The VR industry's wet dream can come true
Share onA standard - all included in the team. Finally, the VR world can be a little less complicated.
The range of VR headsets is growing steadily, but the ecosystem of apps seems deficient and the cross-platform support has only been forgotten.
A standard - all included in the team. Finally, the VR world can be a little less complicated.
The range of VR headsets is growing steadily, but the ecosystem of apps seems deficient and the cross-platform support has only been forgotten.
The OpenXR standard should be the answer to the prayers of VR enthusiasts.
The standard should "weld the underlying connections between VR and AR hardware, gaming engines and content."
The Khronos Group is behind this widely-supported initiative. If the organization does what it wants, the development of VR / AR apps can be streamlined across headsets and platforms.
Supported by everyone
The standard has been under development since April 2017 and is now supported by virtually all companies operating within the VR industry. It includes Facebook, Microsoft and Magic Leap and many more. There are representatives from the organization's member companies who develop the standard themselves.
Also read: Firefox's VR browser launched for Oculus Quest
Today, Khronos Group has released the first official version of the OpenXR specification, version 1.0. This is the first release-ready version.
"Incredible, portable user experiences"
Khronos rolled out an experimental version of the new standard a few months ago. Now that OpenXR is fully launched, Khronos will ensure that the standard retains backward compatibility in the future.
"It will give software and hardware developers a solid foundation to stand on to deliver incredible, portable user experiences," Khronos writes in a press release.
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By using the specification, developers can design apps that run the same on different headsets without the need for special customizations for each model. When a company develops VR headset games and builds on the OpenXR standard, all compatible VR sets will be able to run this game automatically.
It also opens up cross-platform support so you can play or share apps across VR headsets.
The entire VR industry is involved
Microsoft has already introduced OpenXR support on both HoloLens and Windows VR / MR headsets. Epic says they have implemented Open XR 0.9 support in Unreal Engine and are planning to update the engine for the 1.0 launch. Oculus has committed to introducing OpenXR to both Rift and Quest later this year.
In addition to the companies mentioned, Valve, HTC, Nvidia, ARM, AMD, and several others are working on implementing OpenXR.
Maybe this can clean up a bit in the VR jungle?