Just ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (commonly known as E3) earlier last week, we spotted a trademark application for “Direct Reality“, which was something related to gaming. And that is all we knew about the trademark until date because Microsoft didn’t give the said topic any stage time at its event.
Redmond had previously declared that it would neither talk about virtual reality nor augmented reality at E3 and it surely did the same. We thought that “Direct Reality” would be talked about on stage because of the timing of the leak but it was the not the case. But, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has finally stepped up and talked about the same in a recent interview.
Direct Reality, as confirmed by Spencer, will act as the middle (interconnecting) layer between software and VR headsets. It will enable any VR software to work seamlessly with head mounted display. This means we’re talking about the very hot trend of interoperability here, which is a concept suggesting that one device can work with another similar but different device.
Spencer further continued to dole out some details of the initiative stating that Microsoft was presently working with leading VR and gaming giants such as the Facebook-owned Oculus and Valve respectively. They’re all working together to develop this middle layer, a standard that’ll probably be based on Windows 10, for VR and AR headgear.
The primary objective of Direct Reality is to unify the platform, the experience of being able to access a virtual or augmented reality through any head mounted display. This is the same concept as in you do not need different monitors to play the different types of games.
This software platform will also allow tech giants to curb the significant problem of fragmentation in this burgeoning ecosystem, where hardware players such as Lenovo, Acer, Acer and several others are ready to bring their consumer-focused headsets to the market. It is, however, unclear when the Windows Mixed Reality Platform will make it to other HMD manufacturers. Direct Reality should be able to help tech giants develop a large enough platform to interest both developers and users.
