The Ghost Howls

MARCH 15, 2021

Zuck has released an interview to The Information and inside it, we can find the interesting information (pun intended) that now more than 10,000 people are working on AR/VR at Facebook. In September, the new Facebook Avatars will come and substitute the current Oculus avatars. Apple AR headset may have been delayed to 2025.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 17, 2019

Image by Oculus, from Road To VR). John Carmack leaves Oculus. In a surprise move that no one was expecting, the god of programming John Carmack has decided to leave Oculus. More info (John Carmack leaves Oculus) More info (Carmack stating he’s not satisfied with VR pace) More info (Damo9000’s sarcasm on the news).

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 3, 2020

Some time ago, the most important companies of the XR ecosystem (HTC, Oculus, Microsoft, etc…) joined the Khronos Group to discuss a standard to end the fragmentation of the XR space. That is if every company implemented OpenXR, a program built for the Oculus should work with SteamVR as well. Image by Oculus).

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 28, 2023

Today I want to take you on a journey on one of the coolest prototypes I’ve ever worked on, which is about creating Unity applications that can dynamically modify their logic at runtime depending on the user’s needs thanks to generative artificial intelligence. Cubes are easy to do. It got thousands of downloads.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 23, 2019

But now a new report from The Information informs us that it is also building its own operating system for those glasses, and it won’t be based on Android (like most of the operating systems for mobile devices, including standalone headsets), but made entirely custom. This is something we already knew. Other relevant news.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 14, 2023

More info (Samsung prototype headset leaked — Upload VR) More info (Samsung prototype headset leaked — XR Daily News) Other relevant news (Image by Meta Reality Labs) Meta’s first AR glasses will be just for internal use A new report by The Information talks about the AR glasses that Meta is building.

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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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ARVR

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

One-year price performance for MSFT as of 2/3/20 Apple Inc. AAPL) As we previously detailed in depth, Apple has been discreetly working on a number of AR/VR products for several years now and is planning to release its own AR smart glass and AR/VR hybrid headset.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 1, 2020

In the interview with me, he talked about many topics, like the rumors he heard on Apple Glasses, on the Oculus Quest 2 , the America vs China war, XR entrepreneurship, Tesla, and more! But of course, the technology is still not there: the Oculus Quest is still uncomfortable, we can’t read texts in it, and so on.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

This has been a hectic week for the leaks on the upcoming new Oculus Quest Pro device. Marky Z hinted that the device should feature eye and face tracking, and recent findings in Oculus Quest 2 runtime confirm this. I also thank everyone of you that supported me in this journey! Top news of the week. Image from Imgur).

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Eye Tracking Apple Controllers Oculus 284

XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

DECEMBER 9, 2022

The flexible Oculus environment has already become the platform for a range of virtual museum, gallery and concert experiences hosted around the globe. Meta’s Oculus team have already partnered with leading companies like Sony Music to give fans an immersive way to explore music videos and unique content.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 14, 2021

This week we had another report from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, that is said to very reliable in rumors about Apple (even if he only made wrong predictions about Apple Glasses, but this is none of my business). More info (Report by Kuo) More info (Report about Apple Glasses). Apple announces minor XR news at WWDC 2021.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 4, 2022

I want to dedicate this newsletter article to my friend Mathew Olson, who at The Information kickstarted the “Reality Check”, a newsletter about XR which I received 3–4 times a week in my e-mail, and that was very well done. The same luck has not happened to employees at Niantic at Unity. Good luck with your new job, Mathew!

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

I forecast zero surprises related to the launch of this device … it’s the headset for which Meta has revealed the most information before the actual launch, so we already know everything about it. I think this year they will give some more detailed information, and hopefully unveil a codename for the first devkit of next year.

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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. Image by Apple). Apple WWDC is back in June.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

The startup is pretty new, in fact, and its owner group is Megadodo, another unknown company that is working on an MMO game about which is difficult to find any information. While Oculus is getting all the glory for the Quest, its competitors are not sleeping. Notwithstanding all this hate, the Oculus Quest 2 is selling very well.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 26, 2021

Luckily there is 5% of information there that I’ve actually found interesting. He stresses that he wants his metaverse not to be like these ones… but I also have to remember you that currently, Oculus is the most closed VR platform. Image by Facebook). He’s someone that knows well what XR is. These are all problems to be figured out.

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ARPost

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

As pointed out in one of the Unity Developers’ blog posts , aside from the exponential rise of development businesses, we’re also seeing more developer tools, such as the Unity and Unreal engines, becoming more accessible. Once the base becomes big enough, the platform becomes extremely interesting for marketers and advertisers.

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Hypergrid Business

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

Although Unity 3D is undoubtedly the most common and trained standards for developing and deploying augmented and virtual reality application for both beginner or expert developer, it is cannot be employed for developing content for some headsets. You also give 5% of net revenues per quarter although its free to use.

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ARVR

JULY 15, 2020

Apple seems to be cornering the popular entertainment industry, with the acquisition of NextVR, as industry rivals such as Magic Leap focus on enterprise solutions. With the Starboard UI and Apple Glasses release anticipated for Q4 2020/Q1 2021, the world is eagerly awaiting the next generation of extended reality (XR) standards. . #3:

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 1, 2020

They should guarantee better tracking both for the headset and the controllers; The controllers are smaller and seem a mix between the Oculus Touch and the WMR 1 controllers. I don’t see this device stealing the scene from Oculus, since Oculus is cheaper, but I’m quite sure this new headset will be able to grab a good market share.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 14, 2020

The actions coming from the US are not much related to VR and Oculus, but mostly to the social space. This could also mean splitting the Facebook Reality Labs into a separate company (a new Oculus?), In Germany, instead, the legal action regards the mandatory Facebook login for Oculus Quest 2. Oculus Rift S now costs $300.

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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). Some XR fun.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 20, 2020

Last Oculus Quest update shows hints of an Oculus MR ecosystem. Facebook is continuously updating the Oculus Quest , its most successful device, and this week it has rolled out the runtime v16. I think that this update, together with the last ones, marks the beginning of a mixed reality ecosystem that is being built by Oculus.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

And it also makes me super-happy that no one is about Facebook and Apple… I was getting pretty bored in writing newsletters only about these two companies! Oculus is selling refurbished Quest for $199. I have found this information in an article about the topic that I’m sharing with you here below.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Rather than modding existing headsets with extra cameras, Occipital today announced Bridge, its own mobile headset designed for use with Apple’s iPhone 7, 6, and 6s. The engine maps out the area that the user is in, and can then relay that information to virtual objects and characters. So why just iPhone and not other handsets?

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 19, 2021

But don’t let the numbers fool yourself: as Mathew Olson from The Information highlights, “[PwC data] translates to a projected $6.9 This is confirmed also by a previous prediction by the CEO of Unity, which foresees that in 2030 VR headsets will be as popular as gaming console: that is mainstream, but still not as TV, for instance.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

But in China, they are very famous, and now they are also organizing a big event about XR called FBEC with hosts from all the major VR companies (HTC, Unity, Alibaba, Huawei, etc…). Since Meta made the acquisition and took over Oculus, VRTUOLUO began to write original and in-depth articles on the XR industry.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 10, 2022

Image by The Information). New rumors on Apple and Meta devices. I know it may sound weird to you, but we have new rumors on Apple headsets and also about the future Meta Project Cambria and Quest 3. This is why companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta are exploring similar technologies. Other relevant news.

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Upload VR

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Apple Vision Pro is a very impressive fusion of hardware and software, but it's by no means perfect. Apple Vision Pro Specs, Features & Details Apple officially revealed the full Vision Pro specs when opening preorders today. And Apple did not send UploadVR a review unit, we bought our own. But does it deliver?

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 24, 2023

Sorry to inform you about that. But I hope you’ll enjoy this newsletter coming from the world of the undead anyway… Top news of the week (Image by Apple) Apple starts accepting applications for Vision Pro devkits Apple has started accepting applications from interested developers to get a Vision Pro to develop XR experiences.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 13, 2021

It was too early for Unity, but they taught me about C++, C#, Java, OpenCV, OpenGL and other fancy development stuff. In that period, the Oculus DK2 ordered by Gianni arrived, and he told me that I should go to his office to try that device, and my reaction at that time was like “Oculus what??”

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

References found in the Oculus Quest 2 firmware by users Reggy04 and Basti564 highlight how the Quest 2 Pro should have: Eyes tracking Facial expressions tracking Eye relief knob Granular IPD adjustment External charging station. Apple VR headset may feature a 3000PPI microOLED display. Apple Event was not about AR, like, at all.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

In 2015 my girlfriend came with a Cardboard and with no experience with Unity I created my first 360 photo which I’ve shown to my manger. Participants used a wayfinding app on two VR headsets (Oculus Go with a hand controller and Samsung Gear VR), as well as on a smartphone which was the reference condition. No headphones were used.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

Regarding the glasses, I have not big hopes for true AR glasses, but I think that thanks to Facebook and Apple, finally we’ll have some important smartglasses entering the market , making the mainstream think about wearing something on their face to enjoy notifications from the phone. Phone AR will be always more popular.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 6, 2018

I’ve not been able to test it in person, but looking around its users manual, the aGlass DK II seems quite easy to install and also easy to be used as a developer , thanks to its handy Unity and Unreal plugins. Along with human history, eyes have always been used as a receiver, to receive information from the outside world.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

AUGUST 11, 2017

It released with the launch of the HTC Vive in early 2016 and Facebook’s Oculus Touch controllers for Rift late in the year. I appreciate the team sharing this information exclusively with me. “I had a lot of trouble transitioning to Unity and VR, and 3D art I’d avoided for ages,” Sarah Northway said.

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