Tomorrow, Meta and Ready at Dawn are shutting down Echo VR, the free-to-play game that helped pioneer VR sports. Get in now before they pull the plug.
Apple Vision Pro is coming next year, not only making for the Fruit Company’s much awaited first XR headset, but also spurring a resurgence in public interest (and likely investment) in the XR space. At $3,500, Vision Pro is undoubtedly an expensive steppingstone to the company’s future augmented reality ambitions, but even if it’s ostensibly ignoring virtual reality in the meantime, it probably won’t forever.
Smilegate announced that the Crossfire universe’s first VR game, Crossfire: Sierra Squad, is coming to PSVR 2 and SteamVR headsets next month.
Among Us VR (2022), the standalone VR version of the hit party game, just got a new map called Polus Point.
Meta’s latest quarterly results show its Reality Labs XR division is again reporting an operating loss just south of $4 billion. Now, for its Q2 2023 results, the company says Reality Labs’ revenue was down by 39% due to lower Quest 2 sales, making for the worst quarterly performance in the past two years.
Industry Direct by Varjo
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As VR/XR technologies evolve, developing immersive applications is becoming significantly more feasible and filled with new possibilities. There has never been more opportunity for pioneering new content and solutions that can significantly contribute to the VR/XR landscape.
Varjo is dedicated to supporting developers in their journey to create impactful immersive content for end users. Varjo’s new Developer Discount Program offers significant benefits to developers and content studios at the forefront of the industry. Until July 31st, developers are invited to apply to the program as individuals or on behalf of their organization to access substantial discounts and free setup support for all Varjo headsets and services.
Shaping content with Varjo opens the door to a new world of possibilities. Mixed reality has already carved a niche for itself across various industries worldwide, serving as an invaluable tool to design, build, and train with unmatched efficiency and realism. Next, we’ll explore different advanced features in mixed reality applications and learn how various organizations are harnessing the power of XR on a daily basis.
Are you developing content with Varjo? Join our Discord community to stay informed and gain new insights.
With mixed reality masking, you can use any virtual object in your scene (plane, cube or complex mesh) to act as a “window” into the real world. This is especially useful if you want to bring real-world elements, such as instruments or controller devices into the virtual environment through one or many “windows”. For example, in flight simulation use cases, you can display a virtual flight scenario outside the cockpit, while simultaneously showing the real-life cockpit and the physical controls to the user.
Chroma keying involves removing a specific color (usually green or blue) from the background to overlay one image or video onto another. It enables high precision occlusion of virtual objects by real objects and is particularly useful in scenarios where accurate visibility of real objects is essential. Chroma keying can be applied to any VR application on the Varjo headset without modifying the code, making it versatile for various applications like racing setups, flight or driving simulation, training rooms, and much more.
Varjo XR-3 has the capability to use the video pass-through camera feed to create lighting conditions and reflections that match those in your current real-world location. This is extremely useful when blending virtual content with the real world, making the scene appear more natural and realistic. One practical application of this are design use cases, such as automotive or interior design, where digital objects should match their real world equivalents as accurately as possible.
Hand tracking allows you to interact in virtual and mixed reality environments without separate controllers. With hand tracking, you use your hands to control the virtual environment just as you would interact with the physical world. Varjo XR-3 and VR-3 headsets come with integrated Ultraleap hand tracking technology.
Varjo headsets also feature the fastest and most accurate integrated eye tracking at 200 Hz. Eye tracking allows recording and studying eye movements in virtual and mixed reality applications. It is used widely in different kinds of research and training to examine where the headset user is looking.
Did you know that you can already run multiple Varjo applications simultaneously? Varjo’s Multiapp feature allows users to simultaneously run multiple applications, each potentially utilizing different engines or image generators. This enables unique combinations, like using one application to render terrain and another for cockpit details or hand-tracking. Additionally, a second non-rendering application can access data, such as eye-tracking information, while another app handles the visual output.
▸ Interested in learning more? Read the full blog post at Varjo.com
Meta announced it’s introducing new anti-piracy measures for Quest developers that the company says will protect VR apps from “unauthorized modifications and potential security breaches.”
The PlayStation Store has a growing number of games built specifically (or optimized) for PSVR 2, although there aren’t a ton of educational apps yet that you might use to get a better understanding of complex subjects like the human body. Now the creators of Human Anatomy VR have released their medical educational tool on PSVR 2.
Apple has now opened applications for Vision Pro developer kits, which it’s sending out to app developers in effort to kickstart its first XR-specific App Store.
Sony released a peek into the prototyping stages that led to PSVR 2, showing off a number of test units for both the headset and controllers.
As far as VR treadmills go, Virtuix is the OG. While the company had set out to make a consumer VR treadmill a decade ago, market realities pushed the company into the out-of-home VR attraction space. But after all these years the company remains dead-set on selling a VR treadmill to consumers, and this time around it’s taking an all-in-one approach with the new Virtuix Omni One. I visited the company’s Austin, Texas headquarters to try it for myself.
It seems we’re closer to seeing a viable workaround that could allow PSVR 2 owners to play PC VR games. iVRy, the most promising project dedicated to the task, is making good headway by unlocking the headset’s outer cameras for room-scale tracking.
According to a recent report from The Information, Meta is allegedly spinning down Quest Pro alongside a broader move to cancel the future ‘Pro’ line of XR hardware altogether. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth says however, “don’t believe everything you read.”
Meta’s hand-tracking has improved by leaps and bounds since we first saw it on the original Quest in 2019, but as Apple serves up stiff competition with its upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset, Meta tossed out a new hand-tracking demo that shows off the benefits of its latest software update.
Earlier this year, Google announced an upcoming AR game, Space Invaders: World Defense, which is built as a showcase of the company’s latest AR tool. Now you can jump in and shoot down some of the game’s iconic block-shaped aliens yourself.
Google and developer Taito have launched Space Invaders: World Defense, releasing both on Android and iOS devices. The game’s titular space invaders spawn from buildings and rooftops, hide behind structures and hover in the sky, so make sure to play outside.
The studios also tossed out a new launch video, embedded below this update.
Developer Taito has offered up a first real glimpse of Space Invaders: World Defense.
The game is now available for pre-registration on the Google Play Store (and “coming soon” to the Apple App Store), but still doesn’t offer too many details on exactly how the game will work beyond pointing and zapping floating enemies.
SPACE INVADERS have returned to conquer the world, this time from a different dimension. Join the World Defense team to find, and defeat SPACE INVADERS in your neighborhood. As a member of the elite pilot force, you’ll defend your area from invasion in a first-of-its-kind immersive game experience. Engage in missions across dimensions from Augmented Reality to the parallel Invader world. Success will earn you a spot on the High Scores as well as special bonuses and power ups.
To be fair, building compelling AR gameplay that happens through a phone screen is tough. But games like this will have the opportunity to really flourish as head-worn AR devices begin to proliferate.
The original article, which covers the initial announcement of the game, continues below.
Geospatial Creator gives developers the ability to create world-anchored digital content that will appear in the same location for all users. Built on a foundation of both ARCore and 3D data from Google Maps, it’s competes with Niantic’s Lightship AR platform, and is getting integrations for both Unity and Adobe Aero.
To showcase the latest capabilities of ARCore, Google has teamed up with Taito Corporation, the original developer of arcade hit Space Invaders (1978), to build a brand new city-scale AR game called Space Invaders: World Defense.
Planned to launch later this Summer—fittingly aligned with the 45 year anniversary of the original game—Space Invaders: World Defense will purportedly have players “defend the earth from Space Invaders in their neighborhood,” and will “combine AR and 3D gameplay to deliver a fully contextual and highly engaging immersive experience that connects multi-generations of players.”
Sadly we’ve yet to see a glimpse of any real gameplay, so it isn’t clear just how the game will work, but with any luck we’ll eventually find more information from the game’s official website.
Additional reporting by Scott Hayden.
