The Varjo XR-4 Series is now officially OpenXR 1.0 compliant
September 26, 2024 – Helsinki, Finland – Varjo has officially passed the OpenXR 1.0 conformance test for its latest product line, the Varjo XR-4 Series, building on the compliance already established with its previous generation of products. This announcement of compliance reinforces the company’s ongoing commitment to the OpenXR ecosystem, a crucial open standard for Varjo that the company has actively contributed to and adopted in its products over the years.
“With the Varjo XR-4 Series now officially compliant with OpenXR 1.0, we’re excited to see this new generation of devices bring its unique features to virtual and mixed reality experiences within the growing ecosystem of OpenXR-supported hardware,” said Ron Bessems, OpenXR Working Group Chair.
The test was passed using the Khronos OpenXR 1.0.34 conformance test suite with Varjo Base 4.3.0. Such formal test with Khronos is one of the cornerstones for releasing a new product supporting OpenXR, as it tests that the full system is up to Khronos open standards.
OpenXR is an open, royalty-free standard developed by the Khronos Group, designed to provide a unified interface for virtual reality (VR) and augmented/mixed reality (AR/XR) applications. It aims to streamline the development process by enabling applications to run on a wide range of hardware platforms without needing to be rewritten for each one.
OpenXR defines a set of APIs that provide access to the functionality needed for VR and AR, such as rendering, tracking, and input, thus promoting compatibility and reducing fragmentation in the XR industry. This standard facilitates the creation of cross-platform immersive experiences, fostering innovation and growth in the extended reality ecosystem.
For developers and customers, this certification ensures that OpenXR applications developed for other headsets, including Varjo’s older models, will continue to work seamlessly with the new XR-4 Series headsets.
“By undergoing formal testing with Khronos, we ensure compatibility without the need for extensive application reintegration efforts. This approach also helps with future-proofing software investments made today to work with future products,” says Denny Rönngren, OpenXR System Architect at Varjo and OpenXR Working Group Vice Chair.
Varjo’s commitment to achieving conformance has also improved the quality of our OpenXR runtime in terms of, for example, stability, and greatly increased compatibility, benefiting third-party developers and customers using OpenXR applications. Notably, these enhancements extend to Varjo’s previous-generation hardware (Varjo XR-3, VR-3, and Aero), streamlining application development for all users and continuing to bring value for both developers and end users that are using Varjo’s previous generation of products.
Since the last OpenXR conformance test for Varjo’s third-generation products in 2021, Varjo has significantly expanded the functionality of its OpenXR runtime. In the years leading up to and following the launch of the XR-4 Series, the team has added more extensions to the core OpenXR functionality. The number of supported extensions has grown from 10 to 22 since Varjo passed the conformance last time.
Looking ahead, Varjo plans to pursue OpenXR 1.1 compliance, positioning itself to support developers as they transition to the latest version of the standard. Varjo also aims to continue integrating advanced mixed reality features into its OpenXR interfaces, further enhancing the immersive experiences available to users.
