If you are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on high-end VR hardware, and a powerful PC to boot, you should know that highly-immersive VR experiences have been available for 4 years now. However, if you had been tight on budget or space, that VR dream would have been out of reach just as it is for most of us.
Thankfully, the Oculus Quest is finally here, offering superb VR experience at a reasonable price without the need for a powerful gaming PC. Unlike the previous models of the Rift, the Quest doesn’t require any wires or expensive tracking cameras and sensors. The Oculus Quest is truly a game-changer.
In this article, we’re going to give you a short rundown of Oculus’ history, an in-depth review of the Oculus Quest, see how it differs from the Oculus Go, and give you a list of the best VR games you can play with the Quest.
So, let’s start with history!
The Rise of Oculus VR
The history of Oculus VR is short when compared to the whole history of virtual technology. The first VR machine was designed by Morton Heilig. He called his invention Sensorama. It was a large booth that could fit up to four people at the same time. Morton combined several technologies to stimulate all of the senses. Sensorama featured full-color 3D video, audio, smell, and wind.
The VR technology was primarily developed by the military since they saw great potential in it, especially for displaying crucial data to fighter jet pilots. Thanks to VR advancements, fighter pilot helmets received an upgrade in the form of a heads up display that relayed crucial data.
The VR didn’t receive much mainstream attention, that was until Palmer Luckey launched his Kickstarter campaign for Oculus Rift. Luckey is quite an interesting guy. He is a self-taught engineer, hacker, and an electronics enthusiast. When he was 16, his interest in virtual reality grew to a sort of obsession. He initially wanted to buy VR head-mounted display to enhance his gaming experience, but after purchasing a couple of VR prototypes, he soon realized they weren’t very user-friendly.
Luckey made his living by buying broken phones, fixing them, and then reselling them. With the money he made with his business, he bought all VR HMDs he could get his hands on. After a while, he managed to have the largest private VR HMD collection in the world. As you might have guessed, he wasn’t buying them for their novelty or weirdness. He was carefully studying them in hopes of understanding what they did wrong and what right. By the time he was finished, he developed plans to launch his own VR HMD to the, then, dying VR market.
Kickstarter Campaign
Luckey started the Kickstarter campaign for Oculus rift with hopes of making only around 100 VR HMDs. All he wanted to do was get the funding for the necessary components that were required to build 100 HMDs, so he could later sell them to VR enthusiasts. He named the fledgling HMD “Oculus Rift” because, as he stated: ‘The HMD creates a rift between the real world and the virtual world”.
What was in store for him, Luckey couldn’t have even dreamed in his wildest dreams. Because he was active on multiple VR forums, he ran into none other than John Carmack, a legendary game developer, and the co-founder of Id Software. They were both interested in VR, picked up quickly on the topic, discussing the difficulties of modding HMDs. Shortly after, Carmack saw the Oculus Rift prototype and asked Luckey if he could buy one. Without thinking twice, instead of selling, Luckey gave him one.
This would prove to be the right decision. John Carmack was so impressed with the prototype that he decided to announce the Oculus Rift to the world at E3 demoing Doom 3 BFG with the VR HMD. Thanks to this, the Kickstarter campaign skyrocketed. The Kickstarter’s popularity rose from a couple of dozen people to thousands, overnight. When Luckey saw this, he decided to drop out of college and pursue the road to user-friendly virtual reality.
The Founding Of Oculus LLC
Thanks to the hype stirred by Carmac’s E3 presentation, the Rift sparked some interested from tech industry veterans Brendan Irbie and Mike Antonov. After just a couple of meetups with Palmer Luckey, Brendan became the CEO and Antonov the chief software architect of the Oculus LLC. This helped the company immeasurably because it allowed them to produce a lot more than initially planned 100 VR HDMs.
As funds started to flow to the company, Luckey realized that the Oculus Rift is becoming something bigger than he could have ever imagined. By the end of the Kickstarter campaign, the company managed to raise $2,437,429.
Thanks to the tremendous success of the Kickstarter, the company was able to expand rapidly. They were able to make more HMDs than ever before, and they were praised by almost everyone in the tech industry. However, the hard part wasn’t designing hardware for it, the true challenge was making the Rift developer-friendly. Thanks to the Kickstarter success, the guys at Oculus were able to hire some talented software engineers, to tackle this challenge.
Dev Kits and Facebook Acquisition
In the latter half of 2012, the Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 was launched. This dev kit was superior in every way to the one revealed at E3, but it was still miles away from anything available today. Its specs were very weak, the screens featured low resolution and the design wasn’t what you would call pleasing. It still received universal praise from both the developers and from the public. The popularity of this product was further boosted thanks to PewDiePie, the biggest Youtuber in the world. The hype train was running at full speed with more and more people pre-ordering the Oculus Rift.
Despite the fact that when used for too long, your head and stomach would start sending you signals that something’s not right, the devs were still developing games for it. In the meantime, the company was working on developing the dev kit 2 which would feature hugely improved specs, design, and personal tracking.
In January 2014 at CES, Oculus showcased the dev kit 2 named Crystal Cove. It featured an improved screen, motion tracking, and a slightly improved reduction in motion sickness.
This reveal turned heads of some of the most powerful people towards Oculus Rift. One of those was none other than Facebook. So, late in March of 2014, Mark Zuckerberg bought Oculus VR for the low price of 2 billion dollars. This move generated quite a bit of controversy because the Kickstarter backers felt betrayed and saw it as selling out. The Oculus team responded to this by stating that Oculus and Facebook share the same vision and goals and that they’ll be able to achieve even more now that they have one of the biggest companies in the world behind them.
Right after the Facebook acquisition drama settled, the team officially launched the Crescent Bay on July 2014. It was identical to the version showcased in January, with a couple of minor improvements. The Oculus Team announced at the same time that the Crescent Bay is to be the last dev kit and that the next will be the Oculus Rift.
Fast forward to early 2016, and the Rift was released. It came with two motion controllers, tracking cameras and the HMD itself. The price was double the price it was originally supposed to sell for, and people were not happy about this but they couldn’t deny the quality of the product. Thankfully, the price was reduced to $399 in 2017 which boosted the sale immeasurably. The Rift surpassed HTC Vive in terms of sales and continues to rise in popularity to this day.
On March 28th of this year, Oculus launched the Rift S. This HMD features inside out tracking, a better screen, and overall better design. It is meant to replace the original Rift as it was discontinued. The Rift S has the same price as the original Rift, which is excellent because people still remember the controversy from 2016.
This all brings us to the present, the Oculus Quest was launched a month ago, and we’re here to see how it fares compared to the previous models and is it worth a buy. So, let’s jump into the review!
Oculus Quest: Overview
After a couple of months of teasing, the Oculus Quest was finally released on May 21st. The biggest advantage this VR HMD offers is that it doesn’t rely on a PC but still features full tracking capabilities. The guys at Oculus hope that they’ll be able to bring an immersive VR experience to a much wider audience.
Oculus Quest is the first standalone HMD that offers six degrees of freedom tracking on both the head and hands. This feature was exclusive to high-end VR headsets that had to be connected to a PC or a game console. Thanks to this tracking feature, the Oculus Quest has the potential to bring significantly more immersive and interactive content than other standalone VR headsets currently on the market.
Because it’s a standalone, the Oculus Quest comes with the advantage of offering you a low friction experience. When you put it on, you’ll see a pass-through view of the space you are in which makes it easy to pick up the motion controllers it comes with. Once you’ve picked up the controllers, setting up the Guardian is as easy as pointing the controller at the ground and tracing an outline around the space you will be using it. The Guardian is the boundary around your playspace, preventing you from bumping into stuff around you.
When it comes to the software, Quest’s UI isn’t all that pretty but it’s functional. The navigation feels snappy and responsive, which will save you a lot of headaches. From the main menu, you can access the game store, access your game library, adjust the settings, and access the web browser. If you’ve had a chance to play around with the Oculus Go, you won’t have trouble navigating the menu with the Quest.
When it comes to the design of the headset, it’s quite similar to the Oculus Rift, but with a bit higher resolution of 1440×1600 pixels. Thanks to the higher resolution there is less screen door (space between pixels) and sub-pixels are almost invisible. The lenses also received an upgrade which reduced the reflections in high contrast scenes. Unfortunately, nothing can replace the computing power of a gaming PC. The CPU in Oculus simply can’t push the same quality graphics as a tethered VR HMD like the Oculus Rift. The Quest is miles better than Oculus Go, but the graphics aren’t going to be particularly pretty, except for mobile graphics.
With that said, the graphics are more than serviceable when it comes to most game titles. For example, Beat Saber runs and plays smoothly, just like it would on a PC. Unfortunately, you can expect quite a bit of hits and misses as the ports start launching for Quest. Robo Recall, which is praised for incredible graphics has had its graphics butchered for the sake of it being able to run on the Oculus Quest. We recommend you stay away from ports for the time being, as the system is still in its early days and developers have lots to learn. You are far safer opting in for one of the Quest exclusive titles because they were designed with Quest’s hardware limits in the first place.
When it comes to the inside-out tracking, the Oculus Quest left us dumbfounded at how good it was. The Quest definitely takes the lead in front of its competition in this field. The hand tracking is especially good, with very little latency, and extremely good precision.
Unfortunately, there are still a few things that need improvement. These are all minor issues, but we are still going to address them. The first issue is that the hand tracking can sometimes bug out thanks to environmental factors. If your room is too bright or too dark, you are going to have a hard time using this device. We believe this issue will be resolved with one of the future updates.
The second issue with tracking are the blind spots. Even though in general they don’t cause many troubles unless a game features a specific mechanic which frequently puts controllers in one of these blind spots for extended periods. The blind spots are located right in front of your face and in the very edges of your view. We hope game developers keep in mind these blind spots when working on game mechanics. For now, we recommend you check out the reviews before opting in for a specific game title.
The Oculus Quest comes with all the features you’d expect from a high-end tethered VR headset, but at an affordable price with the advantage of mobility.
The launch of this VR headset has been followed by a lineup of around 50 games, including the absolute king of VR games – Beat Saber. There’s also a handful of other strong titles, but the vast majority are ports with reduced graphics. The guys at Oculus will have to push hard to keep Quest’s library growing with quality game titles if they want to capitalize on its potential as an accessible VR headset. What will happen in the future, we are yet to see, but we are pretty sure Oculus is going to commit to their new platform.
Oculus Quest: In-Depth Review
Now that you’ve got a quick rundown of what makes Oculus Quest so special, it’s time to take a more detailed look at it. In this section of the article, we’re going to give you an honest look at all the aspects of this VR headset. So let’s start with hardware specs!
Hardware
Quest is basically a headset with an inbuilt smartphone CPU. The CPU in question is a Snapdragon 835 and it features active cooling. The headset also has its own memory storage. The Quest comes in two versions, a 64GB version, and a 128GB version.
The first thing you’ll notice when looking at the front of the headset are the tracking cameras. There are four clearly visible tracking cameras which in combination with computer vision track the movement of your head and arms. The same cameras also track the controllers which have invisible IR LEDs.
When it comes to the display, the Quest features a pair of OLED displays that run on a resolution of 1400 x 1600 pixels. This is an improvement from the Oculus Rift that utilizes two OLED displays that run on a resolution of 1080 x 1200 pixels. The Quest utilizes single Fresnel lenses that are almost identical to those found in Oculus Go. This means that this VR headset has almost the same field of view as the Oculus Rift, which is around 100 degrees. The FOV is highly speculative because there are no official documents that stat what’s the actual FOV on the Oculus Quest.
If you’ve ever used a VR headset before, you’ll be glad to know that Quests visuals are pretty decent. However, there are a few issues that all VR headsets that run Fresnel lenses in combination with OLED displays suffer from. Those are lens reflections, known as god rays, and black smearing. However, these are present only in high contrast scenes.
The field of view is wide enough that the virtual world feels immersive and convincing. It works well enough to make you forget which way you’re facing in the real world. We didn’t notice any image distortion at the edges of the lenses which can’t be said for some models from the competition.
The Oculus Quest offers a noticeable improvement in clarity over the RIft on a pixel density standpoint. However, the hardware differences between the two means that visual clarity won’t be noticeable except in a few cases where Quest is able to match the Rift pixel for pixel.
With that said, higher resolution does mean that the image is much sharper. Unfortunately, this is somewhat tempered because most games will run lower resolution than the display because of hardware limitations.
The buffed pixel density also means there is less screen door effect, and it also makes sub-pixels almost invisible, making for more cohesive colors.
The biggest improvement from Rift to Quest is the near elimination of the mura effect. This effect is caused by inconsistencies in color and brightness from one pixel to the next. You can notice it in dark scenes where dark pixels bleed into the bright ones, especially during head movement. Although mura is present on Quest, it’s not even close to the Rift.
The Oculus Quest features a hardware interpupillary distance (IPD) which means that you can adjust the distance between the lenses to make sure your eyes are perfectly aligned with the centers of the lenses. The IPD goes from 58 millimeters to 72 millimeters, which means that you will have the best experience if your IPD is between 58 and 72 millimeters. You can adjust the IPD during the initial setup by centering the green cross on the screen. Unfortunately, the green cross does a terrible job of making it clear which IPD setting is best. Because of this, we recommend that you play around with this setting until you find one that works best for you.
Tracking
The Oculus Quest features the best tracking you can find in a standalone VR headset. Not only that, it’s the only VR headset that offers full-tracked motion controllers. Other standalone headsets such as Lenovo Mirage Solo come with a single controller that can only track rotation, which significantly limits your freedom in the virtual world.
During our test, we were dumbfounded at the performance and robustness of the head and hand tracking. Without a doubt, the Quest currently has an edge over the competition in this area. Head tracking is extremely responsive with almost no lag. The controller tracking is as equally impressive as the head tracking, even when playing demanding titles like Beat Saber.
However, the tracking is not without a fault. We were honestly surprised at how good the tracking is, especially in our office which is quite bright. Bright light can cause issues with tracking because it can confuse the computer vision that is responsible for the actual tracking. During the thirty-ish hours we spent using this VR headset, we had a couple of situations where the screen would go black with a message showing the headset has lost tracking. This happened when we moved the headset in front of an extremely bright light source (like a big window), and when we used it in almost complete darkness. Even then, the headset lost tracking for only a couple of seconds, but it still happened.
The second issue with tracking is the blind spots caused by the placement of the cameras. Although the controller tracking is almost perfect most of the time, there are times when the headset loses tracking. This wasn’t so much of an issue of the headset, but an issue of game mechanics. For instance, when playing Creed: Rise to Glory you have to hold the controllers right in front of your face so you can block hits from your opponent. This would occasionally cause the headset to lose track of the controllers for a few seconds. We hope that developers will keep the limitations of hand/head tracking in mind when designing game mechanics.
We wish Oculus would release a short guide with a couple of tips for new users about what kinds of environments are best for using the Oculus Quest.
Design
The Oculus Quest looks almost the same as the original Oculus Rift. There is no point in changing something that already works well. The original Oculus Rift was a well-built VR headset that still holds up even three years after it was initially launched. The Quest feels just as well-built as the Oculus Rift, and its fabric accents help it feel more human than a plastic box that you put over your head. However, it’s still a bit bulky, but that can be said for most VR headsets on the market. The Quest is heavier than the Oculus Rift, weighing in at 571 grams, which is 100 grams heavier than the Oculus Rift.
Despite its sizeable weight, we’ve found that the Quest is just as comfortable as the Rift. The Quest features a larger and more flexible triangle opening in the rear straps which results in more equal weight distribution. The Quest also has a thicker foam padding on the inside which greatly helps in reducing the pressure on your nose and face.
Although Quest and Rift feature a similar design, the Quest doesn’t come with on-ear headphones. Instead, it features small sound holes in the headband. This means there is notable sound leakage that can be immersion breaking for some people. However, this does mean that there is one less thing you have to fiddle with when you put on the headset.
The audio quality is more than serviceable, though anything with deep bass has a chance of bottoming out. Thankfully, the Quest features 3.5-millimeter audio jacks on both sides for your own earbuds.
The Oculus has announced that they are working on official earbud accessories, but for now, you can use either of the audio jacks with any normal pair of stereo headphones.
The controllers are a bit different than those that come with Oculus Rift. For one, the tracking ring goes over the top to make it easier for the cameras to track it, and the shape has been adjusted a bit too. Quest’s controllers are slightly less comfortable than the original Rift Touch controllers, but at the end of the day, they are very good controllers that feel good in the hand and offer good feedback.
Setup Companion App And The Passthrough Feature
Setting up Oculus Quest is very quick and easy. You can download the Oculus App (available on both iOS and Android) and follow the steps on the screen. The setup involves pairing the controllers and updating the headset’s firmware (if an update is available). You can also use the companion app to browse the store, purchase and install games, and browse your game library.
When you first put on the Oculus Quest, you’ll see a pass-through video of your room and you’ll be prompted to set up the Guardian. The Guardian is the boundary around your playspace which helps keep you away from running into objects and walls. To set up the Guardian all you have to do is point the controller to the ground and trace a line around your playspace. The setup is dead simple and very quick, which can’t be said for the original Oculus Rift.
From this point forward, your Guardian boundary will be saved, and if you walk outside it, the headset will switch to pass-through video. You can easily change the Guardian boundary at any time through the settings menu.
Thanks to the pass-through video you won’t have any troubles with finding the controllers after you’ve put on the headset. This eliminates the need for fiddling around with the controllers or have them dangling from your wrists. Unfortunately, the headset displays the pass-through video only when you turn it on outside of the playspace. It would be awesome if it displayed the pass-through video every time you turn it on, and then switch to normal view once you’re all set up.
Unfortunately, there is no dedicated pass-through button or a quick-toggle function. You will have to press the Oculus button and then hit another button in the menu to switch to the passthrough video mode, which really takes a lot out of the utility of this feature.
Standby Mode and Battery Life
When you take the Oculus Quest off your head it will automatically go to standby mode after 15 seconds. You can adjust this time to be shorter or longer, depending on your own preferences. It wakes up quite quickly, in two seconds or so. This is not the case with other VR headsets that require you to launch an app on your computer, recalibrate the sensors, and then put on the headset.
The coolest thing about the standby mode is that the Quest saves your current game state which means you can jump back into action in just a couple of seconds, even if you haven’t touched it for hours. This perfectly synergizes with the content that offers short and fun sessions. This reduction in ‘friction’ is what will likely stand out the be the Quest’s most important feature.
When it comes to battery life, the Oculus Quest advertises 2 hours of playing before you have to recharge it. This is more than battery life to last you a couple of sessions. The battery can hold up around 24 hours in standby mode, and you can also purchase an external battery that will increase your playtime for up to 5 hours.
The Oculus Quest is definitely the best standalone VR headset on the market and is well worth its $399 price. If you don’t want to hassle with additional tracking equipment and cables lying around everywhere, you should definitely opt-in for this product. We especially recommend Oculus Quest for new users because it requires minimal setup and has quite a few good titles in the Store.
6 Best Games For Oculus Quest
Now that you know everything there is to know about Oculus Quest, you can take a look at our selection of best games you can play with it.
Whether you’re looking for a completely original experience, want to revisit an old title, or even experience how the headset puts a fresh spin on familiar favorites, these are the games you should try out as soon as you get a hold of the Oculus Quest.
1. Beat Saber
Beat Saber is the absolute king of VR titles. This game is hailed as both an addictive rhythm game and a calorie-burning workout. This game features a perfect combination of bumping beats and full-body exertion that will leave you sweaty and thoroughly entertained.
Oculus Quest further bumps the immersion in this game because there are no wires coming out from the headset to the PC. Whether you’re slicing and dicing the approaching cubes with Quest’s Touch controllers or ducking and dodging obstacles, the experience feels more natural than on the Oculus Rift since there are no cables you can trip over.
2. Superhot VR
Superhot has a proven track-record in translating well to almost all VR platforms, and it’s no different with the Oculus Quest. Superhot takes a fresh approach at the FPS formula. The main mechanic of the game is time, it flows only when you move, allowing for some truly awesome moments. This already fun formula is further boosted by the freedom the Oculus Quest gives you in terms of movement.
Because you don’t have to worry about tripping over wires, evading bullets and emptying mags in slow motion feel more cinematic than on any other platform. If you want to feel like Neo, we recommend you pick up Superhot VR as soon as possible!
3. Sport Scramble
Even though it looks like the Quest-equivalent of Wii Sports, Sports Scramble is actually a lot of fun. It’s one of the best games for passing the Quest around and taking turns with it.
You can pick between tennis, baseball, and bowling, all with interesting twists that make the gameplay challenging and satisfying. This is also one of the few games for Quest that supports local multiplayer, so if you got a friend that also owns a Quest, you can play against each other.
The game is worth every buck, especially if you have a friend that also owns a Quest.
4. Creed: Rise To Glory
If you want to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, look no further than Creed: Rise To Glory. The game features solid boxing mechanics, and also comes with a good story that will also give you one hell of a workout.
Creed is one of those rare licensed games that does the source material justice. You play as Adonis Creed and you’ll take on a wide variety of colorful opponents. You will even train alongside the legendary Italian Stallion himself. The boxing mechanics are even further boosted thanks to the wireless nature of the Quest, just be sure not to put your hands to close to your face because the headset will lose track of the controllers.
5. Journey Of The Gods
Journey Of The Gods is a fantasy adventure game in the spirit of Legend of Zelda. This game offers an interesting mix of combat, exploration and environmental puzzles. The Legend of Zelda influence becomes even more apparent when you see the games presentation, sprawling world filled with monsters, and other menaces looking to halt your progress.
You will have a wide variety of weapons and special abilities at your disposal to help you fight the monsters. This game is a perfect example of Quest’s ability to deliver a full-featured, story-driven experience that will have you glued to the headset for hours on end.
6. The Exorcist Legion VR – Complete Series
The last place on our list is reserved for a horror game. The Exorcist is one of the best horrors you can experience on any VR platform. There are many VR games that provide lots of cheap jump scares (looking at you FNAF), but The Exorcist Legion goes a step further by spinning a twisty, terrifying tale that’s full of dark atmosphere and excellent pacing.
As a demon-hunting detective, you will encounter the sort of enemies and environments that will leave you wide awake at night wondering if there’s something under your bed. The game features superb use of dynamic lighting that gives the creepy environments even more soul. We definitely recommend this game if you’re an avid horror fan.
We can continue flooding you with games ’till tomorrow, so we decided to stop here. Let us know what you think about Oculus Quest? Do you own one? Does it live up to the hype? We’re looking forward to your thoughts in the comment section below.
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