The Valve Index is now the second most used headset on Steam, having overtaken the Oculus Rift S.
That is according to the latest update to the Steam Hardware Survey, which saw Index grow to 17.5% of overall VR headset usage on Steam. Rift S, meanwhile, fell to 17.21%, making this the first time Valve’s headset has overtaken Facebook’s PC VR-only device.
Valve Index Overtakes Rift S On Steam
This was somewhat inevitable; Facebook stopped selling the Rift S earlier this year to instead focus on the Oculus Quest 2. Index also went on sale in Australia in mid-August, which may expalin some of the platform’s growth this month.
Quest 2, meanwhile, also made a big gain this month after shrinking slightly during paused sales in August. The headset is now up to 33.19% of total usage, larger than it ever has been. Elsewhere the HTC Vive Pro 2 remained at 0.33%, while Steam users with VR headsets grew by 0.06% to 1.8%.
As always, we have to point out that the Hardware Survey is an optional feature and may not be truly reflective of the size and shape of the PC VR market. But, given that most VR headset makers don’t provide direct sales information, it’s the best we’ve got.
October marks the one-year anniversary of the release of the Quest 2, so next month’s results will tell us just how much of the PC market the headset has seized over the past 12 months. Facebook is also hosting its annual Connect developer conference later this month – will we see new hardware that could one day find a place in the Steam Hardware Survey rankings?
Facebook confirmed that a bug was preventing some users from installing the Oculus PC app to their computers yesterday.
Reports from users online started to indicate that issue was impacting people trying to use Oculus services, particularly those attempting to install the Oculus PC app. UploadVR received reports from users experiencing troubles, which many believed to be a server outage, while others online also confirmed that they were also having trouble. Popular outage tracker Downdetector, which uses crowd-sourced information to track outages, showed high reports of issues yesterday, August 3.
UploadVR reached out to Facebook. The company explained that there was a bug associated with the installation of the Oculus PC software specifically. Facebook said yesterday evening that the fix should be available shortly:
There was an issue that occurred when users uninstalled the Oculus PC app and attempted to reinstall it. We’ve now fixed this bug and the fix is in the process of rolling out today. After this lands, users should be able to try again and reinstall the Oculus PC app as normal.
The Oculus PC app is a requirement for any Oculus user who wants to experience PC VR content using an Oculus Rift S or Oculus Quest headset (even if through another platform such as Steam). While Quest users have the option to enjoy standalone content on their headset without a PC, Oculus Rift S users need their headset to be plugged into the computer while in use, with the Oculus app open at all times.
Some users online are already indicating that the outage has been fixed for them, but this might vary depending on the user. If you are still experiencing trouble with installing the Oculus PC app, let us know in the comments or send us an email at tips@uploadvr.com.
Own an Oculus Quest 2 headset and are looking to improve your virtual reality (VR) gaming with new accessories? Then you may want to look at VR Cover’s mid-year sale which is currently running until the end of this week. VR Cover has heavily leaned into accessories for the Quest 2 since the headset launched, offering new facial interfaces, lens covers and controller grips.
It doesn’t matter if you head to the European, US or Worldwide stores, all the Oculus Quest 2 accessories have been discounted, with most around the 30% mark. If you’re looking for more comfort then the Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set (in a range of colours) is down from €29.00 EUR/$29.00 USD to €20.30/$20.30. Or for those energetic VR sessions how about a Silicone Cover for €9.80/$9.80 instead of €14.00/$14.00. Find yourself smacking the walls or furniture? Then the Halo Controller Protector might be a useful addition for €10.50/$10.50 (normally €15/$15).
While there are a lot of accessories for the Oculus Quest 2, if you own another headset VR Cover does cater for other devices just not as extensively. For example, there’s the Facial Interface and Foam Replacement Set (€20.30/$20.30) and the Silicone Cover (€9.80/$9.80) for HP Reverb G2
If you own a Valve Index there’s the cotton VR Cover for $15.20 (down from $19.00) or the Interface & Foam Replacement Basic Set for $31.20 (normally $39.00). The same goes for Oculus Rift S with the cotton VR Cover retailing for $13.30 instead of $19, and the Silicone Cover for $8.40 (normally $14.00). So there are a few deals and saves to be had.
It’s worth noting that while Oculus does sell its own accessories via its website including VR Cover’s very own Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set, there are no offers on currently. So it’s best to go direct to source.
The VR Cover mid-year sale runs until 26th June (11.59pm EDT). For Quest 2 owners, if you happen to spend over €50/$50 then add a Silicone Cover for Oculus Quest 2 to your cart, you’ll get it for free. For all the latest VR deals and savings, keep reading VRFocus.
Downpour Interactive, the maker of multiplayer VR first-person shooter (FPS), Onward, is the latest developer to be acquired by Facebook.
The news was announced today on the Oculus Blog, which states that Facebook will “support Dante [Buckley, Downpour CEO] and Downpour Interactive in growing Onward as one of the foremost multiplayer VR games”. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, though Downpour did confirm that the entire team is joining Facebook.
Onward will continue to be supported on Steam, Facebook says, where it’s available in Early Access, following the acquisition. The blog post also confirms that Downpour has plans for “future projects” and that it hopes to release them to “as many people as possible”.
Since release on Steam in 2016 Onward has proved to be one of VR’s most popular multiplayer shooters. Its focus on military realism gave a lot of VR fans exactly what they were looking for in the early days of consumer VR and Downpour has offered consistent support for the game since, adding new maps, modes and fixes.
Onward came to Oculus Quest in 2020 with support from Coatsink. The standalone version of the game features full cross-play support with the PC VR versions, a fact that actually saw a drop in visual fidelity on PC at release. Downpour has slowly but surely continued to rebuild the PC version from a visual perspective, though.
There are plenty more plans for Onward, too. Anti-cheat measures were introduced into the game this week, and new maps are planned for future updates too.
Downpours joins Beat Games, Ready at Dawn and Sanzaru Games as Facebook-owned Oculus Studios developers.
Wie Palmer Luckey, Gründer und ehemaliger Angestellter von Oculus, via Twitter mitteilt, hatte Oculus wohl eine Oculus Rift 2 in Planung, doch diese nicht in Produktion gegeben, um die Rift S auf den Markt zu bringen und eine Produktion von Lenovo durchführen lassen zu können.
Oculus Rift 2 wurde kurz vor der Produktion gestrichen
Luckey behauptete dies gestern in einem Tweet und reagierte damit auf einen Bericht von UploadVR, dass Facebook die Lagerbestände für die Oculus Rift S nicht wieder auffüllen würde. Palmer schrieb in seinem Tweet, dass er sich eine Welt vorstelle, in der die Rift 2 nicht kurz vor der Produktion abgesagt und durch die Rift S ersetzt wurden wäre.
What a bummer. Imagining a world where Rift 2 was not cancelled shortly before going into production and then cancelled again in favor of a much lower spec Lenovo rebadge…https://t.co/4bsWOoPbTp
Ob dies eine Welt mit besseren VR-Inhalten wäre, ist jedoch fraglich. Durch den niedrigen Preis der Rift S konnten Oculus und Facebook immerhin eine breitere Zielgruppe ansprechen und somit auch ggf. mehr Entwickler und Entwicklerinnen von der Entwicklung von VR-Spielen überzeugen.
Zukünftig scheint sich Oculus auch komplett auf die Oculus Quest und dessen Nachfolgerinnen zu konzentrieren, denn die Rift S wird nicht mehr produziert und die Quest ist aktuell der größte Erfolg, den Oculus bisher feiern konnte. Unseren Test zur Oculus Quest 2 findet ihr hier.
Five years can seem like a long time. If you’ve ever been to a job interview then there’s a good possibility you’ve been asked “where do you image yourself in 5 years?” But it can go by in the blink of an eye which it certainly feels like when talking about the virtual reality (VR) industry. March 2016 saw the launch of Oculus Rift and the birth of modern VR, so naturally Facebook is reminiscing today whilst also looking towards what the future holds.
Plenty has happened in the last 60 months, VR hardware has improved in both form and versatility whilst developers have unlocked some of the secrets to what makes a good VR videogame. While 2016 can be attributed as the official launch of consumer VR with Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR all arriving, let’s not forget that it took years to get to that stage thanks to devices like the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 and others. Considering how much value is put into physical interaction with digital worlds now, the fact Oculus Rift launched with an Xbox controller seems a world away.
That was soon rectified in less than a year with Oculus Touch – playing catch up to HTC Vive – making titles such as The Climbcome alive, allowing players to go hands-on with this new era of videogames. Gamepads in VR soon became a thing of the past – although PlayStation VR still holds a soft spot for the tech – as developers strive to create a greater feeling of presence within their projects.
Innovation in VR has been exceptionally rapid with Facebook’s next headset, the Oculus Go, arriving in 2018. Designed to be an affordable entry into VR as well as being the company’s first all-in-one (AIO) device it would set the groundwork for future endeavours. “John Carmack is really the person that pushed for the creation of Oculus Go. He was super passionate about it, and about making VR less complex,” says Nicole Brendis, Product Marketing on the Oculus Blog. With Chris Pruett, Director of Content Ecosystem adding: “We learned a ton from Go. Quest wouldn’t have existed without Go existing first.”
But the Oculus Go’s lifespan would only be a couple of years. The Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S both launched in May 2019, heralding a new era where 6 degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) would become the norm. Oculus Go’s 3DoF control was too basic so it was discontinued in late 2020. However, it lasted longer than Oculus Quest which was superseded in 17 months by Oculus Quest 2, whilst Rift S is being discontinued very soon.
And that short lifecycle trend is going to continue by the sound of it as Mark Zuckerberg has already said Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) is “working on the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like.”
So that begs the question what is next? Plenty, with FRL Chief Scientist Michael Abrash saying: “We are at the very beginning. All this innovation, all this invention still has to happen with VR. People should realize that we’ve come a long way and we’ve done a great job—but this road stretches out for the rest of their lifetimes.”
I Expect You to Die 2 wird noch in diesem Jahr erscheinen und die Idee des Vorgängers, welcher im Jahr 2016 erstmalig erschien, weiterführen.
I Expect You to Die 2 für 2021 angekündigt
Der zweite Teil bekommt den Untertitel “The Spy and The Liar” und ist aktuell nur im Store von Steam gelistet. Auch der Trailer gibt keinen Aufschluss darüber, für welche Plattformen das Rätselspiel erscheinen wird. Da der Vorgänger jedoch auch sehr erfolgreich auf PSVR und Oculus Quest war, gehen wir fest davon aus, dass Shell Games das Spiel auch auf diesen Plattformen veröffentlichen wird.
Wie der Trailer und die Seite auf Steam zeigen, wird der zweite Teil das erfolgreiche Konzept aufgreifen und weiterhin auf knifflige Rätsel, eine unterhaltsame Story und eine gute Portion Humor setzen.
Wird sind sehr gespannt auf die Fortsetzung und wünschen dem Team, dass es an die Erfolge des ersten Teils anknüpfen kann.
Using Oculus headsets will soon get a little bit easier when it comes to multiple people in the same house. The company has announced that two requested features, multi-user accounts and app sharing will see an experimental launch next month.
Beginning with Oculus Quest 2 followed by a wider roll out to all Quest owners, the Multi-User account feature will allow one headset to have four accounts; one primary account with up to three secondary accounts. That does of course mean everyone needs their own Facebook account.
With multiple accounts on the same device, users will then have the option to share apps with the rest. Apps can only be shared by the primary account holder where: “game progress and achievements will be personalized and saved separately for each account.” The caveat to this is if a secondary account purchases content it can’t be shared with any other account on the headset.
Developers have been told that from 13th February 2021 “all new Rift or Quest apps submitted to the Oculus platform will need to support App Sharing.” Current store apps are automatically opted in.
The App Sharing feature will then be expanded upon in the future to support multiple Oculus Quest devices. That will allow “a primary account holder to share their purchases across three devices.”
On the new features, Oculus notes: “We anticipate that these features will help grow the VR community, promote your apps, and help prevent piracy. Additionally, unique accounts and effective sharing mechanisms increase household usage, driving better engagement for the developer long term.”
Die Oculus Quest 2 soll die Oculus Rift S ersetzen und Amazon bietet die Brille daher gerade besonders günstig an.
Oculus Rift S 100 Euro günstiger
Auch wenn die Oculus Quest 2 mehr zu bieten hat als die Oculus Rift S, so schwören weiterhin viele Nutzer und Nutzerinnen auf das System für den PC. Aktuell bekommt ihr auf Amazon Frankreich die Rift S 100 Euro günstiger und somit zum Preis der Oculus Quest 2 in der 64 GB Variante. Wenn ihr ausschließlich PC-Inhalte konsumiert und auf eine besonders komfortable und leichte Brille Wert legt, könnte die Rift S für euch nun einen spannende Alternative zur Oculus Quest 2 sein.
If you've got a powerful enough PC, the Oculus Rift S is a solid choice to jump into virtual reality. The VR headset is available from Best Buy at $100 off.
