Oculus’ New Experimental API Brings Virtual Reality Into Your Real Environment

An update for Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality system will allow developers to embed real life video virtual reality helmet sensors in their games to create “mixed reality experiences”.

With API Experimental Passthrough, Oculus’ new application programming interface, developers can customize the look of a player’s environment through their VR headset, applying effects and filters, and even rendering the real world on certain surfaces. of the game. TThe API will first be deployed to Unity developers in an upcoming software update, “with support for other development platforms to come,” Oculus VR said in a blog post. Friday.

It’s easy to imagine a plethora of interesting ways to incorporate your physical surroundings into the gameplay. A gif that Oculus shared from the API in action shows a player drawing on the walls, immediately reminiscent of the turf wars of paintbrush. splash.

The ability to toggle the opacity of mixed reality, i.e. the amount of real or virtual world you see at any given time, which is shown in another gif, could easily be built into some sort of puzzle solving mechanism.

Enemies in the game could also hide behind your furniture for sneak attacks. I’m already a pure chicken when it comes to horror games, so the thought of monsters jumping out from behind my own living room couch makes me want to cry.

The announcement also included several examples of API uses beyond games. Oculus argued that it could improve productivity and enable more collaborative teleworking by incorporating workers’ keyboards and real desks. Users could also interact with virtual content without losing the ability to interact with their roommates or pets.

When asked if first-gen Quest users can expect to have access to it, Facebook told people to DownloadVR that the API only comes in Quest 2. A light version of the To cross The technology is already available on Facebook’s Quest, Quest 2, and Rift S headsets, allowing users to take a peek at what’s going on around them while wearing the headset.

In its announcement, Oculus added that it designed the API “with privacy in mind.”

“Applications that use the Passthrough API cannot access, display or store images or videos of your physical environment from the Oculus Quest 2 sensors. This means that the raw images from the device’s sensors are processed on the device. ‘device,’ the company said.

As for when developers can expect to ship their games that use Passthrough to gamers, Oculus said it aims to roll out a production version “later this year.”