Almalence flexes with improved eye-tracking in AR/VR, but its not free forever

So, Apple showcased the Vision Pro and those of us who are more familiar with the conventional — yet still accepted — pitfalls of AR/VR headsets instantly noticed that:

• Eye-tracking looks to be improved
• The removal of controllers makes the entire thing way more seamless

Now, it may still take a couple of years until the second one becomes more widely adopted by other manufacturers. But some may say that eye-tracking in existing XR headsets should’ve already been improved.

Like the company Almalence, which describes its occupation as “doing the impossible”. In fact, Almalence has put its money where its mouth is and created a plugin, which proves that already existing tech can indeed offer better eye-tracking and through that: better visuals in VR.



Okay, okay, let’s rewind a bit. What does the plugin do?

Ahem,



And now, to translate that into English: this is a type of pre-processing which improves the clarity of images and textures viewed through XR headsets.

As in, VR graphics become gooder.

Naturally, the effects are best noticed when the plugin is being turned on and off in real time, while being in some sort of VR experience with a high graphical fidelity. Right now, the plugin can be downloaded by anyone for free and then tested on any OpenXR-compatible headset, such as:

• Pico 3 Neo Pro
• HP Reverb G2
• HTC Vive Pro

But fair warning, you’ll have to carefully follow a set of instructions. I mean, this is something more geared towards developers than users, but it’s cool that you can try it out too.

The gist of the situation is that Almalence isn’t just pointing a finger, but has actually done something to prove that the tech inside some AR/VR headsets is being underutilized. And if that is indeed the case, then why not fix things, right?

Right now, the plugin is on a free license until January 31, 2024. If this DLVR tech picks up traction, manufacturers may start purchasing real licenses and incorporating the plugin into their AR/VR headsets as a cool post-launch upgrade.