The XR Week Peek (2020.11.09): PS5 doesn’t improve PSVR, VRChat reaches 24,000 concurrent users, and more!
Greetings from the new lockdown. I hope you’re well and you’re safe, and that VR is helping you in having a healthier life. I don’t feel alone because I have so many virtual friends and colleagues with which I speak every day, and VR helps me to travel wherever I want. Thank you all for making me feel your warmth, you are an amazing community!
Top news of the week
PS5 is a great console, but not for VR yet
PlayStation 5 is one of the most awaited devices by gamers, and in 3 days many people will start playing with it. Reviewers and journalists have already received it some days ago and they have already been able to publish reviews about it. And both the journalists of Road To VR and Upload VR agree on the fact that it doesn’t represent an improvement for VR gaming yet.
David of Upload says that thanks to its big boost in specifications, PS5 can offer an amazing flat screen experience: better resolution, better framerate, better graphics, better load times, better controller. The PS5 is a big step forward for console gaming, and being paired with a next-gen controller like the DualSense, that provides realistic haptic sensations, it can give its players countless hours of fun. But the same sense of amazement doesn’t hold for VR.
Long story short, while the PS5 is compatible with the PSVR headset, using it for VR is like using a PS4 Pro. The VR games can only run in their PS4 version, the headset’s camera must be connected through an adaptor (that is bundled with new headsets or given for free to old PSVR owners), and the new amazing controller is not compatible with VR games (unless you want to use it in some games in 3DOF mode), so you must use the previous model. All the PSVR system is retrofitted into the new console, and so it is like if it can run only in some compatibility mode. The result of all of this is that games run exactly as on a PS4 Pro, with no other advantage than faster loading times (thanks to PS5’s SSD drives).
The final bad news is that a few VR games have also compatibility issues and can’t even work on the PlayStation 5 (even if most of the studios are trying to fix this situation).
If you are a PSVR gamer, the upgrade to a PS5 is of no advantage, so I don’t advise you to buy that unless you also like to play flatscreen games. Only PSVR2 will be able to exploit the true power of this console, but it seems that this new headset won’t arrive until 2022. What a pity!
More info (PS5 review — Road To VR)
More info (PS5 review — Upload VR)
More info (Ubisoft talks about incompatibility of some VR titles)
More info (No Man’s Sky providing PS4 version for free together with PS5 version)
More info (DWVR working to make its title compatible with PS5)
More info (Dualsense controller working in 3DOF mode in VR games)
More info (PlayStation Camera adapter given for free)
Other relevant news
Microsoft ramps up distribution of HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure
Microsoft is working to improve the distribution of its latest devices: HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure.
HoloLens 2 availability has been expanded to 15 new regions: Italy (YESSS!), Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This means that professionals from these countries will be finally able to buy the best AR headset on the market in an easy way without using foreign stores.
In the US it has also now started the commercialization of the HoloLens 2 “Developer Edition”, that costs $3500 the same, but includes $1250 in free content. Among this free content, the real interesting stuff is $500 in free Azure credits, while the other things are highly questionable (like 3 months of Unity Pro license… it is more a free trial than a real added value!!). The HoloLens 2 Development Edition will become available in 10 additional countries by the end of the year: Canada, Germany, France, UK, Ireland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Italy. The option to “rent it” by paying $100/month is coming next year.
Regarding Kinect For Azure, whose availability is still restricted (it is purchasable only in 5 countries) and which is still a devkit, Microsoft is working to make it a commercial device. It is collaborating with two companies, Analog Devices, and SICK AG, to create a commercial device (so not a devkit) that will be available in many countries worldwide. Considering that the device is an astonishing sensor, I find it a great idea, so that many companies will be able to buy it and use it in their enterprise solutions. But it is not clear when and how this plan will roll out.
More info (New availabilities of HoloLens 2)
More info (Kinect For Azure)
VRChat hits record 24,000-concurrent-users peak
VRChat is for sure the most popular social VR space out there, and lately, it has also reached a new record. Thanks to the Halloween festivities, that have attracted more users to the platform to attend the dedicated virtual events, and to the sales of the Quest 2, that have added many new users, VRChat has reached a new spike in usage, reaching 24,000 concurrent users. This is even more than the 20,000 concurrent users of early 2018 when the app went viral on Twitch.
You may think that the news is not relevant for VR, considering that VRChat can be used both in VR and on desktop PC, but actually, VRChat CEO confirmed that 52% of these users were from a VR headset. And the percentage of VR users among all the VRChat users is also rising in the latest months.
These numbers are a great piece of news because they show how VR adoption is growing and that the Oculus Quest 2 launch is contributing to this growth. VR adoption will take time, but the situation is getting better every month!
New details on the Lynx MR headset
Lynx R-1 is one of the most awaited XR headsets of the year. According to its creator Stan Larroque, the first units are being shipped in December, after some delays due to the pandemic and standard startup delays.
The head of the company has also revealed new details about the headset. The Lynx R-1 will feature:
- two 1,600 × 1,600 pixels display running at 90Hz
- lenses with an innovative design that guarantee very sharp pixel density at the center of the vision
- passthrough AR with RGB cameras with only 12–15ms of latency
- eye tracking
- LeapMotion v2 (that is, Ultraleap Gemini) tracking for the hands
- Possible future integration of Finch 6DOF controllers
- Android 10 Operating System
- OpenXR support
- Wi-fi 6
The area around the passthrough cameras will be magnetic, so the community can create some magnetic add-ons to add further effects to the vision of the user. This is a pretty cool idea.
I can’t wait to read some reviews about this device… it is probably the most original headset that will ship this year!
News worth a mention
Oculus delays shipments of the Elite Strap due to breakage reports
On social media, in the last times, it was possible to see some people complaining about their Oculus Elite Strap breaking after just some days of standard usage. Oculus has investigated the issue and has decided to suspend the shipments of all the Elite Strap until it will solve the manufacturing problem. Facebook claims that only a few people have been affected by the problem (and the many reports of people with a well-functioning device confirms that), but it doesn’t want that people think that an “Elite” product breaks easily, so it will ship it again when all the products will have a certified quality.
Are there different Quest 2 models with different production batches?
A Redditor noticed that the Oculus Quest 2 that he bought at Target had different performances from the other one he bought on the Oculus Store. One of them had worse godrays and chromatic aberrations, as the lenses were different. Analyzing the headset, he noticed that the ring around the lenses was different in the two devices, with one featuring some little dots and the other one the writing “H3”. It is so possible that those two headsets belong to two different batches with noticeable different performances. The questions are: is the “H3” headset (the one with the worse visuals) a headset shipped by error or are there slightly different Quest 2s out there?
Nreal Light is shipping in Europe and US in 2021
Chinese company Nreal has confirmed to me that its very interesting AR headset Nreal Light is shipping to the West in 2021 because now the company is focusing on the Asian market thanks to a partnership with LG. That’s a pity for all the European and American people that are waiting for it for months, but at least now we have an answer on the timing.
Oculus Test Users let you use the Quest 2 without a real Facebook account (for sideloading)
Oculus Test Users are an official feature provided by Facebook that lets you create fake Facebook accounts to test your applications on Oculus Quest devices. They are very useful for instance to test a multiplayer game that you’re developing with your peers without having them to log in with their personal accounts on the devices. Have a read at my post to understand exactly what this feature is and how you can use it.
HP Reverb G2 is coming
HP has already started shipping the review units for its Reverb G2 and some content creators like Upload VR and Sebastian AnG2 have already published their unboxing videos. This is a good sign because it means that the headset is also starting shipping to who preordered it.
More info (Unboxing video on Upload VR)
HTC Vive celebrates the holidays giving 100% rev share to developers
HTC Vive celebrates the holidays by announcing that all Viveport developers will receive a full 100% revenue share for November and December 2020, that are usually the most profitable months. This is a very good way of attracting content on Viveport, which in the latest months has grown pretty well.
Two interesting videos on the Quest 2
Two of the best VR Youtubers have created two interesting videos about the Oculus Quest 2:
- Mike Virtual Reality Oasis has developed a hack to use the Quest 2 together with the new Mario Kart AR to be able to see the live stream from the Mario Kart camera on your Quest and having a more immersive experience
- ThrillSeeker has tried to destroy the Oculus Quest 2 in every possible way (throwing it on the floor, putting it in a dishwasher, etc…) and he discovered that the device resists pretty well. The video hurts to watch, especially when he scratches the lenses, but then manages to repair them thanks to a miraculous product.
More info (Mario Kart AR) More info (Oculus Quest 2 stress test)
Find your VR psychologist
A doctor has created the website VR Therapists to connect patients with psychologists offering immersive VR therapeutics. It is free to use and I recommend it to people looking for a doctor.
VR can be an important technology for psychological therapy, for many different disorders: I’ll link you here below also a researcher explaining what it can be useful for.
More info (VR Therapists)
More info (Why VR can be very important for therapy)
Portable Farms lets you play a VR game while you play a VR game
Portable Farms is a relaxing idle VR game that lets you plant some seeds, curate your little plants and crop your harvest. It is very simple and slow but can be satisfying. Why am I talking about it if it is so simple? Well, because it has a very original way of enjoying it: it is a VR game that you play on other VR games.
Portable Farms can appear ON TOP of other SteamVR games so that you can relax playing it while you are in an idle mode in another game so that to keep yourself entertained. And when the other game is out of the idle mode, you can close Portable Farms and return to your game. It is a VR game that you play during other VR games, and you see it as an overlay on the other games.
It is a very interesting and original approach and I’m very curious about trying it.
Finger Gun lets you shoot with your bare hands
Talking about original games, Finger Gun is another cool example. It is an indie game being developed for the Oculus Quest 2 where you can really shoot with your bare hands making the shooting gesture that we all did as kids to shoot our friends. It seems fun!
The best upcoming VR games
A Redditor has written an amazingly comprehensive list of the best upcoming VR games. Enjoy!
Some news on content
- Rezzil Player 21 offers realistic soccer training that you can perform at home with a VR headset and a Vive Tracker on your foot! It is one of the few games on Steam that requires a Vive Puck to work;
- House Flipper VR makes you renovate and tidy your home in VR. It is oddly satisfying and it is coming to PC VR on November, 5th;
- Prison Boss VR, a fun game that lets you become the boss of your prison by crafting items for the other inmates, is coming to Oculus Quest on December, 3rd;
- Wolves In The Walls, one of my favorite VR storytelling pieces (read my review here) is coming to Oculus Quest soon. I wonder how they ported those amazing graphics to a standalone device;
- Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister is being delayed and should launch in December;
- Arvore, the studio behind Pixel Ripped, has announced Yuki, another game that has a strong nostalgia flavor, and that from the trailer seems very cool;
- Arena shooter Grapple Tournament has just launched on Steam;
- Storytelling piece Spheres is coming to Quest. It has been the first VR storytelling content sold for more than $1M, and while I’ve not liked it much because it is too slow, I have to admit that the visuals are nice and the people provided the voiceover are top-notch.
More info (Rezzil Player 21)
More info (House Flipper VR)
More info (Prison Boss VR)
More info (Wolves In The Walls)
More info (Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister)
More info (Yuki)
More info (Grapple Tournament)
More info (Spheres)
News from partners (and friends)
I’ll use this section of the newsletter to actually talk about myself :). This week I’ve been featured in two important online pieces:
- A long interview on Authority Magazine about the work that AR/VR work that I’m doing at New Technology Walkers
- A podcast that I’ve shot with Youtubers Alex VR and Skeeva, with which I have had tons of fun talking about VR (Don’t forget to follow their Youtube channel!).
If you are interested, you can find these two things here below:
Learn more (Article on Authority Magazine)
Learn more (Podcast on Youtube)
Some XR fun
I’ve discovered that Furry VR meetings are a thing
The dance of the lost privacy
People falling while in VR are a classic, but they always make me laugh
Zuck at Halloween
The Oculus Quest Elite Strap breaks too easily for some people
“Patreon” is the word
I know that according to Peter Griffin (and The Trashmen), “Bird” is the word, but actually “Patreon” is a better word if you want to sustain my hard work in informing the community!
These are the people that have made today’s roundup of news possible, and I want to thank them with all my heart:
- DeoVR
- Jonn Fredericks
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Michael Bruce
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Bob Fine
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Niels Bogerd
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Jeff Dawson
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Sb
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Paul Reynolds
- Matias Nassi
Please, use THE WORD and support my blog by clicking the button here below!
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(Header Image by Sony)
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