Three years ago, I duct-taped a laser tracker to the top of my eminently patient wife’s painting easel. On a converted baker’s cart in the corner, I set up a glowing green PC. Then I ran half a dozen cables between the PC and a HTC Vive VR headset. This was the price of the best VR experience on the market: To be able to actually walk around and wave my hands in physical space, I had to wrap my dining room in wires.

Combining cognitive-behavioral therapy with virtual reality technology could help people suffering from social anxiety disorder, according to preliminary research published in the journal Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. “I am interested in the topic of virtual reality (VR) based therapies as the open a lot of new possibilities. VR surroundings are accessible, interactive and customizable to fit the needs of a patient,” explained Chris N. W. Geraets, a PhD student at the University of Groningen and corresponding author of the study.

Nintendo Labo VR, the cardboard accessory kit for the Switch, is up against a lot of expectations as the company’s official foray into virtual reality. It’s the fourth installment of the Labo series, which first launched one year ago to mixed reviews. Parents and schools lauded its tactile building experience and programming features as creative educational tools for kids, while some critics dismissed it as a novelty item that lost its fun after the first few plays.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the best-selling consumer electronics products aren’t necessarily a company’s latest or highest-end products; mass-market customers often gravitate instead towards affordable models with good enough performance. That’s the reason console makers keep last-generation models around after launching superior sequels: as long as there’s a promise of at least token continued support, “old” hardware is still viable.

After years of speculation, some mockery, and more than a little befuddlement, the Magic Leap augmented headset is arriving in the hands of developers and users — and its first product is a somewhat janky piece of magic.

Researchers and autistic artists are exploring immersive visuals to study and simulate autism traits

A specialized virtual reality treatment may be able to reduce the frequency and intensity of nightmares, according to a pilot study published in the journal Dreaming. “Current treatments for nightmares required too much time or taking a drug that essentially knocked you out for awhile, so we needed a treatment that was short, non-toxic and effective,” said study author Patrick McNamara of the Boston University School of Medicine.

This week in gaming, Soulja Boy takes on Nintendo (and loses), a new standalone VR headset is on the horizon and there's a new free service offering a game every day.

NVIDIA co-founder & CEO Jensen Huang took the stage today at the company’s CES 2019 press conference, issuing a strong claim that four million PC VR headsets have been sold to date. The two largest PC VR headset manufacturers, Oculus and HTC, have been cagey on providing sales numbers, although GPU manufacturer Nvidia might have a pretty good line on how many headsets have been sold since consumer PC VR came to market in early 2016.

Finnish start-up Varjo launched its first virtual reality (VR) headset on Tuesday in a bid to capture the growing industrial market for the technology, despite slow pick-up among consumers. The $5,995 headset will be sold directly to businesses in industries like architecture, engineering and construction. Varjo has already collaborated with companies including Airbus, Audi and Volkswagen.

Google is shutting down its Emmy Award-winning VR film division, Spotlight Stories, after six years of building out content, Variety reports. We’ve reached out to Google for confirmation. Update: A Google spokesperson responded to TechCrunch with a statement confirming the shutdown.

A thrilling first encounter with developer Camouflaj’s upcoming PS VR action game.

The Sega Dreamcast was home to a lot of weird games- sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but not quite enough to save the console from an early grave- but enough, it seems, that nostalgia for the system has resurrected its games in many new forms. Out on the PAX East show floor this year was Space Channel 5 VR, a clever adaptation of a quirky Dreamcast rhythm game from nearly twenty years ago.

Boneworks from Stress Level Zero feels like the first game of PC VR’s second generation. The small team based in Los Angeles previously developed Duck Season and Hover Junkers. In Boneworks, they are applying years of refinement to physics, locomotion and object handling systems. You can feel the effort every second inside their virtual world. A recent demo of Boneworks from Stress Level Zero co-founder Brandon Laastch shows interactions tuned to a degree I’ve never seen before. First I held, loaded and fired a one-handed pistol. I dropped the gun, grabbed a bigger one, racked it with my other hand and started firing.

It's been a few years since the PlayStation VR for the PS4 and PS4 Pro launched onto the virtual reality scene, bringing with it an excellent virtual reality headset experience for console gamers. As of writing this article, it's still one of the best-selling virtual reality headsets on the market, which makes sense considering several of the others need high-end computers to get up-and-running such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

In Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, humanity escapes a gritty dystopia by donning VR goggles and entering a virtual world called OASIS. Back here in a comparatively rosy 2013, we don’t have a fully immersive virtual experience—yet. But virtual reality is undergoing a renaissance. And while Oculus develops a consumer-ready virtual reality headset, Second Life creator, Philip Rosedale, and his latest startup, High Fidelity, are hard at work constructing a next-generation global virtual world.

In May 2012, a programmer named John Carmack tweeted a picture of what looked like steampunk bifocals made out of a black shoebox. “This is a lot cooler than it looks,” read the caption. He was right. Since then, that awkward contraption—now more streamlined, and known as the Oculus Rift—has become the most anticipated new product in gaming since the Nintendo Wii got people off the couch.

Virtual reality has a come a long way since the 1990s, the heady days of Lawnmower Man and epic battles with evil triangles and squares. But with the arrival of the Oculus Rift headset, VR is poised to change the way we play, work and learn. That may sound like hyperbole, but I assure you that it's entirely justified.

It's been a week and I still can't get my experience with the latest Oculus Rift prototype at CES 2014 out of my mind. The Oculus Rift, which made its debut at CES 2013 and then further enchanted reporters at E3 2013, is undoubtedly one of the coolest pieces of technology I've ever seen.

Very soon, advances in neuroscience and technology are going to allow us to create virtual experiences that are far more fun and meaningful than real-world experiences—what happens then?

Virtual Reality is coming. As in, actual, good, user-friendly virtual reality. The stuff sci-fi has promised us for decades. Don’t take my word for it...

The most exciting aspect of contemporary virtual reality is its implications. Even using Oculus VR's early duct taped-prototype, most users immediately

We've figured out what affordable VR hardware will be capable of within a couple of years, and assembled a prototype that reveals that that level of VR hardware is capable of stunning VR experiences. That hardware is almost certainly going to appear in that timeframe, and it will be worth starting to develop for it now. This talk will discuss what that hardware is, and what it makes possible.

Sony's Oculus competitor is almost ready for its big unveiling, and it's said to be impressively good.

VRFocus reports on Oculus VR suspending sales of its Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset development kits. This could be to make way for a new version.

This is a VR clone of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The gameplay and artwork are virtually identical to the original NES classic, however in this version you see the world through Link's eyes, in all of it's virtual 3D 8-bit glory. Explore the world, find weapons, kill enemies, collect items, discover secrets, buy upgrades, delve into dungeons, defeat bosses, restore the Triforce, and rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.

Oculus Gearing Up to Host its Own VR Convention

Developer Michael Blix has created an Oculus Rift Simulator web app which gives an idea of what an Oculus Rift could look like equipped with a 1080p, 2k, and 4k screen. The demo also features simulated ‘low-persistence’ which helps users see how the new tech improves the virtual reality experience. Road to VR’s editors are… Read the full article …

For those with a rift, you can actually download that ZeldaVR game that's making its way around the web right now.

“Deep inside you know it’s not your body, but you feel like it is,” says Philippe Bertrand.

Valve has been vocal in its support of virtual reality technology, saying that "compelling, consumer-priced VR hardware" could "transform the entertainment industry." Valve says it has offered help to Oculus as it works on the Rift headset, but the Bellevue-based developer is also apparently working on its own virtual reality hardware. A poster on gaming super-forum NeoGAF says he was invited to see and use that prototype after it was shown to a few game developers.

VRFocus reports on the release of Spirited Away The Boiler Room on the Oculus VR Share Beta. The demo allows users to tour a scene from the classic film.

VRFocus reports on the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for Altergaze, an affordable virtual reality accessory that uses smartphones as a display.

VRFocus reports on Valve boss Gabe Newell answering questions on virtual reality on a Reddit topic addressing the company's VR headset and the tech's future.

VRFocus delivers an interview with the creator of the Altergaze VR headset talking about the product's design and the recently-launched Kickstarter campaign.