This week is all about Apple. Even before the firm’s monumental and, in some ways, controversial device announcement, which saw audiences amazed at a high price point and technology promise, the XR industry was on each of their seats with predictions on Apple’s immersive debut.
Apple is trying to become an MR and spatial computing leader by releasing the Vision Pro device. However, Apple did not mention the much-discussed Metaverse despite the prospects of shared XR experiences for consumers and businesses.
There are a few reasons for this. Most notably, Meta’s close relation to the term and its at-times poor standing with the technology media space may have led Apple to distance itself from the term.
Although, this doesn’t mean that Apple is avoiding the Metaverse. As stated, the visionOS SDK supports multi-user AR/VR/MR experiences, and the device supports immersive communications for enterprise use cases.
But the Metaverse is already finding a home in the Vision Pro before its release. Popular Metaverse platform Rec Room is already slated for a Vision Pro release.
According to reports, Rec Room is working with Apple to create an updated version of the Metaverse service that leverages the device’s hardware features like body tracking.
Wow! Here’s a first look at Rec Room running on the Apple Vision Pro. You will be able to play it with hand tracking. pic.twitter.com/5uGEwGBulq
— Nathie (@NathieVR) June 7, 2023
Apple to Support Unity Applications
Rec Room is successfully porting over thanks to the service’s native Unity framework. Apple supports Unity applications as part of its software stack.
The move enables upcoming Vision Pro developers to create or port pre-existing Unity immersive applications.
The visionOS SDK is dropping later this month, and with it, Apple is supporting developers with a hub of resources to encourage application development for a rich content ecosystem.
The success of any immersive device requires a rich ecosystem of services to secure high rates of quality content, a talent pool of developers, and third-party publishers – all of which can help with adoption rates for a consumer or enterprise device.
Luckily, with the support of consumer services like Rec Room and developers like Zoom and Microsoft, the Vision Pro device could set itself up with a content offering unmatched by its immersive industry peers – although it may take some time.
