Virtual Reality

Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate is a greatly expanded remake of the VR game Wanderer, released in 2022 for the first Playstation VR and PC VR headsets.

After many delays, Mighty Eyes' ambitious project has been released today for Quest 3, 3S, 2 and Pro as well as Playstation VR 2. The PC VR version will launch at a later date. The exact date is not yet known.

This article is not a review of the VR game. I'm going to focus on the graphics and performance and discuss the differences between Quest 3 and Playstation VR 2, both in writing and in the form of a video that shows the same section of the game once on PSVR 2 and once on Quest 3.

Considering the graphical splendor of the console version, I was afraid that Meta Quest 3 would have major graphical compromises. These fears were unfounded.

The Quest 3 version lacks visual treats like elaborate lighting and particle effects, post-processing, real-time shadows, and transparent water, and the textures aren't quite as sharp, but overall the visual appearance remains intact.

However, Mighty Eyes had to make other compromises to achieve a smooth frame rate on Meta Quest. According to the developers, both Quest 2 and Quest 3 use Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW), which can cause artifacts by artificially doubling the frame rate: from 36 to 72 frames per second on Quest 2 and from 40 to 80 frames per second on Quest 3.

The studio has clearly optimized the game for the most powerful VR platforms and has not compromised on the graphics because of Meta Quest. Graphics fetishists will get their money's worth with this title.

Those who only have a Quest 3 will also enjoy the game. Mighty Eyes has somehow managed to bring these worlds to the standalone headset without any major compromises. The biggest trade-off is in performance: Wanderer doesn't feel quite as smooth on the Quest 3, and ASW artifacts can spoil the overall good impression.

In the Quest 3 section of my video, the game sometimes stutters. Please note that this is because I'm recording a video, and that the game normally runs more smoothly.

Mighty Eyes writes that the Quest performance will be further improved in the coming weeks. A day 1 patch is also planned for Meta Quest, which I have not yet been able to try out.

Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate can be purchased from the Horizon Store and the Playstation Store for $50. If you own the original game, you will receive a 20 percent discount on the upgrade. If you buy the Quest version, you will receive the Rift version (PC VR) for free as soon as it is released, and vice versa.

Virtual Desktop rewrote its macOS streamer from scratch, letting you spawn extra monitors and offering higher framerate and lower latency than even Apple's Mac Virtual Display.

While Virtual Desktop doesn't support its now-flagship PC VR streaming feature on macOS, since neither Meta's PC VR runtime nor Valve's SteamVR even support macOS, it does stream your monitors as 2D virtual surfaces, which was actually the app's original feature before VR streaming.

Since June of last year, Virtual Desktop has even been able to spawn extra monitors for Windows PCs, but doing so on macOS required using third-party solutions like BetterDisplay. Now, with the new update, Virtual Desktop, can do this on macOS itself.

The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 beta now has fixed foveated rendering, and the sim will get eye-tracked foveated rendering support in the future. The beta channel of the simulator has a Foveated Rendering toggle in the VR settings, with the following description: When active, uses quad views rendering technique to improve your GPU performance. The the higher resolution, the higher the gain. Can add some CPU overhead. Can be combined with Eye-Tracking when available for best use.

The toggle isn't mentioned anywhere in the beta changelog, but testing it I can confirm that it currently activates fixed foveated rendering on any VR headset, netting a 5-10 FPS performance improvement, with the tradeoff of some pixelation at the edges of my view. However, eye-tracked foveated rendering doesn't yet appear to be working, suggesting that it will be added at a later point in the beta cycle. I confirmed this by testing with a Quest Pro, and VR Flight Sim Guy also found the same with a Pimax Crystal headset with eye tracking.

When it does arrive, eye-tracked foveated rendering could bring significantly greater performance gains for headsets with eye tracking, on the order of dozens of frames per second.

I saw the tracking system occasionally slip out of position during this aggressive testing. If the strap slips out of place in any way on my body, it seemed enough to confuse the system and trigger the need for a recalibration. That's a quick process, but one that could be annoying if you had to do it multiple times during a play session. I suspect that for high-intensity movements, mocopi Pro might need a more robust harnessing system to ensure reliable tracking.

Overall, though, I was impressed testing mocopi Pro, and it seemed to have solid performance to my eyes. Of course, incorporating Sony's software ecosystem into the workflow of a professional would be an entirely different question.

Scientists at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have demonstrated VR's effectiveness in managing cancer pain while developing a new method for measuring pain objectively. Their study, published in Scientific Reports, used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to analyze brain activity and classify pain into three levels: mild, moderate, and severe.

The research team worked with three distinct groups: healthy participants without VR exposure, cancer patients using VR, and cancer patients without VR intervention. All participants wore wireless fNIRS headgear to monitor their brain activity. The VR group experienced "Oceania," a nine-minute relaxation program on Meta Quest, with pain levels measured before and after the session.

The results were impressive: over 75% of patients reported pain reduction exceeding 30% — a threshold considered clinically meaningful. The team's pain classification model achieved 74% accuracy in predicting pain intensity based on brain activity. Additionally, they observed significant changes in brain connectivity, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which handles cognitive functions and emotional regulation.

Photos app gets 3D conversion, Spatial Photos support (iPhone 16)

2D photos can now be converted to photos with a stereoscopic depth effect. This can be done individually or for a large number of photos (batch conversion). Apple Vision Pro offers a similar feature, while Meta Quest does not support it at all. Spatial photos and videos taken with iPhone 16 can now be viewed in the headset, all with improved image quality thanks to multi-frame noise reduction. Meta Quest only supports spatial video playback. New tool: Performance Tuner

The Performance Tuner copies the concept of the Quest Games Optimizer and allows users to set performance parameters (resolution, frame rate, CPU level, GPU level, fixed-focus rendering) for individual apps for an optimal gaming experience. The tool can be found in Settings > Developer.

On Meta Quest, third-party applications such as the Quest Games Optimizer, SideQuest or the manual input of ADB commands are required for the same function.

Spatial video recordings

You can now record content in spatial video format with the headset and view it as spatial video in the photo gallery.

Improved Pico Connect

Pico's PC VR app now supports frame interpolation, which improves streaming performance on mid-range and low-end PCs.

More flexibility in window management

The distance and position of application windows can now be freely adjusted.

The lying down mode now also has a shortcut in the Control Center, making it easier to toggle it on and off. In Meta Quest, this requires clicking through several menus.

Handtracking-only mode

According to Pico, the new interaction mode provides a "controller-free experience". You can switch between the different interaction modes at any time in the Control Center.

Improved motion tracker

The algorithm has been optimized to improve stability in sitting and lying positions. The update also increases the tracking update frequency, resulting in more accurate and smoother display of complex movements.

The ultimate accessory for serious VR gamers, the StretchSense Reality XR Game Gloves take VR gaming to a new level of immersion.

With Valve Index controller emulation for all Valve Index compatible games on the SteamVR library, it’s time to ditch the controllers for an unrivalled blend of realism, control, and comfort.

Features and Pricing The Reality XR Game glove has 32 sensors for finger tracking, twice as many as its predecessor, the Studio Glove. Brand new animation machine learning system for highest fidelity finger tracking with per finger splay Wrist orientation tracking – IMU based No occlusion or magnetic interference Haptic module for confirmatory haptic feedback Virtual joystick, choose between using your thumb or wrist orientation Map any gesture as any Valve Index button All day battery life. 20hrs without haptics 5m wireless range. Pair the gloves directly with your PC. No dongle required. The knitted fabric make them the most comfortable glove on the market Durable and machine washable

$399/pair USD

If you want to use it with steamvr you will need a tracker for each glove that you need to purchase extra.

Now live on all platforms, the latest No Man Sky update now allows you to dig up the skeletal remains of alien creatures that once inhabited these worlds. Hello Games confirmed RELICS lets you reshape and dig deep into the terrain of each world, digging up prehistoric bones of varying sizes and rarity to excavate. Any missing ones can also be bought from a new specialist at the space station, and these fossils can then be displayed however you'd wish.

South Korean news portal ETNews, citing industry sources, reports that Samsung plans to launch a smart glasses product, codenamed Haean, later this year alongside the Project Moohan mixed reality headset. Features and specifications are said to be being finalized. According to the report, Samsung is focusing on comfort and will include cameras and sensors to track movements.

Like the headset, the smart glasses will likely be based on Google's Android XR operating system. Last September, Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon hinted that Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm were working on AI glasses, and in October, The Information reported that Google and Samsung were developing a competitor to the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses based on the Gemini AI assistant.

While not a household name, China’s Vivo is known for its sensible, mid-range smartphones, regularly ranking it in the top five smartphone creators by market share.

Now, at the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s Hainan Province today, the company showed off its first entry into the XR segment: Vivo Vision.

In a press statement, Vivo says the move comes as a broader push to pursue both robotics and XR devices, referring to Vivo Vision as “a significant milestone in vivo’s exploration of mixed reality technology.”

As Vivo’s first XR device, it’s possible the company may attempt the same feat with Google’s upcoming Android XR OS, which is being launched with Samsung’s upcoming mixed reality, ‘Project Moohan’, which is said to release sometime this year, although that’s pure speculation for now.

This marks a growing trend of look-alike Vision Pros arriving from Chinese manufacturers, with the first notable arriving from Play for Dream; its MR headset not only stole the show at CES 2025 earlier this year, but also garnered high praise from former Quest engineer Amanda Watson, who called it “absolutely the best all around HMD demo I saw on the floor today.”

As someone who spent countless hours on Soulcalibur IV as a teen, I was disappointed to learn you can't throw people out of the arenas, though there are some things fighting fans should appreciate. The character intros when a match starts are a nice touch to give each character some personality, and there's a great atmosphere boosted by colorful stages and an energetic soundtrack.

I'm impressed by what I've seen, though I need more time to determine whether any characters feel unbalanced. I've also yet to try the offline modes. So far, it's a promising start, and Final Fury could become a must-play for classic fighting game fans. The controls feel great, winning is highly satisfying, and that's all boosted by a strong presentation. A lot can change between now and launch, but the early signs are positive.

Final Fury is “coming soon” to Steam and the Meta Quest platform, and an Alpha playtest is currently live on both platforms.

Bigscreen says it sold more Beyond 2 headsets in the first 24 hours than it did Beyond 1 in its first 6 months.

It says this represents ten times as many Beyond 2 headsets as compared to Beyond 1's launch day two years ago.

The startup also said yesterday that it outsold Beyond 1's first day in just 25 minutes, and its first 2 months in just 4 hours.

New orders of Beyond 2 and Beyond 2e will now ship in June, compared to April and May for the first batches respectively.

Bigscreen Beyond 2 and Beyond 2e were announced and went on sale yesterday. Compared to the original, Beyond 2 adds clearer, wider lenses with independent IPD adjustment, all while actually weighing 20 grams less, and Beyond 2e also adds eye tracking via just 1.05 grams of tiny sensors.

The original Bigscreen Beyond is used by 0.45% of SteamVR users, around 1 in 200. We'll keep a close eye on the adoption of Beyond 2 in the coming months, with its initial sales velocity suggesting it might surpass the original by the end of the year.

The reason I made the trip is because the latest design includes a new feature absent in the original which made it exceptionally hard for me to fully review. Namely, the new Bigscreen Beyond 2 adds independent adjustment of lens placement directly in front of each eye.

"Independent monocular IPD was made for your eyes Ian," Shankar wrote over email. "It’s not a common need, but we remembered your desire for it."

After criss-crossing the United States to test the new hardware, and after talking to Shankar for a couple hours, I can write the following sentence about Bigscreen Beyond 2:

I've never seen anything like it.

Bigscreen's elegant solution to lens placement involves the use of what they call an IPD Tool for manually adjusting each lens position. Apple's $3500 headset automatically moves each lens into individualized placement in front of each pupil, but Bigscreen's solution is cheaper and lighter.

The lightweight solution in Beyond 2, meanwhile, also makes the headset shareable with others with a quick change that also ensures accidental adjustments don't occur when handling the device, because there's no button or wheel to hit as is present on some other headsets.

And really, this is just cool.

I saw fewer distracting internal reflections and, overall, the area of clarity is huge. Bigscreen claims "total edge-to-edge clarity", and the lenses did seem very clear to the edges. The biggest distraction for me was some kind of tracking jitter I usually associate with SteamVR base stations. This was a pre-production unit I wore, the base stations weren't in the best position and there were plenty of reflective surfaces in the area that could have caused issues. Still, it was a minor distraction during a short demo, and we'll need to see how a shipping headset holds up over many hours of wear to make a review recommendation.

The more important thing to convey is to those of you who are just learning about Bigscreen for the first time. This device is built by genuine VR enthusiasts building VR headsets for people who want to spend hours at incredible places. For those who haven't experienced VR yet, yes, there's a full theater-sized screen inside that tiny headset, and it could have just as easily been Half-Life: Alyx I was playing in there.

Bigscreen says it weighs just 107 grams, down from 127 grams in the first version. With Beyond 2, this company of less than 40 employees puts the critique that VR headsets are heavy in the past. You'd think it was an FPV viewer but, no, this really is a PC-powered VR headset you can share with family and friends.

Beyond 2 is slated to start shipping in April starting at $1019 with an eye-tracking model to follow for $1219. Bigscreen recommends an RTX 2070 or higher graphics card to drive the headset with a PC.

Developed by solo dev ‘KommanderKen’, BattleGroupVR2 is coming to Quest and SteamVR headsets soon, promising to be a “bigger, better sequel” to the single player real-time space strategy game.

Space Owl says BattleGroupVR2 adds a heap of new features, including open-world exploration, missions, mining, trading, and fleet-building.

BattleGroupVR2 is said to include a fully 3D space battlefield, letting you direct your forces, coordinate fleet formations, and execute precise attacks against increasingly difficult AI enemies.

There’s no release window yet, although you can now wishlist the game on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, and on Steam for PC VR headsets.

The Meta-owned developer describes the coming update as "the biggest update we have ever done since the game’s release in 2016". It will see all weapons and equipment upgraded, new weapons introduced, the ability to choose and customize your character model, a remaster of a key map, and the introduction of a new one.

Every single weapon and piece of equipment, will take a "huge visual leap", Downpour says, from guns to drones and even smoke grenades. 13 new weapons will also be added in total, including a pump-action shotgun and revolver with unique hand interactions. And whereas previously everyone on each team looked the same, Onward Update 2.0 will add 20 "operators", including some female options, for players to choose between. Operators can be further customized, so that each player can have a unique look.

The update is also set to bring dozens of quality-of-life and realism improvements, including more realistic bullet drop and scope zeroing.

Onward Update 2.0 is set to launch next Tuesday, March 25, on the Meta Horizon Store for Quest headsets, Meta PC Store for Link & Rift, and Steam for any VR headset supported by SteamVR.

The XR landscape has changed significantly over the last five years with the flourishing of standalone headsets and new entrants like Apple and (soon) Google. Despite all of that, the PC VR platform has continued a slow but steady growth.

So much has happened in VR in last five years that if you had told me back in early 2020, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

After all, you’d have to say that Facebook is no longer called Facebook. And that the company went on to dissolve the ‘Oculus’ brand, which had long been the most recognizable name in the industry for enthusiasts and even outsiders. And you’d have to tell me that despite that, Facebook Meta still managed to turn its standalone Quest headset into the leading VR platform.

Not only that, you’d have to convince me that Apple would dive head-first into the market with its own headset… and it would cost $3,500! Oh and that Google would follow quickly behind with a complete Android XR operating system underpinning a flagship headset made by Samsung.

Not to mention Microsoft discontinuing its Windows MR platform and giving up on HoloLens (ok actually, that one I might have believed).

Despite all of this, the OG VR platform—PC VR—is still kicking, and has in fact continued to grow.

This surely wouldn’t be the case if Valve hadn’t set up SteamVR from the outset as an open platform which any headset maker can opt into. There’s at least 24 different headsets in use on the platform each month, making SteamVR by far the largest and most diverse PC VR ecosystem.

PC VR no doubt also has Meta to thank for its continued growth after all these years and changes to the landscape. The wide availability and low cost of Quest headsets has brought many new people into the VR fold, and some of them wind up using the headset for PC VR too. Meta headsets account for a whopping 70% of monthly-connected headsets on Steam today.

On Meta's Horizon Store you can currently get the Quest versions of major games like Skydance’s Behemoth, Arizona Sunshine Remake, Arizona Sunshine 2, Dungeons of Eternity, Into The Radius, and Red Matter for up to 50% off, as well as the exclusive Assassin's Creed Nexus.

Meanwhile, Valve's Steam is offering significant discounts on major titles only playable in VR on PC, including Half-Life: Alyx 70% off, 60% off Fallout 4 VR, 80% off DiRT Rally 2.0, and 70% off Elite Dangerous, as well as notable savings on the PC VR versions of games like Skyrim VR, Arizona Sunshine 2, and No Man’s Sky.

Meta's sale ends on the midnight between March 23 and March 24, just over one week from now. Valve's sale generally ends at 10am PT on March 23, though the discounts on some specific titles end sooner.

VR enthusiast Brad Lynch and his team of dataminers have found new evidence of a Valve-branded USB wireless dongle in the code of the latest SteamVR update. The Wi-Fi dongle would plug into a USB port on the PC and allow for smooth PC VR streaming without the need for a router or network configuration.

The device is even said to have been given its own vendor and product ID. Lynch sees this as an indication that the product is being finalized internally.

"Wouldn't be surprised if Deckard launched with this bundled in the box instead of a cable," writes Lynch.

It is not known whether it will be possible to use a cable for uncompressed image transmission on the headset as an alternative to the dongle.

Other standalone headsets will likely also work with Valve's USB dongle. Lynch and his team found evidence in the SteamVR code that Valve is working on Steam Link support for Pico headsets, HTC Vive Focus 3, and Vive Focus Vision. Currently, only Quest headsets are supported.

Steam Link is a VR app that was released in 2023, allowing for an easy connection between Meta Quest and SteamVR for PC VR streaming. Valve's USB wireless dongle and Steam Link are expected to be optimized for each other.

This would not be the first time that a VR headset manufacturer has offered a USB dongle for wireless PC VR streaming. In 2022, Meta released the VR Air Bridge wireless dongle for Meta Quest 2 in partnership with D-Link.

It is currently unclear whether Valve Deckard will only work in conjunction with a PC, or if it will also work as a standalone device. According to the latest rumors, the device will be released by the end of 2025 and will cost around $1,200.

Based on the top-down strategy game Surviving Mars, Surviving Mars: Pioneer tests your grit as you attempt to establish a new civilization among the stars. In the original game, players would control a Martian landscape from a top-down perspective, constructing futuristic domes and guiding eager citizens. Developed by Bolverk Games (Genotype), the VR adaptation gives you a more central and personal role, mining for materials and placing solar panels on the red planet's surface in first person.

Surviving Mars was originally launched in 2018. Here, players took on the role of an overseer tasked with building up a Martian colony from the dust. With a rocket full of resources and sponsorship from an earthly organization, surviving the vastness of space requires balancing human needs like water and air with the fiscal needs of society and your sponsor. This port looks to pull from those basic principles, allowing players to feel like even more of an active participant in their burgeoning cityscape. Surviving Mars: Pioneer is entering early access on PC VR and Quest later this year, and a PlayStation VR2 version will arrive “at a later date.”

Forefront features two gameplay modes for 16v16 matches, dividing each team into squads of four. The factions in the game are said to be a country's military pitted against a private military group called Orpiment Renewable Energy (O.R.E.), hired to protect different mining sites against takeover.

One mode is 'Rush', where you attack two sites and move onto the next two if you successfully destroy them. Dessaux describes this as “very linear and less vehicle focused,” while 'Conquest' goes heavier on vehicles with less focus on walking around and shooting. With gunplay, Dessaux describes Breachers as being “more arcade-like” for better focus on the action by comparison. Forefront features more realistic reloading while also offering an option for automatic reloading, though the latter is “a bit slower than somebody who's really trained into realistically reloading their gun.” The aim is to equal out any potential competitive advantages.

The studio can't commit to PlayStation VR2 release yet, but they are looking at the idea. Dessaux explained that the Breachers PS VR2 port was “quite time-consuming” and faced delays before launching in December 2023. If such a port does happen for Forefront, it'll be post-launch.

Forefront arrives in early access “at the end of 2025” on the Meta Quest platform, SteamVR, and Pico, while a full release window is unconfirmed. Playtest sessions will begin this summer, and more details will be shared nearer then via the studio's official Discord server.

It's stupidly large and takes about a minute to load, but it was worth it.

According to Korean publication The Elec, Samsung plans to equip its first mixed reality headset, codenamed "Project Moohan," with 1.35-inch micro OLED displays. These panels will feature an impressive 3,800 pixels per inch (PPI) and a resolution of 3,552 x 3,840. The displays use OLEDoS (OLED on Silicon) technology, where micro OLED elements are applied directly to a silicon substrate.

Sony, which also manufactures the displays for Apple's Vision Pro, will produce these panels for Samsung. The pixel density significantly exceeds that of Vision Pro's 1.4-inch OLEDoS displays, which offer 3,391 PPI at 3,660 x 3,200 resolution. Industry sources suggest Samsung is banking on this higher pixel density as a key selling point against Apple's headset, despite launching later.

Samsung's suppliers are scheduled to begin mass-producing components for Project Moohan next month. The Elec anticipates a market launch in the second half of 2025, with initial production targets around 100,000 units.

Previously targeting a March 30, 2025 launch to coincide with the second anniversary of Vertigo 2, developer Zach Tsiakalis-Brown confirmed the delay to UploadVR, and the upcoming DLC now lists 'April 2025' on Steam. Beyond the wider April release window, a specific release date for Into the Aether is currently unconfirmed.

Revealed during the UploadVR Winter Showcase last December, Vertigo 2: Into the Aether is a DLC expansion for our 2023 VR Game of the Year, where Brian fights back against the Void Delegation. This gives you “The Void Grappler” grappling hook that's attachable to most surfaces for free swinging, alongside “The Void Deflector” for deflecting attacks and accumulating energy for counterattacks.

Vertigo 2: Into the Aether arrives this April on SteamVR, and the base game is out now. While Vertigo 2 is also on PlayStation VR2, there's currently no plans for this DLC to reach Sony's headset.