Yesterday was Chinese Lanterns’ Festival… my best wishes to you all, especially a big hug to all people that are still in China and are living very hard times… 加油!
This week in XR has seen the launch of the first standalone MR headset, plus a lot of interesting news and articles about immersive realities. Do you want to discover them with me?
Top news of the week
Lynx has launched its first standalone MR headset
French startup Lynx has finally unveiled the R1, the first mixed reality standalone headset. While with other VR headsets like the Vive Focus Plus it is already possible to do some kind of augmented reality, this is the first standalone headset that can provide both good quality AR and VR on the same device. It is able to offer this thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset (and its related reference design), that has been conceived with these features in mind.
The headset has a very nice design and features these specifications:
- Standalone 6DOF headset
- 1600×1600 resolution per eye
- 90Hz refresh rate
- 90° FOV
- RGB AR passthrough
- Innovative lenses that make the headset more compact
- Integrated audio
- Controller-free hand-tracking
- Eye-tracking
- 6GB of RAM
- 128GB of storage
- WiFi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0, and USB Type-C connectivity
- 2 hours of “active use” battery life
These are pretty cool, also because the Snapdragon XR 2 is much more powerful than the 835 mounted by the Oculus Quest. And the fact that it features AR and eye tracking is for sure awesome. Not to mention the fact that the lenses have a very unique design that merges four versions of the frame on the screen, that must be rendered in a very special way. This offers some advantages:
- The central part of the frame can be rendered in higher quality thanks to supersampling
- The lenses can be closer to the screen, so that the headset results more compact
- The eye-tracking camera can be put behind the lens, at its center, and so guarantee a higher-precision tracking.
This sounds all good, but there are also some problems in this device:
- The 90° FOV sounds a bit limiting
- The fact that it relies on hands-tracking ONLY may be a problem if hands tracking is not reliable enough
- Someone reports that with these special lenses you can still perceive the seams of the 4-images stitched together
- No ETA on Unreal Engine support
- The headset is an enterprise-oriented one, and this means no content and a high price.
Interested people could preorder the device today for $1500 ($150 to be deposited at the moment of the purchase and the rest to be given upon shipping). It seems that the sales are going pretty well, and CEO Stan Larroque has already talked about switching to mass production.
My opinion is that this headset is intriguing, but since it comes from an unknown startup, and it features a design I have never tried (especially the lenses), much care is needed. I would like to try it first, or at least hear the informed opinion of a competent journalist like Ben Lang of Road To VR.
Good luck to Lynx. It has had the courage of being the first to launch an MR standalone device!
More info (Lynx R1 Launch post on Road To VR)
More info (Lynx R1 Launch post on Upload VR)
More info (Some more info on its special lenses)
More info (Launch keynote)
More info (Video that explains this kind of lenses)
More info (Feedback on this kind of lenses)
More info (Stan Larroque talking about the success of the sales)
Other relevant news
A mother meets again her dead daughter thanks to VR
In Korea, a TV documentary has used virtual reality to make a mother meet again her daughter Nayeon, who died of blood cancer some months before. The mother could see her daughter playing in a park and have fun for her birthday, and have a little chat with her.
Technically speaking, the mother could experience all of this thanks to a Vive Pro with wireless adapter, while the daughter had been recreated using 3D scanning (photogrammetry) of the sister of Nayeon (very similar to her), plus some photos and videos of the deceased little child (to recreate better facial expressions). Simple voice recognition and AI let Nayeon have a simple dialogue with her mother.
But I’ve not put this news at such a high place in my roundup because of tech stuff, but for its emotional power. Watching the video of the experience, with the mother being able to see her daughter again and crying, it’s so incredibly moving. I’m a man, so of course, I don’t cry, but “a friend of mine” had his eyes become very wet while watching it. I can only imagine the pain that this woman had to go through, and the sheer of emotions she felt when she saw the digital re-creation of her little Nayeon. It’s a powerful video, and in fact, everyone was talking about this documentary this week.
On the web, there have been many debates around this video. Some people found it creepy, others found it disturbing, others think it’s a great way to make people handle grief. Honestly, I don’t know. I think that a dead person is dead, and a digital re-creation can’t take it back again. I also think that people react to death in different ways, and so an experience of this kind may help some people in handling grief in a better way. Probably a team of psychologists could start from this video to recreate something that can help people after the death of someone, or that can help people in remembering their loved people the right way. I really hope so. The technology can be so powerful, but it must be used the right way.
Valve teases SteamVR 2.0
In a post summarizing the results obtained in 2019 and talking about the future projections for 2020, Valve has teased interesting news for next year, saying that SteamVR 2.0 is coming. Honestly, we have no idea on what it does mean, but it makes me very intrigued.
In the meantime, Valve has given a complete overhaul to the UI of SteamVR, changing the interface both of the desktop menus and the VR menu, that is now curved and more suitable to select games in an easier way with VR controllers.
The good news for Valve don’t end here. New Steam hardware survey highlights that the number of VR headsets has grown again, and now according to Road To VR there are 1.6M monthly connected VR headsets on Steam. Considering that this number doesn’t count the Quest users connected via Oculus Link, the actual number of VR users on Steam is even higher. Fantastic news, in preparation for the launch of Half-Life: Alyx!
More info (New SteamVR Dashboard)
More info (Valve teasing SteamVR 2.0)
More info (Growth of headsets on Steam)
Oculus Quest is sold out, and Coronavirus may make the situation even worse
“All-In-One VR. No PC. No wires. No limits. No availability.” This is the new slogan of the Oculus Quest that many people on the web have proposed after the news that the Oculus Quest has become fully Out Of Stock. Oculus is not accepting orders anymore, because the backlog was growing too much.
Oculus claims that one of the reasons of this shortage is the Coronavirus: Oculus Quest is manufactured in China, and now because of that damn virus, China has problems in manufacturing and shipping stuff: most Chinese people are forced to stay at home to prevent the spread of the disease, and since they are all buying online, the shipping services are clogged up. So, we can expect delays for all headsets, and Oculus warns that it may have delays as well.
While talking on WeChat on the XR Story group, an XR professional in China, Alex of Simfinity, has clarified that the situation in China is not easy, but until now it has not been much worse than what usually happens during Chinese New Year vacations when factories close for 2–4 weeks. What would be interesting is understanding what the Chinese govt will decide in these days, letting the factories re-open again or not. Probably Oculus (and like Oculus, many other manufacturers like Nintendo) is playing safe by warning the community about these possible delays even if then they won’t happen. Better safe than sorry.
I really hope so. And I really hope that this mess of the virus will end soon, and Chinese people can have a good life again soon.
More info (Quest out of stock)
More info (Quest delays for the coronavirus)
Still no news on Oculus For Business program and Multiplayer SDK for Quest
In two separated articles, Road To VR and Upload VR inquired Oculus on two of the most awaited features for Oculus Quest:
- The Oculus For Business program, that should help enterprise owners using Oculus Quest inside their businesses, offering kiosk mode, the configuration of multiple devices at once and more;
- Local Multiplayer Co-location SDK, that should let developers create local multiplayer experiences of people using Oculus Quest, where everyone is aware of the position of the others. I’m of course referring to the Dead and Buried demo showcased at OC5.
In both cases, Oculus has basically given no answer. The Oculus For business program is still “coming soon”, and that’s becoming frustrating considering that it is in this state since several months. Regarding the co-location feature, Facebook “has nothing to share about”, highlighting how now the focus of the company is offering the best experience for home consumers.
That’s a true pity, considering that both of these features would be incredibly important for businesses. I wonder if Facebook has already taken the decision of leaving the enterprise market to HTC and Pico, while focusing on the much bigger piece of cake of the consumer market. I think we’ll discover it “soon”.
More info (Oculus for business)
More info (Co-location SDK)
Facebook acquires Scape Technologies
With a surprise move, Facebook has acquired UK startup Scape Technologies, ramping up the AR Cloud Wars.
Scape is (or was) a startup focusing on offering a solution of world-scale localization. You could use your phone to show augmented reality content, and the Scape service, by just looking at your surroundings, was able to detect your exact position in some selected cities. This meant that you could put an AR object in one position in the world, and all the other position could find it exactly there, thanks to the SLAM service offered by Scape. If you follow me since a while, you know that I’m talking about an AR Cloud service.
Buying Scape, Facebook not only acquires a very important expertise in the AR Cloud space but also gets all the mappings that Scape had already done in its supported cities. A lot of data that will be very useful to Facebook to create its Live Maps functionality.
I had forecasted it in my predictions for augmented reality in 2020: AR Cloud wars are starting. And Facebook has just made its first move. Let’s see how Apple and Google will answer.
SideQuest now also offers WebVR experiences
SideQuest is the tool used by thousands of people every month to sideload unapproved applications on their Oculus Quests. It is being very useful to let indie distribute little games and innovative experiences (like the ones employing hands tracking) to Quest users. A spark of freedom in the walled garden by Facebook.
And now, SideQuest is offering even a better service: it is adding a web catalog of the best WebVR experiences that you can enjoy on your Quest. Why is this important? Because it helps again Quest users and developers: WebVR content doesn’t need approval to be run on Quest, but it has the problem that no one knows where to find it. It is scattered among various websites. SuperMedium already tried to create a catalog of best WebVR experiences, and now SideQuest is trying to do that as well, letting Quest users enjoy even more high-quality WebVR content. And since this kind of content will be discovered more easily, more developers will also start using frameworks like A-frame to make more web experiences for the Quest.
Good job, SideQuest guys and gals!
News worth a mention
Ubiquity6 adds new amazing features to DisplayLand
Ubiquity6 is another cool startup working on AR Cloud services and its product, DisplayLand, defined as “The Instagram of 3D content” is becoming always more interesting.
Until now, you could just scan the environment around you with your phone and share the 3D reconstruction with your friends. It was cool, but also a bit useless. But now you can:
- Download the mesh, so that you can use it for instance inside game engines or animation movies;
- Use a code-free visual editor to add content (e.g. 3D element) in the just scanned environment, with also some simple interactions. After that, all DisplayLand users could enjoy your content in augmented reality by just going to the place where you scanned the mesh. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
(Thanks Leywes for the tip)
More info (Mesh download)
More info (DisplayLand Studio editor)
Oculus improves hands-tracking integration on Oculus Quest
Oculus has just added hands-tracking on Quest, but it is already working on improving its implementation. This week, two important features have been announced in this sense:
- Hands-tracking gets automatically activated when the system doesn’t detect the controllers. This doesn’t only remove friction to hands-tracking usage (that before should be activated in the settings menu), but also makes life easier when you put your Quest on and you just want to do one quick thing and you don’t want to look for your controllers;
- Hands-tracking now works inside Oculus Browser. Anyway, WebVR experiences won’t have access to hands-tracking data, but the hands’ data will be converted to two emulated fake controllers. It is just a start, and I hope that we’ll have true hands presence in WebVR experiences soon.
More info (Oculus Quest hands tracking update)
More info (Oculus Quest hands in Oculus Browser)
Canon to launch its enterprise-oriented MD-20 AR headset
At the end of February, Canon is going to unveil the MD-20, its enterprise AR headset, dedicated to Japanese businesses. The fun stuff is discovering that its preceding model, the MD-10, was priced at around $82,000 (yes, you read it well), so we are all curious to discover if this successor will cost less than a house, or if it will be super-expensive like its predecessor. Most probably, given the new status of the AR market, the price will be forced to be lower (Varjo MR headset costs only $10,000 for instance). Let’s hope so.
Mike Alger has made a great video about design in XR
Mike Alger has made a video long a bit more than 15 minutes that introduces people to AR and VR and gives them some basic concepts on how to design properly an XR application. It is a FANTASTIC video, and the animations shown while he talks deserve lots of applauses. Give it a look, and send it to people that have just entered this ecosystem.
Do you want to know the best XR events of 2020?
Dejan Gajsek has written a very long and detailed post on all the most important AR and VR events for this year. If you’re looking for places where to do some networking for your XR company, this is the post to start from!
Sony closes its game studio in Manchester
According to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony is closing its Manchester-based game studio, that it opened in 2015 to produce ‘AAA’ PSVR exclusives. Fun stuff: this studio never actually launched a game. It is to be understood if the projects it was working on have been scrapped or they have been transferred to another studio internal to Sony.
Google Glass 2 is now available for direct purchase
If you are in an industrial environment where a smartglass can improve the productivity of your company, you may be interested in knowing that now Google Glass 2 is available for direct purchases for $999. This means that you may buy them directly, without passing through selected hardware resellers. Google states this decision was taken because the headset was selling very well among companies and developers. Finally, Google Glass has found its niche where it can have its little success, after the mess of the first Explorer edition.
Mobile AR ads get shared easily by people
SuperData reports that mobile AR ads get shared with friends by 61% of people that watch them, directly or via social media. Another interesting statistic is that 41% of AR users see ads. These are amazing statistics, considering that we all consider 2D banner just a nuisance that we can’t wait to close, while people SHARE AR ads with friends.
A good roundup of haptic devices
I’ve found on the web a long article about the haptics devices available, or on which there are experimentations. I think it is worth reading. I’ve also added to it a new experimental 5DOF device that has been revealed this week.
More info (Roundup of haptics devices)
More info (New 5DOF devices)
Some good roundups of creative immersive experiences
Last week there has been the Sundance Festival, that has showcased many high-quality immersive experiences. At the same time, this week, SXSW has also announced the lineup of immersive content that will be exhibited at this important event. So, if you are into artistic and creative experiences, this week there is a lot to read about those!
More info (Virtual cinema lineup at SXSW)
More info (Art program lineup at SXSW)
More info (The best at Sundance Festival)
More info (Cool experience to sensitivize people around privacy at Sundance Festival)
More info (The best 50 XR experiences of 2019 according to Jesse Damiani)
More info (The best XR experiences found at a Japanese arcade by Upload VR)
A good source of inspiration to create storytelling experiences
If you also are a creator of storytelling content, you may like these two links a lot. The first one is an article written by Daniel Martin Peixe, that shows you how he made “The Remedy”, a short experience all drawn and animated using Oculus Quill. He describes all the process he has followed to go from the idea to the final movie. Great post.
I’m also adding a bonus video that shows you that you can use Microsoft Maquette to create immersive movie storyboards in an easy way. I think it is an idea that is worth exploring.
More info (The Remedy)
More info (Immersive storyboards)
Oculus Quest hands tracking could be great for enterprise applications
My friend Chris Koomen at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has made an amazing sample to use Oculus + hands tracking for the training of pilots.
It shows how hands tracking can be used in enterprise applications, freeing the users from having to deal with controllers and giving them natural interactions with the virtual elements around them.
I know it is only a prototype, and I know that hands tracking is still not fully reliable, but I see a lot of potential for this for the future of training.
(PS In case you may need help in developing a XR training solution, don’t hesitate to contact me)
Some info on content
As always, let’s talk a bit about VR games:
- Ven is a new platformer, that reminds a bit Lucky’s Tale, that has been announced this week;
- Someone has created a very cool parkour game all in VRChat (not easy with the simple creation tools offered by the platform);
- Pistol Whip added a new free track: Akuma;
- UploadVR has finally written a complete review of Audica, but the score is just 3/5 stars;
- Interdimensional Matter is a new title for Oculus Quest using hands tracking that is a complete WTF.
More info (Ven)
More info (Parkour game)
More info (Akuma)
More info (Audica)
More info (Interdimensional Matter)
News from partners (and friends)
My friends at XR Europe have talked with six thought leaders in the AR/VR field and compiled a whitepaper that should help business owners in understanding these new technologies, and apply them the right way to their production processes so that to supercharge their revenues.
You can download it by using the link here below.
I’m going to have a talk about marketing in AR/VR together with Francesco La Trofa in my city of Turin, Italy for the Torino Digital Days! If you’re interested, you can join us! The event seems sold-out, but you can come anyway for visiting me 🙂
Some XR fun
VR hurts
This is what Google Daydream is now useful for (look at the answers)
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Join them by clicking the button here below!
(Header image by Lynx, taken from Upload VR)