Blizzard previously admitted that Overwatch 2's launch, which was spoiled by a bunch of bugs, DDoS attacks and other issues, has not met players of the company's expectations. While the company has made a lot of progress to make the game playable — a lot of players couldn't even log in at first — its work is far from done. Now, the developer is trying to make it up to fans by giving out freebies and running events. It will hold several Double Match XP weekends to give players the chance to rack up points and rank up. Blizzard will announce specific dates for the events soon.
It will also give players who log in from October 25th until the time Season One ends a Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm. Both items will automatically be added to people's collection when they log in within that window of time. In its announcement, Blizzard said that it will deploy more stability updates, starting with another patch scheduled for release this week. It also said that it's monitoring the game closely for any more issues and bugs that emerge.
When #Overwatch2 launch is bumpy you make it up to players 😤
Besides making progress on bug fixes & stabilization, we've got goodies to share with all players
🚑 Health Pack Weapon Charm 🏴☠️ Cursed Captain Reaper 🎉 2x Match XP weekends
The developer keeps a public list of known issues on its forum, but players are finding more that it has yet to acknowledge. Users are reporting problems regarding specific characters in the game, such as Mei, whose ice wall has been behaving inconsistently, according to Kotaku. Blizzard even had to pull two heroes out of the game completely to address a few bugs in the ability kits.
How does an HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Range Sensor Works and How to Interface with ESP32
If you are an electronics engineer or a beginner and want to build an obstacle avoidance robot, you need to first learn how an obstacle avoidance system works! which makes this project of ours super important, because in this project we are going to interface a HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor module with ESP32 and we are going to know every little detail about the module, which is a key component of any obstacle avoidance or detection system.
Meta has announced several updates to the avatars that it wants you to use in the metaverse and beyond. And hey, the avatars will have legs! At least in the virtual sense, if not the physical or metaphorical ones.
Meta says "legs have been one of the most requested features on our roadmap, and it’s been a significant area of our focus." These upgraded avatars will initially be available in Horizon Worlds before Meta opens them up to other developers.
On that note, Meta has created a software development kit so the avatars can be used in third-party virtual reality experiences and other apps. This actually makes a lot of sense. Meta will never be able to create a true metaverse by maintaining a walled garden. As such, the SDK will soon include Unreal Engine support for VR and iOS and Android support for Unity. The SDK will also enable what Meta is calling "natural facial expressions" on Meta Quest Pro — the high-end VR headset will be able to replicate your actual facial expressions on your avatar.
Elsewhere, Meta wants to make it easier for you to create an avatar in the first place. It says you'll be able to get started by taking a video selfie with your phone camera. You'll then be able to tweak the avatar to your liking. Of course, if you want to have an avatar that doesn't look like you, there's nothing to really stop you from creating that instead. There are pre-sets you can use as a starting point too.
In addition, you'll soon be able to create and share your Meta avatar in WhatsApp. Avatars will be available on Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp video calls next year as well. They'll replicate your expressions and movements during calls, seemingly in a similar fashion to Animoji.
It's the legs, and better-looking avatars than ones we've previously seen from Meta, that'll capture the most attention, though. In early August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of his avatar from Horizon Worlds and it was widely mocked. One person said it was akin to "a 2002 Nintendo GameCube release called like 'World Baby.'" Zuckerberg swiftly claimed that “major updates” for VR visuals were on the way, and we learned more about those (which were reportedly fast tracked) during Meta Connect today.
The weird, floating avatars that are currently seen in Horizon Worlds will eventually be a thing of the past. This image will live long in the memory, though:
You're probably hoping to cross off a few big items from your holiday shopping list during Amazon's Prime Early Access Sale. But don't forget about the little things, either. Sale events like this are a good opportunity to pick up affordable gadgets that make great stocking stuffers or gifts for people who are hard to shop for. Plus, you may be able to find things like charging cables, accessories and other tech items on discount that you've been meaning to buy for yourself. To make things easier for you, we've collected all of the best gadgets that you can get for under $50 for this October Prime Day right here.
Samsung Pro Plus microSD card
Samsung's Pro Plus microSD card in 128GB is nearly half off and down to only $18 for Prime Day. It also comes with an adapter, so you can use it with more types of devices. You'll get read/write speeds of up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s, respectively, and a card that's temperature, magnet- and drop-resistant.
Anker is having a huge sale on charging gadgets for Prime Day, and while not all of them are under $50, many of them are. Now's the time to grab an extra cable or two, a multiport adapter, a lightweight portable battery pack and other things that you'll want to take with you wherever you go.
Razer's Seiren Mini microphone is $10 off and down to $40, which is only $5 more than its record low. It's an ultra-compact, USB mic can come with you anywhere to amplify your voice on video calls and game streams.
The console version of the SteelSeries Arctis 3 wired headset is on sale for only $34. It works with the PS5, Xbox Series X and S, the Nintendo Switch and other gaming devices, plus it has a clear cast microphone built in and a comfortable yet durable design.
The latest Roku Streaming Stick 4K is on sale for $27, or $23 less than normal. It builds upon the technology in the Streaming Stick+, supporting 4K HDR10+ content, Dolby Vision, long-range WiFi, voice search and TV controls with the included remote.
Roku's Express streaming dongle is on sale for $18, which is $12 off its usual rate. Like Amazon's own budget streaming devices, the Express doesn't have a ton of fancy features, but it does support HD content and it comes with a high-speed HDMI cable. The Express 4K+ streamer is also on sale for $25.
Jabra's excellent Elite 3 earbuds have dropped to $50, or $30 off their normal rate. These already affordable buds earned a score of 88 from us for their impressive sound quality, good battery life, reliable touch controls and comfortable fit.
The Echo Show 5 is on sale for $35, or a whopping 59 percent off its usual price. If you want a smart alarm clock, this is the smart display to get. We like its sharp 5-inch display, ambient light sensor, smart home controls and tap-to-snooze feature.
The 2022 Fire 7 tablet is on sale for $45, or 25 percent off its usual price. If you're looking for a cheap tablet to bring with you everywhere or to give your kid without worry, this is a good option. While it doesn't have the Google Play Store, you can still use it to check email, watch videos, play music and more.
The Fire HD 8 tablet is half off and down to $45. We gave it a score of 81 for its decent performance, good battery life, wireless charging capabilities and USB-C port.
The standard Fire TV Stick is on sale for $20. It supports 1080p streaming with Dolby Atmos and it comes with an Alexa Voice Remote that has power and volume buttons on it.
The Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for $25 for October Prime Day, which is half off its normal price. This one supports 4K streaming with Dolby Vision along with Dolby Atmos audio and Amazon's Fire TV OS.
The higher-end Fire TV Stick 4K Max has dropped to $35, which is $20 less than usual and a record low. On top of all of the features in the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, the Max version also supports WiFi 6 and live picture-in-picture viewing.
You can get two Blink Mini wired security cameras for only $30 for this October Prime Day. This camera needs to be plugged in, but we like its compact design, 1080p recording, motion alerts and two-way audio.
Amazon's smart plug is 48 percent off and down to only $13. You can plug almost any "dumb" appliance into this accessory to make it a smart one that can be controlled via a companion app and with Alexa voice commands.
A four pack of Kasa's mini smart plugs is on sale for only $24. These tiny accessories let you turn almost any appliance into a smart one, allowing you to turn them on and off remotely set usage schedules and more.
The next time an asteroid threatens Earth, humanity might have a chance of saving the planet. On Tuesday, NASA announced that its experimental Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully altered the orbit of Dimorphos. Following two weeks of data collection and analysis, the agency found that DART's impact shortened the asteroid's orbit around its parent, Didymos, by 32 minutes. Before the September 26th collision, NASA estimated DART needed to change the orbit period of Dimorphos by 73 seconds or more to call the test a success. The spacecraft beat that benchmark by more than 25 times.
🎯Bullseye! @NASA's #DARTMission successfully changed the targeted asteroid’s trajectory—and its orbit by 32 minutes.
This watershed moment for planetary defense is thanks to our exceptional team and international partners. https://t.co/8gJluMES9B
"If an Earth-threatening asteroid was discovered, and we could see it far enough away, this technique could be used to deflect it," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference the space agency held on Tuesday. "NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA's exceptional team and partners from around the world.”
NASA launched the DART mission in November 2021. The vending machine-sized spacecraft was traveling at approximately 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) per hour when it crossed paths with Dimorphos nearly 68 million miles away from Earth.
More than a year after it was first announced, Amazon has shared a trailer for Good Night Oppy. The upcoming documentary will recount the story of NASA’s Opportunity rover, or Oppy as it was lovingly known by its creators. The documentary was directed by Ryan White (Assassins), with Angela Bassett, best known for her roles in Black Panther and Contact, providing narration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab helped with the project, sharing archival footage and knowledge of the rover’s mission.
Opportunity was one of two rovers NASA landed on the surface of Mars in 2004. What was initially supposed to be a 90-day mission turned into a 15-year adventure exploring the surface of the Red Planet. During that time, the rover helped reveal that Mars once had oceans made of water and even broke the record for the longest off-Earth drive. Along the way, it sent stunning images of Mars. Good Night Oppy will start a limited theatrical run on November 4th before it heads to Amazon Prime Video on November 23rd.
You'll eventually have another way to access Xbox Cloud Gaming titles beyond consoles, PCs, tablets and phones. Microsoft is working with Meta to bring the service to the Meta Quest Store, which means it will be available on Meta Quest 2 headsets and perhaps even Meta Quest Pro.
A Game Pass Ultimate subscription is required to use Xbox Cloud Gaming. On Meta Quest 2, you'll be able to play console games from the service on a giant virtual 2D screen, so you won't actually be playing VR versions of them. What's more, you won't need to use the Quest 2 controllers either. You'll have the option to connect an Xbox controller to your Quest 2.
Microsoft and Meta haven't said exactly when Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available on the headset. However, they hope to share more details soon.
After a bit of a wait, Among Us VR is nearly ready. Innersloth, Schell Games and Robot Teddy have confirmed the virtual reality betrayal game will be available November 10th on Meta Quest 2 and Steam. There's no mention of a PlayStation VR version in the announcement (we've asked Innersloth for comment), but this is still a big deal if you're hoping for a fresh take on the game's core concept.
As in the 2D version, Among Us VR asks crewmates to identify impostors before they kill the entire crew. However, the move to a first-person perspective shakes up gameplay. Impostors will now have an easier time sneaking around, and you can now use hand expressions when you accuse others or protest your innocence. If you've grown tired of plain Among Us, this might give you a reason to come back.
That "if" is important, of course. Among Usthrived in the early days of the pandemic, when it was one of the more entertaining ways to play and connect with your isolated friends. While it still has its audience, it's not the cult phenomenon it was in 2020. With that said, this may be a good example of what VR gaming can do — you can socialize with your buddies while running for your virtual life.
Meta is making a big push to sell its new Quest Pro to office workers. At Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg showed off upcoming integrations with Zoom and Microsoft teams, along with a slew of other features meant to make the headset more appealing to businesses.
The updates are the clearest sign yet that Meta is keen to position the $1500 Quest Pro as a business and productivity tool, and that it sees offices as a key part of its vision for the metaverse. And Horizon Workrooms, the VR meeting software launched in beta last year, is central to that pitch.
Among the updates: new integrations with Zoom and Microsoft Teams so people can call into meetings happening in VR. With the change, people will be able to join colleagues meeting in VR Horizon Workrooms from their non-VR devices. In a blog post, Meta said the Zoom integration, expected “early in 2023” will give “more options on how you choose to show up.”
Likewise, the integration with Microsoft’s Teams will enable participants to join more “immersive” meetings in Teams from Horizon Workrooms. The company hasn’t said when the tie-in with Teams could be available, but the feature is part of a broader partnership with Microsoft to bring its productivity apps to Quest.
Meta
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined Zuckerberg to announce that the company was also working Windows 365 for the Quest Pro and Quest 2, and that content from Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook would be viewable from the headsets. Meta’s newly improved avatars will also be available in Teams.
Meta also showed off improvements to existing Workrooms features, like the ability to add sticky notes to VR whiteboards, and the ability to collaboratively view 3D models. The company is also riffing on a popular Zoom feature with the ability to form smaller breakout groups within larger meetings. And for solo office tasks, workers will be able to work from up to three virtual screens in Workrooms and add up to four customizable “personal environments.”
Meta
Zuckerberg also teased a new feature called “magic rooms” that will allow teams to work together in mixed reality, rather than solely in VR workspaces. He said the feature will be suited to hybrid teams, where there are people working remotely with groups of people who are in the same physical space. "Everyone is present and has the same tools, whether they're in full VR or in mixed reality," he explained. Ina. blog post, Meta said magic rooms are currently being tested internally, and could launch more widely sometime in 2023.
Also coming in 2023 will be a new “Quest for Business” subscription bundle that comes with device management controls and security features so businesses’ can manage Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets the way they would with company-issued laptops or mobile phones. The bundle will also include access to “premium support” features.
Following the demise of smartphone-based headsets like Samsung's Gear VR and Google’s Daydream, virtual reality headsets have generally fallen into two camps: lightweight standalone systems like the Quest 2 and more sophisticated PC-based systems like the Vive Pro 2 and Valve Index.
But with the new Quest Pro, Meta is trying to combine the best things about both types of headsets into a powerful, but still very comfortable, self-contained unit. In fact, Meta believes so strongly in its next headset that prior to a demo session for press, Meta Product Management Lead Rupa Rao described the Quest Pro as “the beginning of an evolution in VR. It’s going to be our first multi-functional immersive computing platform that will enable the metaverse.” And after getting the chance to try it out myself, I can definitely see where that confidence is coming from.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Compared to the Quest 2, the Quest Pro is packing some major hardware upgrades including an all-new design, 10 sensors (both inward and outward facing) and completely revamped optics. The Quest Pro is also the first device to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chip along with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a 90Hz refresh rate, which Meta says delivers 50 percent better performance than the Quest 2.
But to me, one of the best things about the Quest 2 is how comfortable it is. Due to its increased horsepower, it needs a way bigger battery. But instead of cramming a big power pack up front and making the whole headset unbalanced, Meta used a curved cell that’s integrated into the Quest Pro’s headband. Putting on the headset is also dead simple, as it sits on your head more like a visor and less like a helmet. This design allows you to peek at meatspace using your peripheral vision, which was an intentional choice by Meta: One of the company’s goals was to create something that lets you interact in both VR and IRL simultaneously. That said, if you want total immersion, there are side-mounted blinders that come in the box, in addition to optional full light blockers (though you’ll have to pay an extra $50 for those).
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Adjusting the fit is also super straightforward. There’s a dial in back to tighten the headband. And for IPD interpupillary distance), you can move each eyecup left or right individually as needed. When it comes to optics, while the Quest Pro isn’t quite as light as the Quest 2, Meta switched to new pancake optics that are 40-percent thinner than traditional fresnel lenses to reduce the thickness of the headset.
Meanwhile, with a per-eye resolution of 1800 x 1920, the Quest Pro has a higher pixel density than the Valve Index (1440 x 1600 per eye) and the Quest 2, though it still can’t match stuff like the Vive Pro 2 (2448 × 2448 per eye). But even without a super high pixels per inch figure, visuals look great. Meta has managed to almost completely eliminate the screen door effect on a headset that doesn’t need to be tethered to a PC. It’s a great balance of resolution and high-fidelity graphics, with a battery that lasts between 60 and 90 minutes on a charge. And for those who want even longer VR sessions, you can also power the Quest Pro using the headset’s included charging cable.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Quest Pro’s 10 sensors are split between five exterior cams and five inward facing ones. The outward-facing sensors serve two main purposes: they support full-color passthrough (the beta version of this on the Quest 2 is only black-and-white) so you can easily see the world around you from inside the headset. This makes it easier to switch between VR and meatspace without getting disorientated. And because Meta’s passthrough looks pretty sharp, it’s easy to see relatively small objects like keys on a keyboard (though not necessarily the letters printed on them).
But more importantly, the exterior cameras support what Meta calls scene understanding, which is part of the company’s presence platform. Scene understanding allows the Quest Pro’s exterior sensors to detect objects in the real world like walls, desks, tables, etc. While it might seem simple, this has a huge impact. For example, after I used the Painting VR app to create my very own Bob Ross, I was able to hang the painting on a wall in the room, so that anyone else who visited the space could see it too.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But it’s not just paintings either, because scene understanding allows the headset to do stuff like place a whiteboard on a wall for virtual work collaboration and even recognize stuff like a keyboard, so you can have multiple virtual screens set up in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms office app while still being able to bang away on physical keys. Really, scene understanding feels like a critical piece of Meta’s attempt to integrate VR with the real world, and because it's built into the company’s presence platform, developers can also easily use related APIs to support the tech in their apps.
Meanwhile, the Quest Pro’s inward-facing sensors are there to track your eye and facial movements. This supports stuff like foveated rendering, which allows the headset to provide sharp visuals where you're looking, while dialing down performance on graphics in your peripheral vision, which helps reduce the overall processing load. But honestly, while I know it might sound creepy, the eye and facial tracking make such a big impact when interacting with people in VR.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
During my first demo of the Quest Pro in Horizon Workrooms, I had another representative from Meta showing various features, and one of the first things I noticed was that being able to read facial expressions and accurate head and eye movements just made conversation feel a lot more natural. Instead of having to remember to respond to every question with a verbal “Yes,” I could simply nod my head, and the other person would know to move on. This removes a lot of the awkwardness of interacting with people in a virtual space, which is often cited as a big barrier to VR adoption.
The Quest Pro’s face and eye-tracking goes further than that too though, because in addition to making avatars look more lifelike, it can also be used in games for stuff like motion capture or animating alien creatures using your own movements. Developers can even adjust some basic sliders to create more exaggerated effects. And once again, because eye and face tracking is built into Meta’s presence platform, the development tools are easy to access.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Aside from the headset, Meta also completely redesigned the Quest Pro’s controllers, which as a nice bonus will be backward compatible with the Quest 2. The new controllers have sensors built in, rather than relying on headset cameras to track their movements, which means you don’t need the big loops used on the Quest 2’s joysticks. But once again, those sensors also support much more precise hand and finger tracking. And it kind of just works. Using the Quest Pro’s controllers to paint and grab virtual objects felt incredibly intuitive. There was even a demo that let me play games like Jenga and Operation. And because the controllers felt so responsive, the tension was very palpable when I tried to remove blocks without knocking the whole tower down.
Over the course of about two hours of demos in seven or eight different apps, I came away thoroughly impressed. The Quest Pro might be the most comfortable VR headset I’ve ever used, particularly on a self-contained system with graphics this good. Getting in and out of the headset wasn’t that much more difficult than putting on a hat and putting my hands through the safety straps on the controllers, just like you would with a Wiimote or Nintendo Switch Joy-Con. And it’s important to remember that all of this is coming from a standalone headset, which means you don’t need to worry about wires or tethering it to a nearby and (probably expensive) PC with a discrete GPU.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That said, I still have a couple of small quibbles with the Quest Pro. I think its controllers really need better hand straps like those attached to the Valve Index’s joysticks, so you can more easily switch between using buttons and finger gestures without worrying about dropping them. And then there’s its price: $1,500. Given all the tech inside, I don’t think that cost is unjustified. But at the same time, that’s five times the price of a Quest 2, so it’s going to take a lot more justification to pony up that much money for a headset that’s still sort of in search of a purpose, at least for the general consumer. And let’s not forget, Meta remains very much in the process of building out a cohesive virtual world that people will want to visit. Especially in light of recent reports that even many of the company’s employees have been avoiding using Horizon Worlds due to bugs and issues with quality control.
But it really feels like Meta has addressed all the big hardware concerns. Face and eye-tracking unlock more natural conversations in VR. More precise hand and finger tracking make it easier to interact with virtual objects. And with a lightweight and very comfortable standalone headset that delivers better visuals than most of the tethered alternatives out there (aside from super expensive enterprise options like Varjo’s VR-3 and the like), the whole kit is super easy to use. The headset even comes with a wireless charging dock, which despite being a bit fiddly, makes it easy to store and have the headset ready to use whenever you need it.
The Quest Pro comes with a two meter charging cable, a wireless charging dock, ambient light blockers and the new Quest Touch Pro controllers.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
After using the Quest Pro, I feel like this is the headset Meta really needs to provide a high-quality VR experience for building out apps and environments. Now I still don’t know if this is enough to convince people to work and live in VR, but when it comes to enabling the Metaverse, the Quest Pro seems like the big building block for making that happen
Pre-orders for the Quest Pro go live today, with official sales beginning on October 25th.
