The Facebook subsidiary Oculus upgrades the wireless VR headset Quest with interesting features and a whole range of apps. In the future, users will be able to connect the mobile VR device to a gaming PC. Hand tracking will be added next year. From November, users can combine the previously exclusively without connection to the home computer usable all-in-one VR headset of the Facebook subsidiary with a powerful PC.

In the future also with cable in the VR

The feature is called Oculus Link, is integrated via a software update and brings a whole series of high-end games to the display of the wireless VR glasses, which were previously reserved for the wired Oculus model Rift S. With a Snapdragon Mobile chip, the quest is more likely to be a smartphone-based VR experience.

In the future, quest users, who appreciate the advantage of unhindered movement on their mobile eyewear, will be free to choose the power of a desktop computer for a high-end gaming experience. The Oculus Quest can be connected via a commercially available USB-C cable, but Facebook also wants to offer a cable as an accessory.

Thanks to the new Link function, the cable-capable VR headset will certainly compete with the Oculus Rift S in-house, which can only be used with cables. Both models currently cost about 450 euros. At the launch of the new feature on Facebook’s VR Developer Conference, the California company also said more than 50 VR apps from its predecessor Oculus Go should be made available for the quest.

Playing freehand

From next year, the headset of the Facebook subsidiary should be able to track movements of the hand. This eliminates the need for controllers to control. The hand recognition is made possible by a software update and introduced “experimentally”. Facebook promises “natural interactions” in the virtual world.

Facebook has taken over VR pioneer Oculus 2014 for $ 2 billion. The former startup is considered the inventor of data glasses and has prepared the way to virtual reality with Oculus Rift. Already at the Oculus acquisition Facebook founder Zuckerberg had stated that he was banking on a broad breakthrough of virtual realities. After the first VR hype last year followed a significant disillusionment.