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Meta Quest 3

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Re: Meta Quest 3

#301

Post by mulderc »

bouncyhat wrote: post #232
MBCook wrote: post #86

So what’s the killer app? Beatsaber and some other games can be a lot of fun, but they’re not new. What new experience are ready for this? I get the quality is better, and that’s not nothing. But other than that this largely seems like more of the same. VR still doesn’t seem to have advanced much in software to me. And Meta keeps pushing virtual meetings and such but that’s not my cup of tea. I owned a Quest 2 and ha…

I've found BigScreen ( https://www.bigscreenvr.com/software ) to be a fairly compelling killer app case for VR. Besides being able to trick your eyes into thinking they're in a movie theater, the social elements are great. On a weekly cadence I jump into a shared room with 6+ of my friends and we pick a bad movie to watch together as we MST3k it. There's something about positional audio when talking with someone that…

Big screen has the most toxic online community I have ever interacted with. I know there is worse out there but the amount of anti-LGBTQ chat I hear was disturbing for a place that is about watching movies.

Re: Meta Quest 3

#302

Post by MBCook »

Auracle wrote: post #255
MBCook wrote: post #86

So what’s the killer app? Beatsaber and some other games can be a lot of fun, but they’re not new. What new experience are ready for this? I get the quality is better, and that’s not nothing. But other than that this largely seems like more of the same. VR still doesn’t seem to have advanced much in software to me. And Meta keeps pushing virtual meetings and such but that’s not my cup of tea. I owned a Quest 2 and ha…

What's the killer app of the iPhone 15? They are releasing something like 50 new games, though they aren't making them exclusive, which follows what consoles seem to do now too. The killer app for me has been being able to hop on to a VR game with my friends and somewhat feel like we're in the same room. It's too hard to get together frequently, and even setting up a VR 'date' is hard, but it's something.

No one needs to be convinced to buy a smartphone. They changed the world. People already want them.

VR is not in that position. It needs to prove its utility if it ever wants to escape being a niche.

Re: Meta Quest 3

#303

Post by cheriot »

ActorNightly wrote: post #262
cheriot wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quest 2 grew the VR market by ~10x. What was the killer app? Beat Saber is the first install, but not what kept it going for 3 years. It's the ecosystem. VR Chat for some, social game for others, immersive experiments like Bonelab, and a few studio titles. I'm glad Meta didn't hype the Quest 3 too much. It's easy for VR expectations to outrun current tech. VR seems to be in the trough of disillusionment where it's mo…

>Quest 2 grew the VR market by ~10x Did it really? So far I don't see any uptick in anything VR related in terms of average daily use. I read somewhere that most people get VR, try it for a week, then get bored of it.

I meant headset sales since I've never been able to find actual usage numbers. Afaict, on usage, everyone is guessing.

Re: Meta Quest 3

#304

Post by freedomben »

riskable wrote: post #209
freedomben wrote: post #171

What's the Linux story around Quest these days? I want to buy a VR headset but Linux compat is a must. Any recommendations?

It's still severely locked down Android. You can enable some hand-holding kid gloves "developer mode" features that go ever so slightly above what a normal user would be able to do but be prepared to sacrifice your firstborn just to get developer access (requires having a phone paired to the device with your personal Facebook account so no chance of sharing developer mode features with anyone else). Trying to do file…

Thank you, I wish I could upvote this 10 times to show my gratitude for your answer and the time it took you. I learned more about the Quest and Meta's philosophy/approach in general reading your answer than anything else, and I'm in your debt good sir

Re: Meta Quest 3

#305

Post by numpad0 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #222
cheriot wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quest 2 grew the VR market by ~10x. What was the killer app? Beat Saber is the first install, but not what kept it going for 3 years. It's the ecosystem. VR Chat for some, social game for others, immersive experiments like Bonelab, and a few studio titles. I'm glad Meta didn't hype the Quest 3 too much. It's easy for VR expectations to outrun current tech. VR seems to be in the trough of disillusionment where it's mo…

Beat Saber is still hella fun. I know some people that just play that (but play it daily) on their Quest. I'm not sure Facebook is particularly happy about that, however, since those people aren't buying apps or making them much money (maybe just the occasional song pack). I'm guessing Beat Saber is the only reason the Quest is even sold in Japan and Korea.

> I'm guessing Beat Saber is the only reason the Quest is even sold in Japan and Korea.

Not sure about that[1][2]...

1: JP: https://trends.google.co.jp/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&...

2: KR: https://trends.google.co.jp/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&...

Re: Meta Quest 3

#306

Post by umeshunni »

justapassenger wrote: post #224
umeshunni wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Originally, it was Excel/Lotus 123. Later, it was the web browser. Nowadays, it's mostly games.

Web browser and Excel are still killer apps for PC. There's way more PCs used for that, than for games.

Yeah - Excel and other 'productivity' apps are probably still the killer apps for PCs, especially for businesses. I assume businesses still drive the majority of PC purchases.

Some other factoids:

There are >1B PC gamers (source: random articles on the web). I'm guessing the number of mobile gamers is 2-3B.

There aren't that many active Excel users. Even Google sheets (free) has only a few hundred million users.

Most web browsing is now done on mobile. The transition happened sometime ~2015 for most of the world and something like 2017 for 'developer markets'.

Re: Meta Quest 3

#307

Post by MBCook »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #267
MBCook wrote: post #86

So what’s the killer app? Beatsaber and some other games can be a lot of fun, but they’re not new. What new experience are ready for this? I get the quality is better, and that’s not nothing. But other than that this largely seems like more of the same. VR still doesn’t seem to have advanced much in software to me. And Meta keeps pushing virtual meetings and such but that’s not my cup of tea. I owned a Quest 2 and ha…

> So what’s the killer app? What's the desktops killer app? What's mobile's killer app? Computing to me is a general purpose system, which grows holistically. This kind of search for certainty, trying to annoint some specific app as the thing that a form factor is all for, is actively harmful to understanding the role of compute & how it fits into augments & enriches so many diverse different things we do. Creating c…

> What’s the desktop’s killer app?

We know that. It’s happened. Wordstar, VisiCalc, Photoshop, PageMaker or Quark Xpress, AutoCAD, Netscape Navigator, AOL. They, and their descendants, moved billions of units.

> What’s the mobile’s killer app?

Chat. Maps. The internet. Uber. Dating. Use as a camera. Email. Shopping. Again, billions of units.

No one has figured out a non-niche application for VR. Normal people don’t care. It’s not even on their radar.

That’s my point. More of the same isn’t going to change that. They either need the app to make it break through or some improvement that allows that app. This is a spec bump. Nice to those already interested, unlikely to attract new people.

Apple is trying something. They’re throwing hardware at it, especially in terms of a very very high resolution screen. They think that will make the difference, even given the price.

We’ll find out. But at least they’re trying something different. Because I don’t see why this would jump into the mainstream.

Re: Meta Quest 3

#308

Post by disqard »

MBCook wrote: post #269
umeshunni wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Originally, it was Excel/Lotus 123. Later, it was the web browser. Nowadays, it's mostly games.

Right. It was Wordstar instead of a typewriter. VisiCalc instead of ledgers book. Photoshop. PageMaker or Quark Xpress. AutoCAD. Over and over as computers got more powerful new killer apps appeared that changed the way people worked and the world did its business. VR doesn’t appear to have anything like that. Just a small niche of the gaming market.

...and remember, the smartest people in the world (including some super-perceptive folks like Jaron Lanier) innovated in this space in the 1990s -- no one back then was able to come up with a "killer app" back then. The hardware has gotten smaller, and we have more pixels.

Are these changes fundamental improvements? Are they enough to unlock some brand-new killer app that nobody could even envision in 30 years ago?

I remain skeptical...

Re: Meta Quest 3

#309

Post by riskable »

whalabi wrote: post #292
riskable wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about streaming/remote control of a PC which can involve significant latency and lag spikes (unless you're tethered with a good USB cable). That is by definition not a stand-alone headset . You're just using it as a fancy VR dongle. This necessitates two things: * Your PC is powerful enough to run VR games * Your PC is in an area that's convenient to play (with plenty of room) Nearly all Quest 2 users…

I bought a cheapish wifi router to use for dedicated AirLink and I do SteamVR -> Quest 2. It works great. No latency (but I will admit the very occasional lag spike, it doesn't bother me and I don't miss a note while Beat Saber is going super fast, so it can't be that bad) Yes, you do need a gaming PC. I got a gaming laptop for like $2400 AUD 3 years ago and it's going great with VR (and Starfield on Ultra, not in VR…

"The very occasional lag spike" completely destroys the ability to play Beat Saber. It'll drive you crazy (as it did me)!

...and I too tried dedicating my Ubiquiti UniFi 6 Wireless Long-Range Access Point (U6-LR-US) just for the headset to see if that would improve things (set it up with a new hotspot name so it'd be dedicated and only told the headset about it). The Wifi AP was on the wall just about 3 feet from my head and I still got the occasional lag spikes and I confirmed that they were due to the Wifi network (not just rendering spikes on my PC).

There's just too much random interference on the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands for it to be buttery smooth. I suppose I could turn my house into a Faraday cage and that might improve things :)

Re: Meta Quest 3

#310

Post by theptip »

phowat wrote: post #65
fidotron wrote: post #52

Notable shift in emphasis to mixed reality. I wish they had HDR support called out for the passthrough though. The Quest 2 CPU was too weak, and while this one will be better the Apple chips are still way out in front there. The proportion of people in tech I know with a Quest 2 they never use is amazing. We all want VR to work but fundamentally headsets are a bad idea.

I daily drove my quest 2 using immersed VR for a few months. In the end, the resolution was just not good enough for it to be better than my 3 monitor setup. But I'm looking forward to trying again in a couple of generations.

Looking forward to testing the Vision Pro for this usecase. Resolution looks high enough to possibly be The One, and if it replaces my monitors then the price might be worth it.
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