The XR Weekly Highlights (Dec 23, 2024): Meta Gears Up for Competition, Niantic Advances Spatial Intelligence, and More!

The holiday season is upon us, and as we prepare to wrap up another year, I wanted to give you all a little something special. Keep an eye out for my dedicated holiday post tomorrow, but today, consider me your gaming Santa! I’m excited to announce not one, but two giveaways of gaming keys that will let you dive into a couple of exciting XR games for free. Stick around through this roundup to find out how you can join in on the action.

Weekly Highlights

Meta’s Successes and Future Competitions

Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, took to the company’s blog to reflect on the successes of 2024 and lay out some expectations for the coming year. Both Mark Rabkin, VP of MR/VR at Meta, and Janko Roettgers’s Lowpass newsletter touched on these insights too. While several points were familiar, like Meta’s release of the affordable Quest 3S, there were some golden nuggets worth sharing:

• Quest 3S Performance: Boz noted a strong performance in sales over Black Friday, anticipating another spike during the holidays. It will be interesting to compare these figures with previous Quest sales.

• New Faces in XR: Surprisingly, a large chunk of Quest 3S buyers are new to MR/VR rather than upgrading from Quest 2, showing how the device’s price is inviting new users to the XR arena.

• Kids and the XR Economy: The younger crowd is showing a preference for social and cooperative multiplayer games, influencing the store’s economy. Rabkin mentions a trend toward social gaming among younger users, while adults are expanding their experience to cover more entertainment content.

• App Development Focus: Based on current trends, Meta is encouraging developers to create a variety of apps in genres like social gaming and MR-first games.

• Top Apps on Quest 3S: Gorilla Tag, YouTube VR, and Horizon Worlds are popular on the platform. The success of Horizon Worlds suggests Meta’s aggressive promotion strategy is paying off.

• Ray-Ban Smart Glasses and AI Innovations: These have been a major hit, and with recent AI integration, they’re set to become even more versatile. Meta envisions AI that proactively assists users throughout the day.

• Approaching Competition: As XR landscape leaders, Meta faces formidable challengers with Apple and Google entering the field. Competition drives innovation, promising benefits for end-users.

You can find more insights from these discussions in Boz’s post on Meta’s blog, the Lowpass newsletter, and Mark Rabkin’s comments on social media.

Additional Noteworthy News

Understanding Spatial Intelligence’s Increasing Role

Artificial Intelligence’s intersection with XR is becoming pivotal, with researchers focusing on spatial understanding. This week, significant strides were noted:

• Niantic’s Geospatial Models: Delving into Large Geospatial Models for enhanced spatial understanding, Niantic discusses using AI to bridge data gaps, reconstructing locations even with limited points.

• NYU’s Spatial Research: NYU developed VSI-Bench, a benchmark for evaluating AI’s spatial comprehension capabilities, aiming to improve current models’ understanding of 3D environments. This trend is set to shape the future landscape of XR soon.

News in Brief

• Blackmagic Design’s 8K Camera: Now available for preorder, this high-end camera is designed for Apple’s Immersive Video format, priced at $30,000 and catering to professional studios.

• Meta’s New SDK Feature: Introducing an audio-to-expression feature for animating avatars using voice audio, expanding beyond basic lip sync to full facial expressions—all free for developers using Meta SDK.

• Improved Performance in Steam VR: A user reportedly identified the cause of stuttering issues when using Quest with SteamVR, finding that disabling Motion Smoothing improves performance.

• Tokyo’s Point Cloud Available: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has released a comprehensive digital map of the city for free, offering varied uses from AI training to game development.

• Meta’s Winter Game Sale: Don’t miss the seasonal discounts on popular VR games like Demeo, Asgard’s Wrath 2, and Assassin’s Creed VR.

• Upload VR’s Top Games of 2024: Awards season is here, and Upload VR has named the top AR/VR games, with a certain dark knight-themed game taking top honors.

Gaming News and Content Highlights

New releases and updates continue to flow in the gaming world, with games like Alien Rogue Incursion getting mixed reviews, and others like Grimlord launching on multiple platforms. Stay updated with various titles and their latest features across platforms.

Detailed Game Reviews

Reviews are mixed for titles like Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable and COLD VR, highlighting areas for improvement in gameplay and bug fixing, while Green Hell VR offers new co-op experiences that enhance the fun factor.

Further XR Fun and Developments

Don’t forget to catch up on latest XR fun involving reality-based humor, intriguing videos, and scenarios that bring laughter while emphasizing ubiquitous XR integration.

Support for Ukraine

Like previous weeks, I implore everyone to consider donating to the Red Cross to aid those severely impacted by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Your generosity can make a real difference.

To wrap things up, a huge thank you to my Patreon supporters who help keep this blog running. Your support is invaluable, and this platform would not be as engaging without your contributions.

Enjoy the festive season, keep gaming, and see you in the virtual worlds!