VR information of the week
As a part of a weekly collection, Android Central Senior Editors Michael Hicks and Nick Sutrich are rounding up all the information on {hardware}, recreation bulletins, leaks, and funky updates associated to the Meta Quest 3, Oculus Quest 2, and different VR headsets.
Welcome one, welcome all to the weekly VR information recap for the week ending November 3, 2023. This previous week has been jam-packed with all kinds of reports from the VR, AR, and total XR house together with large bulletins from Qualcomm and Samsung.
Plus, we’re having a look at extra Meta roadmap leaks for upcoming Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses releases and even asking what is going on on with Meta Quest 3 controller monitoring.
And let’s not overlook concerning the bevy of video games launched this previous week, in addition to one other handful of fashionable Quest video games getting graphical upgrades for Quest 3 customers.
Controller monitoring woes
Nearly all of this week’s information is enjoyable and optimistic, so why not get the unfavourable out of the best way first? As extra individuals are getting their palms on the Meta Quest 3, we have been listening to of elevated reviews of controller monitoring points.
Lengthy story quick, a couple of retailers have reported that Quest 3 controllers aren’t tracked as precisely as Quest 2 controllers. Which will appear unusual provided that Meta is using each LED monitoring plus AI monitoring fashions which had been designed to make sure accuracy and velocity.
Players who play fast-paced VR video games like Beat Saber, Eleven Desk Tennis, Synth Riders, and others say that their controllers commonly glitch for a short second throughout quick actions. As you may anticipate, that is inflicting numerous frustration and inflicting gamers to overlook be aware blocks or hits in video games.
Meta says it is at present wanting into the issue, though the corporate has but to answer emails we have despatched inquiring concerning the potential points.
For what it is value, my very own Quest 3 controllers obtained an replace at the moment however I could not discover any printed changelog to see what was included within the replace. Meta has traditionally been good about updating its headsets commonly so we anticipate this to get mounted quickly.
TikTok involves Pico
Trying to do some late-night TikToking? You’ve got received a brand new technique to do it when you’ve received a Pico 4, as father or mother firm ByteDance lastly added a technique to scroll the world’s hottest social media platform from the consolation of your VR headset.
As UploadVR reviews, the TikTok app is now formally out there on the Pico retailer however is little greater than the Android app floating in digital house. At the least the headset’s crystal-clear show and pancake lenses imply that scrolling by way of your feed will look nice.
Plus, this additionally signifies that posting content material to the social community is simpler than ever earlier than, so you’ll be able to seize one thing tremendous wonderful in VR and publish it instantly.
Meta Quest customers may all the time sideload the app to their headset for a near-identical expertise however they’d be lacking the built-in TikTok sharing performance.
Quest 3 video games galore
The Meta Quest 3 has seen an unbelievable launch, and that features tons of latest video games which have launched because the headset got here out a couple of weeks in the past. The finest October Meta Quest video games had been appropriately Halloween-themed, although, together with large releases from Ghostbusters and an excellent reboot of the 90s puzzle journey title, The seventh Visitor.
Along with that, we have seen numerous Quest video games get graphics updates to utilize the brand new headset’s improved processing energy. The seventh Visitor received an unbelievable replace proper after launch that included even higher volumetric FMV sequences — it is really exhausting to imagine they’re higher than what we noticed at launch — and fashionable Rainbow Six-like recreation Breachers simply received its large Quest 3 graphics replace, as effectively.
As well as, Flooring Plan 2, RUNNER, Hubris, and several other different video games additionally noticed large graphics updates for Quest 3 {hardware}. We have additionally gotten phrase from the builders of Genotype and PowerWash Simulator VR {that a} Quest 3 replace is being labored on and issues are coming alongside fairly properly.
The way forward for sensible glasses
We could have simply seen the discharge of the second-generation sensible glasses from Meta and Ray-Ban, however rumors of the third technology are already making the rounds. Meta Ray-Ban Good Glasses 2 seems to be to be an excellent greater soar than we noticed with this 12 months’s launch, including in a brand new show that sounds an terrible lot like Google Glass.
This “Viewfinder,” as rumors name it, is claimed for use for “viewing incoming textual content messages, scanning QR codes, and translating textual content from one other language in real-time.”
Meta seems to be to be trying to launch its very first pair of AR glasses referred to as “Venture Artemis” someday in 2027 that are mentioned to be using Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) shows. These are the identical kind of show utilized in Google Glass and each Magic Leap glasses so it is not an costly, rising show kind.
To offset the burden and measurement of a VR headset, Meta is claimed to be inserting each the battery and chipset in a hip or wrist-mounted puck of some variety. Meta is claimed to be together with 5G connectivity and a touchpad on this puck, making it attainable to make use of it as a approach to make use of the glasses like a smartphone.
Meta’s Venture Artemis goals to be the corporate’s first-released AR glasses product in 2027.
Past that, Meta is trying to launch an much more full-featured pair of AR glasses referred to as Venture Orion. Orion is claimed to be a limited-quantity merchandise and can probably value upwards of $2,000.
These would characteristic MicroLED shows baked into the lenses, much like how a few of the finest sensible glasses do proper now. INMO Air 2 involves thoughts after I consider this design.
You’d management these glasses with a wrist-mounted controller that appears so much like a sensible watch, utilizing faucets and different gestures to navigate by way of content material on these glasses, probably much like how Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional gestures work. Meta has been engaged on a majority of these gesture watches for some time now, so it is smart to see them starting to combine the tech into upcoming merchandise.
