Quest v71 is a large replace, bringing a lot of enhancements and new options to Meta’s Horizon OS.
In no explicit order, the v71 replace is bringing: a refresh of the system interface design, an AI mannequin that converts microphone audio into estimated facial expressions, smoother passthrough, prepare assist for Journey Mode, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Encompass, a first-party calendar app, a shortcut to Distant Desktop in Fast Settings, enhancements to Scene Mesh scanning, a quantity mixer for app and name audio, the flexibility to ship flat and spatial movies in Horizon chats, the flexibility to pair controllers and styluses contained in the headset, and an app permissions indicator on the menu bar. That is quite a bit!
As with all Quest updates, v71 will “roll out” progressively, so it might take a couple of days and even weeks in your headset to get the v71 replace.
Design Refresh & New Settings
Quest v71 brings a design refresh to Horizon OS.
Meta stated it “made assorted adjustments to the best way panels look and behave, the place the management bar resides, the colours of assorted UI components, and so forth”. This consists of, in keeping with Meta, an improved Gentle Mode, and Darkish Mode’s look has been modified too.
Essentially the most important change although is to the Settings interface, which has been fully revamped with a facet tab design that resembles iPadOS and common Android on tablets. Meta says it is also improved search inside Settings, so you possibly can “discover precisely what you had been searching for”.
AI Audio To Expression
Meta says v71 brings Audio to Expression, an on-device AI mannequin that “derives compelling facial movement and lip sync alerts” from solely microphone enter, offering estimated facial expressions with out face monitoring {hardware}.
Audio to Expression can be offered as a part of the identical API that builders can already use to entry Quest Professional face monitoring.
There was an Oculus Lipsync SDK for builders since 2015, a mannequin which converts microphone audio into believable lip motion (we even use it in our weekly from-VR podcasts). However Audio to Expression additionally supplies generated higher face actions, together with higher cheeks, eyelids, and eyebrows. And remarkably, Meta claims Audio to Expression truly makes use of much less CPU than Oculus Lipsync.
Smoother Passthrough
Meta says it “improved the digicam body charges to align together with your show body charges”, which ought to make passthrough look smoother.
That is the third introduced enchancment Meta has made to its passthrough know-how because the launch of Quest 3. Replace v64 in April introduced improved publicity management and dynamic vary, making it simpler to learn bodily shows like your cellphone or monitor, after which replace v66 introduced considerably decreased warping distortion.
Journey Mode On Trains
As Meta teased at Join, v71 provides assist for trains to Journey Mode.
Initially designed for airplanes, Quest 2 and three obtained a Journey Mode again in Could, and it is supported on the brand new Quest 3S too.
However Why Is A Journey Mode Wanted In The First Place?
Folks typically assume that markerless inside-out monitoring methods on headsets, glasses, and self-tracking controllers solely use the cameras, however this is not the case. These methods rely simply as a lot on the inertial measurement unit (IMU), a chip that accommodates a tiny accelerometer and gyroscope.
Whereas cameras usually run at 30Hz or 60Hz, the IMU usually supplies updates round 1000Hz, enabling a lot decrease latency. Nonetheless, an IMU cannot truly detect absolute motion – not less than indirectly. The accelerometer within the IMU senses acceleration relative to gravity, and you may take the integral of acceleration over time to get velocity. And in the event you once more take the integral of these velocity values over time, you get displacement from the unique place.
This course of is named lifeless reckoning. From second to second, it’s how each headset and controller tracks itself, and the optical side like cameras or laser base stations are basically solely used to right for the cumulative error that outcomes from the noisiness of IMU knowledge. However in a transferring car the accelerometer will choose up the acceleration of the car itself, pondering it is the headset itself transferring, which leads to sudden and speedy positional drifting.
Some Quest homeowners reported that Journey Mode already works with trains, however this official assist will possible make it extra dependable.
Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional has had a Journey Mode since launch, which we praised in our evaluation, and Apple additionally simply added official assist for trains in visionOS 2.
Dolby Atmos & Dolby Digital Encompass
Quest v71 provides assist for each Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1 encompass audio, with the headset’s rotation panning the soundscape.
Meta says this can be supported in “content material on choose web sites in Browser” and that it’ll “broaden to different service suppliers quickly”.
A Calendar App
With v71 Horizon OS now has a built-in Calendar app.
The Horizon OS Calendar helps Google Calendar and Microsoft’s Outlook Calendar, in addition to Horizon Worlds occasions and Horizon Workrooms conferences.
Distant Desktop in Fast Settings
With v71, you possibly can entry your PC as a digital display screen in Horizon OS utilizing Meta’s first-party software program by way of a shortcut in Fast Settings, that means you not must hunt by means of your app library for it.
Quests Can Quickly Lengthen Home windows Laptops By Simply Wanting At Them
Quest headsets will quickly be capable of prolong Home windows 11 laptops by simply taking a look at them, and with out putting in particular software program.
Sooner or later Meta plans to scale back the friction of Distant Desktop even additional for Home windows 11 laptops, by way of a partnership with Microsoft that may allow you to prolong them by simply taking a look at them.
Scene Mesh Scanning Enhancements
With v71, Meta says you’ll replace the mesh for a room from Settings, constructing on and refining the unique mesh, as a substitute of needing to rescan it from scratch.
You will additionally, the corporate says, see a miniature 3D illustration of every room you might have saved.
Quantity Mixer
With v71 you possibly can regulate the amount of Calls individually from the amount of App & Media audio, from Fast Settings.
This implies you will not must convey down the audio quantity of every recreation to listen to different folks in your Horizon Celebration, WhatsApp/Messenger name, or different communications platform.
Share (Spatial) Movies In Horizon Chats
With v71, you’ll ship movies to your Horizon followers in Horizon chats.
Meta says this helps each flat movies and Apple spatial movies, that means you possibly can instantly ship spatial movies you seize together with your iPhone 15 Professional or iPhone 16 collection cellphone, and others will be capable of see them of their headset.
In-Headset Controller & Stylus Pairing
Beforehand, you could possibly solely pair new Contact controllers, in the event you obtained a substitute for instance, utilizing the Meta Quest cell app (now known as Meta Horizon).
With v71 Meta says you possibly can pair Contact controllers and Logitech MX Ink styluses contained in the headset, identical to you already can with gamepads.
Nonetheless, we must always observe that the corporate truly initially stated this could arrive in v68, and it did not, persevering with the complicated pattern of Meta placing issues within the official Horizon OS hangelog that are not truly there within the construct.
With v71, Meta says it added “real-time permissions indicator” to the common menu bar of Horizon OS, letting which options are at the moment being accessed by apps.
This performance can be current on iPhone and Android telephones, in addition to different platforms, and is now thought of a elementary privateness characteristic.
