Here at Pebble Studios, we have been working in Virtual Reality & Immersive tech for a number of years – both as a tool to enhance our creative production process and to deliver highly immersive experiences for our clients.
So on a recent business trip to New York, we couldn’t resist getting our hands on the new Vision Pro – Apple’s first foray into the world of headset based spatial computing.
And it’s safe to say – from the very first demo we were sold… (quite literally, as we purchased the headset there and then!) And with the AVP making its way to UK shelves from next month, we wanted to share our experience with it in the context of commercial use in the advertising industry, specifically events & experiential.
There is no doubt that this is a game changing piece of technology and we’re confident that even with just Apple throwing their hat in the VR ring we will see a new and excitable audience build in VR. But, for how we mostly use headsets on client’s immersive projects, there are definitely some downsides too.
So, let’s dive in:
Firstly, let’s start with the positives:
For me the beautiful design and weight of the headset instantly draws you in to the experience, it just feels that much more premium and powerful than the likes of competitor headsets and that feeling really mentally sets you up for something special.
As you load up the AVP you are walked through the set up and using gestures as controls, and whilst it takes a little getting used to, not having to use controllers is a real benefit for me. It just makes the whole experience that much more intuitive and less gimmicky.
Whilst the basic experiences already available on the AVP are not that dissimilar to preloaded apps on a Quest 3, in fact they’re actually less ‘immersive’ and interactive than preloaded MR games like First Encounter – but the fidelity of the graphics & footage as well as the superior passthrough rate of the real-world sim makes the whole experience of using the AVP feels much more emotive and engaging.
When demo’ing the experience I like to start by walking through the photos app – both to give new users a chance to get to grips with the UI and to show how spatial photography and video works on the AVP. I also find that playing with multi-screen positioning is really interesting and definitely starts to paint a picture of how exciting spatial experiences could be in the future.
The Apple TV ‘Experience Immersive’ demo is brilliant – there is nothing particularly ‘new’ about this type of VR experience, but I still found it utterly captivating. And this really excites me in terms of content creation and storytelling in the AVP. At Pebble Studios we have created VR experiences for all manner of purposes and have pushed the graphics capabilities to the max, so I feel very excited about the possibilities with the AVP.
It is fair to say however that the AVP is currently set up as more of a personal entertainment system. It might be because the headset is not actually available for use outside of the UK (but quite easy to get around in terms of set up) – but the development opportunities are more limited to us than on Oculus headsets for example.
One app that we are using to import our own environments and 3D models is Spline – a program that we already use for Web animations, but in the AVP – this allows you to experience some pretty cool interactions with bespoke 3D.
Now – I am a full card carrying member of the Apple Fan club, and that may be swaying my opinions on this. Perhaps lifelong Android fans will be able to see past this gloss and intuitive UI? But despite my love of the Vision Pro – there are clear disadvantages of the headset vs the competition, Meta in particular – when it comes to how and why we are normally bought in to develop immersive experiences for brands…
Traditionally the vast majority of VR + MR experiences we are commissioned to create are for experiential activations – events, festivals, trade shows and the like. These normally cater for multiple headsets in order to get as many people through an experience as possible, and this raises a few big challenges for the vision pro:
Firstly, the price point. At £4,000 this is clearly going to be a barrier to entry for both individuals looking to purchase the headset for solo use and for brands to bite the bullet and invest in the headsets for events. For context, you could pick up almost 10 Oculus Quest 3’s for the price of 1 AVP.
Secondly, the current development capabilities. However, I am confident that as the software for AVP develops, and the headset becomes available outside of just the US – the ability to create your own experiences in MR and VR will become more straight forward and accessible.
BUT, the biggest issue by far for me, when it comes to using the Vision Pro in Marketing & Advertising events is the ability to share headsets.
Unlike with competitors, where headsets can be easily switched between users (with just a simple wipe down and readjustment of head straps) – because the vision pro is so advanced, it sets up lens placement and hand tracking based on the specs of the person who originally set up the headset. The entire experience is built around them.
Whilst others are able to use the Vision Pro, the ‘host’ must engage ‘Guest Mode’ in order for the AVP to adjust its lenses and tracking appropriately for new users – now, this process is very useful for demo’s as in Guest Mode, new users must walk through how gestures and selections work – in order for it to set up its hand tracking – which is a great little tool to get new people comfortable with how it all works…
HOWEVER, this poses real issues for events and experiences as, as it stands, it would be impossible to share the headset experience with the number of people you would need to.
So – for us at Pebble. The Vision Pro is absolutely a game changing piece of technology and we really believe it will encourage more creators to build content for spatial, but it might be a little while before we start seeing it being used in the mainstream events world. We’ll be doing a lot of r+d and testing on the AVP but we’ll also be taking a lot of learnings from how captivating some of Apple’s immersive demos are to bring into commissioned, brand experiences that we are working on in other headsets.
The launch of AVP is clearly a big thing for the spatial computing industry and will undoubtedly make the concept of this future entertainment more mainstream
Who knows what plans Apple have in store for the Vision Pro – but given how quickly the pre-orders sold out in the States – I wouldn’t be surprised if a ‘non-pro’ version of the headset makes its way to us at some point too, following the usual product offering structure of Apple products. And perhaps the ‘Apple Vision’ (or whatever they end up calling it) at a cheaper and more attainable price point will require a simplification of headset build, making the headset easier to share and less bespoke to the ‘owner’ – and therefore ultimately more useable for our purposes with client projects.
Time will tell! But, for now, we’re still in the honeymoon period with our Vision Pro and will continue to push its capabilities for production and experiential marketing activations. But whether you’re a Spatial/VR believer or sceptic I would highly recommend trying it out if you get the chance.