
The Oculus Quest 2 - fasicle
https://www.facebookblueprint.com/student/activity/211338
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Someone1234
Own a Quest (1), use it nearly daily, and like my Quest.

I won't even be looking at the Quest 2 because they now require a Facebook
account to use it, and I have absolutely no interesting in that (from a
privacy _or_ integrations standpoint).

I just want to game in peace. When I purchased my original Quest they were
making guarantees that Facebook integrations were going to be optional, only
to backtrack two years later.

~~~
shortandsweet
What's your hard point about it?

Seems like a dummy, fake, account would provide what you need?

What other concerns do you have?

Legitimately curious.

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dylan604
What happens when Facebook closes the dummy, fake account you've associated
with that device for not being a real person? Do all of the purchases you've
made also get blocked?

~~~
shortandsweet
I'd say you should get a refund at minimum. Or even transfer your purchases to
a new account in some fashion.

~~~
cloogshicer
That would never happen. More likely they would never reply or just give an
automated answer.

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gfodor
This generation of VR from Facebook (along with the launch of Facebook
Horizon) is their first major move towards consolidating control over the next
(perhaps final) communication medium, and burning in Facebook's assumptions to
it. For example, they believe you ought to always be represented by your legal
name, with a physical representation similar to the one you have in real life
when communicating remotely through immersive computing. This can be seen
being manifested by the slow steady changes to policies and terms. With this
generation, Facebook will require a Facebook account, and thus a full chain
back to a legal identity for you to communicate with others on their VR
platform.

Over time they've slowly ratcheted up policies and behavior that are
increasingly at odds with the desires of the early adopter enthusiast
community. However, these have been done slowly so as to not kill the
necessary participation in their ecosystem needed to bootstrap their wider VR
platform plays.

These developments are deeply troubling and those worried about a future where
human interaction is largely surveiled and behavior largely manipulated ought
to be mindful before buying into Facebook's ecosystem.

I spoke extensively about the dangers here and now that it is coming to
fruition it's even more important to understand the implications so consumers
can choose wisely.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5w8xbeCc2Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5w8xbeCc2Q)

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jimmySixDOF
They have removed the video teaser already but there is some more detail here
:

Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 leaks in full via official promo videos A full
launch of the headset is rumored for later this week

[https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/9/14/21435891/ocu...](https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/9/14/21435891/oculus-
quest-2-leaked-promotional-video-specs-features-qualcomm-xr-2-platform-6gb-
ram-4k-display)

~~~
me_me_me
So you can play wirelessly some stuff with onboard chip and storage?

Correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn't seem like you would be able to do
much with that. Since VR is such a power hog - say 2x 2K display at at least
70frames with onbard chip?

~~~
dangoor
I've had an Oculus Quest for the past ~15 months (essentially since it came
out). It doesn't have the power for high-end PC levels of detail, but being
able to just strap on the headset and start playing is delightful.

It works quite well with a variety of games, and the Quest 2 should boost the
experience.

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tantalor
Mods: this is removed, "Content Unavailable"

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pcdoodle
I miss being excited about VR tech. I used to run a CRT/Shutter glasses setup
back in the day for racing games. Now that big tech has moved in, my interest
in trying it again, has waned.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
I share your sentiment. Back in the 1970s (when I was a kid) through the
1990s, getting a new piece of hi-tech gear was just plain fun.

Modern hardware is even more awesome, but it seems like almost every product
that interests me is tarnished by manufacturers hell-bent on recurring revenue
streams, or gathering as much of my personal information as possible to
increase their profits.

I make a living as a software developer, but I'm coming to hate so much about
modern technology. It reminds me of a line from the movie Sneakers [0], where
some anonymous corporate programmer says to another, "Remember when computers
used to be fun?" (Or something like that. I saw the movie 25 years ago.)

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_(1992_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_\(1992_film\))

~~~
jnwatson
I dunno. Valve makes good VR gear, and they aren't in the business of selling
personal information.

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deathtrader666
How does Valve's VR gear rank in user experience?

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jnwatson
The advantage and disadvantage of Valve's VR is entirely that it is tethered
to a PC (at least wirelessly if you have the wireless module) and the PC
ecosystem. That means you can take advantage of your existing Steam
investment, Steam sales, and interface.

The disadvantage is that maintaining a gaming PC seems daunting for some
folks. Also, you have to figure out how to get cables from your PC to an empty
space that is wired for VR. That can be a logistics problem if your gaming PC
isn't near your living space.

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grumple
Tying this to my non-existent facebook account means I won't even think about
buying it. A headset that doesn't constantly feed my data to big tech would be
fantastic.

Quest 1 is still going strong though (until our 2 year facebook-less amnesty
runs up). Great piece of hardware. The biggest problem I see is that there's
not been much adoption in terms of creating software from major software
companies. I don't think the hardware is a limitation for the current gen. We
could do so much more with vr than what we are doing right now.

~~~
ralston3
I obviously agree and loathe the fact that Facebook is now tying the Quest to
a FB account.

However I enjoy VR too much so I think I’ll just bite the bullet and make a
burner FB, covering my tracks as well as I can.

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ashtonkem
It’s not like FB is the only one making VR headsets.

~~~
Robotbeat
None are quite like the Quest, though. It's qualitatively different.

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grumple
The main difference as far as I'm aware is that it's wireless and doesn't
require a computer. It seems there are a few others have already hit the
wireless mark. Not needing a computer is a big deal, but doesn't affect me
personally (I only use it at home; I still want wireless though).

~~~
Robotbeat
It's a pretty big difference. The issue is that you're basically going to need
on-board computing in order to compensate for the lower bitrate of
wirelessness, a problem that gets worse as the resolution increase. You need
to do warping on the headset itself (as well as sophisticated compression) or
you'll have motion sickness. So while it's possible to hack wirelessness on
some of the other headsets currently, that becomes less and less feasible as
resolution improves. Also, not requiring a computer is a bigger advantage than
you might think. I also use my Quest only at home, but I'm able to use it
anywhere in my house (wireless video direct to a headset without on-board
computing uses 60GHz WiGig, and therefore is basically line-of-sight and very
short distance only) and regardless of what the main computer is being used
for. (Also, requiring a gaming PC for operations easily doubles the cost of
the solution.) A separate wireless adapter (WiGig) on the PC also adds cost
and is bulkier than the lower bandwidth Wifi connection you can use if you
have on-board computing.

An example of how it's qualitatively different is I use it outside (at dusk).
That's not really practical with other devices, and it's a completely
different experience.

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Robotbeat
The higher resolution would be really nice for reading and therefore for non-
game applications.

If someone ever makes a retina-level (60 pixels per _degree_ ) display that's
wireless like the Quest but as cheap as a nice monitor and comfortable to
wear, then people may just use it in place of a multi-monitor setup.
Particularly as the ecosystem evolves and it becomes easier to use mouse and
keyboard in VR. (I think Quest just recently added support for tracking of a
Bluetooth keyboard so you can see it in VR while you're typing on it.)
$300-400 is roughly that price point, which is about where the current Quest
is.

But even with the upped resolution of the Quest2 (which might bring the pixel
density to 20 pixels per degree), we're still about a factor of 10 away from
the retina-like clarity that you'd want for reading and doing work in VR. (The
highest end VR headsets are about a factor of 5 away from that, in terms of
numbers of pixels.)

By the way, it's interesting that we're pushing the limits of display
bandwidths. Even with lossless compression, it's tough to shoot that many
pixels smoothly even to a wired VR headset. We might need wireless headsets
like the Quest if only to do some of the heavy-lifting, low-latency
processing.

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lostmsu
Pixels per inch do not make sense on a VR headset. The screens are tiny.

~~~
Robotbeat
oops,sorry, i meant pixels per degree (altho per inch is related to bulkiness
of the headset).

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martythemaniak
A lot of people are going to be spending a lot of time indoors this winter, I
think this will sell like hotcakes.

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jlundberg
I really like the friendly feel and the way she talked in this this leaked
Oculus Quest 2 promo video.

Well made and not at all that pushy like many commercials can be. Informative
and to-the-point.

