VR Coven: A Virtual Reality Podcast

Vivecon is eminent so why am I not excited? Inside the first virtual reality opera. How about police officers train in VR? Fresh upcoming VR experiences plucked right from the garden. How to handle motion sickness, from experts and what worked for me. HTC may announce two new Vive VR headsets on May 11th

HTC is planning to unveil two Vive virtual reality headsets at its ViveCon 2021 conference that’s happening on May 11th and May 12th, according to Protocol. While the original Vive and Vive Pro headsets were associated more with gaming, the high-end Vive Pro 2 and Vive Focus 3 Business Edition will reportedly be aimed toward the enterprise sector.

‘Anything could happen’: inside the world’s first virtual reality opera

The Royal Opera House is calling this the opera Tardis; to me it seems more like a walk-through art installation with bespoke soundtrack. Whatever this is, it isn’t opera as we know it.

Epic Offered To Make A VR Game For New PS5 Headset In Cross-Play Dispute – Report

Fortnite developer Epic Games offered to make a new game for the launch of Sony’s PS5 VR headset in a bid to enable cross-play, according to a recent report.

See Sacramento Police Department's new virtual reality training gear

Sacramento Police Department personnel demonstrate their new virtual reality training helmet and gear Wednesday, May 5, 2021, at the Sacramento Police Academy.

Upcoming VR Experiences Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386870/Wraith_The_O

LOW-FI

https://store.steampowered.com/app/395830/LOW

Axe Gang

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1483550/Axe_Gang/

Main Conversation
How to Reduce Motion Sickness in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality motion sickness is the problem that never stops. A RECENT Wired article delves into ways to comfort your mind and collect yourself when faced with the possibility of motion sickness in VR and I chime in with other ways to combat motion sickness that the article doesn't address, or doesn't fully discuss.

Today on VR Coven

Let’s wing it. Did anyone ask for Doom 3 VR? Always remember how scummy Facebook can be. Goodwill uses VR to better the world.

Virtual Reality News Articles from Around the Web:

Doom 3 Is Better In VR

It’s not just a quick and dirty port either. The devs made some smart changes to help Doom 3 work better as a VR title. Hud elements are moved to your arms and weapons, making it easier to keep track of your ammo and health at a quick glance. Gun models have been improved too, so they look better in VR. Another nice change: The Doomguy in Doom 3 now holds the pistol with two hands. This doesn’t help the VR experience, but it makes me happy and so I’m sharing that fact with you. Archiact did a great job keeping the sharp look of Doom 3 and its shadows intact in PSVR. This isn’t easy! I’ve played many PSVR games that are ugly, fuzzy, and blurry. I imagine Doom 3’s id tech-powered engine helped a lot too.

Facebook will not notify the more than half a billion people caught up in a huge leak of personal information, it has said. 

Want more of a reason as to why Facebook ain't it, chief? Facebook said that the data was gathered before 2019. It later said that “ “malicious actors” had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by “scraping” profiles using a vulnerability in the platform’s tool for synching contacts, and that the loophole that allowed them to do so had now been closed.

But it said that it did not inform users when the leak happened, and does not have plans to do so now.

Goodwill And Accenture Are Using VR To Help Former Prisoners

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 10,000 incarcerated individuals are released from state and federal prison every week. That tallies up to over 650,000 ex-prisoners per year. One of the biggest challenges is transitioning these individuals—some of whom incarcerated for over 10 years—back into a society where they can reenter today’s workforce.

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Oh, and here's that ridiculous article about how virtual reality will be used for evil.

It was from Wired.

News around the VR world  On today’s episode of VR Coven, Sony surprises no one with PS5 VR, a veteran studio announces a new VR dev fund, Epic seeks to be more meta human than human, upcoming titles, currently playing, and more on VR Coven. Sony Finally Announces Next-Gen VR For PS5 nDreams Announces $2M Fund for VR Devs Looking for a Publisher A sneak peek at MetaHuman Creator: high-fidelity digital humans made easy Popular VTubers Headline Upcoming VR Concert On Oculus Quest Upcoming VR games Arden's Wake from Penrose Studios Hyper Dash from Triangle Factory VR Game Recommendation Uphold The Realm from Alkaline Development LLC VR games I’m diving into this week

Mental Hospital VR, more Uphold the Realm, and Organ Quarter. Heavily weighted in horror VR games this week because I’m hoping to traumatize myself as much as possible. What are you playing this week? Let me know on Twitter @vrcoven, send an email to vr@embercoven.com, or send a message through the VR Coven Anchor page https://anchor.fm/vrcoven. 

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Donate directly at Anchor.fm/vrcoven

Virtual reality adoption breaks a new record, developers are raking in the cash, an ancient VR tease returns, Playstation hints at a future spectator mode, and we start a conversation about how we’ll finally believe that VR has made it into the big leagues.

I wanted to turn to you for our first conversation starter. What does VR growth look like to you? How will you know when VR has officially landed?

You can reach out to me by sending an email to vr@embercoven.com, tweeting @embercoven, or even leaving a message on my podcast through the Anchor app.

For that matter, go ahead and send me what you’re playing, your favorite VR memories, anything you want me to check out, and I’ll make sure to include them.