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.

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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.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • uKER

    Great. Another feature in which the Rift S is being left out for no good reason.

    • kontis

      Another feature in which the Rift S is being left out

      Correct

      for no good reason.

      Incorrect.

      There are 2 huge and very good reasons:

      1. Microsoft Windows PC is not Facebook’s owned or controlled platform
      2. x86 windows PC cannot be turned into smartglasses monetizing billions of people in every day use.

      • johannes meyer

        Another reason:

        3. The Rift is usually attached to your PC and therefore used in one and the same playspace most of the time. This feature makes sense for the Quest because you have to create new spaces for every location.

      • kakek

        You think THOSE are good reasons ? Both of them are corporate and economic reasons for not supporting their own product after selling them.

        A good reason would be technical / practical reason why they cannot bring the features to a part of their paying customers. Only half valid reason might be that it would be a bit less usefull for a “fixed” headset. But that’s still pretty weak.

      • rms

        1) This is a software solution that could be implemented in drivers and/or software. Reliability of the feature is dependant on the hmd’s hardware.

        2) They could still gain a lot regardless of the OS.

        The real reason I think, is that they focus only on one headset at a time.

        And the quest was more versatile so it means more potential in term of return: You pay for mobile, you can buy a program to play wireless on pc. Also you can pay extra for a cable that negate the interest of the quest to begin with.

        The issue, is that the rift got around a month of support. And no real money is being poured to fix any issues remaining. And no money at all to implement new features.

        But I expect that when their next headset will come, it will be the same as the rift-s.

  • impurekind

    Yeah, I was actually thinking this was about the dynamic scanning feature.

  • Hacker4748

    “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.”

    How?

  • Cool! I want to try it!

  • Yen

    As a developer, I just want to use this feature inside Unreal Engine to create customs and random maps generated with it.

  • YoGuardian

    Important for my dogs safety! :)