The Ghost Howls
JANUARY 3, 2025
It’s the beginning of a new year, and I started thinking about the future of immersive realities for 2025 and beyond. There is one question that is recurring in my mind: with the possible advent of the standalone Deckard headset with inside-out tracking, is Lighthouse-based SteamVR tracking still going to be relevant? Will it survive this year or the next ones?
Road to VR
MARCH 20, 2025
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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XR Today - Virtual Reality
JANUARY 22, 2025
This week, XR headset vendor PICO introduced the integration of NVIDIA GeForce NOW into its portfolio of headsets, marking a step toward XR streaming for broad enterprise and consumer use. The move allows headset users to stream immersive content and applications directly to a headset without wire tethering, therefore broadening the scale of services the headset portfolio can run and access.
AR Insider
MAY 7, 2025
Among other areas of applicability, AR is demonstrating potential as to elevate exercise. That includes everything from overlaying proper workout form to displaying personalized routines. We examine the possibilities. This post appeared first on AR Insider.
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.
The Ghost Howls
FEBRUARY 6, 2025
Passthrough camera access is a hot topic in the XR community right now and while the positions of Meta, Apple, and Pico are known, everyone is wondering what Google will do with Android XR. After I’ve spoken directly with the company, I can tell you that they will offer a solution similar to the one on the phone. Keep reading to discover more!
Virtual Reality Pulse brings together the best content for VR professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Ghost Howls
JANUARY 8, 2025
Today at CES I have been able to go hands-on with two Pimax products: the Pimax Crystal Super and the 60G Airlink for wireless connection. Unluckily there was no Dream Air to try, but I had fun anyway with the two other products. Before describing my experience, take in mind that CES has been very frenetic so my hands on these two devices lasted only a few minutes , not enough for an exhaustive review.
The Ghost Howls
JANUARY 7, 2025
Hello everyone! This is the first article directly from CES of my life. Yesterday it was the second press day before the big opening of the event, and the only big company explicitly talking about VR in its keynote was Sony that announced the XYN headset. Let me tell you about that announcement, and let me tell you about the hands-on I had … not directly with the XYN headset, but with its sibling model!
Road to VR
FEBRUARY 7, 2025
John Carmack, former CTO of Oculus and legendary programmer, isn’t shy when it comes to voicing his opinions on all things XR. To Carmack, Meta’s block-slashing rhythm game Beat Saber (2018) was “far more important than Half-Life: Alyx ” in pushing adoption of the medium. While Valve’s PC VR game Half-Life: Alyx (2020) is largely prized as the pinnacle of ‘AAA’ VR gaming, Carmack maintains Beat Saber was “far more important,” owing to the hit
The Ghost Howls
JANUARY 20, 2025
On my last day at CES, I tried the Roto VR Explorer chair. It’s been an interesting experience , not without some flaws, but certainly one worth telling. So keep reading to discover this VR accessory! (Usual reminder: this article is a hands-on impression because I just had a few minutes with the product and it is not enough for an exhaustive review.
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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.
The Ghost Howls
MARCH 3, 2025
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.
The Ghost Howls
JANUARY 29, 2025
Happy Lunar New Year everyone! May the year of the snake bring you joy, happiness, money, success, love, and a lot of XR headsets! And if you are someone that celebrates this festivity, I wish you to spend some quality time with the people you love and eat a lot of food Im literally swamped with work these days, so this newsletter is coming a bit later and a bit shorter than usual but it still contains everything you need to know about these days in XR!
The Ghost Howls
FEBRUARY 17, 2025
The last demo I had during my CES in January wasn’t for sure the least in terms of importance. I was able to go hands-on with Afference , a very special ring meant to give haptic sensations. Why was it so special? Well, let me explain to you Afference Ring and the referred sensations Afference concept image (Image by Afference) Afference is a startup proposing a haptic ring.
Road to VR
JANUARY 13, 2025
Pimax, the Chinese startup known for its wide field-of-view (FOV) PC VR headsets, has secured an additional CN100 million (~$13.6 million USD) inan extension to its Series C funding. According to an initial report from 36Kr (Chinese), the investment round was led byZhuji Jingchuang Rong Investment Co, and supported by previous investor Ivy Capital, which took part in the company’s $20 million Series B in 2020.This brings to company’s overall outside investment to $82.7 million, acco
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.
Road to VR
JANUARY 20, 2025
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is announcing something in a few weeks, which he says will prove he isn’t out of the ‘XR game’ Luckey confirmed back in June he’sbuilding a new XR headset , although the device in question seems to be primarily driven by military requirements” in addition to “non-military stuff,” he said at its AWE 2024 announcement.
Road to VR
FEBRUARY 27, 2025
Meta today revealed its next-gen smart glasses, Aria Gen 2, which the company intends to release to third-party researchers working on machine perception systems, AI and robotics. The company revealed its first iteration of Project Aria back in 2020, showing off a sensor-rich pair of glasses which the company used internally to train its machine perception systems, ultimately tackling some of the most complex issues in creating practical, all-day augmented reality glasses of the future.
Road to VR
MARCH 20, 2025
Bigscreen today announced its next-gen Beyond PC VR headset, promising a big boost in field-of-view (FOV) and clarity thanks to the inclusion of new pancake lenses. Bigscreen is also making the slim and light headset more attractive to at-home and enterprise users too thanks to its new adjustable interpupillary distance (IPD) and a universal Lightseal facial interface.
Road to VR
JANUARY 8, 2025
Infinite Reality, a company building an engine for creating immersive web content underpinned with WebXR support, announced it has raised a whopping $3 billion to continue building the company’s “vision for the next generation of the internet.” Not only is this a huge fundraising round, such an investment coming from a single private investor is highly uncommon.
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.
Road to VR
APRIL 8, 2025
Efficient text entry without an actual keyboard remains an industry-wide challenge for unlocking productivity use-cases in XR headsets. Researchers have created a comprehensive catalog of existing text entry techniques to codify different methods and analyze their pros and cons. By making the catalog freely available, the researchers hope to give others a head start on creating new and improved techniques.
Road to VR
JANUARY 9, 2025
Stress Level Zero’s physics-based sandbox follow-up BONELAB (2022) has done spectacularly well on Quest, although the studio still hasn’t brought its award-winning physics action puzzler BONEWORKS (2019) to Meta’s latest standalone hardware generation. That’s about to change. If you haven’t played on PC VR headset, Boneworks is a narrative VR action-adventure using advanced experimental physics mechanics.
Road to VR
JANUARY 10, 2025
Wait, Apple Vision Pro doesn’t come in black, does it? Nope, but Play For Dream MR does. And with what some are calling the ‘Android Vision Pro’, owing to its Android-based OS, Play For Dream seems to have turned some heads at CES 2025 this past week. Initially launched in Asia last year, China-based headset creator Play For Dream had its sights on bringing the heavily Vision Pro-inspired mixed reality headset to the West.
Road to VR
JANUARY 17, 2025
Meta is fairly tight-lipped when it comes to detailing just how many headsets it sells, although there are a few ways to gauge the platform’s popularity, one of which is fresh downloads of its required companion app, Meta Horizon , available on Android and iOS devices. Citing data obtained by independent analyst Omdia, Game Developer (via Forbes ), notes that downloads of the Meta Horizon app fell by 27% on Christmas Day 2024 when compared to 2023, which is historically the app’s yea
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?
Road to VR
JANUARY 6, 2025
Somnium Space , the Prague, Czechia-based social platform creator, has officially begun launching its PC VR headset, Somnium VR1, in the US. Additionally, the company announced its streamlining the number of available variants, bringing it to just three consumer-focused versions, and also increasing prices soon on its higher-end units. The company says it’s now discontinuing a number of previously offered configurations of Somnium VR1, including Striker Edition, Classic Edition, Specter Ed
Road to VR
FEBRUARY 26, 2025
Valve’s rumored standalone XR headset, codenamed ‘Deckard’, is practically the stuff of legend at this point, with speculation brewing since data miners first discovered mention of the alleged device in January 2021. Now, leaker and data miner ‘Gabe Follower’ maintains Deckard is coming by the end of 2025, priced at $1,200.
Road to VR
APRIL 16, 2025
Apple is rumored to be working on two versions of Vision Pro, howevera new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman alleges the Cupertino tech giant is aiming to beat Meta to the punch with a pair of AR glasses. Citing someone with knowledge of the matter, the report maintains Apple CEO Tim Cook has put development of AR glasses as a top priority, as the company plans torelease such a device before Meta.
The Ghost Howls
APRIL 1, 2025
Yesterday I published my usual roundup of the most interesting AR/VR news of the week. But during the night so many important announcements have been done that I felt the need of writing this addendum to my roundup. So enjoy this collection of breaking news about the XR ecosystem! Decagear launches today for $19.99 (Image by Decagear) Today, a surprising announcement shook the XR ecosystem.
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
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