Leaked videos reveal more details about Quest 3's upcoming 'Augments' feature.
Augments were announced at Connect 2023 by Mark Zuckerberg when launching Quest 3. They were described as "persistent spatially-anchored digital objects" in your physical space. Examples shown in a library screenshot included a clock, music player, and portals to your favorite games.
Henry Stockdale
It sounded like augments will essentially be mixed reality widgets. But at Connect we didn't hear any specifics about how augments actually work.
Last week a technical filmmaker posted two videos to their Vimeo account showcasing Quest 3 augments, one from a user perspective and the other from a developer perspective. The videos were spotted by VR enthusiast Luna, but appear to have been posted by mistake as they've now been taken down.
The videos show a much greater degree of interactivity and functionality than the Connect announcement suggested, and hint that augments will be full-fledged mixed reality mini-apps that run in the Quest home interface.
The first video shows three example augments: a playable miniature pinball game, an interactive calendar, and a pet-like virtual plant that can be watered.
The second video shines a light on how these augments actually work on a technical level.
The video reveals that augments are built in Meta Spark Studio. Spark Studio is an application for Windows and macOS used today to make AR filters and experiences for the camera in Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.
As Meta has hinted in the past, the video reveals Spark Studio will also be the tool used to build Quest 3 augments. The software supports importing and animating 3D assets, and supports implementing advanced functionality with JavaScript.
The result is lightweight mini-apps that can run alongside each other in the Quest home environment, without the baggage and weight of a game engine like Unity. It's somewhat akin to Apple's strategy with Reality Composer Pro and RealityKit, which allows apps to run alongside each other in the "shared space" in visionOS.
Augments were announced as coming to Quest 3 sometime this year, and we'll bring you any official announcements from Meta of a more specific timeline or further details.
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