Evolution (abridged)

KA-KAWWW! In case you missed out on our booth at PAX West, our company has taken up bird watching... kinda. Peep Birdseed, a cozy nature-focused VR game where your goal is to snap the rarest birds in the most majestic (or wacky) poses. Learn more about Birdseed ➡️ buff.ly/VDJqFxG #gamedev #indiedev

Announcement! I've been working on Unity support for the new OpenXR Spatial Entities extensions, and today we shipped a public native API in OpenXR Plug-in 1.16.0-pre.1: docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com... This API is a pure C# port of the OpenXR spec, currently limited to spatial entities.

Yes, I finally got all the software I need to be a VR developer!

I did a bigger write-up on linked-in but I can finally go public with what I've been working on for the past 3 or so months. OpenXR 1.1.49 adds the much awaited spatial entities extension. Thanks to funding from Khronos, Godot will support this API "today". github.com/godotengine/...

I can finally talk about this in the open, HURRAY! OpenXR 1.1.49 dropped today and one of the two big things I've had a small hand in is Spatial Entities support. Watch this space for more news soon! www.khronos.org/blog/openxr-...

Guess who is now live in the Meta Horizon Store? 👉😂🌱👈 www.meta.com/en-gb/experi... #VR #Vivarium #MetaQuest #VRgames #VirtualReality

Multiplayer painting is now live! Collaborate, chat, draw with friends, show off or just allow others to explore your worlds. Cross platform, free and open source forever. Get it on Steam, Meta, Itch and other stores. #vr #vrart #tiltbrush #openbrush

Teaser... Coming soon: docs.openbrush.app/alternate-an... It's very cool and expands the features of Open Brush in a lot of interesting ways. We just want to get multiplayer officially released before we hit you all with this :-)

In light of this, I’m happy to announce I’ve received funding from my old employer, SideQuest, to expand my OpenXR Unity extension plugin further! Let’s all move away from vendor SDKs and make OpenXR truly cross platform. github.com/mikeskydev/u...

Promising, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see the changes they’ve made. In the meantime, I’m still working on my plugin to deploy a single binary for all VR headsets. H/T to @uploadvr.com, @kentbye.com, Guy and Matthieu for their work bringing this to light developers.meta.com/horizon/blog...

Meta's Unity and Unreal "OpenXR" SDKs block other PC VR headsets, going against the spirit of the standard, and developers aren't happy about it:

I dig into the allegation Meta has been deliberately undermining the @openxr.org standard by blocking apps on PCVR that are non-Meta HMDS or if they're not using Oculus Link. Virtual Desktop's Guy Godin corroborates many of the claims first made by Matthieu Bucchianeri voicesofvr.com/1526-allegat...

[1/5] PCVR journalists: when covering a headset software/firmware update, run the OpenXR Conformance Test Suite. If it fails, the headset/software/firmware *DOES NOT* support OpenXR and users should expect problems. The CTS is freely available on GitHub.

Even within the Unity ecosystem, Vendor SDKs aren't required, and working around them will make your app actually portable! See @openbrush.app and @mikesky.dev's work as an excellent example here.

Open Blocks, the open source rebirth of Google's Blocks, is now available on Quest in early access, following its release on Steam last year:

Open Blocks Early Access released for Quest! The most intuitive 3D modelling app is now available for standalone headsets. Free and open source forever. Full "publish and share" solution coming soon. www.meta.com/en-gb/experi... ` ` ` ` #openblocks #vr #vrart #lowpoly

I already mothballed my account on the other place but left it up so my followers could find me on here too. After today it’s now fully deleted, I would encourage anyone else still hanging on to do the same. It’s not worth it to continue propping up a platform full of hate.

With all the update issues Quests are having I’m genuinely dreading turning on my headsets after the holidays 😬 is it safe to play yet??

Bringing my seasonal tradition over to Bluesky, hope we have some Ace Attorney fans around here!

To all our intrepid beta users. Help us test the first release of the long-awaited multiplayer. It's fully cross-platform. Just switch to the beta version, pick a room name, tell others and you can start painting together. Merry XRmas to you all!.#vr #vrart #tiltbrush #openbrush

As soon as Meta started using an OpenXR backend, they could have their done stuff in a much more cross-platform manner and saved everyone a headache. I’m building github.com/mikeskydev/u... to prove that, and as a bonus @openbrush.app will now ship a single apk for Pico and Quest, with Passthrough!

StereoKit works out-of-box on AndroidXR :) No changes necessary! OpenXR is so kick-ass when used correctly.

Android XR is finally here! 🥳 Open Brush is *already* compatible thanks to the power of @openxr.bsky.social. See you there! blog.google/products/and...

Here's the list of new OpenXR extensions coming with AndroidXR, as well as the existing ones they support! developer.android.com/develop/xr/o...

We are delighted to welcome Google’s adoption of the OpenXR open standard. This milestone marks a win-win, empowering AndroidXR to harness a robust content ecosystem while offering OpenXR developers access to a significantly broader audience. Learn more about AndroidXR: blog.google/products/and...

Android XR is finally here! It sensibly uses @openxr.bsky.social, so @openbrush.app is already, automatically ported 😁 Looking forward to distributing Open Brush and Open Blocks on Google platforms, they've gone full circle! blog.google/products/and... #OpenXR #AndroidXR

Hello 👋 We're excited to announce that Icosa Gallery is here on Bluesky. We've been busy behind the scenes, but launch updates are on the horizon. Stay tuned! 🚀 #IcosaGallery #StayTuned

We're hitting refresh on our posts here! 👋 After a bit of radio silence, we're back and ready to bring you a bunch of developments. #StayTuned #OpenBrush

OpenXR v1.1.43 dropped today! Looks like we've got a few cool extensions this time :) Meta added colocation_discovery, spatial_entity_sharing, and spatial_entity_group_sharing, and Magic Leap added facial_expression, among others. github.com/KhronosGroup...

🌟 Exciting news for the OpenXR community! Mike Nisbet has shared a starter pack featuring individuals and companies championing OpenXR. 🚀 If you're interested in OpenXR, see details down below.💡 And let's continue building the future of free and open XR together. #OpenXR #FOSS #Monado

OpenXR Working Group member, Fred Emmott's latest blog shares 12 tips that will help you avoid common problems, maximize your software’s compatibility, find issues before your users, and simplifying & accelerating debugging. fredemmott.com/blog/2024/11... #openxr

🌟 Monado, the Cross-Platform, Open-Source OpenXR runtime, is now on Blue Sky! Follow us for updates on OpenXR and immersive tech. 🚀✨ We're still on Mastodon and X as @MonadoXR. Let’s grow the open XR community together! 🤝 Start here : monado.dev

Unity Developers! We want to celebrate your amazing work by featuring you in our starter pack. Please drop your handle if you'd like to be added 🥳 #GameDev #Unitytips go.bsky.app/3DyqjvB

If you are a #gamestudio or #gamedev in the North of England - tag us to be included in this list bsky.app/profile/did:...

A list of Oculus Start devs, members of Meta's VR developer program! go.bsky.app/8CgPfBb Comment below if you want to be added (and are a member of Start)🔽

Everyone please give @openbrush.app a follow! We’re gearing up for some important releases, including our long awaited multiplayer and @icosa.gallery integrations 👀 We’re always looking for new contributors at any experience level, so come and get stuck in!

Starter Packs are awesome. Here's one for VR game devs and publishers. Help me build this out go.bsky.app/CLAK6Lz

Thanks to this tool I've been using Bluesky since 2016 😌

I'm putting together a starter pack of individuals and companies championing OpenXR! 🙌 Are you working on an OpenXR based engine, runtime, extension, API layer? Writing docs or tutorials to help people get started? Please reach out and I'll add you to the list! go.bsky.app/LRHRUMo

Dunno how much traction this will get on here but please get in touch if you've got something you want to show at my festival next February. Yorkshire Games Festival is looking for games (duh), workshops, talks, shows, art, something weird with games! forms.gle/Meu73oetSQ5g... #gamedev #uk

If you're looking for more people on Bluesky, we now have two VR/XR Starter Packs you can follow and both have been regularly updated. Please let @henrystockdale.com know if there's anyone we should add. Pack 1 - go.bsky.app/QSzCkRM Pack 2 - go.bsky.app/Q2bAb2E

The bring your own domain feature of Bluesky is pretty neat! No need to set up an entire instance, and appears to use decentralised identifiers. Good stuff @atproto.com !

Hi Bluesky, I’m Mike, I’m mostly known for my work on @openbrushapp.bsky.social, the free fork of Tilt Brush! Currently I’m working to promote cross platform XR, and will soon release a Unity package that takes full advantage of OpenXR extensions without pesky vendor SDKs 💪 Stay tuned for updates!

Twitter has become too much of a hellscape so I’m trying Bluesky again. XR NETWORKING THREAD 🚨 If you’re in the industry and want to connect with new people coming in (or vice versa), drop a line here to introduce yourself so people can follow you. RT to spread this list around!

We'd love it if we could encourage more developers to contribute to Open Blocks and @openbrushapp! Do you know any Unity/C# developers? Point them in our direction! https://twitter.com/openblocksapp/status/1813242306767544390

I’m so happy this moment has finally arrived. 🎉 Turns out you just need to poke the right people to make big waves happen! Exciting things to come, watch this space @openblocksapp https://twitter.com/openblocksapp/status/1813242306767544390

Just received a fantastic bit of news that’s refreshed my motivation for XR development 🥳 more to share soon!