John Carmack, Consulting CTO at Facebook’s Oculus, is encouraging Oculus Quest users to give feedback on their experience with Quest and Quest 2 headsets, particularly the software and user experience.
In a series of tweets on Monday Carmack linked to the Quest User Voice forum, encouraging Quest users to “voice your thoughts” on Quest and Quest 2. While he admitted that the User Voice platform is in need of “a bunch of updates”, he said it is the right place for people to give feedback on the headset experience.
We are striving towards monthly software releases so there will be many opportunities for software features to roll in. The lead for hardware changes is measured in years, so don't expect too much movement there.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) January 11, 2021
Carmack noted the team is “striving towards monthly software releases,” which allows for “many opportunities for software features to roll in.” While the User Voice forum is open to both hardware and software suggestions, Carmack said “the lead for hardware changes is measured in years, so don’t expect too much movement there.”
This prompted one Twitter user to question Carmack over the requirement of a Facebook login to use Oculus headsets (the removal of which is currently the second most-upvoted feature request on the Quest User Voice forums). Carmack’s response was clear, stating “FB login isn’t going away.” He then said that he feels the User Voice forum needs to be updated more regularly, with staff marking requests as either ‘will not change’, ‘being worked on’ or ‘scheduled to ship’.
One user asked Carmack whether there were performance concerns when considering if an app like Spotify or Discord could run in the background while using the headset. Carmack said that there were “performance concerns with every feature that could get mixed with an aggressive VR game” and that the team goes back and forth on whether to allow a feature if it can’t be guaranteed to work perfectly at all times. He said that allowing native Android apps to run in the background on a Quest is “fraught discussion internally.”
