Confession: I liked playing Luna in the Magic Leap better than I liked Luna in VR.
I’m warming up to the Magic Leap headset it’s actually starting to feel magical.
Luna was already a magical game in VR, it is peaceful, fun, emotional, and it gives users an experience in VR that is dramatically different from the vast majority of experiences available in VR. Luna in the Magic Leap was like something brand new!
I was in the convention hall at XRDC, and I could see everyone around me clearly, and yet down on the ground, on the carpet in front of me were the most lovely holographic digital objects in the new tech demo from Luna. I made sure to test the Magic Leap One with the arm sling, which is a way of holding it if you don’t have pockets, and it works great in an arm sling. I think that going forward I would definitely be okay with wearing an eGPU (external Graphics Card) from a company like Nvidia or AMD that gave my mobile XR headset next level performance.
Read more about Funomena’s Fairytail Luna Moondust Garden title for Magic Leap here.
What other people who have reviewed the Magic Leap may not have clearly stated is that over all the Magic Leap really is capable of creating really cool experiences, despite it’s limited field of view and other flaws.
I have tried the Magic Leap multiple times. The single 6dof controller isn’t perfect but I think it’s a lot better than what some reviewers are saying, you can use it to navigate your games and it is precise enough to feel like a valuable tool for painting, planting seeds and watering plants in games like Luna, and many other experiences.
The Magic Leap One isn’t perfect. Something noted in a podcast I helped to create in which two developers gave their unbiased opinion of the Magic Leap
But I am no longer feeling like it is a 2.3 billion dollar hustle as I stated in my first article about Magic Leap. I kinda like it, and the relationships that Magic Leap has formed with the developer community show that they are seriously committed to creating a great product. That article was about the differences between the promotional material leading up to the release of the Magic Leap One from the Magic Leap One itself
That doesn’t mean the Magic Leap One will succeed as a product, but the major issue that I have with it right now is only the price. What I would like to see is for Magic Leap as a corporation to follow the rapid iteration schedule of Samsung, to release a new headset every year, yet focus on making the software backwards compatible.
I think that if Magic Leap came out with a Magic Leap Mini product it could feature a Snapdragon 855 processor, an AMOLED screen that renders reality as a cinematic object, a much wider FOV, an even bigger optional external GPU that can be worn in a sling, and most importantly it could sell for the price of a mobile phone, 600 or 700 dollars.
I would love to see something like the Magic Leap Mini I just described hit the market in 2019 or 2020. The whole point of using the wave guide display, like Hololens, was to provide a device that gave less eyestrain to the people wearing it, and I’m afraid to say it doesn’t succeed in that regard. Still I think it’s a good first product, and I’m looking forward very much to Magic Leap’s next HMD product.
I believe in Magic Leap, and Luna is going to be a great Augmented Reality title to get if you have the Magic Leap One!
