I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the VR gear I’ve owned for the last ten years now: and they included the Samsung Gear VR, and Oculus/Meta Quests 1 and 2. These devices weren’t comfortable to wear for long sessions, battery life was generally abysmal, and – most seriously – I got nausea too easily, which made enjoying the best VR content impossible. Moreover, past the initial excitement of new toys each time, I routinely didn’t find enough content of interest, outside the three Vader Immortal episodes and Angry Birds VR that were pretty solid. So, past the initial week or two I got with the Quest 2 that the missus bought me as a birthday present almost exactly three years ago, the VR headsets at home have largely been kept in their cases and in storage, all but forgotten.
My interest in VR was revived a month ago though when at a work trip. I was at Arizona State University’s Dreamscape Learn center to participate in several VR experiences: one that involved a full body setup, and another that was stationary only. I went into the experience with more than a small amount of anxiety: I was fearful that I’d got nausea quickly again. But surprisingly, both experiences were fairly alright, and between the two, it was the experience that involved the full rig: hand and feet controllers and a body harness – that was very comfortable throughout.
And just a week ago, we tried out the Space Explorers: The Infinite Experience, currently hosted at the Singapore Science Center. Like Dreamscape Learn, I was a little worried about nausea, but that likewise was pretty comfortable, though I didn’t find the experience making good use of VR interaction that the Dreamscape Learn encounter did.
Coming home, the daughter asked if I could setup our VR gear at home for her to try stuff again. I dusted the cobwebs of our two Oculus headsets and did a check on both:
Quest 1: headset strap was moldy, and there were issues with its operating system: the Oculus Mobile Core Services were constantly crashing, making it impossible to start an installed app. Factory resets have not solved the crashing.
Quest 2: the pre-installed face pad cushion had disintegrated into bits and created a general mess. The headset though itself as far as I could tell was working otherwise.
So, I was down one headset, though I’m not giving that up yet on the Quest 1: I’d have to troubleshoot and see if I can do a complete reset and restore. For the Quest 2, I’d need to get a replacement face pad cushion.
And perhaps it was a confluence of these issues with these old headsets that I decided to look into getting the Meta Quest 3: the much touted improvement over the Quest 2 and released in October last year. Thing is: the Quest 3 only comes in two variants: the 128GB that is very hard to find here in Singapore as it’s been replaced by the Quest 3S, and the much more expensive 512GB. Meta does not officially sell its Quest headsets in Singapore, which means that whatever VR enthusiasts can get their hands on are all imported sets from elsewhere, and subject to the risks of vagaries of reseller support.
After several days of checking online retailers and also listings of pre-loved units on Carousell, I was resigned to get the Quest 3S: the 3S was readily available and at fairly low cost. But I still hesitated because the Quest 3S was a downgraded version of the Quest 3. It had the graphical and processing chops, but not the resolution or display improvements of the more expensive predecessor: which I felt were key to improving the enjoyment I was going to get out of a new headset.
As luck had it: I stumbled upon a brick and mortar game shop here that was selling the Japanese export set of the Quest 3 512GB at a significantly lower price-point that other online retailers. Specifically, the latter is normally anywhere between $899 to $1100: this shop on the other was offering it for around $719. It was quite a big difference that I had to do a double-check that the offer was legit!
Thankfully, the offer was good: so I grabbed one a week ago, and here are my initial comments of the Meta Quest 3 after a week of intensive use:
The optical improvements over the Quest 2 are noticeable. The Quest 3’s pancake lenses with their higher supported resolution makes content that much more obviously sharper, without the screendoor effect that I experience on the older Quests.
The beefier graphical processing does make it possible for higher quality games, and I do see it in titles like Batman: Arkham Shadow – the complimentary game that was bundled with the headset. But game loading speeds are only slightly improved, and can still take a while to start.
The Quest 3 also offers a slightly wider field of view. This wider FOV is somewhat noticeable compared to the Quest 2, but not the difference isn’t light and day. Would had been great if the FOV was even wider though to reduce the ‘tunnel vision’ effect common on Quest models.
The headstrap that comes with the Quest 3 was really uncomfortable. The strap sides rubbed against my ears, and rested too heavily on my cheeks. I picked up a third party head strap that came with a 15,000 mAh battery that when installed made wearing the headset a lot more comfortable.
The headset comes with three months of Meta Quest+ subscription, which is an excellent way to try out a big range of content. I thought the annual fee for the subscription was also pretty reasonable, though a cessation of the service would mean you’d lose access to any games that have been provided through it. Still, this also solved one of the the biggest issues I had with my use of the earlier Quests, since there is now so many games I can try out and see which ones don’t cause nausea.
The higher resolution and full color pass-through feature – and which makes it possible for Mixed Reality content on the Quest 3 – is a great improvement. The missus was surprised that I could see her just fine in the living room even when wearing the headset. And the pre-installed First Encounters game where cute little aliens spawn in your living room was fun!
I wished Meta had offered a variant that is between 128GB and 512GB: I reckon 128GB is sufficient for casual gaming and you don’t mind the occasional removal of games you’re done with. But 512GB feels like it’s way too much for most gamers, even the most hardcore ones. I’ve got about 20 odd games installed on it so far, and I’ve only used about 120GB of storage space so far.
Still, in all, I’ve been really happy with the Quest 3, and certainly more so than my encounters with the earlier headsets. My vulnerability to nausea is still there, but with the Quest+ subscription, it’s at least now possible to get a regular stream of new content and to find out those apps and games which don’t cause discomfort. I’ll do a next post soon to note some of the apps and games I’ve tried and really like!