Khronos Group’s anticipated VR/AR standard API, OpenXR, is finally getting its first ever public demo at Siggraph 2018 this week.
The platform, which was announced at GDC last year, will be shown running an Unreal Engine VR demo inside both the StarVR and Microsoft’s Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ VR headsets at the event in Vancouver, Canada, from August 12th – 16th.
OpenXR is designed to streamline development of VR and AR applications for studios working across the broad range of headsets and control inputs in the market today. Its interface is able to automatically adjust apps and control schemes to accommodate the varying specifications of these devices without asking developers to spend large amounts of time doing it all manually. The group includes over 140 members, with major players like Google, Sony, Valve, HTC, Samsung, Magic Leap, Oculus, AMD and Nvidia involved.
Crucially, StarVR and Windows headsets offer very different specifications. The latter, for example, is one of the few home-based VR devices to currently offer an inside-out tracking system, and can run apps separate from the SteamVR and Oculus ecosystems on PC. StarVR meanwhile, is intended for location-based solutions and offers a higher field of view (FOV) and display resolution than many other VR devices as well as support for a range of peripherals. The two headsets should serve as a good example of how VR development can be simplified across two very different devices, then.
Next up on the OpenXR roadmap is a provisional release for developers to test via an adopters program before a full launch later down the line. Dates for either haven’t yet been announced.
