Quest Pro is Meta's new $1,499 mixed reality headset

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these. I keep thinking of 3DTV, great tech that required funny glasses, but the cost and slow adoption meant that there was little content and it collapsed in the marketplace. What’s out there that would get someone interested in one of these? Gaming? They talk of professional uses, but other than a FEW architects, and maybe someone who designs cara/airplanes/tractors I don’t see a huge amount of use. What’s worth Meta pouring billions into this idea?

DAalseth said:

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these. I keep thinking of 3DTV, great tech that required funny glasses, but the cost and slow adoption meant that there was little content and it collapsed in the marketplace. What’s out there that would get someone interested in one of these? Gaming? They talk of professional uses, but other than a FEW architects, and maybe someone who designs cara/airplanes/tractors I don’t see a huge amount of use. What’s worth Meta pouring billions into this idea?

There are lots of uses in the pro field.

Imagine working in a data centre and trying to quickly locate a disk/PSU that needs replacing. With MR it would be flagged on the headset so that you go right to the effected part because you would 'see' it in real time.

In fact this usage is fairly common right now with mixed reality headsets. 

I can think of lots of other areas where it will be useful. Imagine manufacturing for example. Farming. Ports. Logistics....

This is quite old (things have come a long way since) but it's a quick and dirty example of what can be done 

https://youtu.be/1Pe028PjQhs

DAalseth said:

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these.

When Apple comes out with theirs, I expect to use it for a virtual work area. Think multiple monitors that are portable. See immersed.com for example.
I tried the Quest 2 and it was clunky and an eye strain to use.  10% more pixels per degree of visibility isn't enough of an improvement IMHO. Not to mention the tracking, mining and sharing of personal information and the general untrustworthiness Meta is known for.

DAalseth said:

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these. I keep thinking of 3DTV, great tech that required funny glasses, but the cost and slow adoption meant that there was little content and it collapsed in the marketplace. What’s out there that would get someone interested in one of these? Gaming? They talk of professional uses, but other than a FEW architects, and maybe someone who designs cara/airplanes/tractors I don’t see a huge amount of use. What’s worth Meta pouring billions into this idea?

XR is absolutely nothing like 3DTV. Have you ever even tried VR? If you’re asking questions like this, I imagine not. You really should. There is a TON of VR content already, and this will rapidly accelerate MR content with the full color passthrough cameras, all paving the way for true AR when that tech is ready. 

Yes, gaming. But also gaming with others in a virtual space (see Playroom). But also painting and sculpting things you can literally move around and through, creating whole experiences to share with others (see Dreams), films where you are literally in the scene and can look inside, around, under objects and rooms. Simulations. Virtual meetings and collaboration spaces. Also, I feel like people dismiss gaming in VR as if it’s anything like flat gaming. It isn’t. You are IN the game.

That all said, Apple’s headset is gonna smoke the Quest Pro next year. Will be curious to see how it compares to PSVR 2 early next year as well. 

DAalseth said:

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these. I keep thinking of 3DTV, great tech that required funny glasses, but the cost and slow adoption meant that there was little content and it collapsed in the marketplace. What’s out there that would get someone interested in one of these? Gaming? They talk of professional uses, but other than a FEW architects, and maybe someone who designs cara/airplanes/tractors I don’t see a huge amount of use. What’s worth Meta pouring billions into this idea?

Many VR games great exercise. Some are built specifically to exercise, some give you exercise as a side effect. Workouts comparable to going to the gym, dripping with sweat when you're done. But a lot more fun than going to the gym.

Standing up and moving your body as the controller is far more natural than using a controller in a traditional gaming system.

Multiplayer games give you the feeling that you're in the same room with the other person even if you're in different states of countries. The ping pong game Eleven feels like you're playing ping pong with someone in the same room, using all of the same movements as you would at a real ping ping table.

A lot of what Meta is building brings that same sense of being in the same place to business meetings, far mere immersive than things like Zoom. Including shared white boards to collaborate is if you're in the same room.

A big thing with Quest Pro is to improve the immersion by improving the avatars, including eye/face tracking to bring the actual expressions to the avatars. Part of what they demoed for the future is making the avatars look just like the person.

Another big thing with Quest Pro is mixed reality, so the real world and can VR blend together.

I have spent thousands of hours playing VR over the last 4 1/2 years. Quest 2 is my favorite one to play because of the lack of cables. 

Apple needs to get their VR out soon. They are spending way, way too much time getting a product out. As Steve Jobs said, "real artists ship." I'm really surprised they are taking so long since fitness is such a big push in their ecosystem.