NVIDIA CloudXR Now Publicly Available on Google Cloud

CloudXR, NVIDIA’s real-time XR cloud streaming technology, is now publicly available through the Google Cloud Marketplace with Nvidia RTX Virtual Workstations as a Virtual
Machine Image (VMI).

Like flatscreen cloud gaming, XR streaming promises is to remove the high barrier of entry by rendering resource-intensive visuals on virtual machines in the cloud and serving them up to typically less powerful host devices like PCs, smartphones, or standalone VR headsets.

More specifically, Nvidia’s CloudXR tech lets users run high-end VR graphics in any OpenVR application, which now also extends to developers and vendors using the world’s third-largest cloud service, Google Cloud, something the company says can be done on instances that support Nvidia T4 Tensor Core GPUs.

Nvidia previously made CloudXR available on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure earlier following the release of its early access SDK in 2019, where the company outlined hopes of kickstarting CloudXR streaming amidst a mounting 5G-centric future.

Whether that 5G future is right around the corner, or years away from fulfilling its many promises for both AR and VR, Nvidia’s CloudXR has decidedly become the most mature and scalable solution of the lot, especially now that it’s available across the top three cloud service providers.

Where that scalability leads us in the near-term isn’t certain. The promise of never having to panic buy the latest GPU out from under cryptominers just to play the latest in PC VR gaming is certainly a tantalizing prospect we’re hoping to see fulfilled someday, as standalone headsets and the promise of minimal setup have quickly become a focus in attracting an untapped vein of new consumers.

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NVIDIA CloudXR and Google Cloud to Collaborate on Immersive Streaming

NVIDIA CloudXR - Google Cloud

With SIGGRAPH going on this week computing specialist NVIDIA has released several new updates regarding its virtual reality (VR) compatible tech. The latest focuses on the NVIDIA CloudXR platform, revealing that it’s now collaborating with Google Cloud to provide high-quality XR streaming.

NVIDIA

The announcement sees NVIDIA CloudXR brought to NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation instances on Google Cloud, enabling organisations and XR users to securely access data their data and work with others all inside virtual, augmented or mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) experiences.

To showcase the tech NVIDIA has teamed up with Masterpiece Studio and its 3D creation platform Masterpiece Studio Pro which works with a variety of PC-based VR headsets like HTC Vive and Valve Index. Leveraging CloudXR and Google Cloud, artists are able to stream and collaborate on character creation.

Creators should have the freedom of working from anywhere, without needing to be physically tethered to a workstation to work on characters or 3D models in VR,” said Jonathan Gagne, CEO at Masterpiece Studio in a statement. “With NVIDIA CloudXR, our customers will be able to power their creative workflows in high-quality immersive environments, from any location, on any device.”

NVIDIA CloudXR - Masterpiece Studio
Masterpiece Studio Pro

“NVIDIA CloudXR technology delivered via Google Cloud’s global private fiber optic network provides an optimized, high-quality user experience for remotely streamed VR experiences. This unique combination unlocks the ability to easily stream work from anywhere using NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation,” said Rob Martin, Chief Architect for Gaming at Google. “With NVIDIA CloudXR on Google Cloud, the future of VR workflows can be more collaborative, intuitive, and productive.”

That all sounds great but it isn’t available just yet. NVIDIA CloudXR is currently in Early Access for developers to sign up to with the Google Cloud feature rolling out later this year. For those interested, a private beta will be available soon. VRFocus will continue its coverage of NVIDIA, reporting back with further updates.

NVIDIA CloudXR is Launching on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and AWS

NVIDIA is continuing the rollout of its CloudXR technology on the three leading cloud computing platforms: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. With the tech readily available from these providers, companies building products and services on these cloud providers will be able to offer real-time XR streaming right off the shelf.

Today during the company’s GTC 2021 developer conference, Nvidia announced that its CloudXR tech is now available on Amazon Web Services, and it’s coming soon to both Microsoft’s Azure cloud and Google Cloud. That means the service will be available across the three leading cloud computing platforms, massively expanding access to cloud rendered AR and VR capabilities for companies building cloud applications. Nvidia also says it’s working to bring CloudXR to Tencent Cloud.

The hope of XR streaming is to remove the high-end hardware barrier by rendering immersive visuals in the cloud and streaming them to a host device which itself doesn’t need particularly beefy or expensive hardware; the host device could be a PC, smartphone, or standalone headset.

Nvidia has long offered a very similar streaming service called GeForce Now, but it’s for traditional games rather than XR. CloudXR is a specialized solution for the unique latency and performance requirements of VR and AR streaming.

Image courtesy NVIDIA

Nvidia says the CloudXR system can stream any SteamVR content to end users on Windows or Android systems without any special modification to the streamed application. That could be game and entertainment content or enterprise and productivity content like high-end 3D visualization or immersive design applications; whatever the operator wants to offer to its employees or customers.

Nvidia offers CloudXR client applications for PC, HoloLens 2, Android VR devices (including Oculus Quest), and Android AR devices. Today Nvidia also said it will soon launch CloudXR 2.1 which will support iOS, allowing iPhones and iPads to stream high-quality AR content from the cloud.

In addition to rolling out CloudXR on major cloud computing platforms, Nvidia also offers an SDK for the service which allows companies to run the capabilities on their own servers if desired.

While the idea of streaming AR and VR content from the cloud has been around for many years now, Nvidia’s CloudXR is by far the most mature and scalable solution available to date, and furthers its lead with today’s news of its off-the-shelf availability heading to the largest cloud computing providers.

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