In General XR News
May 31, 2023 – Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has announced the launch of new features for its Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, and noted and strong momentum towards building a cross-device, extended reality (XR) ecosystem to create a headworn future that is truly open.
Dual Render Fusion on Snapdragon Spaces
The company helped pioneer smartphone augmented reality (AR) over 13 years ago and with Snapdragon Spaces, Qualcomm is reimagining what smartphone-powered AR can be when combined with AR glasses. According to the company, the latest Snapdragon Spaces SDK release helps to unlock the next evolution in smartphone-powered AR with a new feature called ‘Dual Render Fusion.’
The new feature will enable developers to easily extend their 2D mobile applications into world-scale 3D experiences, without any prior XR experience required, fusing the simplicity and familiarity of the smartphone with the AR glasses capacity to enable immersive experiences. Dual Render Fusion is designed to deliver smartphone AR’s full potential, making it accessible to a wider range of developers than ever before.
Developer-First Community
With thousands of developers, and brands like Red Bull and Kittch embracing the Snapdragon Spaces platform, the community has been a critical building block in enhancing the platform’s features, helping to break through the limits of reality. The most innovative companies in XR are building with Snapdragon Spaces across enterprise and consumer virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and AR in a variety of application categories including:
- Enterprise collaboration: Arthur Digital, Arvizio, ENGAGE, Scope AR, Sphere, Taqtile
- Productivity: Glue Collaboration, MSM.digital, Nomtek, ShapesXR, vSpatial
- Gaming and entertainment: AmazeVR, DB Creations, Mirrorscape, Resolution Games, Survios, Vertical Robot, Wave, Mirrorscape
- Health, wellness, and fitness: eXRciser, FitXR, Litesport, TRIPP, XRHealth, eXRciser
- Training: Pixo, Roundtable Learning, Strivr, Talespin, Transfr, Uptale
- Education: Phibonacci, Prisms, VictoryXR
- WebXR: Igalia, Pluto VR, Wonderland
- Others: ArborXR, BadVR, Designium, Echo3D, Lamina1
In addition to announcing the new Dual Render Fusion feature for its Snapdragon Spaces developer platform, Qualcomm also made several other announcements today during a keynote speech at AWE 2023 made by the company’s VP & GM of XR, Hugo Swart, including:
A collaboration with Niantic
Building on Qualcomm Technologies’ relationship with Niantic, a group of 10 vanguard AR developers will have early access to Lightship VPS with Snapdragon Spaces beginning in the second half of 2023, creating headworn experiences for indoor and outdoor AR that leverage both platforms’ strengths. The select group of developers includes Artifice, DB Creations, Foundry Six, Hot Dark Matter, Immuse, Kinfolk, LifeCache, Loak, Sugar Creative and Trigger. Qualcomm stated that these developers will receive early access to new features, influence product roadmaps and help to define next-generation AR experiences.
Qualcomm Ventures investments
As part of the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, Qualcomm Ventures has made investments in Survios, a VR game developer and software publisher, EnlightXR, a China-based XR ecosystem enabler, and Absurd Joy, a developer of a virtual workspace for remote teams. The company stated that its Snapdragon Metaverse Fund continues to enable and foster innovation through venture investment in leading XR companies by Qualcomm Ventures and developer ecosystem grants for content projects by Qualcomm Technologies.
More Snapdragon Spaces ready devices
Expanding the portfolio of XR devices that will enable developers to bring headworn ideas to life, OPPO, TCL RayNeo and DigiLens have announced new devices that will support Snapdragon Spaces. These devices join a handful of Snapdragon Spaces Ready devices including the Lenovo ThinkReality VRX, an all-in-one VR headset engineered for the enterprise, which just announced worldwide availability.
- The OPPO MR Glass features binocular video pass through technologies and is equipped with two RGB cameras in front of the user’s eyes, to provide a stereoscopic view of the physical world. The OPPO MR Glass will be made available as a Snapdragon Spaces developer kit, distributed through EnlightXR in the second half of 2023.
- TCL RayNeo is developing a wide range of cutting-edge AR features, with committed support for Snapdragon Spaces, to create an AR ecosystem for consumers worldwide. TCL RayNeo X2 true AR glasses are expected to launch in Q2 2023.
- DigiLens is set to launch an all-on-one Snapdragon Spaces Ready AR device, ARGO, designed for enterprise and industrial-lite workers.
With Snapdragon Spaces, Qualcomm is continuing in its efforts to expand and create an open ecosystem that enables developers to pioneer innovative experiences for the next generation of immersive technology. For developers interested in learning more about Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces platform for AR development, please visit the company’s website.
Image / video credit: Qualcomm
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.