I think what you mean here is that limited performance is a given, so what is the least painful to sacrifice compared to when itâs tethered to a PC.
For me, the priorities for any VR headset are:
Frame Rate (up to 90Hz) > FOV > Clarity > Frame rate (above 90Hz)
So I definitely think standalone should sacrifice resolution first. And that is, in fact, what I do already with my 8KX if Iâm in a heavy VRChat world with 40 avatars or whatever. Iâll drop the resolution in SteamVR on the fly to keep the frame rate up.
I consider frame rate the highest priority up to 90Hz. I would like to have the option to sacrifice FOV on the fly if I need to as well. I wish this was an option on the 8KX with SteamVR, but it requires restarts. I would sacrifice resolution first, and then if thatâs not enough, Iâd like to be able to drop FOV, too.
Native standalone applications should be required to handle on-the-fly FOV changes. Iâd also like to have this ability tethered to the PC with SteamVR/OpenXR.
#1 Wireless: I donât really need mobile capability in 12K. Itâs too large and valuable, and I have a smaller and more expendable Quest 2 for that kind of purpose.
My primary interest in standalone would be using wireless while in my playspace at home while tethered to my PC. For this purpose, wireless needs to be equal to wired. If it offers less FOV or resolution or adds latency, forget it. Iâd rather deal with the cable. At least for action games.
I spend a lot of time in VRChat, and Iâd be more willing to accept some limitations to latency and resolution there. VRChat with full body tracking is also where eliminating the cable would be the most useful. The cable isnât much of a problem while Iâm just standing, but in VRChat I may be dancing, sitting, laying down, etc.
So a particular feature Iâd like to see is the ability to quickly and easily switch between cable and wireless. In fact, if that could be done on the fly, that would be really ideal. Then I could switch between them as the situation warrants.
One of the big values of this would be dealing with batteries. If the battery is low, you could just switch to cabled on the fly.
#2 Tracking: The Quest 2 style tracking of the hand controllers from the cameras on the headset is, to me, the biggest weakness of the Quest 2. This makes for meaningfully inferior tracking compared to basestation tracking. In gaming, it offers noticeably less accuracy when aiming guns. In VRChat, the limited tracking volume really hurts. Quest 2 players walk around with Târex arms because even having your hands down at your sides puts them outside of the tracking FOV. If youâre using full body tracking, your hand positions are going to want to leave the tracking FOV area a lot because youâre not just limited to the typical standing and having your hands in front of you at all times. How often are your hands in front of you when youâre laying down? How often are your hands behind you while youâre dancing?
I was disappointed to see that the 12K will implement the same kind of inside-out tracking for the hand controllers as the Quest 2. I have no interest in it, and Iâll 100% replace it with the basestation face plate. If the basestation face plate is not available at launch, then I wonât be buying the 12K until it is.
Now if the 12K was offering controllers with cameras in them to do their own inside-out tracking in the manner that Project Cambria is rumored to do, I believe that this approach will rival or exceed basestation tracking. Iâd be very interested in that. If it works well enough, I may be able to retire my basestations.
#3 Software platform: Since I have little need for mobile VR, Iâm primarily interested in SteamVR games. However, there are games that come out exclusively for Quest 2 that Iâd like to play. I have a Quest 2, but playing native games on it is meaningfully inferior to gaming on my 8KX in every way (except not having a tether cable). So I donât really find myself actually playing these games.
If the 12K can offer these exclusive Quest 2 games on a better platform than the Quest 2 so they have wide FOV, etc that would be of interest.
Since the 12K also runs XR2, it would be really nice if it could actually emulate a Quest 2 fully such that games donât even know theyâre not running on a Quest 2. It would be nice to be able to give Meta the finger with running their Quest 2 exclusives on a different (and better) platform. I feel dirty whenever I use my Quest 2, and Iâd rather avoid rewarding Meta for its anticompetitive practices as much as possible.
#4 Passthrough cameras: Going from the Index to the 8KX, I definitely missed having passthrough cameras and being able to overlay real world and virtual world. I needed this primarily when I move around in RL because Iâm picking up something like a water bottle. Or if Iâm transitioning from standing to laying down or vice versa (full body tracking). In the 8KX I end up having to do this blind, which is a little dangerous.
I imagine the 12K will have this ability with its tracking cameras. However, I wonât be using that face plate. I want to use the basestation tracking version. Iâd like this version to have passthrough cameras. Iâm willing to pay extra for that.
