This is the first newsletter of 2025, so happy new year to you all! I wish you all the best!
It’s a very special day for me because I’m taking soon the plane to go to CES! I’m very excited because it’s the first time I’m going there and I’m sure it will be amazing!
Since I have to rush to prepare to take the plane, this first newsletter of the year will be a bit more concise than usual. And even if it was a week of vacation, I promise you there will be some interesting tidbits for you to read.
Top news of the week
Vivo to release a mixed-reality headset in 2025
A great piece of news comes from China: Vivo, one of the major Chinese smartphone manufacturers, has announced that it is going to release its own mixed reality headset this year, around September-October. And it promises to have also some features that surpass the Apple Vision Pro (I hope not the price!).
Unluckily we have literally zero information about this new headset. We don’t even know if it will be powered by AndroidXR or by a custom runtime. But the fact that such an important smartphone company wants to enter the mixed reality industry is an amazing sign for us all. And even more, the fact that this company has now a team of 500 people working on mixed reality, means there is an important investment and commitment, which hopefully will last for long. This makes us hope well for the future of XR!
Other relevant news
VR usage on Steam is on the rise
December 2024 saw the second highest percentage of Steam gamers using a VR headset ever. In the last month, more Steam gamers used a VR headset than used macOS or owned an RTX 4090 GPU. The percentage was also very similar to the one of people using Steam through Linux, which means SteamDeck. And if people consider SteamDeck a very successful device, this means we have to give the same consideration to Virtual Reality, too.
Paired with the fact that the Meta Horizon app was the first one on the App Store during the holidays, this means that virtual reality had great Winter Holidays. Many people received a headset for Christmas and some others probably took their headset from the shelf to play with relatives coming home. We still have no details about the amount of this peak of users, but these data are for sure good for the whole ecosystem.
So in the end, VR is dead and PC VR is even more dead, isn’t it?
Virtual Reality has been used in the courtroom
The most viral VR news of the week has been about the recent use of virtual reality in the courtroom in a trial in the United States.
Broward County Judge Andrew Siegel experienced a unique approach to understanding a defense expert’s opinion: He used a virtual reality headset. It’s believed to be a historic moment in a Florida courtroom: the first time for the use of a VR headset in such a context.
The video of the judge donning the headset has gone viral and VR enthusiasts are rejoicing because they say this is another sign of VR going mainstream. I personally think it’s a very good thing, too, but I do not understand why this went viral when it is not the first time that a VR headset has been used in a courtroom.
More info (VR used in the courtroom)
A quick peek at the Android XR interface
Inside the documentation of Android XR, it is possible to find a very short video of the UI of the operating system. From this quick look, it seems a mix between Android and the interface of the Apple Vision Pro.
Unluckily, we have not much more than that and to discover more the UI of the OS and its apps, we need to wait for more material to be shared by Google.
News worth a mention
MouseGoggles bring eye tracking to mice
Researchers at Cornell University have created new special virtual reality glasses for mice, which are better than the usual systems made with projectors. And these glasses for the first time ever feature eye tracking. It’s incredible that some mice have better virtual reality gear than I do…
More info (MouseGoggles glasses news)
More info (Scientific article on Nature)
Somnium VR1 started shipping
Somnium Space has started shipping its VR1 headset to the people who preordered it. The company has also decided to focus on the variants of the device that were requested the most by the community. This means that the Visionary Edition (Eye Tracking), Ultimate Edition (Mixed Reality + Eye Tracking + Hand Tracking), and Titan Edition (Eye Tracking + Hand Tracking), which were the most requested versions are going to stay. While the Striker Edition, Classic Edition, Specter Edition, and Translucent Edition, are going to be discontinued so that the company can streamline its production. The price of the headsets is also going to rise to reflect the production processes which were harder than expected, so if you want to buy this headset, you had better doing it now.
Brilliant Sole can track your feet
Through a LinkedIn video, I discovered Brilliant Sole, which is a smart insole that you put in your shoes and is able to report the feet’s rotation and pressure points to an application. There is a Unity SDK, so it is also possible to create a VR game (e.g. for fitness) that integrates them!
Hands on smartglasses
This week, I’ve found two interesting hands-on articles about smart glasses. One is written by Scott Stein, who went hands-on with the AI features of Ray-Ban Meta and found them intriguing but not perfect (they feel like a glimpse of the future). The second is instead from XR Today and is about XanderGlasses, which serve the unique purpose of transcribing what the people you are talking with are saying. They are very expensive ($5000) but they also do their job very well.
More info (Ray-Ban Meta AI hands-on)
More info (Xanderglasses hands-on)
How to make a great trailer
Ben Lang has written a very insightful post detailing how to make a great trailer for your VR experience. You do not need complex MR setups to attract users, you just have to showcase your game the right way.
And remember: “Your game doesn’t sell your game. Your trailer sells your game.”
Meta is offering a discount to students
Meta is now offering a 10% education discount on Quest headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses for university students and educators in the US. It is a great initiative and I hope it gets worldwide adoption.
Metro Awakening VR is Steam’s VR game of the year
Steam has assigned its awards. The game of the year has of course been Black Myth Wukong, while the VR game of the year has been Metro Awakening VR. Remember that Batman Arkham Shadow is not available on Steam, so it could not win.
Some news about content
- Rec Room has launched a new multiplayer parkour game called Run The Block, which looks inspired by the old Jet Set Radio game
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall is being delisted across all platforms, starting with Steam next week, because of the end of the licensing of the Warhammer IP
- Noun Town: Home is a standalone mixed reality version of the VR language learning game, and it’s out now on Quest
- Epyka uncovers the mystery of Earth’s first civilization in a VR single-player puzzle adventure. It is going to launch on January 9 for $10
More info (Run The Block)
More info (Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall)
More info (Noun Town)
More info (Epyka)
Other news
AI agents will be one of the main technological trends of 2025
Nymeria is a dataset for full body understanding recorded with Project Aria glasses
Mixed has written its eight predictions for XR in 2025
Rebuff Reality has successfully launched on Kickstarter Bodylink, a sort of Kinect for body tracking
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
There is a Captcha that lets you play Doom to understand you are human. It is fun but hard!
(Thanks Rob Cole for the tip)
News from partners (and friends)
Participate in the Developer Nation survey!
I have partnered again with the XR survey by Developer Nation to provide an interesting opportunity to you. This is the claim of the initiative:
AR/VR creators, this survey is for you. Which tools and platforms are you using to build mind-bending creations? Take the survey to help the global community learn more about the skills and technologies necessary to succeed in 2024 and beyond. The survey takes about 20 minutes and covers VR, AR, and mixed reality sectors. It’s available in English, Chinese (Simplified), Spanish, Vietnamese, and Russian. Just pick a language you’re most comfortable with.
In return for your effort, you will enter prize draws for a chance to win $150 towards the subscription of your choice, Gift Cards, and more!
The survey welcomes creators of all profiles: no-code, developers, students, hobbyists, and professionals. Take the survey before it closes, on January 14.
Some XR fun
Looking for a VR job, now and then
Funny link
It’s already a week without a new Pimax headset announced…
Funny link
Meta Quest Store suggests players to buy games they already have!
Funny link
Peak Virtual Reality nowadays
Funny link
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
- Keith Bradner
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- 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
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- 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
- Mark G
- 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 Vivo)
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