Oculus Quest Features an Active Cooling Fan

AlphaAtlas

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In a forum AMA that UploadVR spotted over the weekend, Oculus Director of Ecosystem Chris Pruett said that the upcoming Oculus Quest will be "significantly faster" that Facebook's last mainstream standalone headset, the Oculus Go. This should seem fairly obvious, as the Quest will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC instead of the 821 found in the Go, but the chipset change isn't the only thing that will speed up the quest. UploadVR pointed out that the Go already uses a heatpipe to reign in the notorious 821's tendency to throttle under sustained loads, but Facebook is taking things one step farther by adding a cooling fan to the Quest. The AMA also implied that headset and controller tracking is hardware accelerated, as the Oculus staff said tracking "'doesn't affect' performance."

Quest goes even further with cooling by adding an active cooling fan. This has rarely ever been done with ARM processors. The new Apple TV and the HTC Vive Focus are the only instances on the consumer market we know of. With the active cooling system, Quest should be able to have higher clockspeeds than smartphones or Oculus Go. Everything still needs to be rendered for each eye but the higher clock speed should provide more complex and detailed virtual worlds compared with Go. Of course, Quest will still not come close to the power of a PC.
 
I had a DK1, DK2 and Vive, each representing a generational leap in technology from its predecessor. The quest is the only new VR device that has renewed my interest, and dare I say pretty damn close to the the final frontier of VR. It has always been about freedom. Whether it was the clunky Dactyl nightmare games from the 90’s to the best the rift had the offer, if you knew you could only move X amount of feet before running into the coffee table it just killed the experience. I’ll take Minecraft graphics any day if it means I can walk around freely in the garage or backyard or empty spare bedroom.
 
^ wireless is the holy grail no doubt, but I'll gladly compromise on mobility and keep the tether another gen in exchange for a better screen and bigger FOV.

Why, because Odyssey+ and Vive Pro screens are the first interim-gen that are a joy to look at, and Pimax 5K+ isn't OLED but still good and has a crazy high 170 FOV.

Quest will be a great product nonetheless and more investment and advancement in this space is critical. I'm prob more interested in Rift S, but I'll get a Quest to play around with. The peashooter ARM chip won't be driving graphics like an OC'd 2080Ti driving a Odyysey+, but cartoon graphics are still fun in VR.
 
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hmm.. an active fan.. on my face. i wonder if the noise of it will be distracting.. since it will be coming from in front of me and my eyes
 
In a forum AMA that UploadVR spotted over the weekend, Oculus Director of Ecosystem Chris Pruett said that the upcoming Oculus Quest will be "significantly faster" that Facebook's last mainstream standalone headset, the Oculus Go. This should seem fairly obvious, as the Quest will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC instead of the 821 found in the Go, but the chipset change isn't the only thing that will speed up the quest. UploadVR pointed out that the Go already uses a heatpipe to reign in the notorious 821's tendency to throttle under sustained loads, but Facebook is taking things one step farther by adding a cooling fan to the Quest. The AMA also implied that headset and controller tracking is hardware accelerated, as the Oculus staff said tracking "'doesn't affect' performance."

Quest goes even further with cooling by adding an active cooling fan. This has rarely ever been done with ARM processors. The new Apple TV and the HTC Vive Focus are the only instances on the consumer market we know of. With the active cooling system, Quest should be able to have higher clockspeeds than smartphones or Oculus Go. Everything still needs to be rendered for each eye but the higher clock speed should provide more complex and detailed virtual worlds compared with Go. Of course, Quest will still not come close to the power of a PC.
My Quest from Walmart came early and while I can't activate it until the 21st, I can say for sure that it does not have a fan. None of the reviews that have been published stated that it has a fan, either.
 
Actually sounds great if you're playing a flight sim or racing sim, where you're in an open cockpit. Wind in the face; wow, what realism. Can we add water for when it's raining? Maybe bugs splattering on our faces, too? Or will that cost extra?
 
^ wireless is the holy grail no doubt, but I'll gladly compromise on mobility and keep the tether another gen in exchange for a better screen and bigger FOV.

Why, because Odyssey+ and Vive Pro screens are the first interim-gen that are a joy to look at, and Pimax 5K+ isn't OLED but still good and has a crazy high 170 FOV.

Quest will be a great product nonetheless and more investment and advancement in this space is critical. I'm prob more interested in Rift S, but I'll get a Quest to play around with. The peashooter ARM chip won't be driving graphics like an OC'd 2080Ti driving a Odyysey+, but cartoon graphics are still fun in VR.
I think this is the big one for me as well. It will be good for putting around, but for the big stuff, you want a PC with a good CPU/GPU.
I do not mind the wire so much and the sensors on my Rift. The lighthouses would be much easier. I just wish that these 2 things could be used by the upcoming HMD's.
I am still on the fence about the tracking capabilities of the inside out and such.
 
835? Aren't they like at 855?I imagine is a tiny bit difference i suppose.
 
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