I am noticing that new posts to the Virtual Reality community are not showing up on Lemmy Myserv One. I can see them on my Lemmy Today server account.

This is the first chance for many players to try popular upcoming titles for the first time like Beyond Frames' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City.

Some of the participating games released demos prior to the start of Next Fest, like Echoes of Mora, Alliance Tales: Battle For The Frontier, Birdseed VR, and How To God.

Please note that this list was provided two weeks ago by Valve and is subject to change. Developers can (and previously have) drop out of Next Fest if their demo is not ready or release a demo on short notice.

Meta, after laying off about 10 percent of its Reality Labs division, closing three VR studios, stopping new content for VR fitness app Supernatural, and discontinuing its metaverse for work, is announcing a major change for its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. Instead of attempting to make the 3D social platform work for both VR and mobile, Meta is “explicitly separating” its “Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform” and “shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile,” Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs’ VP of content, says in a blog post.

The new approach sets Meta up to better compete with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, which also offer user-generated experiences that can be played on your phone. Horizon Worlds originally launched for VR, but “to truly change the game and tap into a much larger market, we’re going all-in on mobile.”

Project Swan is going to be Pico’s next flagship XR headset, the company says in its GDC session description, which is also slated to run PICO OS 6, the next version of the company’s Android-based operating system.

While the company hasn’t expressly said it will also reveal Project Swan’s hardware at GDC in March, Pico says it will provide “an overview of Project Swan’s graphics performance, multimodal interaction system, and developer toolchain, as well as practical guidance on bringing existing apps or games into spatial computing workflows,” which is set to include “concrete examples and live demos.”

“This session introduces the core OS and platform capabilities that enable developers—from XR specialists to non-XR app, web, and game creators—to build or adapt content for this emerging medium,” Pico says. “It presents a new paradigm for spatial experiences in which games and apps coexist, allowing a primary experience to run alongside companion applications in a shared environment.”

Before you continue reading, note that foveated streaming is not the same as foveated rendering, though the two techniques can be used alongside each other. As the names suggest, while foveated rendering involves the host device actually rendering the area of each frame you're currently looking at with higher resolution, foveated streaming refers to sending that area to the headset with higher image quality than the rest of the frame.

It's a term you may have heard in the context of Valve's Steam Frame, where it's a fundamental always-on feature of its PC VR streaming offering, delivered via the USB PC wireless adapter by default.

Given that the video decoders in headsets have a limited maximum resolution and bitrate, foveated streaming helps prioritize resolution and compression quality where you're currently looking.

Triangle Factory, the maker of the popular 32-player Battlefield-inspired VR FPS Forefront, has announced that the price of their game will increase at the end of February, alongside what the team calls "a major update."

The updated price has not been revealed, but Forefront is currently available on Meta Quest, Steam, and Pico, at a cost of $22.99.

Since launching in Early Access, Forefront has been well-supported by its makers, receiving several updates to add new maps and weapons, address balancing issues, provide graphics updates, and more.

VRChat announced it just topped its all-time user peak, bringing in over 150,000 concurrent users to attend a Japanese language concert.

VRChat Community Head ‘Tupper’ confirmed on X that the social VR platform hit a new all-time high of 156,716 concurrent users over the weekend.

The platform played host to Sanrio Virtual Festival, a music and anime culture festival taking place from February 8th to March 8th, although it was the main act that drew in glut of the fans though—a musical performance by Kaguya, the main character from Netflix anime series Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

Google first announced that a YouTube app was “on the road map” shortly after Vision Pro’s February 2024 launch, although it never gave a specific release window, leaving users searching for alternatives beyond simply opening YouTube in Safari, which notably didn’t include native support for spatial video.

The official YouTube app, which is now available on the App Store, now gives Vision Pro users access to every YouTube video and Short, which includes access to all of the regular YouTube features, such as subscriptions, playlists, and watch history.

Triangle Factory announced that its Battlefield-inspired VR shooter Forefront is finally coming to PSVR 2.

There’s no release date yet beyond the studio’s initial announcement, however Triangle Factory has confirmed that when it does, the 32-player shooter will “support cross play with other VR platforms.”

Currently, Forefront is available in early access across all other major VR headsets, including Quest, SteamVR, and Pico headsets. And it’s done very well for itself in the last three months since it launched into early access.

Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) added experimental PC VR support to Star Citizen late last year, taking a first step in fulfilling a more than decade-old promise. Things are getting increasingly serious though after the release of its second post-VR update.

Update Alpha 4.5 initially brought a VR theater and full VR mode to the game in December, which lets users play the bulk of the game in PC VR headsets for the first time, including walking, flying, EVA, combat, and using menus.

Granted, it’s still a (very) experimental mode, which initially required some users to even add VR config lines to the game’s directory to get it working, done in addition to keeping track of keybinds to cycle through VR modes on the fly.

Now the studio has released Star Citizen 4.6, adding for the first time an official VR option in the settings menu, making managing and enabling VR mode at startup a much easier affair.

Cortopia Studios and Beyond Frames Entertainment announced that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is coming to Quest 3, SteamVR and Pico headsets this Spring.

There’s no specific launch date yet beyond the spring release window, although the studios announced that players hoping to get an early hands-on will be able to get their first taste with a free, single-player PC VR demo later this month.

As a part of Steam Next Fest, the demo will feature the first 15 minutes of gameplay, letting you come to grips with each playable Turtle. The limited-limited demo will be available from February 23rd to March 2nd.

One of the things that has not evolved much in these 10 years of consumer VR is the Field Of View. Some companies are working hard to solve this problem, and one of my favorites is for sure Hypervision, a startup with a deep expertise on the topic that has been able to produce optical systems for VR headsets with a very wide FOV. If the just-announced Lynx R2 has the widest FOV among all standalone MR headsets, it is because it uses lenses designed by Hypervision. At United XR Europe, I was able to try the latest optical systems by Hypervision, including a crazy one with more than 200° of horizontal FOV!

When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.

Meta has already started rolling out Quest’s v85 update on the public test channel (PTC), making it the first major update since the company revealed it was shaking up Reality Labs in a bid to shift focus to AI and smart glasses.

According to the v85 patch notes, the update is set to retire ‘Horizon Feed’, which released with v57 in late 2023, bringing a mishmash of user-created Worlds, apps, games, and Reels.

The update is also set to make Navigator the default UI, which overhauls the platform’s dock-based UI for a more mobile-style launcher overlay.

Now, Meta is rolling out ‘Surface Keyboard and Touchpad’ as an experimental feature on Quest 3, which allows users to input text and control a mouse by simply mapping them to a desk or table.

Another feature is the newly redesigned activity bar, which is said to allow for quicker and easier access to controls like recording, calls, and media.

Other updates include the ability to temporarily hide virtual hands via quick actions, customize the Quest 3S’ action button to trigger preferred system actions with short or long presses, and scan for malware.

Gaijin Entertainment knew exactly what it was doing when it came up with the name Aces of Thunder. Yes it very obviously references its own ubiquitous military mega-arena, but for flight sim fans of a certain vintage, there is a special reverence for what was later marketed as the Great Warplanes Series. These games, for those too young to have experienced them, were a DOS-era series that started with Red Baron and were quickly followed in the early 1990s by Aces of the Pacific and Aces Over Europe. My nostalgia goggles may be a little foggy, but I believe all three were exceptional. Of course, thirty years on, Aces of Thunder can never claim to be part of that great lineage, but just as Red Baron was arguably the greatest WWI flight sim of its day and its sequels were the twin masters of the WWII skies, I’m happy to report that Aces of Thunder continues in that same ancient tradition of being among the very best at what it sets out to do.

The modern era of VR started a long time ago, and a wide range of commercial headsets have proliferated on the market since then. If you don’t want to buy off the shelf, though, you could always follow [Manolo]’s example and build your own.

This DIY headset is known as the Persephone 3 Lite, and is intended for use with SteamVR. It’s got the requisite motion tracking thanks to a Raspberry Pi Pico, paired with an MPU6500 inertial measurement unit. As for the optics, the headset relies on a pair of 2.9-inch square displays that operate at a resolution of 1440 x 1440 with a refresh rate up to 90 Hz. They’re paired with cheap Fresnel lenses sourced from Aliexpress for a few dollars. Everything is wrapped up in a custom 3D-printed housing that holds all the relevant pieces in the right place so that your eyes can focus on both screens at once. The head strap is perhaps the only off-the-shelf piece, sourced from a Quest 2 device.

While mainstream virtual reality (VR) is currently perceived as a tool for video games and entertainment purposes, developers and construction experts are finding practical applications for the technology in their field. Implementing virtual reality in construction has opened several avenues for improving design, pitching projects and enhancing training and safety. These aren’t “distant future” ideas; companies are successfully implementing these technologies today.

VR in construction has evolved beyond initial design and project visualization to incorporate advancements powered by artificial intelligence (AI). These innovations are making VR tools smarter and more intuitive, enabling real-time adjustments and predictive analytics during design and training processes.

The construction industry is undergoing a technological revolution, leveraging advancements in virtual reality, AI and smart tools to optimize every aspect of the building process. From streamlining design and improving safety measures to managing labor costs and enhancing customer experiences, these innovations are transforming challenges into opportunities.

As these tools become more accessible and integrated, construction promises to be safer, faster and more precise, setting new benchmarks for creativity, efficiency and sustainability in the industry.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces launched the largest amphibious assault in history, turning the tide on the beaches of Normandy, eventually winning the Second World War against the Axis powers. This defining moment came to be known as D-Day. Countless accounts of it have been recorded since, making it a key point in history where democracy prevailed. In the process, it has spawned books, movies, and now, a vivid virtual reality exhibition called D-Day VR Museum. Where this experience succeeds is in using every possible medium that a headset allows: from a traditional exhibit all the way to walking through recreated iconic locations and making the player relive the paratroopers' airborne landings.

The Facts

What is it?: An interactive VR museum about the D-Day invasion. Platforms: Steam Release Date: Out now Developer: Lichtblau IT Publisher: Diverently GmbH Price: $14.99

Based on recent layoffs many had been wondering if this was the beginning of the end for Meta’s VR plans, but the company has reaffirmed that it’s still working on new tech in the space – including new hardware and a possible AI integration that’s truly sci-fi.

Speaking to investors following its latest quarterly earnings report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t talk too much about VR, perhaps unsurprisingly, instead focusing on smart glasses for which sales have “more than tripled” in the last year.

Initially not a great sign for VR’s future. However, Meta CFO Suan Li turned our hopes around when responding to a question from Deutsche Bank’s Benjamin Black on Reality Labs.

She said, “We continue to have optimism in the future of VR,” adding, “We are investing continually – going forward, rather, in building future headsets.” She said this before putting a slight damper on our VR hopes by explaining what we already knew, that “consumer adoption of VR has generally been on a slower growth path than wearables, and we are rebalancing our Reality Labs portfolio to reflect this. “

No more detail than that was revealed about these “future headsets”, but leaks have pointed to two possible devices that will land in 2026 and/or 2027.

One would be a ‘Quest 4’ that’s a large but more typical upgrade on its predecessor, and again come with a higher end and slightly lower end model like we saw with the Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

On one hand, it’d be easy to look at the goings-on (Meta’s layoffs, their almost complete lack of mentioning VR at Meta Connect 2025, and the probable lack of new Quest hardware this year) and proclaim, “VR is cooked.” We’ve implied as much, and there’s validity to that grim statement, to be sure. But there’s a counterpoint to that forecast, too, and it’s that maybe (just maybe) VR doesn’t even need Meta to begin with. Case in point: all of the great VR hardware as of late.

Take the Lynx R2 VR headset, which was officially revealed just this week. While the Lynx says the R2 won’t be available to order until this summer, there’s a lot to entice anyone interested in VR. The headset crushes the Quest 3‘s field of view (FOV), for one, offering a 126-degree FOV compared to the Quest 3’s 110-degree FOV. It also does something that Meta would never; it’s making its headset open-source. Lynx says it’s releasing schematics for the R2, which should help anyone who wants to mod the device do so more easily than Meta’s Quest. It’s early days, and there’s no price or official release date yet, but the hardware is promising—and Lynx isn’t the only one.

The thing is, there’s a chance that VR was never really meant to be such a massive category. As great as the experience can be, these aren’t devices that most people want to use all the time, and any company pitching one that way (looking at you, Apple Vision Pro) hasn’t really gained much traction. What if—and hear me out—VR wasn’t meant to go mainstream? Maybe it’s just a niche thing, and that’s okay?