The developer of early demos for the Rift DK1 and DK2 has brought one of modern consumer VR’s very first demo experiences to Apple Vision Pro — Proton Pulse.
Justin Moravetz initially released a Proton Pulse demo to the Oculus forum in April 2013 in the days before Oculus Share. The demo arrived just as DK1 was shipping to Kickstarter backers. Moravetz was still employed at Sony at the time, causing him some grief later, but he was on the path to becoming an indie VR developer.
“So I turned in my notice,” Moravetz told me over direct message. “I wanted to develop VR games.”
Remarkably, more than a decade later, Proton Pulse is one of the few fully immersive VR apps on the $3500 Apple Vision Pro. In the years between DK1 and Vision Pro, Proton Pulse has seen release on practically all major VR headsets with the exceptions of PSVR 2 and Quest headsets.
“I saw the most success on Google Play and the Apple App Store,” Moravetz wrote, with cardboard-compatible releases for iOS and Google Play.
The developer told me he gave a demo of Proton Pulse and Vanguard V — a game he’d like to finish with funding support — at the first Oculus Connect conference for folks from Google.
“I later found two boxes at my house,” Moravetz wrote. “They had shipped me 150 cardboard units.”
Proton Pulse is a bit like spatial Pong or Breakout with your head movements redirecting a paddle around the room to break blocks on the far end. You can find more about Proton Pulse and other projects from Moravetz’ Zero Transform here as well as the App Store for Apple Vision Pro.
