This has been the week of the April’s Fool Day, but many brands have canceled their usual pranks because of the current sad situation. I have kept my tradition because I think that in this period we need more smiles than ever and I’ve written this funny post where I spread some fake news on VR porn. If you have missed it, you can still read it! I wish you to smile today… we need to keep our spirit high in these difficult times… and if you need to vent, you can reach out to me via e-mail to do that… I’ll try to give you some suggestions. Let’s all help each other!
Top news of the week
Niantic acquires 6d.ai
A piece of unexpected news hit the augmented reality world this week: Niantic has acquired 6d.ai, one of the most interesting startups in the AR Cloud landscape, for an undisclosed amount of money.
6d.ai was probably the most famous startup working on the so-called “AR Cloud” technologies: it offered various tools to let an application reconstruct the mesh of an environment using the data of the cameras of all the smartphones of the people that were using that application in that environment. This kind of technology is what is needed to shape the future we want of a completely persistent and shared mixed reality, to create which we need a digital replica of the mesh of the whole world.
Niantic will surely use 6d.ai inside his most popular titles (Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite) to improve the tracking of the augmented reality elements. But I think that there could be two much bigger implications:
- Pokemon Go is still the most popular mobile AR application, and it is used by lots of people that walk in the street… and if Niantic already embeds 6d.ai’s crowdmeshing algorithm inside it, this means that there could be millions of people scanning their cities and reporting the data to Niantic. All these data could let Niantic already create the digital replica of the world before other companies that lack these data for now (e.g. Facebook), and so act as a provider of AR Cloud data for other companies. (This though has been inspired by Charlie Fink);
- Niantic is going to create an XR headset together with Qualcomm. This has been said during the reveal of the Snapdragon XR2 platform. 6d.ai algorithms could be fundamental to let this company offer a headset with stable tracking and environment reconstruction features. What if Niantic becomes a new surprising player in the XR glasses landscape?
The bad news in all of this is that all developers using 6d.ai tools will have to scratch their applications. All developer tools will be winded down in 30 days, so all 6d.ai technology won’t be available for the public anymore. This is an enormous pity… and if you had a similar situation with Metaio, well, you know the pain.
In the meantime, compliments to Matt Miesniks and all his team 🙂
Other relevant news
Facebook signs a deal with Plessey
If Niantic buys a tracking company, Facebook signs a precious deal to have great displays in its upcoming XR glasses. It has now an agreement with Plessey, a company working on MicroLED displays, and that was previously one of the acquisition goals of the competitor Apple.
As David Heaney explains well in the article linked here below, MicroLED are probably the future of XR displays, since they are better both than current OLED and LED technologies: they can be very tiny, very bright, self-emissive and with a long timespan. The holy grail for XR.
But the technology is not ready yet, and there are some key manufacturers taking it forward. One of them is Plessey, that has already been able in 2019 to create a little screen that is 0.7″ diagonal, has a resolution of 1920×1080 and is capable of hundreds of thousands or even millions of nits.
This display was only monochrome, though. Plessey until now has been able to create monochrome red, green and blue screens, and a full RGB one is on its 2020’s roadmap.
Facebook will have the right to use all the displays that Plessey will create, and this can give it a big boost if compared to its competitors. And if you are curious about why it has not performed an acquisition, the company says because with a deal the operations are faster, and the collaboration can already begin.
Apple strikes deal for indoor maps and buys NextVR
This has been a great week for competition in the AR space since also Apple has performed some interesting moves. First of all, it has struck a deal with Dent Reality, a company working on AR indoor navigation. Thanks to this deal, Dent Reality will take part in the Apple Indoor Maps program (as the only participant, for now), providing tools to let companies have AR indoor navigation based on ARKit and Apple Maps. What this basically means is that Apple will be able to provide indoor navigation to its mobile users, and its future AR glasses users. Another piece added to its puzzle for having a useful augmented reality glass in the future.
What is most surprising is the rumor about a possible acquisition of NextVR for $100M. What here is not clear is both the acquisition and the price. NextVR is a virtual reality company, and Apple has always declared it was not interested in virtual reality. Also, the price seems a bit too much, so there must be something we don’t know about this acquisition. Maybe NextVR has some patents for video streaming that Apple wants to use in its upcoming XR visor? I guess we’ll only discover that in some years…
More info (Apple partners with Dent Reality)
More info (Apple potentially acquires NextVR)
There are around 1.3M PC VR headsets on Steam
Valve has updated the way it detects the VR hardware connected to a PC, and so it is now able to offer a more reliable picture of the PC VR landscape in its usual monthly hardware survey.
From the new data, it is possible to detect some interesting data, like for instance:
- Since 1.29% of people on Steam have a VR headset, and we know the total Steam population, we can estimate that every month 1.3M people use a PC VR headset on Steam. Since most people with a PC VR headset use both Steam and Oculus Store, we can expect this to be a reliable estimate of PC VR people around. This number is not that bad, but honestly, after 4 years of consumer PS VR, I was hoping for something more. Valve, instead, says that these were the numbers that it was expecting following the curves of adoption of other technologies. They claim that who was hoping for a faster adoption was wrong;
- The Oculus Quest+Link makes up only around 3% of the Steam population. Here again, I was expecting more, giving the very high popularity of the Oculus Quest. Probably, people that have a Quest prefer using it as a standalone headset and not as a tethered one;
- Pimax is a very niche product, and there are fewer people using a Pimax than a PSVR on Steam (through Trinus and other hacks);
- There is still a little portion of people using a DK1 or DK2. My thoughts and prayers for them.
Data about Half-Life: Alyx is not included in this survey yet, but looking at its sales numbers, it doesn’t seem that this game has featured a mainstream explosion of VR at the moment. As I always say, we need a VR Killer ecosystem, not a VR Killer app. And Alyx is a fantastic addition to our ecosystem.
More info (Valve revamps its hardware survey)
More info (March 2020 hardware survey)
More info (Valve talks VR adoption)
More info (Half-Life: Alyx sales numbers)
HTC adds better offerings for its Cosmos headset
The HTC Vive Cosmos has not had a very successful reception, and now HTC is working to offer some interesting bundles to boost its sales. This week there have been two interesting news coming:
- The Vive Cosmos Elite can now be bought alone, without base stations and controllers, for $549. This can be an interesting upgrade option for people already having the original Vive. It is $50 more than the Index, which is a better headset, but the Cosmos Elite is in stock and not sold out. Furthermore, it has also a clear business licensing. The good news is that HTC has listened to the community on this;
- To celebrate the anniversary of the Cosmos, HTC has just announced a bundle to have a Cosmos + Wireless Adapter for $799. This is probably the best deal ever for the Cosmos since the wireless adapter has been the most appreciated feature of the Vive Pro. $799 with wireless included means that finally the Cosmos can offer something valuable for that price, that can distinguish it from the competition. Probably this could have been the right offering since the beginning. The pity is that this is a limited deal until April, 8th and it is available only in the US (as a European, I’m rolling my eyes).
More info (Vive Cosmos Elite sold separately)
More info (Vive Cosmos Wireless)
Oculus sells refurbished Rifts for $300
To cope wits its limited stocks of the Rift S, Oculus has decided to sell refurbished Rift CV1 headsets for $300. The bundle includes a headset, two controllers and two tracking cameras.
In my opinion, this is a very good idea, considering that the Rift CV1 is still a quite satisfying headset, and in my tests, I showed that it is a reliable device to play Half Life Alyx. This way, Oculus is offering a cheap way to enter the market for people that don’t have enough money for VR and that want a device now, without waiting for the Rift S to get back in stock.
Someone argues that probably the price should be a bit lower (e.g. $250), but I guess that Facebook has its reasons to keep it at $300.
The XR landscape is adapting to coronavirus
I have read some interesting news that shows how the XR landscape is adapting to the lockdown due to Coronavirus:
- Sony has delayed its much-awaited game IronMan VR;
- Fundamental VR, that offers training for surgeons and other doctors through VR headsets and special haptics hardware, has just developed a version of its application that can run just on a Quest. This way, medical students can use it even at home;
- Niantic is updating Pokemon Go and its other games so that they can be played at home or in the surroundings of the home (usually the governments allow for a walk in the surroundings of own home during the lockdown);
- Oxford Medical Simulations is offering free medical online training in VR for doctors and nurses that have to join hospitals to help fight the COVID-19 pandemics;
- ESPN, since there are no sport matches to broadcast anymore, will try showcasing e-sports, like people playing NBA2K, Madden, and similar sport games on PC. It will be interesting to see the reception of the audience;
- Tribeca has signed a deal with Oculus and will showcase the 360 movies that should have taken part in it inside Oculus applications on Quest and Rift. This is a piece of good news, because this means we will be able to watch high-quality VR movies from home during the Quarantine.
More info (Iron Man VR delayed)
More info (FundamentalVR on Quest)
More info (Niantic updating its games for indoor usage)
More info (OMS offering free VR training)
More info (E-sports on ESPN)
More info (Tribeca festival running on Oculus hardware)
News worth a mention
Etee and VR Ears are going to be interesting VR Kickstarter campaigns
This week, we had news about two interesting Kickstarter campaigns about upcoming VR accessories:
- TG0 has already started the crowdfunding campaign for the Etee controllers, that are something like a lightweight version of the Valve Knuckles, but without buttons. I have a devkit here and will review them in a few days, so stay tuned!
- Rebuff Reality, the same company behind the great VR Power powerbank for Oculus Quest, is going to launch soon VR Ears, some headphones offering off-the-ear headphones like the ones of the Valve Index to all the headsets on the market.
More info (TG0’s Etee controllers launched)
More info (TG0’s Etee controllers Kickstarter campaign — affiliate link)
More info (VR Ears announced)
People are already modding Half-Life: Alyx
The hype for Half-Life: Alyx goes on, and people are doing whatever things inside the game: juggling with items, playing domino, killing enemies in a weird way, finding bugs, etc… The community is really having fun with it.
Valve has not released an SDK yet (and has not announced any planning for it), but there are already modding tools available, and people have already started creating various custom maps and mods for this game. They are pretty rough, but show the potential of modding to give longevity to this linear game. The most intriguing experiment regards a developer that has managed to implement co-op for two players inside Alyx, but at the moment it doesn’t work in VR.
Regarding a possible non-VR porting, for sure the community is working on it, but Valve warns that it may suck. The game is carefully studied for VR, and for instance the initial part of the game is all a big tutorial on how to use VR interactions inside the game. With mouse and keyboard, all of this would be very easy and boring… probably the modder should re-balance the whole game.
More info (A mod for Alyx)
More info (Developer working on HLA co-op feature)
More info (HLA initial bug giving you infinite pistol ammo)
More info (Valve explaining why the game can’t work on 2D desktop)
More info (A guy juggling inside Half-Life: Alyx)
Quest was back in stock, but scalpers bought them all
The Oculus Quest was back in stock, but the available devices went sold out in less than 6 minutes. This is both due to the high demand, and also because some people are buying bulk batches of this headset to resell them at a higher price on eBay. This problem of scalpers is something that Oculus should address soon, because it is ruining the market.
In the meanwhile, Oculus has now substituted the “Out of stock” buttons with a “Notify me” one, so people will immediately now when they can buy the headset again.
More info (Over 1000 Quests available on eBay)
More info (Oculus Quest immediately sold out)
More info (Oculus Quest “Notify me” button)
Yur launches virtual fitness watch
Fitness smart bands are very popular in the real world, so why can’t we have them in VR? This should have been what YUR, the startup working on calories counting for VR, must have thought when it has designed the YUR fitness watch. Games implementing this feature (like Synth Riders) will show a smartwatch on your wrist, telling you how many calories you’ve burnt while playing the game, plus other stats. Very handy if you love VR fitness
Facebook stops Gear VR updates and videos
Oculus puts another nail in the coffin of Gear VR. From this week, the headset will never get new software updates, and Oculus Video and Oculus 360 Photos won’t be available for download anymore. And even if you already have them, you won’t be able to watch bought movies anymore.
RIP Gear VR.
Schell Games’s CEO believes in Quest, but not in cloud streaming
In a very detailed interview, Schell Games’s CEO Jess Schell has told his opinion on many VR-related topics. The interview is worth reading: he says how he thinks that standalone headsets like Quest will be the first one reaching the critical mass of 10M users for VR. 10M is the minimum number of users to have a platform for which multiplayer is worth implementing, for instance.
He also says that he doesn’t believe much in VR cloud streaming, because it may reduce the cost of VR hardware, but it may raise the cost for software and infrastructure.
Some news on content
Some news on VR content from this week:
- Lies Beneath has been released. Reviewers have praised its fantastic comic-like graphical style, but the game seems a bit too linear;
- Crisis VRigade 2 has been teased, and it has a much better graphics if compared to the first title;
- A-tech Cybernetic exits Early Access, but it seems a dated game wrt its competition;
- Final Assault arrives on PSVR and looks like a great game;
- Asgard’s Wrath is discounted at only $35 on Oculus Store!
- Oh Shape adds additional levels and a new challenge. For every person completing this challenge, the devs will give $1 to charity. An amazing iniative;
- After three years of hard work by its devs, Virtual Battlegrounds is coming on April, 8th, and it looks like a very interesting indie game;
- An indie-dev has teased its VR woodworking game, and it seems very polished and relaxing.
More info (Lies Beneath review — Upload VR)
More info (Lies Beneath review — Road To VR)
More info (Crisis VRigade 2 trailer)
More info (A-Tech Cybernetic)
More info (Final Assault on PSVR)
More info (Asgard’s Wrath discounted)
More info (OhShape update)
More info (Virtual Battlegrounds)
More info (VR Woodworking game)
News from partners (and friends)
In these tough times of the pandemics, we should all help each other. That’s why we of New Technology Walkers, with the support of HTC Vive, have decided to discount our mixed reality fitness game HitMotion: Reloaded by -50% on Viveport M. The game is also completely free if you have a subscription to Viveport Infinity.
We are now all forced to stay at home, without the possibility of going out for a walk or to the gym. But physical activity is important, and a game like ours can help many people stay fit while having fun at home. And thanks to the fact that our game is in Mixed Reality, it is also completely safe to be played, and you don’t risk punching the people around you. Our game can be of help to everyone, so our first initiative for this month is discounting it by a lot, following the example of other indie studios, hoping to encourage more people to exercise at home with VR. United we can win!
VRrOOm, together with us of NTW, MID Studio, Virtual Worlds Festival, and Stereopsia, with the support of VRChat, has just launched the Break Down These Walls! Virtual Festival.
It is a beautifully crafted VRChat world where you can:
- Hang out with people and chill;
- Have a party within a small virtual discotheque, with a different party music every day;
- Watch every day a different high-quality 360 movie taken from the most famous storytelling festivals of the world (Stereopsia, Venice Film Festival, Cannes, etc…).
This is our way to help you spending your time in quarantine both having fun and watching cultural and artistic content in virtual reality! Look for the world called “VRrOOm Arts, Films and Fun” on VRChat, and enjoy your movies!
On Wednesday, April 8 at 8AM PT / 11AM ET / 4PM BST, my friends at XR Intelligence and XR Bootcamp are running a webinar with experts from across industry to provide a landscape of the XR job market and provide listeners with upskilling or tech-hiring based recommendations on building XR teams internally. Be sure to check this out!
Some XR fun
The Grabbity Gloves are real!
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(Header image by 6d.ai)