- - Hey. This is Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica, and I'm here to talk about a really interesting dive into virtual reality. And I've done that many many times over at Ars Technica. There's a lot of VR that's out. A lot of it is very expensive or very underwhelming. There's a lot of these different compromises and weird systems, but at a recent event hosted by Oculus, I got to try out their new Quest headset. 

Now, this is a $400 headset that's coming out in Spring of 2019. And I just thought we'd talk about six things that you can expect before you possibly embark on the Oculus Quest. 

[lo-fi music] Oculus Quest revolves around a fully wireless virtual reality concept. So, this is different than the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which are arguably the most popular computer VR systems. There's also Playstation VR, which is popular with Playstation 4. These all require wires and some sort of external sensor in order for you to feel that virtual reality experience of moving your body around and feeling like you're really somewhere else, whereas everything you need for Oculus Quest is going be within the headset. 

All of the computer parts-- it's actually an Android phone, essentially, slapped into the headset-- along with two hand tracked controllers that you'll then use while wearing the headset to draw where you are in real space, essentially looking through the cameras that are inside of Oculus Quest to see the world around you and map it around so that you don't necessarily walk on or through a couch or a door. Your cat, on the other hand, you're going to have to tell to leave the room for a second. The thing about Oculus Quest is that you've actually seen a lot of this hardware before because, again, it is an Android phone, specifically a Snapdragon 835 system on chip. So, when I say it's a phone, what I mean is the board that you would put into a phone like the Google Pixel 2 or the Samsung Galaxy S8 is the exact same as the board that they're slapping into Oculus Quest. 

So, what does that mean? Well, number one, it's designed to be portable to manage heat and 3D power. Number two, it's been used by 3D game makers before. People have been making 3D games on Android and they're getting better. You can take popular games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Asphalt 9 and play them on this exact SOC and get good 3D performance. So, we're not plugging this Oculus Quest into a computer. We're able to roam freely without wires with everything managed inside the headset, specifically its battery power and its heat. And that's important stuff because when you're wandering around in VR, it's gonna be very demanding. It's a lot of 3D performance. So, that means with kind of gaming and 3D stuff to expect, well, kind of look at what's already appearing on your phone. It's gonna probably look like that as opposed to the most realistic VR experience ever. 

I bring up all this stuff about Android 3D gaming because 3D games in Android are nothing new, but getting them optimized is. So, you may have heard of this little game called Fortnite. Now, the big thing about it, including its huge popularity, is that it's made with an engine called Unreal Engine 4. That's what manages all the 3D assets and animation, and the people who make Fortnite also make Unreal Engine 4. It's in their interests to make Fortnite run really well on a range of Android phones and because they're optimizing that, people I talked to at this Oculus festival that I went to to test out the Oculus Quest confirmed all these benefits that are coming to Fortnite are also going to apply to any 3D game that you might see on any Android phone, and that's what Oculus Quest is. 

So, when you're thinking about a game that's gonna let you run around and see big, beautiful 3D worlds kind of like Fortnite, you're gonna wanna get all of that power that you can and that might actually happen for Oculus Quest games. Imagine using your hands to build all of the structures, all of the stairs, all of the things that you need to be a higher level Fortnite player. That could potentially work. Now, the drawback is the fact that Oculus Quest only let's you walk around so far. You could be in a tennis court sized room and it would work, but you're probably gonna be in a living room where you only can move a little bit. So, you'd be able to duck around, bob and weave, and go through gunfire, and we did play games like what where we actually felt like we were in a VR laser tag match. It was very cool, but once your at your actual house, you're gonna have to use a joystick to simulate the giant runs across a giant Fortnite world. And there were demos we tested where we had to mix using a joystick to run and running around in real life. This was the most disorienting part of Oculus Quest, and people making games for Quest are going to have to think about that, meaning you can't just take Fornite and slap it in. It could work, but it would need adapting. 

So, what kind of games are going to be good on Oculus Quest, then? I think it's gonna be the same games that are good in the stand up, move around VR spaces, specifically HTC VIVE and Oculus Touch, meaning these are systems that expect you to walk around a little bit and have your hands tracked. The good news is that the best games on those systems tend to look pretty simple. Like I said, they're aiming for weaker computers so that they can run super fast and feel comfortable. And Oculus Quest doesn't have to run as fast as the ones on PC to feel comfortable. If you're wondering about the nitty gritty, PC gaming for VR, it goes 90 frames a second of how many times the image refreshes to make you feel like you're there. Oculus Touch is gonna do that 72 times a second. That's still a lot, but it gives game makers a little bit of leeway to make their games a little more optimized. 

So, I think you're gonna see painting and sculpting kind of apps like Tilt Brush. I think you're going to see world exploration like Google Earth. You're gonna see fun toy games like Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator. You'll see some gun games like Space Pirate Trainer. I would love to see some of these ribbon games that are coming out where you sort of stand and bob and weave in a small zone, particularly Beat Saver. I think that'd be really cool. All these games I've listed off have certain compromises so that they'll run on weaker computers, and I think, like I said, all these developments in phone 3D gaming are going to really be a benefit by the time Oculus Quest comes out. 

What if you're already invested in VR is a pretty good question. Maybe you've already spent thousands of dollars on this stuff and you wanna maybe slap your computer and the Quest together. That's not necessarily going to work. There's going to be no way to connect an existing PC or game system to Quest. It is designed to be stand alone. Everything in the Quest box is it, and so you end up with a big compromise when you buy into Oculus. It's that sometimes you're locked into their ecosystem however they declare it, meaning you can't expect games that you bought on the Rift or on the Vive to just automatically and freely translate to Oculus Quest. So, that's a question mark that you may simply be starting from scratch, and I think Oculus is fine with that because I think many people have looked at VR and said I don't want these cables, I don't want a PC. I just wanna jack into the matrix and have a solid time for my first flush. And Oculus Quest uses some really interesting menu tricks that they've already used interesting their cheaper system, the $200 Oculus Go. Of course, the funny thing with Go is you can't stand up and walk around. You have to stay in a chair. 

You kinda wonder if Oculus Quest should have been called Oculus Go since you actually lets you go. That being said, I think Oculus is prime to make anyone who's never done VR before slap this headset on, grab the two controllers, get into some really compelling games, 3D experiences, and say you know what? $400 is the right price to get into a few compromises, but a lot of wild times. Again, there's a lot of stuff at Ars Technica about our tests with Oculus Quest. In particular, we went into a 4,000 squre foot arena where we ran all around, hid behind boxes, shot guns at other people in the same room. It was incredible VR laser tag. It makes us really excited about what's to come, but we're still waiting to hear more. And as soon as we know it, we will tell you over at Ars Technica. Thanks again. [upbeat music]