So, as I have mentioned, I haven’t been blogging much lately, because I have been so busy with my full-time paying job as an academic librarian at my employer, the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Now that the annual rush of training hundreds of students on how to use the university libraries effectively and efficiently has ended, my attention turns to my other big project: specifying hardware and software for a virtual reality lab, which we are calling the XR Lab (the XR stands for eXtended Reality, a sort of umbrella term used for virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and what Apple is now calling spatial computing).
The purpose of this lab is to provide virtual reality and augmented reality hardware and software (both VR/AR experiences and content creation tools) to University of Manitoba faculty, staff, and students to support their teaching, learning and research. I have been working on this project for the past two and half years, and it is a weird feeling to finally see the computers removed from the room which we have designated as the future home of the XR Lab, in preparation for the necessary room renovations (which are to start soon, and are supposed to be completed by spring next year):
The former computer lab which will be renovated to create the XR Lab
In the meantime, I have been cross-training another Libraries staff member on the hardware and software which I am proposing for the XR Lab. In other words, if (God forbid!) I should get run over by a bus, the idea is that somebody will be able to give VR/AR demos in my place. There is a lot of information which has to be shared! For example, our last training session included a section on how to set the correct interpupillary distance (IPD) on both the Vive Pro 2 and Meta Quest 3 headsets (thankfully, the Apple Vision Pro automatically scans your eyes and sets the IPD automatically!).
Just another day in the office: the Vive Pro 2 VR headset is sitting on the Windows desktop PC it is tethered to on the right, the Meta Quest 3 is to the left near the back of the table, and the Apple Vision Pro is sitting at the centre, near the front of the table.
There’s a lot of balls to juggle, and I must confess that I often feel exhausted and even overwhelmed at times. When I come home from work, the last thing I want to do is write a blog post! So my formerly feverish blogging pace has unfortunately slowed to a crawl. Also, my blogpost viewing stats are way, waaay down. Where I used to get 1,500 views a day, now I’m lucky to reach even one third of that:
Partly it’s because the metaverse hype cycle has crested and crashed (and everyone has jumped on the artificial intelligence bandwagon), and partly it’s because longform blogs seem to be an increasingly outdated—even quaint—means of communication in the current short-attention-span era of Instagram pictures and TikTok videos.
Which means I seriously need to pause and think about what direction in which I want to take this blog, and who I want my audience to be. One of the things that I have always said is that, in a blog that literally has my name in the URL, anything I want to talk about here is on topic! However, I am wondering if perhaps I have cast my net a little too broadly, and it might be time to narrow the focus of the RyanSchultz.com blog somewhat.
I don’t think that I will cease blogging completely; I still feel the need to write, but I need to reflect a bit on what I want to write about, and why. I still do get a sense of accomplishment when I craft a well-written blog post on a topic that I care about and, as always, I read and appreciate all the comments and feedback I receive on my blogposts!
So please bear with me as I figure out where I am going next with (gestures broadly) all this.
I have—finally!— had an opportunity to update my Google spreadsheet of social VR platforms, removing those which are no longer around, and adding a few new ones since the last update, which was several years ago. Please note that this spreadsheet is focused solely on metaverse platforms which support virtual reality, i.e. social VR. If a platform is flatscreen access only (e.g. Second Life), it is not included in this spreadsheet.
If you are associated with any of these social VR platforms, I would appreciate it if you could please check the entries in the following spreadsheet for any omissions or errors. I will eneavour to keep this spreadsheet as up-to-date as I possibly can. Thanks!
Also, you will note that I have a long, long, alphabetical list of potential social VR platforms which I am planning to add to this spreadsheet, located at the very bottom. If you know of any other social VR platforms that should be added to this list, please contact me with any pertinent details (name of platform, company building it, website, etc.).
Please note: any changes made to this spreadsheet are done in real-time, as information comes in; this link will automatically update every five minutes.
Please note: this PDF has to be generated by hand, and I will only do it once per day, near the end of the day, if there have been any changes made that day, Therefore, you should consider the Google spreadsheet link to be the most up-to-date content!
UPDATE April 17th, 2024: Upon request, I have slightly updated the Google Sheets spreadsheet so that the column header text now always displays at the top of your screen, even when you scroll down! This means you don’t have to keep scrolling up and down to figure out what a spreadsheet cell value refers to.
Thank you to Mat of the XR Live Discord server for the suggestion, and the explanation of how to set it up! I learned something new today. 🙂
The HelloSpace team (makers of InSpaze) met with Apple CEO Tim Cook in late March (source: Twitter)
In its emphasis on the term spatial computing (instead of virtual reality or augmented reality), some observers have commented that there is a somewhat puzzling lack of social VR/AR apps for the Apple Vision Pro. Well, I recently learned (from the very active r/VisionPro community on Reddit) that there is a social app for the AVP, called InSpaze. Here’s a 15-minute YouTube video giving you an idea of what is possible now:
Please note several interesting things about this video: First, when you see the hands of the person capturing this video in his Apple Vision Pro (using the built-in video recording features), they are actually his real hands via pass-through, not an avatar’s hands!
Second, one of the features of InSpaze is real-time voice translation! One of the participants spoke a sentence in Chinese, which was translated into English and displayed as a subtitle under his Persona (at the 6:45 minute mark in this video).
There are people in this video participating around the table via their own Vision Pro headsets, in which their avatar appears as the still-in-beta-testing Personas (which is based on a scan of their real-life face, as a part of setup). While the Personas feature of the AVP can still be a bit unsettling, with uncanny valley vibes, and they appear currently in InSpaze only via a flatscreen view right now, Apple has just announced (and released) Spatial Personas, which look like this:
So, I expect it will only be a matter of time before Spatial Personas are added to InSpaze, replacing the locked-in-flatscreen look that current AVP participants have in InSpaze with a three-dimensional version. Mind blowing! It’s certainly a refreshing change from a Zoom call!
Also, note that iPhone and iPad users, running the InSpaze app, can also participate in InSpaze rooms! iPhone and iPad users actually have a cartoonified version of their real-life face, which honestly kind of matches the cartoony look of the AVP Personas. I couldn’t help but notice that one of the iPhone participants was standing outside, and the wind was blowing his hair around, which looked really weird combined with his cartoony face! Another guy (the one speaking Chinese) was behind the wheel of his car (let’s hope he wasn’t driving!).
InSpaze is already available on the Apple Store, for the Apple Vision Pro, iPhone, and iPad. It is made by a company called HelloSpace (website; Discord; Twitter/X). Apparently, it’s been quite a hit among AVP users, who seem to appreciate having a way to connect with each other in virtual space! In fact, in the first video up top, they talk about how Apple employees themselves like to use InSpaze to connect with their customers.
Things are happening so fast in this space that it’s been hard to keep on top of all the developments! I do find that a daily visit to the r/VisionPro subreddit is a very good way to stay abreast of everything that’s going on with this rapidly-evolving technology. I’m still patiently waiting for when we Canadians can pre-order the Apple Vision Pro (hopefully sometime this spring or summer). And I’m quite envious of the Americans who have already gotten their hot little hands on a unit!
As I mentioned in passing in my last blogpost, I am eager to get my hot little hands on the latest Holy Grail in the world of virtual reality/augmented reality/mixed reality/extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR): the Apple Vision Pro wireless headset, which began shipping to American consumers on February 2nd, 2024.
Alas, there is no word yet on when we non-Americans will be able to order this device, although at least one VR YouTuber, Brian Tong, has heard (via his unofficial, internal sources) that Apple is planning to expand access to the U.K. and Canada next, perhaps shortly before or during the 2024 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, which is usually held the first or second week of June.
In an interesting move, Apple refers to this device as spatial computing, avoiding any mention of virtual reality, mixed reality, or any of the other terms which have usually been tossed around while talking about other headsets. Also, I find it quite telling that nowhere will you find mention of the now-often-maligned concept of the metaverse, especially after being embraced by numerous crypto/NFT projects which went nowhere, plus Facebook’s much-ballyhooed rebrand into Meta landing with a bit of a dull thud and a shrug among consumers. As fellow metaverse blogger Wagner James Au wrote on his blog last week:
With Meta’s latest earnings report published this week, we find out the company has now burned invested $42 billion on building the Metaverse, with little to show for that: Its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds has less than an estimated 500,000 monthly active users, while sales of its Quest VR headset line (a metaverse peripheral) remain steadfastly small.
While Wagner is certainly more pessimistic about virtual reality than I am, it’s clear that VR headsets are not exactly flying off shelves, especially when compared to the blockbuster sales of cellphones, tablets, and gaming consoles. Andrew Williams of Forbes reported last October:
Meta has sold more than 20 million headsets to date, 18 million of which were the Meta Quest 2.
The Quest 3’s predecessor was highly successful, considering VR isn’t really a mainstream proposition in the way standard game consoles are. But the market has not expanded in the way Meta clearly hoped.
Back in May, the Washington Post reported a significant proportion of Quest users were letting the headset gather dust after just a few weeks.
The somewhat tepid success of most VR/AR/MR/XR/metaverse ventures to date are clearly reasons why Apple has focused, in its usual savvy marketing campaign, on the fact that the Apple Vision Pro is intended to be a wearable personal computer (essentially, an iPad for your face). Apple has announced in a Feb. 1st news release that over 600 new apps built specifically for the Vision Pro were available to American consumers at launch, plus “more than 1 million compatible apps available on the App Store to deliver a wide array of breakthrough experiences.”
The Vision Pro the first completely new category of device launched by Apple since the Apple Watch in 2015, and many people (myself included) have been keen to see what Apple, with its history of launching well-designed products, would come up with. As I often say on my blog, A rising tide lifts all boats, and Apple’s entry into this market has the potential to shake things up quite a bit, especially since they have taken pretty much the opposite tack from Meta, by focusing on an expensive, ultra-high-end device as their first product.
1 TB (terabyte, or 1,024 GB; starting at US$3,899).
So the one-terabyte Apple Vision Pro of my fondest dreams and darkest desires comes out to $5,259.17 in Canadian dollars—and that’s before sales taxes!
Many mainstream media and tech news reviewers prepared print and video reviews of the Apple Vision Pro, using pre-release review units provided by the company. These reviews were embargoed until the official release of the headset in early February, when they landed in a big media splash (Apple has deep pockets to spend on advertising, and has always done excellent marketing for their products).
Brian Tong, the YouTuber whom I mentioned earlier, has put out a very user-friendly, comprehensive one-hour review video:
Nilay Patel of The Verge put out the following half-hour video as part of its extensive print review of the Apple Vision Pro, which did not shy away from talking about what he saw as some problems with the device, describing it succinctly as “magic…until it’s not.”
Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal (archived version) took a slightly more unusual, whimsical approach to her review of the Apple Vision Pro. Joanna wore the review unit for a full day, even taking it to out to a ski chalet and wearing it out on skis, on a closed-off bunny hill! (Something definitely not recommended, by the way; DO NOT DO THIS.) Here’s her ten-minute video, which also shows her wearing the Vision Pro while preparing a recipe, and even setting up multiple timers hovering over the different pots on her stovetop:
And yes, one of the many features of the Apple Vision Pro is that you can set up displays anywhere, as demonstrated by in this mind-bending one-minute YouTube video by Himels Tech, as he walks around his house showing off his set-up:
There are many other reviews out there, but these four video reviews between them cover pretty much all the bases, so if you watch all of them, you’re up to speed!
The eye-watering price is not the only hurdle to be overcome by whoever wants to possess one of these Holy Grail devices! Unlike every other VR headset I have purchased, I will not be able to wear my glasses underneath the face-fitting, ski-goggle-like design. So I have two options: to get soft contact lenses (which I have not worn for a couple of decades), or to buy magnetically-attached prescription lens inserts from Apple’s partner, Zeiss. According to an Apple Support article:
To purchase ZEISS Optical Inserts for Apple Vision Pro, you need a legible comprehensive prescription. Here’s the information your comprehensive prescription should contain:
Your distance correction and near correction needs, indicated separately but on the same prescription sheet. This is known as the full manifest refraction.
An expiration date, which should not be expired.
Your date of birth, your full name, and your prescriber’s license number and signature.
Intermediate distance, task distance, or computer distance should not be part of that prescription, and contact lens prescriptions are not accepted. If you’re not sure if your prescription is comprehensive, consult an eye care provider and reference the description in this article.
ZEISS Optical Inserts are available for the vast majority of corrections, including for customers who normally use progressive or bifocal lenses. A very small percentage of people have a prism value added to their glasses prescription. At this time, ZEISS cannot manufacture ZEISS Optical Inserts based on a prescription containing prism value. If you have a prism value, it is labeled on your prescription and noted separately from sphere, cylinder, axis, and ADD values. If you’re not sure if your prescription includes prism, consult with an eye care provider.
Depending on your prescription, your vision needs might not be met through ZEISS Optical Inserts.
So it looks as though I am going to have to go see my eye doctor first, then submit my prescription, then cross my fingers that they will support my combination of nearsightedness and astigmatism (not to mention my need for progressive lenses!). Honestly, it all sounds rather discouraging and disheartening.
But perhaps my apprehension about the Vision Pro not working for my elderly eyes is misplaced, because even blind people are finding the device to be useful! Check out this mind-blowing YouTube Shorts video by James Rath, who tests out some of the accessibility features and settings, James says that he can actually see more clearly with the Vision Pro, than without! This device could open up a whole new use case for the visually impaired.
So, yes, I am very eager to get my hands on an Apple Vision Pro sometime this year! I don’t want to wait; I want to experience this envelope-pushing product as soon as possible. I haven’t been this excited about a headset since the Oculus Rift back in 2016. So please stay tuned as I report on my odyssey to acquire the new Holy Grail of spatial computing!
