The XR Week Peek (2020.05.11): new Quest is in the works, Magic Leap may pivot to healthcare, and more!
Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers that are reading this post, and also to all the mothers of whoever is reading this post! Mothers and grandmothers are the best, and they care about us during the good and the hard times… their love is infinite. I send a big hug to everyone of them that I can reach with my words. A big and warm hug to all of them ❤
And while we celebrate our mommies, let’s read some cool AR/VR news!
Top news of the week
Facebook is working on a new version of the Oculus Quest
According to a report by Bloomberg, Oculus is working on a new Oculus Quest model, and it has already done prototypes that are lighter and more powerful than the current device. Per se, this is not a surprising news (all companies are working on next iterations of their devices), but what is surprising is the timing that the report suggests: a new Oculus Quest should have been announced at the end of 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it will come in 2021.
Bloomberg, that is usually very reliable, highlights that Oculus is working on different designs, some of which are 10% to 15% smaller than the current Quest. Also, some tweaks to improve the comfort of the headset are in the works. Other new design solutions could help in reducing the price: for instance, the expensive fabric that makes the Quest so elegant could be substituted by plastic.
It is rumored that Oculus is experimenting 120Hz displays, but will probably cap the new Quest at 90 to not burn too much the battery. Mechanical IPD is confirmed. Also, new more ergonomic controllers, that solve the flaws of the current design, will be part of the package. These controllers should be compatible with the current Quest.
If the rumor is true, probably this is the Del Mar headset, and the Jedi controllers may be like the Oculus Touch but more comfortable and maybe with full finger tracking.
Many people have started commenting on this piece of news underlining what they would like from this new Quest: better display, eye tracking, Snapdragon XR2 or 865, etc… I think that the features that Oculus wants to embed depend on the purpose of this device. If this new Quest is like a Quest Pro, that is an expensive version of Quest (maybe priced at $7–800) targeted at prosumers, it can feature Snapdragon 855 or 865, OLED display that has at least double the resolution of current one plus other features (maybe front cameras for proper AR? Or eye tracking?). If instead, it is a Quest S, that is just a refresh of the current Quest, probably it will be a Snapdragon 845 with a slight increase in resolution and the price around $4–500.
What puzzles me more is the timing suggested by the report: the Quest is selling very well and has almost no competitor… so why Facebook should have launched a new headset in 2020? For the Osborne Effect, this would mean killing the sales of the current device. Even just announcing a new Quest at OC7 would make all people wanting to buy a Quest to not buy it and wait for the upcoming new one… unless the new Quest is in a different league of pricing (because it is for prosumers), or the current Quest will be discounted at $249. In this case, the Quest could become the new Go. In my opinion, 2021 is a better year to talk about a new Quest.
I am very excited by this news, but at the same time, I’m very confused. I hope that a future rumor clarifies a bit more what is Facebook’s strategy.
(Thanks Alessio Palumbo for the tip!)
More info (Report by Bloomberg)
More info (UploadVR’s article on the news)
Other relevant news
Magic Leap looks for a $100-million deal to save itself
Some reports by Business Insider and The Information talk about the current situation of Magic Leap, that seems always more complicated.
According to these reports, the company planned to release in 2021 the Magic Leap 2, a device that should feature incremental improvement over the Magic Leap One, like a bigger FOV, a lighter design, and better battery management. In 2023, there should have been the launch of the Magic Leap 3, which instead should have been closer to the big vision of the company and its CEO Rony Abovitz… so maybe fully standalone and with a photonic retina display (whatever this should mean).
Anyway, the high burn rate of the company (due to terrible management), plus the coronavirus crisis have forced the company to layoff more than 1,000 people, so the current plan is uncertain. Many people that have been fired worked in the creation of content, relations with developers, and marketing. The internal situation is now pretty confused. Even more, the company has warned the other employees that if it can’t secure a new funding by June, new layoffs will happen.
The company switched to an enterprise model, but apart from a rebranding and an assistance service it is not clear what it actually means, especially if compared with the enormous enterprise offering that Microsoft is giving with HoloLens (Azure services, integration with Teams, etc…). In the search of money, it seems that Rony Abovitz may have found someone in the healthcare sector that may become a new investor. The Magic Leap One could so become a headset completely devoted to healthcare (focusing on a niche could be the only way to save it, IMHO). The acquirer could be Indiana company Zimmer Biomet, which could offer a $100M investment in the startup. $100M is a lot of money, but only if Magic Leap fires other people, and scale back to being a startup ultra-focused on only one use-case. Otherwise, with current burn-rate, they’re enough for maybe just 3 months of life.
In my opinion, Abovitz has to choose either to reduce his ambitions and see Magic Leap survive or to keep his ambitions high and see the company go bankrupt. Red pill or blue pill, he chooses.
More info (Magic Leap trying to raise $100M)
More info (Magic Leap timing for the future)
Investments in AR/VR companies are at 2013 level
Bad news for the VR ecosystem come from DigiCapital: the investments in AR/VR companies for the first quarter of 2020 are the lowest in these years and are back to the level of 2013. 2013 was the year before the hype created by the acquisition of Oculus by Facebook, so it was not a great year for investments in XR.
You may wonder why: sales of VR headsets are going well like never before, and we have the best games ever (like Half-Life: Alyx). Well, it is not a problem of virtual reality, but of the whole tech sector, that has seen its investments decreasing a lot in 2020. The reason is the coronavirus crisis, that could lead to a future recession (or even depression). In these unstable times, every company is a big risk, and so investments are limited.
Remember that if there will be a real worldwide depression, people and companies will have less money, and so will save on non-necessary things, and so the purchases of VR headsets will be less. SuperData has forecasted an XR market in 2020 that will be similar to the one of 2019, with no actual growth. We, especially we entrepreneurs, must be very careful in this period.
It will be a complicated year but united we will win.
The future of world scanning has just begun
In his weekly roundup, Charlie Fink has reported many piece of news about environmental scanning, and I think he’s on point. The more we go on, the more we have tools to scan our environments, and in the future, scanning real worlds and entering their digitized copies (maybe modified) will be normal like sending a Whatsapp message. Rear depth cameras of smartphones and tablets will trigger this revolution.
The most important news in this sense is that Matterport now lets you scan your house by just using an iPhone. If you don’t know Matterport, I just tell you that it is an excellence in environmental scanning: using some expensive dedicated cameras, it is able to reconstruct the 3D mesh of a house (or an office), so that you can create an online virtual tour of it. The process is long and expensive, but if you can afford it, the quality is very high. Apart from creating the model, the company uses a proprietary AI engine (Cortex) to label automatically the objects and the rooms that have been scanned.
Now, imagine that all of this can now be done by you, by just using your iPhone. You have a house to sell, you just scan it with your phone, and you obtain a high-quality 3D tour, all correctly labeled, that everyone can see by just navigating to your website. Do you understand how this can be disruptive for the real estate sector?
The other news is about REscan. This startup just exited from stealth mode, is like Google Maps but for the interior of shopping centers, offices, and other closed environments. Using a person equipped with a special helmet and special AR glasses, the company can scan many environments and then let you navigate them at home in streaming using your phone (in the same way you use Google StreetView). It can be very important for indoor navigation, or to let you explore a shopping center before going there.
3D environment scans are in 2020 what pictures were in 2010.
More info (Matterport now works with iPhone)
More info (REscan)
News worth a mention
Star Wars Vader Immortal is coming to PSVR this summer
The title said it all: the trilogy of Vader Immortal is coming to PSVR, and the release should happen around this summer.
Why am I giving all this relevance to this piece of news? Well, because it MAY be the sign of something bigger happening. Various months ago, Jason Rubin told the press that he was investigating an exchange of exclusive titles with Sony: his purpose was the one of bringing some of the best PSVR titles, like Resident Evil 7, to the Oculus Store. We heard nothing on the topic after that, but now, Vader Immortal, that is an Oculus exclusive title, is coming to PSVR.
The possibilities are two: either ILMxLAB and Oculus had a timed exclusive agreement, and so now the studio is looking for other appealing markets, or the agreement between Sony and Facebook has been signed and the two companies are already exchanging exclusive games. If it is the latter case, we will probably see some PSVR gem like Blood and Truth, Astrobot or RE7 coming to the Oculus Store! I really can’t wait…
StarVR One is now available for purchase at $3200
After having come back from the world of the undead, the StarVR One is now finally available for purchase. Sebastian Ang of MRTV has revealed that its price is $3200, exactly what it should have been 3 years ago. This is quite absurd, considering that manufacturing costs have lowered in 3 years, and that the headset is not special by any means in the current landscape. To complete the absurdity of the news, only companies can buy it: so if you are a prosumer and you want to invest $3200 for it, you can not. This must be an out-of-season April’s fool joke.
An Italian airport adopts AR helmet to screen passengers
I can proudly say that we Italian have been the first in Europe to adopt a thermal scanning helmet in an Airport. At the airport of Rome Fiumicino (the biggest in Italy), now there is a person going around with a big helmet able to detect even at a long distance the temperature of many people together so that to detect which ones may have a coronavirus infection. It is better than the lightweight smart glasses solution because it has a 2x detection range.
NASA can work 90% faster thanks to AR
It’s not a secret that NASA is one of Microsoft’s partners and that it uses HoloLens in many of its operations. In a recent blog post, the space Agency details how Lockheed Martin, the lead contractor for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, uses the AR glasses to show workers how they must assemble the pieces of the ship. And the results are incredible, according to what the company says: “Across four sites, we use augmented reality to complete spacecraft manufacturing activities in 90% less time than with traditional methods. For example, an activity that normally takes 8 hours could be completed in 45 minutes”.
A new research confirms that vibrations reduce motion sickness
Do you remember when some years ago a device called Otolith promised to remove the motion sickness thanks to a vibrating band on your head? Well, a new research project seems to have confirmed that vibrations on your head help in dealing with virtual sickness. WalkingVibe, a project carried on by 3 Universities, lets you walk in VR while providing you vibrations synchronized with your steps. The trials show that the sickness is reduced and so the technology is promising.
Unreal Engine 4.25 adds many XR features
UE4 Developers rejoice! In its latest 4.25 update, Unreal Engine has added many features that may be useful in crafting XR experiences. There have been improvements in Magic Leap support, it has been added support for Azure Spatial Anchors and finally, HoloLens 2 support is production-ready! Time to create your app…
How an LBVR venue can prepare for the reopening
LBVR expert Kevin Williams has written a post giving pieces of advice to LBVR venues that prepare to reopen after the lockdown. The same Williams has published on Facebook various pictures of Asian arcades that have reopened and that are seeing customers flowing again… this is a good sign that gives us hope for the future.
CTRL+C in the real world, CTRL+V in the virtual one
Three interesting experiments mixing the real and the virtual world have caught my attention this week:
- Google Lens now lets you frame with your phone some text you’ve written in a piece of paper, decode it and then paste it automatically inside Google Docs on your PC. It works like black magic;
- A research project lets you frame an object in real life with your phone and then paste it automatically inside Adobe Photoshop on your PC. I thought it was a concept, but actually, it is a POC whose code is opensource on GitHub!
- Microsoft presents VROOM, a solution that mixes AR and robotics to let you have a telepresence robot with your AR avatar during meetings. I think it is quite gimmicky (why doing all this mess when it is possible to have a meeting all together in VR?), but it is anyway interesting to read about.
More info (Google Lens)
More info (AR copy to Photoshop)
More info (VROOM)
Telepath is a new movement mechanic for VR
Aldin, the development studio behind Waltz of the Wizard, has created for the game a new locomotion mechanics called Telepath. It works by letting you draw a path on the floor that then the system makes your character follow at constant speed. This way it is more immersive and realistic than teleporting, and less nauseating than smooth movement. Furthermore, it has the advantage that it can work with Quest’s hand tracking.
I think it is an original approach, and it can work in slow and relaxing experiences. I don’t see it a good fit for fast-paced action games: when a headcrab is jumping on your head and you’re shitting your pants, it’s hard to take the time to draw paths on the floor…
Enjoy Felix&Paul videos on Quest
Felix&Paul is one of the best VR storytelling studios on Earth, and now they’re letting some of their best experiences available for the Oculus Quest. Check them out.
The Upload VR Showcase is coming on June, 8th
On June, 8th, stay tuned on Upload VR, because the Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition is coming. That day, we will have a big amount of news about VR games, and considering that this year the event is made in partnership with IGN, it is going to be pretty big.
Some news on content
- Medal Of Honor: Above and Beyond is still on track for a 2020 release
- The Walking Dead: Saint and Sinners has been launched on PSVR. Quest launch is expected for Q4 2020. The studio has also teased that new content for this game is coming
- Three of the best VR fitness experiences (Box VR, Synth Riders and Until You Fall) have partnered to offer a bundle at a discounted price to help you stay fit during this quarantine
- Play Doom in VR on the Quest with a new mod
- Jamie Feltham of Upload VR has reviewed SuperNatural and confirmed that it is a very good fitness game, but its $20/month price is too much if compared to what you can find on the market
- Pixel Ripped: 1995 is coming to PSVR next week
- GORN is coming to PSVR in two weeks
More info (Medal Of Honor: Above and Beyond)
More info (The Walking Dead on PSVR)
More info (The Walking Dead’s DLCs)
More info (VR Fitness Bundle)
More info (Doom VR)
More info (SuperNatural)
More info (Pixel Ripped: 1995)
More info (GORN)
News from partners (and friends)
My friend Alex Bowles is organizing some cocktail parties inside Museum of Other Realities! You can meet with new people, and enjoy VR art all by staying at home. The get togethers will occur from 5:00–6:30 pm PST on Fridays now through 5/29.
Learn more about Museum Of Other Realities
Some XR fun
A new journalist has declared that VR is dead, and this has created some perplexities in the XR ecosystem
There are different ecosystem where to host online classes…
Using VR on a laptop is cool for portability. But, ehm…
A funny parody of VR and its 3D interfaces
Y U no donate?
It’s hard to survive in the XR ecosystem, and donations help me in keeping this blog up by paying all the expenses and compensating me for my hard work. If you like what I do, consider donating, even just $1, to keep The Ghost Howls alive.
The family of my supporters is composed by these amazing people, that I want to thank every week:
- DeoVR
- Michael Bruce
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- John Fredericks
- Immersive.international
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Niels Bogerd
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Matias Nassi
Support this magazine by clicking the button here below:
(Header picture with the game designer Massimiliano Ariani)
Disclaimer: this blog contains advertisement and affiliate links to sustain itself. If you click on an affiliate link, I'll be very happy because I'll earn a small commission on your purchase. You can find my boring full disclosure here.
