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Snapchat Is Adding Paid Power-Ups To AR Lenses

From vrscout

Additional monetization options are on the way for Snapchat’s augmented reality Lenses.

Today marked the start of Lens Fest 2022, Snap’s annual developer conference centered around its global community of augmented reality (AR) creators. The company kicked things off with a bang earlier this morning with the reveal of a new feature that allows select developers to sell premium upgrades to their AR Lenses.

According to Snap, users can purchase additional content—such as digital goods, effects, and tools—using Snap Tokens, Snapchat’s official in-app currency. The company is currently testing the feature with a closed group of creators and developers as part of an initial pilot program.

“AR is core to the Snapchat experience today, and over time, we see even greater opportunities for hardware to bring it to a new dimension,” said the company in an official update. “Our ambition is that AR can be even more natural through glasses that let you use your hands to interact with AR around you.”

“The advanced hardware and software, distribution channels, and ways we support growth through the Snap AR platform all work together to fuel the creativity and businesses of our global AR community,” added the company.

Participating Lenses will begin rolling out over the next few weeks throughout select locations in Australia and New Zealand, according to Engadget. You’ll find them in the Lens Carousel and Lens Explorer on your Snapchat app, available for free on iOS and Android devices.

Over the past two years, Snap has invested heavily in its catalog of AR Lenses as well as its line of Spectacles AR glasses. According to the company, AR studio Paper Triangles generated roughly $4 million developing Lenses for a number of major brands in 2021.

This past September, the company announced that it was shifting its long-term focus toward community growth, revenue growth, and AR technology after reducing the size of its team by 20%. For more information on Snap’s restructuring visit here.

Image Credit: Snap Inc.

This Mixed Reality Meal Combines Food And VR

From vrscout

A delicious meal that pairs beautifully with immersive technology.

This past week, Italian artist Mattia Casalegno debuted his latest thought-provoking installation, Aerobanquets RMX, at Miami Art Week in Miami, Florida. The multisensory experience combined VR technology with delicious food to deliver a mixed reality meal quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Inspired by F. T. Marinetti’s The Futurist Cookbook, a collection of fictional recipes from the future, the installation supported up to 16 guests at a time, each of whom donned a Meta Quest 2 VR headset equipped with an external hand-tracker. Throughout the unique gastronomy experience, guests dined on five to seven dishes prepared by Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya.

Guests could choose from two menus: regular and vegan. As they ate, the textures and flavors of each dish were rendered in VR. The experience also featured text brought to life by narration from Top Chef judge Gail Simmons.

“We currently live in a world where industrial farming, overfishing, chemical pollution, and soil degradation are jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions by depleting the environment,” said Casalegno on his website. “We live in a culture where speed and economics come before health and quality. With this work I want to put a spotlight on our endangering practices and at the same time relish the joy of eating.”

As you can see in the video provided, Casalegno developed a custom accessory that turns Meta’s Touch controllers into futuristic dishware. This was most likely done to provide a simple and convenient way for guests to track the location of their meals in VR. That said, the final product looks incredibly cool.

For more information about Aerobanquets RMX visit here.

Image Credit: Flavor Five Studio

Light Delights Is An Extra Trippy Mixed Reality App

From vrscout

Interact with a variety of eye-catching virtual objects with your own two hands.

Light Delights is a simple, yet surprisingly captivating mixed reality experience that turns your real-world space into a vaporwave art gallery. Available now on Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets, the free app features a variety of unique multicolored pieces.

There are five virtual objects in which to inspect, each of which features its own unique interactions. This includes everything from physics-driven gyroscopic rings to a never-ending avalanche of virtual cubes and orbs. The app also features support for hand-tracking, allowing you to interact with virtual objects using your own two hands.

“The standalone color passthrough is IMO the most promising direction for MR,” said Greg Madison, the award-winning XR interaction designer behind the project. “I tested for fun some ideas over the weekend, the magic is there and it’s mesmerizing to play with.”

Light Delights is available for free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. Simply download the APK via GitHub and install the file on your headset using a program such as SideQuest.

While the Quest 2 version is cool, we highly recommend trying the app out on a Quest Pro for the best experience possible.

Image Credit: Greg Madison

HTC Vive Offering Black Friday Discounts Up To $100

From vrscout

Pick up the HTC Vive Deluxe Audio Strap at its lowest price ever.

This year HTC is celebrating the holidays with $100 off on select Vive VR hardware over on the Vive website, along with other HTC Vive distributors such as Amazon, Micro Center, Dell, Lenovo, and Adorama.



Looking for suggestions on what to buy? HTC’s Vive Flow is a lightweight VR headset perfect for friends and family members interested in physical and mental wellness.

“Meditation, gentle stretches, brain training, streaming our favorite shows, or even meeting friends or coworkers in VR with VIVE Sync can all be enhanced by a device light and compact enough to fit in our pocket,” said Cher Wang, chairwoman and CEO of HTC, adding, “VIVE Flow represents the next evolution of technology, as we take a more holistic view of how we can make life better.”

Credit: HTC

Or maybe you need something with a little more power for gaming or work? If that’s the case, you should check out HTC’s Cosmos Elite Full System. Not only do you get an awesome PC VR headset with a sweet flip-up design and awesome visuals, but you’ll also get two months of Viveport Infinity for free!

You can also take advantage of HTC’s Black Friday sale to pick up the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap at its lowest price ever. Check out a full list of HTC’s Black Friday discounts below.

Credit: VRScout
  • HTC Vive Pro 2 Full System – $1,299 ($100 in savings plus 12 months VIVEPORT Infinity).
  • HTC Vive Pro 2 headset – $724 ($75 in savings)
  • HTC Vive Cosmos Elite headset – $399 ($50 in savings)
  • HTC Vive Cosmos Elite Full System – $649 ($100 in savings)
  • HTC Vive Deluxe Audio Strap – $59.99 ($20 in savings)
  • HTC Vive Flow – $449.99 ($50 in savings)

All deals are valid now until November 28th at 11:59 pm PT.

Image Credit: HTC

Meta to Resume Quest Sales in Germany Following 2-year Antitrust Case

From roadtovr

Over the past two years Meta hasn’t sold its VR headsets in Germany due to an ongoing antitrust suit in that country that alleges the forced linkage between its virtual reality products and Facebook was an anticompetitive practice. Now it seems that’s about to change, as regulators have intimated that Meta may be free and clear soon to resume sales in Germany.

As reported by German VR publication MIXED, residents of Europe’s largest economy will soon be able to order Quest 2 and Quest Pro, which are both set to be available in-country by the end of this year.

After the sales halt in September 2020, Germany-based customers had to import Meta VR devices, which was typically done by buying from online retailers based in neighboring European countries, such as France’s Amazon.fr or Italy’s Amazon.it.

Resuming sales in Germany is directly linked to Meta’s backtracking on forced Facebook logins in August. Andreas Mundt, President of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office which is tasked with antitrust enforcement in that country, calls this a “welcome development,” although the process is still not concluded.

Here’s Mundt’s full statement, translated to English:

With Meta’s digital ecosystem created with a very large number of users, the company is the key player in the social media space. Meta also has a significant position in the growing VR market. If the use of VR glasses were only possible for Facebook or Instagram members, this could severely affect competition in both areas. Meta has responded to our concerns and offered a solution by setting up a separate Meta account to use the Quest glasses. Despite this welcome development, we are not concluding the process today. First of all, we want to continue to accompany the actual design of the options for users as well as topics of the merging and processing of user data from the various meta-services.

Although a Meta spokesperson tells MIXED that both Quest 2 and the new Quest Pro will be available in-country at some point this year, the exact date is unclear.

Thanks to our reader Blaexe for pointing out that it wasn’t a block, but an anticipatory halt on Meta’s part during the ongoing antitrust suit. We’ve changed wording to reflect this.

‘Batman VR’ App Allegedly in the Works for Quest, FTC Filing Claims

From roadtovr

Among documents released by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this week is a claim that Meta’s VR studio Camouflaj, the developers behind Marvel’s Ironman VR, have also planned a Batman VR app for release on Quest.

The apparent leak was found by Janko Roettgers, formerly of Protocol and Variety. The document in whole can be viewed here.

“In September 2022, Meta acquired Camouflaj, which currently developing Ironman and Batman VR apps for Quest.”

The information comes as a part of wider antitrust investigation into Meta’s acquisition of Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app. You can read more about that here.

Last we heard from Camouflaj before the acquisition by Meta, the studio said it had “exciting things on the horizon,” maintaining it was still “all-in on VR.”

As early as May 2022, the studio was hiring for a host of positions to work on its “next exciting AAA project.”

A few months later the studio then released Iron Man VR on Quest 2, releasing it from its two-year exclusivity on PSVR.

Camouflaj hasn’t announced any new projects at this point either. We’ve reached out to Meta for comment and will update when/if we hear back.

Immersive VR Film Takes You On A Supersonic Jet Ride

From vrscout

Experience what it is like to train like an astronaut.

Emmy award-winning immersive production studio Felix & Paul Studios, the team behind the hit VR series Space Explorers: An ISS Experience, is back with yet another jaw-dropping 360-degree experience for Meta Quest VR headsets.

Available now via the Meta Quest TV app, Supersonic Flight – Space Explorers: Special Feature puts you in the cockpit of a T-38 supersonic jet, the same aircraft used by NASA to train astronauts for spaceflight. The roughly nine-minute 3D 360-degree video takes you through a variety of scenic locations—from a sprawling canyon to a snowy mountain range—at ridiculously high speeds.

“For the past 60 years, NASA astronauts have trained for spaceflight flying T-38 supersonic jets,” states the official description. “Now is your chance to jump on board and fly faster than the speed of sound!”

Similar to the Space Explorers series, Supersonic Flight makes excellent use of 360-degree camera technology to immerse you in a one-of-a-kind experience that would normally be out of reach for the general public. 3D brings the cockpit and its array of controls to life, further absorbing you in the virtual flight.



That said, this experience may not be for everyone. The high-altitude joyride features several moments that could prove jarring to those prone to motion sickness. If you are able to stomach the ride, however, you’re in for a serious treat. Felix & Paul Studios is responsible for some of the most visually-stunning 360-degree films available on VR headsets, and Supersonic Flight is no exception.

Most recently, the studio partnered with NASA to host an immersive VR live stream of the highly-anticipated Artemis 1 rocket launch this month. Supersonic Flight is just the latest in a series of exciting partnerships with the American space agency.



You can watch Supersonic Flight – Space Explorers: Special Feature now on Meta Quest VR headsets for free via the Meta Quest TV app. For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Felix & Paul Studios

Meta to Host a “hyper-realistic” Version of Notorious B.I.G. in VR Concert Next Month

From roadtovr

In honor of The Notorious B.I.G.’s 50th birthday, Meta is hosting a VR concert experience next month that aims to bring together a host of musical guests alongside a realistic avatar of the Brooklyn-born rapper, who left this mortal coil back in 1997.

The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience is set to take place on December 16th, bringing to Meta Horizon Worlds what the company calls a “hyper-realistic avatar” of Biggie, set to take place in a virtual recreation of ’90s Brooklyn called ‘The Brook’.

Following a narrative journey written and voiced by American writer and music journalist Touré, the concert will feature hits from Biggie’s catalog, including guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, Latto, Nardo Wick, Lil’ Cease, DJ Clark Kent, and more.

The VR version will be exclusively available to Quest owners via Meta Horizon Worlds, but will also be broadcast in 2D form via the official Notorious B.I.G. Facebook page if you don’t own either a Quest 2 or Quest Pro.

Qualcomm Reveals Snapdragon AR2 Processor for Glasses-sized AR Devices

From roadtovr

Qualcomm today announced Snapdragon AR2, its “purpose-built headworn augmented reality platform.” Differentiating from the company’s existing Snapdragon XR2 chips, Qualcomm says the AR2 architecture is better suited for creating AR glasses with low power consumption and compact form factors.

Today during Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit event, the company revealed the Snapdragon AR2 platform which consists of a trio of chips which the company says will help make truly glasses-sized AR devices possible.

Qualcomm was early to the standalone VR space and has been dominant with its Snapdragon XR2 chips which have found their way into many of the leading standalone headsets on the market, and are now in more than 60 devices total, the company says.

Aiming to take a similar bite out of the forthcoming AR glasses segment, Qualcomm has created a new Snapdragon AR2 platform with a distributed processing design. The platform consists of three chips:

  • AR processor (for sensor perception and video output)
  • AR co-processor (for sensor fusion and dedicated computer vision tasks)
  • Wi-Fi 7 chip (for communication to a host processing device)

By creating a more distributed workload across a main processor and a co-processor, Qualcomm claims AR2 is up to 50% more power efficient while offering 2.5 times better AI performance, and a more compact form-factor, compared to the single-chip Snapdragon XR2 solution.

Not only will the AR processor and co-processor help share a workload, Qualcomm also sees AR2 devices using the speedy Wi-Fi 7 chip to communicate with a host device like a smartphone or wireless compute puck that will do the heavy lifting like application processing and rendering. Qualcomm claims the Wi-Fi 7 chip (FastConnect 7800) can achieve 5.8 Gbps bandwidth with just 2ms of latency.

Using this three-chip framework for distributed processing, Qualcomm claims it will be possible to build compact AR glasses that consume less than one watt of power.

The AR2 platform supports up to nine concurrent cameras for a bevy of head-tracking, environment-sensing, and user-tracking tasks.

“We built Snapdragon AR2 to address the unique challenges of headworn AR and provide industry leading processing, AI and connectivity that can fit inside a stylish form factor,” said Hugo Swart, vice president of XR product management at Qualcomm. “With the technical and physical requirements for VR/MR and AR diverging, Snapdragon AR2 represents another metaverse-defining platform in our XR portfolio to help our OEM partners revolutionize AR glasses.”

There’s no word yet on when the first AR2 devices will hit the market, but Qualcomm lists a handful of partners actively working with the platform: Lenovo, LG, Niantic, Nreal, Oppo, Pico, Qonoq, Rokid, Sharp, TCL, Vuzix, and Xiaomi.

Biggie VR Concert Will Feature ‘Hyper-Realistic’ Avatar

From vrscout

With guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, and more.

Meta today announced the latest in its series of immersive VR concerts, The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience. Coming next month to Horizon Worlds, the one-of-a-kind show will bring the late Brooklyn rapper to life like never before in celebration of what would have been his 50th birthday.

Credit: Meta

On December 16th, those with a Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro headset can log in to Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR metaverse, to catch an immersive VR concert featuring a “hyper-realistic avatar” of the late great rapper along with guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, Latto, Nardo Wick, Lil’ Cease, DJ Clark Kent, and more.

The experience will also feature a narrative portion, during which you’ll learn more about the life of the hip-hop legend. Written and voiced by American writer and music journalist Touré, this eye-opening journey will take you through The Brook, a virtual recreation of ’90s Brooklyn.

Credit: Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

When asked how the project came to be, Touré said, “I’ve worked with producer Alex Coletti on several projects over many years and I also interviewed Biggie several times, so Alex thought I could be helpful at bringing this to life.”

“We wanted to create a concert that had other aspects to it, so it was on me to figure out a pre-concert scene and a post-concert scene. It was a lot of fun trying to imagine what Big would be like and what he might be doing if he were still with us today.”



“It’s very exciting to be able to give people immersive experiences, so if VR can develop to the point where I can be at home but have the feeling of being in the front row of a concert and really feel like I’m there, that would be a really exciting opportunity,” he added.

 The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience will kick off on December 16th in Horizon Worlds, available free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. A 2D version of the show will be available to view on-demand via the official Notorious B.I.G. Facebook page.

For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Burst Live