Sometimes life is too busy to keep up with everything. This week’s Meta Quest news has been full of announcements, releases, rumors, leaks, and all sorts of other things you don’t want to miss—even if technically already missed it. Don’t worry though, because I’m rounding up all the important things you need to know from July 22 to 26, 2024.
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This week, actor and influencer Anthony Hamilton Jr. got the chance to try out Meta’s AI upgrade for Quest early, showing off a bunch of new features that Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses owners have been using for a few months.
UploadVR notes that this new feature will officially be called “Meta AI with Vision,” and Quest 3 users should expect to see this feature pop up in the Experimental section of the settings menu in August. This should coincide with the v68 firmware update, which is also expected in August.
The new update replaces the Quest’s existing voice commands with vastly improved ones that are allowed to use the headset’s cameras — you have to give them permission first, of course — to look at the world around you and answer questions. Hamilton Jr. uses them the same way many people use the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses feature, but we think people will find other new ways to use it with VR headsets in the future.
This is the first time we’ve seen an app allowed to use the front-facing cameras to identify the world around you. Previously, all Quest apps only had access to a system-created playspace for the environment, which helps ensure privacy, but also severely limits mixed reality apps.
Developers are calling on Meta to improve this feature and allow access to the camera so that better mixed reality apps can be created. While Meta isn’t saying that this feature will be open to third parties in the future, it’s a huge milestone for a potential future when it happens.
The Meta Quest 3s have been rumored and leaked for months, but this week we got our first look at a potential new budget Quest headset in person from VR Panda at X. VR Panda is an accessory maker for the Meta Quest 3 that has been known to leak announcements before, including the Quest 3, as well as headsets from other companies like Pico.
This experience gives us confidence that the leak is real and matches up well with previous leaks of promotional material for the headset, which we expect to be announced at Meta Connect on September 25th.
The front of the Quest 3s features six cameras split into two clusters that closely resemble those of an iPhone Pro model (pick a year, they’re all the same). These new headphones are believed to have the same powerful Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset as the more expensive Quest 3, as well as mixed reality color vision, but will debut at a price of $299.
Avatars may get a major graphical upgrade
Over the years, Meta’s avatar system has undergone significant overhauls and updates as the company has tried out different art styles and ideas. When Meta made her big push into the Metaverse in 2021, she took the first steps to get rid of her previous hideously ugly avatars, following that up by giving them legs two years later.
Now it appears that a handful of Meta employees are testing a never-before-seen avatar design, as shown in the image above and first seen by user Luna on X. The new avatars do away with the more cartoonish body size ratios than the current employee system — referred to by some users as “Baby Boss Heads” — and also seem to use more realistic graphics.
Meta has yet to officially announce a potential change to their avatars, but if they do end up being chosen as the new design, we could see them announced as early as September 25th at Meta Connect.
Virtual objects look better in the real world
This week, Meta updated its development tools to support better mixed reality quality, targeting how virtual objects look in the real world. The new update is specifically addressed how virtual objects appear when a physical object blocks your view of the virtual object.
In an example in UploadVR, a real computer chair is placed in front of a virtual guitar, and Quest mostly manages to make it look like the virtual object is in real-world space. The new update improves object clipping around physical objects so that these virtual objects look like they are interacting with the real object.
Additionally, the new Meta update uses 80% less GPU and 50% less CPU processing, meaning developers will be able to create more meaningful mixed reality experiences and games. This could potentially make upcoming Meta Quest games like Spatial Ops look and feel even more real.
Building on shared experiences
One of the coolest things about VR is the ability to virtually date someone and make them feel like they’re in the same room as you, even if they’re thousands of miles away. X user Luna found new code in an early version of August’s v68 Quest update that points to a Meta that further expands on this concept, creating a feature that looks similar to Apple’s SharePlay on Vision Pro.
For those unfamiliar, SharePlay allows iOS and Vision Pro users to make a FaceTime call, then launch an app, movie, or something else and watch it “together” by synchronizing playback. This was especially handy in the days of the phone’s COVID quarantine, but it needs a VR headset to enjoy it to the fullest.
There’s little information on how this might look or work right now, but you’ll most likely make a call using the Meta Quest group feature, then launch the app or video of your choice. The group feature is already used to facilitate multiplayer gaming, so it makes sense that Meta would expand on this to add functionality to make social experiences more seamless.
Emmy’s VR
The Pirate Queen launched in April this year and helped highlight the importance of learning about history through virtual experiences. The game, developed by Singer Studios and narrated by Lucy Liu – yes, the famous Lucy Liu – puts players in the shoes of Cheng Shih, one of the most infamous pirates of all time.
This adventure has already been nominated for an Emmy, as reported by Mixed News. The Outstanding Emerging Media Program award also included nominations for the excellent Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway on Quest in addition to three other nominees.
As VR becomes more mainstream in society, we are seeing more and more rewards programs that include VR content in addition to VR games. There’s a special kind of empathy that comes from experiencing something first-person through another person’s eyes, and it’s great to see Pirate Queen, in particular, get this nomination.
