Oculus Quest ‘Significantly Faster’ Than Oculus Go, 6DoF Tracking ‘Doesn’t Affect’ Performance

oculus quest rear

Oculus Director of Ecosystem Chris Pruett revealed in a forum AMA yesterday that Oculus Quest will be “significantly faster” than Oculus Go:

Quest is significantly faster than Oculus Go from both a CPU and GPU perspective. Part of this is just the raw performance of the chipset itself, but a lot of it has to do with the effort we’ve put into the design of the headset and the core rendering architecture. Tracking isn’t in contention with and doesn’t affect the performance of your application.

Oculus Quest is essentially a VR games console. Like Go it is standalone with all the compute onboard, but unlike Go it has room scale tracking and Touch controllers.

Whereas Go features a Snapdragon 821 chipset, Quest uses the newer and faster Snapdragon 835. It’s around 30% more powerful, or can achieve the same performance with around 40% less energy.

It’s All About The Cooling

But the chip itself likely isn’t the main reason for the “significant” performance improvement. Like Pruett’s comments suggest, it’s also the design of the headset.

A key element often overlooked in computing hardware performance is cooling. The limiting factor in smartphones for example is not the chip’s raw capability, but the fact that when running at full speed it will very quickly exceed its maximum temperature. To avoid hardware damage the chip must then downclock itself until it cools down more, or even shut down. This is called thermal throttling.

Oculus Go features a heatpipe, but not a fan

Thermal throttling is arguably the core flaw of smartphone VR. It can limit graphically intense experiences to a matter of minutes. To overcome this, Go used a heatpipe and the entire front is metal, allowing it to act as a heatsink.

This cooling system allowed Facebook to overclock the Snapdragon 821, and to sustain that performance for hours. The result was that Oculus Go performs “significantly better” than a Galaxy S7 using the same chip.

Quest goes even further with cooling by adding an active cooling fan. This has rarely ever been done with ARM processors. The new Apple TV and the HTC Vive Focus are the only instances on the consumer market we know of.

With the active cooling system, Quest should be able to have higher clockspeeds than smartphones or Oculus Go. Everything still needs to be rendered for each eye but the higher clock speed should provide more complex and detailed virtual worlds compared with Go. Of course, Quest will still not come close to the power of a PC.

Hardware Accelerated Tracking

Interestingly, Pruett confirmed that the 6DoF headset and controller tracking “doesn’t affect” performance. Developers seemingly won’t have to worry about it when optimizing their game.

This is because tracking is not done on the CPU, but rather on the Hexagon DSP- digital signal processor. DSPs are dedicated programmable chips designed specifically for sensor and image processing. Smartphones mostly use the DSP to enhance the photos taken by their cameras- Quest uses it for VR tracking.

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Why GDC 2019 Could Be VR’s Most Important In Three Years

Why GDC 2019 Could Be VR’s Most Important In Three Years

February was slow, wasn’t it? For such a short month it sure does drag on. But it’s only lasted so long because we’ve been really, really looking forward to March. Or, more specifically, we’ve been looking forward to the 2019 Game Developers Conference.

That’s for a lot of reasons.

This GDC could well be VR’s most significant, at least since 2016. That year Oculus, Valve, Sony and HTC put the finishing touches on their launch campaigns. VR was on the cusp of going consumer and everyone was excited. The 2017 and 2018 iterations, while eventful, didn’t hold such importance.

But now in 2019 VR feels like it’s yet again on the cusp of something new. Perhaps not a second generation, but an intriguing mid-way point that will see the same suspects head off on exciting new tangents.

Oculus Quest and Rift S

Last year Oculus used GDC to lift the curtain on the Go headset. We got an in-depth hands-on and a first glimpse at games ahead of launch at F8 the following May.

We’re expecting a similar sort of roll out for the highly anticipated Oculus Quest. We already know we’ll see new demos for the six degrees of freedom (6DOF) standalone headset at the show. This could be Quest’s big coming out party, a chance to show everyone what this device is really capable of.

But Quest isn’t all we might see from Oculus at GDC. This month we found code that seemed to corroborate the existence of Oculus Rift S. Rift S is rumored to be a refreshed take on the Rift with inside-out tracking and an updated display. It could even be out this year. We’ve got our fingers crossed that Oculus has more news in store for us at GDC, even with Quest on the way.

HTC Vive Cosmos

HTC also has something in the works on the consumer VR side. At CES 2019, the company announced Vive Cosmos. It’s a PC VR headset with inside-out tracking. That’s about all the company will confirm on-record.

But not-so-sly hints and teases promise much more than that. HTC suggested Cosmos can also be powered by phones for portability. Not only that but the device will be modular, likely allowing users to swap out components for a VR experience that best suits them.

Cosmos is due to release later this year and GDC marks the perfect time to tell us more. This week, Vive announced a Developer Day for the first day of the show. There it will lay out its road map for 2019. Expect Cosmos to play a big part in that.

Valve’s Own SteamVR Headset

Oculus and HTC might not be great at keeping secrets, but no one plays its cards closer to its chest than Valve. After launching the Vive with HTC in 2016, we’ve heard that the SteamVR creator could be branching out with its very own headset. Supposed pictures of the device circulated the internet last year. GDC could be the time to reveal all.

Sources tell us the headset would feature a 135 degree field of view. It could come bundled with the company’s long-anticipated Knuckles controllers and, whisper it, a Half Life-based VR game.

At this point we’ve learned never to ‘expect’ something from Valve. If GDC were the coming out party for this headset it could easily be the biggest story of the show.

Exciting times ahead, then. We will be at GDC in full force and we will have all the latest from the show.

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Angry Birds VR Dev Resolution Games Confirms Work on Several Oculus Quest Titles

The next couple of months should be fairly exciting for virtual reality (VR) fans, with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 only a few weeks away, and then F8 2019 the month after with possible Oculus Quest launch details. Resolution Games has been involved in both the VR and augmented reality (AR) industries for some time now, having seen great success with fishing title Bait! It’s most recent videogame was Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs in collaboration with Rovio Entertainment. Now the studio has revealed a few new plans.

bait vr screenshot2

Resolution Games will be attending GDC 2019 to announce information regarding several new titles the studio is working on for Oculus Quest. It’s not discussing any further details at this time but the likelihood of a few ports is definitely high.

Titles such as Moss, Robo Recall and The Climb have already been confirmed for the launch of the standalone headset, and Bait! for example, would make for an excellent Oculus Quest experience, being able to fish wherever you chose. Having originally debuted on Samsung Gear VR before coming to Oculus Rift why should Oculus Quest miss out.

And the same goes for Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs. It’s not too graphically intensive, plus the new 6DoF controllers are perfectly suited to flinging all those birds at those unsuspecting green pigs. VRFocus would certainly like to see that happen, giving the videogame a solid 4-star review, saying: “While there aren’t really any major surprises when it comes to content and gameplay the adaption to VR has worked superbly well, with the studios retaining the high production values they’re known for. Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is Angry Birds just in VR, and that’s no bad thing, equally fun and frustrating as it ever was.”

Angry Birds VR

GDC 2019 should be a big event for Oculus Quest as it’s most likely the last one before the standalone headset launches. A new title from Face Your Fears developer Turtle Rock Studios will be on display, and hopefully so will Sanzaru Games’ latest Asgard’s Wrath. VRFocus will be at GDC 2019 to bring you all the latest news and announcements.

Oculus Quest’s Content Quality Will be set High for Developers

Next month might be the third anniversary of Oculus Rift’s launch, but the industry is slightly more focused on one of the companies other products, the soon to be released standalone headset Oculus Quest. Scheduled for a Spring 2019 launch, Oculus will be hard at work helping developers get their titles ready for either launch day or soon after. In a new blog posting on the Oculus Developers page, the company has detailed what it expects from developers, stating that a high bar will be set when it comes to content.

Oculus Quest - Back

When it comes to online videogame stores and the content they list each will have its own set of parameters regarding the quality of the experience studios can submit. Steam, for example, isn’t particularly strict, whereas the Oculus Store or Viveport won’t just let anything onto the store – and getting onto PlayStation VR is even harder.

It’s a fine balance between regular content to keep customers interested but of a good enough quality that its not a yard sale of junk with a few gems here and there.

With the Oculus Quest it seems the company is looking to keep that bar raised fairly high saying: “We hope that when players get into their Oculus Quest headset their library showcases the innovation, sophistication, and development talent that exists in VR today, and inspires future developers.

“To get to that bar, we have to start with a quality-first approach.”

Oculus Quest - Front

Oculus then goes on to add: “High-quality, innovative titles tend to be expensive to build, and developers need confidence that they are shipping into an ecosystem that will generate a return on investment. We’ve set a high bar for content quality on Quest, higher than we’ve ever enforced before, in order to build a platform where everyone has confidence in the quality of the titles they’re buying and developers know that their investments have a strong chance of success.”

With Oculus Quest Facebook isn’t taking anything for granted, ensuring the launch could be the biggest this year. The headset will be on demonstration at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 next month, with Oculus also attending the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June. Oculus has previously said that over 50+ titles would be available at launch including MossRobo Recall and The Climb.

The Facebook Developers Conference (F8) at the end of April is when the Oculus Quest is expected to officially launch – like Oculus Go last year. As further details are released regarding Oculus Quest, VRFocus will keep you updated.

Oculus Quest: Resolution Games kündigt Entwicklung mehrerer VR-Titeln an

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Nach Fast Travel Games (bekannt für Apex Construct) bekennt sich nun ein weiteres Entwicklerstudio zur Arbeit an VR-Titeln für die kommende Oculus Quest. Resolution Games verkündete per Twitter die Entwicklung mehrerer VR-Spiele für die neue Plattform. Der Tweet wurde mittlerweile allerdings gelöscht.

Oculus Quest – Resolution Games kündigt Entwicklung mehrerer VR-Titel an

Entwicklerstudio Resolution Games ist bekannt für eine Vielzahl von VR-Titeln für verschiedene Plattformen und konnte sich besonders im Mobile-VR-Markt einen Namen machen. Das Angelspiel Bait! für Google Daydream und Gear VR zählt zu den erfolgreichsten Veröffentlichungen und zählt mittlerweile über zwei Millionen Downloads. Zu den weiteren Spielen aus der Spieleschmiede zählen das Piratenstrategiespiel Narrows, Wonderglade sowie das kürzlich erschienene Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive.

Narrows von Resolution Games

Per Twitter verkündeten die Entwickler nun die Arbeit an mehreren VR-Spielen für die Oculus Quest. So tweeten die Devs:

In letzter Zeit war es etwas still um uns. Das hat einen Grund, denn wir arbeiten derzeit hart an der Entwicklung einiger Spiele für die Oculus Quest. Wir können kaum darauf warten, sie euch vorzustellen. Bleibt gespannt!”

Einige Stunden später wurde der offizielle Post jedoch wieder gelöscht.

Um welche VR-Titel es sich dabei handelt, ist bisher unbekannt. Eine Portierung des kürzlich veröffentlichten Angry Birds VR ist naheliegend. Ob es sich bei den weiteren Ankündigungen um Ports oder sogar neue Spiele handelt, bleibt zunächst abzuwarten.

Spätestens auf der GDC 2019 im März erhalten wir Gewissheit über die Spiele. Zahlreiche Studios und Oculus selbst stellen vor Ort diverse Showcases aus und kündigen bereits einige Überraschungen an. Zum Release der Oculus Quest sollen zeitgleich 50 VR-Titel erscheinen.

(Quelle: Upload VR)

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Oculus Quest: Höhere Qualitätsmaßstäbe und Richtlinien für das Einreichen von VR-Titeln

Im Oculus-Blog veröffentlichte Chris Pruett, Director of Publishing bei Oculus, die neuen Software-Richtlinien für das Einreichen von VR-Titel im Oculus Store für die kommende Oculus Quest. Demnach sollen die Qualitätsmaßstäbe sowie Richtlinien deutlich strenger angelegt werden, um ein qualitativ hochwertiges Angebot bereitzustellen. Dies soll sich positiv auf Kunden und Entwickler auswirken.

Oculus Quest im Oculus Store – Höhere Qualitätsmaßstäbe und Richtlinien für das Software-Angebot

Der Verkaufsstart der Oculus Quest rückt täglich näher und die Vorbereitungen laufen auf Hochtouren. Bereits im Frühjahr 2019 soll die autarke VR-Brille mit einem breit aufgestellten Software-Katalog käuflich zu erwerben sein. Nun gibt es Neuigkeiten zu den Richtlinien des Software-Angebot der Oculus-Brille, denn im hauseigenen Blog wurden neue Qualitätsmaßstäbe mit dazugehöriger Kontrolle für kommende VR-Titel angekündigt.

Oculus Quest

Demnach stehen vor allem qualitativ hochwertige Inhalte im Fokus der Verantwortlichen, um Entwickler wie Kunden zufriedenzustellen, wie Herr Pruett beschreibt:

Zusätzlich zur Entwicklung einer großartigen VR-Brillen, sehen wir uns in der Verantwortung, das Content-Ökosystem der Quest sowohl für Entwickler wie auch für Spieler erfolgreich zu gestalten. Durch das Rift-Ökosystem haben wir gelernt, dass sich VR-Spieler vor allem Titel wünschen, die Feinschliff, Substanz und Tiefe besitzen, unabhängig davon, ob sie von AAA- oder Indie-Studios stammen.”

Um diese Anforderungen zu erfüllen, soll ein neuer Qualitätsmaßstab für die Annahme von VR-Titeln im Quest-Store genutzt werden.

Wir haben bei der Quest eine höhere Messlatte für die Qualität der Inhalte gesetzt. Höher als je zuvor, um Vertrauen in die Qualität der Titel zu ermöglichen und Entwickler wissen, dass ihre Investitionen eine hohe Erfolgschance haben. [Die Entwickler] müssen so früh wie möglich in ihrem Entwicklungszyklus ein Konzeptdokument zur Überprüfung einreichen. Sollten die Titel dieser Überprüfung standhalten, werden zusätzlicher Support sowie Ressourcen von Oculus freigeschaltet, um ihnen beim Entwicklungsprozess unter die Arme zu greifen.”

Die Änderungen sollen ein klares Ziel erreichen: Mehr Erfolg für Entwickler, höhere Qualität der Inhalte sowie passende VR-Titel für die Oculus Quest. Das Einreichungssystem für die Oculus Rift und Oculus Go sind davon unbetroffen.

(Quelle: Oculus Blog)

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Oculus Quest To Have Strict Game Console-Like Store Curation

oculus quest standalone vr headset

A new blog post authored by Facebook’s Chris Pruett announces a stricter process for software approval on the upcoming Oculus Quest Store.

Facebook’s standalone VR system should ship in the coming months starting at only $400. Quest is a hybrid of the company’s previous efforts with Oculus Go, Gear VR and Oculus Rift. Like Go, Quest is a fully self-contained VR system. Like Rift, Quest ships with Touch controllers and 6DoF tracking perfect for engaging games like Superhot and Face Your Fears.

Quest Competes With Nintendo Switch

Oculus Quest is also a departure from earlier VR efforts at Facebook.

Efforts like Oculus Share, Concepts, Gallery and the Mobile Game Jam encouraged widely sharing unfinished work. There’s also an Early Access section available on Rift for projects that are in active development. With Quest, though, Facebook aims to compete directly for time against the likes of Nintendo Switch.

On Oculus Rift, it is a simple toggle in the menu system to allow unapproved content while on Oculus Go you need to sign up as a developer to activate “sideloading“. This is also how developers can distribute apps among friends and testers. In contrast, game consoles typically limit user access to the operating system. Console software releases also come from a single storefront. We’re still getting a picture of where Quest sits on that “openness” spectrum.

“We haven’t changed our stance on the massive value of early experimentation. In fact, we’ve increased our investment in independent developers with programs like Oculus Start. We don’t intend to shut down sharing of builds amongst friends,” Pruett wrote in an email in response to questions. “Like Oculus Go, Quest builds can be shared easily to others who have Developer Mode turned on. The goal of this new policy is to ensure that the contents of our storefront are consistently high quality. We have a lot of quality on Rift, and much of that is thanks to experimentation. Many of those titles will make their way to Quest as well. That’s part of the reason we’re not changing the Rift store policy.”

Facebook is still keeping the Quest launch lineup under wraps. The company is investing considerably, though, with partners in bringing titles to the system. We expect details in the coming weeks at the Game Developers Conference. In the meantime, though, the blog post from Facebook set some new expectations ahead of the VR console’s broader availability.

“We’ve set a high bar for content quality on Quest, higher than we’ve ever enforced before, in order to build a platform where everyone has confidence in the quality of the titles they’re buying and developers know that their investments have a strong chance of success,” Pruett’s post states. “It’s important to submit a concept document for review as early in your development cycle as possible. Those titles that pass this early review unlock direct support and resources from Oculus to help you make your title as high quality as it can possibly be. This new process is specific to Oculus Quest: no changes have been made to our application submission system for Rift or Oculus Go.”

Open Questions

I asked Facebook if they might implement a similar Early Access program on Quest as they do on Rift.

“We don’t have an Early Access program for Quest today, but it’s something we might consider in the future,” Pruett wrote. “We are not changing the store approval process for Rift or Oculus Go, but the Quest quality requirements may indirectly affect developers who intend to launch on both Quest and Rift.”

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Angry Birds VR and Bait! Dev Resolution Games Working On ‘A Few’ Oculus Quest Games

angry birds vr Snowy Slopes

Now that GDC is fast-approaching more and more VR developers are coming out of the woodwork to place their “We’re making games on Oculus Quest!” billboards for all the world to see. Recently Fast Travel Games, creators of Apex Construct, did so on Twitter and now Resolution Games, creators of Bait!, Narrows, Angry Birds VR, and Wonderglade are doing the same:

Today on Twitter, Resolution Games announced that they’re working “a few” Oculus Quest titles. We can assume that at least one of them is the port of Angry Birds VR, since they already told us that was a targeted platform, and probably Bait! since it seems like they’re biggest hit so far. Narrows seems less likely, although porting from Go would be very easy and the same goes for Wonderglade, but those could get ports later on.

What we’re hoping for are some new titles. We should get more details in just a few weeks as Resolution Games will be showing off what they’re working on at GDC 2019 in March. There is a big pre-GDC showcase from Oculus planned, but if Resolution is showing off Quest stuff separately then that probably means they won’t be at this showcase — and that other devs might do the same. With 50 titles planned for launch there are still a lot that we don’t actually know about for sure yet.

What do you think these other Quest games are? Do you think they’re working on brand new content, or just a bunch of ports of their existing catalog? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Oculus Quest: Apex-Construct-Entwickler arbeiten an mehreren VR-Titeln

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Der Release der Oculus Quest lässt nicht mehr lange auf sich warten, denn laut Verantwortlichen soll die autarke VR-Brille im Frühjahr 2019 erscheinen. Eine Veröffentlichung wird auf der kommenden Entwicklerkonferenz F8 erwartet, wobei nähere Informationen bereits zur GDC 2019 erscheinen sollen. Doch welche Software erwartet uns eigentlich für die Brille aus dem Hause Oculus? Entwicklerstudio Fast Travel Games verkündete kürzlich per Twitter die Entwicklung von mehreren VR-Spielen für die kommende VR-Brille.

Oculus Quest – Fast Travel Games arbeiten an mehreren VR-Spielen

Als die Oculus Quest auf der Oculus Connect 5 im September 2018 vorgeführt wurde, zeigten die Verantwortlichen diverse Logos von Entwicklerstudios auf der Bühne.

Oculus-Quest-Entwickler-Studios-Devs

Während die meisten noch Stillschweigen über ihre VR-Titel für die neue Quest-Brille halten, haben einige Devs den Support für die kommende Hardware bereits bestätigt. Dazu zählen unter anderem Bigscreen, QuiVR und Rhythm of the Universe. Auch Spekulationen über einen möglichen Quest-Release stehen im Raum, wie bei Until You Fall, OrbusVR Reborn oder dem ominösen VR-Adventure im Zelda-Stil von den Left-4-Dead-Entwicklern.

In die Reihe der bestätigten Software-Produzenten für die Quest reiht sich nun jedenfalls das schwedische Entwicklerstudio Fast Travel Games ein, die mit Apex Construct ein beeindruckendes VR-Adventure für PlayStation VR (PSVR) auf den Markt brachten.

Per Twitter kündigten die Devs die Entwicklung von gleich mehreren VR-Titeln für die autarke Brille an:

Zwar werden noch keine genauen Details enthüllt, doch Oskar Burman, CEO von Fast Travel Games, spricht in einem Interview mit Upload VR ambitioniert über die kommenden Werke:

Die störenden Kabel loszuwerden, war eines der Haupthindernisse für die Akzeptanz von 6DoF-VR im Massenmarkt. Deshalb freuen wir uns so sehr darüber, an mehreren Projekten für die Oculus Quest zu arbeiten. Es ist ein erstaunliches Gerät mit einem sehr attraktiven preis, welches VR massentauglich machen wird. Ihr könnt weitere Informationen von uns in den nächsten Monaten erwarten.”

Ob es sich bei einem der VR-Projekte um eine Portierung von Apex Construct oder völlig neue Titel handelt, ist derzeit unbekannt. Trotz der Arbeit für die neue Plattform versprechen die Devs jedoch, auch zukünftig weiterhin der Plattform PlayStation VR (PSVR) treu zu bleiben.

(Quelle: Upload VR | Fast Travel Games Twitter)

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Apex Construct Dev Working On ‘Multiple Games’ For Oculus Quest

Apex Construct Dev Working On ‘Multiple Games’ For Oculus Quest

Oculus Quest’s spring 2019 release window is nearing. Despite this, we still don’t know much about its software line-up. But it looks like at least two games are coming from the makers of Apex Construct.

Stockholm-based Fast Travel Games announced this week that it’s working on “multiple games” for the upcoming headset. The studio wouldn’t confirm any details but did say that more information would come “further down the road.”

“Getting rid of the cables has been one of the main blockers from getting mass market adoption of 6DOF VR, and this is why we’re so excited to be working on several projects for the Oculus Quest,” Fast Travel CEO Oskar Burman told UploadVR. “It’s an amazing device with a very compelling price that will democratise VR. Expect more info from us in the next couple of months.”

If we were to speculate, though, one of these games could be an Apex Construct port. At GDC last year Fast Travel showcased its PC and PSVR game running on Gear VR. It was just a tech demo in collaboration with semiconductor group Arm to show it could be done. Now that it’s been proven, though, a full port that utilizes Quest’s six degrees of freedom (6DOF) inside-out tracking and Quest controllers makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

As for the other game? Your guess is as good as ours.

Oh, and don’t worry PSVR fans. Fast Travel says its work on Quest isn’t stopping future PSVR plans. We’d assume that goes for PC headsets too.

We’re set to learn more about Oculus Quest at GDC in late March. Oculus is going to be at the show with some previously unannounced demos for the kit.

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