My new Oculus Go headset.
My new Oculus Go headset arrived today ($199 on Amazon) and I wasn’t originally planning to get it because I’m not a big fan of standalone headsets. That’s a headset that has the computer and screen built right in, so you don’t need to plug in a phone, computer or gaming console in order to play with it.
In my experience, they were almost impossible to use, had crappy graphics, and no native apps. The VR Sky was the perfect example of the genre.
The thing is, when you’ve already spent several hundred dollars for the latest smartphone with the best screen you could afford, why spend another couple of hundred dollars on mostly the same technology, but in the shape of a headset, when you can just put your existing phone inside a headset? Plus, you’re probably going to have better speed and graphics on your phone than on a $200 headset, unless you have a really cheap phone.
That, combined with the usability problems, lack of developer support, and no apps to speak of, led me to conclude that all-in-one headsets were only suitable for an extremely limited set of applications, such as doctors offices or real estate agencies, where they would be used to run just one app.
The Oculus Go has made me change my mind.
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My new Oculus Go in its box.
Graphics, speed and ease of use
The Oculus Go is a step down from the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift, both of which connect to high-end PCs.
The graphics are pretty good but not quite there, but, most importantly, you don’t get full position tracking. So the headset knows when you’ve rotated your head and are looking in a new direction, but not that you’ve hopped to the side to avoid a sword.
The HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift have external cameras to pick up your movement. There are folks working on getting inside-out tracking, where the headset can see where it is in relation to the surrounding room and know when you’ve moved, but that’s not really available yet.
The HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift also have two motion controllers instead of just one, which is handy if you want both of your arms to get a workout.
But where the Oculus Go beats both of those headsets by a mile is with usability. And here, it even beats the mobile-based headsets.
I’ve used both the Gear VR and the Daydream View, and you have to download all the apps on your phone. If you give the headset to someone else to try out, and you don’t want to give them your phone, they have to install all those apps on their phone, plus whatever apps they want to play.
With the Oculus Go, you use the Oculus Go app during the initial setup, but it went really quickly. And you use the phone app again if you want to set up payment details.
Otherwise, everything is on the headset itself. All the apps are right there, and the Oculus Go app store is reasonably well stock and very easy to navigate.
In fact, navigation is very similar to the Daydream View, which made it particularly easy for me. I was also pleasantly surprised that apps that I had previously purchased on other platforms were already available to me to download, without having to buy them again. Sweet!
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Some of the over 1,000 apps, games and experiences in the Oculus Go app store.
All the old familiar apps from Gear VR and Daydream View are here — Netflix and Hulu, Eve Gunjack and End Space, Ocean Rift and my favorite roller coaster app, Epic Roller Coasters.
It has new releases, like Ann Frank House VR and Henry. And it has all the major VR social apps like AltspaceVR and vTime, as well as Oculus’ own Oculus Venues and Oculus Rooms.
Since its a standalone headset, I can leave it in the living room for anyone in the family to play with. They don’t have to fiddle with anything on their phones — they can just put on the headset and go.
I can take it with me to get-togethers and let other people try it out.
If I was a doctor, I could have one in my waiting room for patients. There are several apps in the Oculus Go store that might be very suitable, including several meditation apps, a pain relief app, and some fun casual kid games that could make long, difficult procedures go more smoothly.
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My Happy Place for Oculus Go.
After setting it up and spending a couple of hours playing with the apps, I took the headset with me to a writers’ get-together. The location didn’t have Wifi, but the Epic Roller Coasters and Jurassic World Blueapps worked fine, since I had downloaded the content previously.
And the people who tried it out — neither of whom had used the headset before — were easily able to use it.
The controller is intuitive, the headset doesn’t need any adjustment when you put it on, except maybe to tighten the straps, and the only button you might have trouble finding by feel is the volume control.
It even fits over my glasses.
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Source: Hypergrid Business