Will AR/VR games usher in an ice-breaking journey? Apple releases first MR headset

Supporting unit Guangzhou Tianhe District Software and Information Industry Association

VR virtual reality, AR augmented reality, and MR mixed reality, together they constitute an XR extended reality world.

In the early morning of June 6th, Beijing time, Apple’s first MR head-mounted display device, Apple Vision Pro, which has been developed for seven years, arrived as scheduled. Apple CEO Cook said at WWDC2023: "Just as Mac brings us into the era of personal computing, iPhone brings us into the era of mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro brings us into the era of spatial computing."

Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s first new category of hardware product since the release of Apple Watch in 2015, and the entire XR track is very excited. So what impact will it have on the AR/VR gaming field?

■New Express reporter Chen Xuedong

Switch between AR/VR modes with one click

The Apple Vision Pro is designed to resemble ski goggles. After users put it on, they can not only see the virtual world pages and various APPs presented in front of their eyes, but also see things in the real world, and can control the APP using only their sight and gestures or voice.

Not only that, in order to enable the MR headset to switch back and forth between virtual and real environments, Apple may add a knob similar to the digital crown of Apple Watch on the right side, which can switch between AR/VR modes with one click. In the future, it will become the world's first head-mounted display device with this function.

It does not have our common handles, and the way of interaction is eyes, hands and voice. For example, you can pinch your fingers to select specific content, or gently swipe the screen upward to scroll through the browsing window, which will make you feel like the entire world has become an App canvas. Apple has demonstrated to the outside world multiple scenarios that combine the real world and the virtual world. For example, the Safari browser window, messages, and Apple Music window are all displayed in front of you, all while hovering over the table in the real world.

Various new functions of the head display seem to serve to blur reality and virtuality. The "Eyesight" function will be turned off when the user is immersed in the experience, and the interior of the virtual space will also block external environmental information to a certain extent. Once someone approaches, the real-life scene will be immediately displayed in the virtual space, allowing users to interact with people in the real world.

Since it is a head-mounted display device, the entertainment functions must also keep up. The Apple MR head-mounted display will integrate most of the popular games of existing iOS and iPad OS, and there will also be a sports event app specially provided for virtual scenes.

Apple is good at interaction design. From the multi-touch control of the first-generation iPhone to Siri installed on the iPhone 4S, Apple’s successful experience is to integrate innovative technologies into Apple products through acquisitions to optimize the user experience. . This style of play continues on Vision Pro. Apple’s patent layout and market acquisitions over the past ten years have clearly tilted towards user interaction experience.

The current AR/VR headsets are not satisfactory

Competition in the XR industry has previously been dominated by single-line breakthroughs in VR and AR. Compared with the previous use of VR equipment, which would be closed and immersed in the virtual world, MR is to break the boundaries between VR and AR and integrate the two to form "Mixed reality", industry players have not made much progress before, but now Apple's products have taken a big step forward in this direction.

Looking back at some key AR products in the past, from Google Glass, Magic Leap, and HoloLens, although a lot of research and development costs were invested, the market did not give the expected feedback. Although Microsoft, Google and Meta have been working in this field for many years and invested heavily, they have not been able to achieve the expected success. Although it looked very cool when it was launched in 2012, Google Glass had very limited functions and a short battery life, and it has been discontinued. Microsoft launched the AR headset HoloLens in 2016, focusing on the To B market. However, this product also encountered huge problems. From time to time, there were reports in the market that Microsoft would ax the project.

Michael Gartenberg, a former executive in charge of Apple’s marketing work, also said that Apple’s launch of head-mounted display equipment is extremely risky. The most important reason is that there is no market for similar products launched by competitors, and even Microsoft’s The products also all sold mediocrely.

AR/VR also needs to overcome many technical problems, such as high-performance chips, heat dissipation issues, weight, battery life, screen refresh rate, eye tracking, etc. Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, once said: "Probably the most difficult technical challenge of our time is to put a supercomputer into an ordinary-looking eyeglass frame. It is difficult, but it is a way to put our The key to combining the physical and digital worlds.”

Moreover, the C-end has relatively high requirements for products, which must be lightweight, fashionable, and have a rich ecology. Only when these conditions are met, many users will be willing to try it. Unlike the B-side, as long as a demand is met, a manufacturer may pay the bill.

Chen Ming, CEO of YVR, said excitedly: "Apple's entry into the MR field is exciting news.". For years, the VR, AR and XR fields have been waiting for a game-changing player to join in and bring applications into mass life. Apple has revolutionized all categories of digital products, including personal computers, digital players, mobile phones, tablets, watches and headphones, and is expected to change the world again.

It remains to be seen whether the ice can be broken

Before, people generally believed that there were two main functions of AR/VR devices: one was to watch videos, and the other was to play games. Meta, which has always had a leading edge in the XR field, cannot achieve the popularity of its Quest series without large-scale games in the content ecosystem, with special emphasis on users' VR gaming experience.

Apple Vision Pro cancels handle control in interaction and adopts eye tracking and gesture recognition modes, which reduces the difficulty of user operation. However, at the same time, some complex interactions in VR games will be difficult to complete. Perhaps This needs to be done with the help of a game controller. At the press conference, Apple mentioned that the Apple Vision Pro supports gamepads and can be used for games. Obviously, Apple does not focus on games. It may be that it hopes to highlight the main office scene positioning through choice.

But there are rumors that Apple has cooperated with some game developers to help them update existing content to adapt to mixed reality, and the popular game "Beat Saber" will be one of them. Beat Games is a Czech independent game developer who produced a virtual reality music game called "Rhythm Lightsaber" in 2018. Players use the joystick to accurately chop blocks according to the rhythm of music in the virtual reality scene. Sales of VR headsets have increased significantly due to Rhythm of Lightsaber, a game that has become extremely popular in the VR community and has millions of players obsessed with it. In addition, the survival game "No Man's Sky" may also be one of Apple's MR partners. Multiple VR platforms, such as PlayStation VR, have already been adapted for No Man's Sky.

Market research firm TrendForce pointed out that although Apple’s Apple Vision Pro is expected to stimulate new demand for the AR/VR product category, its sales will mainly be limited to the reservation stage due to its high price and complex manufacturing process. The entire Apple Vision Pro demonstration was audio-visual interaction, and there was no introduction of customized games. It remains to be seen what features the interactive game experience will have and what kind of technical support Apple will provide.

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