5 Top Highlights from Facebook Connect keynote

Some hours ago the Facebook Connect keynote has finished, so I think it is time to do a quick recap of the most important news announced there. This post is just a short summary of the best of the announcements until now, in case you missed it and you wanted to catch up with the news. At the end of the week, I’ll write the usual big detailed roundup of the Facebook Connect… so stay tuned for more!

Oculus Quest 2

Oculus has finally revealed the Quest 2. Not there was much to reveal, since everything is exactly as it had been leaked. The Quest 2 is a device much more powerful than the Quest 1, with improved ergonomics and a lower price.

Here you are its specifications:

• Resolution (per-eye): 1,832 × 1,920 LCD
• Refresh Rate: 90Hz
• Processor: Snapdragon XR2
• RAM: 6GB
• Battery Life: 2–3 hours
• Field of View: Same of Quest
• IPD Adjust: 58mm, 63mm, 68mm
• Weight: 503g
• Storage: 64GB or 256GB

The almost 2K per eye is going to give this headset very crisp visuals, with a bump that will make VR on Quest 2 a lot more realistic than on Quest and Rift S. The refresh rate of 90Hz is going to help with that as well. The very powerful Snapdragon XR2 and the 6GB of RAM will allow for more computational power and so games with better graphics. The headset is also 10% lighter than the original Quest, and has a softer strap that makes the headset more comfortable. Not to mention the fact that there are already on sale a series of deluxe accessories to improve the comfort of the device (making it more balanced).

The price is the one teased in the past days of $299 for the 64GB edition and $399 for the 256GB one. Preorders are already open now, with shipping starting from October, 13th. Of course, I have already preordered mine (it arrives on October, 15th).

With such a powerful and affordable device, with the great content that is coming for it, Oculus is wiping away all its competition. It’s easy when you can subsidize all the ecosystem you’re creating with your ads business.

Rift S is going to be discontinued

During the whole conference, Oculus always talked about the Quest 2. Even when they presented the Rift games, they talked about “PC VR” and they suggested enjoying them with Quest 2 and Link. While I was listening to it, I understood that the Rift S was a “dead headset walking”. I mean, the Rift S was already dead four months after its release with the announcement of the Oculus Link, but today it seemed more dead than ever.

And in fact, after the conference, Facebook told Road To VR that the Rift line will be discontinued in 2021. It was to be expected, but I can’t avoid saying that I’m a little moved by this. The Oculus Rift DKII has been the device that drawn me to VR: I tried it 6 years ago thanks to my former business partner Gianni Rosa Gallina and at that moment I understood I wanted to dedicate my life to immersive technologies. That device changed my whole existence. I know that life goes on, but knowing that the Rift line is going to disappear makes me a bit sad. Rest in Peace, Rift.

Project ARIA and Facebook AR

I predicted that Facebook could tease its work in AR throwing some smoke in our eyes and giving us little pieces of info, and I was not wrong with this prediction, but actually Facebook teased something more than I expected.

Zuck started saying something what we already knew: Facebook has partnered with Luxottica (yay, an Italian company!) to create in the next years the AR glasses of the future. The partnership will be in particular with the Ray-Ban brand. Then he went on to drop the bomb: Facebook is going to release NEXT YEAR a pair of smartglasses. Something like the North Focals, with simple but effective functionalities, great comfort, and cool design (thanks to Rayban). But after having said this, he went on speaking of something else (damn, Zuck, we wanted to know more!). I guess that Facebook is playing a chess game with Apple: they plan to release a smartglass before Apple enters the market to gain a competitive advantage. But they forget that Apple is never the first…

After that, all people of the company talked about their future plans on AR, saying that they are working on all the building blocks to create a fantastic AR glass: AI, UX, interactions, battery, AR Cloud, etc… Part of the efforts to build these AR glasses have been devoted to Project ARIA (whose name I think is like AR + AI), a special pair of lightweight smartglasses.

Looking at ARIA, I thought “Wow, they already have these smartglasses!” and then Abrash said, “It has no display” and so I thought: “Then, what the hell is it?? An AR headset without a screen is interesting as a football match without a ball”. All the speakers of the event said that ARIA is a “research device”, but after I have discovered that it has no display, I understood they trolled us all just revealing a tool they use for internal developments to throw some smoke on our faces.

ARIA is a glass mounting 2 IR external cameras, 2 IR internal cameras (for eye tracking), 1 RGB camera, 7 microphones, 2 IMUs. People from Facebook this September will wear it for many hours a day, going around for campuses, cities, and their homes so that Facebook can start experimenting with sensors tracking in AR. Data from ARIA will be used to start creating the AR Cloud (Facebook Live Maps), to experiment with objects interactions (ARIA can track the hands of the users), and to understand the real issues of using an AR headset the whole day. Imagine ARIA like the tracking cars or backpacks of Google Maps, just worn on the face of the users. Facebook will use its data to start building the blocks for its future AR glasses, but it is not an AR glass. That one is still a bit distant, Facebook executives have made us understand.

Splinter Cell & Assassin’s Creed are coming to VR

Facebook teased many new games arriving for the Quest 2. Some relevant ones are:

• The Climb 2
• Jurassic World: AfterMath
• Myst
• Sniper Elite VR
• The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners (Tourist Edition)
• Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge

The day of the launch of the Quest 2, Beat Saber is adding a new multiplayer mode.

Then they talked about PC VR games and mentioned Lone Echo 2 and Medal Of Honor: Above and Beyond. This last game is launching on Oculus PC and Steam on December, 11th. Yes, you’ve read it well, it won’t be an Oculus exclusive game. This choice really surprised me, but I’m very happy about it.

But the real bomb is that Oculus and Ubisoft partnered to bring two AAA games to VR: Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed. We have no more news about it, but this is the biggest news on the content side: two AAA games from two very famous franchises are coming to VR. This will lead to a lot more interest in VR gaming. The sad news? They will be Oculus exclusive titles.

Infinite Office

Facebook plans to transform your VR headset in your future personal computer. The final goal is to transform your Quest in a fantastic productivity tool that you use every day for your work, but this is something reachable only in some years. For now, they are going this Winter to release “Infinite Office”, which is the first step in that sense. Look at the announcement video to have a glimpse of it.

With “Infinite Office”:

• Your Quest OS can let you multitask between different 2D apps (like Browser or the just launched Messenger for Quest);
• You have multiple virtual displays that you can resize and put where you want;
• These big 2D virtual screens can be attached to real surfaces that the Quest will detect: tables, chairs, sofas, etc… and you will find them again every time you enter in the room where you put them
• You can operate with the various screens by just using hands tracking
• Everything can work in passthrough AR mode, but you can also use it in a VR environment
• You can connect a special keyboard made by Logitech to your Quest so that you can finally type on a real keyboard to write easily in VR! And since this keyboard has also a touchpad, you can use it also to have a mouse in VR.

And then the bomb news: later on, they’ll give developers the SDK to create their applications with the same technology of Infinite Office. This SDK is already being used by selected partners like Spatial. Yes, you’ve read it well: we will be able to use the Oculus SDK to create mixed reality applications. I guess that in the beginning, they’ll be simple ones with just an AR overlay and then they’ll become more complex and more context-aware.

Well, this means that we’ll be able to port our game HitMotion: Reloaded (the first mixed-reality fitness game) to the Quest 2! :O

And that’s it! There have been many other nice pieces of news announced, but I’ll leave them for the big detailed roundup!

What are the news that have excited you the most? Are you going to buy the Quest 2? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on my social media channels!

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(Header image by Facebook)