The Waiting Game
With the arrival of my Vision Pro just around the corner I find myself consuming just about every piece of media and information I can find on it. Some of my favorites have been people just playing with the device to learn what is even possible. In order to prepare myself though, a good portion of this has been the WWDC videos and developer documents. Ultimately this has left with me three major questions.
macOS Virtual Display
This feature is probably one of the things that will make the device most useful on a day to day basis. Now head mounted displays are nothing new with the technology dating back to as early as 1962 (though consumer options not making general availability till probably the late 90s). What makes this feature for the Vision Pro is the Apple ecosystem and I might go so far as to say that if you don't already own a Mac, the Vision Pro is not for you. This technology leverages Apple Continuity to make it happen (which is great for security) but leaves it with one glaring flaw. Apple bills this as a productivity and entertainment device; for many the worlds of work and play are separate or at least for our mental well being we try to keep them as separate as possible. In order for Continuity to work and therefore the Vision Pro virtual display feature you must be signed into the same Apple ID. Since this is a personal device there is no multi user space it's setup for one account. So effectively one of the devices I use 50% of the time is now locked out. Enter the Developer Strap (currently only available to paid Apple developer accounts) which adds a usb-c port to the device. Mostly this device is to be used for lowering transfer times to the Vision Pro when developing your own apps. It seems however that while using the strap the virtual display functionality also utilizes this hardwired connection. If this is indeed the case it's reasonable that the same Apple ID wouldn't be needed. This will be relatively simple to test and I'm quite surprised I haven't been able to find a confirmed report one way or the other.
Volumes
My next two questions both revolve around Volumes. For Vision Pro these are SwiftUi scenes for displaying 3D content. The first question is relatively straight forward and maybe just due to my unfamiliarity with Apples documentation (while I am a developer I have never made anything for Apple systems). What are the size constraints of Volumes? Mostly I'm interested in the max since Volumes run in shared space which allow other app Windows and Volumes to be open and running along side. This leads to my second inquiry about Volumes. What exactly happens in the system when the users view collides with or even enters the object filling the volume? My assumption is that some form of clipping or back-face culling happens. If this is the case is it possible then to reverse the normals on the 3D models and engulf the user allowing them to see it from the inside. Now obviously being able to do this is also dependent of it being able to reach a size capable of that. One might question why this is something we'd even be interested in. Well as of this time (to my understanding) creating Environments is not available to developers, they have to use Spaces. What does this mean and why does it matter? Environments are full immersion experiences (meaning your view could be changed to sitting on Mt Hood or the Moon) created by Apple that run in shared space; so again multiple other apps Windows or Volumes can be open and running at the same time. A Space is also a full immersion experience created by a developer but they run in what's called full space making no other apps available. Now if we go back to the possibility of reversing the 3D models normals and engulfing the user, this could potentially allow us to create a sort of skybox in shared space effectively simulating (albeit probably poorly) Environments until maybe the day comes along Apple allows us to create our own.
All in all this is just scratching the surface of things I am curious about with the Vision Pro. The possibilities are looking bright and I'm excited to have the opportunity to explore them. If you have the answers to any of these or questions of your own you'd like to have explored, I'd love to hear them.
