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Submission + - Oculus Rift Gets Half-Life 2, Outerra and 3D Box Fractal Flythrough! (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Hesh
Hesh writes: Now that all 10,000 developers will have received their dev kits by the end of May (http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/shipping-update-replacement-rewards-vr-meet-ups-and-half-life-2-in-vr/) completely new experiences and updates to popular games are flooding in. Valve's classic, Half-Life 2, has finally gained VR support that actually works beautifully (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/05/11/how-to-configure-half-life-2-beta-for-your-oculus-rift-gameplay-video-5730). Also, the open-world 3D engine Outerra has added initial support for the Rift which will open up the possibility of planet-sized procedurally generated environments (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/05/19/outerra-oculus-rift-support-coming-soon-5996). Lastly, a fly through generated with Boxplorer2 tailored for the Oculus Rift gives the mind-blowing experience of what it is like to fly through 3D fractal worlds (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/05/20/boxplorer-2-oculus-rift-support-3d-fractal-6004); realtime support for this should be possible on today's hardware so hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later!

Submission + - MakeVR to Bring User-friendly 3D Modeling to the Masses in Virtual Reality

Submitted by Benz145
Benz145 writes: MakeVR is a forthcoming piece of software from Sixense, creators of the Razer Hydra. The software pairs the Hydra with an intuitive two-hand interface design where you reach out and manipulate objects in a highly natural way (http://youtu.be/VvPb7Lo6S-I). Even more exciting is out-of-the-box support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset (http://www.oculusvr.com/) which, when combined with MakeVR, makes it feels as though you are really grabbing objects with your own hands thanks to the first person perspective and the Hydra's 1:1 tracking. Sixense says that the Hydra can detect positional movements of as little as 1mm and rotational movements down to 1 degree. The company intends to launch a Kickstarter this month (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/04/03/gdc-2013-sixense-makevr-virtual-reality-cad-kickstarter-4495) to fund some exciting features for the software like multiplayer, physics, animation, and more.

Submission + - Hyundai Unveils Its Electric Egg (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by redletterdave
redletterdave writes: A product of Hyundai’s Advanced Design Department, the egg-shaped Hyundai E4U unveiled at this week's Seoul Motor Show is a 24-volt electric one-seater vehicle that can move in any direction, with its maximum speed topping out around 18 miles per hour. The E4U’s propulsion is controlled by foot pedals, which causes the E4U’s front to tilt and move forward thanks to its rotating front sphere and two training wheels on the back. Turning the vehicle is caused by pushing on the pedal closest to the direction you want to turn. The "E" in the E4U, according to Hyundai, represents "egg, evolution, and ecology."

Submission + - Sixense staging a comeback in VR (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Hesh
Hesh writes: The makers of the Razer Hydra are staging a comeback of sorts with the renewed interest in VR from the recent release of the Oculus Rift dev kits (http://oculusvr.com). They showed off an update for the Oculus Tuscany demo that shows off accurate virtual hands that can pick up objects and interact with the world beautifully, even up to the point of picking up objects and setting them on fire from a virtual fireplace and juggling (badly, http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/03/30/gdc-2013-oculus-rift-razer-hydra-tuscany-unity-demo-4401). They have also decided to throw their hat into the Kickstarter ring to get funding for a VR CAD game that is the first of its kind for the and should be a great Legos replacement for the younger generation! (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/04/03/gdc-2013-sixense-makevr-virtual-reality-cad-kickstarter-4495)

Submission + - Fusion Propulsion for Spacecraft Edging Closer (washington.edu)

Submitted by imikem
imikem writes: University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs and health risks.
"Using existing rocket fuels, it's nearly impossible for humans to explore much beyond Earth," said lead researcher John Slough, a UW research associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "We are hoping to give us a much more powerful source of energy in space that could eventually lead to making interplanetary travel commonplace."

Maybe this will be powered by fusing all the unsold copies of Windows 8.
Displays

Submission + - USC Launches 3D Printed VR Headset Library (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by
Hesh
Hesh writes: "The University of Southern California has launched a website (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/) that contains the blueprints for many of their custom VR headsets as well as new mods to the much anticipated yet unreleased Oculus Rift (http://oculusvr.com). Some are helping push DIY VR forward through custom sensor mounts to support, for example, stereo cameras (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/oculus-sensor-mount/) and others add more functionality like new eye cups (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/eye-cups-for-oculus-rift/) to help increase the already large FOV of the headset. This is truly an exciting time for VR and by GDC developers will already have Rifts in hand and tinkerers can 3D print their own designs now as well!"
Security

Submission + - Ask Slashdot:How to protect a text document 6

Submitted by Jason1729
Jason1729 writes: I have been ordered by judge to release a large amount of material in "electronic format". Typically it's only available as paper copies which are sold on copy protected paper. Illegal copying of this material has become rampant and a group of lawyers obtained the court order by claiming it would be easier for them to access the material on a computer screen rather than hard copy. It is fairly clear they intend to print and share the single copy rather than paying for certified copies.

I'm looking for a technological solution that will allow me to distribute the documents (with word processing formatting in tact), in "electronic format", complying with the letter of the court order, but also make it impossible or as difficult as possible to print the documents or share the electronic version.

I'd rather not get into a discussion on the morality of copyright as the cost to produce the material was far greater than the single copy price and had I known I'd be facing this court order, I'd have refused to create it to begin with. Total demand is around 5 copies and getting 20% of that means losing a lot of money.
AI

Submission + - Google Buying Up AI Researchers (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: After acquiring Ray Kurzweill and presumably buying into the singularity, the Google singularity that is, the company that does no evil has now got the leading neural network researcher and his best crew. University of Toronto Professor of Computer Science Geoffrey Hinton and his DNNresearch team work in the area of “deep learning” networks. Google has taken the unusual step of putting Hinton on its payroll while allowing him to divide his time between his university research in Toronto and his work at Google headquarters in Mountain View. Google has also agreed to help fund DNNresearch to the tune of $600,000 to support further work in neural networks. According to Google Fellow Jeff Dean, Hinton’s work has applications for voice- and image-based searches. As more and more users send search queries by snapping a picture from or speaking to their smartphones, Google has spent more research dollars trying to figure out ways to automatically derive contextual clues from images and sound.
The combination of Hinton's expertise and Google's data and processing power should lead to some interesting results — Google results..
Games

Submission + - Build Your Own Oculus Virtual Reality Headset Guide (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by
Hesh
Hesh writes: "With the impending arrival of the first batch of Oculus Rift (http://oculusvr.com) VR headsets in the hands of developers, Rod Furlan put up a very detailed guide (http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/03/12/build-your-own-diy-oculus-rift-guide-3927) on how to build your very own headset with off the shelf parts and a few hours of spare time based off of the original design of the headset from the forums where it all started. This is a very exciting time for VR, and DIY headsets will allow everyone to try out new tricks and form factors while finally being able to test with a whole new world of compatible software that is about to be released very soon. Check it out!"
Games

Submission + - Modder proves SimCity can run offline indefinitely (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ever since SimCity launched, there has been a suspicion that the need for the game to always be connected to a server was mainly a form of DRM, not for social game features and multiplayer. Then a Maxis developer came forward to confirm the game doesn’t actually need a server to function, suggesting the information coming out of EA wasn’t the whole truth. Now EA and Maxis have some explaining to do as a modder has managed to get the game running offline indefinitely.

Submission + - US National Vulnerability Database Down Following Malware Infestation (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The US government's National Vulnerability Database (NVD) maintained by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is offline since a few days because of malware infestation. The public facing site has been taken offline since last Friday because traces of malware were found on two of the web servers that house the NVD. A post on Google+ containing an email from Gail Porter details the discovery of suspicious activity and subsequent steps taken by NIST. As of this writing the NVD website is still serving a page not found message.

Submission + - Definitive Guide to Google Glass (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by
Hesh
Hesh writes: "Whether you think that Google Glass is a great idea (http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4013406/i-used-google-glass-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates) or a poor one (http://nickfranc.is/blog/google-glass-is-ridiculous), everyone can agree that it holds much potential. Ben Lang over at RoadToVR has compiled a comprehensive list of everything we know about Glass to date and will keep the page up to date with the latest news and specs updates as they transpire."
Games

Submission + - Inside the Project Holodeck VR Game World, First Impressions (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by
Hesh
Hesh writes: "The space-pirates themed Project Holodeck game (http://www.ProjectHolodeck.com) out of USC is a VR game that is initially targeted for the Oculus Rift and will marry VR with a world so interactive and immersive that it feels like you can almost reach out and touch it. Ben Lang over at RoadToVR recently got a chance to sit down with the team and try it out and came out extremely impressed with how immersive the experience was: '...at one point I needed to set the Razer Hydra controllers down to adjust my helmet and I nearly tried to set them down on a virtual table next to me. There was no table in real life — had I not quickly realized what I was about to do, I would have dropped the controllers straight onto the floor below.'"

Comment Re:... Virtual reality on a Mac? (Score 1) 52

by Hesh (#42634041) Attached to: Ibex Virtual Reality Desktop Beta For Mac Released

It is a flat desktop because that is the most reasonable and quickest way to get up and running productively. I can scale it up and let users work as usual without inventing a new way for them to interact with their windows. Also, X windows and OSX don't give us the full tree of Windows so we can't accurately associate popups for example with their parent, so you'd have to have new windows and popups show up somewhere else. I did initially render the windows individually, so it is doable, but we'd still need a means of isolating input to each window, it's a definite possibility for Linux, and a weak one for OSX and Windows unless better support from the OS is released.

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