Avatour is currently available for the standalone Oculus Quest and Go headsets. Depending on your application, you may consider the Oculus for Business platform.
The Oculus Quest 2, released in October 2020, is far and away the best VR headset available today, across a variety of criteria. This is currently the only headset we recommend for use with Avatour.
- Ease of use: The Quest 2 is entirely standalone and does not require a PC. We consider this to be a requirement for easy deployment.
- Performance: The Quest 2 is the first shipping headset to employ the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset, which provides dramatically better performance than other standalone options.
- Price: Quest 2 is relatively inexpensive. The consumer version is only $299 retail, while the enterprise-focused Oculus for Business edition starts at $799.
- Visual Quality: The Quest 2 has a significantly higher-resolution screen than previous versions, with the ability to display roughly 7k horizontal resolution. When combined with next-generation capture hardware, this will enable a significant leap in visual quality for the Avatour system.
Oculus for Business, or Consumer version?
When considering the purchase of Quest 2 for use with Avatour, the question comes down to whether to deploy the consumer version or the Oculus for Business (OfB) platform within your organization. The below chart summarizes some of the pros and cons:
| Consumer Oculus Quest 2 | Oculus for Business |
|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
Most of our Enterprise customers have chosen the OfB platform for any significant headset rollout within their organizations.
EU Restrictions
Due to privacy concerns with the underlying Facebook platform, availability of the Oculus Quest in the EU is currently problematic. Facebook is not selling headsets in Germany, and other organizations have expressed concerns as well. We are evaluating other options for our European customers.
Other Headset Options
In addition to the Quest 2, Avatour also supports the previous-generation Oculus Quest 1, and the discontinued Oculus Go. While the Quest 2 is the best option for most applications today, we are continuing to provide support for the older headsets.
The Oculus Go, in particular, was widely distributed, and has some ease-of-use benefits when compared to the Quest devices. It might not be the latest and greatest, but it's still quite useful for Avatour deployments.
Looking Forward
The universe of available VR hardware continues to evolve, and we're constantly evaluating new hardware. If there is a specific headset you'd like to see us support, please drop us a line and let us know.