Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Google plans to implement an updated approach to its Play Store reviews to focus on more recent and more relevant reviews that developers believe will better serve the public and provide a more accurate reflection of their apps.
The post Google plans bigger and better changes for Play Store reviews appeared first on Digital Trends.
In a deep dive of the tech behind the Google Stadia platform, a few members of the team discussed latency in gameplay and the many different balancing acts the team will have to master.
The post Google Stadia team reveals how it’s approaching latency in gameplay appeared first on Digital Trends.
Google Stadia's product vice president took the stage during Google I/O to explain how the game streaming platform will benefit developers. He covers the workflow, cloud server options, and more.
The post Google developer explains Stadia’s advantage over the competition appeared first on Digital Trends.
In an interview with CNET, Google’s Head of VR & AR revealed that the company will not be releasing an Oculus Quest competitor this year.
Additionally, the company told The Verge that the new Pixel 3a $399 smartphone will not support the Daydream platform.
Google’s Clay Bavor told CNET that the company’s focus in VR “is much more on services and the bright spots where we see VR being really useful”. The company is seemingly instead researching the next generation of VR and releasing their current apps on PC VR and Oculus Quest.
“On the hardware devices side, we’re much more in a mode of R&D and thoughtfully building the Lego bricks that we’re going to need in order to snap together and make some really compelling experiences”
Last year, just one week after the Oculus Go shipped, Google and Lenovo released the Lenovo Mirage Solo $399 standalone headset. The headset featured positional tracking, but the controller (like Go’s) was only 3DoF, acting as a laser pointer.
By all available indications the Mirage Solo did not perform well in the market. This is likely because despite being twice the price of Go, it lacked the positional controllers needed to get ports of PC VR games like Oculus Quest is getting.
Back in December Google released a 6DoF controllers dev kit for the headset, but the company hasn’t shared any plans about bringing these to consumers.
Google is now describing the Mirage Solo itself to CNET as a “dev kit”, for AR as much as VR thanks to the recently released passthrough mode and SDK.
The company’s lack of Quest competitor may be the reason behind bringing Tilt Brush, Job Simulator, and Vacation Simulator to the Oculus Quest.
At Google IO today the company announced Pixel 3a– a $399 midrange addition to the Pixel lineup. Google told The Verge the phone does not support Daydream.
Daydream View is similar to Samsung Gear VR but runs Google’s store and services and works across multiple Android manufacturers.
Google’s explanation for this lack of support is “resolution and framerate”. Given that the display panels have the same resolution as other Daydream-certified devices, this likely refers to the Snapdragon 670 SoC used in the device. Unlike the 800-series Snapdragon chips, the 670 is a midrange chip with a CPU and GPU that is weaker than even the original Pixel 1.
Samsung started supporting Daydream View with the Galaxy S8, however the recently released Galaxy S10 doesn’t support the platform at all.
With no Quest competitor on the horizon, no support for Daydream in Google’s affordable Pixel range, and Samsung no longer supporting the platform- Daydream’s future is not looking bright.
Google has gained a reputation for starting and quickly abandoning new platforms and products, but it’s disappointing to see the company seemingly take this approach to virtual reality.
Google’s expertise in computer vision, ownership of Android and creation of Daydream made it the prime potential competitor for the Oculus Quest. With this not happening any time soon, few companies remain with the resources to deliver a true Quest competitor at the same price.
Tagged with: Daydream, google, google daydream, Oculus Quest
The post Google Not Releasing Oculus Quest Competitor, Pixel 3a Doesn’t Support Daydream appeared first on UploadVR.
Google is starting to roll out its augmented reality mapping features to its Pixel phones.
The feature should start going live today across the entire line of Pixel phones. The update uses the phone’s camera to provide directions via arrows in its view of the surrounding world. We’ll be curious to see how broadly and quickly Google is able to support the new feature.
GPS is the global foundation for most mapping services, but there are serious limitations to the technology’s ability to pinpoint location in some places. Google’s new AR maps build on these other technologies and, in a technical blog post from February, the company explained how its “Visual Positioning Service” works to enable more accurate mapping in AR.
The post explains:
VPS determines the location of a device based on imagery rather than GPS signals. VPS first creates a map by taking a series of images which have a known location and analyzing them for key visual features, such as the outline of buildings or bridges, to create a large scale and fast searchable index of those visual features. To localize the device, VPS compares the features in imagery from the phone to those in the VPS index.
The new AR service will even work on the new Pixel 3a announced as a budget-conscious flagship device. The new phones will reportedly not work with the Daydream line of VR headsets, however, which is likely frustrating to some developers or early adopters who invested heavily in Google’s support for the first generation of consumer VR based around phones.
Tagged with: google
The post Google Pixel Phones Get AR Maps First appeared first on UploadVR.
Today sees the start of the annual Google I/O event, where the search giant makes a wide variety of announcements from AI to (hopefully) virtual reality (VR). The conference has already introduced augmented reality (AR) with a new feature soon to launch for Google Search.
Due to arrive later this month, the world’s most popular search engine will support AR directly. This will mean that users around the world will be able to search Google as usual, with 3D models then made available to view in the real world. As the image above easily demonstrates, searching for Great White Sharks and seeing a 2D image is one thing, but suddenly seeing the 18ft marine animal in your own space and correctly scaled gives a far greater impression.
When a search is made an option appears right in the Knowledge Panel to view select content in 3D and AR, being able to scan a nearby surface to then place the model.
The feature will have a wide range of uses cases, from seeing life-size animals to shopping: “We’re also working with partners like NASA, New Balance, Samsung, Target, Visible Body, Volvo, Wayfair and more to surface their own content in Search. So whether you’re studying human anatomy in school or shopping for a pair of sneakers, you’ll be able to interact with 3D models and put them into the real world, right from Search,” says Aparna Chennapragada, VP, Google Lens and AR on Google Blog.
This could be massive for the adoption of AR technology. When it comes to consumer AR tech it has generally been limited to videogames like Pokemon GO and Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, shopping apps like Shutterstock’s ‘View in a Room’, or brand awareness programmes such as the recent Jack Daniel’s AR app. With AR available directly through Google Search, it takes the niche technology to one that has easily identifiable real-world use cases for casual users, students and professionals, whatever their needs.
VRFocus will be covering the very latest VR and AR news from Google I/O this week, so stay tuned as further announcements are made.
Google announced a series of discounts on the Google Play Store for a number of Star Wars-related apps. There are also a ton of discounts on content and in-app purchases in Star Wars Android games.
The post Google celebrates Star Wars Day with discounts on games and content appeared first on Digital Trends.
Google I/O is almost here, and we're excited to find out what Google has planned. But what if you're not happy to receive your news second-hand? Here's how to watch the Google I/O keynote and stay up-to-date.
The post Google I/O 2019: How to watch and keep up with the biggest developments appeared first on Digital Trends.
It's almost time for Google to show us its most highly-anticipated releases of early 2019. But what can you expect at Google I/O 2019? More details of the new Android version are certain, but there are seemingly a few surprises.
The post Google I/O 2019: What to expect, from Android Q to Pixel 3a and more appeared first on Digital Trends.
Already own a copy of Google’s VR creation tool Tilt Brush (2016) from the Oculus Store? Then you’ll be able to hop right into the company’s intuitive painting app with Oculus Quest, the upcoming standalone VR headset.
The company announced the news today in a Facebook blog post, outlining some of the changes the team made to get Tilt Brush on Quest’s mobile hardware.
“Most of our work porting Tilt Brush to Quest focused on performance improvements. Luckily, some decisions we made early on set us up for early performance wins,” Google product manager Elisabeth Morant says.
The Quest version is said to levy many optimizations that essentially set it apart from the PC VR version, however Morant says Tilt Brush on Quest “should look and feel pretty much the same as the Rift version, with a few small tweaks.”
These tweaks include easier stroke rendering on the mobile GPU, switching stroke rendering from double-sided to single-sided, using the shader to draw the reverse side of the stroke, and fazing out the ‘bloom’ effect as a sketch becomes more complex.
Google also removed a few features that were unique to the PC VR version, one of which is Audio Reactive mode, something that uses a PC’s system audio to make some stroke types undulate to a user’s own music.
“Trade-offs were made during the course of development, but ultimately having a product that runs smoothly on mobile made it all well worth it,” Morant concludes.
Google hasn’t officially announced whether Tilt Brush will be a launch day title for Quest, although they’ve stated it’s definitely coming in Spring 2019. The same goes for Quest at the moment too however, as Oculus hasn’t given a firm launch date yet either.
Facebook’s next big opportunity to announce Quest is the company’s F8 developer conference, which takes place April 30th to May 1st in San Jose, California. We’ll have feet on the ground there, so check back soon.
The post Google’s VR Painting App ‘Tilt Brush’ is Coming to Quest, Cross-Buy with Rift appeared first on Road to VR.