The XR Week Peek (2021.06.28): Blaston Pulls Back on Ads, Vive Focus 3 Comes to Positive Reviews, and More!

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Top news of the week

(Picture by Facebook)

Resolution Games takes a step back from implementing ads in Blaston

After the big community backlash against the ads Facebook is going to implement in VR, the first partner studio that should have implemented it is taking a step back. Blaston by Resolution Games had been announced as the first game that should have implement VR ads, but after the VR community riots and the 1-star bombing on the game page on the various stores, the studio changed its mind.

Blaston, a paid game, will not contain VR ads inside.

A small victory for the VR community,

who managed to make their voice heard. But I think it's not as good as it looks. First of all, Resolution Games didn't back down from being a Facebook partner: 3 hours after announcing its removal from the use of VR ads,

Resolution Games had posted another tweet announcing that ads would likely be implemented in "Bait!", which is a free game.

Of course, ads in a free game are much more acceptable, so

it's a good decision

, but it shows that VR ads are here to stay. And this is confirmed by the fact that

Facebook actually never changed its mind, not even a bit, after the community backlash.

As has always happened over these years, they took a step forward, defended their position, only to take another step forward when the waters cooled, so it's just a small victory for the community.

Another victory, but almost nothing will change in the future.

More information (Blaston will not show VR ads)

More info (My editorial on Facebook and ads in VR)

Other relevant news

HTC delivers the Vive Focus 3

HTC has started shipping the Vive Focus 3, so

we started reading the first opinions about it

.In my case I am also writing because I have a review unit and I wrote one of the most detailed reviews about it you can find out there. Below I give you the links to my review, plus two others I found on the web, so you can have many different opinions on this. As a TL;DR what I can say is that

it is a very interesting autonomous helmet.

Yes it is

really expensive

(about 1400 €), but it has

great comfort, amazing display, fantastic sound, wired/wireless streaming from PC and good tracking

.It's not perfect, however, and it has its fair share of issues: apart from a few software glitches (which will be fixed in the future),

the most annoying thing is that the lenses have a small sweet spot and are prone to glare

.Also the fan is a bit noisy.If you are a business customer I suggest you have a look at it as it is a good device.

More info (My opinion on the helmet)

More information (this is the case of CNET)

More info (first impressions of MRTV)

Varjo Announces Varjo Reality Cloud

Finnish company Varjo has announced

Varjo Reality Cloud, a platform they claim is capable of creating a “realistic metaverse”.

Varjo Reality Cloud is an augmented virtuality space sharing system.

A user who wears a Varjo XR-3 is able to scan their surroundings using the device's high-quality cameras, then that environment can be shared via Varjo Cloud and viewed by others connected remotely with the device. 'user. That is,

it is possible for several people to meet in XR inside a perfect recreation of the real environment in which the XR-3 user finds himself.

And this reconstruction would be

constantly updated in real time

, so the virtual version of the environment is always consistent with the real version. The user of the XR-3 can also see the people he meets, in augmented virtuality, there with him. It's very cool and futuristic. Sure,

currently, this system is at the prototype stage

and doesn't work exactly as advertised, but Varjo is very confident that it can make it work quite well in the future. And since Varjo is a very smart company, I'm also confident that it will happen. , is that

its use case is unclear.

I mean, why would I buy a $5,000 Varjo XR-3 to scan my environment, when

I could do it well enough even with a $1000 iPhone?

So what's the benefit of seeing a constantly updated environment? In 95% of cases, a static reconstruction would be fine (eg visiting a newly built house). And in the end, why should that matter? importance to the "metaverse"? It's just a reconstruction of the environment... The community asks itself these questions and many others. ever made", either they are crazy or

we are all missing a few pieces of the puzzle.

They probably have a roadmap for this system that now seems useless to us, but will show its true value in the next few months or years. I'm intrigued, and also very patient, so I'll wait before expressing my judgement.

More information (Varjo Reality Cloud launch article)

More information (practical system of Road To VR)

ENGAGE and VRChat raise big investments

This is a very positive moment for all social VR ecosystems. This week we learned that

ENGAGE has just raised $10M to further develop its ecosystem.

The company just announced

ENGAGE Oasis, a place that should become “The LinkedIn of VR”:

something like a citadel full of offices, where you can meet and work with people from your company, but also create collaborations with people from other companies. It's a different beast than ENGAGE is today , but

the potential of this vision is certainly great

(although... another reference to Ready Player One... so fancy...). Congratulations to my friend Chris, CEO David and the whole team for the result! After a few days we also discovered that

VRChat secured a new investment of $80M

.VRChat is one of the most popular social VR ecosystems, and

this money will be useful to create new features, further expand its reach and also to explore new monetization options.

Congratulations to Graham and Jason for this! These two news together show me that

there is some hype surrounding the “Metaverse”.

Rec Room got $100 million and became a unicorn, Epic got $1 billion to grow its metaverse, and now it's ENGAGE and VRChat.

it's a good time to get some cash from investors excited about a new buzzword.

We are probably

on top of exaggerated expectations

of Gartner's hype cycle, so I imagine in a few months someone will say "the metaverse is dead" when we hit the bottom of the disappointment, and companies will realize that

building a mainstream metaverse is harder than they think

.Also coming out of lockdown, there will be less interest in these digital solutions, which will therefore take longer to become popular.So please...

let's all keep our feet on the ground.

A bit of curiosity: VRChat and ENGAGE are the platforms that I have personally used the most... does this mean that it is my label that brings in the money???

More info (ENGAGE raises $10M)

More info (VRChat raises $80M)

News worth mentioning

(Photo by David Fitzgerald/Web Summit via Sportsfile)

Unity CEO predicts that in 2030 XR headsets will be as popular as game consoles

Unity CEO John Riccitiello has made new predictions about augmented reality and virtual reality

, and this time he talked about the projections for XR headsets in 2030. I take into consideration what Mr.Riccitiello says because his predictions made in 2017 turned out to be true: he predicted the period "VR is dead" and also the comeback of XR in 2019. So far it has been far better than most so-called “market analysts”. Speaking to The Information, the CEO of Unity said that

he envisions VR headsets to reach 20M sales per year,

and it is therefore easy to predict that before 2030 the number of

homes with a VR headset will exceed 250M homes

who have a game console today. Talking about augmented reality, he considers that the growth is faster than virtual reality, but he also added that

AR is less predictable because it forces companies to solve certain problems related to electronics, optics, etc.

which we don't have a solution to today. He also added that “real-time 3D content” will account for almost half of all visual digital content by 2030, up from only around 3% today.

His words are very conservative:

when we talk to each other we all say that by 2030 AR/VR will already be mainstream with AR glasses already replacing smartphones but given that it's very connected in the XR realm I take its predictions seriously. What is certain is that in any case,

XR will take more than we hope to become mainstream like today's smartphones.

More info (John Riccitiello lyrics article / 1)

More info (Article on the lyrics of John Riccitiello / 2)

Adobe turns Medium into a product in Adobe Suite

We've all wondered what Adobe was thinking of doing with Oculus Medium, after it was acquired from Facebook a few years ago. Now we have an answer: while

there will always be a free medium

on the Oculus Store,

Adobe has also evolved it into Substance 3D Modeler, a product of the new Adobe Substance 3D Suite that lets you sculpt 3D objects.

Substance 3D Modeler has many differences from Medium, for example, it can also be used without VR, but it still gives you the feeling of sculpting clay like the original software.

dedicated to professionals:

The Substance 3D collection is currently priced at

$39.99 per month.

More information (Substance 3D Modeler on Road To VR)

More information (Substance 3D Modeler on Upload VR)

LIV now lets you shoot mixed reality videos with just a phone

Popular video recording service LIV just updated its app, and

it's now possible to use the LIV app on an iOS device to shoot mixed reality video of someone playing in VR without the use of a green screen or complex setup!

The results aren't perfect like traditionally shot videos, but they're still pretty good.

More information

Facebook patent shows 'augmented reality hat'

A patent filed by Facebook is the WTF news of the week. In this patent you can see

a hat with augmented reality glasses, so you can wear a baseball cap while enjoying augmented reality

.It looks like a strange Japanese gadget and I don't think it will ever succeed, but who knows, for sure the idea of mixing traditional clothes with XR gadgets has potential...

More information

Icosa Gallery is the new Google Poly

Google Poly recently shut down, leaving creators with no open and free place to share their 3D creations with other members of the community. Now

the community created Icosa Gallery, which should be an open replacement for Google Poly

, which will soon be integrated into OpenBrush, the open source replacement for Tilt Brush. It's cool to see these community initiatives!

More information

Two interesting research projects

The XR Week Peek (2021.06.28): Blaston Pulls Back on Ads, Vive Focus 3 Comes to Positive Reviews, and More!

Let's talk about two cool research projects I saw this week. The first is

a small device that is put in the nose and which, thanks to electrical stimulation, allows you to feel basic odors,

like the stingy scent of vinegar. It doesn't need a spray, no scent particles, it just uses electrical nerve stimulation inside the nose. The second is a project presented at SIGGRAPH by people at Facebook Reality Labs is a screen that you put on your helmet and that is displayed there

the live stream from your eyes

so people looking at you can still see

a realistic representation of your eyes even if you are wearing a helmet.

Cool, isn't it? (Thanks for the first tip to Pedro Ferreira, and for the second to Davy from Holoplant Co)

More info (Smell simulation)

More info (eye display)

Try out what your app looks like for people with color blindness

You know I like to defend

accessibility in XR apps

.That is why I want to advise you to read

this old but valuable article by Alan Zucconi that provides a plugin to let you experience how color blind people see your Unity VR apps

so that you can modify them if you find that they are not playable by everyone. A quick test that can be useful to ensure that as many people as possible enjoy your creations

More information

Jump opens presales for its virtual skydiving attraction

JUMP

is a location-based entertainment attraction that wants

give you the same sensations as wingsuit jumping but in a safe and controlled environment.

The system employs

virtual reality plus wind emitters

to give you the real feeling of falling through the sky. It's opening soon and it's already started pre-orders for its first locations. If you're in the US, you should check it out.

More information

Steam Summer Sale lets you buy lots of VR titles at a discount

For two weeks you can donate your money to Lord Gaben for

buy discounted VR titles.

Current Steam sales include Boneworks at $23.99, Star Wars: Squadrons at $14.79, and No Man's Sky at $29.99. If you have any PCVR titles you've always wanted to buy,

now is the time to discover them on Steam!

More information

Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual will be released on July 8 for $29.99

Finally, we have a release date for

Sam & Max: This time it's virtual,

one of the most anticipated VR games of the moment!

The game will be released for Oculus Quest on July 8 for $29.99.

The shop page is already online, if you want to take a look...

More information

Some content news

The popular game's VR mod

Valheim now correctly supports motion controllers;

steel crew

is an interesting cooperative VR game where several people

control a tank together, just like in real life;

Joyway launches

a multiplayer version of Stride on Steam;

Sentenced is a very interesting psychological game on Steam

where you are executioner.Upload VR tried it and found it interesting and original.

More info (Valheim VR)

More info (Steel Crew)

More Info (Stride Multiplayer)

More Info (Convicted Notice)

News from partners (and friends)

Beers And Boomerangs is an upcoming VR game that already looks super cool.

This is its description "A VR game where you throw boomerangs at kangaroos trying to steal your beer! Cook and bring drinks to your friends, but don't forget to defend your barbecue from those pesky kangaroos!" Some of the game's GIFs are already very popular on Reddit, and we're all looking forward to it coming out in a few months (you can already want it on Steam, if you want).

Learn more

UNICEF, in collaboration with the association IT Ukraine, has created

the world's first virtual reality (VR) product to educate children in eastern Ukraine about explosive ordnance and promote safe behaviors.

This is another application in which virtual reality can save real lives and so I am a big fan of it.

Learn more

XR fun

Hitting a real wall when in VR always hurts

funny link

SteamVR is "psychological horror" according to Steam. Considering all the issues I've had with it and the Oculus Link, I'm all for it.

funny link

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