1844

Finally some music I typically like.

1845
1846
1847

Man do I hate Meta, and that was before they fucked me over on my original Oculus warranty. Just got an email from them telling me it’s time to switch to some new Meta account.

Haha. Go fuck yourself!

On the other hand they had almost unlimited resources and contributed a ton to moving VR technology forwards. Hopefully John was able to secure enough funding to do what he wanted, you would think he could if he wanted too. Is his new startup even VR focused?

1848

His new startup is Keen Technologies, and it’s focused on him attempting AGI.

1849

It’s AGI. Artificial General Intelligence. Apparently a kind of AI that can perform all kinds of different tasks instead of an AI that has a narrower range.

1850

Ahh, just looked it up. Sucks to lose him on VR, but AI has so many applications it could bring to the table. I was curious if he would seek funding because of the extra pressure that applies but that’s exactly why he accepted funding (which of course he had no issues getting).

1851

Two more teasers for this escape room VR game

Also, the final episode of Tales of Soda Island is out.

1852

The Boz publishes a piece of PR here

He teases briefly that the successor of Quest 2 is coming.

–

Virtual Desktop implemented online DRM, then back tracked it:

–
Ragnarock DLC - Nuclear Blast Raid - 10$/€

One night in Tokyo, Beast in Black
Eye of the storm, Battle Beast
Abyss of Time - Countdown To Singularity, Epica
Ambiramus, Eluveitie
Vodka, Korpiklaani
A Man With A Plan, Korpiklaani
Revolution y Rise Again, Equilibrium
Nevermore, Symphony X

–
Unplugged had a meaty update, with controller support! (instead of hand trakcing) and lots of new songs:

–New free Songs–

Carrying Goodness - Repentance
Castlefield - Best laid plans
Compass And Cavern - Still A Child
Dani Jalali - Ditty Bomb
Drist - Arterial Black
Drist - Decontrol
Drist - The Scalpel
Drist - Two hours
Eddie Grey - Hideaway
Estelle Mey - Waiting
Fifth Grade - The Spin Wires
Final Round - Spark
Hey Judy - Hahaha
Jay Ray - Beyond The Past
Kissing Candice - Crash and Burn
Labelled Dead - Growing Pains
Rex Banner - Casino
Ride Free - Hell Yeah
Rival Tides - All My Friends Are Stoned
Steven Mesropian - Condescending
The Show Room - Absence
The Sound Room - Against
Vitne - Say Goodbye
Yotam Ben Horin - Alternate

It’ s also 40% off. Alas, I tried it and I’m too bad at this type of rhythm game.

–
Quest 2 will gain more powah!
https://developer.oculus.com/blog/boost-app-performance-525-mhz-gpu-frequency-meta-quest-2/

–
Steam sale, VR games:

I think it’s the first time Alyx is 60% off, usually it reached 50% off on previous sales.

Some others
Red Matter Collection: 29,98 €
Moss + Moss: Book II 31,23 €
The Forest 3,86 €
Subnáutica 10,19 €
Asseto Corsa 3,99 €
Ultrawings 2 10,49 €
Tentacular 14,70 €

Kayak VR is 30% off too

There is an updated demo for Vertigo 2, if someone wants to try.

And you know what, I’m going to recommend the Angry Bird VR game, it’s simple decent fun for 7.5€

–

And viveport offer, subscribe for one month, get Last Clockwinder forever
https://www.viveport.com/2022-holiday

–
Pavlov is readying a meaty update, almost one year without any

Notice their warning, it’s beta and it seems is still not ready. Improvements to ui, sounds, models, engine upgraded to UE5.1, two new weapons, new versionf of maps, etc

–
(!) very cheap dlc for WMG!

Is this just a wave shooter ?

I have to try again Into the Radius with my new computer…

Bigscreen now support Amazon Prime, Disney+, Youtube…

Hyper Dash goes Free 2 Play too

–

Finally, with my new computer, I can finally play Lone Echo 2 maxed out! (all high/on, 90hz at max resolution for Quest 2 that is 1.7x). Well, I put msaa x2 instead of x4, I noticed I was on the very same edge of not dropping frames with x4, and decided it was better to have some perf overhead.

1853

I haven’t paid much attention to the Quest Pro, but it sounds like it’s not that much more powerful than the Quest 2? Or am I completely misunderstanding?

Because if the Quest Pro at $1500 isn’t that much faster than the Quest 2, and the price increase is primarily around the form factor and pancake lenses, then what could they possibly put in the Quest 3 at a decent consumer-level price that is that much better than the Quest 2? Especially after raising the price of the Quest 2 this year?

1854

It has the same chip as Quest 2 with better cooling, so yeah it’s close to Q2, it isn’t really a new generation.

To be honest, it’s just an experiment from Meta to try eye and face tracking, imo.

1855

So then…are there any rumors about what the Quest 3 could be, without also being $1500?

1856

There are rumors, yep:

I expect the price to be between $400 and $500

1857

It’s not the price, it’s the games. Give me a VR game that’s like World of Warcraft when it launched, and will suck me in for 1000+ hours of gameplay, and I’ll adopt VR. If it’s virtual reality, I want a world to be in, not just a 5-10 hour game. Give me that alternate, virtual reality.

Until I get that it’s just too gimmicky.

1858

I agree the issue is the games. I expected to have better games in 2022 already, but things go slow :/

I think the issue is that VR games have very different interface/controls/mechanics. In addition Quest games are very limited by the computing power it has. In other words, if you do a Quest game, it will be for it only. You cannot take a game for xbox/PS/PC and port it to Quest, it way too different paradigm.

And despite the Quest selling well, the traditional game ecosystem is much bigger, so what companies are going to stop developing for them, and start developing for Quest? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. The only saving grace is having less competition in the Quest ecosystem.

1859

Happily buzzes a cloudscape for the 1000th hour in glorious VR.

Yeah there’s no VR games.

1860

I don’t know. I feel like the Quest2 and whatever better hardware will be in the Quest3 could probably run every game from 2000 to 2015, and even modern games on heavily reduced settings, which is alright if the trade off for shadow detail, texture resolution and ray tracing was the presence and immersion of VR. If anything, I feel like the small 128 gig ssd is a more limiting factor. But there has to be the will to adopt motion controls… but looking at the list of games that is compatible with VorpX, no reason a lot of those couldn’t be made into Quest ports.

1861

In which game?

By the way, the Quest 2 is a huge hit with my daughters. Their current favorite games are the Table Tennis game and Job Simulator. I like Walkabout Golf.

1862

I always do this, give I Expect You To Die a try. Just a great escape room game with AAA humor and execution. Like most VR it’s too short but well worth the buy. (Or you get a long crappy game.)

1863

Oddly enough, I can’t get the kids to try it because it’s a seared game.