John Carmack: OC6 Talk Foreshadowed Facebook Connect Announcements

Facebook Connect is right around the corner, set to begin at 10am Pacific next Wednesday.

While most of the event will be a pre-recorded presentation, one aspect will be entirely live and unscripted: John Carmack’s annual talk.

Carmack’s annual overview at Oculus Connect (now renamed Facebook Connect) is notoriously long, dense and very technical. However, last year’s talk at OC6 might hold clues for some announcements that will be made at next week’s Facebook Connect.

If you want to go back and watch all 1 hour and 32 minutes of Carmack’s OC6 talk to look for clues, feel free. If not, there were a few big topics covered that we think could hold the answers to the foreshadowing Carmack is talking about.

Perhaps the most notable (and potentially viable) feature that Carmack mentioned last year was creating a wireless version of Oculus Link. Carmack said at OC6 that Facebook “would eventually like [Oculus Link] to work on Wi-Fi.” Currently, Oculus Link allows Quest users with a VR-ready PC to play PC VR content on their headset while they remain tethered to the PC using a USB C cord. A version of Oculus Link that runs wirelessly over a user’s local network would be a huge announcement.

Carmack also mentioned improvements to casting on Oculus Quest (around the 43 minute mark) and creating better virtual meetings that enable collaboration and remote work set-ups (47 minute mark). These are just a few of the big topics mentioned — the foreshadowing in question could be referencing something much less obvious. We’ll have to wait and see.

What announcements do you think Carmack foreshadowed in his OC6 talk? Let us know in the comments.

Walmart Product Listing May Point to Quest 2 Pricing & Storage Sizes

An ostensibly premature Walmart product listing may point to both the price and available internal storage sizes for the upcoming Oculus Quest 2.

At the time of this writing, Walmart currently has a mystery Oculus headset listed, which neatly fits within Oculus’ long established codenaming scheme; Oculus Point Reyes.

The listing specifies two models, a 64 GB variant priced at $299 and a 256 GB variant priced at $399.

Image captured by Road to VR

If these are indeed authentic prices for the new Oculus Quest, it would represent a substantial reduction over the first Quest, which fetched $400 and $500 for the 64 GB and 128 GB versions respectively when it launched in May 2019.

The Oculus Quest 2 was first revealed in leaked images back in late July; with Facebook Connect (ex-Oculus Connect) happening on September 16th, it suggests we could see a product launch or pre-order campaign in about two weeks. We’ve sent a request to Facebook for confirmation, so we’ll update this soon.

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[Update] Multiple Leaked Photos Show Possible Quest 2, September Reveal Rumored

The listings also appear to have placeholder images of Oculus Go headsets, something Facebook has already vowed to retire in its quest (pun intended) to go full 6DOF from now on. It’s important to note that the entire listing could be filled with placeholder information, although it’s safe to say Walmart is getting ready to list something.

Notably, the ‘Point Reyes’ name is entirely new. It was previously thought that Quest 2 was operating under the codename ‘Del Mar’, which was discovered in developer documentation back in March 2020, however it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Del Mar name was referring to an intermediate iteration of the Quest 2.

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Oculus Connect Rebranded to Facebook Connect, to be Hosted Online September 16th

After six annual Oculus Connect conferences, Facebook is rebranding its XR developer event with the name Facebook Connect. This year the event will be held online on September 16th.

Although it no longer bears the Oculus name, Facebook says that Facebook Connect will continue to focus on the company’s XR efforts. Ostensibly the company’s other events, like F8, will still focus on Facebook’s broader portfolio of services. The rebranding announcement comes just after the company announced that its VR headsets will eventually require the use of a Facebook account.

The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in Facebook Connect being shifted to an online event this year, which Facebook announced today will be held on September 16th. The online event will be free for anyone to attend; keynote presentations and sessions will be broadcast on the Facebook Reality Labs Facebook page.

While most sessions will be pre-recorded, Oculus’ Chief Technology Officer, John Carmack has confirmed that his longstanding unscripted keynote will be delivered live. This comes despite Carmack having lessened his commitment to Oculus last year when he announced that he was moving to a “consulting CTO” role to focus most of his time on other projects.

Mark Zuckerberg on stage at Oculus Connect 3

Besides an avenue to connect with XR developers, Facebook has long used Oculus Connect (now Facebook Connect) to make major announcements about upcoming games, hardware, software, and its long-term vision. Facebook is expected to announce the next Quest headset at this year’s event, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a formal launch of Horizon, the company’s first earnest attempt at a metaverse-like VR social experience. As with years past we’d also expect to get an update from Michael Abrash, the Chief Scientist of Facebook’s XR research division, on the company’s R&D efforts.

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Facebook Connect: Oculus Connect 7 Renamed, Held September 16

A week after announcing it will soon require Facebook sign-ins for VR devices, Facebook is renaming Oculus Connect to Facebook Connect.

The new iteration of the company’s VR developer event will be taking place digitally on September 16th. In addition to its focus on VR, Facebook Connect will also give more time to the company’s work in AR and to other products such as its Portal video calling service. The company says, though, that VR will remain the priority at this year’s event.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook Connect will be hosted entirely online, with its keynote and subsequent sessions available to watch for everyone for free.

At the same time, Facebook is announcing it’s renaming its entire VR/AR division to Facebook Reality Lab. In a blog post, Facebook VP of VR and AR Andrew Bosworth said that this year’s show will share more on “on our vision for Facebook Reality Labs and the latest innovations from our team and developer community.”

A.K.A. Oculus Connect 7

Facebook’s VR developer conferences started back in 2014 as Oculus Connect. At that initial show, Facebook founders like Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe and Nate Mitchell discussed the future of the platform as they prepared to release the first Oculus Rift. Each successive Connect was counted consecutively (Oculus Connect 2 in 2015 and so on). The Rift eventually released, but the event’s focus on the future remained.

In 2020, what would have been Oculus Connect 7 will be held with none of Oculus’ original founders still onboard, two weeks before Facebook will require all new sign-ins on Oculus devices to use a Facebook account. This year’s show is widely expected to reveal a new iteration of the Oculus Quest standalone headset, which has been subject to heavy leaks in the past few weeks.

We’ll be on-hand to cover the show extensively. What are you hoping to see at Facebook Connect? Let us know in the comment below.

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Oculus Connect 7 Will be Going Digital Only for 2020

Oculus from Facebook art

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) shows little signs of abating in multiple countries around the world, social isolation measures are still the best form of reducing the spread. So another day and another event has decided to cancel its in-person get-together, this time it’s the turn of Oculus Connect 7 (OC7). 

Oculus Rift S

Oculus made the announcement via its blog, saying: “This was a tough decision to make, but we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees, and everyone involved in OC7. Oculus Connect gives us an unprecedented opportunity to connect with our global developer community. OC7 will be no exception, and we look forward to sharing more details about the digital event in the coming months.”

The turn towards a digital format continues a growing trend by events organisers to still keep things going in some capacity, either through news announcements and updates or videos of the planned session talks. Facebook has already done this because of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) cancellation in March. This saw the company hold its own online Game Developers Showcase, seeing the likes of Phantom: Covert Ops, B-Team and Oculus Quest updates being revealed. OC7 will likely take a similar format.

Events like OC7 aren’t just a loss for the industry but also the local community, relying upon them to provide revenue for hotels, restaurants and shops. Hence why Facebook will be doing the same as it did for the cancellation of F8,  donating $500,000 USD to organizations serving local San Jose residents.

Oculus Quest Lifestyle 4

Oculus Connect is usually held around the end of September so Facebook is taking precautionary measures for the longterm. GDC, on the other hand, closed its normal March event before going onto announce a summer one for the start of August. This is starting to look somewhat hasty and it may also have to shutter the way things are going.

There are plenty embracing the digital realm with the Games for Change festival, VR Awards and the Tribeca Film Festival all following suit. The latter will be releasing its Cinema360 content via Oculus TV, Oculus Go and Oculus Quest later today. For further updates on the latest immersive events, keep reading VRFocus.

Beat Saber Gets Panic! At The Disco Pack, 360 Levels Coming Soon

Developer Beat Games took the stage at Oculus Connect 6 last week to announce two new things. First up, they talked about the 360 degree levels first revealed at E3 this year. These let you play current Bear Saber tracks on Quest with beats flying in from all angles. This pack will be arriving on the headset in December. There’s no word on if it might be coming to other headsets right now. Other headsets are tethered, though, so this might be a bit of an issue.

Beat Games also confirmed that a Panic! At The Disco pack is coming and they revealed the tracklist with its release today. It’s the second artist-dedicated pack for the game. The first was for Imagine Dragons, which hit earlier in the year.

We’re still expecting a third more general content pack to arrive for Beat Saber at some point this year. Beat Games has also been updating the game with free new tracks.

Recently Beat Games CEO Jaroslav Beck stepped down from his role to focus more on the game’s music. Since then he’s also announced he’s looking to fund other VR developers as a means of giving back to the community.

Plenty to look forward to in Beat Saber land, then. Are you looking forward to playing Panic! at the Disco tracks? Or are you hoping for other artists in the near future. Let us know in the comments!

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Our Six Best Hands-On And Feature Pieces From Oculus Connect 6

Well, it’s been a week since Oculus Connect 6 and by this point you’ve probably seen all the major pieces of news and all of the talks that are available online.

However, in the whirlwind of headlines last week, you might have missed some of our meatier pieces that gave a deeper look at the games and services announced. So for your convenience, we’ve summarized and linked our six best hands-on and feature pieces from Oculus Connect 6 below.

Facebook Horizon’s Social Future Built Around Real Identity And Blocking People

facebook horizon oc6 talking avatar

Ian tried an early version of Facebook Horizon while at OC6. He also asked Meaghan Fitzgerald, head of product marketing for AR/VR content at Facebook, and Eric Romo, product director at Facebook, some questions about the game. He covered moderation, Facebook integration, hand tracking and much more. It’s probably the best look we’ll get at Horizon before the beta next year.

Hands-On – Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Is A Welcome Return To A Series Long-Forgotten

medal of honor vr mixed reality aiming respawn

David was so excited to share his hands-on with Respawn’s new VR Medal of Honor game, and it’s easy to see why. He called it “an authentic and welcome return for the long-forgotten franchise,” and went into great detail about the levels he played, the gun mechanics and some areas he hopes get improved before release.

Analysis: Facebook Isn’t Playing Games With Its Finger Tracking For VR

Quest Finger Tracking

It was one of the biggest announcements of OC6: finger tracking for Quest. There’s still a lot more to be revealed by Facebook regarding the functionality but Ian played around with a demo last week, and outlined his thoughts on what he saw.

The Room VR Hands-On: Mysterious Puzzles And Impressive Visuals

After a long history of mobile games, The Room is coming to VR. David snuck in a quick hands-on with the game while Tatjana talked to Barry Meade, Co-Founder and Director of Fireproof Games, about the upcoming title. 

Solaris: Offworld Combat – First Details And Trailer For The Rift/Quest Crossplay VR Shooter

solaris offworld combat featured image hero art

Solaris: Offworld Combat, the next VR Shooter from the Firewall Zero Hour devs was first revealed in our E3 VR Showcase. However, this year during OC6, we shared some exclusive new details about the game, which is coming to Rift and Quest next year, and PSVR at some point after that.

Star Wars: Vader Immortal Episode II Review: ILMxLAB’s Difficult Second Album

Vader Immortal Episode II Review

Vader Immortal Episode II released during the first day’s keynote. Thousands of miles away from OC6, Jamie quickly jumped into a full play through of the hotly-anticipated second chapter and gave his thoughts on how it stacks up compared to Episode I.

Those are our biggest hands-on and features pieces from OC6. What are you looking forward to most? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Oculus Connect 6: Link, Hand-Tracking, Passthrough+

Die Oculus Connect 6 ist vorbei und es gab einige spannende Informationen, die uns in naher und ferner Zukunft den Aufenthalt in der Virtual Reality verschönern sollen. Im Fokus stand dieses Jahr die Oculus Quest, welche scheinbar noch einige Tricks auf Lager hat.

Oculus Connect 6: Link’s Awakening

Mit Oculus Link kündigte Oculus auf der Connect 6 ein Feature an, welches die Quest zum “Schweizer Taschenmesser” unter den VR-Brillen machen soll. Mit dieser Funktion wird es Oculus ermöglichen, PC-VR-Spiele auf der Oculus Quest zu spielen. Hierzu wird Oculus ein eigenen USB-Kabel mit einer Länge von 5 Metern für 79 US-Dollar anbieten, jedoch soll die Funktion auch mit jedem USB-3-Kabel verfügbar sein, welches die Mindestanforderungen erfüllt. Laut Oculus sei es aber schwer, ein solches Kabel mit einer Länge von 5 Metern zu finden.

Wie Road to VR berichtet, soll sich das Gefühl beim Spielen über das Kabel wie eine native PC-VR-Erfahrung anfühlen. Zwar arbeite Oculus mit einer Kompression, welche auch zur Bildung von Artefakten führen kann, jedoch sei dies im Test nicht aufgefallen. Starten wird die neue Funktion im September 2019.

Link ohne Kabel?

Aktuell gibt es bereits Anwendungen, welche auch kabellos Inhalte vom PC auf die Quest streamen können. Leider sind bei diesen Lösungen die Kompressionen häufig deutlich erkennbar und auch die Latenz wird spürbar erhöht. Doch externe Entwickler haben nicht die selben Möglichkeiten wie die Entwickler bei Oculus

John Carmack sagte auf der Oculus Connect 6, dass Oculus an einer Lösung via Wi-Fi arbeite, jedoch sollten wir nicht in Naher Zukunft auf dieses Feature hoffen, denn Oculus lege hohen Wert darauf, eine saubere und angenehme Erfahrung zu liefern. 

Hand-Tracking für die Oculus Quest

Aktuell liefert Oculus die Quest standardmäßig mit zwei Controllern aus, welche im Raum erkannt werden. Eventuell könnte Oculus aber auch bald eine Version anbieten, welche günstiger ist und ohne die Controller auskommt, denn das Unternehmen zeigte auf der Connect 6, dass Hand-Tracking mit der Oculus Quest möglich ist und kündigte das Feature für das kommende Jahr an.

Zwar hat Oculus mit Elixir auch ein Spiel für die neue Eingabemethode vorgestellt, jedoch ist es fraglich, ob es zukünftig viele Games mit Hand-Tracking-Support geben wird. Dennoch könnte das Feature die Quest einfacher bedienbar machen.

Oculus Go Apps und Passthrough+

In der Vergangenheit hatte Oculus bereits viele Entwickler/-Innen auf die Oculus Go geholt. Da die Quest der Go jedoch längst Rang abläuft, werdet ihr auch bald auf der Quest viele Inhalte der Oculus Go abrufen können. Oculus verspricht mehr als 50 Spiele.

Zudem wird zukünftig Passthrough+ dafür sorgen, dass die Sicht durch die Kameras unter geringeren Verzerrungen leidet. 

Horizon, Asgard’s Wrath, Boneworks, Stormland, Medal of Honor

Auch in Sachen Software gab es einige Neuigkeiten auf der Oculus Connect 6. So ist nun bekannt, dass Asgard’s Wrath im Oktober und Stormland im November erscheinen werden und mit Horizon und Medal of Honor gab es sogar zwei spannende Überraschungen. Horzion bringt ein soziales Netzwerk von Facebook in die VR, welches vom Konzept her an Rec Room erinnert und die Reihe Medal of Honor wird ihren ersten Ausflug in die Virtual Reality unternehmen. 

 

Der Beitrag Oculus Connect 6: Link, Hand-Tracking, Passthrough+ zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Community Download: Do You Think Oculus Link For Quest Will Kill The Rift S?

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?

Oculus Link

It’s an interesting topic. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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