First look at Meta’s Project Cambria VR headset leaves us underwhelmed

techradar.com:

After months of promising that its Project Cambria headset would revolutionize the worlds of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally given us a first look at what it can do; and we’re a more than a little underwhelmed.

Following on from the runaway success that has been the Meta Quest 2 (formerly Oculus Quest 2) Meta’s next headset has been set up perfectly for a homerun. VR is more popular than ever and the Quest 2 leads the pack with its standalone design, impressive capabilities, and library of incredible (and exclusive) VR games.

Project Cambria is set to adopt everything that made the Quest 2 great but will take everything up a level with improved specs and features.

One such upgrade is color passthrough, a tool that will allow Cambria wearers to see the real world around them in full color rather than in monochrome like on the Quest 2. 

This unimpressive sounding feature will actually be a massive improvement for Meta’s headset’s mixed reality capabilities. But based on Mark Zuckerberg’s demo you’d be forgiven if that wasn’t the impression you came away with.

In a post on his Facebook page, Meta’s CEO gave us a narrated, minute-long look at his time playing The World Beyond.

This mixed-reality game is built using Meta’s new Presence Platform (more on that in a minute) and features a cute alien/rabbit/fox hybrid thing as your loyal companion (imagine a knock-off Stitch from Disney’s 2002 film Lilo and Stitch).

The game itself looks fun, Zuckerberg throws a virtual ball around for his companion to fetch, and he gives the little critter a scratch on the head when he does a good job. It’s effectively an AR Tamagotchi.

But the demo’s presentation carries a middle-school video project vibe.

W