Sat.Mar 21, 2020 - Fri.Mar 27, 2020

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Half-Life: Alyx full review: the first true AAA VR game

The Ghost Howls

Yesterday, I finally finished Half-Life: Alyx. It has been a very long ride, and I had a lot of fun. I am now ready to write you a full review of this game. Some days ago, I have written a first impressions article on this game, and it made some people unhappy because I somewhat criticized this game. Have I changed my opinion? Does Alyx live up to the hype?

Gaming 468
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Holoswitch Turns Your Phone Into A Security Camera While In VR

VRScout

Answer calls, respond to texts and view your real-world surroundings while in VR. Available now in early access, Holoswitch is a mobile app for SteamVR that lets you interact with your smartphone without having to take off your VR headset. By pairing your smartphone to your computer via the PC client, you can forward phone calls, text messages, and important app notifications directly to your headset, allowing you to interact with the outside world without breaking immersion.

HTC 411
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5 Dos and Don’ts of Using Augmented Reality With Direct Mail

ARPost

As augmented reality moves out of an app and into an app-less experience more and more companies are utilizing this technology to provide more information in tight spots, like direct mail. Direct mail is confined to its corners but often people want more information about the offer. You have a few different response mechanisms to choose from but there is only one that enhances the mail moment – augmented reality.

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Is the Virtual Office AR’s Killer App? Part II

AR Insider

“Trendline” is AR Insider’s series that examines trends and events in spatial computing, and their strategic implications. For an indexed library of spatial computing insights, data, reports and multimedia, subscribe to ARtillery PRO. We recently speculated if the virtual office is AR’s killer app. Though a further-off reality and bit of future-gazing, it was prompted by then-recent comments from Mark Zuckerberg about AR-fueled remote collaboration to reduce pollution, stress and economic

Exercises 363
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The Future of eLearning in 2022: A Sensitive Eye for Authentic Translation and Localization

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

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What is the best headset to play Half-Life: Alyx with?

The Ghost Howls

These days, I’m playing a lot of hours a day to write a review of Half-Life: Alyx ( here you can read my first impressions , in the meanwhile). Inspired by the work of TESTED, I’ve decided to do an experiment, and play Alyx with all the headsets that I’ve taken home from the office , asking feedback to some friends (like the ergonomics expert Rob Cole ) on other headsets I don’t own.

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Diorama-style AR Detective Game ‘Glimt’ Arrives on Magic Leap 1, Trailer Here

Road to VR

Resolution Games, the studio behind Acron: Attack of the Squirrels (2019) and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019) , today launched their latest game on Magic Leap 1. Called Glimt: The Vanishing at the Grand Starlight Hotel , the detective game arrives today on Magic Leap World for free. Glimt is Resolution Games third AR game and was created as part of Magic Leap’s Independent Creator Program.

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Visualix Releases SDK for Its AR Application for Navigation

ARPost

One of the most highly anticipated potential fields for practical AR application is navigation. Patients and visitors navigating hospitals could use their phones or glasses to find their ways instead of relying on signs. “Digital twins” of real locations could be used to test disaster scenarios. People visiting a new city could have a personal navigation system that worked outside of the car, and hands-free.

AR 303
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Half-Life: Alyx first impressions: an amazing but not mindblowing game

The Ghost Howls

Half-Life. A legendary game for us millennials. A myth for all the Web, that was waiting for years for a new episode. And then, when we thought to have lost the hope, Half-Life: Alyx came in, bringing the genre we love to the technology that we love: virtual reality. Today, March 23rd, it is the historical day of the launch, and at 6 pm CET we were all there trying to playing the VR game of the century.

Gaming 299
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World’s Greatest Teacher Delivers VR Math Lesson In Half-Life: Alyx

VRScout

Not even an alien invasion can stop this teacher from educating his class. Half-Life: Alyx offers plenty of incredible moments throughout its roughly 10-15 hour campaign. Exciting gunfights, creepy subterranean exploration, unique puzzles sequences, and the list goes on. Surprisingly, however, all players seem to care about is a dirty window and set of markers.

Education 419
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How to Train Employees 65% Faster With Virtual Reality

With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

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How to Clean Your VR Headset

Road to VR

Would you wear the same pair of underwear multiple months in a row, sitting in the flaked remains of your dried sweat and bodily detritus which has justifiably ejected itself from your filthy human body? Don’t answer that! Whatever your personal hygiene regime, your VR headset is probably a hotbed of disease and petulance. And it must be cleansed.

How To 298
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VIVE Announces Live VR News Streams Instead of GDC Panels

ARPost

By now, you’ve probably heard that the Game Developers Conference has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As GDC is usually one of the highlights of the tech year, different companies are finding ways to adapt. All last week Oculus announced their VR news through the Facebook Game Developers Showcase. The three-day event featured videos and special blog posts.

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How Many Oculus Quests Sold Over the Holidays? Part II

AR Insider

Data Point of the Week is AR Insider’s dive into the latest spatial computing figures. It includes data points, along with narrative insights and takeaways. For an indexed collection of data and reports, subscribe to ARtillery Pro. Clues continue to roll in for Oculus Quest sales levels. These come straight from the source in Facebook public disclosures.

Oculus 254
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Did Facebook Just Accidentally Leak Its Next VR Headset?

VRScout

The headset, code-named ‘Del Mar’, will supposedly use a ‘Jedi’ controller. According to leaked documentation recently discovered by a handful of Oculus developers, it appears as though Facebook has already begun development on its next VR headset. Code-named ‘Del Mar’, the device was referenced briefly in an infobox posted on the official Oculus website.

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AR/VR Simulations for Sustainable, Regenerative, Circular Cities

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

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‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Patch Adds Continuous Turning, WMR Tweaks, and Crash Fixes

Road to VR

A small patch to Half-Life: Alyx has added continuous turning, made adjustments to a key gesture for Windows VR users, and squashed a few bugs. While continuous turning is never a default in VR games because it makes many people dizzy, there are those who find themselves unaffected by smooth turning and prefer to play that way for enhanced immersion.

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3 AR Use-Cases That Can Make the World a Better Place

ARPost

One of the most significant breakthroughs of technology is the invention of AR and VR. Some people are not aware of the difference between these two terms. For those who are not familiar with the terms, here’s an article that clarifies that. AR is Becoming a Part of the New Tech Revolution. Experts are convinced that this decade, the 2020s, is going to get us a revolution in technology like we have never seen before.

AR 294
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Unlocking the Magic of XR With Your Voice

Tech Trends VR

Should you ever be in any doubt over the truth of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law (the one that states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic), just try a HoloLens 2 experience where you can just tell holograms what to do. Anyone who manages to walk away from that without feeling a little bit like a Harry Potter wizard (or witch) casting a successful spell, is likely leading a fairly jaded and joyless existence.

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Just A Few Hours In And Half-Life: Alyx Has Exceeded All My Expectations

VRScout

City 17 has never looked so good. I’m walking alongside a set of train tracks stretching through a decrepit railyard. Turning the corner, I spot a pack of barnacles perched above me, just waiting for some poor unsuspecting soul to wander within reach of their deadly tongues. I pick up a nearby barrel with both hands and huck it at their sticky appendages, distracting them long enough to sneak past.

Gaming 374
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Are You Still Watching? How to Create Engaging Presentations for Virtual Learning

Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

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This Developer Turned His Apartment Into a VR Game

Road to VR

Playing VR games is a great way to stay active, both mentally and physically. But when all is said and done, you’re still only traversing around a pretty small footprint—even smaller if you’re stuck in an apartment. Greg Madison, a UX designer at Unity and fellow indoorsman, opened up his playspace a bit by turning his apartment into a VR game platform, something he hopes to share soon with others.

Unity 246
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“GeoPose Evangelist” Talks Spatial Computing and Autonomous Vehicles

ARPost

When many casual users think of extended reality, they think about big glasses and funny controllers. However, one application of this technology – autonomous vehicles – requires neither of those tools. XR enthusiast and author Stephen Black took some time to talk with me about XR, GeoPose, and autonomous vehicles. Spatial Computing: Locations as Inputs.

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Can AR Keep Companies Connected During Coronavirus?

AR Insider

This article is the latest in AR Insider’s editorial contributor program. Find out more or contact us to participate here. Authors’ opinions are their own. . Keeping People Connected During the Coronavirus Crisis. by David Nedohin. In manufacturing, unplanned downtime can quickly translate to a cost of millions of dollars. Maintaining operational efficiency can be a challenge in even the most ideal of conditions, and in times of crisis, that efficiency can unravel.

AR 198
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A Brief History Of Half-Life, One Of Gaming’s Most Iconic Franchises

VRScout

Prepare yourself for the launch of Half-Life: Alyx with this quick history lesson. After a grueling four-month wait, Half-Life: Alyx launches on VR headsets tomorrow morning, offering VR players what’s being touted as the future of VR gaming. For long-time Half-Life fans, however, the launch of HL:A marks the end of a 13 year wait filled with heartbreak, despair, and disappointment.

Tools 344
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Who C.A.R.E.S.!? How Learning Got Its Bad Rap & What We Can Do About It

Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

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‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Breaks Concurrent User Record for VR Game on Steam

Road to VR

Half-Life: Alyx (2020) launched yesterday on Steam, which not only symbolizes Valve’s first dip back into the Half-Life franchise from over a decade, but also marks it as their first full-fledged VR title. You might not be too surprised to learn that Half-Life: Alyx broke some serious records on the platform yesterday too. Update (11:00 AM ET) : Valve appears to back up these numbers, as displayed by Steam’s own game stats.

Gaming 255
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Important Changes to The XR Intelligence 2020 Calendar

ARPost

Press release. Boston, March 26, 2020 — Considering the global Covid-19 / Coronavirus outbreak, XR Intelligence would like to inform you of important changes to their 2020 event calendar. XR Europe 2020: Cancelled. After carefully monitoring the coronavirus situation in Europe, gathering feedback from participants, health organisations and governmental bodies, XR Intelligence made the difficult decision to cancel XR Europe 2020 , which was due to take place on April 28-29 in London.

San Diego 198
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Can Immersive Tech Save Industry Events?

AR Insider

This article is the latest in AR Insider’s editorial contributor program. Find out more or contact us to participate here. Authors’ opinions are their own. . Can AR Breathe New Life into Industry Events? by Emil Alon. Photo by Headway. Conferences and events have historically presented excellent opportunities for businesses of all kinds to get out and network and learn from industry experts.

Industry 158
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Valve Predicts Half-Life: Alyx Will Eventually Be Playable Without VR

VRScout

“I know it’s going to happen,” states Valve developer Robin Walker. It’s hard to imagine playing Half-Life: Alyx on anything other than a VR headset. Valve’s prequel/sequel hybrid experience was designed from the ground up for the VR format. Put simply, the game wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to play on a standard monitor and controlled using a mouse and keyboard.

Software 336
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The Key to Getting the Best Out of Video-Based Practice & Coaching

Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly