March, 2025

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How to start developing with camera access for Meta Quest 3 on Unity 6

The Ghost Howls

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite topics: passthrough camera access. Meta has just released the APIs to let developers access the frames grabbed by the front cameras of the Quest so that developers can craft applications that can understand the environment around the user. In this tutorial, I will explain step-by-step how you can create a project using Passthrough Camera Access of the Meta SDK , both starting from the samples and starting from a blank Unity 6 project.

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‘Half-Life: Alyx’ is Now Five Years Old. What’s Next for Valve in VR?

Road to VR

Five years after Half-Life: Alyx reshaped expectations for VR gaming, Valve remains a quiet yet critical force in the industry. Despite little fanfare, the company has continued to shape the VR landscape through steady updates to SteamVR, integration with standalone headsets like Quest, and whispers of new hardware and games. Now, as the fifth anniversary of Alyx passes, the question looms larger than ever: is Valve still all-in on VR, or is it slowly retreating from the frontier it helped defin

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Immersive Learning Case Studies: XR Training Success Stories

XR Today - Virtual Reality

Immersive learning case studies from countless industries highlight the potential extended reality technologies have to transform how we build skills and knowledge. Research from Stanford University found that XR training can improve learning effectiveness by 76% compared to traditional learning methods. Immerse VR found that companies using its solutions for training report a 52% improvement in time to competence.

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Apple Lights Up Austin: the SXSW Dispatch

AR Insider

At SXSW, Apple debuted its immersive Metallica experience. AR Insider Editor at Large Emily Olman was on site to get a demo from Apple. She breaks down her observations on Apple's latest, and the broader return of cinematic VR. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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The Future of eLearning in 2022: A Sensitive Eye for Authentic Translation and Localization

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

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Valve Working On "SteamVR Link Dongle" For Reliable Wireless PC VR

Upload VR

Valve is working on a "SteamVR Link Dongle", datamining reveals, and it could improve the reliability of wireless PC VR. VR enthusiast Brad Lynch's Discord datamining group have discovered multiple references to the device and its drivers in SteamVR code, including a vendor and device ID which Lynch claims suggests the device is "being finalized internally".

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PicotionAI: Playing Pictionary with mixed reality, camera access, and artificial intelligence

The Ghost Howls

Today I want to tell you about a little but very cute project I’ve developed for Pico headsets. It’s called PicotionAI and it is a game that includes mixed reality, camera access, and artificial intelligence! As I have done in other similar cases, I’m telling you this story hoping that it can inspire you to do cool projects of your own.

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Despite Years of Reports to the Contrary, PC VR Just Won’t Die—In fact, It’s Growing

Road to VR

The XR landscape has changed significantly over the last five years with the flourishing of standalone headsets and new entrants like Apple and (soon) Google. Despite all of that, the PC VR platform has continued a slow but steady growth. So much has happened in VR in last five years that if you had told me back in early 2020, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

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J. J. Keller & PIXO VR to Scale Workplace Immersive Training Opportunities

XR Today - Virtual Reality

Rounding off a busy week for the XR industry, PIXO VR made further strides in bringing VR immersive training solutions to the forefront by collaborating with safety and regulatory compliance solutions provider J. J. Keller & Associates to scale and enhance workplace training into the latter’s portfolio of training services. The move allows J.

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Connecting Dots at SXSW: The Rise of VR180

AR Insider

A subtle theme at SXSW was VR180. not because new hardware was pervasive, nor because everyone was buzzing about it, but if you looked closely you could connect the dots. Our Editor at Large Emily Olman reports. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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How to Train Employees 65% Faster With Virtual Reality

With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

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Meta: “We Are Still Investing Massively In VR Gaming And Don't Plan To Stop”

Upload VR

Meta says it funded over 100 VR & mixed reality titles that shipped in 2024, as well as over 200 currently in "active production". These figures were revealed today at GDC 2025 by Meta's Director of Games Chris Pruett, during a talk where he also revealed that over $2 billion has been spent on Quest content to date, and monthly headset usage increased 30% in 2024.

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Immersive Learning Benefits: Reducing Training Time and Enhancing Skill Acquisition

XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

Wondering how immersive learning benefits teams across industries? Compelling research is quickly mounting up. Countless studies from world leaders like Accenture and PWC have shown that immersive training (using XR technologies) can improve knowledge retention, increase employee confidence, boost engagement, and even reduce training times. In fact, PWC says that immersive training helps learners complete training up to four times faster while ensuring they retain the knowledge they gain for lon

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Smartglasses: my experience at CES and the road to AR glasses

The Ghost Howls

Today, I want to discuss one of the XR technologies that has been getting more hype lately: smartglasses. I want to start my analysis with what I’ve seen at CES and then go beyond that and discuss what I envision for the future of this technology. Smartglasses at CES In the XR area (and beyond), smartglasses were one of the most popular technologies at CES.

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Bigscreen Beyond 2 Outsells Original in First Day, Surpassing Months of Beyond 1 Sales

Road to VR

Bigscreen launched orders for its upcoming Beyond 2 PC VR headset yesterday, which is boosting field-of-view and clarity thanks to the inclusion of a new pancake lens design. Now, the company says that within a mere 10 hours of sales going live, Beyond 2 has already outsold the original Beyond by a significant margin. In a series of updates on X, Bigscreen revealed just how well Beyond 2 was doing among PC VR enthusiasts. “In just the first 25 minutes, Beyond 2 outsold the first day of Bey

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AR/VR Simulations for Sustainable, Regenerative, Circular Cities

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

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GIGABYTE & TAICCA Launch AI-Driven XR Content Creation Platform – SXSW ’25

XR Today - Virtual Reality

This week, at the 2025 SXSW festival, alongside arts and technology, immersive technology innovator GIGABYTE announced a partnership with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) to promote the deployment of an AI-powered XR content creation platform. The event is famed for showcasing the latest in arts and technology, and this year at the SXSW 2025 XR Lounge, the partnership underlined the events reputation.

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AR Insider Bookshelf: The Infinite Retina

AR Insider

In the Infinite Retina (Second Edition), Scoble and Cronin's combined expertise maps an enormous and ever-evolving landscape Spatial Computing, AI, the Metaverse, self-driving cars, and virtual beings. We give an honest review. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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Meta's Unity & Unreal "OpenXR" SDKs Block Other PC VR Headsets, Developers Report

Upload VR

Meta's Unity and Unreal "OpenXR" integrations block other PC VR headsets, and developers aren't happy about it. OpenXR is the open standard API for AR/VR/MR supported by the vast majority of the industry. The ideal of OpenXR is that developers can build apps that run on any headset, without needing to use vendor-specific APIs for different hardware.

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Vuzix AR Smart Glasses Power Innovative Hearing Assistance Solution

XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

This week, Vuzix Corporation noted a major uptick in its hardware sales and adoption. This follows a period in 2024 when 2023’s third-quarter figures dropped due to lower sales of the M400 product in key areas like Asia. However, Xander is significantly reordering Vuzix Shield AR smart glasses that are helping to continue an upward tick for the veteran’s enterprise XR hardware vendor, which appeared to kick into action following the Q2 drop.

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Are You Still Watching? How to Create Engaging Presentations for Virtual Learning

Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

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Fewer, better, stronger

The Ghost Howls

Once in a while, I remember that this is a blog, and so I like to tell you something about the lessons I’ve learned in my working life as a VR developer, entrepreneur, and blogger , hoping that they may be useful for other people who, like me, are facing similar challenges. Today is one of those days, and I want to tell you about a new approach I started to follow in the last few weeks.

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‘Animal Company’ Breaks 1 Million Monthly Users, Passes ‘Gorilla Tag’ as Quest’s Top-earner This Week

Road to VR

Animal Company, the free-to-play early access game on Quest, nabbed the top spot for Quest’s highest-earning game this week , overtaking long-time viral hit Gorilla Tag in the weekly charts. Now, developer Wooster Games tells Road to VR it’s not only already profitable, but Animal Company has surpassed one million monthly active users (MAU), cementing its status as VR’s next big F2P game.

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1500 PPI at Ultra-Low Power: TCL CSOT’s XR Display Sets New VR Headset Standard – MWC ’25

XR Today - Virtual Reality

While MWC 2025on the XR side of thingsprimarily focused on the surging AR smart glasses market and, of course, Samsungs Moohan, display technology leader TCL CSOT took to the event to unveil a new virtual reality display that promises competitive visual fidelity and low power consumption for headset vendors that wish to adopt its technology innovation.

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Can VR Elevate Workplace Development?

AR Insider

We hear a lot about the visceral learning benefits of VR training. But how is it playing out today? What makes it effective? And what verticals and industries are applying it to best effect? This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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Who C.A.R.E.S.!? How Learning Got Its Bad Rap & What We Can Do About It

Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

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For IO Interactive, Hitman On PS VR2 Is A Chance At Redemption

Upload VR

IO Interactive considers Hitman on PlayStation VR2 its chance at redemption, and we interviewed the studio alongside a hands-on preview to learn more. Third time's the charm might be the conventional saying, yet Hitman is pinning its hopes with attempt no.4. Previous versions of Hitman 3 for PSVR and PC VR had merits but ultimately fell short, and much has already been said about the widely criticized Quest 3 port last year.

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XPANCEO to Showcase Prototype Smart Contact Lenses at MWC ’25

XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

This week at Mobile World Congress 2025, XPANCEO continues its legacy of drip-feeding details about its emerging AR smart contact lens portfolio at leading industry events. The firm commonly attends leading XR events to showcase prototypes of its futuristic AR product, which may not be available today but could be a glimpse of XR tomorrow. At MWC 2025, XPANCEO updated the status of its emerging technology promise by unveiling three new smart contact lens prototypes.

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The XR Week Peek (2025.03.11): Samsung headset may launch in Q3, Animal Company is the most grossing game on the store, and more!

The Ghost Howls

THIS IS MY 400TH ROUNDUP OF XR NEWS. I cant believe Im writing these words. When I started writing these weekly summaries of AR/VR news I couldnt imagine I would have continued for such a long time. Thank you to all of you, my readers, for having kept reading these posts of mine and giving me the strength to keep writing them by telling them they are useful for you.

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Update to ‘PSVR 2 App’ for SteamVR Makes it Easier to Diagnose Controller Tracking Issues

Road to VR

Sony has released an update to the PlayStation VR2 App which allows the headset to be used with SteamVR content. The update makes it easier to diagnose controller tracking issues which have been proven problematic. The latest update to PlayStation VR2 App (v3.0) adds a “Bluetooth connection quality” check to help users understand how well their controllers are communicating with the computer.

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The Key to Getting the Best Out of Video-Based Practice & Coaching

Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly