Oculus will Allow Developers Create Mixed Reality Experience

Facebook has announced a new API that will allow developers to incorporate video from the Oculus Quest 2’s sensors into their games and applications, creating a mixed reality experience. With the Passthrough Application Programming Interface, developers can also customize how it ends up looking to the player, apply effects, and even have the real world show up on specific surfaces.

Facebook’s announcement includes examples of how the API could enhance productivity software by allowing integration of real-life keyboards and desks, and how games could include your real-life furniture for enemies to hide behind. The company said that the API was only for Quest 2 when they were questioned about compatibility with the first-generation Quest.

The company says that the image processing for the API is done on-device and that applications using it won’t be able to see or store the images from the Quest 2’s sensors. Facebook is adding the experimental version of the API to its upcoming developer tools, and it will be available first to programmers using Unity to build their software. Facebook does promise that the API will be getting support for other development platforms in the future.

Facebook has broken a promise made by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey when he sold the company to the social network in 2014 that the VR headset would not target you with ads. The Oculus was launched in 2012. It was purchased by tech giant Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey said you wouldn’t need a Facebook account to use Oculus. Yet this change was introduced last year to come into place for all users by 2023. He also promised Oculus would never flash ads at you and has said since that he believed this at the time.