Published in IoT

Oculus Quest will be out next Spring

by on27 September 2018


Wireless but you can move around more

Oculus has announced that its new headset, the Oculus Quest, will be a $399 standalone virtual reality headset and launch in the spring of 2019.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Oculus Quest will complete its first generation of Oculus products.

The Oculus Quest combines “the key attributes of the ideal VR system” — a wireless design, virtual hand controllers, and full positional tracking. “If we can bring these three qualities together in one product, we think that will be the foundation of a new generation of VR.”

The Oculus Quest 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 VR head Hugo Barra said the Oculus Quest was made for games,” while the other headsets, such as the Go are more video-focused mobile headsets.

“We are going to invest significantly in this new platform”, he warned.

Oculus Quest is a halfway between 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. Like the Go, the Oculus Quest has built-in speakers that pipe sound into users’ ears, but supposedly with improved bass.

The difference is that 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.

 

Last modified on 27 September 2018
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