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This Week In XR: Epic’s Unreal Metaverse, New Apple AR Glass Rumors, Spatial Goes Free

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Epic revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a real-time demo running on a PlayStation 5. The demo video speaks for itself but includes film-asset level graphics, a realistic real-time lighting system, dynamic animation and particle systems, and more. Unreal Engine 5 is slated to release next year and current Unreal Engine 4 projects will be able to migrate to the new engine. In addition, Epic announced new royalties terms whereby the first $1 million dollars of revenue is waived for game studios using the engine.

Epic also announced the launch of Epic Online Services. The same backbone behind the multi-platform multiplayer hit Fortnite is now available for all Unreal developers. A concert in Finland just attracted over one million simultaneous avatars.

Apple AR glasses rumored to have 5G and look like a regular fashionable pair of glasses. The invite recently sent out for WWDC this June had a Memoji wearing glasses on it, creating speculation that we may see official news about the mysterious eyewear this year.

Spatial just launched on the Quest, added on click invites, and is now free on all platforms. The ambitious start up is going long, hoping to be the Zoom of spatial collaboration. Step one. Free. Get the dogs eating the dog food. Step two. Introduce a premium layer for enterprise users. Step three. Rapid iteration, more better features.

The Wild hosting VR/AR Global Student Design Competition. The design challenge for students this year is to “design a space that encourages digital socialization or innovative social distancing. This design could be the future workplace, an office, a public space, a lobby, entryway, a room or building using smart technology, or another utilitarian design idea.” Applications for the competition are due May 20th and can be submitted here on The Wild’s website.  

USC Games Expo had over 80,000 views on Tuesday this week. The expo highlights student-made games from USC, and included appearances by a few game and entertainment industry celebrities. The online format was new to this year’s expo but succeeded, having over 5000 concurrent live viewers at its peak. The 50 student made games are all available for free on the USC Games Expo website.

The Under Presents is a VR experience that features characters puppeteered by real actors. The game itself is playable alone and features a sleuth of characters and experiences. But the interesting bit is when the game becomes immersive theatre and live actors begin piloting the characters. Players can experience the live actors by hopping into the game every Friday for two hours starting at 5PM pacific time through the month of May. 

Tetris Effect launches on Oculus Quest. The award winning game, which blends the timeless classic of Tetris with psychedelic visuals only possible in VR, was originally only available on PSVR. Now Quest owners can purchase the game for $29.99.

Samsung XR announces it is ending service for its XR applications across the web, mobile, and headsets.

What we’re reading:

It’s Cool to Look Terrifying (in AR) on Pandemic Instagram

5 things you need to know before designing 3D models for AR

Snapchat’s AR Pillars

“This Week In XR” is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.

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