Yesterday during F8 (the annual Facebook conference for developers), Mark Zuckerberg finally announced a release date for the long-awaited Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. And get ready, the future of VR is coming May 21st!! 😃
I’ve been really excited about these two devices since their first announcements so yesterday I had to watch the conference live to have the latest news about them.
After 35 minutes of speech about Messenger, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram but also and above all about privacy (which I think is the most important point for Facebook to work on to have a healthy ecosystem), Marc Zuckerberg gave the release date! He also said that the pre-orders were now opened and that all F8 attendees would get a free Oculus Quest (wish I could have been there…!).
The Oculus Rift S is an upgrade of the Oculus Rift. It is way simpler to set up as it doesn’t have any external sensor. Indeed, Rift S’ tracking is inside-out. That means that the headset tracks its own position and the two controllers positions by itself. That’s a great thing because you won’t need to face the sensors anymore and so interacting with 360 environments will be way easier. For Modulia Studio that means even more workflow possibilities as you’ll be able to create instruments all around you!
Modulia Studio will be available day one on the Rift S. If you’re interested in PC-powered VR, I definitely recommend you to get your Rift S!
The Oculus Quest is a huge step forward for VR! It is a whole standalone VR system with 6 degrees of freedom for both the headset and the controllers (that means that all of your movements are tracked). It is game-changing as you don’t need any PC and still enyoy a great VR experience anywhere you want!! Like the Rift S it has inside-out tracking but the major difference is that you are not constrained by a wire so you can have an even wider play area. In terms of freedom and portability it really opens new horizons. I have no doubt that the Quest will open the doors of VR to people that were hesitating until now!
For now it’s hard to say if Modulia Studio will be on the Quest quickly but that is one of my main goals. As the headset is not linked to a PC graphic card, apps need to be optimized enough but I think it’s really worth spending time on it! Having Modulia running on Quest would mean being able to control Ableton Live and other DAWs wirelessly and having an unlimited music studio with a really small amount of hardware.
I think that would definitely help bring the VR world and the music world together…!
William Dulot