Epic Games is “exploring native Unreal Engine support” for Apple Vision Pro

Unity, makers of the popular game engine, announced earlier this week it’s getting ready to levy some pretty significant fees on developers, causing many to rethink whether it makes more sense to actually go with the main competition, Unreal Engine from Epic Games. It seems Epic isn’t wasting any time to help transition those creating projects for Apple Vision Pro.

According to Victor Lerp, Unreal Engine XR Product Specialist at Epic Games, the company is now “exploring native Unreal Engine support for Apple Vision Pro,” the upcoming mixed reality headset due to launch in early 2024.

Lerp says it’s still early days though, noting that it’s “too early for us to share details on the extent of support or timelines.”

Lerp posted the statement on Unreal Engine’s XR development forum. You can read it in full below, courtesy of Alex Coulombe, CEO of the XR creative studio Agile Lens:

 

During Vision Pro’s unveiling at WWDC in June, Apple prominently showcased native Unity support in its upcoming XR operating system, visionOS. Unity began offering beta access to its visionOS-supported engine shortly afterwards, making it feel like something of a ‘bait and switch’ for developers already creating new games, or porting existing titles to Vision Pro.

As explained by Axios, Unity’s new plan will require users of its free tier of development services to pay the company $0.20 per installation once their game hits thresholds of both 200,000 downloads and earns $200,000 in revenue. Subscribers to Unity Pro, which costs $2,000 a year, have a different fee structure that scales downwards in proportion to the number of installs. What constitutes an ‘install’ is still fairly nebulous at this point despite follow-up clarifications from Unity. Whatever the case, the change is set to go into effect starting on January 1st, 2024.

In the meantime, the proposed Unity price increase has caused many small to medium-size teams to reflect on whether to make the switch to the admittedly more complicated Unreal Engine, or pursue other game engines entirely. A majority of XR game studios fit into that category, which (among many other scenarios) could hobble teams as they look to replicate free-to-play success stories like Gorilla Tag, which generated over $26 million in revenue when it hit the Quest Store late last year.

Pokemon Go Dev Is Now Making An NBA AR Game

The next project from Pokemon Go developer Niantic is an NBA AR game.

NBA All-World is currently in development for mobile AR and looks very similar to the studio’s past projects. You’ll head out into the real world to find basketball courts dotted on a virtual map (which, to be clear, are random locations, not real-world courts). From there you’ll meet players to engage in 1 v 1 matches. Check out a teaser trailer below.

NBA All-World AR Game Announced

Master the game and you can top local leaderboards, plus there are players to collect by beating them in matches. For now, the game’s expected to roll out on both iOS and Android in the coming NBA season.

There’s plenty more on the way from Niantic right now, including the company’s own IP, an AR pets game called Peridot. The company also recently launched a visual positioning system for ‘Global Scale’ AR experiences. Further down the line, though, the company’s teased possible AR hardware that could bring its apps to a new level.

The NBA, meanwhile, has been heavily involved with immersive technologies of late. Back in May, the company teamed up with Meta to launch a new experience within Horizon Worlds, too.

Are you interested in NBA All-World? Let us know in the comments below!

Demeos Debuts AR Demo At AWE 2022

An augmented reality (AR) demo for tabletop hit Demeo debuted at the AWE 2022 event last week.

Developer Resolution Games showed the VR and flatscreen title running inside the Lenovo ThinkReality headset, powered by a Motorola phone. You can get a look at some through the lens shots in our wrap up video below from the Between Realities team.

Demeo AR Demo Revealed

As you can see from the footage, the AR experience works by anchoring the gameboard to a surface like a desk. You’re still able to see other characters surrounding the environment beside you. As Resolution Co-Founder and President Paul Brady explained, though, this isn’t the full game running inside AR.

“We’ve only had the consumer dev kit for about three weeks now so we got a little experience together to demo is so people can see the potential of what it might be like to have a tabletop RPG experience in AR,” Brady said.

In fact, Resolution isn’t officially announcing an AR port of Demeo for any headsets at the moment, but this certainly shows the possibilities of where the game could head in the future. We already think the VR game offers a best-in-class social experience.

This demo, meanwhile, came about as part of Resolution’s participation in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces initiative. Brady hinted that the program could enable Resolution to easily bring its projects to AR. “With their adoption and use of OpenXR and also their agnostic hardware approach it’s something that would make it easy for us to get it one place and make it available for lots of devices,” he said, “so we’re all about doing things in an agnostic approach like that.”

“Demeo’s average play time sessions are like two or three hours, so the ability to be in AR where you can see your environment around you too is an option that I think a lot of players will really appreciate in the future.”

Of course, there’s still plenty of other things in the works for Demeo right now. Stay tuned for the Upload VR Showcase this week at 8am PT on June 9 for a sneak peek at the game’s next hero.

Qualcomm & Square Enix Partner to Create AR Games

Qualcomm and Square Enix today announced a partnership that will see the creation of XR experiences by Square Enix, which includes the Japanese company’s subsidiary studios and intellectual property.

Announced at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC 2022) in San Francisco today, the partnership is said to involve Square Enix’s Advanced Technology Division (ATD), which will be working with the chipmaker to create content for AR glasses.

The team will be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, a software tool kit that allows creators to make 3D applications for XR platforms.

Qualcomm initially launched Snapdragon Spaces back in late 2021, putting heavy emphasis on its capability as a platform for AR content creation—or more specifically content targeting smartphone-tethered AR glasses, something Qualcomm hopes to be an emerging product category for consumers.

“Square Enix has always been committed to state-of-the-art game technology to push storytelling boundaries, delivering unforgettable experiences for our fans” said Ben Taylor, Technical Director at Square Enix. “We have been investing in XR and look forward to building on Snapdragon Spaces. In particular, we think the time is right with XR to innovate on games of a classic genre we are especially known for, and we look forward to sharing them with the world to further our mission to help spread happiness across the globe.”

Square Enix hasn’t said which IP it intends on bringing to AR; it’s the maker behind a host of popular series such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Tomb Raider. The parent company owns British game publisher Eidos and Japanese arcade gaming studio Taito.

The post Qualcomm & Square Enix Partner to Create AR Games appeared first on Road to VR.

Final Fantasy Publisher Square Enix Working On AR Gaming For Qualcomm’s Dev Kit

Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix is working with Qualcomm on its new AR developer kit, Snapdragon Spaces.

The pair announced the collaboration today as Qualcomm also revealed a $100 million ‘Snapdragon Metaverse Fund‘. It will see Square Enix explore the possibilities for “immersive gaming experiences” on the platform.

Specifics for the partnership aren’t known but, in a prepared statement, Ben Taylor, Technical Director at Square Enix noted that the company thinks “the time is right with XR to innovate on games of a classic genre we are especially known for, and we look forward to sharing them with the world”.

First announced back in November 2021, Snapdragon Spaces consists of a pair of head-worn AR glasses that are tethered to an external power source such as a smartphone. Similar to other glasses — many of which are powered by Qualcomm’s own XR2 platform — the device is capable of anchoring virtual images in the real world when viewed through the lenses. It also features positional tracking and hand tracking for input.

Square Enix, meanwhile, is known for some of the biggest brands in gaming, including several Japanese role-playing series such as the Final Fantasy games. Taylor’s note on a “classic genre” suggests that the company could be looking to bring this style of experience to the platform.

Qualcomm previously noted that Snapdragon Spaces would see general availability sometime in spring 2022, but it’s currently unclear what this rollout will look like.

What would you want to see Square Enix bring to AR? Let us know in the comments below!

Mario Kart: Live Multiplayer Now Works Splitscreen With A Single Switch

A new update for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit brings splitscreen mulitplayer functionality, allowing players to use two physical karts with one Nintendo Switch console.

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit released last year and brings the famous arcade racing franchise to your home, using a camera-equipped toy kart to turn your home into an AR Mario Kart course on your Switch.

Using a Nintendo Switch console, players can connect to the kart and control it using the Switch, mapping out an AR-powered course around your home using cardboard gates that can be placed around you on the ground.

One Home Circuit kit comes with the game, the kart and the required gates to map the course. Multiplayer was supported at launch, but only with multiple Switch consoles — each player would have to use their own Switch along with their own physical kart.

Now, with a free update, splitscreen multiplayer is supported, allowing two physical karts to compete against each other using just one Switch system. This means that a family with just one console can purchase two karts and play on the same system. In addition, the base Home Circuit kit is now discounted for Black Friday at multiple retailers, bringing the price of one kit down to $59.99 from $99.99.

There’s also some other additions in the 2.0 update, including a new Relay Race multiplayer mode, which allows 2-4 players to use one kart, taking turns controlling the kart via mid-race switches.

There’s a new Luigi Cup added to the Grand Prix as well, along with some new cosmetics and customization unlocks.

Check out our full review of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit from last year.

Niantic Launches Pikmin Bloom, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite To Shut Down

Over the last week or so, AR mobile game developer Niantic has opened one door and closed another – Pikmin Bloom is now available, but 2019’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will be shut down in 2022.

Back in March, Niantic announced it was working on a Pikmin mobile AR title in partnership with Nintendo. As of last week, Pikmin Bloom began rolling out to several countries — it’s now available in almost all major markets, including Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, the US, Canada.

Like many other mobile AR games, Pikmin Bloom follows the rough framework and precedent set by Pokemon Go, Niantic’s first and most successful mobile AR title. However, Bloom takes a slightly different approach to the concept — Bloom is more idle, focused more on simply walking around than actively visiting locations or searching for something. The more you walk, the more pikmin you’ll obtain.

Overall, the game seems to markets itself more as a glorified pedometer with a few game elements thrown in. There’s also minimal AR content compared to other Niantic titles. In fact, the only true use of mobile AR appears to be when you send Pikmin to fight mushrooms, which can be viewed as an AR overlay similar to catching Pokemon in Pokemon Go.

In the same week, Niantic also announced that it will be shutting down its 2019 mobile AR game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

Wizards Unite, the studio’s first game to follow in Pokemon Go’s footsteps, announced that it will close on January 31, 2022 in a post on the game’s website. The game will be removed from store fronts even earlier, from December 6 2021.

We weren’t huge fans of Wizards Unite, but it’s just one game of many — Niantic has announced and released a few IP-focused mobile AR titles in the wake of Pokemon Go, but so far none have managed to catch on in the same way.

Let’s hope that changes with Transformers: Heavy Metal, the next Niantic AR game set to release sometime this year.

Cubism In AR On Oculus Quest Might Be The Best Way To Play

Cubism is a Quest game that has always been at the forefront of the platform, successfully implementing cutting edge new features as soon as possible. The new Passthrough mode, which uses a new experimental API available to developers, is no exception. In fact, it might be the best way to play the game yet.

Cubism developer Thomas Van Bouwel gave UploadVR access to the Cubism build with Passthrough API support, first shown off on Twitter last week. We jumped in and played around with some of the puzzles, as seen in the footage embedded below, and came away absolutely delighted.

When playing in Passthrough mode, the gameplay itself remains completely unchanged. Cubism is a slow, stationary and minimalist puzzle game — the only changes when playing in Passthrough mode is the white (or black) standard background gets replaced with the Quest’s live Passthrough feed of your surroundings. The Quest is suddenly transformed into an AR device, allowing you to manipulate all of Cubism’s familiar puzzles in a live representation of the space you’re playing in.

Somewhat naturally, I started to find myself using my surroundings to help me play — as you can see in the video, I started to use my desk as a plane to work on. I placed the puzzle flat on the right of the desk, while I moved the pieces over to the left side.

Because of Cubism’s slow, stationary nature, I didn’t experience too much rapid warping of the Passthrough image while playing, which happens more frequently during head or body movement. Just like Cubism’s implementation of hand tracking and 120Hz support, implementing the AR Passthrough API feels like a properly natural fit for the game and the type of play that it encourages.

It also harks back to Cubism’s origins as a game inspired by traditional wooden block puzzles, where you’re presented with several Cubism-like wooden blocks and have to find a way to fit them together into a perfect cube. Playing through Cubism’s more complicated, virtual versions of those traditional puzzles in an environment closer to real life feels apt, in a coming full circle kind of way.

In terms of limitations, the biggest at the moment is the hardware itself — the Quest cameras are only capable of producing a black and white image. There’s also no hand tracking support for Passthrough mode in this build — it’s still on the roadmap for a future build, but a few bugs have pushed the implementation out a bit.

The AR Passthrough mode also doesn’t natively provide a way for Cubism to interpret the passthrough image as a 3D space with barriers and objects that would collide with the game elements. This means that when I wasn’t careful, I could go to position a virtual block to rest on my desk, but it would sometimes float down ‘into’ the desk while remaining visible. The same principle applies to walls and other objects– blocks, if pushed, will simply move through or inside of objects, while also remaining visible to the player.

The new Passthrough mode probably won’t be available in a public Cubism build soon because the Passthrough API is still experimental, intended for developers and requires enabling the Quest’s Experimental Mode. Van Bouwel says Cubism’s public build will get the feature eventually, but only once the Passthrough API itself moves from an experimental feature to a public release. Nonetheless, this early Passthrough build of Cubism offers a glimpse of what to expect with future AR content on Quest and other headsets still to come.

New technology aside, Cubism is also set to receive new DLC levels soon. You can read more about the history of the game here.