Magic Leap will release its software development platform "soon"

Magic Leap, the Google-backed augmented reality company, is getting one step closer to bringing developers and filmmakers on board with its secretive platform. Yesterday at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference, Magic Leap’s chief creative officer Graeme Devine announced that the startup has built a software development kit, and that it supports both the Unity and Unreal game engines. It’s not really a big surprise that the SDK will support both Unity and Unreal, since these two game engines have been crucial in the development of the virtual reality tech we have today. No specific timeframe was given regarding the release of the platform, but Magic Leap recently tweeted that it would be released “soon”.

The company has opened up a new Developers section on its website, where devs can sign up for the SDK when more information surfaces. From Magic Leap’s site:

Using our Dynamic Digitized Lightfield Signal, imagine being able to generate images indistinguishable from real objects and then being able to place those images seamlessly into the real world. Imagine what experiences you could create if you had this ability. Imagine how this would completely transform how people interact with both the digital and real-worlds. Imagine you being one of the first to help transform the world forever. For the time being, we’re being a little tight-lipped in what we’re communicating publicly, but under the appropriate non-disclosures, we’d love to talk possibilities.

Magic Leap has overall been extremely quiet about its platform. The first real glimpse we got of the company was the video attached above, which shows off a first-person shooter being played inside someone’s office. This is supposedly a very early prototype of what the company is building.

Magic Leap got its start last October after Google invested $542 million in the augmented reality startup. And according to TechCrunch, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz explains that the company is “out of the R&D phase and into the transition to real product introduction”. He also says that the company spent a portion of its overall $592 million in funding on a 300,000 square foot pilot manufacturing center in Florida for its “photonic lightfield chip”.

There’s certainly a possibility that we could get more details on Magic Leap’s tech at E3 this year, but nothing is for certain as of now. We’ll be live at E3 from June 16th through the 18th, so we’ll be sure to bring you coverage if it becomes available.