The XR Week Peek (2024.09.16): New leaks on Quest 3S, iPhone 16 can shoot spatial videos, and more!
I’m still in China, in Qingdao to be exact, and this night, I went to Taidong, which is a very big night market. I had a good time and I also shot some stupid pictures there. But actually, my highlight for the city of Qingdao has been visiting Pico offices and trying the Pico Motion Trackers, which in my opinion are incredibly good and could democratize full body tracking and object tracking in VR. Read my review about them to understand why!
And now let’s see the main pieces of VR news of this week, in which not much has happened. The next two weeks are going to be definitely hotter, with the Meta Connect on the 25th, and all the other minor VR vendors trying to rush to announce their products before it!
Top news of the week
There are new leaks on Meta Quest 3S
This week we had new leaks on Quest 3S, including many images of the headset and its controllers and some leaked information on the Quest documentation website. From these leaks we learned that:
- Quest 3S has an Action Button close to the Volume Buttons that let the user activate/deactivate the passthrough (it substitutes the unreliable double-tap on the device)
- The battery of the headset has a capacity that is in the middle between Quest 2 and Quest 3. Probably the expected playtime duration is the same as the previous headsets
- Quest 3S has no 3.5mm jack for headphones
- There are Quest Touch Plus controllers associated with it
- Some chinese companies are already showing on AliExpress some accessories for it (Chinese people are so fast that they sell accessories even before the launch of the main device!).
We are having so many leaks of the Quest 3S that I’m already bored looking at pictures of it before its launch. I guess during the Meta Connect, Zuck will just go on stage and say “Ok, you already know everything about the Quest 3S, so I just tell you it costs $299” and then the event finishes. They will just spend the rest of the time allotted for the event with Blackjack and Hookers or by drinking BBQ sauce. I mean, Meta is such a colander in retaining crucial information that in Italy we would use it to drain the pasta after it’s cooked…
More info (New leaked image of Quest 3S)
More info (Other leaked images of Quest 3S and its accessories)
More info (Meta Quest 3S Action button)
More info (Meta Quest 3S has no 3.5mm jack)
Other relevant news
You can shoot spatial pictures and videos with iPhone 16
At the latest Apple Event, we didn’t get much news about the Vision Pro. This was to be expected and it is no big deal: VisionOS 2 is coming today and this is great news by itself because it is bringing a lot of new features and improvements to the Apple device (three of these features are actually launching later this year, but all the other ones are coming now).
The event was about the launch of the iPhone 16, which brought an interesting piece of news also for us XR people. The new iPhone can shoot spatial photos and videos that can be seen inside the Apple Vision Pro. iPhone 15 could do that too, but you needed to have the Pro model: with iPhone 16, ALL models can shoot spatial media (with also spatial audio). This is very important because it means that all iPhone owners will be able to create spatial content. And it is even more important because it shows Apple’s commitment towards XR: notwithstanding all the articles mocking the sales of Vision Pro, Apple is modifying its flagship hardware to create content for its XR glasses. This is a huge sign of commitment towards mixed reality. That’s why we rejoiced when Apple launched its headset: while Google and Microsoft can discard new technologies pretty easily, Apple is slower at deciding to take a step, but when it makes it, it commits to it.
More info (VisionOS 2 features — Road To VR)
More info (VisionOS 2 features — Upload VR)
More info (iPhone 16 can shoot spatial photos and videos)
Unity cancels its runtime fee
Unity has finally canceled the abomination of the “Runtime fee”, which was meant to charge developers based on revenue in the last 12 months and lifetime installs. No one in the gaming, 3D, and XR communities was happy about it, and if you remember well, there were riots online when this was announced. The new CEO has finally made the great decision to remove it. Furthermore, he decided that Unity Personal will remain free and the funding ceiling to use it will double from $100k to $200k.
All of this is very good but there is a drawback: Unity Pro subscribers will face an 8% annual subscription price rise to $2,200 per seat, while Unity Enterprise subscriptions will increase by 25% annually, starting from January, 1st, 2025. While this price increase does not make me happy, it’s still fairer than a runtime fee, in my opinion.
Visor is going to reveal its headset on September, 19
After so many doubts, speculations, dreams, leaks, and revealed info, the Visor headset, the lightweight VR visor for productivity that has been announced by Immersed, is going to be fully unveiled on Sep 19th. I am honestly happy this is finally going to happen: it seems an interesting device and I would love to see it on the market.
News worth a mention
Meta confirms it is working on MR glasses
Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, the CTO of Meta, ha confirmed during an Instagram Q&A that the company is internally working on a mixed reality headset with the form factor of glasses. This seems to confirm the rumors about the “Puffin” MR glasses that are attached to a computational unit.
Playstation 5 Pro can bring better performances to PSVR 2
PlayStation 5 Pro is the new expensive PlayStation model announced by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It brings better performances than the standard PlayStation 5. This may make it possible for VR games on PSVR 2 to run at native 90 Hz instead of the 120 Hz mode that works with reprojection and that does bring some visual issues. PS 5 Pro also offers PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is an upscaling technology: Sony has announced that in the future it will be made available also to VR games, meaning that later on, VR games running on PS 5 Pro will have higher visual definition.
More info (What PS 5 Pro may mean to PSVR 2 users)
More info (PSSR is coming in the future for PSVR 2 users)
A developer made PSVR 2 adaptive triggers work on PC
The developer of the VR game Cactus Cowboy — Desert Warfare worked with the developer of DSX to make PSVR 2 Adaptive triggers work on PC when the headset is used in SteamVR. If you remember well, this is usually not the case, because PSVR 2 works on PC with several limitations, so this is a great achievement. Even better, these good guys plan to make the native code of their solution freely available to other developers.
CREAL and ZEISS collaborate for a digital vision care solution
Lightfield optics provider CREAL has finally found a first use case where to test its interesting solution. It will collaborate with ZEISS to create a digital solution for vision tests. Currently, when you go to your opticians you are requested to look at some letters and then the doctor tries to put some lenses on you to verify with which ones you see better. This is pretty old technology, so CREAL and ZEISS want to create a new solution for this that relies entirely on lightfield glasses you wear on your face. This is very intriguing.
An interesting eye-tracking exploit was found in Vision Pro
A research group has been able to find a way attackers may maliciously exploit the eye tracking on the Vision Pro. Following the movements of the eyes, they were able to reliably detect the passwords the user was typing in the headset. You may think that’s an obvious thing: if an attacker gets control of the eye-tracking cameras, he can do what he wants, but luckily the tracking cameras are hard to hack. And here comes the intriguing thing about this exploit, dubbed GAZEploit: the attackers had no control of eye-tracking cameras, they were just seeing the Persona avatar that the user was sharing in a sort of video call. Personas feature eye-tracked movements, and since password typing with the eyes follows clear patterns, they were able to detect the password typed by the other user. A very clear hack, about which they have informed Apple, that has patched it weeks ago by stopping eye tracking in Personas when the keyboard is active in front of the user.
The coolest MR demo of the week is about extracting colors from real objects
The developer Lucas Martinic made a very cool thing during the XR Hack in Stockholm. He used the Logitech MX Pen with the Quest, and then he made sure that touching the physical objects around him with the stylus pen tip was able to get their color and then subsequently draw things with that color. It was a sort of color picker tool of Photoshop but in real life. It is a fantastic demo video you have absolutely to watch.
The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You is the latest VR bundle
Humble Bundle is offering a new bundle of VR games called “The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”. It offers many amazing rhythm-based VR games like Pistol Whip, Synth Riders, and PowerBeats VR at a ridiculously low price!
Some news about content
- Indie hit Human Fall Flat is getting a VR version that will be available for all major headsets
- POOLS, a flatscreen game that is able to foster sensations of creep and tension, is getting a VR version for PC and PlayStation
- Metamorphosis VR is a narrative adventure platformer inspired by Franz Kafka’s novel, and it’s coming on Quest on October, 10
- Track Craft’s latest update lets people create tracks together in mixed reality (with colocation)
- Mannequin has been fully launched on Quest and Steam
- NFL Pro Era is the evolution of NFL StatusPRO and is using a Live Service model
- Upload VR featured an article with everything its journalists have tried at Venice Immersive
- Pencil, one of the best-designed mixed reality applications, is now out in Early Access!
- The Thrill Of The Fight 2 has just been teased
- Toxic Therapy seems a fun indie game from its trailer
- Upload VR has its usual ICYMI post with some minor XR news of the week.
More info (Human Fall Flat)
More info (POOLS)
More info (Metamorphosis)
More info (Track Craft)
More info (Mannequin)
More info (NFL Pro Era)
More info (Venice Immersive)
More info (Pencil)
More info (The Thrill Of The Fight 2)
More info (Toxic Therapy)
More info (ICYMI)
Some reviews about content
- Emperor is a deeply emotional story that makes you embody a father affected by aphasia. You understand what people tell you but you can not communicate them properly. Upload VR evaluated it very positively. I have tried it and while I have appreciated its production quality, I have also found it very slow
- The big ‘Day 4’ patch for Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded improved some of the big issues of the launch version, but has also created new performance bugs
- Arizona Sunshine Remake is a good refresh of the original game that adds to it all the best practices that have been discovered in VR development after its release
- Chernobyl Again offers an intriguing story and good graphics, hindered by bad interaction design
- FNAF: Secret Of The Mimic seems a good horror experience from its preview: you are constantly chased by an evil robot and you have to find a way out fast while you are under pressure
- Bootstrap Island seems like a good survival game that makes good use of hand interactions. But it is in Early Access, so the content is a bit short now
- Another Door: Escape Room is an intriguing escape room VR game, with a horror twist to it
More info (Emperor)
More info (Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded)
More info (Arizona Sunshine Remake)
More info (Chernobyl Again)
More info (FNAF: Secret Of The Mimic)
More info (Bootstrap Island)
More info (Another Door: Escape Room)
Other news
Sharp and Japan’s largest telecom NTT Docomo have announced in Japan “Mirza”, a new pair of AR glasses.
(My hands-on with them at AWE has not been great, though)
You can now share your first-person view during the calls on Messenger you do from your Quest
Apple is evaluating to use of regular OLEDs (so not micro OLEDs) in the next cheaper Vision headset
Udcap are new gloves for SteamVR, now on Kickstarter
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
News from partners (and friends)
Some good sources of XR news
Pieter Siekerman has written a post with his personal best sources of XR news, the ones he uses to write his XR developers’ oriented newsletter. I am very humbled to say that I belong to this list, too!
Learn more
Discover Fingerball
Fingerball is an indie VR/XR game where with your index and middle fingers you have to kick a ball and make it hit some score areas. The concept looks very fun to me.
Learn more
Sponsored Area
Phygtl Is Hiring!
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Read Graphic Designer Job Description
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Some XR fun
Maybe after Orrila Tag, we’ll have Rrilla Tag, then Rilla Tag, etc…
Funny link
Probably it has to wait for the RTX5090
Funny link
Even just one hour in the right fitness game…
Funny link
Nice adaptation of a popular meme!
Funny link
I still make a lot of confusion about these names every day
Funny link
How to (not) make a better VR
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who 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:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Carol Dalrymple
- Sb
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Matt Cool
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image leaked on the web, taken from Upload VR)
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