Tech Trends VR

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

That’s the consensus that seems to emerge from “Top 2020 Trends: Enterprise AR & VR” a report published today by Unity Technologies, where 15 industry experts (yours truly among them) outlined how Mixed Reality (or XR depending on what flavor acronym you favor) will supercharge and transform the world of work. Look no further!

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Trends Unity Study Industry 377

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

More info (FRL Official blog post) More info (Road To VR reporting and commenting the news) More info (Ctrl+Labs’s Dino Game Early Demo) More info (ETH’s experimental wristband). As it had promised on my blog last year , its cool Nreal Light AR glasses have finally arrived in Europe. Image by Microsoft). News worth a mention.

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ARPost

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

See Also: Redefining the Future of Location-Based Entertainment With HTC VIVE Focus 3 and The Park Playground “Virtual reality is often perceived as being limited to the world of gaming. We’re already seeing key metaverse players coming together in the collaboration between Meta and Microsoft.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 13, 2023

I’ve very limited time, but luckily this week has not been very relevant for the ecosystem, so I’m managing to write this newsletter anyway Top news of the week (Image by Microsoft) AltspaceVR shuts down In one of the saddest moments of the latest years in VR, AltspaceVR has closed its doors.

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Ukraine Apple Groups Augmented Reality 343

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Image by Microsoft). Microsoft ramps up distribution of HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure. Microsoft is working to improve the distribution of its latest devices: HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure. HTC Vive celebrates the holidays giving 100% rev share to developers. Other relevant news. Donate to the Ghost Howls on Patreon!

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 24, 2020

You can imagine that after it has been released through two official blog posts, an enormous backlash from the community started to happen. That’s why even Microsoft took Epic’s stances : Microsoft uses UE4 to develop some products also for Apple devices, and this decision hurts also its business. The same on Twitter.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 27, 2020

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). It is in Italian, but basically it says that we’re looking for a Unity dev with preferred experience with VR and/or multiplayer games. You can read the Job description here. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 16, 2020

And if you need some pieces of advice regarding how to professionally survive this quarantine, I have written a blog post on the topic you can read. This means mainly two things: Livestreams and blog posts where the companies make the announcements that they would have made during the event. Unity’s HDRP is now VR-compatible.

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ARVR

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Here are just some of the tech stocks many are looking at right now (in no particular order): Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) For the people who brought you the Hololens 2, probably the most sophisticated pair of mixed reality smart glasses out there to date.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 5, 2021

Microsoft signs a $22B deal with the US Army. We all know that Microsoft is building AR glasses for the US Army : a modified version of HoloLens 2 called IVAS, that is ruggedized, with a wider field of view (80° x 40°), and feature additional sensors (for instance to provide thermal vision). Well played, Microsoft. Learn more.

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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. I’m writing a full editorial on it maybe tomorrow or the day after here on this blog, because there is a lot to talk about. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

The only company not much affected by it is HTC, that manufacturers its headsets in Taiwan and not in Mainland China. HTC Vive releases Cosmos Elite, two models of Vive Pro Eye and creates some confusion. Image by Microsoft). It is clear that the company is aiming at giving it to players before the launch of Half-Life: Alyx.

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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

MARCH 27, 2023

Ok, of course, I’m kidding, but, you know, the possibility of saying the wrong name is so high that my proposal actually starts making sense… Top news of the week (Image by HTC Vive) HTC reveals inside-out-tracked Tracker With a totally unexpected move, HTC has revealed a new kind of Tracker.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 26, 2018

HTC has finally revealed the price of the Vive Pro : it will cost $799 just to have the headset (no controller and no base stations, so you must already have a Vive 1 kit) and will be available for pre-orders since April, 5th. But, as Road To VR has stated, maybe HTC should have clarified that in all its marketing material.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Here below I’m posting for you the best offers I’ve found: for instance, HTC is discounting basically every piece of hardware (including Vive Trackers that can be useful for all the VRChat fans out there), while Pico is offering one of the best deals with €100-worth-of-content given for free with every purchased Pico 4.

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XR for Business Podcast

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Dean: Yeah, I was sort of a traditional newspaper and magazine journalist for a long time, and then, when the web came along and people started podcasting and blogging, I looked around and felt like it was less of a risk to go try something new than it was to stay at a newspaper. I was at the San Jose newspaper at the time. Dean: Yeah.

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XR for Business Podcast

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Dean: Yeah, I was sort of a traditional newspaper and magazine journalist for a long time, and then, when the web came along and people started podcasting and blogging, I looked around and felt like it was less of a risk to go try something new than it was to stay at a newspaper. I was at the San Jose newspaper at the time. Dean: Yeah.

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XR for Business Podcast

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Dean: Yeah, I was sort of a traditional newspaper and magazine journalist for a long time, and then, when the web came along and people started podcasting and blogging, I looked around and felt like it was less of a risk to go try something new than it was to stay at a newspaper. So we're still one of the last, larger independent tech blogs.

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XR for Business Podcast

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Dean: Yeah, I was sort of a traditional newspaper and magazine journalist for a long time, and then, when the web came along and people started podcasting and blogging, I looked around and felt like it was less of a risk to go try something new than it was to stay at a newspaper. I was at the San Jose newspaper at the time. Dean: Yeah.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 2, 2023

More info News worth a mention Information leaks on Vive’s inside-out Tracker There is a new leak about the inside-out tracked Vive Tracker that HTC teased a few months ago. It is also possible to create your custom spaces to use in Mesh either with a no-code editor or by using Unity to create more personalized and complex scenes.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 15, 2018

Today on my blog I’ll host a guest post by Matias Nassi , a great XR developer from Uruguay. We can deploy to a vast of platforms using game engines like Unity, Unreal Engine, the more recent Godot engine or any of the other engines out there, which have all started to add VR features”. You may be saying “Come on!

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 27, 2022

The Metaverse Standards Forum has already gathered many important players of the XR sector like Unity, Unreal Engine, Meta, Microsoft, Lamina 1, NVIDIA, and even other relevant companies like IKEA and Adobe. NVIDIA Blog). Image by HTC Vive). HTC launches Vive Flow Business Edition. News worth a mention. Funny link.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 10, 2022

A Horizon game is coming for this new headset, and some rumors talk also about Half-Life: Alyx potentially be available in the future; HTC has announced the Vive Wrist Tracker, a 6 DOF tracker for the Vive Focus 3. This is why companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta are exploring similar technologies. Metadonation.

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

DECEMBER 22, 2022

Firms such as Virbela, Meta Platforms, ENGAGEXR, Spatial, Arthur, NVIDIA Omniverse, Microsoft, Pico Interactive, Varjo, HTC VIVE, and UPWorlds are all working to build these platforms. These firms have teamed up with Epic Games and Unity — two of the world’s largest gaming engines.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Eye Tracking Apart from sessions a few years ago using the HTC Vive Pro Eye and Microsoft Hololens, I didn’t have any experience with eye tracking. There is a small tab (visible in the image above) that starts a simple Unity-based application, with a series of white and green dots that must be followed by the user.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 20, 2022

I’ve personally met and had a chat with people from Unity and Epic Games, Roblox, The Sandbox, HTC Vive, Microsoft, Rec Room. During the event, I was able to see (in streaming) Mark Zuckerberg live for the first time. There was a keynote by Neal Stephenson. I saw that there were people from Sony Interactive Entertainment.

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Austin Texas Italy Industry 489

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

With a surprise move, Google has announced with a blog post that it ha opensourced completely Cardboard. Microsoft ships HoloLens 2, nReal gets ready to do the same with its glasses. After a long wait, finally Microsoft is shipping its HoloLens 2 headset. HTC is now selling certified refurbished Vive HMDs for $400.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 24, 2022

Image by Microsoft). Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7B. The biggest news of the week has been the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft for $68.7B. With it, Microsoft acquires many popular games like Overwatch, Starcraft, Call of Duty, and even Candy Crush. Other relevant news.

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ARVR

JANUARY 6, 2023

Image credits SCAND Blog Virtual Reality (VR)  — It teleports the user into a completely immersive world that replaces the physical world. Users can use HMD devices such as Google Cardboard, Oculus Quest, Rift or HTC Vive to experience an imaginary environment. Microsoft Hololens is a key player in the MR market.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Today I am very happy to host on my blog Kura Technologies , one of the most interesting augmented reality startups out there. We started talking with other professionals in the field, and they always kept saying to us “If Microsoft can’t do it, how can you do it?”. But we were motivated, so we started studying the problem.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 4, 2023

Because if Apple is just going to repeat the same use cases of the HTC Vive and Meta Quest 2, but selling it at $3000, it is just going to fail spectacularly. This is great news because MRTK 3 introduces better compatibility with Unity standard tools than its previous version. But the big question is the “how”. For what purpose?

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

He wanted to write on my blog his opinion on this device to inform the community and of course I accepted, because I’m more than happy to host another one of his super-detailed articles. The XR2 processor is already used in other products like Meta Quest 2 and HTC Vive XR Elite, making porting of games much simpler.

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

MAY 10, 2023

On the enterprise side, many AR headsets, from firms like RealWear and Microsoft, for on-site usage provide eye and hand-tracking features to optimize workplace operations and communications. In our latest blog post, we explored the rise of hand-tracking technology in VR devices and the price drop of VR headsets that support this feature.

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

AUGUST 3, 2023

On the enterprise side, many AR headsets, from firms like RealWear and Microsoft, for on-site usage provide eye and hand-tracking features to optimize workplace operations and communications. In our latest blog post, we explored the rise of hand-tracking technology in VR devices and the price drop of VR headsets that support this feature.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 4, 2022

I’m sure that after April, 20th, the Meta Quest ecosystem will appear even richer than it is now , creating a wider gap with other companies that may think about competing with the Quest, that is Pico, HTC, and even Apple. Unity talked about PlayStation VR 2 at GDC. Unity had a talk about developing for PlayStation VR 2 at GDC 2022.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 16, 2020

My blog has just turned 4 years old and I’m incredibly happy about it! What is worrisome the most is that it is unclear what will happen to all the other amazing XR projects that Mozilla was managing like the WebXR framework A-frame or the WebXR exporter for Unity. The HTC Cosmos Play will be an enterprise headset.

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