It’s the last day of the year! The end of a year is always a moment of retrospection, and in fact I have written a couple of very insightful posts where I think about my 2024 in XR. They are very informative, so I suggest you read them in case you missed them: in the first post, I talk about my experience attending many XR events this year, while the second one is a reflection of the situation of XR in 2024 (spoiler: there are both positive and negative traits).
Apart from reading my posts and the news that I am going to report to you, I hope that today you will also celebrate the end of the year by having fun with the people you love. Happy 2025, I wish you all amazing things 🙂
Top news of the week
Some Meta Quest headsets got bricked this Christmas
The latest v72 update of Meta Quest has allegedly bricked some of the headsets out there. The most affected devices are the ones that weren’t updated for a while and so had to do a cumulative update. The affected people could see a boot screen saying that the device was corrupt and couldn’t be trusted, with no way of making it boot normally. This has been very unfortunate because this bug affected some headsets that were gifted for Christmas or some headsets people planned to use to have fun with their families during the holidays. There has been a bit of drama online with many people complaining about the situation.
In the beginning, Meta was not very reactive in answering this issue because it happened during the Winter Holidays when various people were on vacation. The customer service also refused to help people with a headset that was out of warranty. But then, after many complaints, the company acknowledged the issue, fixed the bug in the updates, and offered support on how to restore the headset to the ones affected, even if out of warranty. The most recent news is that people who still have a device that is bricked can request a free Quest 3S in substitution of their device, with some free credits for the Horizon Store.
At the end of the day, Meta managed the situation the right way. But since it is not the first time that these things happen, maybe it should be more careful with its updates. I also wonder who is that genius that decided to push a big update just before the holidays: it is common knowledge among tech managers that you should never publish a critical update close to a vacation, because if something goes wrong, there are not enough people at work to help fixing the issue.
More info (Bricked Quest issue)
More info (The cursed boot screen)
More info (People complaining about the initial answers by Meta)
More info (Meta fixing the issue)
More info (Meta offering a replacement headset to affected people)
Other relevant news
Pimax announces Dream Air compact headset
Pimax can not stay 2 weeks without having announced a new device, so this week it has announced a new headset, called Dream Air.
Dream Air is not like all the other Pimax headsets, which are very bulky and aimed at having a large FOV. It is instead a pretty small device, aimed at the same market of people interested in BigScreen Beyond, Visor, or MeganeX. Contrary to these headsets, Dream Air should also feature functionalities like hand tracking, eye tracking, automatic IPD adjustment, and automatic strap tightening. This last feature is something we never heard before: the headset should auto-fit the strap to your head, for perfect comfort.
The device should also have an optional external puck, dubbed Cobb, where you can plug the headset to make it become a sort of standalone-ish device. Cobb should have a battery and a Snapdragon XR2 chip.
Here are some of the specs of Dream Air, courtesy of Road To VR:
- Display: 2 × micro-OLED, 100% DCI-P3 colors
- Resolution per-eye: 13MP (3,840 × 3,552)
- Max refresh rate: 90Hz
- Optics: Pancake
- Field-of-view: 102°H
- Pass-through view: Black & white
- Optical adjustments: Continous IPD (automatic), Prescription lenses (optional)
- Connectors: DP 1.4 (PC) to USB-C (headset), 1 × USB-C accessory port
- Input: Dream Air controllers (rechargeable battery), Hand-tracking
- Audio: In-headstrap speakers
- Microphone: Dual-microphone
- Weight: 200g
- Headset-tracking: Inside-out (no external beacons), SteamVR Tracking (external beacons) [optional]
The expected price is $1900 (with the usual weird upfront payment with an associated “two-year subscription”), with the release date expected for mid-2025. Pimax is pretty confident about the release date because it says that the optical engine of the Dream Air is the same as the Crystal Super, so the two devices can be built in parallel. Honestly, I guess there will be delays, as usual.
The launch of this headset has been received by the community in mixed ways: some people are happy with this new device, while others are puzzled at why Pimax is launching so many headsets. As usual, Japp (Pimax’s PR) is using his extensive Zen training to calmly answer everyone’s concern on all possible forums. Pimax has also an extensive FAQ about this device and why it has launched it.
I have been pointed to an interesting video where a guy analyzes Pimax’s strategy. It states that actually what the company does is see what the PCVR community wants and as soon as there is some excitement about a product, release something similar, but with more features, an inferior price, and an aggressive timeline. These things usually are never fully respected, but it is enough to steal the attention of the competition and get part of their market. It is Chinese fierce competition at work. Which in the end brings also good results, because the Pimax Crystal Light is currently probably the PCVR headset with the best value-for-price on the market.
Dream Air may well be an answer to the MeganeX SuperLight 8K which is getting some attention these days. And a good way for Pimax to test a new market, something not fully focused on FOV dedicated mostly to simmers, but dedicated to clarity and comfort, which may interest different categories of prosumers.
Let’s see how the Dream Air will turn out to be. Of course, I hope it will be a great headset and that it will be released on time. I’ll keep you posted…
(Thanks Rob Cole for the tip)
More info (Pimax announces Dream Air)
More info (Pimax Dream Air launch video)
More info (Pimax Dream Air official product page)
More info (Pimax Dream Air FAQ)
More info (Pimax Dream Air FAQ and Specs)
More info (An analysis on Pimax’s strategy)
Meta is reportedly adding a display to its Ray-Ban Meta glasses
Ray-Ban Meta has been one of the most successful XR devices of 2024. For this reason, Meta is already allegedly working on a new model that should include a display to show some information to the user. The display should be a small one that can show notifications and AI responses.
We already knew that Meta was working on smart glasses with displays, but what I find interesting about this Financial Times report is that it mentions that the display is to be added to the “Ray-Ban Meta” line. Past reports mentioned that Luxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban, was not favorable to the option because it made the glasses too bulky. If also these glasses with the display are made together with Luxottica, it means that they will be fashionable and distributed via the wide Luxottica distribution network, something which would increase a lot their chances of success.
New devices are going to be announced at CES
Next week, the CES, one of the biggest tech events in the world, is starting (and I’ll be there!). Some companies have already teased that they are going to announce something that is XR-related. For instance, Sony is having a keynote on the 6th, and the teaser sentence is “Create Infinite Realities”. DPVR is also going to unveil a new “mystery product”. NVIDIA has a keynote where probably the RTX 50 series cards are going to be unveiled. But there are many other companies on the show floor, so I think we are going to have fun next week! And since I’ll be there, keep an eye on this blog for an exclusive reporting from there…
More info (DPVR to unveil a mystery product at CES)
More info (Sony’s CES keynote)
More info (NVIDIA’s CES keynote)
News worth a mention
Meta Horizon app has been among the most downloaded ones in the stores
The Meta Horizon app, the companion app that is necessary to configure Quest headsets, has been among the most downloaded ones during this Winter holidays. In some countries, it even arrived at the first spot on the app stores. This is the 3rd year in a row that this has happened and it means that Quest headsets had good sales during the holidays. This is good news.
Pico’s SecureMR guarantees passthrough APIs while guaranteeing privacy
Pico has talked at an event about a new solution of its, called SecureMR, that should serve in offering passthrough analysis functionalities while guaranteeing privacy to the users.
The idea behind it is that the developer of an MR experience does not have access to camera frames, but it can provide the Pico OS with a Machine Learning model that the runtime executes on the camera images. Together with the model, the developer also supplies some rendering logic, so that the runtime can take the results of the ML model, and use them to show something on the screen to the user according to some rules. For instance, the ML model may detect the potatoes in front of the eyes of the user, and the render may show some floating stars above the detected potatoes.
The advantage of this system is that it can be happily applied to consumer headsets and still guarantee full privacy to the users. The disadvantage is that this is too limiting for us developers: we want full camera access, not a convoluted way to apply ML models.
Pico stated that this framework is going to be released soon in early access to interested developers. It is a pretty cool solution on the technical side, but if Meta is offering passthrough APIs next year and these APIs offer instead full access to camera frames, this system may be dead on arrival. Let’s see how the situation will unfold in the next weeks.
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
Magic Leap One is going to be bricked in the next days
As already announced by Magic Leap some time ago, soon all the servers related to managing Magic Leap One headsets will be shut down, so no one of these glasses will work anymore. This is a big pity: people spent thousands of dollars believing in the dream of a headset for creators, and now they have an expensive paperweight. The saddest thing is that all the experiences that were made for these headsets will get lost. And some of them were very good.
Get LiDAR data from all over the world
The past week, I shared with you all that the municipality of Tokyo has shared for free the point cloud of the city, for everyone to use. Jess from Niantic reshared this news in a tweet that went viral (thanks for quoting me!). X user ver1sea commented that X post saying that actually there are many countries with active LiDAR programs. They do have not the same accuracy as Tokyo, but still, their data may be accessible. Ver1sea provided a list of links for countries like the US, France, Germany, etc… I guess this data may be very useful for companies working on VPS, digital twins, and similar sectors. Feel free to use it if you need it.
More info (Jess’s viral post)
More info (ver1sea mentioning the international LiDAR programs)
More info (ver1sea’s links to LiDAR programs)
Road To VR picked its Games of the year
The amazing team at Road To VR, one of the most popular XR magazines, has selected its “Best” games of the year. The best Quest game is of course Batman: Arkham Shadow, but for the other awards you may find some surprises…
Fanatical is offering a new VR games bundle
Fanatical is offering the “Build your own Quest VR Bundle Winter Edition”, where you can pick some games from a collection of interesting titles and get them at a hugely discounted price: you can get 2 games for $17.99, 4 games for $34.99, and 7 games for $59.99!
Some news about content
- Warpfrog, the studio behind the popular sandbox game “Blade & Sorcery”, announced that it is working on a new game that will still rely on physics-based interactions and will be highly moddable
- “Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable” has been released in its full ‘Complete Edition’, which now includes four chapters. The game got a lukewarm reaction from the XR press, but an enthusiastic one from the fans of the saga
- Game Night looks like a very nice local multiplayer party game for Quest, that mixes games where you must use your brain with others that are more physical. From the trailer, it seems fun.
More info (Warpfrog)
More info (Attack On Titan)
More info (Game Night)
Other news
Samsung XR headset to feature Google’s Find My Device functionality
Someone discovered that the animation that plays when you turn on the Quest is not a video, but an actual animated 3D model
News from partners (and friends)
Happy holidays everyone!
No friend asked me for a feature this holiday week, so I just use this space to wish you again to have a wonderful holiday time!
Click this link for some holiday magic
Some XR fun
AI has hit a wall, at last. But not the one that you think…
Funny link
We tech people are fun at parties. Sometimes.
Funny link
Meta Horizon Worlds at its best
Funny link
Pimax and its new “original” design
Funny link
A new episode of Damo’s newspapers!
Funny link
Zuck has evolved. Maybe it’s merit of his secret sauce…
Funny link
Christian Steiner made a nice meme about the secret desire of many of us XR professionals…
Funny link
Giving me money on Patreon communicates status to women and business relationships. Whatever this means
Funny link / 1
Funny link / 2
Funny link / 3
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Carol Dalrymple
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
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- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
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- Christopher Boyd
- Sb
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Pimax)
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