Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you want from the eventual Oculus Quest 3?
During the most recent Facebook earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a passing comment about future upcoming hardware projects. You might have seen some places report on that as some kind of implicit Quest 3 announcement, but that wasn’t what happened. Not even a little bit.
We all know Facebook is working on its next VR headset already because obviously they are. The Quest 2 is out, Rift, Go, Gear VR, and Rift S are dead or dying, so naturally what’s next, aka something like Quest 3, is all they’ve got on their plate in terms of hardware. It’s not news to say that at this point.
But what we don’t know is what will it be like compared to the Quest 2 and will it be worth making the switch for current Quest owners?
Will the Quest 3 be a big leap forward and not see the light of day until late 2022 or 2023? Or will we see another iterative upgrade later this year or next year? In fact, it’s entirely possible the next VR headset from Facebook isn’t even the next entry in the Oculus Quest line at all, it could be something else entirely.
It’s worth keeping in mind that there was only one year between the Quest 1 and Quest 2 so even though the differences between them may seem significant in some technical ways, from a user experience perspective it’s more like the difference between a PS4 Pro and a PS4 than it is like a true numbered iteration improvement.
I think most people would agree field of view needs to start expanding for VR headsets at this point, especially for Quest 3. We’re reaching the realm of diminishing returns for resolution quality, at least until technical power is strong enough to really take advantage of the pixel density, or foveated rendering is advanced enough to really push the envelope in areas where your eyes are focusing. Eye tracking could potentially help a ton with all of that. But in the short term, expanding field of view would be a great way to increase immersion and cut down on distractions.
What other advancements do you want to see? Just better graphics, wider field of view, and more games? Maybe a longshot wish that Quest 3 will abandon the Facebook account requirement? Let us know down in the comments below!
