Huge demand for Unity developers in coming mixed-reality world

Just read an interesting interview with tech evangelist Robert Scoble.

Q&A: Tech evangelist Robert Scoble predicts mixed reality devices will largely supplant smartphones

Interesting stuff. My own reading of the tea leaves agrees with his. There will come a day when pretty much everybody has magic glasses, enabling them to see all sorts of layers on top of the real world. These layers will come to be nearly as "real" as reality itself, and anybody who doesn't wear will be missing out on a major part of our social world.

And, this guy claims, all this is going to begin this year, with major new product lines from Apple kicking off a rapid development war.

He also predicts (and again, I agree) that Unity developers will be in high demand, building all that mixed-reality content. It's not just about games, either — every store, every business is going to want virtual functionality. Things that passers-by can view to learn about or virtually try out products, assistance in fixing things, virtual graffiti, who knows what.

I think it's going to be bigger than the cell phone revolution. The stuff we build will be out there, in the real world, looking just as solid and stable as the book on my desk. It boggles the mind.

And, hooray for us! We're poised to get in on that early. And I'm not shy about saying so, because there is going to be more work there than we can possibly do. Even counting all the late-coming posers who will jump in after the winds of change start blowing.

 

You talkin bout me Joe!!™

I like your optimistic outlook about the near future.

 

No way, man — you're on board the train before it's even left the station!

(Er, which I guess is the normal way of riding trains, but you get what I mean...)

 

Still waiting to see if this train is actually going anywhere though.

There is one prediction from the article I agree with. The tech is going nowhere until Apple decides to make it happen.

 

If and when Apple decides to make it happen I'm more than willing to put money on it being done through phone integration similar to Google's Tango. Don't expect any headsets or the like from Apple because headsets are functionally one of the least elegant things ever made.

 

I can confirm I just landed a job from an agency cold call looking for a local unity dev doing mixed reality in a field completely unrelated to gaming.

Unity is already popular in non gaming applications, but it's about to explode with vr being native and Microsoft strongly supporting hololens in unity.

 

I think it has to be headsets (glasses), or it's not really happening at all; nobody's going to peer through at the virtual world through a little 3° FOV window, when they could have it all around them.

However, unlike the Hololens, I do think Apple is likely to offload all the processing to the phone. They'll make that headset as light as they possibly can, more like sunglasses than like Hololens (and this helps with battery life, too — something that will become a real issue when people start using these all day). The latest iPhones are ridiculously overpowered for their current uses, but this makes good sense if they're planning to drive mixed-reality glasses with it.

 

Congrats! I'm thinking of adding "mixed reality" (or maybe "augmented reality" — not clear which term is going to catch on yet) to the shingle I hang out in front of my (virtual) door, too.

 

In the last few months I've already talked to two companies who want to do AR initiatives and are very excited about it, one of which is a Fortune 500 company. I think it's going to get more traction than VR has thus far.

 

People are already peering at things through a little 3º FOV window as we speak. The eyes are already there, which makes the prospect of AR built into phones far more appealing of a prospect. People carry their phones everywhere, landlines are diminishing in sales, phones even replace watches for a lot of people. And, unlike a headset, a phone is a cost you already ate.

I'd say it's more likely that headsets are the worst thing for the future for the same reason smart watches are barely a thing still after numerous price cuts: they don't have the raw convenience or accessibility of a phone.

 

I agree. I've had opportunities lately to spend some time with a Vive lately, as well as a Hololens, and the experience is quiet different. I see VR maybe being a big thing (finally, after 30 years of false starts!) for serious gamers, much like game consoles are today. But AR is going to be a thing for everybody, like cell phones are today.

It won't be an either/or thing — it'll be, everybody uses AR, and some people also use VR.

 

That last statement is a bit funny, though. I expect in maybe 5-10 years, we'll all have our magic glasses on all the time, and the kids will be like, "what, to find something you you had to pull something out of your pocket?!?"

I get what you're saying though, that AR right now means on the phone. No argument. But if Apple announces a headset this June, well, that'll change everything in short order.

It's different from smart watches, because let's be honest, a smart watch just doesn't change your world that much. If you get a ton of texts, maybe it's nice to glance at your wrist rather than pull your phone out, but it doesn't enable you to do anything different in kind from what you could do before.

But an AR headset opens up a whole new world (or more accurately, a whole new layer on the existing world). That enables all sorts of new applications. We are already used to hearing things (musicians, podcasters, etc.) that aren't really there; soon we'll be seeing things that aren't really there either. Looking at images of them on a 5-inch 2D screen just isn't close enough to the experience of seeing them in the world, in full 3D, to be a plausible substitute (once the latter becomes widely available).

Anyway... always in motion, is the future. But that's what I see.

 

Unless those magic glasses come with a price of $100 with a phone contract renewal, I kinda super doubt that. Phones are ridiculously accessible and don't come with any of the caveats that any sort of headset tends to, like, for instance, needing glasses already and not being able to stack them without looking like a complete tool.

Mark my words, Apple won't release a headset. It just doesn't gel with any of their product philosophies.

 

Fixed that for you. My youngest nephew isn't three yet and he's already using a computer better than many adults.

Agreed, but only because I believe they'll create glasses instead of a complete headset. The HoloLens isn't sleek and it isn't fashionable. Apple will want to create something that people won't look embarrased to be walking around in or that won't get in the way.

 

Speaking of which - google was working on this for a couple years.
Whatever was the reason for google glasses not going further than concept? Why is google glasses not a 'thing' right now?

 

Look up "glasshole". I don't think the general public is yet ready to be recorded by any stranger. I think the Google glass is put on ice or they are developing it for the industry like people working in warehouses.

 

I am getting inquiries from major car companies, railroads, contractors, infrastructure, medical marijuana, new social network startups and educational contacts about consulting how to maximize AR and VR for their industries for training, tracking and advanced industry specific technologies. Gonna have to train the sheepdog and cockatoo to code soon.

 

It's also not a consumer device yet. So it's basically a glorified prototype. Very functional and the next step will be to make it practical. One of the original iPad prototypes as nearly an inch thick:

http://gizmodo.com/5927173/heres-the-real-original-prototype-of-the-ipad-in-all-its-fat-glory

 

Alright - thanks for that. LOL
However - isn't this one of the 'things' all this AR/VR wearable device stuff will have to deal with going forward.
Who thinks the all mighty Apple will not make a comfortable (google glass like) device - without all the abilities of a standard cell phone?

This must be something everyone working on 'the next' is struggling with. How far is too far for instant record-able live action and content, mixed reality?

Maybe with a google glass 'like' device - the world will be littered with scramblers, so the glasshole fear will be reduced. Every public bathroom and tons of other areas around the world would have a micro chip scrambler (or whatever tech) - to keep people from peeping and being creepy - while still allowing for the wearable instant 'overlay' of AR into the world.

 

Whatever it's, I think Apple is tied financially to iPhone so any new product in the short-term could be some glasses extension to the mobile like Watch.

It's kind of boring spending so much time looking into the small screen, every hour at day and night. It won't be replaced but It's time to jump forward!

 

I suspect it's not just about what goes in in "private" places. If you were out eating dinner and saw someone a few tables away facing your direction, with their phone up and pointed towards you, wouldn't that be a little uncomfortable? Technically it can happen now, but it's pretty obvious. With something like glasses, it becomes more surreptitious and, likely, subject to either regulation or backlash (however small or large, like the "glasshole").

I wouldn't be surprised if the use of recording devices on glasses was mandated to have some audiovisual cue.

Nothing but conjecture, by the way.

 

Glad i learn't at the right time

 

Partly because Glass didn't do AR. It was just a little display floating in the corner of your field of view; it had essentially zero knowledge of the world around it, and couldn't create images that integrate with that world.

And then, yeah, there's the creepiness factor of having a camera on and pointing at people around you all the time. Some rumors have it that Apple's glasses may not include a camera for this reason (though it would still have some sort of high-res depth sensor, without which AR is impossible).

And yeah, I do think Apple is going to make whatever it is as an extension to the phone. So when you need to take pictures or videos, you'll still bust out your camera as you always have. But when you want to see all the additional layers on top of the world... you'll do that through the glasses.

(No doubt you'll also be able to do it, crudely, through the phone if you're unfortunate enough to not have the glasses yet... but that will be a short transition period in the grand scheme of things.)

 

Funny, when I said that in another thread recently, everybody jumped down my throat. As long as AR can manage full-blackout to do double-duty as VR, nobody will talk about the distinction any more.

If Apple is the company that makes it happen, my guess is it'll be a marketing coup, not a tech win (e.g. the Apple crowd seems to automatically buy into anything Cupertino makes and declare it The Best Thing EVAR... but I openly admit a strong personal bias against Apple).

I've been reading a lot about the latest HoloLens plans and patents and MS is really stepping up their game. They plan multiple price points, they've fixed the narrow FOV problem, and they have some interesting new eye-tracking techniques in the works. I just have a strong feeling they're lightyears beyond the competition, and that current-generation HoloLens is like when the military unveils some new spy plane. Sure it's all high-tech and amazing... but then you find out it's been flying for 30 years.

I've been trying to find out how to get a demo for my wife somewhere local to us. I was able to very briefly take a peek through one at Unite LA (somebody just walking by while my wife was in line for coffee or something). I'd have liked to have spent much more time with it as well.

I don't think we'd buy the current gen, but next gen, we're probably buyers.

I'd kill for AR (not VR "blindfold-mode") screens all around me. That use-case alone sells it for this keyboard jockey.

 

On the other hand... when AR-everywhere goes horribly wrong:

 

Funny thing occurred to me. Apple might not want it to happen. After all who needs an Apple Watch, an Apple iPod, an Apple iPad, and so on if the Apple AR device can do all of the same functionality for you? I mean aside from the status symbol that some people use it for.

 

Sadly - marketing/advertising would be a complete forced fed experience as this video imo realistically shows throughout. Opt out for only a high fee/month.
Ads = the bane and eventual downfall of our industry unless we become the resistance! Terminator. lol

 

But the following year, the Apple AR 2 will be 0.5 ounces lighter. And the year after that, the Apple AR 3 will have a higher resolution. And the year after that, the Apple AR 4 will have beveled edges, ad infinitum. I'd say ad nauseam, but that's probably more apt for VR than AR. They'll still have people lined up to get the latest and greatest model.

 

Now with enhanced VR Retinal scanning output display!

 

Not to mention, Apple AR 1.0 will be priced to replace revenue lost on other gadget sales. No price is too high to secure your position in the Jobsonian Hip-o-Sphere.

 

This is damn horrifying.

 

Thought about also posting in the big gamification thread we had a few months back... the advertising is insane but the gamification part is much worse (to me).

 

Basically, it pretty much reminded me of what I heard of Huxley's Brave new World.

A noisy world that assaults all your senses at once all the time, and at the same time half of the thing you see are fake.

Definitely not the future I'd like to live in.

Hell, even "spend your life in a VR" or "Surrogates" scenario are better than this.

Basically, I'd prefer if all the new a shiny tech was used to make humanity reach greater intelligence or greater wisdom. And not to reduce people to the level of hamster in a hamster wheel chasing a virtual carrot.

Of course, hamster wheel scenario is far more likely to happen. And that's why that video is horrifying.

 

How about NOT buying into the hype, listening too much to futurists, "industry experts", or worst of all, analysts (ugh), and just wait and see if any of this promised for 2017 will actually have happened by 2020?

Its all fine and dandy to point to the POTENTIAL of AR and VR. It has potential, and a ton of it for sure. But the hype that is currently building around it is very real.
Worse yet, analysts live of hyping stuff to high heavens hoping to be the ones to predict a very unexpected scenario when the hype becomes reality, yet somehow elegantly finding a way out if the hype bubble inevitable bursts... apple just couldn't source the parts... The tech has been developed but got shelfed because of cost... the prediction DID become reality, just 2 years late.


I think SOME people will be pretty disappointed in 2 years when VR and AR development is still in its infancy, and more and more people will see that while both technologies seem to be doing well, they are filling niches more than replacing cell phones or other outlandish stuff like that.

Remember when "analysts" predicted that cell phones would replace PCs? Or Desktops would be replaced by laptops?
Well, in the end the Desktop PC is going strong still, even though everyone and their dog has a cell phone. And I still lack to see how VR would appeal to EVERYONE outside of some niches (more of an additional choice outside of it), and how AR could ever reach the mass market outside of certain niches (like the pokemon game that certainly was a big thing for a while, because it fitted well in that small niche of "gotta catch em all expieriences").
I know quite a few people that would rather die than strap a VR Device to their face because they don't want to have anything strapped to their face (and they probably don't care for VR either way), and I know many that would rather turn off all AR features as they think these would distract them too much.
Hell, I know many that dislike car HUDs because they feel they get distracted by it. Maybe they would change their opinion if they tried it.
But how long will it take until all these sceptics, which might make up quite a substantial amount of the general public, have tried AR and found that its less distracting than they thought? 5 years? 10 years? Or will we have to wait for a younger generation that has less preconceived expectations of such tech because they grew up with it?
Can apple-esque hype alone overcome these fears and prejudices, and people change their opinion on AR just because it is cool and in at the moment?


I went off on a tangent though....

Will demand for Unity devs only get stronger in the future? Yes, but I would expect AR/VR only adds to an already increasing demand given how Unity has closed the gap to other engines in the PC space, and how multi-platform building will only become more and more important with more relevant console platforms this generation (with nintendo probably releasing a console again that cannot just be neglected), and mobile platforms getting strong enough to allow some porting of older PC or Console games now.
If you want to be at the forefront of technology, VR/AR is a fine place to be in at the moment. Just keep in mind: "hope for the best, expect the worst"... be prepared that the "analysts" pushing the hype currently might be wrong, and they might not hype the technology for anything else than their own best interests.

 

Speaking of revenue, Apple had a record yesterday for highest stock price ever and was valued 700 billion USD. Was a Mac guy for two decades but the new clown at the top has no idea what he is doing. I am a developer and do not want my iPod videos hidden in an unaccessible folder, I do not want to Duplicate, Rename and Save when Save As worked grandly for two decades and was totally intuitive to a new user...etc. etc. etc. I want my OS X computer back and not some huge computing extension for an iGadget. I have a 2012 base iMac and it wakes up from sleep in about 0.5 seconds. I have a honking mega PC with the latest in the top performing components and it takes 5 seconds to wake up after a mouse jiggle. That being said i hope Apple puts out some decent VR or AR hardware so I can make more money servicing that sector of business and content creation..

 

I was reminded of an anime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractale

 

Don't forget AR5 where they remove the lenses and force you to daisy chain 4 dongles plugged into your nostrils and your iDevice to beam the images straight to your corneas.

 

Great book along these lines: The Peripheral by William Gibson

Also there's the whole porn industry thing that will find a use for VR/AR...

 

They already are. Checking if they're adapting to a new technology can be one way to know if it will have a chance.

 

Hey guys I went down to a local indie dev demo night because they had some free beer and nachos and there were 2 guys walking around, they were basically scooping up anyone who worked with unity (I didnt even bring a demo or have any expreicence with AR and I got a part time job making augmented reality games ). So I guess start going to local game meet ups cause they are already starting to look for people