Oculus Quest

The Oculus Quest is a virtual reality (VR) headset created by Oculus VR, a division of Facebook Inc, released on May 21, 2019. It can be used as a standalone device or connected to a computer via USB, enabling use with PC VR games.[3] It features two six degrees of freedom (6DOF) controllers, and runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system.

Oculus Quest
Oculus Quest
DeveloperOculus VR
TypeVirtual reality headset
GenerationFirst generation
Release dateMay 21, 2019
Lifespan2019-present
Introductory priceUS$399 (64 GB)
US$499 (128 GB)[1]
Operating systemAndroid 7.1.1
System-on-chip usedQualcomm Snapdragon 835
CPU4 Kryo 280 Gold (ARM Cortex-A73 based) @ 2.45 GHz + 4 Kryo 280 Silver (ARM Cortex-A73 based) @ 1.9 GHz
Memory4 GB[2]
Storage64 GB, 128 GB
DisplayPenTile OLED 1440 × 1600 per eye @ 72 Hz
GraphicsAdreno 540
Sound
Input6DOF inside-out tracking through 4 built-in cameras
Controller input2nd generation Oculus Touch motion tracked controllers
Camera4 cameras
Connectivity
Online servicesOculus Store
Mass571 g (20.1 oz)
Related articlesOculus Rift S
WebsiteOfficial website

The Oculus Quest has received positive reviews for its price and convenience, but was criticized at launch for being a closed platform that limited users to software available on the Oculus Store. Critics praised the later addition of the Oculus Link, which allows users to run software from other systems.

History

At Oculus Connect 3 in 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Oculus was working on a standalone virtual reality headset codenamed Santa Cruz.[4][5]

The following year, at Oculus Connect 4, Oculus said that they are aiming at sending out software development kits in 2018. They also revealed the accompanying controllers which would be similar to the Oculus Rift's touch controllers.[6]

In 2018, Oculus revealed at Connect 5 that the system would be priced at US$399 and that it would be called the Oculus Quest. At F8 2019 it was announced that the Quest would ship on May 21, 2019.[7][8]

At launch, the device was priced at US$399 for the 64 GB version, and US$499 for the 128 GB version.[9][10]

Hardware

The Oculus Quest has a similar design to the Oculus Go, but it features a more powerful graphics chip, active cooling and six degrees of freedom tracking (compared to the Go's three).[11] The headset weighs 571 g (20.1 oz), compared to the original Oculus Rift, which weighed 470 g (17 oz). The battery life is around 2–3 hours.

Screen and lenses

The Oculus Quest uses two diamond Pentile OLED displays, each with an individual resolution of 1440 × 1600 and a refresh rate of 72 Hz.[12] The headset uses the "next generation" lens technology originally introduced in Oculus Go, which helps to enlarge the sweet spot of the lens. Visual artifacts such as god rays are less prominent but still visible in scenes with high contrast.[13][14] It also features physical interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment.[15]

Tracking

The Oculus Quest features the same inside-out tracking system used in the Oculus Rift S, named Oculus Insight. On the Quest, the system relies on four wide angle cameras located on each corner of the headset to spatially track the headset.[16]

Controllers
Oculus Touch right hand controller

The Oculus Quest uses the same second generation Oculus Touch controllers used by the Oculus Rift S. To accommodate the new inside-out tracking system, the tracking ring in the new controllers has been moved to the top of the controller, whereas in the older Oculus Touch controllers it was located on the back. This serves the purpose of making the rings visible to the tracking cameras in the headset.[17]

Audio

The Quest's headband features built-in headphones, with two 3.5 mm audio jacks embedded in the headset, allowing the user to use external headphones.

Accessories

Though the Oculus Quest has built-in audio, it is possible to purchase official in-ear headphones from Oculus. There is also an official travel case.[18][19][1]

Following the release of the Oculus Link feature, Oculus released an official 5 m (16 ft)-long fiber optic USB-C cable designed for use with the feature [20]

Software

Software compatibility

Oculus launched the headset with over 50 titles consisting of a mix between new and previously known games,[21] including titles such as Beat Saber, VRChat, Superhot VR, Moss and Robo Recall.[22] Some games such as Rec Room and VRChat allow for cross-platform multiplayer.[23]

Passthrough

Oculus Passthrough is a feature of the Oculus Quest which allows the user to see the real world in monoscopic black and white through the built-in cameras. This is primarily used as a safety feature; when a user exits their defined playing area, the display will switch from virtual reality to Passthrough. At Oculus Connect 6, an update for the Quest was announced that would upgrade this Passthrough system to the same Passthrough+ as the Oculus Rift S, making it stereoscopic and stereo-correct.[24] Oculus has added "Passthrough on Demand" in version 15 of the Quest system software, which allows the user to quickly access Passthrough by tapping the left or right side of the headset twice.[25]

At Oculus Connect 6, Oculus announced Oculus Link, which allows the Quest to work tethered to a PC via a regular USB-C cable and run PC VR games, including both Oculus and Steam VR games.[26] Oculus Link can be used with USB 3.0 or 2.0 cables (the latter without concurrent charging). Due to voltage drop, non-active conductive USB cables can only be a maximum of 3–4 meters long; to allow for a longer tether Oculus launched a 5-meter fiber optic cable of its own.[27][28]

The feature was rolled out with version 11 of the Quest software, on November 12, 2019 and the official cable went on sale on January 8, 2020 in all countries in which the Oculus Quest is sold.[29]

Hand tracking

During Oculus Connect 6, it was announced that hand tracking would be added via software to the Quest in early 2020. However, on December 9, 2019, Oculus announced the release of full independent hand tracking demos, as well as an update to the SDK to utilize hand tracking,[30] ultimately releasing the demos on the 11th of December with software version 12.0.[31] This feature allows users to interact with the virtual world using just their hands. The system uses machine learning to analyze the inputs from the four cameras, which allows it to recognize the location and pose of the user's hands.[32]

Hand tracking was officially released for the Oculus Quest in software version 17, released on May 18, 2020.[33]

Reception

Scott Stein of CNET considered the Quest to be "improbably amazing for its size and $399 price tag", and compared it to Nintendo Switch in terms of convenience. Stein praised its camera system and motion controls, and its graphics quality for being nearer to PC-quality than Oculus Go (albeit still limited in detail due to its use of mobile computing hardware). The Quest was panned for being a closed platform at launch — with software limited to the Oculus Store, and not being backwards compatible with software released for Oculus Go.[34] Adi Robertson of The Verge shared similar opinions, noting that the Quest was heavier and not as comfortable as Rift S, and that its launch titles were not at the same calibre as the PC Oculus Rift in terms of size or graphical fidelity, but that the Quest still included a physical IPD slider unlike the Rift S.[35]

In May 2020, The Verge acknowledged that the Quest had improved since its launch to become "the closest thing that exists to a sleek, almost mainstream VR headset", citing an expanding software library, and the ability to use the headset with a PC over USB via the Oculus Link feature (or over Wi-Fi using third-party software, which was not "noticeably worse" than doing so over USB in their experience). It was argued that the Quest "works so well by itself that it’s a great system in its own right", while Oculus Link allowed it to double as a "credible" PC VR headset as well. Again, it was noted that the Rift S was less front-heavy and that its display "trades contrast for slightly higher resolution and refresh rate" — but that neither it or the Valve Index "works as a perfectly good standalone wireless VR headset" like Oculus Quest.[36]

Sales

Two weeks after launch, Oculus announced that it had sold $5 million worth of content for the Oculus Quest.[37] At Oculus Connect 6, it was announced that the Quest had created over 20% of the generated revenue from all platforms at Oculus, totaling at $20 million.[38][39] It was also reported during the same event that the Quest has by far the highest retention rate of all their headsets.[40] 317,000 units were sold over the 4th quarter of 2019, and was sold out at times.[41]

gollark: You can get 1TB microSD cards now. Imagine the density of a bucket of those.
gollark: It should switch to one system, and be less confusing.
gollark: I still don't know exactly how you're meant to do the conditional tense thingy (if I were/if I was).
gollark: I like to help future linguisten along by using odd plural forms at random.
gollark: True, but we have an awful lot of written stuff now.

See also

References
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  2. "Review: The Oculus Quest Is Virtual Reality's Best Bet Yet". Time. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  3. Lang, Ben (2020-05-14). "Oculus Quest Can Now Tether to PC with Its Included USB 2.0 Cable". Road to VR. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  4. "Hands-on With 'Santa Cruz' Inside Out Position Tracking Oculus Prototype". UploadVR. 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  5. Lang, Ben (2016-10-06). "Hands-on: Oculus' Wireless 'Santa Cruz' Prototype Makes Standalone Room-scale Tracking a Reality". Road to VR. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  6. Brennan, Dominic (2017-10-12). "Oculus Connect 4 Day 1 Roundup: Oculus Go, Rift Price Drop, New 'Santa Cruz' Prototype, and More". Road to VR. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  7. Robertson, Adi (2018-10-02). "5 big questions after VR's big week at Oculus Connect". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  8. Murphy, Mike. "Facebook is trying to make VR a thing… again". Quartz. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  9. "Oculus Quest Review: Facebook's VR Savior Mostly Keeps Its Promises". UploadVR. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  10. "Which Oculus Quest should you buy?". Android Central. 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  11. Kuchera, Ben (2019-04-30). "The best part of Oculus Quest: It makes the hard stuff look easy". Polygon. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  12. Higham, Michael (2019-04-30). "New Oculus VR Headsets Coming In Spring For $400: Rift S And Quest Details". GameSpot. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  13. Lang, Ben (2019-05-21). "Oculus Quest Review – The First Great Standalone VR Headset". Road to VR. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  14. Lang, Ben (2018-09-27). "Oculus Quest Hands-on and Tech Details". Road to VR. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  15. Gordon, Whitson (2019-05-21). "How to Set Up and Calibrate Your Oculus Quest VR Kit". IGN. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  16. devindra. "Oculus Quest review: VR freedom comes at a cost". Engadget. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  17. "Oculus Rift S Is Official: Higher Resolution, 5 Camera Inside-Out, $399". UploadVR. 2019-03-20. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  18. "Oculus Quest Accessories | Oculus". www.oculus.com. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
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  20. "Oculus Link review: This $80 cable is worth every penny to turn Quest into a Rift rival". PCWorld. 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  21. "The Oculus Quest Finally Sets VR Free". WIRED. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  22. "Here Are The 50+ Titles Launching For Oculus Quest On Day One". UploadVR. 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
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  25. "What is Passthrough for Oculus Quest?".
  26. "Oculus Quest Accessories & Parts | Oculus". www.oculus.com. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  27. "Official 5 Meter Oculus Link Cable Now Available". UploadVR. 2020-01-08. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  28. "Thumbs Up: Hand Tracking Available on Oculus Quest This Week". www.oculus.com. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  29. "Oculus Quest's hand tracking feature launches early". GSMArena.com. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  30. Heaney, David (2019-09-25). "OC6: Oculus Quest Is Getting Camera-Based Finger Tracking Early Next Year". UploadVR. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  31. "Oculus Quest Hand Tracking Guide". AR/VR Tips. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  32. Stein, Scott. "Oculus Quest review: It's amazing, even months later". CNET. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  33. Robertson, Adi (2019-04-30). "Oculus Quest review: a great vision with a frustrating compromise". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  34. Byford, Sam (2020-05-21). "One year on, the Oculus Quest is the VR headset to get". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  35. "Oculus sold $5 million worth of Quest content in first 2 weeks on sale". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-06-23.
  36. "People have spent over $100 million in the Oculus Store". Android Central. 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
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  38. "Carmack: Quest 'By Far Our Most Retentive Hardware', Rift S Surpasses Rift". UploadVR. 2019-09-26. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  39. "SuperData XR Quarterly Update". SuperData, a Nielsen Company.
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