Meta teases photorealistic environments for Quest 3 & Quest 3S
Meta teases a future where rooms can be photorealistically scanned with a smartphone, then shared and walked through on Quest.
Mark Zuckerberg announced photorealistic environments for Quest 3 and Quest 3S at Meta Connect.
At the same time, a demo of the technology was released on the Horizon Store. However, the Hyperscape app is only available in the US and currently only supports Quest 3.
The app includes several environments, including an artist's studio, a recording studio, a workshop, and a conference room at Meta's headquarters.
There are few details on the technology, but it is likely to be Gaussian splatting or a related AI-based digitization technique. Meta writes that it used smartphone scanning and cloud-based data processing to create it.
According to early user reports, cloud streaming is used to view and walk through the environment, so a good internet connection is required. The app's description suggests that users will one day be able to upload their own scans, digitally immortalizing spaces.
According to Zuckerberg, more environments will be added in the future.
VR photorealism thanks to Gaussian splatting
Gaussian splatting is an AI-based scanning and rendering technique that uses photographs to create a walk-through digital replica of a real location. Unlike other immersive formats such as 180-degree film and spatial video, these 3D scenes allow for free perspective shifts.
Gaussian splatting is relatively new, but solutions such as Gracia (for Quest and PC-VR) and Varjo Teleport (for PC-VR) are already using the technology.
I tried Gracia on Quest 3 a couple of months ago. The scans are low resolution and the experience is jerky, but impressive nonetheless. The technology is clearly in its infancy, which could change in the upcoming years. The potential is certainly there, and it's good to see Meta driving the development.
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