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Press release: Edie Falco Voices Mother Orca in Virtual Reality View of SeaWorld’s Cruelty San Diego – PETA has officially kicked off the cross-country tour of its new state-of-the-art (and beyond!) “I, Orca” empathy project, which uses wireless Google virtual reality goggles to immerse potential SeaWorld visitors in a world whereRead More →

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Kitely has cut prices by 60 percent for its two top plans by more than half today and officially eliminated metered pricing for new customers. Previously, the most expensive plan was around $100 a month, for an island that could be configured as a megaregion as large as 16 standard regions,Read More →

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Last night, on In World Review, a major topic of discussion was how horrendously difficult Blender is to use. You can’t just install it and start playing around. I tried, and it almost killed me. No obvious mouse gestures work. The menus don’t make sense. In fact, there are threeRead More →

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Lenovo debuted a new virtual reality headset, the Lenovo VR Goggles, at Lenovo Tech World in Beijing this week. The headset will work with Android phones, but there’s no word yet about pricing or availability. Read more about it at Tom’s Hardware.Read More →

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Seattle development firm Luma has partnered with Studio216 and DEI Creative to create virtual reality experiences for potential condo buyers. The experience requires Oculus Rift headsets, but Studio216 also has virtual reality apps that can be accessed via smartphone headsets like the Google Cardboard. Read more about it here.Read More →

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Virtual reality will be “the next mega tech theme” and worth more than $60 billion in a decade, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. “The diverse applications of VR in combination with accelerating technological improvements will lead to mainstream adoption over the next 10 years,” Munster wrote in a reportRead More →

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Virtual reality poster child Oculus VR has just acquired Surreal Vision, a computer vision firm that works on real-time 3D scene reconstruction. “By achieving the ability to continuously reconstruct and track the world around us, we’ll be able to build an understanding of the world at a semantic level,” said SurrealRead More →

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Updated Jan. 2, 2016: This page is so out of date! Please go see our Virtual Headsets Buying Guide, which lists over 70 Google Cardboard-compatible headsets categorized by price, and our handy Mobile virtual reality headset comparison chart, which has all the key specs, prices, and buying links for all the headsetsRead More →

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Google’s new Jump platform combines blueprints for a 360-degree camera rig, software that automatically assembles the videos into 3D footage, and a mobile app that can play the videos. Like with Google Cardboard, any manufacturer can create Jump-compatible cameras. Filmmakers can also make their own using off-the shelf cameras suchRead More →

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MUNCIE, Indiana — For the season finale of its popular program “The Universe,” the History Channel highlighted the work of virtual artists from Ball State University. The episode aired May 23 and explored how Roman emperors built structures to align with movements of the sun. To confirm experts’ theories aboutRead More →

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BOSTON –  The Immersive Education Initiative today announced the first in a series of international “builder” tournaments during which students and schools compete against one another to build immersive experiences, content, apps and applications. The inaugural Minecraft “Builder Bowl” tournament begins in June, with the championship rounds and awards ceremony toRead More →

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It all started with broken toys. Fangwei Lee, a father of two, became frustrated with buying countless bubble guns for his son to play with. The quality of the guns led to them either breaking easily or not working at all. The frustration grew into making a virtual bubble gunRead More →

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Customers have been able to shop on the Kitely Market and get the products delivered to other grids for over a year, But adding a new grid to the delivery list meant that the customer had to know the grid’s loginURI and add it through the grid manager. With hundredsRead More →

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Wheeling, WV– The Exo-Life Virtual World released the first two in a new series of OAR files for some grids operating the OpenSim platform today. An OAR is a region backup file. It includes the landscape and all buildings, scripts, and other items available on a region. All independent hosting companies andRead More →

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In order to write about how to create stuff for sale on the Kitely Market, I’ve been playing around with baked-on clothing textures. In the process, I’ve learned a few more things about using layers to create textures with GIMP. Say, for example, you want to create a piece ofRead More →

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Hawaii-based Total Recall Technologies is accusing Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey of violating a confidentiality agreement that he signed as a former employee of the company. According to the lawsuit, he was hired specifically to develop a head-mounted display but used proprietary information for his Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign. Read more about the case at Reuters.Read More →

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Commercial virtual world Tangle Grid has been down for two weeks due to a series of technical problems — including an actual lightning strike. The grid is still have problems repairing the database, grid owner Leslie Kling told Hypergrid Business. “But we think we are getting lose. We feel we willRead More →

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So you want to operate a business in a virtual world, with a shop that people can visit and look around. Last week, I offered some tips for creating demand for your products. This week, here’s some advice on how to do a competitive analysis. 1. Gauging quality How doRead More →

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Press release: Second Annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference & Expo Draws Record Attendance SAN JOSE, Calif. — Earlier this week, the second annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference & Expo, known as SVVR 2015, gathered over 1,400 professionals on May 18th and 19th at the San Jose Convention Center.Read More →

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The Great Canadian Grid is experiencing a population explosion and a housing crunch. According to the Corran Journal, the Freelands regions have turned into “upscale refugee camps” as friends share parcels until housing becomes available. The Great Canadian Grid has gained nearly 500 registered users over the past month. Read moreRead More →

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Oculus Connect 2, the second annual developer conference, will bring together engineers, designers, and creatives from around the world to learn about the future of the Oculus platform and push virtual reality forward. This year’s Connect will feature keynotes from Brendan Iribe, Michael Abrash, and John Carmack, plus everything developersRead More →

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Press release: Next Galaxy To Provide Berkshire Hathaway Subsidiary Richline With ECommerce Virtual Reality Content Miami Beach, FL –  Next Galaxy Corp., a leading developer of innovative content solutions and fully immersive consumer virtual reality technology, announced that it will be providing Richline Group Inc. with a virtual reality experience toRead More →

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Second Life’s content creators redeemed over $60 million last year, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg said Monday at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference in San Jose. Of that $60 million, “a lot of that is from the fashion industry,” he added. “Just like in the real world, people wantRead More →

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AltspaceVR’s social virtual reality platform is now open to all, the company announced at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference today. The company offers a proprietary cloud-based platform for holding virtual meetings in which users can meet, talk, wave their hands, and share videos and other Web-based content. There’s aRead More →

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The second annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference and Expo started this morning, and the first video footage is up. The presentations start at the 42 minute mark with opening remarks by “Cymatic” Bruce Wooden of AltSpaceVR and conference organizer Karl Krantz, who is also the founder of the escVR virtual realityRead More →

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There’s a well used adage, “sex sells.” It’s a bit of a cliche but true. There are many other sales triggers of course, including fear — used a lot by insurance companies, hope — used by lotteries, and vanity — used by beauty and cosmetics firms. The list is endless. However, theyRead More →

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OpenSim’s land area and active users hit new record highs this month. Land area passed 4,000 square kilometers for the first time, and 60,000 regions, while active users crossed the 32,000 mark. At 4,015 square kilometers, OpenSim’s public grids added together are now bigger than the state of Rhode Island.Read More →

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A stylus designed to be used as an input device in virtual environments reached its $100,000 Kickstarter funding goal in less than a day this week. The Phree stylus from Tel Aviv-based OTM Technologies Ltd. can be used as a virtual pen that writes on any surface and could potentially beRead More →

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3D Systems has released the very first virtual reality robotic prostatectomy simulation training, created to assist in the education and planning of robotic surgical procedures. “Individualized patient-specific soft tissue 3D printing allows surgeons and trainees the opportunity to operate on a model that looks and feels just like their patient’s kidneyRead More →

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More than 300 entrants are competing for more than $1 million in prizes in the Oculus’ Mobile VR Jam 2015 — and voting for the Community Choice prizes began yesterday, and will continue through May 26. Submissions include 184 games and 124 apps or experiences. One of the more visually compellingRead More →

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According to a new survey of 267 Second Life residents, two-thirds found virtual sex to be less fun than real sex. However, despite being less fun, three quarters said that they still wished that their real-life sex was more like that in the virtual world. Some reasons could be thatRead More →

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Sony is currently leading the virtual reality patent race, according to a new report from Houston-based patent consulting firm LexInnova, According to the firm’s analysis of nearly 12,000 patents or patent applications, Sony has 366 virtual reality patents or patent applications. Microsoft is close behind, with 365, followed by Samsung withRead More →

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The second annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference is next week, and I’ll be there, representing both Women in Virtual Reality and Hypergrid Business. If any other readers are coming, I’d love to meet up with you. I’m flying in on Saturday night, and have all of Sunday open. InRead More →

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Some OpenSim users have complained that closed grids — especially InWorlds, the largest closed grid of them all — do not contribute enough back to the community. Today, InWorldz co-founder and CTO David Daeschler made a strong case that InWorldz does much more than market OpenSim effectively to newcomers. (Though that,Read More →

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The owners of the Next Reality and Pillars of Mist OpenSim grids have announced that the two virtual worlds are closing this month. “It pains me to have to say this, but from the 15th May 2015 The Next Reality Grid will be going offline,” said grid owner Mike Hart inRead More →

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Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets will begins shipping in the first quarter of 2016, the company announced today. Pre-orders will begin later this year. “In the weeks ahead, we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift,”Read More →

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Bright Canopy, a cloud-based replacement to SLGo, will support OpenSim from day one, according to the founders. SLGo, operated by OnLive, was discontinued at the end of April when the company was acquired by Sony. It was the only service that allowed people to log into Second Life or OpenSim with aRead More →

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The Adult Metaverse community on Google Plus was against the fastest-growing OpenSim community last month, gaining 101 new members for a new total of 691 users. OpenSim Virtual was in second place, with 81 new members for a new total of 1,351. This meant that OpenSim Virtual comfortably retained its placeRead More →

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Kitely‘s pricing options have long been a confusing mess for customers, with people having trouble understanding their metered billing in particular. To address this issue, Kitely first rolled out flat-rate regions back in 2012, but the various pricing options just confused customers more. It didn’t help that Kitely was theRead More →

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Is there a particular kind of virtual content you need, and can’t find — and are seriously considering making yourself? For example, my time in virtual worlds is all spent working — mostly, attending business meetings, hosting shows, interviewing people. I like to wear skirts when I do this, but most skirtsRead More →

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Kitely users on a flat-rate plan can now change the size of their megaregions for free via the Web interface. Those on premium plans have a fee of 150 KC, or about $0.75, to resize their megaregions. Kitely offers several flat-rate megaregion plans. For around $50 a month, customers getRead More →

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One-man — and one-woman — shops are putting content in danger across the metaverse. Documentation, code, virtual content, even entire grids are at risk when it’s just one person running the project. Radegast, METAbolt and LibOpenMetaverse One of the key foundations of OpenSim is LibOpenMetaverse — originally LibSecondLife — whichRead More →

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Creators have until May 15 to sign up to participate in FrancoGrid‘s second annual Fest’Avi competition. The competition is open to creators, audience, photographers, and machinimists from any grid. The content submitted to the competition will be made available to the public under a Creative Commons license. Read the full rulesRead More →