It's been six months since the release of Meta Quest 3. What's Improved and What Are Still the Problems of the Famous VR Headset?
The Quest 3 was hailed as an excellent VR headset, but was judged strictly on its "marginally acceptable" mixed reality. However, as with previous standalone VR headsets, Meta has released several system software and development tool updates in the Quest 3's first six months on the market. Here we break down what these are and how they change our decision on whether to buy it.
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Mixed Reality is Better, But Not the Best in the Market
Meta promotes Quest 3 as the "first “Mainstream“ mixed reality headset". Taking this into account, it is strictly judged the lack of dynamic occlusion and the significant distortion of the geometry during the passage.
In December Meta released the Depth API that allows developers to add that missing dynamic occlusion. However, it requires complex integration by developers and is therefore not supported by almost any application so far. In addition, the depth map that drives it is very low resolution, resulting in some results that are quite ugly to the eye.
Transit was updated earlier this month with improved dynamic range and exposure control, making it easier to view physical screens such as monitors and phones. Noise has also been reduced slightly. However, all of this comes at the cost of a slightly darker and less vibrant virtual environment. This new transit setting moves or sometimes alters the image, including darkness and intensity, is closer to Apple Vision Pro than ever.
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Transit Quality Improved and New Features Added in Meta Quest 3
Meta has also resolved one of the complaints about Transit: that it did not appear on all systems and interfaces (UI) and was not supported for loading screens. Apps can now use traversal on their loading screen, and Meta has added traversal to system interfaces such as the lock screen and disable menu.
These changes may seem small enough, but they concisely allow for uninterrupted transit from about five seconds after putting the Quest 3 on until you take it off, making it feel more like a mixed reality headset and less like a VR headset with mixed reality elements.
Inside-Out Body Tracking Function Added, But Hardly Used
Meta Quest 3 was announced with an important feature that came after the release, the Inside-Out Body Tracking feature.
Inside-Out Body Tracking (IOBT) uses the Quest 3's down-focused side cameras to track your wrist, elbows, shoulder and chest using advanced computer vision algorithms. It prevents problems with inverse kinematics (IK) estimates of the hands, which are often incorrect and feel uncomfortable because the system simply makes assumptions from the location of your head and hands. When developers integrate IOBT, you will see your hands and chest in their actual positions - not an estimate.
The IOBT was released in December. However, four months later it is still only used by a small number of third-party apps, including Swordsman VR, Drunkn Bar Fight and XRWorkout.
The biggest use for IOBT right now is in Virtual Desktop, which uses it to simulate wearable Vive Trackers for the body tracking avatar movement feature in the PC VR of VRChat.
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Spatial Video and Panoramics are now easily viewed in Meta Quest 3
Two of the main uses of Apple Vision Pro are viewing panoramic and 3D "Spatial Video playback" recorded from your iPhone, now easily viewable in Meta Quest 3.
This means that you can view this content on a cable for 1/7 the price of Apple Vision Pro. If you're the kind of person who records a lot of photos and videos and enjoy viewing them on AR/VR headsets, this may even be a reason to buy one.
Supported External Microphones
When Meta Quest 3 was released, users were quite excited to use it in the VR Download podcast but found that its microphone had the same annoying attachment problem as the Meta Quest Pro.
The v62 update in February brought some improvements to the Quest 3's microphone quality, including specifically the problem of aspiration. However, it's still not good enough for VR Download and still sounds noticeably worse than even the Quest 2.
In what may be an assumption that the microphone hardware just isn't good enough, the v64 update earlier this month added the ability to use an external microphone to the Quest 3 via the USB-C port. This can include a microphone with a USB-C connector or any microphone via a USB-C adapter.
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Access to SteamVR is Free
At launch, using SteamVR required the use of Meta's free (Air) Link mode or the purchase of Guy Godin's Virtual Desktop. Air Link did not support the 120Hz refresh rate in Quest 3 and had worse battery life compared to Virtual Desktop.
Meta fixed both of these Link problems in the v62 update in February. But perhaps more importantly, Valve released a free official application Steam Link PC VR streaming on the Quest Store, making it almost seamless to connect directly to SteamVR.
Announced Exclusives
At launch, we noted that while the Quest 3 was a far superior headset to the Meta, the Quest 2 still played all the same games for just $200 less.
This difference increased to $300 in March when Quest 2 decreased to $200. But what changed is that the first games have been announced which will run in Quest 3 but not in Quest 2.
Starship Home: Meta's First Exclusive Quest 3
Starship Home will use the 3D mesh backdrop that Quest 3 creates during the installation of the mixed reality room to place virtual objects on your walls and furniture.
Alien: Rogue Incursion: Coming to Quest 3, PSVR 2 and PC VR
Last week saw the announcement of Alien: Rogue Incursion for Quest 3, PlayStation VR2 and PC VR. Survios hasn't mentioned why it won't be released on Quest 2, but it's likely to be one of the VR games that won't work on standalone headsets.
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Final Conclusions: Meta Quest 3 Six Months Later
The Quest 3 is still a great VR headset , what most people looking for a VR headset should buy, with no significant competitive differentiation. The support spatial video and even panoramic video makes it a good buy for some iPhone owners who aren't interested in VR gaming or VR fitness.
While the Meta has made advances in the description of mixed reality capabilities, still suffers from transit distortion and rare dynamic obstruction, and therefore its mixed reality would still be described as "barely acceptable".
While Quest 2 dropped to $200, developers are starting to build around the capabilities of Quest 3's much more powerful GPU, and graphics updates for existing games have become commonplace. And for PC game owners, the new Virtual Desktop runtime and the release of Steam Link have made wireless PC VR better and more convenient than ever on a standalone cable.
Source :: uploadvr
