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10 virtual travel apps for oculus/meta quest 2.

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Heading Out Review: "Definitely Gives The Atmosphere of a Road Trip"

Endless ocean luminous review: "pretty and serene, but lacking depth", i still can't believe throne of glass wasted 1 of its most promising characters.

Travel is a major goal for many people, but it can be inaccessible even in the best of times because of financial and mobility-related barriers. As unfortunate as it is, some people may never have the chance to visit all the places they want to. But VR allows its users to not only explore virtual worlds but also get a better understanding of their own.

Between 360-degree breakdowns of the world, guided tour videos, and documentaries, VR allows people to get closer to the places of their dreams than was previously possible. Many travel apps even include interactive features, so the users can feel like they're actually able to connect with different cultures and topography. As systems like the Oculus/ Meta Quest 2 become more widely available, and as programmers and cinematographers put more effort into advancing the technologies, travel will truly be possible without having to leave home.

Traveling While Black

Traveling While Black is an Emmy-nominated VR experience that talks about the process of traveling, specifically focusing on the barriers that have been put in place for Black populations, in history and in the present. The experience takes advantage of every benefit VR offers, which helps its message connect with the audience.

While this is not a documentary that focuses on the freedom of VR, it does try to get its users to think outside their own bodies and life experiences to see how other people can be limited in their own freedom. It tells an incredibly important story, which deserves to be heard by those who have now gained a deeper level of freedom through the digital realm.

For those looking for a way to walk around the world, Wander is the app to download. The app's primary function is to allow users to navigate the world similarly to Google Maps' StreetView, allowing them to enter an address and be transported to that spot. This can be a great way to explore new areas or look back on places you used to live.

In addition to immersive imagery, users can use the historical jumping feature to see what different areas looked like over the years. Many famous landmarks even have the ability to be explored from the inside, giving users the feeling that they're really there.

BRINK Traveler

BRINK Traveler gives users the ability to see some of the most amazing places on Earth from the comfort of their own homes. While there are currently only 17 locations for users to visit, the additional features make each one a true travel experience that may push them to travel in real life as well .

Virtual guides can explain the features and history of each spot, and an in-app camera allows users to take all the pictures they would want if they were to visit in person. Another great feature is the ability to travel in multiplayer mode, which lets users meet up with friends from anywhere while getting a remarkable view at the same time.

OtherSight is one of the most interactive travel apps out there because it specifically focused on including usable objects in every location. Currently, users only have the option of going to four different locations, but there's a lot that they can do at each one.

Users can visit churches, streets, and museums and really get a sense of how it feels to be there. The scale, texture, and movement qualities of interactive features are especially well done. While this is a fairly limited app at the moment, the developers are working on new locations, which can provide future explorations.

The Ocean might not be the first place people think of when they try to imagine their travel plans, but it is one of the great untapped resources on Earth. There is far more to be seen and discovered in the Ocean than there is on land, and Ocean Rift gives users the chance to explore that realm.

There are 14 different habitats to explore, which can be used as an educational program or one for relaxation, depending on the settings. The sea creatures are extremely detailed, and users can actually interact with many of them, giving the perspective of a true underwater safari. However, those with a fear of the ocean and its creatures may find some modes a little too realistic for their comfort level.

Blueplanet VR Explore

Blueplanet VR Explore is one of the most expensive travel apps, but that's in part because it is so extensive. The app allows its users to travel to 40 different cultural sites, with some offering the ability to interact with the landscape or even hang glide over it.

One of the best qualities of this app is the spacial breakdown, where users can truly explore the location. It is a physically navigable terrain, which creates a greater level of immersion than standard point-and-click systems. The one downside to the app, beyond its price, is that it takes up a lot of space, requiring a lot of memory and a strong internet signal while downloading.

Alcove is not technically a travel app, but it does offer a number of virtual tour experiences for free. The app itself is a virtual home, where users can download different in-app features depending on their interests. The travel features do include a number of tours on the ground, under the sea, and even in the sky, narrated by some of the most thorough guides available in VR.

The limitation of the app is that each experience is entirely pre-determined. There are no interactive features that would make it more immersive. However, given that it is free and has such incredible visual quality, that might be a sacrifice worth making.

National Geographic Explore VR

National Geographic Explore VR is a highly-interactive app that allows users to take on the role of a National Geographic photographer. They have the ability to travel to Machu Pichu or Antarctica, where they can navigate the landscape and take pictures of the many sights to see.

Users feel the strain of rowing boats and climbing cliffs, which makes for a more immersive experience . However, the quest is fairly pre-programmed, which means that individual decision-making is only possible in the pictures a user takes rather than in the experience as a whole. Coupled with another, more interactive app, this could be a great way to feel the travel in a way that images themselves cannot achieve.

Nature Treks VR

Nature Treks VR isn't overly concerned with realism, instead focusing on making a relaxing experience. Users have the ability to go on a walk on a variety of virtual paths, with exotic animals meandering by and control of the weather allowing the user to fit the experience to their preferences.

Because it isn't definitively located in any real-world locations , users have the ability to mold the world as they see fit, interacting with the trees to summon animals and controlling the sound levels to be more immersive or more relaxing. The detail work and spontaneity make it an engaging experience, though users should be aware that it is not intended to be a completely realistic one.

ecosphere is a photo-realistic breakdown of the Earth's most beautiful locations and the people that are working to protect them. Intended as a way to help the average person connect with the environmental crises of our time , these immersive documentaries show the importance of caring for the Earth before the damage is irreversible.

This is distinct from other user-directed travel apps but also provides a sense of depth and significance far beyond what other apps can offer. There are only a handful of experiences, but they go beyond visuals to explain what really matters about the different locations they portray. As an added bonus, the app is free, making these videos some of the most accessible ways for Oculus users to travel in VR.

NEXT: The 10 Coolest Games To Play On Oculus Quest 2

virtual tour oculus quest

September 14, 2021

Introducing 3dvista vr app for meta quest.

View your Virtual Tours offline

How to watch virtual tours easily and offline on Meta Quest? Nothing's easier than that. With the new 3DVista VR App, for free to download from the Meta Store, you can now view your tours in the most easy and native way. No more need to copy and paste tour links and view them through the browser or download them from the online version. Instead, you can simply use 3DVista's new VR app for free and play the tours copied to the device, directly in VR mode. Simply follow these steps.

Step 1. Publish your Tours for VR

The first thing you have to do is access your tour in VT PRO, go to the " Publish " button and select the " VR Apps " option. Inside, check the " Quest 2 " or " Quest 3 " box. Select a folder on your hard drive to which you want to save the tour and click " Publish ".

Important: Make sure you publish your tours with the most recent version of 3DVista.

Step 2. Create 3dvista folder in Meta Quest and copy tours

Connect your Meta Quest to your PC using a usb-c cable. Should your PC not reconnect to the new unit, try turning on the goggles. This'll pop up a menu on the Meta Quest screen prompting you to give your PC access to the device.

Go to the root folder of the Meta Quest drive and create a new folder with the name " 3dvista ". Inside it is where you can then copy the previously published tour folder(s) so that you can later view them within the 3DVista app.

Step 3. Install the 3DVista VR app  

Turn on your Meta Quest and go to the app store . Type " 3dvista vr " into the search field. Initially, the app is not shown like some others in the top section. Instead, you have to go to the " App Lab " section below and click on the " view app " button. This will make it appear in the list. If this section does not appear, please, check the device updates and make sure that your Meta Quest are updated to the latest version.  

Click on the 3DVista VR application and on the " view details " button, and finally on " Download ". The application will begin to download and install like the rest of your apps. Once the process is finished, the " start " button will appear. Click on it to start the app. Now you will get a menu in which the app will ask for permissions to access the content of the device, hit " allow " to continue.

And that's it, after the initial loading screen, the app will show you a list of all the tours that you initially copied. And by clicking on them you can view them directly in VR mode. The easiest way to watch virtual tours on your Meta Quest.

Oculus for Business

If you are using Oculus for Business, your administrator can download the app through this link: https://download.3dvista.com/vrapp/vrapp-3dvista-oculus.apk

Unfortunately, this will not work natively on Oculus Go as this device does not support Oculus Apps Lab.

Branded VR App

3DVista also offers the service of creating your own branded app for VR devices. Include your name or brand, logo and your own Tours. More information here .

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10 of the Best Virtual Reality Travel Experiences

  With the time and expense required to travel being prohibitive to many, there are alternative ways of indulging your wanderlust – including via the burgeoning world of Virtual Reality.

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Cubicle Ninjas)

There are a huge number of VR companies all vying to create ever more unique experiences for consumers – and one of the biggest growth categories has been travel. And what better time to get a taste of exploration and adventure from the comfort of your living room, equipped only with a VR headset, than now, when travel is a luxury that many just can’t stretch to? We’ve picked out 10 of the best virtual reality travel experiences currently on the market.

So which VR headset should you go for? Our favourite is the Meta Quest 3, which launched onto the market in mid-2023 and is the successor to the Meta Quest 2. For immersive games and travel experiences, we believe the Meta Quest 3 is destined to become the leading VR headset over the coming years. It’s pretty affordable, too, and unlike other headsets, doesn’t require cords or a computer. You can purchase the Meta Quest 3 at Amazon.com.

Guided Meditation VR

Developed by Cubicle Ninjas, Guided Meditation VR is designed to bring peace, joy, and calm back into your daily life by teaching you ancient meditation practices in a cutting-edge way. It features over 40 lush environments to escape the everyday, 30-plus hours of guided meditations on anxiety, depression, maternity, resilience, sleep and zen, and hundreds of hours of calming musical audio tracks to help enhance your meditation experience. Users can also customise their sessions to their own specific preferences and needs, including the option to switch into Motion mode and gently float through beautiful vistas like you would on a lazy river, leaving the worries of your life behind before returning calmer and stronger.

PRICE £10.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

Be anywhere in the world with anyone, instantly, in this captivating game developed by Wooorld Inc. Visit hundreds of cities, architectural landmarks, natural wonders, and vacation spots in incredible 3D detail, and get tips about the best places to visit, the hidden gems, where to get the best food and all the tourist traps to avoid. You can also create your own 3D avatars with face and body tracking and test your worldly knowledge by guessing where you are after being teleported to 5 random locations, with only the landscape, flora, architecture, and road signs for clues. The game can played as collaboratively as you wish, with options to explore the world with friends and meet new people, or hop into a Solo World without any distractions.

PRICE Free HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Wooorld Inc.)

Blueplanet VR Explore

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Blueplanet VR Explore)

Highlighting sacred and fragile locations of natural beauty and cultural heritage, Blueplanet VR Explore  is a collection of remarkable places across the world. With freedom to move around and explore, the virtual reality experiences are captured in volumetric 3D with great detail and accuracy. The scenes look and feel like these places do in real life, and enable you to freely move around to enjoy and explore these remarkable, fragile, and priceless environments. Concern for the environment often comes from direct experience, and being as close as we can get to experiencing a sense of actually being there, Blueplanet can help encourage people to appreciate and protect these treasures.

PRICE £18.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

BRINK Traveler

Travel to some of the world’s most amazing natural wonders in fully immersive 3D and feel like you’re really there in this awe-inspiring game by Brink XR. Step into a scene akin to a postcard as you visit a total of 28 (with more on their way) of the most breathtaking places on Earth. In-game highlights include room-scale walkable areas in each destination, a virtual guide and assistant to learn about where you’re visiting, and the chance to shoot photos to share with friends. You can either play the game solo or with friends and family in multiplayer mode.

PRICE £11.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: BRINK XR)

National Geographic Explore VR

Created in partnership with National Geographic, a world-leading society in the fields of geography, cartography and exploration, this magical VR experience invites you to discover two of the most iconic locations on Planet Earth. Don your explorer hat and head to Antarctica for an exhilarating expedition. Navigate around icebergs in a kayak, climb a vast ice shelf and survive a snowstorm as you hunt for a lost emperor penguin colony. Visit the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru and get immersed in amazing digital reconstructions of the legendary site. Witness mummy worships, raise a cup of sacred chicha and encounter cute and furry alpacas as you match Hiram Bingham’s photographs from when he rediscovered the citadel. Be sure to take a camera as your best snaps may even make it into the prestigious National Geographic magazine.

PRICE £7.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Force Field Entertainment B.V)

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

Fans of the hugely popular TV blockbuster The Walking Dead can now join the world of zombies in this new VR adventure. Travel through the ruins of New Orleans as you fight, scavenge, and survive, each day unravelling another mystery lurking within the city’s historic quarters. Encounter desperate factions and lone survivors who could be friend or foe. Whether you help others or take what you want by force, every choice you make has consequences. What kind of survivor will you be for the people of NOLA? Scavenge for anything that you can; weapons, food, tools, and clues. Be wary of the living and the dead, with spatial audio drawing attention to any loud noise. Craft makeshift gear out of scrapped material; blades, guns, medicine, and more. Test your morals and make difficult choices for yourself and others. It’s all here, bringing the small screen to life in a big way.

PRICE £29.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Skydance Interactive)

Narrated by award-winning actress Anna Friel, this trail-blazing VR series opens the door to some of the planet’s wildest environments while redefining the limits of 3D-180 cameras. Meet the humans protecting our most precious wildlife, explore the great savannahs of Kenya, discover the ancient jungles of Borneo and dive into the rich coral reefs of Raja Ampat. Encounter elephants, orangutans, manta rays and some incredible humans, all in stunning cinematic footage filmed from the air and deep into the ocean. The series was produced in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: PHORIA)

The world is your oyster with this interactive, immersive VR experience that’s designed to be played by the whole family. There’s global travel and adventure in which your friends and family can join city tours, hot air balloon rides, back-country road trips, and plenty more. Or you can simply kick back and relax, practice meditation and get back to nature – all in the company of a guide or going solo, if you prefer. Other features include photo sharing, soundtracks, a range of fun games and media customisation.

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: AARP Innovation Labs)

Rome Reborn: The Pantheon

Created by Flyover Zone, an American company specialising in virtual travel applications that present the world’s most important cultural heritage sites and monuments, Rome Reborn is one of five applications that present different areas of ancient Rome. This particular one transports users over the entire ancient city, focussing on the Pantheon, perhaps the best-preserved building from antiquity. In the company of two virtual guides, you’ll get to explore the exterior forecourt and interior sanctuary of the reconstructed complex as you listen and learn about the Pantheon’s design and decoration, as well as the nature of the religious cult once housed within it.

PRICE £3.99 HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Rift

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Flyover Zone Productions)

Monte Fitzroy is Argentina’s most famous mountain landmark and is even used as the logo for outdoor retailer, Patagonia. It is a place that immediately evokes a sense of adventure. At the foot of the mountain is a beautiful and remote glacial lake known as Laguna Sucia. Most people who visit Monte Fitzroy view it from a location that is much easier to access. Laguna Sucia requires a much tougher hard-to-access trail that culminates in one of the most beautiful and remote glacial lakes in existence. You are rewarded with a sense of almost meditative stillness as you approach this untouched natural amphitheatre. This VR experience utilises Pterovision, a 3D technology that integrates computational photography, 360 Video, and gaming and allows you to take off like a bird, fly around the lake, visit the waterfalls along the edge, and fly over glacial formations beneath the mountain peaks. Numerous narrations will tell you about the challenges we faced when filming in this location, as well as educate you about the geology, culture, and history.

PRICE $2.99 HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Rift 

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Specterras Productions)

Gala360 – Travel & Relax

Taking you on awe-inspiring virtual adventures across the globe, Gala360 is the result of the magic touch of an array of exceptionally talented photographers who have captured their globe-trotting trips in all their glory before being rendered into VR form. In professional 6K resolution, more than 300 tours around the world are featured, with some also including narration which allows you to listen to the stories behind the trips. Most of the tours are free, but you can pay a small fee to unlock more.

PRICE Free HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Go (soon available on Quest 2)

virtual tour oculus quest

(Photo: Gala 360)

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VR TOURVIEWER

Wavyos Technologies

How to add and view your 360 virtual tour in Oculus Quest

Unarguably VR headsets give viewers a more incredible and immersive experience that flat screens can’t compare. Many clients were always asking us how they could add and present their 360 virtual tours/ projects using Oculus Quest without a hitch.

With the introduction of the new 3DVista VR App for Oculus, there is nothing easier. The app is free to download form the Oculus Store. We no longer need to copy and paste tour links and view them through the browser, or download them from the online version. Instead, we can copy and play the tours directly in the device.

Just follow the 3 simple steps outlined below, you will be able to add and view your 360 virtual tour in Oculus Quest/ Quest 2:

Step 1: Publish your tour with the ‘For Web/ Mobile’ option

virtual tour oculus quest

The first thing you have to do is to access and publish your tour in 3DVista VT Pro. Go to the ‘Publish’ section, click on the ‘For Web/ Mobile’ option. Then check the ‘Vive, Oculus and Gear VR’ box under the publishing settings. This selection will optimize the files for playback on VR devices. And optionally check the ‘Optimize Images’ box. This will help reduce the output file size. After everything is set, select a folder on your hard drive to which you want to save the tour and click ‘Publish’.

Important: Make sure you publish your tours with the most update version of 3DVista.

Step 2: Connect the Oculus device to your computer, create a new folder called ‘3dvista’ and copy the tour folder(s) into it.

virtual tour oculus quest

Switch on your Oculus device and connect it to your PC. This will pop up a menu on the Oculus screen prompting you to give your PC access to the device.

Go to the root folder of the Oculus drive and create a new folder with the name ‘3dvista’. It is where you will copy the previously published tour folder(s) into so that you can later view them with the 3DVista app.

Step 3: Install the 3DVista VR app into your Oculus

virtual tour oculus quest

Access the Oculus App Store, search for the app ‘3DVista VR’ and install it. Initially, the app is not shown like some other apps in the top section. Instead, you will have to go to the underneath ‘App Lab’ section and click on the ‘view app’ button. This will make it appear in the list. If, however, this section does not appear, you need to check the device software version of your Oculus and make sure it is up-to-date.

To install the app, select 3DVista VR from the list and click the ‘+’ button to start the process. Once the download is finished, the ‘start’ button will appear. Click on the ‘start’ button to launch the app. Now the app will ask for permissions to access the contents of the device, hit ‘allow’ to continue.

All tours copied will be shown and accessible inside the app.

virtual tour oculus quest

And that’s it. After the initial loading screen, the app will show you the list of all the tours that you have copied into the device. And by clicking on any one of them you can view them directly in VR mode.This is how you can add and watch virtual tours in Oculus Quest/ Quest 2. Enjoy!

If you are using O4B your administrator can download the app through this link: https://download.3dvista.com/vrapp/vrapp-3dvista-oculus.apk

Unfortunately, this will not work natively on Oculus Go as this device does not support Oculus Apps Lab.

Other related topics that you may be interested:

  • Our New Suite of 360 Virtual Tour Services
  • Marketing Your Business with 360 Virtual Tour
  • Why do we choose (and stick to) 3DVista for our 360 Virtual Tour Projects?

Drop us a line!

Contact us  and let us help you create the most amazing 360 virtual tours!

Email: [email protected]

WhatsApp: +852 6099 4407

virtual tour oculus quest

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Oculus Quest 2 review: better, cheaper VR

The new default for vr, if you’re okay with facebook.

By Adi Robertson , a senior tech and policy editor focused on VR, online platforms, and free expression. Adi has covered video games, biohacking, and more for The Verge since 2011.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

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The Verge’s Adi Robertson wearing a Quest 2.

As someone who writes about virtual reality and has been stuck at home just like many people during the 2020 pandemic, I’ve gotten asked one question over and over: if virtual reality is so great and actual reality is so dangerous, why isn’t everybody turning to VR? This isn’t a totally fair framing, since VR usage has spiked by some measures . But it did expose a simple problem: I really couldn’t recommend a headset that was friendly enough for most people to buy.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks with Oculus’ new Quest 2 headset, though, and that’s very close to changing. The Quest 2 is a self-contained headset that’s shipping on October 13th, and it’s an update to Oculus’ 2019 Quest . Oculus has kept that standalone Quest design with the same feature set, while improving its screen, reducing its weight, and — with one noteworthy caveat — making it more comfortable. It’s also dropped the starting price from $399 to $299, making the Quest 2 one of the lowest-priced headsets on the market.

The Quest 2 is everything I liked about the original Quest at launch but with the benefit of a stronger ecosystem that’s developed over the past year . Even with current-generation VR’s inherent awkwardness, it feels like a final product rather than an early-adopter experiment. Oculus — a company owned by social giant Facebook — has done some of its best work so far. It’s also provoked some of the biggest questions yet about VR’s future.

At a passing glance, the Quest 2 looks like a dramatically new headset. Facebook-owned Oculus has become known for its all-black flagship devices, but the Quest 2 has a pure white body and a black foam face mask, giving it a two-toned appearance. The new color scheme isn’t necessarily an improvement, but it makes sense: Facebook has consolidated its VR product line into a single device, and it’s making that device visually distinct.

The Quest 2 looks otherwise very similar to the Quest. It’s a little smaller than its predecessor, but both headsets have the same rounded plastic front, each corner studded with an outward-facing tracking camera. The Quest had textured fabric sides, while the all-plastic Quest 2 body feels a little more sterile, although that’s offset by soft fabric head straps that replace the Quest’s stiff rubber ones. The Quest 2’s controllers are white, but they’re otherwise nearly identical to previous generations of Oculus Touch devices.

Worthwhile upgrades, not big new features

You won’t get big new features from the Quest 2, but it includes some significant iterative upgrades. The headset features 6GB of memory instead of 4GB. Its base model has 64GB of storage, just like the Quest; for $399, you can get a greatly expanded 256GB. The Quest 2 uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chipset instead of a Snapdragon 835, hypothetically letting it run better-looking games (although the Quest 2’s current library is heavily optimized for the original headset, and neither device approaches a PC’s power) while taking advantage of XR2-specific optimization for things like tracking cameras and VR screen resolution. The headset remains chunky, but at 503 grams compared to the Quest’s 571, it’s only a little heavier than the relatively lightweight original Oculus Rift. Battery life is similar to the Quest, clocking between two and 2.5 hours for a gaming session.

The Quest 2’s screen resolution has leapfrogged most other VR headsets, offering 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye compared to the original’s 1440 x 1600; Oculus also promises to upgrade the suboptimal 72Hz refresh rate to 90Hz after launch. Resolution isn’t the only factor that matters — the Valve Index has the old Rift’s resolution, but its larger field of view and higher refresh rate make the screen expansive and crisp. Even with the update, the Quest 2 screen isn’t transformationally different from the Quest’s. But text is notably less grainy, and in turn, the whole experience feels more polished.

virtual tour oculus quest

The original Oculus Quest was miserably front-heavy, and even the slimmer Quest 2 can weigh on your forehead. Its soft cloth strap almost feels like a step down, with less support and a slightly clumsier tightening mechanism. Oculus is also offering an alternate strap option, though: a padded plastic ring that rests more easily around your head and tightens with a convenient wheel at the back.

This isn’t as foolproof as some tethered headsets like the PlayStation VR. I’ll end up having one perfectly acceptable hours-long session and then another where I fidget constantly with the angle to make myself comfortable. But it’s a definite step up — my husband, who could only stand the Quest for a few minutes, got through a solid chunk of Beat Saber ’s campaign mode in the Quest 2. It’s also simpler than trying to mod your Quest with a third-party accessory, since you just pop a plastic socket at each side to switch straps.

Seriously consider the alternate strap

Oculus sadly hasn’t changed my least favorite Quest feature: its use of small, directed speakers instead of headphones or earbuds. The problem isn’t the sound quality; the Quest 2 has reasonable audio, although I find it a little thin. It’s that the sound is audible to anybody in the same room, and none of my headphones work well with the headset. Wired ones need their long cords pinned behind the straps, and Oculus apparently isn’t planning wireless earbud support anytime soon — Quest 2 team lead Prabhu Parthasarathy says latency is too big an issue. Instead, Logitech is selling custom-length wired earbuds and over-ear headphones for $50 and $100, respectively.

The Quest 2 is ridiculously cheap by VR headset standards, even with its handful of upgrades. But it’s a little frustrating that Oculus isn’t including the improved strap and earbuds by default, since new headset owners won’t necessarily realize how much better their experience could be. And unlike the charger and cheap headphones that ship with smartphones, people definitely won’t have these accessories floating around their home already.

  • The Verge’s favorite gadgets of 2020

Early Quest 2 leaks prompted fears that Oculus might be ditching focus adjustment — the option to move a headset’s lenses to match different interpupillary distances, improving the experience for a wider range of users. Oculus hasn’t done this, but it’s made the adjustment process more annoying. Instead of moving a smooth slider on the headset’s underside, you have to remove it and snap the lenses to one of three distance settings, then put it back on to see the improvement. Oculus says this option will help newcomers understand what the adjustments do, but the benefit isn’t clear. And while a single user will probably just set this option and forget it, it’s a bigger issue if you’re swapping the headset between family members or across an organization.

The Quest 2 headset (left) versus the original Quest.

The controllers, on the other hand, feel as good as ever. Oculus hasn’t changed the interface it established with its first-generation Touch: you’ll still get a pair of plastic remotes with a grip button and a trigger, two face buttons, and an analog stick on each one. The Quest 2’s designers reintroduced a thumb rest that was removed from the second-generation Touch, though, fixing my only complaint with the external design.

Internally, each controller still uses one AA battery, not the built-in rechargeables you’ll find in some VR controllers. Parthasarathy says this is because there’s no way of charging them that’s not awkward, although Oculus will probably transition at some point. The Quest could chew through batteries with a week or two of solid use, but Oculus promises the Quest 2 controllers have been optimized to last four times as long. While I haven’t been using it long enough to confirm that, mine indicated that they were at 90 percent power after a week of heavy use.

Oculus introduced hand tracking after the original Quest’s release, and the feature is available at launch on the Quest 2. It’s a great extra option for the home screen, letting you tweak settings or install games without bothering with the controllers. It’s also slowly being rolled out to third-party apps, including the workplace social tool Spatial — a good, low-pressure test case where you don’t need perfectly reliable fast-twitch motion.

Like the Quest’s, the Quest 2’s hand recognition is accurate, and Oculus credibly promises that it will improve over time. But gestures like pinching or turning your palm can be either accidentally triggered or fail to register, and when you’re using your hand to move a cursor, it doesn’t always point where you’d expect. So for now, it’s more of a perk than a full additional interface.

virtual tour oculus quest

The Quest 2’s hardware, at least with the alternate strap, improves the Quest in almost every way. And its ecosystem has come a long way. The standalone Quest catalog started with around 50 titles, and Oculus promises over 200 around the Quest 2’s launch.

Standout game Beat Saber is being continuously expanded with new song downloads, most recently from Linkin Park , although its catalog remains small compared to non-VR rhythm games like Rock Band . It’s also getting a multiplayer mode and a BTS song pack this holiday. Upcoming games include Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge , created by Lucasfilm effects studio ILMxLAB; a VR installment of Sniper Elite ; a Jurassic Park puzzle game called Jurassic World Aftermath ; a shooter set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe; and a VR adaptation of Myst .

These games weren’t available for review, but the existing Quest catalog already includes some relatively recent gems. The Vader Immortal trilogy pairs an enjoyable story with a satisfying lightsaber training mode. The Room VR: A Dark Matter brings a more hands-on approach to the Room series’ remarkably compelling puzzles. Stealth game Phantom: Covert Ops pushes the limits of the Quest’s power and screen with a large, dark, and low-contrast world, but its clever conceit — you’re infiltrating secret bases and assassinating enemies from a kayak — easily makes up for it.

Link removed the Quest’s big compromise

Of those current-generation titles, only Phantom is exclusive to Oculus headsets. Facebook looks to have a sizable exclusive lineup at launch, but it’s also promoting the Quest 2’s cross-platform potential. That includes upcoming battle royale game Population: One , which will be released in the fall of 2020 and features cross-play across HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and Oculus headsets. Some of the Quest 2’s showcase apps aren’t even VR-only — like Spatial, which also supports smartphones and a desktop web app.

The Quest got a huge boost last year with Link, a feature that lets it play PC VR games with a USB-C connection. Link removed the Quest’s central sacrifice: the loss of access to particularly graphics-intensive Oculus games, third-party storefronts like SteamVR, and experiences that didn’t make it onto the Quest’s highly curated platform. In more concrete terms: it lets the Quest run Half-Life: Alyx , one of the best VR games to date.

Link has been in beta since last year, but it’s becoming an official feature around the Quest 2’s launch. While I expressed some frustration with the system this spring, it worked great with the Quest 2, in part because the official Link cable is an improvement over a much cheaper USB-C option like the Anker Powerline. (It unfortunately adds another $79 to the cost of a Quest 2.) The Link cable is significantly longer than average at five meters, and its plug is angled to sit neatly against the headset. A non-angled Anker cable would easily jiggle loose on the original Quest, although the Quest 2 also moves its USB-C port farther back on the headset, which could improve the overall experience for both. Add in the Quest 2’s improved screen, and I didn’t find myself missing the Oculus Rift. My biggest hurdle was simply getting used to a tethered headset again.

virtual tour oculus quest

The Oculus Quest 2 retains current-generation VR’s baseline flaws: it’s grainy, bulky, and socially maladroit compared to a modern phone or laptop. VR is also best in some specific genres right now. You can find a variety of rhythm games, shooters, simulated sports like virtual boxing, and virtual worlds in which to socialize. By contrast, 360-degree video is a more sparsely populated field, despite the work of studios like Felix & Paul.

But if you’re interested in the current generation of VR games, the Quest 2 offers the best overall balance of hardware, features, and price. (Even with the upgraded strap, Link cable, and earbuds, this standalone product costs less than many PC-tethered headsets.) Its closest direct competition are business-focused headsets like the HTC Vive Focus Plus and Pico Neo 2, unless a company like Sony or Apple announces a standalone headset.

And VR developers have produced some solid anchor titles, including Beat Saber , Half-Life: Alyx , The Room VR , zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine , and social spaces like Bigscreen VR. Motion sickness can still be a problem in VR, but as developers have learned better design tricks and headset tracking has improved, it’s become easier to find experiences that don’t trigger it.

If you’ve already got a Quest, the Quest 2 isn’t a must-upgrade moment — all currently announced Quest 2 games will work with the Quest, and Facebook isn’t letting developers ship Quest 2-exclusive content at this time. But the hardware has distinct benefits. And if you’ve got an older PC-tethered headset, like an original Rift or Vive, the Quest is a big step up.

So why wouldn’t you get one? Basically, Facebook.

virtual tour oculus quest

The Quest is the first Oculus headset to require a Facebook account, not just a standalone Oculus account. If you’re new to the platform, you’ll sign up with Facebook. If you’ve got an Oculus account, you’ll be prompted to merge your accounts.

This isn’t the sea change it might sound like. Facebook already owned all the information it collected through Oculus, including some data that’s predictable (your app usage history) and some that’s less obvious (how you draw the boundaries on your play space.) Moderators could cross-reference names and IP addresses to find a given Facebook user’s Oculus account. You can keep a separate friends list on the two platforms, and your profile still shows a VR avatar that you create. There’s no in-headset advertising or VR News Feed, although companies can target Facebook News Feed ads based on the games you play.

I merged my existing Facebook and Oculus accounts to review this headset, and my Oculus experience was exactly the same. I don’t regularly check Facebook, but based on a recent scroll through the News Feed, it’s currently trying to sell me on distance learning and Nextdoor — not the latest VR shooter.

VR is an intimate, potentially invasive medium

Even so, tightening the formal links between Oculus and Facebook raises new concerns. Lots of people get accidentally suspended from Facebook, and if that happens, it’s not clear how it affects Oculus devices. The company’s new terms of use suggest you can lose access to content if you do something like make a Facebook account with a fake name, but Oculus says the details are still being worked out. Parthasarathy says Facebook is trying to strike a balance in moderation, so a brief suspension won’t nuke your Oculus library. But Facebook moderation happens on such a huge scale that individual users can get stuck in the system, and the prospect of losing access to your purchased games and hardware is a scary one.

And Facebook having the technical capacity for something is different from doing it by default. Moderators could already ban Oculus accounts for egregious Facebook violations, but that required an extra step. Facebook could theoretically link VR activity to social media accounts before, but going forward, it’s automatically adding a whole new set of data points to an already vast catalog of your behavior.

VR is an incredibly intimate and potentially invasive medium. As Road to VR outlined last month , for instance, Facebook’s invite-only Horizon social space includes the option to have a moderator invisibly surveil your conversations with another person for potential rule-breaking. This is an extension of standard gaming moderation practices — Sony and Microsoft, for instance, let you report abusive private messages. But Facebook operates at a much greater scale and has a clearer interest in analyzing and monetizing your behavior.

Also, many people may not bother with a Link cable or a gaming PC. That gives a big advantage to a subset of Oculus-approved games, which are selected not just for quality, but for perceived commercial viability . Facebook has discussed opening a less restrictive store for a wider range of apps, but it declined to offer more detail at this time, suggesting that developers build for PC if they want to experiment. That artificially limits the audience for many games that could run just fine on a mobile headset. Some social VR developers are already complaining about Facebook suppressing competition , and the Quest 2 only increases its power to set the terms of engagement — and potentially the kinds of games that headset users see.

These might seem like abstract concerns compared to the Quest 2’s concrete benefits. But the Quest 2 is the first headset I can reasonably recommend for a wide audience. Facebook’s VR head start is growing, and the coming year could set industry expectations for privacy, developer autonomy, and basic consumer-friendliness. This may not be VR’s mass-market moment, but it’s the moment to start seriously thinking about how that world might work.

Agree to Continue: Oculus Quest 2

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

Facebook and Oculus are in the process of updating their terms of service, following an announcement that new headsets would require a Facebook account. So the agreements you’ll find in October won’t necessarily match what we list here, and they might differ depending on whether you’re creating a new account or merging existing Oculus and Facebook accounts.

To use the Oculus Quest 2, we agreed to:

  • Facebook Terms of Service
  • Facebook Data Policy
  • Facebook Cookies Policy
  • Oculus Terms of Service
  • Oculus Privacy Policy
  • Location access: “Location access is needed to discover and set up nearby headsets, and more.”
  • Health and safety warnings: “You understand the Oculus health and safety warnings in the [setup] video and in online resources, and you agree to show them to other people using your device.”

There were no optional agreements, although individual apps may require separate approvals.

Final provisional tally: seven agreements.

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8 Fascinating VR Travel Apps for Oculus

virtual tour oculus quest

I haven’t mentioned it much, if at all, on this blog, but I LOVE VR . There’s a whole debate about whether or not it’s worth it… if it’ll survive or just die out.. how well it compares to more traditional gaming platforms… etc.

IMO we’re on track to be living some version of Ready Player One relatively soon.

By the way if you haven’t read that book OMG doooo it ! One of my personal favorites.

virtual tour oculus quest

This seems like a good moment for me to remind you that there are some affiliate links used on this site, if you buy anything through them it won’t cost you extra, but it does help support the blog, thanks!

Table of Contents

There’s a new list of VR travel apps here if you’re interested in some options specifically for the Quest.

I have an Oculus Quest . It’s definitely not the most robust VR headset option, but probably the biggest draw for me about the Quest was not being attached to anything by a cord, and being able to travel with it and use it anywhere .

Right now there’s a whole other advantage to VR: Traveling, without actually going anywhere, because 2020.

See a timeline of all the crazy 2020 events here.

VR Adventures in the Age of ‘Rona

There are a lot of VR games, apps , and videos out there. Which you can use depends on the headset you have access to. The Oculus Go has some games that aren’t compatible with the Oculus Quest, and visa versa.

The good news is that game and app libraries for all VR platforms are growing constantly.

So when many of us are stuck at home for a good chunk of our days, going slowly insane from staring at the same. rooms. day. in. and. day. out . VR offers some awesome escapes while keeping the risk of getting Covid to a happy minimum.

Once you’re ready to get back out into the real world – here’s a list of 50 great travel apps to get you started!

Oculus Quest Games for Virtual Exploration

There are a lot of great VR games out there (Beatsaber is seriously addicting) but for the sake of this post I’ve put together a list of the best VR travel apps and games.

I should probably give a bit of a disclaimer here: This is a relatively non-traditional VR travel list. The Quest doesn’t have a ton of purely travel-centric games, so I found ones that scratch the wanderlust itch, even if they’re not strictly “travel” genre.

I also went a little outside the box when picking apps for the other Oculus headsets as well, because some of the best vr games and apps for avid adventurers , in my opinion, aren’t 100% just “we’re going to the place.” It’s about the overall experience, ya know?

They’re picked either for being purely travel-centric or involving some sort of exploration adventure .

Outdoor Adventures

National geographic explore vr.

I couldn’t pick a more obvious choice for this list, I mean , it’s National Geographic.

As of now you can explore 2 VERY different places within this app: Antarctica and Machu Picchu. I hope they’ll be adding more at some point.

This is designated as an app in the oculus store but I felt like it leaned more toward an actual game. There are small but interesting objectives along each trip, and you constantly have the option to pick up your camera and snap some cool shots.

I expected this to be more of a cinematic experience, where you’re basically along for the ride, but you’re in control of most of your actions. You can explore relatively freely and check out the surroundings at your leisure.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and entertainment of this VR adventure.

Available on Oculus Quest | Go

This probably feels the most like a traditional video game – with the bonus VR immersion. You get to climb your way through multiple environments around the world, working your way through levels and challenges, and the views are amazballs.

It’s not for those that have any sort of vertigo issues, and you may want to opt for sitting down while playing. I found myself leaning quite a bit and every now and then feeling a bit unsteady when I looked down.

Available on Oculus Quest | Rift

I also just put together a guide on IRL hiking boots for those that are looking to get back into the real world – check it out!

Purely Travel

This is the most straightforward, nail-on-the-head, travel app for Oculus.

If you get mesmerized by the visuals of new places or want to re-experience somewhere you’ve been before, Wander might be your dream Oculus app.

I really like photography , drone videos, 360 videos etc. because I get really interested in the visuals of places I visit. I enjoy getting lost in looking if that makes sense? Wander essentially gives you the next best thing to actually traveling to a new place.

Using Google Streetview, Wander allows you to “wander” through almost any part of the world. It’s a 360 view so you can really take in everything around you.

You can choose a place to visit by searching, or randomly select a spot. You can navigate your way around using a mini-map, or simply pick a direction and follow the arrows. You can also choose to travel by available years to see the areas during different points in time.

I wandered through Amsterdam (one of my favorite cities), revisited a small town in England, including the place I stayed when I was there, and checked out some historical sites in Spain.

Available on Oculus Quest | Go | Gear VR

Otherworldly Exploration

Fujii takes you through what I would best describe as a psychedelic garden world . I can only assume the creators decided to make the game after a good shroom session.

It is a beautiful, relaxing experience. It’s calm, colorful escapism.

I didn’t love the controls, because you have to teleport everywhere, rather than “walk” smoothly, and figuring out how to orient myself took a minute. You also have to figure out how to move on through sort of “organic” puzzles. It’s hard to describe.

I’d still recommend it even with the few drawbacks because it’s just a lovely world to be immersed into. It would also be a great game for kids, if that’s a concern for you when searching for VR games.

Tour of Six Real Exoplanets

Ok fine! I’m cheating a bit here. It’s not a “game” per se. It’s a video. From Youtube. But it’s 360 and you can watch it with basically any VR system that you can access Youtube on. And it’s RAD.

Genuinely one of my favorite (and first) VR experiences as far as videos go. The narration is great, the information is interesting, the visuals are STUNNING.

It’s my blog. I love space videos and photos, they’re amazing. I’m putting this video on the list. Deal with it. I realize I’m getting a little defensive about this and to be fair you haven’t even said anything yet because I literally have not published this ( unless you’re currently reading it, then I have ) BUT STILL.

(but also for sure go check out the video I think you’ll really like it)

Trips Through Time

Chernobyl vr project.

Ugh. I am SO upset this isn’t available for the Quest. Chernobyl is one of my bucket list spots (abandoned/haunted/creepy places hold a special place in my heart) but to be fair, I have no desire to go there right now…

Even though I guess the Chernobyl fires don’t actually “pose a risk” to people…?

I’mma still say no though. For now.

But I would LOVE if they made the Chernobyl VR Project available for Oculus Quest. As it stands you can use it on Oculus Rift .

Apparently, the developers actually went to Chernobyl in order to get the video and photos they needed to model the VR experience. Call me peanut butter and jealous , amiright?

Available on Oculus Rift

Wonders of the World

A travel experience in more ways than one – around the world, and through time! I have a thing for historical places. I think they speak to that same interest in cultures and places that are vastly different from your personal norm.

Wonders of the World lets you explore ancient cities while learning about the history and culture of the places you’re visiting.

During each experience, you’re given a new character and role to take on which relates to the context of the historical setting.

The graphics in Wonders of the World aren’t the most impressive, but they look like they’re meant to be stylized to some point. This game is also currently free, so it won’t even cost you anything to check it out.

Available on Oculus Go | Gear VR

Meeting Rembrandt

Another historical trip, albeit this one is quite a bit different from Wonders of the World. This VR experience takes you to 1600s Amersterdam to… well, meet Rembrandt.

Spend time and interact with the painter who is brought to life by a real actor as you move through the virtual world with him.

It’s a magical blend of VR and real humans brought together beautifully to tell the story of a famous historical figure in a much more personal way. The graphics aren’t perfect but any lack is made up for by the overall experience. A truly unique and wonderful VR project.

Traveling While Black

I cannot recommend this VR experience highly enough. It’s particularly relevant considering the current state of the U.S., but it would be noteworthy at any time.

It’s SO well done, guys. It’s a short movie-going (ish) experience. You’re moved from place to place as the story is told, between past times and the present. You start in a theater but are soon moved to physical places more relevant to the narration and storytellers.

You’ll hear stories and experiences of being black in America, past and present, from some people you may be familiar with, some you may not. The focus is of course on “traveling while black” but it’s not completely restricted to that.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Negro Motorist Green Book or The Negro Travelers’ Green Book – AKA the “Green Book” – it was a guide created by Victor Hugo Green to help black travelers find businesses they could utilize while traveling in a time when many were explicitly or implicitly “whites only.”

This VR experience is also FREE, so there’s not excuse not to check it out!

Available on Oculus Quest | Rift | Go | Gear VR

How are you doing?

That’s the end of this particularly unique list of Oculus travel apps, so I just want to check in with you real quick.

How are you doing with everything that’s going on in the world right now?

Is there anything you do, like VR, to get a brief break from the chaos?

Along with VR and Netflix binges , I really like taking drives and walks in the forest with my dog.

virtual tour oculus quest

Tech obsessed professional dog-petter with a camera and a website or two. Sometimes wine's involved, usually Starbucks.

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Curatours Brings Free Virtual Exhibitions To Oculus Quest And PC, Starting With... Plastics

Virtual exhibition platform, Curatours, is now available on Oculus Quest via App Lab and PC, and it’s launched its first destination, too.

The platform, which was revealed in late 2020 and created by Spaceteam VR developer, Cooperative Innovations, today introduced the Museum of Plastic 2121. As the name suggests, the exhibition envisions a future 100 years from now in which humanity has resolved the climate issues it faces today. The only single-use plastic left in the world is used within the museum. Check out a teaser trailer below.

Curatours – Museum Of Plastic 2121 Trailer

The museum’s aim is to create a positive outlook for the future whilst informing visitors about what needs to change and how they can play a part. It was created in a collaboration with South African activist group, Greenpop, and Baz-Art, an artist collective that helped create murals and 3D paintings for the exhibit. Around the site you’ll find information points to read more and other media drops. You can explore the exhibit with friends, and new wings of the museum are expected to open every Thursday of November 2021.

You can download Curatours for free on App Lab and SteamVR . The platform also offers live tour guides and other elements. Expect to see other museums and exhibits open in the future.

Stanford Now Offers A Class Held Entirely In Virtual Reality Using Quest 2

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Create a Virtual Tour app with Hotspots for Oculus Go and Oculus Quest VR using Unity

In a previous tutorial, we used Unity to create a Virtual Tour experience for Gear VR. Since then Unity has changed quite a bit with more VR devices like the Oculus Go and the Quest coming out and have become mainstream. Today we will build the updated version of the app using Unity 2019.2 which can run on both the Go and the Quest (On Rift too).

Although the previous app worked only with 360 Panoramas, with this app and very slight and easy modifications we could accommodate playing 360 Videos as well!

Also, with the previous app some people were not able to set up the panoramas properly but this time we have a much simpler and easier way to achieve the same result.

We’ll be using an example of a house interior that has a Living Room, Dining Hall, and a kitchen. This is how the app is going to work, once loaded we’ll be able to see a panorama with a couple of hotspots placed around us. When we point to and select a hotspot we’ll be teleported to the panorama that it represents.

We’ll learn the following with respect to Unity and the Oculus Go device. Any additional notes for Quest support will also be presented when required. The Tutorial will be separated into these parts.

  • Creating and Setting up our Unity App for Oculus VR.
  • Importing and configuring the Cubemaps from our Panoramas.
  • Creating Hotspots and interacting with them.
  • Teleporting to the Hotspots.
  • Building and deploying the app to the device.

Creating and Setting up Unity Application for VR

First of all, let’s start off by creating a new Application. I’m using Unity 2019.2.4f1 with Unity Hub.

virtual tour oculus quest

We’ll be greeted with an empty new scene. We want to structure our project properly and hence will create separate folders for our Scenes, Scripts, etc., For now, let’s create a folder called Scenes and save the new scene as “MainScene”.

virtual tour oculus quest

Let’s set our platform to Android by going to File -> Build Settings -> Android under Platform and click on Switch Platform. The scene we created should already be in the Scenes In the Build tab, if not, then click on “Add Open Scenes” which will add it there. This is so that Unity knows which scene to include when we compile and build the application.

virtual tour oculus quest

Next, we enable VR Support for our app. Go to Edit -> Project Settings -> Player. Under XR Settings, check Virtual Reality Supported.

virtual tour oculus quest

To enable Oculus support, the necessary SDK has to be selected as well. Under Virtual Reality SDK’s on selecting the + icon, select Oculus from the list. Unity will then load the SDK and compile it, it should take a few seconds.

virtual tour oculus quest

We now have full Oculus support within our app. But we take this a step further by downloading and importing Oculus Integration for Unity – which is an extra SDK package with additional functionality that makes building for Oculus much easier. It can be downloaded from here . Once downloaded open the file and it should open with unity and prompt the Import package window. Select All and click on Import. Note that the package contains much more functionality than what we need and we can pick and choose from the package exactly what we require, but for the simplicity of this tutorial we import everything. Once unity is done importing it will create all the necessary folders containing the package.

virtual tour oculus quest

Setting up Camera, Controller, and Events

Once we have all the SDK related stuff imported and all setup, it’s time to start configuring our scene. The Scene will have a MainCamera, delete this and anything else currently in the hierarchy panel. We will be replacing it with the Oculus Camera. In the project panel, search for “OVRCameraRig”, select it and drag and drop it into the hierarchy panel. This is the prefab that is already configured for everything camera related.

virtual tour oculus quest

Once it’s in the Hierarchy panel, select the prefab and in its Inspector panel under “OVRManager” there will be a property called “TargetDevices”. Enter its size as 2 and from the dropdown select the first element as Go and the second element as Quest.

virtual tour oculus quest

Click on “Add Component” at the bottom of the inspector panel and search for “OVR Physics Raycaster” and select it. This is used for interacting with the 3D objects in the scene with our Camera. You can read more about it here . In this case, the OVR Physics Raycaster is made to work with Oculus Input and Event System which we’ll be adding next.

virtual tour oculus quest

In the hierarchy panel, right-click -> UI -> Event System. This will add a new EventSystem gameobject into the scene. Select it and delete the “Standalone Input Module” that it comes with by clicking on the gear icon of component and “Remove Component”. Select “Add Component” and search for “OVR Input Module” and add it. Once added, select the OVRCameraRig gameobject and expand it, you will find “RightHandAnchor” gameobject. Select it and drag it onto the “RayTransform” field of the OVR Input Module of the EventSystem gameobject. This basically tells the Input Module that all the rays will be cast from the transform of the RightHandAchor which in case of Oculus Go will be our hand controller or the Right Controller in case of Quest.

virtual tour oculus quest

Next is to create our cursor, Search for OVRGazePointer and drag and drop it into the Scene. Select the same and assign it to the Cursor property of the OVR Input Module. The cursor will now move with our hand controller.

virtual tour oculus quest

But we don’t want just a cursor. Let’s create our very own custom laser pointer that will come out of the hand controller. We can point it at the hotspots and click on them directly.

Under the Scripts folder create a new C# script by right-clicking in the project view -> Create -> C# Script. Name it CustomLaserPointer.cs.

This is the whole script.

We have two color properties that we’ll use to apply a fading gradient to our Laser pointer. This will basically work using the Line Renderer where we draw a line using the specified gradient.

And in the Update() method which gets called every frame, we will ray cast against any colliders in the scene like our hotspots. We can then make the laser pointer stop at the collider by settings its end up to the hit.point.

Now, let’s add this laser pointer into the scene. This will be controlled with our right hand. Hence, go the OVRCameraRig gameobject and under its child gameobjects select RightHandController -> OVRControllerPrefab and add the script by Add Component -> Search for CustomLaserPointer. If you notice a Line Renderer will also be added automatically as we mentioned this dependency in the script using the RequireComponent Tag.

virtual tour oculus quest

Importing and Creating Cubemaps from Panoramas.

You can find the panoramas used in the project source. Copy your panoramas into your project under a new folder called Panoramas.

virtual tour oculus quest

Select all of them and in the Inspector Change their texture type to Default and shape to 2D with the following settings.

virtual tour oculus quest

To use these Panorama Textures in our scene. We have to create a material and assign these textures to them.

To create a new material, under the Materials folder create new by right-clicking -> Create -> Material.

virtual tour oculus quest

Name it according to the source texture name. For the Dining room texture, I’m naming it DiningRoomMat.

virtual tour oculus quest

Before we assign a texture to our material, let’s create a panorama shader that will map the equirectangular format into a cube map.

Create a new folder called shaders in the project and inside it create a new shader by right-clicking -> Create -> Shader -> Standard Surface Shader.

virtual tour oculus quest

Now, here the type of shader we create doesn’t matter because we’ll be clearing the shader file and writing everything from scratch. Name the shader Equirectangular.

virtual tour oculus quest

Open the shader by double-clicking on it. It should open your favorite code editor.

Delete everything in the file and copy this. This is the whole shader script.

Save the file and head back into Unity.

Select the material you just created and assign the shader by clicking on the Shader dropdown property -> Custom -> Equirectangular.

virtual tour oculus quest

Finally, assign the texture for this cubemap by dragging in the texture file into the Diffuse (RGB) Alpha (A) property of the material.

virtual tour oculus quest

Do the same for the rest of the cubemaps and assign the created equirectangular shader.

Creating Hotspots and Interaction

Now that we have our Materials. We can create our Hotspots from them.

Cubemaps in the Scene

To see our Panorama in our scene, we’ll create a sphere gameobject and assign our materials created before to them.

Create a new sphere gameobject by right-clicking in the Hierarchy -> 3D Object -> Sphere.

virtual tour oculus quest

Rename it to the material or panorama it will represent.

virtual tour oculus quest

Under its material property of the Mesh Renderer, set the size to 1 and drag and drop its corresponding material. First will be the DiningRoomMat.

virtual tour oculus quest

Do the same for the Hall and Kitchen Panorama and Materials.

virtual tour oculus quest

Also, place and size them accordingly. Set all of the gameobjects Transform -> Scale -> 100 on all axis. Spread them apart so that they don’t overlap by changing the X position of the transform. Find the full transform values for each Hotspot Panorama in the images above.

Hotspots and Interaction

Now that we have all the panoramas in the Scene, we can start creating hotspots. These are nothing but sphere gameobjects.

Let’s create and place them accordingly.

For example, from the Dining Room which is the default and starting point of our Virtual Tour, we can go into the Hall or the kitchen.

Hence, I want two spheres or hotspots that will be placed in that relative direction from the Dining Room.

The same goes for Hall and the Kitchen. From the Hall, I can go into the Dining room. And from the Kitchen, I can go back into the Dining room.

You want to place these spheres so that when you’re in the center of the panorama gameobject these spheres are in the relative direction of the target panorama. Essentially. you will have to eyeball their placement as only you will know where to navigate.

Before we actually create the spheres lets create a Hotspot script to handle the behavior on tapping them. This script will be assigned to each hotspot sphere with a collider component on it.

Create a new script called Hotspot.cs. This is the whole script.

We implement the IPointerEnterHandler, Exit and Click Handlers. When the Gaze Pointer falls on the sphere with a collider on it, the Script then can receive those events using Callbacks. We can animate the sphere on enter, exit and when clicked we will call the VirtualTourManager class -> JumpToTargetHotspot() to teleport the camera to the specific panorama that we configure this hotspot with.

Once you’ve created a sphere, add a Sphere Collider -> Add Component -> search for sphere collider.

virtual tour oculus quest

Next, add the Hotspot script and assign the thisparnoama variable to its own gameobject and the targetPanorama to the target Panorama’s gameobject.

virtual tour oculus quest

And Finally the VirtualTourManager.cs

Add this script to any gameobject in the scene and assign the OVRCameraRig as the Camera property.

virtual tour oculus quest

Building and Deploying

Now finally onto build a .apk file and testing it onto your device. First, let’s set up our Player Settings by Edit -> Project Settings -> Player.

Under other settings, set the Package Name and Version.

virtual tour oculus quest

Next, go to file –> Build Settings -> Add Open Scenes. It should add the mainscene.

Click on build and run and enter the apk file name.

Unity will now start building the .apk file. Once done, simply install the file onto your Oculus Quest or Go.

Please read this article on how to install .apks onto the devices.

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25 Best & Famous Virtual Museum Tours

Virtual Reality, VR, Immersive Technology & Simulated Environment

Museum VR Tour

Recently updated on June 18th, 2021 at 01:30 am

During our childhood days, whenever we want to visit the museum, we need to physically be there with our teachers or parents. However, with the latest virtual reality technology, we are now able to attend it virtually too. Now, let’s see what is the popular, the best and famous virtual museum tours that we and our kids can try from the comfort of our home and sofa.

What is Virtual Museum Tour?

It is another way to experience the museum without being physically at the location. For this purpose, usually the museums will use approach such as 360-degrees videos or walk-around tour. With this facility, you can have the tour in 360 degrees and some is available in VR format too. Most of the virtual tours are also interactive where they provide the voice over descriptions with slideshows as well.

The List of Famous Virtual Museum Tours…

We try our best to get the list of good museum virtual tours that you can try at home. Some of them claim that they have virtual reality gallery , but in order to try it you need to go there physically first. And from what we found, this is the list that you can try without coming to the museum itself. As much as possible, we will try to provide more variety to the list below…

1) Smithsonian American Art Museum

This very famous museum in America offer the virtual reality tour for us to experience the Renwick Gallery Exhibition . To add, there are nine great contemporary artists that involved in creating it using InstaVR platform. To enjoy the tour, you can try it yourself by downloading the “ Wonder 360 ” app to your mobile phone and use it with the Google Cardboard technology that should be affordable to nearly everybody.

URL : https://americanart.si.edu/wonder360

2) Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

This museum located in England also offer the looks inside it from remote. The virtual tour consists of four locations is the collaboration between the museum and Scan Tech Digital company. In addition, they are using Matterport platform to deliver it.

URL : https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/virtual-tour

3) Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

IMS provided service that offer the 360 degrees view of this popular museum in United States. Beside that, the tour includes the view of different event spaces and come up with the option to open photo galleries or videos of the space. You can watch the tour by using your browser.

URL : http://3hundred60.com/Franklin_Institute_360web.html

4) Musée du Louvre, Paris

This famous Louvre museum in Paris, France, has the exhibit called “ Monalisa: Beyond the Glass “. As most of us already know, Monalisa is a great and most popular painting in the world by Leonardo da Vinci. This exhibit is the collaboration between this museum and also the HTC Vive Arts. In addition, you can download the app from the VIVEPORT website .

URL : https://arts.vive.com/us/articles/projects/art-photography/mona_lisa_beyond_the_glass/

Furthermore, Louvre is one of the most historic art museums and also the most visited museum in the world. Hence, it is very thankful that they also provide the Louvre virtual tour service for us to visit the museum during this COVID-19 pandemic season. In addition, it offers seven galleries that you can explore via online. One of them sounds interesting to us which is “ Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader “. It looks into how the artists, filmmakers and musicians around the world have drawn inspiration from myths to create their masterpieces.

URL : https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne

5) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

This great museum in Washington, D.C, is the most visited natural history museum in the world. It also offers the virtual tour of its museum by using our own web browser. They build it by using the WebVR technology. The good thing is that, you can switch it to the stereoscopic mode so you can enjoy the 360 degrees virtual tour using your Google Cardboard too. The interesting exhibits are like the skeleton of American mastadon, the cool T-Rex and other dinosaurs from the Jurassic age…

URL : https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour

6) Rijksmuseum with Museum VR Tour

This national museum of Netherlands also offer the virtual tour and it seems they take it very serious. With the tagline “ From Home: We bring the museum to you “, they also provide some gamification elements in it such as the challenge to find keys, discover hidden words and you can also win prize for it. That’s really awesome initiative.

URL : https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/from-home

7) National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

This famous museum in Korea offers the VR tour with title “ How to create a landscape “. It also comes with realistic 3D model of the gallery that you can play around like a doll house. Moreover, if you want to view in in VR mode, they highly recommend using Oculus Quest. But they also support Oculus Go and other headsets that include controllers.

URL : https://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/pr/movDetail.do?mbMovCd=01

8) The National Gallery, London

The National Gallery in London offers the virtual tours to let you explore their greatest collection of paintings through your VR headset, desktop or smartphone. Moreover, they have the panoramic view of the gallery in 360 degrees by collaborating with Google Street View. And they also have the “Sainsbury Wing VR Tour” where you can experience the collection of over 270 Early Renaissance paintings from year 1200 to 1500. In addition, the gallery and Oculus teamed up using Matterport’s 3D camera technology to produce this virtual tour.

URL : https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours

9) Picasso Museum of Barcelona

This museum offer the 360-degrees tour to its courtyard and you can observe the details of the patios of the museum. Unfortunately, the only downside is that you need to download and enable the Adobe Flash Player first which the product itself is no longer supported by Adobe after 31st December 2020. Hope the museum will upgrade the technology soon.

URL : http://courtyard.museupicassobcn.org/

10) The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)

This gallery in Melbourne, Australia also provide the virtual tour of their exhibition by using the Matterport’s technology. It is an interactive self-guided tours that you can enjoy from your home. Their recommendation is to use Oculus Quest to fully enjoy it.

URL : https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/

11) Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on exhibit and is located in western North America. It also offers the 360 virtual tour where you can explore the underground tomb and witness the Alchemy Garden.

URL : https://egyptianmuseum.org/360-museum-tour

12) Nikola Tesla Museum

Nikola Tesla, a great inventor, electrical engineer and mechanical engineer, also got his own museum.  It is the only museum that preserve the original and personal legacy of that legendary figure in science world. You can explore the 3D interactive view of Nikola Tesla’s lab on Long Island. Build using Web VR, you can also watch it in the stereoscopic VR mode.

URL : https://nikolateslamuseum.org/en/virtual/longisland/

13) National Museum United States Air Force

This virtual tour of US Air Force museum has many cool exhibits related with aviation and planes. And it also shows the planes that it used in the World War 2 as well. Because of that, it is a good place to visit for the military or army veterans.

URL : http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/

14) The Dalí Theatre-Museum

This museum in Spain is dedicated to Salvador Dalí , who is the famous surrealist artist in the world. You can visit the museum virtually to appreciate his works, sculptures and masterpieces.

URL : https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/museums/dali-theatre-museum-in-figueres/visita-virtual/

15) The State Hermitage Museum

This museum located in St. Petersburg, Russia, has a vast amount of artwork on display. Furthermore, that includes the work by Rembrandt, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Moreover, they take the Hermitage virtual tour very seriously where it covers nearly all part of the museum and it’s very, very comprehensive tour. You can imagine it by looking at the map below and it is just the First Floor! You gonna get shock to see the number of circles in the Second Floor 🙂

URL : https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/panorama/virtual_visit/panoramas-m-1/?lng=en

16) The Egyptian Museum

This museum in Cairo is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East. Furthermore, it has the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities in the world. Moreover, in one of the Egyptian Museum virtual tours, it gives us opportunity to see the iconic mask of the Golden Pharaoh, Tutankhamun. In addition, the discovery of the Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 was one of the most spectacular moment in the history of archeology.

URL : https://egymonuments.gov.eg/news/a-virtual-tour-through-the-tutankhamun-collection-at-the-egyptian-museum/

17) The Natural Museum History, London

This very famous museum located in London is very popular with the display of a big blue whale skeleton named Hope. Furthermore, the skeleton is so big and estimated to be 82-foot long. The museum also showcases the valuable pieces collected by Charles Darwin as well.

Secondly, with many life and earth science specimens under it roof, no wonder that it is the most visited natural history museum in Europe. Lastly, from the site, it looks like the Natural Museum History virtual tour is leveraging a lot on the Google Arts and Culture platform.

URL : https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/virtual-museum.html

18) Science Museum, London

This museum in London has over 350,000 objects and archives from the collection of its group. The collection come from many areas such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Due to its popularity, it is estimated there around five millions visitors each year coming to the museum. Finally, for its virtual tour, the Science Museum leverage on the Google Streetview to deliver it.

URL : https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/virtual-tour-science-museum

19) The Museum of Flight

This museum in Seattle dedicated itself with the history of aircraft. Its virtual tour enable us to see the inside of some of the iconic planes. In addition, you’ll be able to access the cockpits and interiors of the aircraft as well. For those planes that involve in war, you can also observe the gunner position as well.

Moreover, some brand of the aircrafts are like Antonov, Boeing, Concorde and Douglas. There is also the iconic presidential jet plane which is “Air Force One” that is using Boeing VC-137B as well. The museum uses Matterport 3D, 360 Photosphere and also WebGL to deliver the virtual tour to us.

URL : https://museumofflight.org/Explore-The-Museum/Virtual-Museum-Online

20) The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC)

Located in England, this museum is dedicated to the world of computer or computing technology. It is the home to the largest collection of working historic computers since the 1940s. It is since the era of Turing-Welchman Bombe and Colossus where the size of computer and mainframes during that time was so gigantic. Furthermore, it is estimated there are around 50,000 artefacts in their collection.

URL : https://www.tnmoc.org/3d-virtual-tour

21) Bank Negara Malaysia

For this banking museum in Malaysia, it dedicated itself on the financial and economic exhibits. It also offers the virtual trip to its museum where you’ll be able to view it in 360 degrees format.

URL : http://www.museum.bnm.gov.my/v2/virtualmuseum/

22) Museum Nasional Indonesia

This national museum located in Jakarta, Indonesia, houses around 160,000 artifacts and exhibits. You also will be able to experience the virtual tour of the museum in 360 degrees view by using the browser or VR headset as well.

URL : https://www.museumnasional.or.id/virtual-tour

23) NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration)

NASA , the popular and outstanding space agency in the world, also provides the virtual tours to its centers such as Ames Research Center, Armstrong Flight Research Center, Glenn Research Center and many more. Besides the research center, you can also ‘visit’ their other facilities, laboratories and operations control centers too.

URL: NASA at Home – Virtual Tours and Apps

24) Boston Children’s Museum

Founded in 1913, this museum is the second oldest and one of the largest children’s museum in the world. The exhibits of the museum focus on science, culture, environmental awareness, arts, health and fitness. It is estimated around 50,000 artifacts in the museum’s collection.

URL : https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/museum-virtual-tour

25) International Spy Museum

For those that seeks the thrill of spy and espionage world, then this museum might be just suitable for you. Located in Washington DC, the International Spy Museum dedicated itself in the research, exhibitions and educational programming in the world of secret intelligence and espionage. It has the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever placed on public display.

URL : https://www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-experiences/virtual-tours/

26) Bonus: More Famous Museum VR Tour at Google Arts & Culture

According to Google, there are over 2,000 famous museums that you can explore online. You can visit it at https://artsandculture.google.com/partner . That’s really impressive!! We try one of them and able to tour the museum in 360 degrees and also able to zoom in and zoom out.

To make it more real, you can download the Google Arts & Culture app on Android or iOS and view it using the virtual reality viewer like Google Cardboard. When you are already inside the museum’s page, you need to go down to the “Virtual Tours” section and click on a tour to experience it in VR…

In case if there is any more interesting museum VR tour, we will update the list accordingly. And lastly, for your information, the wonderful image above is by just-pics from Pixabay .

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View your own 360 videos and photos on a Meta Quest 2 headset

Media from any 360 camera can be viewed in a Meta Quest 2 headset. Using SideQuest, the Android File Transfer app, OpenMTP, or simply browsing the directory structure from a PC, copy content to the headset for viewing in Meta Quest TV or a third party media viewer.

Load 360 media on a Quest 2 headset, hero image

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Requirements

One of the following:

  • SideQuest (macOS and Windows, choose the Advanced Installer)
  • Android File Transfer (macOS only)
  • OpenMTP (macOS only)
  • A direct USB mass-storage connection (Windows only)

Introduction

There are many amazing experiences available in the Meta Quest app store and Meta Quest TV, but that’s just the beginning. Anyone from individual creators to larger production teams can play their own immersive media on a Meta Quest headset. Content created with 360 cameras such as those from GoPro, Insta360, Ricoh, Kandao and other manufacturers can be copied directly to a Meta Quest headset and experienced in immersive virtual reality. This ‘sideloading’ process is also useful for quick viewing during production, or demonstrating immersive media concepts and projects to clients without needing to host them on a service.

Media Preparation

The first requirement is to make sure the media is ready to go into the headset. Some 360 cameras create ready-to-use 360 video and photos directly from the camera, but media from some cameras will need processing first. Camera manufacturers all have their own processing software designed to be used with their cameras, but there are also standalone software packages made for stitching and other processing.

For sideloading, make sure videos use the MP4 or MKV container and are compressed using h.264 or h.265. A fairly high bitrate (up to 100Mbps) will ensure that quality remains high. Still images should be in JPEG format.

Headset preparation

Before any of these methods will work it is important to enable Developer mode for the headset. No actual development work is required; this simply allows a USB connection to be made with the headset and the device’s storage to be browsed and managed from a Mac or PC.

00 developer signup - 01 Getting Started - Loading 360 media on a Quest 2 headset

  • First, register as an Oculus developer . To be an Oculus developer, a credit card or two-factor authentication must be added to the organization’s account to help establish your identity. Once that’s done, give the organization a name. If you plan to publish to the store make sure it’s something suitable for public viewing.
  • Next, open the Meta Quest app on your smartphone, choose your headset, find the Developer mode option and enable it.
  • Finally, connect the Meta Quest headset to your computer with a USB-C cable and grant permission in headset when you see the prompt.

All of these steps are necessary before a computer can be used to access files on your headset. Additionally, macOS Ventura users may need to quit the Preview app on their Mac before any utility is able to connect to the headset.

SideQuest (macOS/Windows)

Make sure the Sidequest ’s Advanced Installer was downloaded. Once USB access has been granted in the headset and the SideQuest app has recognized the device, choose the folder icon to manage files on the headset.

01 SideQuest - 01 Getting Started - Load 360 media on a Quest 2

Android File Transfer (macOS)

Mac users can use the free Android File Transfer utility. Once installed, this will open automatically when a Meta Quest headset (or any Android device) in Developer Mode is connected, once access has been allowed from within the headset.

02 Android File Transfer - 01 Getting Started - Load 360 media on a Quest 2

OpenMTP (macOS)

After installing OpenMTP for the first time it is important to reboot the computer. Once that’s done, the software will open automatically when a Meta Quest headset (or any Android device) in Developer Mode is connected, once access has been allowed from within the headset.

Load 360 media on a Quest 2 headset using OpenMTP

USB Mass Storage (Windows)

Windows users can browse the headset’s storage directly. In the headset, allow access to the device when it is connected and it will show up as a regular storage volume.

03 Windows 01 Getting Started - Load 360 media on a Quest 2 headset

In Meta Quest 2, we recommend using the Movies, Pictures, Download, or DCIM folders, which will automatically be indexed by Meta Quest TV.

Creating subfolders within these locations can help manage content when browsing the device storage in Windows or in the Android File Transfer utility on macOS. However, the Meta Quest TV app simply displays all the files in one list even if they are grouped into subfolders. For this reason it’s wise to name files appropriately. Be aware that when using SideQuest to manage files in a headset it may be necessary to reboot the headset to see new files.

In headset (after a reboot if SideQuest was used), open the Meta Quest TV app and navigate to ”Your Media”. Alternatively, use a third party viewer such as DeoVR , Pigasus , or SKYBOX VR .

If it’s comfortable for you, the headset can be left tethered to the computer via a USB-C cable during normal use. In addition to staying accessible for file management, it will charge using power from your computer.

Those interested in publishing work for others to find and view can publish into Meta Quest TV by using Meta Quest Media Studio . This dedicated media management tool enables immersive media creators to publish VR-first content into Meta Quest TV. Also an option are third-party immersive media ecosystems such as YouTube VR and DeoVR.

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Learn about the tools, techniques, work flows and best practices required for producing and delivering immersive 180 and 360 video for VR.

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