Slush is probably the most important event for startups in Europe. This year alone, it was able to attract something like 13,000 people from all over the world, even though it is held in Helsinki, Finland, which is not exactly the most welcoming city in November (it is friggin’ cold). In fact, the name “Slush” comes from the fact that in this period of the year, in Helsinki, usually the streets are covered in a mix of water and snow, which the Finns call “Slush”.

The event is attended by mostly startuppers and investors. Many important companies and names take part in the event: for instance, in this year’s edition, there was on stage John Hanke, the founder of Niantic, and people from a16z and Google Ventures; among the companies having a booth there, Google had an important presence. It is an important event, and it is very business-oriented. So I’m not talking about the usual XR event here: I’m talking about an event where you go to talk about money and business, which is something important if you want to see your XR company survive.

For many people, virtual reality still means video games and sci‑fi movies. In reality, it is starting to slip into normal life at home, at work, and even at the doctor’s office. VR is simply a headset that covers the eyes and ears and shows a full 3D world, while tracking head and hand movement so the brain feels “inside” that space.

Major companies like Meta and Apple now ship lighter, more comfortable headsets that work wirelessly and do not always need a powerful PC. Devices such as Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro use sharp, high‑resolution displays, hand tracking, and mixed reality, where digital objects sit inside the real room.

Over the next 5 to 10 years, The Future of Virtual Reality in everyday life will likely be about small habits, not just big moments. Short workouts, quicker doctor visits, richer classes, smarter shopping. This article paints a clear picture of how VR might fit into daily routines, what it can help with, and what problems still stand in the way.

When Jett Yaggie first came to college, she didn’t quite know what to think about virtual reality simulations.

“I didn’t think it would help me at all. I wasn’t too sure about it because I always think I’m right, my instructor is wrong,” first year collision repair and refinishing student Yaggie said.

But she was quickly won over by the use of virtual reality (VR) in Southeast Technical college’s Collision Repair and Refinishing program. They have been using VR for the past couple of years.

“This one has the best virtual reality system that I’ve used. When I have the goggles on and everything, it is just like I’m in the booth. So it’s just like for me, it’s super natural and that’s what I want the students to have is that experience,” STC collision instructor Dana Davis said.

In this program, students are able to paint different car parts.

“I get to pick the color of paint that I get to use, and I select my panel. I think the last one I did was a hood, and then you kind of just go through and you can play with the settings to see your angle, your speed, and seeing how consistent you are to the panel,’ Yaggie said. “And then there’s also other settings that will change the color to be like red, blue and green, seeing if your pattern is correct, if you’re overlaying correctly.”

“The gun is weighted and the gun has controls on it, just like a real gun. And when you’re spraying, it actually vibrates, just like the feel of a gun. And the students get to actually go and watch and do the pattern. So they get to do the technique and everything involved with that. So it’s about as real as you can possibly get,” Davis said.

Considering jumping into VR this Black Friday, or gifting a headset to a friend or relative so they can join you? Here are the best deals available

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.

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.

What is it?: An FPS roguelite trek towards humanity's lost haven where you play as a Guardian robot. Platforms: Quest (Coming Soon), Steam, PS VR2 (Reviewed on PC VR) Release Date: Out Now Developer: Flat2VR Studios, RyseUp Studios Publisher: Flat2VR Studios Price: $29.99

Marvel’s Deadpool VR serves up a boat load of quippy banter and on-brand humor from everyone’s favorite ‘merc with a mouth’, truly bringing the soul and wit of the character to virtual reality. While combat can feel repetitive at times, and the narrative a little on the thin side, excellent gameplay variety combined with the game’s fourth wall-breaking protagonist makes for a refreshingly fun overall experience.

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.

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.

Last week Valve revealed Steam Frame, the company’s new VR headset. Somewhat lost in the deluge of information is the existence of an ‘ergonomic kit’ which will improve comfort with the addition of a top strap and knuckles-style controller straps. Additionally, the headset’s modular design means the entire headstrap, facepad, and battery can be replaced with DIY mods or third-party accessories.

Luckily, Valve has anticipated that some people may prefer some different ergonomic options. The company plans to sell an optional ‘ergonomic kit’ for the headset which will include a top strap for Steam Frame.

The ergonomic kit will also include straps for the controllers which can be tightened around the hand similar to the Index controllers. This allows the user to open their hand fully without dropping the controller.

I installed F-Droid and Aurora. I used F-Droid to install Jerboa, works great although it doesn't have a tablet-style layout so it's just a big phone app when I resize it lol. Discord also works well in the headset. I got a file manager so I can easily install APKs from the web too. Plex is great in the headset. KDE Connect is pretty cool for transferring files to the headset and checking the battery while the headset is charging.

I used Sidequest to install Dolphin XR (I can probably get this APK if anyone wants the raw file, I didn't see a way to download the file directly from Sidequest).

Trauma Center: Second Opinion is maybe the best VR game never made. It's a perfect fit. It's fun to replay operations to get a higher rank. I only came across one issue so far, the rotation of the controller doesn't seem to be emulated, so I can't do the operation where you need to rotate bone fragments into place. For now I'm just playing other operations, but if I need to do that one maybe I'll just transfer the save to my PC to do it. Worst case scenario, I can download the saves from speedrun.com and skip whatever operations I can't do.

I highly recommend the Trauma Center Wii games in VR, I wish Atlus would make a proper port. It would also play well with a mouse, but maybe it's more fun with the motion controls.

What other emulated games work well in VR? I've yet to try CitraVR or PPSSPP VR.

The Apple Vision Pro is an expensive flop. I haven’t heard anyone mention the Meta Quest in months, despite it getting a new model just last year. I can’t even remember the name of Samsung’s incoming Android-based headset. While virtual reality gamers remain passionate, the excitement around the format seems to be slowly dying… again.

And then along came Zeus Valve. Easily the least mainstream of its three — THREE! — hardware announcements yesterday, the Steam Frame is everything I was hoping for. It’s a standalone, self-powered headset with its own software and apps, a la the Quest. With an internal battery, it’s ready to go on the road or just roam around your home without being tethered.

But it can also connect to a gaming PC or a Steam Deck or a Steam Machine (what’s the difference?) to access more powerful virtual reality games and non-VR media. And Valve is setting this up as a central feature, with a low-latency wireless dongle included in the box.

It’s packing the latest VR tech such as eye tracking, pancake lenses, and expansion options for MicroSD and USB-C. It’ll be running on a powerful Snapdragon ARM64 processor, and the software is at least some flavor of SteamOS, giving it immediate access to a huge amount of both VR and standard games.

PC Gamer getting the details directly from Valve.

It’s very nearly time for the next iteration of the VR Games Showcase. VRGS is VR’s leading Direct-style digital showcase dedicated to revealing high-quality VR games and showing updates on some of your most anticipated projects.

We’ve got a massive event lined up this week, with around 5 brand new games to announce, new trailers for some of the biggest games on the way to Quest, PC VR and PS VR2, and much more. Watch the latest reveals right here, today at 9AM PT. https://youtu.be/OUqpw3O_5RU

In case you missed it, Valve announced a load of new hardware this week, including a second stab at the Steam Machine, a Steam controller, and a long-rumored new VR headset called the Steam Frame. But in with the new often means out with the old, and perhaps inevitably, the company has confirmed that its previous headset, the Valve Index, is no more.

Valve’s Lawrence Yang told The Verge that it’s "no longer manufacturing" the Index, which we called "the best desktop VR yet" when it launched in 2019. The Index arrived around the same time as the Oculus Quest and its promise of an affordable all-in-one future for VR. By contrast, the Valve Index was very much still a high-end tethered device for the hardcore enthusiasts, with a price tag that reflected that.

In case you missed the news, I’ll briefly summarize: Valve has announced its new headset, the Steam Frame. The Steam Frame is a standalone device, but it is also amazing to stream content from your PC using a dedicated dongle. Valve has also announced a mini PC called the Steam Machine, where you can run all your Steam Games and stream them either to your Steam Deck or your Steam Frame. Steam Frame launches in early 2026, for a price that has been described as “less than an Index full kit”. For now, Valve is only shipping devkits to developers asking for them.

The Steam Frame is definitely a good headset, and I’m very happy it has been released. For sure, it is introducing some innovations, and for sure, it is going to bring some new gamers into VR. But at the same time, I don’t see anything that is disruptive for the market: the use cases it covers were already covered before, and its technology is just a good polishing of some technologies that were already on the market.

Valve has finally unveiled its long-awaited standalone VR headset, Steam Frame (aka ‘Deckard’). While pricing and release date are still pending, the company says we’re due to learn more “in early 2026” following the release of developer kits.

Steam Frame’s Price Hasn’t Been Locked in, But Valve Expects it to be ‘cheaper than Index’: No price or release date yet, but Valve implies Steam Frame will be cheaper than $1,000 for the full Index kit.

Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a few months after releasing Index, but no such luck for first-party content on Steam Frame.

Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.

Headset Tech Specs*

General

Processor

4 nm Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3 Architecture: ARM64

RAM

16GB Unified LPDDR5X RAM

Storage

256GB / 1TB UFS storage options

microSD card slot for expanded storage

Power

Rechargeable 21.6 Wh Li-ion battery

One USB-C 2.0 port in the rear, for charging and data

Charge with USB-C, 45W

Modular Headstrap

Headstrap includes integrated dual audio drivers and and rechargeable battery on rear. Headstrap weight: 245g

Core module can be separated from headstrap, for other headstrap solutions.

Display and Optics

Display

2160 x 2160 LCD (per eye)

72-144Hz refresh rate (144Hz experimental)

Optics

Custom pancake lenses Glass and non-glass optical elements Large FOV (up to 110 degrees)

IPD target range

60mm - 70mm

Eye glasses max width

140mm

Cameras and Tracking

Tracking

Inside-out camera based tracking

Cameras

4x outward facing monochrome cameras for controller and headset tracking

2x interior cameras for eye tracking and foveated streaming

Passthrough

Monochrome passthrough via outward facing cameras

Low-light support

IR illuminators for tracking and passthrough in dark environments

Expansion

User accessible front expansion port

Dual high speed camera interface (8 lanes @ 2.5Gbps MIPI) / PCIe Gen 4 interface (1-lane)

Connectivity

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 7, 2x2

Dual radios enable concurrent 5Ghz Wi-Fi and 6Ghz VR streaming

Wireless Adapter

Wireless adapter included in the box

Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz)

Provides direct, low-latency link between headset and PC

Bluetooth

Bluetooth 5.3

Audio

Speakers

Dual speaker drivers per ear, integrated into headstrap

Microphone

Dual microphone array

Size and Weight

Size

175mm x 95mm x 110mm (core module + facial interface)

Weight

440 g - core module + headstrap

185 g - core module

Software

Operating System

SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)

Desktop

KDE Plasma

Recently launched in early access, I’ve spent the past week storming the beaches of Forefront, and it successfully replicates many of the elements that make games like Battlefield so compelling. With just a few small changes, I can see Forefront becoming one of the more popular and successful VR games of its type.

This is just me mirroring a Reddit post to here since its an awesome mod release for anyone who likes Skyrim vr and plays the fus modpack ___________________________

Interactive Pullchains, Levers, Pullbars, Buttons, Valves, Pillars, Puzzle Door Rings and Keyholes, Door Deadbolts, Coffin Braziers and more for Skyrim VR. Use your VR hands to truly handle and activate instead of pointing and pressing a button. This is the missing piece to make Skyrim VR an actual VR game.

https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/161676

Is the universe a simulation? At first glance, the idea seems preposterous. Then again, within just a few decades, we’ve created entire digital worlds, AI has started to blur the line of what is real, and scientists have continued to probe the fabric of reality down to the quantum level. Factor in centuries or even millennia of similar technological progress—multiplied by the two trillion or so galaxies in the universe—and the idea that maybe our lived experience is simply a hyper-realistic simulation by some ultra-advanced alien species can feel a bit less like pure speculation and more head-scratchingly plausible.

The idea isn’t new—everything from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to the Wachowski sisters’ The Matrix ponders the concept. But this simulation theory has taken on some seriousness within the relatively new field of information physics, which aims to explore the role that information plays in the machinations of our universe. Some scientists have proposed that gravity arises from computation rules, while others suggest that information could explain things like dark matter and dark energy. But the team of researchers behind a new study from scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) now claims that they’ve mathematically proven that simulation theory is impossible.

Homeworld: Vast Reaches brings the real-time strategy game to SteamVR with upgraded visuals.

Developed by FarBridge, Homeworld: Vast Reaches takes place between the events of Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2, setting adventurous astronauts on a fresh journey within the series’ universe. You play as Tyrra Soban, a new Fleet Commander, guided by Karan S’jet as they tackle an unknown evil. Originally launched on Quest last year, it's out today on Steam after originally targeting an October 23 launch.

It’s been a long-held assumption that the human eye is capable of detecting a maximum of 60 pixels per degree (PPD), which is commonly called ‘retinal’ resolution. Any more than that, and you’d be wasting pixels. Now, a recent University of Cambridge and Meta Reality Labs study published in Nature maintains the upper threshold is actually much higher than previously thought.

As the University of Cambridge’s news site explains, the research team measured participants’ ability to detect specific display features across a variety of scenarios: both in color and greyscale, looking at images straight on (aka ‘foveal vision’), through their peripheral vision, and from both close up and farther away.

The team used a novel sliding-display device (seen below) to precisely measure the visual resolution limits of the human eye, which seem to overturn the widely accepted benchmark of 60 PPD commonly considered as ‘retinal resolution’.

harp first showed off a PC VR headset prototype at CES 2023, which was supposedly meant to ship sometime in 2024. It’s been nearly three years since we last heard about the headset, however during a recent Metaverse Expo in Japan, Sharp unveiled a newer version of the device, as demoed by Gizmodo Japan.

Now, Sharp says it’s slated to sell the device in Japan via crowdfunding platform Green Funding starting sometime in November, which it’s now dubbing ‘Xrostella VR1’.

Weighing in at just 198g and sporting what Sharp calls in a Japanese language press statement a “glasses-like design,” the headset includes dual 2,160 × 2,160 per eye LCD displays clocked up to 90Hz.

It also makes use of “thin, light-efficient pancake lens,” providing a 90 degree field of view (FOV), and cameras for both inside-out 6DOF tracking and color passthrough.