AR Coming to Oculus Quest 2

Oculus has announced that it will open its platform to AR developers and their projects, pointing to a promising near-future for Oculus Quest 2 users and the Facebook-owned company’s plans for augmented reality.

Bringing AR games and apps to the Oculus library will not only be a boon for current Quest 2 users, but it could also very well be the development that hurls Quest 2 above and beyond existing AR devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens, and even beyond yet-to-be-released devices like Apple’s AR glasses. Numerous tech giants are banking on AR, alongside AI, being one of the next explosive advancements in computing. This announcement from Oculus could be interpreted as an attempt to capture that market from AR-only devices.

Expected Use & Unexpected Upgrades

Oculus no doubt hopes to beat slow-to-arrive Apple’s AR developments as it brings AR to Quest 2 [Image: Apple]

With the much-ballyhooed Microsoft HoloLens losing relevancy for mainstream VR and AR users, Quest 2 can now pick up those users, utilizing its existing externally mounted cameras to capture real-world imagery and beam it seamlessly into an otherwise VR presentation. For fans of the growing field of AR porn, this is especially exciting as it opens up a more malleable, customizable, and comfortable mode of getting in unreality. Couples in close proximity and far apart could easily convert their current gaming-focused Quest 2 use into an erotic AR aid that allows them to blend the best of fantasy and reality without being forced into an expensive hardware upgrade.

As with many news items coming out of Menlo Park in recent years, Facebook’s decision to bring AR to Quest 2 users has elicited some scowls and criticisms. The further AR elements can interact with the daily lives of its very real users, it is argued, the greater the likely concern about Facebook’s notoriously possessive take on the personal data of their user base is likely to be.

Will this AR development keep Quest 2 at the top of the consumer-grade VR (and now AR) heap for a few more years, or is this decision merely another step towards the impending release of an Oculus Quest Pro or Quest 3 with AR arriving as standard?