Meta Quest Pro has apps for creators and business workers

Meta’s high-end enterprise VR headset, formerly Project Cambria, is designed for business users and creators. It debuts on October 25 as the Meta Quest Pro for $1,500.

In the beginning, it will be able to run 400 apps for the Meta Quest 2 headset, which costs $400 and more and is aimed at consumers and gamers. But the new device will offer some very high-end experiences that you would expect with its expensive price tag.

I got to try the device hands-on for about an hour at Meta’s headquarters and tried six different applications. Those apps take advantage of wireless VR, mixed reality technology for color throughput and extra-sharp LCD screens and the ability to track your eyes, hands and facial expressions.

Meta said originally the vast majority of time spent in VR was alone. Today it is a social experience.

Anand Dass, director of metaverse content applications at Meta, said in a press conference that the apps take advantage of a new technology related to the full-color passthrough sensors that can detect the world in greater detail. It can map a room and figure out where a table is accurate with ‘scene understanding’.

Once a headset knows where something is in the real world in front of you, it can accurately place virtual objects in the room, such as laying a map of Wooorld below on a real table. Sharing a space with friends can also give you a sense of social presence by knowing your friends’ gestures and facial expressions as they move in real life. The apps were fun. I could play darts, play Jenga with my fingers in VR and more.

As for games, Microsoft is bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to the Quest platform. Users can connect Xbox controllers to their Quest headsets (and presumably Quest Pro) and play Game Pass titles in VR as if on a big screen TV, where you see the 2D games on a huge VR screen.

Woorld

The first app I tried was Woorld, an app that lets you explore anywhere in the world. You can join your friends in virtual reality and visit hundreds of cities with a VR viewpoint that feels like a 3D version of Google Street View.

The app has architectural landmarks, natural wonders, and vacation spots in pretty incredible 3D detail. You can zoom in or out and it loads procedurally, with details coming out. But while it completes the rendering, your 3D experience is quite sharp.

I visit the Colosseum in Rome and saw a 3D still image of the place from different points of view. It was pretty cool to watch, but maneuvering and finding places could be easier than following the Street View navigation style.

You can participate in voice chat using 3D avatars with face and body tracking. You can play geographic trivia games and use creative tools. The first minigame, “Where in the Wooorld”, teleports you to five random locations. You can look closely at the landscape, flora, architecture and road signs for clues and try to guess where you are. The closer you gamble, the higher you score. I did that because I didn’t realize I could zoom in on the map and get a more accurate estimate.

You can see the 3D topography of the entire Earth and more detailed cities are coming. Wooorld Inc. developed the app for both the Meta Quest 2 and the Meta Quest Pro. It debuts on October 25 for $15.

Figmin XR

Figmin XR is a multifunctional application for creators. You can create, collect and play in augmented reality. It uses the open-source Tilt Brush software that allows you to draw in VR and create 3D art. But it also builds on that with other types of art apps. You can paint on an easel, decorate a room, create physics games and educational experiences. You can record videos for social media, storytelling, art, marketing or visualization.

You can use the built-in tools to sketch in 3D, search and import 3D models, animated GIFs, and videos from Sketchfab, Giphy, and YouTube. I have to try it out for about five minutes, but you can be sure that you can spend a lot of time in this app if you are a creator. But you don’t have to be tech savvy or an artist to have fun with these kinds of apps.

You can also browse Reddit and view multimedia content in AR. You can build 2D and 3D models with a voxel editor. It comes out on launch day for $20 and is developed by Overlay.

Meta Horizon workrooms

This was the only app that crashed for me. So I didn’t get that much time in what Meta would probably consider to be the flagship app for enterprises.

Built for both Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro, it allows people to work in VR. It is available in 22 countries and is free to use for anyone with a headset.

Workrooms is the virtual reality space for teams to connect, collaborate and develop ideas together. It’s aimed at any work team – made up of remote or hybrid workers – who want to collaborate better with their colleagues and increase overall productivity.

To use Workrooms, you can simply create a Meta account with an email address of your choice to log into your headset. Yes, you no longer need to use a Facebook account with your real identity.

“What if you could collaborate with colleagues as if you were there at work?” said Zuckerberg.

With Meta Quest Pro’s inward-facing sensors, avatars now have more natural facial expressions, giving Workroom meetings an even greater sense of presence. If someone smiles (and they have their privacy setting to allow facial expressions), you will see the avatar smiling. You no longer have to find a way to tell the other person that you found something funny. That’s because the headset has 10 sensors, looking both outwards and inwards.

It has a full-color passthrough, allowing you to seamlessly switch between your virtual and physical office thanks to high-definition cameras that show you your physical space in full color while wearing a Quest Pro headset. So you can grab a stylus and use it in VR. Mixed reality is better for multitasking.

The new Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers have a stylus tip, so when you hold them upside down, they make writing and sketching on a virtual whiteboard easy. It has spatial audio so you can see who is talking to you or who is loud nearby. I thought it was cool that I could read things in VR without straining my eyes.

This is possible because the “pancake optics” layers give 75% more contrast than Meta Quest 2. This
optics also enabled Meta to slim down the headset’s optical stack by 40% compared to Quest 2, meaning you’ll notice less bulk at the front of the headset when wearing it, allowing you to focus on get things done. For me, that meant I could wear my glasses while playing.

You can enter different types of offices and hold meetings. I was able to pick up a sticky note and move it to a table. You can also use it to create up to three life-size screens in your virtual office and then customize the environment to suit your mood on the Quest Pro. I can’t say why this is better than meeting in real life, but it’s meant for those times when someone needs to be present at a distance. It supports 16 people in VR and up to 50 people in a call.

On the Meta Connect stage, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was joined by Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and they shared their plans to accelerate the future of work. Microsoft is adapting Teams, Windows 365, Office apps and more for the Meta Quest Pro. Zuckerberg also spoke about partnerships with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, Adobe, Autodesk and more.

You can import 3D models into a workspace. Next year you can join Workroom via Zoom. And you can easily participate in breakout rooms with groups of people. And next year, Meta Magic Room will be released, which will allow people to collaborate in VR from different types of devices.

VR painting

Painting in virtual reality is quite easy with this app. You can mix your colors, dip in your brush and start painting. You can paint on a virtual easel with the stylus in the new controllers.

You can paint in the air around you, or you can write on a piece of virtual paper lying on a real table. The stylus felt pretty good in my hands as I did this. It was pretty cool to mix different colors of paint together and smear it on the canvas, creating new colors. I tried to put a smile on the Mona Lisa’s face, but it didn’t work. So I could easily erase the damage.

You can drop tassels on the floor and pick them up with your fingers with a pinching motion.

It is developed by Oisoi Studio in Belgium and costs $20. It took them 20 months to make it.

Tribe XR | DJ in VR

With this app you can become a virtual DJ in VR. You can learn to play on Pioneer DJ equipment that is standard for a nightclub, without having to own it in real life.

You can take lessons from DJ instructors, participate in Masterclasses and mix back-to-back with DJs around the world. In my five-minute class, I learned a few things, but I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

It has authentic Pioneer DJ equipment, including CDJ-3000 decks and the DJM-900 NXS2 mixer. You can place the virtual equipment on a real table and then play with the switches and buttons with your fingers or controllers. You can also play a Guitar Hero style game in Game Mode. It costs $30 and is available now.