Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

Its still in development, nothing shipped yet!

Meta lifted its ban on this, they will be able to ship! Also, has mucch better pixel density than quest headsets, even quest pro. Will be a bliss to read on. But provably no propper head tracking

> A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back.

You're pretty much describing the Quest Pro. This part also matches the Quest 2 with Elite Battery Strap for what it's worth, but the Quest Pro also matches your next criteria, whereas the Quest 2 didn't.

> And a better headset/face interface. You can get one that is much softer and thicker, which puts less pressure on the face and moves the screens a few extra mm away. They also have vented interfaces, which help cut down on the problem of getting hot face.

The Quest Pro only attaches at the top on the forehead, is open air by default and further away from the face, and for example I can comfortably fit it over my glasses, which I couldn't do on the Quest 2.

It's a huge step up in comfort for long sessions, although you'd still want to attach a USB-C power cable for anything beyond a couple of hours.

Disclaimer: I work at Meta but not on anything VR related, this is based on my own experience as a personal user of VR headsets.

Thanks for your support.

RE resolution being low on the Valve Index: we absolutely agree :] The Simula One offers ~3x higher pixel density than the Valve Index, and 50% higher density than the Quest Pro. This dramatically impacts the extent to which you have to turn your head to look at things.

The Nreal Air looks cool, but it only offers a 46 degree FoV[1]. That's less than half the FOV of the Quest 2, which makes it hard to see all of your windows/workspace. (To be fair: the tradeoff is excellent PPD within its narrow FOV).

[1] https://www.nreal.ai/specs/

I recently switched from a 4k monitor+one/two 1080p monitors to a single monitor, and I prefer it now as well, but with one big caveat - it is a single 5k ultrawide monitor with thunderbolt 4. I simply connect my macbook to it using one cable, and I am done. That one cable provides power/charge to the laptop, outputs stuff on my big screen, and allows my laptop to use any devices connected to the USB hub built into the monitor. Zero fiddling around or setup required (aside from the physical space), and no bajillion cables requiring me to worry about managing them (as long as I want to keep my workspace neat and clean, which I do).

Even doing a single regular 4k monitor was stretching it for me, but my current setup satisfies me almost perfectly. The only upgrade I am planning to do in that aspect in the future is replacing it with an AR/VR headset that can emulate screens at a good enough resolution. While the current VR/AR tech isn't there yet, it is getting closer and closer, which gives me a lot of hope. I tried Quest 2 for that purpose, and I would pick it over a dual 1080p monitor setup even now. Sadly, it isn't quite as good as a single 5k ultrawide at the moment. There are other (very solvable) rought points with it currently too, like comfort (Quest 2 gets a bit tiring and sweaty to use after a couple of hours), but I heard Quest Pro has addressed that specific one, which is also awesome to see.

Given the leaps I've observed over the past few years, I feel like people are realizing the immense value of it, and the companies realize it too. So I am expecting something like this to be a fully viable solution for me within the next 5 years. And that's not even going into the portability aspect. As someone working from a hotel for the past 2 weeks, it would be amazing to have an AR/VR headset that would allow me to have the same setup everywhere, because I am not going to lug my 5k ultrawide with me wherever I need to work. Which is also why I prefer to work from home rather than the office, because my current home setup is much more optimal for my productivity that my office one.