Niantic‘s new Lightship Visual Positioning System (VPS) will facilitate interactions with ‘global scale’ persistent and synced AR content on mobile devices.
Niantic launched Lightship during its developer conference this week and you can see some footage in the video embedded above showing some phone-based AR apps using its new features starting from the 50:20 mark. The system is essentially a new type of map that developers can use for AR experiences, with the aim of providing location-based persistent content that’s synced up for all users.
Niantic is building the map from scanned visual data, which Niantic says will offer “centimeter-level” accuracy when pinpointing the location and orientation of users (or multiple users, in relation to each other) at a given location. The technology is similar to large-scale visual positioning systems in active development at Google and Snap.
While the promise of the system is to work globally, it’s not quite there just yet — as of launch yesterday, Niantic’s VPS system has around 30,000 public locations where VPS is available for developers to hook into. These locations are mainly spread across six key cities — San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City and Seattle — and include “parks, paths, landmarks, local businesses and more.”
To expand the map, Niantic developed the Wayfarer app which allows developers to scan in new locations using their phones, available now in public beta. Niantic has also launched a surveyor program in the aforementioned six key launch cities to expedite the process.
“With only a single image frame from the end user’s camera, Lightship VPS swiftly and accurately determines a user’s precise, six-dimensional location,” according to a Niantic blog post.
Scaling VPS to a global level is a lofty goal for Niantic, but could improve mobile AR experiences which could seem to unlock far more interesting content with accurate maps pinning content to real world locations.
Niantic today launched its Lightship Visual Positioning System at its first developer summit. The system aims to form an underlying 3D map of the world so that AR devices can share the same frame of reference even on massive scales.
Update (May 24th, 2022): Today during the company’s Lightship Summit event, Niantic launched its Lightship VPS system which is designed to allow developers to localize the position of AR devices with centimeter precision (in enabled areas). With a shared understanding of where devices are, Niantic says its platform will enable developers to build location-based, persistent, and multi-user AR experiences using the underlying VPS map which will hopefully one day span the globe.
Image courtesy Niantic
Today the company is enabling its VPS system in select cities—San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle—comprising some 30,000 VPS localization points which represent 10 × 10 meter playspaces in which developers can build AR experiences. Niantic expects VPS will be active in over 100 cities by the end of the year.
Lightship VPS Launch City Coverage
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California Bay Area
Los Angeles
San Francisco & Oakland
Seattle
New York City
London
Tokyo
In partnership with developer Liquid City, Niantic launched Reality Browser on iOS and Android devices to function as a demo of the VPS system for attendees of the conference.
Niantic says its VPS map will expand over time thanks to scan data pulled in from players of the company’s existing games, like Ingress and Pokémon GO, as well as data from dedicated ‘surveyors’.
The original article, which overviews the usefulness of a system like VPS for AR, continues below.
Original Article (May 5th, 2022): Many AR devices today are capable of localizing themselves within an arbitrary environment. An AR headset, for instance, looks at the room around you and uses that information to understand how the headset itself is moving through the space.
But if you want to enable multiple devices to interact in a shared space, both need to be able to localize themselves not just to the environment, but with regards to one another. Essentially, you need both devices to share the same map so that both users see the same thing happening in the same place in the real world.
That’s the goal of Niantic’s Lightship Visual Positioning system, which the company says will allow AR devices to tap into a shared digital map to establish their real-world position with “centimeter precision.” While GPS would be far too inaccurate for the job, such a system would allow devices to understand if they’re in a shared space together, allowing for content to be synchronized between the two for multiplayer and persistent content.
Niantic has been talking about its Visual Positioning System for some time now, but the company says it will first launch the feature as part of its Lightship AR development platform at the end of the month. That will coincide with the company’s first developer event, Lightship Summit, which is happening May 24th & 25th in San Francisco.
Although Niantic has been pitching is Visual Positioning System as a ‘world-scale’ solution for syncing AR content between devices, out of the gate it will be much more limited. For now the system is only approaching ‘city-scale’ as the company says it will initially function only “at certain Niantic Wayspots in select cities.” The company plans to expand coverage of the Visual Positioning System by crowdsourcing mapping data from the devices that use it, though it’s not clear how quickly that data can be transformed in the way needed to expand the map.
In theory, the system could enable persistent AR content at large scales, which could allow anyone in the area to see the same things (if they’re using the same app), like the concept above that the company has shown previously.
It will surely be some time yet because the Lightship Visual Positioning System achieves anything close to being truly ‘world-scale’. However, the company has one major potential advantage; it could tap into data from its existing games—like Pokémon Go and the upcoming Peridot—to move at a greater mapping pace than almost any other company could. As far as we know, that’s not happening at the moment, but could be in the works.
When Pokemon GO creator Niantic Labs launched its Lightship software development kit (SDK) for augmented reality (AR) developers in 2021, the company spoke of its desire to build a “real-world metaverse” rather than a purely virtual one. Today, in the next step down that road Niantic has announced a new accelerator programme in collaboration with UK tech agency Digital Catapult, looking for UK-based startups to help build immersive AR experiences.
Niantic and Digital Catapult are teaming up with Cartoon Network and internationally renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor on the programme. Successful applicants will utilise the Lightship ARDK to build AR experiences for these brands, exploring the definition of a real-world metaverse, the social interactions that take place and how to bring people closer together.
Three startups will be selected for the Niantic Lightship Augmented Reality Accelerator which Digital Catapult will run under its own FutureScope accelerator programme. Each startup will be awarded up to £100,000 GBP to create a socially engaging AR demo.
“This unique collaboration with Niantic and Digital Catapult allows us to dream bigger and venture further into our evolving metaverse(s), visioning a new kind of shared creative adventure that untethers the imagination,” said McGregor in a statement. “This project provides everybody with accessible tools to tap into their innate creativity, to connect playfully with others and to explore their bodies and spaces they inhabit in surprising, limitless ways.”
Wayne McGregor. Photo credit: Pål Hansen
“This new accelerator program with Digital Catapult will allow startups to push the boundaries of possibility with technology, creating groundbreaking new experiences for leading brands – and we are proud to unleash the potential of our Lightship Augmented Reality Developer Kit as part of this,“ Kate Carlyle, Senior Marketing Manager, Niantic’s Lightship Platform added.
Details regarding when the programme will begin and what sort of timeframe the startups have to build these demos haven’t been released at present. But if you’re UK-based and wish to apply then email niantic@digicatapult.org.uk.
For continued updates on the latest immersive accelerators, keep reading gmw3.
Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, the Lightship AR SDK, and more, announced this week that it has acquired 8th Wall, creators of AR development tools designed to run through web browsers with wide reach across devices.
In what the company calls its “largest acquisition to date,” Niantic this week announced that is has acquired 8th Wall, a company known for its toolset that allows developers to build web-based AR content. Neither company disclosed the price of the acquisition, though 8th Wall had previously raised $10.4 million in funding since its founding in 2016, according to Crunchbase.
Though best known for its games like Pokémon GO, Niantic is moving to position itself as a platform for AR development. The company recently launched its Lightship SDK—a suite of AR development tools to give third-parties the ability to create world-scale AR content—along with a $20 million development fund to kickstart the platform.
While Niantic’s Lightship SDK is designed to integrate with the popular game engine Unity—and ultimately produce standalone app-based experiences—the company’s acquisition of 8th Wall expands its toolset to cover web-based AR content as well. Strategically that moves Niantic closer to being a one-stop shop for developers building AR content across a broad range of devices.
8th Wall says its web-based AR tech supports “5 billion smartphones across iOS and Android as well as computers and [XR] headsets.” You can check out an example of content created with 8th Wall’s tools by visiting 8th.io/niantic from any browser. From our understanding, 8th Wall’s tools are not based on the WebXR standard.
Niantic hasn’t signaled any immediate plans to merge its own Lightship SDK with the 8th Wall toolset, saying that developers can “build sophisticated AR experiences with Lightship & Unity and build lighter-weight AR experiences with 8th Wall.”
2021 was a stand out year for XR. Both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) saw some technological leaps, some great videogames and a glimpse of the future. Both technologies are shaking up several industries while laying the foundations for the metaverse. To celebrate the year, we’ve chosen some of our highlights as we look forward to what 2022 might bring.
After the Fall
Probably the biggest VR launch of 2021, After the Fall brings zombie-slaying back and makes it more fun than ever. With co-op modes, cross-platform play and constant action, it’s a title that feels perfectly at home in VR. The game is gorgeous – aside from the grisly zombies – and playing on high-end hardware ensures a smooth experience. The intuitive controls allow for a great experience, and while there are some minor flaws, After the Fall is set to be one of the biggest and best VR games in recent years.
Resident Evil 4
The best Resident Evil game finally has a VR option! Armature brought everything that made the game such a standout success and revolutionised it with plenty of accessible VR additions. We loved the new interactive features; cocking and reloading the weapons, the malleable storage system, pulling grenade pins, all of these bring the action to life like never before. While it’s not the prettiest game, thanks to the browns and beiges of the original game, it’s still a great spectacle to behold.
Ragnarock
VR often brings out the best in rhythm games, mostly due to the accelerometers embedded in the controllers. It gives a sense of interactivity that button presses can’t achieve. In Ragnarock, thumping away on the drums feels invigorating and refreshing. It helps that this Viking environment is backed by a soundtrack of rock and metal. Energising your boat of rowers, you bash out rhythms and melodies on small drums in the hopes of scoring well. Even when you don’t, it doesn’t feel like a chore replaying songs, because who doesn’t love bashing drums and creating a foot-tapping moment of bliss?
Pikmin Bloom
Niantic Labs’ games always want us to go outside. They’re urging us to put down the mouse or controller and interact with life outside our four walls. Pikmin Bloom is its latest attempt to get us exercising and interacting with the natural world. It’s more about walking than Pokemon Go, as there’s very little need to stand around. Players must find seeds that hatch into cute Pikmin then nurture the relationship by walking, with the app counting steps. It’s a very sedate experience, it’s one that teams up with the nature around us offering a peaceful escape from our world.
The Climb 2
If there’s a better looking videogame in VR, we haven’t seen it. And we’ve played a lot of games! The Climb 2 is a stunning view, whether climbing snow-capped mountains or high rise skyscrapers. Stopping every few minutes to appreciate the scenery is a joy, and that’s no surprise given the game is running on the Crytek CryEngine. Perhaps better than the view is the feeling of adrenaline when climbing, leaping and saving yourself from a deathly fall. The game gives a light workout to your arms, but it’s entirely welcome. The dynamic objects which could spell disaster at any second keep your heart in your mouth and your fingertips gripping on for dear life. The Climb 2 sounds sedate on paper, but in (virtual) reality it’s a nerve-shredding experience!
VR/AR Concerts
Sadly, in 2021 the global COVID-19 pandemic is still a thing. This means that artists, musicians and film studios are looking for new ways to interact with fans. VR and AR experiences are a booming business and a guaranteed path to extra revenue in a world where concerts are being cancelled or moved from date to date. Through VR apps like Oculus Venues and MelodyVR, you can still attend the gigs of your favourite stars. Megastars Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi and Khalid are leading the way, and the adoption of low-cost headsets will make these experiences even more common in a post-pandemic world.
Wizards Unite is Closing
Sometimes you can have too many eggs in a basket. Niantic Labs has seen massive success with their headline game Pokemon Go and their latest release, Pikmin Bloom. This has perhaps overshadowed Harry Potter Wizards Unite; it certainly didn’t help that players didn’t shift from pocket monsters to waving magic wands. Wizards Unite just wasn’t sustaining itself, making $39.4 million in lifetime revenue compared to the $1.1 billion from Pokemon Go in 2021 alone. Sometimes a smash hit brand just isn’t enough.
Haptic Feedback
As VR technology evolves, so too does the need and want for more haptic feedback. We’re beyond rumbling controllers and racing seats that thud and jerk along with a game. Companies like HaptX, Meta and Tesla are all investing heavily into technology that will encompass our entire bodies; gloves that mimic the pressure and weight of physical objects when in a digital world; bodysuits which can react to impacts or environmental changes in a metaverse space. Each of these companies showcased their tech in 2021 to the astonishment of pretty much everyone, for better or for worse.
Facebook rebrand
If you somehow missed Facebook rebranding to Meta, you must have been living under a rock! Mark Zuckerberg shook up the tech world by announcing his company Facebook would now be known as Meta. Why? Because he envisions the future of the internet as the metaverse, a term first coined in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This future, according to Zuckerberg, will be an extension of our physical selves into the digital landscape of web 3.0, through VR and AR technology. Meta wants to help usher in this technological revolution using its power, influence and money to research and launch new hardware and software which will take us into the next evolution of the internet.
Metaverse
The metaverse is here! Well, kind of. The latter half of 2021 has been awash with talk around a metaverse. What was once a concept that few people acknowledged has now become a buzzword that even your grandmother knows (Thanks Facebook… oh, Meta). Whatever your thoughts on the metaverse, it’s coming up fast. In fact, to some, it’s already here. If you’re playing Fortnite or Roblox then you’re already on the first rung of the ladder, and projects such as Somnium Space, Decentraland and The Sandbox are waiting for you to jump in. This ownership driven, decentralised digital space is an important change to the way we use the internet. Are you ready?
Unreal Engine 5
2021 finally saw the release of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, bringing a dearth of powerful development tools to the industry. With so many developers utilising Unreal Engine to create their projects, this new iteration gives us a glimpse of what’s to come over the next decade. Launching with an interactive ‘“experience” collaborating with The Matrix Awakens, players and creators have seen the potential and it’s revolutionary. The level of detail and fidelity UE5 will bring is likely to change the landscape of games, from battle royales to VR puzzlers.
Sony’s 8K headset
As reported by our very own Peter Graham, Sony unveiled a prototype VR headset with not only 8K visuals (4K per eye) but also ultra-low latency. This bodes well for the company’s future, given they are soon releasing an upgraded VR headset for the PlayStation brand. Will we see this fidelity over there? It’s unlikely, but the new technology could make waves in industrial and medical avenues. This jump in technology bodes well for the future of Virtual Reality.
Niantic Lightship
If you’re an AR developer, then 2021 was a good year. Niantic Labs, the company behind pretty much every hugely successful AR mobile game, released their ARDK tools for developers to use. What does this mean? Well, it means that the software they use for their titles, including mesh mapping and semantic wrapping, two features that track and map the world seen through a smartphone camera, as well as their multiplayer API, can be utilised by any development team. This sharing of technologies can only benefit the AR community as a whole and further achieve great things in the world of AR.
AR/VR in medicine
Many see Augmented and Virtual Reality as something built for games and experiences. Contrary to that view, both AR and VR are breaking down barriers in the world of medicine. Therapists are using VR to virtually visit their clients or help PTSD sufferers acclimate to the world. AR helped frontline workers learn how to care for those ill with COVID, using phone apps to triage patients when needed. Back in the virtual world, surgeons are completing spinal surgeries and trainee medical students are learning how to intubate patients using the technology rather than plastic dummies.
Digital Influencers
In 2021, the world of influencers got a bit more digital and a bit more creative. Since the advent of social media, influencers have become ubiquitous with the software – a selection of people touting products for corporations. However, with graphical software innovations, virtual and augmented reality, plus motion capture, we can now find digital avatars living the influencer life. Though right now, they aren’t trying to sell us anything, except maybe their art. CB from Casas Bahias, CodeMiko and Blu are amazing CGI avatars living digital lives, creating comedy, drama or interactive experiences.
If you’ve been wondering where the future of augmented reality (AR) is going this week offers a good example of two global companies efforts in the space. Yesterday saw the official launch of Niantic Lightship whilst today Qualcomm has unveiled its Snapdragon Spaces XR developer platform for the creation of cool new AR experiences.
This new AR development kit (ARDK) will help support Qualcomm’s current AR plans which were first detailed earlier in the year with the XR1 AR Smart Viewer Reference Design. As with all of Qualcomm’s XR efforts Snapdragon Spaces is built upon the idea of an open, cross-platform ecosystem to encourage more businesses and creators into the space.
Designed for next-gen AR glasses, Snapdragon Spaces offers a range of features to make AR experiences as seamless as possible. These include spatial mapping and meshing, occlusion, plane detection, object and image recognition and tracking to name a few. It’ll support Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, Unity and integrate into Niantic Lightship to utilise its multiplayer functionality.
“The Snapdragon SpacesXR Developer Platform underscores our commitment to empowering developers to explore bravely and create confidently, paving the way to a new frontier of spatial computing,” said Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in a statement. “Snapdragon Spaces is designed to support the democratization of XR by taking a horizontal, open-channel approach so developers can rapidly bring their ideas to life and reach a wide range of end-users. We welcome developers to join us in this journey to reimagine reality.”
“We share a common vision with our AR hardware partner Qualcomm Technologies for creating experiences that fuse the digital and real worlds,” adds John Hanke, Founder and CEO of Niantic. “What Snapdragon Spaces will achieve for people with AR glasses indoors complements our goal for developers to build planet-scale AR applications on multiple devices and form factors with Niantic’s Lightship Platform. We look forward to working together with Qualcomm Technologies to accelerate AR hardware and software adoption across the industry.”
Additionally, also arriving today is the Snapdragon Spaces Pathfinder Program. Helping support AR creators the programme will provide access to hardware development kits, project funding, co-marketing and promotion. If you’re an AR developer you can apply via the Snapdragon Spaces page.
Today’s announcement is an early access launch for Snapdragon Spaces arriving in the hands of select developers like Felix & Paul Studios, Scope AR, TRIPP and Resolution Games. A more general release will then take place in Spring 2022. For continued updates from Qualcomm, keep reading VRFocus.
Tech companies left and right are revealing their metaverse plans and yesterday augmented reality (AR) company Niantic did just that. Famous for its Pokemon Go videogame Niantic announced the official launch of its Lightship platform, rolling out a software development kit (SDK) for creators as well as a new $20 million USD fund to help companies build AR experiences.
Unlike Meta (formerly Facebook) which is looking towards a virtual metaverse, Niantic is going down the path of a “real-world metaverse”, building AR content that supports features like multiplayer in real-world settings. To achieve this Lightship’s Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK) tools are now available, the same ones used for Niantic’s other cross-platform projects across Android and iOS devices.
Niantic splits these tools into three categories – Real-Time Mapping, Understanding and Sharing. Real-Time Mapping and Understanding are all about using smartphone camera sensors to build knowledge of the world around you, scanning the environment to create 3D mesh maps of where objects are whilst utilising advanced occlusion API’s the digital and real worlds are seamless.
Just as critical is the inclusion of multiplayer. Metaverses are all about social connection rather than isolation with developers able to utilise the Lightship platform to build AR experiences that support up to five people concurrently. Creators will also find that ARDK: “provides some lightweight multiplayer gaming functions, including a player lobby system, a synchronized clock, and session-persistent storage.”
To encourage more companies and developers to utilise Lightship Niantic Ventures has set up a $20 million fund to: “invest in companies building applications that share our vision for the Real-World Metaverse,” Niantic notes. Partners already include Coachella, the PGA of America, Historic Royal Palaces, Science Museum Group and Shueisha, all of which will be releasing apps in 2022.
“Transforming humanity’s relationship with technology by merging the physical and virtual worlds will require the ideas and perspectives of as many people as possible,” said John Hanke, Founder and CEO of Niantic in a blog post. “That’s why we’re so excited to open the vault of technology that powers our own games, so developers, creators and brands globally can build inclusive experiences that push the boundaries of what’s possible in AR.”
As the Niantic Lightship platform continues to grow VRFocus will keep you updated.
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.”
Niantic announced today that long-time Oculus employee Dan Morris, Head of Developer Relations, is joining as the company’s new Director of Developer Relations as Niantic ramps up its Lightship AR platform, which aims to bring to third-party developers the same ‘world scale’ tech that enables Pokémon Go.
Dan Morris has been at Oculus since 2015, spending four years at the Head of Store, and another two years as the Head of Developer Relations, according to his LinkedIn profile. Niantic announced today that he’s moving to the company to take on the role of Director of Developer Relations.
Dan Morris | Image courtesy Niantic
“There’s no other job in the world that I would have left for but this one,” he said, according to the company’s announcement.
Morris will largely be focused on interfacing with developers who are using Niantic’s Lightship ARDK, a platform of capabilities which gives third-party developers access to the kinds of tools that make Pokémon Go’s ‘world-scale’ gameplay possible.
“This is a planet-sized opportunity for thousands of developers, given the size of the global smartphone installed base. Apps built with Lightship are going to change the world, and I’m really eager to get developers underway on their journey,” said Morris.
Lightship will be about more than just the geo-location functionality of Pokémon Go, however. The company is positioning the platform to support a full range of immersive AR capabilities, with the underlying map forming a shared foundation which will allow users in the same space to have multiplayer experiences. Lightship is currently in a private beta phase.
