GDC is here once again, all next week we'll have boots on the ground bringing you the latest VR/AR news. Held annually in San Francisco, Game Developers Conference has undeniably been a focal point for VR the industry, and as augmented reality continues to heat up, we expect it to be increasingly important for AR as well. Here's a look at what we're expecting to find next week from the top VR/AR companies. HTC Vive Pro [caption id="attachment_73447" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] When it comes to HTC, most everyone's mind is on the Vive Pro. The headset, revealed at CES in January, boasts improved resolution, ergonomics, SteamVR Tracking 2.0, and more, but the company stopped short of announcing the price or availability of the headset beyond saying it would arrive in Q1. With GDC being the last major event in Q1, hosted just a week before the end of the quarter, and given the presence of HTC at GDC in years past, it certainly seems like the appropriate place and time to reveal the price and release date of the Vive Pro, if not a delay. HTC has said that the Vive Pro headset alone will be the first to launch (as an upgrade for those who already have Vive controllers and base stations), and that a full kit (headset with new base stations and controllers) will come later in the year. Given the timing, we expect to see HTC demoing content almost exclusively on Vive Pro headsets, and there's a good chance we'll see a few more experiences using the new Vive Trackers with SteamVR 2.0 Tracking. Vive Focus [caption id="attachment_75304" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Vive Focus, the company's first standalone VR headset, is a big deal for HTC because beyond the headset itself, the company is building its own platform to run it, called Vive Wave. For now though, Vive Focus hasn't been announced for sale in the US, and so while we expect to find it floating around GDC, we don't expect any major announcements, though HTC will probably be encouraging mobile VR developers to take a look and consider bringing their content to the platform. [irp posts="75269" name="Hands-on: HTC Vive Focus Brings Best-in-class Displays to Standalone VR, For a Price"] Sessions HTC is holding one sponsored GDC session, VR Best Practices: Maximize Your Audience with New VDA2 Winners, where the company is bringing a panel of developers, who were recipients of the recent Viveport Developer Awards, to talk about building VR titles for distribution across multiple VR platforms. Valve Don't Expect Valve's VR Games or Knuckles [caption id="attachment_54602" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Valve Knuckles prototype | Image courtesy Shawn Whiting[/caption] When it comes to Valve and VR, two things immediately come to mind: 1) the fact that the company has said they're developing "three full [VR] games, not experiments," and 2) the Knuckles VR controllers that the company revealed all the way back in 2016. Unfortunately, we don't expect to see either at GDC. For one, the timing doesn't seem quite right. As a private company not pressured by shareholders or a board, Valve tends to work at their own pace and not show anything until they've reached their own internal milestones. And considering HTC has confirmed that Knuckles won't ship with the Vive Pro, it seems Knuckles is still a ways off. We expect that when Valve reveals a near-final version of Knuckles, it'll come at the same time (or near to it) that they reveal their first VR title, which probably won't happen until later this year, if not 2019. So What Will Valve Be Showing? If we're unlikely to hear anything about Valve's VR games or Knuckles, then what's the company doing at GDC? Well of course VR only makes up a small portion of their business, so I'm sure Valve will be busy promoting its non-VR content, but in years past they've dedicated a large portion of their GDC space to VR demos from third-party developers building SteamVR content, and we're expecting something similar this year. Oculus Santa Cruz [caption id="attachment_69584" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Oculus[/caption] Santa Cruz is Oculus' high-end standalone VR headset. It's still just a prototype for now (hence the weird name), and Oculus has been coy about a release date and price, let alone what the headset will ultimately look like and do when it's ready for consumers.. We're not expecting to hear major news about Santa Cruz at GDC, as it still seems a little too early in the headset's development lifecycle. However, Oculus is planning an in-booth session to talk to developers about developing for Santa Cruz, honing in on what makes it different from building VR apps for Gear VR and the Rift. [irp posts="69576" name="Hands-on: Oculus Santa Cruz Prototype II & Controllers"] Oculus Go [caption id="attachment_69619" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Oculus[/caption] Oculus Go, the company's low-end standalone VR headset, was announced back in October, 2017, and is said to be launching in "early 2018." With Q1 quickly coming to an end, it seems that the headset ought to be launching soon, but Oculus hasn't offered an update on the launch of the $200 headset. With the Go already spotted in retail packaging, it seems possible that we could see the first hands-on demos of Go at GDC, but still tough to say, especially with rumors that the headset will launch at Facebook's F8 conference in May. New Games Years ago, Oculus used GDC to show their latest hardware, but more recently they've used the event to focus on content. The company has confirmed we'll see some brand new VR demos at GDC, but whether or not it'll be all third-party content or new Oculus Studios content is still unknown. Oculus' 6,000 square foot booth on the GDC expo floor is among the largest in the event's South Hall. As for more info on known titles, we expect to hear more about Marvel Powers United VR, and hope to hear some additional info about Echo Combat, though the latter is less likely. Sessions Oculus is holding two sponsored sessions, one of which promises an overview of Oculus' roadmap for 2018, and the other is about designing VR content for player embodiment. Beyond those two sponsored sessions, the company is planning a host of other developer-focused sessions, some at their booth, and some in the traditional GDC session setting; you can find their full breakdown of sessions here. Continued on Page 2: Sony, Magic Leap, LG & Microsoft » Sony PlayStation VR [caption id="attachment_55461" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] In years past, GDC has been an anual milestone for PSVR. It was the place where the headset was first revealed (back then called "Project Morpheus"), and at GDC in the years following the company showed the progress it had made on the headset right up until its launch in October 2016. With the headset now on the market for 1.5 years, PSVR 2 seems to be drawing nearer to the horizon, but it isn't entirely clear how long the company will wait until overhauling its VR hardware. Given how expensive the headset is (more costly than the console that runs it), we expect Sony to extend the headset's lifespan as long as they reasonably can, otherwise they risk making it obsolete too early, and potentially angering their core VR early adopters. This year at GDC, Sony doesn't appear to be hosting a PlayStation VR press event, as they have done in years past, so we don't expect to hear anything about a PSVR 2. We're also not expecting to hear any major first-party VR game reveals until closer to E3 this Summer. Sony will have a sizeable 6,000 square foot booth at the event, but it isn't clear how much of it will be dedicated to VR compared to other PlayStation ventures. Sessions Despite what seems like a muffled GDC for PlayStation VR this year, Sony is hosting a sponsored session dedicated to the device, titled Developing on PS VR: You Are Not Alone. While this session is focused on exploring the ways that Sony's SIEA Developer Technology Group can help developers who are making content for PSVR, they seemed to have missed the alternative interpretation of the session's title. Curiously, the session also promises a "special treat"—Richard Foster from Sony's R&D West team will be on hand to "share some 'proof of concepts' and experiments they are conducting with PS VR." We expect those experiments to be largely software-based, so don't expect hardware development news, but it still sounds interesting nonetheless. Magic Leap [caption id="attachment_72962" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Magic Leap[/caption] After years of teasing, Magic Leap late last year finally offered a glimpse of the AR headset it’s been developing, the Magic Leap One. Details on what the headset can actually do are still light, but in a sponsored session at GDC, four of the company’s top creatives are promising to offer a “deep dive on developing for spatial computing,” which could reveal more about how the device’s capabilities apply to game design. Indeed, the company's CEO is happy to tease: https://twitter.com/rabovitz/status/975167527289610241 As for the session, in past presentations, Magic Leap has managed to talk about spatial computing game design while steering completely clear of actually talking about the product they’re building. This time around, with the company’s headset at least revealed on paper, we’re hoping Magic Leap’s GDC session will offer more substantive information about the headset’s capabilities as a medium for game design. [irp posts="75239" name="Weta's Concept First-person Shooter is Really Coming to Magic Leap One"] It’s significant that this is a GDC “sponsored session,” as it means Magic Leap paid for the opportunity to share the information with GDC attendees (as opposed to standard sessions which are unpaid and go through a selection process). There’s a chance this means they have a more specific goal in mind for the session beyond simply waxing about the possibilities of AR in general. The price and precise launch date of the Magic Leap One headset is still unknown, and we don't expect that GDC will be the place that information will be revealed, given the company's atypical approach to marketing. LG LG made a surprise reveal of a new SteamVR headset at GDC last year. Boasting higher resolution displays than the Vive, and an interesting ergonomic design, it promised to be the Vive's first direct competitor on SteamVR. We went hands-on with the LG headset at the time, but since then the company has been incredibly tight lipped. Aside from a trademark sighting suggesting the headset could be called "UltraGear," there's been almost no new info gleaned about the headset. Back when it was revealed, the headset's specs and design could have put it ahead of the pack. But one year on, with the Vive Pro about to launch with an even higher resolution and improved ergonomics, the LG headset's unique value proposition seems to be fading fast, unless it has significantly evolved since then (or can outprice the Vive Pro). That makes GDC 2018 feel like a make-or-break moment for LG's SteamVR headset—if the company still isn't ready to even mention the headset during GDC, we can only imagine that the project may have changed course or scope at some point over the last year. It's possible that the company has opted to wait for the Google and LG VR display project to mature, but hard to say. Consider this one a wildcard as far as an appearance at GDC is concerned. Microsoft Windows VR [caption id="attachment_67582" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Microsoft[/caption] Windows VR headsets launched from a slew of Microsoft partners late last year, but so far the platform doesn't seem to be generating much enthusiasm from VR early adopters or developers, even as the headsets are seeing steep discounts. At GDC, Microsoft is hoping to court developers toward their "Mixed Reality" platform, in a sponsored session titled Garnering the Best Performance and Integrating the Unique Features of Windows Mixed Reality: In this session Microsoft will discuss the tips and tricks on how to create or convert an existing VR application to leverage the unique features of WMR and maximize performance. The session will focus on the best practices obtained from the 10/17 launch titles for WMR. Microsoft will cover everything from builds of Unity, integration of plug-ins with UWP, asset optimization, shader optimization, identifying bottlenecks for GPU vs. CPU to using various tools to understand performance optimization on lower end spec machines. Aside from developer outreach and education, we don't expect major news from Microsoft regarding Windows VR at GDC. HoloLens [caption id="attachment_70589" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Microsoft[/caption] HoloLens continues to see strong traction in the enterprise space, and Microsoft has been effectively nurturing that momentum. It's pretty clear that the company is developing a HoloLens 2, but GDC is an unlikely place for its reveal given that HoloLens isn't presently positioned as a gaming device—not to mention that Microsoft's own Build developer conference is coming up quickly in May. For that reason, we're not expecting anything big from Microsoft regarding HoloLens at GDC 2018, but that doesn't mean we aren't looking forward to the next HoloLens. - - — - - Predictions will meet reality next week as Road to VR heads to San Francisco to bring you the latest and greatest from GDC 2018. What are you most looking forward to at this year's GDC? Drop us a line below!