The XR Week Peek (2023.08.15): Samsung XR prototype leaked, Meta 2024 glasses are only for internal use, and more!
It’s a crazy period, but I’m crazier than it, so I’m managing to go on.
Tomorrow I’m going to celebrate this blog’s anniversary, so be sure to read the upcoming related post and say something nice to me! 🙂
Top news of the week
A leak shows a prototype of the Samsung XR headset
We finally have a leak of the Samsung headset that makes us see something about it. The Chinese magazine VRTUOLUO has published some photos of what looks like an early prototype of the device. I speculate it is an early prototype because the shape looks like a Frankenstein between a phone and a Quest headset, and considering the attention Samsung has to design, it is impossible that “that thing” was close to being released to the market.
Anyway, the Frankenstein headset already shows all the most relevant features of the upcoming headset: 4 tracking cameras, two passthrough RGB cameras, and one depth sensor. These are the basic features that every new upcoming headset that wants to be serious on the market should have.
According to the rumor, the headset is slim thanks to pancake optics, and It apparently features OLED microdisplays and Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 chip from 2022. This is a weird choice, given the problems that Exynos chips had in the past (high power consumption and overheating), but using its own chip makes sense for internal experimentation because it is already available in the home factory. The use of the Exynos chips makes me think even more that this is an old device: Samsung has recently announced that it is going to build its headset with Google and Qualcomm, so it is impossible that the to-be-released device doesn’t have a Qualcomm chip. Furthermore, the Exynos 2200 is less powerful than the Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 2, and it would have no sense to release a high-end headset with a not-so-powerful chip.
The headset should be operated through the use of hand tracking and eye tracking, exactly like the Vision Pro. Talking about the Vision Pro, the rumor in town is that Samsung wants to compete with that, and that after the announcement of the high specs of the Vision Pro, it is going to upgrade its headset, too.
The report talks about Samsung wanting to target the $1000–2000 range, which in my opinion risks being neither expensive nor affordable. I’m curious to know if there is an audience for that target range.
More info (Samsung prototype headset leaked — Upload VR)
More info (Samsung prototype headset leaked — XR Daily News)
Other relevant news
Meta’s first AR glasses will be just for internal use
A new report by The Information talks about the AR glasses that Meta is building. We already knew that Meta should manufacture its first AR glasses, codenamed Orion, in 2014, and that they should be built with high-end features and be manufactured in the US. But the news of the day is that Meta should assemble only around 1000 units and keep the glasses for internal usage and demos.
If this is true, it is a true bummer, because the next-gen AR glasses, codenamed Artemis, are only going to be built in 2027. These are for public release, but they are going to be built 4 years from now, meaning that we won’t be able to put our hands on Meta AR glasses for a long time.
The road toward widespread AR glasses is still very long and complicated.
At SIGGRAPH there was much attention toward VR and AI
SIGGRAPH has always been a very relevant event for all of us in the 3D space, and this year VR and AI were among the most relevant technologies showcased there.
Some of the news coming from there have been:
- NVIDIA announced new Grace Hopper chips to empower AI algorithms on server machines, and AI workbench to allow everyone to play around with AI models. Jensen Huang said that we are at the “iPhone moment” for AI
- NVIDIA Omniverse has been made compatible with more applications and generative AI engines
- NVIDIA has released new tools related to OpenUSD, which is how the USD format is called after the formation of the OpenUSD Alliance between NVIDIA, Apple, Pixar, and other companies
- Upload’s David Heaney has gone hands-on with Meta’s Butterscotch Varifocal prototype and came out impressed by how objects felt real. Reading the article excited me a bit, because when an experienced VR journalist says that something impressed him, well, I know that thing is super cool for real
- Vicon, which is a leading company in mocap systems, showcased for the first time its markerless mocap tool. It will be soon used to provide full body tracking in Dreamscape VR experiences
- Charlie Fink reported that an authentic Sensorama machine was exposed in the venue and there were some VR experiences that tried to reconstruct the movies that were showcased inside it
All in all, it seemed an interesting event to be at.
More info (NVIDIA at SIGGRAPH 2023)
More info (NVIDIA’s Omniverse update)
More info (NVIDIA’s OpenUSD updates)
More info (Butterscotch Varifocal hands-on)
More info (Markerless Vicon)
More info (Charlie Fink describes his SIGGRAPH experience)
Meta releases design guidelines for Mixed Reality
Meta has publicly released a long list of design guidelines for Mixed Reality applications. This is a very useful resource for all of us XR developers that are going very soon going to experiment with Mixed Reality applications on a headset by Meta, Apple, or one of their competitors. These resources are gold for us content creators and I invite you all that want to create an application for Quest 3 or Vision Pro to give it a look. This is how we learn to do proper content for what is going to be the next trend in XR.
News worth a mention
Apple Vision Pro Developer Labs are less crowded than expected
Apple has opened some labs in dedicated cities in the world where interested developers can try the applications they are building for the Vision Pro and have Apple’s engineers support them in making them work. It was expected these Lab sessions were going to be overcrowded, but according to the latest report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, actually, these sessions are usually not full of people.
The reasons may be many, but before starting to think that the Vision Pro is already failing, let’s consider a few important facts. First of all, the labs are dedicated only to devs who are already developing applications for the Vision Pro, which is a very expensive headset. Then the Vision Pro beta for the Unity game engine has not been distributed yet, so many Unity developers can’t build applications for the Vision Pro, yet.
So personally I don’t find this news an indicator of the disinterest of people in the Vision Pro.
Immersed VISOR to support hand tracking and eye tracking
It seems that Immersed truly wants to compete with Apple with its VISOR headset. The latest announcement by the company is that the VISOR headset is going to support hand tracking and eye tracking. This is interesting, but before getting excited I want to see this device being reviewed by VR journalists.
Tools for VisionPro are surfacing in Unreal Engine
In the XR Story Wechat group, I’ve seen shared a picture from Epic Games’ Git repository of Unreal Engine, where it is possible to see that tools are being built so that people can create applications for Apple’s headsets not only with Unity but also with Unreal Engine. Given the recent litigation between Apple and Epic, this was not something to be taken for granted.
Almalence aims at solving in software some common problems of VR headsets
Startup Almalence has released a trial plugin for its Digital Lens technology which aims at improving image clarity on XR headsets via a software solution. The company has demoed its software, which exploits eye tracking to increase the “eye box” of VR headsets while reducing visual artifacts like distortions, pupil swim, and chromatic aberrations. It’s amazing to see that it is possible to solve many visual problems of current XR headsets via software.
Almalence plans to license this technology to headsets manufacturers.
In Australia, there is a zoo made only of holograms
I’ve found this news quite interesting: in Brisbane, Australia, the company Axiom Holographics has built a full zoo where there is no real animal, but just holograms of them. I’ve seen some videos about it and honestly, the experience feels a bit subpar to me, but it’s a cool sneak peek of what could be the future of Zoos in 15–20 years.
More info (The first Hologram Zoo in Australia)
More info (Video of the first Hologram Zoo in Australia)
Ghosts of Tabor surpasses $3M revenues on Quest
Tactical shooter Ghosts of Tabor has just surpassed $3M on the Quest platform. To make this number even more impressive, the revenues don’t come from the main Quest Store but from App Lab, the indie store with no searchability. It’s always good seeing VR indie titles being successful.
Can Monster Hunter be Niantic’s second hit game?
After the huge popularity of Pokemon Go, Niantic never managed to replicate the same success with another game. But now things may change.
Monster Hunter, the game developed by Niantic in collaboration with Capcom, reached one million pre-registrations in a week. The game is being released on September, 14 for iOS and Android devices: this is the moment we will start understanding if this game is going to be a hit or not.
Some news about content
- Border Bots VR lets you become a human border agent tasked with ensuring robots have the necessary clearance before entering the city
- Relaxing city builder Islanders is going to get a VR version soon
- Cloudhead Games revealed the new 2023–2024 roadmap for Pistol Whip to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The company also started working on a new project
- Glassbreakers: Champions Of Moss is a multiplayer game inspired by Moss that is going to be unveiled by Polyarc
- Virtual Reality platformer Ven VR Adventure is going to be released on PSVR 2
- VRSO: Bare Knuckle Fighting wants to be a realistic boxing simulator
- Progressive metal band Tesseract has released a SteamVR game called War of Being that lets you enter into spaces inspired by the music of the album with the same name
- Resolution Games opens closed beta applications for Racket Club
- “Cylindrical Tetris” game Twistex arrives on Quest on September 14. It supports passthrough MR.
More info (Border Bots VR)
More info (Islanders)
More info (Pistol Whip)
More info (Glassbreakers: Champions Of Moss)
More info (Ven VR Adventure)
More info (VRSO: Bare Knuckle Fighting)
More info (War Of Being)
More info (Racket Club)
More info (Twistex)
Some reviews about content
- Upload tried VR Skater, and found it quite ok. The magazine criticized the roughness of the game and the difficulty in obtaining “gold medals” for each challenge, which is sometimes frustrating;
- The Guardian has tried Jamais Vu, a VR experience that aspires to simulate a chronic vestibular condition that makes everything appear in motion. It is well-made and interesting
More info (VR Skater)
More info (Jamais Vu)
Other news
CM Games explains how it built the engagement for Into The Radius
The battery pack for the Vision Pro may be called “Magic Battery”
There is now an official physical accessory for Walkabout Minigolf
The project with the 2D city populated by AI agents that behaved like humans is now opensource
News from partners (and friends)
Discover Windup Minds
Windup Minds is a new VR studio founded by talents from Oculus, Niantic, and other big companies. The startup just raised $1.6 million as pre-seed to build virtual characters (e.g. virtual dogs) that can engage with the users in mixed reality.
Learn more (Upload VR announcing Windup Minds)
Learn more (Official announcement on the website)
Some XR fun
I love 2D games in VR
Funny link
Com’on, put it on
Funny link
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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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by VRTUOLUO)
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