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The Zuck really doesn't want to let go of the MetaVerse does he?
Semi related, is horizon worlds still a thing? Is it being developed? Are there active users?
Rendering takes a few hours means humans are building it at least partially.
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VRML was one of my early computing interests. I’m actually excited for more ways to share 3D spaces with folks!
Meta is the Yahoo of current platforms. It happens to all of them eventually...
This one is actually quite interesting: there's direct uses for any ability to rapidly extract digital representations of physical spaces.
As far as I can tell, this technology isn't novel. It's just Gaussian splatting from the looks of it.
A fundamental problem with Metaverse is that their parent companies (Facebook, Insta, and as far as Whatsapp it's a clear antitrust case) don't work

People don't see posts from friends. The site spams you to death. They hijacked your email address, and replaced it with a facebook.com address. They've lied rather a lot about things generally

And that company is now the one presenting a Metaverse/VR/AR/whatever

It should be DOA just based on reputation, never mind the technical merits

I'm eager to see this become more widely available, at least once such spaces can be shared. Not yet available to me, but hopefully soon.
so that is why they werent giving access to the color cameras in oculus 3 to apps

i want my point cloud scanner dammit

Somewhat related is 3D / LIDAR scanning tech of overlapping photo captures using Matterport: https://matterport.com/

It's popular with real estate agents. Not quite "virtual reality" but it also doesn't need expensive glasses. It does seem like future smartphones with AI may be a decent cheaper substitute for $6000 Matterport cameras.

As a home-buying shopper, Matterport on a listing is fantastic and makes me 10x more interested in the property.
I just hope we’ll be able to download and keep our files, rather than have them hold hostage… it would be nice to use this as a personal archival of houses and pass them down like a family album.

Now there’s a sad sad thought - imagine if Kodak required monthly subscription to vote your photos

This is the first feature which makes me kind of excited for VR. I live away from my country and my parents for over 20 years and I’d love to be able to sit in my parents’ living room, or have them sit in mine and share a moment together. FaceTime is already great, but I can imagine this will feel more intimate.
Agreed. Both my parents are getting older but live in different cities quite far apart from each other and me. Being able to virtually spend time together would be good if it’s realistic enough. During Covid I got into the habit of playing VR games with my father since I wasn’t able to physically visit and he was isolated. Not quite the same as being there physically of course but it helped a lot. Something both of us looked forward to.
parents of that age are usually averse to that kind of tech
Imagine scanning a cooking courses and be able to move in the space to watch cooking technique in any angles, would be awesome
That would be magnitudes more data i think. As cheap as storage is i don't think anyone is ready for that.
I learned to cook from 360p Youtube videos in 2007 and don't see how watching preparation from a different angle would make a difference.
Its hilarious to me how people in these comments still give Meta the benefit of the doubt and think the core feature of this is anything other than blatant data harvesting.
Hmm I swear I saw something like this demoed. I think it was an independent thing but also think Apple has it too with their VR headset.
I'm sort of embarrassed to ask this, but what is the point of this (and I'm genuinely asking)?

I get that it can scan a physical space and then I can see a digital reproduction of that space on VR goggles...but then what? Do I just stand there looking around the space?

On one hand, meta has a bad reputation for being a toxic pip factory where employees can be laid off any time. On the other hand, they are consistently coming out with innovations in VR/glasses at a time when the industry is going crazy over openai funny money. Are toxic work practices actually good for innovation?
Initially read this as hyper escapism but then realised it wasn’t about AI, just 3D.

Strange how all the major technologies atm are concerned - at least partly - with escaping reality.

VirtuGood Technologies has been selling this technology for decades. Nothing new to see here.
The article misses that people have been doing this sort of thing for years at this point. The innovative part is making it easier to scan the room: https://scaniverse.com/quest
I don't want Meta knowing about every object in my home, seems creepy to me
I can just see it now - Trump, Netanyahu and Zuckerborg teaming up to provide Gazans with VR headsets running videos of virtually reconstructed Palestine. Genocide, what genocide?