Oculus Quest’s Guardian system now warns you when something is in the way

Maybe now you’ll avoid jumping into your TV.

What you need to know

• Oculus Software version 17 for Quest brings automatic Playspace Scanning to detects objects that get in the way of your VR experience.
• Your Guardian playspace will warn you of objects by switching to a mixed-reality mode and highlighting the object in red.
• The guardian boundary color can now also be customized with a blue, purple, or yellow color.

The Oculus Quest is an amazing headset, and one of the reasons it’s so great is that it can recognize your play space and help you stay within a safe boundary. But, until now, the Quest could only tell you when you approach the edge of that boundary. Countless numbers of people have likely tripped over furniture, people, or an errant object that got in their playspace, and the new update to the Oculus Quest boundary system can now recognize those obstacles and help players clear them out before disaster occurs.

Once you’ve mapped your playspace out, Oculus Guardian will let you know if there are any obvious obstacles in the way by highlighting them in red and urging you to get them out of the area ASAP. Playspace Scan, as it’s called, regularly checks the area around you and ensures that your guardian playspace is perfectly safe for all the butt-kicking you’ll be doing in Superhot VR, or the sweating you’re sure to experience during a Supernatural workout.

Starting with Oculus software version 17, which your Quest should be receiving sometime this week, you can rest assured knowing that your Quest is protecting you as you rove around virtual and physical space simultaneously. Oculus is also adding in some personalization options for the Guardian boundaries, allowing players to choose from a blue, purple, or yellow grid when they get too close to the edge. That’s great for folks who might have issues seeing a certain color, or when the game you’re playing might be too close to the color scheme of your Guardian grid.

This announcement follows alongside several other announcements from Facebook as Oculus celebrates the 1-year anniversary of the Oculus Quest and the Oculus Rift S. Quest owners are also going to see some big improvements in hand tracking, as the feature is now available for all games to implement and is already featured in several paid and free games for your enjoyment.

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