Immersive streaming, music in the metaverse, and an endlessly evolving 3D map of our globe - this is what this week has served us in the XR world!
NVIDIA and Google team up on immersive streaming, Epic Games' vision of the future of entertainment is here today, and Niantic takes another step towards its 3D mapping goal.
Keep on reading!
NVIDIA and Google Cloud have started a collaboration to provide high-quality XR streaming on the NVIDIA CloudXR platform. The objective is to enable people and organisations to securely access their data and work with others inside XR experiences.
"With NVIDIA CloudXR on Google Cloud, the future of VR workflows can be more collaborative, intuitive, and productive," said Rob Martin, Chief Architect for Gaming at Google.
NVIDIA teamed up with Masterpiece Studio to showcase the tech.
Masterpiece Studio's CEO Jonathan Gagne is excited about the tech. "Creators should have the freedom of working from anywhere, without needing to be physically tethered to a workstation to work on characters or 3D models in VR. -- our customers will be able to power their creative workflows in high-quality immersive environments, from any location, on any device," he said in a statement.
That all sounds great, but it isn't available just yet. NVIDIA CloudXR is currently in Early Access for developers to sign up with the Google Cloud feature rolling out later this year.
Epic Games' latest effort in connecting people in immersive virtual environments is Ariana Grande's virtual tour in Fortnite. The tour featured several mini-games for the audience to play while enjoying Grande's performance.
The multi-day virtual tour offered the audience plenty to enjoy while showcasing Epic's impressive vision for live events that millions of people can enjoy simultaneously.
"Getting dressed up in your favourite skin to sail around a skyscraper-tall pop star along with millions of people around the world might not be everyone's vision for the metaverse. Still, Fortnite's wildly imaginative live events are a taste of the future that here's right now," Tech Crunch wrote.
The Ariana Grande virtual tour is indeed a move towards truly immersive virtual experiences. Rather than just standing around and watching the performance, people can participate in the activities that make the show - much like in the real world.
Watch a video of the tour from the video below.
Niantic continues to push forward in its quest to build a 3D map of the world. The company has announced it has acquired Scaniverse, an iOS app for scanning objects and environments in high-resolution 3D.
Niantic's goal is to build a detailed and endlessly evolving 3D map of the world. They see it as fundamental to enabling authentic, rich augmented reality experiences when AR glasses or a similar device hit the consumer market and are widely adopted. The company's goal is ambitious, but not impossible, thanks to its ever-roaming player base across games like Pokémon GO, Harry Potter Wizards Unite and Ingress.
Scaniverse will remain on the App Store, with features previously limited to a $17-per-year "Pro" subscription now free.
Check out Scaniverse in action from the video below.
That's all for now, see you next time!