Milkyway, Version 35 is out!
Yea? YEAH!
Yes, and it contains at least one feature you HAVE TO turn on as it’ll make your VR
life way easier. There’s another pretty cool feature, and some interesting ones so
let’s get into this short update video. Join me beyond reality.
The most important feature first, because I don’t want you to miss this, which is
Cloud Backup. This is a new cloud save system that stores your progress and settings off-headset.
This means if you have to restore your Quest to factory settings because of some weird
bug or you have to uninstall a game because you need to make space. I’m looking at you
Medal of Honor. you won’t lose your saves anymore as you can redownload the games and
pick up where you last saved.
But you have to turn this on yourself, so to turn this on, you go to the in-VR Settings
on your Quest, Device and over here you should be able to see Cloud Backup. It could be that
you don’t see this feature yet, even if you’re on v35, as this feature is being
rolled out gradually as per usual so it may take a few weeks. But when you have it, don’t
forget to toggle it on to make sure it’s enabled.
Cloud Backup WILL be turned on by default and it’s expected that most developers will
keep this on happily as it’s a great feature that would give most gamers a peace of mind.
But it’s important to take into account that not all games may support this if a dev
decides so. There will be a page in your Oculus account to check whether a game supports it
later on.
This is definitely a welcome feature since Quest games have been getting bigger and bigger
and I guess it’ll continue. Then Meta is making it easy to make Mixed
Reality videos like this one! Not the Live Overlay feature where you only superimpose
the player on top of a first person view, but this feature allows you to record or stream
yourself inside a VR game using an iPhone. It’s a really fun way to share what it physically
looks like playing a VR game. But for these kinds of videos, you need a pretty nice green
screen setup, which most of us don’t have and it also just takes a lot of work.
Update 35 brings a built-in Quest mixed reality capture, so you should be able to record really
decent mixed reality videos without a green screen. And it even works with a camera moving
around. While this doesn’t look as good as with a green screen setup, this is a really
incredible achievement. Plus it’s a free feature. Geez, to think I used to spent full
days trying to get mixed reality to work decently.
You do need an iPhone, though. Here’s a list of currently supported devices. You need
at least iOS 11 or higher, and your Oculus mobile app needs to be on v139, which you
can check in the App Store. You can’t use this on Android phones yet, but my hope is
that they will bring it to that platform too as with other features.
Right now it only works with six games, Beat Saber, Superhot, Richie’s Plank Experience,
Pistol Whip, Synth Riders, and Gravity Sketch. I hope to see more devs adding this as it’s
pretty cool way to show off the game.
It will also be an experimental Casting feature, so I guess you can find it in the Experimental
Settings in-VR once it’s rolled out to all of us. That sounds like you can even cast
it, so you can stream it to your TV, which would be fun for real life VR parties or streamers
can use it as a super easy way to stream in Mixed Reality. This hasn’t been rolled out
to us yet, but we will definitely try this out on stream once we have it.
So, last update we already saw 2D apps launch on Quest. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, Smartsheet
and Spike. And you can drag and drop them next to each other from the menu to multitask.
Pretty neat.
With this update, we’ll get more 2D apps like MURAL, Miro, and Monday.com which are
arriving in the Store in the next few weeks. And the 2D apps library will only increase
as developers can use the Progressive Web Apps industry standard, which should minimize
the development effort needed to make their currently available apps compatible with Quest.
Soooo. I’d say, if you’re a dev, do it. There’s also an update for Horizon Workrooms,
that app you can use to work in like hold meetings, brainstorm and all that. In this
update, it’s now possible to customize your space like add your logo in there or posters.
I don’t really use this app myself, but I’m curious if any of you use it. Let me
know in the comments below.
Lastly, something no one really asked for. You can now call your friends on Facebook
using Messenger. Before, you could already chat with them, but now you can also use voice
calls.
Lastly, two small updates. App Sharing has now graduated, it’s been moved from the
Experimental Settings to the Accounts Settings tab. Nothing really changes if you already
been using it, but if you’re like me and turns it off to test things, then you now
know where to find it.
Remember, I have a great list of which games support App Sharing here, this is actually
a community collab. So just wanted to say quickly say thanks to everyone who submits
on this page so I can keep it updated.
And really lastly, you can now also help Meta testing upcoming features as just like on
Rift, you can now opt in to the Public Test Channel for Quest. Which means, you can get
software updates earlier than others so you can test it out. You can sign up using the
instructions on this page, which I’ll link in the description below. And if you’re
on Android and you don’t see the Advanced Settings in your Android Oculus app, then
make sure to uninstall and reinstall the Oculus app to see it. That’s what happened to me.
Again, if you don’t see these updates yet. It’s normal, even if you’re already in
v35, features can be rolled out gradually in the coming weeks. Not sure why they do
that, but they still do.
You can check which Quest version you’re on by going in-VR and clicking the Quick Settings
at the bottom left, then the Settings button at the top right. Here in the About tab, you
can see what software update you’re on or version I mean. If there’s one available
to you, you can manually update it here. But usually, by keeping the headset on and in
a charger with internet connection, it should update overnight. As you could tell, I don’t
even have all the updates yet but I just wanted to keep you updated 😉 Once I have them,
I’ll update you on our social media pages, so follow us there for more.
I hope you enjoyed this quick and fast update. And I hope to see you all in the next video.
A special thanks go to all our Champions, especially our Shining Armored ones right
over here. As always, XR on!