The tech giant states that the newly launched platform will play an important role in the growing metaverse.
Metaverse
In the recently held Facebook Connect conference, the front-runner company launched its new vision of a proposed metaverse through a series of promising announcements. One of the major highlights of these proposals was the launch of the Presence Platform, a collection of new tools that will allow users to move between the worlds seamlessly. Facebook hopes that this will eventually revolutionize communication and help developers build more connected, engaging experiences.
Mixed reality tools
In addition, to keep the people in the metaverse connected, the Presence Platform is also offering an exciting collection of mixed reality tools. You can use these tools to create a vast range of MR environments, along with various interactions and audio experiences. Along with the metaverse toolkit that already exists, these tools will potentially serve as the foundation for the prospects of Facebook’s Metaverse.
Building MR experiences
The MR tools available on the Presence Platform are collectively dubbed Inside SDK. They let you build MR experiences that yield a real-world sense of presence. Earlier this year, Facebook delivered the exclusive Passthrough API Experimental worldwide, which aimed to encourage developers to build trailblazing MR content. In no time, developers from around the world delivered some extraordinary mixed reality experiences. This also showcased the potential of the groundbreaking Oculus Passthrough technology.
Access
In another official statement released this week, Facebook has stated that everyone across the world will have access to Passthrough API technology by their next release. This will let them develop, test, as well as ship MR experiences using these capabilities.
Facebook Spatial Anchors
It is also announced that the developers will have access to Facebook’s Spatial Anchors. They are essentially world-locked frames of reference that allow users to build content and permanently place the virtual experiences in physical spaces. These virtual objects tethered to Spatial Anchors will remain fixed in their designated real-world spaces across multiple sessions. In addition, there is also Spatial Anchors Experimental, a cutting-edge technology that lets you build Spatial Anchors in specific 6DoF positions, track them in relation to VR headsets, persist the created Spatial Anchors in-device, as well as retrieve the list of presently tracked Spatial Anchors.
Room-scale MR experiences
By using Spatial Anchors and Passthrough API together, creators may gain access to a suite of additional Scene Understanding capabilities. Using these capabilities, you will be able to create intricate scene-aware experiences easily that can interact with your real-world environment with the help of the Scene Model. The Scene Model, again, will provide a somatic and geometric representation of the physical space, letting you create room-scale MR experiences.
Data privacy
The technologies are designed to take special care of data privacy. The Passthrough API, Scene Understanding, and Spatial Anchors are all built in a way so that developers can build MR experiences without having to use raw images or video footage from their Quest Sensors.
Oculus Platform SDK and Presence Platform are designed to work in collaboration with each other. Facebook has also created a sample experience titled The World Beyond for those interested in the next-generation development.
