Meta Rebranding Quest Software Horizon OS, Will Run On New Headsets From ASUS, Lenovo...

[Ravenger]

Meta Horizon OS Will Run On Headsets From ASUS & Lenovo

Meta is rebranding its Quest software platform to Meta Horizon OS and opening it up to third-party headset makers, including ASUS and Lenovo.

www.uploadvr.com

Meta trying to head off Google and Apple here and become the de-facto VR platform owner.

It's good news there will be more compatible headsets, more choice and more competition, like the Android phone market.

 

[Tykey]

Will be good for VR if it comes off, love em or hate em Meta are doing things for VR.

 

[bigmike20vt]

its been a long time coming but good to see it finally seems close.

i cant imagine it will be good news for those who bought into the pico online platform etc............ but it is the only way they could compete with apple or google long term imo.

 

[drakulton]

The official meta forums must be buzzing with this news...... but they aren't as no-one can currently log into them. Now where's my tin foil hat?

 

[wickfut]

Can someone explain this to me about what there is to be excited about?
What I gather from it is that Meta is allowing someone to make their own Quest type headsets and download the software from the Meta store?
Why would anyone with a high-end headset want to play Meta mobile store games?

 

[melmac]

Can someone explain this to me about what there is to be excited about?
What I gather from it is that Meta is allowing someone to make their own Quest type headsets and download the software from the Meta store?
Why would anyone with a high-end headset want to play Meta mobile store games?

Because Companies can build whatever type of headset they want and use Meta's OS to run it. It doesn't have to be a Quest type headset. It can be a headset that just connects to your computer. Or you could build a pure media based headset.

Why wouldn't high end headset owners want the option to play Meta Exclusive games like Asgard's Wrath 2 and Assassins Creed Nexus?

 

[wickfut]

Because Companies can build whatever type of headset they want and use Meta's OS to run it. It doesn't have to be a Quest type headset. It can be a headset that just connects to your computer. Or you could build a pure media based headset.

Do you think Meta will allow branches of games to appear which won't run on their own headsets due to resolution or power limitations? Unless Meta has some ultra high spec headset about to be released it isn't going to happen. It's basically WMR2.

Why wouldn't high end headset owners want the option to play Meta Exclusive games like Asgard's Wrath 2 and Assassins Creed Nexus?

Why would they? They don't do anything amazing by PCVR standards. I have a Quest 3. I wouldn't waste my money on stand-alone games while I have Steam available to me.

This is all IMO. I have no idea what Meta Horizons OS entails, I just want to see what people are excited for as I don't get it?

 

[melmac]

Do you think Meta will allow branches of games to appear which won't run on their own headsets due to resolution or power limitations? Unless Meta has some ultra high spec headset about to be released it isn't going to happen. It's basically WMR2.

That has nothing to do with what I said. Manufacturers can build their own style of headset. Headsets with OLEDs and wider FOV for media consumption. Headsets with no internal storage that only connect to a PC etc.

Besides, why do you think Meta will have a problem if games run better on a more powerful standalone headset? As long as the game is sold on the Meta Store.

Why would they? They don't do anything amazing by PCVR standards. I have a Quest 3. I wouldn't waste my money on stand-alone games while I have Steam available to me.

That's your opinion. There are loads of people who play both PCVR and Standalone games on this forum alone. With Assassins Creed and Asgard's Wrath 2, we have only barely taped into the potential of the Quest 3. Think how good games will be on the next generation of mobile hardware.

This is all IMO. I have no idea what Meta Horizons OS entails, I just want to see what people are excited for as I don't get it?

Is this exciting? Could depend on how you feel about Meta. People might be excited because it means more VR headsets out there. It means that companies who would have never got into VR because of the trouble of developing the software are now considering making headsets. Think of mobile phones and Android. Google are the main developer of Android and they make mobile phones but other companies use Android and make more powerful phones than Google.

 

[wickfut]

That has nothing to do with what I said. Manufacturers can build their own style of headset. Headsets with OLEDs and wider FOV for media consumption. Headsets with no internal storage that only connect to a PC etc.

Yeah a Quest 3 with OLED and DP connection would be nice, but with the PSVR2 PC drivers releasing soon it may be a little too late.

Besides, why do you think Meta will have a problem if games run better on a more powerful standalone headset? As long as the game is sold on the Meta Store.

Actually, I do. They didn't support the Quest Pro and so far haven't really give much support for the Quest 3 because it strays too far from running on Quest 2.
I just can't see a subsection existing on the Meta store for games which won't run on Meta hardware.
If they bring a DP port headset revision out then they could have a PCVR section I guess, but then they're going against Steam, which didn't turn out too well for them in the past.

Well we'll see. I don't really use my Quest 3 much, I should probably sell it tbh. I have other headsets. I don't think it's a bad headset as such, but I'm not really lured into the wireless thing and the quality is much higher on my other headsets when PC gaming. I'd jump at a 3k x 3k resolution per eye Quest headset with DP though.

 

[melmac]

Actually, I do. They didn't support the Quest Pro and so far haven't really give much support for the Quest 3 because it strays too far from running on Quest 2.
I just can't see a subsection existing on the Meta store for games which won't run on Meta hardware.

That doesn't matter, you plainly don't understand what Meta are trying to do. The important thing for Meta with this, is that companies releasing headsets are running on Meta's OS and buying the games from the Meta store. That's where the money is, not the hardware.

If they bring a DP port headset revision out then they could have a PCVR section I guess, but then they're going against Steam, which didn't turn out too well for them in the past.

Meta aren't going to release a DP port headset. At least not in the foreseeable future. Meta didn't leave PCVR because of failing against Steam? What gave you that idea?

 

[wickfut]

That doesn't matter, you plainly don't understand what Meta are trying to do. The important thing for Meta with this, is that companies releasing headsets are running on Meta's OS and buying the games from the Meta store. That's where the money is, not the hardware.

Yes I don't understand. That's what I wrote when I joined the thread. So what are Meta trying to do? It looks like they're going to have a bunch of cloned headsets with very similar specs all running the same software and doing the same thing, similar to what happened with WMR. Meta are in control of the OS so will be in control to what functions the headsets will use. You want eye tracking, only if Meta allows it, want HDR, only if Meta allows it etc. Your game uses eye tracking and HDR which and is only available to run on a single specific headset, "Sorry, your game can't be sold on our store as it won't function with our Quest line of headsets" etc etc

Meta aren't going to release a DP port headset. At least not in the foreseeable future.

Meta might not, but they've just opened up their OS to other manufacturers haven't they? What's stopping HP from releasing a G3 Reverb with a battery and DP? Pico 3 Neo getting a Horizon OS update ?

Meta didn't leave PCVR because of failing against Steam? What gave you that idea?

The fact that they failed against Steam and left PCVR.

 

[Unseul]

They're trying to sell software, which is how they make profit.

They didn't fail against Steam in PCVR. PCVR in general failed. There's a reason that 2/3rds of PCVR headsets in Steam are now Meta (which is a long way from failing in the PCVR landscape at this point!), and it's still a tiny proportion of the total headsets out there and standalone dominates the landscape.

 

[wickfut]

They're trying to sell software, which is how they make profit.

Yeah I get that. So why is everyone happy clapping? The benefit for the consumer is that you can buy the same headset with a different name badge on in a different colour, which may or may not have slightly different specs?

 

[bigmike20vt]

Yeah I get that. So why is everyone happy clapping? The benefit for the consumer is that you can buy the same headset with a different name badge on in a different colour, which may or may not have slightly different specs?

not at all you have it the wrong way around. I am happy personally because Meta have and always have had the best ecosystem (for VR) and for the moment at least have the best controller tracking, as well as hand tracking second only to apple . This is true both for PCVR and standalone..... however they havent had the best PCVR hardware, other headsets are technically better (although my quest pro is decent).

By meta opening up their OS hopefully it will mean a better choice of hardware so as a buyer i can have both the best VR platform AND a really high end VR headset to go with it.......

As a feature suite I am sure there is more they can add, but they already support hand tracking, eye tracking, they have the best compensation for when frame rate drops (Asynchronous space warp), you can pin 2D apps in your VR space (Oculus did this before anyone else) they have a far more adaptable VR space mapping (I cant believe after all this time the steam guardian system or what ever it is called has never evolved).

Meta are also the only company really still investing a ton of cash into software development....... yes it is standalone (which sucks) but its better than valve - yes half life alyx maybe the best VR game on the market but that just makes it even more frustrating.......... valve can make great vr games they just dont................ So if you want the meta exclusives you need a device that can access the meta store.

nothing is guaranteed but the meta store has a better chance of still being here in 5 years time than the pico store or the viveport or what ever pimax may do with their standalone so the meta store is a better place to buy your games.

Despite the above i am no meta fanboy but their software is just a cut above. Apple will probably get something great too and already edge it in some areas, but i have no interest in an apple device, not when games are my main motivation for VR, all the rest is icing.

 

[melmac]

Yes I don't understand. That's what I wrote when I joined the thread. So what are Meta trying to do?

I told you what they are trying to do. They are trying to achieve what Google has done with Android.

Meta are in control of the OS so will be in control to what functions the headsets will use. You want eye tracking, only if Meta allows it, want HDR, only if Meta allows it etc. Your game uses eye tracking and HDR which and is only available to run on a single specific headset, "Sorry, your game can't be sold on our store as it won't function with our Quest line of headsets" etc etc

Why would they? For example, the Quest 3 doesn't have Eye Tracking or Facial tracking. But these are just some of things they are saying that Developers and Third Party hardware makers can take advantage of. And You have to get it out of your head about the hardware. It's like consoles, the number of consoles sold only matters because the more consoles sold means more software sales. The more headset makers use the Meta OS, the more software sales on the Meta Store.

You keep banging on about this supposed game that won't work on the Quest line of headsets and Meta won't allow this. That's nonsense. Meta won't care as long as the game is been sold in the Meta Store.

Meta might not, but they've just opened up their OS to other manufacturers haven't they? What's stopping HP from releasing a G3 Reverb with a battery and DP? Pico 3 Neo getting a Horizon OS update ?

You asked about Meta releasing a headset with DP. That's the question I replied to. Meta won't. Other headset manufacturers might. I don't know. As for Pico 3 getting a Horizon update? They are direct competitors. It would be like asking if the Apple Iphone is getting an Android update.

The fact that they failed against Steam and left PCVR.

LOL. You don't genuinely believe that do you? When they released the first Quest headset, in three months it outsold every PCVR headset combined. That's when they made decision to push standalone. Then along came the Quest 2 and blew those sales figures out of the water. You know there is only something like 3 million PCVR users on Steam and at least 50% of those are using Quest headsets.

Yeah I get that. So why is everyone happy clapping? The benefit for the consumer is that you can buy the same headset with a different name badge on in a different colour, which may or may not have slightly different specs?

Because it's big news for VR. Meta have done what nobody expected them to do. And that's open their OS to third party hardware makers. I told you why people are excited about this, It means more headsets been released. More headsets means more games/apps been sold. Which means more money for developers to work on making better games and apps. Making better games/apps means more people wanting to use VR headsets which means more sales. And the more money that comes into VR the faster headsets develop.

It also means more choice.

 

[bigmike20vt]

i used to worry about oculus dropping DP and going usb, however the ability to hide compression artefacts in my quest pro is noticeably better than my quest 2. apparently the quest 3 is better again so hopefully its just not going to be an issue going forward.
also surely we cant be far of usb4 now? once that takes off then bandwidth just wont be a problem and USB will be perfectly fine.

 

[drakulton]

From the meta forums

Re: Log in with Oculus seems to be failing most of the time when trying to get into the Forum

I'm still suffering many failed login attempts and have just got in after about 20. I had been seeing this as quite amusing, especially given Meta's main aim of providing an efficient way for lots of people to talk to one another, but this is getting to the point of not being funny any more...

communityforums.atmeta.com

 

[Tykey]

Another part of these Meta changes is that the arduous and somewhat cryptic, long, process of getting games listed on the Meta store is going to be scrapped, and the App Lab is being scrapped. Developers will be able to get their games on the official Meta store as long as performance and data usage guidelines are met (which is basically what App Lab is now), it won't be based on the opinions of a reviewer, it'll be hard facts only.

This will massively increase the number of games on the official store and help small indy games get noticed as the App Lab couldn't be searched like the Meta Store. Yes it will lead to a lot of shovelware being listed but with user reviews and popularity the good stuff will rise to the top. I think these changes are great tbh.

 

[bigmike20vt]

not a fan of that myself to be honest. I can see where you are coming from but the android store is full of utter guff. I would rather have a smaller curated store where apps from applab could later be promoted too somehow and then work on making applab more user friendly as a 2nd store

 

[swillsy]

not a fan of that myself to be honest. I can see where you are coming from but the android store is full of utter guff. I would rather have a smaller curated store where apps from applab could later be promoted too somehow and then work on making applab more user friendly as a 2nd store

It all depends on how you can filter through the guff tbh - the current navigation of apps in the store just wouldn't work for getting through 10X more games but if they add more filters etc it could work. Opening up the monetisation of the platform for devs and getting more indie devs involved is always going to be positive for VR in general though