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The future of virtual reality has finally arrived and it is fantastic. Two years ago, at its developer conference, Facebook unleashed a future of wireless VR in the form of the Santa Cruz project. This year at Oculus Connect 5, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the final evolution of the project: Oculus Quest. It will be released in the spring of 2019, offering quality wireless Rift games, but we had some time with the headset to see if that fulfilled that promise.
Like the big Rift, Quest is designed to deliver a PC-like gaming experience with high fidelity sound and powerful graphics. However, unlike Oculus Go, which Facebook debuted in the spring, Quest can also track space in a package designed entirely for mobile using a new technology called Oculus Insight. Insight, which took more than two years to develop, exchanges external Rift sensors to track your movements in the virtual world with four front-mounted cameras on the helmet. These cameras allow you to play games in a smaller space, such as an apartment in New York or in a larger space, such as the living room of a larger home.
"There are no external tracking accessories," Oculus Quest Product Marketing Manager Allison Berliner said in an interview with Oculus Connect. "All you need is on board. And because Oculus Insight is so robust, you can really have a precise and accurate virtual reality experience almost anywhere. "
The quest for mobile perfection
While Rift relies on powerful computer processors and graphics cards to deliver an immersive VR experience, Oculus claims to be able to bring the same high-quality experience to Quest on more mobile hardware. Quest does not just have the cables for an immersive experience – you're not "chained" with the physical world as you navigate the virtual world – but the headset comes with a mobile processor more commonly used on smartphones . In fact, Quest relies on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835, a processor found on the Samsung Galaxy S8 from last year.
Berliner explained that even though Quest relies on the Snapdragon 835, the performances are still excellent because Oculus builds the helmet only for VR. "And because we have a large part of the pile, we can benefit so much," she said. "What comes into the overall experience is much more than just calculation. It boils down to things totally unique to virtual reality: immersion, presence and interaction to touch. We bring the best lessons, best practices, to Oculus Quest.
On Oculus Connect, through several games developed by the Oculus studio, Facebook has created demos to show what Quest is capable of. The first titles – the demo staff believes that most of these games should be available to consumers in the future – include first-person shooter Superhot VR, a sport oriented Tennis Scramble Project, a fear filled Face your fears adventure and Dead and buried, a VR twist on the laser tag.
Since Oculus Insight is so robust, you can have a precise and accurate experience of virtual reality almost anywhere.
Thanks to an intelligent setting, the results have been impressive. We entered the Facebook demo waiting for delays, screen-holder effects, and a low-quality experience, but we were completely stunned by our experience with Quest. The resolution of each eye is 1,600 x 1,440, which is a significant improvement over the 1,080 x 1,200 x Oculus Rift and corresponds to the Oculus Go. This is still behind HTC Vive's higher resolution. Pro (1440 x 1600 pixels per eye), but it's almost half the price.
Starting with the games was extremely easy. As you do not have to worry about turning on a PC, triggering wires, or configuring sensors, simply put the headset in place. Like the Rift, the Quest comes in a similar configuration, with an elastic strap that surrounds the sides of your head and a second strap on the top of your head to secure the quest. Demonstration personnel recommend placing Quest as "a baseball cap" by first fixing the back portion and then sliding along the front face. You can also make adjustments to tighten or loosen the straps with velcro strips on the sides.
On the head, the quest is extremely comfortable. The package is much lighter than it looks, and we did not experience any fatigue even after several 30-minute gaming sessions. In addition to the headphones, there are also two manual controllers. According to researchers Yelena Rachitsky and Isabel Tewes of Oculus Labs, manual controllers are important components that help transport our physical individuals into the virtual world to make the games immersive and realistic.
The controllers are equipped with a ring for circular sensors, but unlike the Rift, these sensors bend upwards. There is a joystick, control buttons and buttons for the handle and trigger. The controllers were light and felt ergonomic to use.
Another difference between Quest and Rift is that the Quest has an open audio system. Rather than needing a headset, the Quest uses spatial audio to aim the sound to your ears. If you have a friend watching you play on the couch, Quest's open audio design can be more effective: it lets you hear the sounds of the game while still being able to converse. We found the audio very noisy, even in the noisy demonstration rooms of the San Jose Convention Center, and we enjoyed being able to hear and communicate with the demo staff.
Quest will trace your piece before starting a game. In this way, the boundaries and obstacles can be avoided, and the goal is that you will not collide with a wall or sofa in the living room.
Game selection can be tricky
As a stand-alone headset, Oculus Quest will have its own store, like the Rift, and you will be able to buy and manage your games directly from the VR headset. Users can also purchase games via a complementary application, Oculus staff informed me, although the company did not demonstrate this process. Staff mentioned that the Quest will have its own Wi-Fi radio, so you can connect the headset directly to your home network. However, as for the laptop, you will need to leave your phone to configure Quest. After that, you can do everything from the headphones.
Although Oculus wants to see developers bring Rift games to Quest, we still do not know how robust the software selection will be. Oculus has until spring 2019 to expand the portfolio, but given the lightness of VR content in general, this could be a significant problem. The games that Oculus had, however, were impressive.
Tennis Scramble Project presents the six degrees of freedom of the quest, or DoF, allowing you to move in a three-dimensional space. In comparison, the Oculus Go only includes three DoFs and the Rift relies on external sensors to get the same type of tracking.
Spatial mapping still allows you to play fluently in multiplayer games, even if your opponent has a smaller space for VR games. When we played our virtual tennis match against our opponent, we were in a smaller "living room" while he was playing in a bigger playroom. Despite the differences in size in our real space, Oculus Insight was able to map my space and allow me to always move and hit the ball with forehands and backhands.
The graphics of the game were not very realistic, the experience being closer to some of the most active games on the Nintendo Wii system. This does not mean that the graphics were mediocre or incomplete, but it seems that the scenes are not as detailed as some of the games on the PC-powered Rift. However, Tennis Scramble Project It was always fun to play, and unlike the Wii, we felt like being on the ground. The audience encouraged us, and the spatial audio made the whole experience immersive.
Face your fears is an adventure game that will help you overcome your phobias or leave you with nightmares. The goal is to explore the environment using a combination of panning and navigation with the left and right joysticks, as well as a little walking. Through spatial mapping, when you approach a physical wall in the real world, a blue grid appears to alert you and you can pan with the joystick to continue maneuvering the virtual space, to The first person. shooter.
As you explore the environment, phobia will strike you, from bats to spiders to all sorts of critters. The graphics have been well done and even though your brain knows that you do not see a swarm of spiders running towards your legs, you still get goose bumps. Oculus shows that even though the graphics may not be great – you do not get the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 tracing effects – but it's still an immersive experience.
The last demo shown was Dead and buried, which is another good example of Quest Insight's augmented reality and virtual reality mix. Like the laser tag, this game requires teams of several players spread over a large space. Quest Insight does terrain mapping and you can have boxes as shields. Tap a rocker and you can see augmented reality – basically the contours of the field, boxes and your teammates and opponents. However, release the key and you are transported back in time in a western environment. These boxes in the real world turn into crates and you engage in a shootout with the opposing team.
The future of wireless
The Oculus Quest may not be the most powerful VR headset in the world, but it's more than the sum of its parts.
The complete package is what creates visual fidelity in Oculus Quest.
"We consider product resolution because many components are integrated with visual fidelity," said Berliner. "What's exciting is that in addition to resolution, we also have adjustable DPI, or lens spacing, and we bring our best Oculus Go optics. The full package is what creates visual fidelity in Oculus Quest.
Of course, the graphics might be a bit better suited to Rift or Vive Pro – after all, Quest uses a smartphone processor. But at no point in my experience with Oculus Quest did we feel immersed in our adventures. The screen and visuals were clean and, unlike the PlayStation VR, there was not that orange peel effect.
"For us, it's the complete package. That's all we stuck in the helmet, and it's also the form factor – the fact that it's an all-in-one system.
The Oculus Quest helmet should be released in the spring of 2019 starting at $ 400.
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