An exhaustive look at the first day of Oculus Quest, an excellent wireless VR software

Three weeks ago, I had a lot of positive things to say in my review of the Oculus Quest VR system. It is wireless, simple to use and operates at the cutting edge of technology. just powerful enough to absorb "six degrees of freedom" (6DOF) virtual reality.

Fortunately, this review was based on a series of pre-release software, which means that we do not have to guess how the strengths and weaknesses of the hardware matched for gaming and retail applications. But since this article was published, Oculus has even thrown more software in our devices.

So much software, in fact, that we decided to do something we had not done in a long time: a launch day software guide for launching a gaming platform. Last platform to have received such treatment Ars was, coincidentally, the Sony PlayStation VR in 2016 – but it was a "buy, try, avoid" analysis of its 14 exclusive games.

What a difference three years makes for the VR ecosystem. Oculus Quest was released with 14 launch titles on which we would have affixed a label "buy" or "strong try". While most of them are examples of past successes in virtual reality, for many people who expect a "pretty good" platform for the virtual reality in which to invest, it is quite possible that they will not have never seen things in the face. with these titles.

That's why we're going to take a close look at Quest's material difference and how the smartphone's SoC affects visual downshifts or VR content compromises. Yes, it's a long list, but we hope that its breadth – including productivity applications and some ambitious titles with honorable mention – is indicative of the heavy aspirations that Oculus already seems to have for this $ 400 system.

Buy: Two Types of Swords, Quality RV Art Tools, Quest Sports

Beat Saber ($ 30, free demo option, no cross purchase support)

We have been fans of Beat Saber Since its launch in 2018, Oculus Quest has provided us with an excellent excuse to reaffirm our love of rhythmic action play. In March, Oculus let us drool about an almost final version of Quest. And in April, Oculus shipped us Quest commercial material with Beat Saber Queued for immediate installation.

For the uninitiated, I like to describe Beat Saber (our No. 4 choice for the 2018 Games) as a twist Dance Dance Revolution, matched with the strengths and weaknesses of virtual reality. As in DDR, Beat Saber players must press the directional buttons to the rhythm of the music. contrary to DDR, Beat SaberThe world of s displays a grid of "notes" to come which direct you as if they were real. In addition, unlike the centered on the feet DDRyou must hit these notes with your hands or, technically, with virtual lightsabers.

In short: kill music notes, Obi-Wan style.

The game is simple to understand, exhilarating to play and evolves incredibly well for Oculus Quest. Black and black worlds explode in the neon atmosphere, showcasing the system's beautiful OLED panel. The geometry is clear but simple, so the frame rate is always steady, 72fps maximum. And Quest's integrated tracking system keeps pace with hand movements, as evidenced by nearly a month of collection Beat Saber sessions.

The most difficult selling point on this release is its limited selection of songs. The PC version of the game boasts a plethora of downloadable custom songs for free, but nothing like it exists in Quest beyond the paid downloadable content. (We'll have to see if enthusiastic fans take advantage of Side-loading support for Android to come up with a solution.) Personally, I'm a fan of the cheerful and rhythmic techno of the official soundtrack, but if you come to Waiting for the variety of series songs like DDR or Rock Band, you sing badly.

Tilt brush ($ 20, supports cross purchase of Rift)

I've had the hell of throwing the term "killer app" in the virtual reality space, but I'm still very much attached to 2016 Tilt brush sell the potential of HTC Vive of origin. This is Microsoft Paint's "Six Degrees of Freedom" version (6DOF), which consists of putting accessible and rudimentary tools in the hands of new users to teach them the basics of virtual reality.

The best thing I can say about this app is that its business owners at Google have do not summarily killed his genius. Tilt brush on Oculus Quest, the paint application lands with three years of new features and updates intact, but only now with the benefit of being able to do everything wirelessly.

At launch, however, there is something wrong with the performance of the application. This is easier to confirm via a "selected" gallery of commands Tilt brush creations, which range from tiny to massive, and see a weird disparity in frame rates among all. I watched tiny, fluffy dogs while struggling with cadence drops, and I went through large sculpture sculptures at the actual size with a cadence that barely transpired. In my opinion, some brush effects (sometimes associated with flashes and animations) wreak havoc on the Quest Snapdragon 835 SoC. (There may also be a bug related to the "chaperone" limits of Oculus Quest that appear and disrupt performance.)

Until the Tilt brush The team publishes a patch, expect that the application "works through the art of others" falls a little flat. The good news is that the basic act of carving in a wireless room remains intact. I could not shake the Oculus Quest by building my own art works the size of Sam. True, it's an anecdotal assurance of the performance of the app, but I think it's a good indicator that Quest optimizations of the application work where they matter. I hope that the Tilt brush The team's reputation regarding the update of the application stands out in terms of the correction of these judders from the day of the launch.