OpenXR 1.1 from the Khronos Group to simplify cross-platform XR development
The OpenXR 1.1 specification is now available immediately, signalling a significant advancement in cross-platform augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), also known as XR. The Khronos Group is an open consortium of leading industry companies developing advanced interoperability standards for 3D graphics and XR.
OpenXR 1.1 integrates popular API extensions directly into its core standard, therefore streamlining the creation of more robust and effective XR applications. This improvement promotes a unified development environment by minimising disparities between platforms and reducing complexity for developers.
The creation of this open standard, which has gained widespread adoption in the XR sector, has reached an important turning point with OpenXR 1.1, stated Alfredo Muniz, Head of the OpenXR Working Group. According to him, the collective’s goal is to allow developers to focus on crafting ground-breaking immersive, cross-platform experiences by streamlining development while promoting innovation. The Working Group’s and the larger XR community’s joint commitment to improving and advancing the OpenXR standard while adapting to the changing needs of a quickly changing ecosystem is embodied in OpenXR 1.1.
Major hardware suppliers including Acer, HTC, ByteDance, Meta, Canon, Magic Leap, Sony, Meta, Qualcomm, Varjo, Microsoft, XREAL, and Valve, offer compliant OpenXR deployments, demonstrating the broad acceptance of OpenXR 1.1. All of the major gaming and rendering engines—Godot, Autodesk VRED, StereoKit, Blender, Unity, NVIDIA Omniverse, and Unreal Engine —also support OpenXR.
The Local Floor feature, which provides a new reference environment ideal for standing-scale material without requiring calibration processes, is one of OpenXR 1.1’s primary features. Stereo with Foveated Rendering, an additional update, improves rendering performance for XR headsets, which is essential for managing high-resolution displays without putting too much strain on the GPU.
Further enhancements to the development platform’s robustness and dependability include explanations of system behaviour, enhanced interaction profiles, and enhanced error handling. These linkages have also been reflected in the OpenXR Conformance Test Suite, enabling uniform implementation across all conformant platforms.
The Khronos website and the GitHub OpenXR Registry offer further details regarding the OpenXR 1.1 standard, including all of the extensions that have been put into practice and the improved functionality they bring, along with any new updates.
