Oculus talks about the future of Rooms and Partners on the Rift platform

VR has its strengths in many areas, but it also falls short in several aspects. One major challenge is the ease of use, particularly when playing multiplayer games with friends in VR. About seven months ago, Oculus announced a solution that has since rolled out on Gear VR and has been well-received. Interestingly, this feature isn’t available on Oculus' high-end VR platform, Rift, even though multiplayer VR games on SteamVR have seen significant optimization. Recently, Knight Michel, head of the Oculus Rift division, provided more details about the Rift versions of Rooms and Partners. Rooms & Parties Oculus Rooms and Partners was initially released at the end of 2016. This application and feature aim to address the most frustrating aspect of multiplayer Rift gaming: finding your Oculus friends in VR. While multiplayer games on Rift generally work well once you’ve matched with someone, getting there can be a hassle. After putting on your headset, accessing common digital communication tools like messaging and voice apps becomes difficult. The Rooms app serves as a kind of virtual lobby where friends can meet up, discuss what they’d like to experience in VR, and embark on their shared adventures. It’s important for users to have something engaging to do while waiting for friends to join, rather than sitting idle, constantly checking their phones to see if a friend has logged in. Parties, on the other hand, is a new feature within Oculus’ interface: Global Voice Chat. This allows friends to communicate anytime, anywhere. It simplifies syncing up and playing together since you no longer have to remove your headset or awkwardly check your smartphone for messages and calls. Additionally, it enables players to keep chatting with friends while playing solo VR games. When Rooms and Partners launched in 2016, they debuted on Gear VR and have continued to receive updates. Oculus mentioned at the time that these features would come to Rift in 2017, which naturally delighted users. Absence of the Rift Platform By July 2017, however, neither Rooms nor Partners had appeared on the Rift platform. With the introduction of SteamVR Home Beta, which integrates existing Steam voice chat and messaging features (essentially all the functionality of Rooms and Partners), their absence became increasingly frustrating for Rift users. Even though SteamVR Home's features aren’t yet perfected, at least users could start using them. Despite the platform’s maturity in many aspects, Oculus Home on Rift is notably lacking in making multiplayer games more accessible. The community has expressed concerns directly and indirectly to Maples.com, hoping to prompt Oculus to provide updates on related projects. Oculus' Attitude Fortunately, Evangelical learned more about the Rift version of Rooms and Partners from perhaps the best person to discuss the topic—Knight Michel, head of the Rift division. Michel stated: “We’ve introduced Rooms to Gear VR, and we’re very pleased with how it’s going. The Rooms team is growing rapidly. They release more or less monthly updates, which are quite significant. These updates have added exciting new features, and we see usage continuing to grow. We’re very excited about the future of Rooms on mobile.” He then addressed criticisms that Rooms should be a straightforward port to the Rift. He said: “Someone might ask, ‘Why aren’t they (the team focused on mobile) just bringing it directly to the PC?’ In fact, for a smaller team, they’ve accelerated as much as possible by focusing on one platform to deliver more value to mobile users than trying to bring everything to the PC simultaneously. This is especially true since Rooms are built on Unity and use Android, meaning there will always be features specific to Android (like codecs, particularly for video or audio) that can’t be directly transferred to the PC.” Parties Coming to Rift For those looking to entertain together in VR, Rooms can certainly fulfill that need. Michel mentioned that Facebook SPACES meets this requirement and is actively being updated and expanded. However, Rift users don’t see Rooms as a place to entertain together but rather as a way to facilitate playing VR games with their Rift friends. Michel explained: “People are asking when Rooms will come to the PC?” He added that new features are coming to the PC soon, and that’s Parties. “We’ll bring continuous voice calls to the PC. This will be independent of Rooms and will launch soon. You can open the general menu and say, ‘I want to chat with Knight,’ and then I’ll get a notification saying, ‘Hey, you want to play with Ben.’ I’d respond, ‘Yes, I can’t wait to chat with him again.’ Then we’ll be able to conduct continuous voice calls across multiple pieces of content.” Rooms? But what about Rooms as a pre-game gathering space where players can choose games to play together? Michel responded: “What does this mean for Rooms? (Pauses to think…) We have some big plans for the Rift community. Our team has been working on something… It’s been a while… We think this is the next evolution of the Oculus platform on the PC. We can’t talk too much today, but I can say that our vision for the Oculus platform is at the heart of the VR community.” Then he shifted focus to Oculus’ vision for the Rift, emphasizing that their goal extends beyond optimizing multiplayer Rift gaming. “(Our goal is) When you put on the Rift, you’ll be transported to another world. We’ll continue pushing the Oculus platform on PC toward this vision, starting with social features like Parties and Spaces, but it will expand further, and we’ll share more later this year.” Although it sounds promising, it seems we’ve veered slightly from the original topic. I asked Michel if he was referring to the expansion of the Rift version of Rooms or discussing something entirely different. His response suggests that the existence of the Rift version of Rooms remains speculative. “Additional notes: Rooms may still be available… I’m talking about something else (Oculus’ vision for a hyper-realistic VR experience). Rooms may still come to the Rift, which isn’t impossible. But today, what we’re discussing doesn’t refer to the next few months, so we haven’t ruled out (Rooms landing on the Rift).” Commitment to New Features Michel mentioned that Rooms are actively being developed on the mobile side, and on the Rift side, he assured the community that he and Oculus are committed to solving the current challenges facing Rift multiplayer gaming. “I can say that the (Rooms) team is focusing on the mobile community. So, if you’re a Gear VR user, you should expect more from Rooms in the near future. If you’re a Rift user, you might feel frustrated and ask, ‘Are you saying Rooms won’t come to me?’ I can promise you that (for the Rift community) you can trust me—we will soon bring some incredible things to the Rift community. And in the future, Rooms may still appear on the PC side, and we’ll see what happens.” Michel admitted that he personally relies on Discord’s voice and text chat to collaborate with friends during multiplayer Rift games. He also believes that the global voice chat through Parties in the near future will alleviate much of the current dissatisfaction among Rift users. However, he acknowledged that one feature Rift users desire is the ability to start Rift games together in the same virtual space. Michel understands the community’s longing for this feature, regardless of whether it comes in the form of Rooms. “We’ll see when the collaborative application launches on the Rift. I mean, we understand everything. We created all of this on the mobile side, so it’s just a matter of time and determining the most meaningful schedule.” Cross-Platform Communication More broadly, while Parties and collaborative applications sound great, one key issue is cross-platform communication between headset-wearing users and those without headsets. I asked Michel if Oculus recognizes the need for communication between VR platforms and non-VR platforms—a way to invite friends from within VR and transfer them to a mobile phone or computer, using voice chat to stay connected whether in the real world or the VR world. For this, Michel chuckled: “(I) do see this need. How do you feel like you’re part of the Rift team…”

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