xiaomi mi vr – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

January 4, 2019

DESIRIUM’s VR Platform Comes to Xiaomi Store

Russian virtual reality (VR) company Fibrum first started out designing and manufacturing its own Google Cardboard style headsets, before slowly entering the software market by creating its own experiences. Fibrum then took this one step further by developing its own content distribution platform DESIRIUM, for Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR. The platform expanded onto Viveport in November, and now the VR eco-system has arrived for the Xiaomi Store.

China is a big market for VR, hence why Oculus partnered with Xiaomi to launch the Xiaomi Mi VR standalone headset – a near identical carbon copy of the Oculus Go – which proved to be instantly popular.

Xiaomi Mi VR owners will now be able to go to their online store, download the DESIRIUM VR platform and check out all the videogames and apps available. The platform features both in-house content created by Fibrum as well as a growing roster of third-party experiences. Currently, there are 15 experiences to choose from, including recently released sci-fi horror Moon: The Dark Side.

Previously, we have conducted research stating that with time, users have a tendency to enjoy long-duration content less, especially when it comes to VR. Hence, Fibrum has decided to create DESIRIUM experiences lasting for 2 to 20 minutes,” notes the company in a statement. “A wide range of such unique experiences are designed to deliver a specific spectrum of different emotions, depending on the chosen genre. These experiences are labeled as “DESIRIUM Originals” and offer highest quality standards and engagement for VR. Our main DESIRE is to create a real, sophisticated ecosystem in the industry, attract as many people as possible to the technology of virtual reality and raise the quality standards.”

The platform also offers a “Descoin” in-app currency, a savings system with bonuses. Users earn extra Descoins for taking and completing achievements within the experiences. But in case they can’t afford an experience, Descoins can be accrued by watching short commercials within DESIRIUM VR.

Fibrum managed to secure a $1 million USD investment round led by The FunCubator and NP Capital Funds in 2018 to help bring the DESIRIUM platform to life. As further details are announced, VRFocus will keep you updated.

December 4, 2018

VR Industry Sees Positive Growth as Q3 Headset Sales Hit 1.9 million

It’s no secret that the virtual reality (VR) industry can be tough to make money in, after all, it is still a fledgeling market finding its place in both the overall tech industry and the videogame industry. While recent quarters saw a decline in headset sales, a new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has shown a resurgence, with the market returning to growth in Q3 2018.

PlayStation VR Group shot

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker the combined VR and augmented reality (AR) market grew 9.4 percent year over year in Q3, with global shipments of VR headset hitting 1.9 million units in that quarter.

Thanks to the release of Oculus Go and Xiaomi’s Mi VR, standalone headset sales grew 428.6 percent and accounted for 20.6 percent of the VR headset market, shipping nearly 250,000 devices worldwide. On the flipside, Samsung’s Gear VR declined by 58.6 percent attributed to fewer offers being available.

As for the tethered VR market sales surpassed 1 million units, with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) shipping 463,000 PlayStation VR headsets during the quarter followed by Oculus Rift with 300,000 and HTC Vive with 230,000. Oculus is the top manufacturer for Q3 thanks to combined Oculus Rift and Oculus Go units capturing 25.9 percent of the entire VR market.

HTC Vive stock image 6 “The VR market is finally starting to come into its own,” said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers in a statement. “On the consumer front, the combination of lower prices and increased content is beginning to resonate with users. Meanwhile, commercial adoption is also on the rise for a range of use cases, including training, design, and showcasing.”

On the AR headset side Lenovo is doing the best with 23,000 headsets shipped, mostly comprised of the Star Wars Jedi Challenges headset. When it comes to the rest of the AR market this grew 1.1 percent over the previous year thanks to companies like Vuzix and Epson.

“The VR market is entering a new stage of maturity, where companies are setting aside the unrealistic expectations around explosive market growth and are focused instead on building more sustainable businesses,” said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices and Augmented and Virtual Reality at IDC. “With regards to AR, hardware growth remains modest, but we see strong interest in the technology from many companies. We expect new hardware shipping in 2019, from both established players and new ones, to help move the industry beyond proof of concepts and pilots into larger deployments.”

With mostly positive figures all round it’ll be interesting to see how Q4 fairs thanks to aggressive pricing around events like Black Friday. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

October 11, 2018

Wands Fires On To Xiaomi Mi VR

In early 2018, Chinese technology company Xiaomi announced that it was working with Oculus to produce a version of the Oculus Go standalone virtual reality (VR) headset for the Chinese market, called the Xiaomi Mi VR. Now Cortopia Studios have announced that it is bringing its popular magic duelling VR title Wands to the Xiaomi Mi VR.

Wands is a first-person VR experience that casts players as a powerful magic users who needs to battle against other magic users in arena battles. In order to be victorious, players need to get the measure of the arena and pick up items which can unlock powerful spells which can provide an edge in combat.

Wands was designed to be a multiplayer social-oriented PvP experience that lets players take part in magic duels, which other players can watch using the built-in spectator mode. As players progress, more powerful spells can be obtained, and users can also take advantage of the dynamic environments.

The title has been previously released on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Lenovo Mirage Solo and Google Daydream as well as the Oculus Go.

Andreas Skoglund, CEO of Cortopia Studios: “With the success of Wands on the Oculus GO we always knew that the Mi VR was a platform we wanted to be on. And Xiaomi has demonstrated that they understand what is needed to push the VR technology forward and make it more available and enjoyable. We are very excited to keep bringing our games to the players together with Xiaomi.”

The Xiaomi Mi VR headset is almost identical in specification to the Oculus Go. The initial release of the Xiaomi headset proved to be extremely popular, with reports showing that 30,000 Mi VR headsets being sold on the first day, selling out in some retailers.

For future coverage on Wands, the Xiaomi Mi VR and other VR headsets, keep checking back with VRFocus.

January 9, 2018

Xiaomi to Bring Oculus Go to China Under Its Own Brand

Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics giant, officially announced that they’ve partnered with Oculus to not only manufacture Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming $200 standalone VR headset, but also produce a China-only standalone VR headset called Xiaomi Mi VR Standalone. Xiaomi’s headset is said to incorporate everything Oculus Go does hardware-wise, albeit with Xiaomi branding and its own Mi VR content store.

According to Xiaomi’s official announcement, the Mi VR Standalone will be available exclusively in China, while Oculus Go will be available in the rest of the world. Oculus has yet to officially offer Rift in China, while Xiaomi, the world’s fifth-largest smartphone manufacturer, has relatively low market penetration in the West.

Since they’re ostensibly the same hardware platforms (besides Mi VR’s white housing), both headsets include 2K resolution fast-switch LCD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 mobile processors, Oculus-developed integrated spatial audio, and what Oculus calls “next-generation” lenses.

Tang Mu, VP of Mi Ecosystem and head of Mi Lab, said: “We are excited to work with Oculus on these standalone devices that exceed expectations in terms of performance at a very attractive price. Xiaomi has always relentlessly pursued the best user experience and price-to-performance ratio. For the best experience, we consider every minute detail. Through our collaboration with Oculus, we have integrated world-class technologies and craftsmanship to produce a VR standalone that lets people immerse themselves in another world without being connected to smartphones or computers.”

“The standalone VR form factor represents the next significant phase of VR hardware development at Oculus,” said Hugo Barra, VP of VR at Facebook. “Through our partnership with Xiaomi, both Oculus Go and Mi VR Standalone represent our first step in delivering that sweet spot between mobile and PC VR. These devices will be, hands down, the easiest way to get into VR.”

Barra, a previous Google VP of Android, came to Facebook from his last position as Xiaomi’s Global VP—sort of making it a Game of Thrones-style marriage of brands that seems to have bore a viable offspring of its own.

Oculus Go still doesn’t have a street date, although what appears to be the headset’s controller has already passed FCC testing, possibly pointing to a release just around the corner.

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