Awesome Virtual Reality

Watch some of the world’s best musicians, actors, dancers and performance artists up close and for free with Google Cultural Institute’s Performing Arts collection. Each episode consists of multiple 360º videos taken from different angles.

Combining its light field image tech with a 360º camera rig and a sophisticated computer system, Lytro is developing a pro-grade system that can capture truly immersive VR they claim goes far beyond conventional tech, providing viewers with six degrees of freedom.

3D modeler and Star Trek fanatic Jason B is building out an insanely detailed digital reconstruction of the Starship Enterprise-D as it appeared on The Next Generation. Take a tour of the first few levels of his ambitious VR project for the Oculus Rift.

(PG-13 Language) Node got its hands on an early copy of Valve’s virtual reality demo Aperture Robot Repair and played it using Valve and HTC’s Vive headset. It’s quite brief and only has a few interactive aspects, but it’s still impressive.

An upcoming virtual reality game for Windows and the Oculus Rift. It’s not as pretty as fellow mech fps Hawken, but it appears to be extremely immersive.  You play as a mech pilot taking on mining and mercenary missions.

The Verge goes inside Industrial Light & Magic’s virtual and augmented reality lab. Their efforts are helping moviemakers visualize spaces, and may someday allow us to jump right into the worlds of Star Wars, Jurassic Park and more.

HammerheadVR Studios shows off a proof of concept visual demo of what could be an awesome use for the Oculus Rift – a virtual reality Star Wars game. We’d love it if Star Wars: Battlefront supports VR headsets.

Adr1ft (aka Gravity, the video game) is a first-person space exploration game. You play an astronaut who wakes up in a ruined space station with no idea what happened. Coming to PC with Oculus Rift support, plus Xbox One and PS4.

The much awaited virtual reality headset drops on Q1 2016. The Rift will come with a sensor and an Xbox One controller, and will support Xbox One game streaming via a Windows 10 PC. The Touch controllers will be sold separately.

SMS Racing is a virtual reality parody racing game for the Samsung Gear VR and Galaxy Note 4. During the race, both you and the AI racers are sent silly text messages that you have to reply to within 10 seconds. Non-VR version here.

Mac Cauley’s virtual reality tribute to Vincent Van Gogh. The Night Café lets you explore a 3D version of the Dutch artist’s eponymous painting, populated by Van Gogh himself as well as his other works.

The 21st century arcade. The Void is working to combine virtual reality technology with dedicated arenas that have objects, obstacles and stimuli – wind, rain, motion – that will match what players are seeing in their headsets.

A spinoff of the space MMO EVE Online, EVE: Valkyrie is an upcoming virtual reality team-based multiplayer dogfighting game for the Oculus Rift, the PlayStation 4 Project Morpheus and other VR platforms.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a virtual reality party game where only one player can see and interact with the randomly generated time bomb. The other players will refer to a sheet of instructions to assist with the bomb disposal.

SoKrispyMedia – the guys behind the excellent Chalk Warfare series – take on virtual reality in their latest clip, introducing us to a tech that would be so much cooler than the Oculus Rift. Think Garry’s Mod in real life.

Pinć (“pinch”) is a headset for the iPhone 6/6+ and similarly-sized Android 4.1+ phones. It comes with two motion sensing rings and an app that lets you navigate your phone, browser, YouTube and more in a VR environment.