The goal to democratize game development with auto generated AI tooling in platforms is a noble pursuit wrapped in a core ignorance of great design. It will sort itself but there is a gap in understanding consequence by platform holders as they cannibalize their own market.

In hindsight VR-first design might have been detrimental to bringing in traditional gamers. Best titles for them by far were things such as Resident Evil or Skyrim VR. That core path to absorb traditional gamers should have been to pay AAA to officially mod their titles...

We went from "Oculus Connect" to "Meta Connect" to now "Horizon Connect" 🙃

As Meta Connect 2025 arrives tomorrow remember it matters how Bloomberg reacts more than the VR space

My Meta Connect prediction to 2025 is a giant leap past my 2024 take... I think we'll likely see XR AI Glasses and UGC AI tooling on their Horizon platform take much of the focus 🤓

Valve's Frame headset ideally shows the XR industry how to pull off hybrid traditional gaming but in a spatial window.

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Look no teleport finally!!! May comfort restriction rules die a horrible death and never ever return. 🙏

Screenshot Saturday update for Project Jump Scare

Wow actually big news in context. Meta Connect might show off some impressive advancements if there is a clear cooling off on hardware here imo.

Excited to be in town for Meta Connect! Still figuring out how to get access to the event itself, any tips would be hugely appreciated. Either way, I’ll be covering what’s announced across my socials and am open to network.

This is not a good sign for the traditional gaming market. Is it just tarriffs or bloating costs... or are companies trying to recoup a downtrend on paid software? Or all of it? I am worried we see more restructuring in the entire AAA market. 😮‍💨

Looking back it's hilarious in hindsight reading these recommendations as every top title VR game today wouldn't even exist: www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-...

I think @heaney555.bsky.social nails it in @uploadvr.com 's VR Download a couple weeks ago... Headsets at low cost matter but features pull the market interest into the future. This is why I think FBT and Face / Eye Tracking is so important. Must watch- put link about 2:32:00 in comments:

I'm fairly blown away by the Quest 3S at the $250 price point. It's a great headset. I don't think my Quest 3 is double that value proposition. If they price it there for holidays I could see a very good season for those of us targeting the XR2 Gen 2...

Stumbled across an UE5 passthrough example for Quest Camera API. might have to dig into some MR testing after ProjectJumpScare since I think Unreal is uniquely positioned If we don't get a Meta UE5 example this is probably a very good starting point by LideTark - 🙏🙇‍♂️👏 github.com/tark146/Unre...

L O L So this is the metaverse. Little earlier than I expected- Apply for those grants everyone to get on the slop race! 🥳

Final Fantasy Legend II was a lot tougher. 35 years later and I finally beat it! 🥲 Could tell they had a lot more time on this one compared to the first. Really expansive game for a Game Boy title. Loved it. Final Fantasy Legend III will be the next travel title for me 🫡

Trying to follow the path...

Growing old teaches you it's about living a good life over winning first place.

My disappointment in not being invited since the year they changed it from "Oculus Connect" is finally fading.

Meta Quest Unreal Engine devs on UE5.6 - Since Meta updates are on a long lag now I was searching for a way to test my Meta pawn tech in 5.6 and I found out TrueFranco has a fixed up v77 MetaXR plugin here on github if you have need. Link below:

AI is getting so good that realistic graphics might end up boring.

Sometimes it's about where you are at.

This is the product design to aim at for gamers using lightweight XR wearables.

Zuck is making the right moves big picture for Meta but it is also ok to mourn the shift.

While working with Unreal Engine 5 in the Apple Vision Pro you often get inspired from your remote office.

In hindsight escapism won't win XR. The streamlining of our current 2D world will and then the escapism is there for those interested. Similar to the purpose of a computer itself. It was for data before we made it do games. Past decade of VR we put the cart before the horse...

I discovered HMD FOV reduction experimenting on the original Project Jump Scare Unity demo in 2014. Pitched it at VR conferences and meetups like Oculus Connect, SVVR, OCVR, and LAVR. Google and Meta employees gave "wows" during DK2 demos and it soon became a comfort standard.

Jet lag from a 12 hour you can't sleep on makes everything in life unappealing for the day ✈️🤢 Reminds me of early Oculus dev days fighting through VR sim sickness 😮‍💨

Quest 3 night cycle needs a unique tune for weather, fog, and lighting compared to iOS / visionOS metal shaders after testing- but Project Jump Scare day/night is still wild inside the headset! 🥹 wasn't sure this would work without a parallel system. Feels so great to hit it 😭🎯🚀

Meta Quest using Open XR hand tracking never worked for me in UE before 🥳 Tempting to fix and consolidate to a single pawn rather than wait for Meta XR plugin for UE5.6 Hard choice. Lose features or erase long tech debt. 🤔😮‍💨 At least it works after the iOS / VisionOS push!

My object tracking prediction in XR might land sooner than I expected now that Controllers are officially moving into peripheral devices. 🤗

Remember when I was saying years ago motion controllers will become peripheral devices for XR product design.

The spatial medium is what mainstreams- headsets are only one vector to access it. Glasses will do great bc of AI XR combo but not everyone wants to wear glasses. Likely long term all devices have spatial understanding and HMDs or glasses are simply one way to access it.

does the Samsung Odyssey 3D TV justify my pipe dream for a "Steam Deck 3DS"

Oculus Go has a vibe

The success of Horizon will come at the expense of everything else.

Unreal Engine 5.6 update for Project Jump Scare was toughest one this past month😮‍💨 VisionOS performance took a major step back in 5.6 vs 5.5 but reported to Epic and hopefully it gets ironed out. iOS is improved however and able to get a very nice fog going! #screenshotsaturday

It was all a dream

Late on #screenshotsaturday for Unreal Engine but here is a peek at some LUT testing while building out the beach area for Project Jump Scare.

The best part of PSVR 2 controller support is it reflects an acknowledgement of sorts that ignoring XR gaming was a mistake. ᯅ

iOS 26 working as well thankfully. Noticing some OS slowdown, arkit XR mode has a bit of chug once it starts, and I get some close-out crashing but overall looking functional which is good enough to dev.

We can render Spatial Apps from our Mac in Vision Pro!!! Timestamp 10:50 ᯅ developer.apple.com/videos/play/...

My old UE 5.5 TestFlight still works on visionOS 26! Hand tracking good too. 🫡 Curious still on 5.6 if anyone tries it out. Thought update had a confirmation step but it went ahead after download lol. Got lucky! 😮‍💨

My PSVR 2 haptic design skills suddenly applicable again. 🥳

Spatial as a term looks like it's sticking around after today ᯅ

Meta's frosted glass redesign for Horizon OS was in no way inspired by Apple's Liquid Glass redesign born off visionOS 🙄

Worked on mid and background this week for Project Jump Scare #screenshotsaturday