Meta announced it’s partnering with Lightstorm Vision, James Cameron’s 3D film studio, to produce spatial content across multiple genres, including live events and full-length entertainment.

The agreement includes the production of live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring “big-name IP,” Meta says in a recent blog post, noting that Quest will be Lightstorm Vision’s the exclusive MR hardware platform.

Meta says the collaboration with Lightstorm Vision will include the co-production of original stereoscopic content, but also be geared towards “improving content creators’ ability to make high-quality stereoscopic content through the use of advanced tooling, including employing AI.”

The multi-year partnership was struck after Meta CTO and Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth demoed some of the company’s latest hardware to Cameron.

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“I was amazed by its transformational potential and power, and what it means for content creators globally,” Cameron says. “I’m convinced we’re at a true, historic inflection point. Navigating that future with Meta will ensure ALL of us have the tools to create, experience, and enjoy new and mind-blowing forms of media.”

Cameron is best known for his writing and directorial work on a slew of box office hits, including The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Titanic (1997), as well as Avatar (2009) and its sequels.

The filmmaker is also a long-time supporter of 3D, having helped kickstart the rash of 3D films in the 2010s with the development of the Fusion Camera System, which was used to capture stereoscopic 3D for a number of films, including Avatar, Tron: Legacy (2010), and Life of Pi (2012).

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Hussain X

    "
    but also be geared towards “improving content creators’ ability to make high-quality stereoscopic content through the use of advanced tooling, including employing AI.”

    "

    Great news. I love watching immersive content. I quoted above as you can already use freely available AI tools to create stereoscopic content. I use IW3 (using Depth Anything models) to convert 2D films and and TV shows into 3D. Depending on model used, you can get 30 fps (small), 20 fps (medium) or 10 fps (medium) conversion rate. This means for a 24fps video, you can watch in real-time whilst it converts, no waiting, or give a 25% head start then start watching whilst rest converts to watch without waiting , or wait 2.5x the length of video then watch it. Even the small model transforms the viewing enjoyment multiples times compared to the to flat 2D. I usually go with medium for TV shows and large for movies. For a 1 hour TV episode I let it convert for 15 minutes then I start watching. For a 2 hour movie, I leave it overnight and it's done in 5 to 6 hours. I use a 4070 and i5 12500.

    To me IW3 (along with Depth Anything) is one of the best tools to ever release for entertainment usage. It's an essential piece of software I can't do without. So I sometimes mention it when opportunity presents so others can enjoy it too, plus it's completely free. Given it can be done real-time too with with very good results, I'm hoping streaming sites will allow integration with such software in future using an app or they can just convert it with the best model out there and make it available for streaming alongside original 2D version.

  • I've always wanted a bigname director to do a full-on, full length VR feature film.

    Not the world's biggest Cameron fan.
    But at least his name will garner attention and perhaps entice the others.

    []^ )

    • kool

      I think this is more like tools to make movies. Like walking around a scene placing virtual cameras to get good shots

  • Glenn Hancock

    I’ve been playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and am absolutely blown away by the fact that it doesn’t support VR. I mean James Cameron and Avatar specifically practically invented 3d movies, and they’re game wasn’t in 3d or VR… what were they thinking?

    • Andrey

      They weren't thinking anything. Maybe except the money they've got for licensing their IP because it was a 100% Ubisoft's game and except for the name/setting Cameron wasn't involved. Actually, if we will forget that adding VR to "flat" games is not that simple (especially for big open world games), your question works for any Far Cry or even Assassin's Creed game (even more for AC, because Ubisoft already released VR adaptation of it, they could release every AC with optional VR mode from now on, right?!). But Ubisoft kind of gave up on VR, at least for now, so we probably won't see anything VR related from them in the near future.

      • Hussain X

        UEVR/Luke Ross/Reshade 3D has shown it's simple. Gamepad based VR is still VR. VR doesn't always have to be motion controller tracked in first person. Even 3D gamepad based gaming is very immersive compared to 2D.

        • Andrey

          With all due respect, but it’s not. VR is about interactions with your own hands and/or body (f.e. evading threats like in Batman). Watching at everything from the first person perspective is very important, but it’s still only 50% of the “immersion”. Even games (and it’s gamedesigners) like Moss know that – basically you play it like any 3D platformer most of the time, yet you still need to do things with your own “godly” hands to feel that you are part of the world. And when Quill – the main heroine of Moss – calls for your attention and wants to “high five” you, it would never be as satisfying to just “press X to high five” as when you do it yourself with your own hand. In 99.9% games with UEVR/Luke Ross/Reshade 3D you can’t achieve that, and when you can it’s junky as *&^% like when both of your virtual hands are tied to the weapon, you reload by pressing a button instead of doing it manually, there are problems with invisible/clipping parts of objects (because original developers never planned for anyone to take a look at those objects from different sides) and so on.
          Based on that, the main problem with flat to VR ports is that flat games are generally designed with flat gaming in mind. There are neither things nor functionality behind those things for player to interact with when VR is “enabled”. If it was so simple, then GTA SA VR would’ve never been cancelled and all those proper VR ports – Half Life 2 VR or any Team Beef project – wouldn’t take so much time to be created.
          And please don’t get me wrong – if it’s works for you, then it’s great! I really envy you and all people like you who can enjoy playing so many cool projects with such, imo, limited functionality. But for me and some (probably much more than you think) other folks playing flat games in “bad” VR just to, well, either “support” VR I guess or maybe justify the purchase of VR headset is not an option.
          Like, f.e. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 released just recently. I am a HUGE fan of the series and truly think that Into the Radius is just a bleak parody of it. And it was made using UE5, even Praydog himself made a profile for this game as far as I know. You can’t imagine how much I would pay to play this in proper VR for the first time or even play it again for the second time! But after looking through videos of how all of it “works” (spoiler: it doesn’t, not to mention that it tanks performance to unplayable levels even on powerful PCs), I just completed it traditionally. And only if someone will create a proper VR mod for it (becuase developers promised to add full-fledged modkit in the future), I will gladly play it again “in VR”.

  • spirr9986

    Yes its about time

  • PatientPhantom

    Stop pushing apple terminology. The term "spatial" is not used even once in the mentioned blog post.