The XR Week Peek (2020.08.24): Facebook login gets imposed on Quest and the community riots, and much more!

This week in XR has been incredibly calm and nothing important has happened, apart from little things like the riot of the entire XR community against Facebook 🙂
 
Jokes apart, I’m working to organize my blog’s 4th birthday party on VRChat… you asked for it, and you will have it!

Top news of the week

Oculus devices will require a Facebook login

The enormous piece of news of the week is that Facebook has communicated that from October, 20th, all people that want to use an Oculus device for personal use will have to use their personal Facebook account to log in. Who has already an Oculus account, can decide to merge it with his/her personal Facebook account.
 
Who doesn’t want to do that can still use his/her Oculus account to log in until 2023, but he/she won’t be able to use all the social functionalities of the device (like Venues, Horizon, etc…). After 2023, the devices won’t be guaranteed to work with an Oculus login.
 
Notice that all of this holds only for Quest and other already existing devices: new devices (like the upcoming new Quest) will require a mandatory Facebook account.
 
Regarding developers, we must decide if using a Facebook account to have full control of the Quest device, or a Test User account that lets us develop and test our applications but without the possibility of using the headset also as a consumer (a Test User account can’t buy content on the store and can’t make friends, for instance).
 
Regarding businesses, the current rules of the Oculus For Business program, already highly tied with Facebook Workplace, hold.
 
Sideloading will still be permitted in all cases because it is an Android feature.
 
So far for the announcement by Facebook. You can imagine that after it has been released through two official blog posts, an enormous backlash from the community started to happen. On Reddit, the news has had an insane amount of upvotes (more than 10K) with all negative comments. The same on Twitter. A comment from HTC, just saying that it was up to compete with Oculus has had on Twitter something like 12K likes, and I think that HTC’s social media manager had never seen that number in his whole life.
 
The entire community is rioting, and many important people in the industry have also poured gasoline on the fire. Palmer Luckey has said that Facebook promised him that this was never going to happen (How naive was him in believing them). BigScreen’s CEO Darshan Shankar has accused Facebook of unfair competition: they tried to hire him some years ago saying him “we’re going after your same business and in a few years we will crush you” and now they are actually hurting his business; all the main tech magazine (Road To VR, Ars Technica, Rock Paper Shotgun, even Upload VR that usually is very enthusiastic about Oculus products) published editorials against this decision, envisioning a future where through eye-tracking data and BCI we will all be controlled by Facebook, that will subtly influence all our decisions.
 
A big wave of negative comments, memes, threatens of class actions, people canceling their orders of Oculus headsets, people explaining why this is so bad for us all has started. The community is literally on fire. And I’m completely on its side: I don’t want to mix my personal life with my professional VR life, so I don’t want to unify the two accounts of Facebook and Oculus. And I’m also worried about using a Facebook account for everything XR related, because Facebook has a long history of obscure practices with the data of its users, apart from the standard “personalized ads” business.
 
On the other side, I’m pretty skeptical anything substantial will change.
 
First of all, I honestly think that very little will change privacy-wise. Facebook already had full control of my Oculus and Facebook accounts, so it had already my XR data. And I remember clearly a post from some years ago where some professional hackers explained that these big corporates have so much data that if they wished, they could even identify you no matter your fake accounts or your in-private browsing. Facebook has a very powerful AI department, and I guess that mixing names, IPs, activity, and such they could link every Oculus account to every Facebook account if they wished. That’s why Avi Bar-Zeev in a tweet on this topic talked about “the illusion of control” of our data: actually, Facebook already had it all. They’re just making things easier for them unifying all the backend, the privacy policy, and such. Probably their AI people were too lazy to unify the accounts themselves.
 
Then, in all these years of me using Facebook, I have seen so many scandals, like data breaches, like Cambridge Analytica, like the manipulation of political elections, like Zuckerberg unveiling he is a lizard, etc… I have seen so many “boycott Facebook” hashtags, but in the end, very little has changed. My friends are all still there. People are too used to using the platform, that in the end, they need it to communicate with friends and family and so they keep using it.
 
And in the end, you should consider that while in the PC VR segment there is still competition (for instance in the Valve Index and the upcoming Reverb G2), in the standalone market there is none. What are you going to buy if you don’t want to use the Quest? What other devices are so cheap, have the best games, a continuous stream of updates? There is no competitor in the consumer market at the moment. I remember many people laughing at me when we of New Technology Walkers released a fitness game for the Vive Focus Plus (HitMotion: Reloaded) because they said it was a big and overpriced headset. I guess they are not laughing anymore since they now realized that the price of the Quest is so low because you are the product, you’re obtaining a big discount by giving your data to Facebook.
 
Maybe 10% of people will really avoid Oculus, but most VR people will stay and will adapt to the new rules. We developers can’t ignore such a profitable and popular platform. The users can’t spend double of the money for another headset, and can’t avoid playing games like Beat Saber that for sure will be exclusive to Facebook on the standalone market (otherwise why Zuck would have bought Beat Games?). Someone invokes saviors like Google and Amazon, but even if they managed to succeed, they are other data-harvesting companies, so in any case, we are f**ked.
 
After the turmoil, things will settle, Facebook will announce a new amazing Quest, all people on the web will only talk about it, and then we’ll go on using our Facebook account in VR.
 
Zuckerberg wrote in a letter some years ago that he wants full control of the XR platform. Well, now he has amazing hardware, a very good operating system, a profitable store, some of the best XR games, full control of the user accounts. I think his world domination plans are going as expected.

More info (Official blog post on the new login policy)
More info (News on Road To VR)
More info (News on Upload VR)
More info (My explanation on how things will change for developers)
More info (Facebook promised this was never going to happen)
More info (Scary editorial on Upload VR)
More info (Robert Scoble brillantly explains Facebook’s strategy)
More info (Ars Technica’s editorial on the matter)
More info (A redditor explaining why this thing is so bad)
More info (Reddit post with hundreds of negative comments)
More info (BigScreen’s CEO talking about unfair competition)
More info (HTC Vive getting big likes again)

Other relevant news

Apple threatens future support in Unreal Engine

According to an evidence presented by Epic Games, Apple has not only removed Fortnite from the Apple Store, but it has also revoked the status of developer to Epic Games. This is what is written, according to Epic, in a communication from Apple:
 
You will also lose access to the following programs, technologies, and capabilities:
 — All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools
 — Pre-release versions of iOS, iPad OS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS
 — Pre-release versions of beta tools such as Reality Composer, Create ML, Apple Configurator, etc…
 — Engineering efforts to improve hardware and software performance of Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS hardware; optimize Unreal Engine on the Mac for creative workflows, virtual sets and their CI/Build Systems; and adoption and support of ARKit features and future VR features into Unreal Engine by their XR team
 
Basically, this means that Epic won’t be able to optimize Unreal Engine for all Apple’s platform, and this is an enormous damage for its developers. That’s why even Microsoft took Epic’s stances: Microsoft uses UE4 to develop some products also for Apple devices, and this decision hurts also its business.
 
What is interesting for us is the last line “adoption and support of ARKit features and future VR features into Unreal Engine by their XR team”. Notice that Apple talks about “future VR features” that it is going to implement. Considering that game engines know about hardware products far before their official release, I found reliable that Apple was talking with them about future features. And the mention of VR is the first confirmation we have about Apple working on XR, and on Apple also working on VR and not only AR (we all know that the two technologies will merge in the end). This is huge.
 
There is a lot at stakes, because if these two companies won’t settle (and I think that they are just firing big shots before finding an agreement), Unreal Engine developers won’t be able to develop properly for Apple XR devices, and they will have all to migrate to Unity. Let’s see what will happen… and in the meantime let’s eat lots of popcorns.

More info (Apple threatens Epic)
More info (Microsoft files an official support for Epic)

China is launching real name identification in games

While the community protests against Facebook in the West, it seems that in China the government is working for a real name policy in gaming. Starting in September, if players want to play an online game, they will have to login by declaring their real names. Some companies like Tencent and NetEase, that control the majority of the gaming market, have already worked on dedicated login systems.
 
I love the creativity of Chinese people: they have already started working on all kinds of possible workarounds: fake accounts, children that use the accounts of their family members, shops that rent phones already logged in, etc… This is fun, but the Chinese government and all its controlled companies have already prepared the countermeasure: face recognition. To play a few games you will have to login by scanning your face.
 
The CCP says that it is doing that to protect children. Every person less than 18 years old will only be able to play 90 minutes during the weekdays and 3 hours during weekends and holidays. There are many cases of addiction to videogames and the Chinese government, whose official image is one of a father that wants to avoid the bad behavior of its children, wants to solve this problem at the root.
 
Actually, I think that apart from the willingness to help potentially addicts, the Chinese government wants also to have tighter control on online games and the communication happening there, since some months ago we had some cases where people created “Free Hong Kong” content on Animal Crossing, for instance. A real name policy would help to avoid these cases for the future.
 
We have still to see if this is going to actually be implemented. If it will, I hope that since the Chinese government has a lot of data of its citizens, in the future it won’t just put a hard time limit, but it will invent some kind of algorithm that detects if the player is playing as an addicted one, or it is just someone with healthy long playing sessions. That would be actually helpful.

More info (News on the new policy)
More info (Official communication in state media)

Oculus continues improving the Quest ecosystem

If Oculus is so bullish with the Quest is because it has a great ecosystem, that is improving always more.
 
Facebook has just signed a deal with the NBA to become its official VR marketing partner. This means that the Oculus logo will be visible in all NBA communication, giving great awareness to the VR platform and that selected NBA matches will be visible inside Oculus Venues. There was previously a similar deal with NextVR, but after it has been acquired by Apple, Oculus has taken its place. This is good news for all Oculus users.
 
Facebook has also declared that multiple users will be able to log in the Quest in the upcoming times. This will be a very welcome feature and will be great for families that have only one device that is used by all the family members. The only problem is that to use it, all the players will have to use their Facebook login.

More info (Facebook’s deal with NBA)
More info (Multiple users on Quest)

News worth a mention

Snap Lens Studio adds full body effects

Snapchat adds full body AR effects. In an epoch when Tik Tok and the dance moves of its users have become very popular, the fact that Snap has added features to enhance your body movements is pretty important and I’m sure it will be exploited by various marketers.

More info

Intel Labs can now transform a video in a 3D scene

Intel Labs has just announced to have developed a technology called Free View Synthesis, that can reconstruct the view of an environment from other views it has about it. Summarizing, it means that given a video of an environment, it can make you explore it in VR in 3D, letting you see it from all the viewpoints that you want. The technology is still at the research stage, but it is very promising. Currently, it works only for static environments, but the researchers are studying how to make these scenes interactive, for instance for photorealistic VR games.

More info

Some games of the Virtuality will be ported to modern VR headsets

The Virtuality was one of the coolest VR headsets in the past, and the current IP holder of all its games, VirtuosityTech, is actually looking to port them to modern headsets. This means that games like Dactyl Nightmare 2, Buggy Ball, Ghost, Pac-Man VR, and Shoot for Loot could soon be available for Vive or Rift.
 
We don’t have much info about this, and we don’t even know if the porting will also include a redesign of the experiences or if the brand will just publish the retro games, but all the old school VR enthusiasts are already excited about it!

More info (VirtuosityTech wanting to port old VR games)
More info (Gameplay video of Dactyl Nightmare)

Hour One wants to create your virtual human

Hour One is a very interesting startup focused on virtual beings. It is working in creating virtual avatars that are quasi-realistic and that thanks to AI can impersonate you in the tasks you wish, or in tasks that others wish. The second option is actually the interesting idea of the company: you could put your avatar in a set of “stock avatars” that people could use, e.g. for promotional marketing videos, and every time your avatar is used, you get paid a royalty for your virtual identity. A bit like stock photos, but more personal.

More info

Alcove is a new social VR environment for families

Alcove is a new social VR environment for the Oculus Quest. It lets family members interact together, watch photos together, play little games like chess, etc…
 
It is nothing new or particularly original, but I’m talking about it in this newsletter because I think that it is interesting that it seems one of the first commercial VR applications that also targets the elderly. For VR to succeed we need many killer applications, that target different kinds of people, and what I appreciate of Alcove is that it targets someone different from the classical VR enthusiast. And I like it.

More info

Some info on content

• Beat Saber releases a new DLC with songs from the Linkin Park and the community seems excited about it;
• Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds is starting an invite-only beta testing phase, which will be held from August 24th until September 4th. You can register on the website for a chance to be part of it;
• The Last Light, a little gem developed by Magic Leap’s creative people before the big layoffs, has finally been released for free on the Magic Leap store.

More info (Beat Saber DLC)
More info (Frostpoint VR)
More info (The Last Light)

News from partners (and friends)

VR enthusiast and professional Cecilia Lascialfari has just interviewed me for a podcast of hers, asking me some questions about VR in general, VR in Italy, and the VR concert of Jean-Michel Jarre. You can read the interview by clicking the links here below!

Interview in Italian
Interview in English

Some XR fun

Here you are some cool memes about the new Facebook login policy!

Funny link
Funny link
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Funny link
Funny link
Funny link

A big LOL for the Chinese companies that copy the Western ones

Funny link
The nice review of the Pimax 8KX from where the image was taken

The new NVIDIA graphics card is here!

Funny link

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(Header image by Upload VR)