Our latest XR News Round-Up is live, bringing you a few more stories that caught our attention this week.
It’s been another week filled with major reveals. Neon Genesis Evangelion is getting an official XR game next year, Among Us VR is becoming Among Us 3D with flatscreen PC support, and Pinball FX VR was also revealed. Meta Connect 2025 will take place this September, Quest v74 began rolling out, and the Meta Horizon desktop editor is now publicly available in early access.
Our weekly newsletter and latest articles can tell you more. For everything else, here’s what else we’ve seen this week.
Starfield, Bethesda’s 2023 spacefaring RPG, now has a VR mod available to download. Created by a modder called Mutar, this adds full 6DOF head tracking and stereoscopic rendering, though motion controls aren’t yet implemented and movement needs a gamepad. You can watch early footage of that above, and mod access requires subscribing to Mutar’s Patreon.
Previously launched on Quest and Steam, VR space combat sim Rogue Stargun is now available on Pico headsets. Created by DuGames, this features a story-driven solo campaign across 24 missions where you can pilot five starfighters with an interactive VR cockpit, using virtual hands to interact with your controls.
VR mech roguelike UNDERDOGS introduced a new VR camera toolbox for setting up cameras to capture footage in game using LIV’s creator kit. Available on Quest 3/3S and PC VR, you can now record landscape or portrait from several angles and pause the game to adjust. However, One Hamsa says this toolbox “has some performance costs” that may emerge during heavier fights or on weaker hardware.
Launched in early access last year on Quest, VR racing game Downtown Club has just released its ‘1.1.0 Core Update.’ While this update resets the game’s local and online records due to the new car physics, promised changes include better car handling, improved AI for your opponents, and more.
Having released to mixed reception following this month’s launch, COLD VR developer Allware confirmed it’s planning a big update to address key criticisms. This includes replacing the Backrooms with new levels in the main campaign, the ability to grab enemy weapons, and improvements to the art.
Here’s everything else we’ve spotted across this week.
If you’d like to inform us about a VR game we should know about for this article or future updates, you can use our contact page or email tips@uploadvr.com with details.
This week saw many of the people behind smash hit Marvel Rivals, including the game’s director, get laid off by developer NetEase in a move the company says was made “for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game.” Meanwhile Humane, the company behind a $700 AI pin, announced that next…
Factors such as age, sleeping patterns, and a tendency to daydream might impact your ability to remember dreams in the morning, according to research.
Samsung’s latest deal on its website makes the Galaxy S25 Ultra the must-have smartphone for… everyone.
The mantis shrimp comes equipped with its own weapons. It has claws that look like permanently clenched fists that are known as dactyl clubs. But when it smashes the shells of its prey, these fists come out of it undamaged.
When throwing punches, mantis shrimp can strike at the speed of a .22 caliber bullet (about 1,316 kmph or 818 mph)—one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom. That generates a force over a thousand times their body weight. However, unleashing that much energy can backfire because the shockwaves it produces could seriously damage an animal’s soft tissue. None of that seems to affect the mantis shrimp. Now we finally know why.
When a team of researchers from Northwestern University studied the dactyl clubs of one mantis shrimp species, they found that they have layered structures that selectively block sound waves, acting as protective gear against vibrations that could otherwise harm the shrimp. These types of structures, known as phononic mechanisms, filter out sound waves that could otherwise cause nerve and soft tissue trauma.
Nvidia dropping 32-bit PhysX from the RTX 50-series’ CUDA infrastructure is another sign that game preservation can’t depend on those making gaming hardware.
Multiple developers told Wired that the tool is aimed at shareholders rather than actual developers. “Nobody will want this. They don’t CARE that nobody will want this,” one AAA developer said, noting that internal criticism remains muted due to job security concerns amid industry-wide layoffs.
The resistance comes as developers increasingly view AI initiatives as threats to job security rather than helpful tools. One anonymous developer called it “gross” that they needed to remain unnamed while criticizing Muse, as their studio still depends on potential Game Pass deals with Microsoft. Even in prototyping, where Microsoft sees AI potential, Creative Assembly’s Marc Burrage warns that automated shortcuts could undermine crucial learning experiences in game development.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—There’s no shortage of companies looking to reinvent the delivery experience using everything from sidewalk drones to electric vans. Some are succeeding, but many more have failed by trying to radically rethink the simple, age-old task of getting stuff from one place to another.
Harbinger likewise wants to shake up part of that industry but in a decidedly understated way. If you found yourself stuck in traffic behind one of the company’s all-electric vehicles, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t even notice. The only difference? The lack of diesel smoke and clatter.
From the outside, Harbinger’s pre-production machine looks identical to the standard flat-sided, vinyl-wrapped delivery vehicles that seemingly haven’t changed in decades. That’s because they really haven’t. Those familiar UPS and FedEx machines are built on common chassis like Ford’s F-59 or Freightliner’s MT45, with ladder chassis and leaf spring designs dating back to the earliest days of trucking.
An advocacy group is gravely concerned about forced exits of hundreds of rangers, interpreters, and administrative staff in U.S. national parks.
The researchers also analyzed the height and spacing of the ripple waves to determine the size of the lake that formed them. The structures are approximately 0.2 inches (6 millimeters) tall and about 1.6 to 2 inches (4 to 5 centimeters) apart, indicating they were left by small waves. Based on these dimensions, the researchers believe the Martian lake must have been less than 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep. Both dry lakebeds appear to have formed around 3.7 billion years ago, indicating that Mars had an atmosphere dense and warm enough to support liquid water for longer than previously thought — which could have intriguing implications. “Extending the length of time that liquid water was present extends the possibilities for microbial habitability later into Mars’s history,” Mondro said. In other words: living organisms may have had a longer window in which they could have evolved on the Red Planet. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Want to live out your creativity in VR? Then take part in our prize draw and win a Blockworks key for the Meta Quest.
The post This app for Meta Quest 3 brings the LEGO feeling to mixed reality and we’re giving away free keys appeared first on MIXED Reality News.
Another week and you won’t find any big VR titles in the charts. The Meta Quest audience still seems to prefer light fare.
The post Meta Quest Charts give VR enthusiasts no reason to be happy appeared first on MIXED Reality News.
Sandbox VR breaks milestone, Palmer Luckey unveils military XR headset and PSVR 2 hand tracking in test — the XR highlights of the week.
The post XR weekly round-up: Nvidia RTX 5090 divides VR community, Quest update is here and VR industry in crisis appeared first on MIXED Reality News.