Best Virtual Reality Podcasts (2025)

1
Horizon Worlds AI Asset Generation & Ray-Ban Meta Speech Translation 1:51:52

1d ago1:51:52

1:51:52

David Heaney and Ian Hamilton discuss: 1. Meta Horizon Desktop Editor Can Now AI Generate 3D Meshes & Textures 2. Meta Now Sells Quest 3S Refurbished For $270 Immersive Video 3. Insta360 X5 Improves The Quality Of The Handheld 8K 360° Camera 4. Horizon Worlds Now Supports 3D 180° Video For Events Like Concerts Smart Glasses 5. Ray-Ban Meta Glasses …

1
Horizon Worlds AI Asset Generation & Ray-Ban Meta Speech Translation 1:51:52

1d ago1:51:52

1:51:52

David Heaney and Ian Hamilton discuss: 1. Meta Horizon Desktop Editor Can Now AI Generate 3D Meshes & Textures 2. Meta Now Sells Quest 3S Refurbished For $270 Immersive Video 3. Insta360 X5 Improves The Quality Of The Handheld 8K 360° Camera 4. Horizon Worlds Now Supports 3D 180° Video For Events Like Concerts Smart Glasses 5. Ray-Ban Meta Glasses …

1
#1558: Series Director of “Adventure” Series on Apple Immersive Video and Grammar of 180 Video 59:40

7d ago59:40

59:40

Charlotte Mikkelborg is the series director of the Adventure series on Apple TV, which is shot on Apple Immersive Video and co-produced by Atlantic Studios (formerly Atlantic Productions) and Apple. I think it has the strongest storytelling released by Apple so far, and it also has some of the most innovative and cutting edge shots that really show…

1
Electronics Tariff Exemption, Apple Vision Pro 2 Leaks & Rumors 2:45:59

9d ago2:45:59

2:45:59

David Heaney discusses: 1. Sony Raises PS5 Console Price In Europe & Australasia 2. Quest 3S Is $270 For The Next Two Weeks, A $30 Discount 3. Trump Exempts Many Electronics From His "Reciprocal" Tariffs 4. A Developer Got PlayStation VR2's HDR Partially Working On PC 5. Nvidia's RTX 5060 Family Will Power Entry-Level PC VR From $300 6. REK Wants T…

1
Electronics Tariff Exemption, Apple Vision Pro 2 Leaks & Rumors 2:45:59

9d ago2:45:59

2:45:59

David Heaney discusses: 1. Sony Raises PS5 Console Price In Europe & Australasia 2. Quest 3S Is $270 For The Next Two Weeks, A $30 Discount 3. Trump Exempts Many Electronics From His "Reciprocal" Tariffs 4. A Developer Got PlayStation VR2's HDR Partially Working On PC 5. Nvidia's RTX 5060 Family Will Power Entry-Level PC VR From $300 6. REK Wants T…

1
PlayStation VR2 Eye Tracking On PC, Half-Life: Alyx First Scene On Quest 3 2:21:04

16d ago2:21:04

2:21:04

David and Kyle discuss: Civilization VII VR PlayStation VR2's Eye Tracking Working On PC Quest 3 Winning Best Inflight Entertainment Award Quest's Horizon OS v76 DaVinci Resolve supporting editing Apple Immersive Video the report claiming Apple Vision Pro 2 mass production has begun Pico Motion Tracker Waist Version Half-Life: Alyx's first scene be…

1
PlayStation VR2 Eye Tracking On PC, Half-Life: Alyx First Scene On Quest 3 2:21:04

16d ago2:21:04

2:21:04

David and Kyle discuss: Civilization VII VR PlayStation VR2's Eye Tracking Working On PC Quest 3 Winning Best Inflight Entertainment Award Quest's Horizon OS v76 DaVinci Resolve supporting editing Apple Immersive Video the report claiming Apple Vision Pro 2 mass production has begun Pico Motion Tracker Waist Version Half-Life: Alyx's first scene be…

1
#1557: Apple Immersive Video Behind-the-Scenes & Overcoming Fears with “Adventure” Series Athlete 53:32

18d ago53:32

53:32

Ant Williams is a freediving athlete featured in the third episode of The Adventure Series titled "Ice Dive" that's co-produced by Apple and Atlantic Studios (formerly Atlantic Productions). In the episode, Williams attempts to swim a world record distance 182 meters under ice, and I wanted to get some additional behind-the-scenes context on his ex…

1
Meta HUD Glasses Leak, Will Trump's Tariffs Drive Up Headset Prices? 2:07:51

22d ago2:07:51

2:07:51

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: - Will Nintendo Switch 2 Get VR? - Bigscreen Beyond 2 Still Selling Very Fast - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Getting Foveated Rendering - visionOS 2.4 - Virtual Desktop's new macOS update - Meta Is Now The UFC Technology Partner, Including For Quest - Meta HUD Glasses Price, Features & Input Device - Will T…

1
Meta HUD Glasses Leak, Will Trump's Tariffs Drive Up Headset Prices? 2:07:51

22d ago2:07:51

2:07:51

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: - Will Nintendo Switch 2 Get VR? - Bigscreen Beyond 2 Still Selling Very Fast - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Getting Foveated Rendering - visionOS 2.4 - Virtual Desktop's new macOS update - Meta Is Now The UFC Technology Partner, Including For Quest - Meta HUD Glasses Price, Features & Input Device - Will T…

1
#1556: “Currents” Boldly Defines a New Era of DIY 180-Degree Immersive Filmmaking with a Kit Under $5k 57:28

28d ago57:28

57:28

CURRENTS is a stunning debut from Jake Oleson as it pushes the grammar of 180 filmmaking to new heights. Oleson comes from the world of advertising and music videos, and he went through a rigorous pre-production process where he had actually already edited the entire piece before shooting any production footage by using still stereoscopic test phot…

1
#1555: Award-Winning Tabletop Animation “Oto’s Planet” Uses Unique Interactive Mechanic to Chose Perspective 41:48

28d ago41:48

41:48

OTO'S PLANET was being exhibited on the Quest at SXSW, but I had a chance to check out the Apple Pro Version ahead of the SXSW festival and I felt like I much preferred it. OTO'S PLANET picked up the second place prize at Venice Immersive, but I missed being able to interview the director Gwenael Francois there. I did manage to catch up with Franco…

1
#1554: “Cosmos in Focus” Contextualizes James Webb Telescope Images in Educational Immersive Planetarium Experience 44:37

28d ago44:37

44:37

Another Apple Vision Pro piece at SXSW 2025 was COSMOS IN FOCUS by Atlantic Studios (recently rebranded from Atlantic Productions). This was a short and sweet educational experience that allowed you to explore the imagery of the James Webb telescope, but it's both spatially contextualized in the night sky planetarium style. It is also fused togethe…

1
#1553: The Story of Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, and the Multi-Channel Video Translation of “Origins – Life’s Epic Journey” 47:38

28d ago47:38

47:38

There was an projection-based immersive experience called ORIGINS - LIFE'S EPIC JOURNEY that was originally formatted for a digital art museum in Germany called Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, but it was translated into a three-channel video installation that was showing in a small conference room at SXSW. I only saw the video version at SXSW, and so I hav…

1
#1552: Fly to You Explores Stories of Separated Families in Division of Korea Using Point Clouds & 360 Video 41:08

28d ago41:08

41:08

FLY TO YOU tells the story of Kang Songjeol who was separated from her childhood friends in the aftermath of the 1950 split between North and South Korea. Oral history interviews were captured in 360 video, and her childhood memories were recreated with point scans derived from Leici BLK360 LiDAR scans combined with Azure Kinect volumetric captures…

1
#1551: Breaking Down the Game Design of New Conducting-Inspired, Hand-Tracked, Rhythm Game “Symphoni” 58:45

28d ago58:45

58:45

SYMPHONI is a brand new hand-tracked rhythm game that was inspired by the mechanics of conducting a symphony. It was directed by Ingram Mao and developed by a number of undergrads and graduates of the USC Games program. This game also goes from mixed reality into fully immersive VR as you progress through each of the stages, but it's a really fresh…

1
#1550: “EchoVision” Answers the Question ‘What is it like to see like a bat?’ with Mixed Reality, AI, & Haptics 45:34

28d ago45:34

45:34

ECHOVISION is the latest experience from multi-disciplinary artist Jiabao Li that has three major parts. The first part is a mobile-phone based mixed reality experience that does a metaphoric translation of echolocation by using LiDAR to detect your immediate physical surroundings, and then reveals it with a rippling shader that is voice activated.…

1
#1549: Honey Fungus Cultivates Intimacy with Nature through Embodied Actions Inspired by Fungi and Queer Ecology 47:25

28d ago47:25

47:25

There were a number of pieces at SXSW that were centered around embodied interactions including HONEY FUNGUS, which is a series of interactive embodied experiments telling a broader story of cultivating intimacy with ecology. This piece leans more into embodied dream logic rather than clearly articulating a narrative journey, and I had a fascinatin…

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#1548: “1906 Atlanta Race Massacre” Uses Phone-Based AR to Volumetrically Tell a Forgotten History 46:11

28d ago46:11

46:11

1906 ATLANTA RACE MASSACRE is a phone-based AR experience directed by Nonny de la Peña that digs into the forgotten history of the violent attacks on the black community by white mobs incited by race-baiting politicians and newspapers. The arc of the story is told through the lens of black journalist Max Barber, who was chronicling the events as th…

1
#1547: Simulating One-on-One Conversations about Abortion Experiences to Change Minds with “The Choice – Chapters 2 & 3” 59:58

28d ago59:58

59:58

THE CHOICE returns to SXSW with the latest Chapters 2 and 3, and continues to capture intimate testimonials of women and couples who make the choice to abort their pregnancies. Chapters 1 and 2 take place in Texas where abortion is now nearly totally banned in all but a few situations. The legal specificity of these exceptions is ambiguous enough t…

1
#1546: How Indigenous Storytelling is Changing Non-Proliferation Narratives in “Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History” 54:38

28d ago54:38

54:38

WAYS OF KNOWING: A NAVAJO NUCLEAR HISTORY tells the story of the impact of uranium mining on the Navajo community. This film is a unique collaboration between a Navajo storyteller Sunny Dooley and nuclear nonproliferation expert Lovely Umayam where the story of US nuclear history is told through an indigenous lens. This means telling the story of h…

1
#1545: “Shelter” Observational 360 Documentary Shows Intimate Side of War via Ukrainian Citizen Bomb Shelters 39:36

28d ago39:36

39:36

SHELTER is a 360 video documentary telling the story of civilians in Ukraine seeking protection in bomb shelters. The film poetically transports you the many different ways Ukrainians are sheltering from small cramped basements to parking garages to hospitals. It also contrasts these underground spaces to the aftermath of war from bombed out buildi…

1
#1544: Traces: The Grief Processor Immersive Documentary Invites Groups to Learn About Grief 53:41

28d ago53:41

53:41

TRACES: THE GRIEF PROCESSOR is a multi-user interactive VR experience where four people are invited to poetically explore and learn more about their grief. Created by documentary filmmaker Vali Fugulin, it features didactic conversations about grief with ritualist Stéphane Crête who leans upon Francis Weller's Five Gates of Grief. Fugulin resists d…

1
#1543: “Proof As If Proof Were Needed” Enables Audiences to Collaboratively Edit Video Feeds via Embodied Movements 50:21

28d ago50:21

50:21

There were a number of projects exploring social dynamics within immersive pieces, including the special jury prize winner for the XR competition PROOF AS IF PROOF WERE NEEDED. This was a projection-based video project that featured video feeds from four different rooms in a home where a couple is searching for different objects. There are five aud…

1
#1542: Exploring the Paradox of Narratively Critiquing AI While Also Using AI to Make “The Last Practice” 59:57

28d ago59:57

59:57

The final AI-related piece this year was THE LAST PRACTICE, which I unfortunately have not had a chance to see yet because there were a number of technical glitches that prevented me from seeing it on site. I did however have a chance to remotely catch up with director Phil McCarty to talk more about the story and mechanics of the experience. Part …

1
#1541: Virtual Being Engages in Socratic Monologue Comparing AI to Sugar in “Sweet!” Installation 32:35

28d ago32:35

32:35

Another AI-based project at SXSW this year was SWEET! by Dutch designer and artist René van Engelenburg of DROPSTUFF MEDIA. This is a projection-mapped physical installation designed to facilitate a very brief conversation with an OpenAI LLM-driven virtual being about the parallels between how sugar is added to all of our food and how AI is current…

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#1540: Hacking AI for Black Representation & the Future Dreaming of Archival Collections with Tamara Shogaolu 51:03

28d ago51:03

51:03

Curating archives was a theme that I also explored in a conversation with Tamara Shogaolu about her piece ORYZA: HEALING GROUND that premiered at DocLab 2024. She was at SXSW showing the interactive AR story game ANOUSCHKA exploring the memories of her grandmother through various cultural artifacts (see Shogaolu interview with her about ANOUSCHKA f…

1
#1539: Wandering in Open World Doc Archives in Mixed Reality with SXSW XR Jury Prize Winner “Reflections of Little Red Dot” 56:27

28d ago56:27

56:27

The SXSW XR Competition jury prize winner REFLECTIONS OF LITTLE RED DOT had some really innovative mixed reality integrations, and was also a part of a new trend of cultivating an archive of material as an artistic practice. This piece by director Chloé Lee featured about 3 hours of documentary interview footage shot in Singapore starting in 2015 e…

1
#1538: Mixed Reality Calibration Innovations Hidden within “The Secret Life of Monsters: The Gateway Experience” 43:51

28d ago43:51

43:51

THE SECRET LIFE OF MONSTERS: THE GATEWAY EXPERIENCE is a mixed reality puzzle game created by Wallrus Creative Technologies as an immersive demo in order to feature the unique tracking technology they've created in order to better facilitate LBE mixed reality experiences on the Quest. They built a tracking system hidden within their custom tiling i…

1
1537: NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars) Uses Low-Bit Visuals & Hundreds of Spatial Audio Speakers to Tell a Moving Story 1:02:42

28d ago1:02:42

1:02:42

Andrew Schneider’s "NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars)" absolutely blew me away, and it was a story-driven, immersive art exhibit at the University of Texas Performing Arts Center that opened at the end of SXSW. It uses a cube of 4000 LED lights in a dark theater space to create a visual spectacle, but also to hide an incredible magic trick. There was an a…

1
1536: Spatial Audio Trends from d&b audiotechnik’s Artist Relations Manager Wayne Powell 27:06

28d ago27:06

27:06

Wayne Powell is the Global Artist Relations Manager for d&b audiotechnik, and he's been getting more and more interested in how independent artists and musicians are using spatial audio. He was in Austin, Texas with an array of 13 speakers enabling a spatial audio mix for Roman Rappak's annual Ristband mixed reality live performance. I had a chance…

1
#1535: Roman Rappak’s 4th Annual “Ristband” SXSW Live Music Mixed Reality Performance Adds Spatial Audio 31:19

28d ago31:19

31:19

On the last day of immersive exhibitions, I saw Roman Rappak's latest RISTBAND mixed reality live performance experiment, which now has a 4-year streak going at SXSW. This year he added an array of 13 d&b audiotechnik speakers that used wave field synthesis to create a spatial audio mix that was added to his mixed reality performance. I have Rappak…

1
#1534: Animated Immersive Dome Experience “Resolution: A Cinephonic Rhapsody for the Soul” Created as an Album Listening Party 59:52

28d ago59:52

59:52

The Polyphonic Spree band founder Tim Delaughter was looking for innovative ways to get people to listen to the entirety of his latest album called Salvage Enterprise. He was driving around a lot of speakers in his van and setting up pop-up listening parties around his home town when he thought there should be a better way to coax people into liste…

1
#1533: Web Developer Built “A Number from the Ghost” WebXR Adventures to Highlight His Music 46:23

28d ago46:23

46:23

Web developer Pete Adams created seven different really cool WebXR worlds for his songs featured in the A NUMBER FROM THE GHOST experience. His music was really great to listen to as I explored his abstract open worlds that were being modulated by different three.js effects. It's tough going to make it as an independent musician today, and so Adams…

1
#1532: Tenderclaws’ “Face Jumping” Explores the Frontiers of Eye-Tracked Locomotion in Poetically Surreal Short 44:01

28d ago44:01

44:01

Tenderclaws debuted their first piece in competition at SXSW with a short called FACE JUMPING, which was a surreal, seemingly open world experience with a number of interactive experiments leveraging eye tracking in novel ways. Tenderclaws has consistently pushed the edges of locomotion in everyone of their interactive narratives, and FACE JUMPING …

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#1531: In the Current of Being Uses Immersive Haptics to Tell the Story of Electroshock Conversation Therapy 39:52

28d ago39:52

39:52

IN THE CURRENT OF BEING is a powerfully-told story about electroshock conversion therapy using haptics, mixed reality, and a free-flowing dream logic structure paired with a documentary interview of a survivor. It was a deeply moving experience, and won the new Agog Social Impact Award at SXSW (more on that below). The director is BODY OF MINE's Ca…

1
Could Valve Deckard Use LCD Panels & A Quest-Like Chip? 3:19:28

29d ago3:19:28

3:19:28

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: VR Headset Prices Now Used To Measure UK Inflation Apple Reveals The Date It's Expected To Unveil visionOS 3 Vivo Vision Looks Like A Blatant Apple Vision Pro Clone Bigscreen Beyond 2 Selling Impressively Fast Already Pico 4 Ultra OS 5.13.0 Inside The VR Holodeck That Sells Real Estate Quest v76 PTC Lets You U…

1
Could Valve Deckard Use LCD Panels & A Quest-Like Chip? 3:19:28

29d ago3:19:28

3:19:28

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: VR Headset Prices Now Used To Measure UK Inflation Apple Reveals The Date It's Expected To Unveil visionOS 3 Vivo Vision Looks Like A Blatant Apple Vision Pro Clone Bigscreen Beyond 2 Selling Impressively Fast Already Pico 4 Ultra OS 5.13.0 Inside The VR Holodeck That Sells Real Estate Quest v76 PTC Lets You U…

1
Quest Usage Up 30%, Bigscreen Beyond 2 Hands-On 2:23:12

1M ago2:23:12

2:23:12

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: Varjo XR-4 To Require Subscription For Some Features Metallica On Apple Vision Pro Quest Thumb Microgestures & Improved Audio To Expression Quest Passthrough Camera API Snap Spectacles See Peridots Play Together & Now Use GPS LG Ceases XR Product Efforts, But Will Continue R&D Meta CTO Responds To Controversy …

1
Quest Usage Up 30%, Bigscreen Beyond 2 Hands-On 2:23:12

1M ago2:23:12

2:23:12

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney discuss: Varjo XR-4 To Require Subscription For Some Features Metallica On Apple Vision Pro Quest Thumb Microgestures & Improved Audio To Expression Quest Passthrough Camera API Snap Spectacles See Peridots Play Together & Now Use GPS LG Ceases XR Product Efforts, But Will Continue R&D Meta CTO Responds To Controversy …

1
#1530: Six-Month Immersive Storytelling Exhibition Curated by Ana Brzezińska Opening in Namur, Belgium 1:01:04

1M ago1:01:04

1:01:04

There is a six-month exhibition titled "Other Worlds Are Possible" featuring a retrospective of a dozen different immersive storytelling pieces that will shown at the Le Pavillion in Nemur, Belgium from March 22 to September 21, 2025. The exhibition was curated by independent immersive curator Ana Brzezińska, and will also feature other AR pieces, …

1
Meta's OpenXR Support, Valve SteamVR Link Dongle? 3:15:55

1M ago3:15:55

3:15:55

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney talk for over three hours covering more than a dozen subjects in this week's episode: Samsung's Headset Could Launch In Q3, With A Very High Price Niantic Sells Pokémon Go To Saudi Arabia To Fund Spatial AI Transition GOLF+ Tests Tracking Your Real Putter Using Logitech's MX Ink Major Developers Are Already Using Quest…

1
Meta's OpenXR Support, Valve SteamVR Link Dongle? 3:15:55

1M ago3:15:55

3:15:55

Ian Hamilton and David Heaney talk for over three hours covering more than a dozen subjects in this week's episode: Samsung's Headset Could Launch In Q3, With A Very High Price Niantic Sells Pokémon Go To Saudi Arabia To Fund Spatial AI Transition GOLF+ Tests Tracking Your Real Putter Using Logitech's MX Ink Major Developers Are Already Using Quest…

1
Meta Vows To "Never Give Up", Samsung Headset's Resolution Revealed? 2:37:48

2M ago2:37:48

2:37:48

Kyle Riesenbeck and David Heaney discuss: - PlayStation VR2's Price Cut To $400 - Apple's New Spatial Gallery Platform On Vision Pro - Yankee Stadium Friday Night Baseball Apple Immersive Video Coming In - AMD RX 9070 & 9070 XT Graphics Cards Out Now - Aria Gen 2 Research Glasses - Meta Researchers Generate Photorealistic Avatars From Just Four Sel…

1
Meta Vows To "Never Give Up", Samsung Headset's Resolution Revealed? 2:37:48

2M ago2:37:48

2:37:48

Kyle Riesenbeck and David Heaney discuss: - PlayStation VR2's Price Cut To $400 - Apple's New Spatial Gallery Platform On Vision Pro - Yankee Stadium Friday Night Baseball Apple Immersive Video Coming In - AMD RX 9070 & 9070 XT Graphics Cards Out Now - Aria Gen 2 Research Glasses - Meta Researchers Generate Photorealistic Avatars From Just Four Sel…

1
#1529: SXSW 2025 XR Experience Selection Sneak Peak with Programmer Blake Kammerdiener 55:10

2M ago55:10

55:10

The SXSW XR Experience Selection runs from March 9-11 and contains 15 pieces in competition and 16 pieces in the spotlight, and I had a chance to chat with SXSW's XR programmer Blake Kammerdiener about each of these pieces. He provides some highlights from the XR Track Sessions at SXSW, and also mentions that there is an immersive piece called NOWI…

1
#1528: “Theater” App on Apple Vision Pro Features Indie-Produced Dome, Planetarium, and Stereoscopic Content 1:03:57

2M ago1:03:57

1:03:57

The Theater application for the Apple Vision Pro by Sandwich Vision launched in June 2024 with the spatial livestreaming of John Gruber's live interview of Apple Executives at WWDC. They have been collaborating with independent producers of spatial video to distribute rentals and purchases of immersive content spanning across stereoscopic 180-video…

1
#1527: “Lovesick” is Character-Driven, Escape Room Indie Gem of a Story 57:32

2M ago57:32

57:32

Lovesick is a narrative game featuring a character-driven story of a bank on the brink of collapse that faces a series of supernatural events that they must escape from. It features a lot of escape room and puzzle mechanics that are mixed with embodied gameplay, but at the heart it's about the relationship between these four different band members …

1
#1526: Allegations that Meta’s OVRPlugin is Undermining the Spirit of OpenXR by Blocking Non-Meta Headsets on PCVR. 45:32

2M ago45:32

45:32

In a series of posts from February 8th to 11th, open source developer Matthieu Bucchianeri started making allegations that Meta's OVRPlugin is blocking non-Meta OpenXR runtimes, thereby undermining the open and interoperable spirit of OpenXR. He claims that "the OVRPlugin takes intentional precautions to exclude non-Meta platforms. This means that …

1
#1525: Niantic’s “Into the Scaniverse” Maps Over 50k Gaussian Splats from Around the World on Quest and WebXR 1:00:03

2M ago1:00:03

1:00:03

Niantic launched their Into the Scaniverse application on Quest 3 on February 26th, 2025 that features over 50,000 Gaussian Spats from 120 different countries. They originally launched the WebXR version on December 10th, 2024 at IntoTheScaniverse.com, which was built using Niantic Studio (be sure to check out their comprehensive history of Gaussian…

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