Highlights

 

Nreal Air is available to US consumers. For those looking for more use cases for the virtual screen display, the company has big news: major console support, and betas for its AR YouTube app and the mac version of its Nebula operating system.

Further, we have a hands-on review from a long-awaited trial of the Nreal Air in action.

The Road So Far

Just two months ago, Nreal Air launched for US consumers. Nreal Air is a lighter-weight model than the Nreal Light, a full-force AR smart glasses product.

This means that Nreal Air has a lot lighter technical demands (it doesn’t require select 5G networks and flagship phones, for example) and is significantly more affordable. It also means that the product had less immediate appeal to consumers hungry for a more robust AR experience, as Nreal Air is primarily a virtual screen solution.

What’s New With Nreal?

Until recently, that meant that Nreal Air was largely a way to screen-mirror an attached phone onto a heads-up display. The device also worked with Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch. This was a boon for users of those devices but it still left other gamers – a major market for this device – out in the rain. Recent announcements change that game.

Nreal for Entertainment

Nreal last week announced support for the latest version of SteamOS, Xbox Series S and X, and the PlayStation 5. For PlayStation 5 users, this means getting your games on the Nreal virtual screen, which is pretty great in itself.

“AR glasses are a fantastic gaming companion, and serving the gaming community is an important strategy for us,” Nreal co-founder Peng Jin, said in a release shared with ARPost. “Users can now connect Nreal glasses to the popular gaming devices to enjoy playing games on a 130” portable HD screen via mirror mode.”

For Xbox and Steam gamers, it means all of this as well as streaming onto the device via cloud services. The announcement also reports that support for GeForce Now, Nvidia’s game streaming service, is coming before the end of the year.

Nreal also announced a beta version of an AR YouTube app. To be clear, YouTube on Nreal was already possible via standard phone mirroring. It was an improvement, but still kind of a letdown because the phone itself had to be used as the input device. The YouTube AR app makes much better use of the Nreal controls. But, more on that in the hands-on section.

“We really appreciate the team at YouTube, who were so supportive of this trial,” Jin said in the release. “This beta is a small step to defining spatial entertainment. We still have a

a lot of ideas to explore in this area, and I hope people will find this first-look experience

entertaining and easy to use.”

Nreal for Work

Last week’s announcement was big for gamers but it wasn’t just for gamers. There’s an important piece in here for desk workers who use Mac.

Nreal is not a super Apple-friendly device. For example, Nreal Air works with iOS, but requires an additional $59 adapter. This extended to functioning with the desktop – which has gaming applications, sure, but could really be big for desk workers using AR for extending their workspace with virtual screens. That’s what makes the Mac Nebula beta so exciting.

“Working within the boundaries of someone else’s technologies is not easy. This release is meant to give people a preview of what is possible. We want to bring everyday AR experiences to the mass consumer market, so we’re excited to offer this solution for Mac users,” said Jin.

A Hands-On Review of Nreal Air

Nreal put a pair of the $379 Nreal Air in my hands. I got a sneak peek of Nreal Air at an expo before their consumer release, but it was just a look-see. This time I got to spend some meaningful time with the product in my own home entirely unsupervised. These are my honest thoughts on the device.

Device Setup and First-Day Jitters

The setup for the device was pretty simple. At least, significantly less complicated than the initial setup for a device like the Quest 2 (review). It also helps that the Quest app is a companion app for the headset, while the phone is a companion device for the Nreal Air so doing things like confirming my email address went a lot more smoothly.

I had some hiccups on the first day, when the display on the glasses would freeze and sputter, and I would have to reconnect it. However, this seems to have been a one-time thing that only happened the first day that I was using the device.

Most of the setup was software, but there are one or two points on the headset itself that you can tweak as well. For example, buttons on the arms control the brightness of the display. The arms can also be manually adjusted up and down. This is huge because the display itself is at an angle to your eye, so adjusting the arms can really improve the comfort of the experience.

While we’re talking about things like display and comfort, the glasses beyond the display are tinted like sunglasses. This reduces “eye glow” as perceived by others, but it also means that the glasses work really well in bright conditions as well. Incidentally, your eye can also focus past the display to see what’s going on in your environment behind your virtual screen.

Screen-Mirroring and Apps

As mentioned above, the screen mirroring works just fine but it maintains the phone as the input device. So, if you’re doing things that require a lot of activity on your part, you’re usually looking at the phone anyway. So this feature is handy for, say, navigating to a video file and then watching it, but isn’t necessarily a huge improvement for things like email.

Further, I found reading the fine print in the glasses a little trying. For example, scrolling through YouTube I could read video titles just fine but reading the smaller description text was more challenging. To be fair, I didn’t notice that problem trying out the Lenovo ThinkReality A3, but – despite a similar form factor – that’s an enterprise device that costs a thousand dollars more than the Nreal Air.

Using the actual AR mode is a different story. The phone is still the input device, but in its touchscreen capacity. The phone casts a ray into your view on the glasses and then tapping the screen makes selections. Scrolling on the touch screen of the phone also scrolls through menus etc., and pinching the device controls the location and zoom level of your virtual screens.

Returning again to YouTube but this time in the beta app, I found the controls much more organic, but I was also able to blow up the screen such that I had a much easier time with that small type. At this point, I pulled up a Looney Tunes short and handed the glasses to my brother so that I could see what they look like in action.

From the Outside Looking In

When the glasses are in use, reflections within the glasses are virtually non-existent. Looking at the glasses as my brother wore them, I would have been hard-pressed to tell whether the light in the lenses was from the glasses operating or just reflections from the environment. In any case, I couldn’t tell by looking at the glasses from the outside what was playing within.

The audio was a similar case. Nreal Air has onboard speakers in the arms. The audio quality is really good, and I assumed that the volume would be pretty noticeable for others as well, but this isn’t the case. As with the “eye glow,” I could tell that the glasses were making noise while he was wearing them, but I couldn’t make it out. The speakers are effective and discrete.

I also noticed that, while the lack of gesture controls was admittedly a bit of a put-down for me, using the phone as the input is also very discrete. Instead of looking like one is swatting imaginary flies to navigate menus, it’s a subtle tap of the screen – maybe a slight movement of the phone itself. Someone in, say, an airport with the device would blend right in.

For all of my input, my brother’s was perhaps the more impactful. He’s a more avid console gamer than me but has far less exposure to XR. After about 20 seconds of watching Looney Tunes on Nreal Air’s virtual screen he asked me, “So, we basically don’t need TVs anymore?”

Virtual Screens for the Win

There are times when you’ll still want a computer to do your work. There are times when you’ll still want a TV to play games or watch movies. But AR glasses and virtual screens are increasingly gaining ground. I’m glad that I’m typing this on a laptop. But, watching a video on my phone screen felt kind of silly after using Nreal Air. And it’s only coming to more devices.

 

Is your mind full of ideas for immersive games and social experiences? Now, you can stop dreaming about them and start creating them. Meet Zoe – the platform where you can create VR experiences without writing a single line of code.

That’s right, no need to worry about Java, Python, and other programming languages. You have all the tools available in the form of templates and drag-and-drop building blocks. Zoe does the rest, with the power of automation.

Zoe Is Now Available for Meta Quest

In order to make the Zoe platform come true, Zoe Immersive partnered with Meta. The two companies worked together for almost a year, which resulted in the platform now being available on Quest.

Over this time, users within various industries, including education, healthcare, and business got access to the beta version of the Zoe platform, creating remote workshops, virtual classrooms, meetups, and events.

This is the goal of Zoe Interactive: to open the metaverse to anyone who wants to help build it. The company believes that anyone should be able to contribute and create VR experiences for educational, business, and social purposes, or even just for entertainment.

With Zoe, Every Dream Becomes a Virtual Reality

“In just minutes, Zoe gives the ability to create and monetize truly interactive experiences and activities,” said Emilie Joly, the CEO of Zoe Interactive, in a press release. “With Zoe, there are truly no limits to 3D innovation.”



With the metaverse market expected to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030, accelerating the adoption rate is a top priority for the industry. And one great way of enticing new users is by empowering them to become stakeholders. Instead of being just content consumers, they have the power to become content creators.

What You Can Do With Zoe: Create VR Experiences, Worlds and More

Zoe allows each user to create at their own pace and in their own style. Those who feel less inspired can watch what others have created or use templates. Some want to start from scratch – and they can do it. Also, you can create VR experiences with friends by sending them an email invitation to join your project.

According to the company, Zoe already has over 30,000 users. They are not just people who want to create VR experiences for fun, but also:

• Businesses, creating team-building activities and collaboration workspaces;
• Education providers, creating STEM activities and explaining processes in a fun way;
• Marketing and entertainment professionals, generating branded experiences;
• Healthcare providers, creating mini-games for therapy and mindfulness experiences.

How to Start Using Zoe

Zoe is available for download in the  Meta Quest Store. The company plans to later also launch a mobile app. The pricing plans start at $6 per month (billed annually), ideal for individuals who want to create VR experiences with friends. Using Zoe also gives users access to nearly a million free 3D models in the Sketchfab library.

 

 

Rakuten Viber and Snap both have packages of AR lenses and interactive experiences to celebrate the FIFA World Cup. Since the two apps joined forces on AR tech last summer, activations like this often go forward for both companies at the same time, ensuring that users of both platforms have access to the quality AR content.

But remember, the AR content on both platforms is never exactly the same. Here, we’ll look at how both companies and their communities are celebrating the world’s most-watched sports event.

Rakuten Viber Experiences

Rakuten Viber is a secure calling and messaging app that last year added support for AR effects and other graphics through a partnership with Snap. However, the company takes that technology in its own direction when it comes to the experiences that it provides users.

“We are excited to offer many different rewards and interactive content to our users,” Rakuten Viber Senior Director of Growth Top Markets, Atanas Raykov, said in a release shared with ARPost. “Sharing your predictions, finding out the score of the latest game, or checking the global leaderboard will be as easy as opening the Viber app.”

The World Cup on Viber

Users of Rakuten Viber have access to themed frames for festive photographs, as well as for keeping track of the game score and other features. Users can also augment photographs with a World Cup sticker pack in English as well as eighteen other languages.

Rakuten Viber has also created a series of gamified lenses, allowing users to score goals with a virtual ball, cheer on their favorite team, or make short videos of themselves with soccer balls flying around their heads.

And, those are just the AR experiences. Rakuten also has channels dedicated to the game, and a football-fan AI chatbot that users can interact with, in and around the big game.

Snap Experiences

Snap is excited to celebrate the big game too. And, Like Rakuten Viber, they have both AR experiences as well as flat and 3D activations throughout other arms of their app services.

“We’re thrilled to cover the biggest global sporting event of the year across all of Snapchat – with dedicated custom AR experiences and comprehensive content coverage that will include localized highlights from every game in over 30 countries,” Snap Inc. Head of Sports Partnerships, Anmol Malhotra, said in a release shared with ARPost.

AR Experiences

Snap’s AR offerings include both official and “organic” Lenses and filters representing 13 national teams from around the world. There are also new World Cup-themed Cameos that help to put you in the action as well.

“Live Garment Transfer” Lenses also allow AR try-ons of the official team kit for five teams – USMNT, France, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, and Qatar. This activation also marks the tool’s availability for Lens creators after having spent the last few months in internal development.

Other Experiences Across the Snap Universe

Not all of Snap’s World Cup adventures are in AR either. There are also official and organic stickers, themed content on Spotlight and Discover, and special Bitmoji outfits.

For a truly global celebration, open your Snap Map. Posters everywhere that select to share their celebrations publicly can have their content appear at their real-world location so you can see what celebrations look like around the world.

I want a Good, Clean Game

No matter which platform you use or how you use it, it’s fun to see these social platforms showing their colors for the world’s biggest game. See you at the World Cup!

 

When people turned to the virtual world to connect with each other at the height of the pandemic, MMOs and other multiplayer games got a boost in popularity. Multiplayer XR games also began growing as a new genre of immersive cooperative play. While these games have the same basic goal of allowing multiple players to share experiences in the same virtual environment, they continue to evolve and develop into games that go beyond entertainment.

Enhancing Shared Experiences in the Physical World

Most multiplayer AR/VR games today bring different players from different geographical locations into a shared virtual environment where they engage in cooperative play. The players use wearables and controllers to make the experience immersive. This type of game enabled people to have some form of social interaction during pandemic lockdowns.

As restrictions eased, other types of multiplayer AR/VR games that could be enjoyed together in the same physical space also became increasingly popular. One example is Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, a co-op party game where one player gets trapped, virtually of course, in a room with a ticking bomb. Other players in the same physical room give verbal cues to help diffuse the bomb. There’s also Reiko’s Fragments where one player has to escape a haunted house and other players in the room play as spirits who control the haunted house. Players engage in these games together in the same room.

When amusement parks and entertainment centers opened again, they also began to offer more multiplayer AR/VR games. Just this summer, several VR arcade games were launched including Sega’s VR Agent, Far Cry VR at Zero Latency, and Transformers: Decepticon Invasion at Dave and Buster’s.

Taking Multiplayer XR Games Beyond the Boundaries of Physical Space

ValoArena takes multiplayer XR games further to another level. This mixed reality playground that can accommodate up to six players requires no wearables and no controllers. Players are not tethered by wires and can interact freely with each other in the same physical space that gets transformed into a hyper-realistic virtual environment.

In ValoArena, players can choose from a variety of games that encourage physical activity and social interaction. Players jump, run, dodge, and help each other through challenging obstacles in the arena-like stage. Since there are no wearables and wires, players can hold hands, carry each other, give high fives, and laugh together. Spectators can watch live and cheer for them too.

“For me, the best thing about ValoArena is to observe groups and how they have fun together,” said Steffen Brunckhorst, CEO of the German family entertainment center Abenteuerland, in a press release shared with ARPost. “They compete with each other or cooperate, and they are laughing. People are completely immersed in the game, and they are visibly having fun playing.”

Aside from providing players with a more socially interactive way to play XR games, ValoArena also offers operators ease of operation. The system has high throughput, requires no employee supervision, and is easy to play. With the rising popularity of ValoArena, some operators are reporting utilization rates as high as 86%, according to Valo Motion

Valo Motion Brings ValoArena to the US

After its successful launch in Europe, ValoArena is now ready to make waves in the United States. Its Finland-based maker, Valo Motion, has announced the first two installations of the immersive arena at the RPM Raceway in New York and at Air Madness in South Dakota. According to Dr. Raine Kajastila, CEO of Valo Motion, the US launch of ValoArena brings a fresh alternative to passive play in out-of-home amusement locations.

“ValoArena is much more than just a revolutionary concept; it’s an evolutionary step forward,” Kajastila said.  “We have taken the best from our ValoClimb and ValoJump attractions and built a truly social group gaming experience where active fun and laughs can be shared by groups and families.”

Additional units of ValoArena will be available for installation soon and will be an exciting addition to over one thousand Valo Motion products (ValoClimb and ValoJump) currently located in family entertainment centers in over 30 American states.

Multiplayer XR Games in Shared Environments

As immersive technologies mature, shared experiences in shared environments—both physical and virtual—will become richer and more exciting. Multiplayer XR games will become increasingly accessible on various platforms and on multiple devices. They will transform family game nights, weekend gatherings, arcade trips, and other events by offering highly engaging experiences that encourage social interaction.