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Microsoft announces Mesh, an XR collaboration platform. Alex Kipman promised us a Microsoft Ignite conference with an amazing level of immersion , and he kept his word. But since Microsoft owns one of those studios (and using it costs around $100K/day if I remember well!), You are all fantastic! Here you are my flower for you!
The past week has been a pretty interesting one for the tech world: between Microsoft Ignite, Unity Unite, and the OpenAI drama, there has been a lot to follow. I’ll try to summarize all of that, especially for what concerns the announcements related to our XR space.
Microsoft Maquette is a brand new VR tool from Microsoft which is all about prototyping spatial designs. Maquette appeared quite suddenly this week, apparently without any official announcement from Microsoft; it seems to have been picked up by MSPoweruser after being spotted by twitter user WalkingCat.
Khronos Group , the consortium behind the OpenXR project which aims to standardize the way applications communicate with AR and VR headsets, just added Microsoft to its ranks. Among its count of members, the OpenXR working group consisted of nearly every major player in the industry except Microsoft until now.
Image by Road To VR, from HTC images). HTC launches Vive Tracker 3.0 HTC was not teasing a new standalone headset, but a new Vive Tracker. I know that many of you won’t be excited by this news, but remember the Vive Tracker is one of the most successful accessories ever created by HTC. Come and visit it!
A new FCC listing appears for an HTC Vive headset. And in fact, a new request to FCC for a new device has arrived from HTC. FCC certifications are requested before releasing an electronic device in the US (to certify that it is safe to be used), so this is a clear sign that HTC is going to release a new headset soon.
Meta recently announced the arrival of a popular architectural tool “ Unity Reflect ” in the Meta Quest environment for 2022. Perhaps the go-to solution for mixed reality innovation in the construction space, Microsoft provides businesses with a unique opportunity to combine real and virtual landscapes.
On the server-side, it is being integrated with Microsoft Azure, and it is also coming in the future for Google Cloud and Tencent Cloud. NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) will be natively supported for HDRP in Unity 2021.2. HTC is going to launch its headset on May, 11th. Learn more and sign up. Header image by CapCom).
Microsoft has released initial support for OpenXR on both HoloLens and Windows VR headsets , and Collabora has released its Monado open-source Linux OpenXR runtime. Other companies who are officially part of the group responsible for developing OpenXR—like AMD, ARM, NVIDIA, HTC, Valve, Unity, and others—voiced support for the 1.0
It’s no doubt been a massive undertaking creating a platform agnostic standard for VR and AR, as The Khronos Group consortium has included in its ranks the important hardware and software creators in the industry, including AMD, ARM, Epic Games, Facebook, Google, HTC, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Unity, and Valve.
Perhaps the biggest company in the mixed reality landscape right now, Microsoft is paving the way to a future of incredible hybrid learning. According to Microsoft, implementing mixed reality into the training landscape leads to a reduction in training times of approximately 30%. That’s where Unity comes in. Magic Leap.
Similar to Meta, Microsoft has made some significant investments into the XR landscape in the last couple of years. Microsoft Teams now has its own Mesh integration, so companies can pull one of the world’s favourite collaboration apps directly into the MR space.
In recent years, Microsoft has begun making a name for itself as perhaps the most significant innovator in the mixed reality space. The company offers not just a powerful development environment in the form of Microsoft Mesh, but also one of the most immersive “MR” headsets on the market, with the HoloLens 2.
More info The Vive Focus Vision has been released HTC has decided to release the Vive Focus Vision the same week as the Quest 3S. It seems that HTC has invested a lot in providing a standalone headset that is great for PCVR and so it features a lossless wired Displayport connection, very high display resolution, and integrated eye tracking.
The OpenXR API is a core piece behind many XR headsets from vendors such as Acer, ByteDance, Canon, HTC, Magic Leap, Meta, Microsoft, Sony, XREAL, Qualcomm, Valve, and Varjo.
With much surprise for us all, HTC has just announced the Vive Focus Plus , its first full 6 DOF standalone headset! The Vive Focus Plus, in all its majesty (Image by HTC). Internal view of the Vive Focus Plus (Image by HTC). Do you want to know more? Well, you are in the right place. The Vive Focus Plus.
Major VR stakeholders—including Oculus, Valve, HTC, Microsoft, Unity, and Unreal Engine—now offer full or partial support for the standard. Image courtesy Khronos Group. After years of development, the OpenXR 1.0 specification has taken major strides toward real industry adoption. Sony, however, remains an odd one out.
Multinational XR firms like Lenovo, ByteDance’s Pico Interactive, HTC VIVE, Varjo, and Microsoft are leading the charge for immersive transformations. Additional businesses like Epic Games, Unity, Autodesk, Adobe, NVIDIA, and many others have pivoted to the Metaverse to reach these goals. How To Prepare for Enterprise VR.
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!
Or that Microsoft is working on a new reference design that fixes the issues of the first one? While in all past years the answer had always been “HTC Vive”, now the king is Oculus, with both the Rift S and the Oculus Quest getting the majority of answers (especially the Quest). Unity changes how it handles XR Plugins.
without limitation, Oculus, Google, Microsoft, Valve, Steam, HTC)”, venture capital, or crowdsourcing. ” SEE ALSO Facebook Founder Says Company Invested $250M in VR Content, Will Invest $250M More. The post ‘Oculus Start’ Program Aims to Help Indies Jump into VR Development appeared first on Road to VR.
The Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) by Microsoft is an open-source toolkit that has been around since the HoloLens was first released in 2016. Understanding the MRTK-Unity Toolkit for MR Developers. Microsoft-driven MRTK-Unity is a suite of components and capabilities used to speed the creation of cross-platform MR applications in Unity.
Or maybe “relaxed” is not the right word to use, considering the little drama on Microsoft’s headsets. Top news of the week (Image by HP) Microsoft officially drops support for its Mixed Reality headsets Microsoft has just released the infamous Windows 11, version 24H2 update. I think this speaks a lot.
There are a lot of VR developers out there who had moved to Microsoft-powered machines to dive deep into VR development, and today’s announcements should provide major incentive to dive back into the Apple ecosystem. They showcased high-end VR for the first time running on a Macbook in front of thousands of developers.
From time to time, I like to look at the adoption graph of XR shown by John Riccitiello (the CEO of Unity) in 2017 , where you can see that the real acceleration of immersive technologies should start around 2022-2023. Companies like Pico, HP, Valve, and HTC are already performing very well in this sector. The rise of enterprise.
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.
Last year at Unity’s Vision Summity SteamVR creator Valve gave away free HTC Vive units to everyone in attendance. It was an enormously generous gift, but Microsoft is going one step further at Vision 2017 with Acer’s VR development kit. That’s quite a feat; Acer kits only just started shipping.
Theme and amusement parks have begun incorporating VR technologies from HTC VIVE for novel attractions. Companies like Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Epic Games, Unity, and others are facilitating the rise of serious gaming technologies. VR Theme Parks.
Epic Games is a prominent member of the Khronos Group working alongside a host of industry pros including Oculus, HTC, Valve, Microsoft, Google, AMD, NVIDIA, and Unity. Epic Games Store is said to launch soon and begin what Sweeney calls “a long journey to advance the cause of all developers.”
Before leaving you to the best news of the week, I would like to highlight two notable things about my work: My crazy trolling game “The Unity Cube” has been featured in a video by Upload VR! Johnson has worked at Microsoft and Qualcomm before, and she is a very respected executive. Image by HTC Vive). News worth a mention.
More info (Snap announces new Spectacles glasses — Road To VR) More info (Snap announces new Spectacles glasses — Upload VR) More info (Ian Hamilton reviewing the device) More info (A comment on the launch video of the device) HTC announces Vive Focus Vision HTC has announced its latest standalone headset: the Vive Focus Vision.
Rikard Steiber, President Viveport and SVP of Virtual Reality, HTC Vive. Katie Kelly, Head of Engagement, AltspaceVR / Microsoft. Other experiences to look forward to include Red Frog Digital’s Zombie Holomaze, which will offer a terrifying AR experience for attendees to explore while wearing a Microsoft HoloLens.
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.
This would be pretty disruptive, because up to now every standalone headset has been a walled garden with its own store and hardware, with the only exception being HTC trying to distribute its Viveport store to some other Chinese devices. Basically, Google could try to be for standalone devices what Steam has been for the PC VR ones.
Image by Microsoft). After the news went viral, Microsoft has clarified that it was just “a translation bug” and that Xbox is not adding VR support at the moment. Vive Facial Tracker works also with non-HTC headsets. Learn more (XR Collaboration) Learn more (Unity College). News worth a mention. As long as it works….
Industry-leading companies sponsoring this year’s expo include Intel, Dell, Qualcomm, VIVEPORT, Microsoft, Neurogaming and OptiTrack, as well as a full lineup of innovative companies shaping the future of immersive tech. Rikard Steiber, President Viveport and SVP of Virtual Reality, HTC Vive.
Microsoft’s play for command of next generation personal computing can be seen today with the announcement of a series of Windows-powered VR headsets starting at $300. This is not the case with the headsets on the way from Microsoft’s partners. An example of the Windows Holographic user interface.
Microsoft has always been quick to invest in innovative new technologies. Even earlier, in 2016, Microsoft introduced the world to arguably the first enterprise-grade mixed reality headset: the HoloLens. Unfortunately, since then, Microsoft has distanced itself from the XR space. But is Microsofts XR journey really over?
On the other hand, Unity is introducing tools that leverage AI to simplify XR content creation processes. Unity Muse, Sentis to Tap AI-Powered Content Creation This week, two AI tools, Unity Muse and Sentis , were released to assist creatives in designing immersive worlds and XR content.
This is a simpler mechanism than the waveguides employed by Microsoft HoloLens 2 or by Magic Leap, and while it may provide a bit less immersive holograms, it is the only way to provide affordable wide-FOV glasses at the moment. Realmax has an SDK that is compatible with Unity 2017 and Unity 2019.
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. More info (Apple threatens Epic) More info (Microsoft files an official support for Epic). The same on Twitter. Other relevant news. Image by Epic Games).
How Unity is preparing for the mobile VR revolution The gaming landscape looked quite different when TechRadar spoke to John Riccitiello, CEO at game engine Unity, back in June 2015. That hasn’t caused Unity to shy away from VR though, quite the opposite. billion PCs).
Sinespace was built using the Unity game engine allowing for an easily customizable as well as upgradable experience. Sinespace is currently available on PC via download or a web client, all OpenVR compatible headsets including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Microsoft Mixed Reality, with plans for iOS and Android releases in the near future.
Although Microsoft hasn’t shown much of an investment in the entertainment and arts sector as of yet, it has a lot of potential to offer with the HoloLens ecosystem. Microsoft’s technology could easily be the basis behind a number of mixed-reality and unique event experiences in the entertainment world going forward.
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