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Oculus Quest, a fully wireless VR headset, shipping spring 2019 for $399
Facebook used its latest virtual reality conference, the fifth annual Oculus Connect, to finally confirm retail plans for its most ambitious standalone VR product yet: the Oculus Quest. Originally known by its prototype name, Oculus Santa Cruz, the Quest will ship in spring 2019 for $399.
In terms of the sales pitch, this is the Oculus holy grail: a wireless, hand-tracked, "six degrees of freedom" VR system with apparently legitimate 3D power and no required PC or phone.
The headset will include two bundled handheld controllers, and more than 50 games will be available at launch. The headset has a 1600×1440 per eye resolution (3200×1440 total resolution), compared to 1280×1440 per eye for Oculus Go or 1440×1600 per eye for HTC's Vive Pro, and has 64 GB of internal storage.
Vive's wireless adapter gives the best VR experience lots of money can buy:
Any consumer-grade VR headset you buy these days has its share of compromises. Buying a self-contained or phone-based headset (e.g. Oculus Go or Samsung's Gear VR) means giving up the power of a full-scale PC GPU and, usually, the freedom of full-scale head and hand motion tracking. But buying a tethered headset (e.g. Oculus Rift or HTC Vive) means being permanently tied to a bulky computer tower via an obtrusive cable.
HTC's new Vive Wireless Adapter does a fine job fixing that last particular compromise for Vive owners. With it, you can get the immersive graphical power of a high-end gaming PC and the freedom of being able to move around in a large VR space unencumbered by wires (or a bulky backpack laptop). It's a best-of-both-worlds solution that we recommend highly—if you can spare the $300 in additional cost, that is.
Related: VR Without a Tether? Strap on a "Backpack PC"
HTC Cancels U.S. Release of a Google Daydream VR Headset, Reveals Own Standalone Headset
HTC's Vive Pro to Launch on April 5
Facebook Launches Oculus Go, a $200 Standalone VR Headset
Oculus Launches Venues App for Live Entertainment, Sports, Etc.
HTC: Death of VR Greatly Exaggerated
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:58AM (1 child)
As much as I hated seeing this heartblood project of an idealist techie being sold into the Socially bancrupt Halls of Mordor with all that stench of surveillance capitalism that's bound to stick to the device - I celebrate them for pushing the boundaries. I've long dreamed about a VR headset and they are working on making it truly practical and into a mass market. These devices might one day be commodity entertainment like the TV until just a few years ago.
I truly wish them the best (until they have created the mass market, then they can go under for all that I care). Until then I'll be on the edge of my seat though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:33PM
Speaking of commodity, wireless means battery, battery means you'll be throwing it out in two years when the batt capacity drops. I'm kinda "eh" about that, I have enough disposable devices as it is.
Also despite the gushing it seems the specs are pretty much my V35 phone in an admittedly nice looking google cardboard holder, with some fancy looking controllers.
I've found from playing PS4VR games that wireless would be nice but not necessary for 3-d games where you stand up, but standing and doing aerobics with a facemask on is frankly uncomfortable, so my favorite title at this time is battlezone where you're inside a 3-d tank arcade game. Just not really interested in "stand up and walk around" games.
I find it interesting that when people talk about 3-d VR minecraft or whatever they usually get all excited about the whole "visual" thing and not so inspired by "wooo boy I get to stand up now". If I wanted to play minecraft standing up, I'd buy a standing desk that would last for 100 years not a facemask.
Now admittedly I'm more interested in crappy facemasks as a stepping stone to augmented reality gear like a google glass that doesn't suck.