XR weekly round-up: New features for Meta Quest & next high-end VR headset coming
Meta continues to invest heavily in VR gaming, but makes savings elsewhere. Snap Spectacles and Bigscreen Beyond 2 with new features and Hitman VR impresses on PSVR 2. This and more in this week's XR news.
In our weekly "XR Update" overview, you will always find the most important XR news from the past week with a brief summary. If you are interested in a topic, click on the link to the full article in the relevant paragraph. As usual, we provide you with background information and opinions in addition to the facts.
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MIXED Previews & Reviews
Hitman will be one of the most beautiful VR games ever on Playstation VR 2
Hitman is one of the most beautiful VR games ever on PSVR 2 and is almost unrivaled in its richness of detail. Even in its third version, however, you can tell that the game is a VR port and as such has to struggle with compromises.
Meta Quest 3: Memoreum delivers gripping sci-fi horror à la Dead Space
Memoreum, a worthy contender for the epithet "Dead Space VR", will be released this year. Survival horror fans should take note of this VR game, which clearly draws on common sci-fi horror clichés as coined by films such as the Alien series or Event Horizon.
MIXED Columns & Comments
The latest VR controversy shows how deep we are in the niche
Meta now understands mixed reality to include virtual reality and the community is up in arms. Bosworth's explanation did not have the desired effect and turned the VR community on X even more against Meta's conceptual policy and himself.
Meta Quest is not a platform for AAA gaming
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR is one of the most ambitious games in the history of virtual reality. But the sales figures show that there aren't enough people on the Quest platform willing to spend $40 or more on VR games of this kind.
XR hardware: News on VR, AR and mixed reality headsets
The world's smallest VR headset gets lighter and clearer
Bigscreen Beyond 2 is an iterative improvement with higher quality lenses and a new IPD system as well as optional eye-tracking and a new head mount. The weight has been reduced by 16 percent from 127 to 107 grams.
Snap Spectacles now with GPS support and other new features
Snap Spectacles are celebrating their six-month anniversary. To mark the occasion, the company is announcing new lenses, features and other financial incentives for AR developers, including GPS, GNSS, compass directions and custom locations.
Meta Quest 3: Long-awaited MR interface is now available
Developers now have access to Meta Quest 3's RGB cameras to program novel mixed reality applications. PCA is experimental for now, meaning that developers can develop initial apps and app features using PCA, but are not allowed to publish them to the Horizon Store.
Meta Quest now supports micro gestures — What does this mean?
Meta Quest can now capture five micro gestures. The micro gestures transform the index finger into a kind of D-pad. It is possible that the input method based on optical hand tracking anticipates the introduction of neural microgesture input.
Meta Quest as a 3D video camera: it's that simple
Meta Quest is suitable as a 3D video camera for real recordings and VR recordings. The Quest Games Optimizer has been able to record stereoscopic 3D videos for years and introduced optimized settings for 3D recordings and improved video stabilization with the recently released update 12.4.0.
XR market and business news
Meta Quest: Head of technology is sorry for feature cuts
The head of Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth commented on the imminent removal of the Move fitness tracker and explained that no replacement is currently planned. As Reality Labs is on a cost-cutting course, further feature deletions of this kind are to be expected.
Varjo XR-4: Premium MR features will cost $2,500 per year
From March 25, Varjo will be introducing a new payment model for its XR-4 headsets. In future, certain advanced mixed reality features will only be available with a paid annual subscription of 2,500 dollars per headset.
Meta wants to continue to invest "massively" in VR gaming
Meta assured at the GDC that the Quest platform is growing and that it will continue to invest heavily in VR games. Annual sales in 2024 have increased by around 12 percent compared to the previous year and usage has also increased.
VR games and XR apps: all the latest news
VR version confirmed: Remaster of popular Doom 2 mod to be released in July
Crafting, survival horror and a dark Doom atmosphere: Total Chaos promises an intense VR experience. In addition to the full version, which is due to be released on July 24, the developers also want to release an epilogue DLC and make the shooter playable in VR.
Meta Quest: VR travel app renders 8,000 trees & 700K plants
The new update of the VR travel app Brink Traveler takes you to Lake Tahoe and demonstrates a new foliage rendering system. The scene reportedly renders 8,000 trees and 700,000 plants. A making-of video shows the tricks the studio used.
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