Let's Talk About The Quest 3

[Hiro_Protag0nist]

I'm a little surprised there aren't too many threads on this so to get started:

What's the 1 thing you're hoping is changed or improved over your current (main) headset in the Quest 3?

Up until a month or so ago my main headset was the Quest 2 but I was using the Quest Pro for work and have now started using it to game.  The clarity and FOV seem quite a lot better to me in the Pro.

I always used to complain about FOV - I believed that was one of the biggest things which needed improving and I still think this is true.  The Pro is better but I'd love a bit more (greedy).

[kojack]

Zuckerberg's instagram has this image:

Meta say: "This morning on his IG, Mark Zuckerberg teased some big news coming tomorrow. Make sure you tune into Mark’s Facebook and Instagram at 7:00am PT before the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase to get the news when it drops–you won’t want to miss it."

(Not sure where they say that, I copied it from a tweet)

The background of that picture is a projector or screen showing a downwards colour view of Mark's legs from whatever is in his hands. So this is either some Quest Pro related news, or the Quest 3.

[kojack]

Quest 3 announced.

Double the GPU power of a Quest 2, higher res (but they don't say how much) and $499.

But that's it, we need to wait for Connect at the end of September to find out more details.

I still want to know about the controller tracking!

[AliceinVRworld]

Super excited for the showcase now! Love the no rings on the controllers! 🤗

[Hiro_Protag0nist]

I can't wait until Autumn (Fall).  I want it now!

[CrazyGuy247]

#1 Thing for me is the weight. I am disabled and have neck pain. I also came from an Oculus Go. I just can't handle the weight of the Quest 2, I made a bungee system to hang it from my ceiling. The Go is comfortable and can be used laying down for content. Pancake lenses are supposedly lighter, so if the Quest 3 is actually heaver that's a heck no, I won't buy it. No reason why they can't get rid of the battery to save weight or have it installed optionally except for greed and planned obsolescence. Most players have the headset plunged in anyways when they play.

The screens should be oled and have better resolution than the Pico 4.

The controllers should be better quality than the Quest 2. I don't believe the excuse of "foreign contamination" causing drift. I have consoles from the 80's on up with way more abuse and hours on them and never had stick drift. The sticks on the Quest 2 are junk. I had three very well maintained controllers in a very clean environment go bad to the point cleaning did not do anything and they had to be replaced. The drifting turn into flat out dead spots and being unable to move at all. Last time I disassembled them and replaced the sensors with a set that cost $17 on Amazon in hopes the cheap repair will outlast what I can get from Oculus and hold me over until a worthy headset comes out.

That worthy headset may just be the Bigscreen Beyond or something else. Yeah it's more expensive but it gets all the key points I need. I will however wait to see the Quest 3 will be like but I suspect that it's going to be a disappointment. More powerful yes with better graphics but nothing innovating like the basic ability to remove the battery.  Even the Pico 4 at a minimum mounts the battery at the back of the strap for better balance but that won't help me much because it's the weight that matters most to me.

[kojack]

Class action lawsuits have been brought against Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo for stick drift issues in their controllers. Especially Nintendo, their Joycon drift failures are legendary. Its the same issue that every contact based variable resistor has: a moving contact rubbing on a conductive surface eventually causes wear. Non contact sensors like hall effect (magnetic) are needed.

(Touch controllers use hall effect for the triggers, but not the thumbsticks)

There's no official word on weight yet, but I saw one developer who claims to have tested the Quest 3 tweet that it is 509g, compared to 503g for the Quest 2. But as we've seen from the photos, the Quest 3 is much thinner, so it should feel a lot better due to the weight being closer to your face.

I'm very strongly hoping the theories that the Quest 3 controllers are tracked by tracking your hands, not the actual controllers, is false. The overhead tracking coverage is pretty much non existent. Look at the pic above, you can't even see any of the 7 cameras on the Quest 3 (4 tracking, 2 colour passthrough, 1 depth).

If the controllers aren't using magnetic or ultrasonic, holding your hand over your head will be untracked (besides IMU, but thats unreliable after a second or so).

They did say that the Pro's controllers will work on it, so I guess I can at least replace the Q3's ones if they do perform like a fear.

I like most aspects of it besides the possible controller tracking issues.

[DaftnDirect]

I was trying to get a close look at the controllers and headset from the reveal vid but it's a bit difficult.

The controller shape is identical to the Pro's so I assume they fit together magnetically then sit on a charging dock. I don't see a reason to use that design if they use AA batteries, but there didn't seem to be any charging contacts in the vid... I suspect it was a 3D representation, and they do have contacts. The headstrap is slightly different to the above pic too with a Y shaped top strap, maybe for a little better comfort a the back.

I heard a rumour that the headset and controllers can use the Pro charging dock but it was difficult to know from the vid, I couldn't properly see the bottom of the headset.

[Zenbane]

Yo! Quest 3 looks quite awesome. The improved processing power and graphics alone make it a worthy investment. Granted, I still feel that software titles overall (including SteamVR) are quite lacking; especially compared to the early Rift days. I mean... there are plenty of VR titles across multiple stores, but nothing overly compelling to the point that I would want to spend another $500 on a new headset. I'm perfectly happy with my Quest 2 for the time being.

I do plan to purchase Quest 3 at some point, but I will likely wait until next year once more VR titles (hopefully) hit the shelves.

From the gaming showcase, 7th Guest definitely caught my eye! That brings back some major nostalgia, and I look forward to hitting that title with my Quest 2.

Quest 2 already dominates both the Stand-Alone and PCVR markets. I have no doubt that Quest 3 will extend that lead even further. Which is great for competition! Hopefully this will get Valve to start funding more compelling VR titles for the Steam store.

Either way, Quest 3 is a great way to keep the VR momentum alive. And as we've been saying for years: Software is King. And we need quite a bit more compelling VR software sooner rather than later.

Cheers!

[DaftnDirect]

Hey Zen, good to see you!

Yeah people shouldn't be in a big rush to retire their Quest 2s, we're getting 26% CPU 19% GPU speed boosts in a future update which should mean a better chance of Q3 titles running fine on the 2. Less of a boost for the Pro, but I'm hoping a bump in refresh rate is possible in the future because of this, it's the one area I can see a positive with the Q2.

I'm not a fan of creating E-waste so the longer these things can be maintained, the better.

The lenses are a massive improvement, other than that, I keep banging on about AR titles... we need some great AR to make the Q3 a must have for Q2 owners.

[Fluke]

The 7th Guest really was a bit of a shock - I don't think anyone saw that one coming! I think that was probably one of the very first CD-ROM games I ever bought, along with Rebel Assault.

Bulletstorm was certainly a surprise announcement as well, and I'm looking forward to that. It had some nice large set pieces in it that should look great in VR. Maybe this might be the start of developers getting into VR by leveraging their back catalogues (at least I hope so).

I agree about the software compared to the early Rift days when Oculus/Meta were actually funding PC games. Imagine where we'd be if they'd just put a fraction of whatever has gone into Horizons towards continuing to fund PC VR titles instead...