The XR Week Peek (2023.05.08): Quest Gaming Showcase to come on June 1, Zappar shows Zapbox cheap AR headset, and more!
Welcome back to the last completely human-written newsletter that remained on Earth! You can be sure that this article has been entirely crafted by some breathing meat… for the good and the bad.
It’s a few weeks that nothing truly relevant is happening in the XR field: it seems the most interesting articles lately are all about AI… and especially about how AI is going to kill us all. Which is a great way to brighten up my days!
Anyway, I’ve managed to find some interesting pieces of news that you will like, so keep reading and enjoy this new roundup!
Top news of the week
Meta Quest Gaming Showcase is back on June, 1st
The Meta Quest Gaming Showcase is back! On June, 1st, at 10 am PT, Meta is going to stream a presentation with a lot of news about upcoming titles or upgrades of existing titles for the Meta Quest. The event will be presented by Oculus Studios Executive Producer Ruth Bram like last year, but introduce new pre-event and post-event sessions. It will be live-streamed across the company’s various channels, including Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, and Meta Horizon Worlds.
There are two interesting speculations happening about this event. The first one is that since the Gaming Showcase is happening on June, 1st, it seems positioned in a way to make Meta perform some announcements right before the Apple WWDC. Apple WWDC is where the Apple Reality headset may be announced, and it is taking place on June, 5th. I’m wondering if Meta wants to use the Gaming Showcase as an opportunity to tease its Quest 3 headset so that to beat Apple Reality on timing. Honestly, I think no Apple person would be disturbed by a Quest 3 teaser, but still, it could be a way Meta has to keep the pressure high on its main competitor.
The second speculation is about the content that will be announced there. The trailer of the Gaming Showcase shows a helmet that seems coming from Asgard’s Wrath, so maybe during the event, there could be the announcement of Asgard’s Wrath for Quest, or most probably, of a new game for Quest in Asgard’s Wrath realm. We also expect to have news by Ready At Dawn, after the shutdown of Echo VR has created so much turmoil in the community. And of course, something about either GTA San Andreas or Assassin’s Creed VR would be much appreciated.
I’m pretty interested in what will be announced there: last year the event was a bit underwhelming, but this year Meta has to shoot its last bullets before Apple’s announcement, so I bet this event is going to be great. The only problem is that it has been set to happen during AWE, which will be a bummer…
More info (Quest Gaming Showcase — Road To VR)
More info (Quest Gaming Showcase — Upload VR)
More info (Asgard’s Wrath for Quest may be coming)
Other relevant news
Zappar showcases its cheap Zapbox AR headset
Zappar has just hosted its ‘Zapbox Mixed Reality Meetup’, where it gave some lucky innovators a first hands-on session with its cheap Zapbox headset.
Zapbox is basically a plastic cardboard for augmented reality Zappar is working on since many years. Zapbox allows you to use your phone on a specific holder that stays on your head to have screen-through augmented reality always in front of your eyes. A wand with a dedicated pattern on it is used as the 6DOF controller.
Zapbox features a 100° FOV and is going to launch with a Unity SDK to create content for it. The price is going to be very cheap: only £79.99.
While the concept of phone holders is dead for good in VR, there are a few companies that are trying to bring it to augmented reality, exploiting also the fact that true AR headsets (like Magic Leap 2) are very expensive and cost thousands of euros. I don’t think these gadgets will sell millions of units like the Google Cardboards, but for sure they can attract the interest of the community of developers and makers that want to experiment with augmented reality but do not have the money to purchase a headset.
Horizon Worlds adds sharing of photos to Instagram
Meta is rolling out a new feature for its social VR space Horizon Worlds. Using a virtual phone inside the app, users can now shoot photos and videos and directly share them to Instagram and Facebook Stories.
This feature is not new. Pico already implemented it in its concert experiences in China (the ones shot by FXG) and also we of VRROOM implemented something similar in our virtual concert platforms in January. I would be happy to discover that we have been of inspiration to Meta.
I am a big fan of this kind of solution for two reasons. The first is that if people have an easy way to share VR content on traditional social media, all this shared content seen by average people will help in creating more awareness for VR and draw more people into VR. The second is that it shows the true essence of the metaverse, where different social platforms that target different devices communicate the one with the others, creating a bridge between different kinds of users.
The update is still being distributed and I’m curious to see when I will start having the first VR photos shared on my Facebook feed.
There’s been a little big win in making PSVR 2 work on PC
iVRy is a VR expert who is making God’s work to make PSVR 2 work on PC, for the many people that would like to use Sony’s headset on SteamVR. After he said that it was impossible to make this happen, actually he started working on this mission impossible and obtained his first wins.
The first one was connecting the PSVR 2 to a PC (through VirtualLink) and making it recognized as a secondary monitor. The second one, which happened just a few days ago, is that he managed to make the PSVR 2 authenticate on the PC. It means that now the PSVR 2 device recognizes the PC it is connected to as a valid PS5, so is ready to communicate with it. The next step is to crack the communication protocol, that is understand how to send the VR frames from the SteamVR runtime to the headset in the proper way.
I am impressed by what this guy is doing, and I hope we all of the community may support him in making this happen. It would be great for VR enthusiasts owning a PSVR 2 to be able to use it also for PC VR, even if with limited functionalities.
News worth a mention
PCVR’s graphical complexity can be 26x the one on Quest
In a recent interview, Lead Environment Artist for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2, Dana Klaren, talked about the difficulties of creating art for a VR game. There is one particular bit of the interview that struck me. When talking about the hurdles of making a VR game that could run on all platforms, she declared that “The number of polygons we could display on our high-end hardware was about 26 times greater than the number we could display on our low-end”.
Let it sink in: the graphical quality they could have on high-end PC VR systems was 26x the one they could have on Quest. Not 2x or 3x, but 26x. This shows well why it is so difficult to have games with compelling visuals on Quest hardware.
Some news about AI
Some interesting articles about AI I have found this week have been:
- A bunch of posts that stress how artificial intelligence is going to leave us all without a job. IBM has frozen some hires because some job positions will be substituted by AI in the future. In China, companies are already using AI to substitute illustrators. And so on…
- Geoffrey Hinton, one of the godfathers of modern artificial intelligence, has left Google to speak out about the dangers of AI. In his interview, he states how he is worried that AI may manipulate us all using the techniques read inside books like the ones by Machiavelli
- Some countries, like UK, have started investigating the dangers of artificial intelligence and how we can answer to them (Thanks Rob Cole for the tip)
- ChatGPT 4 BETA can now access the web. Considering that one of the biggest limits of ChatGPT was that it was up to date until 2021… this is going to be another big disruption.
More info (IBM pausing 7800 hires)
More info (AI substituting jobs in China)
More info (Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google)
More info (UK investigating the dangers of AI)
More info (ChatGPT 4 accessing the web)
Anything World introduces AI Creator
Talking about artificial intelligence, one of the first companies that talked about the generation of AI content automatically in XR was Anything World. And now the company is back with a new more powerful system, powered by ChatGPT, to let you dynamically create whatever you want around you, by just mentioning it. And I compliment this team for having forecasted the big trend of generative AI years before it happened…
Buy Varjo Aero with a -300$ discount
On Knoxlabs you can find the Varjo Aero at $1690 instead of $1990. If you want a PC VR headset with very crisp visuals, the Varjo Aero may be what you are looking for, and the 300$ discount is not bad at all.
Learn the design behind “Eye Of The Temple”
Eye Of The Temple is an ingenious game that makes you live a fantastic adventure by moving all the time just by using room scale, with some smart tricks to make you stay always inside your play area, even if you have the impression of having walked a long distance. In a long post on Road To VR, its creator Rune Skovbo Johansen explains how he made this possible. A very interesting read if you are into game design.
Ready At Dawn releases Echo Combat for free
With the whole Echo VR ecosystem shutting down soon, Ready At Dawn has decided to set free Echo Combat, the shooting version of Echo VR, which was previously sold as a $10 add-on.
Unluckily, the company has confirmed that the shutdown of the game will be inevitable.
Some news on content
- Upload VR has reviewed Rogue Ascent and was impressed by this FPS roguelike, and especially by its use of hands to control the game
- Upload has also reviewed Propagation Paradise Hotel and praised how this game is very good in keeping a high horror tension the whole time
- Carbon Studio’s new game, Crimen — Mercenary Tales, is coming on May 25 for Quest 2 & Pico
- Thirdverse announced that its upcoming 5v5 multiplayer shooter X8 will launch in Early Access on Steam for PC VR and App Lab for Quest on May, 18
- We Are One, Fast Travel Game’s bind-mending puzzle where you can cooperate with multiple versions of yourself to solve situations, is going to be launched on June, 1st
- Car Detailing Simulator is available now for Quest 2 and Quest Pro, but needs a good round of polish
- Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission VR reignites the Operation Wolf franchise on virtual reality on June, 22
- Phantom Matrix, which brings theatrical puzzles to VR, arrives on July 24, 2023 on PC VR in Steam Early Access
- Flatscreen racing game F1 23 is going to feature VR support, exactly like F1 22
More info (Rogue Ascent)
More info (Propagation: Paradise Hotel)
More info (Crimen — Mercenary Tales)
More info (X8) More info (We Are One)
More info (Car Detailing Simulator)
More info (Operation Wolf)
More info (Phantom Matrix)
More info (F1 23)
Other news
The Sandbox VR has just announced a new game for its LBVR locations: “Seekers of the Shard: Dragonfire”
AR Insider published an interesting article which analyzes the success of Visual Search
Tuvalus still plan to bring all its country to the metaverse, to preserve its culture in case climate change may destroy its islands
Wired analyzes China’s efforts toward a productivity-oriented metaverse
Chris Pruett repeated that the Quest was not originally conceived as a gaming console, but became like that just before its release
News from partners (and friends)
Appear XR secured €880k in funding
Big compliments to Appear XR. The Norwegian company has just raised €880K to keep building its powerful no-code, collaborative design suite that allows both industry veterans and novices to conceptualise and prototype spatial experiences.
Learn more
Discover Neodori Infinity
Commuter Games and Strobetano released the first trailer of Neodori Infinity, a high speed driving game inspired by classics of the past and fully refreshed for VR. The video looks pretty cool and you can already wishlist the game on App Lab.
Learn more
Some XR fun
These graphics look good… on a Gameboy
Funny link
I will probably go to hell for laughing at this
Funny link
Full body VR, generating cringy figures since 2016…
Funny link
Donate for good
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(Header image by Meta)
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