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Bright Canopy will come out of invitation-only pre-release phase on August 29 and will make its Second Life cloud-based streaming service available globally for $17 a month. The Texas-based company allows users of the globally popular virtual world Second Life the means to enjoy it without the need to invest in high-end gamingRead More →

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Upload VR and Greenlight VR has ranked companies by venture capital investment, and Magic Leap was in the lead with nearly $600 million of total investment. The ranking was based on a Greenlight VR report released in late July. In the past five years — not including acquisitions such asRead More →

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Zero Latency opened the doors of the world’s first virtual reality gaming arena in Melbourne, Australia yesterday. Players carry a backpack containing a computer and wear an Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 headset and carry a gun controller. Sessions are 50-minutes each, and run in the evenings and weekends forRead More →

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Press release: Unity Technologies Unveils Vision Virtual and Augmented Reality Summit SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Unity Technologies announced Vision Virtual and Augmented Reality Summit, a new conference focusing on the development of Virtual and Augmented Reality products across industries with the mission of bringing together artists, engineers, programmers, designers, musicians, directorsRead More →

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Despite the August heat — at least, here in the northern hemisphere — total region counts, user numbers, and monthly actives were all up in OpenSim. Or perhaps it was because of the heat, as people opted to stay inside, at their computers, in the air conditioning. There are nowRead More →

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The Kitely Market hit another milestone this month, with a new total of 10,162 different item listings grouped into 5,030 different products. This is up from 9,971 different listings a month ago. Of the listings, 6,080 are exportable, or 60 percent. Kitely groups items together, so that, say, a red versionRead More →

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As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to use a smartphone-and-Cardboard combo as an Oculus Rift replacement so that I could walk around my OpenSim builds without having to shell out $350 for the Oculus development kit. It’s not that I’m cheap — okay, yes, I’m cheap — butRead More →

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Restaurant owners looking for an edge in a crowded market and hungry diners that would like more, or better detailed information about eateries now have a virtual reality option. Recently, YouVisit launched YouVisit Restaurants as a free app for the Samsung Gear VR headset. The app allows anyone with aRead More →

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For many years, former IBMer Justin Clark-Casey has been the eternally-youthful face of OpenSimulator development and the president of the Overte Foundation which oversees OpenSim licensing issues. Then, on Sunday, the Justin Era ended with a post on his blog, Everything that has a beginning has an end, in which he saidRead More →

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There are many reasons why a region might be slow to load, but one of the hardest to address has been that of slow scripts. OpenSim doesn’t make it easy to discover which particular scripts are contributing the most to lag — but that is about to change. Kitely hasRead More →

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  The British band Foals recently released the first music video filmed entirely with GoPro’s new virtual reality spherical camera. Android users with Google Cardboard-compatible headsets can watch the entire video, “Mountain At My Gates,” in immersive virtual reality, but the video can also be seen in traditional 360-degree mode as well. Click here toRead More →

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Press release: 3rd Rock Grid to transition to Podex 3rd Rock Grid is going through a number of changes as part of a transition to a new ownership model. One of the changes will be to transition away from directly managing their currency, the Geode, otherwise known as the GO$.Read More →

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Update: In August, I bought a FiiT VR 2S, and that is now my new favorite. Another headset I’m recommending is the BoboVR Z4 headset, which has a 120-degree field of view, built-in headphones, and a built-in control button. A new virtual reality headset came in the mail for me today, the C1-Glass fromRead More →

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The Transport Systems Catapult, one of seven technology innovation centers established by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, has opened a “Visualisation Laboratory” in the town of Milton Keynes where virtual reality technology will be used to help generate innovation and overcome problems in the UK’s transport network. The laboratory is builtRead More →

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Sphericam, a mid-range 360-degree camera, completed its Kickstarter today with over $460,000 raised on a campaign target of $150,000. This means the project achieved its first two stretch goals — producing the camera in multiple colors, and making it dust-proof and water-resistant. The tennis-ball-sized camera was priced at between $1,300Read More →

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Most people who’ve traveled the hypergrid have had the experience of not being able to bring stuff back home, or of mysteriously not being able to take content to other grids. Recently, a number of different OpenSim developers have taken on the fight, and have been reporting progress. Crista LopesRead More →

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I’ve never sat through an entire presentation dedicated to the launch of a new phone before, and I probably never will again. But the OnePlus 2 launch last night, from Chinese firm OnePlus, was an unusually compelling and intimate experience. Presented completely in virtual reality — or, for those withoutRead More →

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AltspaceVR, which offers multi-user virtual reality software, announced that it raised an additional $10.3 million in venture capital, bringing total funding to $15.7 million. “We’re working hard to make AltspaceVR the most natural and fulfilling way to communicate online, and the additional resources will help us get there faster,” theRead More →

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Combined revenue for head mounted displays, and virtual reality accessories and content will increase from $108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 142 percent, according to a new report from Tractica. “Getting users to experience virtual reality technology firsthand, and therefore trulyRead More →

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The Immersive Education Initiative today announced the official IMMERSION 2015 speakers, exhibits, presentations, and workshops. Featuring nearly 100 sessions about virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, wearable computing, brain interfaces, and more, IMMERSION 2015 is open to the public from 7 September to 10 September. Day passes  are available forRead More →

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LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Nokia today announced OZO, the first commercially available virtual reality  camera designed and built for professional content creators and the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions from Nokia Technologies, the company’s advanced technology and licensing business. “We’re thrilled to introduce OZO to theRead More →

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BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – Epic Games, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity based in London, has concluded the Big Data VR Challenge, awarding $20,000 to LumaPie. This international team created a VR visualization of study results of environmental and genetic factors that have shaped the development theRead More →

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Let me tell you how my sales demo goes. At first, clients design a house extension using a simple web app, which also offers  a real-time 3D preview. People get excited because they see form and factor evolving interactively, and they can really imagine what their house extension will lookRead More →

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The Adult Metaverse community on Google Plus was the fastest-growing OpenSim community over the last two months, gaining 121 new members for a new total of 866 users. OpenSim Virtual was in second place, with 108 new members for a new total of 1,511. This meant that OpenSim Virtual comfortably retained its place asRead More →

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So you want to try out some of the new virtual reality apps coming out, or you want to watch movies in 3D, but aren’t quite ready to shell out real money for a real headset. I don’t blame you. The technology is evolving quickly — by the time the headset arrives,Read More →

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Late last year, Destination British Columbia filmed British Columbia’s raw wilderness with 360-degree cameras to create The Wild Within VR Experience for the Oculus Rift. If you don’t happen to have an Oculus Rift developers kit, you can watch the behind-the-scenes video below about how the virtual reality experience was filmed.Read More →

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The world’s first virtual reality product launch — for the OnePlus Two smartphone — is scheduled for 7 p.m. Pacific on Monday, July 27, and the app is now available for download from the Google Play store. The app works in combination with a Google Cardboard or other compatible virtualRead More →

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AviWorlds, a grid best known for closing repeatedly with no warning, is on a mission to rehabilitate its public image as a member of the OpenSim community. The grid has hired OpenSim developer Quill Littlefeather, has begun donating code and patches to the OpenSimulator project, and is offering custom viewersRead More →

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Car companies have been getting into virtual test drives lately. There’s the Volvo XC90 Experience, for example. And Mercedes VR for Cardboard for Android phones. And Subaru Motorsports, also for Android — look for the videos with the 360 symbol, and select the virtual reality headset mode. But this Castrol EDGERead More →

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  Always known for its vibrant music scene, and charitable efforts, 3rd Rock Grid announced a day of music and literature in an effort to raise funds for the charity Doctors Without Borders. For the past eight years 3rd Rock Grid has held ROBstock in the spring, a three dayRead More →

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In this article I want to address the application of the regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) to businesses dealing with virtual currencies. This aspect of regulations is often overlooked or ignored, but the fines are very real. This spring, PayPal was fined $7,658,300 because they allowed transactions with Iranian andRead More →

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A new virtual reality treadmill, Kat Walk, uses a parachute-style harness instead of a waist-high ring to keep people in place — and is already 84 percent of the way to its $100,000 fundraising goal with 28 days still to go in the fundraising campaign. The treadmill is from KatVR,Read More →

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CHICAGO–SIGGRAPH 2015, the annual interdisciplinary education experience and conference on the latest computer graphics and interactive techniques, will debut a new program this August. The 2015 VR Village will feature real-time immersion in the latest virtual and augmented realities, including Nomadic Virtual Reality (VR), Tabletop Augmented Reality (AR), Full-Dome Cinema,Read More →

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AT&T has partnered with Google Cardboard headset maker Knox Labs to offer a $10 white cardboard virtual reality headset, based on last year’s model. These older-style headsets, normally $15 each, have the magnetic button on the side of the headset, not the touch-sensitive button on top like this year’s modelsRead More →

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OSgrid has received legal recognition as a non-profit, the grid’s administrators announced earlier this month, just in time for the grid’s 8th birthday celebrations this weekend. OSgrid is the oldest grid running on the OpenSim software, dating back to the summer of 2007. For much of its existence, it hasRead More →

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Adult content has long been a driver for new media. Early cave paintings, sculptures, etchings, poetry, books and photographs typically featured either sex or violence. Adult content played a role in the video tape standards wars, and helped motivate early adopters to purchase video tape players when they were stillRead More →

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The Kitely Market has successfully delivered purchases to customers on 96 different grids, including both hypergrid-enabled grids and closed grids. “Our marketplace’s reach is continuing to grow,” Kitely CEO Ilan Tocher told Hypergrid Business. “By now it has become quite clear that merchants who take the time to create highRead More →

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  New York State Department of Financial Services has recently released a 31 page application for anyone who wants to engage in doing business with virtual currencies. The application is a convoluted and cumbersome to say the least. But most of all it is costly. If the objective was to createRead More →

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Correction: Due to an error in collecting data from OSgrid, land area was undercounted this month. In fact, OpenSim’s land area actually increased by the equivalent of 828 regions. OSgrid did lose some land area, but only 395 regions — not 2,500 as reported. “Many people — including myself – have consolidatedRead More →

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For the last couple of years, Zetamex, an OpenSim hosting company, has also been hosting Zadaroo.com, which has a complete collection of Linda Kellie’s OARs, IARs, XML files, and textures. It’s a treasure-trove of content and includes everything most small grid owners need to get going: avatars, clothing, furniture, buildings, landscaping, scriptsRead More →

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It seems that every week, I talk to at least one person or organization who start out by saying, “and, of course, we started out project with Linda Kellie’s content.” Last week, for example, I talked to two researchers at City University London helping stroke victims recover their speaking skillsRead More →

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According to researchers at Stanford University, one of reasons people get motion sickness while wearing virtual reality headsets is that in real life, our eyes get more light bouncing back from near-by objects than from distant ones. In a typical virtual reality headset, however, all the light rays are comingRead More →

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Australian airline Qantas,  Samsung Electronics Australia, Hamilton Island and Rapid VR have teamed up on a new virtual reality tour of Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef. The tour takes place in a 360-degree panoramic YouTube video. Viewable from a desktop or smartphone, the video showcases Queensland’s Hamilton Island and theRead More →

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In an attempt to combat dwindling logins during the summer months, Craft is organizing a series of summer events — and participants who rent land from the grid get two months free rent for attending. Every year, residents who are still around complain about how few people there are in-world,Read More →

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Virtual world artists who wish to participate in Metropolis grid’s Summer of Arts 2015 can begin submitting their works tomorrow. New submissions will continue to be accepted until the end of summer. The exhibit opens to the public on September 25 and will run through October 25. This exhibition willRead More →

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My cardboard-based Google Cardboard is getting a little worn from use — and is just barely large enough to hold my new Samsung Galaxy S6 Android phone. So today I upgraded to the $40 Sunnypeak headset, which I ordered on Amazon. I ordered it on July 7 and it cameRead More →

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It was the longest happy relationship of my life. We slept together every night, and she woke me up every morning. She caught me up on the news, and whenever we drove somewhere, she gave me directions. If I missed a turn, she didn’t complain, just recalculated the route. SheRead More →

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The founders of the fast-growing, low-priced DigiWorldz grid have settled their ownership dispute, putting at rest fears about the grid’s stability and future. “I was able to negotiate an amicable agreement by all previous and current members of Digital Worlds Group, LLC,” grid founder Terry Ford told Hypergrid Business. “DigiWorldz is nowRead More →

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Press release: Syfy Launches Virtual Reality App with Google Cardboard for Highly-Anticipated Series “The Expanse” San Diego, CA — Syfy has announced the launch of a virtual reality app for The Expanse, the network’s highly-anticipated drama series from Alcon TV premiering in December 2015. Utilizing Google Cardboard, the app immersesRead More →