Galaxy Map (@[email protected])

I am gamifying #GaiaMission data and here is one project that I'm excited about: a galactic treasure hunt. It works on mobile, the web and in VR. You travel to star systems within 10 parsecs (33 light-years) and search for valuable alien artifacts. horizon.meta.com/world/65227603…

@RnaudBertrand Rutte was once widely respected as the Dutch prime minister. With the right wing VVD party, but pragmatic and problem solving. He would be a good NATO administrator with a different US president. Now he is just desperate.

I can't find words strong enough to express the amount of contempt Europeans should feel for this guy 👇 I started writing a long explanation why, but I deleted it because at this stage it's just so painfully obvious. You guys know.

The "Swan" is on its way. Coming Global in 2026. The next generation of PICO is here. #PICO #ProjectSwan #TechReveal

Of course everything I do with the Quest 3 already feels like magic but that has not sold enough devices to make Meta feel that VR has been a success for them. PICO's Project Swan promises a very light headset and enough text clarity to be a monitor replacement. Could that work?

I've started experimenting with VR development in VRChat using the Unity SDK. If you want to friend me, my VRChat id is kevinjardine.

@MERPTV A lot of the new "VR" headsets seem to be downplaying the VR aspect and focusing on creating huge virtual displays for work or entertainment. Disappointing but it seems like the market for 3D experiences is expanding slowly.

@MERPTV My guess is that successful VR developers for the next few years are likely to be developing high-end apps for job training, location-based VR experiences, or cheap disposable games. There will be a few solid PCVR games but they won't make a big profit.

As a Virtual Reality Content Creator it hurts to see the constant new releases of VR headsets, yet there is 0 progress made on the development and the increase of better made experiences than all of its predecessor’s. It feels like the 2 last years we went downhill fast.. 😑

@jhlucny @bmfshow I don't think Zuckerberg wants Meta to be remembered as just a Roblox competitor.

@jhlucny @bmfshow I believe that Horizon Engine has been worked on for several years so priorities may have changed during that time. Any way, even if Horizon Worlds is going to marketed primarily towards mobile in the near term I still think it will need to support richer VR experiences as well.

Boz sat down with Alex Heath for an interview and said the reason for the layoffs was that VR was growing less quickly than they hoped and he also mentioned Horizon as almost exclusively being mobile moving forward and hinted that they are moving away from Horizon in VR in total.n in my opinion that likely means we will see Horizon as a whole go away and the "Metaverse" vision of Horizon OS being the social backbone of Quest going away. Hopefully that means we see a better and more streamlined social system exclusive to Quest and meant for VR. This year could be a very interesting year if they actually start to pull away from Horizon in VR and shift focus to creating a platform with a better and more intuitive OS and UI that doesn't rely on the Metaverse horizon vision.

@girlandkat Yes, but only because I recognize your smile. The rest of your face is sunbeamed out.

Can you spot me? I have a sunbeam in my face.

There are a lot of detailed images in the article so it is probably best read on a larger screen.

I've put up the most ambitious article I've written on the Milky Way. The timing works out well because this year is the 75th anniversary of the detection of the 21 cm line, one of the events that started the Golden Age of galactic cartography. kevinjardine.dev/blog/post-16/

This is more of a choose-your-own adventure mobile game driven entirely by a JSON file. More on the game engine here: kevinjardine.dev/blog/post-14/

I've created a retro illustrated text adventure game that works on mobile, web or Quest VR headset. Can you retrieve the grixion? horizon.meta.com/world/82776560…

A new article on my site with links to a yet-again revised O-type star map and a summary of stuff I've written about IAU nomenclature for OB associations: kevinjardine.dev/blog/post-15/

My latest VR project is, paradoxically, a 2D text adventure engine. Play it here: horizon.meta.com/world/82776560… For more details and information on how you can create your own adventures using a simple JSON file, see this article: kevinjardine.dev/blog/post-14/ #GameDev #IndieDev

@bradneuberg @Lunayian @Heaney555 Since VR is currently associated with Meta, attacks on VR and VR funding are a sort of collateral damage.

@bradneuberg @Lunayian @Heaney555 Yes, something I've noticed for years. My assumption is that they see Meta as a competitor for advertising dollars and reflexively attack it relentlessly with whatever nonsense they think their audiences will swallow.

Analysts & journalists are significantly overestimating the significance of "up to 30%". That would just bring Reality Labs back to its 2021 spending - the Quest 2 era. But "Reality Labs Could Return To 2021 Level Spending" does not get the clicks of "META PULLS BACK ON VR".

The responses to this post are hilarious. Millions of people (mostly kids) play Gorilla Tag but social networks like X are dominated by the smaller group of Steam enthusiasts who often hate the Meta Quest standalone tech and Meta itself. So the post is a red flag to them.