Are VR API standards the solution to VR fragmentation?
Ever since the Oculus Rift took Kickstarter by storm, the Virtual Reality (VR) world is on fire. VR allows users to immerse in a digital world and there are big opportunities for creating strong experiences.
Augmented Reality (AR) is related as it blends the real world and digital information.
More and more vendors are jumping on the hype, trying to get their piece of the cake. Facebook bought Oculus, Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Sony Playstation VR, Razer OSVR, StarVR,…. This is only the Head Mounted Displays (HMD) players. There is also the software aspect (Oculus, OpenVR, Unity VR, WebVR, Nvidia VRWorks,…) and controllers (Oculus Touch, Leap Motion, Manus VR, Virtuix Omni, Sixense,…).
The VR world is becoming very fragmented indeed.
Many frustrated users and developers have been accusing Oculus to deliberatly create a situation where VR companies develop proprietary systems in order to maximize profits. The more systems are being developed, the more difficult it is for developers and hardware providers to catch up. Users will have a more limited choice in games and controllers. No-one wins except the VR company that manages to carve out a big market share. Considering all the big tech companies are involved (even Apple is betting on AR), this will get bloody.
“With the various input devices out there (Leap Motion, Sixense STEM, Razor Hydra, etc.), will we end up seeing games made exclusively for an input device like we see exclusive games for Playstation and Xbox?”
- “I guess a developer could, in theory, create a game to accept a wide range of inputs, but this seems like it would be difficult and time consuming.”
The solution to fragmentation is defining a set of standard APIs. This has worked in the past, e.g. with the browsers war. Through an independent organization, standard APIs can be defined that will make the lives of users and developers a lot easier. Instead of customizing for every possible system, a standard API will allow the developer to develop just once.
Before we get there however, this current fragmentation is a necessary step. It will take quite some time until we have standards, as the whole VR ecosystem is still in its infancy.
The thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t really Oculus’ fault. Until VR solutions are in-market, there’s no way to bring everyone together beforehand to agree upon a standard, particularly when different players are going to want different capabilities.
extremetech
There are ongoing efforts to work on standard APIs already, a “VR API”. One of them is OpenVR, backed by Valve. But could it even be too soon to start working on a standard VR API?
-The_Blazer-
Has anyone in the industry ever considered the idea of a “VR API”, like DirectX for graphics cards, that allows the game to be coded only for the API rather than for each headset individually? What I mean is, just like a PC game is not coded for every single GPU in existence, but for DirectX which then communicates to the GPU, couldn’t a VR game be coded for a general VR API that would then handle displaying on different headets?gsingh93
Yes, many people have considered this idea, and there is one in the works. The problem is making a standard so early in the game can actually hurt instead of help. As a developer, there are tons of things I wish weren’t standardized in the late 90s, because now everyone has to do it that way.I have no doubt that eventually all HMDs will use the same standard. But let’s wait and see what VR has to offer for the first few years and see what type of API should be created.
Developing standards such as OpenVR are good news. But we will have to accept that the fragmentation has already happened and that the industry is still trying to figure out a lot while developing the VR platform. Frustrations are part of this process and it will probably take a few years before an emerging standard has been adopted by the majority.
This only hightens the need for a strong toolset in the VR landscape. Documentation is crucial for all stakeholders and Developer Experience will be as important as the actual product. Patience will be the other important aspect, before we see an emerging standard VR API. Until then, welcome to the new VR-wars…
