Pico's 2026 headset will have 4K micro-OLED displays and a dedicated R1-style passthrough chip, a ByteDance executive reportedly said.

The Chinese news outlet STAR Market Daily reports that during the 2025 ByteDance Scholarship Award Ceremony, ByteDance Vice President of Technology, Yang Zhenyuan, described key details of Pico's next-generation headset.

We first heard that ByteDance's Pico was working on a high-end headset two years ago, when The Information reported that Pico 5 had been canceled in favor of a short-term Pico 4 refresh and a longer-term Apple Vision Pro competitor.

That short-term headset arrived last year as Pico 4 Ultra, while the Vision Pro competitor seems to be what Zhenyuan described.

Pico 5 Has Reportedly Been Canceled

Pico 5 has reportedly been canceled as ByteDance shifts its focus to a further out high-end headset to compete with Apple Vision Pro.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

According to STAR Market Daily, Zhenyuan said that the headset will feature "custom" micro-OLED panels with 4000 pixels per inch (PPI). That would match the pixel density of the 4K micro-OLED panels in Samsung Galaxy XR, Play For Dream MR, and Shiftall MeganeX.

Zhenyuan also reportedly said that the new Pico headset will have a self-developed dedicated chip for passthrough, handling real-time processing of the color cameras and delivering frames in less than 12 milliseconds.

The only headsets we've seen yet with a dedicated chip for passthrough are Apple's Vision Pro series, which feature the company's R1 chip for this.

The news, if accurate, suggests that Pico is looking to deliver best-in-class passthrough quality, exceeding competitors like Samsung that only use the ISP of the Qualcomm XR2 Gen 2 series chipset.

ByteDance Reportedly Working On Ultralight Pico Headset

ByteDance is working on a lightweight Pico headset with a tethered puck similar to Meta’s ultralight headset, The Information reports.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

We should note that earlier this year, The Information reported that Pico is working on an ultralight headset resembling a pair of goggles, with a tethered compute puck (similar to Meta's next headset).

That report also noted that ByteDance was working on an R1 chip equivalent, but it's unclear whether the 2026 headset Zhenyuan described is the same as the ultralight headset, or whether Pico plans a range of high-end options with different form factors.

We'll keep a close eye on Pico in 2026 for any signs of a new headset announcement.

Godot now supports Vulkan foveated rendering on Android, Application SpaceWarp, DirectX 12, and OpenXR render models, and can build a universal OpenXR APK.

If you're unaware, Godot is a free and open-source alternative to Unity and Unreal Engine. It's technically controlled by the non-profit Godot Foundation, but all development takes place in the open.

Since last year, Meta has been funding a group of Godot veterans to improve the engine's support for OpenXR and Quest feature extensions, as well as to build high-quality samples and documentation.

Uniquely, Godot is also available standalone on Quest 3 and Quest Pro. To be clear, that means the editor itself runs as a 2D Android app within Horizon OS, including the ability to build APKs on-device.

Godot 4.5, released in September, brought a number of important new XR features and improvements:

• You can now use DirectX 12 and OpenXR together on Windows for improved performance.
• Foveated rendering now works in Vulkan on Android. Previously it only worked in Vulkan on desktop, and was thus limited to OpenGL on Android.
• Application SpaceWarp is now supported on Meta Quest and Pico headsets.
• The OpenXR render models extension is now supported, letting the app dynamically load in 3D models of the active tracked controllers from the system. This avoids each application needing to bundle its own 3D models for every possible tracked controller it wants to support, and enables support for future unreleased controllers.

Crucially, Godot 4.5 also delivers support for building a universal OpenXR APK that can, in theory, run on any Android-based standalone headset that supports OpenXR. This rectifies the problem of having to maintain multiple device-specific builds for each headset, the antithesis of the "core promise" of OpenXR.

OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions Standardize Surfaces, Markers, Anchors & Persistence

The new OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions standardize surface detection, marker tracking, spatial anchors, and persistence.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Godot 4.6 is now in public testing, and it's set to bring even more XR features and improvements, including an upgrade to OpenXR 1.1.

The engine will also add support for the OpenXR spatial entities extensions, released earlier this year. The spatial entities extensions standardize how developers leverage the environment tracking capabilities of headsets and glasses to build experiences that interact with the user's physical environment, a class of capabilities that until now have been handled by vendor-specific extensions or SDKs.

This includes persistent spatial anchors, plane tracking, and marker tracking.

OpenXR 1.1 Brings Foveated Rendering & More Into The Spec

OpenXR 1.1 brings a foveated rendering extension & more into the core specification. Full details here.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Godot says it also plans to improve its frame synthesis support, providing runtimes with depth buffers and motion vectors to improve the quality of output of features like Application SpaceWarp.

POOLS brings the eerie walking simulator to PS VR2 today with native 120Hz support, and a free VR-supported demo is now live.

Developed by Tensori, POOLS is an eerie walking simulator where you wander through these strange swimming pool environments looking for the exit. Originally released as a flatscreen PC game last year, you may recall it received PC VR support in May's free update. Now, it's launching on PS5 with optional PlayStation VR2 support and the Chapter 0 expansion.

Speaking to UploadVR before today's release, Tensori informed us that it's been “very pleased” with the reception to the PC VR release. Stating it focused heavily on performance to ensure things ran smoothly, this pushed the team to learn more about its tools and then apply these same principles to the PlayStation VR2 release.

“We applied the same principle to the PS VR2 version. We actually went so deep that we had to rebuild most of the visual aspects of the game from the ground up to get our target performance. We wanted the foveated rendering to work as best as it could, and in order to do that, we needed to create a custom solution for our water visuals. To do that, we’ve learned a ton about shader programming. It was a serious amount of work, but we feel it was worth the effort.”

Delving into specifics about the PlayStation VR2 edition, Tensori confirmed this work means POOLS runs at native 120Hz. However, the developer warns there might be a few frame rate drops in larger areas if you're using a standard PS5 console. Performance will benefit naturally from the PS5 Pro's improved specs, though dedicated Pro enhancements are planned as a post-launch update.

While today's release uses eye-tracking for foveated rendering, Tensori informed us that more “advanced” use of the headset's haptics isn't available at launch. Though it didn't elaborate on what they specifically are targeting for improvements, the studio confirmed that “we are planning to include improved haptics soon-ish in a future update.”

Finally, given that POOLS has made its way to iOS, can we expect to see it reach Apple Vision Pro, or other VR platforms like Quest? Tensori didn't commit to further platforms yet, though it's not ruling them out either.

“We are always looking to bring POOLS to as many players as we can. If it’s a platform that we feel we can create a great experience on, then we will have a look and see if it’s something we can do. We’re huge fans of Apple Vision Pro and the Quest, so we will definitely have a look and see if POOLS can make its home on these platforms.”

POOLS is out now on PC VR and PlayStation VR2. Free VR-supported demos are available on both platforms.

POOLS VR Review: A Darker Take On The Original

POOLS adds a compelling new dimension to this backrooms-inspired experience with PC VR support.

UploadVRK. Guillory

Considering the success Hit-Point has had with Neko Atsume on both mobile and VR, it’s been a surprising wait for the company to make a dog-themed follow-up to the pet care simulator that won the hearts of millions. Rather than making its way to the platform after finding success elsewhere, Inu Atsume VR is debuting in mixed and virtual reality. As more of a dog person myself, I’m delighted.

Inu Atsume VR will be instantly familiar to anyone who enjoyed their time with Neko Atsume Purrfect. There isn’t an adventure to beat, just pets to meet, photograph, play with, adopt, befriend, train, and love for as long as you like. It's an immersive Nintendogs offering everything you need to pretend you have a dog without the cleaning or vet bills that come with one.

Dogs are very different animals from cats, so there are certainly gameplay aspects that have changed compared to Neko Atsume Purrfect. You pick your first dog by playing fetch with a frisbee in the park and giving them a collar, though you can also play with and befriend any dogs you encounter without the commitment of bringing them home when you visit in the future. After that, they live with you, and you need to give them enough to keep them entertained.

They’ll need a bed and food and water, naturally, but you can also get more toys and presents for them. You can teach them tricks and, if incentivized by enough treats, they’ll learn them permanently. You can have them sit or lie down on command at any time.

If they’re done digging holes in the garden to find currency for new toys, gizmos, and other surprises, you can simply call them over and pet and stroke them. Endlessly. Having lived with dogs for much of my life while living in the UK, I've only been able to see the family dog through a screen since moving abroad. Even spotting a dog while on a walk and sometimes getting to greet them can be a highlight. Getting to do that at any time in Inu Atsume VR, especially with how adorable they are, is worth the price of admission. I could watch them run and stroke these virtual dogs in my pets-not-allowed apartment for hours.

Actually, I think I spent close to an hour doing this before I even realized it during my first session.

With dogs being more active creatures than the aloof and independent feline, Inu Atsume VR offers a few features not found in its predecessor for interacting with your dog. You can take them to events - simplistic minigames such as maze navigation offer a break from the more passive experience found elsewhere. In this maze game, for example, you can navigate your dog through simplistic labyrinths using either a navigation panel in front of you or voice commands. Unfortunately, voice recognition is very poor and rarely works. Attempting to call and have my dog respond is neat, yet I found myself going to menus and buttons both in and out of minigames. It's only worked for me around 10% of the time during my experience with the title.

That said, it’s the returning Mixed Reality mode from Neko Atsume Purrfect that remains a highlight. Using your room as a space for this dog to roam, playing with them, or simply watching them walk around is one of the platform's best uses. I say that as someone who misses the joy a dog’s mere presence can bring to any room. I watch George scratch at my shoes with joy, not anger, and find myself doing odd tasks with my Quest headset in this mode in a way I haven’t in other mixed reality modes, just so I can occasionally spot them having fun as I clean my room.

Mixed reality often falls short, not from poor execution but from how unnatural it feels to have these events taking place in the real world. Yet despite the stylized appearance of these dogs, it simply feels right. I actually felt a little sad when the headset was put away and George wasn’t around, which I didn’t expect.

Mostly, though, this isn’t a game to pick up and play for long sessions. Your coins needed to play minigames and get toys are only drip-fed, and once you’ve fed and played with your pets, it’s perfectly acceptable to go about your life until returning the following day. The daily login system encourages this further, offering goodies for every day you log in.

A dog lover like myself would inevitably prefer Inu Atsume VR compared to Neko Atsume Purrfect, but Hit-Point has done more than a species swap with this new game. It's taken advantage of VR to bring new features and ideas that feel natural to the medium and make this an engaging and adorable pet simulator that can stick with you for months. Now, if you don’t mind, George needs some food, and then we’re off to play frisbee.

Inu Atsume VR is out now on the Meta Quest platform.

CleanSheet Pro, a subscription-based VR soccer sim for goalkeepers, is now available on Quest.

Developed by Belfast studio INCISIV, we first learned about this CleanSheet Soccer successor back in May. Described as a simulator built for serious athletes, CleanSheet Pro sees you moving between five divisions in a progression-based career mode as you hit promotion targets to move up the ranks. Similarly, poor performance gives you relegation targets to avoid dropping.

Progressing through this career mode gradually unlocks more stadiums, new cosmetics for the footballs and gloves, and the ability to transfer to new clubs. This comes with three fictional teams: Forgehill Rovers, Waveport City, and Stanton United, each with its own identity and environment. Different clubs offer different coaches, stadiums, and more.

Further CleanSheet Pro features include scenarios designed to emulate real-life soccer moments, seeing you face corner kicks and penalty shootouts alike. INCISIV states these are based off motion-captured data from professional footballers.

Other options include a custom shot creator, mixed reality support, and a monthly standardized test through a 'Profiler Mode' to recalibrate the game's difficulty. A companion app for tracking progress and scheduling sessions is also available on iOS and Android.

CleanSheet Pro is now available on Quest through monthly ($29.99) and annual ($239.99) subscriptions, with a free seven-day trial and 50% off the first month. You can find out more in our previous interview below.

CleanSheet Pro Is A Subscription-Based VR Goalkeeping Sim Coming To Quest 3

CleanSheet Pro is a subscription-based VR soccer sim for training goalkeepers, and the sequel arrives this year on Quest 3.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

The Meta Horizon Store's Black Friday sale, now on, offers 40% off hundreds of Quest games via the discount code BFCM25.

There are far too many eligible titles for us to reasonably list, but you can see the full selection here.

Eligible games range from blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed Nexus, Reach, Asgard's Wrath 2, Metro Awakening, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Resident Evil 4, and Arizona Sunshine 2 to indie gems like Ghost Town, Superhot VR, Dungeons of Eternity, Walkabout Mini Golf, Real VR Fishing, and GOLF+.

We could go on all day here, but the TL;DR is that you can get 40% off almost every major title on Quest for the next week. A notable exception is Deadpool VR, which isn't eligible since it only came out last week. You'll still need to fork out $50 for it.

To apply the 40% discount for the eligible titles, just enter the code BFCM25 at checkout.

You can use it as many times as you want, up until 11:59 pm PT on December 2, a week from now.

Quest 3S Is $250 At Best Buy And Comes With $110 Of Black Friday Perks

Quest 3S is on sale for $250 at Best Buy, and comes with a $50 gift card, 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Sale Bundles

Separately, Meta is also offering 11 sale bundles, letting you get multiple games and/or DLC together for a lower price than buying them individually:

• Vader Immortal Series
• Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge + Last Call DLC
• Squad Up: Pavlov Shack + Tactical Assault VR
• Freddy’s Bundle: Arizona Sunshine Remake + Arizona Sunshine 2
• Sandbox Chaos: Plastic Battlegrounds + Newton's Playground: Physics Sandbox
• Supersized Battles: UNDERDOGS + Kaiju Battle Simulator
• Walkabout Fan Favorites: Walkabout Mini Golf + Around the World in 80 Days + Atlantis + Raptor Cliff's + Venice
• Ghosts of Tabor Black Friday PAYDAY Bundle: Ghosts of Tabor
  + PAYDAY DLC
• Xtreme Riders: Virtual Skate + MotoX
• Real VR Fishing Japan DLC bundle: Real VR Fishing + Japan DLC Part 1 + Japan DLC Part 2
• Black Friday Pass: NightClub Simulator VR + Nightclub Simulator Multiplayer

If you already own one of the games in a bundle, the price is lowered to reflect that.

Meta's WorldGen AI system generates trimesh 3D worlds from text prompts, though the company doesn't think it's ready for Horizon Worlds yet.

Meta first teased that its Horizon Worlds creation tools would get the ability to AI-generate entire 3D worlds back in May, when announcing the related AssetGen 2.0 model. Then, in June, the company revealed that this feature would be called Environment Generation, teased example generations, and said it would launch "very soon".

Horizon Worlds Creators Can Now AI-Generate Islands, Add AI NPCs “Very Soon”

Meta’s Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor now lets creators AI-generate island environments, and will let them add conversational AI NPCs “very soon”.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Environment Generation launched in August, but it was (and remains) only capable of generating a very specific kind of island, a very limited scope compared to the goal of generic world creation.

At Connect 2025 in September, Meta teased an overhaul of its Horizon Worlds creation tools, called Horizon Studio, which hasn't yet launched. The tease depicted an AI Assistant capable of generating just about anything a creator wants, including entire worlds, specific assets, custom NPCs, and specific gameplay mechanics, in a matter of seconds or minutes. But it's unclear whether what Meta was showing was notional or representative of real technology it was waiting to deploy.

Meta Horizon Studio Will AI-Generate Just About Anything For Horizon Worlds

Meta Horizon Studio, the new name for Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor, is getting an upgraded AI Assistant that can generate or change just about anything.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

That brings us to WorldGen, the new AI system Meta published a paper for.

Meta describes it as "a state-of-the-art end-to-end system for generating interactive and navigable 3D worlds from a single text prompt", leveraging a chain of 2D and 3D techniques, rather than being a single model.

"WorldGen is built on a combination of procedural reasoning, diffusion-based 3D generation, and object-aware scene decomposition. The result is geometrically consistent, visually rich, and render-efficient 3D worlds for gaming, simulation, and immersive social environments."

To be clear, this is not producing a Gaussian splat like World Labs' Marble, nor an interactive video stream like Google DeepMind's Genie 3.

Meta's WorldGen creates a layout of traditional trimesh 3D assets, making it fully compatible with traditional game engines and rendering pipelines. And it also includes a navmesh for collision detection and NPC traversal.

Here's the underlying sequence WorldGen goes through after you input a prompt, according to Meta:

(1) Planning
1. Procedural blockout generation
2. Navmesh extraction
3. Reference image generation

(2) Reconstruction
1. Image-to-3D base model
2. Navmesh-based scene generation
3. Initial scene texture generation

(3) Decomposition
1. Part extraction with accelerated AutoPartGen for scenes
2. Data curation for scene decomposition

(4) Refinement
1. Image enhancement
2. Mesh refinement model
3. Texturing model

So why isn't WorldGen rolling out in Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor, or at least being announced as a launch feature for Horizon Studio?

Meta says it's not satisfied with the fact that WorldGen currently only produces 50×50 meter spaces, and that it takes a long time to do so. The company says it's working to address both limitations.

It seems like a greatly upgraded future version of WorldGen will be necessary to deliver on the promise of Horizon Studio that Meta teased at Connect, and given the rate of advancement in AI, it's very possible that the company will be able to achieve exactly that sometime in 2026.

AI can bring real-world objects into VR as 3D assets in seconds, with Meta's new SAM 3D Objects model setting a new standard for quality.

It has been possible for years now to generate a 3D model of a real-world object by capturing dozens of images of it from surrounding angles, leveraging traditional photogrammetry techniques. Epic's RealityScan, for example, takes around 15–45 minutes of cloud processing, while Apple offers an on-device Object Capture API for iPhone Pro models that takes around 5 minutes.

But over the past year or so, advanced AI models have emerged that can produce 3D assets from a single image in a matter of seconds. And while they don't offer the same quality of photogrammetry, the quality has steadily improved with each new model release, mirroring the overall rapid advancement of AI.

For an example of how this applies to VR, Takahiro “Poly” Horikawa published a Quest app on SideQuest that uses hand tracking to let you frame a specific real-world object and take a photo of it, leveraging Meta's passthrough camera API. This image is then provided to Stability AI's Stable Fast 3D API, based on the TripoSR model, and the result is spawned as a virtual object beside the image capture spot.

TripoSR is now almost two years old, though. And a few days ago, Meta launched SAM 3D Objects, the new state-of-the-art model for generating 3D assets from a single image.

You can test out SAM 3D Objects for free in your web browser on the Meta AI Demos page. Just provide it with an image and you'll be able to select which object you want to convert to a 3D model. Seconds later, you'll see a 3D view where you can pan around the object with your mouse or finger.

Meta's site isn't designed for mobile screens, so you'll probably want to use a PC, laptop, tablet, or VR headset. Also note that the model is only designed for inanimate objects, not people or animals.

SAM 3D Objects is open source, available on GitHub and Hugging Face. That means developers should be able to host it on a cloud computing platform that offers GPUs, and use it to provide the experience of that EchoTheReality demo but with higher quality output – essentially pulling an object from reality into VR.

Social VR platforms, for example, could let you conduct show-and-tell for objects in your real room in a matter of seconds. Or decorate your home space with items you crafted in the real world. Meta has no announced plan to add this to Horizon Worlds, but it would seem like a natural future step, complementing the Hyperscape worlds it just launched.

Horizon Hyperscape Now Lets You Invite Friends To Visit As Meta Avatars

You can now turn new Horizon Hyperscape captures into unlisted Horizon Worlds, letting you invite friends to join you in them as Meta Avatars.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Marble, an AI model from World Labs, can turn a single image into a volumetric scene that you can view in WebXR in a matter of minutes.

World Labs was founded last year by Fei-Fei Li, one of the pioneers of modern AI. She's best known for creating the ImageNet dataset that helped enable the rapid advancement of computer vision in the 2010s, having the insight that the lack of high-quality labeled data was a critical bottleneck.

As with almost all of the remarkable advancements in 3D reconstruction over the past few years, Marble generates Gaussian splats, fitting millions of semitransparent colored blobs (Gaussians) in 3D space so that arbitrary viewpoints can be rendered realistically in real-time. But Marble's variety of supported input types and the speed of its output are unprecedented.

While other splat generation systems like Meta's Horizon Hyperscape and Varjo Teleport require hundreds of input frames and hours of processing, in its simplest mode Marble can generate a splat from a single input image or text prompt in a matter of minutes.

For more advanced outputs, if you pay for the $20/month subscription Marble can take multiple images as input, or a short video, or even a 3D structure, using a tool World Labs calls Chisel.

Chisel lets you lay out a scene with crude 3D shapes, as you would in a game editor, and then use a text prompt to turn it into a detailed volumetric scene.

With the subscription, Marble outputs support interactive editing, expanding, and the ability to combine multiple worlds together. And you can export as a high-quality traditional 3D mesh, though this takes multiple hours of conversion time.

Because of the unique capability set of Marble, World Labs describes it as a "first-in-class generative multimodal world model".

On the Marble web app you can generate your own scenes for free, and view the output in VR via WebXR using the web browser of your headset.

Trying out Marble on Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, by turning a single image of the Steam Dev Days 2014 VR room into a volumetric scene, I found the quality to be noticeably inferior to Meta's Hyperscape worlds and Varjo Teleport, more akin to (but notably better than) Niantic Scaniverse. While the details directly brought in from your input image are relatively detailed, the further away you move from this, the more typical Gaussian splat visual artifacts you'll see.

And of course, the elephant in the room here is that details beyond the image frame are hallucinated, so will be very different from what was actually there behind the camera, unless you provide multiple input images.

Still, the limitations aside, the ability to generate volumetric scenes in minutes from a single image or sentence is remarkable, and that you can then edit them with a combination of an editor UI and natural language is even more so.

Further, the ability to then export these scenes as traditional 3D worlds, with geometric steerability via Chisel, seems like it could have huge potential for VR developers to build environments for their interactive apps and games.

You can try out Marble at marble.worldlabs.ai. Note that if you don't pay, any scenes you create will be publicly listed. You'll need the $20/month subscription to create a private scene, alongside unlocking the more advanced creation, editing, and export features.

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked is a mostly natural crossover and a fitting evolution for the VR tabletop RPG. Read on for our full review.

Resolution Games created something special with the original Demeo, offering a compelling social VR experience with the turn-based dungeon crawler. Though it gradually evolved through post-launch updates, the initial release was rather bare and it's a testament to the concept's replayability that I'd keep coming back for more. Four years later, Demeo x D&D takes its potential even further.

Demeo x D&D delivers that same moreish strategy with a more refined package, boasting two sizable campaigns that took my party roughly six hours each to beat. There's considerably more here than what the original Demeo offered at launch, so you'll be busy for a fair while. Using Wizards of the Coast's famous Forgotten Realms setting across Neverwinter and Icewind Dale is an undeniably great fit.

For the unfamiliar, Demeo emulates the tabletop experience by giving you figurines for each character that you can physically move across tile-based maps; hand-tracking controls remain supported on Quest, though controllers offer better precision. Co-location is also pleasingly available on Meta's headset too, letting your whole party sit around the same digital board together.

This time, Resolution's swapped the basement setting for a more modern second-floor room. You've got that same freedom to change your board positioning with minimal fuss, while artwork for the first game's campaigns gives your background environment some nostalgic decoration. Getting up close with each map shows crisp visuals on Quest 3, bringing the digital tabletop fantasy to life well.

Like before, movement and skills work well with this turn-based strategy card battler. You have two action points per turn and some ability cards, like healing potions and poison antidotes, can be freely used if you've got points left, since turns automatically end when you run out. Movement, attacks, and more powerful abilities require one point, forcing you to consider each move carefully. Watching your carefully planned strategies pay off feels quite rewarding, though you still need to roll the dice to land a hit. Crits and fails haven't gone anywhere.

Six character classes are currently available with unique moves, offering familiar choices between a fighter, paladin, sorcerer, rogue, ranger, and bard. It's well balanced, as each class comes with its own strengths and drawbacks; setting off fireballs as the sorcerer never gets old with crowd control, nor does the paladin smiting his foes into oblivion in delightfully over-the-top fashion.

They could benefit from a greater range of voice lines, though; there are only so many times a bard can use the same vicious mockery insults before they get stale, even with decent voice acting. I'd like to see some wider options for character creation, too. Much of the joy in D&D comes from creating your own heroes, but right now, you're stuck with limited cosmetic adjustments using the existing base character for each class.

Battles remain challenging, though usually not overwhelmingly so like it could sometimes feel before. Enemies don't spawn nearly as often in Demeo x D&D. You often need to find the way out or defeat the boss, collecting gold to buy new cards along the way from the local bazaar or after individual stages in longer dungeons. My co-op partner and our two hirelings - we each controlled one of these extra characters - only really struggled as we reached the first campaign's end.

It's worth clearing out all the enemies and clearing side quests, as you'll gradually earn more XP that unlocks new abilities, and you pick one of three options from three separate categories each time. That's based on your chosen class and primary/secondary abilities you hold proficiency in, such as strength or constitution. This delivers useful upgrades like extra hit points, less damage from specific attacks, healing if you kill enemies, and more.

You can also reuse previous characters too, giving some nice continuity for these otherwise standalone campaigns. What's slightly annoying is that hirelings don't level up with you, which leaves you disadvantaged in a campaign's later stages if you're playing solo or without a full team of four. This leaves some of your party stuck at level one and that gradually feels more unbalanced as you progress, so I'd love to see Resolution address this in a future update. Days after launch, I'm also encountering connection issues that keep interrupting games even after the hotfix. Infrequent enough that it's not a major issue, though no less annoying when it does happen. At least you can jump back into a session easily enough.

This is roughly the extent of D&D's gameplay influence here, since ability checks are mostly limited to one-off actions that only have a marginal impact. Battles often limit this to avoiding obstacles or traps, while outside of combat throws in a few choices with NPCs - usually with side quests - on how best to deal with enemies. You can't choose a specific character to handle checks either, meaning you're stuck using the party leader or whoever activated an event. Perfectly fine with traps but for story situations, continuously failing rolls can get frustrating when another party member is proficient with the required checks.

Battlemarked largely sticks to the original Demeo's established mechanics with the appropriate Dungeons & Dragons set dressing, which feels fitting enough and evolves upon the original game well. But it's these moments where I believe Resolution could take slightly better advantage of what such a crossover can provide.

I'm not expecting Baldur's Gate 3 levels of branching narrative, but Dungeons & Dragons is all about theater of the mind. A good DM won't just let anything fly; an even better one will give you choices while subtly guiding you on a certain path. Choosing a DM-less system is understandable given the base game it's working from, though I'd love to see more meaningful story choices beyond some side quests. What's here is a deliberately simplified take on Wizards of the Coast's tabletop hit, though I'm still having a great time with friends.

Demeo x D&D is a great way to introduce newcomers to the Forgotten Realms that's highly enjoyable for more veteran players of both. Returning to these iconic locations in a new way continues to intrigue me, scratching an itch I've had since leaving my regular Dungeons & Dragons campaign two years ago. Progress saves as you advance, and reaching each chapter's end ultimately feels worth it for that sense of accomplishment.

I can only hope it'll be a similar story when Resolution Games begins releasing additional campaigns via future DLC. Given the lengthier nature of Embers of Chaos and Crown of Frost, I'm hopeful for what comes next. As an added touch, unlocking lengthier missions as one-shot dungeons upon completing them is a welcome touch for those of us after something a little more brief.

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked - Final Verdict

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked is a fitting evolution that's both newcomer-friendly and expands upon the original Demeo well. This crossover packs more expansive campaigns, better difficulty balancing with enemy spawns, lovely visuals, and a greater story focus that better complements these gameplay systems.

I do wish this offered a little more gameplay freedom to better fit D&D. Further narrative freedom would leave your decisions feeling more impactful, leveling up hirelings would help solo players, and I'd love a more expansive custom character creator. Still, Demeo x D&D gets a strong recommendation from me and if you enjoyed Resolution's older hit, you'll feel right at home here.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.

Fitness experience Les Mills XR Dance gets a PC VR release next month.

Developed by Odders Lab, Les Mills XR Dance is a fitness program that features over 40 dance routines, one that partners with EDM record label Monstercat for the soundtrack. Featuring five different presenters and four difficulty levels, it's choreographed for different music styles like pop, club, and more. First released on Quest two years ago, a new Steam page confirms it's heading to PC VR soon.

Since that initial release in 2023, Les Mills XR Dance has received numerous post-launch content updates that appear to be included straight away on Steam. New updates have slowed down across the last year, though previous patches added new workouts, a playlist feature, more beginner-focused sessions, further difficulty levels, and more.

This also follows April's PC VR release for Les Mills XR Bodycombat, and Odders Lab recently released the Focus Mode DLC for its older title on both Steam and PlayStation VR2. Already available on Quest, it introduced a Space Station environment, eight new workouts, and premium futuristic cosmetics.

Les Mills XR Dance is out now on the Meta Quest platform and Pico, while the Steam release will follow this December.

Marvel's Deadpool VR is currently the top-earning game in the Quest weekly revenue charts.

Marking Meta's latest first-party title exclusive to Quest 3 and 3S, Marvel's Deadpool VR secured the top spot following last week's launch for $50. Developed by Twisted Pixel Games, this arcade-style action game sees you playing as the titular merc with a mouth after he's kidnapped by the supervillain Mojo. It currently sits at a 4.5-star rating on the Meta Horizon Store with 546 reviews.

This week's other big debut is Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, an official crossover between Resolution Games' tabletop adventure from 2021 and Wizards of the Coast's fantasy hit. Featuring two campaigns with more to come, it's taken #4 in the weekly revenue charts following last week's multiplatform launch for $30, sitting at a 4.2-star rating after 224 reviews.

Otherwise, it's familiar names with UG sitting at #2 and Beat Saber close behind at #3. Animal Company at #5, respectively followed by Gorilla Tag, VRChat, Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, Yeeps, and PokerStars - Vegas Infinite to round out the top 10. Despite reaching #6 two weeks ago, Triangle Factory's 16v16 shooter Forefront has moved out of the top 10 but still charts at #13.

This list may evolve as the week goes on, and you can find the full charts here for more details on the top 50 weekly earners. We'll continue monitoring these standings as we approach the end of this year.

Roboquest VR takes an already exhilarating FPS roguelite to deliver a near-flawless adaptation, becoming one of my new favorite games to experience in a VR headset.

VR is no stranger to flatscreen conversions, and Flat2VR Studios quickly made a name for itself doing exactly that. Roboquest VR is the latest example, taking RyseUp Studios' 2023 roguelite FPS and thoroughly overhauling it. You control a Guardian robot taking down waves of hostile enemy machines, blazing a path for your human companion Max towards Haven 8 - an oasis in the desert that makes up most of this post-apocalyptic Earth.

During a run, players can find any number of weapons with Borderlands-esque modifiers from chests, dropped from enemies, found as rewards from challenge rooms, and offered for sale at rest points. The variety on display here is impressive, and that's not even accounting for the different variables weapons can be rolled with. They range from standard rifles and shotguns to energy weapons, joined by handheld fare such as tomahawks, kunai, boomerangs, bows, and more.

This is where Roboquest VR first differentiates itself from the original release. With a keyboard and mouse, range, rate of fire, and such were different - actually controlling each weapon feels much the same. In VR, that's not quite the case.

Bows need you to manually notch an arrow much like other VR experiences; for throwable weapons, instead of merely aiming and holding down the trigger, you instead hold down the trigger, aim a swing, and then let go once you've achieved your desired arc. You can reload weapons with a button click, though Flat2VR has pleasingly added a manual reload function where you actively eject and load magazines. It feels incredible in action, especially with the optional laser sight enabled.

Other retooled elements relate to the user interface; while by default there's a floating health bar for your convenience, you can check your left wrist for more granular information on your status, including HP and how close you are to leveling up. The right wrist can showcase a minimap when raised and can be expanded by holding down the right grip button. Upon level-up, the perks you're offered are portrayed as physical cards that you must grab and then confirm your choice by holding down the trigger while the perk card is in your hand. All very welcome changes, and these go a long way towards grounding the VR experience.

Many of your various Guardian classes' unique abilities have also been retooled to better suit VR gameplay. The default class has a recharging shield tied to pushing in the right analog stick, while holding down the right grip and trigger lets you use a melee attack with the thrust of your arm. That can even be upgraded into a sledgehammer through the selection of random level-up perks, and of course a slightly different focus on swings rather than thrusts. Other classes provide functions like summonable drones that distract and attack enemies, an explosive laser charge, and more. If you didn't know any better, you'd struggle to tell that Roboquest wasn't a VR native release to begin with.

Still, Roboquest was already a fairly brutal experience, and its VR conversion makes it even more difficult. Once you get to grips with the controls, however, it's an exhilarating experience unlike anything else - Roboquest isn't just a fast-paced game, but verticality is a core element of its gameplay loop. Jumping onto grind rails and rocketing yourself across the map with a double jump while peppering bullets on the enemies below isn't just a possibility; it's basically expected when you near a run's end game. Some bosses even outright depend on it! It's one thing when all that aiming only requires a mouse, but when you get your whole body in the equation, what was already a taxing experience feels like it asks even more from you. Even if in return is a far more memorable experience.

There are, of course, additional difficulty options (four in total) for players looking for them. Easy mode offers a slightly less oppressive difficulty curve while still maintaining most of the friction that makes the game shine; a sensible choice as you accustom yourself to Roboquest VR and its controls. Levels are randomly generated, though it's best to think of it like Risk of Rain's procedural generation; the bulk of each level's layout remains the same, so you can quickly learn the best way to beeline from point A to point B.

Considering that some of the game's branching paths are locked behind fairly strict time requirements - many of which eventually lead to crystals that, once activated, make the final level less difficult - it's all well and good that's the case. It's a good enough hook to keep playing, even though the story is by no means the game's focus. There's worldbuilding for players to look out for if that's their fancy, however - and some of that does tie into some of the game's optional objectives.

Sometimes one path provides a quest item to hand over to an NPC found on an entirely different route from the one you took; maybe you'll be rewarded the passcode or ticket to access an area you couldn't reach the first time. Individual locations don't change much beyond the enemies you find there, yet there's still plenty of strategy to be had with each run and deciding what your ultimate goal is. These feel like the perfect length for VR; not accounting for moments where the timer is paused while in camps, a successful run typically lasts between 30-45 minutes.

Upon ending your run, you can spend resources accrued within to upgrade your base. These include upgrading the amount of HP you gain from a level-up or increasing the rarity of weapons you might find in chests, alongside spawning NPCs that can reroll or add new abilities to your weapons. You can even increase their rarity when using Powercells gained during a run.

Completing NPC quests rewards you with gadgets, permanent toggleable modifiers that apply from the outset of a run. Some quests, beyond simply requiring items from other branching paths, might require specific actions. You may need to bring a specific weapon to show an NPC, save up on Powercells to open a door, or use a specific Guardian class to get past a wall of lasers. Some of these are pure upgrades - one will net you a free Powercell upon level-up, for example - while others offer trade-offs, like the Shades which increase your base damage but limit your starting health. They're still well worth seeking out regardless, as toggling them on and off back at your basecamp can radically change how runs play out in some cases.

Like any good roguelite, Roboquest VR delivers a satisfying loop that both complements the moment-to-moment gameplay and actively pushes you outside of your comfort zone. Exploring these zones and figuring out where to find these hidden areas or logs detailing some of the game's lore also benefits from the transition to VR. Looking out for level geometry you can use as a makeshift parkour track to reach somewhere out of reach feels all the more engaging when it feels like you're the one making those jumps, and finding these hidden areas.

Roboquest VR - Final Verdict

Roboquest VR takes what was already a great flatscreen roguelite experience and transforms it into a new VR classic. Moment-to-moment gameplay feels fantastic, and the game is right at home on the platform. Flat2VR Studios should take pride in the work they've accomplished, as it feels like an essential experience for hardcore VR players without being revolutionary. I just wish that co-op was available at launch; I'd like any reason to hop back in for another round.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.

You check into a hotel, but no one’s there. Not even at the reception desk. You sign your name, but then the paper disappears. Things only make less sense from there.

The entire structure of the hotel makes no sense. Turn a corner, and suddenly you can see where you were before at the other side of the room, or an impossible corridor that turns in on itself. And what’s that oozing red substance that seems to be everywhere?

Hotel Infinity is a geometrically impossible labyrinth of an escape room, and that’s precisely what makes it one of the best VR experiences I’ve ever had in the medium.

The brainchild of Manifold Garden developer William Chyr and his team at Studio Chyr, Hotel Infinity takes the abstract puzzle exploration of his previous work and implants it into a roomscale VR experience like few others. Indeed, it builds on many of those ideas of impossible spaces and portals to new areas that the game deployed to allow that unique puzzle title to thrive, naturally translating the idea to this very different medium.

Basic techniques that Hotel Infinity employs to make its physically 2×2 meter space feel much larger are not itself new, and you may have experienced the idea before in Tea For God. But how it combines the approach with interesting puzzles makes for a unique experience.

Your reasons for arriving at the hotel are unexplained, but the point once inside is to reach your room, then find a way out. Which, when no corner or object in this space obeys the laws of physics and order you’re used to, is more difficult than it sounds. It’s also incredibly unnerving to never know where you’re going next, witnessing everything from dense corridors to sights of massive hedge mazes and the ever-present glowing neon sign of Hotel Infinity. There’s no dialogue, and there’s barely any music bar the occasional riff and subtle audio cues during puzzles to guide your way. But that doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t raise your heartbeat for its unique atmosphere and the uncertainty over what’s to come.

It's split into five chapters, each taking you through a set route through the hotel before warping you back to your hotel room and venturing deeper. There are puzzles that must be cleared along the way but beyond some basic math and spatial awareness, these are hardly challenging for anyone with even a base intelligence for these sorts of titles. That’s not the point when taking in this space and discovering (or interpreting in your own terms) the secrets are more important.

For those who lack a 2×2 meter physical space, there is a stationary mode, but I strongly recommend finding the space to play Hotel Infinity how it's designed to be played. Trust me, as someone living in a Japanese apartment that, while not small, did require a bit of reorganization to make work, I know how challenging this can be if you don’t live in a large place. But it's worth it. Hotel Infinity is so clearly designed around having the space to make it work that without it, it feels lacking in the spark necessary to get into its many joys under the surface.

If you can find the space, the experience that Hotel Infinity delivers is magical. It's like a bridge between home VR and the location-based spaces that take advantage of huge, expansive locations to offer a free-roaming experience enhanced by VR. Having experienced many of these in Japan, it’s hard not to see the wonders of being fully transported into a haunted house or location using the tech as you physically, carefully wander the eerie corridors one step at a time. There are many great at-home VR horror experiences or titles in other genres that can transport you to new worlds with more depth. Still, I won’t lie about occasionally wishing I could take that next step myself, and not with a thumbstick.

Hotel Infinity manages to find that happy medium by using impossible space to create the immersive exploratory feel of these commercial VR attractions with a longer adventure, puzzles, and greater possibilities than ever. It’s precisely what makes the roomscale mode of this game such a wonder. Within this 2×2 meter space, corridors are designed in such a way that you can fully walk and duck your way through every area in the game without needing the controllers for anything other than gripping, holding, and interacting with objects or levers in the environment. Walking through this hotel and turning each corridor not knowing what you’ll see next brings an added layer of fear and excitement, and before long you forget where you are. Sure, you don’t need to step over that gap or duck to get through the door; it doesn’t exist, but I bet you will anyhow.

It makes Hotel Infinity one of the most immersive VR games on the market, and a showcase of the technology that should become the standard for showing newcomers what’s possible in VR moving forward. This can also have the opposite effect, though, where every exciting and mind-blowing effect is coupled with moments of genuine terror that feel so much more real when you have to take a step towards them. For that reason, I can’t recommend the later moments of this game to anyone with a major fear of heights. I have a partial and circumstantial fear that manifests when I feel directly in control of whether I can fall from such a height, leaving me genuinely worried traversing some of these later areas.

But isn’t that a testament to just how well this game can transport you by virtue of its free-standing 360-degree movement? The core design of moving within this contained and transforming space is its biggest asset, making this idea possible and bringing the immersive free-roaming VR into the home in a way often impossible for setpiece-driven narrative works.

Sure, some of its puzzles can feel overly simplistic, and it's a very short adventure that can be cleared in about 2 hours in a single sitting before the battery notification of your headset even buzzes. But when it’s this much of a wonder to explore, that hardly matters.

Hotel Infinity - Final Verdict

Hotel Infinity is a standout example of true room-scale VR, and a must-own for anyone interested in understanding the potential of this medium. Notably, the potential is not merely to be a new way to experience familiar ideas, but to offer experiences only possible in VR. What a revelation of a game this is.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.

Tracked: Shoot to Survive released its first patch with visual upgrades and new features.

Recently launched on Quest 3 and 3S, we had mixed feelings in our Tracked: Shoot to Survive review. Though we considered it to be an engaging survival adventure with great VR-focused crafting mechanics, we had notable criticisms at launch for its presentation, enemy AI, and performance. Now, developer Incuvo has released its first big patch just over a week later.

Most notable here is a series of visual upgrades, with Incuvo promising better resolution and improvements to lighting, tree shadows, and the skybox. Stealth grass is also visually thicker, and contaminated meat has been adjusted to be “visually more repulsive.”

Other new changes include a new sleeping feature, which allows you to rest at your Father's Cabin to recover HP and skip some time. UI adjustments have been made to the fast travel board “for easier identification,” new cooking icons have been introduced, and your notepad's interactivity has also been adjusted. You can find the full patch notes here.

Our reviewer, Luis Aviles, went hands-on directly with this update following its release. He informed me that loading times are noticeably reduced and textures appear more detailed, though he's still noticing performance stuttering and advised the sound effects are still “hit or miss.” However, he considers this a “step in the right direction” compared to the launch version.

Tracked: Shoot to Survive is out now on Quest 3 and 3S.

Little Planet allows you to become a city planner and socialite on a world of your own making, and it recently went free-to-play on Quest.

In Little Planet, you become the architect of a world in almost every sense. You can shape it on a macro level, shifting rivers and cliffs to your liking. Then, roam around your curated space, chopping trees and crafting furniture, all while living among adorable anthropomorphic villagers. It's a comforting setup that's easy to get lost in, and after exploring and fine-tuning my digital home away from home, I'm impressed by how deep these systems can go.

Alas, an adorable utopia isn't built in a day, and your time with Little Planet begins with the basics. Taught through a series of approachable tutorials, you'll quickly learn how to collect materials, earn recipes to craft with, and interact with the all-important inventory system at the center of it all. Each aspect is introduced quickly, though given their practical nature, it doesn't take long to feel at home with these systems.

Similar to other sandbox experiences like Minecraft and Animal Crossing, much of Little Planet's world is engaged with through the moreish process of experimentation and exploration. What happens if I chop down this tree? Or if you're like me, how much random junk can I fit in my inventory before it's full? These questions create a sense of intrigue that's easy to invest in, further bolstered by Little Planet's Pedia, which serves as an enticing scavenger hunt list.

For our hands-on experience, the developers at VRWood provided UploadVR with a late-game account for Little Planet, which also allowed me to experience the simulator with all its systems unlocked. This gave me a brief taste of the expanded building types, such as the furniture shop and fashion house, as well as a full range of equipment, including the peashooter, fishing rod, gardening tools, axe, and a watering can.

When compared to the sparse planet you began with, it's impressive how much you can accomplish if you invest your time in its sizable open world. As someone who puts a lot of stock into customization, I'm particularly impressed by the range of dress-up and accessory options available to jazz up your avatar. That includes everything from glitzy star glasses to bucket hats and adorable coquette-collared tops. 

Perhaps my favourite aspect of Little Planet was the fishing minigame, and I'm embarrassed to admit how much time I've spent happily staring at a bobber. Similar to real-world fishing, here you equip a rod and fling your arm back before casting your line out as if you're Indiana Jones cracking your whip. Then, once a fish has nibbled your bobber, you can use your free hand to grip the reel and hastily crank it backward. It's a simple yet surprisingly meditative process, made even better by the sloshing of the waves and the clicky reel sounds of the rod.

I would be remiss not to mention the residents of the world, dubbed Planet Pals, whose playful banter garnered a few giggles from me across my hands-on. It can be lonely working away on the planet by yourself, especially if you aren't keen on the game's social features, and I appreciated having someone to chat to besides myself. While their dialogue isn't overly complex or moving, at least in my experience, they do well to imbue the world with a sense of much-needed personality. Of the bunch, fishing fanatic Rusty is a particular standout, thanks to their pirate quips and comical seafaring attire.

One thing has become clear across my time with Little Planet so far, and it's that I'm only scratching the surface. Beyond the plethora of day-to-day activities to tackle, I didn't get a chance to test out the social features or travel to other worlds. Even so, Little Planet leaves a confident first impression, providing life sim players an opportunity to curate custom worlds in VR.

Little Planet is available now on Quest.

Puzzling Places adds a 'Replay Tool' in its latest free Quest update, launching alongside the game's newest premium puzzle, “A Painter's Dream.”

The new experimental Replay Tool automatically records the many individual moments in which a new piece is added to your puzzle. At the moment the puzzle is completed, it automatically generates a full timelapse video of the entire puzzling session. This allows players to share their builds with the Puzzling Places community without the need for manual recording or editing.

Releasing alongside the Replay Tool is a new premium puzzle, “A Painter's Dream.” This peaceful riverside escape is inspired by impressionist paintings, so think water lilies, sun-dappled ponds, delicate swans, and quiet cafés. Unlike the Replay Tool, that's receiving a wider release that covers Quest, PS VR2, and Pico.

You can see that in action below.

Developed by realities.io, Puzzling Places is a relaxing 3D jigsaw puzzle game in which players can build all sorts of 3D puzzles in VR and MR modes across solo and multiplayer modes. The game continues introducing new puzzles you can tackle with different-sized piece sets, with more added monthly.

Puzzling Places is out now on Quest, Apple Vision Pro, Pico, and PS VR2, while it's also coming to Steam at a later date.

An Apple Immersive Video documentary about Real Madrid is coming next year, "with a level of access that fans have never experienced before".

If you're an American reading this who doesn't know much about what you call "soccer", here's some context: Real Madrid is one of the most successful football clubs of all time, and has signed some of the best players of all time, including both Ronaldos, Zinedine Zidane, and David Beckham. In the year 2000, FIFA even officially declared Real Madrid "Club of the Century".

Today, Real Madrid and Apple confirmed work on an Apple Immersive Video documentary about the club, captured during last month's Champions League match against Juventus.

Apple says the documentary was filmed using over 30 Blackmagic immersive cameras, and "brings viewers inside the world’s most decorated club, capturing moments from practice to the pitch with a level of access that fans have never experienced before."

In an interview with GQ Spain, Real Madrid's president Florentino Pérez described the documentary as just the beginning of a long-term plan to connect the club's "billion" strong global fanbase to the stadium using technology. He references the "Infinite Bernabéu", an idea he has floated in previous interviews, a goal of one day letting fans all over the world virtually attend Real Madrid home matches using VR.

Apple Vision Pro Is Getting Live Apple Immersive LA Lakers NBA Games

Select LA Lakers NBA games will be streamed in Apple Immersive to Apple Vision Pro owners next year, the first-ever live content for the format.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

That strongly suggests that the next step of Real Madrid's plan is to stream live games in Apple Immersive.

The first known live Apple Immersive Video offering will be select LA Lakers NBA games, set to be streamed next year via Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive Live, a special variant of the immersive camera creators are using for prerecorded Apple Immersive Video content.

The announcement came almost nine years after NextVR started streaming weekly NBA games to the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset in 180-degree. In 2020 Apple acquired NextVR, and leveraged its expertise and IP to develop Apple Immersive Video.

Interactive VR movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom is out now on PlayStation VR2.

Created by Bandai Namco Filmworks and Atlas V, Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom first released last year on Quest. Offering a VR interactive anime film with an original story, it's set three years after Char's Counterattack in the Universal Century 0096, delivering a more narrative-focused tale with light gameplay elements. After appearing last month on the PlayStation Store, that's now available on PlayStation VR2.

Silver Phantom focuses on a mercenary group called Argent Keil, presenting a neutral insight into the war between the Earth Federation and Zeon. With a group of Neo Zeon's remnants called The Sleeves causing issues, these scenes unfold across 6DoF, 360° environments and use a cel-shaded presentation to match the anime's visuals.

We went hands-on during Venice Immersive 2024 and considered publisher Astrea describing this as an interactive movie to be a smart decision. While we found the actual interactivity to be disappointingly limited, though you can still participate in mech battles, we believed Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom is an experience that's ultimately “carried by its narrative.”

Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom is out now on PlayStation VR2 and the Meta Quest platform.

You can now turn new Horizon Hyperscape captures into unlisted Horizon Worlds, letting you invite friends to join you in them as Meta Avatars.

Launched at Connect 2025, Meta's Horizon Hyperscape Capture app for Quest 3 and Quest 3S lets you use your headset to scan a real-world environment, such as a room, to create a photorealistic VR replica.

The Hyperscape scanning process requires between 5 and 10 minutes of walking around the scene while wearing the headset, and it's followed by between 1 and 8 hours of processing on Meta's servers, depending on the complexity of the capture.

Hands-On: Meta Horizon Hyperscape Captures Photorealistic VR Scenes On Quest 3

Meta Horizon Hyperscape, rolling out now in the US, lets you capture a real-world scene with your Quest 3 or Quest 3S and visit it in VR with photorealistic graphics.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

At launch, Hyperscape was a solo experience, and you couldn't share your captures with others. It was also cloud rendered, requiring a very strong and stable internet connection at all times.

Now, just over two months later, Meta is "rolling out" an overhaul of the technology.

Instead of creating cloud-rendered captures only accessible within the app, Hyperscape now creates a special kind of Horizon Worlds destination, a Hyperscape world. While the initial processing is still done on Meta's servers, Hyperscape worlds are rendered on-device in VR, via the Horizon Engine that also powers Quest's new Immersive Home and Horizon Central.

Once a new Hyperscape world finishes processing, you'll see Invite and Share buttons, with the latter generating a URL that you can send to friends.

People with the link can join the Hyperscape world in VR from a Quest 3 or Quest 3S, or in flatscreen on a smartphone in the Meta Horizon app, and you can reset access to the link at any time, according to Meta.

For example, here are links to Gordon Ramsay’s home kitchen, Chance the Rapper’s live room, Happy Kelli's Crocs room, and UFC Apex as joinable Hyperscape worlds.

Hyperscape worlds currently support up to 8 people per instance, and Meta says it "hopes" to increase that number in future.

As with all Horizon Worlds, for people joining on smartphones the experience will continue to be cloud-rendered. The on-device rendering is for VR only.

Note that Hyperscapes scanned before the new update cannot be shared, and are only accessible solo in the Horizon Hyperscape Preview app.

UploadVR plans to test the new social Hyperscape experience as soon as we can, and we'll bring you footage and impressions once we do.

A couple weeks ago, fully reclined horizontally on a couch at Valve HQ, I watched a video streaming from the web via a virtual browser window floating in the open air of Linux.

When I slipped the Steam Frame off my head, I congratulated a Valve industrial designer who worked on it. I had just spent four days in Galaxy XR with a thick rigid strap and a knob on the back of my head preventing me from even thinking about what I had just done so comfortably in Steam Frame.

"I don't think I've experienced that in a hard shell before," I told the Valve representative.

"I don't think it's been done before," he replied, holding Steam Frame's cushioned battery in one hand. "Starting from this and going along the strap, that's why we eliminated all sorts of knobs or mechanism in the back that could protrude and prevent the user from laying back."

A great many people consuming the news of Valve's announcement find themselves curious but unconvinced the private company will land at a compelling price for the LCD-based standalone VR system. Many wanted a Quest killer and some wanted a high-end successor for their wired PC VR system. Half-Life 3 hasn't been announced and Valve isn't working on VR games right now. So without trying Steam Frame themselves, or knowing the price, we're seeing people reporting potent withdrawal symptoms from extended use of copium.

Steam Frame Hands-On: UploadVR’s Impressions Of Valve’s New Headset

UploadVR’s Ian Hamilton and David Heaney went hands-on with Steam Frame at Valve HQ, trying both standalone use and PC VR.

UploadVRIan Hamilton

Over the course of our recent discussion about Steam Frame, David and I found ourselves in a circular loop with our audience, essentially trying to sort out whether people could be both disappointed in Valve's choices and sequestering funds anyway for hardware purchases sometime next year.

While we won't have a review of Steam Frame for you until sometime next year, meanwhile, Bigscreen claimed high sales numbers on Valve's announcement day, likely from buyers who were waiting to see what Valve decided before committing to the Beyond 2 for their wired PC VR setup.

Steam Frame's Value

VR headsets really didn't go into bed before the Vision Pro, and there's no hard-backed strap design sold by Apple.

I've probably worn Apple's headset as many hours in bed as I have seated, with standing active use representing a very small fraction of my time in Vision Pro. Yes, I miss Beat Saber and Walkabout Mini Golf and Half-Life: Alyx, but I recently got access to those with ALVR streaming and PlayStation VR2 controllers.

What keeps me in Vision Pro for so many hours is that the headset multitasks iPad apps in a way no iPad can while going places no iPad goes. Because I had so many surfaces around me I could use, I spent hundreds of hours in an Apple VR headset and only the tiniest sliver of that time found me interacting with fully immersive VR games.

When calculating the value of Steam Frame, your equation is deeply flawed if it assumes VR use solely in standing or seated scenarios. If you can't imagine the headset's grayscale passthrough as a tunnel through reality taking you from sitting on the couch to reclined in bed, so you can continue playing your favorite Steam game for another two hours, then you have no frame of reference to calculate whether Valve's upcoming headset will add value to your life.

Valve sent out the first developer kits for Steam Frame in ski goggle cases. Its rear battery pack and cushion can travel inside the facial interface.

Any VR headset made 2014 to 2025 that used your Steam library required external equipment making it difficult to even imagine why you might want to fall asleep in the falling snow on the helipad from the opening level of Metal Gear Solid.

I had that environment on Quest set as my home from SideQuest before Meta replaced it with its new immersive home space. I've found that when trying to relax in a place like that with the front-heavy Quest, the battery strains the soft strap's ability to hold the headset to your eyes. Even without the battery on the front of the face in Vision Pro, using Apple's Dual Loop Band, I found the headset too loose to be held comfortably by its soft strap when turning on my side in bed. I've already shared my impressions of Apple’s new Dual Knit Band, but if there are any Vision Pro M2 and M5 owners with the strap in our audience I'd invite them to share more widely their experience with whether that balanced soft strap allows them to wear it in more places.

When I was at the San Francisco airport earlier this year returning to New York from my demo of Bigscreen Beyond 2, I spotted another Vision Pro owner in the terminal. He was carrying the large white bag strapped to his rolling luggage that Apple sold when the headset first launched. Meanwhile, I had the much more portable grey Belkin bag Apple started selling some time after, with my headset stored vertically and a flip out cover built in to protect the lenses.

Instead of strapped around my luggage, my bag goes over the shoulder with a pocket for a folding keyboard or, in recent weeks, you could find the Muse pen a useful companion ready to pop out and move windows or sketch something.

Why am I spending so much time telling you about the places a $3,500 headset goes? Because we all know Valve’s standalone makes trade-offs to come under the price of the $1,000 Index, but until you wear one you can't believe that all of these choices result in a headset you might be interested in wearing on a 6 hour flight. When that happens, whatever the price, it will literally be measured as a fraction of what Apple charges to take Vision Pro into those same places.

The relevant comparison for calculating value here isn't the OLED of Vision Pro vs. the LCD of Steam Frame. The comparison to think about is whether you're sitting back comfortably or craning your neck downward at a physical display. Are you looking at the back of a seat rest for six hours or playing your favorite Steam game?

I was only half kidding about those copium withdrawals. If Valve pulls the trigger on Half-Life 3, there's a good chance it will run flat on Steam Frame just like Portal 2 does.

SteamVR supports all PC VR headsets but Valve has really only directly supported three devices in a decade of VR – Vive, Index, Frame. And their developers are not making a VR game right now. But if Valve makes the third game in any of their trilogies? Imagine how the variables in the value equation change if Steam Frame is the most comfortable way to enjoy Half-Life 3 on a flight, train, or in bed on the ceiling.

Wake up, Mr. Freeman.

The Thrill of the Fight 2 is now out of Early Access with a launch update that adds a singleplayer campaign.

The original The Thrill of the Fight arrived on Steam for the original HTC Vive all the way back in 2016, and is still considered to be one of the best VR games of all time, as well as one of the first to get you breaking a sweat. It was ported to Quest soon after the original Oculus Quest launched, and last saw a major update in 2023.

Compared to the original, the biggest addition in The Thrill of the Fight 2 is multiplayer, which was the only mode available when it entered Early Access on Quest headsets back in November.

The Thrill of the Fight 2 also adds a visible and customizable player body model, as well as a thumbstick locomotion option in addition to the default room-scale movement. It's also a little more game-like, with visible scoring, a departure from the simulation feel of the original.

While the multiplayer-only Early Access release was $10, the full game with a singleplayer campaign too is now $20 for new buyers (existing buyers get the update for free).

You can find Thrill of the Fight 2 on the Meta Horizon Store, with support for Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3, and Quest 3S.

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There's no timeline yet for a PC VR release, though there is a flatscreen PC viewer app launching on Steam soon for spectating fights between Quest players.

TCL is showing off a compact 2.5K RGB OLED panel for XR headsets that could be the perfect midpoint between cheap LCD and expensive micro-OLED.

Today, almost every affordable headset uses LCD panels, while premium options use micro-OLED, technically known as OLED-on-silicon (OLEDoS).

LCD is cheap, but has poor contrast, forming a relatively washed-out image that compresses the darkest details into a gray haze in place of deep blacks. Meanwhile micro-OLED offers vibrant colors with rich contrast, and can achieve extremely high resolution without increasing the bulk of headsets, but is incredibly difficult to manufacture and thus very expensive.

Some headsets like Meta Quest Pro, the Pimax Crystal series, and Somnium VR1 use advanced LCD panels with an array of mini backlights to improve contrast compared to regular LCD, and a quantum dot layer to enhance colors, but the result is still a far cry from the self-emissive nature of OLED, where every pixel provides its own light. Further, the extra layers increase thickness, weight, heat, and power draw.

Of course, there is another display technology for headsets between LCD and micro-OLED, one that also offers many of the latter's benefits: regular OLED, also known as OLED on glass.

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OLED on glass is what's used in your smartphone, your smartwatch, and perhaps your TV too, if you paid a lot for it. For VR, it was seen as the only game in town between 2014 and 2016, used in the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR.

HTC continued to use OLED in Vive Pro, as did Oculus for the original Quest. But LCD soon offered higher density at lower cost, a killer combination for a market looking to scale up while increasing resolution, and so investment in new custom OLED panels to keep up with the density demands of VR mostly dried up within just a few years.

The only regular OLED VR headset still on the market today is PlayStation VR2. And one key reason that it's the only headset from a major company with new fresnel lenses is that, when it released, there was simply no OLED with high enough density to be compact enough to be suitable for pancake lenses (among other issues, which we'll get to later in the article).

That brings us to TCL's new OLED panel, which its China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) division is showing at the Display Tech-Ecosystem Conference (DTC 2025) this week in China.

The company says it's the highest density RGB OLED-on-glass display in the world, and has the 120Hz refresh rate ideal for VR.

It's almost twice as dense as the OLED in PlayStation VR2, while using a full RGB subpixel arrangement, letting it offer 73% more pixels and 160% more subpixels despite being just over half the size.

Its size makes it ideal for use with pancake lenses, its RGB subpixels mean it shouldn't need a softening diffusion layer, and its resolution is notably higher than the LCDs in Meta Quest 3 and Valve's Steam Frame.

Putting it all together, this means TCL's new OLED panel could power clear and sharp headsets with rich colors, deep contrast, and true blacks, but without the sky-high prices you get with micro-OLED. And this could be key to delivering compelling products that sit somewhere between Meta Quest 3 and Samsung Galaxy XR in the market.

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This isn't the first time we've heard about the idea of high-density regular OLED as a way to deliver some of the advantages of micro-OLED but in far more affordable headsets.

Over a year ago, South Korean news outlet The Elec reported that Japan's JDI was pitching Apple a 1500 PPI regular OLED for the rumored "Vision Air" headset, and that Samsung was working on a similar display too.

That's notable because it's almost exactly the same density as TCL's new OLED, and may suggest that TCL too is (or was) pitching the panel to Apple.

For now, TCL isn't saying whether it has any customers for the new OLED panel, but does confirm that it's designed for "XR devices".

There are, however, a few major unanswered questions.

The first is whether the panel is bright enough to overcome the inefficiency of pancake lenses, and the fact that they work best with polarized light, which OLED doesn't provide. There are workarounds for this, if the panel layers and lenses are specifically designed to work together. And the brightness of OLED panels has significantly improved in recent years, with the latest iPhones and Apple Watches for example reaching 3000 nits.

The other question is whether the new panel exhibits the same non-uniform fixed-pattern noise we've seen in many regular OLED headsets like PlayStation VR2, the mura, an issue not present in any micro-OLED we've viewed to date. Overcoming this may be the key to reviving regular OLED as a great option for midrange headsets, so we're incredibly curious to find out whether TCL has done so.

Marvel's Deadpool VR, the latest Quest 3 and Quest 3S exclusive blockbuster, is out now for $50.

Developed by Meta-owned Twisted Pixel Games in collaboration with Marvel Games, Deadpool VR has a cel-shaded graphics style, and unlike in the movies, Deadpool in VR is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, not Ryan Reynolds.

The arcade-style action game sees you, as Deadpool, kidnapped by the supervillain Mojo (voiced by John Leguizamo) and forced to hunt down talent for his galaxy-wide reality TV show. The talent you'll kidnap are iconic villains from across the Marvel universe, including Mephisto, Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red, and Ultimo.

In UploadVR's review of Deadpool VR, Pete Austin described the visuals as paying off "beautifully", with the best implementation of cel-shading that he's seen yet in VR. He also found Neil Patrick Harris' performance to be "easily on par" with Ryan Reynolds in the films, and the "gloriously over-the-top" soundtrack to feel like it was straight out of one too.

However, his feelings on the combat system were more mixed. While it impressed in the early phases of the game, he criticized the fact that it's "disappointingly weightless", with weapons clipping through each other, hands clipping through the environment, and two-handed weapons feeling like they’re made of paper.

"Deadpool VR is a paradox. It captures the antihero's essence perfectly but wraps it around mechanics that just never feel like they completely deliver - great presentation carrying combat that never quite lives up to its potential."

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You should go read Pete's full review, and if it leaves you wanting to, you can buy Deadpool VR on the Meta Horizon Store for Quest 3 and Quest 3S, priced at $50.