Pico has announced that it is now fully compliant with the OpenXR standard, which means that developers will be able to run OpenXR apps on all Pico VR headsets with minimal modification.
This support includes the popular standalone consumer headset, the Pico 4, as well as the brand’s more enterprise-focused solutions like the Pico Neo 3 Pro.
So, what is OpenXR? Well, it’s a royalty-free and open-source standard that aims to reduce fragmentation in the VR space. Essentially, if a game or application is designed to the OpenXR standard, it can be easily adapted to run on all OpenXR-compliant hardware.
The Meta Quest 2, Oculus PC platform, SteamVR, HTC Vive Cosmos and Microsoft HoloLens 2 are all already OpenXR conformant – and so games and applications developed for those platforms can now be ported over to Pico’s headsets much more easily.
Henry Zhou, President of Pico said in a statement “we are extremely pleased to be fully compliant with the OpenXR standard as it will give Pico consumer and enterprise users access to a wider array of apps to improve their overall experience with our suite of consumer and enterprise headsets.”
“This is an important step for Pico as we continue to enhance our headsets and the apps our Pico users are able to access through them,” he continued.
We loved the Pico 4 when we tested it last year, and we think it’s one of the best value propositions in the VR market today. However, its weak point is the lack of content on the Pico platform.
In fairness, Pico has expanded its library to now include over 230 apps and 165 games, but the storefront still pales in comparison to its main competitor, the Quest 2.
Following this announcement, we expect that developers will be much more inclined to port their games over to the platform, and it’s also likely that more titles will choose to launch on Pico from day one.
If you want to read more about Pico’s OpenXR SDK, you can find all the documentation here.
