Right now, Logitech formally introduced its MX Ink stylus, the corporate’s first blended actuality accent for the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets. The MX Ink will present artists with a extra pure various to the Quest’s controllers for content material creation that appears like utilizing a pencil or a paintbrush.
The monitoring accuracy and low-latency efficiency of the Meta Quest’s native controllers have helped place the headset as greater than only a gaming or media consumption machine, however the controllers, which may really feel like holding and dealing with a can of spray paint, don’t all the time provide the very best interface for content material creation. For a lot of artists, a stylus is a preferable software over a mouse or peripherals primarily designed for gaming, which is why corporations like Wacom have thrived for many years and why Logitech is bringing the stylus into the third dimension.
Wanting fairly a bit thicker than the styluses Logitech sells for pill units (it weighs in at 29 grams, in comparison with 20.7 grams for the second-gen Apple Pencil), the MX Ink can be utilized like a standard stylus for 2D content material creation in a blended actuality setting with options that embody swappable pressure-sensitive suggestions and a number of buttons that may be reprogrammed within the Quest’s native settings app. Confirming leaks over the weekend, the stylus additionally options 6DoF monitoring in 3D house, just like the Quest’s native controllers, haptic suggestions, and a pressure-sensitive essential button permitting artists to naturally sketch or manipulate fashions or objects in 3D house.
Logitech guarantees as much as seven hours of battery life, and the MX Ink could be charged utilizing both a built-in USB-C port or the extra handy MX Inkwell Charging Dock, which permits the stylus to easily be dropped in for charging to start out. Nonetheless, the dock will likely be an elective accent, with pricing not revealed but.
5 years in the past, Magic Leap introduced a partnership with Wacom to co-develop instruments, permitting the latter firm’s stylus expertise for use with the blended actuality headset in hopes of justifying the costly Magic Leap One as essential content material creation software.
Sadly, that collaboration required artists to awkwardly maintain a bodily drawing pill in a single hand and a stylus within the different whereas additionally sporting the Magic Leap One and wrangling that headset’s awkward cable tethers.
The fully wi-fi MX Ink stylus seems to supply way more freedom of motion and comfort for artists, and Logitech has already introduced compatibility with many Meta Quest apps, together with Adobe Substance 3D Modeler, Open Brush, Gravity Sketch, and Notice Medical.
Though Logitech hasn’t offered an actual launch date for when the $129.99 MX Ink will likely be out there, it’s promising a “later this 12 months” launch when it will likely be offered by Logitech, Meta, and Amazon.
