Info
Vision OS Brief Info
News
Apple is gearing up towards releasing the hardware debut to everyone by Feb 2nd 2024
Pre‑order starting 1.19 at 5:00 a.m. PT
Available starting February 2 Available starting 2.2
Hardware
No Wi-Fi 6E or 7 chips in Apple Vision Pro unlike newer macbooks
Isn't a pro device if you are bundling a Wifi 6 in a $3.5K machine.
Also if you're playing video only, the previous battery estimate was 2 hours now it has increased to 2.5 hrs when using external battery pack.
Qualcomm yesterday unveiled the chip which will power Vision Pro competitors, the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2.
Pricing
Still $3500 for the Headset and if you're an Apple card holder you can have monthly installments but Apple still hasn't provided any details on how many months it can be stretched out to without interest.
the apple polishing cloth $19 comes for free in the box.
Enterprise
Apple has shared an article for reimagining your enterprise apps for visionOS
WebKit
Finally apple has made a bug tracking website for its WebKit Open source project. Now only if we can have open apple radar officially supported for developers.
Immersive Web
apple list WebXR Device API on their official visionOS developer page which is nice to see since this API is being adopted by other VR / AR OEMs for development. Only two Features are current supported on Safari visionOS behind a feature flag.
Audio Video
3D content using MV-HEVC format supporting current HLS platform.
Playback supported to 4K 2160p till 90hz SDR | HDR.
The display's refresh rate is 90 Hertz but a special 96hz / 4 for (24fps) video could be supported.
You can provide Spatial audio with backup stereo stream track. This is supported by current HLS specification but this hardware is a complete package.
MultiMedia Content
150 3D Movies at launch
If you have Apple TV+ subscription you can watch recorded music recording process in 180-degree 3D 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio.
Other stuff being available at launch for visionOS, we can see official Disney+ app on VisionOS (iPadOS) compatibility mode in Apple press releases
Several streaming apps, will offer 3D versions of their latest and most popular movies on Vision Pro at launch along with Spatial Audio and immersive Environment experiences.
3D Spatial Video from iPhone Pro videos are great format
Apps
vision pro Apps
Xcode 15.2 releases fixes a lot of visionOS bugs for simulator, so development experience should be more better.
Persona feature is still in Beta phase
Emulation
xrOS / VisionOS on non apple hardware
You can emulate the Vision OS on xcode simulators on a mac. But what if you can't afford an actual headset. You can just get the unofficial recreation of visionOS for Meta Quest VR headset. Github project link
VisionOS UIKit Prototype
Also if you want to prototype VisionOS app interfaces on other VR headsets, you can use this project for Unity UIKit template
Gaming
- Access to 250+ games with Apple Arcade
- Support for PS5 and Xbox wireless controllers (and others).
No official Enthusiast Gaming support
Still no official gaming support for PC or direct input. I think so apple wants to control the ecosystem as always and not allow for more customizability.
Sad that micro-OLED tech used in apple vision hardware could be a game changer for gaming in general. Only Bigscreen Beyond has this for now.
Oculus Quest 3 seems the right choice for now with budget and Mixed reality options. It does have LCD display and is based on fork version of Android. So sideloading is a great option for anyone trying Android development.
How To Sideload Games On Oculus Quest
WWDC Sessions
Create a great spatial playback experience