Sneak peek draws mixed reviews

Magic Leap’s new virtual reality headset is promising — or not

And the reaction to the newest, much-anticipated demo of the forthcoming Magic Leap One virtual reality headset is … mixed.

The Plantation-based company showed off its first product on Wednesday during a special “Magic Leap Live” session on Twitch.tv, and the comments from developers and tech heads running in real time throughout the program ranged from promising to big whoop.

“Did we learn anything?” asked a viewer with the username CowTippa6.

“Another complete waste of time,” said another, identified as dudeishman.

Meanwhile, mrmeekcoley said, “This is pretty cool. I dig it.”

The Magic Leap One is a wearable computer that combines the company’s “Digital Lightfield” technology, visual perception and machine learning.

After more than 30 minutes of tech talk during the special presentation, three Magic Leap employees debuted a couple of brief video snippets shot through the perspective of a user of the virtual reality goggles the company said would be on the market at the end of this summer.

The snippets were shot in a living room where viewers saw the goggle-user make hand gestures to create points that defined the virtual space within the unit’s field of vision where an animated troll-like creature appeared, standing on the sofa and throwing rocks at the user.

One shot showed the rocks disintegrating when coming close to the user, while in another, a rock sailed past the user’s head. When the head turned, the rock could be seen flying past it.

Three presenters on the video noted that a whoosh sound accompanied the flying rock.

“Very cool concepts so far. Appreciate the concept videos as well,” said user crow135711.

“Please, next time more details about number of integrated cams, [field of vision], eye tracking technology and so on. THX,” added user fwuellner.

Other chatters took issue with the low-budget, talkshow set, comparing it to the old “Saturday Night Live” Wayne’s World sketch. One noted that presenters looked nervous.

“Look at their body language. There is no genuine excitement of this is our new hot epic product,” was the comment from a viewer identified as aneikei.

Preceding the demo on Wednesday was an announcement of an exclusive partnership between the company and AT&T. The communications and content giant will be the exclusive wireless distributor of Magic Leap products in the United States when the product comes to market.

AT&T said its customers will be given a chance to experience the product in select stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with more to follow.

Financial terms of the partnership were not revealed.