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I can't help but view the (myriad) odd choices in the Quest Pro in the light of Carmack's resignation letter. It really does have the camel feeling of a horse d

I can't help but view the (myriad) odd choices in the Quest Pro in the light of Carmack's resignation letter. It really does have the camel feeling of a horse designed by committee, instead of anything filled with 'give a damn'. I hope the folks there can figure out the operational difficulties, and find a way past whatever org chart drama is the source of the dysfunction. The Quest 2 has been a delight, but enough time has passed that the limitations are starting to chafe. I would love to see a true Quest 3 made my people who actually like the things.

xwolfi 4y ago
The problem is that we dont exactly need ar/vr: we can put screens around for a fraction of the cost, and video games are nice to sit down: we can run after each other while giggling in the forest if we want some movement fun and dont exactly need anything overlayed. I can understand they try to see far to anticipate a future where they'd make a lot of money being useful, but there's such low latency and richness of perception with normal atomic real world interactions that I'm not sure we can or want to replace it with something that simply adds a paid intermediary. It s like adding a blockchain to transact cash for instance.
zmmmmm 4y ago
It's definitely a compromise device. My gut feeling is various factors delayed its delivery and they ultimately were left with the choice of, deliver it now as it is or potentially lose the whole business market due to being overrun by Apple, HTC or others in that arena. Nearly all the interesting tech in the Quest Pro will be outdated within a year - it would be impossible for them to ship it if they waited even another 6 months. So I think they said "ship it" and honestly I think they were right - as people say, ultimately "shipping is everything" [0]. Witness Apple struggling year after year to get their AR/VR product out. It's actually really hard, and if you wait for all your problems to be solved you will never ship anything. The product may be full of compromises but the process of shipping it will put Meta miles ahead of those that still haven't got anything out the door yet. [0] https://medium.com/@jas0njames/the-primacy-of-shipping-94b8e94a8626 https://medium.com/@jas0njames/the-primacy-of-shipping-94b8e...
- rsynnott 4y ago
  I mean, historically, "it isn't very good, but at least it exists" has _not_ been a particularly effective approach to consumer product launches, not if the competition is waiting a bit longer to bring out something good.

xwolfi 4y ago

The problem is that we dont exactly need ar/vr: we can put screens around for a fraction of the cost, and video games are nice to sit down: we can run after each other while giggling in the forest if we want some movement fun and dont exactly need anything overlayed. I can understand they try to see far to anticipate a future where they'd make a lot of money being useful, but there's such low latency and richness of perception with normal atomic real world interactions that I'm not sure we can or want to replace it with something that simply adds a paid intermediary. It s like adding a blockchain to transact cash for instance.

zmmmmm 4y ago

It's definitely a compromise device. My gut feeling is various factors delayed its delivery and they ultimately were left with the choice of, deliver it now as it is or potentially lose the whole business market due to being overrun by Apple, HTC or others in that arena. Nearly all the interesting tech in the Quest Pro will be outdated within a year - it would be impossible for them to ship it if they waited even another 6 months. So I think they said "ship it" and honestly I think they were right - as people say, ultimately "shipping is everything" [0]. Witness Apple struggling year after year to get their AR/VR product out. It's actually really hard, and if you wait for all your problems to be solved you will never ship anything. The product may be full of compromises but the process of shipping it will put Meta miles ahead of those that still haven't got anything out the door yet. [0] https://medium.com/@jas0njames/the-primacy-of-shipping-94b8e94a8626 https://medium.com/@jas0njames/the-primacy-of-shipping-94b8e...

rsynnott 4y ago
I mean, historically, "it isn't very good, but at least it exists" has _not_ been a particularly effective approach to consumer product launches, not if the competition is waiting a bit longer to bring out something good.