Meta is reportedly in talks with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica to take a minority stake in the company. The move is seen as doubling down on a partnership that created the Meta Ray-Ban smartglasses.
The report, which comes from the Wall Street Journal, alleges Meta is currently considering a stake of about 5% of the Italian-French luxury eyewear group.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the report maintains the investment is not an assured deal, however if it goes through, it could be worth €4.33 billion euros ($4.73 billion) based on EssilorLuxottica’s latest market value of €86.50 billion euros.
Moving forward, Reality Labs has been divided into a central ‘Metaverse’ organization, responsible for Quest, and the new ‘Wearables’ organization to dedicated to other hardware, including its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses.
The Meta Ray-Ban smartglasses currently on sale is a second-gen follow-up to its Facebook Ray-Ban Stories glasses released in 2021, which includes improved cameras, audio and more design options.
Notably, Meta Ray-Ban smartglasses lack any sort of display, meaning user input is handled by voice assistant or by basic touch on the glasses’ struts for things like taking pictures, videos, and listening to music.
What they do have though is iconic styling backed by a wide consumer appeal, something Meta would have trouble generating on its own. A minority stake in EssilorLuxottica could not only allow the company wider access to a host of sub-brands too, but also its retail locations that span Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Vision Express, Pearle Vision and Target Optical.
Neither Meta nor EssilorLuxottica responded to requests for comment.
Corptopia Studios, developer behind VR puzzle-adventure Down the Rabbit Hole (2020), announced the release of a follow-up title that takes you back to the game’s winding chasm of enigmatic dioramas.
Called Escaping Wonderland, the standalone adventure is said to arrive on Quest 2/3/Pro sometime this Fall.
The studio says the follow-up “isn’t a sequel to Down the Rabbit Hole per se,” calling it a standalone adventure that has some familiar faces alongside a new set of characters to meet and locations to explore.
Here’s how Corptopia describes it:
Tumble topsy-turvy down the rabbit hole into the fantastical frolic of Escaping Wonderland, where whimsy waltzes with wonder and riddles run riot! Join the ever-curious Molly on a brand-new adventure through the beloved world of Alice in Wonderland.
Puzzle your way through perplexing challenges and lose yourself in an enchanting landscape where up is down, left is right, and nothing is quite as it seems (except when it is, and even then, it might not be).
Prepare for hours of gameplay, brimming with brain-teasers, enchantment, and just the right dash of delightful nonsense. Will Molly navigate her way out, or will she unearth the curious truth that sometimes the best way out is further in? Step into this whimsical whirlwind and discover what Molly is really escaping from and help her recover her memory—if you dare!
Why a follow-up? Well, it seems Down the Rabbit Hole was a pretty big win for publisher Beyond Frames Entertainment and developer Cortopia Studios.
“Down the Rabbit Hole was a financial success for Cortopia and Beyond Frames, generating over 400% ROI since its launch 4 years ago,” said Ace St. Germain, CEO of Beyond Frames Entertainment. “We’re excited to bring players back to Wonderland and are encouraged by the early positive signals we’ve received from influencers and playtesters.”
You can pre-order the game now at a 10% discount off its regular $20 launch price. The pre-order page mentions the game is launching sometime in Autumn 2024.
Netflix has pulled its video streaming app from the Quest content store.
As first reported by UploadVR, the long-neglected Netflix app for Quest is now gone from the store. If you already downloaded the app before then, you’ll find it no longer works.
That doesn’t mean you can’t watch Netflix on Quest though. The streaming giant recently bumped streaming quality in the Quest Browser to 1080p, which comes in stark contrast to the app’s 480p capped resolution, which notably didn’t support mixed reality passthrough or downloads.
Originally released in 2015 for Samsung Gear VR and developed by former Meta CTO John Carmack, the app experienced very few updates over the years, with the latest arriving in 2019 alongside the launch of the original Quest.
Why not simply develop a new official app? Netflix requires devices to be certified in order to push streaming beyond that 480p cap, which requires meeting technical requirements, submitting the device for testing, and even possibly negotiating a licensing agreement, which are all things Meta would have to initiate.
Notably, Quest has native apps for Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, MLB, in addition to its own Meta TV app. It lacks Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, and HBO Max.
Google announced that Blocks, the 3D asset creation tool released for VR in 2017, is following in the footsteps of Tilt Brush by going open source.
Google announced the news in a blogpost, noting that development of Open Blocks is following the example put forth by Open Brush, a version of Google’s Tilt Brush XR creation tool which was open sourced in 2021.
“We now wish to share the code behind Google Blocks, allowing for novel and rich experiences to emerge from the creativity and passion of open source contributors such as the Icosa Foundation,” Google says.
The Icosa Foundation is also known for developing Open Brush and Google Polygon replacement Icosa Gallery.
“Over the coming months, we’ll be working hard to bring the Open Blocks codebase up to modern standards,” Icosa Foundation says in a blogpost. “First up, we’ll be switching to use the OpenXR framework and new input system within Unity, enabling us to target Open Blocks for a much wider range of XR devices. At that point, we will be aiming to create a standalone XR port, and bring Open Blocks to the Quest and Pico platforms. Along the way, there will be plenty of opportunity to add immersive XR features such as MR passthrough.”
The team maintains its long-term roadmap will “transform Open Blocks into a full modelling suite, giving you more control over materials, adding texturing support, and enabling more powerful tools from traditional CSG pipelines.”
The open source archive of the Blocks code can be found on github. Additionally, versions of Google Blocks will remain available on both Steam and the Meta PC Store, although you should not the last time these have received an update was in 2018.
Bigscreen announced that Beyond, its slim form factor PC VR headset, is finally getting its long-awaited Audio Strap starting next month.
Bigscreen Beyond initially shipped in late 2023 with promises that an audio headstrap was soon to follow, with the company saying last December that shipping was scheduled to start sometime in March 2024.
Following a number of manufacturing delays, Bigscreen says the first mass production batches will begin quality checks in early August, with global shipping starting sometime in mid-August.
“Based on current preorder volumes, we’ll be able to produce and ship Audio Straps for all orders received so far in early October,” the company said in its latest production update.
Image courtesy Bigscreen
Priced at $130 and available direct from Bigscreen, the rigid strap integrates on-ear headphones that Bigscreen says “provide[s] high-end audio and powerful bass,” noting the speakers are designed by Koss.
When Road to VRreviewed Bigscreen Beyond at its September 2023 launch, it was clear the device delivered on its promise of making the smallest possible headset with the highest possible image quality, but the lack of dedicated audio solution was a definite sore spot.
“Until we have the upcoming deluxe audio strap to pair with Beyond, it feels incomplete,” Road to VR’s Ben Lang writes in the rewview. “We’re patiently waiting to get our hands on the strap—as it will really make-or-break the headset—and plan to update our review when that time comes.”
Somnium VR1 is a new PC VR headset that delivers an impressive field-of-view (FOV) and high-resolution displays, ideally appealing to enthusiasts already in the SteamVR tracking ecosystem looking for an upgrade, or businesses with the cash to splash. I got a chance to go hands-on at the company’s Somnium Connect event held in Prague, Czechia over the weekend, giving me my first look at the version heading out to customers that’s said to start shipping sometime this month.
The Prague-based company behind VR1 is best known for its metaverse platform Somnium Space, making it the first in what promises to be a series of large FOV headsets. It’s very well refined for a first device, owing to the company’s close partnership with XTAL, the Czech hardware manufacturer behind a series of high-resolution, high FOV enterprise XR headsets.
Image courtesy Somnium Space
Providing premium features whilst being manufactured in Europe and boasting intensive QA testing though comes with a steep price point over its main competitors, Pimax Cystal ($1,600 USD) and the new Crystal Light ($900 USD), making price the biggest sticking point overall. Somnium’s cheapest ‘Classic Edition’ comes in at €1,900 (~$2,060 USD), which only includes VR and not passthrough mixed reality, eye-tracking or hand-tracking. Spring for the Ultimate Edition, which is the focus of the hands-on, and you’re looking at somewhere north of €3,500 (~$3,820 USD). This notably doesn’t include shipping or local taxes, or the required SteamVR base stations or optional controllers.
My accumulative 30 minutes across three simulator-focused demos suggest VR1 definitely delivers the bulk of what’s promised, albeit with a few caveats (and features) that will probably push many towards the lower-priced alternative… but not everyone. Read more to find out why.
Optics & Display
VR optics always require a balancing act. Do you trade weight for clarity? A slim profile for better light transmission? Conventional lenses for a wider FOV? Many of these trade-offs are on display with VR1’s dual-element aspheric lenses, which have a lot going for them, but a few notable drawbacks.
VR1’s lenses provide remarkable clarity and excellent light transmission, notably featuring a very large ‘sweet spot’ in the process, which is the optimal area within which the viewer’s eyes can move while maintaining a clear and consistent view. VR1 also accommodates a wide range of interpupillary distances (IPDs) of 58 mm – 76 mm thanks to manual IPD adjustment.
Such a large FOV requires significant attention to distortion-correction—a battle that isn’t entirely won just yet. During my demo, I noticed some wobbliness in the optic’s periphery, although it’s definitely on the acceptable end of the spectrum since it didn’t cause me any discomfort. Chromatic aberration was thankfully a non-issue, the result of the production version’s latest update.
The headlining feature undoubtedly though is its large FOV—130° horizontal and 105° vertical—which was perfect for the fully-kitted flight simulator I played, which is basically the only thing missing in my life right now. Coupled with the display’s brightness (more on that below), the large FOV is something I hope all headsets, standalone included, should aim to achieve one day.
Image captured by Tyriel Wood
Okay, I also want the driving simulator I saw there too, but the flight sim really shows of the full-fat experience of what VR1 has to offer, showcasing its mixed reality passthrough masked perfectly so I could see the flight stick and instrument cluster while having the virtual world of DCS whizzing past me. This is done through dual 12MP 4,056 × 3,040 RGB passthrough cameras that worked very well in the flight simulator, which notably was illuminated with an overhead light to offset the demo area’s dark, moody lighting.
Somnium Connect was technically a public event open to anyone who bought a ticket.A few of the people I spoke to while waiting in line were local and looking to try out the headset for fun, while some hardcore simmers were looking for conclusive proof that it was worth buying. While some likely walked away with a clear decision either way, VR1 is also targeting companies like flight schools, which spend significantly more on motion platforms and real-world flight expenses related to maintenance and gads of costly fuel. Because PC VR lacks mixed reality content, it’s probably only going to be used for these sorts of passthrough cases, which is easily togglable by hitting a button on the top of the device.
While I didn’t get to see the full field of view of the passthrough, it seems it’s calibrated to make objects appear only slightly farther away than they really were, however distortion of near-field objects was minimal, and sharp enough to see individual text on the instrument cluster. I imagine it will be good enough for more simple tasks like looking at your phone, or enabling passthrough for when someone needs your attention.
Image captured by Road to VR
Another clear win is VR1’s display, which is very bright—a reported 210 nits and the highest I’ve seen in a production headset. It’s also notably the exact same QLED mini-LED fast LCD with local dimming you’ll find in Pimax Crystal and Pimax Crystal Light, providing 35PPD via its dual 8.3MP (2,880 × 2,880) per-eye displays, clocked at 90Hz, but with 120Hz and 144Hz modes planned to arrive at some point. Here, the screen door effect feels essentially non-existent.
I’m not particularly sensitive to mura, however I noticed no appreciable irregularities or non-uniformities in the brightness or color of the display. Some of this, I was told, is owed to the company’s rigorous quality assurance (QA), which seems to be one of the headset’s biggest selling points. Somnium invested in what is surely a very expensive display inspection system which can detect dead pixels, mura, and other defects, leading to what company CEO Artur Sychov called a regrettable pile of trashed displays that didn’t make the grade.
Audio & Material Quality
At this price, you’d expect built-in audio, but that’s simply not the case here, as you’ll need to either jack into a 3.5mm headphone port on either side, or go the wireless route with a USB-C dongle, like you might find on the Razer Hammerhead HyperSpeed earbuds.
Maybe no audio is better than bad audio, but it still feels like you should get something on par with Valve Index’s off-ear speakers for the price. Like with all hard straps, using your favorite cans may be problematic since the hinge sits so close to your ear.
Image courtesy Somnium Space
Another thing you’d expect is exceptional build quality, which is thankfully mostly here. I suspect a thinner plastic was used in effort to lighten the overall weight of the headset, lending it a creaky feeling when specifically squeezed.
This is likely due to the company offering eight different variants based on the same platform that mix and match faceplates integrating UltraLeap hand-tracking (which I didn’t try, but is recognized as class-leading) and passthrough cameras. It’s possible a tighter fit where the faceplate meets the shell of the headset would have solved this, or possibly more robust (and heavy) plastic—but it’s far from cheap-feeling or delicate.
Ergonomics
Somnium VR1 is decidedly front-heavy, but not nearly as bulky as some photos may suggest. I didn’t get a chance to try the barebones Classic Edition without all of the bells and whistles to compare, however much of the platform’s front-heaviness is undoubtedly owed to its optical stack; the Classic Edition (with headstrap) comes in only 100 g lighter than its Ultimate Edition big brother.
Image courtesy Somnium Space
My accumulative 30 minutes in the headset wasn’t particularly telling of long-term comfort for the average user, but knowing my limits, I can imagine an hour is around the most I can do before needing a break. I don’t hold it against the headstrap either, which places the hinge farther from the temple and closer to your ear allowing for a good fit that cups the back of your head.
Additionally—and this may seem fairly obvious—but because of the added bulk, you’ll need to crank it down so the inertia of moving your head doesn’t noticeably shift the displays around, which can cause added discomfort. At first, I thought there was tracking and/or rendering latency in the flight simulator simply because I didn’t properly clamp it to my head.
That said, my daily driver is Meta Quest 3 with the optional Battery Strap (don’t @ me, bro), so moving back to an 850 g PC VR headset tethered with not one, but two cables felt like a bit like stepping back in time to the days of the original HTC Vive.
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By now, it’s pretty clear: Somnium VR1 is basically only for users who are already in the SteamVR tracking ecosystem, or don’t mind shelling out the thousands for all of the required kit. That includes SteamVR 2.0 base stations direct from Valve or HTC, various controllers, and a PC capable of running these high-resolution displays.
The flight sim rig in particular was sporting a RTX 4070Ti and some flavor of Intel Core i7, however it was making use of foveated rendering thanks to the Ultimate Edition’s eye-tracking, meaning only businesses and the most enthused of enthusiasts with enough PC horsepower should apply.
Being based in Europe is a blessing and a curse. Startup money there is more sparse, as Lynx CEO Stan Larroque recently attested, leaving few with the resources to produce quality devices at competitive prices. And Somnium VR1 is a solid offering, but I’m afraid it’s simply too expensive for the average Valve Index user to consider a ‘no-brainer’ upgrade relative to Pimax’s upcoming Crystal Light headset, which is notably less half the price of the base Classic Edition.
Disclosure: Somnium Space covered travel and lodging expenses for one Road to VR writer to attend Somnium Connect 2024.
Ramen VR, the studio behind Zenith: The Last City, announced it’s ceasing development on the VR MMORPG, citing a struggle to retain players.
The studio announced the news in a video, linked below, which describes some of the reasons behind the decision:
“Zenith has struggled with retaining players since very early on. Even though we’ve had hundreds of thousands of players, the vast majority of them stopped playing Zenith after about a month,” the company says in an FAQ.
Initially the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019, the Steam Early Access title went on to secure $10 million Series A funding round, later landing a $35 million Series B in March 2022. Just two months before securing its Series B, the studio released Zenith on PSVR and Quest 2, putting it in the best possible position to capitalize on its ability to play cross-platform.
In early 2024, Ramen VR revealed Zenith was running at a loss on a month-to-month basis “for the better part of a year,” which prompted the studio to release Infinite Realms, a free-to-play model, in hopes of attracting paid users.
“Despite our best efforts over the 5.5 years of development (and well before Infinite Realms launched), we weren’t able to improve retaining players. Zenith started losing money and it isn’t feasible to continue running it at a loss,” the FAQ continues.
While the studio is shutting down development, it’s not killing off the game entirely. Shards for both its paid Zenith: The Last City game and free-to-play Zenith: Infinite Realms version will be running “for the foreseeable future,” Ramen VR says. “The community will be the first to know far in advance if that changes.”
Creating a great arena shooter is hard, as many VR developers can attest. Gaining critical mass is important to keeping the casual ‘jump-in, jump-out’ style gameplay quick and fresh, and mechanics need to be engaging if it’s going to be a VR-native. Now nDreams-owned studio Near Light announced they’re aiming to do just that with FRENZIES.
Developed by Near Light and published by nDreams, Frenzies fuses the studio’s gunplay from Fracked and Synapse, throwing players into five-round matches which promise to be a “chaotic lucky dip of iconic and unconventional.”
This includes solo and team-based round types, such as ‘Red Light, Green Light’ and something called ‘Glitter Pig’.
“The last thing you can accuse FRENZIES of is being boring,” says Near Light studio head Paul Mottram. “Taking inspiration from classics like Quake and Unreal Tournament, we wanted to inject some unpredictable excitement back into the genre while retaining what makes VR shooters so special. We think FRENZIES nails that sweet spot.”
It’s coming to Quest and PSVR 2 at some point, however the studio says Quest players will have the chance to step into the FRENZIES arena later this month when the game heads into a closed alpha period.
We’re hoping to learn more closer to launch of the closed alpa, so check back soon.
A new VR Games Showcase is kicking off next month, promising a peek at ‘AAA’ VR games and major updates coming from a number of studios, including nDreams, Vertigo Games, Schell Games, Flat2VR Studios, and IO Interactive.
Coming August 15th and presented by VR veteran Jamie Feltham, the inaugural VR Games Showcase will cover a variety of games targeting Quest, PSVR 2 and PC VR.
The showcase is set to feature over 15 titles and announcements, including Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded gameplay, updates from Flat2VR Studios, and new titles from Combat Waffle Studios, the team behind Ghosts of Tabor.
We’re also set to learn about what’s next from Vertigo Games, nDreams, Schell Games, Fast Travel Games, Beyond Frames, and more studios which will be revealed closer to the showcase.
“Announcements have been carefully curated in order to deliver a tight, focused event that highlights the best VR has to offer in 2024 and beyond,” Feltham reveals, noting that many of the featured titles will also be shown to press and content creators in the recently announced Home of XR megabooth at Gamescom 2024.
The VR Games Showcase is slated to air on Thursday, August 15th at 12:00 PM ET (local time here).
We’re in a bit of a gulf now that Quest 2 is sold out and Meta is likely preparing to drop a new, cheaper device pretty soon to fill its shoes. To keep the headset sales chugging though, Meta announced it’s offering 0% financing on Quest 3.
Meta says eligible people in the US can finance a Quest 3 starting today at 0% APR through Affirm, which lets you pay $25 per month for a 128 GB headset, or $35 per month for the 512 GB model—both of which is paid over the course of 24 months.
Granted, that comes out to $100 more than if you bought the 128 GB variant outright, and $190 more for the 512 GB variant, however Meta is offsetting this by offering an included 24-month subscription to its Meta Quest+ game service and Meta Warranty Plus coverage.
Image courtesy Meta
Meta Quest+ features two curated monthly games and access to a pool of titles, which normally costs $60 annually, and Meta Warranty Plus coverage costs $40 for two years of coverage on the 128 GB variant, and $50 for the 512 GB variant. Essentially (if you’re approved), you’ll spend less than you would if you purchased everything separately.
But should you really buy a Quest 3 on credit, which will necessarily lock you into two years of ownership? We can’t answer that question, because it depends on your financial situation, however the company is likely making some pretty big moves fairly soon which could change your mind one way or the other.
Earlier this summer a leak seemingly confirmed that Meta is launching up a new, cheaper Quest headset 2024, reportedly called Meta Quest 3S, which is likely set to replace Quest 2 as the low-end device.
Granted, Meta still hasn’t let the cat of the bag on Quest 3S, which we’re hoping to learn more about at Connect 2024 in September, however the company has confirmed it’s going to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, which is set to include Quest-like mixed reality headsets from ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox.
Whatever the case, Quest 3 is an extremely competent XR headset, which you can read more about in our full review from when it launched in October 2023.
