The XR Week Peek (2023.01.10): HTC launches Vive XR Elite at CES, new rumors about Apple, and more!
It’s another tough day of work, with me finishing most of my tasks at midnight. But it’s ok… we are all excited because tomorrow we are finally launching our platform for virtual concerts and live shows! Please join the alpha launch of the VRROOM platform today Jan, 10th at 8 pm CET and live with us an original VR concert with three emerging French artists! You find all the info about it in this article of mine: https://skarredghost.com/2023/01/03/vrroom-alpha-launch/
Top news of the week
XR had its good moment at CES
I haven’t been able to attend CES because I was organizing the launch of our platform, but I had many friends going and the common consensus has been that it was a good year for XR at CES. Nothing mindblowing happened, but there have been some relevant announcements, there were many booths showcasing technologies related to XR, and there were also many people from the XR community attending. It seems that among emerging technologies, XR was one of the queens at CES, and this is great to know.
I will write a separate roundup article about CES this week (wait for it!), but for now, let me just list the most important announcements:
- HTC announced the Vive XR Elite, a headset that mixes the comfort of the Vive Flow with the usability of the Vive Focus 3. It is very lightweight and supports a passthrough AR with very high image quality (even if not great depth perception for now). The starting price is $1100. This headset aims at becoming a Quest Pro competitor;
- Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall has revealed the price of the MeganeX headset. The price for the SteamVR-tracked consumer edition is $1700. The price is very steep, but this is kinda of a unique PCVR headset, with a very small form factor and very high display contrast;
- Sony has announced that Gran Turismo 7 will have a VR version that will launch with PSVR 2. It’s amazing to see such an important IP join virtual reality;
- Wave is back. Pico announced that the company will produce again virtual reality concerts, this time as exclusive events for Pico headsets. The first one will feature the famous DJ Calvin Harris and it is going to happen on January, 13th.
More info (HTC launches Vive XR Elite)
More info (MRTV goes hands-on the Vive XR Elite)
More info (My thoughts about the Vive XR Elite)
More info (Price revealed for Shiftall MeganeX headset)
More info (Gran Turismo 7 for PSVR 2)
More info (Calvin Harris on Pico)
Other relevant news
A new rumor on Apple headset talks about a very high-end device
A new week, a new rumor about Apple and its upcoming headset. Or well, two rumors.
The first one is easy: according to some important Apple analyst (that has made wrong predictions for the last years but we still quote as reliable), Apple for sure is going to launch its XR headset this June at WWDC. For sure. Like everyone was sure it was launching in January. I’m only sure that no one knows what he/she’s talking about…
The second rumor is a bit more articulated. The Apple headset should be very high-end, and feature:
- 4K per eye displays
- 120° FOV
- Low-latency RGB passthrough
- Cameras to track everything: hands, eyes, face, even legs
- Room scanning through LiDAR
- Integrated audio with support for Airpods
- Attachable prescription lenses.
All of this for the premium price of $3000, which is coherent with all the technologies listed above.
This rumor could be believable until I read that it mentions that the headset features an external battery that you have to attach to your belt and connect via a cable to the headset. And according to the same journalist, this was an idea by Jony Ive. My personal opinion is that Jony Ive should have been seriously drunk to have the idea of creating a tethered Apple headset. Apple is the company that polishes the user experience at the maximum it could… and according to this rumor, it would require you to keep a tethered battery attached to your belt while using VR? No way.
I think the journalist from The Information has spoken with people working on some Apple XR prototype: the high number of features, the too-high-end cost, and the clunky usability make me think more to an internal prototype than to a finished product to ship in June.
Because we are sure that the Apple headset ships in June. Until June arrives, at least.
More info (Rumors on the upcoming Apple headset / Mac Rumors)
More info (Rumors on the upcoming Apple headset / Upload)
More info (Apple headset is coming in June)
Mojo Vision pivots away from smart contact lenses
Rarely an XR news hurts me like this one about Mojo Vision: the startup is not going to work on smart contact lenses anymore, at least in the short term.
I will probably write a dedicated article to remember Mojo Vision results… because they were incredible. All over these years, they managed to create a smart contact lens, and the CEO even wore it in his eyes! This was science-fiction stuff happening in front of our eyes (pun intended). But, as I’ve learned very hard in my life, “a startup is all about money” and smart contact lenses are a product for the distant future, so Mojo needed big investments to carry its project further.
Unluckily, due to unfavorable economic conditions, it has not been able to secure the needed new investment, so the development of smart contact lenses can’t go on, at least for now. The company will so pivot to producing Micro-LED displays, which is a product that is much easier to do, and that has an immediate market. Mojo has a big expertise in this technology because it managed to create a very tiny display for its smart lens, and this is why it is a sector it can pivot to.
The problem is that it is a totally different business, and for this reason, 75% of the Mojo staff will be laid off. This is sad news in the sad news, and I invite you, in case you have to hire someone, to consider the people that have just been laid off from Mojo.
It’s a very sad day for XR.
News worth a mention
Lynx has started shipping its mixed-reality headset
Finally, after so many delays due to the supply chain issues we all know, the French startup Lynx has started to ship its Lynx R1 headsets. The first recipients will be the earliest Kickstarter backers. There are a few hundred headsets assembled and the company is ramping up production. All Kickstarter orders should be fulfilled “Between March and April” of 2023.
I’m personally very happy to see this project of an XR headset with an open ecosystem finally come to life. I’m also happy for the CEO Stan Larroque, who is quite a nice guy. I’m curious now to see what will be the adoption of this device.
Meta may have sold a bit less than 10M headsets in 2022
According to the mobile app ecosystem analysts of Sensor Tower, the Meta Quest app has been downloaded 10.3M times on Android and iOS in 2022. Considering that the app is usually downloaded by those who have just bought a device, plus people that already had a Quest and just bought a new phone, we can say that probably 9M may be a safe estimate of the number of people that bought a Quest device the past year.
This is a good number, especially if we consider that the 10.3M installs are a +27% increase over 2021, which is considered a great year for VR. But at the same time, last Christmas has been much less impactful than the 2021 one.
Meta Quest Pro passthrough makes people blind
Karl Guttag is at it again. After having blasted the HoloLens 2 when it came out, now the optical expert is blasting the passthrough of the Meta Quest Pro. In his analysis, he blames the very poor resolution of the offered vision, which is comparable to the one of people that are “legally blind”. Ouch.
US Army to start using HoloLens devices
After a great start and a very troubled development, in the end, the IVAS system, which consists in a modified version of HoloLens to be used by soldiers, is reaching an important milestone: it is being deployed in the field. For the first time in 2023, the US Army plans to deliver 5000 IVAS 1.0 and another 5000 IVAS 1.1 versions to troops. The devices will go to operational and training units.
This is an important result, and I guess that from the field use, we will get how much the project has the potential to go on, and how much Microsoft has a chance to get the full cake of $22B for this project.
VR is popular among Gen-Z, it is confirmed also by…
PornHub has released one of its many infographics about the usage of its popular website. In particular, it has shared which are the categories of videos that are most popular amongst the various generations. The result is that the generation where VR is the most popular is Gen-Z. People from this generation are also interested in other categories like “Cartoon” which prove their interest in virtuality in general. 4 out of the 5 most popular categories for them are about virtual humans or virtuality, and this proves how this is a generation for which real life and digital life are very interconnected, even when we talk about sex.
The complex moment for PCVR continues
Valve has released the list of the most-selling PC VR games in 2021. What is impressive is that among the group of the most sold games, only two games are from 2021, while all the others are from past years. This shows the continuous decline in the development of interesting VR titles for PC.
The icing on this terrible cake is given by the VR game of the year chosen by the Steam community: Hitman 3. Everyone knows that the VR version of Hitman 3 for Steam totally sucks, and the fact it won means that most probably all the non-VR players voted for the only game they knew. This is again pretty weird.
More info (Valve’s top selling games)
More info (Hitman 3 is the game of the year)
Some news on content
- EA’s Codemasters is getting ready to launch its first Quest-native title next week, a VR version of the popular arcade racing sim GRID Legends. It will be priced at $30 and be available starting January, 12th;
- Song In The Smoke is getting a PSVR 2 port and the team talks about a total graphics overhaul that will make it look much better than the PC version
- XSOverlay is an opensource system to let you see Windows notifications while you’re playing in VR
More info (GRID Legends)
More info (Song In The Smoke: Rekindled)
More info (XSOverlay)
Other news
The Metaverse Standards Group is continuing its activity and is now organizing groups working on different topics
EMIL is offering grants to VR projects, with funding in the range of 250,000–500,000€
It seems that not even Meta employees understood Zuck’s vision of the metaverse
Tom Ffiske has written a very well-written report about harassment in the metaverse
Meta is working on an upcoming lying-down mode for Quest
News from partners (and friends)
Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine is now available in early access
NVIDIA has finally released in early access the Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), a suite of cloud-native AI microservices that make it easier to build and deploy intelligent virtual assistants and digital humans at scale. It is also compatible with Ready Player Me avatars. Interested devs can join the Early Access program and start experimenting with virtual humans.
Learn more
Discover StarMarker VR
StarMaker VR is an indie VR application that provides you with a Karaoke experience, but also many minigames about music and sound.
Learn more
Some XR fun
The community didn’t lose time and immediately did some memes about the launch of the Vive XR Elite! Funny link / 1
Funny link / 2
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate for my blog, but to the poor people that are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
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(Header image by HTC Vive)
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