The Oculus Quest will be "much more powerful" than the Oculus Go

Summary

• Oculus Quest: a standalone VR headset calibrated for gaming

While the Oculus Quest should launch within a few weeks, Oculus Ecosystem Director Chris Pruett took the time to answer questions from the public on the company's official forum. According to him, l'Oculus Quest will be "much more powerful" than the Oculus Go in terms of CPU and GPU.

Recall that the Quest has a Snapdragon 835, while the Oculus Go is content with a Snapdragon 821. The SD835 is roughly 30% more powerful than the SD821, or can deliver a similar level of performance while consuming 40% less power.

Not only are the chips integrated into this headset more powerful than those of the Go, but the design and rendering architecture have also been optimized to deliver maximum performance. Particular care has therefore been taken in the cooling system.

While the Oculus Go is satisfied with a heat pipe and a metal front, the Quest also has an active fan. In fact, the headset can be used for consecutive hours without decreasing performance to avoid overheating. With the clock speed being higher, the Quest should also deliver more complex and detailed graphics than the Go.

In addition, Chriss Pruett states that 6DoF traking of Quest and its controllers will not affect performance in any way. The games available on Oculus Go can therefore be ported to the Quest without any performance loss problem, despite the additional complexity provided by the six-degree movement tracking.

Because, tracking is not based on the CPU but on the Hexagon digital signal processor. It is a dedicated chip designed especially for image processing and sensors. It is these chips that allow smartphones to enhance the photos taken by their cameras.

Oculus Quest: a standalone VR headset calibrated for gaming

Facebook's business strategy seems to be confirmed. If the Oculus Go was designed to introduce the general public to virtual reality, The Oculus Quest seems more aimed at gamers. Indeed, 6DoF tracking, controllers, and computing power are what Go lacks to make it a headset suitable for VR Gaming. With the Quest, users will be able to find the video game experience offered by the Rift at a lower cost ($ 400) and in a standalone format.

Moreover, a post posted on the Facebook blog reveals that the games offered on the Oculus Quest will be handpicked, with a stricter selection system than for other helmets. It is therefore imperative that developers provide a concept document as early as possible in the development cycle of their game, so that it can be reviewed. If the concept is approved by Oculus, developers will receive direct support and resources to be able to create the highest quality experience.

It is difficult to predict whether this product will hit its target, but the Quest is likely to have a commercial success even surpassing that of the Go. Quest launch is expected for GDC 2019 to be held from March 18 to 22, 2019.