Amanda Watson

Creator of Air Link and CitraVR | prev. Co-founder @rek @oculus, @meta, @apple, @microsoft, @DisneyResearch

[Yannick Comte @cyannick]

Guys, it's online, have fun https://t.co/evIbLoO3qz

[Yannick Comte @cyannick]

To make things simpler, I've uploaded binaries
- The runtime (signed but not notarized), like the OVRService.exe
- The compagnon, like the Meta Link App
- The simulator to test without an headset
- The Quest player (APK)
https://t.co/jKvQcGTWix
Have fun doing VR on MacOS

[Eric Migicovsky @ericmigi]

oh shit

[Biggs ᯅ @SpatialBiggs]

Survios holds a special place in my past.

Weird to see all the news after being there at the very beginning. Unfortunately a common trend right now...

It was a magical moment doing roomscale VR in 2013 before most could only dream of it.

Here is one of my favorite shots from 2013 I took of us testing "Zombies on The Holodeck" remake I did with the founders. It truly captured a moment in time.

This was aiso the first place I shared multiplayer space on a network in VR and we had what might have been the first virtual high-five in fully embodied avatars.

We could feel how special it was fighting off enemies using fully interactive weapons and roomscale design. This is way before the dynamic was commonplace.

It is also fun to see the old VR hardware like Razer Hydra base station on the table and a PS Move leveraged for the tracking system using backpack PC prototypes.

Wild to see this photo again. Time flies!

[vidhvat @vidhvatm]

tamashika is here

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

@oscpmentor All that is very true! Unfortunately, I’m a few hundred miles away so it ain’t easy.

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

Someone stole my AirPods.

I don’t know if there’s anything I can do about it — I suspect the SFPD has better things to do, and Apple seems to have a limited featureset for AirPod theft beyond marking them as lost.

But now I just…have some stranger’s location at all times? I tell where they live, where they work, when they deviate from routine. Is this ethical voyeurism, or do I cross into being the bad guy at some point?

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

@BillyZelsnack How are the thermals on that

[Shawn Whiting @ShawnCWhiting]

2016 - Rec Room, a Wii Sports style VR game, has launched

2017 - Rec Room, a Second Life style VR game, launches PC screen mode

2018 - Rec Room, a Fortnite style VR game, now supports PC and PS4 without VR

2019 - Rec Room, a Minecraft style VR game, is now on iPhone, iPad, PS4, and PC

2021 - Rec Room, a Facebook Horizon style VR game, is now on iPhone, iPad, Android, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Steam, and its own PC launcher

2024 - Rec Room, a Roblox style VR game, is now available on Nintendo Switch, iPhone, iPad, Android, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Steam, and its own PC launcher

2026 - Rec Room, the Roblox style VR game, is shutting down

😂

[Brad Lynch @SadlyItsBradley]

Rec Room is shutting down for good on June 1st

“We never quite figured out how to make Rec Room a sustainably profitable business”

“With the recent shift in the VR market, along with broader headwinds in gaming — we've made the difficult decision to shut things down.”

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

I’ll be there! As will some of the engineers who made the Rift happen!

[Nima Zeighami @NimaZeighami]

The 10th Anniversary of the launch of the Oculus Rift is coming up this Saturday, and we at SVVR are throwing a party for those in the XR industry who live in the SF Bay Area!

Come hang out with OGs who built Rift and devs who made games for it!

https://t.co/PVEe504v24

[Rock @TheCensoredRock]

Me getting kicked out of Applebee’s after 12 Dollaritas and putting $20 worth of Limp Bizkit on the TouchTunes

[CyberRobo @CyberRobooo]

🚨BREAKING

Unitree's IPO application on the Science and Technology Innovation Board has been formally accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with a planned
fundraising of 4.202 billion yuan.

Of this, the intelligent robot model R&D project accounts for the majority, amounting to 2 billion yuan.

In other words: For Unitree, hardware is no longer the problem,the real bottleneck that urgently needs to be overcome is the development of intelligent robot models.

Notably, Unitree reports that it has sold over 5,500 humanoid robots,ranking first globally,making them the growth engine of its robotics business.

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

Whole body motion tracking open source code: https://t.co/RQ4Icniut6

[Shitty Future @Shitty_Future]

Finally, a real use case for JavaScript

[Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters]

you're telling me *this* is the company that built claude code?!

[REK @REK]

Announcing the new REK Blog! Our first post is from our Co-Founder and CTO Amanda Watson! She discusses the technical limitations of modern robotics and what's enabling the current surge in humanoid robotics.

https://t.co/zFrnFN3nb0

[Jinrui Han @jinrui82]

Our HUSKY code is now open-source !
Humanoid skateboarding powered by mjlab 🛹
Check it out: https://t.co/eqcH9czBvG

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

I feel like I’m going to hear this line a lot in announcements over the next 12+ months.

[Eren Chen @ErenChenAI]

The era of Unitree G1 dominance is drawing to a close.

Announcement coming soon.

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

Actually, Paranormal Activity 2 has *very* explicit ghost entrances and exits, so what am I even talking about?

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

Folks at GDC this week: random suggestion, but Paranormal Activity (the stage play) is running at ACT in SF and it’s LIT!

The story is whatever, but the staging and illusions are novel and noteworthy.

[Amanda Watson @fewerwrong]

[arguably spoilers about stage presentation:]

It’s hard to make a proscenium play scary. There are a LOT more modern horror movies than there are modern horror plays. And the Paranormal Activity franchise in particular is heavily tied to the perspective and timing of a camera.

In the stage play, the audience can see the entire set at once. There’s also no fast-forwarding, no “time lapses” like in the film franchise. Control over the audience’s perspective is a lot looser than in movie horror or haunted houses, where a ghost or a monster can just appear from the edge of your periphery from some undefined offscreen location in the direction the characters weren’t looking in.

They needed to find ways to get their “ghosts” on and offstage, and the ways they do so are very effective.