- Meta VP announces update to Quest 3’s home theater environment
- Promises big visual and audio improvements, but doesn’t go into detail
- We’re excited but hope the meta makes a big change for 3D content as well
One of my favorite uses for my Meta Quest 3 in recent months has been using it as a massive virtual display, either to watch streaming Netflix videos or to play PS5 games by combining it with an Elgato 4K X capture card. But the cinematic experience it offers – while fun – is a little plain (read: bland). That could soon change, however, with Meta teasing that it’s working on improvements to the home theater experience its VR headsets offer.
Right now, your options for the Quest 3 theater are to sit in a virtual environment (your Meta Home) or in your real environment (via passthrough), then control how dark your surroundings are. You can also curve the screen, move its position and change its size. However, the screen just exists as a floating window into the void, and while it’s fun, it’s not overly immersive – for example, the screen’s light doesn’t bounce off your surroundings like it does with a real TV.
That could be about to change, however, as VR enthusiast (and leak source for the Meta Quest 3S and the Asus Tarius headset) Lunayian commented that “Horizon OS really deserves a ‘Home Theater’ environment,” with better lighting and sound. This was then directly responded to by Mark Rabkin (the Meta vice president who leads HorizonOS and Quest MR devices), who said that the team is “working on all that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best. “
He doesn’t go into too much detail, but when it comes to lighting, we expect Meta to experiment with getting light from the virtual screen to reflect on real-world surfaces (which it could map using Quest’s 3D scanning technology) as well as features such as Ambilight, which has matching light colors that appear behind the screen to create a more immersive environment.
As for sound, Rabkin’s promise of “amazing sound” could refer to a version of the Meta’s acoustic ray tracing. Much like how ray tracing sees virtual lighting bounce off a virtual environment to create more realistic shadows and other lighting effects, the acoustic version is designed to simulate sound that realistically reverberates in a virtual space to create a more believable scene.
3D content should be easier to find
Rabkin also encourages users to request features they’d like to see, and for me it needs to be easier to access 3D content on the Quest – which isn’t a feature, just a problem with XR platforms that aren’t made by Apple.
Aside from the exclusive Disney Plus 3D content deal the app has with Apple Vision Pro, there is no well-known and simple source for 3D movies on VR headsets or AR glasses. There’s only one consistent solution to finding the 3D movies you want to watch, according to several VR users I’ve talked to, including official representatives from XR companies I won’t name here—and that’s to pirate the movies .
Given the legal and moral shadiness of piracy, I personally wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s amazing to me that there isn’t a simple, well-known and legal way to access 3D movies in VR, as there is certainly interest from my conversations.
I’m not even calling for a streaming service, just the ability to simply buy a digital copy of great 3D movies like Avatar would be great.
We’ll have to wait and see what Meta announces, though I wouldn’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 for easy access to 3D movies is to sail the seven seas digitally. There just has to be a better way.
