Build Local Multiplayer Experiences With Shared Spatial Anchors on Meta Quest

Earlier in 2022 we shipped Spatial Anchors, which lets you anchor virtual content in the physical world. This means you can place virtual content in a specific, real-world location (e.g., your wall) and see them in the exact same place every time you return to the same spot.

Today, we’re adding Shared Spatial Anchors to our Spatial Anchors capability within Presence Platform. Shared Spatial Anchors allows anchors created by one user to be shared with others in the same physical space. This enables you to build local multiplayer experiences by creating a shared world-locked frame of reference for multiple users. For example, two or more people can sit at the same table and play a virtual board game on top of it.

At Meta Connect, we showed a sneak peek of Magic Room, a mixed reality experience we’re building for Meta Horizon Workrooms that uses Shared Spatial Anchors. Magic Rooms lets any mix of people collaborate together, whether they are in the same place or remote. We also gave you a glimpse into local multiplayer games such as Advanced Vehicle Combat, where people in the same room can see the same world-locked virtual vehicles.

Shared Spatial Anchors is an extension of the Spatial Anchors API, providing additional methods that allow people to have local multiplayer experiences by sharing anchors between them. Upon loading a shared anchor, users are able to establish a shared frame of reference, enabling both devices to render shared virtual environments and content.

To create these experiences, Shared Spatial Anchors will enable the following actions:

People who want to participate in local multiplayer experiences will need to turn on point cloud data sharing (i.e., sharing information about your environment converted to a set of points known as a “point cloud”) with Meta. In order for other co-located users to see the same virtual content as you, the same point cloud data needs to be shared from your headset to theirs. When “Share point cloud data” is turned on, point cloud data from one headset is passed through Meta servers and then shared to other headsets. Point cloud data sharing can be turned on or off in settings anytime.

Shared Spatial Anchors currently supports Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2, and PC Link. The API is available for OpenXR, Unity, and Unreal developers.

Get started by referencing the documentation to learn more and to get access to the samples made available for developers’ reference.

Local multiplayer increases the number of individuals in a shared physical space with restricted visibility of their surroundings. Crowded experiences create safety risks. It is important to be mindful of the occupancy of the playspace for the shared experience being built.

Reference the Shared Spatial Anchors Health and Safety Guidelines for more guidance and links to the developer Health and Safety Sample Apps.