BURLINGAME, United States — Good news,
readers: After using nearly every virtual reality headset made in the last
seven years, including the latest $1,500 goggles from
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, I
have seen the best of what the metaverse could offer.
اضافة اعلان
Yes, the best is already here and has been for quite
some time.
It is video games.
Zuckerberg and other tech executives want us to buy
these gadgets to live out their fantasy that the metaverse will be an immersive
virtual world where we shop, socialize, and work. But consumers should not
necessarily follow the whims of business leaders.
Gaming has been the most compelling use of these
headsets since the Oculus Rift arrived in 2016. The introduction of that
contraption, a clunky headset that plugged into a personal computer, marked the
debut of mainstream virtual reality, and the early wave of applications was
focused on this kind of entertainment. Based on extensive testing of that
device, along with the myriad competitors that came after and the new Meta
Quest Pro set for release this week, it seems safe to conclude that the tech
has found its sweet spot.
The headsets are wearable, immersive video game
consoles. People should buy them for the same reasons they get PlayStations and
Nintendos: to be entertained and to find brief escapes from the real world —
not to live out the outlandish dreams of tech leaders.
Meta envisions that high-resolution headsets, new
business-focused software, and superfast internet connections will transform
the way we work, collaborate, and create art. In the company’s own jargon, the
Quest Pro could unlock “net new use cases”. Yet when asked, the product’s
leaders could not name a “killer app” for the fancy new headgear.
“We’ll learn with developers once the device is in
the market,” said Anand Dass, a director of metaverse content at Meta, at a
product briefing this month.
In other words, Meta’s sales pitch for the
Quest Pro
is the potential for it to be life-changing by enabling tasks that could not be
done before. That is a mighty compelling narrative, but it is a vision that has
yet to be realized.
There is a valuable lesson amid all the hype
surrounding virtual (augmented, mixed, whatever-you-want-to-call-dorky-looking)
goggles: We should not spend our dollars on a company’s hopes and promises for
what a technology could become. We should buy these headsets for what they
currently do. And based on what I saw, for the foreseeable future, the Meta
Quest Pro will primarily be a gaming device. (I predict the same outcome for
the Apple headset expected to be unveiled next year.)
After I removed the headset and returned to reality-reality, I could only imagine wanting to use these new features to play games
At Meta’s Burlingame, California office, I strapped
on the Quest Pro to see what was new. Meta highlighted three features: the
headset’s higher-definition picture, which is receiving quadruple the number of
pixels of its predecessor, the $400 Quest 2; the array of cameras embedded into
the headset, which can now create a real-time rendering of your facial
expressions and eye movements; and new motion controllers with improved
pressure sensitivity so you can squeeze a virtual object gently or grab it
aggressively.
Meta employees and app developers gave me an hour-long
tour through software tailored for the headset. I created a digital avatar of
my face that mimicked my grins and frowns as I raised a curious brow. I made 3D
drawings and tossed virtual darts.
I found the improved graphics and controllers
impressive (and my animated avatar a bit creepy), but after I removed the
headset and returned to reality-reality, I could only imagine wanting to use
these new features to play games.
My favorite virtual-reality game, Blaston, which was
released in 2020 and involves players shooting one another in a virtual arena,
would probably benefit from the improved motion controllers to make trigger
squeezes for the different guns more realistic. PokerStars VR, where gamers
gather around a virtual card table to play Texas Hold ’em, would be more fun if
we could pick up tells through each player’s facial expressions.
By the end of the demo, I was also doubtful that I
would get any work done with this headset. In a promotional video for the
product, Meta suggested that the Quest Pro could be a multitasking tool for
workers juggling meetings while scrolling through emails and other tasks. But
the device’s battery lasts only one to two hours, according to Meta. (The
headset can still be used while plugged in, but using a computer is less
complicated.)
An hour or two of battery life is fine for one
thing, though. You guessed it: gaming.
This is the reality on which we should base our
buying decisions. Not even Meta seems to believe that many people will buy the
Quest Pro. It said the device’s target audience would be early adopters,
designers, and businesses. If you fall into any of those camps, I recommend a
wait-and-see approach to gauge whether useful virtual-reality applications
become available for your profession.
The company left a more obvious niche off its target
list: hard-core gamers willing to spend lots of money on every piece of new
gaming hardware. They are in for a treat. In addition to providing access to
high-resolution virtual reality games made for the Quest Pro, the headset will
work with hundreds of games already made for the Quest 2.
Many of those older Quest 2 titles are quite good.
Games that get your heart pumping and make you break a sweat, like Beat Saber
and FitXR, which both involve swinging your arms around to hit objects, are a
boon in an era when people need to wear smartwatches to remind them to stand
up.
None of this — a first impression that the Quest Pro
will be great for playing games and primarily be used for entertainment — is a
bad thing. The fact that we can get visually stunning, immersive gaming in a
lightweight, wireless headset means virtual reality has come a long way in less
than a decade. For now, that is the only reason to buy one of these.
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