Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
The Khronos Group now offers MoltenVK, which provides the Vulkan graphics API library to games relying on Apple's Metal platform for MacOS and iOS. The first game to utilize MoltenVK will be Dota 2 for MacOS in an upcoming update.
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Unity Technologies has announced that the Unity development engine is now fully functional for development of virtual reality (VR) videogames and experiences on the new iMac Pro. The company worked with Apple, AMD, and Valve to ensure optimal integration for Unity development and performance on the Metal graphics API and Apple hardware.
The first of these immersive VR experiences, Electronauts and Gravity Sketch, were announced last week and are demonstrations of the ways that Unity developers can unleash their creativity on macOS.
“The release of the iMac Pro puts virtual reality into the hands of even more consumers and creators. With Apple’s history of making new technologies mainstream, this is an exciting time for Unity and our developers,” said Tony Parisi, Global Head of VR/AR Strategy at Unity Technologies. “The future of VR has never been brighter. Now is the time to dazzle, surprise, and immerse an entirely new audience into the world of VR.”
Electronauts, created by Survios, is promising to deliver an immersive music creation experience empowering all music lovers to DJ, perform and produce music. The Electronauts experience envelops the user in a world of audio, experienced and powered by VR. It is designed for users of all levels, and it empowers all music lovers to DJ, perform and produce great music.
“Electronauts‘ development process was one of near-constant creative experimentation and Unity allowed us to iterate quickly on our designs and rapidly prototype new ideas as the experience evolved,” said Nathan Burba, Cofounder and CEO of Survios.
Gravity Sketch is a multi-platform 3D creation tool which gives industrial designers, automotive designers and to create 3D objects in a VR environment. Unity’s flexibility enabled the team to optimise Gravity Sketch for the iMac Pro.
“When we met with Unity we were blown away by how optimised Unity 2017 was for macOS,” said Daniel Thomas, CTO of Gravity Sketch. “It was easy to get Gravity Sketch up and running on Apple hardware. Thanks to Unity we are now able to reach an entirely new segment of creators, making it easier than ever for them to turn their ideas into reality.”
Unity is the world’s most popular real-time development platform, with more than 60% of the world’s VR and AR creations developed on the platform. VRFocus recently interviewed Parisi, and will bring you more details on the future of Unity’s AR and VR development platform later this week.
Auf seiner Pressekonferenz zum Auftakt der Entwicklerkonferenz WWDC 2017 bekennt sich Apple zu VR und stellt neben neuen iMacs, dem iMac Pro sowie Software und Betriebssystem auch ein VR-Entwickler-Kit vor, um VR-Anwendungen entwickeln und erfahren zu können. Grundlage ist das Update von der Grafikschnittstelle Metal auf Metal 2 in der kommenden macOS-Version macOS High Sierra. Damit ist es möglich, über Thunderbolt 3 für externe Grafikkarten zu nutzen. Neben der Software bietet Apple auch gleich die passende Hardware als VR-Entwickler-Kit an.
Oculus-Gründer Palmer Luckey stellte es vor über einem Jahr klar: Es gäbe kein Mac-System, das die Mindestvoraussetzungen für VR erfüllen würde. Auf der Keynote zur Entwicklerkonferenz WWDC 2017 bekennt sich Apple nun klar zur virtuellen Realität und kündigt mehrere Lösungen an. Beispielsweise erhält die Videonschnittsoftware Final Cut die Möglichkeit, VR-Filme zu bearbeiten. Das im Herbst erscheinende Betriebssystem macOS High Sierra enthält die Grafikschnittstelle Metal 2, die VR unterstützt und über die sich via Thunderbolt 3 externe Grafikkarten an den Mac anschließen lassen. Gleichzeitig kündigt Valve an, SteamVR in einer Betaversion auf dem Mac zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Wer ein passendes MacBook Pro oder einen iMac besitzt und für VR entwickeln will, kann zudem ein VR-Entwickler-Kit vorbestellen. Es besteht aus einem externen Thunderbolt-Gehäuse von Sonnet und kommt mit einem starken 350-Watt-Netzteil. Im Gehäuse steckt die VR-taugliche Grafikkarte AMD Radeon RX 580 mit 8 Gigabyte Arbeitsspeicher. Diese lässt sich übrigens auch beim neuen iMac mit 27-Zoll-Bildschirm bestellen, der damit ebenfalls VR-Ready ist. Weiterhin legt Apple dem Kit einen USB-C zu USB-A Hub mit 4 Ports von Belkin bei. Last but not least erhalten Käufer des 599 US-Dollar teuren Kits einen Gutschein über 100 Dollar für den Kauf einer HTC Vive.
Das Set lässt sich bereits bestellen und ist auch in Deutschland erhältlich, allerdings nur für registrierte Apple-Entwickler. Eine Beta des Betriebssystems Mac OS High Sierra ist für Entwickler ab sofort erhältlich.
Der Beitrag Valve SteamVR kommt auf Mac, VR-Entwickler-Kit von Apple mit HTC-Vive-Gutschein zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
Apple, Inc. has been slow to jump on the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) bandwagons, letting their competitors test the water before diving in themselves. That changed today, as the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), San Jose, hosted several key announcements for the immersive technology industries.
First up came the reveal that Steam VR would soon support Mac format. This doesn’t mean that every VR title on Steam will automatically work with iOS devices, but giving developers the option to create videogames and experiences for the Mac format is certainly a step in the right direction. This was reinforced with the announcement of Metal 2, the company’s API for high performance graphics, which promises to deliver a VR-optimised display pipeline.
This new technology was then showcased by Epic Games, who used the VR Editor component of Unreal Engine 4 to demonstrate a real-time build using assets from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM)’s digital Star Wars library through the HTC Vive, using green screen mixed reality (MR) video. That one sentence had a huge amount of high profile names within it, and the showcase was as impressive as you would expect it to be. Lauren Ridge, Technical Writer at Epic Games, resized and positioned Tie Fighters and other craft, before playing out the scene she created. A choreographed sequence featuring the infamous Darth Vader drew huge applause from the audience.
Apple then revealed their VR compatible systems before moving on to AR. With an equally remarkable showcase – again utilising Unreal Engine 4 and big names from the film industry – a LEGO model that could be exploded, Pokemon GO with a Pikachu looking as if it was directly in contact with the ground and an impressively rendered wild west cyberpunk battle scene, the ARKit development suite features stabilisation in motion-tracking, ambient lighting estimation and support for Unity, Unreal Engine, amongst other features.
While the company stopped short of revealing the AR head-mounted display (HMD) many had been expecting, the development tools presented with certainly have application beyond iPads and iPhones. A showcase it was; now it’s up to developers to take the technology further.
Ultimately, Apple coming late to the game is nothing new. What it does mean however, is that AR and VR will get a publicity injection and brand new opportunities to grow its audience. This is perhaps more important than the hardware line-up supporting VR or the graphical prowess of the AR presentation: it’s about the experiences you can have with the technology opposed to the technology itself, after all.
If you’ve not been watching Apple’s WWDC 2017 conference then you might have missed the company mentioning virtual reality (VR). While there no head-mounted display (HMD), but there’s greater support for the technology than ever before with Apple announcing its Metal software will now support VR.
Today Apple has reveal its latest OS, now called High Sierra and as part of the operating system is Metal 2, the company’s API for high performance graphics. But now there’s one more, Metal for VR. With this Metal will be able to deliver a VR-optimised display pipeline, GPU queue priorities, Viewport arrays and much more.
That’s not all. Apple also ran through its new iMac range unveiling the iMac Retina 5K 27-Inch, which comes with either a AMD Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 with up to 8GB of VRAM meaning it can power units like the HTC Vive which Apple demonstrated on stage along with Epic Games and Unreal Engine.
If Apple makes any further announcements regarding VR during WWDC 2017 VRFocus will let you know.
Khronos has concluded that current cross-platform solutions aren't sufficient to support every platform, and so it's is creating a portable API that will run on top of Vulkan, Metal, and Microsoft DirectX 12
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