Xbox Cloud Gaming finally came to Quest earlier this week, letting Game Pass Ultimate members play the service’s full catalogue of flatscreen games on Quest for the first time. But did you know you don’t actually need any sort of subscription to play Fortnite for free on Quest?
Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Image courtesy Meta
Meta paused shipments of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 late last month due to a widespread charging fault that would render the battery useless for some users. Meta is now unpausing orders of the device, as it hopes to send out a new batch of battery straps with new firmware by the year’s end.
Meta announced a new mixed reality platformer for Quest called Demeter that uses your furniture and walls so you can solve puzzles and challenges, tasking you to guide a pint-size hero get back to her world.
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Pimax was founded in 2015 and developed the world’s first 4K VR headset, which was recognized as the best VR product at CES Asia 2016.
In 2018, Pimax released the award-winning Pimax 5K, followed by the 8K in the same year. The 8K pushed a massive 200° FOV at 7,680 × 2,160 resolution, first upscaled then native with the 8KX in 2019. This year, Pimax launched the Pimax Crystal, a headset that is the only award-winning VR headset at the CES 2024 Innovation Awards.
The Pimax Crystal currently offers the highest clarity in consumer VR. This is partly due to its ultra-high fidelity QLED panels, which boast a native resolution of 2,880 × 2,880 pixels per-eye (native not upscaled, even at 120Hz). Additionally, it is the world’s first and only VR headset equipped with glass aspheric lenses. These lenses are a key factor in why the headset is aptly named the ‘Crystal’.
Crystal is listed among ‘The best VR headsets for 2023’ by both GameRant and Digital Trends, and also is recommended by media such as HotHardware and Tech4Gamers.
John Linneman from Eurogamer: “It’s the best VR display I’ve ever tested. The clarity, brightness, and field of view are best-in-class and extremely immersive. If you’re serious about cockpit games especially, like racing games and flight sims, there’s no better option.”
Pimax Crystal through-the-lens captures
Key Features of the Pimax Crystal
QLED+Mini LED panels for life-like graphics with adjustable local dimming
35 PPD with glass aspheric lenses, a native resolution of 2,880 × 2,880 pixels per-eye (native not upscaled, even at 120Hz)
Eye-tracking technology powered by Tobii registers the position of the user’s eyes 120 times per second, and enables auto-IPD and dynamic foveated render (DFR), optimizing the device performance with up to 50% FPS boosts
Multiple options of refresh rate with 72Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz (and 60Hz upcoming)
Inside-out tracking so there’s no need for base station (although it’s base station compatible with the Lighthouse faceplate)
“With the Crystal, I have, for the first time, begun to feel that I have come close to my original goal of founding Pimax: to make a VR headset that blurs the line between the real and the virtual.”
The Only VR Headset Awarded the CES 2024 Innovation Award
This year, the Pimax Crystal was awarded the CES 2024 Innovation Awards as an Honoree in the ‘XR Technologies & Accessories’ category—as the only VR headset to do so. It will be on display and available to demo for all visitors at CES 2024 (#15454) and displayed at the official Innovation Awards Showcase at the Venetian Expo, Halls D, Booth #56332. Visitors will be able to try a variety of demos to discover why VR fanatics worldwide choose the Pimax Crystal for the highest clarity in consumer VR. If you attend CES 2024, it is a great chance to experience the Crystal personally.
Don’t forget, if you want an 8% discount on all purchases and a $30 gift certificate, order before Dec 31, 2023. Visit the campaign page to learn more.
According to a report from The Information, ByteDance subsidiary Pico Interactive is pulling the release of its next consumer-focused standalone headset in effort to no longer compete directly with Meta Quest, instead positioning its next device to compete with Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
Ray-Ban and Meta’s second-generation smartglasses are slated to get a lot smarter starting this week, as the company launched an opt-in beta in the US that will hook in the device’s camera into AI-powered object recognition, powered in part by Microsoft’s Bing.
Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) and nDreams showed off more of the post-launch roadmap for Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023), the ghostbusting co-op adventure that landed on Quest and PSVR 2 in October. Owners of the game can look forward to new game modes and content, but the studios say we’re also in for something “major” come March.
Seven years after its predecessor, Arizona Sunshine 2 is back to bring you more head-popping fun, and thanks to its co-op capability and wide release on all major VR platforms, you’ll be able to have a friend join you for this particular vision of the zombie apocalypse.
Although Quest 3 is Meta’s hot new headset release, an attractive holiday deal looks like it’ll make Quest 2 the company’s best selling headset this year. Looking at the stock available directly from Meta shows that Quest 3 availability is holding strong while the 256GB variant of Quest 2 is largely out of stock.
Stunt track racer Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem is about to race onto Quest and SteamVR headsets next month, bringing along with it a heavy dose of nostalgia for playing with pint-sized cars and connecting up track pieces.
Apple Vision Pro isn’t slated to launch until early next year, but if you’ve got an iPhone 15 Pro you can already start capturing memories as spatial videos.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is getting ready to prepare in-store staff on how to sell the company’s upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Training is reportedly slated to take place in mid-January, with launch said to be internally expected to take place the same month.
One of the co-creators of Thumper (2016), an acclaimed rhythm action game that eventually got VR support, has announced a new VR-first game called Thrasher with some totally unique-looking gameplay.
Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall announced nearly a year ago that it was set to launch MeganeX sometime in early 2023, potentially making it one of the first in the coming wave of slim and light PC VR headsets. We haven’t heard much about MeganeX since then, and there’s good reason: the company is slowly ramping up production following its recent soft launch in Japan.