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Disney in Talks with Jim Henson Company to Bring ‘The Muppets’ to VR

From roadtovr

Jim Henson’s Muppets could be coming to VR following talks with Disney—possibly offering a clue at the sort of content Meta reportedly hopes to bring to its next VR headset.

Disney held an event on June 14th celebrating the 70th anniversary of The Jim Henson Company. The event was also a bittersweet sendoff for one of Disney’s Hollywood Studios most famous long-running attractions, Muppet* Vision 3D.

As reported by Disney fan site Laughing Place, The Jim Henson Company CEO Lisa Henson announced at the event that, while Disney closed the physical attraction a few days prior, the company was now “exploring ways to preserve the film and other parts of the experience for fans to enjoy in the future.”

This, Henson said, included discussions with Disney about bringing the attraction-based film to VR, with Laughing Company reporting that the Muppet* Vision 3D was captured using VR cameras.

This follows a Wall Street Journal report from earlier this month alleging that Meta is currently shopping for branded immersive content from companies such as Disney, A24, and smaller production studios.

The WSJ report maintains Meta is hoping to sign timed-exclusive episodic and standalone immersive video content geared towards its next VR headset.

Codenamed ‘Loma,’ the reported device is said to feature a design similar to a pair of eyeglasses that connects to a tethered puck, which is described as having greater compute power than its Quest 3 series of headsets, and a price of “less than $1,000.”

Meta’s Next Headset is Reportedly Thin, Powerful & Uses a Puck-style Compute Unit, Coming in 2026

From roadtovr

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Meta may be looking to some of Hollywood’s top brands to produce exclusive content for its next XR headset, which is expected to feature a completely new thin and light design when it reportedly ships next year.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Meta has recently been in talks with a number of entertainment brands, including Disney, A24, and smaller production companies to create both episodic and standalone immersive video tied to well-known IP.

Additionally, WSJ reports that talks include the possibility of timed exclusivity, allowing producers to later sell on other platforms after a specified period.

It’s said Meta hopes to use the videos to attract users to the company’s next XR headset, which is expected to compete with Apple Vision Pro when it launches next year.

Codenamed ‘Loma,’ the headset is said to feature a design similar to a pair of eyeglasses that connects to a pocketable compute puck, which is described as more powerful than its Quest 3 series of headsets. WSJ reports Meta is looking to price the device less than $1,000.

Provided the report is true, this would mark a sharp departure from the company’s current line of Quest headsets, which pack all components into a single standalone unit. Outside of Quest Pro, which was largely seen as a commercial failure, the company has also increasingly focused on sub-$650 hardware. Quest 3S, its most recent, is currently priced as low as $300.

Meta Quest 3S side profile | Image courtesy Meta

Speaking to WSJ, Meta says it develops multiple headset prototypes at all times—a non-committal answer if we’ve ever heard one. Whatever the case, shopping around for exclusive content deals suggests something substantial is coming down the line.

A separate report from UploadVR additionally claims Meta’s top Quest 4 contenders, codenamed ‘Pismo Low’ and ‘Pismo High’, have been canceled. Quest 4 was reportedly expected to land next year; rumors echoed by respected VR leaker Luna recently suggested Quest 4 is however now coming in 2027 in favor of the new design mentioned above.

Notably, Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth said last December that wireless puck units for mixed reality headsets like Quest aren’t “a magic bullet,” suggesting the separate compute unit may be tethered to the headset in question.

Orion Puck Computer | Image courtesy Meta

“We have looked at this a bunch of times. Wireless compute pucks just really don’t solve the problem. If you’re wireless, they still have a battery on the headset, which is a major driver of weight. And, sure, you’re gaining some thermal space so your performance could potentially be better, although you’re somewhat limited now by bandwidth because you’re using a radio,” Bosworth said.

In the meantime, the XR landscape is invariably moving towards thin and light hardware of all types, encompassing everything from PC VR headsets like Bigscreen Beyond 2, to smart glasses that offer built-in heads-up displays, such as the upcoming Android XR-powered glasses from Google—set to be released by Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Widely reported rumors of Meta’s next-gen smart glasses and Apple’s upcoming smart glasses also persist.

At least in the case of bulky XR headsets though, the hope is that removing weight will also reduce user friction, and drastically increase long-term engagement.

Meta is Testing a Quest UI Overhaul and 3D Instagram Photos in Latest Horizon OS Release

From roadtovr

Meta announced it’s now running a test in Quest’s latest Horizon OS release (v77) that overhauls the platform’s dock-based UI for a new launcher overlay. Additionally, Meta says some users will also see 3D Instagram photos in their feed on Quest too, which is neat.

First teased at Connect 2024, Meta is finally bringing Navigator to Quest, which serves as a new centralized hub for apps, quick actions, and system functions.

“As part of our work to develop a fully spatial operating system designed around people, Navigator gives you convenient access to your recently used applications, with the added ability to pin up to 10 items in your library for quick access and seamless task resumption. This makes it easier to multitask in-headset and connect with the people and things you care about most,” Meta says in the v77 patch notes.

Essentially, Navigator is supposed to make it easier to access system-level controls and then quickly return to what you were doing in-headset. More specifically, the new UI should feel pretty familiar to smartphone users thanks to its more traditional layout.

YouTuber ‘The Construct’ shows off Navigator, including a tutorial video and hands-on impressions:

“We designed Navigator based on everything we’ve learned over the last decade. It’s unobtrusive, intuitive, and built from the ground up for the unique needs of spatial computing,” Meta says.

The company says Navigator will begin rolling out as a limited test to some people on the Public Test Channel (PTC) v77, which is expected to roll out gradually to all users over the coming months.

Additionally, Instagram is getting a little love on Quest too, as Meta says it’s currently testing 3D-ified photos on the platform. For some users on PTC v77, Meta’s AI will automatically transform existing 2D photos not originally captured in 3D into an immersive format.

“And it’s an early look at our plans to continue bringing more social and entertainment experiences that are 2D today into a more immersive, 3D future,” Meta says.

Note: To enroll in Quest’s Public Test Channel (PTC), you need to use the Meta Horizon app on your phone and navigate to the ‘Devices’ section. Select your Quest headset and then go to ‘Headset settings’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’. Finally, toggle on ‘Public Test Channel’.

Quest Devs Can Now Publish Apps That Use the Headset’s Cameras to Scan the World

From roadtovr

While Meta’s Quest has always relied heavily on cameras for tracking location of the headset, controllers, and the world around the user, developers haven’t had the same privileged access to the headset’s cameras. Earlier this year Meta gave developers the ability to experiment with direct access to the headset’s cameras in private projects; starting this week developers can now publicly release apps that make use of the new feature.

This week’s update of the Passthrough Camera API for Quest means that developers can now publish apps to the Horizon store that directly access the front-facing cameras of Quest 3 and 3S. This opens the door to third-party applications which can scan the world around the user to understand more about it. For instance, developers could add computer-vision capabilities to track objects or people in the scene, or to build a map of the environment for analysis and interaction.

For a long time this was impossible due to limitations Meta placed on what developers could and couldn’t do with the headset’s hardware. Despite computer-vision capabilities being widely available to developers on smartphones, Meta was hesitant to allow the same on its headsets, apparently due to privacy concerns (and surely amplified by the many privacy controversies the company has faced in the past).

Previously, third-party apps could learn some information about the world around the user—like the shape of the room and objects within it—but this information was provided by the system in a way that prevented apps from directly seeing what the cameras could see. This made it possible for developers to build mixed reality applications that were, to some extent, aware of the space around the user. But it made some use-cases difficult or even impossible; for example, tracking a specific object held by the user.

Last year Meta announced it would finally unlock direct access to the headset’s cameras. In March, it began offering an experimental version of the capability to developers, allowing them to build apps that accessed the headset’s cameras. But they weren’t allowed to publish those apps to the public, until now.

The company has also specified the technical capabilities and performance of the cameras that the developers can access on Quest 3 and 3S:

  • Image capture latency: 40-60ms
  • GPU overhead: ~1-2% per streamed camera
  • Memory overhead: ~45MB
  • Data rate: 30Hz
  • Max resolution: 1280×960
  • Internal data format YUV420

Meta says that a developer’s use of camera data on Quest is covered under its Developer Data Use Policy, including a section on “Prohibited Uses of User Data,” which prohibits certain uses of data, including to “perform, facilitate, or provide tools for surveillance,” and “uniquely identifying a device or user, except as permitted [in the policy].”

‘Wonder’ is a Collection of Mesmerizing Mixed Reality Experiences Coming Soon from ‘Gadgeteer’ Studio

From roadtovr

Metanaut, the studio behind Rube Goldberg-inspired physics sandbox Gadgeteer (2019), announced they’re releasing an anthology of virtual and mixed reality experiences designed to mesmerize.

Called Wonder, the experience is slated to land on Quest 3/S within the “next couple of months,” aiming to deliver what Metanaut calls a “perfect escape” from your busy life.

Initially announced back in late 2021, Wonder is set to feature three experiences when it launches this Spring, with more coming post-launch:

  • Ancient Ruins: your familiar space morphs into a mysterious cave that gets swallowed up by a blackhole.
  • Jellyfish Bloom: a mesmerizing deep-sea spectacle filled with bioluminescent jellyfish that lights up your walls and furniture.
  • Parallel Worlds: where reality-bending portals reveal alternate versions of your environment in ice, dots, and more.

Metanaut says Wonder is being developed with “clever and advanced rendering techniques” that is pushing Quest 3 to deliver photorealistic visuals thanks to the inclusion of scanned room meshes. It’s also a hand tracking-only title, letting you put down your controllers.

“This technical achievement is paired with custom-crafted, beautiful audio from award-winning music studio, Ictus Audio, whose accolades include winning the John Lennon Songwriting Award,” the studio says.

“The XR industry seems to have shifted from serving adults to kids, and from high-quality premium titles to free-to-play slop,” says Peter Kao, founder of Metanaut. “With Wonder, we wanted to create a magical experience for an underserved audience—one who is older and one who wants to experience the highest audiovisual spectacle possible on latest headsets.”

Wonder is now available for pre-order for $4, and is expected to increase in price as more content is released after launch. You can pre-order it here exclusively for Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

Meta’s Next-gen Smart Glasses Reportedly Set to Include a Display & Wrist-worn XR Controller

From roadtovr

Meta is reportedly working on a version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses which will include a single display for viewing photos and apps. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman, the company is aiming to introduce it sometime later this year alongside its wrist-worn XR controller for hand-gesture input.

As per a previous Bloomberg report from January, the device is allegedly codenamed ‘Hypernova’. Citing Meta employees, the device could cost between $1,000 and $1,400, although the final price likely still hasn’t been decided.

The price increase over the company’s $300 Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which don’t include displays of any sort, is reportedly driven by the inclusion of a single display visible in the lower-right quadrant of the right lens.

Unlike augmented reality glasses, which correctly place digital images in the user’s field-of-view, the device as described would be closer to Google Glass in function. Find out more about the differences between Smart Glasses and AR Glasses in our full explainer.

Bloomberg’s latest report now maintains Hypernova will include dedicated apps for taking pictures, viewing photos and accessing maps. This also includes notifications from phone apps, such as Messenger and WhatsApp, the report maintains.

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

It’s said Hypenova will rely “heavily on the Meta View phone app,” and may not include its own on-board app store despite running a customized version of Android—suggesting it’s more akin to a smartphone peripheral and not a standalone platform as such.

It is however said to include many of the same features of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, such as capturing images and video, accessing AI via built-in microphones and pairing with a phone for calls and music playback.

Additionally, it’s said Hypernova is getting a spec bump in the camera department. The latest version of Meta Ray-Ban comes with a 12-megapixel camera, similar to an iPhone 11 (2019) in quality. Instead, Hypernova is hoping to “rival the iPhone 13 from 2021,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Like the company’s display-less Ray-Ban Glasses, the report maintains users can control Hypernova using capacitive touch controls located on the temples, allowing to scroll through media.

Wrist-worn XR Controller seen with Orion | Image courtesy Meta

It seems however Meta is looking to finally productize its wrist-worn XR controller, which uses electromyography (EMG) sensors to detect things such pinching and hand rotation for UI selection. Hypernova is said to come bundled in the box with the wrist-worn controller, which we’ve also seen in action with the company’s internal Orion AR glasses.

Bloomberg maintains a second-gen ‘Hypernova 2’ is already in the works, which is said to include a binocular heads-up display system (again, smart glasses, not AR) with people familiar with the matter maintaining it’s currently planned for release in 2027.

Granted, anything could happen. Meta regularly shelves products late in development, such as its allegedly canceled variant the device without a camera—a move targeting lower costs and increased user privacy.

Still, Hypernova likely won’t be the next smart glasses device Meta releases. The report maintains Meta is finalizing ‘Supernova 2’, which function like Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, but houses inside a sportier Oakley design.

All of this is leading up to the release of Meta’s first true AR glasses. The company revealed its internal developer kit Orion in late 2024; Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth has said an AR device based on their work with Orion could come before 2030, priced “at least in the space of phone, laptop territory.”

Quest Update Reveals More Vision Pro Features Are Coming, Including FaceTime-Style Selfie Cam

From roadtovr

Meta’s upcoming Horizon OS release is bringing a few more of Vision Pro’s most useful features to Quest, including a video chatting selfie cam for avatars and possibly the ability to share windows with other users when in its Horizon Home social space.

Discovered by serial dataminer ‘Luna’, a beta version of Horizon OS v76 is packing in a few new features, including the very Facetime-inspired avatar selfie cam which can be used in video chatting apps.

Quest’s v76 update is currently available on the Public Test Channel (PTC), although Luna went a bit further to implement the avatar selfie cam in a sideloaded version of Discord.

Backgrounds currently aren’t available, Luna notes, however they’re said to include multiple default options, such as Abstract, Beach, Greenhouse, Home Office, Light, Loft, and Office.

Luna also uncovered a hidden tutorial for an upcoming ‘Navigator’ system user interface overhaul on Horizon OS. Teased at Meta Connect 2024 in September, the new UI system restyles the current dock-based UI to a more traditional launcher overlay—putting it more in line with the sort of icon-based app selection you see in Vision Pro and mobile devices today.

While the tutorial was discovered in v76 PTC, Luna suspects the Navigator feature will arrive in v77 or beyond, possibly as an Experimental feature.

Furthermore, Luna’s datamining revealed that strings in the v76 PTC of Horizon OS “suggest that Meta is working on the ability to share windows with other users in Horizon Home (and possibly Worlds),” which they maintain “will likely work similarly to SharePlay on visionOS.”

The string in question states it “[s]hares a panel so that other users in your world can see it”.

Granted, Quest users have been asking for these features since well before Vision Pro was released, although it was Apple’s $3,500 mixed reality standalone that has ultimately been the key driver in the company’s quest to further mold the console-style Quest into a general computing device.

To boot, since Vision Pro’s launch in early 2024, Meta has released a number of features in effort to bring Quest’s software closer to parity with visionOS, including spatial video playback, pinch-style gesture controls, and better passthrough on Quest 3.

Still missing in action though is Meta’s long-promised photorealistic Codec Avatars though, which the company first teased in 2019.

Codec Avatars | image courtesy Meta

Like Vision Pro’s photorealistic avatars, Meta researchers demonstrated that Codec Avatars could use smartphones to scan and recreate a user’s face—much like Vision Pro does today.

The key limiter though is Quest 3’s lack of eye or facial tracking, which could mean Meta is waiting to release Codec Avatars with its next high-end headset—the totally hypothetically and still unconfirmed Quest Pro 2. And if we were betting, probably some more Vision Pro-inspired features too.

McDonald’s Japan Launches Official ‘VRChat’ World, Tapping Into Japan’s Massive VTuber Trend

From roadtovr

When you think of corporate brand engagement in VR, Meta is typically the prime suspect. In the past, they’ve brokered exclusive deals with Wendy’s for a Horizon Worlds social experience, and KFC for its finger-lickin’ weird escape room. Now, McDonald’s Japan has opened its own little slice of brand engagement heaven in VRChat, underlining just how big the social VR platform has become in Japan.

Available from now until June 17th, the official McDonald’s Japan world isn’t particularly massive, only featuring a single room where you can munch on virtual fries and take photos at few of the virtual photo spots, which include a super-size fry container to climb into, virtual cardboard cutouts of various McDonald’s mascots, and floating promotional text with flying fries everywhere.

On the surface, it’s essentially the same sort of promotional brand experience you see pop up in Japan from time to time, albeit completely in VR. Under the hood though, it’s leveraging some of the most recent developments in getting Japan’s Gen-Z to the golden arches, mashing up Japanese virtual streamers (aka VTubers) and the country’s love for VRChat.

The world was built around McDonald’s most recent marketing campaigns in Japan, celebrating the release of its annual ‘Tirori Mix’ animated music video collaboration. First released in 2022, Tirori Mix mashes up vocals from beloved J-pop idols with an animated short that remixes the “Tirori” chime played in McDonald’s Japan restaurants when an order is ready. This year’s collab included Ado, YOASOBI, and Hoshimachi Suisei, which you can catch here.

But why VRChat and not Horizon Worlds? VRChat hasn’t released specific user stats, however Japanese users make up the top visitors to the the company’s website, according to Similarweb, accounting for over 33% of users. And there’s a good reason why.

Image courtesy Similarweb

Any random visit to VRChat can confirm just how big it is in Japan; it’s chock-full of Japanese language worlds—everything from recreations of the historic streets of Kyoto to more demure spots for community meetups—although one of the most important factors is VRChat’s support for user-generated avatars.

While anyone can create a unique avatar in a standard 3D modeling software like Blender and upload it to VRChat, or otherwise buy one, being able to have a persistent avatar across multiple platforms has increased the platform’s cross-promotion among Japan’s anime-garbed VTubers.

And VTubing is big business in Japan. Massive talent agencies like Hololive, Nijisanji and VShojo have essentially co-opted Japan’s long-engrained idol culture by recruiting, training, and managing this new subset of idols, which don full-articulated VR avatars.

Notably, Hoshimachi Suisei, who is featured in Tirori Mix 2025, is a one of the biggest Japanese language VTuber, who is not only the most popular Music VTuber in Japan at 2 million+ subscribers on YouTybe, but has also performed live concerts, appeared on TV, and even ranked on the Japanese music charts.

Image courtesy Hoshimachi Suisei

Meanwhile, Meta is fighting to gain consistent engagement in Horizon Worlds, which notably limits avatar customization and operates within a more closed ecosystem. To boot, in a bid to gain more traction among users, the company recently announced it was launching a $50 million creator fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds.

And while Meta may be after its own Gorilla Tag-style hit on Horizon Worlds in the short term, until it opens up avatar customization to include more than its standard avatars and pick-and-mix of accessories, it will have a hard time tapping into that sort of cross-promotional gold Japan’s VTubers have been so successful at driving.

Lauded VR Storytelling Studio Astrea Releases Latest Project on Quest & PC VR

From roadtovr

Astrea, the studio and publisher behind a host of VR narrative experiences, including Spheres, Astra, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom, has released an interactive VR experience on Quest and PC VR headsets that lets you embody passengers on a train, and help them face pivotal moments in their lives.

Called The Passengers, the four chapter, 40-minute interactive experience allows you to become one of four characters, experiencing their internal monologues and interacting with the environment with both your hands and voice.

Developed by Canada-based studio Couzin Films and France-based Les Produits Frais, The Passengers tells each story with a variety of styles, offering different visuals such as oil paint, watercolor, pencil, colored pencils, and immersive video.

“In this experience, you can be each one of the four passengers who all have their own personal quest. The course of each story is affected according to what they say, where they look, and what they do with their hands. You are one deciding all of that. The characters were created by volumetrically scanning the four actors. They were then rigged and animated through motion capture.”

While The Passengers is new to consumer headsets, it’s actually been on the international festival circuit since 2021 shortly after its completion.

The experience won the Best Immersive Experience – Fiction award at the Canadian Screen Awards (2022), and was selected as a finalist at the Prix Gémeaux (2022), Prix Numix (2021) and the VR Experience of the Year at the VR Awards (2021).

You can find The Passengers on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, and Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $5.

‘Meta for Education’ Program Exits Beta, Bringing Quest to the Classroom

From roadtovr

Meta announced its ‘Meta for Education’ program is now out of beta, allowing schools and educational institutions from all over to fill their classrooms with Quest headsets and use a variety of education-focused XR apps and software.

Initially announced last April, Meta for Education is a comprehensive solution for educators looking to bring XR into the classroom, which includes Quest headsets, XR management solution subscriptions with education-tailored device capabilities suitable for the classroom, and a variety of tools and apps built for admins, educators, and students.

Over the course of its beta, Meta worked with colleges in the US and UK to help refine the platform, with educators reporting that virtual and mixed reality enhanced student engagement and improved comprehension of complex topics.

Image courtesy Meta

Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs and formed UK Deputy Prime Minister, highlights the transformative potential of immersive technologies in education, enabling students to experience otherwise inaccessible scenarios.

“Improving the life chances of children through education has been something I’ve been interested in throughout my career in politics and technology,” says Clegg.

“Of all the technological advances I’ve witnessed at Meta, immersive technologies like virtual and augmented reality really caught my imagination because of the potential they have to transform the way we learn. My hope is that, through Meta for Education, we can make it easier for students to learn, practice, and apply new skills; feel a sense of presence with teachers and classmates; and visit places or experience things that would otherwise be impossible. Most importantly, I hope it helps teachers do what they do best: teach.”

Meta says data obtained from 43 Inspired Education Group schools, which already user immersive technology with teens in the classroom, reported 87% of students feeling more engaged and interested in their lessons, while 85% of teachers found virtual and mixed reality to be a valuable tool to enhance their teaching. Students also experienced a 15% improvement in their academic performance on multiple-choice assessments.

The program’s exit from beta follows a number of partnerships with institutions, such as Arizona State University, Imperial College London, and the University of Miami to integrate VR into their curricula.

Additionally, Meta and VictoryXR have developed over 30 “metaversities” with the Engage XR platform to create digital twin campuses for remote student interaction. Digital twin campuses are now available to students at The University of Leeds in the UK, University of the Basque Country in Spain, and University of Hannover in Germany.

Educators interested in learning more about Meta for Education can check out the program’s website, which includes a contact for applicants in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.