May 21, 2016

Nacon’s New E-Sports Focused Controller Aims To Bring Precision To Players

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Competitive E-Sports are dominated by the use of the classic Keyboard and Mouse even at the highest levels of play. Naccon hopes to change this with their PC-centric, E-sports focused Nacon GC-400ES controller. A crowd funding campaign to make this peripheral a reality, a crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Indiegogo on Monday morning.

What will set the Naccon GC-400ES Alpha Pad aside from other top tier hardware like the Razer Sabretooth or the Xbox One Elite? The Alpha Pad includes two different modes that can be selected before use – the industry standard “X-Input” method used by the Xbox 360 and other controllers. Its second mode is what sets it apart – the Naccon GC-400ES can emulate a keyboard & mouse by using the included software. Players are able to create profiles for AAA games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike.

In terms of hardware the Naccon Alpha Pad with built-in memory for up to 4 game profiles, allowing players to switch their game of choice on the fly. The weight of the controller can also be adjusted to make sure that it fits into player’s hands perfectly.

The Naccon Alpha Pad GC-400ES has been under development for the past 18 months at the small electronics company. By partnering with French E-sports Tekken champion Norman “Gen1us” Chatreir the developers of this controller can ensure that the needs of hardcode players are well met.

More information about the Naccon GC-400ES is available on their official website or by watching their YouTube promotional video below. No pricing information is available at this time – but we will update this story when the crowdfunding campaign launches.

[youtube id=”BCOGThMkkIs”]

Announcements Crowdfunding Hardware Indiegogo Naccon

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Oculus Driver V1.4 Breaks Popular Cross Platform Game Solution ‘RIVIVE’

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

A new update to the Oculus Home platform, driver version 1.4, breaks the community created cross-platform enabling RIVIVE modification. RIVIVE allowed owners of the HTC Vive to play Oculus home exclusive titles like EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale without owning an Oculus device.

It appears, according to CrossVR’s research as posted to Reddit, that the latest Oculus Home Update adds a new DRM check that checks whether or not the users Oculus headset is connected to their online platform. While RIVIVE is able to spoof the presence of a headset locally, it does not communicate with Oculus’ servers meaning there is no current way to circumvent the new DRM present in driver 1.4.

Here is the full post from CrossVR:

New Oculus update breaks Revive from Vive

Some users like StarGateCommand have speculated that this new DRM scheme could be part of a long-term plan onthe part of Oculus to fracture the market.

Comment from discussion New Oculus update breaks Revive.

Personally, I am all for open standards in VR, as the medium is so new and there are so many different competing standards I can’t help but worry that millions of people will invest in platforms that could be dead within a couple of years. As it stands right now, this early on, Oculus is kind of the defacto “VR Company”. For non hardcore / enthusiasts users surely the name Oculus carries more weight than VIVE, Google Cardboard or OSVR. Here is hoping that in the long run VR developers can decide on a set of open standards or we could quickly see the death of a number of platforms as exclusive games become walled off behind one VR platform or another.

What are your thoughts on VR exclusivity and walled gardens when it comes to emerging technologies like Virtual Reality?

HTC Vive oculus VR

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Indie VR Spotlight: Fox VR

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Virtual Reality is all the rage right now in the PC space and sure big titles like Elite Dangerous, Eurotruck Simulator and EVE: Valkyrie have proven that VR can be as immersive as we imagined, there is a lot of interesting stuff out there released by independent developers.

Enter FoxVR, a small indie title developed for the Gear VR as part of the recent 2016 Nordic Game Jam. Created by itch.io user DanniFox this experience was developed over the course of just three days – from April 8^th through the 10^th. FoxVR is a simple title, the player is positioned low to the ground, to simulate the stature of a fox, and you use your Gear VR (or substitute PC headset) to look around while hunting down all of the mice hidden within the map. DanniFox’s chosen aesthetic is basic, but seeing a huge snout in front of my eyes as I used my headset to look around the environment brought a smile to my face.

FoxVR might not be the type of game that everyone is going to try on their headsets but in such an early time for the medium it is interesting to see the type of experiences independent developers can come up with given a strict deadline.

Itch.io is full of smaller bite sized VR experiences like FoxVR that provide some unique takes on what VR can bring to an interactive experience. Look forward to more coverage of smaller VR experiences in the future. You can download FoxVR from Danny’s itch.io page.

Fox VR Gear VR Indie