The XR Week Peek (2021.05.03): HTC prepares the launch of its headset, Facebook acquires Onward devs, and more!
Welcome to the first roundup of the best AR/VR news for May! There has been no game-changing news from this week, but we had some interesting things to look at the same.
Before I start telling you the news, let me tell you that if you want to join me in my upcoming events, I’ll have a nice fireside chat today (evening CEST time, morning PST time) at the amazing Univirtual event organized by Educators in VR; and on Wednesday at VR AR Chicago where I’ll be in a panel about virtual events. If you wanted to come and join me, I would be very pleased!
Top news of the week
HTC rises the hype for the launch of its new headset
For once, HTC seems to have organized the pre-launch of its new upcoming headset fairly well. People are very curious about what it is going to launch in around 8 days at the VIVECON event, and the hopes are high. Or better, maybe it’s not totally merit of HTC, it is mostly the fact that everyone is hoping for a good headset that can compete somehow with the Oculus Quest, even just in the prosumer segment. HTC has said this headset will be amazing, so everyone is hoping for this to be true, even if we all know that the price will be high. Considering the mediocre success of the Vive Cosmos and the Vive Focus Plus, I think that HTC can’t afford to make an error this time. If this headset won’t be good, probably it will lose definitely the trust of the XR community. So, please, HTC, don’t mess this time and don’t showcase your headset on a spinning head.
We have little new info on what is going to be announced. First of all, HTC talks about “headsets” (plural), and this is quite suspicious. May there be a Pro and Light version? A PC and standalone version? A VR and an MR version? We don’t know, but this looks interesting. Then, the company started sharing a single teaser GIF of the device, but Andrew Jakobs has discovered that just by changing the final number of the URL on the GIF, it was possible to get other 2 GIFs, so now we have three points of view of the upcoming headset. From these teasers, it is clear that the headset has a slick design, it has 4 tracking cameras, and what appears to be a big vent to dissipate the heat. From what we know, it is a nice headset. But we know very little. We have to wait for the Vivecon, or the Chinese-counterpart V2EC event, to discover more.
In the meantime, HTC has announced two important partnerships: one is with the Japanese company Bandai Namco, to bring anime content on Viveport. We don’t know exactly what it does mean, but considering the quality of Bandai Namco content, we can hope for some VR experiences that will make all anime and manga fans happy.
The other one is with iFixit, to provide spare parts and DIY repair guides for the old Vive headsets. This has been a genius move, IMHO. The original HTC Vive is still the most used Vive headset on Steam, so of course, HTC still has to care about its users, but at the same time, it has no sense for it to spend lots of money for the assistance on an old device. So it has partnered with iFixit, which will provide detailed DIY repair guides for the headsets and the controllers, so people with a broken Vive can repair the headsets by themselves and keep happily using them without having to contact HTC assistance (that anyway in the West was not famous for its quality). Also considering that HTC Vive owners usually are makers, they would love the possibility to repair the device by themselves. This is a win for everyone. And a clear answer to Facebook’s philosophy of abandoning the old headsets.
More info (VIVECON event)
More info (V2EC Chinese event)
More info (HTC teases its headset)
More info (Full teaser video of the new Vive Focus with 3 points of view)
More info (HTC partners with Bandai Namco)
More info (HTC partners with iFixit)
Other relevant news
Facebook acquires Downpour Interactive
In a surprise (but not surprising) move, Facebook has acquired Downpour Interactive, the small indie studio behind the multiplayer shooter Onward. The team will become part of Facebook and will keep expanding Onward, while at the same time working on new titles.
The news has been accompanied by the usual messages in which Facebook guarantees that Onward is still going to work on all platforms, and Dante Buckley (the main dev behind Onward) says that with Facebook support the game will be able to become bigger and better than ever, fulfilling its initial vision. I believe all of this in part, in the sense that Onward is surely destined to remain cross-platform, but I’m pretty sure that the Quest will become its main platform, and the game will revolve around it. Do you remember when Downpour screwed up all the graphics for PC to launch on the Quest in time? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
Facebook is keeping acquiring the studios creating the best Quest content: Downpour arrives after Beat Gamers, Sanzaru Games, and Ready At Dawn. This way, Oculus obtain a triple advantage: it guarantees that these studios don’t get acquired by competitors; it has the leverage to make sure that these amazing titles don’t land on other competitor standalone devices; and it absorbs great talents that will be able to create great games in the future for the Quest platform (in an exclusive way maybe). It is a very smart strategy that will pay in the long run.
Jokingly speaking, we can imagine the Oculus Store in 3 layers:
- Little teams and VR experiments go on App Lab
- Big teams and great VR games go on the Oculus Store
- Very popular VR games go straight into Facebook
The Oculus Quest 2 keeps its march towards 10M users
The Oculus Quest 2 keeps selling incredibly well. This is not news anymore, but it’s good to remind it from time to time.
This week, Mark Zuckerberg has commented on the Facebook Quarterly Earning Calls, and again the non-advertisement revenues of Facebook had a great jump year-over-year. In Q1 2021 the increment has been +146% over Q1 2020 and this has been mostly due to the Oculus Quest 2. Using these numbers, someone estimates that now the sold Quest 2 may be over 3M, continuing the march towards the magic 10M number that will attract AAA studios.
You can see the success of the Quest everywhere: in a GDC survey, most VR developers say that they are developing content for the Quest. On Steam, the Quest 2 is the most used headset, even if it is not a native PC VR headset.
Facebook is being also very active in communication, and so Andrew Bosworth has participated in a Wired podcast where he talked about technology and privacy. And Zuckerberg has decided to fire shots at competitors saying that no user is interested in a wired headset, even if this means better graphical quality.
This second statement has created many discussions in the community, and while I partly agree, I think the main point here is who this message was directed to. Its sentence mimics a statement from PlayStation about the upcoming PSVR2, so it seems that now Facebook sees Sony as the only credible competitor. And I completely agree with this: the Quest has wiped out all the competition, but Sony can still endanger its monopoly by offering a high-quality headset with high-quality exclusive games exploiting the existing big user base of the PlayStation 5. Remember that PSVR was the worst headset, but it was able to outperform both the Rift and Vive combined, and Zuck is afraid this can happen again. The success of PSVR may mean that players still want high-quality content, and may steal a certain category of users that would otherwise buy the Quest. Let’s see how it will go…
More info (Zuckerberg on Facebook’s Earning Calls)
More info (Quest 2 sales are probably above 3M)
More info (GDC Survey)
More info (Steam Hardware Survey)
More info (Andrew Bosworth on Wired)
More info (Zuckerberg against wired VR)
Sidequest launches its mobile app
SideQuest, the parallel store of unofficial Quest content has just launched its mobile app. Using it, you will be able to install App Lab content and sideload unofficial applications by just using your phone, in full mobility. This for sure improves the usability of Sidequest, even if the most tricky part, that is the enabling of the developer mode on the headset, is still required.
I think that this news is important because as Upload VR reports, this means also that now you can install this phone app on your Quest, and sideload content from SideQuest directly on your Quest, without the needing of using your PC or your phone. All you have to do is launching the 2D Android app on the Quest, and then you have all the store directly there, without the need for an external device. This is amazing. Keep in mind that this is against Oculus TOS, though, so technically you shouldn’t do it (I developed a similar system some months ago, but I never distributed it exactly for this reason, so beware). But, I mean, if someone does it, basically he/she gets a parallel unofficial store on the Quest, and this is a total disruption for a closed system like the Quest… until Facebook patches it (and I even have some ideas on how they could patch it).
More info (SideQuest mobile app)
More info (How to use SideQuest app on your Quest)
Campfire looks like Meta coming back to life
This week a new startup called Campfire has come out from stealth announcing a VR/AR headset for enterprise usage and $8M of investments received.
Looking at the device, you may recognize a familiar design, and it is because Campfire has acquired part of the intellectual property of the dismantled AR company Meta, which had been able to create wide-FOV AR glasses. But Campfire is very different from Meta: it has still a quite large FOV (92° diagonal) and a low weight (around 500g), but this is not a general-purpose AR headset, but one built with only one application in mind.
Campfire is aiming to use this headset for enterprise usage, and in particular for multiplayer meetings where the users should discuss around a 3D object (e.g. the model of a prototype). The company is working on hardware and software solutions that revolve around this use case. As for the hardware, they have also developed an X-shaped marker that you put on your desk to specify what is the point where you want the holograms to start from, and an add-on to transform your smartphone into a controller for the system.
It looks pretty interesting, even if limited in purpose, and I would be curious to try it to give you my impressions.
More info (Campfire on Road To VR)
More info (Campfire on Upload VR)
News worth a mention
LetinAR teases its upcoming glasses
LetinAR is an augmented reality company that since many years is working on AR glasses that use the pinhole effect, that is exploiting tiny holes in the lenses to offer a crisper and wider FOV AR.
The company has just announced its first product, the T glasses. They are lightweight glasses that must be connected to the phone and have these specifications:
- 640×400 resolution
- 22 deg. of diagonal FOV
- 1M Focal Plane
- 6.2g Lens weight / 66g T glasses weight
- USB-C type tethered design
I admit I was expecting something better, but let’s hope these specifications will improve in upcoming products.
Apple adds spatial AR features to its Clips app
Apple Clips, an application to record short videos and share them with friends, has just been updated to support spatial AR effects powered by Lidar. On iPhones and iPad that have depth cameras, it will be possible to record videos and then add amazing special effects to the environment, like adding flying confetti or glowing floor tiles in a very realistic way. This shows how depth sensors can improve the quality and the quantity of AR filters that we can apply to our images and videos.
More info (Apple Clips add spatial AR effects)
More info (An example of these AR effects)
Air Link seems to provide a more stable experience than Virtual Desktop
Air Link has been released a few days ago, and the community is debating what is the best streaming software: Virtual Desktop or Air Link? On Reddit I have found a great comparison many people seem to agree with: Virtual Desktop seems to still have an edge, but Air Link can offer a more consistent and stable experience across all games. So while VD can give you variable results depending on the game you are playing, with Air Link you obtain more or less always the same experience. In the long run, most probably, Air Link will surpass Virtual Desktop regarding the performances, and being free, it will be preferable for almost all VR users.
More info (How to enable Air Link on your Quest)
More info (Air Link vs Virtual Desktop)
Quest 2 hands tracking gets 60Hz update
On Quest 2 it is now possible to use high-frequency (60Hz) hands tracking, which guarantees better stability and less latency in your hands-controlled applications. Implementing it for the developers just requires a simple line of code, and the results regarding the stability of the algorithm, especially for fast movements, is noticeable (but at the expense of GPU usage). I think that this can enable new kinds of applications (maybe even some workouts) to use hand tracking.
More info (60Hz hands tracking on Quest)
More info (VR Workout devs show how 60Hz tracking is more stable)
Activision Blizzard CEO says that the metaverse is coming
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has told in a new interview that he believes that, thanks to advancements to AR and VR and the growing technological landscape in general, a Ready-Player-One metaverse is coming in the next years. Since these companies usually make predictions depending on what they are themselves doing, I wonder if this means that Blizzard thinks following the footsteps of Epic and trying to build a metaverse starting from World Of Warcraft. I guess we’ll discover this in the upcoming years.
International Olympic Committee announces first ever Olympic Virtual Series
To generate buzz around the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, the International Olympic Committee has announced the first-ever Olympic Virtual Series, which is a series of virtual sports competitions around cycling, softball, sailing, and other few sports. To put it in other words: the IOC is organizing an “esport” tournament as a satellite event for its “sport” tournament.
There is an ongoing debate about how esports should relate to sports, and the fact that even the Olympic Committee is experimenting with them is a great sign. There are no VR games at the moment in the list of selected games, but I think this is just a matter of time: VR would be the perfect technology for them, because it would let the esport players move like real sports players, becoming the perfect bridge between physical sports and pure esports. I speculate this is going to happen for the next Paris Olympics (and I hope someone could consider our game HitMotion for that…)
CES to return as a physical event in 2022
The biggest technology event, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is coming back to the physical location of Las Vegas next year. CES 2022 will be held from January 5th through the 8th, with the usual media days preceding the conference itself on January 3rd and 4th. The event will still have a hybrid nature, with some conferences and events to be held online, but it is coming back at its original formula. I hope that thanks to vaccines, this is going to happen.
VR for the elderly should be designed together with them
A research article I’ve found this week highlights how the elderly have very different requirements from adults and teenagers that usually employ VR headsets, and if we want to create devices that will also be used by them, we should involve them in the design of both the hardware and the software. Remember that we want XR to become mainstream and inclusive, so this is very important.
Enjoy a Commodore 64 on your Quest 2
If you are a fan of retro gaming like me, you are for sure interested in a Commodore 64 Emulator that a developer has created for the Oculus Quest 2. Of course, you have to add the ROM yourself, but for the rest, it’s a quite complete experience.
Star Wars VR content is on sale!
On the occasion of the Star Wars day of May, 4th (May the Forth be with you), you can find all the Star Wars games discounted on many platforms! Star Wars Squadron is discounted on PC, while Oculus offers a big Star Wars bundle on Quest! If you are a fan of the saga, don’t forget to exploit this sale!
Some news on content
- The unique, great and lovely VR party game Loco Dojo is back on the menu, this time on Oculus Quest! Developer MakeReal has been able to make the game land on the official Quest Store, with almost the same graphical quality of PC, and lots of new features! Price and release date are still undisclosed, though;
- Joy Way’s has released a free demo of its upcoming rhythm action game AGAINST. I’ve tried it myself and found it interesting;
- There is now a custom map loader for Gorilla Tag and the community is creating many maps for it;
- Upload VR has reviewed very positively Star Wars Pinball on Quest. The PC VR community is instead quite angry because the game is just the same game as Quest built for PC.
More info (Loco Dojo)
More info (AGAINST)
More info (Gorilla Tag)
More info (Star Wars Pinball)
News from partners (and friends)
My friends at MIAT are organizing a masterclass on Immersive Storytelling with high-profile teachers and judges. It is a 60-hours full immersion bootcamp to teach you the basis to create compelling storytelling content in VR. If you are interested, you can register on its website.
Learn more
Rendever, an important virtual reality (VR) platform for seniors, has announced that it will be hosting free live meditation and mindfulness sessions led by noted mindfulness specialist Samantha Sebastian every weekday in May to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month. This is done in conjunction with its official launch of RendeverLive on the web, and sessions are now open to any senior living community through access to this new programming platform.
Learn more
A group of people is organizing a high-school VR esports tournament to keep students engaged in a cool activity even in this remote learning period. After a very successful pilot, now in May, it is starting Season 1, where 50 schools from all around the world can compete playing Echo Arena, at zero cost for them, and with the students that can win hardware or monetary prizes. Apart from the prizes, I find this a great activity to keep the students entertained and to make them socialize during these pandemic times.
Learn more
Some XR fun
The typical VRChat user logging in
Funny link
VR. Not even once.
Funny link
Funny link
How do you prefer to donate?
Apart from my usual invite to donate to me on Patreon, I would like to ask you a question: how do you prefer donating to me? I like to use Patreon because it helps me in building a relationship with my supporters and it is also reliable service, but someone asked me if I could add also a way to give to me one-time donations. Would you be interested in me adding this possibility? How many of you would like to make me a one-time donation? Please, let me know!
In the meantime, let me thank all the donors that are making this roundup possible…
- DeoVR
- Raghu Bathina
- Jonn Fredericks
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Michael Bruce
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Bob Fine
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- 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
- Chris Madsen
- Tracey Wong
- Matthew Allen Fisher
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Alex P
- Sb
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Paul Reynolds
- Wil Stevens
- Matias Nassi
…and invite you to join them by clicking the link here below! Thank you!
(Header image by HTC Vive)
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