Oculus revealed a new Passthrough API that will allow developers to create mixed reality experiences for the Quest 2 headset. The experimental technology is expected to arrive in an update to the software development kit (SDK) used to make apps for the company’s hardware.
Passthrough is currently used to allow Oculus Rift S, Quest, and Quest 2 owners to see their surroundings without removing their headsets. This can be useful if someone needs to answer their phone while they’re in VR, for example, or make sure they won’t bump into nearby furniture.
This experimental new Passthrough API would greatly expand the feature’s capabilities. Oculus said that developers will be able to use the API “to build and test apps that seamlessly blend the real and virtual worlds and open up new possibilities for mixed reality experiences.”
The company said it expects the Passthrough API to power software related to productivity, gaming, and “Co-located Social Presence” to “allow users to be both engaged in your virtual content and able to interact with people and pets in the same room, at the same time.”
There will still be some limits. Oculus headsets weren’t necessarily designed to offer a full mixed reality experience, so just like the existing Passthrough feature, apps that rely on the Passthrough API will only show the wearer’s surroundings in black and white by default.
Oculus said the difference is that the Passthrough API will allow developers to modify that monochromatic view with additional VR layers, apply custom styles, and project the Passthrough capture onto virtual surfaces. Those changes could make up for the technology’s limitations.
But there is an additional caveat for the Passthrough API: It’s only available for the Oculus Quest 2. The Rift S and original Quest will continue to be limited to the basic Passthrough feature.
Interacting with someone’s physical surroundings could pose a new privacy risk, but Oculus said “apps that use Passthrough API cannot access, view, or store images or videos of your physical environment from the Oculus Quest 2 sensors” because they’re all processed on-device.
Oculus said Passthrough API currently works with the Unity game engine, “with support for other development platforms coming in the future,” and that “the production version of Passthrough API is targeted for later this year.” More info should arrive via the company’s developer forums.
