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Comment by fpgaminer | Hacker News Reader

Side tangent, but ... thank you for Oculus. Seriously.

I recently got a Quest 2, and its been life changing. It's just an incredible product. I used a DK1 and DK2 back when they came out and the Quest 2 is like night and day. Everything is so much better. No screen door, wireless, plug and play, etc. I honestly didn't think VR would get to this point so quickly.

As for the life changing part, it's helping me work around some of my disabilities. Seems to be a common story in the VR space.

I know VR seems like a toy to many, but it really is changing people's lives. And I feel like modern VR started with Oculus.

So, from my heart, thank you.

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Should've gotten the Index instead, really. It works so much better and doesn't come with Facebook's walled garden.

And at only 3.3x the price!

Nobody is arguing that the Index isn't better (except for wireless-ness) but at 1/3 of the price, the Quest 2 is incredibly affordable and very, very nice.

And since you can play all the same PC VR games as the Index, plus Oculus-specific games, plus standalone Quest games... It's very versatile.

I have an OG Vive and just "upgraded" to the Quest 2 and it's hands-down better IMO.

I've upgraded my Quest 2 with some hand straps and the elite head strap, so that brings the price closer to 2/3 of the Index, and I still prefer it thanks to the standalone games and the wireless PC link. Not listening to the whine of the lighthouses is another small bonus.

> And since you can play all the same PC VR games as the Index, plus Oculus-specific games, plus standalone Quest games... It's very versatile.

Indeed. Because Valve values openness while Oculus (Facebook) values money. That's why Valve lets you play SteamVR games on Oculus, but Oculus does not let you play them on SteamVR (community solutions exist, of course).

This is pure evil.

It’s not evil at all. Do you see how accessible the price of this thing is? There is trade offs. Also, there is official support for playing your steam games (wirelessly) now, so you’re not correct on that.

I think they were trying to say that playing games from the Oculus store on a Valve Index or HTC Vive isn't possible, but playing games bought on Steam on a Quest 2 is possible.

It actually is one of the complaints I have about how Oculus does things, but since they basically ushered in this new era of VR, they pretty much had to have their own store and SDK. I can't fault them for not closing it, and nothing is stopping the developers from publishing on both.

> nothing is stopping the developers from publishing on both

Nothing except for the exclusivity contracts that Oculus pushes...

You are describing all video game publishers, Nintendo, Microsoft, Epic, Sony. This is actually for indie developers, who can de-risk a project by taking the upfront money.

Why would I want to buy a second VR headset to play some games, when the one I have is already perfectly fine? Keep in mind that playing Oculus games on the Index works fine using third party software, it's Facebook trying to DRM the hardware.

Do you also expect me to buy a Disney TV to watch Disney movies and a Marvel TV to watch Marvel movies? Or do you expect that all games, or movies, use the hardware you already own?

Would you also chastise someone for getting an iPhone because it comes with Apple's walled garden?

Yes?

Yes. Although Apple's walled garden is slightly less evil as it actually serves some vague security purposes, instead of solely profit.

Yes, technically, kinda. Aside from being much more expensive the Index is also not wireless (at least not without an add-on?) and requires a (beefy) PC.

Personally, if it weren't for the Facebook account requirement I'd probably opt for a Quest 2. As it is, I don't think VR is worth the investment of an Index to me so I'll stick with my second hand not-updated-since-before-Oct-2020 Rift because it is perfectly adequate for Beat Saber.

Oculus requires the exact same beefiness of your PC as Index. If you're happy using the Oculus on-board processing, you might as well use a laptop from 10 years ago as your PC, it will have the same quality.

If you actually want decent VR you need a beefy PC for both platforms. So that is a non-argument.

PC software for VR is not written to support 10 year old PCs and a 10 year old Laptop won't have the ports an Index needs. Oculus software is written to support the Snapdragon processor. So your post is not correct. It's not about which solution is more powerful, it's about what the software is targeting for minimum requirements.

Blaston on the Quest is my primary form of exercise and I love it. Definitely life changing for me.

Blaston is really awesome and I don't think they deserved the backlash they got when the ad debacle started, but I am happy they got through it.

BTW: if you are using your headset for exercise and want to give our open source VR fitness game a try you can check it out on AppLab https://quest.vrworkout.at

It's not a true game but an hand tracking based exercise game disguised as a bit of a game

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