Oculus Quest Standalone VR coming in spring 2019 for $ 399

The autonomous RV is about to increase considerably. Mark Zuckerberg, at the Oculus Connect conference, announced on Wednesday that the next-generation Oculus Quest headset will arrive next spring at an aggressive price of $ 399. The headset, previously presented as Santa Cruz Project, is a mobile device that adds complete tracking and PC-style motion controls.

The Oculus Quest is a stand-alone hardware – no PC or phone required – much like the Oculus Go, the $ 199 mobile headset that debuted this year. But, unlike Go, the Quest seeks to bridge the gap between mobile and PC VR, and bring a premium experience with more advanced controllers. Zuckerberg also promised that many PC-based virtual reality games and applications will be worn on the quest, which could allow the headset to feel closer to the PC's mind. Oculus Rift. The price of $ 399 includes 64GB of storage on board.

The headset resolution is the same as that of Oculus Go: 1600 x 1440 pixels per eye. (The resolution of Go is already fantastic for video and web browsing, often exceeding the Rift.) It also has the same spatial sound as the Go, which carries sound through small holes in the banner. At which point the quest of the Oculus will remain graphically powerful. Will it be more like a PC, more like a mobile or something really intermediate?

Intensified controllers

The Oculus Quest has two touch motion controllers that can be tracked in space, giving players six degrees of freedom and featuring analog sticks, physical buttons and triggers. This is a big step forward compared to the Oculus Go, which features only a single-hand controller-type pointer and three-degree motion controls.

They are not exactly like the Oculus Touch controllers available with the Oculus Rift PC, but they look terribly close. The presence "full hand" is promised in games, a bit like the already proposed Rift.

Google standalone VR headset, the Lenovo Mirage Solo, adds experimental controls to six degrees of freedom, but currently only controllers with three degrees of freedom are delivered in retail boxes.

Full room follow up

The Oculus Quest uses four wide angle camera sensors on the edges of the helmet, combining information on the accelerometer and the gyroscope to track spatial positions. The new tracking technology calls Oculus Insight and promises to work on much larger spaces than rooms.

According to Hugo Barra of Facebook, the tracking was tested indoors, on various surfaces, and could reach 4,000 square feet (or more). Tracking will memorize the configurations of the different pieces previously created in Guardian, the integral room detection tool that defines safety limits. This potential on a larger scale could really differentiate it from the attached VR in future geolocation or arena games.

Games and applications are promising

According to Oculus, there will be 50 games available next year. This is not a ton, but some launch window games have been announced: Robo's reminder, The climb and Moss, which are very good games on PC and console. There is also a Star Wars VR experience called Vader Immortal, whose first episode comes out in the spring of 2019.

Oculus Connect participants will be able to try Oculus Quest: stay tuned for impressions of the series.

• This is a story in development.