Seattle startup Pluto VR has brought its virtual reality streaming platform PlutoSphere into Early Access, which gives interested players a chance to check out and influence a pre-release version of the software.
Initially announced in February 2021, PlutoSphere allows its users to stream VR applications to a headset without the need for a local computer, in order to dramatically reduce the cost of entry for virtual reality. Instead of building a new rig around VR compatibility, you can theoretically just get a headset, then run everything from every library you own via data streaming.
PlutoSphere is currently compatible with the Oculus Quest and Quest 2, with plans to support other headsets and mobile devices in the future. It also requires a 5 Ghz WiFi 6 Internet connection, 50 Mbps of bandwidth, a Steam account, and less than 100ms ping to an Amazon Web Services region.
In exchange, you get what Pluto VR advertises as a hardware-agnostic, open-ecosystem platform that lets you access VR apps from your Steam, Epic Games Store, and Oculus libraries, all in one place via data streaming.
The idea behind PlutoSphere, according to Pluto VR co-founder Forest Gibson, is to “break down the walled garden” that currently surrounds the virtual reality and spatial computing scenes. Pluto VR advertises PlutoSphere as a “bridge between the open PC ecosystem and standalone VR hardware.”
“SideQuest is a more open platform that supports developers innovating in the XR ecosystem,” Gibson said in a press release. “Now VR users around the world can access PlutoSphere and gain the power of PC VR without having to buy a computer.” Pluto has been working on PlutoSphere in a private alpha test for the last year, in conjunction with a group of early adopters and testers.
Oculus/Meta users can grab PlutoSphere via SideQuest as of Feb. 2. The platform is free to use in Early Access — a funding model used for apps in pre-release stages — for a limited period of time each day, although users can extend that period by purchasing Pluto tokens.
Pluto VR was started in 2015 by Gibson, Jared Cheshier, former Disney animation executive Jonathan Geibel, and PopCap co-founder John Vechey. Its other projects include an eponymous communication service for VR environments, and Metachromium, a spatial browser that lets you open web browser apps as an overlay running on top of any other VR game.
According to the NPD Group, sales of VR/AR gear more than doubled during the 2021 holiday season, with slightly lower overall growth in the market for the full year. It’s still considered a niche in the wider video game industry, but with multiple companies now focusing on augmented/mixed reality applications, i.e. smart glasses, and the Metaverse, the VR market is growing much faster than anyone would’ve expected in 2020.