Experiences
Jump
We've all dreamed of flying, and seen the amazing videos of brave people in wing suits soaring through the sky. Jump brings these together to provide a virtual experience simulating a trip down the mountain wearing a wing suit in an immersive experience not to be missed. This has been on our radar for months, and tickets are available on pre-sale until July 9th, 2021. We'll be certain to post a review once we've made the jump ourselves.
Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass
There is nothing that gets you closer to the Mona Lisa than this experience. Having visited the Louvre, even being there early there is a layer of protective glass and a barrier between the world famous painting and the world. Go deeper into the story of the painting, the life of Leonardo da Vinci, and see his works through the latest scientific imaging to envision his process and vision behind his master works. Available now, free on Viveport or Steam.
Reading
Top 5 ways Virtual Reality makes workout sessions extremely beneficial
The benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle is very well documented, but if you have someone in your life that can't get to the gym or outside VR is a good alternative. This short read highlights the key points on how VR is in some ways better than going to the gym, and we'll probably be using a few arguments from the article on family members this holiday season to get them to try VR workouts.
Gaming
Gorilla Tag | SideQuest
If you've heard anything about SideQuest recently its probably contained some mention of this game. Though still a demo it is one of the most downloaded and highly rated of the App Lab experiences on SideQuest. In this game of tag you play as a gorilla, both chasing and avoiding others using only your arms to move around the area. With both standalone VR and PC VR support you have a large pool of people to play with. Whether you choose to play tag or just hang out and ape around.
COVID Deaths in the USA Dataviz | SideQuest
Data visualization isn't something that you commonly see on a gaming platform, but the open nature of SideQuest allows people to try things out. In this case we have a virtual world where we see deaths caused by COVID19 shown in a way to help appreciate the scale of loss brought about by the virus. The experience is updated frequently, and though simple stands out amongst other experiences currently available.
PHIN: Physics Sandbox ALPHA | SideQuest
Sandbox physics simulators have become more popular since Gary's Mod, and PHIN follows in that tradition in giving players a place to have fun building and playing around without needing to write code or create their own models. We had fun with the SideQuest experience and hope to see it get even more attention and features. June 28th is the last day to download the current build before it's unavailable while the Devs make tweaks before the next release.
One More Thing
The Conqueror Virtual Fitness Challenges | Virtual Fitness Challenges
Find motivation to be healthy and active while also being socially distant has been quite a challenge for everyone. What we really love about the Conqueror Virtual Fitness Challenges is that they have created a great community and program to make running, cycling, walking and distance activities count toward something similar to a marathon. But a marathon you complete at your own pace. Using the App you also get images and content from the locations matching the distance you've travelled. With travel still restricted for most of the world this is a great way to get exercise and virtually visit a place you've always thought of going.
Commentary
The path toward the future doesn't mean that we only add ne experiences and technology, sometimes things are removed or die off that are unexpected and seen by some as unnecessary. In the recent Oculus v30 update the ability to stream directly to your Facebook account has been removed. Reading the v30 release notes doesn't mention this, but Road To VR reported the feature being removed, originally spotted by a YouTuber and confirmed by Oculus Support. Since it could only stream to Facebook and not to other platforms it was a pretty poor feature that mostly worked around for game streaming (VRScout has a great tutorial with the most popular streaming setup).
This is a fine example of a decision to remove a feature with limited and low utility in favor of eventually creating something better at some point in the future. We're hoping that when the feature does come back it does more than just copy features other platforms are doing, and pushes what we think VR can do a step forward.
Initially this issue was going to focus more on SideQuest App Lab experiences, but we also found a few other things we were excited to share with you. So please enjoy a few that we think are work checking out along with other happenings that you shouldn't miss this week.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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