Microsoft is working on an umbrella standard for VR glasses

Microsoft has filed a trademark for the name ‘Direct Reality’. This should become a standard with which developers can make their software work for different VR glasses, without building in support for each headset separately.

According to Venturebeat, the idea behind the standard is similar to how DirectX allows games to work with a large number of video cards, without developers having to make a separate version for Nvidia or AMD GPUs, for example. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, says in an interview that Microsoft wants to prevent people from buying a VR headset and then discovering that certain VR software does not work on it.

“When I buy a monitor for my computer, I don’t worry if Windows can handle it and if some games work on it and some don’t,” Spencer says in the interview. He says that the goal is for Windows to have built-in support for every VR headset and Microsoft will receive feedback from Oculus and Valve about what is needed for this.

There are currently several virtual reality platforms in circulation for use with PCs. Oculus has its own Rift platform, then there’s Valve with SteamVR, Razer has launched OSVR, and Microsoft has announced a partnership with several manufacturers for Microsoft Mixed Reality. Many vr games don’t support all those platforms, which makes owners of the ‘wrong’ vr glasses unable to play those games.