Latest education updates from around the world

Quest ‘April Mega Sale’ Brings Up to 64% Off Some of VR’s Best Games

By |April 22, 2024|

From now until April 28th, you’ll be able to get your hands on a ton of top Quest titles for up to 64% off the regular price.

For this week only, Meta has put hundreds of classic and recent titles at a discount during its April Mega Sale.

There are 200+ games on sale right now, with a staggering number of popular VR titles on the list, which include:

Among Us VR
Assassin’s Creed Nexus
Demeo
Fujii
Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord

New ‘Zombie Army VR’ Trailer Shows Off Explosive Story Campaign, Coming to Major Headsets This Year

By |April 22, 2024|

Rebellion, developer behind cult horror shooter series Zombie Army, is getting ready to release the franchise’s first VR game on all major headsets this year, and it’s pumping the hype with a new trailer that showcases the upcoming co-op story campaign.

Here’s how Rebellion describes Zombie Army VR’s campaign:

The game’s campaign takes place alongside the events of the Zombie Army series and sees you take to the field as one of the Deadhunters, an elite squad that is hunting down zombie war criminals. You fight your way through undead hordes near the bombed-out city of Nuremberg to help Captain Hermann Wolff, […]

Multiplayer Mixed Reality Laser Tag Comes to Quest App Lab in ‘Laser Limbo’

By |April 22, 2024|

Laser Limbo is a mixed reality game for now in early access on Quest App Lab that brings a host of laser tag-style games to your home, playable either in single or multiplayer.

Created by indie studio freeroam.ar, Laser Limbo transforms your home, office, or entire floors into a unique mixed reality multiplayer arena, replete with things like laser pistols and even laser tag vests, which not only show off your team colors, but also act as a pretty obvious enemy targets.

Besides letting you take on another player in head-to-head laser combat, the game also comes with a […]

Formula 1 Racing Game ‘F1 24’ Revealed, Offering PC VR Support at Launch Next Month

By |April 19, 2024|

Codemasters and EA revealed its next official video game of the Formula One World Championship, F1 24, which includes VR support when it launched on PC next month.

Coming to consoles and PC on May 31st, F1 24 is set to launch with PC VR support, letting you race down digital versions of real-world F1 tracks.

In comparison to previous F1 titles in the series, Codemasters says F1 24 includes “[a]ll-new suspension kinematics, an upgraded tyre model, advanced aerodynamic simulation, and new engine and car setup options enhance the driving experience.”

“All driving aspects are improved with cornering, rolling resistance, brake pressure, ambient track […]

SOUL COVENANT Review – Ineffectual Melee Sandwiched in a Very Skippable Story

By |April 19, 2024|

SOUL COVENANT is an action RPG from the core members who brought you the SOUL SACRIFICE series. While the game does a few things to translate the franchises’s melee combat and giant monsters into a VR-native experience, adherence to the series’ repetitive wave-based missions and clunky narrative style takes it one step too many from feeling like a fresh and modern immersive experience.

SOUL COVENANT Details:

Available On: Quest 2/3/Pro, SteamVR, PSVR 2
Reviewed On: Quest 3, Quest 3 via Link
Release Date: April 18th, 2024
Price: $40
Developer: Thirdverse

Gameplay

An artificial intelligence has taken over humanity. The few humans left […]

Quest 2 Accessories Got a Massive Price Cut, Is This a Fire Sale?

By |April 19, 2024|

Meta today confirmed that the recent price drop of Quest 2 to $200 is now permanent, and official accessories are getting the same treatment.

To be honest, when Meta dropped the price of Quest 2 down to the almost too-good-to-be-true price of $200 last month, we didn’t catch that the company also dropped the price on many official Quest 2 accessories.

Well today the company confirmed that the discount on both Quest 2 and its accessories is permanent going forward. While Quest 2 (128GB) got a nice discount from $250 to $200, a handful of accessories got a massive 50% […]

OpenXR 1.1 Update Shows Industry Consensus on Key Technical Features

By |April 18, 2024|

OpenXR, the open standard that creates a standardized way for XR hardware and applications to interface, has seen its first major update. OpenXR 1.1 evolves the standard by incorporating new functionality that was important to the industry but previously not standardized.

Facilitated by the standards body Khronos Group, OpenXR is a royalty-free standard that aims to standardize the development of VR and AR applications, making for a more interoperable ecosystem. The standard has been in development since April 2017 and over time has become supported by virtually every major hardware, platform, and engine company in the VR industry, including […]

Vision Pro Demos Will Soon Include the Option Watch Your Own Spatial Videos Before Buying

By |April 17, 2024|

Apple will soon allow users to upload their own spatial videos to Vision Pro demo units in hopes to really drive home the headset’s value proposition.

When it comes to plonking down $3,500 for Vision Pro, seeing truly is believing, as anyone who wants to buy Apple’s first mixed reality headset can sign up for an in-store demo. That is, anyone in the US, as the company still hasn’t announced when it’s launching Vision Pro internationally.

As reported by 9 to 5 Mac, it was discovered in the iOS 17.5 beta 2 software release that […]

The Secret to ‘Beat Saber’s’ Fun Isn’t What You Think – Inside XR Design

By |April 17, 2024|

Our series Inside XR Design highlights and unpacks examples of great XR design. Today we’re looking at Beat Saber (2019) and why its most essential design element can be used to make great VR games that have nothing to do with music or rhythm.

You can find the complete video below, or continue reading for an adapted text version.

More Than Music

Welcome back to another episode of Inside XR Design. Now listen, I’m going to say something that doesn’t seem to make any sense at all. But by the end of this article, I guarantee you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.

Beat […]

‘COLD VR’ Takes Smash-hit ‘SUPERHOT VR’ Time-freeze Mechanic & Completely Inverts It

By |April 16, 2024|

Superhot VR hasn’t spawned nearly as many games as we thought it might, considering the ‘move to unfreeze time’ mechanic works so well in VR. Now, an upcoming game called COLD VR is looking to invert Superhot’s iconic gameplay and spin it for some fast-paced action.

In Superhot you’re encouraged to stop and execute precise moves in order to unpause time, however Cold VR is the exact opposite: stay still and the game speeds up, meaning you’ll always need to be on the move to get past an army of blue (re: not red) crystalline enemies and their barrage of […]

Guidance counselors could help female high schoolers erase the STEM gender gap

By |April 16, 2024|

Key points:

Students benefit from access to effective counselors

5 helpful hacks for managing a STEM classroom

5 ways to use inquiry-based learning to make math more relevant

For more news on the STEM gender gap, visit eSN’s STEM hub

New research from the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) finds that female students may be more likely to stick with STEM curriculum when they receive support from high school guidance counselors.

In 2013, the Texas legislature introduced “endorsements,” which function like college majors to provide high school students the opportunity to specialize in an […]

Pimax Has Two New Headsets on the Way While Older Promises Remain Unfulfilled

By |April 16, 2024|

Pimax announced two new PC VR headsets today—both said to be launching this year—but it’s more than a year behind schedule on other products.

“Pimax has never been short on ambition, but its execution hasn’t always kept up.”

That’s a line from my article published on October 26th, 2021, in which Pimax announced three major products:

The Pimax Reality “12K” headset with a monstrous resolution estimated at 18.6MP (5,760 x 3,240) per-eye and a massive 240° diagonal field-of-view
A 60GHz wireless add-on for streaming PC VR
A console-like ‘Pimax VR Station’ for streaming PC VR content to its headsets

Pimax had […]

Pimax Reveals New High-end PC VR Headsets Focused on Affordability & Performance

By |April 16, 2024|

Pimax today announced two new Crystal series PC VR headsets, one of which is focused on affordability while the other pushes the envelope on resolution.

During a prerecorded presentation today, Pimax introduced the Crystal Light and Crystal Super PC VR headsets.

Pimax Crystal Light

Image courtesy Pimax

Crystal Light might sound like a diet drink, but it’s actually a more affordable version of the company’s flagship Crystal headset, which Pimax says has been “highly successful.” The company says Crystal Light is a “streamlined iteration” of the original Crystal headset, and cuts some major features to reduce the weight and price of […]

This Vision Pro App Does What Netflix Wouldn’t, Bringing 4K Streaming & Dolby Atmos

By |April 12, 2024|

Despite its focus on casual content consumption, Netflix still hasn’t brought an app to Vision Pro. If you’re looking for a good replacement though, a new app called Supercut has you covered.

A number of streaming giants opted-out of including any sort of app for Vision Pro including Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify, which was a puzzling move since their iOS apps would have been supported by default. It’s ostensibly a snub at Apple, although the lack of these popular apps has left room for independent developers to fill in the gaps, like the paid app 

Enterprise Social XR Platform ‘Glue’ at Risk as Developer Declares Bankruptcy

By |April 12, 2024|

Glue Collaboration, the Helsinki-based startup creating remote collaboration tools for XR, announced it has filed for bankruptcy, putting the future of its business-focused social platform Glue at risk.

CEO Jussi Havu announced the news on April 10th, stating that Glue Collaboration declared bankruptcy on April 8th, and that the Helsinki, Finland-based company would soon be liquidating its assets—undoubtedly the most important of which is the social XR platform Glue itself, which supports Quest and SteamVR headsets.

Havu says in an announcement (also seen below) that in the next two weeks, the company will be “exploring all options […]

Varjo’s Enterprise Cloud XR Streaming Platform Now Supports Quest 3 and Quest Pro

By |April 12, 2024|

Varjo announced it’s now supporting Quest 3 and Quest Pro for its cloud XR streaming platform ‘Reality Cloud’, which lets professionals stream and share immersive 3D content rendered on cloud-based GPUs.

The Finland-based creator of high-end XR headsets is known for its pricey, but high-quality mixed reality headsets, which are primarily used in the enterprise space for designers and engineers, but also for things such as detailed simulation and training.

You don’t need to plonk down the $3,990 for the company’s base model Varjo XR-4 headset though to use its subscription-based Varjo Reality Cloud service, which offloads […]