Mar. 30th 2021: New Updates on SKYBOX development

Yum · Feb 9, 2021

Hi friends,

We are SKYBOX STUDIO, developer of the SKYBOX VR Video Player.

Firstly we want to say sorry about our negligence upon the release of Quest 2.
2020 was difficult for us: less money, less staff, no DevKits, nearly non development progress.
Yet we survived and now we are trying very hard to speed up the development to support more features in 2021.

Latest changes

SKYBOX Cross Buy among Quest and Rift version offered starting from Feb. 19th 2021 (finally Oculus approved)
Users who paid for Go/Gear SKYBOX version please contact us to get free access to Quest version (also plz help us spread the word).
SKYBOX Quest version will be priced at $9.99 starting from Feb. 19th 2021

Quest Version 1.0.2

We just released v1.0.2 and it comes to our attention that users cannot use anonymous account to access an SMB share.
We are working on a fix now.
If you encounter such issue, please reach us at contact@skybox.xyz to join the beta testing channel to test the fix version.

Roadmap for 2021 Q1:

SMBv3 support (Released in v1.0.2)
Manually input IP address to search SMB server (Released in v1.0.2)
Hand Tracking Support on Quest 1 & 2
90Hz support on Quest 2
Hardware decoding for high-resolution videos on Rift & Steam version (Looking for beta testers now)

On the other hand, you may find that the response to emails/posts is a bit slow now.
That is because that there is only one me and many of you (which I'm very grateful).
I'll be sure to response to you as soon as possible and I really appreciate your patience.

We are hoping to get more people to work on the project and things would become smoother once we have more people.

Thank you for bearing with us and we promise to make SKYBOX better and better for you to enjoy

Cheers,
Yum

GregZone · Feb 9, 2021

Yum 90Hz support on Quest 2

Hi. Hopefully the 90Hz support on Quest 2 will still allow 72Hz?

The reason I ask is that when comparing the SKYBOX playback of 23.976 / 24fps movies on my Quest 2 at 72Hz, versus my higher resolution Reverb G2 (which is fixed at 90Hz), the motion does appear smoother and more pleasing on the Quest 2.

I assume this is because 72Hz is a nice 3x multiple of the 24fps movie rate (no dropped frames), whereas 90Hz intrudes some motion artifacts due to it's 3.75 multiple display refresh.

So, does "90Hz support" also mean you will be adding a 72Hz setting option (like your existing 60Hz setting), or, will SKYBOX be smart enough to switch to 72Hz when playing back 23.796 / 24fps video content?

Thanks in advance for clarifying this point. I'd hate to loose the 72Hz movie playback motion smoothness. Equally, I'd prefer not to have yet another manual setting that I need to do, each time a I watch a movie (like the Aspect Ratio override I currently need to do for 3D Full SBS movies). All the best for 2021, and keep up the great work.

Yum · Feb 10, 2021

GregZone
Yes we shall keep the 72Hz refresh rate option :)

Feng · Feb 11, 2021

So glad to be informed of the upcoming roadmap, and I am also very looking forward to the feature to support HDR 10bit video playback. Thanks for your greak work.

thiskiwicanfly · Feb 12, 2021

Thank you for the update. Also, would LOVE to see support for "movie chapter" selection. The ability to select movie chapters (saved timecode markers in the MP4 file) during playback would be fantastic!!!

GregZone · Feb 12, 2021

Yum Based on the just posted 3D MVC topic comment by @trongoco does this mean we are likely to see MVC support for the Q2 roadmap (now that an opensource decoder has apparently been identified)?

ecgke · Feb 16, 2021

Thank you very much for your team's efforts!I would also like to add support for HDR! Thanks again!

wuyu19951015 · Feb 16, 2021

I think you guys may pay a little more attention to your official website.
Since the VR player is really good, website can be the first place where new guys see your software

The PC client update, and there is even no where to record this thing.

The update record did not change for quite a long time.
And I can not understand, why update record and free version download are in "Bug Now" section.

polarbear18 · Feb 19, 2021

"Go/Gear SKYBOX user please contact us to get free access to Quest version (also plz help us spread the word)."

I upgraded to Quest from GO. I do have Skybox on my Oculus GO..How do it get Quest Version?

Thank you so much for your work.

Selas · Mar 1, 2021

Hello,

Thank you for your great product.
Concerning: "Hardware decoding for high-resolution videos on Rift & Steam version"
Can you give us more info?
I have a high end pc "Intel i9, nvidia RTX 2070super". However, reading vr video SBS in H265 7K is lagging a lot.
Thank you. Best regards
Selas

Human · Mar 5, 2021

Manually input IP address to search SMB server

this is an instant buy for me.

Yum · Mar 13, 2021

Selas

I'm sorry for the late reply.
Would you please share with us the file at contact@skybox.xyz so we could test it on our side?
Also are you using Rift version or Steam version please?

Cheers,
Yum

Yum · Mar 13, 2021

Human

We already released a beta version with this feature.
Would you be interested in testing it first and see if it works for you?
If yes, then please reach us at contact@skybox.xyz

Cheers,
Yum

Selas · Apr 5, 2021

Yum

Hello,
I sent all the info via email.
Thanks for your work.
Best regards

c200sc · Oct 5, 2021

Do you have any update for the Steam version? I feel like it is getting more relevant since Airlink is released, and it is still version 1.0.1. Thanks in advance!

Lucy · Oct 8, 2021

c200sc
Hi there,

We plan to release a new Steam version at the end of this year. Now we are working actively on optimizing the Quest version and AirScreen.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to post a thread on this forum or contact us at contact@skybox.xyz. We are happy to answer your questions and hear your feedback.

Hope you enjoy SKYBOX!

Best regards,
Lucy