Today we’re taking the next step toward our vision for a more open computing platform for the metaverse. We’re opening up the operating system powering our Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers, giving more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for. We’re working with leading global technology companies to bring this new ecosystem to life and making it even easier for developers to build apps and reach their audiences on the platform.
[…]Meta Horizon OS is the result of a decade of work by Meta to build a next-generation computing platform. To pioneer standalone headsets, we developed technologies like inside-out tracking, and for more natural interaction systems and social presence, we developed eye, face, hand, and body tracking. For mixed reality, we built a full stack of technologies for blending the digital and physical worlds, including high-resolution Passthrough, Scene Understanding, and Spatial Anchors. This long-term investment that began on the mobile-first foundations of the Android Open Source Project has produced a full mixed reality operating system used by millions of people.
↫ Facebook’s blog
In summary, Facebook wants the operating system of their Quest series of virtual reality devices – an Android Open Source Project fork optimised for this use – to become the default platform for virtual reality devices from all kinds of OEMs. Today, they’re announcing that both Asus and Lenovo will be releasing devices running this Meta Horizon OS, with the former focusing on high-end VR gaming, and the latter on more general use cases of work, entertainment, and so on. Facebook will also be working together with Microsoft to create a Quest “inspired by Xbox”.
The Meta Quest Store, the on-device marketplace for applications and games, will be renamed to the Meta Horizon Store, and the App Lab, where developers can more easily get their applications and games on devices and in the hands of consumers as long as they meet basic technical and content guidelines, will be integrated into the Meta Horizon Store for easier access than before. In addition, in a mildly spicy move, Facebook is openly inviting Google to bring the Google Play Store to the VR Android fork, “where it can operate with the same economic model it does on other platforms”.
The odds of me buying anything from Facebook are slim, so I really hope this new move won’t corner the market for VR headsets right out of the gate; I don’t want another Android/iOS duopoly. I’m not particularly interested in VR quite yet – but give it a few more years, and I certainly won’t pass up on a capable device that allows me to play Beat Saber and other exercise-focused applications and games.
I just don’t want it to be a Facebook device or operating system.
I think its informative here, that Meta took Android as a starting base. Creating a whole new good operating system that has a wide degree of hardware support.. basically impossible even for a company willing to throw Billions at anything Meta. Would I buy one from Meta? I don’t know, I’d rather not but practicality says its likely going to be either (Meta or other Android clone) or Apple.
If I were a betting man… I’d guess that the next VR platform to come out will be a Linux based Valve stand alone. They just need the tech and the price to come down. Apple has already priced themselves out of anything but getting purchases from Apple fans.
leech,
I don’t think the OS matters all that much to consumers….the apps are going to be the differentiator. A company could bring the apps to linux, but they could bring them to any OS.
I agree that apple priced themselves out of the market, totally unaffordable. Despite trying to sell it as more than gaming, the main application has always been gaming. 3d technology keeps reappearing every generation but doesn’t stick around. Even if you had the money to buy a 3d TV over a decade ago, you can’t get content for it anymore. Apple’s gotten around this lack of content and apps by pinning 2d content into a virtual 3d space, but this was always going to be a gimmick. After the cool factor is gone, which happens quickly according to nearly all reviews, few people actually want to be strapped into a headset all day long.
Insofar as apps go,most developers are sitting it out on the sidelines because despite the billions spent trying to build up a market, nobody’s demonstrated more than lukewarm demand. I think there is demand, but it comes and goes like the tide. People don’t actually want to be permanently tethered to VR and if that were to happen we know exactly where it would ultimately lead – ads, ads, ads.
A little bit of a side-topic, but the idea of a 3D marketplace is interesting, and as pointed out in another comment, maybe a bit premature. But this technology will improve if it’s successful, and right now the killer apps are (guessing) flight-sims and driving sims. Virtual desktop has a lot of promise and I’d like to be able to use it more, but the headset is fatiguing past a few hours’ use. Once the technology gets down to something like safety-goggle sized or even some kind of magical projection we can’t foresee right now, then it will become more common. Today the resolutions are almost there, and the comfort factor is too – The Quest Pro is well designed and balanced, but still too much for day-to-day. I think 3D immersive movies are great demonstrators, but won’t carry interest too far. Augmented reality will be key – when I can see my virtual desktop AND my mouse at the same time and interoperate seamlessly between virtual and real then I predict that will be the killer app.
Codeslave9000,
Games and sims have always lined up well with this technology. It continues to get incrementally better and more realistic, which is great. But I wouldn’t consider these ideas novel, just upgrades of the same applications. AR could be used to enhance laser tag games – particle effects and substituting players with avatars.
Business applications of AR are out there, but they don’t need to be so fancy. Something along the lines “google glass” fills the functional requirements already. Using high power GPU to re-render the entire environment in 3d space the way apple goggles do gives more eye candy, but is it actually more functional for a warehouse worker looking up information? I don’t really think so.
It’s cool that modern technology has reached the point where AR can be injected into a scene so seamlessly. But even in cases where injecting 3d models into a 3d rendition of our physical environment can be done well. I’d argue the 3d model is what’s important and adding my physical surroundings is just a distraction. In real life I don’t have much space to inject virtual creations into, AR is kind of wasted on people who don’t have a beautiful physical space to project objects into. Might as well just create a beautiful VR fantasy space and not bother with AR at all. Now if we could get rid of the goggles altogether and project models onto a table (ie Hollywood style), that could be useful in meetings, but unfortunately that’s not what AR technology does. As soon as we require everyone to put on goggles…it becomes silly to limit the virtual space to our physical environments.
The main exception I can think of is when our physical space itself is actually the object of interest. A killer application that comes to mind is architecture. An architect could say “we’ve made up a model, here put these on”. The goggles could allow one to experience both the physical space as well as the artistic rendition of it’s completion. This is still a relatively niche use case, not something everyone would benefit from owning outright, but I feel it would be such an awesome application of the technology.
Can’t afford to buy a VR hardware, even one that isn’t standalone (though I have a computer capable of running VR stuff if I had a headset), so I don’t really get the appeal. I think the tech need to mature, and by “mature” I mean ascend to the Holodeck or even Matrix level of interactivity.
Also, could you do something with the login system on the site? It automatically logs me off after two weeks or so, even if I check the “Remember me” box. And yes, I have cookies enabled. Don’t have this issue on any other site either.
darkhog,
It’s all just electrical impulses into our brains, which could theoretically be simulated. I think the innovation here would be to do it without causing permanent damage IRL, haha.
Given that not even Meta could create a profitable VR platform out of their Quest line, this reeks to me of capitulation. I love my Quest 2 but people in general just do not want to regularly use VR. Apple Vision Pro is a complete flop without any killer use case and Quest is slowly dying.