Quest 3’s Augments characteristic is being rebuilt from scratch as the unique method “wasn’t ok”, Meta’s CTO has confirmed.
Augments had been announced at Meta Connect 2023 by Mark Zuckerberg when launching Quest 3. They had been described as “persistent spatially-anchored digital objects” in your bodily area. Examples proven in a library screenshot included a clock, music participant, and portals to your favourite video games.
Videos leaked in January revealed that Augments may even have interactive parts, reminiscent of a playable miniature pinball sport, an interactive calendar, and a pet-like digital plant that may be watered.
However in an ask-me-anything (AMA) session on Instagram yesterday, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth mentioned the initially deliberate technical structure “wasn’t ok”, so Meta went “again to the drawing” board to rebuild it “from scratch”.
This is Bosworth’s full assertion:
“The factor we introduced at Join, we had been enjoying with it in January and we determined it wasn’t ok. It was too held again by some system structure limitations that we had, ended up feeling extra like a toy, and it did not actually have the ability that we expect it wanted to ship on the promise of what it was.
And so we made a tricky determination there to return to the drafting board and mainly [do a] fully totally different technical structure ranging from scratch, mainly, together with truly a a lot deeper set of modifications to the system to allow what we wish to construct there.
I believe we made the appropriate name. We’re not going to ship issues we’re not enthusiastic about. But it surely did restart the clock. And so that is going to take longer than we had hoped to ship.
And I believe it is worthwhile, I believe it is the appropriate name. However that is what occurred.”
The leaked movies from January revealed the unique Augments structure would use Meta Spark Studio, an software for Home windows and macOS used at present to make AR filters and experiences for the digicam in Instagram, Fb, and Messenger. Spark Studio helps importing and animating 3D belongings, and implementing superior performance with JavaScript. But it surely appears this wasn’t appropriate to ship compelling Augments.
The “a lot deeper set of modifications to the system” Bosworth refers to is probably going referencing the “remodeling” UI infrastructure he teased in a previous Instagram AMA session again in February.
Meta Is “Reworking” The 2D UI “Infrastructure” Of Quest
Meta is “reworking some of the core UI infrastructure” of Quest to improve 2D app positioning & multitasking.
Meta’s objective for Augments is prone to ship on blended actuality apps that may run alongside one another and 2D apps like Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional apps can within the visionOS Shared House. Presently 3D apps on Quest are totally siloed and can’t run alongside others, and this severely limits the platform’s multitasking potential.
The brand new Augments method may very well be associated to the brand new “spatial app framework” Meta announced in April. The corporate did not go into a lot element about what precisely it is going to be, apart from to say “builders will have the ability to use the instruments they’re already accustomed to to carry their cellular apps to Meta Horizon OS or to create fully new blended actuality apps”.
Meta Working On Framework To Port 2D Apps To Horizon OS
Meta is working on a “spatial app framework” to make it easier to port existing mobile apps to Horizon OS.
![](https://www.uploadvr.com/content/images/size/w1200/2024/04/2D-apps-in-Home.png)