Organizers behind the VR Games Showcase last month announced they’re putting on a new livestreamed games event next week focusing on independent developers and studios “both big and small.” Just in time for what will certainly be a rush of XR news.

Called the XR Indies & Friends Showcase, the livestream is slated to kick off on September 25th at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET (local time here), coming just a few hours ahead of the 2025 Meta Connect keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

The XR Indies & Friends Showcase promises new reveals and announcements, putting “fresh and tasty indie gaming into the spotlight,” organizers tease in the announcement video, linked below.

While the full docket of games is going to be revealed during the show, the livestream is confirmed to feature more info from upcoming games including Innerspace VR’s One True Path, new gameplay from Cybron’s MR adventure Wall Town Wonders, a new trailer for the VR adaptation of Ovid Works’ Kafka-esque Metamorphosis, and new gameplay from Just Add Water’s arcade digging sim DIG VR.

“As you saw last month, our focus with the VR Games Showcase is to deliver a blockbuster event for massive VR games,” said Zeena Al-Obaidi, Chief Creative Officer of The VR Showcase and host of XR Indies & Friends. “But it’s just as important to us that we provide the proper venue to also feature an incredible array of diverse, innovative, and exciting indie games. XR Indies & Friends will shine a light on a range of vibrant and creative projects coming to a headset near you soon.”

You can watch the XR Indies & Friends Showcase over on the VR Showcase YouTube channel at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 5 PM CET on September 25th. We’ll of course be following along, and reporting what promises to be an avalanche of news that day, so make sure to check back then.

As a reminder, Meta Connect is undoubtedly set to focus on upcoming hardware, likely seeing the official unveiling of (and now basically confirmed) Quest 3S standalone from Meta. And a lot more, we think, so stick around for what is sure to be packed day of XR announcements.

HTC today revealed its next standalone XR headset, the Vive Focus Vision. The company appears to be appealing again to enterprise and prosumers, packing in a mishmash of specs from Vive Focus 3 and Vive Elite XR—priced at $1,000.

HTC launched pre-orders today for its new MR headset, Vive Focus Vision. Pre-orders are available from today through October 17th, after which the headset will presumably launch.

You may recognize many of the specs below from Vive Focus 3, which was released primarily for enterprise in 2021. It has the same controllers, same Fresnel optics and dual 2,448 x 2,448 resolution LCDs, and works with Vive Focus 3 accessories too, like the optional Vive Focus 3 facial tracking module ($100).

Unlike Focus 3, Vive Focus Vision however boasts color passthrough for mixed reality thanks to dual color cameras and depth sensor, bringing it much closer in function to the company’s Quest Pro competitor Vive XR Elite, which was released in 2023 for $1,100 (now $900).

Additionally, it comes with four front-facing tracking cameras and infrared floodlight for illuminated hand tracking.

Packing in Vive XR Elite’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset, Vive Focus Vision comes with built-in eye-tracking—later added an optional module on XR Elite which also tracks the user’s mouth. Hence ‘Vision’ (no relation to Vision Pro). Automatic IPD adjustment for users between 57–72mm ought to appeal to VR arcades and other enterprise use cases where multiple people use the same headset.

The company calls it a “hybrid device,” owing to its ability to play PC VR games via Steam and Viveport. To boot, pre-orders come along with a newly unveiled Vive Wired Streaming Kit for free ($150 MRSP), which includes a 5-meter streaming cable and converter, both with DisplayPort compatibility, offering what HTC says is lossless visuals from PC to the headset itself.

Ostensibly appealing to gamers, pre-orders are also set to come with seven games: Metro Awakening VR (coming to Viveport in late 2024), Arizona Sunshine 2, Bootrap Island, Breachers, The Pirate Queen, Taskmaster VR, Kayak VR: Mirage, Wanderer, and MR-compatible games Puzzling Places, Magic Keys, Toy Trains, Yuki, and Figmin XR.

Check out the spec sheet below:

This story is breaking. We’re filling in details as they arrive, so check back soon.

Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Minecraft, announced it’s dropping support for the original PSVR next year, leaving any hope for PSVR 2 support firmly at (bed)rock bottom.

As mentioned in the recent 1.21.30 (Bedrock) release notes, Mojang says that starting March 2025, PSVR users will no longer be able to play Minecraft on PS4. Not online or in single player.

“After you receive the final update, you will still receive updates on your PlayStation and be able to play without PlayStationVR,” the studio says.

PSVR support for Minecraft came as a free update to the PS4 version in September 2020, allowing users to play the full game, albeit with the DualShock controllers and not PS Move.

As the best-selling game in history, PSVR was essentially the only VR headset to boast real first-class support from Mojang; the Meta PC version was delisted after abandoning support in 2021, and the only advisable way to play on PC VR is the Vivecraft Java Edition mod.

What’s more, Minecraft is now in beta on PS5, however Mojang hasn’t mentioned whether PSVR 2 support is on the horizon, further curbing any hopes it may ever come given today’s news.

While Mojang hasn’t said as much—and this is simply my opinion—it’s unlikely PSVR 2 support will ever come primarily due to the headset’s relatively small userbase, and a few other factors at play.

Sony’s wavering confidence in PSVR 2 has also led it to release a tethered PC VR adapter for in August, severing its exclusivity to the PS5 game ecosystem. This happened only a year and a half after PSVR 2’s launch, leading some to believe the company is partially divesting itself of its latest VR headset.

Notably, the company didn’t throw gas behind PSVR 2 like it did with the 2016 original. Sony has released only a handful of exclusives, including Horizon Call of the Mountain, and VR support for Resident Evil Village, Gran Turismo 7 and the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Then, there’s Mojang’s parent company Microsoft, which has been fairly wary of VR gaming in general over the years. In 2023, the company not only pulled the plug on its social VR platform Altspace VR, but also dropped support for its entire WMR platform on Windows.

Granted, Mojang hasn’t outright denied PSVR 2 support, although it simply doesn’t seem like it will ever happen on PS5.

nDreams, one of the most veteran VR studios, today announced it’s tightening the belt with a layoff round due to affect 17.5% of the company.

The Farnborough, UK-based studio maintains in the LinkenIn announcement that layoffs are in response to “a challenging VR games market, situated within a tough gaming landscape more broadly.”

The studio further notes the restructure “will enable us to better serve current and future audiences in creating medium-defining titles for years to come.”

Founded in 2013, nDreams has expanded its role beyond game developer, becoming a publisher and opening a number of first-party VR studios, including nDreams Studio Orbital, nDreams Studio Elevation, and Nearlight, the latter of which was acquired by nDreams in late 2022.

In 2023, Stockholm, Sweden-based gaming group Aonic acquired nDreams for $110 million. At the time, the studio said it employed 250 people, meaning the layoff could affect up to 40 people.

Notably, nDreams is known for a host of VR games over the years, including The Assembly (2016), Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), Fracked (2021), and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023), and more.

The studio notes upcoming titles Frenzies and Vendetta Forever will be unaffected by the restructuring.

While disheartening, the news of layoffs comes as no real surprise given turmoil in the wider gaming market. Layoffs spanning 2023 and 2024 included a number of top publishers and studios, such as Embracer Group, Unity, Microsoft, EA, Sony, Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive and Riot Games.

Specifically, VR studio closures affected Meta’s Ready at Dawn (Lone Echo, Echo VR), Sony’s London Studio (PlayStation Worlds, Blood & Truth (2019), and indie developer Archiact (Doom 3 VR Edition).

Kayak VR: Mirage (2022) is amazingly immersive, packing in a ton of environments to explore in both single player and asynchronous multiplayer racing modes. You never could paddle through the glaciers or meander around tropical coasts with a friend in real-time though. But now, thanks to today’s update, you can.

Initially released as in beta on Steam in mid-August, developer Better Than Life today announced that real-time multiplayer is finally here for Kayak VR: Mirage on all supported platforms, which includes Steam and PSVR 2.

The real-time multiplayer mode lets you and a friend explore together in free roam, serving up the core of the experience. Notably missing in its initial release is race mode, proximity chat and physics objects like the ball and other inflatables, the studio says. It also doesn’t include cross-play at this time, however the studio tells Road to VR they might add it in the future.

“Development on it started over a year ago and as it turns out, making a VR game with a character, holding a paddle, in a kayak, all physics based, work in multiplayer is no joke,” the studio says in a Steam update. “However we think it’s completely worth it as we’ve had a blast during our testing and can’t wait to hear what you think!”

Kayak VR: Mirage ranked in the top three most-downloaded games in the US, Europe and Japan in 2023, owing to its photorealistic environments such as ice caves in Antarctica, tropical locales in Costa Rica, storm waters in Norway, and the stark canyons of Australia. Its two-handed paddling, physics-based environment, and upper body inverse kinematics (IK) make it especially immersive.

If you’re looking to provide feedback on the multiplayer mode, you can head over to the Kayak VR Discord (invite link), where you can also stay in tuned for upcoming updates.

Casual card game Exploding Kittens is coming to VR for the first time next month, promising to bring all of the hilarity of the original game with more than a touch of added VR madness.

Launching October 3rd on Quest 2/3/Pro, Exploding Kittens VR lets you play with up to four other players online (or against bots) and strategically force your opponents to draw the dreaded Exploding Kitten and be the last person standing to win.

Originally created by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal webcomic, Elan Lee and Shane Small, the game initially did gang busters on Kickstarter in 2015, reeling in $8.78 million to bring it to life. Since then, the game has been adapted to flatscreen and even got its own animated show on Netflix.

While you’ll be able to do some standard social VR stuff, like customize your avatar, chat in a 15-person social hub, and play mini-games, Exploding Kittens VR is also offering up some neat VR-native ways to interact with cards as well as a ton of unique 3D animations for added flair.

At launch, the game is slated to arrive with three modes, including Classic and Blitz mode with up to five players, or head-to-head with another player in Duel mode.

Exploding Kittens VR launches on October 3rd and is available to pre-order now on the Horizon Store, which is priced at a 10% discount for $18/£13.50/€18.

Thrill of the Fight 2, the upcoming sequel to Quest’s most popular VR boxing sim, seems to be gearing up for release, as studios Sealost Interactive and Halfbrick Studios tossed out its first teaser trailer.

Update (September 16th, 2024): Announced early last year, we’re still waiting on gameplay, although the studios are chumming the waters now with a new live-action teaser, stating to “Prepare Yourself.”

The game is coming to Quest first, however original creator Ian Fitz says the team plans to bring it to other platforms eventually, which he notes isn’t due to “any contractual exclusivity or anything like that.”

Additionally, Fitz notes the Sealost Interactive team officially started work on Thrill of the Fight 2 in July 2020, but scaling the studio was an issue. “I abandoned that [internal scaling] plan and started working with Halfbrick, and we restarted the project together in January 2023,” Fitz says in a Discord post.

There’s no release date yet, however Fitz says we’ll find out “soon! ! and I mean soon!” The original article detailing the initial reveal and Halfbrick’s involvement follows below:

Original Article (January 23rd: 2023): Created by Ian Fitz and his studio Sealost Interactive in 2016, Thrill of the Fight focuses on realistic boxing mechanics, eschewing arcadey things like stamina bars and unrealistic knockout blows.

Thrill of the Fight 2, which is now in co-development by Halfbrick Studios, is bringing the much-requested feature of multiplayer mode. In a development update video (below), Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo reveals a few more features coming to the sequel: improved audio and visual feedback, changes to how combinations are scored, more gameplay variety to keep players coming back for more.

Halfbrick is known for developing both the flatscreen versions of Fruit Ninja and Fruit Ninja 2 and also their respective VR adaptations. The studio’s bread and butter however has been its slew of mobile games, including Jetpack Joyride, Battle Racing Stars, Dan the Man, and Shadows Remain.

In an update posted to Reddit by Sealost Interactive, series developer Ian Fitz discusses Halfbrick’s involvement.

“The reason I’m partnering up with Halfbrick on this is because I was comfortable it would help make the game I wanted to make. They want to make (and play) the same game I do,” Fitz says.

Fitz also broke down the division of labor, and how the sequel is being made in cooperation with Halfbrick.

“I made the blueprint. Sealost prototyped and proved out many of the mechanics and tech challenges. Halfbrick is putting together a release-worthy product and supporting it into the future. I’m in meetings with them every workday building the product right alongside them and making sure we don’t deviate from the original plan (which hasn’t been a problem because, again, they want to make the same game I do).”

Fitz notes the partnership with Halfbrick “doesn’t have anything to do with funding. This is just about having a solid production team and a plan in place to support the game post-launch.”

The studios say they’re aiming for release “later this year,” although that’s admittedly “just an estimate based on current progress,” Fitz says.

It’s still unclear which platforms are initial targets, however if the original is any indications, we’re liable to see it on Quest 2/Pro, Steam VR, and possibly also PSVR 2.

Human Fall Flat (2016) is getting VR support soon, bringing the whimsical, wobbly physics-based platformer to all major headsets. And you can thank VR modder ‘Raicuparta’ for that.

Raicuparta reveals Human Fall Flat studio No Brakes Games actually bought experimental VR support from the modder after having seen a video of some early control concepts at work. Although the mod was never released, it was enough to get the studio interested in hiring Raicuparta.

“I showed the video to the creators of the game, and they were very excited,” Raicuparta reveals in a Patreon post. “They offered to hire me, but that wouldn’t work for me at the time.”

While Raicuparta wasn’t directly involved in the development of the official VR port as it is today, the studio did implement the third-person control scheme featured in the recently released trailer, seen below.

“They then offered to buy the mod from me, so that they could eventually use the same “puppet controls” concept on an official VR port,” Raicuparta says. “I don’t think they really needed to pay me at all, so that was really nice of them.”

Raicuparta is known for adding unofficial VR support to number of games over the years, such as The Stanley Parable, Outer Wilds, and Neon White. Raicuparta also served up the game and mod management tool ‘Rai Pal’ to go along with their Universal Unity VR mod currently in development, which, much like Praydog’s Unreal Engine VR (UEVR) tool, makes it possible to inject VR support into flatscreen games running in the Unity game engine.

Working with Flat2VR Studios, an Impact Reality studio dedicated to porting flatscreen games to VR, Raicuparta also had a major hand in porting the soon-to-release Trombone Champ: Unflattened to all major VR headsets, which is slated to come among a rash of official VR ports, including WRATH: Aeon of Ruin VR, Roboquest VR, and Flatout VR.

Launching “soon” on Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2 and SteamVR headsets, Human Fall Flat is coming with all levels from the game’s original release as well as extra content created by community members. There’s no release date yet, but you can now wishlist on Steam and the Horizon Store, with a PlayStation Store listing still pending.

The past few months has brought little speculation surrounding the name of Meta’s next headset, primarily due to a number of leaks from Meta’s periphery. A new leak, courtesy of serial dataminer Luna, however seemingly confirms what we all knew all along. It’s called Quest 3S.

Meta’s support pages now confirm the “Action Button” on Meta Quest 3S that I had previously leaked: https://t.co/vaCWeoksnv pic.twitter.com/uKuhluk4nC

— Luna (@Lunayian) September 13, 2024

The image above reportedly comes from a Meta support page detailing an ‘Action Button’, which seems to allow the user to switch between virtual reality and passthrough, an action that’s done with a tap of the headset on Quest 3.

Provided the image is genuine, it makes for the most direct confirmation of the Quest 3S name among a torrent of strong, but equally questionable leaks.

Back in March, an image from a now deleted Reddit post (preserved by Luna) showed an ostensible mock-up of a French language Meta store landing page, wherein ‘Quest 3S’ is both seen and named.

It’s still not clear the provenance of the image, although an official image of the headset itself cropped up in files found within the Meta PC client, confirming that the initial leak originally derived from either Meta or a close partner.

Then, in May, Meta-owned studio Magnopus briefly listed ‘Quest 3S’ as a supported device in their fitness game Alo Moves XR.

So now we’ve seen the headset, and we now know with confidence it’s actually named Quest 3S, what else is there to find out?

Here’s the rumor mill’s take: Quest 3S is said to have the same Fresnel lenses and display as Quest 2, although runs the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset as Quest 3, and comes with color passthrough for mixed reality experiences. It’s also rumored to target a $299 price point, and be offered in a both a 128GB and 256GB model.

With an FCC certification already on the books, we’re now waiting for confirmation of those specs and a big reveal at Connect 2024 kicking off September 25th – 26th, which seems all-but-confirmed to be the event to watch for all things Quest 3S.

Games inspired by ‘The Backrooms’ Internet lore are usually pretty scary, but PC game POOLS (2024) has a different way of getting under your skin. No monsters. Just pools. And soon, you’ll be able to play in VR.

Developer Tensori is bringing VR support to Pools soon, which is slated to arrive as a free update to the PC game.

The game, which throws you into an eerie, maze-like pool facility, is also heading to PS5, which according to the PlayStation Store listing will also be bundled in for PSVR 2.

Pools “can feel oppressive at times by invoking fears of getting lost, the dark, tight spaces and liminal space architecture,” the studio says, having released the game on Steam earlier this year to overall ‘Very Positive’ user reviews.

There’s no release date yet, however Tensori says in a Steam update they’ll be announcing “all the details on when the update is coming real soon.” The studio said previously while it’s making no promises, “during this year is likely.”

Notably, the studio hasn’t mentioned whether it’s eyeing Quest support at this time, although we hope they do.

Curve Games and No Brakes Games, makers of indie hit Human Fall Flat (2016), today announced an entirely new version of the game targeted at all major VR headsets.

Called Human Fall Flat VR, the puzzle-filled platformer sends you wobbling through whimsical dreamscapes, letting you control your wibbly arms, where you can leap, climb, and swing around by using your VR controllers.

The game is slated to arrive “soon” on Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2 and SteamVR headsets, bringing with it all the levels from the game’s original release, along with a wide selection of Extra Dreams created by some of the most talented community creators, the studio says, noting that it will feature an “intuitive 3rd-person view specially designed for VR headsets.”

Like the original, there will be both solo and online multiplayer, letting you team up with three other friends to navigate the game’s tricky traps and mind-bending physics puzzles.

While there’s no release date on the books yet, and store pages for Meta and PSVR 2 are still coming, Human Fall Flat VR is available to wishlist on Steam, priced at $13/£10/€13.

Meta CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says the company is currently working on a “glasses form-factor” mixed reality headset.

In an Instagram Q&A, Bosworth confirmed the company is working on the device, although didn’t provide any concrete timelines:

“I don’t think a mixed reality headset, even in a glasses form factor—which we’re working on—is going to disrupt the smartphone. But I do think augmented reality is going to at some point, and we’re also working on that—but I can’t tell you the timelines.”

Two weeks ago, a report from The Information citing two Meta employees alleged the company is now considering a mixed reality device resembling “a bulky pair of glasses,” codenamed ‘Puffin’, which could release as early as 2027.

Puffin allegedly incorporates pancake lenses and includes an “External Processing Puck and Battery,” which would ostensibly offload weight from the user’s head.

In his Q&A, Bosworth also highlighted that a “ground breaking” AR announcement is set to come during Connect 2024, which is due o kick off September 25th.

“I think the AR announcement will be very ground breaking. We’ve already kind of teased it, but I think when people start to be able to experience it, I think that it’s really going to turn some heads,” Bosworth said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in an interview with YouTuber Kane ‘Kallaway’ Sutter back in July the company was showing off a pair of prototype AR glasses soon, which now appears to point to a Connect reveal.

“The glasses are, I think, going to be a big deal,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re almost ready to start showing the prototype version of the full holographic glasses. We’re not going to be selling it broadly; we’re focused on building the full consumer version rather than selling the prototype.”

We’ll also be looking forward to learning more about the all-but-confirmed Quest 3S, which is likely set to be the company’s next affordable headset. There’s also a fleet of third-party Quest-like headsets running HorizonOS still sitting in the wings, which will arrive from partners ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox.

Apple confirmed it’s launching VisionOS 2 on September 16th, which is coming along with a ton of previously teased features announced back at WWDC in June. Three features are listed as “coming later this year” though. Here’s what you’ll be missing come Monday.

We wrapped up the list of VisionOS 2 stuff below, however three pretty interesting features don’t have release dates yet:

Panoramic Productivity with Mac Virtual Display

This one we really hoped would come along with VisionOS 2, but we’ll just have to wait a bit longer. Later this year Apple will finally allow Mac Virtual Display for a more immersive, ultrawide screen experience, something the company says simulates two 4K displays side by side for enhanced multitasking.

It looks pretty simple too. The video above shows a UI toggle to go from ‘Normal’ to ‘Wide’ and ‘Ultrawide’ modes when using Mac Virtual Display, which could tip the scales of finally bringing Vision Pro (along with your Mac) to the coffee shop to get work done.

Spatial Videos Support for Final Cut Pro

Apple announced back at WWDC that Final Cut Pro will finally play nice with MV-HVEC videos captured by Vision Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, and now the entire iPhone 16 line thanks to support for of spatial video, photo and audio capture. At some point, Apple says you’ll be able to import and edit spatial videos in Final Cut Pro on your Mac, add “immersive titles and effects,” and then view the final product in Vision Pro.

We haven’t seen it in action yet, but if Apple is investing sufficient resources, we’re really holding out hope for a seamless editing and live viewing experience, which would be great for workflow.

Apple TV Sports Multiview

At some point Vision Pro is getting the Multiview feature on Vision Pro’s Apple TV app, putting it more in line with the capabilities of Apple TV 4K.

The addition of Multiview means you’ll be able to watch up to five MLS or MLB games simultaneously, with customizable layouts and the ability to switch between different game views. On the toilet.

In case you missed it, here’s a list of some headlining features coming to VisionOS 2 next week:

Coming Next Week:

• Create Spatial Photos from 2D Images: Instantly transform existing photos into spatial photos with depth and dimension by tapping on them in your library.
• SharePlay for Photos: On FaceTime, share and interact with spatial photos, videos, and panoramas with friends and family, allowing you to relive memories together in life-size scale.
• Redesigned Photos App: A refreshed and organized Photos app makes it easier to find photos and featured spatial photos with a visually appealing and user-friendly layout.
• Trim Videos at Any Scale: Trim videos from your photo library with ease, adjusting the scale to fit your preferences.
• See Your Keyboard in Any Environment: When immersed in an Environment, your Magic Keyboard or MacBook keyboard will be recognized, allowing uninterrupted typing.
• Cinematic Video Experience in Safari: Enjoy watching videos on a massive screen in Safari, with enhanced cinematic effects, such as screen glow and reflections.
• Guest User Mode: Easily let friends and family try Apple Vision Pro with Guest User mode, which now saves their eye and hand data for quick setup in future sessions.
• Look to Dictate in Messages: A new dictation method in Messages where you can simply look at the text field to start dictating.
• AirPlay Receiver: Use AirPlay to mirror your devices to Apple Vision Pro, expanding sharing and viewing capabilities.
• Train Support in Travel Mode: Work with multiple apps or watch shows while commuting, enjoying a massive screen in a serene virtual Environment.

Flight simulator company Dogfight Boss, and Varjo, the high-end XR headset creator, announced they’ve shipped their first mixed reality F-16 simulator to the Ukrainian Air Force to help accelerate pilot training. And there’s likely more to come, as the country inevitably looks to scale training to keep pace with the influx of the American-built fighter jets.

Last month Ukraine began receiving its first F-16s from NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands, which are meant to replace its aging Soviet-era MiG and Sukhoi jets. Belgium and Norway have also signed on to provide Ukraine with over 60 of the fighter jets.

A handful of Ukrainian pilots began training to fly F-16s in Arizona late last year, however Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration they simply can’t train enough, as F-16 training programs in the US and across Europe have limited seats.

Now Dogfight Boss and Varjo have partnered to deliver a MR headset-equipped F-16 C Viper simulator to an unspecified Ukrainian Fighter Pilot Base in Kyiv, which will allow pilots to fly virtual missions while seeing a passthrough of their instrument cluster, allowing for a more realistic training experience.

Although such a platform doesn’t address the training crunch at hand, it will allow pilots to train and maintain skills in-country, which has been an active war zone since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

Dogfight Boss maintains in a LinkedIn post that the reception to the MR simulator has been promising thus far, noting there is an “urgent need for additional units to support cooperative training scenarios.” This could see at least eight more simulators shipped to the Ukrainian military, the company says.

“After nearly a year of detailed fine-tuning and extensive testing with the help of EU F-16 pilot instructors, we are honored to deliver Ukraine’s first fully functional F-16 simulator,” Dogfight Boss CEO and founder Lukas Homola says. “This simulator is a testament to our commitment to precision and excellence, which is being developed and produced in-house. From construction to electronics, every component, including the complete instrument panels, throttle quadrant, pedals, and force-sensing stick base, has been crafted to meet the highest standards.”

Both the Finland-based Varjo and Czechia-based Dogfight Boss have worked extensively with defense customers over the years, with Varjo’s XR headset currently used by 60 such entities, including the U.S. Army Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer (RVCT) program which uses Varjo for portable training for the Apache, Chinook, and Blackhawk helicopters.

Apple announced its new iPhone 16 is getting a little more spatial with the addition of both spatial photos and audio, essentially putting it in line with Vision Pro’s capture capabilities.

The company’s big event on Monday didn’t bring any giant revelations for Vision Pro, although the company announced a host of products, including its AI-infused iPhone 16 line, as well as all-new Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4.

The iPhone 16 introduces a new pill-shaped camera design, enhanced AI features, and a couple of new buttons (Action and Camera Control) compared to the iPhone 15. It retains the same 60Hz display (120Hz on iPhone 16 Pro), with improvements being pretty incremental overall.

The entire iPhone 16 line however also comes with the ability to not only capture spatial video like on iPhone 15 Pro, but now spatial photos and audio. Vision Pro can do all of these things, although you’d have a hard time fitting it in your pocket.

Regardless of what phone you have, if you own a Vision Pro all of your photos can be spatialized thanks to an update earlier this summer which automatically converts 2D photos to 3D—and pretty convincingly so.

Notably, spatial videos can also be viewed on other XR devices that support the MV-HVEC video codec, such as Meta Quest.

Beat Saber is getting ‘Shock Drops’, something Meta calls a “new-ish hit single to keep things fresh,” the first of which is Eminem’s Houdini.

Houdini, the chart-topping song from Eminem’s twelfth studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), has had over over 138 million views on YouTube and over 340 million listens on Spotify. Meta notes in the annoucement it was a “natural choice for Beat Saber to wrap up brat summer.”

Houdini arrives with an updated version of the environment from the Hip Hop Mixtape, which was launched back in April and included tracks from the likes of Snoop, Dr. Dre, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., and 2Pac.

Like all of Beat Saber’s music packs, Shock Drops are coming to all supported headsets, including Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR headsets. You can find them over in the new game section ‘Shock Drops’, priced at $2 a piece.

Note: like the Hip Hop Mixtape, Houdini is uncensored, which means it won’t show up for people with parent-managed Meta accounts.

Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded flopped pretty hard when it launched on Quest 3 last week, currently garnering it a [2,7/5] star user rating to go along with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from reviewers far and wide. Now developer XR Games is pushing out its first big update which hopes to address a myriad of issues.

In our full review we gave Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded a [3/10], where we noted that while technically playable on launch day, it was simply not advisable due to some pretty terrible optimization—not to mention the woeful amount of gloss stripped from the original to make it work on Quest.

During our review, the studio mentioned there would be a ‘Day 4 Patch’ confirmed to drop on today, September 9th, that would address some these ills. We haven’t gone hands-on with the patch yet, although we’re looking forward to seeing it in action when it rolls out, presumably later today.

Check out those patch notes below:

Day 4 Patch

Major Additions and Changes

• Significant improvements to LOD popping (adjusted LOD distance — world elements will appear from further away)
• Added stabiliser for the sniper rifle while aiming down sights
• Increased crowd sizes and cull distances
• Fixed Dartmoor Library agency pickup

Small Tweaks

• Adjusted lighting to better balance light in dark areas
• Data Core Chamber area brightened [Chongqing]
• Outdoor area brightened [Final Test]
• Gun no longer visible in the left hand while dragging bodies
• Adjusted the grip on multiple Sword type weapons to better match player’s hand position
• Reduced animation slicing for distance NPCs and crowds

Fixes

• Fixed occluders in all levels to reduce issues with flickering, floating, and invisible environment elements
  • Fixed assets in all levels to remove Z-fighting and gaps in environments
  • Fixed holes in different areas of the terrain geo as well as as floating assets
  • Bikes no longer clip into the ground [Berlin] The ‘Yuzhong Square’ Neon sign renders correctly [Chongqing]
  • The Microphone Asset in the centre of the Asado now displays [Mendoza]
• Improved textures in all levels
  • Water textures added to Carpathian Mountains
  • Texture displays when shooting bullets while flashbanged
• VR pointers no longer appear behind UI in certain options
• Fixed possible crash when exiting to main menu through pause menu when cinematic is playing
• Cinematics now play on first-time selection of Mendoza and Chongqing
• Window frame assets now display in both eyes from a mid-far proximity
• Player can no longer see items they hold when entering the “Dance with Diana” mission exit [Mendoza]
• Completing “The Final Test” now plays “Call Me 47” cutscene
• Environment no longer clips through the train floor [Carpathian Mountains]
• Selecting ‘Continue Story’ after completing mission from loaded save will now play cinematic
• Adjusted light emission and VFX in all levels
  • Antique Cannon smoke VFX corrected [Mendoza]
  • Torches have correct light emission VFX [Berlin]
  • Improved VFX for water bottle explosions
  • Added water VFX to fountain [Dubai]
• Loading screen graphics no longer display tilted or at the wrong height if HMD is tilted before they appear

Sharp and Japan’s largest telecom NTT Docomo today announced a new pair of AR glasses called MiRZA, which is hitting the Japanese market sometime his Fall.

It would be pretty tough to mistake Mirza for a normal pair of glasses, what with its chunky struts and rims, 6DOF tracking sensors, and center-mounted camera—not to mentions its unique AR optics, which incorporate so-called ‘mirror bars’ courtesy of South Korean AR lens creator LetinAR, promising a 45-degree diagonal field of view.

Created by NTT QONOQ Devices, a joint venture between Sharp and NTT’s XR development branch NTT QONOQ, Mirza isn’t going to be cheap either. Priced at an eye-watering ¥248,000 (~$1,730 USD), the funky but functional device more than likely will be squarely targeted at enterprise.

In the press release (Japanese), the company highlights its ability to take photos and make calls, and also display multiple screens positioned anywhere around the user. Mirza promises a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, although it’s unclear if that’s referring to perceived brightness to the end user or the brightness of the 1,920 × 1,080 microOLEDs.

To boot, Mirza promises good weight distribution thanks to placing components closer to the back of the glasses’ struts. Both internal battery and processing (Qualcomm Snapdragon AR2 Gen1) is on board, however it boasts wireless connectivity to Snapdragon Spaces-compatible smartphones.

For now, the company has only certified the AQUOS R9 SH-51E, a Japan-only flagship from Sharp, however the company says more compatible phones will be announced in the future.

We’re still waiting for more clarity on launch regions, however it’s likely Mirza may be a Japan-only device. In the meantime, check out the specs below:

MiRZA Specs

• Weight:125g
• Size: Approx. 187mm (W) x 45mm (H) x 184mm (D) (when in use), Approx. 187mm (W) x 45mm (H) x 96mm (D) (stored)
• Chipset: Snapdragon® AR2 Gen1
• Display: Resolution: FHD (1,920 x 1,080), 45° FOV (diagonal), 1,000 nits brightness, MicroOLED binocular full color
• Optics: LetinAR’s unique thin mirror bar type optical module
• Battery: continuous use time: 1～1.5 hours, charged in under 2 hours using the included USB Type-C cable
• Camera: 1x front RGB camera (image quality: FHD), 2x side monochrome cameras
• Audio: 4x microphones, 2x speakers
• Other sensors: Touch sensor (for operation), Proximity sensor (for determining wearing status), Illuminance sensor (for automatic brightness adjustment), Acceleration/gyro/camera spatial recognition sensor (for 6DoF tracking)
• Connection: Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E

Serial modder Luke Ross has released a new VR mod for the PC version of Star Wars Outlaws (2024).

Ross has been keeping up with the latest game releases it seems. Released only on August 30th, you can now play Star Wars Outlaws in VR.

Granted, the 6DOF mod uses gamepad and not VR controllers as such, and is probably best played in third-person, although you can adjust the camera to give some pretty great first-person views.

Check out YouTuber ‘Lord Beardsteak’ below make their away around Tatooine, showing off some the game’s impressive open-world environments:

If you haven’t had a chance to jump into Star Wars Outlaws, here’s how Ubisoft describes it:

Experience the first-ever open world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Explore distinct locations across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, a scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.

Like with many of Luke Ross’ R.E.A.L. VR mods, you’ll have to join their Patreon to get access, which starts at $10 per month. Once you join the Patreon, you’ll find documentation on how to install the mods (basically drag and drop) as well as suggested specs. Spoiler: you’ll need a beefy rig for almost any of Ross’ mods.

Ross is known for offering retroactive VR support for a host of PC games, including Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077 to name a few.

Earlier, Ross also modded a number of Rockstar Games titles, including GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mafia II, however due to a dispute with the studio many of have been removed from the project’s Patreon, although continue to be available on GitHub.