The days run on in my cyberpunk future. Trapped in a small cell no larger then a shed I'm another Corpo suit trying to kickback and live the good and easy. I look over to my rig, a softwhite Oculus Quest 2, with a charging light that says it's ready for action. It was so new I had not rubbed the "L" and "R" stickers from the hand controllers. As I watched the dog continue to peek out of her open cage towards the outside, I remembered that like her; I was only caged by what I perceived to be a lock, but there was never a lock in place.
I picked up the headset prepared to lose reality if just for a moment. This is how I Jack In; I thought.-Nytmaer; G.U.N
I feel compelled to come forward with a few perceptive moments with the Oculus Quest 2, since I recently obtained it. I usually have to wait for the new to wear off, but this is pretty fresh and recording my experiences with this much improved platform, seems like a good idea.
The first thing I noticed out the box was how light the Quest 2 was. The only point of reference having never played with the Rift or original Quest, I only had the Go, to Go-on. To me that meant that we were going to see lighter and lighter HMD's*. One of my initial complaints on the Oculus Go, was that it felt too heavy over my face. That would often lead to fatigue when wearing it for any length of time more than a few minutes.
Since the Go lacked degrees of motion, you could do most everything the Go Offered sitting down, but not so with the Oculus Quest. The Quest 2, feels like a great unshakling of the potential for ways that a cordless HMD can achieve.
Determined to improve my time in virtual space, I made it my mission to use the improvements in the technology to bring myself back to fighting form. The last go round of Beat Saber left my arms dangling to my side like ramen. The soreness didn't last and I went into a boxing sim, to wail on a polygon heavybag for the better part of an hour. This is what I needed; to exist in virtual space true, was no longer the fantasy toy of the privileged.
Have my feelings changed about VR?
Nope, in fact now I'm more hopeful of what will be possible. To see so many excellent ideas realized in such a reasonably short term (from original Palmer Luckey Oculus to the Quest 2) instituted so well is exciting to behold. The virtual spaces give me ideas for what may and may still be possible within the right VR Platform.
VR still has some hurdles to get over, but the publics adoption of it (as well as the quest-ionable Facebook forced integration) will either see more improvements get made or see such platforms collapse. Even still, the Quest 2 gives me a sense of wonder at what can be possible.
I've run experiments on the Go and found somewhat reasonable success with what you can get away with on a low-powered VR platform. I won't go into detail, but I feel that my Go has some additional features that make it a cut above average without changing hardware. My point? The Quest 2 has considerably way more functionality and the two Touch controllers are far more intuitive than I would have considered. This together means that VR which is partially represented the Quest 2, can see additional functionality by some of the other things that you can do with the tech. Those who like to mod their devices like some sort of deck jockey will share their best ideas to help others, and that is what is most positive and will help the tech grow over all (sorry I ramble).
VR may never take hold the way I would like, but it is definitely here, and as long as it continues to improve like the changes between the Go and the Quest 2; I think it stands a fair shot of becoming a well adopted mainstream entertainment and edutainment platform.
...now where's that virtual toilet?
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