Guest on 2D Is Against My Religion

Alex Harvey

Founder, Vibe XRAt the time of the episode: Co-founder, RiVR

Alex Harvey co-founded RiVR, which builds VR training for fire investigators and blue-light services. On 2DIAMR, Alex Harvey compared 360 video with photogrammetry scenes and talked about Apple Vision Pro and Meta Hyperscape.

Episode

1 h 11 min

Podcast

From fire scenes to Apple Vision Pro: the brutal truth about VR – Alex Harvey, RiVR

Alex Harvey · RiVR19 Feb 2026

In Alex’s words

“If you can copy the dangerous, expensive training and bring it into a headset, works really well for people to buy it.”

Listen at 26:10 · From fire scenes to Apple Vision Pro: the brutal truth about VR – Alex Harvey, RiVR

“This training is bums on seats, only move your head around. You're gonna learn 20% of your lesson in a headset and then go and have a discussion for 80%.”

Listen at 33:22 · From fire scenes to Apple Vision Pro: the brutal truth about VR – Alex Harvey, RiVR

“Close one eye and look around the world like that and look behind you as well. That's what you get when you shoot with a 360 camera.”

Listen at 36:23 · From fire scenes to Apple Vision Pro: the brutal truth about VR – Alex Harvey, RiVR

Quoted in our tech guides

Gaussian splatting vs photogrammetry: what 10 practitioners say →

“We had to process it in Reality Capture, export, clean up, simplify, retopo the model. This, oh, my God, I get the same experience in three hours.”▶ 60:23

Questions Alex answered

What is the difference between spatial video and immersive video on Apple Vision Pro?: Per Alex Harvey, spatial video shot on an iPhone plays in a 3D window inside your mixed-reality surroundings, while immersive video fills your whole 180-degree view in 3D; Apple’s immersive content is shot on a Blackmagic URSA camera. ▶ 38:05
How does Meta Hyperscape capture a room as a Gaussian splat?: Alex Harvey explains that you walk slowly around the room in a Quest 3 headset – room geometry first, then a detailed pass, then the ceiling – upload it to Meta’s cloud and get a navigable Gaussian splat back within a few hours. ▶ 59:29
Why is 360 video easier to deploy for VR training than room-scale scenes?: Per Alex Harvey, clients could not build photogrammetry scenes themselves, but they can film their own crime scenes, collisions and exercises in 360 – and RiVR’s seated, instructor-led sessions avoid people crashing into each other. ▶ 27:00
What is the main barrier to Apple Vision Pro adoption?: Alex Harvey says it is mainly the price compared with a Meta Quest; Harvey expects headsets and smart glasses to meet in the middle, with glasses that can block out the world for VR. ▶ 49:53
Can 3D scans of historical objects be sold or licensed?: Per Alex Harvey, an object scanned at a nearby church was licensed for the VR game Puzzling Places, and earlier Harvey sold phone scans made in Polycam directly on Sketchfab – a market Harvey expects to grow. ▶ 67:11

Talks about

Olli Huttunen – 3D Gaussian Splatting creator
Arash Keissami – CEO, NIRA
Bilawal Sidhu – Creator, spatial computing and AI
Tomáš Barnáš – Co-founder of LumiSway and Overhead4D; producer of Smithsonian Starstruck, Overhead4D
Arek Szadkowski – Global Lead, ArcGIS Reality, Esri
Elliott Mizroch – Director, Smithsonian Starstruck