Nobody cares about VR/AR/MR

[bubblesort]

There's a lot happening in the VR/AR/MR space this year, so I thought I'd start a nobody cares thread for all the little things that might be flying under the radar.

Since around Dec/Jan, I've been hearing rumblings from the VR/AR community that there are some exciting things happening. I think most of us are pretty cynical about that kind of talk, because we've all seen this hype cycle many times before. I think it's still interesting to follow. Anyway...

Unity is having an IPO

CNN's Van Jones built a VR experience to show people what it's like being a black man pulled over by police.

SecondLife is only one of 8 grids participating in Burning Man this year.

Apple bought Spaces, and acquired another VR patent.

VirBELA is a virtual business meetings platform, kinda like what SL was trying to be under Kingdon's leadership (if you don't remember, Kingdon was a CEO of LL, and his vision of SL as a place for meetings failed miserably). They are reporting a 260% profits jump in Q2, over Q1, which they say is because of the pandemic forcing more people to telecommute.

BI put out an article on the current state of AR contact lenses. Looks like there are some government trials happening with them right now.

Librestream is an industrial AR company who is offering free software licences to people affected by hurricane Laura.

Facebook is consolidating their VR teams (and probably sunsetting the Occulus brand).

Facebook launched their new virtual world the other day, it's named Facebook Horizon. Here's a marketing video for it. Does anybody else think the lack of legs is creepy? I mean, think I get why they did it, it just looks weird to me. I guess that's one way to stop their virtual world from turning into another sex dungeon like SL. People without genitals can't cyber!


Most of the links I just posted came from weekly Forbes column This Week In XR. They just started a podcast for XR, too. It's kind of surprising that Forbes has a regular column for this, because the mainstream press still mostly ignores this kind of tech. Good column to follow, though.

 

[Fionalein]

VR/AR is the next dotcom bubble...

 

[bubblesort]

VR/AR is the next dotcom bubble...

I always thought of it as a recurring tiny bubble, that happens once or twice a decade. It's never been big enough to seriously impact the NASDAQ, but it's big enough to disappoint us over and over. One of these days it will take off. Probably not in our lifetime, though.

 

[Noodles]

Is Facebook Horizon actually available now? Do you have to have a headset to use it?

 

[bubblesort]

Is Facebook Horizon actually available now? Do you have to have a headset to use it?

It looks like a lot of media outlets are burying the lead that it's closed beta, not public beta. I keep seeing headlines calling it a public beta, like this, but then I click on the articles and see it's actually still invite only. Horizon is probably only for journalists right now.

Here's a link to the Horizon Facebook page. They will probably post there first when beta opens.

I predict that FB will finally fully open Horizon on Sept 16, during their Facebook Connect event, which is all about their VR/AR work. It looks like they are focused on reorganizing and rebranding away from the Occulus brand, so it doesn't make much sense to launch something like Facebook Connect, only to rebrand the product after a couple of weeks. At the very least, I think it's a good bet that they won't be releasing Horizon before Sept 16.

 

[Fionalein]

It looks like a lot of media outlets are burying the lead that it's closed beta, not public beta. I keep seeing headlines calling it a public beta, like this, but then I click on the articles and see it's actually still invite only. Horizon is probably only for journalists right now.

Here's a link to the Horizon Facebook page. They will probably post there first when beta opens.

I predict that FB will finally fully open Horizon on Sept 16, during their Facebook Connect event, which is all about their VR/AR work. It looks like they are focused on reorganizing and rebranding away from the Occulus brand, so it doesn't make much sense to launch something like Facebook Connect, only to rebrand the product after a couple of weeks. At the very least, I think it's a good bet that they won't be releasing Horizon before Sept 16.

It might tank like the Sansar launch on Steam... we will see how it's percieved.

 

[bubblesort]

The Occulus community is in an uproar right now, because you can't use Occulus without Facebook any more, as per a new TOS change. A lot of them are selling their used Occulus headsets, so if you're looking for deals on ebay or craigslist something, now might be a good time to pick one up cheap.

 

[Textured Surface]

So, the specs for the Oculus Quest 2 were leaked. It's going to be using Qualcomm's new, designed for VR/AR applications, XR2 chip. It has "near 2k each eye displays." It is stand-alone. It's rumored to be priced at 299/399.
Here are the specs:

Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 leaks in full via official promo videos

Promising an almost 4K display, and double the max storage.

www.theverge.com

Now for the kicker. Facebook has come out and straight-up stated, yup, "You violate any of their terms of services, across any of their services, and you will lose functionality on your Quest2, to include Oculus store purchases." Furthermore, it isn't "If you have an Oculus account, you don't have to link to Facebook until 2023" If you purchase any new hardware, to include the Quest2, you agree to the new terms of service which require you to immediately link your Oculus account to Facebook.

Facebook Accounts Using Fake Names, Among Other Violations, Risk Losing Access to Oculus Content

With Facebook recently moving to require the use of a Facebook account with Oculus headsets we wanted to understand how violations of the company’s Facebook Community Standards would intersect with its headsets. The company says that violations—including accounts that do not use the user’s real...

www.roadtovr.com

 

[bubblesort]

Zuckerberg shows off the most compelling features of VR, using Horizons... I think this is Horizons, right?

 

[Fionalein]

SMACK THAT FACE BUTTON!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

OK, I am impressed by Zuck's ability to write legibly with hand controllers in the actual video.

 

[bubblesort]

I just got my Facebook Horizons beta invite in my email. I clicked the link to accept, and just got the standard Facebook Horizons Occulus shop page, saying invite-only. I'm not sure how to accept the invite. There's no code to type in or anything, just a link to click. I don't see an NDA. I hope I didn't get phished. My Oculus software needed an update and my headset's battery is dead, because I haven't used it in about a month. Once my headset is charged up, I'll run updates, and try accepting the invite with the headset, and maybe that will do it? IDK. It might just be acting weird because I changed my password recently and haven't signed into oculus with the new password yet.

Anyway, if you signed up for Horizons beta, check your email. You might have an invite.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Rising popularity of VR headsets sparks 31% rise in insurance claims

Metaverse gamers crashing into furniture behind increase in home contents claims, says insurer Aviva

www.theguardian.com

Evernote link

 

[bubblesort]

Here's a virtual world I never got to explore, because I've never been a console gamer... Playstation Home. Lots of people have fond memories of it, apparently.

From what I can tell, it came out in 2008, and lasted until 2015. People in the comments here describe it as a bit of a microtransaction cash grab, but it had soul.

If you're interested in thinking about what people really want out of VR, looking at what people remember about PlayStation Home, after all these years, might be a good starting point. If they don't remember it, it wasn't important, but if they do, it must have been an important part of their VR experience.

 

[Free]

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

lol, restart this thread since half the forum has OP on ignore.

 

[Soen Eber]

Interesting that the military is interested in vr contact lenses.