Three years after its launch and two years after it was retired and replaced with a newer model, the Oculus Quest will finally get the Hand Tracking 2.0 update.
That’s right – the precursor to the hugely popular Meta VR headset, Oculus Quest 2, has yet to be forgotten by Meta, and the Oculus Quest update is expected to land in October (via Upload VR (opens in a new tab)).
Hand Tracking 2.0 (which arrived in Quest 2 earlier this year) will improve the existing capabilities of the original Quest by improving its cameras and software for hand recognition. In particular, it should be able to track your hands when they are moving fast or are partially invisible – provided your playing space is properly lit.
Because of these improvements, Hand Tracking 2.0 should make the use of your hands more addictive. Eventually you’ll be able to clap your hands or fold your hands without any problems with the headset.
You don’t need to do anything to get started with Hand Tracking 2.0, instead you have to wait for the developers to implement the feature in their games. Fortunately, many developers have already adopted and implemented Hand Tracking 2.0 in their Quest 2 titles, including Vacation Simulator and City Builder Little Cities, so the Quest versions should receive an update soon as well.
Analysis: don’t call it back
Unfortunately, this 2.0 hand tracking update should not be seen as a return to the old standalone Meta hardware. We expect this will not trigger an avalanche of support for Oculus Quest.
Because despite being only a year older than Quest 2 (and sharing a lot of similarities), the Quest is a significant downgrade of the specs. It only has 4 GB of RAM (compared to 6 GB in the Quest 2) and uses a combination of the Snapdragon 835 processor and Adreno 540 graphics card, outclassed by the Qualcomm SnapdragonTM XR2 platform.
The power difference already means that some of the best Oculus Quest 2 games (such as Resident Evil 4 VR) are unplayable on an older headset; we expect more new games to be exclusive to Quest 2 in the future.
Instead, consider it a recent hurray for Oculus Quest and one more reason to hold off on updating your VR setup until we know more about Project Cambria (or the hotly anticipated Oculus Quest 3).