Developer perspective on Oculus Quest 2

We would like to share our take on Oculus Quest 2 vs Quest changes that we are excited about!

Chipset power

Oculus claims that the new chipset in Oculus Quest 2 delivers 46% more CPU and 33% more GPU power over the predecessor even after increasing the resolution (which naturally requires more performance to run at the same framerate). Moreover, they promise a possibility of running Quest 2 at 90Hz in the future. Packed with total of 6GB ram (+2GB over Quest) it is a solid upgrade for a platform to develop on. Hardware uplift allows us to tackle bigger projects and deliver smoother, more realistic applications to our customers.

Comfortability

Using Quest for prolonged periods of time would sometimes become rather uncomfortable because of how weight is distributed on the device. It came with a simple head strap which was not good enough at keeping Quest secured on your head and face. Oculus Quest 2 comes with an option to purchase an “elite” head strap. We decided to use that option and were glad to find that it was worth it as it provided a much better experience while using the headset for more then couple of hours. We believe that this will allow developers to deliver more comfortable experience in general and most importantly enable us to provide applications that can be expected to be used for longer sessions. Comfortability problem with Oculus Quest pushed people to modify their devices: strapping a counterweight, retrofitting Vive’s deluxe audio strap to fit. Even without buying the elite strap, users should expect a more comfortable device as Quest 2 is 10% lighter. It is worth mentioning that Quest 2 has only 3 options for IPD setting, while its predecessor has a slider, this can have negative impact on comfortability for users whose IPD is beyond the range of the headset.

Price

With current iteration of their standalone headsets, Oculus decided to drop the price by 100 USD. This obviously makes it much more available and more attractive to buy than any other headset. For developers, it’s great news, because it will create a bigger VR users audience and might be a final push towards making VR mainstream, enabling VR game development studios to sell more units of their product and increasing the amount of games developed for VR. We are happy with the price/value ratio of Quest 2 as it allows our customers to reduce total costs of VR projects by paying less for the devices. We can expect more educational institutions to implement virtual reality content into their curriculum.

To conclude, these are some of the changes that we are excited about the release of Oculus Quest 2. While there are some caveats, mainly the requirement of merging your Oculus account with Facebook, we believe that Quest 2 is a positive move in VR industry,  being much more performant, more comfortable and more available than its predecessor.