Oculus Quest
The Oculus Quest is a virtual reality headset created by Oculus VR, a division of Facebook Inc, released on May 21, 2019. It can be used as a standalone device or connected to a computer via USB, enabling use with PC VR games. It features two six degrees of freedom controllers, and runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system.
The Oculus Quest has received positive reviews for its price and convenience, but was criticized at launch for being a closed platform that limited users to software available on the Oculus Store. Critics praised the later addition of the Oculus Link, which allows users to run software from other systems.
History
At Oculus Connect 3 in 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Oculus was working on a standalone virtual reality headset codenamed Santa Cruz.The following year, at Oculus Connect 4, Oculus said that they are aiming at sending out software development kits in 2018. They also revealed the accompanying controllers which would be similar to the Oculus Rift's touch controllers.
In 2018, Oculus revealed at Connect 5 that the system would be priced at US$399 and that it would be called the Oculus Quest. At F8 2019 it was announced that the Quest would ship on May 21, 2019.
At launch, the device was priced at US$399 for the 64 GB version, and US$499 for the 128 GB version.
Hardware
The Oculus Quest has a similar design to the Oculus Go, but it features a more powerful graphics chip, active cooling and six degrees of freedom tracking. The headset weighs, compared to the original Oculus Rift, which weighed. The battery life is around 2–3 hours.Screen and lenses
The Oculus Quest uses two diamond Pentile OLED displays, each with an individual resolution of 1440 × 1600 and a refresh rate of 72 Hz. The headset uses the "next generation" lens technology originally introduced in Oculus Go, which helps to enlarge the sweet spot of the lens. Visual artifacts such as god rays are less prominent but still visible in scenes with high contrast. It also features physical interpupillary distance adjustment.Tracking
The Oculus Quest features the same inside-out tracking system used in the Oculus Rift S, named Oculus Insight. On the Quest, the system relies on four wide angle cameras located on each corner of the headset to spatially track the headset.Controllers
The Oculus Quest uses the same second generation Oculus Touch controllers used by the Oculus Rift S. To accommodate the new inside-out tracking system, the tracking ring in the new controllers has been moved to the top of the controller, whereas in the older Oculus Touch controllers it was located on the back. This serves the purpose of making the rings visible to the tracking cameras in the headset.Audio
The Quest's headband features built-in headphones, with two 3.5 mm audio jacks embedded in the headset, allowing the user to use external headphones.Accessories
Though the Oculus Quest has built-in audio, it is possible to purchase official in-ear headphones from Oculus. There is also an official travel case.The most popular Oculus Quest accessory is the Link cable, which allows you to connect your standalone Oculus Quest virtual reality headset into a VR-ready PC. When connected, you can access and play PC-VR games on your Quest through the Oculus Link Beta.
Software
Software compatibility
Oculus launched the headset with over 50 titles consisting of a mix between new and previously known games, including titles such as Beat Saber, VRChat, Superhot VR, Moss and Robo Recall. Some games such as Rec Room and VRChat allow for cross-platform multiplayer.Passthrough
Oculus Passthrough is a feature of the Oculus Quest which allows the user to see the real world in monoscopic black and white through the built-in cameras. This is primarily used as a safety feature; when a user exits their defined playing area, the display will switch from virtual reality to Passthrough. At Oculus Connect 6, an update for the Quest was announced that would upgrade this Passthrough system to the same Passthrough+ as the Oculus Rift S, making it stereoscopic and stereo-correct. Oculus has added "Passthrough on Demand" in version 15 of the Quest system software, which allows the user to quickly access Passthrough by tapping the left or right side of the headset twice.Oculus Link
At Oculus Connect 6, Oculus announced Oculus Link, which allows the Quest to work tethered to a PC via a regular USB-C cable and run PC VR games, including both Oculus and Steam VR games. Oculus Link can be used with USB 3.0 or 2.0 cables. Due to voltage drop, non-active conductive USB cables can only be a maximum of 3–4 meters long; to allow for a longer tether Oculus launched a 5-meter fiber optic cable of its own.The feature was rolled out with version 11 of the Quest software, on November 12, 2019 and the official cable went on sale on January 8, 2020 in all countries in which the Oculus Quest is sold.
Hand tracking
During Oculus Connect 6, it was announced that hand tracking would be added via software to the Quest in early 2020. However, on December 9, 2019, Oculus announced the release of full independent hand tracking demos, as well as an update to the SDK to utilize hand tracking, ultimately releasing the demos on the 11th of December with software version 12.0. This feature allows users to interact with the virtual world using just their hands. The system uses machine learning to analyze the inputs from the four cameras, which allows it to recognize the location and pose of the user's hands, similar in function to the Leap Motion controller.Hand tracking was officially released for the Oculus Quest in software version 17, released on May 18, 2020.
Reception
Scott Stein of CNET considered the Quest to be "improbably amazing for its size and $399 price tag", and compared it to Nintendo Switch in terms of convenience. Stein praised its camera system and motion controls, and its graphics quality for being nearer to PC-quality than Oculus Go. The Quest was panned for being a relatively closed platform at launch — being limited to the Oculus Store, and not being backwards compatible with software released for Oculus Go. Adi Robertson of The Verge shared similar opinions, also noting that it still had an IPD slider unlike the Oculus Rift S, but that the Quest was heavier and sometimes uncomfortable to wear, and that its launch lineup of games was not at the same calibre as the PC Oculus Rift in terms of size or graphical fidelity.In May 2020, The Verge acknowledged that the Quest had improved since its launch to become "the closest thing that exists to a sleek, almost mainstream VR headset", citing an expanding software library, and the ability to use the headset with a PC over USB via the Oculus Link feature. It was argued that the Quest "works so well by itself that it’s a great system in its own right", and that Oculus Link allowed it to double as a "credible" PC VR headset as well. It was noted that the Rift S was less front-heavy due to its strap design, and that its display "trades contrast for slightly higher resolution and refresh rate", but that neither it or the Valve Index "works as a perfectly good standalone wireless VR headset."