Thread by @kentbye

1/ THREAD of Connect 2021 put on by a company that may be formerly be known as Facebook.

I'll be focusing on VR, AR, & WebXR news.

Zuckerberg's #Connect2021 Keynote 10a PDT
facebookconnect.com/en-us/session/…

Facebook Livestream
facebook.com/facebookrealit…

Watch in VR
oculus.com/experiences/ev…

2/ Here's the agenda for today:
10a PDT #Connect2021 Keynote
11:20a: A bunch of developer sessions go live (presumably pre-recorded)
11:45a Developer State of the Union
2p Connect with @ID_AA_Carmack
5p Spacewalk from the ISS (sneak peak of VR Spacewalk)

3/ Here's some footage from @ro_olvera of what appears to be a rebranding change happening with the sign at One Hacker Way.

Here's @alexeheath's scoop on the Facebook re-branding from October 19th.
theverge.com/2021/10/19/227…

4/ Direct link to #connect2021 livestream that's starting now. Zuckerberg starting on why they're doing this now in the midst of all of the Facebook Files revelations.
facebook.com/watch/live/?re…

5/ Started with a nice sizzle reel about VR.
Today we'll talk about the Metaverse.
Next platform will be more immersive & embodied.
Metaverse will succeed mobile internet & we'll feel more present.
[We'll see how they adhere to Parisi's rules]
#connect2021

6/ Rather than just talking about new products during the keynote, we're going to talk about the future of the Metaverse through a bunch of speculative design videos, starting with social interactions.
Interesting to see @boztank is a non-human avatar.

7/ Presence is the defining quality of the metaverse.
Avatars is how we'll represent ourselves in the metaverse with embodied gestures, & different styles of avatars with clothing wearables. Interoperability is key [See VRM].
Home space & home office & teleporting across worlds.

8/ Good to hear about ecosystem creation and governance, and personal ownership.
Privacy & safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one [Let's see how Facebook implements ideas like Neurorights.]

9/ Zuckerberg says that a lot of these aspects of the metaverse will be mainstream in 10 years, and they're working on this today.
List of main topics in the metaverse.

10/ Going to have a social version of Home.
Horizon Worlds launched in beta last year (and apparently still in beta now).
Horizon Worlds launched.
Improving aspects for connecting via messenger.
#connect2021

11/ Here's more information about connecting with Messenger in Quest 2.
#connect2021

12/ Now talking about SparkAR, and interactive objects
Announced Horizon Marketplace to sell digital goods. [Notice a theme about Horizon].
Gaming is a big part of the metaverse and shows people playing games outside.

13/ A bit of a cringe-worthy section of Zuckerberg doing virtual hydrofoil game. Point was that people will be playing games in the metaverse.
#connect2021

14/ Talking about 5 new games from coming @vertigogamesinc, producer of ARIZONA SUNSHINE.
@BeatSaber has passed $100M in lifetime revenue. [which Facebook acquired]
@populationonevr biggest revenue generator in 2021 with new worlds soon.
Blade & Sorcery Nomad news.

15/ Grand Theft Auto San Andreas coming to Quest 2.

16/ Now talking about Fitness in VR, which is one of the first real killer apps of VR. Lots of speculative design ideas in the future. Releasing a fitness pack coming soon.

17/ Moving to work in the metaverse with more speculative designs of collaborative review of 3D spaces.

18/ 2D Progressive Web Apps announced!

19/ Demo shown of Progressive Web Apps shown in VR.

Super excited to hear more about how they're using WebXR & supporting PWA.

WEBXR DEVELOPMENT, OPTIMIZATION, AND NEW FEATURES - @00davehill00
facebookconnect.com/en-us/session/…

VR'S INFINITE SCREEN - @jacobrossi
facebookconnect.com/en-us/session/…

20/ Lots of talk about the educational apps in the metaverse. [BUT... important to note that Quest Headsets are not FERPA compliant because of Facebook's requirement of using IDs & their lack of privacy standards to meet FERPA.]
$150M fund announced for Spark AR.

21/ Long section here of Zuckerberg talking about keeping developer fees as low as possible but enabling choice, alluding that it's more of a short-term fees until the metaverse gets to a billion-scale.
[A bit vague Re: 30% fee, but they're plan on supplementing everything w Ads]

22/ Hard to know what's on 10-year plan vs what's on roadmap Facebook mentioned a NFT virtual marketplace & ad platforms. Extended section talking about a small business owner for how she'll use the Metaverse.
#connect2021

23/ Announcing the Presence Platform with a number of new SDKs and APIs
Interaction SDK to enable more natural hand interactions.
Voice SDK for NLP voices interactions.
Passthrough API for mixed reality apps made in VR.

24/ Talking about Spark AR updates including a new tool called Polar "a new, free iOS app that makes it easy to imagine, create, and share AR effects and filters without needing to code or work in the Spark AR Studio."

25/ Now talking about how Privacy, Safety, & Interoperability need to be built into the metaverse.
They announced their responsible innovation principles last year.
They claim to be talking to experts about all of this [but not always listening @accessnow]

26/ Lots of talk about privacy, but I'm going to see a lot more details to be convince they're actually taking issues like Neuro-Rights seriously.
#Connect2021
See 👇

27/ Getting a sneak peak at Cambria headset coming next year.
Color Mixed Reality Passthrough is coming in next headset!
New Pancake optics (see @SadlyItsBradley's coverage)
@anshelsag grabbed a bit better shot 👇

28/ Now talking about Mixed Reality near-term AR roadmap.
Starting with Ray-ban Stories
Project Nazaray (Nazare spelling?) is their AR headset prototype.

29/ Checking in Michael Abrash on future research focused on Avatars, clothing, & mixed reality apps w/ AI.
Also researching: Displays, Audio, Input, Haptics, Hand Tracking, Eye Tracking, Mixed Reality, Sensors, Graphics, Computer Vision, Avatars, Perceptual Science, AI

30/ Woah! Showing a photorealistic reconstructed avatar that looks way better than Windows Mixed Reality capture. Looks like volumetric video, but it's an avatar. AI + photorealistic avatars have transcended the uncanny valley, but identity verification will be big deal.

31/ Going into EMG input by wearing a watch-like device from developed by CTRL Labs, do input by THINKING about moving your fingers. For more details, check out my interview with @thomasreardon5, Head of @FBRealityLabs Neuromotor Interfaces:

32/ Showing how EMG input could be used within a mixed reality context.

33/ Zuckerberg has a "one more thing" moment at the end of the #connect2021 keynote.
Building the case to move beyond a social media company of Facebook to a metaverse company called Meta.

34/ Meta.com redirects to about.facebook.com/meta

35/ Sort through the huge dump of new information across different news sources.

Meta.org is a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative project & will likely pass along @meta.

Congrats to @MetaversePlayer for guessing the new name of Meta.

36/ 10 #Connect2021 stories from @RtoVR
roadtovr.com/facebooks-ocul…
roadtovr.com/horizon-home-s…
roadtovr.com/web-apps-webxr…
roadtovr.com/facebook-conne…
roadtovr.com/oculus-quest-m…
roadtovr.com/quest-cloud-sa…
roadtovr.com/facebook-quest…
roadtovr.com/horizon-workro…
roadtovr.com/grand-theft-au…
roadtovr.com/facebook-proje…

37/ WOW! In the Zuckerberg Founder's letter he says, "From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services."
about.fb.com/news/2021/10/f…

38/ RIP "Oculus"
@boztank says they're "retiring the name" of Oculus & the Oculus Quest will rebrand as Meta Quest.
Facebook Reality Labs will now be known at Reality Labs & eventually to Reality Labs Research
Facebook Portal will become Meta Portal.
facebook.com/boz/posts/1011…

39/ Here's the new animated logo for Meta.com

40/ FLASHBACK to Jan 2019
@NextReality AR Startup Meta Company Shuts Down Amid Asset Foreclosure Sale, Patent Fight, & Executive Departures
next.reality.news/news/exclusive…

@thedextriarchy AR headset company Meta shutting down after assets sold to unknown company
theverge.com/2019/1/18/1818…

41/ @theinformation's @mathewolson had a chance to interview Mark Zuckerberg ahead of #Connect2021 about the new Project Cambria, which is the same as the Quest Pro.
Here's a summary from his daily email newsletter, & a link to the full paywalled article.
theinformation.com/articles/mark-…

42/ $FB will start trading under $MVRS on December 1, & breaking out reporting of XR apps.

A round-up of official links of #Connect2021 announcements can be found here in this post: "Introducing Meta: A Social Technology Company"
about.fb.com/news/2021/10/f…

43/ Interesting design post digging into Meta's new logo: "Drawn from a single line in space using our own Quest technology, the Meta symbol forms a continuous loop that works seamlessly between 2D and 3D contexts."

Lots of animated GIFs here:
design.facebook.com/stories/design…

44/ @verge's @alexeheath has an interview with Zuckerberg where he talks a bit more about the decoupling of accounts.
It doesn't sound like you'll have a universal Meta account, but yet to be seen how they'll tie these together in new ToS / Privacy Policy.
theverge.com/22749919/mark-…

45/ Here's the new Meta sign at 1 Hacker Way that's replacing the Facebook sign (photo via Meta).

45/ First 2D PWA apps in Quest Store launched "including Facebook [oculus.com/experiences/qu…], Instagram[oculus.com/experiences/qu…], Smartsheet, & Spike. More apps will follow soon, like Dropbox, Monday.com, MURAL, My5 (UK), Pluto TV, & Slack."
oculus.com/blog/connect-f…

47/ Video teaser for Project Cambria (aka Quest Pro) via @rtovr

* Eye Tracking
* Facial tracking
* More expensive than Quest
* "high-res color mixed reality passthrough"
* pancake optics
* Release some time TBD in 2022
#Connect2021

48/ Good #Connect2021 recap posts:

@Oculus: Connect 2021 Recap: Horizon Home, Future of Work, Presence Platform
oculus.com/blog/connect-2…

@techatfacebook: Connect 2021: Our vision for the metaverse
tech.fb.com/connect-2021-o…

@sparkarstudio: Spark AR Roundup
sparkar.facebook.com/blog/facebook-…

49/ @Meta was swapped for @Facebook as the official Twitter handle at 11:45am today.

It was previously parked by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative project as meta.org.

50/ Reading @mathewolson's piece, this jumped out 'Zuckerberg also said the company doesn’t plan to take "relatively high fees" on its metaverse marketplaces.'
theinformation.com/articles/mark-…

Reading between lines @Meta plans on subsidizing everything with ads.

51/ Here's all of the VR news today from #Connect2021 via a summary from @Meta.

52/ Here's all of the AR news today from #Connect2021 via a summary from @Meta.

53/ Here's @ID_AA_Carmack's Connect talk:
facebook.com/facebookrealit…

54/ Catching up on @ID_AA_Carmack's talk.
Quest 2 a success in being better, faster, cheaper
Some folks miss OLED
Air Link launched
Not all in on cloud rendering yet
App Lab released
120Hz refresh rate
Unlocked Oculus Go!
Watching @UploadVR stream here:

55/ @ID_AA_Carmack has been a #Metaverse skeptic arguing against almost every @Meta metaverse effort because "The metaverse is a honeypot trap for architecture astronauts" who talk in high abstract terms.
Prefers to focus on actual products as to not waste resources.
#Connect2021

56/ @ID_AA_Carmack hopes that an event like #Connect2021 SHOULD be happening in VR within Horizon [which is still in closed Beta with no release date].
Maybe 2022 will be happening there if they make that a goal to achieve that. Need to have more capacity than 60ppl per instance.

57/ @ID_AA_Carmack asks, "Are we necessarily even aiming for all the right targets with the social metaverse?" Co-presence is big bet, but he's an introvert who likes private 1st person experiences.
Thinking about how 2D screens & apps get translated into XR to subsume PC/mobile.

58/ @ID_AA_Carmack says everyone agrees closed platforms don't deserve to be called the #Metaverse.💯
Spectrum from Wild West to Locked Down Platforms, & @Meta will be more on the centralized side.
His libertarian loves open crypto, but also has to clear swamp of NFT scams/spam.

59/ @ID_AA_Carmack doubts a centralized approach like Roblox + turning complete language will take over as the Metaverse since beyond capacity of one company to control & drive.
Foundations of Metaverse maybe more like a giant @unitygames plugin. [Surprised no mention of #WebXR]

60/ Lowest level of metaverse: Avatars, profiles, friends graphs
Worlds, Workrooms, Venues are Unity.
Horizon Home is a rebranding of VR Shell C++ application.
@ID_AA_Carmack pushing back against hardware being branded as Metaverse-oriented since everything works well on Quest 2.

61/ @Meta can really only make one bet a year on new VR hardware, which leads to "point-sampling a high-dimensional function & hoping we can pull a lot of good information out of it."
Mature VR ecosystem will start to match the range of different mobile phones from $50 to $2k.

62/ Not too likely to see many 3rd-party hardware manufacturers with @meta any time soon since they're already subsidizing their 1st-party hardware.
Cost & price point is one of the biggest things they
optimizing for, & for the high-end Cambria version focusing on pancake lens.

63/ @boztank says, "Retiring was too strong of a term (am revising my post), will still be a big part of our software portfolio for developer tools and things like Oculus Studios"
facebook.com/boz/posts/1011…

[See the two edits down below to see the updates]

64/ Back to @ID_AA_Carmack.
Very much thermally limited on Quest.
Want to see more flexibility on HMDs.
Oculus Go had better retention than GearVR due to needing to dock the phone.
Oculus documented everything that was broken during the Facebook outage (lots of work to be done).

65/ @Meta's plan on record is focusing on web apps [i.e. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) & WebXR].
@ID_AA_Carmack has been advocating that all Android apps should be compatible on the Quest.
"Real platforms have millions of applications."
[He seems to be loosing this internal battle].

66/ @ID_AA_Carmack would like to see more simple toggles to turn on hidden features that are currently done over ADB, like system prefs to turn on ways to record 360 video.
[I would like to know this command if this is indeed possible!]
Wants to move faster on these things.

67/ @ID_AA_Carmack said he'd post his raw notes to Facebook since he only had an hour for his talk [🤔?]

Link to Carmack Q&A livestream in Horizon Worlds with questions from devs from Oculus Start, Oculus Launchpad, & Horizon Accelerator Programs.
facebook.com/facebookrealit…

68/ Interesting clips from @alexeheath on CNBC talking about Facebook's rebrand to @Meta.
Covers lots of highlights from his conversation with Zuckerberg, that you can read in full here: theverge.com/22749919/mark-…

69/ Here's @Meta's "Metaverse Explainer" video made available to press this afternoon featuring 3.5 minutes of #Connect2021 keynote clips of Zuckerberg explaining the #Metaverse.

I couldn't find it anywhere online so I uploaded it to my YouTube channel.

70/ I've been trying to get into Horizon Venues to see @felixandpaul's VR footage shot from space, but the app requires an update and has been stuck in a "Download Queue" loop with a spinning wheel for 10 straight minutes. Incredibly frustrating.

71/ Complete restart solved the "Download Queued" stalling problem with Quest Updates.

Still time to see the VR Spacewalk, which starts in Horizon Venues in about 10 minutes or so!

72/ WOW! The VR Spacewalk footage from @felixandpaul is absolutely breathtaking.
I can't wait until it's finally released to be able to watch it in 3D 360.
180-degree version teaser at #Connect2021 was amazing, but too many Horizon Venue distractions that you can't turn off.

73/ I can't believe that Horizon Venues STILL has no way to turn off other people's bloops, beeps, shooting of fireworks confetti, user's UI interaction noises, or entering/leaving notifications.
It's terrible & COMPLETELY ruins any immersion.
cc @boztank

74/ Abrash showed 90-sec clip that's actually an update from Project Aria (I missed this in my real-time coverage).

Here's a post on @techatfacebook "Update: A year of progress with Project Aria" to create "contextually-aware egocentric (first-person) AI"
tech.fb.com/update-a-year-…

75/ Tech ethicist @CatherineFlick weighs in on @Meta's one-year update on Project Aria:

76/ ICYMI: Be sure to check out my previous conversation with tech ethicist @CatherineFlick & @AnthroPunk who wrote a whole 15k academic article pointing out all of the ways that Project Aria is not implementing best practices for responsible innovation:

77/ Chief AI Scientist at Facebook @ylecun reports that "Facebook AI" is now "Meta AI," but they haven't figured out whether Facebook AI Research will become Meta AI Research.
facebook.com/yann.lecun/pos…

78/ Some more creepy announcements were made ahead of #Connect2021, like this #Ego4D data set to train contextually-aware AI on Episodic memory, Forecasting, Hand & object manipulation, Audio-visual diarization, & Social interaction
ai.facebook.com/blog/teaching-…

79/ Pre-print of #Ego4D: Around the World in 3,000 Hours of Egocentric Video
arxiv.org/abs/2110.07058

Reveal session at EPIC@ICCV2021 (Egocentric Perception Interaction and Computing workshop at @iccv_2021) on October 17th


Website:
ego4d-data.org

80/ Going through @Meta's #Connect2021 press assets, & this clip of @FBRealityLabs Research's Codec Avatars is absolutely *WILD* -- AND terribly scary that you could create a volumetric avatar that is THIS photorealistic.
Still don't know what's captured vs generated by AI here.

81/ Here's a bunch of @SparkARStudio filter demos that @Meta released today as a part of the press assets. Not sure if they've all been reported yet, but here they all are edited together.

Some more context in the Spark AR rundown post:
sparkar.facebook.com/blog/facebook-…

82/ Very timely & IMPORTANT article by @brittanheller & @avibarzeev called "The Problems with Immersive Advertising: In AR/VR, Nobody Knows You Are an Ad" in @stanfordio's brand new journal "Journal of Online Trust and Safety"
tsjournal.org/index.php/jots…
More

83/ There's a new "Spark AR Certification & Professional Course Preview" that launched during #Connect2021
"New programs help creators learn Spark AR, distinguish their skills and unlock opportunity" with @SparkARStudio:
sparkar.facebook.com/blog/sparkar-c…

84/ Listening in to some of the #Connect2021 sessions.
WebXR Development, Optimization, & New Features
facebook.com/watch/?v=57358…

New features in #WebXR on Oculus Browser
Handtracking in WebXR
Shipping media layers
Help W3C define HTML layers

Some low-level optimization tips.

85/ Some more information on the PWA announcements + some of the new WebXR features. Sending links to Oculus Browser through the app (this will help access & share WebXR experiences.)
WebXR can now be shipped as PWAs (more in @jacobrossi's presentation)
facebook.com/watch/?v=57358…

86/ @jacobrossi walks through the workflow for creating a PWAs & WebXR PWAs for Quest.
developer.oculus.com/pwa

Bringing 2D Apps to VR's Infinite Screen
facebook.com/watch/?v=46371…

PWAs can be sideloaded, but why not just save from Browser rather than route through the Oculus Store?

87/ Developer State of the Union by @c_pruett
Quest 2 shift was super curated bc data showed they could retain new customers better with quality initial experiences.
1400+ App Lab submissions, launched to fill ecosystem gaps. (response time <10days now)
facebook.com/watch/live/?re…

88/ Video playlists of #Connect2021 Developer Sessions

Transform Your Business
facebook.com/watch/11355664…

Build The Future
facebook.com/watch/11355664…

Create AR Presence
facebook.com/watch/11355664…

Optimize Development
facebook.com/watch/11355664…

Push VR Boundaries
facebook.com/watch/11355664…

89/ @c_pruett cites a segmentation study "Understanding the VR Gaming Market" published Dec 9, 2020 describing gamer archetypes:
Dedicated gamer*
Play-to-Win Gamer*
Steady Gamer*
Participant Parent
Story Seeker
Bench Player
Time Passer
*Prioritized segment
developer.oculus.com/blog/understan…

90/ @c_pruett giving a shout out to the Story Seekers gamer archetype/segment who comes in later, but is actually a larger market size (and majority female) than what has been prioritized up to this point, which is dedicated, play-to-win, & steady gamers (which are mostly male).

91/ @avlee_ on efforts to increase diversity & inclusion in their programming including:

Oculus Launch Pad
developer.oculus.com/launch-pad/
Oculus Start
developer.oculus.com/blog/introduci…
VR for Good
oculus.com/vr-for-good/

@marimkyle session on XR accessibility #a11y
facebook.com/watch/?v=14625…

92/ @coloneldebugger on helpful developer tools:
Oculus Developer Hub 2.0 coming soon.
RenderDoc for Oculus w heatmaps for performance tuning
Phase Sync & Late Latching to reduce frame latency
Application Space Warp
User demographics analytics tools.

93/ New dev features:
Better multiplayer invites
Automatic cloud backups soon
New Presence Platform, Insight SDK, Passthrough API mixed reality, & voice interaction
New Interaction SDK
New avatar SDK coming in Dec for Unity, Jan for UE4
New productivity apps
Multi-task PWAs

94/ @marimkyle's XR Accessibility Year in Review + tips.
Set of 9 optional #a11y VR Checks (VRCs) that will soon become required:
developer.oculus.com/resources/publ…
New platform level accessibility features including color correction & raise view to simulate standing views.
Soon captioning.

95/ @dankamerling @joygirl007 on new Oculus Demographics Tool to bring diversity to VR apps.
facebook.com/watch/?v=90607…
3 case studies:
Down the Rabbit Hole highlight female protagonist
Rebranding of Topgolf with Pro Putt beyond US bias
Tuning for South Korean players in Poker Stars

96/ @ID_AA_Carmack only had an hour at #Connect2021. Thankfully he published his raw notes, including an audit of Tweets, feature requests, & his internal @Meta Workplace notes he secretly wished were a part of the Facebook Files.
dropbox.com/s/ruv739914jzq…

97/ @CreativeClo explains the Oculus Developer Hub (ODH):
facebook.com/watch/?v=99161…
New:
Team collaboration & sharing for teams.
Goes over some of the new developer options & device manager including some new Web Developer tools
Other debugging options.
New performance tools coming

97/ An Intro the Presence Platform
facebook.com/watch/?v=29408…
Insight SDK has 3 parts:
Pass-Through API
Spatial anchors
Segment & identify objects within a scene via CV.

98/ 4 awesome mixed reality demos shown during Presence Platform session.
facebook.com/watch/?v=29408…
YouTubeVR launching social features by EOY(!) + passthrough
The World Beyond mixed reality mashup
Unity Slices Table
@spatialxr watch party & NFT art shows

99/ THE WORLD BEYOND mixed reality demo produced by Britta Hummel at @meta.
In Presence Platform session, she went over 10 SDK integrations including Freespace, Navmeshes, Physics, Raycasting, Occulusion, Drop Shadow/Halo, Semantics, Grab, Throw, & Talk:
facebook.com/watch/?v=29408…

100/ Going through more of the #Connect2021 press assets, and here's a clip of the Passthrough API that had an experimental release on July 23, 2021.
developer.oculus.com/blog/mixed-rea…

101/ "As part of Scene Understanding, Scene Model provides a geometric & semantic representation of the user’s space, so you can build room-scale mixed reality experiences... Scene Capture flow that lets users walk around and capture their scene."
developer.oculus.com/blog/introduci…

102/ Another #connect2021 press clip. This one is labeled Insight SDK, which isn't a very intuitive name for what it is -- essentially mixed reality features & passthrough API.
@Heaney555 did a great run-down of the history & deeper context for @uploadvr:
uploadvr.com/oculus-insight…

103/ Bringing Voice Interactions to VR: Voice SDK powered by wit.ai (@witnl)
facebook.com/watch/?v=26818…
Implementing Voice teleport & invite friends to a game.
Voice Use cases:
Navigating & Search
Voice FAQ
Voice-Driven Gameplay
Demo in @weareFitXR to choose workout

104/ 46m panel discussion with 3 PWA productivity apps: two launched today (@spikenowhq, @Smartsheet) & one (@MURAL) coming soon.
facebook.com/watch/?v=46549…
Session could've used a bit more visual clips & examples.
Need to try it out myself to experience it.

97.5/ Fixing my thread (click below to continue):

105/ Overview of Insight SDK
facebook.com/watch/?v=42524…
Goes through some passthrough use cases & best practices.
Demos of experimental spatial anchors + some guidelines.
Scene model & scene understanding overview.
More info at developer.oculus.com

106/ @dannyaroslavski on Hands & Controllers w Interaction SDK 2022
facebook.com/watch/?v=35400…
Targeting & selection, far/near field, multiple inputs, visual affordances
Grab: finger occlusion, item size
Direct Touch: single selection, 1-way trigger, button packing
Hand Pose: jitter

107/ Building for the future: Social and World AR experiences [lots of demos]
facebook.com/watch/?v=57234…

Talking some trends of social AR experiences: real-time calls with filters, etc.

Pixel Chefs
instagram.com/pixelchefs/

Isabel Palumbo
instagram.com/ar/15532531328…

Locke Dunn of Meta

108/ Osebo Akhigbe walked through process of World Building in Horizon Worlds.
facebook.com/watch/?v=31165…
Everything in Horizon built w Horizon Creation Tools.
Walked through UX of the world building (up to 4 sync'd co-creators) + immersive scripting examples.
Worldhopping events.

109/ @lisakotecki moderated a panel on Building Diverse Communities in Horizon Worlds with worldbuilders Ashley Briley, @museumpaige, & Carlos Silva.
facebook.com/watch/?v=41466…

Interesting to hear stories from some of the power users & community builders in Horizon Worlds.

110/ Build Meaningful Connections w Oculus User Notifications
facebook.com/watch/?v=14885…
New Oculus User Notification Platform
Inviting friends
Two notification types: Campaign or Triggered
Push to mobile app & VR
User Controls
Dev UX to create notifications
Analytics
Best practices

111/ Building & Growing Multiplayer Apps for Quest
facebook.com/watch/?v=42243…
@rad_studios' @daveneubelt went through some mistakes & best practices & specific tips for cultivating a vibrant multi-player game.
Stepped through some API code.
Then Sharedspaces demo walkthrough in UE4.

112/ Here's a couple of clips showing the workflow for inviting people into an experience.
Surprisingly, this has been a lot harder to do than you might expect.
Some more context from @rtovr:
roadtovr.com/horizon-home-s…

113/ Here' 3 commercials for the Quest 2 stitched together, and they all have to do with meeting up with friends.
The first one features Horizon Home, then Horizon Worlds, and then Messenger.
More on opening up Horizon Homes for private social gatherings:
roadtovr.com/horizon-home-s…

114/ If you're looking for a talk to get into the weeds of XR performance tuning for the Quest, the Top 10 Ways @cristianohh, @gabosgab, & Greg Chudecke Optimized @BigBoxVR's POPULATION ONE is for you.
Tons of wonky details in this 33-min talk.
facebook.com/watch/?v=55638…

115/ App Lab Tips from Success Ragnarok, Gun Raiders, Golf 5 eClub, & WW1 fighters
facebook.com/watch/?v=10560…

Quest VRC Guidelines
developer.oculus.com/resources/publ…

VR App Marketing Best Practices
developer.oculus.com/resources/vr-m…

VR App Marketing - Channel Marketing Overview
developer.oculus.com/resources/vr-m…

116/ Success Stories & Tips from App Lab Devs:
facebook.com/watch/?v=68657…

Featuring:
@MrPotam's @rturkowski (@SmashDrumsVR)
oculus.com/experiences/qu…

@TMaloteaux (@DeisimGame)
oculus.com/experiences/qu…

@realities_io's @left_big_toe (@PuzzlingPlaces) oculus.com/experiences/qu…

116/ Growing the Long Tail: Marketing & Building community for your VR app featuring @schellgames' Kat De Shields-Moon, Angel LaBatte, & Richard Duck.
facebook.com/watch/?v=55625…
Set up your feedback loop.
30-Day Marketing Plan:
thekdsm.com/facebook-conne…
Lots of pragmatic tips here.

118/ @ForeVRGames' @laurencorene breaks down the marketing & ad strategy for their VR Game
facebook.com/watch/?v=30230…

ForeVR Bowl
oculus.com/experiences/qu…

New user acquisition & retargeting campaigns, find sweet spot of paid & organic influencer campaigns, & how they used FB ads.

119/ AWESOME session by @getsupernatural's @leannepedante & @jonnyahdout on Building Community in VR
facebook.com/watch/?v=55785…

~20k subs
Created destination to interact w FB groups
Everyone is an athlete motto
Connect to community
Recognize leaders
Amplify community
Share workouts

120/ Lots of details on Graphics Rendering
facebook.com/watch/?v=27657…
15-min Graphics Rendering on Quest 2: Rémi Palandri
10-min Efficient Vulkan Tone Mapping in UE4: Zac Drake
5-min Improving Tone map Subpass Performance: Loren McQuade
10-min Performance Profiling Tools: Jimmy Lee

121/ New Application Spacewarp technique gives up to 70% additional compute resources + 1/2 normal frame rate by @colorgas & @neelbedekar
facebook.com/watch/?v=29685…
Latency improvements in phase sync, late latching, & positional timewarp.
@OpenXR extension:
khronos.org/registry/OpenX…

122/ Improving Visual Quality of 2D Content in VR by Irad Ratmansky
facebook.com/watch/?v=10218…

Lots of specific recommendations for getting text to look good in VR with a series of different tradeoffs listed in a couple of engineering checklists.
Also has some citation refs at end.

124/ How Creators & Brands Build AR Experiences
facebook.com/watch/?v=60735…

Panel discussion of AR creative process with 3 pillars of Brand & AR Campaign Strategy: AR Creator, AR Agency, & Partnership Brands: Eugene Soh, Magdalena Luna-Cebula, Primus Nair moderated by Dan Moller

124/ Creator Success: Getting Started Building a Career in AR moderated by Hali Hoyt
facebook.com/watch/?v=89250…

Leighton McDonald, Portal Eight
instagram.com/late_fx/

Alexis Zerafa, @millchannel
instagram.com/alexiszerafa

Navjeet Chhina, @geniusventures_
instagram.com/geniusventures…

125/ Rapid Fire: Oculus Answers Your Top Questions
facebook.com/watch/?v=57801…
New features to be delivered via OpenXR extensions starting with v31.
Questions on Accessibility, marketing, measuring success.
Time is now to start developing.
Big opportunity for story-based games.

126/ There's some shifts in @Meta's enterprise VR approach detailed in this post, "Evolving from Oculus for Business to Quest for Business"
developer.oculus.com/blog/evolving-…

FAQ for Upcoming changes to Oculus for Business
business.oculus.com/faq/

More details here:
oculus.com/blog/connect-f…

127/ To wrap-up my initial pass of coverage of #Connect2021, here's a supercut of Zuckerberg saying, "experience."