Facebook's Oculus teased fans recently with the promise of hand tracking coming to the Oculus Quest, which was initially slated for a 2020 release. That release now has an official window, and fans can now expect to start using their hands to control the Quest earlier than expected.

The Oculus Quest is a standalone VR headset that operates without the need for wires or external cameras. The Quest's hand tracking will utilize the cameras that are built in to the headset to track the user's hands in virtual reality in real time, down to the movement of individual digits.

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Users of the Oculus Quest will be able to try out hand tracking for the first time starting this week. Users only have to wait for the v12 update to arrive on their system, and then they can activate the hand tracking functionality through the Quest's experimental features menu. The hand tracking SDK will be made available to game designers the following week.

Since developers don't have access to the new functionality yet, none of the third-party apps available through the Quest will initially work with hand tracking. However, users can expect to be able to control all of the Quest's menus and some of its base apps, like the browser and library using just their hands. Users can also set up the height of their guardian boundary using their hands, which will save the trouble of needing to tap a controller to the floor.

The Oculus Quest's hand tracking is still new technology, but Facebook is already promising that it will continue to improve after it first launches as an experimental feature. This is in keeping with the Oculus Quest's recent launch of Oculus Link, which allows players to hook up their Quest to a computer to play VR games that are only available on PC. That launch is currently in the beta phase, but players have already been outspoken about how impressive the function is.

Although the Quest isn't as powerful a VR headset as the Valve Index, for example, Facebook has been hard at work creating innovative technology that makes the Quest an inviting standalone/PC hybrid headset. It's now up to game developers to decide whether or not hand tracking becomes a full-fledged feature in games or remains just an interesting novelty that's limited to the Oculus' most basic apps.

The Oculus Quest is available now.

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Source: Oculus