Extended Reality (XR) - Page 21

The wait is finally over. You can now have more than one user account on your Oculus Quest, and games can be shared between those accounts.

It's now much easier to share your Oculus Quest 2 with family members and close friends. Oculus just rolled out an early version of the Multi-User feature for the Quest platform. With the latest Quest 2 update, you can find the new option in the headset settings' Experimental Features section.

Quest's Multi-User feature allows up to three accounts in addition to the admin account to log into Quest 2 headsets. The admin user retains ownership of the hardware, while the extra users can access the content installed on the headset with a new App Sharing feature. Admin account holders can share content with additional users, but other users can't share their content on a headset they don't own.

Manus today revealed the Manus Pro Tracker, a SteamVR tracking puck for the enterprise market. These will be the third option for SteamVR tracking puck on the market this year.

The Manus Pro Tracker is a lot like the HTC Vive Trackers, which have been on the market for several years, but with an improved industrial design more suited to professional use cases.

The new Manus Pro Trackers are smaller than the Vive Trackers, and Manus said they weigh 40% less than Vive Trackers. The reduced weight helps to increase mounting stability, which in turn increases tracking accuracy.

Striker VR, a company that makes VR peripherals for VR arcades, revealed that it would be bringing its arcade technology to the consumer market with an updated device build for home use.

Striker VR's VR gun peripheral is an interactive accessory that offers increased immersion in shooter games thanks to its haptic recoil mechanism. The haptic system can simulate a variety of weapons, from standard rifles to futuristic energy weapons. The consumer version features a unique shape that looks like it could be suitable for more than just shooting games.

The concept images the Road to VR received from Striker depict a trapezoid-shaped object with a trigger grip in the center. A grip for your second hand can be found on the front, along with a trackpad on either side of the barrel. There also appears to be an extra button above the trigger grip.

Apple really is getting serious about AR and VR. Rumours about its upcoming AR/VR headset have been circling the internet since the beginning of the month, and now there are a few dozen AR/VR job postings on Apple's website.

Apple is currently looking to beef up its AR/VR team. The company is seeking a handful of software developers and hardware engineers with AR/VR experience in various disciplines, including software engineers, system UI engineers, video and 3D professionals, and audio software engineers.

Apple is also looking to fill a pair of marketing roles for the AR/VR division, including an art director position and a creative technologist position.

It seems like Apple is getting serious about moving into the world of XR. The latest round of news shows that the headset that Apple is developing will have extremely high-end features. Rumor has it the device will have dual 8K displays, eye tracking, passthrough cameras, and more than a dozen sensors to track the world your hands and other movements.

Apple has been very bullish about augmented reality, but it has been very quiet about virtual reality. Tim Cook has said in the past that he believes that virtual reality won't be as popular as augmented reality, and that isn't as useful. The latest leaks suggest that the company is likely working on a virtual reality headset as well, and it would likely be the first XR headset that Apple releases.

Don't get too excited about Apple taking over the VR industry, though. Rumor has it this headset won't be cheap, with suggestions of a $3000 price tag for the device. It won't compete in the consumer space at that price, but it would be right in line with enterprise-level hardware.

Oculus today introduced App Lab, a new way to distribute games for the Oculus quest. People will no longer be restricted to purchasing games in the Oculus store. The company is now offering official access to third-party distribution.

When Oculus launched the quest platform, it wanted to cater to newcomers to virtual reality, and part of its strategy was to make sure all content on the platform was of high calibre. Many games were denied access to the Oculus Store for not meeting the company's standards. Today, there are far more users on the Quest platform, and they often want to explore new software beyond Oculus's curated platform.

From this point forward, developers can distribute content that's not in the Oculus Store without requiring side loading. Now they can send a link or a product key to distribute games that don't meet Oculus standards.

Oculus today announced that there are over 60 games That have generated more than $1,000,000 in sales to date, with most of them making far more than 1,000,000.

Oculus launched the quest platform in 2019, and since then, the company has sold multiple million quest headsets. Quest 2 is selling exceptionally well, and so is the software that goes along with it. Many developers have announced that they have made huge sales, including the developers of Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, which hit the $1,000,000 mark in just over a week and Onward, which hit that same number in four days.

Onward has since gone on to bring in more than $10 million of revenue from the Oculus Quest platform alone.

Facebook is getting a lot more serious about its VR investment. The company just released its quarterly earnings call, and it had some news to share about the VR business. The Quest 2 is selling very well, but there's another headset in development.

Facebook released the Quest 2 in October 2020, and the device has been selling very well. Facebook never talks directly about sales numbers of its VR devices, but Mark Zuckerberg said the Quest 2 "is on track to becoming the first mainstream virtual reality headset."

Oculus falls under the "other" category in Facebook's revenue figures, which grew significantly over the last year. The last quarter of 2019 brought in $346 million, whereas, in 2020, Facebook's "other" revenue topped $885 million. It's unclear what else falls in that category, but it's a safe bet that Quest 2 and its content drive the lion's share of that revenue increase.

Technology is beginning to turn reality into science fiction. Valve is working on brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that will be available soon, and Gabe Newell said it would allow you to edit your mood.

If you thought virtual reality and augmented reality were science fiction technologies, wait until you try a BCI system that allows software to interact directly with your brain. If this sounds like science fiction to you, I've got surprising news for you: this technology exists in research laboratories today, and it's not far away from becoming a consumer product.

Gabe Newell recently sat down with 1 News in New Zealand to discuss his company's work in the BCI space, and what he said may shock you. Newell explained that BCI technology would enable you to alter your personality as you see fit. Software developers will be able to create applications that can change your mood to your liking, such as dialling up your motivation when you're having an off day. Newell expects that one of the earliest applications would be a sleep-improvement tool that ensures you get proper REM sleep and that you sleep for set durations.

HTC today announced that it made several improvements to the software that powers the Vive Cosmos headset. The company said the recent updates free up CPU cycles and unlock more performance from your GPU.

HTC didn't have any new hardware announcements last week at CES, but the company has recently dropped some software updates for the Vive Cosmos headset that should improve your VR experience.

The Vive Cosmos is now compatible with DirectX 12 on NVIDIA GPUs. The change won't impact graphics performance, but HTC said that the shift lowers the CPU load by 15-20%. HTC also made some changes that reduce frame latency by as much as 10%.

SenseGlove recently announced SenseGlove Nova, a haptic force-feedback glove targeted for enterprise-level virtual reality simulations. These gloves let you grab virtual objects and feel them as if they were physical objects to give you a more profound sense of realism in training simulations.

The SenseGlove Nova features vibration motors to give you a tactile feeling when you touch something, kind of like what you get in a typical gamepad or VR controller. The Novo gloves also include a mechanical system that gives you physical resistance when you try to hold onto something virtual, like a doorknob or a tool.

This type of technology is hugely important in the enterprise simulation world, where the level of realism has a meaningful effect on the value of the user's training. When you're trying to learn how to complete a dangerous task, such as maintenance on a gas pipeline, working with explosives in a mine, or trying to perfect a surgical procedure, the more accurate you need the experience to be.

Apple is reportedly working on a standalone virtual reality headset that it could launch as early as next year. The upcoming device could also offer passthrough AR capabilities.

According to a report from Bloomberg citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the projects, Apple is currently working on two different types of immersive headset. It's no secret that Apple has been tinkering with augmented reality behind closed doors, with rumours of Apple AR glasses circulative for several years now. Tim Cook has also gone on record with his belief that augmented reality has great potential.

Apple has never been bullish on virtual reality, but this new report suggests that's where the company will start. The reported headset would be a standalone device with internal computing powers. Bloomberg's source said that Apple is testing hardware that is more powerful than the new M1 processor powers it's new Macbook computers.

Oculus has begun informing developers that it would be rolling out two of the Quest's most highly requested features in February. Soon you'll be able to have multiple users on your Quest 2 and share games between accounts.

Oculus announced on its developer blog that multi-user accounts and app sharing would begin to roll out to Quest 2 owners as early as next month. The initial rollout will come through as an experimental feature update for Quest 2 that owners would need to opt-in for. The update will be available for all Quest owners in a future update.

The developer blog post reveals several details about multi-user accounts, including what developers should expect from the new update. The blog explains that the headset's primary user would have to authorize additional accounts for the headset, and they could invite up to three other users to use the headset. Those users would need to log in with their own Facebook accounts.

Facebook is currently facing considerable backlash over the decision to merge Oculus and Facebook accounts. The company has been met with criticism from past Oculus users, would-be Oculus users, and critics alike. It's even dealing with a lawsuit from the German government over the move. And yet, the company has remained steadfast in its decision and has yet to waver.

Facebook has recently dealt with a mass exodus of Whatsapp users after a change to its privacy policy. Given the backlash, one Twitter user called Diggie sent John Carmack a question regarding a possible shift in user account policies. Also noting that unlike Whatsapp users who can go to Signal or Telegram, VR fans don't have an alternative to flock to.

Carmack took the time to respond to Diggie directly, but the answer will surely disappoint many. He reiterated that Facebook login is here to stay, adding that it could take a decade to gain public trust about security.

Panasonic today revealed an updated version of its VR Glasses prototype. The VR Glasses are a compact tethered VR device for use with your smartphone or PC.

Panasonic first showed off its VR Glasses design last year at CES 2020, and this year the headset is back at the show but with a few updates compared to the old one. First and foremost, the newest version includes a pair of 2.6K micro-OLED panels for Kopin, which now offer HDR color support. The VR Glasses also include built-in earbuds, so you don't need to fiddle with an extra pair of headphones.

The Panasonic VR Glasses are so named for their unique industrial design. Unlike other VR headsets, the VR glasses don't have one large compartment for the screen, optics, and electronics. The VR Glasses have two small capsules that house the components for each eye separately. The optics include IPD adjustment, which is the distance between your pupils. It also supports diopter adjustment, which means you can move the lenses towards or away from your eyes.

Patents for new Samsung headsets have surfaced in Europe. The patent documents include illustrations and renderings of two headsets, including one that looks like bug-eyes. They also include renderings for custom motion controllers.

Samsung has had its toes in the VR space since the very beginning of the consumer VR market, but it tends to have one toe in the water at a time. In the early days of this industry, Samsung partnered with Oculus to launch the GearVR smartphone-based VR headsets. The company later partnered with Microsoft to launch a Windows Mixed Reality headset called the Odyssey, and subsequently the Odyssey+.

The Odyssey+ WMR headset has been on the market for a couple of years now, and it's about due for a replacement. These new designs may point to Samsung doubling down on its VR offering soon.

Lenovo has a big announcement in the XR space this week at CES. The company revealed a lightweight, compact pair of Smartglasses for the business market.

The ThinkReality A3 glasses are the successor to Lenovo's ThinkReality A6 headset. The smart glasses are a much more compact design than the outgoing headset. The A3 resembles a typical pair of glasses, but they come equipped with technology to help make your workday more productive.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 mobile SoC powers the ThinkReality A3 glasses. The glasses include an 8MP 1080p camera for VPV video capture, and dual 1080p displays for viewing content. The A3 smartglasses also have dual fish-eye lenses used for spatial tracking.

Nightdive Studios is currently remastering System Shock 2, and the developer just revealed that it's building VR support into the remake of the game. The current state of the game's development is unclear, but the company shared a brief clip of a the game running with motion control support.

System Shock 2 was one of the scariest games that I remember playing when I was a kid, and I was very excited to hear the game would be re-released. Now that it's getting VR support, I'm a little bit nervous even to play it. Fighting off mutants with a pipe wrench was scary enough with a mouse a keyboard. A fully immersive version will be pretty intense.

There's no word on when the game will be available to play in VR, but we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we know.

John Carmack revealed on Twitter that Oculus is planning to do monthly software updates for the Quest platform. The company is looking for feedback from users to help Oculus prioritize update rollouts.

In a Tweet poster this morning, Carmack revealed that Oculus is "making it a priority in the near year to engage a lot more with the Quest User Voice." If you own an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 headset, Oculus wants to hear your thoughts about the platform and what you would like to see improved or changed.

The company plans to use the feedback to roll out regular updates for Quest headsets, which would include future software features. This is your chance to suggest a new Quest feature.

Hitman 3 is just around the corner, and with it, you'll be able to experience the immersive world of the Hitman in first-person virtual reality. Not only the third game, but the whole trilogy is playable in VR.

IO Interactive is gearing up for the launch of Hitman 3 on January 20; the company dropped a trailer to build hype for the game. We've already seen the game in action at 4K, with its beautiful graphics upgrades, but shiny graphics only take you so far. The PSVR experience looks like the ultimate upgrade for the Hitman series.

In the trailer, IO Interactive said that "You've never experienced [Hitman] like this. It's personal. Tactile. Real." Hitman 3 supports VR throughout the entire open sandbox game, and the title includes remastered versions of Hitman and Hitman 2, which you can also play in full on PSVR.