According To Mark Zuckerberg, It Will Take At Least Five Years Before The Metaverse Is Used By Millions (Or Billions) Of People, But It Is Already Possible To Enter It To Get A Peek At What Lies Ahead
With the name change of the holding from Facebook to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg has launched a very clear message to his users, his investors, and those who do business through the group’s current social networks: the future is beyond social networks within Facebook Metaverse.
Metaverse is a word that first appeared in 1992, when Zuckerberg was just eight years old, in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash. That book describes a virtual world into which humans enter in the form of ” avatars “, i.e. visual representations (in turn virtual) of people in flesh and blood.
Now, almost thirty years after the birth of the concept of Metaverse, Zuckerberg is convinced that the time has come to make it become (virtual) reality. According to the Meta boss, it will take 5-10 years before the Metaverse becomes part of everyone’s everyday life, but the first foundations are already there.
The Platforms For The Metaverse
Metaverse, therefore, means virtual reality, a software platform through which to have impossible experiences in the real world. The Facebook / Meta virtual reality platform is Oculus and comprises hardware (VR headsets) and software (apps and games). It’s not the only VR platform available; there are others.
Microsoft, for example, has already set up the Windows Mixed Reality platform (formerly called Windows Holographic). HTC, already known for its smartphones, has been betting everything on the Vive series VR headsets and the Viveport platform. On the other hand, Sony has been marketing PSVR (PlayStation Virtual Reality) viewers since the days of the PS4. Finally, there is SteamVR, a store where you can buy apps and games compatible with all the viewers, as mentioned above and with the Valve Index.
The Oculus Quest 2 Headset
If we talk about the Metaverse according to Zuckerberg, however, we must at the moment focus only on the Oculus platform of the Meta / Facebook group. It is possible, indeed probable, that the experiences offered by this platform will be compatible with other VR viewers in the future. Still, at the moment, the various platforms are proceeding on separate tracks.
Oculus of viewers, to date, has produced five of them: Quest, Quest 2, Link, Rift S and Rift. At the moment, however, the only one on sale is Oculus Quest 2 and is, therefore, the reference viewer when we talk about the Facebook metaverse: the company will develop the project starting from this hardware, and if there is something that Oculus Quest can’t do, then we won’t find it in the Facebook metaverse.
Oculus Quest 2 is an ” all in one ” viewer: it does not require any other hardware and can be used without a computer or other device that controls it. However, to increase the viewer’s performance (still good, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 platform ), it is possible to connect it to a PC via the Oculus Link fibre optic cable.
Inside the viewer, there are two screens, one for each eye, with 1832 × 1920 resolution and a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. The speakers are integrated, as well as the microphone, and there is the ” positional ” audio: in practice, the sound changes according to the movements of the head, detected by the tracking sensors (supports 6 degrees of freedom, i.e. complete movement in space in all directions).
Finally, there are the two touch controllers, thanks to which it is possible to interact with people and objects within the virtual reality experience.
Facebook Oculus Quest 2 costs 349.99 euros in a version with 128 GB of internal storage memory, with the two touch controllers included in the price.
What Can We Do In The Facebook Metaverse?
We will discover the true potential of the Facebook metaverse only in the next few years. Still, there are already several applications that we can try with an Oculus Quest 2 headset.
Zuckerberg’s most interesting and representative of in mind is Horizon Workrooms, the new platform for smart working in VR by entering virtual rooms where we will find our colleagues, our desks, virtual whiteboards, and much more.
Another thing we can already do with the Oculus Quest 2 is played one of the many titles in VR, even in multiplayer via the Internet. As for fitness, however, probably in the Facebook metaverse, we can already see the gyms of the future: thanks to the viewer and controllers, we can train (really sweating) in virtual spaces, play team sports, Zumba lessons with friends and much more. Other.
Finally, there is art and entertainment: thanks to the Oculus Quest 2 VR viewer, we can participate in 100% virtual events, visit exhibitions not found in any real gallery in the world and, why not, create our art.
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