OpenXR - High-performance access to AR and VR —collectively known as XR— platforms and devices

OpenXR: Standardizing Cross-Platform XR Development

• Definition: OpenXR is a royalty-free, open standard providing a common set of APIs for developing Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications.
• Core Purpose: Eliminates industry fragmentation by allowing developers to write code once and deploy it across a wide range of hardware, reducing development time and costs.
• Latest Update: Khronos recently released OpenXR 1.1, which consolidates multiple extensions into the core specification to further simplify development.
• Standardized Capabilities: Supports a broad range of XR hardware, including head-mounted displays, controllers, trackers (body, hand, eye), haptic devices, and cloud/5G infrastructure.
• Developer Ecosystem:
  • Provides a full suite of resources including an SDK, tutorials, and a Conformance Test Suite (CTS).
  • Major engines with built-in support include Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, Blender, and NVIDIA Omniverse.
  • WebXR uses OpenXR as its default backend.
• Industry Adoption: Supported by major hardware manufacturers and platforms, including Meta (Quest series), HTC (Vive), Microsoft (HoloLens), Valve (SteamVR), Magic Leap, Qualcomm (Snapdragon Spaces), and PICO.
• Conformance: Companies can become "Official Adopters" by passing the Conformance Test Suite, granting them the right to use the OpenXR name/logo and access IP protection under the Khronos framework.
• Community: Open-source development is supported by projects like Collabora’s Monado runtime; community engagement occurs via Discord, GitHub, and the Khronos forums.