Meta Quest 2

> Till it has practical everyday uses and is at least semi affordable, I would categorize it as experimental still I have a Meta Quest 2 from half a decade ago. It's old, but still feels like a mature gaming device (though relegated to more of an occasional fitness device for me). Sure, it's failed to be anything more (commercial, education, media), but perhaps it's not fated to be for simple entertainment, in which case it's still an interesting new category. And I think the entry price point is like half that of a PS5? > I don't know a single person who actually owns a Meta wearable device or a 3D printer. Isn't Meta actually shifting their focus away from metaverse? I think the Ray Ban partnership is consistent with their shift away from the metaverse. The grandiose visions are put on ice, while they shift towards a fashion-accessory with a camera and audio. Young people seem to be very into 3D printing. My father runs a photography store and a steady portion of the customer base is high schoolers requesting 3D printed models of things they've found online. I presume they'll own their own 3D printers in the future. > Operating systems that are actively hostile to their users (Windows and OSX). Never been a better time to give Linux a try. The days of fighting with audio drivers for 3 days after the install are largely in the past > Everyone trying to shove AI down your throat There is some backlash against this. SaaS used it to justify price increases, but ironically AI ma…

Bought a Quest 2 in 2022, I got a lot of use out of it initially (mostly played Pavlov Shack, SUPERHOT VR, and community-made ports of classic FPS games), then fell off using it after ~8 months. When I built my new PC I had a blast with it again, I blitzed through Half-Life Alyx and was hopping on a community VRChat meetup every weekend... Then I fell off again. Messing about in VR and shooting has to be the most fun I've had with vidya since I was a kid, but it's the dedication required which kills it for me. I have to be in the right mood to go into my cupboard, take it out the box, connect it to my PC, and play about for a few hours – when I come home from work if I want to shoot some baddies it's way easier to sit down at my desk to do it. And I don't end up drenched in sweat at my PC. The last time I picked it up was back in November for a VRChat meetup. It's a shame really because playing VR games is such a joy, but it's marred with each little roadbump to get there.

I've only seen examples of people working or watching movies using the Apple Vision Pro. If this is the only use case, it's not worth the money. I have a Meta quest 2 and I've been using it to work out and play games for a couple of years now. These are pretty much the two use cases for VR right now and I don't see Apple lasting long in the market them.

used a Quest 2 for 2 years, and I sweat a lot when doing intensive exercises. No issue so far. And it is $300, cheaper than the base iPad. What else can you ask for.

FWIW, I've been using a Quest 2 for 7-8 hours per week for the past year and some change and I'm considering a Vision Pro.

This is true of most consumer electronics. As another anecdote - I haven't played computer games for 15 years, but the Quest 2 is a complete game changer, the level of immersion breathes real life into games. I now play 1-2 hours a day, every day and have done for nearly a year.

I have a different take on this: I bought a Quest 2 several years ago, spent some money and bought about 10 experiences/games/etc. for it, and it is good enough that I continue using it with no real desire to buy a newer model. My wife was watching me use it last week and she commented “isn’t there an upgrade for that?” Wonderful toy, even though I only use it about 90 minutes a month it is worthwhile for me to own.

Neat demo video, but I see that gaming was not a focus, which is a shame because the reduced weight would be great in that regard. The reduced FOV, not so much though... I have a Quest 2, and I only held off on getting a Quest 3 because I don't want to keep giving money to Meta unless they made something game-changing. Given that rhythm games are the primary purpose of my Quest 2, I think this settles me on the Steam Frame as my next headset. It runs Linux and plays games I already own. Unfortunately, the "watch movies one inch from your eyeballs", or "block out the world at a coffee shop to check your email", or "emotionlessly watch basketball in the middle of the court" are not good selling points for me.

I'm ready to pay it to not be forced into using Facebook's terrible desktop software that they frequently break the PC Link functionality of. The way it's Windows-only also sucks; it's one of the few things that's prevented me from switching my gaming PC to Linux. And yes, I've tried third-party solutions like Virtual Desktop under Windows and ALVR under Linux. Even with some of the best WiFi 6E hardware available standing within 10ft of the router with the PC being wired into the network with ethernet, nothing has beat a tethered USB connection using the native Link functionality on my Quest 2. Any SteamVR based solution fixes most of these issues and the Frame sounds like it might make wireless actually viable. Even if it doesn't, tethered with Valve software instead of with Facebook software is still a meaningful improvement.

There are dozens of us! I clarified a bit in a longer post. I do actually like the Vision Pro... but even though I own one I barely use it. It's a good device but it's just too many hoops for what I do. I find a much affordable Quest, even older generations, with adb and a proper WebXR support (including with AR support, which Apple refuses to implement) fits better my need. I have 0 problem popping a Quest 2 in my backpack without even thinking about it, only protection being a literally piece of cardboard on the lenses. I can work with it anywhere and give demos to total stranger with no worries about them dropping it or heck even running away with it. FWIW I'm also not in the Apple ecosystem so all the wall garden hoops just tire me. I want the device I own to let me do my work. I find that, probably counter-intuitively, super high resolution and refresh rate matter... but only up to a point. As I mentioned in the longer post if you are "just" looking for a monitor with another form factor, sure, maybe it's OK-ish, but to me it's very uninteresting and not worth all the challenges, including social, of having an HMD strapped to your face. Only when it's properly immersive does it shine, and then resolution and refresh rate don't have to be that high to be usable.

I don’t have much to add, but it’s been interesting reading the comments here. I don’t engage with many of their products. I deactivated my Facebook account in 2014, one of the few times in my life I’ve done something before it was “cool” to do so. I do reluctantly use WhatsApp, but that’s really just because literally everyone in my life does so its just easier. However, I recently borrowed a Quest 2, mainly to play Half-Life: Alyx, and once I got over using that fucking awful Windows app to set it all up properly, I’ve been pretty blown away by how good the thing is for the price. Granted, I’m basically just using it to launch into SteamVR, but it’s a solid bit of hardware. Maybe that’s just the result of the work Carmack and his team did there and acquisition of talent after Oculus? Just thought I’d be fair and give a perspective that they seem to have made at least one thing that’s pretty damn good.

Played Half-Life Alyx this way entirely on a Quest 2, and I have gotten sick in VR, but I had no problem with it. The technology has actually gotten better since I last spent a significant amount of time with it.

For me the biggest surprise was that old ps2 usb racing sim wheel+pedals just worked instantly with linux, and I could use it in dirt rally without any pains. It felt amazing. oculus quest 2 also works very well with alvr, even wirelessly.

I’m on my third quest unit (my quest 1 died during the pandemic and I had to buy a new 1, and then the 2 came out). I still use it for around 3-4 hours a week and I’m thinking about upgrading to the quest 3. Just use one or two apps though (beat saber and fitxr), I never really got into actual gaming or social stuff on it. I wish a company would come around and seethe potential for fitness tech with VR, they could come up with better optimized solutions for it (and I don’t really count the mirror or stationary bike stuff). Fitness really fees like the killer app.

Quest 2, I still think it's great but I got unlucky and bought it at the time of the increased price, a few months before it went back down and then even more down a year or two after. Admittedly my own fault but still regretful due to the fact I could've saved over a hundred $ had I waited.