Seven reasons why generative AI will fall short in 2024
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HTC is Offering Big Discounts on Vive Headsets & Accessories for Black Friday
Black Friday is almost always when we see the best deals of the year on VR headsets and 2023 is no exception when it comes to HTC. The company is offering a big Black Friday sale on Vive headsets and accessories.
Updated – November 24th, 2023
The Best HTC Vive Headset Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales
Vive XR Elite
The best Vive XR Elite Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $870 from Amazon.
That’s a $100 (9%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
Vive Pro 2 (Full Kit)
The best Vive Pro 2 (Full Kit) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $1,000 from Amazon.
That’s a $400 (29%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
Vive Pro 2 (headset only)
The best Vive Pro 2 (headset only) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $540 from Amazon.
That’s a $260 (36%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
HTC Vive Headset Specs
Vive XR Elite Specs
| Resolution | 1,920 × 1,920 per-eye, LCD (2x) |
| Refresh Rate | 90Hz |
| Optics | Pancake non-Fresnel |
| Field-of-view (claimed) | 110ºD |
| Optical Adjustments | Per-eye focus, IPD |
| IPD Adjustment Range | 54–73mm |
| Processor | Snapdragon XR2 |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 128GB |
| Connectors | USB-C (2x) |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 + BLE |
| Weight | 625g (including battery), 273g in ‘glasses’ mode |
| Battery Life | Up to 2 hours |
| Headset-tracking | Inside-out (no external beacons) |
| Controller-tracking | Headset-tracked (headset line-of-sight needed) |
| Eye-tracking | none |
| Expression-tracking | none |
| On-board cameras | 5x external (4x tracking, 1x 16MP RGB), depth-sensor |
| Input | Vive XR Elite controllers (rechargable), hand-tracking |
| Audio | In-headstrap speakers |
| Microphone | Yes |
| Pass-through view | Yes |
Vive Pro 2 Specs
| Resolution | 2,448 x 2,448 (6.0MP) per-eye, LCD (2x) |
| Refresh Rate | 90Hz, 120Hz |
| Lenses | Dual-element Fresnel |
| Field-of-view (claimed) | 120°H |
| Optical Adjustments | IPD, eye-relief |
| IPD Adjustment Range | 57–72mm |
| Connectors | USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, power |
| Cable Length | 5m (breakout box) |
| Tracking | SteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons) |
| On-board cameras | 2x RGB |
| Input | Vive wand controllers, rechargable battery |
| Audio | On-ear headphones, USB-C audio output |
| Microphone | Dual microphone |
| Pass-through view | Yes |
The Best HTC Vive Headset Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales
HTC also is also offering sales on its most popular accessories. Here’s the breakdown:
- SteamVR Base Station 2.0 – $150 ($50 discount)
- SteamVR Base Station 1.0 – $100 ($35 discount)
- Vive Tracker 3.0 – $100 ($30 discount)
- Vive Wand Controller – $90 ($40 discount)
- Vive Wireless Adapter – $200 ($150 discount)
- Vive Deluxe Audio Strap – $25 ($25 discount)
HTC Vive Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Game Sales
This year HTC is offering a 15% discount on monthly subscriptions or 20% discount on annual subscriptions to its Viveport Infinity game platform which offers unlimited access to a large library of PC VR and standalone games. The deal also includes permanent ownership of The Break-In, RUINSMAGUS, and The Last Clockwinder for those signing up for the annual subscription.
HTC is Offering Big Discounts on Vive Headsets & Accessories for Black Friday Read More »
Co-op Dungeon Crawler ‘Dungeons of Eternity’ Has Big Plans for Post-launch Content
Dungeons of Eternity (2023), the VR hack-n-slash adventure, has big plans for post-launch content, as developers Othergate announced its roadmap for the next year.
Released on Quest in October, Dungeons of Eternity includes both co-op and solo gameplay, pitting you against ever-changing dungeons with up to three other players.
The game’s randomly-generated dungeons also include multiple game modes and realms, featuring stuff like combat arenas, puzzles, trap rooms, secret chambers, and more—basically everything you’d expect from a DnD-style VR game.
At any rate, that’s what the game launched with a little over a month ago, but now the studio says it has a bunch of new content on the horizon, as the studio released a roadmap projecting clear out to the end of next year. Check it out below:
Studio co-founder Ryan Rutherford also says in a recent Reddit AMA that the team has a “precise vision of creating a long-lasting VR experience you can enjoy with your friends or by yourself,” noting that the studio is entertaining a host of other improvements beyond those mentioned above.
You can find it on the Meta Store for Quest, priced at $30. At the time of this writing, Dungeons of Eternity is sporting a [4.65/5] user rating.
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Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is ‘ready to rumble’ following full dress rehearsal
The European Space Agency’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 successfully completed a full dress rehearsal on Thursday, in preparation for its maiden flight next year.
The so-called hot-fire test at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana “simulated a complete launch sequence and thus validated the entire flight phase of Ariane 6’s core stage,” said the agency.
During the rehearsal, the rocket engine was ignited while securely mounted to a test stand or test platform. The term ‘hot-fire’ refers to the fact that the engine is fired with its propellants, producing actual combustion and exhaust. The only difference from an actual launch was that the boosters were not ignited — leaving Ariane 6 firmly planted on the launch pad.
“The teams from ArianeGroup, CNES and ESA have now run through every step of the rocket’s flight without it leaving Earth,” explained ESA director general Josef Aschbacher, who declared success means “We are back on track towards resecuring Europe’s autonomous access to space.”
Ariane 6 was first scheduled to launch four years ago. However, the rocket has suffered a series of delays, attributed to technical issues, COVID-19, and design changes. The rocket’s previous hot-fire test, in June, ended in failure.
The <3 of EU tech
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With its Ariane 6’s predecessor, Ariane 5, officially decommissioned and Italy’s Vega C rocket grounded following launch failure in December, Europe is now without independent access to space satellites.
Until Ariane 6 gets up and running, the EU is forced to contract the work to Elon Musk’s SpaceX — the company’s Falcon rocket is the only viable alternative for hauling large satellites into orbit.
Despite its setbacks, Ariane 6 has a number of institutional launches to carry out, not just for the ESA. It has been attracting commercial contracts, including 18 launches for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband megaconstellation project.
For now, ArianeGroup’s CEO Martin Sion praised the team for the “real industrial feat”, but added that “a few additional tests”, notably fault tolerance, were still needed before the rocket was ready for launch. The next test, of the upper stage, is set to take place this December.
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When it comes to startups, little Luxembourg packs a big punch
Sandwiched between Germany, France, and Belgium, the tiny country of Luxembourg is one of Europe’s smallest, but also its wealthiest — its residents enjoy the second-highest per capita income in the world.
Key to this success is its thriving financial services sector which has helped draw several big names to the Grand Duchy, including the European Investment Bank and Amazon. It’s no surprise then that fintech has been identified as the tech sector with the greatest growth potential in the region.
Luxembourg was also one of the world’s biggest investors in AI per capita in 2021, surpassed only by Israel, the US, and Sweden (in that order). The National Research Fund has allocated €200mn to AI research projects over the past five years. To help power these advancements is Meluxina, one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers.
While only home to 600,000 people, Luxembourg’s thriving economy, modern infrastructure, international workforce, and generous government grants, which cover up to 80% of R&D costs, allow it to punch above its weight as a hub for emerging tech startups.
Well-known success stories include social media analytics and monitoring tool Talkwalker, and online jobs board JobToday. OCSiAI, a producer of graphene nanotubes, made headlines in 2019 when it joined Europe’s growing list of tech unicorns.
“Although Luxembourg is a small country, it shares its borders with two of Europe’s biggest economies,” pointed out Kenneth Graham, CEO of Tomorrowstreet, a Luxembourg-based innovation centre that focuses on scaling late-stage deep tech startups.
“Half the population come from somewhere else and many have connections with people all over the world, including Silicon Valley and the UK. This diversity of thought really makes the country a special place to do business,” he said.
Almost 50% of Luxembourg’s workforce commute from neighbouring countries, and 80% of the population speaks English.
A 2022 report from Startup Genome found that startup funding deals in Luxembourg increased five-fold between 2012 and 2021. Notably, the availability of seed funding in the country is considerably higher when compared to peers with similar-sized economies. Although it performs worse when it comes to later-stage investments.
This growth is undoubtedly partly thanks to the emergence of multiple startup initiatives in recent years, such as the government-backed Fit4Star program. Another is House of Startups, a place where incubators, accelerators, investors, and startups are all housed under one roof in the downtown Gare district of Luxembourg City. Funded by the Chamber of Commerce, the centre houses a whopping 200 of the country’s 521 tech startups.
All of this puts Luxembourg’s tech ecosystem on track to continue its upward growth trajectory in coming years, not just in fintech but also SaaS, climatetech, spacetech, and manufacturing.
Five startups to watch
1. Circu Li-ion
Founded just two years ago, this climatetech startup has developed an automated upcycling solution that enables the sustainable recycling of lithium-ion cells for reuse at scale. Last month, the company raised €8.5mn in seed funding.
Circu Li-ion’s services come at an opportune moment for the company (and the planet), following the EU’s new battery regulation, which aims to ensure a circular economy and will require mandatory minimum levels of recycled elements for EV batteries.
2. Salonkee
Founded in 2016, Salonkee has developed an online reservation platform to streamline the booking of hair or beauty appointments. The startup has raised €35mn so far and is already profitable. It currently has 110 employees across offices in Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.
3. Next Gate Tech
Next Gate Tech is a data-driven fintech that provides SaaS solutions for the asset management industry. Basically, it helps banks and the like automate the boring and repetitive aspects of data management (I thought it was all boring!). Since launching in 2020, the startup has raised €17mn, and is valued at close to €50mn, according to data from Dealroom.
4. OQ Tech
This spacetech startup has developed a constellation of satellites that allow IoT devices on Earth to stay connected even when there is no cellphone reception. It can also support bi-directional communication to machines such as banking ATMs in poor connectivity areas. Five of the company’s satellites are already in orbit. Oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco is OQ Tech’s largest customer and invested €13mn into the startup last year.
5. nZero
Last but not least is nZero, a carbon management platform that gives NGOs, government agencies, and organisations accurate data on their carbon emissions. It offers insights across all three emissions scopes, including embodied carbon which is often left out from many carbon calculating tools. So far the company has raised €15mn and racked in almost €8mn in revenues last year.
When it comes to startups, little Luxembourg packs a big punch Read More »
He quit a GenAI leader in protest. Now he wants to create fairer systems for artists
Ed Newton-Rex had reached a breaking point. As the vice president of audio at Stability AI, the 36-year-old was at the vanguard of a revolution in computational creativity. But there was growing unease about the movement’s strategy.
Stability was becoming an emerging powerhouse in generative AI. The London-based startup owns Stability Diffusion, one of the world’s most popular image generators. It also recently expanded into music generators with the September launch of Stable Audio — a tool developed by Newton-Rex himself. But these two systems were taking conflicting paths.
Stable Audio was trained on licensed music. The model was fed a dataset of over 800,000 files from the stock music library AudioSparx. Any copyrighted materials had been provided with permission.
Stable Diffusion had gone in a different direction. The system was trained on billions of images scraped from the web without the consent of creators. Many were copyrighted materials. All were taken without payment.
These images had taught the model well. Diffusion’s outputs pushed Stability to a valuation of $1bn in a $101mn funding round last year. But the system was attracting opposition from artists — including Newton-Rex.
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GenAI’s ethical dilemma
A pianist and composer as well as a GenAI pioneer, Newton-Rex was at odds with the unsanctioned scraping.
“I’ve always really wanted to make sure that these tools are built with the consent of the creators behind the training data,” he tells TNW on a video call from his home in Silicon Valley.
Stability was far from the only exponent of this method. The image generators MidJourney and Dall-E apply the same approach, as do OpenAI’s ChatGPT text generator and CoPilot programmer. Visual arts, written works, music, and even code are now constantly being reworked without consent.
In response, creators and copyright holders have launched numerous lawsuits. They’re angry that their work is being taken, adapted, and monetised without permission or remuneration. They’re also worried that their livelihoods are at stake.
“It’s in the AI industry’s interest to make people think that only the big players can do this.
Artists say that generative AI is stealing their work. The companies behind the systems disagree. In a recent submission to the US Copyright Office, Stability argued that the training was “fair use” because the results are “transformative” and “socially beneficial.”
Consequently, the company asserted, there was no copyright infringement. The practice could therefore continue without permission or payments. It was a claim that had become common in GenAI, but one that Newton-Rex disputed.
“It really showed where the industry as a whole stands right now — and it’s not it’s not a place I’m happy with,” he says.
Newton-Rex considers the practice of exploitation. Last week, he resigned from Stability in protest.
The departure doesn’t mean that Newton-Rex has quit generative AI. On the contrary, he plans to continue working in the field, but following a fairer model. It’s not the impossible mission that the GenAI giants might depict. In fact, it’s already been accomplished by a range of companies.
Alternatives are available
Newton-Rex has a long history in computational creativity. After studying music at Cambridge University, he founded Jukedeck, a pioneering AI composer. The app used machine learning to compose original music on demand. In 2019, it was acquired by TikTok owner Bytedance.
Newton-Rex then had spells as a product director at Tiktok and a chief product officer at Voicey, a music collaboration app that was acquired by Snap, before joining Stability AI last year. He was tasked with leading the startup’s audio efforts.
“I wanted to build a product in music generation that showed what can be done with actual licensed data — where you agree with the rights holders,” he says.
That objective put him at odds with many industry leaders. GenAI was edging into the mainstream and companies were rushing to ship new systems as quickly as possible. Scraping content from the web was an attractive shortcut.
It was also demonstrably effective. At that time, there were still doubts that the licensed datasets were large enough for training state-of-the-art models. Questions were also raised about the quality of the data. But both those assumptions are now being disproved.
“What we call training data is really human creative output.
Stable Audio provided one source of counter-evidence. The system’s underlying model was trained on licensed music in partnership with the rights holders. The resulting outputs have earned applause. Last month, Time named Stable Audio one of the best inventions of 2023.
“For a couple of months, it was the state-of-the-art in music generation — and it was trained on music that we’d licence,” Newton-Rex says. “To me, that showed that it can be done.”
Indeed, there’s now a growing list of companies showing that it can be done. One is Adobe, which recently released a generative machine-learning model called Firefly. The system is trained on images from Creative Commons, Wikimedia, and Flickr Commons, as well as 300 million pictures and videos in Adobe Stock and the public domain.
As this data is provided with permission, it’s safe for commercial use. Adobe also stressed that creators whose work is used will qualify for payments.
Another alternative model comes from Getty Images. In September, the company launched Generative AI by Getty Images, which is trained solely on the platform’s enormous library. Craig Peters, the firm’s CEO, said the tool addresses “commercial needs while respecting the intellectual property of creators.”
Nvidia has also developed GenAI in partnership with copyright holders. The tech giant’s Picasso service was trained on images licensed from Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Adobe. Nvidia said it plans to pay royalties.
These approaches won’t work for everyone. As mega-corps with deep content pools, the companies behind them have resources that few businesses can match. Yet startups are showing that licensing can also be done on a budget.
GenAI for the people
Bria AI has provided one example. The company has developed a new commercial open-source model for high-quality image generation. All the training is done on licenced datasets, which were created in collaboration with leading stock photo agencies and artists. A revenue-sharing model provides creators and rights-holding with compensation for their contribution
It’s a similar approach to the one Newton-Rex used at Stable Audio — but it’s not the only one.
Companies can also provide upfront payments to artists, create joint ventures that give rights holders equity in the business, or use content with a Creative Commons license, which can be freely re-used without explicit permission. GenAI firms may dismiss these efforts, but they have ulterior motives.
“It’s in the AI industry’s interest to make people think that only the big players can do this — but it’s not true,” Newton-Rex says.
“You might need to get a little inventive. You certainly have to do some negotiations and be willing to spend the time. But ultimately, what we call training data — and what is really human creative output — is a resource for tech companies. They need to work to get that in the same way they need to work to get any resource.”
If they’re willing to do that, GenAI can work in harmony with human artists. And hopefully, let all of us enjoy the creativity unleashed by them both.
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This robotic digger could construct the buildings of the future
Construction is a tough job, and in Europe there is a chronic shortage of workers to build the homes, schools, and roads we use every single day. So why not get a robot to do the hard work so we don’t have to?
That’s exactly what researchers at ETH Zurich’s Robotic Systems Lab in Switzerland are working on. They’ve trained an autonomous excavator to construct stone walls using boulders weighing several tonnes — without any human interference. In the machine’s first assignment, it built a six metre-high and 65 metre-long loading bearing wall. If scaled, the solution could to pave the way for faster, more sustainable construction.
Using LiDAR sensors, the excavator autonomously draws a 3D map of the construction site and identifies existing building blocks and stones for the wall. Specifically designed tools and machine vision (the ability of a computer to see) enable the excavator to scan and grab large stones in its immediate environment. It can also register their approximate weight as well as their centre of gravity.
An algorithm then determines the best position for each stone, and the excavator places each piece in the desired location to within a centimetre of accuracy. The autonomous machine can place 20 to 30 stones in a single consignment – about as many as one delivery could supply.
The digger, named HEAP, is a modified Menzi Muck M545 developed by the researchers to test the potential of autonomous machines for construction. Because HEAP is so precise, it opens up the possibility of using locally sourced stones and rubble for the construction of walls, instead of new material like bricks.
The wall was constructed at an industrial park next to Zurich Airport, managed by Eberhard construction company. The firm is using the site, and various ETH Zurich technologies, to demonstrate ways to make construction more circular — by minimising waste to the greatest extent possible.
The use of autonomous diggers has been on the cards for a while now, not just in Switzerland. In 2017, US startup Built Robotics was founded to bring robot diggers into the mainstream. At the time, CEO Noah Ready-Campbell predicted that fully autonomous equipment would become commonplace on construction sites before fully autonomous cars hit public roads. But the idea has yet to advance beyond the prototype stage.
Automation is easiest to implement on repetitive tasks with predictable outcomes — like in manufacturing assembly lines. But a construction site is a complex, messy environment where safety if paramount. Similar to autonomous cars, the world is simply not yet ready for the widespread deployment of autonomous diggers, cranes, and trucks.
However, there are other applications of robotics technologies in construction that are being implemented right now. For instance, UK startup hyperTunnel combines swarm robotics and AI to excavate tunnels up to 10 times faster than conventional methods. The proposed process involves injecting the lining of a tunnel into the ground and then removing the waste using a swarm of small autonomous robotic vehicles.
Another area of rapid growth is the construction of homes using giant 3D printers, like those developed by Danish company COBOD. In the UK, a 36-home housing development is currently being built this way. Its proponents claim the huge robots will build the homes faster, safer, and more sustainably than traditional methods.
This robotic digger could construct the buildings of the future Read More »
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[Industry Direct] ‘Pavlov Shack’ Revamps Modding, Now on the Official Meta Quest Store
Industry Direct by Will Cloxton at Vankrupt Games
Industry Direct is our program for sponsors who want to speak directly to the Road to VR newsletter audience. Industry Direct posts are written by sponsors with no involvement from the Road to VR editorial team. Links to these posts appear only in our newsletter and do not intermix with our on-site editorial feed. Industry Direct sponsors help make Road to VR possible.
Pavlov is a team-based multiplayer VR shooter with over 65 fully interactable weapons and limitless game modes is supported by a passionate and extensive modding community. On November 14th, 2023, Vankrupt Games released multiplayer FPS tactical shooter game Pavlov Shack onto the official Meta Quest store for the Quest 3, 2, and Pro for $19.99. This official release is bringing a lot more to the table than just 3 new official maps, bug fixes, and voice chat fidelity improvements. It also brings a new and improved mod kit: Pavlov Mod Kit 3.0.
With the new and improved mod kit on the official Quest Store version of Pavlov Shack, content creators can more easily share and implement their modded creations for the game. Now, content can be broken up into different content types such as Maps, Gamemodes, and Mods. It essentially decouples the content into more appropriate categories. More importantly, it allows more cross-pollination for multiple creators to implement each other’s work.
Modding is arguably the heart and soul of the Pavlov Shack community. Pavlov exploded on the PC scene in 2017 on Steam and was one of the first titles in the VR market to embrace User Generated Content. Players could download Unreal Engine 4 and create content easily. This original implementation spawned an explosion in content, from custom maps to custom game modes.
Downloading content, however, used to be a pain with Pavlov’s early versions. You had to manually install the maps or rely on community servers for delivering the downloads to your headset. This isn’t ideal, as different servers would have different versions of the maps. Earlier this year, Pavlov Shack included a massive update that shifted from Unreal 4 to Unreal 5, but also included Mod.io support and a mod browser in-game to manage and download your content more gracefully.
There was a catch however, everything had to be contained in one UGC map file. Sharing content between creators was a painful process of zipping up projects entirely or exporting as plugins for other creators to download and implement with their own content.
With these new mod kit improvements, a creator who specializes in map design and struggles with using visual blueprint logic can now more easily set another mod or gamemode as a dependency, allowing them to implement the content from that other creator much more fluidly. It also provides the benefit of removing the versioning headaches. If a dependency is updated, such as a custom vehicle with a bug fix, then all subscribed content to that custom vehicle will receive the same update. Less sharing of zipped files and all the distribution is seamless.
We value our mod and map creators because it enriches the player experience by being able to generate unique and novel content at a much faster rate than Vankrupt Games could ever hope to achieve. Ultimately, this benefits the players and enriches the creators with the satisfaction they have access to a large player base to play their content. For example, popular mods like ‘Pavlov Kart’ puts players into a Pavlov meets Mario Kart world that is a unique experience created just for the Pavlov community by the Pavlov community. Due to improvements in Pavlov Shack’s mod kit 3.0, players are the true winners, as they will benefit from more and better game content.
Content can also be stacked on each other and multiple mod packs from different creators can be applied at once in unison. Additionally, the assets for those modpacks only need to be downloaded once, so content adopting the same mod dependencies also have the added benefit of reducing duplication of asset bloat, saving that precious storage space on the player’s headset.
The implications of this drastic change will take quite a bit of time to bear fruit, but the modding landscape of Pavlov Shack will look completely different in a year once the content creators shift to the new and more practical methods and understand the nuance of what can now be possible.
This new modding system is now live with Pavlov Shack, with PC following in a later update. Download Pavlov Shack today on the official Meta Quest Store.
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140-year-old ocean heat tech could supply islands with limitless energy
A UK-based startup is looking to breathe new life into a century-old technology that could power tropical island nations with virtually limitless, consistent, renewable energy.
Known as ocean thermal energy conversion or ‘OTEC,’ the technology was first invented in 1881 by French physicist Jacques Arsene d’Arsonval. He discovered that the temperature difference between sun-warmed surface water and the cold depths of the ocean could be harnessed to generate electricity.
OTEC systems transfer heat from warm surface waters to evaporate a low-boiling point fluid like ammonia, creating steam that drives a turbine to produce electricity. As the vapour cools and condenses in contact with cold seawater pumped from the ocean’s depths, it completes the energy cycle.
How it works: