![]() Homer? Facebook, who is Homer?īut Facebook's policies make that "standalone VR" magic harder to recommend this time around. These sound noticeably crisper and louder in Quest 2 than Quest 1, so I'm glad that sound remained a high priority for this low-cost headset. (Hence, I can't yet confirm whether wireless PC-VR will work at a full 90Hz refresh.)Īlso, props to the Oculus Quest 2 audio team for refining the headset's built-in speakers. Quest 2 does not ship with wireless-minded hardware built in, nor any plans from Facebook to supply their own official methods. You'll also still be able to connect Quest 2 wirelessly to your favorite PC, but that will continue to require add-on software like Virtual Desktop. Should that work as advertised, that's a great two-for-one sales pitch to get a low-priced, high-quality 90Hz VR headset hooked up to a PC. A living room, a kitchen, a freaking parking garage: you can turn any of them into a VR arcade party zone with this system, and much of my favorite VR software is not only available for Oculus Quest's standalone mode but optimized for it. Get all of those asterisks in a row, and you can look forward to the magic of strapping this system on and booting very quickly into convincing "six-degrees-of-freedom" (6DOF) games and experiences in just about any space you want. I should also be clear: What I said about Quest 1 last year still applies to Quest 2 this year, so long as your face and skull meet Facebook's new standards, and so long as you're not playing faster hand-waving fare like Beat Saber's "expert" levels, and so long as you upgrade to an "Elite" head strap, and so long as you make sure to secure the less-grippy controllers to your wrists via a Wii-like strap. (I said almost exactly the same thing last year comparing the Valve Index and HTC Vive Pro with the same test.) I have some nice thoughts, swear ![]() I went back and forth comparing playback of The Matrix on both headsets, and while that film's contrast-heavy color grading looks a tad more washed out on Quest 2, the increased clarity soundly makes up for it. Speaking of: Quest 2's transition from OLED to fast-switching, higher-res LCD leads to crisper imagery, at the cost of color accuracy. ![]() Maybe I'm fooled by a crisper fast-switching LCD panel, which benefits from richer subpixel resolution. Maybe that's because existing software, even without Quest 2-specific hooks, benefits from a massively faster SoC's extra headroom. That being said, Quest 2 already gets existing Quest software up to a higher apparent refresh rate. Not even Facebook-owned games like Beat Saber were updated during the press preview period to tap into Quest 2's extra power. So far, however, I've been unable to test the Quest 2 power difference, either in resolution or frame rate. But higher frame rates matter for longer-term experiences, whether you're marathoning with friends in various Rec Room environments or using an Oculus Link connection to test lengthy, PC-exclusive VR fare like Half-Life: Alyx. Facebook says this strap "doubles" Quest 2 battery life, but I didn't test that strap during the preview period.The biggest Quest 1 design concession was a refresh rate maximum of 72Hz, which is serviceable enough for short-term gameplay-and if you stay in VR for only 15-20 minutes at a time, the inherent flicker in 72Hz images is manageable. Instead, they offer a $129 "Elite Battery Strap" for power-conscious users, which is like the Elite Strap but with an additional add-on battery built in. A brighter, crisper, higher-res screen plays a role in that difference-but so does Oculus's decision not to ship this newer headset with a significantly bigger battery. On Quest 2, that same test, at "default" brightness, gets to 131 minutes. Ars has a standard "WebGL" battery test we run on Android devices, and Quest 1 reaches 175 minutes on that test at "default" brightness. BatteryFacebook estimates "close to two hours" of Quest 2 gameplay on a single charge, and I've found that estimate is accurate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |