Meta Horizon OS announced

[VirusAM]

https://www.meta.com/it-it/blog/quest/meta-horizon-os-open-hardware-ecosystem-asus-republic-gamers-lenovo-xbox/
 
I think this is big, the article is long but tldr
Meta Is opening its meta os to other hardware vendors.
Asus, Lenovo and Microsoft working on it (guess why wmr was abandoned).
But also Valve is mentioned.
Of course those would be mobile headsets, but maybe one of these vendors could add a display port on it.
 

Edited April 23, 2024 by VirusAM

[RealDCSpilot]

It kind of amazes me everytime when Facebook pulls off stuff like this. First the simple renaming into "Meta" to get rid of "we all know what you did in the past years", now this "branding" of an Android OS version to Meta Horizon to make it sound like it's "their" operating system. This "open ecosystem" is nothing else than Subway or any other franchise system that will lock you in. If they really wanted to open up, the apps in their store would be 100% OpenXR conform and running on any other mobile Qualcomm VR device (like Pico or HTC) without any tinkering (which is easily doable, they just need to flip a "switch" it's all Android...).

Edited April 25, 2024 by RealDCSpilot

[Eugel]

I really hope this will fail and not somehow become a "standard" for PC VR gaming.

I think I´d rather quit VR altogether than install a piece of Meta/Facebook software on my computer.

[maxTRX]

Yes!  I'm excited.  'Central Committee' following '5 year plan?' (that's from history books   )

[Aapje]

Apparently, Google is going to announce their own platform, Android XR, at the Google I/O developer conference on the 14th of May. Samsung would bring out a headset with this OS.

So this means that only does Eugel get other options than Meta, we are going to get a three-way fight, which is great for consumers.

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, Aapje said:

we are going to get a three-way fight, which is great for consumers.

If it’s like all the other matchups like VHS vs Betamax and Windows vs OSX and HD DVD vs Blu-ray only one will be left standing. Game on… 

[Qcumber]

An interesting perspective from "oculus"

https://mixed-news.com/en/horizon-os-palmer-luckey-john-carmack/

"Former Oculus CTO John Carmack, on the other hand, is critical of the initiative. He expects that the OEM headsets will be more expensive than Meta Quest and therefore less attractive to the mainstream audience, and that Meta will have to spend valuable developer resources on the new project that would be better invested in improving the system software. In his opinion, it is the software, not the hardware, that is holding VR back."

Edited April 25, 2024 by Qcumber

[Aapje]

Carmack seems a ignore that a healthy marketplace has producer targeted different groups of consumers (like simmers), that Meta can't service on their own. His comment only makes sense if the Quest 3 would be enough for everyone.

And I also disagree that the hardware is good enough. There is so much to improve on that front.

[Qcumber]

9 hours ago, Aapje said:

Carmack seems a ignore that a healthy marketplace has producer targeted different groups of consumers (like simmers), that Meta can't service on their own. His comment only makes sense if the Quest 3 would be enough for everyone.

And I also disagree that the hardware is good enough. There is so much to improve on that front.

I agree that the hardware could be better, but mainly inclusion of a DP and eye tracking in an affordable headset.There is a lot could be done to improve the software as well: reprojection, sharpening and integrated upscaling. Also meta needs to include dynamic foveated rendering to support eye tracking.