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Oculus Quest

Quest Home Spaces Get Node-base Movement, a First Step Toward Upcoming Social Features

April 7, 2022 From roadtovr

Last year Meta announced that it would finally be bring social features to the Quest home environments, allowing users to easily get together in the same virtual space. We aren’t there yet, but the company has taken a first step in that direction by adding node-based locomotion to all of Quest’s home spaces.

Back in October Meta announced that it “soon” planned to upgrade Quest’s home space into a social area where users can congregate together (without a third-party app) and do basic activities like watch videos and launch into other VR apps together. The company calls it ‘Horizon Home’.

Well, the actual social part of Horizon Home isn’t here yet, but the company has taken a first step toward it.

At launch, all Quest home spaces placed the user in one specific spot from which they couldn’t move.

Now, as of at least Quest v38, all home spaces have an array of nodes which users can move between by pointing their controller and using the thumbstick. Moving between nodes with controllerless hand-tracking alone doesn’t seem to work yet.

Ostensibly this will allow multiple users to navigate the same spaces. It isn’t clear how many users will be supported in a single Quest home space (though voice parties currently support up to 8 people).

Quest’s home environments appear to be using typical real-time rendering, so it isn’t clear why Meta has decided to limit users to moving between specific nodes rather than letting them move anywhere within a pre-determined safe area. Especially odd because users can navigate away from any individual node by physically moving within their playspace. Furthermore, the distance between nodes is decidedly ‘impersonal’, and further away than friends hanging out in the same area would likely want to stand.

So while movement within the Quest home spaces is a first step toward social features, it will hopefully see some refinement by the time users are actually able to join each other in the same space.

Filed Under: horizon home, horizon home locomotion, News, Oculus Quest, oculus quest 2, quest home, quest home locomotion, quest home social

Meta Quest 2 Boxes Appear on Store Shelves, Rebranding Still Incomplete

April 6, 2022 From roadtovr

It seems the Oculus brand is finally departing physical retail. While Quest 2 boxes emblazoned with the new Meta name and logo are already on store shelves in the US, the swap from Oculus to Meta still has a ways to go.

Spotted by Upload VR’s Ian Hamilton, Meta has rolled out the freshly-rebranded Quest 2s to Walmart, one of its largest retail partners. So far, online retailers like Amazon, Target, NewEgg, and yes… also Walmart’s website still list the headset as ‘Oculus’ Quest 2.

And it doesn’t seem the company is worried about any of the self-inflicted brand confusion either, as the newly dubbed Meta Quest 2 oddly sits right next to a stack of the headsets in its original Oculus packing.

Walmart now carrying “Meta” Quest 2 at this store in Bentonville where it is testing drone delivery. pic.twitter.com/LkXssaPIS7

— Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) April 5, 2022

Look a little closer and you can see the 256GB version of Meta Quest 2, priced at $400, is also still labeled on shelves as ‘Oculus Quest 2’.

Image courtesy Ian Hamilton

The transformation from Facebook to Meta started back when the company announced in October 2021 it was putting a new emphasis on XR by becoming a “metaverse company.”

This also led to a progressive roll-back of the Oculus brand in effort to reposition its latest VR headset closer to its primary mission. And it appears that the rebranding has a ways to go, as the soft launch maneuver has yet to address some key areas.

Image captured by Road to VR

Oculus.com is still the main digital storefront, which mentions the name Oculus a half-dozen times in tandem with Meta.

If you want to buy a Quest 2 direct from Meta, you’re also still buying an ‘Oculus Quest 2’ under the Oculus warranty. Need product support? That Meta Support’s job, though they help you fill out Oculus bug reports for Oculus devices. The Meta Quest YouTube channel also still features the old Oculus logo.

Quest users however have recently seen the iconic Oculus startup image replaced in-headset with the new Meta branding. So there’s that.

Filed Under: Meta, meta quest, meta quest 2, News, Oculus Quest, oculus quest 2, quest 2

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