The Trends and Takeaways From the WebXR Business Summit

vrcoin on September 17, 2021

The WebXR Business Summit took place this Tuesday, September 14, in the familiar “meta-multiverse.” Put on by the same outfit that presents the Poly Awards, the summit featured dozens of industry experts in 20 talks over eight hours and streamed on several 2D social media sites as well as Hubs, ENGAGE, AltspaceVR, and other immersive environments. Topics covered in the marathon session included everything from economics to ethics. While we weren’t able to cover everything, some of the day’s highlights and takeaways are presented below. Why WebXR? “When I was starting out, there weren’t a lot of people in the field and all of the cool kids in XR were telling me that the browser was dead,” event host Samantha Mathews said in her opening remarks. “But the web has a magical way of closing the gap between physical and virtual experiences … to me, the 3D web solves the

Things People Ask You as a Writer Covering XR Technology

vrcoin on August 16, 2021

XR technology is a fascinating world to live and work in. When you write about XR and emerging technology, people ask a lot of questions; some more often than others. If you have questions that you’ve always wanted to ask a writer in this field, answers to your questions may be found below. If you’re a writer in the space, you may relate to this article in amusing and insightful ways. If you work in XR technology, these are the questions that are really on the minds of people on the street. What Is AR? If I were writing this article three or four years ago, “What Is VR?” would have probably been at the top of the list. However, it’s been some time since anyone asked me this question. People seem to (think they) have a pretty solid understanding of what VR is. However, this doesn’t seem to be

XRA and Perkins Coie Release 2021 XR Industry Survey

vrcoin on August 2, 2021

The XR industry is a young one, making surveys and reports crucial. Recently, those reports have been… complicated. For months, reports started with a line explaining that responses were compiled before the pandemic, so they may not accurately reflect the industry. Then, the line changed to explain that responses were compiled during the pandemic, so they may not accurately reflect the industry. Perkins Coie and the XR Association’s most recent report is fresh with a practical shelf-life. The Survey and Why We Need It As we emerge from the pandemic, the XR Industry Insider: 2021 XR Survey may give us a look at how XR may work in the “new normal” rather than telling us what the industry looked like before or during the height of the pandemic. Their key takeaway is one that many readers likely came up with on their own: “Far from upending the industry’s momentum of

The XR Week Peek (2021.07.26): Facebook aims at the Metaverse, Quest 2 goes MR, and more!

vrcoin on July 26, 2021

I’m incredibly happy about having been hosted by Sebastian Ang (MRTV), one of my favorite VR content creators, in his weekly podcast on Youtube! We spoke about AR and VR for 2 hours and we were having so much fun that we could have gone on for other 2 hours without problems! If you want to watch the video of the recording, you can find it here: [embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=6VSE1i1fFCI&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent[/embed] And now, let’s start speaking about the best AR/VR news of the week! Top news of the week (Image by Facebook)Zuckerberg says that in 5 years Facebook will be a “metaverse company” The most viral XR article of the week has been an interview that Mark Zuckerberg had with The Verge. It’s a long post, in which Mark details the vision for the future of XR and for the “metaverse” that Facebook is going to follow in the upcoming years. Notwithstanding

The XR Week Peek (2021.07.13): Lynx now aims at the consumer market, App Lab to enable DLCs, and more!

vrcoin on July 13, 2021

Sorry if this newsletter is one day late. Probably I should tell you that I was busy with VR projects, but the truth is that I have been celebrating a lot lately, especially the recent victory of Italy in the Euro 2020 soccer championship. I have watched the final match with friends and we had a lot of fun, plus I felt that feeling of friendship, union, and happiness, that only sport can convey to people. Honor to all the other countries, some of them probably deserved more than us, but I think Italy won because we were a true team, a group of people that supported each other for a goal they craved to reach. We won with our heart, the big heart of us Italians ❤. Ok, enough with football… let’s get back to AR and VR… Top news of the week (Image by Lynx)Lynx now aims at an MR

VRdirect to Bring Competition in Training and Virtual Tours

vrcoin on July 12, 2021

Most XR companies aren’t afraid of some healthy competition. Hopefully, the virtual tours field can take a little more pressure, as German solution VRdirect plans an impending expansion to the US and UK. We got our hands on a demo and talked to Managing Director Dr. Rolf Illenberger to learn more. Meet VRdirect VRdirect is a platform for authoring and distributing VR content, specifically virtual tours and educational content using physical locations. The platform is essentially composed of Studio, their authoring tool, and distribution/viewing solutions. Depending on what hardware the viewer has access to, content created using the VRdirect Studio is viewed via a mobile app, a web player, or streamed to a VR headset. The company does offer production services, but the whole idea is that the content is easy enough for non-VR specialists in industry to create their own content in-house. “The software itself is supposed to

Firewall Zero Hour Kicks Off 7th Season With Operation: Rubicon

vrcoin on July 12, 2021

PSVR’s exclusive team-based multiplayer shooter Firewall Zero Hour is launching its 7th season this week.The game from First Contact Entertainment is kicking off its 7th season with Operation: Rubicon on July 13th. The update comes nearly three years after launch and doesn’t include new maps or contractors, but it does add more than two dozen new cosmetic rewards to unlock. That includes new trinkets, face paints and skins, and the legendary weapon skin Gilded Sten will be available to passholders who complete all 24 missions in Operation: Rubicon and spend 250,000 in-game Crypto.

There are some free mission rewards as well but the Rubicon Op Pass sells starting at $3.99 with 1 Hack Key included to immediately compete a mission and get its reward. Prices increase from there for more keys to jump past more missions and get the rewards. Keys leftover from last season are usable for Operation: Rubicon as well.
Firewall Zero Hour launched in August 2018, but we waited to review it until last year and gave it a 9/10 for its satisfying gun mechanics and excellent team-based gameplay. The game is also a showpiece for the PlayStation VR Aim Controller and features faster loading times and improved visual fidelity on PS5. We’re very excited to see it realized one day on the next-generation PlayStation VR headset, though there’s been nothing officially announced on that front yet.
Will you be playing Firewall Zero Hero’s latest missions? Let us know in the comments below.