on Iron Man VR, it's immediately clear that Arkham Shadow understands the assignment.

What follows is a compelling tale that's thoroughly gripped me as a Batman fan, and we find Gotham City besieged by the mysterious Rat King, whose followers threaten to execute them in a "Day of Wrath." While it's set before Asylum, Shadow can be played without prior knowledge of the series, though long-term fans may be pleased to find a few references to Origins throughout.

Huawei is launching several products next week and one of these could be a VR headset. The company might unveil its long-rumored Virtual Reality device on October 22 to compete with the Apple Vision Pro in the Chinese consumer market.

VR or Virtual Reality headset is a head-mounted device. It offers immersive virtual experiences through a 3D near-eye display (lenses). The display uses key technologies like positional tracking to generate a virtual environment for the user.

A new input says that Huawei may launch its first high-end VR headset next week. The company has been in the news for its secretive VR device since February 2024. Many tipsters said the OEM has a dynamic headset in the pipeline.

Now it seems we don’t have to wait much to see the amazing Virtual Reality headset. Huawei hasn’t announced any details or teased the device so far. Thus, let’s hold patience till October 22 launch event for an official confirmation on this matter.

Some early leaks have claimed that Huawei’s VR device would be far better, lighter, and more cost-effective than Apple Vision Pro. According to the former executive of Meizu Li Nan, the Huawei VR headset will equip a Sony 4K micro-OLED screen.

This display panel might have the same capabilities as the Apple Vision Pro. Also, the device could use Huawei’s self-developed chipset and weigh 350 grams.

Two weeks ago, the studio released the acclaimed VR platformer Max Mustard for Playstation VR 2. It was first released for Meta Quest six months ago and on Steam on 16 October.

In a Reddit post, the studio thanked PSVR 2 players for the positive reception of the VR game, writing

"Now we all know that the PSVR2 hasn’t quite received the attention or hardware sales it truly deserves, with approximately 2,000,000 units shipped (10% that of Quest). Despite being a fraction of the market, Max Mustard has sold BETTER on PSVR2 during the first two weeks of launch than it did on Meta Quest. We thought this was an interesting statistic that breaks the norm of what the industry is seeing."

It's unclear where this number comes from. VR studios like Toast Interactive should know the approximate size of the ecosystems they develop for, so it's unlikely the numbers are completely made up. Meta is known to have sold more than 20 million Quest headsets by March 2023.

Half-Life: Alyx (2020) is one of the most moddable VR games out there, which has spawned high-quality DLC and some impressively detailed levels. Now, the developer behind the ‘Gunman Contracts’—one of the best HLA mods out there—says we’re getting a full, standalone title next year.

Called Gunman Contracts – Stand Alone, the single player game is heading for Steam Early Access sometime next year, which is said to include core features such as customizable weapons, shooting challenges, and demo areas.

While initially announced last year with release targeting early 2024, Gunman Contracts mod developer ‘ANB_Seth’ announced they’re now teaming up with games publisher 2080 Games, which was founded by Mike from YouTube channel Virtual Reality Oasis.

2080 Games is partially funding the development of the title, allowing the solo developer to focus on creating the game full-time.

From October 14–21, Steam Next Fest is giving you the chance to try out a number of PC VR games for free. In total, there are 52 demos available. We present four exciting titles that couldn't be more different. All other demos can be found at the source link below the article.

Cold VR — Like Superhot, only in reverse

Cold VR is a fast-paced VR shooter that reverses the concept of time and motion in its mechanics, reminiscent of Superhot VR: time only stands still when you move. This results in a dynamic and chaotic gameplay that keeps you on the move and challenges your ability to react.

Final Fury: The VR Street Fighter in first-person perspective

Final Fury, from the developers of Synth Riders, brings the classic arcade fighting game experience to virtual reality. You step into the arena as a fighter and use your physical movements to perform combos and attacks. Thanks to online multiplayer, you can compete against other players around the world.

All on Board: A must-have for board game fans

The creators of the Blasphemous series bring the world of classic board games into virtual reality with All on Board. You can play original licensed board games in an immersive environment alone or with friends around the world. In addition to the award-winning Terraforming Mars, Richard Garfield's The Hunger, Escape The Dark Castle, Rallyman GT, The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls and Istanbul are also available as full versions. More titles will follow via post-release updates

From indie studio OP Softworks comes Clamb, an upcoming VR game that maroons you on an island with one goal: clamber up the mountain with your sledgehammer—that, and don’t fall.

You’d think things would actually be easier in VR than controlling the wibbly 2D sidescroller original because you have more direct control and have more flexibility in your movements. But after having played the free SteamVR demo, I can safely say that’s not true. At all.

Quest 3S is available in two storage models, 128GB for $300 or 256GB for $400. Both models come with the same Touch Plus controllers included with Quest 3. Alternatively, people in the US can get a Quest 3S from $20/month for 128GB ($25/month for 256GB) over two years, which includes the Meta Quest+ games subscription service and Meta Warranty Plus.

This information is shockingly hard to find, and redditors are as confidently, vigorously clueless and unhelpful as always.

A lot of VR mods for flatscreen games are pretty lazily thrown together, so it's on the user to configure everything correctly. There has to be a general recommended number for first person games on the Quest 3's display, right?

Stress Level Zero's Brandon J Laatsch described inside-out body tracking as "the most game changing feature of VR hardware since tracked controllers in 2016", and said "Other hardware players either need to step up and develop it or concede the space to those who do because it will create an insurmountable divide." […]

IOBT shipped in December. However, almost a year later it's still only used by a tiny handful of standalone apps, including Swordsman VR, Drunkn Bar Fight, XRWorkout, and FastHands. In fact Meta's own new avatar system doesn't even use IOBT.

But until recently, the only way to build XR apps for Meta's headsets was with a game engine, such as Unity or Unreal, and Meta didn't provide any kind of UI framework for either. This is why many apps on your iPhone use the system design language, while every app on Quest, even the most basic experiences, the UI feels completely different, often custom-made by the developer or imported from the Unity Asset Store.

Meta has finally released a solution to this. It's called the Horizon OS UI Set, part of v69 of the Meta XR Interaction SDK for Unity, and provides Unity developers with the components to build interfaces that feel cohesive with Horizon OS.

According to the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is still on track to launch the lower end Apple Vision headset as early as next year. He says it’ll cost around $2000.

Apple debuted Apple Vision Pro earlier this year at $3499, but it seems the company is still quickly trying to figure out a successor. Some reports earlier this year suggested that Apple had halted Vision Pro development to focus on the cheaper headset, and that still seems to be the case – likely because Vision Pro’s premium price tag puts spatial computing out of reach for many.

Gurman says that the lower-end headset will probably use an inferior processor and cheaper materials. Vision Pro is currently equipped with an M2 chip, so I could see Apple equipping an A series chipset on the cheaper headset, like the A18 Pro – which is about as fast as an M1. As for materials, there’ll likely be more plastic involved, rather than fully being aluminum and glass.

The report also says that the headset will likely drop the EyeSight feature introduced on Apple Vision Pro, which uses lenticular displays to pass through the users eyes to the outside of the headset, allowing people around them to still “see” their eyes. It was a little gimmicky in my opinion, but an interesting feature. However, it was costly to have another display on the outside, and that display will be gone on the cheaper headset.

Apple reportedly expects the cheaper Apple Vision headset to sell twice as well as Apple Vision Pro, which isn’t saying much. Apple Vision Pro 2 is also on track for 2026 with a faster chipset.

The selloff came just weeks after Shiftall announced a new headset, MeganeX superlight, after failing to deliver the original MeganeX it teased in 2022 and said it would ship in 2023.

And as unbelievable as it may sound, Shiftall is doing it again. It won't actually be shipping the MeganeX superlight it announced earlier this year, and instead opened preorders for a new "MeganeX superlight 8K".

The Avalanche app can be wishlisted, but not actually redeemed or purchased, and thus can't be downloaded or used. The store lists the app's release date as 24 July 2024, three months ago, which may be the time it was uploaded to the store system. The store page description reads "Download to test out the latest cloud streamed titles on Avalanche", and its images include screenshots of Lone Echo, a blockbuster Oculus Rift game from 2017 that hasn't been ported to Quest, as well as Beat Saber and the Unreal Engine's City Sample.

Between 2016 and 2021 Facebook invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ship a number of PC Oculus Rift blockbusters like Lone Echo and Asgard's Wrath. While these games can be played on Quest today via a gaming PC over Wi-Fi or USB, most Quest users don't own a gaming PC. Avalanche being listed on the store may suggest Meta is getting closer to releasing it as a product, bringing these games to a much wider audience.

Of course, the experience of cloud streaming heavily depends on the quality of the user’s internet connection. There is a potential for high latency if the server is far away, and for judder caused by packet loss if the connection quality is poor. In late 2020 John Carmack had this to say, comparing it to local network streaming: “obviously it’s even worse, obviously more people are going to find that unacceptable and it will be a terrible experience for more people, but still I am quite confident that for some people in some situations it’s still going to be quite valuable”.

We've seen free apps like Rec Room achieve a large install base outside VR, but Walkabout Mini Golf may be one of the first to make the leap from VR to iPhone as a paid app featuring private rooms for multiplayer connecting to all major VR headsets.

I flew all the way to Tokyo, Japan to check out the future of high-end PCVR gaming: the MeganeX superlight 8k! The device is the first 4k microOLED panel headset that will come to consumers! Find out everything you need to know about the headset and see my very first impressions of it!

The question that everyone is asking is answered. FOV is around 100.