Virtual Reality is about to take a new step forward with the introduction of new VR/MR headsets that promise to attract more people to experience what these technologies have to offer. One of the new headsets, announced as a “mystery product”, comes from DPVR, a company that has not delivered any exciting consumer solutions, despite its promises, so it will be interesting to see what this new announcement will bring. DPVR will be at CES 2025, showing the company’s products at Booth #15945 in the Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).
The Dream Air is a PCVR headset, and, according to Pimax, “borrows a lot of components from the previously announced Crystal Super, including the micro-OLED panels and pancake lenses — but packs this into a small form factor headset, to satisfy different use cases. It breaks with previous Pimax headsets, with a new design language, signalling the small form factor era for Pimax.”
The Pimax Dream Air is a 6DoF tracking PCVR headset with inside-out tracking by default but Lighthouse compatible if you’ve the Steam base stations. Pimax – the company will be at CES 2025 – reveals that the headset can become a standalone solution with the addition of Cobb, a standalone puck compute device being developed, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chip and a battery.
With a price starting at USD $1,900, the Pimax Dream Air will be available in May 2025, but the company is now taking pre-orders. Knowing Pimax’s previous history of announcing products that it does not deliver in time, and the many problems that users have with Pimax headsets, the Pimax Dream Air may be another example of as one user noted online… “Pimax being Pimax”.
Still, the Pimax Dream Air looks interesting, in terms of specifications and the fact that it promises to be a full-featured PCVR, with a DisplayPort interface for visually uncompressed images from the PC, which continues to be the best way to explore Virtual Reality. Will the Dream Air turn reality?
The third VR headset coming in 2025 is much more appealing as it marks the return of Samsung to the VR market, where the company left a good impression with its Windows Mixed Reality headset, Odyssey, released in November 2017, following an announcement in October 2017. The Odyssey was the company’s first VR headset release, designed to work with Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality… which is now dead.
Microsoft put an end to its own Windows Mixed Reality, which it promoted in 2016 – when the company announced that multiple OEMs would release virtual reality headsets for the Windows Holographic platform -, and officially “killed” in December 2023, when the company announced deprecation of WMR with complete removal in a future release of Windows 11 version 24H2 expected to arrive in late-2024.
What this means is that owners of one of the 10 VR headsets launched (from companies as Samsung, Lenovo or Acer) since 2016 – the last one of them being the HP Reverb G2 – will own a mere paperweight when they update Windows 11. It’s Microsoft being Microsoft…
With WMR dead, a new “universal” platform is about to be born, and the first VR headset designed for it is Samsung’s Project Moohan. In fact, Samsung Project Moohan is the first Android XR headset to make it to the market. And Google says that more devices are coming for the new operating system built for this next generation of computing, created in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm. Android XR combines years of investment in AI, AR and VR to bring helpful experiences to headsets and glasses, promising a platform to extend your reality to explore, connect and create in new ways.
Android XR platform supports OpenXR
Google says that the company is “working to create a vibrant ecosystem of developers and device makers for Android XR, building on the foundation that brought Android to billions” and that the preview of the new operating system made available to developers will allow them to start building apps and games for upcoming Android XR devices. Google also revealed that “Qualcomm partners like Lynx, Sony and XREAL, we are opening a path for the development of a wide array of Android XR devices to meet the diverse needs of people and businesses. And we are continuing to collaborate with Magic Leap on XR technology and future products with AR and AI.”
One important aspect of the new Android XR platform is that it will support OpenXR, which is a royalty-free, open standard that provides a common set of APIs for developing XR applications that run across a wide range of AR and VR devices, reducing the time and cost required for developers to adapt solutions to individual XR platforms while also creating a larger market of easily supported applications for device manufacturers that adopt OpenXR.
The Khronos Group, promoters of the OpenXR standard, said that “most major XR platforms have transitioned to using OpenXR to expose current and future device capabilities. Vendors with conformant OpenXR implementations include Acer, ByteDance, Canon, HTC, Magic Leap, Meta, Microsoft, Sony, XREAL, Qualcomm, Valve, Varjo, and Collabora’s Monado open source runtime. OpenXR is also supported by all the major game and rendering engines, including Autodesk VRED, Blender, Godot, NVIDIA’s Omniverse, StereoKit, Unreal Engine, and Unity.”
According to Google, “with headsets, you can effortlessly switch between being fully immersed in a virtual environment and staying present in the real world. You can fill the space around you with apps and content, and with Gemini, our AI assistant, you can even have conversations about what you’re seeing or control your device. Gemini can understand your intent, helping you plan, research topics and guide you through tasks.”
The company says that it is also “reimagining some of your favorite Google apps for headsets. You can watch YouTube and Google TV on a virtual big screen, or relive your cherished memories with Google Photos in 3D. You’ll be able to explore the world in new ways with Google Maps, soaring above cities and landmarks in Immersive View. And with Chrome, multiple virtual screens will let you multitask with ease. You can even use Circle to Search to quickly find information on whatever’s in front of you, with just a simple gesture.”
Android XR will also support glasses for all-day help in the future. Google notes that the company wants “there to be lots of choices of stylish, comfortable glasses you’ll love to wear every day and that work seamlessly with your other Android devices. Glasses with Android XR will put the power of Gemini one tap away, providing helpful information right when you need it — like directions, translations or message summaries without reaching for your phone. It’s all within your line of sight, or directly in your ear.”
Android XR: an open, unified platform for XR
Android XR is designed to be an open, unified platform for XR headsets and glasses. For users, this means more choice of devices and access to apps they already know and love. For developers, it’s a unified platform with opportunities to build experiences for a wide range of devices using familiar Android tools and frameworks.
One question remains, though: will Android XR become the “universal” platform for Virtual Reality experiences? Or will Google tire of it and add one more name to the list of abandoned projects, which includes Chromecast, YouTube VR, Google Cardboard, Google Daydream. VR180 Creator or Stadia. In fact, Google and Microsoft both have a proven track record of projects abandoned.
Still, with OpenXR supported, Samsung’s Project Moohan is, as the company puts it, “one of our most ambitious endeavors yet”, the first headset designed for Android XR. The name “Moohan”, meaning ‘infinity’ in Korean, connotes Samsung’s belief in delivering unparalleled, immersive experiences within an infinite space. According to Samsung, “equipped with state-of-the-art displays, passthrough capabilities and natural multi-modal input, this headset will be your spatial canvas to explore the world through Google Maps, enjoy a sports match on YouTube or plan trips with the help of Gemini. All these experiences come with lightweight, ergonomically optimized hardware designed to ensure maximum comfort during use.”
“XR has quickly shifted from a distant promise to a tangible reality. We believe it has the potential to unlock new and meaningful ways to interact with the world by truly resonating with your everyday lives, transcending physical boundaries,” said Won-Joon Choi, EVP and Head of R&D, Mobile eXperience Business. “We are excited to collaborate with Google to reshape the future of XR, taking our first step towards it with Project Moohan.”
“We are at an inflection point for the XR, where breakthroughs in multimodal AI enable natural and intuitive ways to use technology in your everyday life”, said Sameer Samat, President of Android Ecosystem, Google. “We’re thrilled to partner with Samsung to build a new ecosystem with Android XR, transforming computing for everyone on next-generation devices like headsets, glasses and beyond.”
First revealed in February 2023 when Google, Samsung and Qualcomm announced that they would co-develop an XR device, the Project Moohan headset continues to be a mystery in terms of specifications. All that is known right now is that it uses a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 processor, a more powerful version of the chip in Quest 3 and Quest 3S, suggesting it’s a standalone device, so quite different from Pimax’s Dream Air, a native PCVR headset. Still, as Project Moohan is compatible with OpenXR, it will also be easy to use as a wireless PCVR solution, as it will be able to run Virtual Desktop, the most popular software for wireless experiences on headsets as the Quest, HTC Vive or Pico 4.
Guy Godin, developer of Virtual Desktop, revealed to website UploadVR that bringing his native OpenXR app to Android XR “took only a few hours and the basics just worked out of the box”, adding this: ”Personally I think it’s refreshing to work with a platform that wants to collaborate with developers rather than one who tries to block and copy us. Grateful to have more options for consumers in the near future and I’m very excited to bring the best PC streaming solution to Android XR.”