It doesn’t have enough pixels to represent 4k 1:1 on every frame. At the field of view I put my screen at, 80 degrees, it can only directly represent about 1440p, but with the micromovements of my head, I see a completely different set of pixels every frame. So I tested, and 4k still looks noticeably sharper than 1440p, so I use it.
Stuff doesn’t have to be perfect to still be worth doing. It just has to be worth doing. I very much enjoy where VR is at currently, but I have enjoyed where it was at the whole time so far, and I’m definitely gonna keep enjoying where it’s at in the future. Even before it started replacing other things, it was always it’s own thing too. And while I still play VR games quite a bit, I also use it for almost everything else now too.
There are a few options for headsets capable of this right now, mine is unfortunately a Meta Quest 3, hard to stomache, but pretty great headset… It’s been the easiest and cheapest headset to mod for 14+ hours of comfort and battery life. For me, a halo style head strap has been the best option in my testing, that can be different for each individual, so a BoboVR S3 pro kit was all it took. The default quest 3 face gasket was already comfortable for all day use for me. Infinite battery life by swapping a new one in every 2 hours is barely inconvenient, and luckily I still occasionally forget so the headset battery gets to see a discharge cycle every now and then too without me having to remember to purposefully do it. The batteries can handle charging it back up to full while playing.
The second screen is stored above my normal field of view, I can either glance at it for the normal stuff you would use a second monitor for while gaming or watching TV, generally a browser window that I don’t have to tab out of the game to see. Or I can hit a button and both monitors swap places instantly, and the content of the second monitor becomes my temporary priority. Recent use has been having a spec guide open while playing Diablo 4, and generally my social media and various app friends lists are arrayed on that screen, as well as some rain meter gadgets for performance monitoring and stuff. Second monitor stuff.
I also, of course, leave the headset and Virtual Desktop in passthrough mode all the time. So I can still hang out with and talk to my family. And watch TV with them. The TV at the field of view it’s at is only about a 720p representation, but it’s clear enough to read closed captioning, and if you are old like me, you may remember that DvDs are 540p, and they were good enough for watching epic movies on for years. It’s not as good as it will be on the next headset, or the next one after that, but it’s good enough to be worth doing for me.
Luckily for me, but unlucky for her, my sister has a bit of night blindness, so she can’t watch a TV in a dark room, it would be too bright relative to the rest of the room and hurt her eyes. Works out with the Quest 3 passthrough having a relatively narrow dynamic contrast adjustment. With the lights off, the headset would find the TV too bright relatively too, washing it out and showing only a white rectangle. But with the lights on, I see it as clearly as them, just a third of the resolution.
My sister has also started using my old headset to play on her computer, that headset doesn’t have infinite battery life, only about 8 hours, but she has now started plugging it in after and continuing to play. She mainly plays Baldurs Gate 3 on it. The hand controllers serendipitously worked out to be a pretty fun and useful way to play BG3, just mapped “scrollwheel” to camera panning. Since in a windows environment the hand controllers are treated as a mouse input, so the joysticks are scrollwheel input. And yeah, B is right click, so hold B and move your hand to change where the camera is looking, and joystick to move the camera, it’s like flying a drone with one hand being a representative of the drone orientation. And otherwise BG3 is mostly about clicking stuff with a few keyboard shotcuts here and there. So, no real limitations from having to essentially use a floating keyboard. Most other “flat” games are best played with a controller. A wireless keyboard and mouse would also be an option. But in a recliner, a controller is probably best.
Thank you for the detailed response! I have a bigscreen beyond and have occasionally tried to use it with virtual desktop for my two 1440p monitors, though I still vastly prefer a real monitor. Though, it works great when my cats want to be in the way :) I just ask because the refresh rate is 90Hz, snd so that kind of throughput seemed very high. Your point about the micro-movements in a way adding to that resolution makes sense though.
It doesn’t have enough pixels to represent 4k 1:1 on every frame. At the field of view I put my screen at, 80 degrees, it can only directly represent about 1440p, but with the micromovements of my head, I see a completely different set of pixels every frame. So I tested, and 4k still looks noticeably sharper than 1440p, so I use it.
Stuff doesn’t have to be perfect to still be worth doing. It just has to be worth doing. I very much enjoy where VR is at currently, but I have enjoyed where it was at the whole time so far, and I’m definitely gonna keep enjoying where it’s at in the future. Even before it started replacing other things, it was always it’s own thing too. And while I still play VR games quite a bit, I also use it for almost everything else now too.
There are a few options for headsets capable of this right now, mine is unfortunately a Meta Quest 3, hard to stomache, but pretty great headset… It’s been the easiest and cheapest headset to mod for 14+ hours of comfort and battery life. For me, a halo style head strap has been the best option in my testing, that can be different for each individual, so a BoboVR S3 pro kit was all it took. The default quest 3 face gasket was already comfortable for all day use for me. Infinite battery life by swapping a new one in every 2 hours is barely inconvenient, and luckily I still occasionally forget so the headset battery gets to see a discharge cycle every now and then too without me having to remember to purposefully do it. The batteries can handle charging it back up to full while playing.
The second screen is stored above my normal field of view, I can either glance at it for the normal stuff you would use a second monitor for while gaming or watching TV, generally a browser window that I don’t have to tab out of the game to see. Or I can hit a button and both monitors swap places instantly, and the content of the second monitor becomes my temporary priority. Recent use has been having a spec guide open while playing Diablo 4, and generally my social media and various app friends lists are arrayed on that screen, as well as some rain meter gadgets for performance monitoring and stuff. Second monitor stuff.
I also, of course, leave the headset and Virtual Desktop in passthrough mode all the time. So I can still hang out with and talk to my family. And watch TV with them. The TV at the field of view it’s at is only about a 720p representation, but it’s clear enough to read closed captioning, and if you are old like me, you may remember that DvDs are 540p, and they were good enough for watching epic movies on for years. It’s not as good as it will be on the next headset, or the next one after that, but it’s good enough to be worth doing for me.
Luckily for me, but unlucky for her, my sister has a bit of night blindness, so she can’t watch a TV in a dark room, it would be too bright relative to the rest of the room and hurt her eyes. Works out with the Quest 3 passthrough having a relatively narrow dynamic contrast adjustment. With the lights off, the headset would find the TV too bright relatively too, washing it out and showing only a white rectangle. But with the lights on, I see it as clearly as them, just a third of the resolution.
My sister has also started using my old headset to play on her computer, that headset doesn’t have infinite battery life, only about 8 hours, but she has now started plugging it in after and continuing to play. She mainly plays Baldurs Gate 3 on it. The hand controllers serendipitously worked out to be a pretty fun and useful way to play BG3, just mapped “scrollwheel” to camera panning. Since in a windows environment the hand controllers are treated as a mouse input, so the joysticks are scrollwheel input. And yeah, B is right click, so hold B and move your hand to change where the camera is looking, and joystick to move the camera, it’s like flying a drone with one hand being a representative of the drone orientation. And otherwise BG3 is mostly about clicking stuff with a few keyboard shotcuts here and there. So, no real limitations from having to essentially use a floating keyboard. Most other “flat” games are best played with a controller. A wireless keyboard and mouse would also be an option. But in a recliner, a controller is probably best.
Thank you for the detailed response! I have a bigscreen beyond and have occasionally tried to use it with virtual desktop for my two 1440p monitors, though I still vastly prefer a real monitor. Though, it works great when my cats want to be in the way :) I just ask because the refresh rate is 90Hz, snd so that kind of throughput seemed very high. Your point about the micro-movements in a way adding to that resolution makes sense though.