Meta plays on time and anticipates Apple’s new Quest 3 headset for mixed reality
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An area that had cooled down enough, that of the metaverse, and that all of a sudden could regain strength. Thanks to something that doesn’t exist yet, Apple’s long-awaited RealityPro viewer, which the media and informants are increasingly pushing, with a possible launch next Monday, the day of the WWDC 2023 developer conference. Thanks also to Meta-Facebook, which he has been aiming for the metaverse for at least a couple of years. In a surprising move, Mark Zuckerberg anticipated everyone, unveiling the new Quest 3. Part Quest 2, part Quest Pro, the viewer is a cross between the top of the range and something cheaper, that which serves to make the “new internet” really something interesting for the average user.
How it’s done?
Let’s start with the price: Meta Quest 3 costs 569 euros and will go on sale in the autumn, starting with the 128 GB storage memory version. The price is not low but it is about half of what the company asks for the Meta Quest Pro, which is not only for power and construction materials but also for its appeal to the consumer wallet. That said, Meta explains that the Quest 3 is its “first mainstream color mixed reality headset.” Not a small detail given that, to date, the only object useful for experiencing augmented reality is precisely the expensive Quest Pro. From the latter, the third generation of Quest, formerly Oculus, inherits the famous ultra-compact pancake optics , which allowed the engineers to reduce the thickness of the viewer by 40%, and the configuration of front video cameras, which are used to “see” the outside world in color, superimposing digital contents on the surrounding environment.
Mixed reality, indeed.
“These new experiences allow us to go beyond the current mixed reality, identifying and intelligently interacting with objects present in physical space, and allowing us to move in mixed reality in natural and intuitive ways, which were previously difficult to achieve,” continues Zuckerberg. Quest 3 is backwards compatible with the Quest 2 catalog of over 500 games, apps, VR experiences and more. This means that Quest 3 will immediately have one of the largest catalogs of immersive experiences in the world. In the evening, Meta will hold the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, an event where other dedicated titles will be presented. But the company doesn’t forget who already has a Quest: Quest 2 and Quest Pro will receive a software update that will lead to a 26% increase in CPU performance and a 19% and 11% increase in GPU performance, respectively.
What’s new on the development front
“When developers take advantage of these updates, you’ll experience smoother gameplay, a more responsive UI, and richer content on both headsets. We’re also enabling dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) for both Quest 2 and Quest Pro, so games and applications can take advantage of the higher pixel density without dropping frames.” There is also a reduction in the list price for Quest 2, available from 4 June at 349.99 euros for the 128 GB version and 399.99 euros for the 256 GB version. On Monday, at the opening of the Worldwide Developer Conference 2023, Apple should finally unveil RealityPro, its first headset for virtual and augmented reality. Hypothesized with a price tag of around 3 thousand dollars, the idea of the Cupertino giant seems to be to provide a device that is, first of all, a high-end creation platform for developers. Then, in the coming years, a less “Pro” model aimed at the masses will arrive. Lowering the price will be imperative to prevent the iPhone effect from turning into a boomerang.
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