XR AI Spotlight

Fernando Rivas-Manzaneque is the CEO and co-founder of Volinga AI, a spin-off born from early research into 3D Gaussian Splatting for professional film and virtual production. In this episode, Fernando walks through what Volinga actually does: from its Unreal Engine plugin, which brings relighting, depth of field, reflections, and proxy mesh-based materials to Gaussian Splats, to the newly released Volinga Suite, a full end-to-end pipeline built on top of LightField Studio with HDR and ACES support for Hollywood-grade workflows. We cover real production use cases, including a digital replica of Auschwitz-Birkenau and a Paramount+ TV show that replaced a dangerous location shoot with a VP set. Fernando also breaks down the difference between additive and mesh-based lighting, the EnVol file format, and where 4D Gaussian Splatting and generative splat creation are heading in 2026.
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Explore the latest in 3D Generative AI tools, workflows, and industry implications with Gabriele, Stefan, and Philipp. Discover top models, segmentation techniques, Gaussian splatting, and future trends shaping 3D AI.
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In this episode, Christian Stein, co-founder and CEO of Threedy GmbH, explains why CAD data remains so difficult to use outside engineering, even inside companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Spun out of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, Threedy has spent years helping enterprise teams make massive industrial 3D data usable across web, tablets, and XR. He also shares where headset deployments still struggle, why tablets remain more practical in many enterprise settings, and how AI could become the orchestration layer that connects 3D data and business systems across industrial workflows.
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In this episode, we speak with Inna Horobchuk, an architect and creative technologist exploring spatial AR through Snap Spectacles. She shares how her background in architecture informs her approach to designing digital layers in real environments, focusing on context-aware and utility-driven experiences. Inna explains why solving small, practical problems can be more impactful than building complex demos, and how constraints like field of view and battery life shape design decisions.

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Shane Harris, founder and CEO of SideQuest and Tetiana from the popular YouTube channel Discover Tatiana join us to take a look at how VR discovery has changed from the early Quest era to today’s far more crowded market. They break down how SideQuest now works across Meta, SteamVR, sideloaded content, web, desktop, mobile, and in-headset browsing, and why aggregation, curation, reviews, and community engagement matter more than ever. The conversation also explores what developers can actually do to improve their odds, and how the Steam Frame is meant to energize the XR market.
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