Update, Thursday September 27th, 2018: hands-on reviews, such as this one from Techcrunch, report the Quest is powered by a Snapdragon 835 chipset.
On Wednesday, September 26th, Facebook announced the Oculus Quest, billed as their “first all-in-one VR gaming system”. The new headset is due to start shipping in Spring 2019 with a price point of US $399 and 64 GB of on-board storage.
The Quest isn’t actually the first Oculus standalone headset unit – that honour went to the Oculus Go, launched in May 2018. It provides an experience similar to the Gear VR system offered by Samsung (and using Oculus optical hardware), and sells for US $199 with 32 GB, or US $249 with US $64 GB of storage. The unit was seen as easy to use, albeit with limitations.
Oculus Quest is intended to sit between the Rift and Go, and “first” used with it is in relation to the “VR gaming system”, as Facebook see this new headset being specifically about gaming. It offers capabilities far above those of Go, and even exceeding the Rift. These capabilities include:
- 1600 x 1440 per eye resolution.
- Two Oculus Touch style controllers.
- 6DoF (6 degrees of freedom).
- Built-in 360 degree audio.
- Adjustable spacing for its lenses.
- Four ultra wide-angle sensors for motion tracking / positioning, with “arena sized” tracking capabilities.
As a standalone unit, the headset uses a dedicated operating system, based on Android (as does the Go), so it will not natively run existing Rift VR titles, although it is anticipated that Rift-focused games will be ported to Quest alongside Quest’s own list of titles – there will be a portfolio of at least 50 titles available when the Quest starts shipping. Interestingly Facebook have indicated that they plan to have a Single button” process to allow Quest centric games to be converted for use on the Rift “with no code changes”.
The key differentiator between Quest and the Rift – other than the standalone nature of Quest – is, as mentioned above, that Quest is being touted as a games-centric headset, while the Rift is seen as more “video” oriented. However, and allowing for development of titles and applications, it’s hard to see such an artificial division between the two remaining in place over time.
In keeping with this, the 50-title line-up for when Oculus Quest starts shipping is games centric, and will include a three-part cinematic Star Wars “6DOF” experience, centred on Darth Vader. Called Vader Immortal, players using it will, to quote, “Be able to step inside the world of Star Wars in the comfort of your living room and, for the first time, truly feel free.” Also as a part of the games element, Facebook note that Quest headsets can be used in multi-player scenarios right out of the box.
The sensor system on Quest, now officially called Oculus Insight, sounds particularly impressive. The four ultra-wide-angle sensors coupled with “advanced computer vision algorithms”, allow for full position tracking in real-time. the sensors look for edges, corners, walls and furniture to build up a 3D map of the wearer’s surroundings, while input from the headset’s gyroscope and accelerometer allows an estimate of the wearer’s head position to be calculated every millisecond. Quest also includes a capability called “multi-room guardian”, allowing multiple environments where the headset may be used to be mapped and saved, removing the need for constant recalibration when using Quest in different locations.
The new Quest controllers (seen below) are very similar in nature to the Touch controllers, offering joysticks, menu buttons, a pair of trigger buttons for each hand, and an AB/XY array. The major difference is a new halo that goes around the hand. It is thought this may link with another element of the Oculus Quest ecosystem: an RGB sensor, which may be used to translate controller location in virtual space, and which can double as a “camera” a Quest wearer can toggle in order to see a (greyscale?) view of their real-life surroundings.
No detailed specifications have been given in terms of CPU / GPU for Quest – although it is believed a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon is providing the necessary processing. In introducing the headset, Facebook refer to it as rounding out their “first generation” of VR systems:
With the introduction of Oculus Quest, we’ve completed our first generation of best-in-class VR headsets. Oculus Go remains the easiest and most affordable way to get into VR, while Oculus Rift leverages the power of your PC to push the limits of what’s possible. Thanks to Oculus Quest, we’re now able to combine the best of both worlds and welcome even more people into the VR community.
Oculus VR, Introducing the Oculus Quest, September 26th, 2018
With HTC recently having launched a US $300 wireless adaptor for the HTC Vive and Vive Pro – both of which require a high-end gaming rig, Oculus VR may just, with this announcement of the Quest priced at the same level as the Rift, stolen a march on their competition. That said, it’s likely still not enough to get me to invest in a VR headset just yet. I’ll see what the next generation of hardware brings. But for those who are interested in the Oculus Quest, hands-on reviews should be appearing on the web, “real soon now”, to coin a phrase.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
Perhaps I am just to thickheaded to see past this. My question for ANY VR headset is “how do you type with it? After all my base application is Second Life.
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Test is an issue in VR, but there have been solutions on various kinds attempted. Within Sansar, it is very much an issue, as it has caused something of a “class divide” between VR headset users – who – until recently – were unable to even see text chat, and so were able to converse freely, but those using text only via desktop would generally be overlooked unless someone also on desktop and voice would relay their comments.
This was solved earlier this year by offering headset users the option of seeing text chat in a heads-up display, so they could at least see and respond in voice to comments made via text by others. Currently, the Lab is working on a “virtual keyboard” solution which, if it works will enable headset users to be able to produce text as well, without the need to remove their gear in order to type.
Options such as speech-to-text / text-to-speech have been raised but the Lab has stated they are not looking to build such a capability themselves (a huge undertaking) but will rather look to suitable third-party products being developed which have the ability to be properly integrated with other product offerings like Sansar.
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it would need some sort of speech to text software, can’t help feeling that VR would be the making of SL
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Sadly, VR isn’t an option for Second Life at this point in time. It has been tried, using the Oculus Rift, but the current generation of headset require a very high, sustained frame rate – the recommended is 90 fps, with a minimum of 70 fps per eye. By-and-large, Second Life’s user-generated content is not sufficiently optimised to allow such frame rates to be reliably sustained.
There was also the issue that many in Second Life operate hardware entirely below the specifications required to support VR hardware, so there was something of a development question: did the Lab continue to try to get Second Life / VR support to a point where it might work reasonably well (but for a likely minority of users), or did they continue to prioritise on improving the platform the platform in ways that benefit a broader majority of users? The second option was chosen, and VR development for SL halted. Instead, the ideas for producing a separate, VR-centric platform, which had been floating around the Lab since Rod Humble’s tenure as CEO were re-examined, and the decision made to formalise them into a project was made. We now of course know that project as “Sansar”.
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I’d by the quest if it wasn’t owned by facebook. Putting that aside, i find it interesting that Oculus now have their own iPhone ecosystem, if the quest only uses apps from oculus store as I’m assuming it won’t be able to be used with the likes of Sansar or high fidelity unless those platforms publish apps to the oculus store? but then can quest handle virtual world platforms such as those? I expect Oculus to bring out a new super duper high end headset for use with high graphics rigs. I think Vive will always be a step ahead while a step behind, what ever happened to the vive focus standalone headset?
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Quest’s OS is said to be an Android derivative, as per the Go, so I doubt Sansar would work natively with it without the client being ported in some way – which the Lab has identified as a desire from a “consumer” perspective (e.g. being about the visit experiences, user them, maybe make Store purchases, dress / change avatars, but not access the Edit Mode for scene building).
The last I heard of the Vive Focus (July 2018), it was “expected” to go on worldwide sales from early 2019, having originally been slated for worldwide release “sometime in 2018”. The rumour was that the price-point would be £450, putting it above the Quest, but with what appear to be broadly similar specs.
Give the Facebook / Oculus penchant for announcing products and shortly thereafter opening the doors to pre-ordering, and the fact HTC have yet (I believe) to formally confirm a worldwide release date for the Focus, the Quest could well steal a march on the HTC headset. So, it’ll be interesting to see if HTC respond to this confirmation of the Quest’s upcoming availability.
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