Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we want to know if you think the newly announced Oculus Link feature is going to basically “kill” the Oculus Rift S?
At Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) this past week Facebook unveiled a feature that most enthusiasts assumed was being worked on but probably didn’t expect to see just mere months after the Quest and Rift S launched. The feature is named Oculus Link and it will enable you to plug your Oculus Quest standalone inside-out tracked headset into your PC with a single USB-C cable to then access and run Oculus Rift content. It’s coming this November.
From what we tried based on a 10-minute demo, it seems to basically turn the Quest into a Rift S. Granted, it isn’t perfect, but it’s shockingly close. Tracking won’t be as good with the alternate camera placement and fewer overall cameras, there is slightly higher latency reportedly, and visually the image is slightly compressed compared to the Rift S natively on a PC (plus 72Hz vs 80Hz) but other than it’s extremely capable and for most users will be way better than just good enough.
Since the Rift S and Quest both cost $400 (Facebook’s official Link cable will be $79 but according to them others should work as well) do you think the company is cannibalizing their own product? Or in other words: Do you think Oculus Link for Quest will kill the Rift S? Why or why not? Would you honestly recommend someone buy a new Rift S if they could just get a Quest and Link cable to add the option or portability or PC VR connected?
It’s an interesting topic. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Oculus Quest virtually dominated the keynote address at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6), from the sales figures and the impressive hand tracking to Oculus Link, an update which will enable the device to tether to a PC for improved Oculus Rift style graphics. This last one was particularly interesting due to the fact that it means the standalone headset is an even greater rival to its purely PC-based sibling Oculus Rift S. Could this mean Facebook is solely focused on Quest going forward, and do you get the same quality?
VRFocus tried Oculus Link at OC6 and even after the demo wasn’t entirely convinced Oculus Rift S owners have anything to worry about just yet. On test was Insomniac Games’ to be released Stormland, an impressive-looking title at the best of times and one that would probably never make it to Oculus Quest.
Having played Stormland earlier in the day on Oculus Rift S it was a nice easy comparison to make. While the title played fine as both headsets use the same controller mechanics, the visuals were another matter – and one of the main reasons for Oculus Link obviously. The quality was good yet definitely lagged behind Rift S in terms of detail and sharpness. It was more than acceptable – especially as the title isn’t native to the headset – yet there is a difference.
That’s more than expected when considering the signal is being run through a USB-C cable, adding extra steps in the process from the graphics card instead of a direct connection. New virtual reality (VR) devices are striving for better clarity and therefore immersion, which wasn’t exactly proven in this case. It does look like Oculus has tried to keep things nice and tidy with a couple of clips attached around the head strap which presumably will come with the premium Oculus-branded cable the company announced. Details haven’t been released regarding cable length or cost but you can use a third-party one – which will probably be cheaper.
Sure it’s great that Oculus Quest owners will be able to play Rift S videogames on the portable headset, making it even better value for money. However, one of the other factors to immersion is that freedom of being able to wander freely around a virtual world untethered, untethered, surely that means Oculus Quest would be taking a step backwards by connecting to a PC.
Oculus Quest’s biggest draw is its ease of use, essentially charge up, put it on your head and away you go, play almost anywhere you like. Oculus Link, while useful if you have a PC, isn’t even on the same level as the hand tracking announcement (which didn’t include Rift S) – which could have massive potential across a range of applications.
If Oculus Link could provide exactly the same experience on Quest as Rift S then it would be a no brainer, you’d always plump for Oculus Quest. Enjoy the big PC VR titles via cable then Quest’s slightly more curated store the rest of the time. That’s not the case (currently anyway), so for the very best Oculus VR experience, it would still be the Rift S.
As the OC6 keynote proved Oculus Quest is very much the company’s golden child, and more time, money and effort is going to be put into getting the device into consumers hands than Oculus’ other headsets. Oculus Link doesn’t make Oculus Rift S a pointless purchase at the moment, they’re both good VR devices. In the next year, however, the Oculus ecosystem may not need all these competing headsets.
At one of the panels at last week’s Oculus Connect 6 conference, Facebook gave an update on its Spark AR platform, including some new applications for retail and shopping environments.
The panel, titled “Bridge Virtual and Real Worlds with AR”, started off with an introduction to Facebook’s perspective on AR now and in the future, centered around its Spark AR platform, and the ways in which the technology is being adopted.
“We’ve been looking to see if augmented reality can provide the experiences that resonate in actual reality,” said Matt Hanson, Spark AR Project Design Manager. “And we’re seeing pretty strong indications that it can.” Over 1 billion people have used AR experiences across a variety of Facebook platforms in the last year, including on Facebook itself, Instagram, Messenger and Portal.
“I love VR, but it’s difficult to get your content to a huge audience in an immersive way. But because AR and VR are so complimentary, we can exchange assets with relative ease, and by leveraging spark, you can now reach the eyeballs that you couldn’t without headsets.”
Although Hanson didn’t give extensive details, he announced that Spark AR will soon support “other exciting applications”, one of which is AR shopping. Hanson said that the service would facilitate being able to virtually try products through AR on a phone camera, without having to go to a physical shop to do so. The three examples he gave, pictured below, were being able to try sunglasses on, being able to try on makeup such as lipstick, and testing out what a piece of furniture would look like when placed in a room.
He also spoke about using Spark AR to create, implement and present AR experiences in places and spaces, such as a recent experience available to visitors at the Tate Britain museum in London.
How do you feel about trying on products through an AR camera service? Do you think it could replace the real thing? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’re a developer or interested enthusiast but couldn’t attend Oculus Connect 6, you can now watch all of the talks on the Oculus YouTube channel.
In addition to the main keynote where products are announced, there are dozens of talks given at Oculus Connect, both by Facebook employees and by important members of the VR development community. These talks are primarily aimed at a developer audience, but can reveal interesting lessons about VR as a technology and an industry for interested enthusiasts too.
This week at the Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) conference in San Jose, CA I got the chance to try out a brief demo of The Room VR: A Dark Matter from Fireproof Games, a newly announced entry in the long-running puzzle series.
The Room VR was announced during OC6 and they had two demo pods with Oculus Quest headsets set up for attendees to try out. During my demo Tatjana did a short interview with Barry Meade, Co-Founder and Director of Fireproof Games, with me playing in the background.
You can watch the interview here:
My demo took place mostly inside the London police station you can see in the gameplay footage sprinkled throughout the interview as well as in the trailer (embedded below) as I was tasked with trying to figure out what’s going on with some new evidence at the station.
If you’ve ever played an interaction-heavy puzzle-based game in VR before, the flow of The Room VR will be very familiar. I basically spent my time teleporting between various nodes in the police station that each had a bunch of objects and items for me to tinker with. For example, near the front was a project that I could use to flip through slides that had evidence and historical details, or I could go to the evidence locker and retrieve items.
Similar to the mobile line of The Room games, or even just physical Escape Rooms and VR-themed Escape games you might have played, it’s just as much about interpreting the objects you’re given as it is filling in the blanks. One of the key puzzles in the demo was figuring out which evidence locker had the item I needed to break into a safe. The safe I was trying to open was overrun by the titular “dark matter” and made it impossible to open normally.
Over at the evidence locker I can see that someone was arrested for safe cracking but their storage number is erased — naturally. So if I look down the list I could tell that each number was listed sequentially and the letter associated was (spoilers) assigned to the criminal’s last name. After realizing that I grabbed the item, opened the safe, and then used that item to solve another puzzle later on.
What stood out to me most though is that this demo was running on an Oculus Quest and it looked absolutely great. Visually all of the environments were sharp, I could go out on the balcony outside and look over the city at nighttime, and all of the physical interactions felt really, really good.
I didn’t get a sense too much of what the narrative is about exactly, but it certainly has a strong mysterious flavor that should hook existing fans of the genre.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Fireproof Games and The Room VR for more details as the months move on. The Room VR is slated to release within the first few months of 2020 and is coming to every major VR device included SteamVR headsets, Oculus Rift via Home, Oculus Quest, and PSVR. Check out the official website for Fireproof Games for more details.
Announced at Oculus Connect 6 this week was a new title from Stress Level Zero, the studio behind Hover Junkers (2016) and Duck Season (2017). The game, which is said to arrive on Oculus Quest sometime next year, is slated to take place in the same universe as the studio’s upcoming physics-based adventure Boneworks.
Teased during the opening keynote, the game is basically a complete mystery at this point, although the same can be said for Boneworks, which is slated to launch sometime in Q4 of 2019.
The title ‘Project 4′ was flashed on the screen, but it’s not clear at this time whether that’s the actual name of the game, or if it’s simply a placeholder.
Image courtesy Facebook
Stress Level Zero describes Boneworks as an “Experimental Physics VR Adventure” where you scavenge physics-based weapons, tools, and objects to fight across dangerous playscapes and mysterious architecture.
Physics-based interactions tend to be pretty CPU-intensive, so slimming down the experience to fit into Quest’s modest Snapdragon 835 will certainly be something to see. We’re hoping to learn more about Project 4 in the coming months. As always, we’ll keep you updated, so check back soon.
With two big hardware launches, it was unclear quite what Oculus had in store for this week’s Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) event in San Jose. Needless to say, it really didn’t disappoint, with a new hand tracking feature coming next year for Oculus Quest as well as Oculus Link. On the software side, there were a few arrivals, with the most unexpected being social virtual reality (VR) world Facebook Horizon.
Supporting both Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest platforms, Facebook Horizon is the future replacement of Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms, with both being closed down on 25th October 2019.
Facebook Horizon is much grander in scale, moving towards the likes of Sansar, Somnium Spaceand other big social worlds. Designed as an ever-expanding world where people can connect and play together, the centre of this new world will be a town square to meet and mingle. From here it seems there could be no limit, where you can explore; play games like Wing Strikers, a multiplayer aerial experience and eventually create your own experiences.
Just like with most social worlds, you’ll be able to create your own avatar with an array of clothing and body options to suit your own style. After sorting out your avatar it’s time to jump in one of the many telepods (a sort of portal) to whisk you around the world. But there’s not just one Horizon world. Using the World Builder you’ll be able to create your own, from scratch. From a tropical paradise to an interactive action arena, supposedly anything is possible with the easy-to-use creator tools.
If this sounds exactly what you want to dive into using Oculus Rift or Quest then you’ll have to wait as Facebook Horizon isn’t due to launch until 2020. A beta is due to start in early 2020 – which you can sign up to here – so a full launch may happen at next year’s Oculus Connect.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Facebook Horizon as further updates are released, or take a look at the other news from OC6 like Respawn Entertainment’s first VR title Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.
This week at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) Facebook announced that later this year the Oculus Quest will receive the ability to connect directly to a PC to run Rift games via a new feature called Oculus Linkcoming this November.
You read that correctly. With a single USB 3 cable you can turn your Quest into a Rift S, with one less tracking camera, or unplug it to have it function normally like a Quest. It’s the best of both worlds — in theory.
The premium USB 3 cable from Oculus is expected to cost $79, but theoretically others should work if they are of the correct specification. I wasn’t able to speak with anyone about those specs or options.
Earlier today we got the chance to try out the feature for ourselves across a handful of games. Ian and Tatjana both tried Asgard’s Wrath, as did I. In Ian’s demo he noticed a burst of visual artifacts for a fraction of a second just once when glancing backwards quickly, but didn’t spot any latency issues and couldn’t replicate the artifacts. Tatjana noted that if she moved quickly or turned her head quickly there were “definitely noticeable” framerate drops specifically with one of the in-game menus.
For me, I did notice some artifacts but only when shaking my head very quickly and you can spot some very minor compression if you’re used to a standard PC VR headset or are a videophile. Controller tracking worked just as well as I expected, only dropping when my controllers were obstructed behind my back. I could also shake and move my hands very rapidly without issues. I did not notice any fixed foveated rendering like you often see on normal Quest games.
To be perfectly honest though? It felt extremely close to using an actual PC VR headset. Like, I’m being totally honest here. The best compliment I could pay this feature is that it made me feel like I was using a Rift and that’s almost entirely the case.
But let’s not be dishonest: this is not identical to using a Rift or Rift S, but generally it felt basically about the same and I think most people won’t notice much difference.
Specifically, the Rift S does have a different fit. It uses a halo-style headstrap that many people find more comfortable. However, it also doesn’t include mechanical IPD adjustment so there’s still a trade off. But then on the flip-side the refresh rate is 80Hz instead of 72Hz like Quest.
In terms of resolution, the Quest actually has the Rift S beat out of the gate with 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye on its OLED display compared to 1280 x 1440 pixels per eye on fast-switching LCDs for Rift S. Plus, the OLED on Quest offers deeper blacks and more color contrast, so it edges out Rift S a bit overall — especially if it’s got a PC powering the visuals instead of just the Quest itself.
Once Oculus Link launches, personally, I probably won’t be recommending anyone buy a Rift S anymore. For the same price ($400, plus the cable if you don’t have a capable one already) you can get a Quest with the capability to function as a separate standalone device. When you factor in how many games already have cross-buy functionality on Rift Home and Quest Home, it’s a no-brainer.
From what we’ve seen a Quest via Link is not going to entirely replace the Rift. If you’re used a PC VR headset much you can absolutely spot the difference. But for most users that just want to play games and don’t need the best tracking and the best performance, it is certainly far above the “good enough” bar in my book. And if we’re being totally honest here anyway: If you want the best performance and tracking you should probably get an externally tracked headset like the Valve Index anyway.
For more on OC6 check out our recap of what’s happened so far so you don’t miss out at all. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Oculus CTO John Carmack took to the stage at Oculus Connect 6 to give his patented stream-of-thought speech. Here, he gave what he called a “eulogy for Gear VR,” as he detailed the failings, and some of the harder truths that both he and the company had to face in what turned out to be a less performant return on investment.
If you know anything about Gear VR, you know it was a bit of a Frankenstein hardware platform. Along with newer Samsung smartphones came the need to rejigger the headset to make use of them, although that’s not the biggest issue that lead to ultimately worse retention that all other Oculus VR headsets on offer.
“It was the classic leaky bucket that growth companies are advised not to pour effort into,” Carmack lamented. “We did pour a lot of money into the content there. There was significant amounts of money spent on content, and when I would look at a spreadsheet on where all of it went, and some of the apps that did almost nothing, it’s kind of sad.”
Image courtesy Oculus
In comparison to Rift, Rift S, Quest, and Go, Gear VR retention was “way lower,” he revealed. Although Gear VR runs basically the same content as Oculus Go, Carmack posits that user friction was the big sticking point, and that early concerns around battery life—Gear VR draws from the smartphone’s battery—were somewhat overblown.
“In retrospect, the people draining their battery […] were playing in VR and having a good time, and that wasn’t really driving them away,” he explained. Instead, Carmack says, the issue of poor user retention was more based on the fact that users had to get their phones out of their pockets, pull off cases, mount and dock it.
“There was a lot of things we could have done. The docking was fiddly. The mounting was fiddly. There were all sorts of software things that we could have done a lot better.”
Carmack admits that Google Daydream’s holder was better than Gear VR simply because it held the smartphone in place, and didn’t require physical docking—something that was needed with Gear VR in the early days due to the lack of high precision IMUs in compatible Samsung phones.
“The lessons we learned from this,” Carmack maintains, “is it’s almost always better to trade things to make it easier and faster to get into the experience.”
Funnily enough, Oculus first saw good numbers with gamepad-based Gear VR games, but the return on investment still wasn’t optimal, Carmack revealed. The gamepad itself was too simplistic, he said, so much so that it couldn’t play popular games that would keep users in the headset and coming back for more. The true nail in the coffin was, according to Carmack, that the gamepad couldn’t let the user play Minecraft.
Photo by Road to VR
In the end, lowering the price of Gear VR did virtually nothing for retention either. The company did throw around the idea of creating another headset-smartphone style which would connect via a cable and stay in your pocket while a light and high-resolution headset was tasked with doing visual work alone, but by then the company had headed in the direction of Oculus Go.
That’s where the Gear VR content lives on today, and will continue to live on through Quest.
If you want to watch the entire talk, you’ll be able to catch it here.
There were several announcements at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) this year that could have taken the top spot. Oculus Link for example or Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond are two worthy mentions, yet it must be the experimental hand tracking feature for Oculus Quest that takes home the crown, especially after testing the technology first-hand.
Hand tracking has always been one of those options that sound nice in principle, but would you actually pay for it, adding a Leap Motion device or something a little more extravagant like a data glove? Some probably would but for the majority, the lack of haptic feedback which you get with a bundled controller may not seem worthwhile just to wiggle your fingers.
However, if hand tracking is added as a free addition then suddenly this argument changes significantly. Even more so when it comes to the popular standalone Oculus Quest. What’s even more impressive is the fact that this device which can run almost Oculus Rift quality videogames, roomscale tracking and hand tracking all at the same time, with seemingly little issue.
It has long been known that Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) has been working on hand tracking technology for a while now. The ability to see your own hands in virtual reality (VR), perfectly replicated, with each bend of the knuckle or clench of a fist helping to add that extra level of immersion.
The demo shown at OC6 was a testament to the work FRL has been doing. While not 100% perfect, it was perfectly usable for what it was designed to do. A short sequence called Elixir by Magnopus, the demo put you in a wizard’s lair of sorts, with a cauldron bubbling away, tables strewn with experiments and more. All designed, of course, to get you to grab and touch various objects. There were fun and amusing moments where different objects turned the hands green, set them on fire or transformed them into tentacles.
In a way, all the theatrics weren’t needed, as it was completely enthralling watching each finger move and bend in real-time. The system expertly replicates each finger curling up, pinching and even keeps up with light waving. And the tracking field seemed almost the same as the Oculus Touch controllers, maybe just a little tighter at the extremities.
As mentioned, it’s not entirely perfect as the system is still in development, with the most notable instance of struggle was occlusion. Because of the single viewpoint of the Oculus Quest cameras, the system can’t handle putting one hand behind the other. Doing so would simply fade both hands out, making them reappear once two individual hands could be detected. VRFocus also learnt another little issue that could make tracking erratic was long sleeves or other items obscuring the wrists such as jewellery or wrist bands. Wearing a watch didn’t seem to cause any problems during VRFocus’ test.
Hand tracking on Oculus Quest will add another feather to the headsets cap when it’s made available in 2020. It might not see widespread implementation straight away as developers get used to adding the tech to their experiences, but it’ll be a feature they can’t ignore. What was shown at OC6 this week certainly impressed and VRFocus can’t wait to see the feature rollout, ideal for titles that have plenty of hand interaction like The Wizards or Job Simulator.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Fireproof Games and The Room VR for more details as the months move on. The Room VR is slated to release 
