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Comment by dwallin | Hacker News Reader

One major problem with the Vision Pro as a devkit is it's extremely locked down. The only significant AR experiences you can create are those already anticipated by Apple and compatible with their privacy expectations.

IMO this was a huge mistake. This is a completely new form factor, not an established market. You need people doing significant experimentation, and to be able to create compelling new experiences that your in-house staff haven't even dreamed of. It's fine if you have a user-friendly default, but there should be some way to opt into a professional mode that opens up more possibilities for novel experiences.

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They just announced full WebXR support

It's locked down as it's the only device with the features it provides. So if you want to use those features, your designing for the one device.

OpenXR says hi.

Um, okay. I have never heard of this, so for others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenXR

After that, again, if only a single device has features that no other device has, what's this "open" going to do for you?

Uh, all established VR headsets support it?

I mean the support is technically in the browser, not the VR headset - but still...

If they don't have the sensors....

I'm not talking about VisionPro supporting OpenXR. I'm talking about OpenXR having the support for the sensors. If it has it, that's impressive since no other headset has the same sensors to the level of the VisionPro

OpenXR supports cameras, IR, LiDAR, and LED sensors - everything that the VisionPro has. Whether or not it supports the specific sensors Apple chose is entirely up to Apple.

Great, where's your OpenXR app that takes advantage of the VisionPro's sensors to make a great example of how amazing OpenXR truly is? No? Where's anyone else's?

Open XR supports sensors like the apple vision pro has. They never said the vision pro supports it.

I don't own one so I can't verify, but the linked Wikipedia article already makes me doubt it can, as safari isn't based on chromium.

I.e YouTube let's you watch immersive 3d 180° videos right in the browser (though very few are available on the platform, as almost nobody got VR headsets). There are also other smaller indie games.

> Um, okay. I have never heard of this

Then maybe you shouldn't make assumptions about what is and isn't possible with VR and AR. OpenXR is literally ground-floor level stuff, if you follow VR in any capacity outside Apple marketing. Apple can cover stuff like this while also supporting unique features; they literally just did it with WebXR.

This makes me laugh. Clearly, you know nothing about me to suggest I know nothing other than Apple's propaganda about VR. But you go ahead and keep making assumptions about people. The connections you miss because you assumed wrong will be on you

Google Glass was pretty locked down too iirc. Still was a neat device.

Google Glasses were significantly lighter and cheaper since they had the same form factor as regular glasses people wear, not some heavy Robocop headset tethered to a brick in your pocket.

How Apple imagined that clunky form factor would be appealing to general consumers outside the most avid afluent fans is beyond me. If they wanted it to be a devkit they should have just market it and sold it at a masive discount directly to app developers unlocked with no strictions so they can experiment in finding that "killer app". Unfortunately Apple's way too corporate, proud and stuck up to think liberally like that.

Google didn't hide the fat that Glasses was mostly a devkit for tinkerers and pretend it was a ready-to-market product, and it served that purpose for that niche.

Google Glass was pretty locked down too iirc

And it's gone, too. Gee, I wonder if there's a pattern here.

Hololens 2 was the best experience of all of them, also shut down

The issue is a hardware miniaturization one, I used think whoever creates the first real smart glasses is in an advantageous position, but the likes of Apple and Google can likely roll their own quickly once that time draws near. They already own the software stacks, which is really what you want to own. AR glasses will have dozens of comparable vendors when they break the wall down

Regardless of locked-down-ness, I think Google Glass—and if it had seen continued development, real spectacles with some sort of miniaturised electronics and a HUD on the lenses—would've been so much more useful than any giant, heavy VR headset.

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