The Ghost Howls’s VR Week Peek (2019.08.05): SIGGRAPH shows cool XR stuff, Vive Cosmos will probably cost £700, VirtualLink may die and much more!
I hoped that in this period all VR people were in vacation, so that I could relax a bit… instead this week there have been tons of interesting news and articles… even more than usual! Discover the hottest XR topics of the week in this roundup post…
Top news of the week
The SIGGRAPH has shown some interesting AR/VR solutions
This has been the week of SIGGRAPH, one of the most important technology exhibition of the year. I’ll be honest, I don’t think it has been the best SIGGRAPH ever for XR (there haven’t been disrupting news or applications from there), but there was some cool stuff nonetheless.
Some of the most important AR/VR showcases have been:
- NVIDIA showing a solution for AR foveated rendering. By combining the output of a standard AR display and a little high-resolution display (a bit like Varjo), NVIDIA has been able to take foveated rendering and big FOV to AR. The output of the high-resolution display is moved where the user is looking at, offering an unprecedent clarity in augmented reality. This is still a prototype and no one was able to actually try it (only see it moving in a box);
- NVIDIA showing a solution for AR glasses that work with people with vision impairments. If you have myopia, presbyopia or other vision problems, at the moment you have to use prescription lenses. But NVIDIA showed the prototype of an AR system that thanks to some optical tricks is able to show the virtual elements at the focus that you want, enabling clear vision for all people;
- NVIDIA showing a system that shows a hyper-realistic AR world on a tablet using real-time raytracing;
- Various companies offering suits and tracking systems to track your body in AR/VR. Some of them were paired with an iPhone X that was able to offer facial tracking;
- A robotic tail moved by a hydraulic pump to attach to the rear part of your body. It is able to change the stability of your body, for improved stability in various VR scenarios;
- Various XR art installations, using projections, sounds, and cool visuals. In the links I selected one called City Of Sparkles, that lets you navigate in some American cities in VR, showing around you the tweets of people that feel lonely in those cities, extracted from the cloud using AI;
- Il Divino: a VR installation that lets you see Cappella Sistina by Michelangelo Buonarroti incredibly close, as if you were the painter;
- Various XR storytelling experiences. A Kite’s Tale by Disney was a bit underwhelming, according to some people. Magic Leap’s Undersea was short for people trying it at the exhibition but was far better for who experienced it at home. This is because it especially performs better if you try it for long periods of time. It opens a portal in one of your walls, with a colored acquarium beyond that, and the more the time passes by, the more the undersea creatures enter your room and interact with you;
- LiquidMask: a face mask that lets you feel hot and cold on your face while you are in VR;
- Unreal Engine 4 has announced that now integrates Octane Render;
- Various companies have showcased streaming of VR over Wi-fi, but it seems that performances will never be good enough until we will have 5G;
- Showcases on virtual avatars and volumetric recording;
- Showcases of local multiplayer VR solutions.
More info (Best roundup on SIGGRAPH)
More info (Upload VR’s roundup on SIGGRAPH)
More info (Upload VR’s roundup on SIGGRAPH avateering and artistic solutions)
More info (NVIDIA AR glasses prototypes)
More info (Video on NVIDIA that explains its foveated AR solution)
More info (NVIDIA ray tracing on a tablet in AR)
More info (Hands-on Magic Leap’s Undersea)
More info (Il Divino)
More info (City Of Sparkles)
More info (
More info (Unreal Engine with Octane Renderer)
More info (Wi-fi is not enough for VR streaming)
Other relevant news
Vive Cosmos release is close and it may cost £700
After some weeks of silence, HTC has started again to rise the hype for its upcoming flagship PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos.
The Taiwanese company has released three new trailers highlighting the high comfort of the device and the great controller tracking ( the best in its category, according to it). In one of the trailers, the first sentence is “The time has come”, so we can suppose that the launch is near. Since the company confirmed to me that the launch will happen in Q3, I think we’ll discover the price and release date of the Cosmos very very soon.
In the meanwhile, UK retailer Argos has published by error a page on its e-store in which the device is listed for sale at £700, specifying no release date, though. The page has now been removed. HTC has not confirmed nor denied the price, but 90% of cases when this happens, the rumored price is true. £700 means that we can expect a price in dollars and euros in the
More info (Cosmos trailers)
More info (Cosmos listed for 700 pounds)
OpenXR 1.0 has been released
Finally, the great day has come: the specifications of OpenXR 1.0 have been released. The working group, that includes all the major XR companies (Oculus, HTC, Intel, NVIDIA, Valve, etc…), facilitated by the Khronos group, has finally agreed on a set of specifications, after having listened to all the feedback that
OpenXR is a standard that should help interoperability between XR solutions. It will operate both as a layer between the headset and the runtime and as a layer between the runtime and the application. These layers will help in facilitating the communication between different systems, thanks to a common standard. This means that an application developed for OpenXR will work with all the VR headsets that are OpenXR-compatible, both in the present and in the future. This will help a lot in having an XR ecosystem that is less fragmented.
Microsoft has just released its OpenXR implementation, while other companies like Oculus and Epic Games are still working on theirs, and they will be released soon. I hope that some crazy business decisions won’t ruin the dream of this standard.
More info (Upload VR)
More info (Road To VR)
Valve cancels the VirtualLink adapter for the Valve Index
For a standard like OpenXR that seems destined to succeed, we go to another standard, that seems on the edge of failing: VirtualLink.
When Valve released the Valve Index, one of the best headsets of 2019, it also opened the preorders for its VirtualLink adapter, that should have served to connect the Index directly to the graphics card using only one USB C plug. Many innovators preordered it, considering that we all thought that VirtualLink was something that should have made VR usage easier, offering faster setups and better performances.
But yesterday, Valve canceled all orders, refunding the money to all people that preordered the gadget, and giving also €18/$20 of Steam Credits to them as a way to say sorry. The reason is that, according to Valve, VirtualLink wasn’t able to offer a stable VR experience. Furthermore, being adopted only by a few computers and laptops, it is not widespread enough to justify the presence of a dedicated add-on.
In my opinion, this may be the tombstone of VirtualLink. It has been adopted by no headsets at this time, AMD graphics cards do not have it, NVIDIA graphics cards sometimes have it and most laptops don’t have it. And if it is not able to offer a good VR experience with the Index, that is a headset of gen 1.5, I wonder how it can be satisfying for the headsets of the future.
Standards have little sense if they don’t get adopted, and at this point, I fear that companies will keep using DisplayPorts at least for a while. And this may lead to the end of VirtualLink… at least for this generation of VR.
Oculus wants to make people control AR headsets just using the brain
Some weeks ago, Elon Musk won the headlines of all tech magazines detailing the work of his startup Neuralink. This week, Facebook wanted to show the world that it has some crazy skills with BCI as well.
In a long article on its tech blog, Facebook Reality Labs details how it has partnered with UCSF University to work on a research project that could lead in the end to having a non-invasive Brain-Computer-Interface that could make people using their XR devices using just their thoughts. Hand interfaces for XR devices are tiresome and cumbersome, and using just the thoughts seems the best solution for using these headsets.
At the moment, the research has managed to make the system just recognize some commands (like “open”) in people suffering from epilepsy that have an invasive BCI
The researchers hope to reach in
Oculus opens applications for OC6, confident that things are doing great
Registrations for Oculus Connect 6 are now open, and you can register as an attendant, a speaker, or part of the press. This OC6 promises to be great, with Facebook detailing its work on augmented reality and unveiling cool content, like the AAA war game that Respawn is developing with Oculus.
This comes in a good moment for Oculus: Speaking in front of investors, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his satisfaction for the Oculus Quest, that has received amazing reviews by the press and whose devices are selling as soon as they are manufactured.
And the Quest is being updated constantly: the latest feature is Oculus Storage, that lets people start a game on the Rift, save its data on the cloud, and then continue playing it in mobility on the Quest. This behavior somehow reminds me of the Nintendo Switch, that can be played docked at home or in mobility… and Quest is like the Switch of VR, according to Oculus.
More info (Applications for OC6 open)
More info (Respawn game at OC6)
More info (Zuckerberg talks about the Quest)
More info (Oculus Cloud Storage)
Apple is working on AR/VR
Some weeks ago, a report told that Apple had stopped working on its AR glasses. Actually, no one with a grain of salt believed in the news, and in fact a new job listing, all focused on AR/VR people, clearly shows that at Cupertino immersive realities are still a hot topic. And the recent hiring of Nat Brown, that was working on VR at Valve, confirms this sensation (Thanks @lesposen for the tip!).
What surprises me is that the jobs listing are for “AR/VR”. Apple has always said it is interested only in AR so that VR suffix is suspicious. In my opinion, this means that they are working on a passthrough AR headset, with vision mediated by a display, that can so span all the immersive realities continuum, from AR to VR. The popular journalist Robert Scoble confirmed that Apple is actually working on similar technology, that seems like “an IMAX strapped to your face”.
A rumor talks about iPhones becoming 5G compatible in 2020, and this increments the credibility of the other rumors talking about an Apple AR headset for 2020/2021, that will work attached to an iPhone, and that will exploit its 5G connection. We will see.
In the meanwhile, Apple has started an Augmented Reality art course.
More info (Apple AR/VR jobs listing)
More info (Apple hires Nat Brown)
More info (Robert Scoble’s tweet)
More info (iPhones becoming 5G compatible in 2020)
More info (Apple art courses)
News worth a mention
No Man’s Sky is getting VR support on August, 14th
Gamers of the world, rejoice: No Man’s Sky is getting its Beyond update on August, 14th and with it will come virtual reality support. Finally, people will be able to wander around procedurally generated worlds with full immersion! It will become one of the VR games with the longest replayability ever, and will help the technology in having more adoption.
If you don’t have the game yet, I can advise you to buy it from GreenManGaming, where you can find it with a -57% discount! (Thanks to Reddit for letting me know this)
More info (release date)
More info (buy it discounted)
Charlie Fink is launching EXRD
One of the best worldwide XR journalists (and inventor of the Lion King movie) Charlie Fink is launching a tour called EXRD that will cover various cities in the US. In its tour, he will let people in the enterprise world understand the value of AR/VR with on-field demos of all the most popular XR headsets and the most useful XR enterprise applications. He will detail how AR and VR can empower companies.
If you have a business in the US and you want to understand the true potential of XR to boost your company, I suggest to give it a look.
Samsung gets a patent for an AR contact lens
Samsung has just won a patent for an augmented reality contact lens that contains:
- a display;
- a motion detection sensor;
- a communication module (antenna).
This seems a very intriguing project, even if I know that it is not something that can be produced in the short term.
Human Capable wants to take smartglasses to consumers
American startup Human Capable wants to offer smart glasses to consumers. It has just succeeded in funding its Kickstarter campaign for the Norm Glasses, that are notification glasses that look very fashionable.
There are already other similar competitors in the field, like the North Focals, but Human Capable wants to win the market using a very low price tag. Only $375 to see the notifications of your phone in front of your eyes.
Tobii wants to offer foveated rendering to headset vendors
Eye-tracking leader Tobii is now offering Tobii Spotlight, a solution that exploits NVIDIA VRS (Variable Rate Shading) together with Tobii eye-tracking to implement foveated rendering in VR headsets.
Thanks to this technology, Tobii claims that it is possible to reduce the burden on the GPU of a 57% factor. This is what we need to have higher display resolution in VR headsets.
Oculus releases Quill 2.0
Storytelling creation tool Quill has just got a big update that took it to version 2.0. In this version, there are a lot of new tools and functionalities, especially for what concerns animations, that transform Quill in a complete tool for storytellers. If you are a creative, you should check it out.
More info (Quill 2.0 features)
More info (Goro Fujita explains new features of Quill)
Porting to Quest is more difficult than you may think
In an article on Upload VR, various studios detail the effort that they had to spend to port their title to the Quest. In the article there is some interesting info, like the fact that Polyarc games to port Moss on Quest had to re-make all the art of the game. This took 6–9 months of man-work, an incredible effort for a studio.
This makes me wonder how big has been the effort of Vertical Robot, that has just released a teaser for Red Matter on the Quest, where lighting looks gorgeous. To obtain that, they had to modify the lighting system of Unreal Engine 4!
More info (Porting on Quest)
More info (Red Matter video)
Valve has released a workaround for the thumbsticks of the Knuckles
Valve has released an update of SteamVR that fixes various issues with the Index. In this update, they also try to fix the issue on Valve Index controllers thumstick that doesn’t click on all directions, by enabling a click emulation when you push the thumbstick at its maximum.
I’m not that satisfied with this idea, but I appreciate that they are working on it.
Oculus Quest with full local multiplayer?
Developer Sean Ong has released on Twitter a video about a system developed by his team where people can play with Oculus Quest in a location, in local multiplayer, with the virtual and real-world synchronized.He said that he used Microsoft Azure and Cloud anchors to provide such features.
The video became popular, but it has later been removed because it revealed some features that couldn’t be shown. I’m wondering how he exploited Azure… does it mean that Oculus unlocked for him the use of Quest front cameras?
You can now stream PC VR games easily to the Vive Focus Plus
HTC has announced at China Joy that is now possible for Viveport Infinity subscribers to play PC VR games from Viveport on the Vive Focus Plus with a simple click. It is all integrated inside Viveport, so you don’t need to mess with external apps: you just select “PC Stream” from the menu of the headset, you select the game that you want to play and you’re done.
Some XR fun
Some VR epic fails!
One of the best threads on Twitter about XR: what is the best AR/VR meme up to this date?
One of best TIFU (Today I F***ed Up) on
Funny link — Part 1
Funny link — Part 2
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