The Ghost Howls

APRIL 27, 2020

Another busy week has passed by, and here in Italy we just got the news that lockdown measures will start to loosen from next week, but the road to go out as we wish is still long. We’re looking for a Unity dev for a freelance gig lasting 1–2 months, ideally from Italy or a nearby country (for easier management).

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 17, 2020

As you can see, it is a hybrid event, a bit like the just organized HTC event that was held simultaneously in Shanghai and on ENGAGE. And then there is the need to coordinate people from Russia, Italy, France and lots of other countries and this is not always easy. You should see it.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 24, 2020

Oculus devices will require a Facebook login. The enormous piece of news of the week is tha t Facebook has communicated that from October, 20th, all people that want to use an Oculus device for personal use will have to use their personal Facebook account to log in. Top news of the week. Image by Tweakanalogy). The same on Twitter.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 10, 2022

All these tools look amazing also for the creation of very realistic VR experiences, but actually, we should hold our enthusiasm: both Nanite and Lumen are not available for VR yet, and Epic has not announced any kind of improvement of the workflow for development for Oculus Quest 2, either. News from partners (and friends).

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

There was (and still is) quite a good hype for these headsets, exactly as there was hype for what was Oculus Santa Cruz, the codename of the Oculus Quest. The Unity Beta to develop for the Vision Pro is still not available, so many devs like me can’t even play with the emulator. If you add VAT, in Italy it will cost €600.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 13, 2022

It has become one of the headset manufacturers with the biggest worldwide market, and the market leader (together with HTC) in the B2B virtual reality sector. Its latest headset, the Pico Neo 3 , was a very good Oculus Quest 2 clone , that also brought some innovations, like the DP Cable to connect it to the PC for a true PCVR experience.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

The shape of the controllers is slightly different than the one of the Oculus Touch, though, and there is a ring that surrounds the wrist of the user. There is also “finger-tracking” a la Valve Index , but just for the thumb, index, and middle finger (so, it is more a la Oculus Touch). Image by Microsoft). As long as it works….

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

To make you understand how these features are incredible, Qualcomm has stated that “the [XR2] reference design has 2x the CPU and GPU performance, 4x more video bandwidth, 6x higher resolution and 11x AI improvement compared to our current widely adopted XR platform [the Oculus Quest ]”. base stations and a 20m fiber cable.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 3, 2019

Mister President launching the Vive Focus (Image by HTC). This year we saw the launch of: Oculus Go ; Lenovo Mirage Solo ; Vive Focus ; Pico Neo / G2 ; S hadow VR; and the announcement of the Oculus Quest. Oculus has been the king of standalones , because it is selling devices at very low prices that offer great content.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 5, 2021

Today in Italy it should be the day when we go pic-nicking… but given the fact that we are in lockdown, I’ll just eat a lot at home While I send you a lot of good vibes, let’s see together what have been the best pieces of AR/VR news of this week, that has been incredibly interesting! (My Other relevant news.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 17, 2021

Image by HTC Vive). HTC launches Vive Focus 3 and Vive Pro 2. In the end, the rumors were correct and HTC launched two headsets at VIVECON: the Vive Pro 2 and the Vive Focus 3 Business Edition. But this device got also some criticism: first of all , HTC has not released new controllers and still sells it with the old Wands.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

I am back in Italy! I’m sure I’ll return there. Going on the stage at an investor event, Qualcomm CEO and President Cristiano Amon has revealed that Oculus Quest 2 (now Meta Quest 2) has sold 10 million units worldwide. During my trip to San Francisco, I was surprised to see in every corner of the city ads about the Oculus Quest.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

From time to time, I like to look at the adoption graph of XR shown by John Riccitiello (the CEO of Unity) in 2017 , where you can see that the real acceleration of immersive technologies should start around 2022-2023. Not to mention the millions spent on marketing , especially in the US (Oculus was one of the sponsors of NBA, for instance).

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 4, 2020

While in Italy we get ready for the “Phase 2” of the lockdown, I write the best AR/VR news of the week just for you! This is why we praise so much the Oculus Quest (1M+ of engaged users) and not the Cardboards (20M devices, almost unused). A rumor about Oculus Go 2.0 Image by HTC Vive). HTC launches Vive Sync.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

If you will be in Italy, please come visiting me! There will be also an associated Oculus Quest game, but it won’t be actually revealed until 2020. HTC is now selling certified refurbished Vive HMDs for $400. HTC has started selling again the OG Vive headset, but this time selling second-hand devices.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

As a long-time AR enthusiast, and one of the first to have tried Google Glass in Italy, I have to admit that I will consider AR mainstream only when it will be on glasses that we will wear all day , when we’ll live in a completely shared mixed reality world (the AR Cloud). The answer is not so trivial.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 8, 2018

The Oculus Go is one of the headsets of the moment : it is the first truly consumer-oriented VR-only device : it is easy to be used, it is cheap and it is (or will) available in the retail shops, so has all the potential to attract people that until now considered VR something too geek. So, where is the truth? The headset.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 14, 2020

Thanks Oculus for having given us the Link functionality. the USB cable for Oculus Link) and the (rechargeable) batteries for the controllers. There are lots of grants around, and here we can participate in some research grants offered by Italy or European Union. It is still a bit buggy, but very useful in these times.

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Road to VR

APRIL 13, 2017

Development is divided evenly across the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift platforms, each accounting for 31% of projects created, with other major VR platforms such as Samsung Gear VR, OSVR, and Daydream rounding out the bottom numbers. VIGAMUS Academy, Italy. image courtesy VR First. University College London, UK.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

I’m still here in the US for some days after having attended AWE, planning to meet some interesting people before heading back to Italy. In a side event happening after AWE, HTC has announced a bunch of updates of Vive Focus 3 that have the potential of revolutionizing the Location Based Entertainment in VR (LBEVR o LBVR) sector.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 25, 2020

The facial interface TACTAL made my HTC Vive more heavy on the front , and being quite thick and rigid, also made the headset slightly more uncomfortable and reduced my field of view. My HTC Vive with installed in the TACTAL facemask. A final mention goes to the fact that now it is summer and here in Italy it is quite hot.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Today is a special day in Italy when families prepare the Christmas Tree, so I decided to publish a very special post that is a big gift to the whole XR community. The name was of course inspired by “The Unity Cube” application (Image by Rob Cole). The Guncube. Two are seen in the image above right. Image by Rob Cole).

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 23, 2020

Jokes apart, before starting, let me send a big hug to all of you that are in quarantine because of the coronavirus and thank all the people that in these days have cared about me after having heard the sad news about Italy (Simon, David, Daniel, Suzie, Mark… John that has been so kind… Sebastian, and many others!). Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

Oculus Quest 2. The biggest announcement of the event has been for sure the Oculus Quest 2, that Facebook has not only revealed but also launched. Oculus Quest 2 is a great piece of technology. Then Oculus will move the whole experience to 90Hz. The magic of the Oculus Quest 2 (Image by Facebook). Specifications.

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