Why Apple’s WWDC Matters To Immersive Nerds Like Us
Excuse me while I geek out.
Hey gang,
So amidst all the other things I had to do today to catch up with the sheer volume of immersive theatre coming out of the Hollywood Fringe I had pretty much forgotten about one of my old nerd loves: Apple Keynotes.
You see, today was WWDC — that’s Apple’s Wordlwide Developer’s Conference to you those of you not cursed with the Apple gene — where they tell the legions of software developers what the company has in store. It’s the least consumer-friendly of all the Keynotes they do, and at the same time it is often the most exciting because you get to peer around the corner and see what they are really up to.
In this case it’s finally getting off their ass and paying attention to their Pro users. I.E.: the very developers who are in that room, but also all the people who use Macs to make music, movies, apps, and sometimes games.
So what is it that Apple has around the corner? POWER.
Lots and lots of processing power. Power that can be harnessed to make virtual and augmented reality.
They announced that the HTC VIVE will be compatible with the Mac and it will bring Steam VR along with it. They also announced a new ARkit protocol, that will give developers a toolset to build Augmented Reality software on iOS.
To demo the former they brought out John Knoll of Lucasfilm’s XLab to show off development assets from a Darth Vader project that those of us who have been tracking knows belongs to David Goyer. To see someone using a Mac to traipse around Mustafar with a Vive brought joy to my heart.
To demo the later they showed the kind of insane AR tabletop game experience we’ve seen other AR experiences provide.
In short Apple did what Apple often does: show up later to the party than everyone else, but with more style and charm.
Apple throwing their hat into both the AR and VR rings is a huge deal. There’s such a massive instal base on the iPhone that it can accelerate AR development pretty much overnight. The software is pushing towards the kinds of things Google has been developing special phones for, and Apple is giving the impression (note the choice of words) that they’re going to have this working at the flick of a switch.
On the VR side it’s a sigh of relief with a grunt of frustration: I’m overjoyed that I won’t have to build a PC in order to get top of the line VR soon. But it’s still going to cost an arm and a leg… at least it’s a leg I can somewhat justify.
But the real question is what headset — if any — the upcoming XBox Scorpio supports, which we should learn during E3 this month. If the XBox is agnostic, and merely treats VR headsets as a another kind of display we might be in for a sea change… so long as it supports the Vive, which so many are already developing for.
I pray that Microsoft supports the Vive on Scorpio, because that will make my headset purchasing decision a no-brainer. (And pretty much crown Vive as the champion of the first VR format war.)
Both VR and AR are still in the early stages of their story arcs, despite a relentless hype cycle for the past few years. The step forward today was big: and as more of this technology becomes readily compatible with the devices people already own, the need for more immersive experience designers will rise.
That’s where all of you come in: the creators and fans who know what immersive experiences are supposed to feel like.
I look at it this way: VR is in its Blackberry phase right now. It is incredibly popular with a dedicated fanbase, but the market is still waiting for something to popularize the smartphone idea. Now that people will have the ability to make that content on Macs, the step towards a consumer pipeline into the vast iOS ecosystem is more of a short stumble than a sprint.
The game is afoot.
More anon,
Noah
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