An enterprising Oculus Quest developer found a “Guardian Couch” digging around inside the Oculus Quest system software.
While not exactly revealing on its own, the latest Oculus Quest system software includes object detection during setup of your VR play area. Facebook calls its VR barrier system “Guardian” and the system lets players define a safe space for VR play. The recent object detection addition to this system essentially gives you a reminder to shoo family or pets out of your guardian space, or to remove an object from the ground that might block your play. This system taken to the next level — perhaps showing you open seats where you could easily sit down and switch from standing to seated play without manually changing anything — would represent a huge improvement to VR as it would make the headset wearer less anxious about colliding with the real world.
The object was found by developer Gerald McAlister digging around in the VrShell.apk that runs the Oculus Quest’s system software. McAlister says he couldn’t find the file in an earlier version of the software he had from April, suggesting it might be a recent addition. McAlister posted his findings to Twitter over the weekend:
Next up: A… guardian couch? That's what the file is called, and looking at the 3D model, it's a couch styled like the guardian grid. Maybe furniture detection is coming sooner than expected? I know this would be greatly welcomed by me. pic.twitter.com/SLOe83sEaG
— Gerald McAlister (@gemisisDev) July 25, 2020
Previously, McAlister found code referencing “Jedi” controllers which may ultimately be the new Oculus Touch controllers which will likely be arriving alongside the next Oculus Quest which was leaked last week.
Facebook has been steadily enhancing Oculus Quest with regular software updates — late last year the company added the Oculus Link wired connection so it can play PC VR games as well as basic hand tracking. We expect Facebook to continue updating Quest software on current and future hardware and will provide updates as we find them.
