Watching Meta Quest 3 being introduced by Meta made me realize something: the technology available for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality is now catching up to the big idea that everyone had about this notion known as the “metaverse” a few of years ago.
Seeing this $500 headgear, which is part of a product line formerly known as Oculus from a corporation once known as Facebook, demonstrates how far we’ve gone in realizing the sci-fi-like ideal of seamlessly blending the real and virtual worlds in a way that may genuinely work for regular customers and professionals. That was the sales pitch for the metaverse concept: a hybrid of virtual and augmented reality, ideally with some merchandise for sale within the experience.
Before I go too far, the Meta Quest 3 will still be considered primarily as a gaming device, especially with Xbox Game Pass games coming soon. And at my family, the Quest 2 headset is only brought out when there’s a new, intriguing (and typically free) game to play, such as Gorilla Tag, which my 12-year-old and his pals are now obsessed with.
The Quest 3 includes high-quality color passthrough cameras in addition to being a bit smaller, with improved controls and higher-resolution displays inside. This is what allows you to see the actual environment while overlaying dynamic digital elements on top of it. The Quest 2 provides just a blurry black-and-white vision of the outside world, which is worthless for anything other than avoiding the coffee table.
Having tested practically every consumer VR headset, dating back to a very early Oculus prototype incorporated inside a pair of ski goggles I tried back in 2012, the ability to feel connected to the outside world was something almost all of them lacked.
That is the main strength of the Apple Vision Pro headset, which I had the opportunity to test earlier this year. The passthrough camera on that was nearly smooth enough to fool you into thinking you were wearing a transparent headset. Almost genuine, but not quite.
The Quest 3 isn’t nearly as clear and comprehensive, but it’s also the version you’re most likely to attempt. At $500, against $3,500 for the Vision Pro (which won’t be ready until next year anyhow), the Quest 3 is positioned to be the great gaming gift of the 2018 holiday season.
Mark Zuckerberg may now have a chance to pull people into his metaverse fantasy after rebranding his whole firm and putting billions into metaverse-building efforts that were generally dismissed. The Meta Quest 3 has a good chance of being the Vision Pro for the rest of us.
