Our VR Boffin, Danny, talks us through his first impressions of the brand new Oculus Quest.
May 2019 was a big deal for us here at the Immersive Learning Studio. We took delivery of the brand new Oculus Quest!
We’ve previously been developing for the Oculus Go and the Oculus Rift, both of which had their pros and cons. Until now, we had to pick a headset that would best suit a specific application. If we needed the user to be mobile and have ease of set-up, we’d develop with the Oculus Go. If we needed the application to have high levels of detail and to be fully immersive, we’d develop with the Oculus Rift.
Functionality
Whilst the Oculus Go was fairly limited in functionality, interactivity and graphical power, it was very easy to use, with a quick learning curve, and had a great price point.
The Oculus Rift had all the bells and whistles, full room-scale movement, excellent graphical power and two motion controllers, however, it required a powerhouse of a computer to run it, at least two external sensors and a fair amount of cables.
The Oculus Quest changes all of this. It is the lovechild of its mother Go and father Rift. It incorporates all the benefits from each; no cables, no external sensors, good graphics, entry level price into VR and room-scale virtual reality.
Now that we’re developing for the Oculus Quest, we are focused on creating fully immersive and engaging experiences without feeling limited to hardware constraints and limitations
Users are free to roam around a virtual space in true 1:1 movement, meaning one step to your left in real life, will move you one step to the left in the virtual reality environment – thus bringing an even greater sense of immersion. Hand movements are also true to real life – making coordination and interaction easier and much more natural, with a much smaller learning curve.
All of this, without feeling like you’re going to tangle yourself up in meters of cable! And at a fantastic price, allowing any company, big or small, to break into the world of virtual reality.
As Virtual Reality becomes more widely known and makes its way towards being mainstream, the technology will evolve and continue to get better. It seems as if we’re still only really scratching the surface of what is possible, but with every release and technological advance, we continue to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible.