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Facebook Announces $399 Oculus Quest Standalone VR Headset (theverge.com)
Facebook's Oculus has announced its new $399 standalone virtual-reality headset that's scheduled to launch in the spring of 2019. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that "with Oculus Quest, we will complete our first generation of Oculus products," adding that the Oculus Quest combines "the key attributes of the ideal VR system" -- a wireless design, virtual hand controllers, and full positional tracking. The Verge reports: The Oculus Quest is a consumer version of what was previously known as Project Santa Cruz. It uses motion controllers similar to Oculus Touch, and four wide-angle cameras provide positional tracking that lets people walk through virtual space. It's supposed to support "Rift-quality" experiences, with a starting catalog of over 50 titles, including well-known existing games like climbing simulator The Climb and adventure-puzzle game Moss.
Oculus Quest essentially combines the high-end, tethered Oculus Rift headset with the relatively cheap, standalone Oculus Go device that was released earlier this year. It uses the same optics as the Oculus Go, with a resolution of 1600 x 1440 per eye, but with the option to adjust lens spacing. Also like the Oculus Go, the Oculus Quest includes built-in speakers that pipe sound into users' ears, but supposedly with improved bass. But unlike the Oculus Go, you can walk around, apparently for large distances. Barra describes it as having "arena-scale" tracking that supports at least 4,000 square feet of space. Its controllers have the same button layout as the Rift's Touch controllers, but with the half-moon tracking ring reversed, so it loops above your hands instead of below them.
Oculus Quest essentially combines the high-end, tethered Oculus Rift headset with the relatively cheap, standalone Oculus Go device that was released earlier this year. It uses the same optics as the Oculus Go, with a resolution of 1600 x 1440 per eye, but with the option to adjust lens spacing. Also like the Oculus Go, the Oculus Quest includes built-in speakers that pipe sound into users' ears, but supposedly with improved bass. But unlike the Oculus Go, you can walk around, apparently for large distances. Barra describes it as having "arena-scale" tracking that supports at least 4,000 square feet of space. Its controllers have the same button layout as the Rift's Touch controllers, but with the half-moon tracking ring reversed, so it loops above your hands instead of below them.
Finally we can get a user base in all of these empty multiplayer games!
Too bad it's not out in time for christmas, this is something you can gift to someone without worrying about what kind of GPU their computer has.
It's a great and necessary step forward.
Get enough users that major creators like rockstar, blizzard, supercell, etc start to develop games for VR.
Get these new people addicted to VR with the Quest and then they'll be lining up for the premium experience when generation 2 rift is released.
While arcade games are the obvious headline use of "VR", I'm bothered that a company whose entire business model is about sucking the most private personal secrets from you, and manipulating you by attacking your emotions, is in control of a system that could potentially be used for some very personal applications.
Especially as that's the number one reason why I think Facebook bought Oculus in the first place.
The question isn't "Will Facebook abuse this?" but what plans do they already have for abusing it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Focus your conversation on real topics only, plz. This is a great product & were here to promote it as such.
The linked video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AvXOlcFmPU) doesn't show you anything of the game play you'll experience. Despite the 1600 x 1440 per eye resolution it could still be Gameboy-like for all we know.
The "mobile phone grade graphics VR" has been out for a long time, using Oculus' tech no less. It's awful, because of lack of GPU capability. This will suffer from all the same problems that Samsung phone VR does, and why it's barely a curiosity.
Desktop VR on the other hand sorta kinda has the ability to deliver at least some level of meaningful performance. But it's dying off. Nvidia's 10xx series release a couple of years ago was swimming in "VR ready" PR. Recent 20xx series? I don't think there was even a mention of VR, much less any kind of a PR drive. Which tells you everything you need to know what people who are actually making and selling hardware to VR's target audience that is necessary to run VR think about it.
And that tells you everything you need to know about the state of VR market today. It's a niche market that few if any developers develop software for, and none of the developed applications have any real chance of selling more VR headsets. The only meaningful market that was borne out of it was various simulators for hardcore crowds that already bought their >1k specialized controller device, be it a super accurate HOTAS combo or a Eurotruck driving setup, and won't even blink at spending another four digits on a GPU and a headset to make their flying/trucking experience even more immersive.
And that seems to account for overwhelming majority of VR market that actually moves units and titles today. Everything else is basically VR chat Uganda Knuckles memes. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Yes the people with mouse and keyboard are superior in FPS if you go head to head, it's true.
The people in VR would lose.
But learning to kill people with a mouse is absolutely silly in comparison to learning to kill people in reality.
the only head-to-head advantage in VR is that you can actually dual wield guns, you can shoot two pistols and two different targets at the same time.
As in, without Facebook spyware?
I hardly think so.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.