cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Oculus Home needs some updates

DoctorDoodle
Honored Guest

Home is still in desperate need for updates.

I prefer everything about Oculus Home over Steam VR while in the headset, but out of it, Steam wins by a landslide. Home just doesn't feel like a finished product I would pay for on the PC side.

I know there has been discussion before, but I just want to bring it up again.

WARNING: WALL OF TEXT


Here is a list of features I would like updated:

SEARCH FUNCTION

With Touch released, and gallery apps available, there are a TON of experiences. Some things that can be improved with searching are

  1. The placement - It should not be hidden among notifications and settings. Move it to the left side, or give it its own bar where it says my computer does not meet the recommended specs which it most certainly does.
  2. Different search for Library tab and Store tab - Keep the search results only relevant to the tab I'm on
  3. Advanced searching - Categories, Genres, Ratings, Touch support, price, etc. I know some of this is already implemented, but hidden. ie. Searching "action" will show a bunch of action games
  4. Search result page - Don't limit it to the dropdown for results. Show a full page list.

STORE

The store is very cumbersome to use, and many problems can be fixed by fixing the search function, but holy cow, it's sad that Origin is easier to navigate than Home.

  1. List view - Grids look pretty, but list views would be nice to have too

  2. Show more info - Ratings, touch support, and intensity would be easy to display alongside the price

  3. Categories - Have categories be a sidebar near the top so finding games is easier.

  4. Wishlist - I want to save what games to buy next so I don't have to keep an awkward text file to remember

  5. Better Media Player - The current one loads terribly slow on mediocre internet. I always end up looking the game up on YouTube instead. Upgrade your player, and I will more likely spend more $$$ because I can actually see what I'm about to buy!

  6. Sort Reviews - Reviews are great (thanks for listening to us), make it so at the top of the page where it shows the stars, we can click it to immediately bring us down to reviews. Let us sort by most helpful, and click the stars to show only reviews that gave that rating

  7. Refunds - Oculus plz

LIBRARY

The library is okay as it is, but could have a couple of fixes.

  1. List view - It's efficient and has always worked. I don't care if it's not as pretty. I can't see it when in the HMD. It makes life so much more easy in the long run.

  2. Download management. Show me all the things trying to download in one place in what order. It's a headache to try prioritizing a new game to get downloaded first when five other things are trying to update. Don't start updates immediately, give me the option to do that. It's annoying.

  3. Sorting options - categories, and user made folders to organize would be lovely. Especially in HMD mode.

  4. External applications in Home - Launch non-home things from home, like Steam-VR. Using injectors is cumbersome.

  5. Time Played - I love this feature in Steam, and would love to see it here

  6. Start in Desktop Mode Button - It's a bit un-accessible as is, making me choose Steam over Home on some games. Simple convenience would change that.

SETTINGS

  1. Check for updates manually - Add a button that will manually check for a Home update so I don't panic and figure out the reason Home won't let me register my touch controllers is because my version of Home is from 6 months ago, and never updated since I never opened it while I was away.

  2. Make configure Rift an option in the initial dropdown - This is my most used reason for going into settings. Make it easier to get to.

  3. Redeem codes bar in Store - Make it so it's easier to find this by having it as part of the store tab once the store is fixed up.

  4. Allow unknown sources by default - Oculus plz.



Thoughts?
18 REPLIES 18

EliteSPA
Superstar
Why not something like Rec Room? You can interact with online players and launch the games inside the app and also easier for co-op, just my thoughts, I know Im asking too much but who knows!
i7 6700K @ 4.2 GHz | Corsair 16GB DDR4 PC2300 | GTX 1080 Ti | Asus z170-Pro | Corsair RGB Strafe Keyboard | Logitech G27 | Oculus CV1 + Touch + 4 Sensors | Win 10 64 bit | Acer Predator x34 @ 100Hz

mambo1888
Rising Star
All the talk of customising home is a pretty cool idea. It would be good if games brought out Themes based around levels or locations from the game. They could have different ways of accessing the store and library that go with the game, like using orbs from The Unspoken to open games from your library. 

Why the obsession with moving around in Oculus Home?  There are games and apps you can do that in, what difference would it make that you can teleport or move 20 feet using a stick to see a different viewpoint in Oculus Home?

As for the ideas in the first post - agreed, search and sorting needs ...sorting.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
@DoctorDoodle great post! I'd love to see all of that before the new year. Something tells me I'll have to wait longer though.

kevink808
Superstar

P3nT4gR4m said:

 Doesn't feel like home to me unless sinners are roasting on an open fire.


When I read this line my brain processed it to the tune of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." by Nat King Cole. Must be the season.
Rift-S, Quest 128GB, GO 64GB.

kevink808
Superstar
No one mentioned game trophies and memorabilia collected in-game to deck out your virtual apartment? That would be nice.  Forgot what console I had this in a long time ago.
Rift-S, Quest 128GB, GO 64GB.

Redaven
Explorer
Agreed - Oculus Home is too sterile.  Its got a home feel - you can see other rooms but you can't explore, or set a 'favourite' place to sit or viewpoint.

There needs to be a clock showing local time.
Library and Store items need to be able to show video/trailers etc.

The avatar-selection room is a start, but is not a regular place to visit.

Steam, while its more of a windowed interface, has handy features like a desktop view, web browser (although not secure), and many settings (downloads/speed/pause etc)

butchboy73
Explorer
A couple of features I'd like to see in Oculus Home are 1) some sort of real world clock, and 2) the ability to categorize my apps and games so I don't have to scroll through them each time.

cybereality
Grand Champion
There is a clock in the Universal Menu. Just press the Oculus button.
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV