In honor of Oculus Quest’s first anniversary today, Facebook announced that the popular standalone VR headset is getting a new ‘Playspace Scan’ feature to make its Guardian system capable of detecting objects that could trip you up during gameplay.
Guardian, first released on the 2016-era Oculus Rift, lets users define their playspace before jumping into VR, making it less likely to smack walls, or break TVs or furniture. With the release of Quest and Rift S, users were able to visually define that area, making the setup process much more simple.
Now Facebook says it will be bringing a new Playspace Scan feature to Quest starting this week which helps you detect and exclude objects during Guardian setup such as intruding tables, chairs, and anything else you might unintentionally miss during setup.
Check out the feature in action below:
The company says it will also bring color customization features to Guardian soon, letting you change it to blue, purple, and yellow.
Facebook has been making strides to fill out the feature set of Quest since launch in 2019, adding in experimental hand tracking, which is consequently soon to leave beta. It’s uncertain however if Rift S will also be getting the new Playspace Scan feature too; Rift S still hasn’t gotten hand tracking, so it’s possible Facebook is focusing on Quest for now.
We’re also still waiting to see a dynamic object tracking feature, which would hypothetically let you know when someone or something has wandered into the predefined tracking area. Whether that infringes upon user privacy is another matter all together.