Meta’s Quest VR headsets are dominating the market share, and for good reason. They’re affordable, provide excellent visuals and Meta keeps improving the experience. Speaking of which, Meta has just shared some more info on how its headsets use VPS to keep track of your room’s details.
VPS (Visual Positioning System) was introduced back in December of 2023 with the v60 update. It sought to reduce, if not entirely eliminate, a common issue with the Quest headsets. That being that they will often forget a room they’ve been used in before.
If you’ve ever used a VR headset you know about setting up your boundaries in your room. VR headsets remember these boundaries and alert you if you’re about to exit them. This is particularly useful for not bumping into your TV when playing some of the best VR games out today.
Sometimes headsets forget these boundaries or don’t recognize the room at all. This leads to users having to set up these boundaries all over again. Enter Meta’s VPS: a cloud-based solution that Meta claims has already helped users over a 100 million times.
How do Quest headsets use VPS and the cloud?
Image credit — PhoneArena
The main thing VPS does is help your headset remember rooms and spaces for longer. Using the extra cloud computing power the headsets are also able to map out rooms more thoroughly.
This means your headset is less likely to forget a room, and more likely to correctly recognize it despite changes in lighting or furniture placement. Cloud storage also lets you use your headsets in more places because these places don’t get forgotten.
A while back, Meta announced Augments for the Quest 3. These are virtual objects that you can place around your real-life room, seemingly inspired by the Vision Pro. This fascinating use of MR (mixed reality) allows Quest users to decorate their environments separately inside MR.
VPS has already improved the persistence of virtual items on Quest headsets. Meta, in the linked blog post above, gives an example of this by talking about a virtual chess board placed on a real table. The example mentions the chess board staying where it is “day after day”.
This chess board pretty much seems like what Augments are supposed to be. Which leads to the question: was this another sneak-peek into how Augments will function? And if so, will VPS allow Augments to become truly permanent?
VPS can be enabled or disabled at any time by following these steps:
Go to Settings.
Go into Privacy and Safety.
Find Device Permissions.
Toggle Share Point Cloud Data.
Point clouds are how headsets like the Quest 3 store data about an environment. You can also delete existing cloud data by choosing Delete Shared Storage in the Device Permissions.
Meta says its seen an impressive 50% reduction in “Boundary Not Found” events for people using VPS. Proving once again that despite costing less than many competitors the Quest headsets punch way above their weight.
Abdullah is an ardent believer in the future of VR, and can't wait to see what more it brings to the table as technology improves. He enjoys covering new software releases in the XR industry, as well as major news about hardware and companies focused on VR.
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