Industry consortium New initiative aims to define common Virtual Reality APIs
Industry Consortium, the Khronos Group, is leading a new initiative to define a common set of ‘open standard’ APIs for Virtual Reality.
Key components of the new standard will include APIs for tracking of headsets, controllers and other objects, and for easily integrating devices into a VR runtime. According to the Kronos Group, this will enable applications to be portable to any VR system that conforms to the Khronos standard, significantly enhancing the end-user experience, and driving more choice of content to spur further growth in the VR market.
“Khronos has been on the forefront of advanced graphics and system APIs for over 15 years, and in keeping with that tradition and obligation to the industry at large has embarked on a new, vitally needed set of APIs and standards for the emerging VR market. We applaud the industry-leading companies that are coming together as Khronos members for this endeavour, and expect the whole industry will share our sentiment,” said Jon Peddie, President of JPR.
AMD, Nvidia, Google, ARM, Oculus VR, Intel, Valve and Tobii are among those backing the initiative.
Khronos standards include OpenGL, the API used to deliver 3D graphics for most CAD applications, and OpenCL which is used for compute applications including simulation and ray trace rendering. The Khronos Group is also behind Vulkan and WebGL.
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