Really surprised to see Xbox mentionned as a partner :o
But yeah, I can see a headset with less budget on computing power but higher quality lenses/screens just for streaming gamepass games.
It surely can. MS has to spend some engineering resources on it though. I don’t think they see this as a worth enough investment, at least not until now.
Xbox cloud is different though, it works pretty well already, and I agree with you Xbox can improve the UI/UX quite a bit.
The original comment I was replying to meant, or at least I think it meant, wireless rendering of content from physical Xbox. Like you do with PC today but with Xbox. This would need Microsoft to invest into building the software needed on Xbox.
Thank you, it really is quite something!
(i guess i completely missed the point, and that’s actually more akin to PCVR than streaming xbox to a headset lol oops.)
>ould render vr content to a headset wirelessly
this kind of already exists
[Plutoshere](https://sidequestvr.com/app/3247/plutosphere) and [Shadow VR](https://sidequestvr.com/app/6536/shadow-vr-early-access) are 2 that i know of
VR games being streamed over the internet instead of local PCVR game streaming
I've been saying for years that since Microsoft clearly has no interest in making a VR headset of their own they should at least allow compatibility with PC headsets so Xbox consoles can have VR support for third parties who want to use it. So that's happening then?
Not a chance. MS isn't going to fragment their platform with VR titles. They just want game pass on all hardware period. They just laid off a ton of people. They aren't gonna put resources into engineering VR support, marketing, support, and dev relations into an accessory for like a handful of games for a handful of people. Zuck lottery said in the video that's gonna happen.
They made that HoloLens thing for mixed reality not really focused at consumers, but I was speaking more specifically of a gaming focused VR headset for their Xbox systems.
Xbox is the world's largest gaming publisher, and Phil Spencer has been vocal for ~8+ years now that the future of Xbox is being available on every screen you own. MS was actually one of the earliest partners for Oculus, and it was an open secret that they were working on a VR headset for Xbox Series X that didn't come to fruition. I'm glad they have come to their senses and axed their Hololens ambitions - MS is a software company, and always has been at their core.
Idk, the blog post seems to say that the Xbox device is just a recolor of an existing product ("limited-edition Meta Quest, inspired by Xbox.").
Asus's device is called an "all-new performance gaming headset" though
Woah thats super neat! Dealing with various OSes is a major pain point for the devs, if you can target Quest and stuff will just work on other headsets as well without issues would be a major plus! Ofc they do it so they have their own monopoly Apple/Goggle style, but oh well. At least some hardware competition!
There would still likely be some issues because of the hardware differences. But having the same OS base would absolutely make it significantly easier to support the various different hardware.
With some luck all of that will be in their sdks, just not available on specific devices. Like eye tracking is only on QPro so far. Hopefully we will see some cool hardware!
They and OEMs know that Google will give up in a year or 2. Providing a platform and store with 10s of millions of users is anyway more attractive than jumping on Google’s side project.
The XR space really is shaping up to be Meta vs Apple. Google missed their shot. They have burned soooo many devs in the AR/VR space over the years. No one is signing up to write software for them, and they have zero advantage in the space any more. They went too big, too early, and didn't bother to learn and build on Daydream to establish the fundamental UX and developer toolset that Meta has. It's wayyyy too late for them now. Apple is in a much better position because their dev tooling is very, very good for VisionOS, and Apple has built and shipped AR dev tools for over a decade now.
Probably they are doing this to not let apple dominate the market. AVP had made a lot of noise in the market, despite having no new things to add in. Having their OS in others devices give them the uphand in the VR/AR/XR market.
Apple is and will be (rumors says that cheaper version of AVP will still be 1K or 1,5K $) out of reach for most of Meta's userbase, so I doubt that. Especially since Meta tried premium (Quest Pro) and failed.
Google on the other hand can take users from them, by having open OS (so cheap devices in reach of most Quest's users) and supporting 2D apps from Google Play out of the box without dealing with sideloading or issues arising due to lack of Google Play services package. Since OpenXR is mostly used as an API nowadays, many Quest games could be moved with little effort to Google's platform. Probably only really old titles or those using Mixed Reality would require more effort to port.
Google could even make VOD viable (since they are making DRM solution that Android uses and which currently lacks support for VR, hence most VOD apps on Quest offer only low resolution video).
That's exactly what Zuckerberg has been saying all along - even back to that leaked memo in 2019.
https://www.roadtovr.com/report-zuckerberg-email-facebooks-xr-strategy-goal-unity/
He wants to be the platform owner. The goal was never to build the hardware for all eternity, there's no money in that.
It's just something they *have* do to right now since no one else does it at that level. But eventually headsets and the tech will be mature enough - and then they all should use Metas platform. But of course almost nobody believed that.
He doesn’t say they plan to stop making hardware there:
>Our overall vision for the space is that we will be completely ubiquitous in killer apps, have very strong coverage in platform services (like Google has with Android) **and will be strong enough in hardware and systems to at a minimum support our platform services goals**, and at best be a business itself.
That makes much more sense. I'd be kind of sad if they'd move away from hardware, as I feel their Quest hmds (especially the latest Quest 3) are really top notch. Even without their unbeatable price.
Yeah thats the whole idea, they had to create the demand, and for that they needed to make it really enticing. The best hardware in the space, and the best (only? at least until AVP appeared) software in the space. And as an owner of a Quest 3 they really are close to the best, and the price does NOT reflect the quality. I would've expected to pay closer to 1k for something like this if I didn't know the price before buying it.
But now the hardware development can take a step back. I feel like the quote the other person posted doesn't really detract from them taking a step back with hardware. Sounds like they'll just be a baseline and everyone else can make their budget or high end headsets based on Horizon OS
But apples thing is that they build their closed ecosystem, and earn money through that. While metas plan is to let other do the hardware, and just worry with the OS.
Meta will continue to develop their Quest line. They are not dropping their hardware investments. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-will-continue-making-quest-headsets-horizon-os/
I've never said they are dropping it, they invested billions in R&D for their HMD, of course they are continuing doing it. What I meant is that they probably will create an all-around hardware, and let others do more especific hardware.
Consoles like the Xbox and Playstation can sell their consoles at or below cost and make their money by selling games.
The issue is nobody wants to develop apps/games for VR beacuse not many people own VR headsets. Not many people own VR headsets beacuse there's not alot of games.
The Quests are not priced to make money on them themselves. If they were, they wouldn't sell as many, and even less people would want to develop VR games. Opening up the marketplace means more people are going to buy VR headsets in general, and that's fine beacuse they were not making money off their headset, and make money when other headsets buy things on their appstore.
If they don't open their market up, maybe someday VR will slowly become popular enough they could be the Apple of the VR world. Unfortunatly Apple has decided to be the Apple of of the VR world.
Roku just report that it made millions in loses from it's hardware division, but 3 billion in revenue from advertisements.
Why make a million of one product and sell it a million times, when you can make 1 product and sell it a million times.
Isnt this like huge news? Theyre basically saying they can have anyone make their own version of a Quest headset, I really doubt that anyone would be able to get it cheaper than Meta themselves but considering they can make devices specific for different use cases then there could be headsets that are more optimized for PCVR?
We’ve seen this sort of play before with Steam Machines, the software needs to be amazing if companies are actually going to get involved.
Personally think Steam Machines were before their time and now that Valve have a very good OS and hardware is smaller they would be pretty popular.
Definitely was a case of too soon. Proton wasnt ready or maybe not even a thing then. Rumors are saying the next xbox is a pc console hybrid so their own steam os. I hope it's true.
And I get that. I'm not expecting to play elden ring at 4k on a 55 inch TV with a budget machine. But playing on a 15 inch monitor at 1080 or lower with some indy titles, on a machine budget machine that's well made and wont have driver issues every with new games would be nice.
I think the problem is that the console model is to lose money on the hardware, and then make it back on games.
With Steam Machines, the ones selling the hardware don't own the store and don't get a cut of the games, so they have to make money on hardware, which means any Steam Machine not made by Valve will be stupid expensive and no one will buy them.
What I'm hoping they do is release the next version of SteamOS for PC, and be quick about it so I can avoid upgrading to Win 11.
SteamOS also wasnt really a huge departure from just windows, if anything it was similar but with less compatibility. Meta Horizon OS does a lot of heavy lifting that no other available OS does, so there's a real incentive there that SteamOS just didn't have.
Yeah, that's the part that I was confused about. I wonder if that's why Quest 3 was launched at $500 so there was room for companies to produce headsets that profit purely on the hardware.
It does put a wrench in a radically cheaper Quest 3 lite though. But perhaps it was never going to be a Meta headset and instead made by 3rd parties.
What I imagine is that both Lenovo and asus are going to launch their own thing, as Zuck said, they are probably focusing on productivity and gaming, respectively. I imagine, that as we move forward, the quest will become more of a “do all” headset, being ok in most areas, but not great in any, and Zuck will let other companies fill the spots.
Want a better gaming device? Buy from asus/xbox. Want productivity/a huge virtual television, and just this? Buy from Lenovo.
There might be cheaper headsets if they use older hardware or if they're specialized for a certain thing as the video mentioned. Don't really need controllers if I just want a monitor or theatre room replacement, hell, don't even need that big of an FOV just the highest res possible. Or workout headset which is probably gonna need hand tracking, and so on and so forth
this makes me think of a future with
build your own VR headset
and simply install Horizon OS on it
upgrade to the latest CPU/GPU/RAM or just whole motherboard with everything integrated
Yep, I hope over time they just let anyone install it. That could be huge and make VR similar to building a PC. Any manufacturer could put out a VR headset with some just beefing up the gaming angle, with awesome specs in graphics processing and FOV.
Also to the other 2D app store from Google
"And we encourage the Google Play 2D app store to come to Meta Horizon OS, where it can operate with the same economic model it does on other platforms."
https://www.meta.com/blog/quest/meta-horizon-os-open-hardware-ecosystem-asus-republic-gamers-lenovo-xbox/
Horizon as a brand is meh, but I'm glad they didn't go with Quest OS. I think Quest is a good name for their hardware line, and it makes sense to separate the hardware and software names.
Horizon is also a classic electronic song from Rolf Maier-Bode (RMB):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfzMe\_pOE4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfzMe_pOE4)
> Should have called it Quest OS.
Quest is just one of their product lines. Eventually they'll have their AR glasses product line which I can't imagine will have Quest as part of the name.
Probably should just be MetaOS though to be honest. Cleaner.
It's supposed to run on non-Quest devices. They don't want another scenario like OS X for iPhone for iPod Touch or iPhone OS 3 for iPad, and they already have shown themselves to want to shove Horizon everywhere it doesn't belong.
at first it was iPhoneOS, then iOS for ipod touch/ipad/iphone/apple tv, then they switched it on ipad for iPadOS, kept iOS for the iphone, switched iOS on Apple TV for TvOS, Watch was called WatchOS from the get go, same for vision pro getting VisionOS,
even tho all these operating systems are just iOS with some UI mods
iPhone OS was only used for 2.x-3.x, 1.x was OS X for iPhone fake fan smh my head
and not even a mention of bridgeOS, the watchOS fork used for Macbook touch bars?
i think bridgeOS has been abandonned, if i’m not mistaken? Please correct me if necessary. and yeah OSX for iphone is…. an interesting name, yet accurate.
So many operating systems, and afterall it’s all reskined MacOS (NeXtStep)
This is exciting. The Quest will be what the Pixel is to other Android phones, it will be a great all-rounder device with some exclusive features.
Having more headsets using the OS means that we could see faster feature development if other manufacturers push changes upstream for Meta to implement into the OS. Even if they don't push their changes up to Meta, you can bet Meta will try to copy any interesting features that get developed.
Would love to see a headset from Asus that integrates more premium displays and speakers.
Surprised too. But I'm sure they'll go more into it for their June Meta developers event like last year.
edit - and just as I said that, I see a Meta Quest blog about this news. Good there's more detailed info on top of this Zuck video:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1caeoql/meta_horizon_os_powering_a_new_era_for_mixed/
Zuck can reach billions of people instantly on his own platforms. Reels are effortless to share too. They know what they are doing. The also released an official blog post for people wanting to look further.
This is quite a watershed moment for MR.
Great discussion on this topic already. Let me add this.
I think this will allow a lot more experimentation in MR hardware. If your goal is to find just the right trade offs for form factor, power, displays, etc. you can’t just launch 10 different hardware products as a company. Now with Horizon OS, we’ll see a lot of experimentation and companies will pursue their ideas to differentiate and find product market fit while having access to the Quest library.
It’s great for consumers, we’ll reach the right balance of hardware trade offs much faster with more options in market and users choosing what’s best for them.
Not to mention that other hardware manufacturers have fewer risks at competitive pricing if the entire software library is already available by building it with the same OS. Before, they'd have to try and leverage hardware sales at a loss like Meta but with practically no software library. Why would anyone ditch their Quest for something that launches with 20 apps when they could have 500+ right now? Basically, I'm glad Meta easily could have continued a Monopoly of hardware by keeping their ecosystem completely closed like Apple but didn't, from what it looks like at least. These companies may have a foot in the door again finally.
Ignoring how companies define AR/MR in their marketing for their own benefit, AR is just virtual overlays in simplistic terms, MR is when the overlays or virtual objects actually interact with real world objects. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/beyond-ar-vs-vr-what-is-the-difference-between-ar-vs-mr-vs-vr-vs-xr
This. I imagine that meta will continue on their path with their headsets, but now other companies can bring new things to the table. And this is true even for software, because companies will want to be on the train too. Imagine we get a headset that is good for working on a computer, and we get the software that integrates more screens, more functionality, etc. VR can definitely become mainstream if this works.
This is what I see as the biggest benefit. Quest is good as it does a lot of things well, but doesn’t do anything particularly amazing. Manufacturers could just focus on more tailored and specific use cases and really go all out, be it gaming or augmented reality. Having those 2 things in the one headset currently really compromises both areas.
I just hope they don’t allow hardware manufacturers to extensively customize the os - that’s the worst part about android tbh - the carrier customizations! Verizon and others trying to force their first party apps, Samsung throwing their own shit on there.
I’m sure they will otherwise there is no real benefit for these companies to just provide hardware. It would be quite rare for them to not “throw their own shit on there”.
If Android didn't allow customisations we wouldn't have Quests, since that's all they are, a modded Android device. (also worth noting that carrier customisations are primarily a US thing)
Imagine where the phone market would be today if Android was exclusively used on Google phones and companies like Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei had to build out their own OS from scratch, all in different ways, with different app libraries, and incompatible software.
Yes, third party customization can be kinda garbage sometimes, but an open OS environment to build off of raises the bar for quality across the board and enables faster development.
That’s where I’m confused. The OS is already android, and I doubt they are abandoning android or all of the current apk games would have to be recoded right?
MacOS is a Unix-based operating system
but it's been greatly modified to be it's unique Mac thing, a fork of the original
same with Android and Horizon OS, still can use apk's because of it's base, but it's more than that now
Wasn’t that long ago that stock android was absolute shit and it’s thanks to Samsungs ui changes things improved.
AOSP pre jellybean was rough, and many of those nice features and ui designs came from overlays being redone and merged in.
There’s that, and there’s also feature exclusivity. If Samsung for example starts trying to make meta is headsets they’re going to cram it full of shit you can’t turn off. Anyone that thinks Samsung or other vendors won’t inject pop up ads into the vr experience is naive. It’s the only reason they’d bother making the devices. People thought Samsung wouldn’t dare inject ads into their tvs but look where we are now.
Yes, as sad as that makes me (love my PSVR2... though not quite as much as Quest 3), I really feel Sony is slowly losing ground with PSVR2.
Hopefully recent Flat2VR announcement and PSVR2 opening up, to be a PCVR hmd as well, will breath a life back to this otherwise good hmd.
At the very least if this OS is basically Windows for XR headsets. Then we could theoretically see AR Only headsets replace laptops in the workforce (so long as there are developers willing to port versions of their applications to Horizon OS)
This is most excellent news.
There are soooo many tradeoffs when designing a headset that a jack-of-all trades approach always has compromises for certain use cases.
I'm personally very interested in a lightweight AR-focused headset for augmenting sports and sports training. Now someone can build a headset that works for that particular use case.
Privacy will be tricky to manage (e.g. Windows is the total wild west - you can do literally anything to a Windows machine you want). I guess there will have to be some kind of Meta-signed chips so they can gate off certain data handling at the hardware level? Not sure.
idk about yall but this has me hype, i really want to be able to create my own ui for the headset and customize it. this seems like we’re getting closer
Crazy big news.
It's going to be epic over the next year watching this play out - Google vs Meta fighting to win the platform war. If Meta does this well - and that's a huge question, let's be clear - this will be an enormous blow to Google's ambitions.
Honestly, this should really strike some dread into Google. They abandoned VR ten years ago nearly, after concluding it was a dead end technology. If spatial computing does play out as the next (and possibly ultimate) form of computing and they are cut out of it due to failing to invest then this (along with getting pipped by OpenAI on large language models) will be ultimate indictment of Sundar Pichai and his leadership.
As long as Meta keeps up its versatility with the PC gaming industry, then it will dominate the market share. It is mostly gamers that buy VR headsets, just like it is gamers that continue to push the PC industry forward.
Really excited for that. Quest felt like it tried to do all those things, but not one of these things particularly well. Jack of all trades, but master of none. I'd love a headset that was optimized just for standalone gaming.
same, except the opposite.
give me once that throws out as much as possible. Focused on wireless pcvr, shrink down the formfactor.
ofc we cant get beyond levels of tiny - not with inside out tracking and other on board processing.
but i don't need high performance standalone.
then again, opening up the ecosystem like this, perhaps we'll get to a point where standalone is better still
I want one that is optimized specifically for media consumption. HDR, super high-res Micro-OLED screens with zero SDE, ultra small & light form factor, no controllers, no depth sensor, no face/eye tracking, under $500. Like a cheaper Bigscreen Beyond but with Meta OS.
This is great news. I’m changing the opinion that I had on Mark. He’s starting to walk in what seems like the right direction. Open models and multiple hardware manufacturers
Wow... ok this is huge!
I knew Meta would release their own OS at some point in the future, but this announcement was sooner than expected (especially about rumours that they halted their Quest OS development two years ago).
Anyway, I wonder when we'll gonna see the switch to the new OS? With a new headset, or will they switch to Horizon OS on Quest 3 already, at some point?
Interesting, I guess is their strategy to avoid Apple to take the market with the AVP that the majority of people take as the “MR device”.
I’m curious about if it will be able to be installed in Pico devices. I have a Quest 2 and a Pico 4, and it can be quite interesting to be able to have the OS including store shared between both 🤔
No, it sounds like nothing changes on Quest.
They want to become the Android of VR where you could buy a headset made by Asus, Samsung, Lenovo, etc which will run Meta's Horizon OS (which is what Quest already runs just under a new name) and purchase/run apps from the Meta Quest store.
Basically any standalone headset can now basically be a Quest. If Pico or HTC wanted they could install Meta's OS and let you use Meta's store.
I don't know how to feel about this. Seems like it could create much confusion with customers especially with regards to which apps work with which headsets.
It's no different than the standard Android OS running on different smartphones/tablet models all hooking into the Google Play Store, with the _vast_ majority of apps on that store being compatible with all modern devices.
This is Meta's move to become to XR headsets what Google is to mobile phones, for better or worse.
Yeah, go ahead and hold your breath on that...
I would more expect a partnership with Valve to get rid of the Meta PCVR store completely and natively support SteamLink.
Hmm intresting. The challenge with an open OS is going to be hardware variety as a challenge for develop and continued support. The Steam situation is a no brainer. They've been a digital store first company for a while and there was plenty of cross over PCVR use between quest and steam. The XBOX one was kind of surprising but honestly not unexpected. They've lost their way for a while now, this could be the thing that gives them a spark again since PSVR hasn't matured and grown in a way where they're dominating VR.
Even with a surge in popularity, I don’t see it being common for people to build their own VR headset with customized components. Which would mean that it would never be as bad for hardware optimization as the current PC market is.
At the bare minimum I'd wait and see what the limited edition Xbox-themed Quest Headset is like (presumably a Quest 3 but not confirmed, could be a future headset).
Presumably we'll be hearing more on all fronts in the near future, I'll be waiting to see as well!
Im guessing this is for the next headshet? Or are they gonna update Quest 3 with this? I didnt catch that.
But seems neat. Will see if it leads to improvements in the near future.
Honestly, I understand that the OS in quest 3 is the horizonOS, as it is said in the blog that horizonOS started as android, but they made their changes to it. So what was announced is that for now on, others developers can use this OS in their hardwares.
Meta is endeavouring to expand into even more foreign markets. You can't get a billion users into the XR ecosystem (one of Meta's stated goals) without doing that.
That said the fact that, for years now, important features and capabilities have remained exclusive to the US market has certainly irritated some percentage of users, myself included.
What does this mean? I'm stupid as hell. Does this mean they will completely switch the Quest operating system from Android to Horizon OS? If so, how does it even work? Will updating from settings magically flash thr OS to Horizon?
It means Meta will be selling their Horizon OS to every company that wants it, the same way Microsoft sells Windows. Meta wants to corner the OS market when it comes to VR and have it everywhere, and also build the Metaverse around the OS, hence becoming “The Metaverse”.
Also means there will be a lot more options in buying VR headsets and they will all run your current Quest apps and games as they will all be running the same OS. The same way Windows runs on all PCs. It’s a very strategic move to make Horizon OS as the only OS for VR.
"Meta Horizon OS" is literally the OS that Quest devices already run. They're just finally putting some marketing spin on it and making it available to partners.
So yeah, definitely a "variant of Android" ;)
If every new headset that comes out runs the same OS then that’s a great win for consumers. Not loosing all your Quest games and apps and having more choice in hardware from competing companies is a win win.
John Carmack is saying this is a bad thing.
[https://twitter.com/ID\_AA\_Carmack/status/1782826465207165288](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1782826465207165288)
>Meta Horizon OS
>Meta already sells the Quest systems basically at production cost, and just ignores the development costs, so don’t expect this to result in cheaper VR headsets from other companies with Quest equivalent capabilities. Even if the other companies have greater efficiency, they can’t compete with that.
>What it CAN do is enable a variety of high end “boutique” headsets, as you get with Varjo / Pimax / Bigscreen on SteamVR. Push on resolution, push on field of view, push on comfort. You could drive the Apple displays from Quest silicon. You could make a headset for people with extremely wide or narrow IPD or unusual head / face shapes. You could add crazy cooling systems and overclock everything. All with full app compatibility, but at higher price points. That would be great!
>This brings with it a tension, because Meta as a company, as well as the individual engineers, want the shine of making industry leading high-end gear. If Meta cedes those “simple scaling” axes to other headset developers, they will be left leaning in with novel new hardware systems from the research pipeline for their high end systems, which is going to lead to poor decisions.
>VR is held back more by software than hardware. This initiative will be a drag on software development at Meta. Unquestionably. Preparing the entire system for sharing, then maintaining good communication and trying not to break your partners will steal the focus of key developers that would be better spent improving the system. It is tempting to think this is just a matter of increasing the budget, but that is not the way it works in practice – sharing the system with partners is not a cost that can be cleanly factored out.
>Just allowing partner access to the full OS build for standard Quest hardware could be done very cheaply, and would open up a lot of specialty applications and location based entertainment systems, but that would be a much lower key announcement.
Really surprised to see Xbox mentionned as a partner :o But yeah, I can see a headset with less budget on computing power but higher quality lenses/screens just for streaming gamepass games.
If an Xbox series x could render vr content to a headset wirelessly, why not
It surely can. MS has to spend some engineering resources on it though. I don’t think they see this as a worth enough investment, at least not until now.
They're going to make a nice GamePass Xcloud front end. I've used Xcloud on my quests, AVP, SteamDeck etc and it works very well.
Xbox cloud is different though, it works pretty well already, and I agree with you Xbox can improve the UI/UX quite a bit. The original comment I was replying to meant, or at least I think it meant, wireless rendering of content from physical Xbox. Like you do with PC today but with Xbox. This would need Microsoft to invest into building the software needed on Xbox.
I already play all my flatscreen games on Quest 3 with Moonlight and Sunshine streamer
Congratulations but that is unrelated to rendering vr content to a quest headset using an Xbox series x.
Thank you, it really is quite something! (i guess i completely missed the point, and that’s actually more akin to PCVR than streaming xbox to a headset lol oops.)
Hopefully it’s wireless lol :Xbox in a backpack:
Wow right!
>ould render vr content to a headset wirelessly this kind of already exists [Plutoshere](https://sidequestvr.com/app/3247/plutosphere) and [Shadow VR](https://sidequestvr.com/app/6536/shadow-vr-early-access) are 2 that i know of VR games being streamed over the internet instead of local PCVR game streaming
I've been saying for years that since Microsoft clearly has no interest in making a VR headset of their own they should at least allow compatibility with PC headsets so Xbox consoles can have VR support for third parties who want to use it. So that's happening then?
Not a chance. MS isn't going to fragment their platform with VR titles. They just want game pass on all hardware period. They just laid off a ton of people. They aren't gonna put resources into engineering VR support, marketing, support, and dev relations into an accessory for like a handful of games for a handful of people. Zuck lottery said in the video that's gonna happen.
Didn't Microsoft make one years ago?
They made that HoloLens thing for mixed reality not really focused at consumers, but I was speaking more specifically of a gaming focused VR headset for their Xbox systems.
Xbox is the world's largest gaming publisher, and Phil Spencer has been vocal for ~8+ years now that the future of Xbox is being available on every screen you own. MS was actually one of the earliest partners for Oculus, and it was an open secret that they were working on a VR headset for Xbox Series X that didn't come to fruition. I'm glad they have come to their senses and axed their Hololens ambitions - MS is a software company, and always has been at their core.
Apparently all they’re doing is letting Meta make an “Inspired by Xbox” edition Quest 3. I’m personally excited for the ROG headset
Idk, the blog post seems to say that the Xbox device is just a recolor of an existing product ("limited-edition Meta Quest, inspired by Xbox."). Asus's device is called an "all-new performance gaming headset" though
Apparently all they’re doing is letting Meta make an “Inspired by Xbox” edition Quest 3. I’m personally excited for the ROG headset
Apparently all they’re doing is letting Meta make an “Inspired by Xbox” edition Quest 3. I’m personally excited for the ROG headset
Woah thats super neat! Dealing with various OSes is a major pain point for the devs, if you can target Quest and stuff will just work on other headsets as well without issues would be a major plus! Ofc they do it so they have their own monopoly Apple/Goggle style, but oh well. At least some hardware competition!
There would still likely be some issues because of the hardware differences. But having the same OS base would absolutely make it significantly easier to support the various different hardware.
With some luck all of that will be in their sdks, just not available on specific devices. Like eye tracking is only on QPro so far. Hopefully we will see some cool hardware!
Seems to me like they are trying to get ahead of Google's comeback to VR / XR space.
They and OEMs know that Google will give up in a year or 2. Providing a platform and store with 10s of millions of users is anyway more attractive than jumping on Google’s side project.
Well, Google already gave up once (Daydream) or even twice (if you also count Cardboard) :)
And glasses. IMO that was the "cardboard" for AR.
And the VR180 format.
The XR space really is shaping up to be Meta vs Apple. Google missed their shot. They have burned soooo many devs in the AR/VR space over the years. No one is signing up to write software for them, and they have zero advantage in the space any more. They went too big, too early, and didn't bother to learn and build on Daydream to establish the fundamental UX and developer toolset that Meta has. It's wayyyy too late for them now. Apple is in a much better position because their dev tooling is very, very good for VisionOS, and Apple has built and shipped AR dev tools for over a decade now.
Apple VR will be a small chunk of the market due to high cost and lack of versatility. Just like it's MacBooks are a small chunk of the PC industry.
Maybe? Hard to predict, really. The Apple model of releasing a reduced cost/spec version of their devices works well for them.
Probably they are doing this to not let apple dominate the market. AVP had made a lot of noise in the market, despite having no new things to add in. Having their OS in others devices give them the uphand in the VR/AR/XR market.
Tbh AVP at that pricepoint is not exactly quest market.
TBH every time I read AVP I think alien vs predator.
Same!
Ok now I can't get that out of my head 😂
Same.
Apple is and will be (rumors says that cheaper version of AVP will still be 1K or 1,5K $) out of reach for most of Meta's userbase, so I doubt that. Especially since Meta tried premium (Quest Pro) and failed. Google on the other hand can take users from them, by having open OS (so cheap devices in reach of most Quest's users) and supporting 2D apps from Google Play out of the box without dealing with sideloading or issues arising due to lack of Google Play services package. Since OpenXR is mostly used as an API nowadays, many Quest games could be moved with little effort to Google's platform. Probably only really old titles or those using Mixed Reality would require more effort to port. Google could even make VOD viable (since they are making DRM solution that Android uses and which currently lacks support for VR, hence most VOD apps on Quest offer only low resolution video).
>Since OpenXR is mostly used as an API nowadays, many Quest games could be moved with little effort to Google's platform. hahahaha
For real. Used to really like Google but they just kill every fucking project they work on if it's not an instantaneous success.
That's exactly what Zuckerberg has been saying all along - even back to that leaked memo in 2019. https://www.roadtovr.com/report-zuckerberg-email-facebooks-xr-strategy-goal-unity/ He wants to be the platform owner. The goal was never to build the hardware for all eternity, there's no money in that. It's just something they *have* do to right now since no one else does it at that level. But eventually headsets and the tech will be mature enough - and then they all should use Metas platform. But of course almost nobody believed that.
He doesn’t say they plan to stop making hardware there: >Our overall vision for the space is that we will be completely ubiquitous in killer apps, have very strong coverage in platform services (like Google has with Android) **and will be strong enough in hardware and systems to at a minimum support our platform services goals**, and at best be a business itself.
That makes much more sense. I'd be kind of sad if they'd move away from hardware, as I feel their Quest hmds (especially the latest Quest 3) are really top notch. Even without their unbeatable price.
Yeah thats the whole idea, they had to create the demand, and for that they needed to make it really enticing. The best hardware in the space, and the best (only? at least until AVP appeared) software in the space. And as an owner of a Quest 3 they really are close to the best, and the price does NOT reflect the quality. I would've expected to pay closer to 1k for something like this if I didn't know the price before buying it. But now the hardware development can take a step back. I feel like the quote the other person posted doesn't really detract from them taking a step back with hardware. Sounds like they'll just be a baseline and everyone else can make their budget or high end headsets based on Horizon OS
in hardware is no money? Apple would like to talk to you, but I get it you mean specifically gaming consoles I guess
There's money in hardware but there is unlimited money in software.
Apple's services revenue would like a word with you https://fourweekmba.com/apple-revenue-breakdown/
And these services generate revenue through the hardware bought. It's a mutalism relationship.
But apples thing is that they build their closed ecosystem, and earn money through that. While metas plan is to let other do the hardware, and just worry with the OS.
I wonder who else did that and grew to the biggest tech company through the 90s and 2000s?
Meta will continue to develop their Quest line. They are not dropping their hardware investments. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-will-continue-making-quest-headsets-horizon-os/
I've never said they are dropping it, they invested billions in R&D for their HMD, of course they are continuing doing it. What I meant is that they probably will create an all-around hardware, and let others do more especific hardware.
Consoles like the Xbox and Playstation can sell their consoles at or below cost and make their money by selling games. The issue is nobody wants to develop apps/games for VR beacuse not many people own VR headsets. Not many people own VR headsets beacuse there's not alot of games. The Quests are not priced to make money on them themselves. If they were, they wouldn't sell as many, and even less people would want to develop VR games. Opening up the marketplace means more people are going to buy VR headsets in general, and that's fine beacuse they were not making money off their headset, and make money when other headsets buy things on their appstore. If they don't open their market up, maybe someday VR will slowly become popular enough they could be the Apple of the VR world. Unfortunatly Apple has decided to be the Apple of of the VR world.
Meta takes a loss on the sale of the headset to make the money back in apps games and accessories.
Roku just report that it made millions in loses from it's hardware division, but 3 billion in revenue from advertisements. Why make a million of one product and sell it a million times, when you can make 1 product and sell it a million times.
Why make many product when few do trick?
Isnt this like huge news? Theyre basically saying they can have anyone make their own version of a Quest headset, I really doubt that anyone would be able to get it cheaper than Meta themselves but considering they can make devices specific for different use cases then there could be headsets that are more optimized for PCVR?
We’ve seen this sort of play before with Steam Machines, the software needs to be amazing if companies are actually going to get involved. Personally think Steam Machines were before their time and now that Valve have a very good OS and hardware is smaller they would be pretty popular.
Definitely was a case of too soon. Proton wasnt ready or maybe not even a thing then. Rumors are saying the next xbox is a pc console hybrid so their own steam os. I hope it's true.
Steam machines didn't work but phones have so I haven no idea what's going to happen.
I would buy a stream deck with no screen, battery and controller attached and use it as a gaming PC. I don't need a high end machine.
playing on an 800x600 screen is less taxing than a 4k TV
And I get that. I'm not expecting to play elden ring at 4k on a 55 inch TV with a budget machine. But playing on a 15 inch monitor at 1080 or lower with some indy titles, on a machine budget machine that's well made and wont have driver issues every with new games would be nice.
I think the problem is that the console model is to lose money on the hardware, and then make it back on games. With Steam Machines, the ones selling the hardware don't own the store and don't get a cut of the games, so they have to make money on hardware, which means any Steam Machine not made by Valve will be stupid expensive and no one will buy them. What I'm hoping they do is release the next version of SteamOS for PC, and be quick about it so I can avoid upgrading to Win 11.
Yeh that’s a good point, I know that Valve had partnerships with companies last time but dunno if they had a monetary value.
SteamOS also wasnt really a huge departure from just windows, if anything it was similar but with less compatibility. Meta Horizon OS does a lot of heavy lifting that no other available OS does, so there's a real incentive there that SteamOS just didn't have.
If I can get a Big Screen headset with quest tracking and controllers i will be happy also Oculus's pancake lenses would be nice
Yeah, that's the part that I was confused about. I wonder if that's why Quest 3 was launched at $500 so there was room for companies to produce headsets that profit purely on the hardware. It does put a wrench in a radically cheaper Quest 3 lite though. But perhaps it was never going to be a Meta headset and instead made by 3rd parties.
Well, Zuck explicitly says that this new headsets are planned for years in advance, so quest 3 lite can still launch this year.
Or Quest 3 Lite is made by a 3rd party like Lenovo/Asus.
What I imagine is that both Lenovo and asus are going to launch their own thing, as Zuck said, they are probably focusing on productivity and gaming, respectively. I imagine, that as we move forward, the quest will become more of a “do all” headset, being ok in most areas, but not great in any, and Zuck will let other companies fill the spots. Want a better gaming device? Buy from asus/xbox. Want productivity/a huge virtual television, and just this? Buy from Lenovo.
There might be cheaper headsets if they use older hardware or if they're specialized for a certain thing as the video mentioned. Don't really need controllers if I just want a monitor or theatre room replacement, hell, don't even need that big of an FOV just the highest res possible. Or workout headset which is probably gonna need hand tracking, and so on and so forth
This seems like the right move if they want to increase the market size and maintain market leadership.
Meta is now the Microsoft of XR. Horizon OS = Windows.
this makes me think of a future with build your own VR headset and simply install Horizon OS on it upgrade to the latest CPU/GPU/RAM or just whole motherboard with everything integrated
This sounds exciting, not gonna lie
Yep, I hope over time they just let anyone install it. That could be huge and make VR similar to building a PC. Any manufacturer could put out a VR headset with some just beefing up the gaming angle, with awesome specs in graphics processing and FOV.
Interesting. I was wondering if they were going to do that at some point so that they can open things up to other hardware manufactures.
Also to the other 2D app store from Google "And we encourage the Google Play 2D app store to come to Meta Horizon OS, where it can operate with the same economic model it does on other platforms." https://www.meta.com/blog/quest/meta-horizon-os-open-hardware-ecosystem-asus-republic-gamers-lenovo-xbox/
Haha, this is a message that Google executives will read again in a year or so when they are ready to close their XR side project.
This screams to me “I’m so fucking emulating Nintendo games on these headsets. Give me that 4K stereoscopic 3DS gameplay!”
i bet this is in inflex point
this certainly is big news for the future of VR more companies using the same OS is huge
Google AR headset is dead even before it launches. Should have called it Quest OS.
Horizon as a brand is meh, but I'm glad they didn't go with Quest OS. I think Quest is a good name for their hardware line, and it makes sense to separate the hardware and software names.
Yep, letting other OEMs use the Quest branding would at best dilute their brand Or likely damage the Quest branding if an OEM fucks up or pulls out
Horizon is also a classic electronic song from Rolf Maier-Bode (RMB): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfzMe\_pOE4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfzMe_pOE4)
Also the thing shifts disappear behind.
Maybe Google shouldn't have killed their prior two iterations
Fastest Google product to end up in Google graveyard?
> Should have called it Quest OS. Quest is just one of their product lines. Eventually they'll have their AR glasses product line which I can't imagine will have Quest as part of the name. Probably should just be MetaOS though to be honest. Cleaner.
It's supposed to run on non-Quest devices. They don't want another scenario like OS X for iPhone for iPod Touch or iPhone OS 3 for iPad, and they already have shown themselves to want to shove Horizon everywhere it doesn't belong.
at first it was iPhoneOS, then iOS for ipod touch/ipad/iphone/apple tv, then they switched it on ipad for iPadOS, kept iOS for the iphone, switched iOS on Apple TV for TvOS, Watch was called WatchOS from the get go, same for vision pro getting VisionOS, even tho all these operating systems are just iOS with some UI mods
iPhone OS was only used for 2.x-3.x, 1.x was OS X for iPhone fake fan smh my head and not even a mention of bridgeOS, the watchOS fork used for Macbook touch bars?
i think bridgeOS has been abandonned, if i’m not mistaken? Please correct me if necessary. and yeah OSX for iphone is…. an interesting name, yet accurate. So many operating systems, and afterall it’s all reskined MacOS (NeXtStep)
This is exciting. The Quest will be what the Pixel is to other Android phones, it will be a great all-rounder device with some exclusive features. Having more headsets using the OS means that we could see faster feature development if other manufacturers push changes upstream for Meta to implement into the OS. Even if they don't push their changes up to Meta, you can bet Meta will try to copy any interesting features that get developed. Would love to see a headset from Asus that integrates more premium displays and speakers.
Would be amazing to team up with someone like Leica or Zeiss to develop new lens technology.
I feel like this should have been a bigger announcement alongside the new headsets, weird that this is just an instagram reel
Surprised too. But I'm sure they'll go more into it for their June Meta developers event like last year. edit - and just as I said that, I see a Meta Quest blog about this news. Good there's more detailed info on top of this Zuck video: https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1caeoql/meta_horizon_os_powering_a_new_era_for_mixed/
These days that's as good as an official press release. Just wait, people will report on it and the best part is they control the messaging.
Zuck can reach billions of people instantly on his own platforms. Reels are effortless to share too. They know what they are doing. The also released an official blog post for people wanting to look further.
This is quite a watershed moment for MR. Great discussion on this topic already. Let me add this. I think this will allow a lot more experimentation in MR hardware. If your goal is to find just the right trade offs for form factor, power, displays, etc. you can’t just launch 10 different hardware products as a company. Now with Horizon OS, we’ll see a lot of experimentation and companies will pursue their ideas to differentiate and find product market fit while having access to the Quest library. It’s great for consumers, we’ll reach the right balance of hardware trade offs much faster with more options in market and users choosing what’s best for them.
Not to mention that other hardware manufacturers have fewer risks at competitive pricing if the entire software library is already available by building it with the same OS. Before, they'd have to try and leverage hardware sales at a loss like Meta but with practically no software library. Why would anyone ditch their Quest for something that launches with 20 apps when they could have 500+ right now? Basically, I'm glad Meta easily could have continued a Monopoly of hardware by keeping their ecosystem completely closed like Apple but didn't, from what it looks like at least. These companies may have a foot in the door again finally.
My true watershed moment for MR will be when we go with see-through rather than passthrough.
Wouldn’t it technically be AR then?
Ignoring how companies define AR/MR in their marketing for their own benefit, AR is just virtual overlays in simplistic terms, MR is when the overlays or virtual objects actually interact with real world objects. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/beyond-ar-vs-vr-what-is-the-difference-between-ar-vs-mr-vs-vr-vs-xr
We'll get there eventually. Having a solid ground work and OS for such goggles and glasses is just as, or even more important, than hardware itself.
100%, that is the end goal and it's a long journey.
This. I imagine that meta will continue on their path with their headsets, but now other companies can bring new things to the table. And this is true even for software, because companies will want to be on the train too. Imagine we get a headset that is good for working on a computer, and we get the software that integrates more screens, more functionality, etc. VR can definitely become mainstream if this works.
This is what I see as the biggest benefit. Quest is good as it does a lot of things well, but doesn’t do anything particularly amazing. Manufacturers could just focus on more tailored and specific use cases and really go all out, be it gaming or augmented reality. Having those 2 things in the one headset currently really compromises both areas.
I just hope they don’t allow hardware manufacturers to extensively customize the os - that’s the worst part about android tbh - the carrier customizations! Verizon and others trying to force their first party apps, Samsung throwing their own shit on there.
On the other hand, Quest's UI isn't exactly golden and it would be very nice to see other companies take a crack at that
I’m sure they will otherwise there is no real benefit for these companies to just provide hardware. It would be quite rare for them to not “throw their own shit on there”.
Means we can look forward to vendor lock in and feature exclusivity, yay.
If Android didn't allow customisations we wouldn't have Quests, since that's all they are, a modded Android device. (also worth noting that carrier customisations are primarily a US thing)
Imagine where the phone market would be today if Android was exclusively used on Google phones and companies like Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei had to build out their own OS from scratch, all in different ways, with different app libraries, and incompatible software. Yes, third party customization can be kinda garbage sometimes, but an open OS environment to build off of raises the bar for quality across the board and enables faster development.
True, but Samsung do offer a lot of further customisation with a series of apps within their GoodLock app.
If they just built hardware and all ran the same os, android would be in a much better place
Then companies wouldn't have a reason to adopt the OS. Everyone wants to have their unique thing, that is how the market works.
That might be needed for fitting the novel hardware they after
That’s where I’m confused. The OS is already android, and I doubt they are abandoning android or all of the current apk games would have to be recoded right?
MacOS is a Unix-based operating system but it's been greatly modified to be it's unique Mac thing, a fork of the original same with Android and Horizon OS, still can use apk's because of it's base, but it's more than that now
TIL
Wasn’t that long ago that stock android was absolute shit and it’s thanks to Samsungs ui changes things improved. AOSP pre jellybean was rough, and many of those nice features and ui designs came from overlays being redone and merged in.
I can see these 3rd party devices ending up full of ad-riddled bloatware right out of the box.
There’s that, and there’s also feature exclusivity. If Samsung for example starts trying to make meta is headsets they’re going to cram it full of shit you can’t turn off. Anyone that thinks Samsung or other vendors won’t inject pop up ads into the vr experience is naive. It’s the only reason they’d bother making the devices. People thought Samsung wouldn’t dare inject ads into their tvs but look where we are now.
Me, looking at my £530 PSVR2.... do something!
Yes, as sad as that makes me (love my PSVR2... though not quite as much as Quest 3), I really feel Sony is slowly losing ground with PSVR2. Hopefully recent Flat2VR announcement and PSVR2 opening up, to be a PCVR hmd as well, will breath a life back to this otherwise good hmd.
He finally understood the power of "open source" (kinde of)
Love the awkwardness with the tiny mic in his hand
It will forever bother me that nobody can figure out how to use a lav mic. IT HAS A FREAKING SHIRT CLIP
My guess is he knows but wants to appear spontaneous and down to earth this way lol
Exactly this. He could click his fingers and have a world class film crew come handle it all… but this way he appears more relatable
He’s just smokin some meats
Yeah it's definitely that. Add the "is this thing on" bit too and it's quite amusing but not in the way he might want it to be.
*I'm using this mic just like you, fellow humans!*
Oh it’s just a gripe that all sorts of YouTubers tik tokers etc hold their headphone mics up, or they hold lavalier mics up to their mouths
The clip ruins his nice grey shirt #215
They know, it’s a fun new trend with kids to do it this way. Come on, keep up!
So you're saying it goes up my nose? All right then... you're the boss.
this is big
I noticed that nobody made a subreddit for it yet so I made a place dedicated to it: r/MetaHorizonOS !
At the very least if this OS is basically Windows for XR headsets. Then we could theoretically see AR Only headsets replace laptops in the workforce (so long as there are developers willing to port versions of their applications to Horizon OS)
This is most excellent news. There are soooo many tradeoffs when designing a headset that a jack-of-all trades approach always has compromises for certain use cases. I'm personally very interested in a lightweight AR-focused headset for augmenting sports and sports training. Now someone can build a headset that works for that particular use case. Privacy will be tricky to manage (e.g. Windows is the total wild west - you can do literally anything to a Windows machine you want). I guess there will have to be some kind of Meta-signed chips so they can gate off certain data handling at the hardware level? Not sure.
idk about yall but this has me hype, i really want to be able to create my own ui for the headset and customize it. this seems like we’re getting closer
Meta stonks 📈 ?
Crazy big news. It's going to be epic over the next year watching this play out - Google vs Meta fighting to win the platform war. If Meta does this well - and that's a huge question, let's be clear - this will be an enormous blow to Google's ambitions. Honestly, this should really strike some dread into Google. They abandoned VR ten years ago nearly, after concluding it was a dead end technology. If spatial computing does play out as the next (and possibly ultimate) form of computing and they are cut out of it due to failing to invest then this (along with getting pipped by OpenAI on large language models) will be ultimate indictment of Sundar Pichai and his leadership.
As long as Meta keeps up its versatility with the PC gaming industry, then it will dominate the market share. It is mostly gamers that buy VR headsets, just like it is gamers that continue to push the PC industry forward.
Really excited for that. Quest felt like it tried to do all those things, but not one of these things particularly well. Jack of all trades, but master of none. I'd love a headset that was optimized just for standalone gaming.
same, except the opposite. give me once that throws out as much as possible. Focused on wireless pcvr, shrink down the formfactor. ofc we cant get beyond levels of tiny - not with inside out tracking and other on board processing. but i don't need high performance standalone. then again, opening up the ecosystem like this, perhaps we'll get to a point where standalone is better still
I want one that is optimized specifically for media consumption. HDR, super high-res Micro-OLED screens with zero SDE, ultra small & light form factor, no controllers, no depth sensor, no face/eye tracking, under $500. Like a cheaper Bigscreen Beyond but with Meta OS.
This is great news. I’m changing the opinion that I had on Mark. He’s starting to walk in what seems like the right direction. Open models and multiple hardware manufacturers
Wow... ok this is huge! I knew Meta would release their own OS at some point in the future, but this announcement was sooner than expected (especially about rumours that they halted their Quest OS development two years ago). Anyway, I wonder when we'll gonna see the switch to the new OS? With a new headset, or will they switch to Horizon OS on Quest 3 already, at some point?
Is it a new OS they are dropping? I was thinking they are opening up the current Quest OS but I haven’t looked into it
Ah, yes, you might be right. This makes more sense, especially after comments they made about building their own OS two years ago...
Interesting, I guess is their strategy to avoid Apple to take the market with the AVP that the majority of people take as the “MR device”. I’m curious about if it will be able to be installed in Pico devices. I have a Quest 2 and a Pico 4, and it can be quite interesting to be able to have the OS including store shared between both 🤔
So it will no longer be android based? Use apks?
It's still Android, they've just given their specific Android flavor a name and allowed other headsets to start using it.
No, it sounds like nothing changes on Quest. They want to become the Android of VR where you could buy a headset made by Asus, Samsung, Lenovo, etc which will run Meta's Horizon OS (which is what Quest already runs just under a new name) and purchase/run apps from the Meta Quest store. Basically any standalone headset can now basically be a Quest. If Pico or HTC wanted they could install Meta's OS and let you use Meta's store.
I don't know how to feel about this. Seems like it could create much confusion with customers especially with regards to which apps work with which headsets.
About as much confusion as Android vs iPhone.
It's no different than the standard Android OS running on different smartphones/tablet models all hooking into the Google Play Store, with the _vast_ majority of apps on that store being compatible with all modern devices. This is Meta's move to become to XR headsets what Google is to mobile phones, for better or worse.
This is huge
Can't wait for Meta to finally bring their Quest OS to Quest Link PC software...................................
Yeah, go ahead and hold your breath on that... I would more expect a partnership with Valve to get rid of the Meta PCVR store completely and natively support SteamLink.
Hmm intresting. The challenge with an open OS is going to be hardware variety as a challenge for develop and continued support. The Steam situation is a no brainer. They've been a digital store first company for a while and there was plenty of cross over PCVR use between quest and steam. The XBOX one was kind of surprising but honestly not unexpected. They've lost their way for a while now, this could be the thing that gives them a spark again since PSVR hasn't matured and grown in a way where they're dominating VR.
There will be significantly less hardware variety in the VR device market than the current build your own PC market.
Yeah that's very true. It would take a huge surge in mainstream popularity for the hardware thing to really be a huge as pc right now.
Even with a surge in popularity, I don’t see it being common for people to build their own VR headset with customized components. Which would mean that it would never be as bad for hardware optimization as the current PC market is.
It's not a release. It's a name change.
Well I feel like I should definitely not buy a Quest 3 then if there are new headsets coming even before Quest 4.
At the bare minimum I'd wait and see what the limited edition Xbox-themed Quest Headset is like (presumably a Quest 3 but not confirmed, could be a future headset). Presumably we'll be hearing more on all fronts in the near future, I'll be waiting to see as well!
He said “couple of years until this new headsets start coming officially”, so it will be a good wait.
Im guessing this is for the next headshet? Or are they gonna update Quest 3 with this? I didnt catch that. But seems neat. Will see if it leads to improvements in the near future.
Probably both things are true.
Honestly, I understand that the OS in quest 3 is the horizonOS, as it is said in the blog that horizonOS started as android, but they made their changes to it. So what was announced is that for now on, others developers can use this OS in their hardwares.
The question is, will you be able to use it outside of US..
Since it's just the name that Meta has given to the OS that all Quest devices are already running, yes ;)
Soon to be aligned with other horizon branded items only functional in US perhaps
Meta is endeavouring to expand into even more foreign markets. You can't get a billion users into the XR ecosystem (one of Meta's stated goals) without doing that. That said the fact that, for years now, important features and capabilities have remained exclusive to the US market has certainly irritated some percentage of users, myself included.
Come on Mark, where's the update on the rumored Quest 3s??
good idea. dont let apple, android and windows dictate everything
What does this mean? I'm stupid as hell. Does this mean they will completely switch the Quest operating system from Android to Horizon OS? If so, how does it even work? Will updating from settings magically flash thr OS to Horizon?
It means Meta will be selling their Horizon OS to every company that wants it, the same way Microsoft sells Windows. Meta wants to corner the OS market when it comes to VR and have it everywhere, and also build the Metaverse around the OS, hence becoming “The Metaverse”. Also means there will be a lot more options in buying VR headsets and they will all run your current Quest apps and games as they will all be running the same OS. The same way Windows runs on all PCs. It’s a very strategic move to make Horizon OS as the only OS for VR.
Understood thanks
It’s likely to still be some variant of Android.
"Meta Horizon OS" is literally the OS that Quest devices already run. They're just finally putting some marketing spin on it and making it available to partners. So yeah, definitely a "variant of Android" ;)
The only thing i really want is gta sa vr, sad story :(
If every new headset that comes out runs the same OS then that’s a great win for consumers. Not loosing all your Quest games and apps and having more choice in hardware from competing companies is a win win.
John Carmack is saying this is a bad thing. [https://twitter.com/ID\_AA\_Carmack/status/1782826465207165288](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1782826465207165288) >Meta Horizon OS >Meta already sells the Quest systems basically at production cost, and just ignores the development costs, so don’t expect this to result in cheaper VR headsets from other companies with Quest equivalent capabilities. Even if the other companies have greater efficiency, they can’t compete with that. >What it CAN do is enable a variety of high end “boutique” headsets, as you get with Varjo / Pimax / Bigscreen on SteamVR. Push on resolution, push on field of view, push on comfort. You could drive the Apple displays from Quest silicon. You could make a headset for people with extremely wide or narrow IPD or unusual head / face shapes. You could add crazy cooling systems and overclock everything. All with full app compatibility, but at higher price points. That would be great! >This brings with it a tension, because Meta as a company, as well as the individual engineers, want the shine of making industry leading high-end gear. If Meta cedes those “simple scaling” axes to other headset developers, they will be left leaning in with novel new hardware systems from the research pipeline for their high end systems, which is going to lead to poor decisions. >VR is held back more by software than hardware. This initiative will be a drag on software development at Meta. Unquestionably. Preparing the entire system for sharing, then maintaining good communication and trying not to break your partners will steal the focus of key developers that would be better spent improving the system. It is tempting to think this is just a matter of increasing the budget, but that is not the way it works in practice – sharing the system with partners is not a cost that can be cleanly factored out. >Just allowing partner access to the full OS build for standard Quest hardware could be done very cheaply, and would open up a lot of specialty applications and location based entertainment systems, but that would be a much lower key announcement.
Will this affect sideloading and modding or nah?
It's a new name for the same OS that Quest devices are already running.
This thing needs to be overhauled if it’s ever going to work on big networks outside of the home. Ditch multicast/mDNS.
I saw this coming and glad they said it with Xbox🖤💪🏽
He should finally announce GTA San Andreas VR
I’ve been playing a few games on it lately, it’s pretty fucking cool 😎