Category: mobile ar

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Year In Review: All VR/AR Hardware & Game Reviews From 2021

This year has seen some absolutely incredible games release for VR and AR platforms, alongside a smattering of new hardware releases as well.

As the year comes to a close, we’re looking back at some of the biggest stories and releases of 2021 and we’ve compiled all of our reviews from 2021 in one place.

Read on for the breakdown of UploadVR’s 2021 game and hardware reviews – we’ve highlighted some of the biggest releases in bold and included video reviews for some titles as well.

January – March

Mare Oculus Quest Review: A Breathless Beauty Of A VR Game
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Battlescar Review: An Explosive Must-See
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Hitman 3 VR Review – A (Mostly) Clean Kill
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Yupitergrad Review: Innovative VR Platforming That’s As Much Hard Work As It Is Fun
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Contractors Quest Review: VR Gets An Approachable Call of Duty-Style Shooter
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Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis Review: Watered-Down Myst
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Vanishing Grace Review: A Cozy Firewatch-Lite To Drink In
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Terje Haakonsen’s Powder VR Early Access Review: A Fine Winter Sports VR Game
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A Wake Inn Review: Tedious Pacing Overshadows Immersive Design
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Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs Review – A Shooting Success
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Crashland Review: A Deliciously Creepy If Overly Tough VR Critter Killer
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The Climb 2 Review: Quest Gets A Real Cliffhanger
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Flow Weaver Review: Clever Time-Weaving Doesn’t Escape Boredom
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Hyper Dash Review: Dynamic And Intense Competitive VR Shooter
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Cosmodread Review: Roguelike VR Horror Where No One Can Hear You Scream
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Doom 3: VR Edition Review – A Serviceable Port Of A Game Never Intended For VR
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Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever Review — Slightly Off-Target
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April – June

Floor Plan 2 Review: A Henson-Esque Marvel
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Hand Physics Lab Review: Experiments In Joy And Frustration At Your Fingertips
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Carly And The Reaperman Review – VR’s Best Asymmetrical Co-Op Overcomes Its Scrappy Side
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Alvo PSVR Review: Surprisingly Rewarding Barebones Shooter
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Maskmaker Review – Wonderfully Intricate But Familiar VR Fairy Tale
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Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife Review – Solid Survival Horror For VR
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Star Wars Pinball VR Review: Making the Bump(er) to Hyper Space
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The Wizards: Dark Times Review – Action-Packed Magical RPG Adventure
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Demeo Review – A Social VR Masterclass In An Engaging Tabletop RPG
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Zero Caliber: Reloaded Review – Fantastic Gunplay Held Back By Design Issues
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Solaris: Offworld Combat Review – Sci-Fi Quake For The VR Age
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Puzzle Bobble VR Review: A Fun If Unnecessary Take On A Classic
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Carve Snowboarding Review – A Thrilling Take On An Addictive Sport
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ForeVR Bowl Review: A Great Take On A Sport That Isn’t Ready For VR
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Stones Of Harlath Review: Novel But All-Too-Brief Dungeon Crawling Throwback
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Larcenauts Review: A Slick, Rich Shooter For Competitive Play
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Sentenced Review: A Brilliantly Bloody Bit Of VR Theater
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July – September

Chess Club Review – Almost All You Could Ask For From VR Chess
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A Rogue Escape Review: Brilliantly Stuffy, Mercilessly Tough Puzzler
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Sniper Elite VR Review: Old Dog, New Tricks
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Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual Review – Light On Interaction, Heavy On Hilarity
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Tarzan VR Review: Lord Of The Fumble
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Winds & Leaves Review-In-Progress: A Peaceful Kind Of Progress
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Arcsmith Review – Enjoyably Bitty, Immersive Puzzling From Bithell Games
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Stride Review: Fast, Fluid VR In Need Of Much More Content
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Disc Ninja Review – A Good Shot That Works Best In Multiplayer
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Arashi: Castles Of Sin Review – Fun, Forgiving VR Stealth
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Yuki Review: Classic Shooting Done Right in VR
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Vengeful Rites Review: The Legend of Virtual Reality
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Fracked Review: A Shooter With Brains, Brawn And Unfortunate Brevity
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I Expect You To Die 2 Review: A Worthy Sequel Rich With Detail
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Traffic Jams Review: Manic Mayhem In Mostly The Right Ways
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A Township Tale Review: A Fascinating Glimpse Of A Future VR Great (Quest)
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Goliath Review: Effective, Innovative Account Of Psychosis On Oculus Quest
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Puzzling Places Oculus Quest Review: Stunning 3D Puzzles With Most Of The Right Pieces
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Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge – Last Call Review: A Much More Satisfying Second Half
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Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Full Review: Bringing Balance To The Force
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The Walking Dead – Aftershocks Review: The Endgame Saints & Sinners Needed
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Rhythm Of The Universe: Ionia Review – A Gorgeous But Empty Adventure (PC)
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The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Review – The Best Zombie Apocalypse To Date (Updated 2021)
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Rainbow Reactor: Fusion Review – If It Paint Broke, Don’t Fix It
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October – December

Sweet Surrender Review: A Rock-Solid Roguelite With Room To Grow
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Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 2 DLC Review – Same, But Different
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Song in the Smoke Review: A Primal VR Survival Game With Real Majesty
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Loco Dojo Unleashed Review: VR’s Logical, Enjoyable Answer To Mario Party
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Lone Echo 2 Review: A Gorgeous But Glacial Swansong For The Oculus Rift
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Resident Evil 4 VR Review: An Incredible Way To Revisit A Classic
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Unplugged Review: Thrilling Air Guitar With Unmatched Hand Tracking Capabilities
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Spacefolk City Review: Laying Some Nice Groundwork
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Blade And Sorcery: Nomad Review – VR’s Best Combat Sim Is Still In-Progress
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Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Oculus Quest 2 Review – A Great Port Of A Flawed Game
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Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall Review – Sigmar’s Shame
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After The Fall Review: Frantically Fun Co-Op That Needs More Content
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Warplanes: WW1 Fighters Review – A Versatile Flight Sim That Delivers
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HoloLens 2 Review: Ahead Of Its Time, For Better And Worse
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Early DecaMove Review – A Little Device That Goes A Long Way For VR Locomotion
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Logitech G Pro Headset For Oculus Quest 2 Review – Comfortable, Clear And Routine
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VR Power 2 Review – Great Quest 2 Battery Extender For VR Marathons
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Forcetube Review: A VR Rifle Stock That’s Equal Parts Hassle And Immersive
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Varjo Aero Review: A Powerhouse Headset With Some Big Question Marks
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HTC Vive Flow Review: A Niche Within A Niche
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Nreal Light AR Glasses Review: A (Limited) Preview Of The Future
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VR Ears Review: Great Sound, With Issues
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Google Building An ‘Augmented Reality OS’ For A New AR Device

Google is hiring in several positions working on an ‘Augmented Reality OS’ for an AR device, as reported by 9 To 5 Google.

There’s a variety of open positions involved in building the software for this AR device, with the listing for Senior Software Developer, Embedded, providing a description of the team working on the OS:

Our team is building the software components that control and manage the hardware on our Augmented Reality (AR) products. These are the software components that run on the AR devices and are the closest to the hardware. As Google adds products to the AR portfolio, the OS Foundations team is the very first software team to work with new hardware.

The full job listing is here. Likewise, postings for Senior Software Engineer, Camera and Senior Software Developer Tech Lead, Input describe building software for an “innovative AR device.” The listings say that this OS team “is the very first software team to work with new hardware.” The nature of this device is unclear, but the operating system and new hardware angle seems to imply a dedicated AR device, such as a headset. Apple is working on a still-unannounced VR/AR mixed reality headset while Meta is preparing a higher end headset code-named Cambria, and we’d expect Google to be very interested in the AR product category.

Mark Lucovsky also revealed that he started a new position at Google this week. Lucovsky previously led the VR/AR operating system effort at Facebook/Meta, where he was reportedly building a new operating system for AR. He also worked as a Microsoft engineer for many years, where he co-developed Windows NT. He will now “lead the Operating System team for Augmented Reality” at Google.

Most of Google’s recent efforts in the VR/AR space focused on the AR — the company has gradually reduced its focus on VR, ending support for Daydream, shutting down Google Poly and open sourcing its art software Tilt Brush. With these new job postings, it seems Google’s focus is likely to remain squarely on AR for the foreseeable future.

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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.

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Quest 2 Can Now Label Keyboards With AR In Passthrough

An update to Horizon Workrooms on Oculus Quest 2 adds the ability to overlay AR labels onto your tracked keyboard when using passthrough mode.

The feature is one of a few added in the Workrooms 1.1 update. As previously reported, the update includes support for M1 Mac models, but also introduces the AR keyboard labels, quicker connection to your computer via Oculus Remote Desktop, and “more intuitive whiteboard design” that lets you use your hands more.

quest ar keyboard label

You can see some photos of the AR keyboard labels spread throughout the article — on a flat 2D photo, they look hard to distinguish from the normal light-up keys on the MacBook Pro. However, the depth perception in VR makes the labels look just slightly elevated from the keys themselves.

quest ar keyboard label

This only applies to tracked keyboards (which currently only includes the Logitech K830 and Apple Magic Keyboards and laptop keyboard) when using the desk passthrough cut-out. If you’re just using the standard tracked keyboard in Workrooms without passthrough there’s no need for the AR labels — a 1:1 digital model represents and displays your keyboard in VR, matched to the position of your physical keyboard.

It’s only when using the passthrough desk cut-out feature that the AR labels come to life. This makes the passthrough cut-out feature much more useable, as you retain full visibility of your keyboard keys while also being able to see other desk accessories such as your mouse, drinks etc.

In a future update, Workrooms will get support for Zoom conference call integration and room customization.

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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.

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Meta Announces AR Glasses Prototype Project Nazare

Alongside the reveal of the new Project Cambria VR headset, Meta (formerly Facebook) just gave a codename to its first pair of consumer AR glasses. Meet Project Nazare.

A demo video of Nazare showed some familiar AR experiences, like communicating with friends in virtual windows and even playing multiplayer with avatars appearing in the user’s living room. There was no actual picture of the hardware itself, but expect more information in the future.

Speaking about Project Nazare, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the glasses as the company’s “first full augmented reality glasses,” but also indicated that they are still a work-in-progress:

“There’s a lot of technical work to get this form factor and experience right. We have to fit hologram displays, projectors, batteries, radios, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers, sensors to map the world around you and more into glasses that are about 5mm thick. So we still have a ways to go with Nazare, but we are making good progress.”

A Connect blog post says the Project Nazare glasses are “are still a few years out.”

To watch the full segment from today’s keynote, check out the video embedded above — if it doesn’t start in the right place automatically, skip to 1:07:40.

Last month Facebook also released a pair of glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban named Ray-Ban Stories. However, these are not real AR glasses, and don’t even feature simplistic overlays. The Ray-Ban Stories’ main feature is its built-in camera and microphone for point-of-view photo and video recording.

True AR is shaping up to be a competitive market – Microsoft and Magic Leap already have full but compromised AR devices like HoloLens, which are bulky and have limited field of view. We also know that other companies like Apple are working on AR devices as well.

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RoomMapper For Quest 2 Maps Your Surroundings For Mixed Reality

Developers interested in experimenting with mixed reality on Oculus Quest 2 can now use RoomMapper with Unity to explore designs mapped to your physical surroundings.

Developer Bob Berkebile just released RoomMapper for free and Unity developers can use it with Oculus Quest 2 as a $299 standalone AR and VR development kit with software that’s given “an extremely optimized model of the room.” Berkebile recognizes Facebook will likely make the “solution obsolete with their advancements to public access of Passthrough,” but the RoomMapper solution may help people explore mixed reality concepts and get started now with AR applications on Quest 2 that incorporate more about a physical environment. Videos Berkebile posted on Twitter have been shared widely showing virtual zombies moving down a physical hallway, or seeing things in the mirror which aren’t actually there.

Berkebile shared the following walkthrough video giving an overview of how the mapping system works, and the second half of the video really shows off how it can offer a kind of mixed reality playground.

“I immediately noticed that the experimental access to the passthrough composition on Quest 2 is extremely barebones; Oculus is taking this path carefully and I appreciate that,” Berkebile wrote to UploadVR. “I wanted to accelerate the communities’ ability by brining a solution for environmental mapping to them now. The solution presents a solid UX flow that walks a user through the necessary steps to measure, map, and align an extremely optimized model of the room. From there colliders are added, materials can be swapped, and suddenly your room has physicality within the AR/MR that the passthrough solution offers.”

Facebook is due to announce updates for its AR and VR technologies on October 28 with a keynote from Mark Zuckerberg and more planned throughout the day.

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Army Shifts Testing Of HoloLens-Based AR Gear To 2022

The United States Army says it recently conducted a test of its Microsoft HoloLens-based AR platform and will move further testing of the hardware to 2022.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System or IVAS is based on Microsoft’s HoloLens AR technology and the contract to supply the United Stated military with the technology represents a major vote of confidence in Microsoft’s platform and a key testing ground for the company to develop ruggedized AR tech. A report from Janes suggested the Army is “essentially doing a reset of” the program to figure “out what is the appropriate timeline and where is the technology.”

“The Army is fully committed to its partnership with Microsoft to advance specific technologies to meet operational requirements and maximize warfighter impact,” a press release from the Army states. “The Army conducted an Adversarial Electronic Warfare and Cybersecurity Test in September 2021, and plans to execute testing regularly throughout FY22. This decision allows the Army and Industry team to continue to enhance the IVAS technology platform ensuring Soldiers achieve overmatch in Multi Domain Operations. The Army intends to continue developing and fielding this revolutionary, first-of-its-kind technology in FY22.”

The U.S. Army provided a project timeline with May 2022 listed as the month for an operational test and September of 2022 for the first unit equipped with the hardware. Here’s the full timeline as provided by the Army:

Project Timeline:

  • OCT / NOV 2020: Soldier Touchpoint 3 (STP 3) & Distinguished Visitor Days
  • DEC 2020: Rapid Fielding Decision
  • JAN 2021: Vehicle Integration VE2 – Stryker & Bradley
  • FEB 2021: Cold Weather Test
  • MAR 2021: Production Award
  • MAR 2021: Tropical Weather Test
  • APR 2021: Soldier Touchpoint 4 (STP 4)
  • JUL 2021: OT Entrance Criteria User Jury
  • SEP 2021: Vehicle Integration VE3 – Bradley
  • SEP 2021: Adversarial Electronic Warfare & Cybersecurity Test
  • MAY 2022: Operational Test (IOT)
  • SEP 2022: First Unit Equipped (FUE)
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Magic Leap 2 Teased For 2022 With Taller Field Of View

Magic Leap teased the first images of its next generation AR headset, Magic Leap 2.

A blog post by Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson features an image, pictured below, comparing the field of view of the first and second generation AR headsets. While Magic Leap 2 seems to have small gains in horizontal field of view, vertically the augmentation of your vision should be far more significant with the new device. The company is said to have raised another $500 million to roll-out the second generation product focused toward business markets in 2022. “Select customers” are “already leveraging its capabilities through an early access program,” according to the company.

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We can also see in the images of the new device that it apparently keeps its wired design. The original Magic Leap One headset shipped starting in August 2018 priced at $2,295 with a single handheld controller and wired computing puck accompanying the lightweight glasses.

magic leap 2

Here’s the first generation device for comparison:

Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft are just a few of the companies working to develop next-generation AR headsets geared toward different use cases. A new generation of VR headsets are also likely to have advanced AR passthrough modes likely to overlap with the feature sets of systems like Magic Leap 2. We’ll be curious to see, then, what price Magic Leap’s second generation system arrives at when it launches, and how it holds up against other products available at the time it ships.

“Magic Leap 2 will be the industry’s smallest and lightest device built for enterprise adoption,” Johnson wrote. “This more advanced headset boasts critical updates that make it more immersive and even more comfortable, with leading optics, the largest field of view in the industry, and dimming – a first-to-market innovation that enables the headset to be used in brightly lit settings, in addition to a significantly smaller and lighter form factor. These updated features lend themselves to achieving our goal of all day, everyday use, which is what the enterprise market has been asking for – a device that you can put on your head in the morning and wear all day long.”

Magic Leap appointed Johnson as CEO in July 2020 after former CEO Rony Abovitz stepped down, citing a need for the company to pivot to a new ‘focused’ direction.

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Niantic Acquires Hoss To Build Lightship API Developer Platform

Pokemon Go developer Niantic today acquired Hoss, a start-up company that will develop a platform and set of tools that makes it easier for developers to work with Niantic’s upcoming Lightship ARDK.

Lightship is Niantic’s “planet-scale” AR platform, which provides developers with an SDK to build AR experiences on a global map — a type of game popularized by Niantic’s mega-hit Pokemon Go in 2016. The Hoss acquisition will see the team working on a solid platform portal for developers using Lightship, which is currently in private beta but will soon move to a public release.

“As we are preparing to open the Lightship platform to developers around the world, it’s critically important that we get two things right — both the tools in the ARDK to help developers build new experiences, and the developer experience as we work together to build this exciting new world of AR experiences,” said Niantic’s chief product officer Kei Kawai in a prepared statement.

Hoss were part of the Y Comibinator winter class of 2020, and have since grown the business and found success in “creating compelling developer-first experiences that combine self-service and rich community engagement,” according to Niantic.

Hoss co-founder and CEO Matt Hawkins said the acquisition was a great opportunity for the start-up. “We repeatedly found that developers are not happy with the status quo when it comes to developer experiences,” he said in a prepared statement.”The chance to build out the Lightship DX as we’re getting ready to open the platform to developers around the world is a once-in-a-career type of opportunity that we are so incredibly excited to be a part of.”

You can read more about Hoss here. In other Niantic news, Dan Morris, the former Head of Developer Relations at Facebook Reality Labs, joined the company early last month. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on more news on the upcoming Pikman AR game from Niantic, which is being produced in partnership with Nintendo, as well as the upcoming Transformers AR game, in partnership with Hasbro.