The Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 both come with a pair of brilliant Touch controllers that let you feel and interact with the VR world. However, they aren’t always the best and most convenient solution.Fortunately, it’s easy to use a standard game controller in either wired or wired mode with either headset (though Quest 2 is far more common).

Why Use a Controller With Quest 2?

Meta Quest headsets (both versions) let you use your bare hands through the hand-tracking feature, which is great with certain games (e.g. Waltz of the Wizard) that are designed for hand-tracking in particular and media apps or the web browser, where you don’t necessarily want to grab a controller ever few seconds to scroll down a page or pause something.

In addition to Touch controllers and hand tracking, the Meta Quest 2 has native support for traditional controllers or “gamepads”, if you’re old enough to remember the Gravis Gamepad. Why would you want to do this? Well, there are VR games (such as the Tetris Effect or certain racing titles) that simply play better with a controller, and if you can’t use (or don’t like) hand tracking then a standard controller can be a more comfortable away to operate media apps or the web browser, compared to having a touch controller strapped to your wrist. Whatever the reason you want to use a controller, you can do it thanks to Meta’s decision to add this feature to their headsets.

Which Controllers Are Compatible?

Officially, Meta lists “Bluetooth 3.0 Class 2” controllers as compatible. In practice, if you already have a controller there’s no harm in trying it with your Quest to see if it works. However, if you’re looking to buy a controller to use with your Quest, it’s essential to do a web search to see whether it works or not.

Here we’re using a standard Xbox Series X controller for the tutorial, but your mileage may vary if you have something more esoteric.

How to Connect a Gamepad to Your Meta Quest 2 via USB

While we didn’t see it documented anywhere, our Xbox Series X controller has a USB-C port, and our Meta Quest 2 has a USB-C port so, you can see where this is going. It turns out that this totally works, and we could activate menu choices and scroll up and down text pages using the controller by simply plugging it in. We also made sure there were no batteries in the controller, so there was no doubt the magic was happening over the cable. 

All you have to do is plug one end of your USB-C cable into the headset and the other into the controller.

How to Connect a Gamepad to Your Meta Quest 2 via Bluetooth

Connecting your controller via Bluetooth couldn’t be any easier. Before we show you the steps, please note that it’s not possible to provide screenshots of all the menus involved in the procedure, because casting, screenshots, and screen recordings don’t work when Bluetooth pairing is activated. With that said, here are the steps to follow:

1. Put on your Quest Headset. Get into the Quest VR Home environment the same way you usually do.

2. Select Quick Setting. Just select the clock at the left side of the menu bar.

3. Select Settings. You’ll find it at the top right of Quick Settings.

4. Select Devices.

5. Select Bluetooth. This is usually already selected be default in the left sidebar.

6. Select the Pair button. From here on, we’re unable to provide screenshots.

7. Put your controller in pairing mode. This differs from controller to controller, so check its documentation or look it up online.

8. Select Pair a new device.

9. Choose your controller from the list of available devices.

10. Confirm that you want to pair with the controller. 

Now you can use the controller with apps and games that are compatible with it. If you want to know whether a given game or app supports a controller, head over to its store page and if it says “Supports Gamepad,” then you’re good to go.(Image Credit: Tom’s Hardware) 

These days, the Meta Quest 2 (aka Oculus Quest 2) is the best VR headset for just about anyone. The $399 headset allows you to play VR games either sitting or walking around. It runs as a standalone device or it can tether to your PC and run PC-based VR games either over a wired USB connection or Wi-Fi, the latter of which Meta calls AirLink.

If you want to play Minecraft in VR, there are three ways to do that on the Meta Quest 2, each of which has its own setup method. The best method to use is QuestCraft, an unofficial port of Minecraft Java that runs as a standalone app on the headset and supports a variety of mods as well as roomscale tracking. However, it’s an unofficial port and so could break or be blocked by Mojang at any time. 

Here are the pros and cons of each method, and we’ll explain how to install below.

How to Install QuestCraft: Standalone Minecraft VR for Meta Quest 2

While other methods rely on you using a PC to run the game and then sending the VR images over a USB or Wi-Fi connection, QuestCraft allows you to run the game entirely on the Quest 2. It’s an unofficial port of Minecraft Java, so you’ll need to enable developer mode and sideload the APK, a process which is fairly easy if you follow the steps below. 

You’ll still need a legitimate Minecraft Java account to log in and play QuestCraft. However, since it’s an unofficial port, it’s always possible that future updates will break it.

1. Enable developer mode in the Meta Quest mobile app on your phone or tablet. To get there, tap Menu->Devices->Developer Mode and toggle it to on.

2. Download and install SideQuest, if you don’t already have it. This program allows you to sideload apps onto the headset.

3. Launch SideQuest with the Quest 2 plugged into your PC via USB. The app should detect your headset automatically. If this is the first time, you will see a prompt on the headset to allow USB debugging and you’ll probably want to accept “always allow from this computer” so you don’t get prompted again.

4. Enter “questcraft” in the SideQuest search box and click the top result.

5. Click Download App (Sideload). It will download and install. A status bar will quickly show when it has finished but then disappear. In our case, the process took less than 10 seconds.

6. Disconnect the headset and put it on.

7. Navigate to the apps menu on the Quest 2.

8. Click the filter button in the upper right corner.

9. Select “Unknown sources” from the pulldown menu.

10. Select QuestCraft to load it.

11. Click Login on the QuestCraft splash screen and follow the instructions to sign in.

12. Click Play.

It will take a few moments to download assets and load the game. The screen will turn black for a bit while it's loading. Don’t take off the headset or quit. When it shows you in a box made of Minecraft dirt blocks, it’s almost done loading.

Installing mods in QuestCraft: You can install some, but not all Fabric mods in QuestCraft. To do so, click Mod Manager in the QuestCraft menu and then click on the searchbox and use the keyboard to query for the mod you wish to download. Then click on the result to get information and then the down arrow button to install. If a mod is incompatible, the game won’t launch or will have bugs. You can see a community-maintained list of compatible mods here.

How to Configure Meta Quest 2 to Work in Wired Mode

If you don’t want to use QuestCraft, you’ll need to connect your Meta Quest 2 to your PC via either wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) connection. This is true whether you want to use Vivecraft (Minecraft Java in VR) or Minecraft for Oculus. As you might guess, wired offers much better performance, with the obvious trade-off that you must be near your computer.

It almost goes without saying that your PC has to meet the very modest system requirements for Meta Quest Link in order to run in wired or wireless mode. These include having a 4th Gen Core i5 or first-gen Ryzen 5 or higher CPU, Windows 10 or 11, 8GB of RAM and some kind of discrete graphics. Minecraft’s system requirements are even lower than these, but if you want to use ray-tracing, you need an Nvidia RTX or Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card.

1. Install the Oculus desktop app on your PC if you don’t have it already.

2. Launch the Oculus app.

3. Navigate to Devices.

4. Click Add Headset.

5. Select Quest 2 and click Continue.

6. Select Link (Cable) for wired connections. If you wish to use a wireless connection, skip to the section below on using Air Link for wireless connections.

7. Connect the Meta Quest 2 to a USB 3 or faster port on your PC and click Continue.

8. Navigate to Quick Settings on the headset and select Meta Quest Link. As long as your controllers are paired with the headset, they will automatically connect to your PC. 

How to Connect Your Meta Quest 2 to PC via Air Link 

Air Link is Oculus’ system for connecting your Quest 2 headset to your PC via Wi-Fi. Air Link works with either Minecraft for Oculus (Bedrock) or Vivecraft (Java), but it is the laggiest solution.

In order to work, both the PC and the headset must be connected to the same network. To reduce latency, It helps if the PC is connected via Ethernet. If you are using a mesh network, make sure you configure the router to only allow both devices to use one node so they are on the same node (or else it won’t work).

1. Navigate to Devices->Add Headset->Quest 2 in the Oculus desktop app as shown in steps 2 through 6 in the section above.

2. Select Air Link and click Continue.

3. Navigate to Settings->Experimental Features on the Oculus Quest 2.

4. Toggle Air Link to on.

5. On the Quick Settings menu, click Oculus Air Link.

6. Select the PC you wish to pair with and click pair. A pairing code should appear on your PC’s screen.

7. Click Confirm on the PC.

8. Click Continue and then Launch on the Oculus Quest 2. 

How to Launch Minecraft for Oculus (aka Bedrock Edition in VR)

The only first-party method for playing Minecraft in VR is the simplest, but most limiting. If you already have Minecraft Bedrock edition installed (aka Minecraft for Windows or non-Java Minecraft), setting up VR will take just a few seconds. However, you won’t be able to use mods like you can with the other methods.

1. Create a desktop shortcut to launch Minecraft VR using the location of minecraft://Mode/?OpenXR=true. To do this, right-click on your desktop and select New->Shortcut. Enter minecraft://Mode/?OpenXR=true as the Location, click Next and name your shortcut Minecraft VR (or something similar).

2. Open the shortcut to launch Minecraft on your Oculus Quest 2. You’ll see Minecraft load in a Window on your desktop and on the headset view screen at the same time. It may take several seconds before the title screen appears. 

How to Play Vivecraft (Minecraft Java VR) on Meta Quest 2

Vivecraft, which is a third-party VR launcher for Minecraft Java, provides the most immersive VR experience of any method. With Vivecraft, you can move your arms to perform tasks such as attacking, something you can only do with the controller in other versions. You can also use Forge mods.

As with Minecraft for Oculus, Vivecraft requires a wired or wireless connection to your PC.

1. Download and install the Forge Mod Loader (client), preferably the latest version. You will need to have the Java runtime library installed, which you do if you already have run any mods on Minecraft Java edition.  Be careful because there may be a pop-up ad that tries to fool you into downloading malware. If you get the ad, wait until the skip button appears and click "skip."

2. Download Vivecraft from Modrinth. Be sure to select a the version that matches your Forge Mod Loader. Note that Java is required to install Vivecraft.

3. Launch the Minecraft launcher.

4. Click the folder icon next to Forge in the Installations tab. You won't see the folder icon until you hover over "Forge. 

File explorer opens to the Roaming\.minecraft folder.

5. Create a subfolder called "mods".

6. Copy the Vivecraft .jar file to the mods folder.

7. Open the Oculus Desktop app and connect your Quest 2 headset.

8. Launch Steam (install it if it’s not already installed).

9. Launch SteamVR from within Steam. If it’s not already installed, install it.

10. Enable Meta Quest Link on the headset by going to the Quick Settings menu and selecting Meta Quest Link then selecting the computer that appears. If that doesn't work, check your connection.

11. Click the Play button next to Forge in the Minecraft launcher.

12. Click "I understand the risks" and Play if you receive a warning.

13. Click Yes when asked "would you like to use VR."

The game may ask you if you want it to ask you next time about using VR. We recommend saying "yes." 

After this, the game will load and start on your headset. You can then navigate through the title screen and start playing.

Minecraft VR Controls on Oculus Quest 2

These controls apply to Vivecraft:

• A - interact / place
• Y -  pause
• B - quick actions menu
• X - inventory
• Left joystick button - jump
• Left joystick - movement
• Right joystick - rotating, turning
• Left front trigger - teleport
• Right front trigger - mine / attack / select from menu

In Minecraft for Oculus (Bedrock edition) and QuestCraft, the controls are:

• Y - toggle immersive mode / living room mode (is radial menu in QuestCraft)
• X - opens inventory
• B - crouch
• A - jump
• Menu button - pause
• Left joystick - movement
• Right joystick - rotating, turning
• Right front trigger - mine / attack / select from menu
• Left front trigger - interact / place
• Right touch controller is cursor movement

MORE: Oculus / Meta Quest 2 Review

MORE: Best VR Headsets for PC and Gaming

MORE: Virtual Reality Basics 

Nvidia today announced that Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) has made the jump to VR thanks to support from No Man's Sky, Wrench, and Into The Radius.

The company said "DLSS doubles your VR performance at the Ultra graphics preset and maintains 90 FPS on an Oculus Quest 2 with a GeForce RTX 3080" in No Man's Sky, boosts Wrench's performance up to 80%, and "greatly reduces shimmering and stair-stepping on objects and foliage" in Into The Radius via improved anti-aliasing.

Here are Nvidia's performance results for the VR edition of No Man's Sky with and without DLSS enabled. Note that actual improvements will vary by system, driver version, and the whims of whichever higher being decides the exact number of frames per second a given system can provide in a particular title.

DLSS seems like a natural fit for VR. Nvidia developed the technology in an effort to improve performance and presentation, both of which are critical to games played on a pair of displays held mere inches away from the player's eyeballs. Any improvement to either of those factors make for a better VR experience.

Six other titles will also introduce DLSS support this month: Amid Evil, Metro Exodus: PC Enhanced Edition, Everspace 2, Aron's Adventure, Scavengers, and Redout: Space Assault. Nvidia said the games saw performance bumps from 40% (Scavengers) to 100% (Metro Exodus) and that several will offer ray-tracing support as well.

These additions bring the total number of DLSS-compatible titles to 50 while simultaneously expanding the technology to VR. Its continued growth seems all-but-inevitable thanks to new integrations with Unreal Engine, Unity, and potentially the next Nintendo Switch making it more appealing than ever to game developers.

Nvidia should soon have some competition, in the form of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution. That's supposed to provide a cross-platform alternative to DLSS that works on hardware from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia alike rather than being exclusive to Nvidia hardware that features the company's RTX Tensor Cores.

Editor's Note: This review was originally published on September 16, 2020 and has been updated with new information.

Facebook is making a bold move with the Quest 2 VR headset announced today. Surprised by the original Oculus Quest’s success, which we considered the best VR headset for most enthusiasts, Facebook is doubling down with Quest 2. 

Starting at $299, this VR headset is the key to Facebook's vision of the future. Come 2021, Oculus will abandon headsets that require a PC connection, phasing out the Oculus Rift S and making the Quest 2 Facebook’s only VR headset. The Quest 2 ends the era of Rift, but is it worthy? 

WIth its standalone form factor, it doesn't require a PC or smartphone connection, making it easier for newcomers to adopt. It's a more accessible and more powerful VR device that Facebook sees as the catalyst for mass adoption of VR. After playing with it for a couple of weeks, we tend to agree. It's not perfect, but it's really good!

Oculus Quest 2 Specs

The original Quest headset included a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC that was a few generations old at the time. The Quest 2 is equipped with the latest XR chipset, the Snapdragon XR2. The new headset also includes 50% more RAM than the first Quest, giving developers a full 6GB to exploit. In the short term, the extra memory likely won't have much benefit, but developers may take advantage of the extra RAM to add features to upcoming titles.

Resolution and Framerate Bumps

The Quest 2 runs at a significantly higher resolution than the previous generation. The original Quest's panels offer a very respectable 1440 x 1600 resolution per eye. That’s higher than the Oculus Rift and on par with the HTC Vive Pro and Valve Index -- all of which require a PC connection. The Quest 2 kicks things up a notch or two with a per-eye resolution of 1832 x 1920. That's a 50% increase in pixels over the first Quest. The difference is subtle, but the crisper image is a welcome treat, especially if you're concerned about the screen door effect.

Facebook’s new VR headset can also run at up to a 90 Hz refresh rate; whereas, the original Quest is locked in at 72 Hz. So, you're getting a framerate increase, along with the resolution bump. But keep in mind that it's up to developers to allow 90 Hz within their games. As of now, it's not something you can choose to run outside of the Oculus Move fitness tracker that Oculus announced on November 13. 

Industrial Design Changes

The Quest 2 is much more performant than the previous model, but that's just scratching the surface of the changes introduced on this new headset. Facebook learned a lot from the first Quest and Oculus Go budget standalone headset about what works for standalone VR and what doesn't. The Quest 2 is the culmination of Facebook's best insights into making a great VR headset—for consumers and Facebook.

Facebook’s Quest 2 is 10% lighter than the last one, partly due to its size decrease. Quest 2 is slightly narrower and shorter than the Quest, and the visor isn't as deep either. Facebook even installed smaller tracking cameras on the front of the headset to help reduce the device's size and weight.

Quest 2's material construction also helps reduce weight. Gone is the fancy fabric exterior in favor of a simple plastic housing, which weighs less and, more importantly, is easier to clean. Facebook recommends using non-abrasive anti-bacterial wipes to keep the exterior sanitized.

Keeping the HMD clean is important for the usual obvious reasons, but also because the Quest is white, not black like other Oculus headsets. White makes it look nice at first, but any dirt or stain will show up immediately, so you will need to clean it regularly. Depending on how you look at it, that could be a good or a bad thing.

Redesigned Head Strap

The original Quest featured a semi-rigid rubber strap that didn't conform well to your head and was easily the biggest con of the Quest's design. The Quest 2 has a fabric strap, like the one found on the Oculus Go headset, which we find much more comfortable than the older model's firm strap. The fabric here is made of an elastic that holds the tension on your head. The head strap has a simple adjustment in the back that doesn't require any Velcro. There is an overhead strap that does have a Velcro adjustment.

The Quest 2's head strap isn’t permanently affixed. Facebook created a custom snap-fit system that allows you to remove the strap for easy cleaning. You can hand wash the strap with mild detergent and hang it up to air dry. Again, a removable, washable strap is a welcome addition to the design not just because of the current global situation, but also because the strap is an off-white color that is sure to get dirty over time. 

Additionally, the head strap is removable because you can buy upgrades for it. More on that later.

Simplified IPD Adjustment

Interpupillary distance adjustment (IPD) is somewhat of a hot-button topic in the VR headset market. Oculus was crucified by its fan base when it launched the Rift S without a mechanicalIPD adjustment that allows wearers to change the distance between the two lenses to align with the distance between their pupils. The original Quest adopted the original Rift CV1's fabric-covered lens calibration system, which is absent from the Quest 2's plastic shell. Images of the new Quest leaked in July, which made it seem like the lenses may be affixed in place. We're happy to say that's not the case, but IPD adjustment still isn't what you may be accustomed to.

Facebook saved money on the Quest 2's IPD solution by reducing it from a linear adjustment to three pre-established placements. The Quest 2 supports 58mm, 63mm and 68mm placements, conveniently labelled 1, 2 and 3 on the headset. To adjust the lens placement, you grab hold of the lens housing and slide it to the desired location. There are no switches or buttons to press.

Quest 2 doesn't have a software calibration to fine-tune the IPD adjustment further, so you may have trouble finding the perfect alignment, but the offered range should suffice for most people. We prefer a more precise adjustment solution, but that would probably increase the overall price and weight of the Quest 2, so it's, perhaps, a worthy concession.

Among other slight changes, the Quest 2 dropped one of the two headphone jacks found on the Quest, and features a relocated power button. Facebook also relocated and reoriented the charge port to a position that would work great with a 90-degree USB-C cable. Ironically, the original Quest included a 90-degree cable, but the Quest 2 package contains a standard straight-ended USB-C cable. Worse yet, it’s only 3-feet long;whereas, the original Quest had a 10-foot long charge cable, so you didn't need to put it on the floor when you plug it in.

Oculus Quest 2 Touch Controllers: A Step Backward

Oculus controllers have evolved over the years. When the Rift first launched, the input device of choice was an Xbox One controller. Soon after, Oculus released the highly praised, first-generation Touch controllers. Those controllers offered capacitive touch sensors, two face buttons, a menu button, a thumbstick and a thumb rest, plus a trigger and grip buttons.

The second-generation Touch controllers were a small iterative change from the original controllers, which were altered mostly for compatibility with the Quest and Rift S' inside-out tracking system. The new controllers were slightly smaller than the first-gen Touch controllers, but Facebook did away with the thumb rest, which, according to the vendor, was a sore spot for many fans. 

As such, the Quest 2 includes newly redesigned controllers that bring the thumb rest back. The Quest 2's Touch controllers look like a cross between the first two generations.

Unfortunately, the new controllers are a step in the wrong direction. Their bulky shape does not lend well to a comfortable experience. The controllers' top is quite bulbous, which makes it difficult to get a good grip on the controller. My index finger must be extended quite far to reach the trigger with the tip of my finger. That forces my hand to sit in a more open position than it does with the previous versions of Touch.

The result is a much less balanced controller. Despite balance being one of the main points that Palmer Luckey highlighted when he first revealed Touch to the world, it feels like the designers of these next-gen Touch controllers put no consideration into balance at all. 

To make matters worse, because of the extended index position, my thumb rides up pretty far on the controller's face. The placement of the A, B, Y and X buttons and the thumbsticks works fine, but I struggle to find the menu button when I want to, and my thumb doesn’t rest naturally on the thumb rest.

Facebook said it designed the new Touch controllers in response to customer feedback complaining about the lack of thumb rest. However, the added thumb rests make the controllers’ shape too bulky, which negatively affected my ability to hold the controller securely.

While playing Pistol Whip, I frequently thought I was going to drop the controller. The problem wasn’t as prominent in Beat Saber because the triggers aren’t needed. The combination of swinging the controllers and needing the trigger button makes for a cumbersome controller experience. After playing for about an hour while compensating for the controller's inferior balance, my hand cramped up.

Unfortunately, there's no going back. The new headset is not backwards compatible with the Quest and Rift S’ Touch controllers. That is incredibly disappointing for all the third-party companies that make accessories for Quest and those who already bought accessories but want the Quest 2. Not carrying over support for the old controllers is a massive oversight and missed opportunity for more choice for the customer.

No More Magnets

The new Touch controllers still employ disposable batteries stashed inside the handle. The original Touch controllers had a novel magnetic battery cover, which carried over to the second-generation model. For the third iteration of Touch controllers, Facebook discarded the neodymium in favor of a plastic,pressure-fit mechanism. The move likely saved a few grams of weight and a few dollars in manufacturing cost, but it's a slick feature that I’ll miss.

The design of the new Touch controllers isn't all bad. Facebook managed to improve efficiency so the controller lasts four times as long on a set of batteries compared to last gen. The construction of the controllers also feels more robust than the previous iteration.

Facebook also said it upgraded the haptics system, but we didn't notice much of a difference.

Oculus Quest 2 Accessories

One of the most exciting features of the Quest 2 is its support for accessories to customize the headset to your tastes. Facebook is offering both first-party accessories and has partnered with third-parties to develop additional Quest 2 specific upgrades.

For starters, Facebook developed two optional rigid head straps that look a lot like the PSVR's mechanical strap. The Elite Hard Strap  ($49) provides a dial to adjust the size and tension of the fitment. Facebook also offers a deluxe option called the Elite Hard Strap With Battery ($129) that doubles the Quest 2's battery life. The battery fits in the rear of the strap to help balance the weight distribution. We have not yet tested the upgraded strap options, so comfort levels are unknown.

Facebook is also offering a facial interface pack, which includes one wider and one narrower face cushion and a light-block accessory that covers the nose opening to reduce light-bleed.

As for third-party accessories, Facebook partnered with VRCover to develop a PU leather cushion replacement, which should be available in time for the Quest 2's launch. Logitech is also working with Facebook to provide headphone and earbud options, including the $50 G333 in-ear headphones, with short cables suitable for Quest 2.

So, What About Content?

The Oculus Quest is a lot like a game console for VR, so you may be wondering about the content available for Quest 2. Often when a new console comes out, old games aren’t playable on it. Fortunately, that is not the case with the Quest 2. The headset is compatible with the entire back catalogue of Quest content.

Facebook wants to grow its user base as much as possible, and the quickest way to sabotage that to split the content library into segments for each headset. Everything you can play on Quest, including the library of ported Go software, will work on Quest 2. We may even see some older titles get an update to support the 90 Hz display mode in the future.

Quest 2 is also compatible with the entire Rift software library, thanks to Facebook's USB tethering solution called Oculus Link.

Oculus Link

One of the most impressive features about the first-generation Quest was its ability to double as a standalone headset and a PC-VR headset via a separate Oculus Link cable, killing two birds with one stone.

Quest 2 also supports Oculus Link, but it’s sold separately for $79. That’s the future of Facebook's VR offerings. With the launch of Quest 2, Facebook is making the full transition to standalone VR. The company will phase out the Rift S in the spring of 2021, after which the Quest 2 will become Facebook's sole VR headset option. From that point on, every Oculus VR device will give you the options of taking it on the go or plugging it into a gaming PC. 

That is perhaps the biggest reason that we're disappointed with the bundled charge cable. Oculus wants you to spend extra money for the privilege of using the Quest 2 on your PC. And while that's not explicitly unfair, it leaves a bit of a sour taste in one's mouth. A better solution would have been a longer bundled cable, with an upgrade option for the better quality optical Oculus Link cable.

Oculus Link on Quest 2 works the same way as it does on Quest. Just plug your Quest 2 into a gaming computer with the Oculus software installed and enable the Oculus Link option in the setting menu on the headset. It should ask you to confirm that you want to enable Oculus Link, at which case you'll see the Rift home screen and content library. SteamVR is also supported, but you'll need to launch games from the desktop.

Check our list of Oculus promo code for savings.

We compared the Quest 2 against the outgoing Quest in a small number of games. These tests aimed to determine if the increased resolution has a discernible impact on frame rate and frame time performance.

Oculus Quest 2 Benchmarks and Performance: Test Setup 

With the Oculus Quest 2 being a standalone Android device, we don't have a method for testing the headset's default onboard performance; however, we used Oculus Link to capture performance numbers from our PC.

As always, we run our VR tests on a system equipped with an Intel Core i7-8700K at factory clock speeds. The system also includes an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition graphics card and 16GB of G.Skill DDR4-3666 RAM. 

Half-Life: Alyx

For this game, we had SteamVR's render target set to 150% for both the Quest 2 and Quest. Resolution was at  2880 x 2900 for the Quest 2 and 2528 x 2784 for the original Quest.

Valve's Half-Life: Alyx is a pretty demanding title, so it was very surprising that increasing the resolution by moving from the Quest to Quest 2 didn't make much of a difference on the performance we got from the HMD. The median frametime increased by just over 0.5ms, but 9.5ms is still well below the threshold of a 72 Hz or even 90 Hz display.

When we look at the average frame rate of Half-Life: Alyx, the Quest 2's extra performance needs become more apparent. While the RTX 2080 in our system delivered almost all the frames on time, the average FPS on the Quest 2 fell short of the 72 frames per second (fps) target at 70.11 fps. 

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope came out in late 2017, but it remains in our testing lineup because it’s still one of the more demanding games that we test. No other test match we run matches the intense action in Serious Sam VR’s endless wave mode. Resolution was at 2880 x 2900 for the Quest and 2528 x 2784 for the Quest.

The Quest 2's higher resolution compared to the original Quest added 1.3ms to the median frame time in Serious Sam VR. When it came to the 99th percentile, however, we saw huge spikes from the Quest’s 13.4ms to the Quest 2’s 24.2ms. When the frame time gets this hit, you're heavily relying on reprojection software to keep the gameplay smooth. We experienced nearly a 10% loss of on-time frames with the Quest 2.

We ran Serious Sam VR with Steam VR's render target set to 150% for both headsets. It would be easy to reduce the resolution to improve rendering performance if reprojection is an issue for you. 

Beat Saber

Beat Saber is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, VR game out there, so it's only natural that we include it in our benchmarks. Beat Saber isn't a very demanding title, so we cranked up the resolution for this one and ran the game at 240% of Steam VR's render target. During our testing, resolution was at 3644 x 3668 for our review subject and 3196 x 3520 for its predecessor.

Our performance results were very favourable across the board when it came to Beat Saber. The report showed 0 missed frames on either headset, with the highest frame time on the Quest 2 coming in at 7.4ms. The additional pixels in the Quest 2 added roughly 0.7ms to the frame time results.

Conclusion

The Oculus Quest 2 is an excellent VR headset. It comes in at a great price, has excellent onboard performance and the option for a more robust gaming experience by tethering it to your PC. In a lot of ways, the second-generation Quest is a big step forward. It's too bad that the overall package is marred by a few steps backwards that hold this headset back from its full potential. Alas, the search for the perfect headset continues.

Still, the Quest 2 has a lot going for it. The lightweight, compact design makes it easier to wear for more extended periods than the first Quest. It's also easier to toss in a bag and take it with you, and the body and the head strap are easy to clean. Key is the powerful XR2 chipset that gives the Quest 2 the horsepower needed to drive incredible experiences at an excellent resolution.  

We're also excited to see where the accessories partnerships go from here. New head straps, face cushions and headphones are great, but what else is coming that will strengthen the Quest platform even further?

Quest 2 has some features that some people will disapprove of--specifically, the downgrade of the IPD adjustment system and the lack of a functional Oculus Link cable in the box. And I'm sure I'm not the only person disappointed that you can't use the old controllers.

Overall, the Oculus Quest 2 is a worthy buy for $299 (to start). If you don't have a VR headset yet, this one will undoubtedly tick most of the boxes for you. It's not going to dethrone the Valve Index as the best VR headset for connecting to a PC, but you shouldn't expect it to either. The Quest 2 does what it's meant to do -- provide excellent value for the average VR user -- and it does it well. 

The original Oculus Quest was a huge success for Facebook, and the Quest 2 is likely to be even more popular. 

The Oculus Quest 2, the first Oculus headset to require new users to log in with a Facebook account rather than an Oculus account, started shipping out to customers this week. But thanks to that Facebook requirement, it might be weeks until some owners actually get to use one of the best VR headsets. That’s because, as UploadVR reported yesterday, some Oculus Quest 2 owners are claiming that their Facebook accounts are being disabled before they can actually log-in to and activate their device.

Oculus announced earlier this August that, starting this October, “anyone using an Oculus device for the first time will need to log in with a Facebook account.” This means Oculus Quest 2 buyers who don’t have Facebook accounts either have to create new ones or reactivate old ones to actually use their purchase. The problem comes, then, in some users getting almost instantaneous suspensions from Facebook when trying to sign up and needing to wait weeks to appeal them.

Yesterday, Oculus support tweeted out that it is aware of the issue, which prompted numerous reports of difficulty from users. One Reddit user complained that “I logged into Facebook’s website to lock down my profile, as I had no intention of using the social media site more than was needed, and within minutes of merging accounts and changing profile settings my account was banned.” On Twitter, another user posted the account denial screen that some are seeing, which says “You can’t use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn’t follow our community standards. We have already reviewed this decision and it can’t be reversed.”
 

 Oculus’ support post asks users seeing this message to send a support ticket to Oculus, but another Quest 2 buyer said that Oculus’ response to their ticket simply asked them to refer to Facebook’s help center.

Despite the Facebook account suspension message’s wording, you can appeal a Facebook ban, but it requires sending the website a picture of your driver’s license or some other photographic proof of identity. But the appeals process can be slow, thanks to what is likely human review, which means that Quest 2 owners who are facing difficulty may have to wait a while for their device to be anything other than a paperweight. 

The difficulty here is that Facebook has a unique “real-name” policy tied to its accounts, which asks users to register accounts under the “name they go by in everyday life.” The platform’s hope is that each user will only have one account, which represents who they actually are. And after pressure from the political sphere to crack down on accounts run by bots, the website has only become stricter on who it lets create accounts. So, unlike Twitter or Reddit, signing up for Facebook isn't as easy as just linking an email and pressing go.

This poses a problem when the service essentially acts as a key to start up your new $299 device. 

Facebook Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality Andrew Bosworth also addressed the issue on his Instagram.

"We are working really quickly through those [suspension cases] and resolving all those issues that come up." But in the meantime, he suggested the following advice:

"I think people should continue to make sure their Facebook accounts are in good standing before they buy the headset."

Researchers at Facebook today announced Project Aria, its work on a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses. Facebook is in the very early stages of the project, not even calling it a prototype and only letting a few personnel use it for R&D purposes.

Project Aria is anticipated to be a critical tool in the development of a future product. The vendor didn't confirm when we could expect to Facebook smart glasses on the market or even when a working sample would be shown off. 

However, the tech giant did confirm a partnership with EssilorLuxottica to use Ray Ban branding on its upcoming smart glasses.

"The partnership will combine Facebook apps and technologies, Luxottica’s category leadership and iconic brands and Essilor’s advanced lens technology to help people stay better connected to their friends and family," EssilorLuxottica's announcement explained. "The first product will be branded Ray-Ban, the world’s most popular eyewear brand and is scheduled to launch in 2021. " 

Facebook emphasized that Project Aria is not a prototype of any sort. Instead, the new device is a research tool intended to help gather data for the development of useful, compact AR components. The news follows a recent blog post from Facebook expressing a desire for an improved surround sound experience in AR environments.

The new glasses only make use of a few sensors. They don't have any display mechanism, so wearers won't see anything in the lens to create an AR experience. The sensors capture things like audio and video from the wearer's perspective with the intention of helping the team better understand how they can go about augmenting day-to-day experiences.

The glasses feature a full sensor suite like the ones found in VR headsets to calculate spacial awareness. They also use a GPS to determine and log location information and can take "high-res" images and "capture multichannel audio and eye images," according to Facebook's blog. 

In alternate reality news, as part of its Facebook Connect event today Facebook also announced the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset and its discontinuing of the Oculus RIft S 

Virtual reality (VR) long traveled the road to relevance. But even after head-mounted displays (HMDs) became a reality, got trimmed down and usable for consumers, there were still massive barriers to entry in terms of the computing power, sensors, space and money required to enjoy it in your home.

The Oculus Quest has been one of the best VR headsets since its debut for that very reason. By eliminating the need for base sensors, connection to a powerful PC or even a smartphone, the standalone form factor eliminated many of the nuisances that make VR seem like a fuss.

At its Facebook Connect (formerly Oculus Connect) event today, Oculus introduced a new standalone headset, which you can check out in our Oculus Quest 2 review. But with that also came  the announcement that Oculus will no longer make the Oculus Rift S or any PC-only VR headsets. 

“We’re going to focus on standalone VR headsets moving forward,” Oculus said in today’s blog post today. “We’ll no longer pursue PC-only hardware, with sales of Rift S ending in 2021. That said, the Rift Platform isn’t going anywhere.” 

Oculus noted that more Rift titles are on the way. It didn’t confirm when it will stop supporting the Rift S, as it did with the Oculus Go. 

Many VR enthusiasts won’t be surprised at today’s announcement. Standalone VR makes it easier for new users who aren't PC gamers, plus helps keep the price down and just makes the whole setup and home experience easier. 

“All of this is also good for the entire ecosystem because a bigger audience means stronger opportunities for developers to build sustainable businesses on the platform,” a Facebook spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware.

“Overall, when we can make VR this immersive and this affordable, we believe it can mean a significant step toward becoming a household technology that connects people like never before.” 

The original Oculus Rift certainly helped make a name for VR, and the Oculus Rift S was a commendable follow-up that eliminated external base sensors.  According to Steam’s Hardware & Software Survey, the Rift S represented 23% of VR headsets on Steam in August, compared to the Quest’s 11.2% (HTC's Vive was at 21.5% and the Valve Index at 15.6%). But combined with the original Rift, Rift-branded headsets made up 35.5% of the VR HMDs on Steam.

Facebook told us that both enthusiasts and developers see standalone headsets as the future of VR, due to ease of use. This would be particularly key if Facebook plans on helping to actualize Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of 1 billion VR users. 

The phasing out of the Rift S means Oculus will offer a direct competitor in the PC-connected headset space, which generally offer more powerful and immersive experiences than a standalone headset. But that doesn’t mean Oculus doesn’t see itself competing with something like the HTC Vive Cosmos or Valve Index.

For one, users can connect the Quest 2 to a PC if they purchase an Oculus Link cable. Oculus Link also lets you play Rift content on the Quest 2. Oculus told us it’s investing in “ongoing improvements” with Oculus Link in terms of performance, reliability and visual quality. This fall, Oculus Link is expected to exit beta and gain support for 90 Hz gameplay with supported games. Additionally, there’s new Rift content in the works. 

“All of that means our PC platform isn’t going anywhere,”the Facebook spokesperson said. “In fact, we've seen significant growth in PC VR via Oculus Link, and the Rift Platform will continue to grow while offering high-end PC VR experiences, like Lone Echo II and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond well into the future

In terms of fidelity, the Quest 2 has a leg up on the Rift S and earned a higher rating in our review (4.5 stars versus 3 stars). A notable part of that story is in the specs.

With the Rift S phased out, the Quest 2 will be the star of Facebook’s VR lineup. But when asked, Facebook wouldn’t commit to having just one VR headset on the market from then on.

So it’s a new era for VR, and in some ways it feels a sad. But it also seems the quest for innovation that can tempt more people into getting into VR continues. 

Announced in mid-2018, the VirtualLink interface promised a single-cable connection for upcoming VR headsets. But the interface never really took off, and now it looks like it never will. This week it turned out that Nvidia decided not to support VirtualLink on its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards. What's more, the VirtualLink Consortium’s website is now offline. 

Single Cable and Strong Backing

The first-generation tethered VR headsets needed three cables: DisplayPort or HDMI for video/audio, USB for sensors, and a power input. Using three cables is not exactly comfortable and in mid-2018 a consortium of high-tech companies introduced the VirtualLink interface, a single-cable USB Type-C connection for VR headsets. The requirements for the cable were rather strict: it had to be USB-C 1.3 compliant, use shielded differential pairs for its USB 3.0 pairs (which typically used unshielded USB 2.0 pairs), and be connected in a particular orientation.

The consortium and the interface were backed by most companies interested in AR and VR technologies, including AMD, Facebook, HTC, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Valve. But it looks like the strong backing was not enough to bring the VirtualLink interface to fruition.

Scarce Support

Nvidia was the first company to support a VirtualLink connector on its first-generation GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards featuring the Turing architecture. The company’s second-generation GeForce RTX 20-series Super reference boards abandoned the connector, and it failed to return to the GeForce RTX 30-series ‘Ampere’ cards announced this week.

AMD never offered a VirtualLink output on its reference Radeon RX 5000-series graphics cards. Furthermore, the latest VR head-mounted displays, such as HTC’s Vive Cosmos, Facebook’s Oculus Rift S, and Valve’s Index also do not use VirtualLink. Valve tried to build a VirtualLink adapter for its Index, but cancelled its because of reliability issues back in August 2019.

In fact, the only device that can use Nvidia’s VirtualLink connector is the Oculus Quest  (one of the best VR headsets) connected to a PC running the Oculus Link software using an advanced cable. Technically, this was not a VirtualLink connection, but merely a way to take advantage of the port. 

Website Down

Apparently, Nvidia is not the only one to lose interest in VirtualLink. The consortium’s website has been down and redirecting to the VirtualLink Wikipedia entry for months now. If this is not a clear evidence that the technology is abandoned, we're not sure what is. 

VirtualLink Dead

While the VirtualLink specification exists and can be implemented by interested parties, without support from giants like Nvidia as well as makers of popular VR headsets, the interface is dead for all intents and purposes. 

What remains to be seen is whether a single-cable connection for AR and the best VR headsets will be possible in the foreseeable future. There are interfaces like USB4 (in its ‘full’ implementation) and Thunderbolt 4 that support loads of bandwidth, a multitude of features, and have rather strict implementation requirements. But could they pick up where VirtualLink left off?

Source: Road to VR

The Oculus Go will soon be no more. 

Oculus announced today that it will no longer ship the Oculus Go -- what has been the best VR headset for budget shoppers since it debuted two years ago -- after this year. 

Instead, Oculus will focus on the Oculus Quest as its standalone headset of choice. Both the Go and Quest are operable without being tethered to a gaming PC or smartphone and without the need for external base stations for tracking. However, the Quest allows for 6-degrees of freedom (6DOF) tracking, compared to the Go’s 3DOF. That means the Go doesn’t track when you’re walking around, which, admittedly, is a hindrance to the whole ‘immerse yourself in an alternate reality’ play. 

“The community response has been overwhelmingly positive, and you’ve told us loud and clear that 6DOF feels like the future of VR,” Oculus said in a blog post today. “That’s why we’re going all-in, and we won’t be shipping any more 3DOF VR products.”

Those who already have the Go will still be able to enjoy Oculus security patches and bug fixes until 2022; however, the headset won’t see any new features or apps as of December 4. 

It’s not surprising to see Oculus buckle down on the Quest. It’s the VR HMD we recommend most due to its balance of price and performance. From a business perspective, it’s already garnered Oculus over $100 million through content alone. Gaming in particular is doing well, with 10 games driving more than $2 million in revenue via the HMD. 

However, it’s still sad to see a budget option leave VR. Many enthusiasts still aren’t willing or able to spend a lot on another tech platform, especially one that’s still in its earlier stages. The Quest is a good option for VR newcomers as it doesn’t require a powerful PC. But the Quest’s currently selling for $399, while the Go starts at $149. However, with Oculus soon to be focusing on one standalone headset instead of two, maybe we’ll see more consistent stock of the Quest. 

Speaking of more readily available offerings, Oculus also announced changes for developers as of “early 2021” that should help with Quest app availability. 

‘This will enable developers to share their apps to anyone with a Quest, without having to be accepted into the Oculus Store, and without the need for sideloading,” the blog explained.

The vendor didn’t get into further details but claimed this would help make the Quest accessible to more developers and give Go developers time to switch gears in favor of the Quest. 

HTC’s former CEO Peter Chou is coming back to the VR market this year with a new attempt at making the best VR headset. The XRSpace Mova, however, is more akin to the Oculus Quest than an HTC Vive headset, due to its standalone form factor that doesn't require tethering to any PC or smartphone. 

Set to ship in the third quarter of this year, the Mova is something like a suped up Oculus Quest. Like Oculus' standalone HMD, the Mova doesn't require external base stations for tracking. Instead, the Mova hast two cameras on its front to track both a users’ hands and their movement right out of the box.

The Mova comes with built-in 5G support annd runs aa Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, which runs at a clock speed 2.8 GHz, compared to the Quest’s 2.45 GHz Snapdragon 835 CPU.

Those who want something solid to hold onto can buy physical controllers for the Mova. You can also add external tracking sensors, which XRSpace compares to the HTC Vive Tracker.

Manova

At $599, the Mova is $100 more expensive than the highest-model Oculus Quest, and even though it comes with hand-tracking out of the box, the Quest’s experimental hand-tracking feature just recently left beta and is now free for third-party developers to add to their apps. So, aside from a more powerful processor, what does the Mova offer that’s new?

Well, remember Playstation Home? Second Life? That one episode of Futurama where they visit the internet? Think of those, but in VR. Called Manova, the Mova will ship with an “expansive virtual world” with selfie-generated avatars, private homes/hangout areas, public city centers, virtual conference rooms and an area called MagicLohas that focuses on “wellness exercises and activities.”

This isn’t entirely unheard of. Second Life creator Linden Labs once tried the same thing with Sansar, a similar VR world that the company ended up selling off when it failed to generate revenue. But Chou thinks that Manova is different.

“I think the difference is they designed those things based on the PC first and then they tried to put it on VR,” he said, as per The Verge. “They don’t have a good digital avatar and they don’t have a holistic consideration of the mass-market consumer using it.”

That’s a pretty vague statement, and it doesn’t help that the Mova’s third-party app partnerships only promise standard fare, like the Getty Images VR Viewer or Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs. Meanwhile, the Quest has killer apps, like Vader Immortal and Beat Saber.

With hand tracking included from the get-go as the primary control mechanism, though, it’s possible that the Mova’s library will grow to include unique experiences that competitors might not be able to offer.

XRSpace hasn't mentioned to plans to allow the Mova to link to a PC like the Quest can with Oculus Link. 

The Mova is an ambitious headset that’s banking a lot of appeal on a VR world and 5G support, even as many users remain in homes with Wi-Fi and other VR worlds flop. Still, with the pandemic forcing people to find new ways to congregate online, maybe the Mova is launching at exactly the right time.

A tech company finally admitted the recent Coronavirus outbreak could be a problem. Facebook told UploadVR yesterday that the virus is expected to affect the production and availability of its hardware, which includes its Oculus VR headset line. 

UploadVR originally reported on Wednesday that Facebook stopped accepting orders for the Quest earlier this week, saying that it was "out of stock." Facebook then sent the outlet the following statement to explain the Quest's situation:

"Oculus Quest has been selling out in some regions due to high demand. That said, like other companies we’re expecting some additional impact to our hardware production due to the Coronavirus. We’re taking precautions to ensure the safety of our employees, manufacturing partners and customers and are monitoring the situation closely. We are working to restore availability as soon as possible."

In addition to the Quest, this would presumably impact Facebook's other hardware offerings, like the Oculus RIft S and Portal devices. 

Facebook probably isn't the only company grappling with production issues because of the Coronavirus outbreak, (which you can read more about via the CDC and WHO). But it appears to be among the first to admit that it's having these problems.

Reports about other companies, such as Apple and those in the memory market have claimed that production hasn't been too badly affected by Coronavirus despite the forced closure of some factories. Others have pointed to impacts in Chinese markets.

Oculus VR unveiled a wave of new features coming to the Oculus Quest—including hand tracking—expected to release by early 2020. The team revealed the new features September 25 at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6). The Oculus Quest headset was initially released in May of 2019. This isn’t the first wave of updates since it’s release, but it might be the most ambitious.

The latest announcement at OC6 promises a variety of new features and services to the Oculus Quest—the most prominent of which is the new hand tracking component. This new addition tracks your hands for a more realistic interaction in the VR world. There are no more controllers, your hands are the controllers.

The headset tracks your hands using the built-in cameras. The tracking software works with deep learning to accurately process the position of your fingers and hands.

The team also announced Passthrough+, a feature designed to bring your surroundings into view while using VR. The headset can remain in place while displaying the surroundings to the wearer in real-time.

Additional services include Oculus Link, which allows Quest users to access Rift content and some titles with a gaming PC. This service works with a standard USB 3 cable, but Oculus VR plans to release an optical fiber cable later this year with Oculus Link in mind.

Quest users can also access more than 50 Oculus Go apps beginning next week. Any previously owned Oculus Go apps will transfer if they’re available on the Quest.

Most of the new features will roll out by the end of 2019. Those awaiting the new hand tracking features will have to wait until early 2020 for the update.

First-Gen VR Gets a Reboot

The Oculus Rift S ($399 / £399) VR headset replaces the original Oculus Rift, but it isn’t a successor in the traditional sense of the word. Oculus is not calling the Rift S a second-generation device, which begs the question: What is the purpose of the Rift S headset?

To help unravel the answer, we put the Rift S through its paces.

Meet the Oculus Rift S

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at the Rift S is that it doesn’t look like an Oculus product. Between the design of the Rift, as well as the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, Oculus products generally share a distinct design language. Oddly, the new Rift S does not resemble its siblings in the same way. But that’s because Oculus didn’t design the Rift S, as bizarre as that seems.

Oculus was busy developing the Quest standalone headset, so it outsourced the design of the Rift S. The company partnered with Lenovo to help manufacture the Rift S, and Lenovo turned to Sony to license the PlayStation VR (PSVR's) industrial design for the new headset. The Rift S isn’t a carbon copy of the PSVR, but there are many distinct features that carry over from Sony’s headset.

Like the PSVR, the Rift S includes a button on the lower left that lets you to adjust the distance of the visor from your face to make room for eyeglasses. The headset also features a rigid strap with a dial for adjustment found on the rear. The shape of each component is slightly different, but the Rift S’ design looks like it was derived from the PSVR.

Rift S Specifications

Higher Resolution

The Rift S even shares the single-display specification of the PSVR, which means that the new headset can’t offer mechanical IPD (interpupillary distance, the amount of space between your eyes) adjustment. Oculus provides software to calibrate the IPD spacing, but the range of the Rift S is narrower than the original Rift.

The Rift S headset may only have one display, but at least it offers improved visuals. The original Rift offered a combined resolution of 2160 x 1200, whereas the Rift S ups the ante to 2560 x 1440.

However, the original Rift included an AMOLED display, which produced deep blacks and rich color. The new headset includes a fast-switching LCD screen, which limits its ability to reproduce true black levels.  The upshot is that the display in the Rift S features an RGB stripe sub-pixel array, which improves image clarity and reduces screen door effect.

Lower Refresh Rate

Despite having more pixels to drive, the Rift S supports the same entry-level PC requirements as the original Rift. Oculus countered the higher resolution with a lower refresh rate to maintain a similar fill rate.

When Oculus launched the Rift, the company said that a 90 Hz refresh rate was the sweet spot that enabled most people to enjoy VR without motion sickness. These days, the company doesn’t seem as concerned with that figure, and given our experience with the 72 Hz Quest and now the 80 Hz Rift S, we would agree that the need for 90 Hz was grossly overstated in the early days of consumer VR. After spending a week using the Rift S, I can’t tell the difference between 90 Hz and 80 Hz.

Improved Cable

The Rift S features an improved tether cable compared to the original model. At  5m, the new cable is a meter longer than that of the Rift. It's also a thicker gauge, which in theory should be more resistant to twisting. The new cable also features a DisplayPort interface, as opposed to the HDMI interface on the original model. The package includes a DisplayPort-to-Mini-DisplayPort port adapter to enable support for some laptops, but the Rift S does not support laptops with HDMI only.

Headphone-Free Audio

The original Rift included built-in headphones that you could adjust to fit directly over your ears. The Rift S doesn’t include headphones, but it does offer a built-in audio solution.

Like the Go and Quest, the Rift S includes small speakers in the head strap that pump audio towards your ears. The sound quality is acceptable, but unlike with the Quest and Go, the Rift S’ speakers are relatively far from your ears. As a result, everyone around you can hear nearly as clearly as you can.

The headset includes an audio jack on the left side, but the head strap design makes it difficult to wear most gaming headsets.

Oculus offers an earbud accessory, but it doesn’t sell headphones like the ones from the original Rift.

Non-Removable Cushions

The cushions on the Rift S are perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the new headset. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about VR devices, it’s that sharing them is wholly unpleasant when you can’t clean the cushions easily.

No headset maker gets the cushion part right, but the Rift S really gets it bad. The rear and front cushions on the head strap are made of a soft foam material that isn’t moisture resistant. After a few rounds of an active game, these cushions become a sodden mess that is downright unpleasant.

To make matters worse, the cushions are glued to the head strap, so replacing them with an aftermarket product isn’t possible.

The face cushion isn’t much better than the head strap cushions. The foam feels cheap and doesn’t offer much padding. It’s also glued to the headset and absorbs sweat like a sponge. Luckily, this one may be replaceable because the whole facial interface is removable. Hopefully, aftermarket options will debut soon. 

Tracking From the Inside

The biggest change between the Rift and the Rift S is the tracking system. For the first-generation Rift, Oculus developed tracking technology called Constellation that relied on external cameras that must be placed strategically in your room. The Rift S uses the company’s new Insight tracking system, which derives its position data from cameras that are inside the headset. It’s the same technology that the Quest uses, but the Rift S uses a slightly different camera configuration.

The Quest includes four cameras, whereas the Rift S has five. There are two cameras on the front of the Rift S. Oddly, Oculus chose to partially occlude the front cameras with an overhang on the front face of the headset. Fortunately, the company stuck one camera on the top center of the visor to keep track of your hands when you raise them above your head. The final two cameras are on either side of the device.

Oculus’ Insight tracking is quite robust. The room tracking seemed to work flawlessly as long as there was light in the room, and tracking for the new Oculus Touch controllers was nearly as good. I did notice a few hiccups with the controller tracking, but that seldom occurred, and I wasn’t able to replicate it when it did.

MORE: Best Virtual Reality Headsets

MORE: All Virtual Reality Content

MORE: Virtual Reality Basics

Setup, Performance and Conclusion

New Oculus Touch Controllers

The Rift S headset comes with a pair of Oculus’ new Touch controllers. The redesigned controllers offer the exact input options found on the original Oculus Touch controllers, but the new model has a slightly different button layout.

You still get a menu / Oculus button, A, B or Y, X buttons and a joystick on each controller, and they each feature a trigger and a grip button. But all the buttons are packed into a tighter package. The new controllers don’t have a thumb rest either, and I found myself inadvertently resting my thumb on the menu button while playing games that don’t use the face buttons, like Beat Saber.

The handle of the new controllers felt more ergonomic in my hand, with a slightly larger grip that has space to rest my pinkie.

The new Touch controllers are powered by replaceable AA batteries, which you install under a magnetic cover on the handle. Unfortunately, the magnets in the new controllers aren’t as strong as those in the first-gen Touch controllers. As a result, it’s easy to accidentally knock the cover loose while playing some games.

Simple Setup

Thanks to the internal camera system, the process to calibrate your play space is much simpler with the Rift S than it is with the previous Rift headset. It usually took several tries to position the cameras correctly with the Rift, and you had to walk around your space while carrying a Touch controller to map out your designated play area.

With the Rift S, the process takes but a few seconds, and it’s so simple that most children could do it without trouble. When you first put the headset on, you’re greeted with a black and white version of your real environment. The software will ask you to confirm the height of your floor. If it’s not accurate, you can set the floor height manually by reaching to the floor with your Touch controller.

To mark your boundaries, you trace your play space with the controller by pointing at it from a distance like you’re holding a laser pointer. Confirm the guardian boundaries, and you’re up and running. The whole process can be completed in less than a minute.

SteamVR Configuration

Like the original Rift, the Rift S is compatible with SteamVR. However, the setup process doesn’t quite map with the new hardware. SteamVR expects external sensors when configuring a room-scale play space, which doesn’t work with the built-in Insight cameras.

The workaround is to configure SteamVR for standing and seated use. The Oculus Guardian boundaries work while playing Steam content.

Performance Results

For our performance tests, we use Nvidia’s FCAT VR, which does not support the Oculus Home platform. As a result, our evaluation tests were performed in Steam VR. Content played through the Rift’s native platform may demonstrate better performance.

The test suite included Space Pirate Trainer, Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, Arizona Sunshine and Beat Saber. We ran each game at SteamVR’s recommended resolution of 1492 x 1608 (82% render scale)—a curiously low setting for this hardware—which works out to 2,399,136 pixels on screen.

In our recent review of the HP Reverb, we compared the Reverb against the HTC Vive Pro. Both of those headsets have higher resolution displays than the one in the Rift S, but we wanted to compare their performance anyway. (SH) 

We ran the tests again at 2160 x 2328 (172% render scale), which produces 5,028,480 pixels for the GPU to render. That puts it in the range of the Reverb’s 5,070,975 pixels and the Vive Pro’s 5,059,714 pixels. That resolution should also better represent the capabilities of our test system when paired with the Rift S.

Space Pirate Trainer

Space Pirate Trainer is a fast-paced game, which should be a good test for the Rift S’ lower refresh rate display. It also features a dark backdrop, which gives us an excellent example of the black levels that LCD can produce.

Unsurprisingly, our test system had no trouble delivering more than adequate framerate to run SPT. At no point did our system dip below the required 80 fps. The gameplay was smooth, and the slight drop in refresh rate had no negative impact on the perceived performance.

Beat Saber

Beat Saber was probably the biggest test for the Rift S headset because of the accelerated pace of the action. No other game gets your arms moving quite so fast, which puts a strain on not just the tracking system, but also the display in the headset.
Beat Saber’s swords are bright blue and bright red, and the background is mostly dark. The graphics give the display’s refresh and pixel persistence a run for their money.

The low-persistence display in the Rift S handles Beat Saber quite nicely, although it's possible the lower refresh rate may have affected my performance at the higher difficulty levels. I can’t tell if it was a tracking problem or a display latency issue, but I found myself consistently missing notes when playing with Oculus’ new headset that I don’t usually have trouble with while playing with my Vive.

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope is the only game in the lineup that didn’t perform as we would have expected. Despite achieving unconstrained framerates far above the necessary 80 FPS required to drive the display, our FCAT results returned numbers that averaged in the high 70s.

Inside the headset, the framerate dips weren’t noticeable, but the fact remains that there was some performance issue going on in the background. This game likely requires an update with some optimizations from the developer to run perfectly on the new Rift S, but the performance we observed  should be sufficient for most people.

Arizona Sunshine

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arizona Sunshine on the Rift S also run exceptionally well on our RTX 2080. With the headset configured for 1492 x 1608, we observed a framerate in the the 220-fps range.

With the resolution boosted to 172%, the system still cranked out more than 130 fps. The delivered framerate never dipped below 80 fps throughout our tests.

Conclusion

The existence of the Oculus Rift S confounds me. In some ways, it’s a superior product to the original Rift headset. It’s easier to configure, doesn’t require strategically placed tracking sensors, and it doesn’t produce the dreaded godrays that plagued the first version. However, in some ways the Rift S is a step backwards from the old design.

The first time I laid eyes on the Oculus Rift CV1, I was immediately impressed with the industrial design. The cloth outer shell was something I had never considered before, but it gave the Rift an elegant appearance. Oculus put a lot of effort into picking the perfect materials for the Rift and integrating the right feature set to give the device the legs it needed to succeed in the market.

The company also engineered several mechanisms that made using the Rift a great experience. The headset included a clever lens adjustment mechanism that allowed you to dial the device in for your specific interpupillary distance. It also included a slick spring-loaded head strap system that facilitated removal of the device readjusting the straps. And Oculus was ahead of the curve with integrated headphones to eliminate the need to put another device on your head to enjoy VR gaming.

The Rift S doesn’t incorporate the best features of the original Rift. Instead of building on the innovative choices it made the first time around, Oculus chose to throw the good out with the bad and start over again. And I’m having a really hard time understanding why. Oculus had all the makings of a great Rift successor in the Quest, but it chose to hand the reigns to Lenovo while it worked on building the Quest.

The Rift S isn’t a bad headset. In fact, there is a lot to like about it. But the original Rift set a high bar and the new headset doesn’t move it any higher. If you’re shopping for your first VR headset, the Rift S is worth your consideration. But if you already own a Rift or a Vive, there's no need to consider upgrading to this newest model from Oculus.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Oculus Quest Review

The Oculus Quest could be the device that turns the VR market around and attracts the masses. It’s easy to use, simple to setup, performs well and is reasonably priced. It’s basically a game console built into a headset, and it’s much better than what you’re probably expecting.

Oculus revealed the Quest, a $399 standalone 6-degrees of freedom VR headset, last fall at Oculus Connect 5. After several years of anticipation, it appeared that what Oculus was cooking up would have a significant impact on the VR industry. And now that I've spent a week with Quest, I can firmly say this release marks a pivotal moment in the history of the VR industry. Quest is going to change the game.

Oculus is taking pre-orders for the Quest now, with shipping taking place on May 21. If the Quest doesn’t jump-start VR adoption, we may be forced to give the VR doomsayers a bit more credit. This headset checks all the right boxes and leaves very few desirable features off the table. If this can't get the market to the billion VR users that Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg envisioned when he spent $2 billion to purchase the Oculus brand, I don't know if anything can.

Oculus Quest VR Headset Specs

A Long Time Coming

Oculus has been building towards a standalone, un-tethered VR solution for a long time. The company first revealed Project Santa Cruz in October 2016 at Oculus Connect 3. Santa Cruz was a prototype concept of a Rift with a PC built onto the back. In October 2017 at Oculus Connect 4, Oculus gave us a glimpse of a near-production-ready version of Project Santa Cruz, which would eventually evolve into Quest.

Quest isn’t Oculus’s first attempt at a standalone VR headset. Last year, the company released the Oculus Go. The headset supports basic 3-degrees of freedom (DoF) tracking. It superseded the Gear VR platform but didn’t raise the bar for VR devices very high. As an entry-level device meant to introduce people to VR, Oculus Go does a great job. But its limited tracking function ultimately cripples its capacity to deliver the full experience that the PC-connected Oculus Rift offers.

The Quest bridges the gap between the Go and the Rift and offers full room-scale (or warehouse-scale) 6-DoF movement in a tether-free, standalone package.

Powered By Snapdragon--Circa 2017

Oculus Quest gets its processing power from a Snapdragon 835 SoC, which would have been cutting-edge when Oculus started working with the platform in 2016. But it’s a surprising move for Q2 2019, when there are far more powerful chips in Qualcomm’s catalog. Still, developers have managed to squeeze impressive performance out of the mature mobile chipset (more on that later).

All-Star Feature List, Top-Notch Fit and Finish

The Oculus Quest might be the best-looking VR headset that I’ve ever laid hands on. It looks and feels like a high-quality product and something you would want to own. All the materials are well-refined, and the fit and finish are fantastic. It’s clear Oculus has learned a thing or two about headset design over the years. The new device improves on the looks of both the Rift and Go.

Like the Rift, the Quest features a fabric-wrapped exterior, which gives it an elegant look (at least when it’s new). The Rift introduced the fabric exterior for allowing infrared light to pass through it, but the Quest does not use infrared lights or external sensors for its tracking system, so the fabric here is for aesthetic purposes. However, it may facilitate heat dissipation for all the internal components. While the Go has a metal faceplate that acts as a heatsink to keep the parts chilled, the Quest has a plastic faceplate with no visible ventilation holes.

The Quest also has the best features of the Go headset, including the head strap-based speaker system and the removable / washable memory foam face cushion.

Superior Visuals

The Oculus Quest headset runs off a less-powerful computing platform than the Rift, but that didn’t stop Oculus from improving display hardware in the new headset. The Oculus Quest features dual 1440x1600 displays, which is a significant improvement over the Rift’s 1080x1200 per-eye resolution.

To compensate for the lower computing power and higher resolution, Oculus opted for a lower refresh rate to lower the performance requirements.

The Rift features 90Hz displays, and at launch, Oculus claimed that 90Hz was the minimum requirement to prevent motion sickness. Since then, the company has loosened its stance on that metric. The two panels in the Quest also refresh 72 times per second, as does the Go, and the upcoming Oculus Rift S is supposed will feature 80Hz.

Even still, the Quest headset demands a much higher pixel fill rate. To drive the Rift, your GPU must deliver 233,280,000 pixels per second, whereas the Quest’s Snapdragon SoC needs to contend with 331,776,000 pixels per second. It’s a miracle that this mobile chipset can handle that kind of workload, but it pulls it off with flying colors.

The Quest also includes a mechanical IPD adjustment system, which enables you to dial the lenses in to match the distance between your pupils. This is a notable feature because the Rift S will use software IPD adjustment, so the Quest has a leg up here.

Best of all, the Quest boasts the impressive Fresnel lenses that Oculus developed for the Go, which help to minimize the dreaded godray image distortion that plagues the 1st-generation Rift.

Insight Tracking System

In addition to driving the graphics, the Qualcomm processor must also simultaneously calculate the headset and controllers’ positions.

To break the headset free of the host computer, Oculus created the Insight tracking system for the Quest. It uses headset-based cameras to map the surrounding environment. The Quest uses four cameras with fish-eye lenses to keep track of movements. Two cameras are mounted on the upper corners facing outwards and slightly to the rear. The other two cameras are on the bottom edge, facing forward and down to keep track of the floor and lower half of the space.

This is quite different from the Rift's external sensor-based tracking solution called Constellation, which tracks infrared patterns on the headset with cameras that sit on your desk. The cameras demand a high level of USB bandwidth and sensors that you must wire to a computer.

New Touch Controllers

The Insight cameras are also used to monitor the movement of your Touch controllers. The new controllers include all the same buttons in more or less the same layout as the original Touch controllers. However, Oculus moved the halo with the tracking LEDs to the top of the controllers so the headset-based cameras can see them with less occlusion.

When the controllers are visible to the cameras, the tracking fidelity is as good as you get with the Rift. And when you reach beyond the view of the cameras, Oculus uses software and the gyro information to estimate your controllers' position. Unlike the Windows Mixed Reality controllers, which don’t track well outside of the camera range, the new Touch controllers work well beyond the camera’s field of view.

The new Touch controllers are quite a lot like the old controllers, but with improved ergonomics. The company made the handles slightly thicker, which is a change that I welcome. The original controllers were a bit too small, and my hands always cramp while using them. The new shape is much more comfortable for me.

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Let's Go on a Quest

Convenient, but not as Comfortable

The head strap on the Quest is like the Rift with spring-loaded retention arms that allow you to keep the straps in place when you remove the headset. Quest also incorporates semi-rigid, rubber-like material for the head strap, which is flexible enough to squeeze into a small bag and sturdy enough to balance the weight of the visor. Oculus redesigned the rear of the strap to fit people with large heads, but that seems to have come with a compromise on comfort. The strap on the Rift is much more comfortable on my head.

Companion App Configuration

Before you can play games on the Quest, you must configure the device. This includes pairing the headset to your smartphone, connecting it to your local wireless network and calibrating your play space for safe operation.

When you first pull the headset out of the box, it should have a charge on the battery, but Oculus recommends that you give it a full charge before you do anything with it. It’s also a good idea to keep the headset plugged-in while you run the initial setup because there will be firmware updates to download before you can use it.

Next, you install the Oculus mobile app on your smartphone. It's available on the Apple App and Google Play stores. Once you have the app running, open the settings tab and select Pair New Device. If the headset is within proximity, you should see it listed in the app. Bluetooth must be on to connect to the headset. Look through the lenses on the Quest to retrieve the pairing code.

Once the headset is paired to your phone, you can enter your Wi-Fi password to connect the headset to the internet. If the headset requires updates, you'll be prompted to install them.

The companion app lets you make changes to the headset’s settings, including adjusting power setting and switching the headset to developer mode. From here, you can also change the language or perform a factory reset on the device.

Additionally, the companion app also is where you buy and install content from the Oculus Store. You can select content from the store and initiate the download and install it directly from your phone. As long as the headset is within range of the Bluetooth radio, it should retrieve the software from the store.

Map Your Guardian Boundary

One of the most significant advantages of the Quest headset is its easy configuration process. Unlike the Rift, which requires precise placement of multiple tracking cameras and usually numerous attempts at tracing your space to get it right, the Quest has a straightforward process.

When you first put the headset on in a new environment, instead of a virtual world you’ll be presented with a black-and-white view of your real environment, fed to you through the four cameras on the front of the headset. This view has depth, unlike the monochromatic view that you get with the HTC Vive’s single camera. However, the fisheye lenses on the Quest’s cameras somewhat obscure the perspective, so objects appeared unnaturally distant when I reached for them.

If the headset doesn’t recognize the space, it will ask you to configure the Guardian barriers. First, you must confirm the floor height. If it appears off, select the reset button and reach to the floor with one of your controllers.

Once the floor height is assigned, you can proceed to trace the safe play space. With the Rift, you would carry the controller around the edge of your play area. With the Quest, you stand in the center and point at the edge of your floor space to map the safe zone. And that’s it! The process took me less than five minutes to complete.

The Quest can store up to five Guardian spaces, so you can move the headset between locations without re-calibrating it every time. I tried two spots in my home, and the headset remembered each space and where the Guardian barrier should be. All you need to do is scan the area with the headset to enable it to detect the topology of the room, and the Guardian configuration loads.

Unified Home Experience

Last year, Oculus rolled out Oculus Core 2.0, which featured a redesigned Oculus Home environment with a new storefront, library and settings console. The Oculus Quest leverages the same software environment, so anyone familiar with the Rift platform should feel right at home in the Quest environment.

Rift Games on Mobile

Oculus said that by the time the Quest ships in the third week of May, there should be 50 titles to enjoy. These include familiar and popular titles like Superhot VR, Space Pirate Trainer, Beat Saber and Dead and Buried II. I tried out all four of these titles on the Quest and was pleasantly surprised by how similar they are to their PC counterparts.

The differences between the two versions of Superhot VR and Beat Saber are so minute that they are nearly imperceptible. Both games run smoothly, and I did not notice any dips in the frame rate even when I moved around rapidly in Superhot VR or swung my arms violently with a fast-paced song in Beat Saber.

Space Pirate Trainer is one of my favorite VR games, and I’ve played hours of it on all available platforms. I’m delighted to say that Space Pirate Trainer on Quest is the same game I’ve become accustomed to on all VR platforms. Game studio I-illusions had to reduce the texture resolution to keep the performance up to par, but the game is otherwise identical to the original version.

Creed: Rise to Glory is also virtually the same game as the desktop variant. The texture resolution appeared to be reduced, and it may lack a few shaders to liven the graphics, but the graphics trade-off was well worth the freedom to move around unrestricted by cables.

Up to 3 Hours of Runtime

The Oculus Quest features an internal Lithium-Ion battery pack that cannot be removed, so you won’t be able to keep extra charged batteries on hand. Oculus hasn't disclosed the mAh rating of the battery, but said you could expect between 2-3 hours of use depending on what you’re doing. Room-scale gaming will be on the lower end of that estimate,  while watching 360-degree videos or using the virtual theater to watch 2D videos should get you closer to three hours of use.

A full charge should take roughly two hours. You can also use the headset while it is plugged into a charger for extended play.

Is That a VirtualLink Port?

A USB Type-C charge port is located on the left side on the visor, and Oculus includes a 10-foot charging cable in the box, which should give you plenty of slack if you need to plug in while you play. The extra long cable makes us wonder if Oculus has plans to enable PC tethering at some point.

The USB Type-C interface could eventually enable you to plug your Quest into PCs equipped with a VirtualLink port. Oculus has not confirmed plans for such a feature. Although, in March, Oculus VR CTO John Carmack tweeted “Sorry, no promises, but I hope so!” in response to a question about PC-tethering, so it’s not entirely off the table.

Conclusion

I didn’t know what to expect from the Oculus Quest. Ever since the first time I tried a room-scale VR system, I knew one day we’d see standalone devices with the same capabilities, and that would be my ideal VR system. When I heard of the Quest, I hoped it would be good, but until I put one through its paces, I had no idea how good it would be.

I have the luxury of having access to many premium VR headsets. Sitting next to me as I type this is one of every Oculus device, my pick of Vive headsets and the Pimax 5K Plus. But now that I have a Quest at my disposal, I don’t think those devices will see much use anymore. It’s rare for me to identify something as a favorite definitively, but I can’t shake the thought that Quest is currently my favorite VR headset. I wasn’t anticipating it would be this good.

Put simply, the Quest captures everything good about room-scale VR, and it does away with everything annoying and frustrating about PC-connected VR systems by giving you everything in a standalone package. And surprisingly, Oculus made very few compromises with the Quest system.

If you’re OK with reduced texture resolution compared to a PC-based VR system—and let’s face it, millions of console gamers are—the Oculus Quest delivers everything most people need in a VR system. This is how you capture the masses. That’s how you change the game.

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Oculus today announced a new VR headset, the Rift S. With a higher resolution display, integrated audio and other features, it's meant to improve on replace the original Rift while only raising the price by $50.

This isn't Oculus' first Rift followup--the company announced the Oculus Go in 2017 and revealed the Oculus Quest in 2018--but it's the first to follow in the Rift's footsteps by relying on a PC instead of a smartphone, like the Go, or standalone VR experience, like the Quest.

Rift S will rely on some of the tech introduced with the Go and Quest. UploadVR reported that the headset uses the same 2560x1440 LCD panel as the Go, which improves on the Rift by offering 40 percent more pixels with three subpixels each instead of two.

The new headset will also use the same lens technology as the Go and the Oculus Insight inside-out tracking, which Oculus announced alongside the Quest in September. However, the Rift S will use five cameras instead of the Quest's four. The controllers are also similar to Oculus Touch, but they've been redesigned to work in tandem with Insight. 

The Rift S also features a new head strap, integrated audio and Passthrough+ technology that Oculus said "utilizes core Oculus runtime advancements, including ASW, to produce a comfortable experience with minimal depth disparity or performance impact."

The Rift S was co-developed with Lenovo, by taking feedback from the company's use of VR and augmented reality and gathering insight from the Lenovo Legion gaming community. Oculus said Lenovo helped design the headset "for increased comfort, better weight distribution and improved light blocking." It's also supposed to offer "a simple, single-cable system for a clutter-free experience," so long as you don't use the headphone jack.

The Rift S will be available sometime this spring--just like Quest--with a $399 price tag. That compares well to the original Rift, which settled at $349 after a series of price cuts. (Just remember that you'll also have to supply the gaming PC, of course.)

More information about the headset and the option to receive an email alert when it's available is on Oculus' website.

Rift S' system requirements are below/ You can also download the company's compatibility tool to see if your system is ready to go.

Oculus Rift S System Requirements

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HTC today introduced the Vive Focus Plus, a standalone VR headset with 6 degrees of freedom (6-DoF) motion controllers, like the upcoming Oculus Quest. However, HTC isn’t trying to steal a piece of Oculus’ cake this time around. The company sees the Vive Focus Plus as a tool for businesses, not a source of home entertainment.

HTC already has the Vive Focus, a $599 standalone VR headset with a high-resolution AMOLED display and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile SoC to power it. The Vive Focus Plus isn’t really a new headset, just an upgrade to the Vive Focus. The headset still features the aforementioned specs and a 2880x1600 75Hz AMOLED display. It also has inside-out 6-DoF “world-scale” tracking via a pair of front-facing cameras, which gives you the freedom to move around in the virtual world. However, the original Vive Focus was mismatched with a 3-DoF controller, which limited the type of experiences it could handle.

The upcoming Vive Focus Plus controllers appear to be a combination of the original Vive wands and the upcoming Vive Cosmos controllers. Additionally, Vive Focus Plus controllers feature ultrasonic tracking, rather than a light-based tracking solution. They have two trigger buttons, one of which replaces the grip buttons on the original Vive wands. The Vive Focus Plus controllers also include a trackpad and two face buttons, which gives the Vive Focus input parity with the original Vive headset.

HTC said that it would be relatively easy for developers to port their PC-based VR content to the Vive Focus Plus platform. Like all HTC headsets, the Vive Focus Plus is compatible with the company’s Viveport content distribution system. The Vive Focus Plus is also fully compatible with the company’s Vive Wave open VR platform.

However, HTC built in a handful of features that make the device more appealing for business use than personal entertainment. The Vive Focus Plus includes a Kiosk Mode, which would enable developers to lock the headset down to display specific content only. HTC also created device management tools that allow remote monitoring and control of multiple headsets at once, which would be perfect for a classroom training setting.

HTC didn’t reveal the release date for the Vive Focus Plus, and the company isn’t talking about pricing yet. However, the new device should soon be available for developers, and HTC will begin accepting orders for the Vive Focus Plus in Q2 2019.

Virtual reality (VR) is like The Little Engine That Could. It keeps chugging along and pushing, despite adoption obstacles and uphill-like momentum. But every year, VR pushes closer to becoming mainstream tech. And if you know the story of The Little Engine That Could, you know that he eventually succeeds. Will 2019 be the year VR finally reaches the top of the gaming mountain, becoming a broadly accepted, realistic and coveted platform?

Let’s gaze into our crystal ball for some predictions about the reality of VR in 2019.

No, VR won’t die. The market will grow, but consumer growth will be slow.

Analysts generally agree that the VR market will continue growing throughout 2019. But while business use expands rapidly, consumer VR will continue growing slowly, thanks to barriers-to-entry, like price, space requirements and many headsets requiring a well-specced gaming PC.

Analysts peg the market as growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)  of 50 percent, give or take, depending on whom you ask. A September 2018 report notes that the global VR market represented $4.5 billion in 2017. Signs also point to growth for VR gaming specifically. Grand View Research says the global VR gaming market will surpass $45 billion by 2025. And in 2017, gaming, as well as media and entertainment represented over 30 percent of VR revenue, according to P&S Market Research.

So even though we’re expecting slow consumer growth, we expect that as VR grows overall, so too will VR gaming-related sales, primarily from VR headsets. VR headset prices are continuously dropping—partially due to component prices falling—and, therefore, accessibility is growing.

Standalone headsets will come into their own in 2019.  We’ll all have our eyes on Oculus Quest in 2019, because It could potentially tear down many of those VR barriers. At $400, the standalone headset can offer a similar experience to the Oculus Rift without requiring IR sensors or connection to a gaming PC or smartphone.

While its mobile CPU may not be as powerful as a modern Intel or AMD processor, its wireless functionality, 6-degrees of freedom (6-DOF, for 360-degree movement) and bundled controllers are also important steps in making VR gaming more appealing.

Already-released standalone head-mounted displays (HMDs) will get a boost. Google is working on a 6-DoF controller for the Google Daydream, and HTC is also working on a 6-DoF controller for the Vive Focus, which we predict will finally hit the consumer market in 2019.

VR headsets will get more powerful.

Outside of Oculus Quest, there are many other reasons to watch HMDs in 2019, as fields of view (FOVs), displays, eye tracking and wireless capabilities continue to advance.

The rumored Valve headset is expected to have an impressive 135-degree FOV. And by 2019, Pimax should be done shipping out its 8K, with a dual-resolution of 3840x2160 and 200-degree FOV, and 5K Plus, with dual-resolution of 2560x1440 and 200-degree FOV, headsets. Consider that the HTC Vive Pro has dual 1440x1600 resolution and a 110-degree FOV.

Pimax is also supposed to release an eye-tracking module in Q1 2019. The brand overall  can make an influential splash in 2019. We reviewed a pre-production version of their 5K+ and found it may offer a peek into mainstream VR’s future.

Speaking of eye-tracking, the tech is also on track to improve in 2019, thanks to components vendor developments—although it’ll probably take longer to reach consumers. Take Synaptics, which in August released a new display driver claiming to be the first dual-display 2K resolution combined with foveal transport support, which keeps images in the direct line of sight.

Visual Camp tech, meanwhile, promises the power to navigate and make menu selections with the eyes and foveated rendering for better performance. The company claims to have developed a VR game that offers “gaze and object targeting.”

Finally, Oculus Quest isn’t the only one cutting the cord. HTC brought wireless experiences in 2018 with the HTC Vive wireless adapter. And that’s a feature too helpful for other vendors to ignore.

VR accessories will keep flooding in.

In 2018, many VR accessories emerged touting their ability to make VR more immersive. There’s Mudra Inspire, a wristband-turned-VR controller, the HoloSuit, a full-body VR suit, to start. Next year, expect to see even more, whether it’s VR shoes, VR treadmills, VR backpacks or newfound ways to virtualize hands beyond joystick controllers.

Valve’s next Knuckles controllers will likely debut in 2019—our best guess is after GDC (Game Developer Conference) in March. Afterwards, you’ll probably hear of development of games that use the unique inputs Knuckles bring to the table.

PlayStation VR and smartphones will play a bigger role.

PSVR has proven it has a place in VR. Not only had it sold over 3,000,000 PSVR consoles and 21.9 million games and “experiences” as of August, but it also has popular exclusive VR titles, like Tetris Effect, Borderlands 2 VR and Resident Evil 7. Gamers are already anticipating PSVR’s 2019 titles and more exclusives.

As far as Xbox VR goes, Microsoft scrapped its original plans. But some people still have their fingers crossed. Evidence, as cited by UploadVR, includes Microsoft buying inXile Entertainment, developer of VR game The Mage’s Tale. And at E3 2018, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Ninja Theory, maker of VR games Dexed and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice VR Edition.  Microsoft is likely playing VR safe for now, so we’re not holding our breath for Xbox VR in 2019.

According to P&S Market Research, smartphones are contributing to a “stable platform” for VR.  Mobile VR circumnavigates some roadblocks by letting users tie the experience to something they’re more likely to have than a powerful gaming rig—a smartphone. AMD this month announced AMD Radeon ReLive for VR, which lets you stream VR games to mobile VR headsets. While the offering has some limitations, as noted in our hands-on, it does point to vendor interest in smartphone-based VR.

More VR games...and maybe an update on those Valve VR titles.

All that being said, if you’ve already bought into VR, there’s perhaps nothing more exciting (or guaranteed) than new games set in 2019. Lone Echo 2 for Oculus Rift, Population: One for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality and Stormland for Oculus Rift are some of the most anticipated VR games for 2019.

We’re also still waiting for those three Valve VR games CEO Gabe Newell promised back in 2017. Valve released its first game in five years, Artifact, in November. So we’re hopeful 2019 will bring news of Valve’s pending VR games, especially if the Knuckles controllers arrive. If Valve doesn’t actually release the VR titles next year, we’d at least take an update (please!).

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Oculus announced Rift Core 2.0 at the Oculus Connect 4 conference in October 2017. At the time, it was said the update was supposed to make significant changes to Rift by introducing features like Dash, reworking existing aspects of the software, like Oculus Home, and making improvements to the user experience. Now, one year after the update's announcement, the company this week finally released the overhauled software to all Rift owners.

A beta version of Rift Core 2.0 has been available since December 2017. Oculus also shared more information about the updated software at Oculus Connect 5 in September alongside the new Oculus Quest standalone VR headset, additional entertainment platforms for Oculus Go and new games made specifically for its platforms.

Rift Core 2.0 includes significant changes to the Rift user experience. Dash makes it easier to access PC software in the Oculus Rift headset. Oculus has big plans for this functionality--it revealed new "Hybrid Apps" at Oculus Connect 5 to help devs "build applications that transition more seamlessly between 2D and VR"--but right now it's pretty much what you'd expect. Dash also offers a new interface that can be summoned at any time.

Meanwhile, the update to Oculus Home took it from being a basic store to becoming a "customizable social space you can share with friends." The customization arrives in the form of letting Rift users import assets to "decorate" their home, while the social aspect revolves around the ability to virtually hang out with up to eight friends (can you tell Facebook is anxious to convince investors that VR really is the next big social trend?).

Oculus isn't done working on these new features; it has more additions planned for Dash and Oculus Home in the coming months. That includes an expansion to Hybrid Apps, the introduction of Expressive Avatars that mimic facial expressions and more. The company has also made performance improvements to help make sure these visual updates don't cause problems for PCs that only meet the Rift's minimum specs.

In addition to updating the Rift's software, Rift Core 2.0 nudges people who might be using a previous version of Windows or navigating the menu with an Xbox controller to upgrade their systems. Some of the update's features require Windows 10, and even though the Oculus Touch controllers aren't strictly required, the update was designed with them in mind because all new Rift headsets come with the controllers bundled.