resident evil 8 vr

The XR Week Peek (2022.06.06): Sony announces four games for PSVR 2, and Apple today…

Hello all from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, the small town of the Barcelona airport. In the long and troublesome travel back to Italy from AWE, I’ve lost the last flight and so I’m currently here writing my newsletter from the lobby of the hotel where I spent the night :|. Eh, the adventurous life of the XR blogger…
 
 As you may imagine, I’m quite tired, so this newsletter will feature less commentary of mine. Thank you for your understanding and support!

Top news of the week

(Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment)

PlayStation announces four games for PSVR 2

At its State Of Play event, Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced four titles for the upcoming PSVR 2 headset:

  • Resident Evil 8 VR, which was what we all RE fans were waiting for
  • Horizon: Call Of The Mountain, which will be a full game, accompanied by a lightweight experience to introduce VR newbies to the technology
  • The Walking Dead: Saint And Sinners 2
  • No Man’s Sky

Furthermore, when the remastered version of Resident Evil 4 has been announced, Sony stated that some VR-related content will be released for it (but it is not clear what).
 
 As you can see from the list, Sony is going to bring great titles with its new upcoming VR headset, and this will probably make sure that this headset will be successful, exactly as it happened with the first one.
 
 There are still no words on the release date of the device, but rumors about a Q1 2023 release window are intensifying.

More info (Resident Evil 8 for PSVR 2)
More info (Horizon Call Of The Mountain for PSVR 2)
More info (Horizon will be a full game)
More info (The Walking Dead for PSVR 2)
More info (No Man’s Sky for PSVR 2)
More info (Resident Evil 4 will feature VR content)
More info (Kuo predicts a 2023 release for PSVR 2)
More info (Game announcements make us speculate a 2023 release date for PSVR 2)

Other relevant news

(Image from the web)

Apple WWDC may reveal something about Apple’s upcoming headset

Today is the day of the Apple WWDC event and maybe we can have more info about its upcoming headset. A full reveal (or even a launch) is unlikely but not completely excluded. Anyway, it is more probable that we’ll have some software reveal that hints at Apple’s XR strategy. For instance, Apple may reveal its upcoming RealityOS operating system, a new development environment for glasses, or new ARKit features that are meant for glass development. I am almost sure we’ll hear something about it.
 
 In the meanwhile, Apple is reportedly working on securing interesting content for its upcoming headset. We all remember its acquisition of NextVR, and now it seems that it is also partnering with top-notch Hollywood directors (including Jon Favreau) to have movies and experiences for the new headset. I remember Robert Scoble mentioning that Apple may propose its headset as a content-consumption device and not a gaming device, and this leak seems to confirm his theory.
 
 I’ll be on a plane when the event will be held, so please be disappointed in my place of the fact that no headset has been announced!

More info (Apple partnering with Hollywood directors)
More info (Predictions for Apple at WWDC — The Verge)
More info (Predictions for Apple at WWDC — Bloomberg)

More info on Cambria leaks out

Youtuber SadlyItsBradley got new info about the upcoming Project Cambria headset. First of all, he got some CAD files about it, and from those, it is possible to see that the device includes two front tracking cameras, one RGB camera to colorize the passthrough of the tracking cameras and a depth sensor that may help with scene understanding and hands tracking.
 
 He also leaked a few specs:

  • 2,160 x 2,160 MiniLED Backlit LCD Panels (2)
  • Custom Pancake Lenses (2)
  • 16MP Color Camera for Color Passthrough
  • Eye + Face Tracking (IR Camera-based)
  • Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 1 SoC
  • 12GB LPDDR5 RAM
  • 256GB SSD
  • WiFi 6E Support
  • ~5000 mAh battery

As you can see, resolution and FOV are not a huge improvement from the Quest 2, but all the rest may make a difference (hopefully). According to some rumors, this device should have been just a Quest 2 Pro, but the rumors on the Apple headset forced Meta to create something that may compete with it and Mark Zuckerberg pushed for a release date that may come before Apple’s device, even if the device could have been better by waiting a bit.

More info (Leaks on upcoming Project Cambria)
More info (Rumors on Zuckerberg pushing for Cambria’s release)

AWE has brought with it XR demos and news

This has been the week of AWE in Santa Clara (USA). There have been many announcements at the event: no one of them has been game-changing for the industry, but they overall show where the XR ecosystem is headed. Probably the biggest of them has been Qualcomm announcing the public release of Snapdragon Spaces SDK and its related hardware DK.
 
 The Unity CEO opened the event with a keynote where he defined the word “metaverse” and stated that XR devices should reach similar distribution numbers of game consoles in the next 5 years (this means they won’t reach the volumes of smartphones anytime soon).
 
 There I have tried some interesting devices like Weart haptic gloves, OWO haptic suit, but especially the Magic Leap 2, which I found to be a very well-made piece of hardware! I’ve also been a speaker, and if you want to see my talk about how to do an interesting VR event, you can find it in the great article about the first day of AWE by Cecilia Lascialfari.
 
 I also had a great time there, and meeting all the people of the XR communities was amazing! I always say that: AWE’s killer feature is “people”, and it is worth attending the event even only for all the people you hug in the corridors. Thanks to all of you that were there for having made my time so special!

More info (All news from AWE 2022, summarized by Tom FFiske)
More info (Qualcomm announces public availability of Spaces)
More info (Looking Glass announces Blocks cross-platform holograms)
More info (Unity CEO performs its keynote about the metaverse at AWE 2022)
More info (My review of Weart haptic glove)
More info (My review of Magic Leap 2 glasses)
More info (My review of OWO haptic vest)
More info (Article inside which you can find my speech at AWE)

News worth a mention

(Image from OpenBCI)

OpenBCI and Varjo announce Galea

OpenBCI and Varjo have announced Galea, a modified version of Varjo Aero that includes BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) sensors. Galea has been studied to become the gold standard for BCIs in VR, but this comes together with the gold price of $22,500.

More info (Galea on Road To VR)
More info (Galea on my blog The Ghost Howls)

Pimax and Skyworth announce new VR headsets

Two companies that have struggled in releasing polished headsets have announced their new products.
 
 Pimax has announced Crystal, a new headset aimed at competing with Varjo Aero. Priced at $1900, it offers a headset that can act both as a standalone and a PCVR device and that features a good field of view and a high 2,880 × 2,880 per-eye resolution.
 
 Skyworth instead has announced its new standalone, featuring pancake lenses, 90hz refresh rate, and 1500ppi pixel density. It looks like a Cambria competitor.

More info (Pimax Crystal — Road To VR)
More info (Pimax Crystal — Upload VR)
More info (Skyworth VR)

The Decagear website is down

The website of the Decagear is down. Considering the difficulties the company was having, is this a sign the project is shutting down?

More info

Gates01 is a new interesting VR treadmill

At a STEPVR event, a Chinese company has showcased GATES01, a new type of VR treadmill where the user can walk in all directions in a natural way. It looks like the Infinadeck, but much less bulky. I’m interested to know more about it…

More info (GATES01 Headset)
More info (GATES01 Treadmill)

Meta has just released Room Setup SDK

In the latest Oculus SDK, Meta has included Room Setup functionalities. It means that now developers can create applications that are aware of the position of desks, furniture, and walls in the environment they run in. To help developers in understanding the potentialities of this feature, Meta has also released the sample app The World Beyond on App Lab.

More info (Quest Room Setup in the latest Oculus SDK)
More info (The World Beyond)

Some news on content

  • We have now a gameplay trailer of “Ziggy’s Cosmic Adventures”, which looks like Job Simulator in space
  • Upload VR has gone hands-on with Ruinsmagus and liked it a lot
  • Stride is going to exit early access. This is the first time a game by JoyWay makes this step, a sign that the studio is gaining some reliability
  • Blockstar is a game that looks like a mix of a shooter and a brick breaker

More info (Ziggy’s Cosmic Adventures)
More info (Ruinsmagus)
More info (Stride)
More info (Blockstar)

Other news

Andrew Bosworth explains why Meta doesn’t seem interested in expanding the FOV of its headsets

Learn more

Many XR companies have contracts with the army or the intelligence, even if they publicly don’t speak about it

Learn more

The Upload Showcase is starting on June, 9th. I expect many interesting pieces of news on XR games from there!

Learn more

News from partners (and friends)

Join the Mixed Contest

German publication Mixed has organized a contest of VR apps with interesting prizes! If you are a content creator, consider submitting your experience here! Learn more

Some XR fun

I can understand the transition from Oculus Quest to Meta Quest… but this one is too much!
Funny link

Tonight at WWDC
Funny link

Donate for good

Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate for my blog, but to the poor people that are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
 
 Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:

  • DeoVR
  • Raghu Bathina
  • GenVR
  • Eduardo Siman
  • Jonn Fredericks
  • Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
  • Reynaldo T Zabala
  • Richard Penny
  • Terry xR. Schussler
  • Ilias Kapouranis
  • Michael Bruce
  • Paolo Leoncini
  • Immersive.international
  • Bob Fine
  • Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
  • Jake Rubin
  • Alexis Huille
  • Jennifer Granger
  • Jason Moore
  • Steve Biggs
  • Niels Bogerd
  • Julio Cesar Bolivar
  • Jan Schroeder
  • Kai Curtis
  • Francesco Strada
  • Sikaar Keita
  • Ramin Assadollahi
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  • Tracey Wong
  • Matthew Allen Fisher
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  • Andrew Deutsch
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  • Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
  • Eloi Gerard
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  • Sb
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  • Alan Smithson
  • Steve R
  • Brentwahn
  • Simplex
  • Matias Nassi

And now here you are the link to donate:

Support The Red Cross in Ukraine

(Header image by Capcom)


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