- Meta VP Announces Update to Quest 3 Home Theater Environment
- It promises big visual and audio improvements, but doesn’t go into details
- We’re excited, but we hope the meta also makes a big change to the 3D content.
One of my favorite uses of my Meta Quest 3 in recent months has been using it as a massive virtual screen, whether for watching Netflix videos or playing PS5 games by pairing it with an Elgato 4K X capture card. But the cinematic experience offering, while fun, is a bit simple (read: bland). That could change at some point soon, however, as Meta teases that it’s working on improvements to the home theater experience its VR headset offers.
Right now, your options for the Quest 3 cinema are to sit in a virtual environment (your Meta Home) or your real environment (via transfer) and then control how dark your surroundings are. You can also curve the screen, change its position and modify its size. However, the screen simply exists as a floating window in the void, and while it’s fun, it’s not overly immersive; For example, light from the screen does not bounce off the environment like it does with a real television.
That could be about to change, however, as VR enthusiast (and source of leaks for the Meta Quest 3S and Asus Tarius headsets) Lunayian commented that “Horizon OS really deserves a ‘home theater’ environment.” ‘”, with better lighting and sound. Then Mark Rabkin (the Meta VP who runs the HorizonOS and Quest MR devices) responded directly to this, saying that the team is “working on all of that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best.”
It doesn’t go into too much detail, but when it comes to lighting, we expect Meta to be experimenting with making light from the virtual screen reflect off real-world surfaces (which it could map using Quest’s 3D scanning technology), as well as in features. like Ambilight, which has matching light colors that appear behind the screen to create a more immersive environment.
As for audio, Rabkin’s promise of “incredible sound” could refer to a version of Meta’s acoustic ray tracing. Just as ray tracing sees virtual lighting bouncing around a virtual environment to create more realistic shadows and other lighting effects, the acoustic version is designed to simulate audio realistically reverberating in a virtual space to create a more believable scene. .
3D content should be easier to find
Rabkin also asks users to request features they would like to see, and for me it has to be easier to access 3D content on the Quest, which is not a feature, just a problem with XR platforms that are not made by Apple. .
Outside of the exclusive Disney Plus 3D content deal the app has with Apple Vision Pro, there’s no simple, well-known source of 3D movies on VR headsets or AR glasses. According to several VR users I’ve spoken to, including official representatives from XR companies I won’t name here, there’s only one consistent solution to finding the 3D movies you want to watch, and that’s to pirate the movies.
Given the legal and moral confusion of piracy, I personally won’t recommend it, but it baffles me that there isn’t a simple, known, and legal way to access 3D movies in VR, since from my conversations there is certainly interest.
I’m not even asking for a streaming service, just the ability to simply purchase a digital copy of 3D blockbuster movies like Avatar would be cool.
We’ll have to wait and see what Meta announces, although I won’t hold my breath for easier access to 3D movies on the Quest. Still, it’s absurd to me that it’s an open secret that the best (and apparently only) solution for people without a Vision Pro to easily access 3D movies is to digitally sail the seven seas. There simply has to be a better way.
