Oculus Quest 2

Thanks to the courtesy of the UAL, me and my course colleagues were able to take home and test the Oculus Quest 2. Being a VR student and having a chance to use the latest technology is just brilliant and quite important, too. Especially that the only VR headset I own is an old, second-hand EVO VR which uses a smartphone for the experience.  

Each of us received a brand-new headset, along with two controllers, charging cable and a plug. The protective cases arrived a couple of days later. Initially, we were renting them for a month over the Christmas holidays, as the campus was going to be shut, students were not allowed to come in to study and there were more pandemic related restrictions to follow.   

As the time passed by, the festive season was over, and the new year has arrived, along with further Covid-19 regulations. Students are not coming back to the blended study mode, it was announced. Schools, colleges and universities to be closed until at least mid-February. Sadly, that meant no more Fridays at LCC, no more face-to-face learning, no more work on those super-powerful machines, we were supposed to run our end of term projects on. The only good thing about not being allowed to go back to the campus, was the fact that we didn’t have to return the equipment right yet. The loan was automatically extended until further notice. 

Collecting the Quest 2 was exciting! Setting it up took a bit longer than expected. I, as I usually do, experienced some issues. This time with the Wi-Fi on my headset. Thanks to our brilliant, and always helpful IT technician, I managed to sort it out after a little while. Next, I had to download the Oculus app on my phone and sign up to the Oculus via my Facebook account. The rest was easy. 

Over the next few weeks, we were working remotely and getting familiar with the Unity VR built. We were introduced to some simple VR coding, building scenes and playing them on our headsets. There were technical issues, which would be avoided in the pre-pandemic studying times as we would all have worked on the same machines in our lab; but we managed to learn new things and practice.  

I must admit that every person in my household had a go with the Quest 2 and they all loved it. VR experiences and games are examples of a contemporary entertainment. Even simple activities, like looking around the space or grabbing a cube in a VR scene, can amuse the user. Using Quest 2 is quite straightforward and intuitive, the user doesn’t really need a lot of instructions. After turning it on and placing securely on your head, you just need to follow the instruction being displayed right in front of you. This is to create a safe space for using the headset, with the accurate floor level and experience boundaries. When this step is completed, the user sees clear menu. The fun starts there. 
For me, as I have a developer mode enabled, using the headset is also the way to learn and test in practice projects I’m building in Unity. It’s just the beginning, as my current apps are rather simple, but this is the way I learn and explore VR. Random obstacles and technical issues can make this learning process more frustrating, but richer at the same time.