Hand tracking doesn’t do much at the moment.
The Oculus Quest is a standalone virtual reality (VR) headset that doesn’t require any cables to be connected to your PC. The device has received a number of new features in recent months, but hand tracking may be the most significant. Yesterday, Oculus updated the Quest software so that you can enable hand tracking as an Experimental Feature.
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Menu navigation
You can interact with the Oculus Quest menu from the Library to the Store. Just point at and pinch whatever you want to select. The same applies to fast-forwarding or rewinding trailers in the Oculus Store.
Oculus services
Select apps like the Oculus Browser, Oculus TV, photo library, and more work with hand tracking as well. However, it’s not perfect and deleting screenshots is cumbersome because you have to select minuscule trash can icons.
We’ll keep you updated as soon as more apps are updated to support hand tracking. Hopefully, games will be added too soon because Oculus said that Quest owners should expect the first games in 2020.
Right now, hand tracking isn’t reliable and isn’t recommended. It needs a lot of work until it’s useful. Let’s see how Oculus improves it in the weeks and months to come.
Versatile VR
Oculus Quest
From $400 at Amazon From $400 at Walmart
Options to enjoy VR
The Oculus Quest is known for its untethered nature, but now it also has the ability to play PCVR games with Oculus Link. The feature is in beta but allows you to play powerful VR games on a headset that you can then detach from your PC and use on the go.
Anker Powerline USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable
$13 at Amazon
Oculus recommends this cable for trying out Oculus Link until the official Oculus Link Cable becomes available.
GodSpin USB-C to USB-C Cable (6.6 feet)
$30 at Amazon
This USB-C to USB-C cable supports 20 Gbps transfer speeds, 5A/20V power, USB 3.1, and USB 3.2.
