How could OpenXR stick to the fragmented market of virtual reality

Consumer virtual reality (and, to a lesser extent, augmented reality) is only a few years old, but it is already an extremely fragmented market. Wikipedia lists nearly 30 separate VR headphones released by dozens of hardware manufacturers since 2015. Creating a game that works seamlessly with all these headsets (and their various running environments) can be a puzzle even for larger studios.

OpenXR is here to change all that. With the release of the OpenXR Provisional Specification on Monday, Khronos' open-source workgroup wants to create a world in which developers can code their VR / AR experience for a single API, with the assurance that it's the only way they can. resulting application will work on any OpenXR compatible headset. .

"By accessing a common set of objects and functions that match the application lifecycle, rendering, tracking, image synchronization, and input that frustrates between existing vendor-specific APIs." , software developers can run their applications on multiple XR systems with minimal porting efforts to significantly reduce industry fragmentation, "Khronos said in a statement announcing his temporary release.

Unity through abstraction

The publication of such an open standard is the result of nearly two years of work by dozens of member companies, including almost all the big names in the VR / AR space. And getting all these players to agree on exactly what to do in the industry's first open development standard was not easy.

"You all meet for the first time, [creating a standard] That seems like an insoluble problem, "Ars Arsrevre, chairman of Khronos and VP of Nvidia told Ars. This took a while, but the way the workgroup ended up solving this problem is to have an extensible prospective architecture with layers of abstraction. "

Rather than creating a better predefined way for everyone to do things in virtual reality, the OpenXR group has created an API that diverts attention from specifics. "The entrance is a perfect example," said Trevett. "In an OpenXR application, the application never refers to a physical device.All the actions it needs in the application are abstract actions such as" grab "," jump "," dot " "Whatever you want it to want."

These abstract actions can then be linked to the specific and varied entries used by each of the different OpenXR helmets at the hardware level. "You can switch from a Hololens 2 with hand gestures to a Vive with a distinct button," Trevett said. "This assures you the future too.If you have foveal tracking, you can simply link it to the actions of your choice in the UI as well as." And OpenXR developers can still use the 3D graphics library of their choice, with OpenXR providing a framework for making the correct images on any headset.

An ascending spiral

To date, only two sets of VR headphones benefit from OpenXR's interim support: Collabora's "Monado" open source headset and Microsoft's "Mixed Reality" product line. Other member companies such as Oculus and Epic have announced plans to add OpenXR support to their products later this year. Khronos should already be ready with version 1.0 which differs only slightly from today's draft.

From then on, with the hardware and engine manufacturers on board, all that remains is for VR and AR software manufacturers to adopt the new open standard. On this point, Trevett seems rather confident that developers will see the benefit of coding their upcoming projects with the new libraries.

"It's kind of an upward spiral," he said, "The first step is to get the hardware vendors, and then if all the key platforms support the OpenXR APIs, why do not the developers Do not they use it? No one loses, it's hard to identify a loser. "

"Since the beginning, OpenXR has had a lot of positive energy and urgency," continues Trevett. "I think people realize that everyone can benefit. Obviously, it will not be magic, but I think it can make the difference, because everyone wins. "

The other result, of course, is that an RV company or another is trying to stick to its own proprietary API and become the de facto standard for the industry. That's what happened with Microsoft's 3D graphics and DirectX, which took advantage of Microsoft's virtual monopoly as a unique PC Gaming operating system to paralyze the widespread adoption of the OpenGL alternative to open source.

But Trevett notes that no major company currently operating in the VR / AR space has the power to actually take power over OpenXR at this stage. Even Microsoft, far from trying to extend DirectX to some sort of standard DirectVR, "was one of the" most active supporters of OpenXR, "said Trevett. You see the new Microsoft. "

"Every open standard has nemesis except OpenXR [so far]"He continued." Which means [a competitor] is about to appear from somewhere. This is related to. It's a law of the universe, like gravity. In fact, it's a good thing, because anything that is isolated without competition is not good. "

But now that OpenXR is a reality, Trevett seemed to be hoping that the RV hardware market could avoid fragmented and detrimental competition between the standards that game development has faced in the past. "Of course, the most important victory is the end user. Not only are they much more confident that they will get the apps they want, without Oculus watching Vive over the fence or vice versa … It's a classic problem between betamax and VHS. If you can solve this problem, end users will be more confident, which will help everyone, hopefully. "