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The Rift is a VR head mounted display for a beefy PC. The Quest is an entire computer system powered by battery and tiny in surface area. They're different prod

The Rift is a VR head mounted display for a beefy PC. The Quest is an entire computer system powered by battery and tiny in surface area. They're different products for different markets. Anything in a mobile form factor as your VR computer will necessarily be limited for either shorter time periods or significantly less graphical fidelity.

ccktlmazeltov 6y ago
Note that the Quest is basically a rift with link
ggreer 6y ago
Oculus Link[1] lets you render everything on the PC. The cable also provides power so you don't have to worry about battery life. The only disadvantage is the extra weight of the battery in the headset. https://www.oculus.com/blog/play-rift-content-on-quest-with-oculus-link-available-now-in-beta/ https://www.oculus.com/blog/play-rift-content-on-quest-with-...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Digit-Al 6y ago
From the article: >We’re going to focus on standalone VR headsets moving forward. We’ll no longer pursue PC-only hardware, with sales of Rift S ending in 2021. That said, the Rift Platform isn’t going anywhere. In fact, we've seen significant growth in PC VR via Oculus Link, and the Rift Platform will continue to grow while offering high-end PC VR experiences. So, yeah. End of the road for the Rift. Oculus Link makes it redundant.
wlesieutre 6y ago
Rift S is being discontinued, if you want a dedicated PC headset now you'll want to look at an Index or an HP Reverb G2. But you can plug the Quest into a PC and use it as a PCVR headset. Oculus sells a 16 ft fiber optic cable for $80, but it works well over any good quality USB 3 cable (and even works over USB 2 now). The downside of this is that it's more front heavy than a PC headset without all the standalone guts, and I'm sure there's non-zero latency for running the video stream over a USB connection rather than a standard video cable. It works pretty well though, I think the trade-offs are absolutely worth the benefits of having a standalone headset.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  Also check out https://www.vrdesktop.net/ https://www.vrdesktop.net/ for PC streaming, this option works wirelessly and performs very well as long as you have a fast and stable wifi connection. The version on the Oculus Store doesn't do SteamVR streaming though, you have to buy it and then sideload an alternate version (which still checks for a license from the store). There's supposed to be some sort of easier sideloading system coming (currently you need to sign up for a developer account and enable developer mode), but no new info since that was announced a few months ago.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    You can also just use ALVR, which is free and works very well too: https://github.com/JackD83/ALVR https://github.com/JackD83/ALVR
  - brainbag 6y ago
    This is interesting, though I'm ready to move past the limitations of emulating real world single-screen setups. I want a virtual window manager where I can move and organize windows just like the desktop, but in 3D around me.
    - istorical 6y ago
      This was demo'd in the Facebook event today as something they are actively working on and making progress with. Seamlessly switch from VR (with browser or application window floating in a VR game/app) to passthrough camera into the real world (with the browser or application windows still floating in the exact same position in space.
    - rektide 6y ago
      I too want a 50k x 10x virtual desktop.
    - wlesieutre 6y ago
      https://mspoweruser.com/facebook-infinite-office-virtual-office-space-vr/ https://mspoweruser.com/facebook-infinite-office-virtual-off... Pixel density isn't as high as what you'll get on a real monitor, but having lots of them ought to help make up for it. Carmack brought this up in his talk last night, apparently with the higher pixel count in the Quest 2 the quality is now limited by the fresnel lens optics, and they won't be able to just keep bumping the pixel count up to improve visuals. So it's not clear what the path is to higher quality VR is for them. People have made headsets with more exotic multi-element glass optical setups, but there are trade-offs for cost, weight, and likelihood of things breaking if you knock it off a table.
fossuser 6y ago
At the end of the linked post they say rift is EOL. It’s clearly dead and as someone who owned one it’s been clear FB hasn’t cared about it for some time.
utopcell 6y ago
You can connect the quest 2 to a PC though. No functionality seems to be lost.
dalbasal 6y ago
True, but... Tethering just feels like an bootstrapping niche. Appealing to those who already find gaming PCs appealing, obviously dovetailing with highly engaged gamers. But, tethering is never going to "win." Tethering for power makes current battery life OK, even the quest 1 is good enough. Mass adoption, almost certainly, means an affordable all-in-one unit. We have enough history at this point (with home gaming) to know what the price range is. Oculus have been playing within that range. Graphics/power is already (Quest1) good enough for a lot of games. An interesting part of the history of home gaming is that both "more is never enough" and "good enough is good enough" seem to be true. Lots of the most popular gaming products (games, consoles.. eg minecraft) did not push boundaries at all. OTOH, bleeding edge has always been highly relevant, especially for blockbuster games. On balance, I don't think graphics is a (commercially) limiting factor for VR anymore. This makes a rift/tethered device kind of questionable. If it doesn't get mass adoption, and I don't think it can), it can't support the high end games that really need these graphics. The oculus product line strategy (whether accidentally or deliberately) seems clever. The rift is what you develop new games for. They will (hopefully) be portable to the next gen Quest. Overall, I think the current game is all about weight/comfort and content. The current devices are heavy & sweaty. This one weighs just 10% less. Every gram counts, but I don't think this is a breakthrough. Content is the other factor. IMO, exercise apps still need to breakthrough. I'm surprised ankle controllers and heart rate monitors aren't a thing yet. I really think the right game & controllers with the current gen quest could become a breakthrough workout thing. A lot of current games are pretty physical, but I suspect you can get to a point where a 6 week game addiction makes you look visibly fitter... on par with a daily gym routine.

ccktlmazeltov 6y ago

Note that the Quest is basically a rift with link

ggreer 6y ago

Oculus Link[1] lets you render everything on the PC. The cable also provides power so you don't have to worry about battery life. The only disadvantage is the extra weight of the battery in the headset. https://www.oculus.com/blog/play-rift-content-on-quest-with-oculus-link-available-now-in-beta/ https://www.oculus.com/blog/play-rift-content-on-quest-with-...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Digit-Al 6y ago

From the article: >We’re going to focus on standalone VR headsets moving forward. We’ll no longer pursue PC-only hardware, with sales of Rift S ending in 2021. That said, the Rift Platform isn’t going anywhere. In fact, we've seen significant growth in PC VR via Oculus Link, and the Rift Platform will continue to grow while offering high-end PC VR experiences. So, yeah. End of the road for the Rift. Oculus Link makes it redundant.

wlesieutre 6y ago

Rift S is being discontinued, if you want a dedicated PC headset now you'll want to look at an Index or an HP Reverb G2. But you can plug the Quest into a PC and use it as a PCVR headset. Oculus sells a 16 ft fiber optic cable for $80, but it works well over any good quality USB 3 cable (and even works over USB 2 now). The downside of this is that it's more front heavy than a PC headset without all the standalone guts, and I'm sure there's non-zero latency for running the video stream over a USB connection rather than a standard video cable. It works pretty well though, I think the trade-offs are absolutely worth the benefits of having a standalone headset.

wlesieutre 6y ago
Also check out https://www.vrdesktop.net/ https://www.vrdesktop.net/ for PC streaming, this option works wirelessly and performs very well as long as you have a fast and stable wifi connection. The version on the Oculus Store doesn't do SteamVR streaming though, you have to buy it and then sideload an alternate version (which still checks for a license from the store). There's supposed to be some sort of easier sideloading system coming (currently you need to sign up for a developer account and enable developer mode), but no new info since that was announced a few months ago.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  You can also just use ALVR, which is free and works very well too: https://github.com/JackD83/ALVR https://github.com/JackD83/ALVR
- brainbag 6y ago
  This is interesting, though I'm ready to move past the limitations of emulating real world single-screen setups. I want a virtual window manager where I can move and organize windows just like the desktop, but in 3D around me.
  - istorical 6y ago
    This was demo'd in the Facebook event today as something they are actively working on and making progress with. Seamlessly switch from VR (with browser or application window floating in a VR game/app) to passthrough camera into the real world (with the browser or application windows still floating in the exact same position in space.
  - rektide 6y ago
    I too want a 50k x 10x virtual desktop.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    https://mspoweruser.com/facebook-infinite-office-virtual-office-space-vr/ https://mspoweruser.com/facebook-infinite-office-virtual-off... Pixel density isn't as high as what you'll get on a real monitor, but having lots of them ought to help make up for it. Carmack brought this up in his talk last night, apparently with the higher pixel count in the Quest 2 the quality is now limited by the fresnel lens optics, and they won't be able to just keep bumping the pixel count up to improve visuals. So it's not clear what the path is to higher quality VR is for them. People have made headsets with more exotic multi-element glass optical setups, but there are trade-offs for cost, weight, and likelihood of things breaking if you knock it off a table.

fossuser 6y ago

At the end of the linked post they say rift is EOL. It’s clearly dead and as someone who owned one it’s been clear FB hasn’t cared about it for some time.

utopcell 6y ago

You can connect the quest 2 to a PC though. No functionality seems to be lost.

dalbasal 6y ago

True, but... Tethering just feels like an bootstrapping niche. Appealing to those who already find gaming PCs appealing, obviously dovetailing with highly engaged gamers. But, tethering is never going to "win." Tethering for power makes current battery life OK, even the quest 1 is good enough. Mass adoption, almost certainly, means an affordable all-in-one unit. We have enough history at this point (with home gaming) to know what the price range is. Oculus have been playing within that range. Graphics/power is already (Quest1) good enough for a lot of games. An interesting part of the history of home gaming is that both "more is never enough" and "good enough is good enough" seem to be true. Lots of the most popular gaming products (games, consoles.. eg minecraft) did not push boundaries at all. OTOH, bleeding edge has always been highly relevant, especially for blockbuster games. On balance, I don't think graphics is a (commercially) limiting factor for VR anymore. This makes a rift/tethered device kind of questionable. If it doesn't get mass adoption, and I don't think it can), it can't support the high end games that really need these graphics. The oculus product line strategy (whether accidentally or deliberately) seems clever. The rift is what you develop new games for. They will (hopefully) be portable to the next gen Quest. Overall, I think the current game is all about weight/comfort and content. The current devices are heavy & sweaty. This one weighs just 10% less. Every gram counts, but I don't think this is a breakthrough. Content is the other factor. IMO, exercise apps still need to breakthrough. I'm surprised ankle controllers and heart rate monitors aren't a thing yet. I really think the right game & controllers with the current gen quest could become a breakthrough workout thing. A lot of current games are pretty physical, but I suspect you can get to a point where a 6 week game addiction makes you look visibly fitter... on par with a daily gym routine.