Category: mobile ar

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Check Out This Fan-Made AR Marauder’s Map From Harry Potter

VR and AR content creator Lucas Rizzotto has made a working version of the Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter using mobile AR.

The video is part of his Lucas Builds the Future series, where each video Rizzotto creates some seemingly-futuristic invention using VR and AR technology. Rizzotto was also behind the award-winning VR experience Where Thoughts Go.

In the Marauder’s Map video, Rizzotto rents out a ‘mini Hogwarts’ castle in England and maps the entire area out to create a small AR version of the Marauder’s Map. It works similarly to the movie, in that people’s movements are tracked on the map as footsteps and their names are labelled on animated pieces of parchment that move along with the feet.

However, it’s a mobile AR solution — while the parchment is physical, all the movement information is only displayed in the AR view on the phone. Nonetheless, the end product is incredible and an awesome homage to the map from the movie.

Some people might ask why Rizzotto chose to use mobile AR over an actual headset, which he briefly explains in the video. The main reason is because a modern AR headset wouldn’t be able to display black lines on top of the parchment — AR headsets have transparent displays that use light to create color and there’s no way to create the color black out of light. On a phone screen, the black lines can be properly displayed in AR and therefore retain the authentic style of the map from the movie.

It’s a really awesome application of AR technology that comes close to feeling like real magic. Be sure to watch the full video to see the breakdown of the entire process from start to finish.

What do you think of Rizzotto’s Marauder’s Map? Let us know in the comments below.

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Watch The Game Awards Tomorrow, Instagram AR Filters Available Now

It’s that time of year — awards season is upon us. For the gaming world, it all kicks off with The Game Awards, which goes live at 3:30pm PST tomorrow.

The Game Awards are one of the bigger annual awards ceremonies in the video games sphere. Not only are loads of awards handed out over several categories, but the ceremony is often littered with big game announcements as well. It’s a bit like the Oscars mixed with an E3 presentation.

In terms of VR and AR nominees, there’s a VR game nominated in 8 of the 29 categories, as well as a whole ‘Best VR/AR of the Year’ award. You can read our full breakdown of VR nominees across other categories, but here’s the shortlist for the Best of VR/AR category specifically:

– Dreams (Media Molecule/SIE)

– Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)

– MARVEL’s Iron Man VR (Camoflaj/SIE)

– STAR WARS: Squadrons (Motive Studios/EA)

– The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Skydance Interactive)

What would be your choice to take home the award?

The Game Awards also announced that six exclusive AR Instagram filters are available now on the ceremony’s Instagram page, @thegameawards. Five of the filters overlay an AR design of a character from a nominated game onto your face — the Hades filter, for example, gives you black Zagreus-like hair, changes the color of your pupils and places you inside a Greek-theme photo frame. Sadly the filters focus on nominees from the general Game of the Year category, and none feature VR games.

The Game Awards will be streaming tomorrow on Twitch, YouTube and many other platforms from 3:30pm PST.

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Ticketed Virtual Event, Pokémon Go Tour: Kanto, Coming February 2021

Pokémon Go Tour: Kanto is a new ticketed virtual event is coming to Pokémon Go to celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary. It will take place over 12 hours in February 2021.

In true Pokémon fashion, there will be two versions of the event — Red or Green — each featuring Pokémon that are exclusive to one or the other. During and after the event, players will also be able to encounter shiny versions of the first 150 Pokémon discovered in Kanto region.

Players will also be able to complete two event-specific Special Research stories, the second of which is designed to take much longer and will see you work toward discovering Shiny Mew.

pokemon go tour

Even players who don’t purchase an event ticket will have something to do — Pokémon that were originally discovered in the Kanto region will appear in the wild and in raids for all players. Likewise, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Mewtwo will return in Legendary raids.

You can read more about the event features for ticketed and non-ticketed players, along with the difference between the Red and Green versions, over on the Pokémon Go blog. Be sure to check which version you want to purchase, as certain Pokémon are exclusive to Red or Green and some have an increased chance of being encountered depending on which version you pick.

The event will run from 9am to 9pm local time on February 20 and tickets are available now in the in-app shop for $11.99.

Pokémon Go Tour: Kanto follows on from the massive Pokémon Go Beyond update, which added seasons, raised the level cap and released in November.

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The Mandalorian AR Experience Now Available For Select Android Phones

A new Android app, The Mandalorian AR Experience, will allow you to display characters and scenes from the show using AR on your phone.

The app is a collaboration between Google, Disney and Lucasfilm and is available now, no doubt timed to release in the middle of the second season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.

It’s pretty basic in terms of AR functionality — you can choose a character from the Mandalorian, including the big man himself, and place them in your environment using AR on your phone’s camera. “Interact with characters and discover hidden features as you bring scenes from Season 1 to life,” says the app’s description. Retrace the Mandalorian’s steps, find the Child, and harness the Force, all featuring life-sized versions of your favorite characters.”

In terms of compatibility, the app is actually fairly limited to newer devices. Out of the Google Pixel line, only the two newest phones — the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5 — are compatible and it seems other brands are limited to recent devices as well. You can view the full compatibility list here.

It’s a been a good week for Star Wars fans in the XR industry — not only did the Mandalorian app launch this week, but Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge also released for Oculus Quest. We streamed the entire first episode live on YouTube, which you can catch up on here.

The Mandalorian AR Experience is available to download on the Google Play Store on your device or online here.

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Massive Pokemon Go Update Adds Seasons, Raises Level Cap, And More

Today Niantic announced the GO Beyond update for Pokemon Go, the largest update yet for the mobile AR pocket monster-catching game. Check out the trailer below:

GO Beyond: The Biggest Pokemon Go Update Yet

In this update the level cap is getting raised from Level 40 to Level 50 and impressively seasons are getting introduced. The Season of Celebration event begins on December 1st at 8AM your local time and includes new weather dynamics, differing Pokemon per season, varying global hemispheres, more regional in-game events, and more.

And on December 2nd all-new Pokemon from the Kalos region will be added, such as Froakie, Chespin, Pyroar, and others. They’ll appear more often than usual for the first week as well.

In order to help accommodate the new level cap increase, starting on November 30th you’ll earn up to double XP from catching Pokemon, evolving Pokemon, hatching eggs, registering Pokedex entries, and other activities than before to accelerate the journey. They’re also debuting a “double catch XP bonus” period from November 18th until the end of the year. Finally, there’s the ’12 Days of Friendship’ event from November 18th, today, until November 30th, in which leveling is much faster with a friend, alongside other boosts and rewards.

pokemon go beyond level 45

If you manage to reach Level 40 or above before the end of 2020 you’ll earn a Legacy 40 Trainer title exclusive rewards. One of the more interesting additions with this update also is that leveling up is no longer just about accruing enough XP — you need to complete “Level-Up Research” between levels as well.

For example, in order to get from Level 40 to 41, you need to catch a high-number (TBD) of Pokemon in a single day very quickly Level 42 requires multiple Eevee evolutions, Level 43 requires a certain number of Platinum medals from Gym and Raid battles, and so on. It’s a good concept for end-game leveling that incentivizes mastering all aspects of the game.

What do you think of all these changes and updates? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Epic Games Acquires Real-Time Facial Animation Company Hyprsense

Epic Games acquired Hyprsense this week, the real-time facial animation company formerly known as Binary VR.

Hyprsense specializes in capturing face movements which can then be transformed into a fully-animated 3D avatar in real-time. Initially, the company started with a VR-focused solution that captured accurate facial motion data using a 3D infrared capture camera that hung of the front of VR headsets. Then known as Binary VR, the company shipped dev kits in 2017 for headsets like the original Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Now, three years later, the company is known as Hyprsense and has been acquired by Epic Games. While Hyprsense is not a VR-focused enterprise anymore, videos of the technology demonstrate real-time facial motion capture running off a phone camera, which then transforms the face into a real-time 3D animation on the phone screen, as demonstrated below.

 

This is similar in principal to basic AR face tracking technology found in social media apps like Instagram and Facebook, but Hyprsense takes it one step further and allows you to fully replace your face with a completely different 3D avatar with a seemingly high degree of accuracy.

“Bringing on the Hyprsense team enables us to continue pushing digital character innovation even further and approach the goal of giving all creators full control over expressing their vision down to the smallest nuance,” said Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, in a prepared statement.

Epic says that the Hyprsense team will be working primarily with its game development and digital humans teams, which will “help accelerate Epic’s journey to build new and better tools and systems for developers and players alike.”

You can read the full press release from Hyprsense here.

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Epic Games Acquires Real-Time Facial Animation Company Hyprsense

Epic Games acquired Hyprsense this week, the real-time facial animation company formerly known as Binary VR.

Hyprsense specializes in capturing face movements which can then be transformed into a fully-animated 3D avatar in real-time. Initially, the company started with a VR-focused solution that captured accurate facial motion data using a 3D infrared capture camera that hung of the front of VR headsets. Then known as Binary VR, the company shipped dev kits in 2017 for headsets like the original Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Now, three years later, the company is known as Hyprsense and has been acquired by Epic Games. While Hyprsense is not a VR-focused enterprise anymore, videos of the technology demonstrate real-time facial motion capture running off a phone camera, which then transforms the face into a real-time 3D animation on the phone screen, as demonstrated below.

 

This is similar in principal to basic AR face tracking technology found in social media apps like Instagram and Facebook, but Hyprsense takes it one step further and allows you to fully replace your face with a completely different 3D avatar with a seemingly high degree of accuracy.

“Bringing on the Hyprsense team enables us to continue pushing digital character innovation even further and approach the goal of giving all creators full control over expressing their vision down to the smallest nuance,” said Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, in a prepared statement.

Epic says that the Hyprsense team will be working primarily with its game development and digital humans teams, which will “help accelerate Epic’s journey to build new and better tools and systems for developers and players alike.”

You can read the full press release from Hyprsense here.

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Use AR Pianist To Watch A Virtual Performance On a Real Piano

A new app available for iOS and Android places a virtual pianist at your real life piano, allowing you to watch them play a full piece from start to finish as if they’re in the room with you.

Back in February, I wrote about VRTuos, an Oculus Quest app that used hand tracking to sync up a virtual piano in VR with your real life piano. While very basic and still somewhat buggy, it essentially allowed you to learn a simple piano on a real piano using VR and hand tracking. While it wasn’t perfect, I managed to teach myself the Tetris theme using the app and came away quite impressed.

Now, many months later, an AR equivalent has arrived — AR Pianist is an astonishing app that uses augmented reality to stage a virtual AR concert on a real life piano, and it’s pretty convincing too.

The setup process is simple — as you can see in the video below, you calibrate the camera for AR and the press the ‘Place’ button once you have your piano in view and all the keys visible. Like magic, a pianist avatar will be sitting at your piano, and with the press of a button they will run through an entire piece.

Nothing is actually happening in real lie — the app does not connect to electronic pianos and no actual playing is taking place. It’s entirely virtual — the AR pianist creates the (almost) perfect illusion someone is sitting at your piano and playing a piece for you.

You can move around and view the pianist from different angles as they play, and even get right up close to the keys, watching from the perspective of the piano stool as if you were playing the piece yourself. Of course, it’s not perfect — the more keys are out of view, the less aligned the AR keys become — but it’s close enough not to matter.

The app is free to download — there are some free tracks included and others that are locked behind a subscription paywall. The track featured in the video above, ‘Fur Elise Jam’, is a new track available on the app, and is a collaboration with the well-known musicians and YouTube channel, The Piano Guys. The standard avatar is replaced by one of Jon Schmidt, which is convincingly lifelike when viewed up close.

If you don’t own a piano in real life, there is also an option to place a full AR piano in your space as well. The app also has non-AR functionality, such as displaying songs in a synthesia-type manner and using your microphone to listen for the notes as you play them.

AR Pianist is available for iOS and Android now.

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Microsoft Transitions To OpenXR Standard For Windows Mixed Reality & HoloLens

Microsoft is transitioning to the OpenXR standard for future new features it builds in VR and AR.

A post by Alex Turner at Microsoft explains that “starting in Unity 2021, OpenXR will then graduate to be the only supported Unity backend for targeting HoloLens 2 and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.” OpenXR is also supported in Epic’s Unreal Engine and Microsoft formally recommends others using their own custom engines in VR and AR switch to using the OpenXR API going forward.

“HoloLens 2 and Windows Mixed Reality will continue to support apps that target our previous WinRT APIs as well, although new features may not be available in these APIs,” the post explains.

The OpenXR standard aims to “lets engines write code once that’s then portable across hardware platforms from a wide range of VR and AR vendors,” making it less expensive and time consuming for a developer to put a piece of software on multiple VR/AR systems. The standard has wide industry support from the likes of Valve and Facebook as well, with Microsoft pushing forward on the content side with Minecraft’s new RenderDragon engine implementing PC VR support using OpenXR.

This is still early days for the implementation of OpenXR. Unity is the most popular engine for making games but developers use many different versions of the software, so it may take some time before the version Turner mentions — Unity 2021 LTS — is the version used by developers releasing new OpenXR projects.

We’re curious to see how OpenXR implementation affects indie developers in the coming years. The majority of content out there was made in an earlier version of Unity and for some developers updating software to a new version might not make sense just to access future features platform makers like Microsoft, Facebook or Valve might implement. In other words, time will tell how OpenXR affects the VR and AR development ecosystem.

Posted on

Microsoft Transitions To OpenXR Standard For Windows Mixed Reality & HoloLens

Microsoft is transitioning to the OpenXR standard for future new features it builds in VR and AR.

A post by Alex Turner at Microsoft explains that “starting in Unity 2021, OpenXR will then graduate to be the only supported Unity backend for targeting HoloLens 2 and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.” OpenXR is also supported in Epic’s Unreal Engine and Microsoft formally recommends others using their own custom engines in VR and AR switch to using the OpenXR API going forward.

“HoloLens 2 and Windows Mixed Reality will continue to support apps that target our previous WinRT APIs as well, although new features may not be available in these APIs,” the post explains.

The OpenXR standard aims to “lets engines write code once that’s then portable across hardware platforms from a wide range of VR and AR vendors,” making it less expensive and time consuming for a developer to put a piece of software on multiple VR/AR systems. The standard has wide industry support from the likes of Valve and Facebook as well, with Microsoft pushing forward on the content side with Minecraft’s new RenderDragon engine implementing PC VR support using OpenXR.

This is still early days for the implementation of OpenXR. Unity is the most popular engine for making games but developers use many different versions of the software, so it may take some time before the version Turner mentions — Unity 2021 LTS — is the version used by developers releasing new OpenXR projects.

We’re curious to see how OpenXR implementation affects indie developers in the coming years. The majority of content out there was made in an earlier version of Unity and for some developers updating software to a new version might not make sense just to access future features platform makers like Microsoft, Facebook or Valve might implement. In other words, time will tell how OpenXR affects the VR and AR development ecosystem.