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Meta & BMW Are Integrating AR/VR Headsets into Cars, Release Timeline Uncertain

bmw, holoride, holoride htc, Meta Quest Pro, News, project aria, VR Productivity, VR Relaxation, VR Research / Shannon Garcia / May 18, 2023

Initially announced in 2021, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared an update on the company’s research partnership with BMW, which focuses on integrating AR and VR into vehicles to make people more productive, social, and entertained while traveling.

The ultimate aim in the BMW/Meta partnership is to accurately anchor virtual objects relative to the car’s motion by hooking into the tracking system of both the car and a Meta headset, which researchers say includes the Meta Quest Pro standalone mixed reality headset and the company’s in-development AR headset, Project Aria.

Without such a system in place, the headset’s rotational tracking would noticeably drift as the car makes turns and other adjustments, making it essentially unusable for anything but perfectly straight sections of road.

Check out the video detailing the research below:

Still considered a proof-of-concept prototype, Meta says the partnership has already overcome some key technical challenges, such as fusing the headset and car’s sensors to understand their relative position. That said, the companies don’t think it’s ready for the public just yet.

“It is too early to tell exactly how or when this technology will make it into customers’ hands, but we envision a number of potential use cases for XR devices in vehicles—from assisting the driver in locating their car in a crowded parking lot to alerting them to hazards on the road and surfacing important information about the vehicle’s condition,” said Claus Dorrer, Head of BMW Group Technology Office in the US. “The implications of future AR glasses and VR devices—for passengers as well as drivers—are promising. The research partnership with Meta will allow us to discover what immersive, in-vehicle XR experiences could look like in the future and spearhead the seamless integration of such devices into cars.”

AR and VR integration in cars isn’t an entirely new area of research. It’s been the sole focus of Audi-backed startup Holoride, which recently partnered with HTC to deliver in-car VR entertainment via HTC Vive Flow. Still, Holoride has been mostly grabbed headlines as a tradeshow mainstay; it hasn’t seen mass adoption yet despite only requiring a $200 retrofit pack, which enables Vive Flow owners to play VR in cars.

In the end, it seems car companies are now seeing the writing on the wall that riders will maybe very soon—but not right now—want to bring their own XR devices and actually use them in the car, just like you might a smartphone, albeit with more utility than any infotainment screen on offer.

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‘Firmament’ Review – Complex Puzzles & Visual Richness Lacking a Native VR Touch

adventure puzzle, cyan, cyan worlds, firmament, firmament review, firmament vr, myst, News, obduction, puzzle, puzzle adventure, Review, VR Game / DJ Henderson / May 18, 2023

Firmament was created in the spirit of Myst, the studio’s genre-defining puzzle adventure which maroons you in a strange realm with some very imposing architecture, all of which houses a smorgasbord of some patently challenging puzzles. In this respect, Firmament is kind of an old dog with a few new tricks, as it brings modern beauty and narrative finesse, although the game’s VR implementation sadly feels like a bit of an afterthought.

Firmament Details:

Available On: SteamVR, PSVR 2 (coming later)

Release Date: May 11th, 2023

Price: $35

Developer: Cyan Worlds

Reviewed On: Quest 2 via Link

Gameplay

Firmament: from Latin firmamentum—that which strengthens or supports. In an ancient cosmological sense, the word was also used to refer to the sky, or the vault of the heavens fixed above Earth. You’ll have plenty of time to ponder meaning that as you teleport between the four realms via the game’s conveniently located conveyance pods, which automagically shuttle you Dr. Who-style atop wind-swept mountains and steampunk botanical gardens just waiting to be explored (and fixed).

Firmament dishes out real moments of awe between serving up maddeningly complex puzzles—basically a Cyan Worlds game through and through. The game’s gigantic machines will leave you scratching your head as you run back and forth just to make sure the figurative pilot light is on. While you have some narrative-based voice recordings and found notes to go by, you’re basically on your own when it comes to puzzling, meaning you won’t be babied by a ‘helpful robot’ who feeds answers into your ear. You’ll need to pay close attention to everything, and really get a grip of all the pieces in play before you can make sense of things. Beating your head against puzzles rarely works, so you’ll be greeted by some very familiar frustration if you’ve played any of Cyan’s most recent games, like Obduction or Myst VR.

Anyway, here are some useful hints: Watch out for every ladder. Watch out for every socket. Keep your head on a swivel and mess with everything a little just to see if it moves, but not so much that you scramble puzzles beyond their intended solvability.

Interacting with the world is done by way of activating a swath of standardized sockets, which pair to your hand-held ‘adjunct’ tool—kind of like a remote-controlled sonic screwdriver that lets you tether and interact with machines. Some sockets only have a single function, like opening and closing a door, while others have multiple functions that you’ll need to flip through. More on that in the Immersion section below.

There is a lot of running back and forth, which feels more like a chore in VR than on traditional monitors. That frustration is compounded by moments when I wasn’t sure whether the game was borked, making me wonder whether it was me who screwed up or the game. It seems Firmament came well prepared for this eventuality at least, as you can safely reset back to a central location, which typically also resets puzzles too. While complex and mostly logical, a minority of puzzle solutions can be downright obtuse. I was provided with a solutions guide, which included hints as well as solutions, and I’m not ashamed to say I needed a few of those hints to complete the game, which I did in about nine hours.

In the end the juice is generally worth the squeeze with Firmament, as you’re whisked off to new, even more impressive areas of the game. While the ending left me feeling a little perplexed, the overall level of world-building is extremely high. I only wish I could be more present in the game and given more agency than casting my tether to manipulate glorified on-off buttons.

Immersion

Firmament is a sumptuous and potentially beautiful game that I wish I could be more present in. My aging GTX 1080 was able to play along decently on medium graphics settings in most areas, which is more than I can say for Obduction. Still, some of the inherent beauty of the game is marred by jagged edges and a muddiness in some areas that feel like it’s really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. My GPU, which is probably the minimum spec for VR at this point, was much happier sipping along on all low settings, so make sure to curb your expectations if you’re running an older or less powerful setups like mine.

I touched on some of the frustration of puzzle solving above, or rather, when solving puzzles goes wrong, but there’s another frustration that has more to do with level design, and not whether things are actually working properly. While slick and in line with ‘AAA’ games in terms of graphics, level design is still very much rooted in the studio’s point-and-click past, which means you’ll have less physical agency than you’d probably think is rational given the expectation of working hands and feet.

In VR, I’m used to being able to not only do what I can in physical reality, like climbing and jumping, but even more. Some of the game’s level design feels like a step backwards in terms of what should be logically possible, like scrambling over a simple banister railing, or sidestepping a box to get to another area. I know that’s part and parcel of the studio’s puzzle style, but if I’m not offered some explanation beyond “no, you just can’t because of reasons,” it negatively impacts my perception of the inherent solidity of the world around me.

And while the world is so rich with possibility, the only meaningful way to interact with it is by using your adjunct tool to manipulate sockets, save a single other tool you’re given that disperses ice and other crusty bits in your way. This raises the question whether Firmament is making good use of VR beyond giving you a more immersive view of the game. Sadly, it doesn’t. It feels more like a flatscreen game with an optional VR mode that hasn’t really informed many of the game’s puzzles or much of its level design. While the amount of backtracking from place to place isn’t such an issue on traditional monitors, it feels way more like a chore in VR.

And yet, all of the frustrations of Firmament never seemed to completely overwhelm me. The game’s score is excellent, complementing both its strong voice acting and mostly well-reasoned narrative. I only wish it were just a little more sympathetic to the modern VR gamer, and a little less of an optional mode that basically works, but not as well as you’d hope.

Comfort

The game’s a bit at odds with standard VR movement schemes. While teleport and smooth movement are options, the game default movement scheme puts turning on one stick, and forward movement on another—something I’m not generally used to. Besides a few cart ride-style vehicles, the game is ultimately comfortable enough for most players.

‘Firmament’ Comfort Settings – May 18th, 2023
Turning
Artificial turning
Snap-turn	✔
Quick-turn	✖
Smooth-turn	✔
Movement
Artificial movement
Teleport-move	✔
Dash-move	✖
Smooth-move	✔
Blinders	✔
Head-based	✔
Controller-based	✔
Swappable movement hand	✔
Posture
Standing mode	✔
Seated mode	✔
Artificial crouch	✖
Real crouch	✔
Accessibility
Subtitles
Languages	English, Italian, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America)
Dialogue audio
Languages	English
Adjustable difficulty	✖
Two hands required	✔
Real crouch required	✖
Hearing required	✖
Adjustable player height	✔

‘Firmament’ Review – Complex Puzzles & Visual Richness Lacking a Native VR Touch Read More »

Recent Valve Hiring Hints at Next-gen Index Headset in Development

News, valve, valve deckard, valve index, VR Headset / DJ Henderson / May 17, 2023

Since the release of its first (and so far, only) VR headset in 2019 and its flagship VR game in 2020, Valve has been worryingly quiet about its future plans for VR. But recent hiring and job listings suggest the company is still working toward next-gen VR hardware.

It’s been nearly four years since the release of Valve Index, a leading PC VR headset which has held its ground as the second most-popular headset on the platform for longer than most might have expected. But the aging headset mirrors the aging PC VR landscape in general which has taken a back seat to Meta’s Quest platform after it captured the attention of a bulk of VR developers.

But Valve may not be done with VR yet. As YouTuber Brad Lynch pointed out last month, the company recently brought in two new people with experience in VR displays and optics, one of which claims to be advising the company on “next-gen Valve Index and Steam Deck products.”

Valve has made a couple VERY notable hires recently for their hardware teams

One being what seems to be their first full-time Display architect that has a fluent history in OLED/HDR

And a consultant focused on bringing “Next Gen Valve Index” products for commercial launch pic.twitter.com/nGpo859ore

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) April 23, 2023

Additionally we’ve spotted some interesting updates to Valve job listings showing the company is still very interested in hiring people with VR expertise.

As of late 2022, the company’s listing for a Visual & User Experience Designer didn’t include any mention of VR, but sometime between then and March 2023, the company updated the description to indicate that the hire would “create UI for use across desktop, mobile, handheld & VR.”

Similarly, the Software Engineer for Hardware listing was updated sometime between mid-2022 and March 2023 with new language specifically relating to “the next generation of VR and hand-held gaming products,” and “core VR Technologies (tracking, optical calibration, display customization).”

Add that to a handful of teases from the company in the last few years, and it surely seems like VR remains on the radar internally at Valve, despite little external communication to that end. Granted, Valve is pretty unique as a company, often working at its own pace on projects that may or may not ever launch. While there’s no telling if the company’s internal VR effort is on the backburner or actively moving forward, it’s clear the company still wants to hire and retain employees with VR expertise.

Recent Valve Hiring Hints at Next-gen Index Headset in Development Read More »

Bigscreen Beyond Teardown Overviews Design Decisions Behind Compact Headset

bigscreen, bigscreen beyond, darshan shankar, News, VR Headset / DJ Henderson / May 17, 2023

CEO Darshan Shankar sits down with the upcoming Bigscreen Beyond VR headset for a teardown and explanation of the company’s design decisions.

Bigscreen Beyond is a made-for-enthusiasts VR headsets coming from the makers of the social VR theater application Bigscreen. In our recent hands-on with the headset we found an impressively well-built device that’s taking a different approach than other PC VR headsets on the market.

Bigscreen Beyond is due to start shipping in Q3, and ahead of its release Bigscreen CEO Darshan Shankar has sat down to tear the tiny headset open and talk about the decisions the company made and why.

Bigscreen Beyond is impressive in many ways, but it’s priced for serious VR enthusiasts. The headset starts at $1,000, which doesn’t include controllers or tracking beacons (which would add another $580).

Bigscreen Beyond Teardown Overviews Design Decisions Behind Compact Headset Read More »

A Demo and Fresh Look at Campfire

AR for enterprise, augmented reality, collaboration, Enterprise, extended reality, featured, holography, News / DJ Henderson / May 17, 2023

For the last few years, Campfire 3D has been expanding the world of “holographic collaboration” with a custom headset and base station as well as software that works in headset-based mixed reality and virtual reality, mobile-based augmented reality, and now on desktop 3D.

The company is currently launching new hardware and a new product package, so we spoke with CEO and co-founder Jay Wright for a software demo and an explanation of the new release.

Gather Around the Campfire

“Our mission is to deliver what we call holographic collaboration – multiple people standing around a digital model of a physical thing, whether they’re all in the same room, or across the world,” said Wright, who called it the killer app for enterprise XR. “If this can be done successfully, we have a huge potential to reduce travel, shipping, and physical reworks.”

And Wright is no stranger to enterprise XR. He developed Vuforia as its vice president at Qualcomm. Qualcomm sold the project to PTC, where Wright followed as Vuforia’s president and general manager. While Wright left Vuforia in 2018, it remains PTC’s main enterprise augmented reality arm.

The following year, Wright co-founded Campfire with Roy Ashok, Alexander Turin, Steve Worden, Yuhan Liu, and XR pioneer Avi Bar-Zeev as founding advisor. Bar-Zeev has worked in XR since 1992 including co-founding Google Earth, serving as a consultant for Linden Labs, a principal architect for Microsoft, advisor for Tilt Five and Croquet, and president of the XR Guild.

In 2021, Campfire came out of stealth and started working with companies offering software, a headset, and a console that generated the virtual model.

A Demo on Desktop

While I haven’t yet gotten my hands on the company’s headset, the team did set me up for a demo on desktop – a major new offering for the tool. Wright did mention that he will be at the Augmented World Expo in a few weeks, so hopefully I’ll be able to try the headset there.

Basic functionalities with basic models include rotating and zooming in on models, and leaving annotations for other viewers to consider. This can be labeling items on the model, or taking screenshots, marking up the screenshot, and pinning it to avoid marking up the model directly.

As long as models are made up of components, they can be “exploded” to view and manipulate those components separately. This also allows users to see how systems are composed of parts through virtual assembly, disassembly, and reassembly. A “blue ghost” shows where selected components fit into a complete system for automatic guided instructions.

Selected components can also be reconfigured with different colors or textures on the fly. They can also be made invisible to make internal components easier to see without using the explode feature. A “slice” tool provides a transparency plane that can be moved through a model to create cross-sections. All of these tools work on all platforms.

“We spent a lot of time on ease-of-use,” said Wright. “The user interface is really similar whether it’s on a flat screen or in VR.”

Additions and Improvements

Today’s announcement includes a streamlined software package, expanded device accessibility, a larger base station option, and a new hardware and software package for teams.

A Cross-Platform Solution

The complete Campfire ecosystem consists of hardware and software. On the hardware side, the company has its own headset – which can be used for augmented reality or with a shaded visor for virtual reality – and two consoles for different-sized models. A phone can be an AR viewer but also serves as a controller for the headset via an adapter called “the pack.”

Campfire headset side

“We did this because everybody has used a phone and knows how to use it,” explained Wright.

One person must have a headset and console but additional participants can join on mobile or now on a desktop.

“Flat screens are still very important,” said Wright. “There are very few workflows in enterprise that involve XR and that don’t involve flat screens.”

That was one of the most consistent pieces of feedback that the company received from early users leading to this announcement. Of course, the different hardware that users join on does impact their experience – though all have access to basic collaboration tools.

“Once everybody is in Campfire, everybody has access to basic tools for pointing at things and communicating,” said Wright. “A huge amount of the power in holographic collaboration is just the ability to point things out in the 3D space.”

A Streamlined Software Offering

The apps were another common point of criticism. Until this announcement, the software side consisted of two separate end-user apps – one for authoring models and one for viewing models and collaborating. Now, one app can do both jobs.

Campfire new app mac car training

Participants can also be invited to a Campfire session via a link, just like 2D remote collaboration tools like Google Docs. This is fitting, as Wright believes that Campfire’s software has even more in common with legacy remote collaboration solutions.

“To the extent that spreadsheets or word documents drove the PC, we think that holographic collaboration does that for XR,” said Wright.

More Ways to View

Campfire launched with a tabletop console, which was great for designing smaller products like shoes, or modeling consumer packaged goods. Of course, virtual models of larger objects can be scaled down, but some users wanted larger models. That’s why Campfire now offers the “studio console” which goes on the floor instead of on a table.

Campfire console

Right now, viewing Campfire in AR or VR requires the company’s custom headset. However, the company is working on optimizing the application for use with the growing number of available passthrough headsets available on the market.

“We don’t see this class of device as something everyone has access to,” said Wright. “But people are going to purchase these devices and expect Campfire to work on them.”

Subscriptions Rolling Out Now

As of today, there are three ways to experience Campfire. First, the application does have a functionally-limited free model. Enterprise plans start at $1,500 per month and currently require contacting the company directly as they scale their public rollout. And now there’s “Campsite.”

Campfire new campsite experience

“Campsite” bundles five enterprise licenses, 2 headsets, packs, and tabletop consoles, and one studio console for $15,000 per year. Wright says that the whole Campsite can be set up in less than an hour.

A Future of Enterprise Collaboration

There are other companies doing parts of what Campfire is doing. And Wright’s argument that this technology is the future is hard to refute. While other companies are likely to step up, this is definitely a company to watch right now. After everything that they learned in the last two years, it’s exciting to think of what improvements this greater rollout will inspire.

A Demo and Fresh Look at Campfire Read More »

Google Reveals Latest Project Starline Prototype, Its Light-field Telepresence Platform

Google, News, project starline, telepresence / DJ Henderson / May 16, 2023

It’s been nearly two years since Google first introduced Project Starline, a telepresence platform designed to facilitate natural-feeling remote communication between two people. While we haven’t heard much about the project, the company recently confirmed it’s still ongoing, recently revealing a more compact and affordable system.

Project Starline was first revealed back at Google I/O 2021, with the goal of making it feel like you’re sitting in front of another person, even though they’re remote. Using a bevy of sensors, a light-field display, spatial audio, and novel compression, Google says it’s able to recreate a very immersive likeness of the person on the other end.

We haven’t heard too much about Project Starline in the intervening years, but last week at Google I/O 2023 we got a small update confirming the project is still ongoing and improving:

The update introduces the latest prototype which shrinks the system somewhat from a large booth to a more streamlined setup that appears to use commodity depth cameras and fewer of them. Google says that makes the latest prototype “more practical,” and says that select companies are trialing the new version.

“Our earlier Project Starline prototypes took up an entire room, requiring complex hardware such as infrared light emitters and special cameras to create a live 3D model of the person you were talking to. While the results were impressive, the size and complexity of the system made it challenging to bring to many of today’s offices,” the company writes in an update on the project. “So for our latest prototype, we developed new AI techniques that only require a few standard cameras to produce higher quality, lifelike 3D images. Thanks to these advancements, our prototype now resembles a more traditional video conferencing system—going from the size of a restaurant booth to a flat-screen TV—that’s more deployable and accessible.”

Despite shrinking things down, Google confirms the system still uses a light-field display which creates a true 3D image without the need for glasses. However we still don’t know much about the specific display being used.

The entire premise behind Project Starline is that representing remote participants more realistically leads to better conversations. To that end the company recently pointed out several studies providing evidence that the system can bring “improved conversation dynamics, reduced video meeting fatigue, and increased attentiveness.”

Google Reveals Latest Project Starline Prototype, Its Light-field Telepresence Platform Read More »

Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo Confident in WWDC Headset Unveiling, 2nd Gen Expected in 2025

Apple, Apple AR, apple mr, apple mr headset, apple reality, apple reality one, apple reality pro, Apple VR, apple vr headset, apple xr, apple xr headset, News / Mike M. / May 16, 2023

Independent tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple’s highly anticipated mixed reality headset is very likely set for its reported Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) unveiling in June. Another generation is also in the pipeline, Kuo maintains, which he suggests may come at some point in 2025.

Kuo, a long-time Apple analyst and respected figure in supply chain leaks, says in a Medium post it’s “highly likely” we’ll see an unveiling at WWDC. This comes despite earlier reports of supply chain delays that would ultimately see the headset launch later this year. He says Apple is “well prepared” for the announcement of the headset, which is rumored to cost $3,000.

Should Apple’s MR headset announcement surpass expectations, Kuo suggests the device will pave the way for a transformative investment trend in the industry, as other makers follow suit to jump on the trend.

A positive announcement at WWDC could be a promising development for the share prices of companies involved in the headset’s production, Kuo maintains. Apart from Luxshare-ICT, which the analyst says has an exclusive assembly agreement for the headset, companies such as Sony (micro-OLED display), TSMC (dual processors), Everwin Precision (primary casing supplier), Cowell (12 camera modules), and Goertek (external power supply) may greatly benefit from their involvements as exclusive component suppliers.

Furthermore, Kuo claims a second-generation Apple headset is expected to go into mass production in 2025, which will be offered in both a high and low-end version.

“Shipments of the 2nd generation in 2025 are expected to be around ten times those of the 1st generation in 2023,” Kuo says in a separate Medium post.

Outside of the avalanche of leaks, and even a brief tweet by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stating Apple’s headset was “so good”, the whole industry is waiting for the June 5th keynote at the company’s annual developer conference. One thing is for sure: whether a hit or miss, however you slice it Apple’s headset will be pivotal for the XR industry as a whole.

Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo Confident in WWDC Headset Unveiling, 2nd Gen Expected in 2025 Read More »

XRHealth Merges With Amelia Virtual Care

Healthcare/Medicine, News, virtual reality / DJ Henderson / May 16, 2023

XRHealth is an enterprising company that combines telehealth with VR gaming for remote physical and occupational therapy solutions. Amelia Virtual Care also pioneers VR telehealth, but prioritizes a different kind of therapy by focusing on mental wellness.

The two companies recently announced a merger. The resulting company will offer both physical and mental therapy through the combined teams, skills, and software of both companies. Eran Orr, current CEO of XRHealth (which will be the name of the new combined company) will remain CEO.

What Amelia Virtual Care Brings to the Table

“We’re thrilled to join forces with XRHealth at a time when clinicians are adopting virtual reality as a mainstream tool for delivering high-quality care and engaging patient experiences,” Xavier Palomer said in a release shared with ARPost.

XRHealth Laptop and external control

Palomer is the founder and current Executive Chairman of Amelia Virtual Care but will pivot to Chief Growth Officer of the new combined company. “While VR is still novel to many patients, it’s a well-proven solution grounded in more than 30 years of research and experience,” said Palomer.

ARPost hadn’t crossed paths with Amelia Virtual Care prior to the merger, but we’re looking forward to seeing all that they bring to the new combined company. Of particular interest, Amelia’s solution incorporated a finger-worn electrodermal response sensor for recording the participant’s galvanic skin response.

Joining Forces With XRHealth

“We’re ready to introduce the XR platform that any hospital and clinic can use,” Orr said in the release. “The merger enables us to offer a one-stop shop to diverse players and streamline the technology in a way that will see XR devices adopted for a variety of treatments, with XRHealth leading the way for the entire industry.”

Eran Orr XRHealth with VR headset — *Eran Orr*

Orr’s company has already achieved a number of significant accomplishments in both the technology and adoption and infrastructure. The Medicare-covered platform runs on a number of devices including Pico headsets and the VIVE Flow. Both headsets offer adoption venues for users as well as different hardware and software capabilities.

“With our merger, we now have an end-to-end product that addresses privacy and security, multiple use cases with a variety of content, compliance and regulation, and operational tools to support scale,” XRHealth co-founder and CTO Miki Levy said in the release. “We have a growing number of content partners today and expect this to increase dramatically after this merger.”

Better Together

Amelia Virtual Care brings its own experts, a different branch of medicine, and some hardware innovations. XRHealth brings greater hardware accessibility, greater patient accessibility, and its own branch of medicine. Between the two, this merger seems like a win for the growing number of individuals pursuing healthcare through VR appointments and practices.

XRHealth Merges With Amelia Virtual Care Read More »

Apple’s Upcoming Headset “so good”, According to Oculus Founder

Apple, Apple AR, apple ar headset, apple mr, apple mr headset, apple reality, apple reality one, apple reality one pro, Apple VR, apple vr headset, apple xr, apple xr headset, News / DJ Henderson / May 15, 2023

Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus who left the company in 2017, appears to have insider knowledge of the upcoming Apple XR headset, which is expected to be unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month. To Luckey, Apple’s hotly awaited entrance into the space is apparently “so good.”

The Apple headset is so good.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) May 14, 2023

Luckey hasn’t quantified his experience beyond this, or even said that his impressions indeed come from a personal demo of Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset, which, like Meta Quest Pro, is thought to be capable of both virtual reality and passthrough augmented reality thanks to outward facing cameras. Whatever the case, the VR pioneer is sufficiently impressed with whatever the fruit company has in store.

Luckey, who founded defense company Anduril after his 2017 Facebook departure, is no stranger to candidly voicing his opinions on headset design. When unicorn AR startup Magic Leap released its ML1 headset in mid-2018, he called it a “tragic heap,” further stating the AR headset was “a tragedy in the classical sense.”

Palmer Lucker donning ML1 | Image courtesy Palmer Luckey

At the time, Magic Leap was just as secretive about its hardware as Apple is today. And Luckey’s opinion was undoubtedly tinged by the company’s self-generated hype which grew in the shadow of that secrecy.

“Magic Leap needed to really blow people away to justify the last few years,” Luckey wrote in his review of the headset. “The product they put out is reasonably solid, but is nowhere close to what they had hyped up, and has several flaws that prevent it from becoming a broadly useful tool for development of AR applications. That is not good for the XR industry.”

Does this mean Apple is actually delivering on the hype and pushing the ball forward with the reported $3,000 headset? Even with an avalanche of patently unverifiable leaks to go on and Luckey’s word, we truly won’t know until that ‘one more thing’ is announced on stage. Then again, you simply never can tell with Apple. We have our calendars marked for the June 5th WWDC keynote, so join us then to find out.

Apple’s Upcoming Headset “so good”, According to Oculus Founder Read More »

Run & Gun Roguelike ‘Dead Hook’ Gets New Gameplay Trailer Alongside Delayed Quest Release Date

dead hook, joy way, News, VR Game / Mike M. / May 13, 2023

Ever-agile VR developer Joy Way announced this week that its upcoming roguelike Dead Hook will be delayed into June, a little more than a month after the previously announced released date. To satiate your appetite in the meantime, a new gameplay trailer shows more about how the game will play.

Joy Way, the studio behind Stride and a slew of other interesting VR games, has released a new gameplay trailer for its latest title, Dead Hook:

The trailer outlines some of the game’s fundamental mechanics, including the ability to quickly navigate the environment by swinging around on chains like a steam-punk Spider-Man. The trailer also shows how weapon upgrades will work, and teases an interesting dual-wielding reloading mechanic that we’re curious to learn more about.

Alongside the release of the gameplay overview, Joy Way announced Dead Hook will now release on June 29th, a little more than a month after it’s previously announced May 18th release date.

The studio actually claims it’s still on track for the original release date, but delayed the game due to “important business reasons, including unforeseen changes in the Meta release calendar.”

While there’s not much of an explanation beyond that, most likely it’s related to the recently announced Meta Quest Gaming Showcase that’s happening on June 1st.

In any case, Joy Way says it will use the additional time for “extra polish and finishing touches, as well as incorporating content that was planned for after the release.”

Run & Gun Roguelike ‘Dead Hook’ Gets New Gameplay Trailer Alongside Delayed Quest Release Date Read More »

‘Hello Neighbor VR’ Coming to All Major Headsets Soon, Gameplay Trailer Here

hello neighbor, hello neighbor vr, hello neighbor vr search and rescue, News, steel wool studios, tinybuild games, VR Game / DJ Henderson / May 12, 2023

tinyBuild Games and Steel Wool Studios announced their upcoming VR take on viral indie hit Hello Neighbor is landing on PSVR 2, Quest 2, and SteamVR headsets later this month.

Update (May 12th, 2023): tinyBuild and Steel Wool revealed Hello Neighbor VR is coming on May 25th to all major VR headsets. Pre-orders are already available on Quest. You can also wishlist on Steam and PSVR.

In the meantime, the studios have released a new gameplay trailer. The original article announcing Hello Neighbor VR follows below:

Original Article (November 7th, 2022): If you haven’t played before, Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game all about sneaking into your neighbor’s house to figure out what horrible secrets he’s hiding in the basement. The neighbor’s AI learns from your every move, so when you find a nice window to habitually climb through, you’ll probably find a bear trap there next go-around.

In franchise’s first VR game, you take on the role of six neighborhood heroes as they “confront their fears to free their friend, who is held captive in a bizarre basement prison,” the studios say.

“You’ll need to learn and master each of their unique abilities to solve puzzles, uncover mysteries, and make it out of the neighbor’s house in one piece, all while trying to avoid capture by the creepy Neighbor himself! Just the thought of it sends our heartbeats racing!”

Here’s how tinyBuild and Steel Wool describe the action:

Multiple playable characters: Switch between characters to outsmart the AI. Each unique character has their own key items and skills. Switch between the perspectives of the Rescue Squad team members at will, solving puzzles and avoiding the Neighbor as you attempt to reach the creepy basement!
Environmental puzzles require creative solutions: You will have to increasingly use your wits to find alternate solutions to a dynamic range of puzzles and challenging environmental obstacles. Many puzzles that may seem unsolvable at first glance require you to use the perspectives of multiple characters in conjunction to overcome them.
Non-linear exploration: Use your own approach to infiltrate Mr. Peterson’s house by alternating perspectives, combining character’s skills to dynamically solve puzzles, uncover hidden mysteries, and reveal new pathways through your environment.
Confront your fears: Experience nightmarish dream sequences and learn more about the secrets of the Hello Neighbor universe!

It’s not clear whether Hello Neighbor VR is simultaneously launching on SteamVR, Quest 2, and PSVR 2, however the game’s Steam page says it’s releasing on February 22nd, 2023. That’s when PSVR 2 is set to launch too.

To create the game, Hello Neighbor developers tinyBuild is working with VR developers Steel Wool Studios, which is best known for the breakout-hit Five Nights at Freddy’s and the VR adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted.

‘Hello Neighbor VR’ Coming to All Major Headsets Soon, Gameplay Trailer Here Read More »

‘Space Invaders: World Defense’ Will Showcase Google’s Newest AR Tool This Summer

AR Game, Google, News, space invaders, space invaders world defense, taito / DJ Henderson / May 12, 2023

Google has announced an upcoming AR game, Space Invaders: World Defense, which is built as a showcase of the company’s latest AR tool.

Over the last few years Google has been steadily working on its AR developer toolset, ARCore. This week at Google IO 2023, the company added a brand new tool to its kit called Geospatial Creator.

Geospatial Creator gives developers the ability to create world-anchored digital content that will appear in the same location for all users. Built on a foundation of both ARCore and 3D data from Google Maps, it’s competes with Niantic’s Lightship AR platform, and is getting integrations for both Unity and Adobe Aero.

To showcase the latest capabilities of ARCore, Google has teamed up with Taito Corporation, the original developer of arcade hit Space Invaders (1978), to build a brand new city-scale AR game called Space Invaders: World Defense.

Planned to launch later this Summer—fittingly aligned with the 45 year anniversary of the original game—Space Invaders: World Defense will purportedly have players “defend the earth from Space Invaders in their neighborhood,” and will “combine AR and 3D gameplay to deliver a fully contextual and highly engaging immersive experience that connects multi-generations of players.”

Sadly we’ve yet to see a glimpse of any real gameplay, so it isn’t clear just how the game will work, but with any luck we’ll eventually find more information from the game’s official website.

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