An introduction to VR through the HTC Vive

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I've long been a skeptic when it comes to Virtual Reality or VR. I've covered the technologies and evolution of virtual reality since the mid-90's when the idea was that the internet and VR could easily create a connected, immersive and interactive reality alongside reality itself.

But like many widely heralded buzz-worthy technologies, VR always felt like a hollow promise mired by compromise at every turn. It required expensive and enormous headsets, a ton of wires connected to a supercomputer, and the content was, for the most part, as low-rez and blocky as what one could get out of a PlayStation One console.  It is now 2016 and companies are flying high the VR flag again, what's different this time is that there are actual consumer products as well as content generated specifically for VR.

HTC invited me to try their HTC Vive VR headset in a Toronto hotel a few days ago and I brought a healthy dose of skepticism with me. Here's what I learned.

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Video shows off the VR experience using the HTC Vive

It’s hard to explain what using a virtual reality device is like. This new Valve trailer featuring the HTC Vive shows what it’s like to play games using a VR headset. A lot of the games and experiences shown in the video come with the Vive for free including The Lab, Hover Junkers, Everest VR, Tilt Brush, to name a few. One of the things that sets the Vive apart from the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR is it allows for room-scale and it comes with motion controllers. This allows you to physically walk around in a virtual space, giving a different kind of immersive experience.

Source: Forbes

Steam hits big security snafu in midst of winter sale

This isn’t something any company wants to happen to them, especially during such a busy season. Valve’s Steam gaming platform is experiencing a big security lapse as some users were able to access other people’s accounts. Some players reported they got to see things like email addresses, credit card information, and previous purchases. It’s more disturbing that this happened in the midst of the platform’s winter sale, which means more players are logged on and possibly seeing information you don’t want other people to see.

The glitch doesn’t seem to affect all users and it seems the Steam store is up and running already. But Valve hasn’t addressed the issue just yet so we can’t say what caused the issue.

Source: Kotaku | Via: Engadget

Valve’s ‘DotA 2 Reborn’ gets 5.5GB patch

Looks like there’s more downloading in store for you if you have Valve’s DotA 2 Reborn. The game is finally available to the public in beta and it seems there’s a significant number of bugs to fix. You originally had to download 7GB for the game, now you have to download around 5.5GB of data for the patch. Some of the big issues this patch fixes include “Fixed illusions being able to manipulate and sell items;” “Fixed Huskar causing significant frame rate loss;” and “Fixed crash when dire or radiant ancients are destroyed.” Prepare to do some heavy duty downloading.

For those who aren’t familiar with DotA 2 Reborn, this is Valve’s attempt to bring new graphics to the game. It’s now powered by Valve’s Source 2 engine and it features things like a new menu system, user interface, and other aspects of the game.

Source: Ubergizmo