Last Week in AVP #65: New Apple Immersive Video Now Live - Hill Climb, Interview with Gruber Reflects on Vision Pro Two Years After Announcement, AVP to Support Godot Game Engine and more!
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New Apple Vision Pro immersive video puts you in the passenger seat of a record-breaking rally car hill climb (source)
The fifth episode of Apple Immersive Video series, Adventure, is now available on Apple Vision Pro. The latest entry transports you to the passenger seat of a rally car during a record-breaking Pikes Peak International Hill Climb attempt.
In addition to driving views, the “Hill Climb” episode takes you behind the scenes with driver Laura Hayes as she explains why she’s racing up the side of a mountain. The most impressive footage in the episode is an immersive first-person shot of the road as you speed up the mountain as if you’re riding on the hood of the car. Other driving footage takes place from the perspective of the passenger seat inside the rally car.
The MacRumors Show: John Gruber Joins the show to talk AVP and its future (source)
Moreover, we reflect on the Vision Pro almost two years after its announcement, and John explains why he believes that the headset avoided the mismanagement that has mired apple Intelligence. We also talk through rumors about the second-generation Vision Pro headset that is expected to launch between fall 2025 and spring 2026 as a minor spec bump, simply upgrading from the M2 to the M5 chip. We also explore the highly anticipated lower-cost Vision headset, dubbed "Vision Air," and how this could be positioned when it launches.
Apple Working on visionOS Support for Godot Game Engine (source)
Apple engineers have offered to contribute Vision Pro support to the Godot engine, which is a free, open source game engine that's available to game creators as an alternative to Unity and Unreal. Godot is cross-platform and supports PCs, mobile devices, the web, and more at the current time, but with Apple's contributions, games made with Godot could run natively on the Vision Pro.
Lighter Apple Vision Pro expected by early 2026 (source)
Apple is believed to be working on multiple future revisions to the Apple Vision Pro, with the expectation of an updated model arriving before a full-blown sequel. The current rumor mill belief is for something lighter and more consumer friendly to be the next release in the range.
In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman writes about two successors to the Apple Vision Pro. One is a mode that is lighter and cheaper than the current model.
The other is a tethered model that connects to a Mac. The intention of that model is to offer maximum responsiveness to users, with the Mac handling all of the processing.
According to Gurman, it seems the lighter model will be the one out the gate next, and will arrive between the end of 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Tubular Pro is now chosen by Apple as one of the BEST apps for Apple Vision Pro (source)
Tubular Pro started as a personal passion project just for myself, to make the best YouTube app. Something that I would enjoy for myself. I then wanted to share that part of me I worked on with others to spread that joy I felt and it took off from there!
To see many people using and enjoying something I worked so hard on, for me, from me, literally moves me to tears!
This might be the best real-world use case for Vision Pro. We used Story, our zero-code engine, to build a mixed reality art exhibition — and to our surprise, it became the first real reason many people were willing to put on a Vision Pro. Not games. Not movies. Some even waited 90 minutes in line just to experience it. Over just 3 days, nearly 1,000 people came through. What drew them in? An immersive world where space, visuals, and sound come alive. And now we believe:mixed reality isn’t the future — it’s already here.
Mac Virtual Display in ANY Immersive Experience (source)
This isn’t new but I figured I’d talk about it for anybody who didn’t know.
Download Xcode from the App Store on your Mac for free
Connect it to your Vision Pro using Bluetooth/wifi or the developer strap
When you restart the device you will have the developer tab on the bottom of settings app on the Vision Pro.
Enable the toggle for Mac Virtual Display in any immersive experience.
You can use any app that has 360 worlds, or 3D worlds, immersive videos, etc.
I suggest Portal, Keynote, Disney+ or any streaming apps that have environments such as Max and Paramount+
Starship Drift Shows Game Devs Are Learning To Utilize Apple Vision Pro (source)
Starship Drift puts the player in command of a tiny spaceship dodging asteroids with head or hand movements. The premise is familiar, but the implementation seems to take as much inspiration from the original Asteroids as from Pistol Whip. Directing the ship is intuitively handled by moving your head or hand with slight movements of your pinched fingers.
ReelRoom For Apple Vision Pro Turns Your Home Into A Blockbuster (source)
ReelRoom is one of the first apps I’ve seen to utilize window management really effectively inside visionOS. Selecting movies, changing the parameters of a shelf and getting it positioned just right in space is all fairly straightforward. You can customize the number of rows and columns in a shelf and remove the backing so you can see the wall behind it. One of my favorite features is an infinite shelf which cuts slits in your floor and ceiling to display a very large collection of movies using the illusion of space you do not have.
Porsche just released “911 Spirit 70 App” (source)
Porsche just released “911 Spirit 70 App” — an interactive Vision Pro experience — and I’m absolutely in love. It’s one of the most beautiful user experiences I’ve had on Vision Pro, right up there with Spatial Gallery. And honestly, it breaks my heart that this video doesn’t do it justice — not even close. My highlight: The video player. It features multi-layered typography, stunning glowing effects, and it’s actually two-sided! But there’s so much more — the whole experience left me overwhelmed (in the best way).
An interview with Avi Bar-Zeev who led Apple’s AVP prototype team (source)
Avi Bar-Zeev helped invent the Microsoft HoloLens, define Amazon Echo Frames, and led Apple Vision Pro’s experience prototyping team from 2016 to 2019. In this interview, we dive into the current state of XR adoption, the pitfalls of big tech, and why ad-based business models are dying.
Marvel's: What If Experience On Apple Vision Pro Is A Blast
Shop for plants by browsing photorealistic models on AVP (source)
This cute Apple Vision Pro app lets you shop for plants by browsing photorealistic models, helping you discover what looks and lives best in your environment.
What mars environment could be like on AVP (source)
I really want new environments in visionOS 3. One set in a space station, another on Mars, and maybe a cozy indoor setting like a café or something similar.
