Facebook Surprise-launches New VR Meeting App With Virtual Desktops and up to 50 People

Aug 19, 2021

Facebook’s Latest Avatars

Horizon Workrooms is using Facebook’s latest VR avatars, and I have to say that they’re a huge step forward compared to the prior avatar system. While they technically launched earlier this year, only select third-party developers have access to the system, making them currently a fairly rare sight.

My demo in Horizon Workrooms was the first time I saw the new avatars in a large group setting. While they can look a bit uncanny at times when their arms get a jumpy due to Quest’s imprecise hand-tracking, overall they look great. Especially combined with impressive lip-syncing and spatial audio that’s built into Horizon Workrooms. Here’s a close-up look from my demo (unmute for sound):

A Step Forward for Productivity on Quest

Quest is, at its core, still a gaming device. Horizon Workrooms is clearly an effort on Facebook’s part to bring collaboration and productivity capabilities to the headset. In that sense it feels like it has taken a step forward. Though it’s far from perfect, and there’s many other VR collaboration apps to choose from with features not found in Horizon Workrooms.

If Horizon Workrooms is to truly succeed, it will need to respond aggressively to feedback to build on the ways that people actually work, while continuing to make the app as easy to use as possible so that people see true utility and not just novelty. It’s also going to need to tighten up the virtual desktop functionality so that it doesn’t feel like a compromise compared to using your actual computer.

At the same time, Horizon Workrooms feels like it’s not addressing a more fundamental issue. It’s great that Facebook is allowing people to form teams, invite members to those teams, and then schedule virtual meetings for everyone to show up to at the same time. But Quest is still missing casual VR meeting functionality intended for general use-cases and not purely business—it feels a lot like having a smartphone that can make business calls but not personal calls.

Even though it’s free and technically anyone can use it, Horizon Workrooms has too much administrative overhead to address the regular, everyday users who just want a way to easily invite a friend to a shared virtual space to hang out and chat. Building up from those simple, personal meetings to more high-level business meetings seems like it would have addressed a much wider range of needs. At the same time, I can appreciate that Horizon Workrooms is focusing on a very specific use-case.

kontis

It would be a shame if your future employee wasn’t a Facebook user or had a permanently banned account, so remember to never hire one of those strange people, so they don’t jeopardize your futuristic virtual workrooms.

Also in case any of your employers get their account banned by Facebook AI for some mysterious artificially intelligent reasons quickly come up with some excuse to fire that loser.
- Ad
  
  If you want to use VR, you should maintain a high social credit score.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Ahh, just like valve requires steam account that purchased at least one title to even try to order the steam deck.
    
    Totally not gate keeping and so welcoming for new users!
    - Ryan
      
      If you don’t have a steam account with any games, you’re not likely an avid PC gamer with many games. I’m not saying it’s impossible, it’s just not likely, and in a world where scalping is happening on the level it is, where even with their restrictions the first release round of steam decks sold out within minutes, I’m glad for the restrictions.
    - Ad
      
      That was an anti scalper measure for pre orders. The device works just fine without a steam account. Simp for Zuck somewhere else.
  - Diane Meraz
    
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Christian Schildwaechter

I think this increases the chance that we will see a Quest Pro announcement in two months at Facebook Connect, that the Quest Pro will not require a Facebook account and that it will be significantly more expensive.

This is obviously intended as a business tool, and the Quest 2 EULA doesn’t allow you to use the retail version in a commercial settings. You will have to buy the business edition for USD 799 with a mandatory USD 180/year contract. And this business edition is more a a large enterprise edition. It cannot use any of the apps from the Quest Store, instead it offers tools for administrators that can install manage devices from a central console. It is not targeted at smaller companies with a few employees for virtual conferences, but at Walmart, Starbucks or KFC that buy hundreds of Quest 2 and use them to train new employees

So currently Oculus doesn’t have an HMD offer that matches Horizon Workrooms. A Quest Pro might fit right in, and the rumored eye tracking would be very useful to have your avatar look at other partitioners in virtual conferences. Currently VR conferencing is like everyone wearing sunglasses with painted on eyes, which is rather irritating. It would also justify the extra price for eye tracking, just in case it turns out that eye tracking still doesn’t work well enough to provide huge performance gains through foveated rendering.

Such a Quest Pro targeting smaller companies will have to work without requiring to log in with a personal Facebook account, as a company cannot force employees to give Facebook personal information just to participate in conferences. Facebook will price a Quest Pro accordingly, and with USD 800 for a 256 GB Quest 2 business edition, it could easily top USD 1000, but probably below the USD 1300 for a Vive Focus 3 (plus USD 300 for the announced eye tracking). If they try to enter the business market with a similar aggressive price as the Quest 2, it could be UD 899 or USD 999.

The restrictions regarding Quest Store apps might still apply, but they could allow enthusiasts to use the Quest Pro with a Facebook account like an upgraded Quest 2. Most people would still pick the much cheaper version, but companies should be fine with the price. It could pay for itself if saves the company even a single business trip with flights and hotel room to attend a remote meeting.
- Blaexe
  
  But Zuckerberg says he wants to upgrade the VR experience even more with the Quest Pro, a device that could include new sensors — face and eye tracking or maybe even fitness — in a higher-end self-contained system. The new sensors could add a greater sense of “presence” as part of Facebook’s plan for social VR. It could also come at a higher price, as Zuckerberg says, “there’s some ability for it to be a little more expensive.“
  
  The statement by Zuckerberg reads very differently compared to your idea of a Quest Pro.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    – face Tracking
    – eye tracking
    – self-contained
    – greater sense of presence
    – for social VR
    – higher price
    
    Everything very similar to what I expect.
    
    – a little more expensive
    
    This depends a lot on the definition of “little” and if you use the USD 299 Quest 2 as a baseline, or if you start with a USD 399 256GB Quest 2 plus USD 129 for an Elite strap with battery, so USD 528. The current business Quest only has the 256GB version, and a solution resembling the Elite strap battery would be required if the Quest Pro increases the resolution and/or the clock of the XR2, similar to the Focus 3. This would also make the headset more comfortable due to the better balance, and therefore more ergonomic in conferences.
    - Blaexe
      
      But he “a little more expensive” point is the most important one.
      
      Why wouldn’t they release a Quest Pro at $500 or $600 for consumers and $1000+ for businesses, just like the Quest 2? Why would it have to be exclusively for businesses?
      
      This depends a lot on the definition of “little”
      
      That’s also pretty clear.
      
      But as you mentioned, at this point, even game consoles are more expensive than that. So I think there’s some ability for it to be a little more expensive.
      
      Zuckerberg is comparing it to the new consoles, which cost $500.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        My argument for the Quest Pro is mostly that it makes sense in their product portfolio. My price estimates are somewhat based on the Business Quest, as it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to still sell that at USD 799 if a Quest Pro was better and cheaper.
        
        Technically a Quest Pro will still use the same XR2, most likely with better cooling and the clock restrictions somewhat lifted. As you do not want to run out of power during a virtual business meeting, a swappable battery would make a lot of sense, as would placing it at the back of the head. But none of these would significantly increase the price, let’s say USD 150-200. They would probably upgrade the screen to full 2K or 2.5K, but the displays aren’t that expensive either.
        
        Adding face and eye tracking basically means adding three (cheap) near infrared cameras, and the XR2 can handle up to seven. Just like the hand tracking the real cost/value would be developing the software, but this would keep the hardware price low. Extra processing for the new sensors could be covered by the higher SoC clock. And they could probably squeeze color passthrough in there somewhere.
        
        So could Facebook build a Quest Pro for USD 600, or maybe even USD 500? Most likely yes. Could they sell it in a business bundle for USD 1000+ for companies without requiring a Facebook account and basically at build cost to consumers with forced Facebook connection? Yes again. Will they do it? I don’t know.
        
        I was baffled when Facebook released the Quest 2 for USD 200 less then the Quest 1 and with a much faster SoC, I would have bet on a Quest lite with the same 835 chipset, but reduced price. USD 299 was extremely aggressive, and it payed off, Facebook now absolutely dominates the lower end consumer VR market with no competition in sight. They will continue on this path, so it is absolutely possible that my (pricing) estimates are too conservative again, Facebook will introduce an eye tracking Quest Pro at half the price of a Focus 3 or less, and replace their current Quest 2 business with the Quest Pro at double the retail price or more.
      - Blaexe
        
        Facebook will introduce an eye tracking Quest Pro at half the price of a Focus 3 or less
        
        For consumers, yes. For businesses it will be similar expensive.
        
        and replace their current Quest 2 business with the Quest Pro at double the retail price or more.
        
        No need to replace anything – Quest 2 and Quest Pro can (and imo will) co-exist.
        
        That’s also basically Carmacks view as explained here. Basically making the base version lighter, more comfortable, higher res and so on while having a Pro version that’s “exploring every every sensor and the kitchen sink.”
        
        And later on Bosworth agrees:
        
        “The good news is we can do both. We can do both, you can have a set of techniques and development that are going to put something out there that has a more featureful presence. And this is going to go at maybe lower volume in terms of the numbers of units, but also advances the state of the art, inspires developers, I think unlocks a lot more use cases. And then as the technology maures, finds its way to these scale units […]”.
        
        So we now have 3 leading people of facebook / FRL basically saying the same thing: We’ll see a Quest Pro sooner than a Quest 3 which will be higher priced and sold in parallel to the Quest 2. Price will be similar to the current consoles – so roughly $500. These new features will then trickle down to a cheaper Quest 3 along the line – and we’ll eventually get a new Pro.
        
        Business versions will be more expensive (though that has nothing to do with them not requiring a facebook account), just like they have been in the past since Oculus Go.
        
        I don’t know with how much “tiers” of hardware facebook will end up, whether just 2 or maybe 3. But the strategic guide rails seem pretty clear at this point.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        So now that we have roughly established the what and the how much, the main remaining question is when, we just know that it will come someday. I still hope that the Workroom release hints at Facebook Connect ’21, but only Facebook knows for sure.
      - Blaexe
        
        Not in 2021 – at least that’s what Bosworth said. And that’s also why I don’t see them announcing it at Connect. This would pose the risk to significantly impact Quest 2s black friday / holiday sales (in a negative way) as the Quest Pro will make big splashes in the media as a significantly upgraded headset and quite some people will just decide to wait and see.
        
        I just don’t see them taking that risk. If they announce it, they have to sell it soon after Connect imo.
- dk
  
  “not require a Facebook account” xD that will never happened …it’s a facebook product
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    The Business edition already doesn’t require a Facebook account, you just pay for that privilege with a much higher price. So it could work in a similar fashion on Quest Pro:
    
    – consumers pay less, can use the Quest Store, but need a Facebook accounts
    – businesses pay (a lot) more, can only use custom apps, but don’t need Facebook accounts
    - dk
      
      the situation will be same as Q2 …only businesses will buy the business version
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        Yes. My point here might have been lost. I’m hoping that Horizon Workrooms will lead to an additional/altered business offer. The current one is aimed at large companies, that are expected to develop their own custom software, or hire an ISV (Independent Software Vendor). Oculus actually has an ISV business program, you can apply to become a developer for enterprises deploying on the Quest business edition. But one of the requirements to even apply is having
        
        Implemented at least one Global Fortune 2000 customer pilot or deployment.
        
        This isn’t targeted at smaller companies or developers.
        
        Horizon Workrooms is a teleconferencing solution, basically the VR equivalent of Microsoft Teams. It is not aimed at end users, so this is sort of Facebook’s first VR plug’n’play office software. A lot of smaller companies might be interested, but most of these will be just software users, they buy Dell PCs/workstations with support contracts and commercial software, and don’t do any custom software development. These are outside of the scope of the current Oculus business program and at the same time prohibited to use the retail version.
        
        I’m sort of hoping that Facebook will open a business channel addressing these companies, or extend the current one, so they could e.g. order the Quest Pro (at higher) prices from Oculus or a partner, but still access “standard” software for collaboration etc. instead of having to spending five or six figure sums for creating their own. And maybe some ISV can then generate a generic “employee safety training” app that multiple businesses can use, either unchanged or with minor adaptions for their company.
    - Ad
      
      You know the business edition requires a facebook enterprise account, right?
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        Yes, but this isn’t the type of account that most people worry about, it is basically defines who is allowed to manage the devices. And is necessary, because they are still connected to Facebook servers and companies can deploy their custom apps over a special Oculus business software channel, in addition to their own local servers.
        
        It is not an account that connects personal data to a profile generated by tracking users across millions of websites for the purpose of selling them things, from a company with very shady data protection record. And it will not be closed because you posted the wrong things and are no longer in “good standing”.
- Elite-Force_Cinema
  
  “Quest Pro will not require a Facebook account”
  
  Are you trying to say you want to force Oculus to go out of business for good just so that you can force them to not for them to do better at treating their customers with respect but for them to get all of their employees to go bankrupt and homeless instead simply because you think Oculus is owned by Facebook and that you think Facebook is bad simply because you care about your privacy and anti-censorship and nothing else? Cause it sounds like you are!
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    I was first puzzled what you are trying to say, but then I saw that you are basically copy-pasting this comment all over the RoadToVR comments, so I assume it is a strange form of self-expression by spam.
  - MeowMix
    
    lol what ….
- Andrew Jakobs
  
  I think the EULA forbids commercial use as in not being able to use it in an arcade like venue, not as a tool(like a monitor/keyboard) in the workplace.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    They don’t enforce it, but the Oculus Terms Of Service restrictions are quite wide:
    
    5.1 Purchasing Oculus Products from Oculus. You may only purchase Oculus Products for your personal use or to give as a gift unless otherwise expressly permitted in these Terms. You may not purchase Oculus Products from Oculus for commercial use or resale, although you may use the Oculus Products to develop and test content, software, or applications intended for distribution by Facebook and our affiliates.
    
    The arcade restriction actually comes from the business edition. From the Oculus for Business Solution FAQ:
    
    Can I operate an experience that includes co-location features?
    
    Co-location is when two devices in the same vicinity track each other within the software. The tracking functionality of the Oculus software does not support co-location, and you may not modify the tracking functionality for custom co-location or otherwise.
    
    So offering VR co-location is prohibited in general on Quest, for the retail version, because it would be commercial use, and for the business version, because you are not allowed to add this function. You may develop it on the retail version, but not use it for anything else than testing.
- Ad
  
  I think you’re overthinking this. They are looking at this as a business app, not a bundle product. I would expect less a pro than a lighter version with just hand tracking, anyway. They will need a facebook account, don’t be silly.
  - ViRGiN
    
    I can’t wait for valve index not requiring steam account
    - Ryan
      
      Steam is not a social network
      - ViRGiN
        
        So? I don’t want another account to remember or whatever. Why can’t i skip steam altogether?
        
        Nobody forces you to participate in any social media activities. You probably made an account yourself at some point in your life, even if you aren’t using it for years.
    - Ad
      
      SteamVR doesn’t require a steam account to work.
      - ViRGiN
        
        So where do i get steamvr installer without ever participating to steam monopoly?
      - Ad
        
        I don’t know but it’s DRM free, put it on a flash drive.
      - ViRGiN
        
        Just like you can make a Facebook account and never use it for social media. But that’s a foreign concept for you, while shilling for hardware that does tie your permanently to valve monopoly for 3x times the price of quest 2, while having 15x less to offer
        
        I bet you would dump your own kids in order to use Oculus headset without Facebook login, that’s how fixated you are.
      - Ad
        
        This is getting increasingly deranged.
      - ViRGiN
        
        At least it’s drm free. Go whine more in Oculus subreddit, after all you’re getting paid for it, cause no sensible person would continue such shitshow for months.
        
        “Index doesn’t require steam account”… Ha! What a joker.
- MeowMix
  
  business edition for USD 799 with a mandatory USD 180/year contract
  
  NOPE.
  The $180 annual support fee is OPTIONAL and can be cancelled (of course you then lose out on Enterprise tier support). As for the $800 price tag, that also includes the first year of the Enterprise support fee ($180), which is mandatory (as in you can’t cancel it to bring the price down to $620). After the first year, you can cancel.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    The price reflects the cost of the device and a one-year subscription to Oculus for Business enterprise-grade software and support that will end 12 months after activation, and renew annually for $180/year to the payment method provided unless you cancel.
    
    Unfortunately they don’t really specify what that means. Losing the enterprise 24/7 support after cancelling shouldn’t be a problem, but what can you do with a Quest Business that cannot access the Quest Store without the “enterprise-grade software” that is also part of the subscription and needed to deploy your custom software? Yes, you can cancel, but that may turn your Quest into a brick.
    - MeowMix
      
      Check the website, no need to speculate.
      It states the Advanced Enterprise Support ($180/yr) –
      
      24/7 advanced customer support*
      Includes hardware and software support via chat, email, and phone.
      
      The first year of your Oculus for Business software subscription is included with your purchase. Your recurring subscription will renew at $180/year after the first 12 months.
      
      *English: 24 hours per day, seven days per week. German, Spanish. and French 9AM – 5PM Monday through Friday. Central European time.
      
      Cancelling the service, you lose out on the Advanced (Enterprise) Support. I’m not sure I follow your speculation on the headset becoming a brick if you decide to cancel Advanced Support. I conclude after cancelling your support tier goes back to being the same as the normies (2 week long RMAs, Support agents during business hours).
      
      As a comparison, I’ve had a few business laptops that paid Enterprise Support. Once Advanced support is cancelled (for example Lenovo/Thinkpad), then your support tier defaults back to the normal consumer warranty/support. I’m sure the same applies to Oculus Advanced Support.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        You lose more than just the Advanced (Enterprise) Support. What makes the Oculus Business program interesting for large enterprises is the “Device Manager”, an Oculus application that allows you to centrally manage numerous Quests, install software on them, set them to kiosk mode or limit which apps they can run. The apps are installed either from a local server or via an Oculus service.
        
        The package you buy consists of hardware, software, and services. The hardware is just the Quest and a one time payment. The software is the management tools and needs a yearly subscription. The services is enterprise level support with extended warranty in case you need help or your hardware breaks, also part of the yearly subscription.
        
        Canceling the support wouldn’t be a problem, canceling the management software would. In the best case you can allow local administration before your contract runs out and still install software locally. In the worst case you can’t install any software outside of using ADB, or the devices will even refuse to work because they can no longer connect to a valid device manager. I have found no description what will actually happen. This is different from your Lenovo support, because there you own the software needed for administration.
- Behram Patel
  
  “This is obviously intended as a business tool, “.
  I’d say this is shaping up to be the perfect tool for education.
  
  Cheers,
  b
- Niclas Johansson
  
  “the Quest 2 EULA doesn’t allow you to use the retail version in a commercial settings”
  “currently Oculus doesn’t have an HMD offer that matches Horizon Workrooms”
  
  – This is WRONG. I get that this is the whole premise for your hope that Facebook will release a specifical headset dedicated to professional use, but that will. Not. Happen. They will not put resources towards efforts that disrupts their consumer focus – Fb is and will remain focused on end users, not businesses. Thus, the premise for the loooong thread below is false. FRL will only ever re-purpose consumer hardware for professional use.
  
  You probably missed the addendum to the user terms, where the consumer license IS actually extended to “some business uses”. See this post and the linked documents: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/new-options-in-oculus-for-business/
  
  Excerpt below:
  
  “We’re also introducing new Oculus Commercial Terms to enable the commercial use of our consumer headset.
  (…)
  Different businesses have different needs when it comes to deploying VR for work, and this consumer SKU option complements our existing Oculus for Business SKU, which isn’t changing. Businesses might choose the consumer SKU if they want to do things like quickly deploy a VR pilot program using apps from the consumer app store, use built-in consumer features as part of their VR solution (…)”
  
  I have hope, just like you, that they release a license that allows “casual professional use” with all core functionality, access to the appstore etc without a Facebook account – it would be great for many companies, and completely necessary for use in schools, libraries, museums, etc. But that is just hope – there’s no credible evidence supporting that this is on the way.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    I indeed missed the change in February that now allows businesses to buy the consumer units through enterprise channels, so that their commercial terms apply. These HMDs are allowed both to be used in a commercial settings and access the Quest Store and App Lab, making it possible for ISVs to publish business apps on App Lab and their customers to buy and legally use these. This is exactly the loop hole that was missing in the usage terms and distribution before, so thanks for pointing it out.
    
    As for an exclusive commercial headset: yes, it wouldn’t make any sense, the number of units sold would be too small, every HMD sold by FB will be available to both end users and businesses (under different terms) for the foreseeable future. I never claimed otherwise, or at least never intended to, but it is obvious that a lot of people got that impression.
    
    My primary interest in VR have always been use cases outside of games. For me VR is like smartphones that can be used to play games, but there are a lot of other, and for me even better applications. So the current focus on games is mostly due to the remaining limits of the hardware. This is where my excitement for Horizon Workrooms came from, a clearly business oriented productivity tools that would benefit enormously from the rumored features of the Quest Pro that FB already said is coming, hinting at a third target group besides end users and large enterprises.
    
    As I wasn’t aware of the commercial loophole you pointed out, I wrongly assumed that releasing Workrooms now FB must have been planing to open Quest to businesses soon, which made a Quest Pro announcement at Connect ’21 seem probable. From a legal point this turns out to be unnecessary, while technically Workrooms would still benefit a lot from eye tracking.
    
    My biggest blunder was only discussing the business side, including business pricing, as my main interest was FB “officially” targeting commercial use not only at enterprise level, with only alluding at the end that end users would be able to use it too. This got completely lost with everybody assuming that I meant that the Quest Pro would be only available to businesses and only at increased prices. My mistake for forgetting that my interest in VR differs from most people here, and not stating that clearer.
    
    I agree with everything you wrote. Thanks again for pointing out the blogpost, as this actually removes a lot of legal barriers in my own projects, and I completely failed to realize it earlier.
    - Niclas Johansson
      
      I’m with you – VR (and AR even moreso) is on the trajectory of becoming the next general computing platform, and it’s not a secret that both Fb/Microsoft/Google/Snap and others are investing seriously to make that happen. I’m following these developments closer than most, and I know not many picked up on that blog post and the changed user terms. Here’s a session from last year’s Connect where they hinted of non-enterprise professional usages of Quest: https://www.facebook.com/113556640449808/videos/748131176084508
      
      I agree with you that there’s a not-oft-addressed gap in the market, and the amended business/consumer terms kind of helps that. I actually wrote up a framework for different “complexity levels” of professional adoption of VR and AR, and this first and simplest step I’m calling “BYOXR” – as it’s really about a bottom-up adoption in an organization, or for solopreneurs, freelancers etc. If you’re interested, here’s where to read it: https://www.xr4work.com/articles/bobi-framework-professional-xr-adoption
      
      (The biggest gap still remains though, which is for SCHOOL USE. Schools would really benefit from accessing the consumer apps, but there’s just no way to legally use a Facebook-connected device in classrooms. And they will not go through the hoops of the enterprise-focused Oculus For Business deal either.)
Jim P

Love the concept. But the data FB will be collecting from this is huge and scary.
- dk
  
  the overwhelming majority doesn’t care …in this case or any other case with a big company like this
  - Jim P
    
    That’s the scary part.
- sfmike
  
  Stop being so paranoid.
  - PK
    
    what about facebook’s track record of the past decade has filled you with trust about their collecting and handling of user data? or how they destroy talented young companies to steal their ideas? or support autocratic governments around the world?
    - Hivemind9000
      
      So what data can they collect here? Your name? Check. The fact that you draw badly. Maybe. Anything else?
      
      Compare that to the treasure trove they get from people interacting with their newsfeeds and friends on standard Facebook.
      
      I really don’t think there’s much valuable data they can extract from a VR session like this, at least for now. Commercially, Facebook make most of their money from advertising (98%) so that has to come into play at some point. When, I don’t know, but expect it.
      - PK
        
        well i’m not viewing this as only what can be done right now this exact moment, they’re most definitely aiming to collect as much biodata and build better profiles of people that they can use to target ads among other things. but even now, how much oversite do we know is happening to make sure they don’t do things like spy on these meetings? for one, they steal ideas, what stops them from looking in on selectively looking in on these? they’re notorious for ripping off indie creators, and if any is willing to use the oculus platform to share ideas, i don’t have much confidence that they couldn’t then just hang out in the room without anyone seeing. same goes with something like vrchat, nothing really stopping them from invisibly viewing private sessions. except the people i know in that company at the top, i trus, so far. i don’t trust zuckerberg.
  - Jim P
    
    So no past incidents would say otherwise that FB has been in. Homosapien.
  - Jim P
    
    Stop giving your free soul away.
JB1968

Facebook VR spyware? No thanks.
Ad

What remote work dev was dumb enough to work with them and get cloned again?
TonyVT SkarredGhost

The idea of the controller used as a pen is genius! For the rest, it looks like a cartoonish Spatial
- Marc-André Désilets
  
  The pen feels amazing ^_^; I was blown away by that usage of the remote, and since they have your desk position and height, it only draws when the “pen” touch the desk :O
  
  We’ll get there! For now they need to focus on the experience and functionality. There’s still a lot that can be done even if the platform is not strong enough for high fidelity visuals.
Marc-André Désilets

The controller used as a pen is indeed genius! I tried the app without expecting the feature and when I tried it for the first time I was simply blown away. Since they have the exact position of your desk (x,y,z) it’s almost like if the pen is pressure sensitive (ok… it’s on/off) but it only draws when the pen touch the desk it feels super natural. I was surprise that nobody thought about that before.

For the cartoon look, it’s clearly a limitation of the platform, we are still running on a mobile chip here. Getting that much user in a single room is still very impressive.

This is a first step to something bigger, they have to figure out how to get the navigation easier and make sure that it’s easy to invite people and join meeting. But the fack tant we can take note, write on a white board, while presenting stuff of the team and share our PC screen is a very good starting point ;)

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