LIV’s iOS app is in open beta, offering an easy way to capture mixed reality footage with select games using just an iPhone and an Oculus Quest headset.
Update: The LIV Connect Quest app is now available on App Lab, meaning it doesn’t require sideloading and is even easier to install. For instructions on how to install App Lab apps, check out our guide. Original article continues below.
An early version of the software was available back in March 2020, but was taken down and improved to make it more reliable and accessible. Now, the new open beta gives anyone with a Quest and an iOS device an accessible way to start capturing mixed reality footage.
The app is available in open beta through Apple’s beta testing platform, Testflight. Users can install the app on their iOS device through Testflight and will then also need to install the LIV Connect app for Oculus Quest, which is available for sideloading through SideQuest.
Once everything is installed, the LIV Connect app on Quest runs the user through a quick calibration process to align everything. Once that’s complete, the LIV app can show a mixed reality view of select Quest games, where the player is overlaid onto a third-person perspective view of the virtual world.
The https://t.co/AyPsqsF8Dv for iOS open beta is here!
The video below was created purely with an iOS phone and a Quest 2. No PC, no green screen!
It's still in early beta, but we would love it if you tried it out and gave us some feedback! https://t.co/xZo7K0Wga2 pic.twitter.com/upSfNluwGm
— LIV (@LIV) June 23, 2021
Mixed reality capture has been available in varying capacities across many VR systems for some time now, but the LIV iOS app makes it much more accessible for Quest users. Only a phone and a Quest headset are needed — no additional equipment is required, not even a green screen. The app is able to identify the user against any background and dynamically place them into a third-person perspective of the virtual world, with generally positive results. Users can record the mixed reality view by using iOS’s built-in screen recorder.
For now, only select Quest games support mixed reality with the LIV app — Beat Saber, Crisis VRigade, Cubism, FitXR, Hyper Dash, OhShape, Real VR Fishing, Smash Drums, Space Pirate Trainer, Superhot and Synth Riders.
The LIV Beta app for iOS arrives at a time when there seems to be increasing support and interest in mixed reality capture. Facebook is seemingly trying to build its own answer to LIV’s mixed reality tools, but the features are segmented and don’t quite work together cohesively yet. Live Overlay lets you view a cut-out of the user playing VR (taken from the phone’s camera) on top of the first-person VR view cast to a phone. However, this misses the essential third-person perspective needed for mixed reality.
Meanwhile, its Spectator Camera feature will allow users cast a Quest to a phone and reposition the camera to third-person positions (that offer a different perspective to the VR user’s first-person view), but lacks any implementation of mixed reality features. The building blocks are there, but all remain separate and don’t come together cohesively like in LIV’s iOS app.
Likewise, Fabio Dela Antonio’s Reality Mixer app is another community project offering mixed reality capture on Quest, which Mark Zuckerberg seemingly used in a recent Facebook video showing him playing Beat Saber captured in mixed reality.
LIV’s iOS app is available in open beta now through Testflight. You can read more on the LIV blog.
