I've spoken about passthrough before - using it for work and then finding little gems and I've just found another which is fantastic.
Because it looks like mixed reality is going to be more important later this year and next I thought I'd create a thread where we can discuss more or just post anything we find.
So on App Labs there is "The World Beyond" - fantastic demo, especially if you have a Quest Pro but works on Quest 2.
Then I've just come across spatialfusion https://spatialfusion.io/ - incredible that this is delivered over the web!
You need to do Room Setup (Settings/Experimental/Room Setup) for these apps.
I think I was already sold on mixed reality before the Q3 and Pro arrived but even with the headsets, without the software it's nothing as you say.
First Encounters was pretty good taster, nicely done, and showed what the headset is all about. Totally agree that we now need a few good titles, otherwise people may lose interest.
The first app I wanted to try was PianoVision and I'm likely going to spend a lot of time using it. Not convinced by the virtual keyboard option... hand tracking isn't quite precise enough for piano playing... but with a real keyboard/piano, very compelling. And if you have midi connection, the scoring/progress should become 100% accurate. USB midi is type b though so I'm waiting for b to c cable to arrive. Pretty excited about this app.
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Ah yes I've seen a couple of videos with people raving about PianoVision - might give it a whirl.
I've used the Hololens 2 and Magic Leap 2 at work and to be honest, always been underwhelmed but when I saw the passthrough on the Pro I just thought why are we bothering with that tiny FOV?
Of course the passthrough on the 3 still can't match actually looking through the clear screen of a Hololens but passthrough and AR seem to be converging.
I found it just awesome! I liked how the ceiling was bursting, the walls of the room got holes and another world became visible beyond. And seeing those creatures hiding behund MY furniture was just fun😂
I keep trying an failing to understand the draw of augmented reality ... espectially games.
The first contact game for quest 3 is clever, but its nearly indentical to an augmented reality game that came with the Nintendo 3ds back in 2011. It was the same exact thing. Aliens knock holes in your wall and fly into the room and you need to shoot them. Is it clever? Sure. But the cleverness wears off in about 5 minutes. I felt the same about Expect You to Die Home Sweet Home, which has been relegated over to app lab, so I don't think I was alone.
And the business side of augmented reality? I think its just not ready for prime time. If VR glasses were no different from eye glasses, then I think its a fantastic idea, but if anyone walked into a meeting with me wearing a quest 3 on their face, I'd get up and walk out because that is not a person I could ever have a productive meeting with. The most important part of meeting in person is meeting the person, not talking to a quest 3 mask. May as well meet in a fully VR space.
And that is the bottom line for me. I can't think of a single thing done in AR that wouldn't be just as good or better in full VR.
If gaming, particularly FPS's and simulations are what you want to do with a headset, then VR has the win, AR isn't just about that, it has a huge potential to provide entertainment of all kinds and maybe more importantly information and communications in better ways than we have right now, there are plenty of headsets that do just the VR type gaming and more on the horizon.
But take-up of VR headsets is levelling off. Whether that's lack of interest from developers or just peak user interest, it really amounts to the same thing.
As I've said before, not all headset must be about VR alone and AR is likely to spark interest in broader entertainment and information needs... along with new audiences.
As for games in mixed reality, there are types of gaming that will be better, table-top games (the upcoming Lego bricktales for example), RTS is better that way, less claustrophobic than VR (Demeo for example). I want something like Starcraft and Age of Empires in tabletop format and there may be game formats that we haven't considered. But the non-gaming apps are going to draw people in more.
13700K, RTX 4070 Ti, Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming, Corsair H150i Capellix, 64GB Corsair Vengence DDR5, Corsair 5000D Airflow, 4TB Samsung 870 , 2TB Samsung 990 Pro x 2, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, Quest, 2, 3, Pro, Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100)
I get it, and I agree with you that someday we will be there, but I still view AR as a solution looking for a problem. Honestly, something like google glass makes more sense to me. If it could be like eye glasses that allow me to pull up virtual displays or make it look like I have a movie screen in my family room, then sign me up, but it can't be a full-on VR headset. I think once the technology is there, you won't need to evangelize the benefits of AR. It will be obvious and people will be flocking over to buy it. But until the augmentation device is something I can wear all day without even thinking about it, I don't think its going to work for most people.
As for demeo or that new lego game, I'd rather be able to play in a small space and pretend I'm in a big room. I don't want to have to setup a card table in my living room just so I can put a virtual demeo board or virtual lego model on it. Its much easier to use a virtual table instead. The real table has zero benefit. In demeo I can grab the board and move it up or down and zoom in or out. How does that work if its on a real table without breaking the illusion? As I recall, demeo has supported AR for a while, but I never even tried it.
What really surprised me is how little the AR concept has evolved over the years. Like I said, First Contact is nearly idential to an AR Nindendo game that came with the 3ds 10 years ago. Now the technology wise the quest 3 makes the 3ds look like a stone tablet and chisel, but with all that technology evolution, the AR concept hasn't really evolved at all. And maybe that is my hang up with it. I need to see something new to be convinced. It needs to be something more than "put a virtual (fill in the blank) on my kitchen table".
