UPDATE: Meta confirmed 10/24 that passthrough quality can be improved via future software updates as their AI learns our environments from user data. - I very much enjoy the passthrough experience, it simply didn't live up to the level of clarity that was hyped. BoboVR Pro battery strap now exists: geni.us/ApA7 🛒 Check Quest 3 prices: 128GB: geni.us/PjxT6Y | 512GB: geni.us/L00D6i5
Regarding the Bobovr M3 pro. I ended dropping a 'undred quid on the M2 pro with dual battery's and 3d printed a conversion kit so it fits the Quest3. Works a treat. I couldn't wait for the M3 as it's release kept slipping and the few that became available flew off the shelves faster than toilet paper during lockdown 😊
@@srgpip5620 - That's legit a smart idea - I was debating doing the same. I couldn't catch a M3 from Amazon and their website claimed 3-4 week shipping times and had weird charges added so I didn't follow through. I might follow your footsteps since the batteries seem to be the same - and then just upgrade the batteries whenever they make a better version of those.
I took my Quest 3 back for a refund. There was this issue. Passthrough looked like sh1t. There is also the terrible battery life, and adding an external battery pack barely helps. I predict a lot of headsets with dead batteries after the one year warranty has expired. If you buy this headset prior to a revised version of it, with a better battery pack, you may be wasting your money IMHO.
Definitely was overhyped. It is a significant improvement from the Quest 2, but looking at all the early reviews saying the pass through is so crisp and clear is a lie. I thought I had a defective device, so I got a replacement and still got the same grainy, unclear pass through experience.
100% agreed. It's definitely still usable, but I feel the overhype did a disservice to the community and caused panic + confusion instead of enjoyment of the new tech we have access to. Also just FYI in case you haven't yet seen, Meta announced yesterday they are going to be able to improve the passthrough experience quality via software improvements as they get more data from people's cameras.
The update a few days ago did absolutely nothing to improve such. It really is one of the biggest marketing cons I’ve seen. Sure, it’s great as a stand-alone VR device. But for mixed reality is an absolutely gimmick and has me questioning the veracity of some reviewers !! It’s rife in the e sim racing community.
Ehi same here i ve never experienced vr so was my first headset i bought yesterday, apart passthrough barely usable i didnt find the movies or home windows to be so crisp and sharp i thought i had a defective one returned it today got the new one but it s the same. So is it normal that in the home or the movies or txt in general are not so crisp or sharp? It s somewhat pixelated edges and bit blurriness
@@flashpunk7333 Those are different technologies, no camera uses that kind of tech, even smartphones. You can filter grain but there is no reconstruction because it needs more info about the scene: depth, motion vectors, ID, and so on
@@TheDigitalGuerrillawell according to Meta's CTO,Andrew Bosworth:"Yes,it will continue to improve as we continue to get real world lightning conditions and information from the headsets that have been picked up, we start to tune the algorithms that drive it more effectively. And so i do think it will continue to improve - modestly - from here for a little while as we do a better job depth estimating with where your hands and working with the distortion around that, and things like that. So yeah, we're gonna continue to work on it as we have with the quest pro." So if u trust what he say then the answer will be yes , the pass through will improve.
I had only ever used wired VR headsets for my PC, so I was super excited to finally try out a wireless standalone headset for the first time! I got the Quest 3 yesterday for Christmas, and my dad and me have been bringing it around to show to friends and family the cool mixed reality features (first encounter) during my experience with it, I was actually able to read my phone and computer screen/keyboard pretty well. Of course, it did strain my eyes a bit, so I eventually just opted to remove the headset to see. As for other things not so small, I didn't really have much issue other than the blurry edges when moving around a lot. I personally thought it was extremely cool to use, however I do agree that the ads do not show a true depiction of what it actually looks like inside the headset. I love my headset, and I plan to continue using it
Love to hear it! Able to see your computer screen seems like major clarity; any idea what type of display/panel you have (OLED, LED : IPS / VA / TN)? Even after I got to a point where I could read my OLED phone, I still can't read my IPS computer displays (unless I scale the UI/fonts up a lot). Also love mine! Excited to see what new stuff comes in the future now that they have mixed reality occlusion ready for developers to take advantage of and full upper body tracking. Should be a fun couple years.
From looking at my hand inside the VR headset i notice in close range it captures my hands in beautiful detail and just moving it further out as we normally see things in there it becomes distorted and weird and blurry But with the fact that placing my hand up close to the camera captures my hand in good detail is for hope that it can be improved as they say it can trough software udpates which is very exciting
I made the mistake of trying out my friend’s Apple Vision Pro before the quest 3. As a result, i expected the passthrough to be the same, but it wasn’t wven CLOSE. Apple’s passthrough looks exactly like the quest 3’s marketing hype video… but in real life
I'm excited to see it! I am not in the Apple ecosystem, I've got a used iPhone on the way so I can face scan and order one to review/test for some videos.
Couldn’t agree more. I also was instantly disappointed in the pass trough. I almost thought I got a wrong unit. It looks quite good when it’s recorded but in the goggles, it’s lackluster.
Just got the Quest 3 yesterday on impulse bc of the augmented reality marketing. Obviously you know why I'm here. I played around with VR back in 2016 when Samsun and their Galaxy phones were pushing it. Had a lot of fun but realized VR was still years away from what it needed to be. 8 years later I thought it was finally what I wanted and affordable. But like you said, might need more time to fully bake. I really may have to just return this and wait another 8 years.
Yea, I think you and I are a ahead of the curve in our expectations vs. what exists currently. That said, I own the Apple Vision Pro and have tested other 4k micro-OLED headsets, and it feels like we're extremely close. My guess is the next generation of 4k+ (35+ ppd) devices will be what we're after.. assuming the parts can actually be made (a major bottleneck on the higher-resolution headsets seems to be manufacturing of the displays and lenses). The passthrough/camera quality of the AVP is sure there already, they just need to get rid of the annoying motion blur when moving your head and improve low light performance.
I have a 2nd hand Q2 and I'm literally PM-ing someone right now to get a 2nd hand Q3 just for the pass through for work/play purposes. Thanks for the in depth video. I'll probably hold off for a while and maybe look into 49-inch monitors instead. Thanks.
You're very welcome! I'd argue it's AMAZING for play and goofing around, but NOT AT ALL beneficial for work. If your focus is productivity then you should wait for the Immersed Visor or the next iteration of the Apple Vision Pro (this first one is excellent so far, but not worth $3,500). IMO, for work, a 49-inch display is going to benefit you much more.
Thanks for the video. I got this for my 11 year old daughter and thought it was defective when I was setting it up. Like you, I had to remove the headset to do anything on the phone while setting it up. The cameras video quality is so poor that even if someone told me in advance how bad it was I still couldn’t have lowered my expectations enough for actually using it. It’s passable for not running into furniture but that’s about it. I wouldn’t use it for any type of mixed or augmented reality. Just playing games that don’t utilize the cameras is fine and my daughter does love playing games on it. If it was me I’d return it, but it’s fine for an 11 year old who doesn’t care for mixed reality.
Thanks for taking the time to watch! Definitely agreed. The headset is fully capable for VR and still worth the $$. They just went overboard in pushing the Mixed Reality as a "primary feature" instead of a "extra feature". Definitely think your daughter will love it, regardless! You can try the reducing brightness on phone screens/etc. in the future if you ever need to.
Pass through needs to eventuallly be natural. Like electrochromatic glass that can be darkened to keep nearly all light out. I really hope it ends up being that instead of either pure AR glasses that are always transparent or MR goggles with complex camera systems.
I agree! I've got the XREAL Air 2 Pro and the electrochromic dimming on the front of the glasses works extremely well (the major downside of those glasses is the inability to gracefully move your visible screen around and the low FOV). This would require offloading all the internal hardware to the back or sides of the headset; I'd be interested in learning the limitations as to why someone hasn't tried it yet.
The passthrough experience 5 months after this review still sucks big time. Here where I live I guess is a combination of poor light as well. This video was great. Good job dude. This is the first time I ever congratulate anyone online, so be proud.
lolol, I appreciate that and will wear the proud badge. And I can confirm, the passthrough experience has not improved in the slightest since this review. In fact, the only change related to passthrough I've noticed is they've now updated the privacy policy to confirm they're collecting our passthrough visual data from the headset.
Yea, I saw that video as well. I tried it to no avail but even the concept doesn't really make a ton of sense to me - based on the way the video was shot and the quality of images, I'm thinking something else changed for the user unrelated to the factory resets while playing with the settings. For example, you can try turning off the battery saving options and rebooting to see if that has any effect for you. Factory resets are worth a shot before you get anything loaded up - definitely let me know how that goes!! I'd be interested to know either way.
@@aline.tech.reviews well, tryed so many times but dont get it better, i lost the count but the "last 5 trys" were short so maybe more that 20 but i notice that in some resets it looks worse tho, so theres definitly a diference between resets maybe if I had been more patient its much faster if u just turn it off and just press "power + vol down" like in a normal android
I bought a quest 3 as my first vr headset after using my sisters quest 2. As they are my only two real experiences with vr (other than going to a shitty vr bar one time) I personally find it amazing. Like absolutely mind blowing. I do agree that it is grainy in almost all situations however after doing research this really is the first stepping stone into the mixxed reality world. Many might not like what I am about to say but what can you really expect (I do understand it has been overhyped by the review community bought out by meta). It’s like comparing first generation phone cameras with next gen phone cameras. It is really sick for what it is and software updates will definitely make a massive difference in the future however moving forward to the quest 4 there won’t be any excuse for something that is not completely usable in almost all lighting conditions.
I believe the hype was also influenced by the headset from Apple, which did provide a great passthrough experience (based on the feedback from professionels). People might have thought that the tech was ready, and therefore the headset from Meta would be of good quality in regards to the passthrough feature. I just also believe people are forgetting that the Meta quest headset is not 3500 USD as the Apple headset will be priced at.
I can personally read and write texts on my iPhone looking through passthrough. But maybe 2 months ago the updates haven't happened. I got my Quest 3 2-1/2 weeks ago.
Yea, we still don't even have 120hz in Quest Link as far as I can see. Not sure what the delay there is. I imagine any improvements to passthrough will be minimal and will take a long time for them to optimize - so that part isn't super surprising to me. What is surprising is that so many features that were advertise weren't released for months after or still aren't available to the masses.
@@aline.tech.reviews This is why i got Virtual desktop or use steam link now, they both use 120hz. Quest Link i feel is so outdated it will be forgotten about :(.
Yeah, my new quest 3 passthrough looks just as you described, like crap! Here's the thing : Meta, I'll surmise, has given those cameras somewhat 'stopped down' aperture(iris) settings in lower light conditions in order to keep a relatively long 'depth of field'. In video it's called 'auto iris' which measures the ambient lighting and tries to adjust the iris opening to keep a constant light level hitting the 'charged coupled device' (CCD). There are op-amp circuits which amplify the CCD when the incoming light is low in order to render a usable image and that amplification grain is the 'noise' of a very low signal being amplified a great deal. (or a really shitty op-amp) I think Meta's response is saying that they will write code so that the room dimensions help to set an 'average' iris set point. In other words, if the room dimensions are small like a 10'x10', the code will tell the iris to open enough to create just the depth of field necessary for that smaller room , (inches to 10') which will be much shorter then the present set point, ( inches to infinity) decreasing the amp noise. If the Quest 3 could track your eye's iris, the cameras would only need to adjust the focal length of the lens and the aperture would need not change much rendering a clean sharp pix in lower lighting. Anyway that's my take on it. Also, the cams need to deal with lag. A fast frame rate also means less light is being processed per frame and more call for amplification. EDIT - Also those tiny camera lens don't let in/capture much light compared to a standard pocket camera or 35mm for that matter. I think Meta can improve it, just how much I don't know.
I have experienced both situation. Same room same lighting conditions and same headset. Sometimes I can use my phone, reply messages like I do without the headset and sometimes I can’t even read a simple message. I just can’t figure out why.
I also don't know, but it might be worth checking the position of the headset on your face! I recently got the "BoboVR" head strap (I put a link to it in the pinned comment on this video), and it is much more stable/secure on the head which allows me to get the perfect viewing angle every time. With the default strap, the headset would move around a bit on my head which would de-align it from my eyeballs. You could test this by playing with the position on your face the next time you see it's blurry, and you can't read a message, to see if you can find that "sweet spot" to make it readable again. You can simply move the headset around your face with your hands to look for it.
hello , could you do an update of this topic , with the new 62 update , i noticed that my headset had a better passthrough when it was in 59 , but as the updates keep getting better handstracking , the headset started to ask for better illumination each time , as if the fix they found for low light handstracking was to trick the headset to think its allways low light and the result its a grainy experience. Im not saying the it was perfect but it was a lot better image quality, now noticing that for this video you where in 57 version would be usefull to know if it was a change for you quest 3 or it is something that just affected later batches.
Most definitely, this is a good idea. As of this past weekend, I still didnt have the latest version. I will test at my current version to get my baseline memory set and then will update and can make a video
thank you for your review man, we honestly it was broke ! the quest 3 is epic dont get me wrong, game and watching youtube or desktop thing is another level. But the passtrough let me sooo down.
Just got a quest 3. I literally thought it was defective. Passthrough sucks. I cant see mixed reality games being fun. Like this..i expected something different.. Cant even read my phonescreen normally..
Yea, that sounds about right =( I would try a couple things: 1) see if you can update to the latest firmware, or at least up to v65. They've made some minor improvements (don't expect any drastic changes), but it did improve the colors and made it easier to read text on things like you phone. 2) turn down the brightness on your phone - typically what happens is your phone screen is too bright and is "blowing out" the Quest 3's cameras which makes it impossible to read; turning down the brightness should help that a lot. I hope that helps some!
I guess the hype is from quest 2 users, i have a quest 2 and passthrough is just for making sure i don't walk into an object. I can't even read or navigate my phone on a good day with quest 2, its just a blob of white or so blurry i can't see it lol.
one guy here on youtube, factory reset he's quest 3 7 times, the 7th time it was clear like other people had posted videos of! he could suddenly read on everything on he's pc screen even with a totaly dark room without any light! So it seems like a software ishue :)
I saw that video! I'm keeping an open mind, but I'm not fully convinced for multiple reasons: 1) his camera/recording and lighting settings changed between the two recordings - you can see this in the "banding" that exists through his lenses. This means he changed settings in his headset and/or his camera between the before & after, 2) his lighting situations and the device shown changed, which would affect the quality, 3) I haven't seen any legitimate claims of anyone else experiencing it. He admitted that he was not clinical with the resets and that his last reset was in a bright room. I feel like what he is experiencing is potentially placebo or an internal perception change. I have a time block locked out for next week to sit down and perform up to 30 factory resets in a row to see if I can see any noticeable change.
I don't think the cameras are the sole issue - as you can take a picture or video with them and it looks great (and I would argue better than some cheap smart phones). Where the quality goes sideways is when the headset has to merge the data of 2 cameras together, stich them, and process them while also doing all the other processing for your games, menus, your position, etc. in the background. There's too much data to be processed in real time for it to look good right now.
Perfect…just the answers I’m after. Exactly what I’m seeing in my Quest 3. So glad I found your channel…you have put my mind to rest. Thought my Quest 3 was bust 😂
I just got my Quest 3 today and set it up and i also thought the noise and fuzzyness was i that i got defected item. So now im here finding some answers! I'm guessing this is just normal then, i felt abit let down, but the menus and everything else are clean and nice.
That was a very thoughtful and well done review! You answered all of the questions I had and more. Now that I am able to move past my initial disappointment, I'm beginning to feel that with the crisp graphics that are overelayed onto the grainy background for mixed games at least, whether it will become less of an issue in my peripheral vision. No doubt this will continue to plague for virtual offices. Here's hoping that Meta,s software will be up to the challenge! Thanks again!
I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for taking the time to watch. And agreed - the MR experience works because of the overlay graphics.. even in an office setting because once you are in a flow state, you don't really notice your surroundings anyway because you're working on the screens. I have a full review coming where I share my thoughts on mixed reality as a whole. It will probably take me a couple weeks to get it out because it will be somewhat long.
I bought three of the Quest 3's and I noticed my daughter's is noticably more clear than mine in pass-through and some apps. There's definitely an inconsistency in these headsets that I hope software will fix soon. Might get myself a replacement before the return window closes
@@aline.tech.reviews gonna check the actual version number, but they both said they were updated fully. My mom's is closer to mine, but her's is the 128gb edition.
@aline.tech.reviews ok typing this on my phone from her device, it's system version 49743630046900510 Version 59.0.0.172.706.535429038 Runtime version 59.0.0.171.706.535429024 Os version SQ3A.220605.009.A1 Yes, my device has the same software version. Both 512gb. Rebooted. Charged fully and drained fully, and with and without the Binbok extra batteries too. I have noticed on mine that there are some instances I notice an improvement on mine un different apps, so I'm leaning towards a bug fix Or quite possibly inconsistency in the pancake lenses and refraction of light by different apps in certain areas of the screen
probably they have the same focus issues like action cameras. Since the the focus is fixed on those cameras the quality control is important. If the focus wasnt set right, the camera will be blurred on near objectfor example, others go Pros have the sweet spot in the distance and so on. If that is the case with the Quest3 you can not change it with software. The passtrough on mine looks like like a 2006 webcam. I feel only the VR fanatics scream "amazing" because they are used to low standards i guess, For me as VR beginner it looks terrible.
I too am a first time buyer for vr. You spoke my mind exactly, from a technology progession standard it is much better, or so I hear, but to us people watching the ads and glowing reviews from previous vr enthusiasts, it seemed to alter our expectations to something a little more, refined. Like the video said, it's passable. But but I would imagine VR is easier than AR since there are unlimited variables. @danbarb9728
The best way I can describe the quality that you see is old webcam, that's how it feels. It does feel like a 1st gen kind of feature and I am sure that it will be greatly improved in Quest 4
Haha, I really appreciate that! I think it's because I'm new to this.. regardless, I will continue to put out quality content and hope we make some big moves in 2024.
This is easily the best and most detailed review on the pass through on the quest 3 I have seen so far. And from what I understand is that people aren’t lying that the pasthrough is good, it just looks much clearer if it’s recorded compared to the somewhat cruddy irl passthrough. I am actually gonna test that now! Thank you again for answering every question I had about it!
Thank you for taking the time to watch! And yes, fun playing tip if you use your finger to cover the camera, you will be able to confirm that the passthrough is using the same camera you're recording from.
I did the same thing you did, after being shocked at the graininess, and exclaiming to my wife "something's wrong!" I tried to pick a the front of the camera on my Quest 3 to see if there were hard to see plastic film protectors over the cameras for shipping purposes (there weren't). I've now pretty much accepted that certain things look very grainy in my apartment, and have come to enjoy the passthrough after my initial disappointment. It actually helps me accept it that I learned it's not a defect on my headset but a general problem. But I never had plans to use it for virtual monitors like you did, just for fun.
Hahaha, glad to know I'm not alone on that one! =) I agree with you there, I am enjoying passthrough still. The virtual monitors even work super well; it's just the little window to see your keyboard is a bit too blurry. Meta says they are going to be pushing software updates to make it better for us, though, so fingers crossed! What have been your favorite mixed reality experiences or games thus far? I'm finally about to get into the gaming side of things now that I've finished this video.
Agreed. It felt disappointing to see the below par pass through, it definitely bordered on false advertising from Meta. Glad to see it is a general problem and not just my unit 😅
I might be the most earliest reviewer here so let me help out who ever coming after me..... i just bought the Quest 3 and immediate after i statt it up the pass through was hella ugly as this reviewer explains but.... when i set up the device insaw there was an update after updating the quess 3 i saw a complete different experience with the pass through because i was honestly worried wbfire the update thinking how bad it was but after the update inwas happy. In conclusion... it seems the pass through clarity and experience will get better via updates in the future but the current update now as of January 28, 2024 i can say its very clear.... One more thing when first booted the quest 3 looking at my phone was completely blurry like he discribed but after the update i was able to see the images on my phone but detail words are still unreadable hopefully future update will resolve this that way ill never need to remove my quest 3 unless its to stack it away afyer use. Thank you guys and sorry for my bad typing.
The quality on the camera is good, so it’s a shame you just don’t get that crispness when you’re in passthrough. Hopefully future software updates will fix this, as it seems to not be a hardware problem.
Great Video The PassTrough Quality is lit. from a phone from 2002 And i dont even wanna talk abbt UA-cam 360..... which isnt working ..... well it is but u see a total of 5 pixels
Hands down your video is the best description regarding the Quest3 passthrough quality. I am experiencing exactly as you described and was thinking I may have a defective unit but it appears not. Hopefully software updates will improve this feature. Thanks for the clip buddy.
Appreciate that! Meta just announced yesterday (10/24) that they are confirming future updates will make the quality better - once they have more user data from the cameras for their AI to process and improve upon. I would expect we'll be seeing fairly regular updates until they hit a ceiling.
I got the quest 3 because of videos that I saw of people playing in mixed reality and the recording looked so crisp. I was sorely disappointed in the lack of quality of the passthrough camera. But I’m not disappointed in my quest 3 experience thus far. Even just popping out a UA-cam screen in mixed reality is amazing. I hope the quality can be improved though.
same thing we saw a guy working on his car with it... our shop wanted to use it for high end car while doing timing chain and motor rebuild, to get the specs next to us and improve time management and get our apps on it.. sooo deceiving , its a great device for gaming and entertainement but its not there yet to work with. Edit: I forgot to mention that watching sport like hockey with it is Crazy nuts, you have an option to be like seated in the arena and have to turn your head to keep on the game!
@@appache28 oh man yeah I can see how that would be insane help. Hands free manuals and access to quick references. I wonder if you’ll be able to do that with the Apple Vision Pro instead. That sounds crazy. What app would that be in?
@@Gsxrdannyy we planned to use all data online and oem manufacturer app that are windows based but would have linked by the vr desk kinda of app. I will research the apple one you mentioned thanks alot!!
@appache28 Well, if you want it for that I wouldn't count on the Vision Pro since it's apples first headset and probably more for standalone stuff and integrating with other apple products. Would go with the Varjo XR 4, they specifically make there headsets for commercial use purpose. I could test the XR 3 shortly last year and it works amazing for stuff like that
To echo everyone else, I thought I had a broken headset. My wife had me try it out before it gets wrapped up for Christmas. My heart sank when I saw the pass through. The VR was really awesome though. This is my first time using/playing VR. Got slightly dizzy lol
As a returning customer, the quality that was promised vs what was given was slightly disappointing, but the quality I was used to with Quest 2 vs the quality I‘m getting with the Quest 3, I‘m still super happy with the result, for my personal application (DJing in Passthrough and recording POV) it is a gamechanger and works well enough - not as great as I had hoped for, but good enough to where it works and makes me happy with my purchase.
Agreed, and good to hear it served your purpose. That's an awesome use case that I hadn't considered - do you upload your sets anywhere I can see the POV for fun? Also, if you were new to DJing and didn't know where all the buttons were, would you be able to read all the levels and dials?
I bought the most expensive one, even the most expensive cable to get the best experience. I couldn't even read my keyboard in my sunroom with lots of daylight . My laptop screen was blurry and the constant going from screen to AR with better definition hurt my brain. After two weeks of tweaking and doing things to make it better. I just gave up and returned it.
Oof; sorry to hear that! I definitely understand the keyboard issue; as I still have it. It's just good enough to where I can generally see the layout and key positions enough to use it since I've memorized my keyboard layout. And yea, I don't think it's meant to be used where you actually use your laptop screen THROUGH the cameras. The cameras really only exist to help keep you grounded and so that you can quickly check like a notification or something on your phone or laptop. If you wanted to see your laptop screen inside the headset, you would need to use an app like ImmersedVR, Meta Workrooms, etc. where your screen would then be rendered inside the headset.
There are some people saying, and some proof, that some people do in fact get a better pass through experience. It seems to be related to your quest being stuck in power saving mode for the pass through. In theory you could check if this is the case, by toggling battery saving mode on and off and seeing if you notice a difference in your pass through. I cannot confirm this to be true, but there is video footage taken through a headset of incredibly crisp and clear footage, on UA-cam and on reddit. Some people say a factory reset has fixed their pass through
I've seen all those as well - unfortunately, nothing has seemed to help. I am not a believer of the factory reset method as I don't find any logical pathway that would change the state (especially considering it wasn't until the 7th try or whatever) - I think that user changed another setting or variable with his lighting, screen brightness, and camera settings in that time.
Feels like it's still a coin flip at this point! I can imagine the price of the Apple being so hefty due to all the custom components / laptop build into the headset and seeing them drop the ball on pass-through still. Apple devices typically feel overpriced for what they offer.
Varjo XR-4. While not standalone, even XR-3 has good enough passthrough to code through with visual studio. (And of course virtual display is far superior again.) Varjo is not perfect, but it's passthrough is levels superior.
*From a gaming standpoint the Quest 3 isn't remotely worth the extra £100-$150 as the games don't look remotely different as over 2 months since launch. I played Bonelabs, Survival Nation & the Walking Dead games on both Quest 2 & 3 & there is LITERALLY no jump in graphical quality.*
My first VR headset and my friend hyped up the pass through so much as he was a quest 2 user, needless to say I’m a bit disappointed about this fact that it’s not good. But overall, the vr alone is very fun and impressive
The first quest 3 that I got the left controller wasn’t even working so I have to drive back and exchange it for another. And the quality looks the same both are grainy. I don’t think that there anything wrong with the headset. I’m just disappointed that I basically got scam. The way UA-cam reviewers show the VR in the pass though look amazing but in reality it actually ass.
@@aline.tech.reviews I quickly grew into it, but it started to feel boring after a month, but they have consistently improved the headset to make it feel brand new every couple of months
Yup, tried it out for passthrough, it sucks. Really disappointed, it's ok for gaming but not for work or anything else. The screen quality is great though.
Clips of people playing espire 2 in their kitchen looked insane setting my expectations a tad too high I’d say. If what I’ve seen in pass through setting it up is the best I get those mixed reality games will be dog water. 😬🤞
Still feels exactly as you described, fuzzy and just not good enough to be able to see things clearly. I too was sold on the promise of passthrough being this idea of looking like what I see without the headset on. The ads from Meta play up the quality beyond what it actually looks like during real world use. Bottom line seems to be that passthrough works to make mixed reality games a thing but other than that it's not practical to use in any other way. I hope they can continue to improve this but I can't see that happening without them improving the specs on the headset itself. I am curious to see what the Apple Vision Pro does with passthrough to get a comparison on both, I believe that would be a much clearer indication of if the components inside the Meta Quest are the limiting factor here.
Yea agreed - and the lack of Mixed Reality games is another pain point.. it launched with 1 new "game" that was really just 90-second tech demo masked as a new game; the other MR experience that was there at launch didn't work at all for me. We're coming up on a year post-launch, and they still don't have any new experiences.. all the cheap, low-movement games (like the boxing one) that already existed have simply removed their backgrounds to show your environment instead. We need more experiences and I'm confused as to why this was launched without any. I have the Apple Vision Pro and am working on a review to launch this fall! The AVP's passthrough is undeniably 'better', but it also has more motion blur when you move and still isn't great like you'd expect (I'll go more in-depth in my review). However, there aren't any experiences for it that really make it worth using outside having your virtual screens/windows around you. I managed to come across a mixed reality drawing app that lets you draw on a canvas, but that was about it and the rest were cheap/bad games. I haven't even found a great app that just lets me plop in even a 3D model and have fun with it. The F1 racing app just released and is the only real implementation I've seen to date - it's actually pretty awesome; the issue is simply I don't really have an interest in F1 racing to that degree outside maybe wanting to see it for a few minutes.
Great video. I was Meta-disappointed in the quality of pass-thru. It was basically awful!! I had nothing to compare with, coming from Vive Pro 2, but I was expecting better. I think a lot of peeps are going to be pretty pissed at the quality. All hype, no substance!
Thank you! And yea - I'm still keeping up with the complaints/confusion across many forums, and there are literally thousands with the same experience and disappointment.
I just got mine today and I to was surprised how grainy and blurry pass through was compared to what youtube videos show... But the in game graphics are great!
the experience was awful, the passthrough was very blurry, poor quality, although i had headaches and I had disoriented feelings, finally it is good for some VR’s experience and it’s not good for many reasons!
Once more a well researched, calmly and likeable presented video. Lots of facts, and opinions are clealry marked as such. What blessed relief in comparison to all those overly-loud, pretentious, "personal opinions are facts" channels. Thank you, sir!! PS. I share the same experience with my Q3 - thanks for confirming that that´s the current state and not my noobish attempts to find the right settings. ;)
Appreciate that! Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a thoughtful comment. =) And haha, hope I was able to save you some time looking said settings and missed plastic. I think I spent like 2-3 weeks trying to "fix" it - which was the primary driver for making this video.
@@aline.tech.reviews Thanks for your reply, and thanks again for your videos. I have to say, that Virtual Desktop makes it possible for me to actually read something on the screen, but I also know that this is not really pass-through/mixed reality. However it does look good. :) Unfortunately, it also means I have to upgrade my Wifi network at home, as 5G provides me only with 40Mps, so 6E or even 7 it is....eventually. ;) I would REALLY appreciate your thoughts, experiences and hints for setting up a usable VD environment. Any chance? ;) Keep up the good work!! Ps. the link to view your gear does not work for me
1:20 THIS right here. All of the footage made me think that's what I would see! I thought my headset was defective. It's terrible that all of the footage made me think that's what it would look like. This is the first video review I've found that has discussed this and has shown an idea of what we see
Thank you for this video! You approached the subject/problem absolutely perfectly and described it honestly in very useful detailed clear way. Well done! I look forward to more of your reviews of VR tech.
Might it be that parts have different levels of quality? My passthrough srsly isn't much better than my quest 2,just coloured. Even the distortions are there as much as on my quest 2. Even though they don't show as much in most reviews. My passthrough isn't usable for a good mixed reality experience. It's nice for the original uses tho. The pancake lenses are by faaaaaar the best upgrade. And what will they remove on the quest 3 light? The pancake lenses😢.
Yeah I can see my surroundings okay. It's grainy as all get out. And anything bright like my phone is impossible to see unless I turn the brightness all the way down. Even then it's rough. But weirdly enough, I can mostly see my 4000ansi lumen projector screen? What's weird is watching the dirty dirty using AR. 8k resolution ultra clear people in a grainy background. It's trippy.
@@omoributadonliner2173 not at all!! It's one blurry mess. I've returned my Quest 3 and am back on my quest 2. The money just isn't worth the upgrade with the very short battery life, that will only degrade.
It is bad, don't get me wrong. But an optimistic view on this could be... quest 2 pass-through. It was a black and white migraine and lighting was as scary as freddy sleeping with your mom. The fact that you can actually read texts in any way with pass-through on the quest of the next generation (not several like phones which take multiple generations for changes to be added nicely) is astounding. Even further than that is the concept of Vr itself. It is still in its infancy, tell someone 40 years ago and they would find it absolutely amazing that vr even exists, tell someone 40 years before that and they would be asking what vr is let alone a computer. False advertising is extremely awful and they do it way too much for devices and video games (ex. Halo and kerbal space program 2), but the technology itself is still worth diving into even just a little bit. If Noone does, then it won't improve and eventually the concept of VR will become a failed invention. I hope if it continues to push the envelope, we'll see tech like what is shown in Sword Art Online on day. Thank you:)
Yea, I definitely agree with both your positives! The execution here by Meta is a great step forward. This video was more to help set expectations for those who may have been tricked by advertising.
I bought a quest 3 a few days ago but one of the controllers came defective, I went back to Best Buy and they gave me a new one, unfortunately my new quest the passthrough is significantly worse then the first one I bought. I will now be returning it again, if I don’t get a good unit this time I am getting a full refund and not touching it again. What a shame because I really do like them
i just purchased mine, when setting up the VR headset it starts in Mixed mode the only thing i can say is that this thing is better then the Q2 because it has color but the clarity is not you can at least ready your computer and see your room. my room is fuzzy as hell and i cant even read my phone other then the massive clock on the Samsung phone. fist time user of the 3 and i HATE IT if i cant even see my environment then i will return this tomorrow when BestBuy opens back up. Such a lame purchase again your video here is showing that your times are 1000 times clear then my MQ3 is showing me as it processed it. am i doing something wrong on the setup?
I don't think you're doing anything wrong - keep in mind that what you see in this video is *recorded from the camera directly* and is NOT what I see in real life. I tried to make that super clear in the video; what I see IRL is much worse (similar to how you are describing). It's unfortunately just normal. There are things you can do to help visibility.. 1) make sure you have even, cool lighting - most older rooms have like a single ceiling light which has a light spot high up that doesn't reach all the corners of the room.. if that's the case, put in some lamps or something to light up the other areas, 2) make sure you've updated the headset to the latest version, as the latest 2 releases pushed some updates that make the colors look better, shadows less dark, and light areas less noisy, 3) for your phone situation, turn down the brightness on your phone - I found that helped me a lot and I can read text. Otherwise, what you're seeing is fully normal and is just how it is. Don't expect to see what you see from my video here.
Not enough to where my opinion in this video has significantly changed! It has definitely been improved, though - they fixed some of the exposure issues (example: a black pillow or my black cat on the couch used to just be a large black blob, but now I can see some texture on the blacks), they turned down the contrast so everything looks more neutral colored (like the Apple Vision Pro's colors), and they've "optimized the pipeline" which I believe just means they're processing more pixel data effectively and quicker - which gives you a "perceived resolution" boost - which makes some things a bit sharper (example: it's a bit easier to see text on screens, like your phone, without turning down the brightness as I suggested you had to do in this video - and I can read smaller text a bit better now from notifications). So: 1) Definitely improved, 2) Still not to a level their advertisements made it seem - so just go in with that expectation. I'd recommend going to look through the lenses of one at a Best Buy or something, and 3) It's still good enough for what it's for; just don't expect high-res quality in passthrough; it's more of a secondary feature that allows you to move around without taking the headset off (check your phone, grab a drink, or play some games where the focus isn't on your environment like placing a board game on a table in your room - because when you're focused on the table top you don't notice the poor resolution as much). And yes, I think the device is still worth it. I don't think you can find a better headset for the price. It's unmatched currently. If you're buying it just for the passthrough, then don't - it's a secondary feature, not a primary one.
The hype was real. Fresh out of the box my headset was very clear in most of my lighting situations. But after the battery improvement update it's now grainy no matter the lighting. I have video of it before and after and the difference looks like two different headsets. I tried factory reset and nothing. Still grainy.
Sorry to hear that - did you go into the settings and disable the battery performance / graphical reduction? I don't know whether it affects passthrough or not, but if it was that update then maybe that will help. As a confirmation, mine has always been grainy - before and after the update.
Just returned my meta quest 3 bought on amazon, i was so disappointed from the grapichs quality, so much disappointed. in my sitatuon i can't even accept the passable, becouse the room when i was going to use it, is not high illuminated. A bad experience, my hype was huge
Another great video on what for me is one of the most important features for AR applications. Currently in my opinion only Varjo headsets do an excellent job regarding passthrough, but they cost a lot, are not standalone and are really for professional use. I have the pico 4 and its not worth replacing with a Quest 3. I think when the XR3 chip comes out, hopefully later this year, it will be the real game changer for standalone headsets - true 4K and more per eye, 35 ppd, eye tracking etc…👍
Appreciate that! I haven't gotten to test one of the higher-end Varjos (XR-3 + 4), unfortunately. However, I did just snag an Apple Vision Pro and its passthrough is better quality than the Quest 3's; I wouldn't claim that it's miles ahead, but it is surely a decent step up. I believe SadlyItsBradley compared it to the quality of XR-3 passthrough. I hope that I get a chance to look through an XR-4 once they get it fully settled! But yes, the 4k screens + higher PPD + eye tracking will hopefully become the new standard. I'm super impressed with the AVP so far + the OS with ability to overlay apps has restored faith that we're heading in the right direction. I'm with you there and super stoked for the next-gen devices with XR3 + Samsung's incoming refreshed micro OLEDs.
I actually had to replace my Quest 3 because I noticed it had some dead pixels, and I feel as if that one had much better MR passthrough quality in comparison to the one I'm using now.
Agreed. In the workspace option it would be far better if the passthrough was ditched in that area in favour of an overlaid a keyboard and mouse on the actual board. Sadly they only have a few boards as part of the recognition software. You could map in the various %age versions of the various boards though. It's certainly not usable as it is. They've effectively wasted an option to create a really good office screen environment. They should look to apply the overlay for the keeb to make is usable whilst they perfect the tech.
Yea, I'm not sure how well the tracked keyboard functionality works as I haven't tested it directly yet. I did just get a Apple Magic Keyboard to use with the Apple Vision Pro and that is on the Quest 3 tracked keyboard support list.. so I'll definitely try it for my 6-month review coming up. I'm also a bigger fan of how ImmersedVR does the passthrough windows. If you haven't tried that then it's worth a download - it's the same concept, but you can set the size and location of your keyboard area + can create other windows (for instance, I like to a window where I sit my drinks so I can see myself reaching out for them). The passthrough quality isn't improved any, though. Even if they had little markers or stickers we could place on our keyboards to help it track - that seems like it could work based on general layouts (even if it wasn't 100% aligned it seems like it could be close enough to trick your brain).
Tbh my lighting is great and i can't use pass through it looks really bad. That bad it makes me feel sick Its basically quality of watching a battered vhs tape on a old crt tv thats not been turned correctly
Your description of the passthrough is quite good and accurate 😆 . Sorry to hear that it makes you sick; I luckily don't get sick from it, but it does look bad.
The most intelligent, balanced video I've seen on Quest 3's passthrough quality, and I've seen a lot. A monitor light bar definitely helped me see my keyboard much more clearly, but it's white so I need to prop it at an angle to reduce glare. But overall, Quest 3's passthrough quality is as you said - bad.
I truly appreciate that - thanks for taking the time to watch and comment! I had the same issue with the glare on my keys; my light has a dimmer switch so I was able to reduce that a tad and also angle it like you mentioned to get decent visibility. I also have RGB keys so I turned those down a bit to reduce the blowout the camera gives all sources of light.
I just got the Quest 3 today, and like you said, it was a blurry mess. The only thing nice about it is that it was emitting images in colors versus the ones I used in the past which were black and white. Also, I noticed the virtual objects that I played with during the setup, the image quality is slightly better than previous gen. For anyone new user, keep your expectation low, the pass through world through the quest 3 lens seems like you are wondering in the dream, like that unclear dark fuzzy world that you often witness yourself in your dream. Other than that games are better looking than previous gen, at the moment, I am checking out videos and tips n tricks to optimize my experience.
Appreciate you sharing your experience! I like your dark fuzzy world dream comparison. RE: optimizing your experience, if you haven't yet check out the Quest Games Optimizer. It's $10, but allows you to force increased resolution for games that run (and they have a ton of pre-built profiles for all the popular games so you don't have to fiddle around with settings much). This boost to the cpu/gpu and redering resolution will come at the cost of decreased playtime as it will suck up battery. I'm compary batteries for a video now but so far the BoboVR S3 is coming out on top with nearly 5 hours of play time.
Yeah mines so grainy and dark even with ok lighting, but when I record it on my device, the recording is much better quality. Nothing like pass through live. Anyone else have or had this issue.
Yes, that is normal (per my video explanation). The images are binned down + go though a lot of processing to get mapped to your viewport in real time with your controllers/menua/gane/etc. which is why thr degredation exists. It will be some years still before we can expect clearer images on a Quest
Just bought the Q3 and I am extremely disappointed at the poor quality pass through. I can’t read my phone or computer screen. Other than that, I really like the Q3 so far.
Yea, sorry to hear that =( Try a couple of these things that got me to reading my screens: - Make sure you're updated to the latest v64 / v65 firmware which were just released. They made some changes to the camera feeds that reduce the crazy saturated blowouts and neutralize the colors a bit.. which makes it easier to see your phone (and is what made me finally be able to read my computer monitors). Overall, the passthrough is better in these versions than the launch versions (but still not great). - Turn down the brightness of your phone/computer monitor. I noticed it's mostly the brightness of them that causes the sensors to blow out. This is how I got to reading my phone screen.
Im still impressed with the device, but pass through is definitely an eyesore due to lack of sharpness. Its only good for navigating around an area with safety. Can’t wait for what Quest 4 will come out with. I hope they focus on passthrough and multitasking!
I feel like Meta is giving people the runaround about the pass through. "Get's better as the AI learns" is hyperbolic nonsense. Yes, SLAM tracking improves with time as it learns the environment, but this is not that. If this was the case it should have been mentioned from the beginning and it still does not account for the massive out of the box variation in peoples experiences. I've tried two headsets and one is sharp as a button and one is horse manure. This is on top of the abysmal USB connectivity. Sure hope I don't need to RMA it.
Interesting that your headsets were different! I haven't heard many accounts of that. It really was that big of a difference? I have currently run into the USB connectivity issue.. trying to get videos to the headset and off the headset has been a nightmare when wired.
My speaker volume is set to 30%. I can watch most videos without having to adjust the volume. For this video of yours, I have to increase to 60% in order to hear you speak. When the advertisement came, it was very loud. Your content may be good, but few people will want to watch videos which require turning the volume up and down.
Truly appreciate you pointing this out! I have been following guidelines for sound levels, but they seem to get quieter aftrr I upload. I will go a bit louder with the next iteration.
I have similar experience. I also had to take off the headset to install meta app on phone but it was at night with maybe not enought light. I'll try with you tips :)
😆. Definitely let me know how it goes - turning down the brightness on my phone was the key. Also, be sure to update the firmware if you haven't already. There were a few updates there between like v63-v65 that made improvements to the coloring and highlights/blowout from passthrough. It's not going to increase the resolution or anything magical, but it does look better.
I’m giving the passthrough quality a big L myself. Is it better than quest 2? Yes. I wouldn’t use it for anything that requires precision though. The getting better lighting argument is funny. The cameras just aren’t very good, that’s just the bottom line.
Definitely agree with that. It's surely an "extra feature that's nice to have"; I wish they hadn't positioned it as a "primary feature" for the state that it's in.
MR graininess is not so significant a problem for me as the distortions caused by nearby objects, such as your hands. I could read the Wi-Fi password from the screen of my iPhone through the Q3, I can see my keyboard, and even read most of the text on the monitor while wearing Q3.... but those distortions are bugging me.
Yea, I can definitely see that! I luckily dont put my hands close often, but when I do, the warping is intense. Meta just released an official statement, yesterday, saying that the passthrough quality will improve and they should be able to reduce warping as their software improves and AI has more user camera data to process for all lighting conditions.
The passthrough quality is beyond terrible and would be my only complaint so far. I doubt a software update will significantly fix it to a degree that it's viable. I guess we'll have to wait for the Quest 4 unfortunately...
UPDATE: Meta confirmed 10/24 that passthrough quality can be improved via future software updates as their AI learns our environments from user data.
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I very much enjoy the passthrough experience, it simply didn't live up to the level of clarity that was hyped.
BoboVR Pro battery strap now exists: geni.us/ApA7
🛒 Check Quest 3 prices: 128GB: geni.us/PjxT6Y | 512GB: geni.us/L00D6i5
Regarding the Bobovr M3 pro. I ended dropping a 'undred quid on the M2 pro with dual battery's and 3d printed a conversion kit so it fits the Quest3. Works a treat. I couldn't wait for the M3 as it's release kept slipping and the few that became available flew off the shelves faster than toilet paper during lockdown 😊
@@srgpip5620 - That's legit a smart idea - I was debating doing the same. I couldn't catch a M3 from Amazon and their website claimed 3-4 week shipping times and had weird charges added so I didn't follow through.
I might follow your footsteps since the batteries seem to be the same - and then just upgrade the batteries whenever they make a better version of those.
Nice
I took my Quest 3 back for a refund. There was this issue. Passthrough looked like sh1t. There is also the terrible battery life, and adding an external battery pack barely helps. I predict a lot of headsets with dead batteries after the one year warranty has expired. If you buy this headset prior to a revised version of it, with a better battery pack, you may be wasting your money IMHO.
They say this, yet advertise crisp pass through. It’s quest 2 pass through with color.
Definitely was overhyped. It is a significant improvement from the Quest 2, but looking at all the early reviews saying the pass through is so crisp and clear is a lie. I thought I had a defective device, so I got a replacement and still got the same grainy, unclear pass through experience.
100% agreed. It's definitely still usable, but I feel the overhype did a disservice to the community and caused panic + confusion instead of enjoyment of the new tech we have access to.
Also just FYI in case you haven't yet seen, Meta announced yesterday they are going to be able to improve the passthrough experience quality via software improvements as they get more data from people's cameras.
The overhype was from Meta's content creators that weren't allowed to say anything negative about it. We know who you are!!
I got it today and i have the same feeling
The update a few days ago did absolutely nothing to improve such. It really is one of the biggest marketing cons I’ve seen. Sure, it’s great as a stand-alone VR device. But for mixed reality is an absolutely gimmick and has me questioning the veracity of some reviewers !! It’s rife in the e sim racing community.
Ehi same here i ve never experienced vr so was my first headset i bought yesterday, apart passthrough barely usable i didnt find the movies or home windows to be so crisp and sharp i thought i had a defective one returned it today got the new one but it s the same. So is it normal that in the home or the movies or txt in general are not so crisp or sharp? It s somewhat pixelated edges and bit blurriness
If the passthrough's graininess is a software issue, then there is hope it will improve. Waiting on those updates 🙏
It won't, it's like asking that your digital camera will gain one or two stops through firmware. It won't happen
@@TheDigitalGuerrilla It might though. I mean look at DLSS with the use of AI. I'm sure something similar can be done with this too.
@@flashpunk7333 Those are different technologies, no camera uses that kind of tech, even smartphones. You can filter grain but there is no reconstruction because it needs more info about the scene: depth, motion vectors, ID, and so on
@@TheDigitalGuerrillawell according to Meta's CTO,Andrew Bosworth:"Yes,it will continue to improve as we continue to get real world lightning conditions and information from the headsets that have been picked up, we start to tune the algorithms that drive it more effectively.
And so i do think it will continue to improve - modestly - from here for a little while as we do a better job depth estimating with where your hands and working with the distortion around that, and things like that.
So yeah, we're gonna continue to work on it as we have with the quest pro."
So if u trust what he say then the answer will be yes , the pass through will improve.
@@ketchai995 trust them as you trusted the promotional material, breath in that sweet sweet copium 😁
It really was a bit of a disappointment when I used the Quest 3 for the first time... I thought my unit had a problem, thanks for the explanation.
Same! I almost returned it, still may. I feel like I have a blurry spot in my lenses but it may be mura.
Same for me, but apart from that im really enjoying the thing, cool gadget
@@y_zass I notice that the lenses on mine are REALLY reflective. It's very noticeable when there's certain lightings going on in game
@@particely noticed that too, especially when watching movies it can be really bad
I had only ever used wired VR headsets for my PC, so I was super excited to finally try out a wireless standalone headset for the first time! I got the Quest 3 yesterday for Christmas, and my dad and me have been bringing it around to show to friends and family the cool mixed reality features (first encounter) during my experience with it, I was actually able to read my phone and computer screen/keyboard pretty well. Of course, it did strain my eyes a bit, so I eventually just opted to remove the headset to see. As for other things not so small, I didn't really have much issue other than the blurry edges when moving around a lot. I personally thought it was extremely cool to use, however I do agree that the ads do not show a true depiction of what it actually looks like inside the headset.
I love my headset, and I plan to continue using it
Love to hear it!
Able to see your computer screen seems like major clarity; any idea what type of display/panel you have (OLED, LED : IPS / VA / TN)? Even after I got to a point where I could read my OLED phone, I still can't read my IPS computer displays (unless I scale the UI/fonts up a lot).
Also love mine! Excited to see what new stuff comes in the future now that they have mixed reality occlusion ready for developers to take advantage of and full upper body tracking. Should be a fun couple years.
half way through the video , i knew i wont need to research anymore .... thank you bro
Amytime fam, glad it was helpful!
From looking at my hand inside the VR headset i notice in close range it captures my hands in beautiful detail and just moving it further out as we normally see things in there it becomes distorted and weird and blurry
But with the fact that placing my hand up close to the camera captures my hand in good detail is for hope that it can be improved as they say it can trough software udpates which is very exciting
My too so bad , I even thought my unit might be fake
I still think mine is fake.
if you adjust the eye spacer with eye distance on quest 2. middle is clearer. depends if your gaming or watching movie and. need passthru
I made the mistake of trying out my friend’s Apple Vision Pro before the quest 3. As a result, i expected the passthrough to be the same, but it wasn’t wven CLOSE. Apple’s passthrough looks exactly like the quest 3’s marketing hype video… but in real life
I'm excited to see it! I am not in the Apple ecosystem, I've got a used iPhone on the way so I can face scan and order one to review/test for some videos.
I also thought my camera lens had some protective film sticker because the passthrough was so blurry
Couldn’t agree more. I also was instantly disappointed in the pass trough. I almost thought I got a wrong unit. It looks quite good when it’s recorded but in the goggles, it’s lackluster.
Yea =( I was hoping the word would have gotten around by now, so folks wouldn't still be buying them with high expectations over 6 months later.
Lighting makes a MASSIVE difference, I used my phone light on objects and all the crispiness went away, sad thing is my room isn't that well-lit :(
Just got the Quest 3 yesterday on impulse bc of the augmented reality marketing. Obviously you know why I'm here. I played around with VR back in 2016 when Samsun and their Galaxy phones were pushing it. Had a lot of fun but realized VR was still years away from what it needed to be. 8 years later I thought it was finally what I wanted and affordable. But like you said, might need more time to fully bake. I really may have to just return this and wait another 8 years.
Yea, I think you and I are a ahead of the curve in our expectations vs. what exists currently. That said, I own the Apple Vision Pro and have tested other 4k micro-OLED headsets, and it feels like we're extremely close. My guess is the next generation of 4k+ (35+ ppd) devices will be what we're after.. assuming the parts can actually be made (a major bottleneck on the higher-resolution headsets seems to be manufacturing of the displays and lenses).
The passthrough/camera quality of the AVP is sure there already, they just need to get rid of the annoying motion blur when moving your head and improve low light performance.
QUALITY ASS VIDEO. Suprised you don’t have millions of subs yet. You’re Easy to understand and straight to the point. Well done.
I appreciate that! Thanks for taking the time to watch =)
I have a 2nd hand Q2 and I'm literally PM-ing someone right now to get a 2nd hand Q3 just for the pass through for work/play purposes. Thanks for the in depth video. I'll probably hold off for a while and maybe look into 49-inch monitors instead. Thanks.
You're very welcome! I'd argue it's AMAZING for play and goofing around, but NOT AT ALL beneficial for work. If your focus is productivity then you should wait for the Immersed Visor or the next iteration of the Apple Vision Pro (this first one is excellent so far, but not worth $3,500). IMO, for work, a 49-inch display is going to benefit you much more.
Thanks for the video. I got this for my 11 year old daughter and thought it was defective when I was setting it up. Like you, I had to remove the headset to do anything on the phone while setting it up. The cameras video quality is so poor that even if someone told me in advance how bad it was I still couldn’t have lowered my expectations enough for actually using it. It’s passable for not running into furniture but that’s about it. I wouldn’t use it for any type of mixed or augmented reality. Just playing games that don’t utilize the cameras is fine and my daughter does love playing games on it. If it was me I’d return it, but it’s fine for an 11 year old who doesn’t care for mixed reality.
Thanks for taking the time to watch! Definitely agreed. The headset is fully capable for VR and still worth the $$. They just went overboard in pushing the Mixed Reality as a "primary feature" instead of a "extra feature".
Definitely think your daughter will love it, regardless! You can try the reducing brightness on phone screens/etc. in the future if you ever need to.
Pass through needs to eventuallly be natural. Like electrochromatic glass that can be darkened to keep nearly all light out. I really hope it ends up being that instead of either pure AR glasses that are always transparent or MR goggles with complex camera systems.
I agree! I've got the XREAL Air 2 Pro and the electrochromic dimming on the front of the glasses works extremely well (the major downside of those glasses is the inability to gracefully move your visible screen around and the low FOV). This would require offloading all the internal hardware to the back or sides of the headset; I'd be interested in learning the limitations as to why someone hasn't tried it yet.
The passthrough experience 5 months after this review still sucks big time. Here where I live I guess is a combination of poor light as well. This video was great. Good job dude. This is the first time I ever congratulate anyone online, so be proud.
lolol, I appreciate that and will wear the proud badge. And I can confirm, the passthrough experience has not improved in the slightest since this review.
In fact, the only change related to passthrough I've noticed is they've now updated the privacy policy to confirm they're collecting our passthrough visual data from the headset.
We all paid 200 dollars more for something we will rarely use due to its quality. Good video!
And for controllers without that stupid ring around it, plus smaller headset
Some guy said that he factory reset the device 7 times till he finally get a better passtrough quality, like 30% better
i will try this
Yea, I saw that video as well. I tried it to no avail but even the concept doesn't really make a ton of sense to me - based on the way the video was shot and the quality of images, I'm thinking something else changed for the user unrelated to the factory resets while playing with the settings.
For example, you can try turning off the battery saving options and rebooting to see if that has any effect for you.
Factory resets are worth a shot before you get anything loaded up - definitely let me know how that goes!! I'd be interested to know either way.
@@aline.tech.reviews well, tryed so many times but dont get it better, i lost the count but the "last 5 trys" were short so maybe more that 20
but i notice that in some resets it looks worse tho,
so theres definitly a diference between resets
maybe if I had been more patient
its much faster if u just turn it off and just press "power + vol down" like in a normal android
I’ve not really used pass through before, but I’m able to read my phone fine with no fiddling
Finally someone that explained all my concerns. All in one.
Thank you 🙏🏽 Instant subscribed to your channel. 👌🏽👌🏽😎
Appreciate that, and I'm glad I could help!! Welcome aboard. =)
I should have my full Quest 3 review completed this week.
I bought a quest 3 as my first vr headset after using my sisters quest 2. As they are my only two real experiences with vr (other than going to a shitty vr bar one time) I personally find it amazing. Like absolutely mind blowing. I do agree that it is grainy in almost all situations however after doing research this really is the first stepping stone into the mixxed reality world. Many might not like what I am about to say but what can you really expect (I do understand it has been overhyped by the review community bought out by meta). It’s like comparing first generation phone cameras with next gen phone cameras. It is really sick for what it is and software updates will definitely make a massive difference in the future however moving forward to the quest 4 there won’t be any excuse for something that is not completely usable in almost all lighting conditions.
Yea I've looked at some vids and they say more lights then I put 15 lights on at high power and it just looks more vibrant and still looks pretty bad
Yea, I have a massive light box on the ceiling and other studio lights where I film my videos and it's not even great in there.
I believe the hype was also influenced by the headset from Apple, which did provide a great passthrough experience (based on the feedback from professionels). People might have thought that the tech was ready, and therefore the headset from Meta would be of good quality in regards to the passthrough feature. I just also believe people are forgetting that the Meta quest headset is not 3500 USD as the Apple headset will be priced at.
Yea, I can definitely see the Vision Pro having an influence on the Quest expectations
I can personally read and write texts on my iPhone looking through passthrough. But maybe 2 months ago the updates haven't happened. I got my Quest 3 2-1/2 weeks ago.
Yea, we still don't even have 120hz in Quest Link as far as I can see. Not sure what the delay there is.
I imagine any improvements to passthrough will be minimal and will take a long time for them to optimize - so that part isn't super surprising to me.
What is surprising is that so many features that were advertise weren't released for months after or still aren't available to the masses.
@@aline.tech.reviews This is why i got Virtual desktop or use steam link now, they both use 120hz. Quest Link i feel is so outdated it will be forgotten about :(.
Yeah, my new quest 3 passthrough looks just as you described, like crap! Here's the thing :
Meta, I'll surmise, has given those cameras somewhat 'stopped down' aperture(iris) settings in lower light conditions in order to keep a relatively long 'depth of field'. In video it's called 'auto iris' which measures the ambient lighting and tries to adjust the iris opening to keep a constant light level hitting the 'charged coupled device' (CCD). There are op-amp circuits which amplify the CCD when the incoming light is low in order to render a usable image and that amplification grain is the 'noise' of a very low signal being amplified a great deal. (or a really shitty op-amp)
I think Meta's response is saying that they will write code so that the room dimensions help to set an 'average' iris set point. In other words, if the room dimensions are small like a 10'x10', the code will tell the iris to open enough to create just the depth of field necessary for that smaller room , (inches to 10') which will be much shorter then the present set point, ( inches to infinity) decreasing the amp noise. If the Quest 3 could track your eye's iris, the cameras would only need to adjust the focal length of the lens and the aperture would need not change much rendering a clean sharp pix in lower lighting. Anyway that's my take on it. Also, the cams need to deal with lag. A fast frame rate also means less light is being processed per frame and more call for amplification. EDIT - Also those tiny camera lens don't let in/capture much light compared to a standard pocket camera or 35mm for that matter. I think Meta can improve it, just how much I don't know.
You know what would fix all these passthru problems? If users can CONFIGURE the camera itself in the device.
I have experienced both situation. Same room same lighting conditions and same headset. Sometimes I can use my phone, reply messages like I do without the headset and sometimes I can’t even read a simple message. I just can’t figure out why.
I also don't know, but it might be worth checking the position of the headset on your face!
I recently got the "BoboVR" head strap (I put a link to it in the pinned comment on this video), and it is much more stable/secure on the head which allows me to get the perfect viewing angle every time. With the default strap, the headset would move around a bit on my head which would de-align it from my eyeballs.
You could test this by playing with the position on your face the next time you see it's blurry, and you can't read a message, to see if you can find that "sweet spot" to make it readable again. You can simply move the headset around your face with your hands to look for it.
I wouldn't say we're 40 years off from good passthrough, maybe 2
If I had known this would happen, I would have waited and bought the Apple Vision Pro...😢
hello , could you do an update of this topic , with the new 62 update , i noticed that my headset had a better passthrough when it was in 59 , but as the updates keep getting better handstracking , the headset started to ask for better illumination each time , as if the fix they found for low light handstracking was to trick the headset to think its allways low light and the result its a grainy experience.
Im not saying the it was perfect but it was a lot better image quality, now noticing that for this video you where in 57 version would be usefull to know if it was a change for you quest 3 or it is something that just affected later batches.
Most definitely, this is a good idea.
As of this past weekend, I still didnt have the latest version. I will test at my current version to get my baseline memory set and then will update and can make a video
Thank you so much! I thought my Quest 3 is broken!
Glad it was helpful!! And confirming we have enough data now to show it's normal.
thank you for your review man, we honestly it was broke ! the quest 3 is epic dont get me wrong, game and watching youtube or desktop thing is another level. But the passtrough let me sooo down.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! And agreed, the Quest 3 luckily has more than enough to offer outside passthrough to justify the cost.
Just got a quest 3. I literally thought it was defective. Passthrough sucks. I cant see mixed reality games being fun. Like this..i expected something different..
Cant even read my phonescreen normally..
Yea, that sounds about right =(
I would try a couple things: 1) see if you can update to the latest firmware, or at least up to v65. They've made some minor improvements (don't expect any drastic changes), but it did improve the colors and made it easier to read text on things like you phone. 2) turn down the brightness on your phone - typically what happens is your phone screen is too bright and is "blowing out" the Quest 3's cameras which makes it impossible to read; turning down the brightness should help that a lot.
I hope that helps some!
I guess the hype is from quest 2 users, i have a quest 2 and passthrough is just for making sure i don't walk into an object. I can't even read or navigate my phone on a good day with quest 2, its just a blob of white or so blurry i can't see it lol.
Most definitely, and Meta's slick marketing that made it look clear!
@@aline.tech.reviews no kidding, it looks extremely clear, hopefully they can make it look better soon
one guy here on youtube, factory reset he's quest 3 7 times, the 7th time it was clear like other people had posted videos of! he could suddenly read on everything on he's pc screen even with a totaly dark room without any light! So it seems like a software ishue :)
I saw that video! I'm keeping an open mind, but I'm not fully convinced for multiple reasons: 1) his camera/recording and lighting settings changed between the two recordings - you can see this in the "banding" that exists through his lenses. This means he changed settings in his headset and/or his camera between the before & after, 2) his lighting situations and the device shown changed, which would affect the quality, 3) I haven't seen any legitimate claims of anyone else experiencing it.
He admitted that he was not clinical with the resets and that his last reset was in a bright room. I feel like what he is experiencing is potentially placebo or an internal perception change.
I have a time block locked out for next week to sit down and perform up to 30 factory resets in a row to see if I can see any noticeable change.
Kind of crazy considering that $100 phones ship with impressive cameras.
I don't think the cameras are the sole issue - as you can take a picture or video with them and it looks great (and I would argue better than some cheap smart phones).
Where the quality goes sideways is when the headset has to merge the data of 2 cameras together, stich them, and process them while also doing all the other processing for your games, menus, your position, etc. in the background. There's too much data to be processed in real time for it to look good right now.
Good review, I subscribed.
Truly appreciate that, thanks for taking the time to watch and sub!
Perfect…just the answers I’m after. Exactly what I’m seeing in my Quest 3. So glad I found your channel…you have put my mind to rest. Thought my Quest 3 was bust 😂
I'm glad it helped! And 🤣.. you, me, and thousands of others had the same worry.
it was exactly what im looking for
I thought I had a lemon too, it was grainy as hell lol.
i looked at my box and it was already dropped, made me questioning even more haha
I just got my Quest 3 today and set it up and i also thought the noise and fuzzyness was i that i got defected item. So now im here finding some answers! I'm guessing this is just normal then, i felt abit let down, but the menus and everything else are clean and nice.
That was a very thoughtful and well done review! You answered all of the questions I had and more. Now that I am able to move past my initial disappointment, I'm beginning to feel that with the crisp graphics that are overelayed onto the grainy background for mixed games at least, whether it will become less of an issue in my peripheral vision. No doubt this will continue to plague for virtual offices. Here's hoping that Meta,s software will be up to the challenge! Thanks again!
I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for taking the time to watch.
And agreed - the MR experience works because of the overlay graphics.. even in an office setting because once you are in a flow state, you don't really notice your surroundings anyway because you're working on the screens.
I have a full review coming where I share my thoughts on mixed reality as a whole. It will probably take me a couple weeks to get it out because it will be somewhat long.
I bought three of the Quest 3's and I noticed my daughter's is noticably more clear than mine in pass-through and some apps. There's definitely an inconsistency in these headsets that I hope software will fix soon. Might get myself a replacement before the return window closes
Interesting! Are both headsets on the same software version / have you rebooted both and still seeing a noticeable difference?
@@aline.tech.reviews gonna check the actual version number, but they both said they were updated fully. My mom's is closer to mine, but her's is the 128gb edition.
@aline.tech.reviews ok typing this on my phone from her device, it's system version 49743630046900510
Version 59.0.0.172.706.535429038
Runtime version 59.0.0.171.706.535429024
Os version SQ3A.220605.009.A1
Yes, my device has the same software version. Both 512gb. Rebooted. Charged fully and drained fully, and with and without the Binbok extra batteries too. I have noticed on mine that there are some instances I notice an improvement on mine un different apps, so I'm leaning towards a bug fix
Or quite possibly inconsistency in the pancake lenses and refraction of light by different apps in certain areas of the screen
probably they have the same focus issues like action cameras. Since the the focus is fixed on those cameras the quality control is important. If the focus wasnt set right, the camera will be blurred on near objectfor example, others go Pros have the sweet spot in the distance and so on. If that is the case with the Quest3 you can not change it with software. The passtrough on mine looks like like a 2006 webcam. I feel only the VR fanatics scream "amazing" because they are used to low standards i guess, For me as VR beginner it looks terrible.
I too am a first time buyer for vr. You spoke my mind exactly, from a technology progession standard it is much better, or so I hear, but to us people watching the ads and glowing reviews from previous vr enthusiasts, it seemed to alter our expectations to something a little more, refined. Like the video said, it's passable. But but I would imagine VR is easier than AR since there are unlimited variables.
@danbarb9728
The best way I can describe the quality that you see is old webcam, that's how it feels.
It does feel like a 1st gen kind of feature and I am sure that it will be greatly improved in Quest 4
That's an accurate description!
And agreed. I'm looking forward to the improvements
Probably not lmao
Dude how do you not have more subscribers?? Such a high quality video
Haha, I really appreciate that! I think it's because I'm new to this.. regardless, I will continue to put out quality content and hope we make some big moves in 2024.
@@aline.tech.reviewsI agree with OP. You’re underrated. Keep it up man. Best wishes.
@@kaiser4ya - Appreciate that, thank you! I'm finally back in the cockpit - more videos being editing now.
Excellent honest review. Very refreshing and given me a realistic expectation.
Truly appreciate that, thank you; and glad it helped!
To me the passthrough feels like 720p vision. Its neither good or bad, i just like that i have access to AR.
This is easily the best and most detailed review on the pass through on the quest 3 I have seen so far. And from what I understand is that people aren’t lying that the pasthrough is good, it just looks much clearer if it’s recorded compared to the somewhat cruddy irl passthrough. I am actually gonna test that now! Thank you again for answering every question I had about it!
Thank you for taking the time to watch!
And yes, fun playing tip if you use your finger to cover the camera, you will be able to confirm that the passthrough is using the same camera you're recording from.
I did the same thing you did, after being shocked at the graininess, and exclaiming to my wife "something's wrong!" I tried to pick a the front of the camera on my Quest 3 to see if there were hard to see plastic film protectors over the cameras for shipping purposes (there weren't). I've now pretty much accepted that certain things look very grainy in my apartment, and have come to enjoy the passthrough after my initial disappointment. It actually helps me accept it that I learned it's not a defect on my headset but a general problem. But I never had plans to use it for virtual monitors like you did, just for fun.
Hahaha, glad to know I'm not alone on that one! =)
I agree with you there, I am enjoying passthrough still. The virtual monitors even work super well; it's just the little window to see your keyboard is a bit too blurry. Meta says they are going to be pushing software updates to make it better for us, though, so fingers crossed!
What have been your favorite mixed reality experiences or games thus far? I'm finally about to get into the gaming side of things now that I've finished this video.
+1
Same like mine
Same feelings
Agreed. It felt disappointing to see the below par pass through, it definitely bordered on false advertising from Meta.
Glad to see it is a general problem and not just my unit 😅
Thank You for the brutally honest explanation of the passthrough. I have the headset already so can now relax knowing its normal. Cheers.
Same here, just got my quest 3 today and I could barely read the phone which is supposed to be part of the setup. Glad to know it's "normal"
Same got mine today had same issue
I might be the most earliest reviewer here so let me help out who ever coming after me..... i just bought the Quest 3 and immediate after i statt it up the pass through was hella ugly as this reviewer explains but.... when i set up the device insaw there was an update after updating the quess 3 i saw a complete different experience with the pass through because i was honestly worried wbfire the update thinking how bad it was but after the update inwas happy. In conclusion... it seems the pass through clarity and experience will get better via updates in the future but the current update now as of January 28, 2024 i can say its very clear....
One more thing when first booted the quest 3 looking at my phone was completely blurry like he discribed but after the update i was able to see the images on my phone but detail words are still unreadable hopefully future update will resolve this that way ill never need to remove my quest 3 unless its to stack it away afyer use. Thank you guys and sorry for my bad typing.
The quality on the camera is good, so it’s a shame you just don’t get that crispness when you’re in passthrough. Hopefully future software updates will fix this, as it seems to not be a hardware problem.
Great Video
The PassTrough Quality is lit. from a phone from 2002
And i dont even wanna talk abbt UA-cam 360..... which isnt working ..... well it is but u see a total of 5 pixels
Hands down your video is the best description regarding the Quest3 passthrough quality. I am experiencing exactly as you described and was thinking I may have a defective unit but it appears not. Hopefully software updates will improve this feature. Thanks for the clip buddy.
Appreciate that! Meta just announced yesterday (10/24) that they are confirming future updates will make the quality better - once they have more user data from the cameras for their AI to process and improve upon. I would expect we'll be seeing fairly regular updates until they hit a ceiling.
I got the quest 3 because of videos that I saw of people playing in mixed reality and the recording looked so crisp. I was sorely disappointed in the lack of quality of the passthrough camera. But I’m not disappointed in my quest 3 experience thus far. Even just popping out a UA-cam screen in mixed reality is amazing. I hope the quality can be improved though.
same thing we saw a guy working on his car with it... our shop wanted to use it for high end car while doing timing chain and motor rebuild, to get the specs next to us and improve time management and get our apps on it.. sooo deceiving , its a great device for gaming and entertainement but its not there yet to work with. Edit: I forgot to mention that watching sport like hockey with it is Crazy nuts, you have an option to be like seated in the arena and have to turn your head to keep on the game!
@@appache28 oh man yeah I can see how that would be insane help. Hands free manuals and access to quick references. I wonder if you’ll be able to do that with the Apple Vision Pro instead.
That sounds crazy. What app would that be in?
@@Gsxrdannyy we planned to use all data online and oem manufacturer app that are windows based but would have linked by the vr desk kinda of app.
I will research the apple one you mentioned thanks alot!!
@appache28 Well, if you want it for that I wouldn't count on the Vision Pro since it's apples first headset and probably more for standalone stuff and integrating with other apple products. Would go with the Varjo XR 4, they specifically make there headsets for commercial use purpose. I could test the XR 3 shortly last year and it works amazing for stuff like that
ohh thank alot@@grek543210 yes i figured out the apple one by this time, but this is interesting since the comercial aspect, im looking forward to it!
To echo everyone else, I thought I had a broken headset. My wife had me try it out before it gets wrapped up for Christmas. My heart sank when I saw the pass through. The VR was really awesome though. This is my first time using/playing VR. Got slightly dizzy lol
As a returning customer, the quality that was promised vs what was given was slightly disappointing, but the quality I was used to with Quest 2 vs the quality I‘m getting with the Quest 3, I‘m still super happy with the result, for my personal application (DJing in Passthrough and recording POV) it is a gamechanger and works well enough - not as great as I had hoped for, but good enough to where it works and makes me happy with my purchase.
Agreed, and good to hear it served your purpose. That's an awesome use case that I hadn't considered - do you upload your sets anywhere I can see the POV for fun?
Also, if you were new to DJing and didn't know where all the buttons were, would you be able to read all the levels and dials?
I bought the most expensive one, even the most expensive cable to get the best experience. I couldn't even read my keyboard in my sunroom with lots of daylight . My laptop screen was blurry and the constant going from screen to AR with better definition hurt my brain.
After two weeks of tweaking and doing things to make it better. I just gave up and returned it.
Oof; sorry to hear that! I definitely understand the keyboard issue; as I still have it. It's just good enough to where I can generally see the layout and key positions enough to use it since I've memorized my keyboard layout.
And yea, I don't think it's meant to be used where you actually use your laptop screen THROUGH the cameras. The cameras really only exist to help keep you grounded and so that you can quickly check like a notification or something on your phone or laptop. If you wanted to see your laptop screen inside the headset, you would need to use an app like ImmersedVR, Meta Workrooms, etc. where your screen would then be rendered inside the headset.
There are some people saying, and some proof, that some people do in fact get a better pass through experience. It seems to be related to your quest being stuck in power saving mode for the pass through. In theory you could check if this is the case, by toggling battery saving mode on and off and seeing if you notice a difference in your pass through. I cannot confirm this to be true, but there is video footage taken through a headset of incredibly crisp and clear footage, on UA-cam and on reddit. Some people say a factory reset has fixed their pass through
I've seen all those as well - unfortunately, nothing has seemed to help. I am not a believer of the factory reset method as I don't find any logical pathway that would change the state (especially considering it wasn't until the 7th try or whatever) - I think that user changed another setting or variable with his lighting, screen brightness, and camera settings in that time.
do we need to wait 40 yrs, or just until we can afford an apple vision pro?
Feels like it's still a coin flip at this point! I can imagine the price of the Apple being so hefty due to all the custom components / laptop build into the headset and seeing them drop the ball on pass-through still. Apple devices typically feel overpriced for what they offer.
Varjo XR-4.
While not standalone, even XR-3 has good enough passthrough to code through with visual studio. (And of course virtual display is far superior again.) Varjo is not perfect, but it's passthrough is levels superior.
*From a gaming standpoint the Quest 3 isn't remotely worth the extra £100-$150 as the games don't look remotely different as over 2 months since launch. I played Bonelabs, Survival Nation & the Walking Dead games on both Quest 2 & 3 & there is LITERALLY no jump in graphical quality.*
The passthrough sucks. Grainy as hell, even in a bright room.
Yea, there's no way around it, unfortunately. =(
My first VR headset and my friend hyped up the pass through so much as he was a quest 2 user, needless to say I’m a bit disappointed about this fact that it’s not good. But overall, the vr alone is very fun and impressive
The first quest 3 that I got the left controller wasn’t even working so I have to drive back and exchange it for another. And the quality looks the same both are grainy. I don’t think that there anything wrong with the headset. I’m just disappointed that I basically got scam. The way UA-cam reviewers show the VR in the pass though look amazing but in reality it actually ass.
Don’t worry it’s just meta being meta, everything improves over time, like the quest 2
How much do you feel the Quest 2 improved over time vs. how much you grew into it?
@@aline.tech.reviews I quickly grew into it, but it started to feel boring after a month, but they have consistently improved the headset to make it feel brand new every couple of months
No lie as of 6/10/24, pass through is fucking great
I'm working on a 6-month review update! It should be out in August.
Yup, tried it out for passthrough, it sucks. Really disappointed, it's ok for gaming but not for work or anything else. The screen quality is great though.
Clips of people playing espire 2 in their kitchen looked insane setting my expectations a tad too high I’d say. If what I’ve seen in pass through setting it up is the best I get those mixed reality games will be dog water. 😬🤞
Still feels exactly as you described, fuzzy and just not good enough to be able to see things clearly. I too was sold on the promise of passthrough being this idea of looking like what I see without the headset on. The ads from Meta play up the quality beyond what it actually looks like during real world use.
Bottom line seems to be that passthrough works to make mixed reality games a thing but other than that it's not practical to use in any other way. I hope they can continue to improve this but I can't see that happening without them improving the specs on the headset itself. I am curious to see what the Apple Vision Pro does with passthrough to get a comparison on both, I believe that would be a much clearer indication of if the components inside the Meta Quest are the limiting factor here.
Yea agreed - and the lack of Mixed Reality games is another pain point.. it launched with 1 new "game" that was really just 90-second tech demo masked as a new game; the other MR experience that was there at launch didn't work at all for me. We're coming up on a year post-launch, and they still don't have any new experiences.. all the cheap, low-movement games (like the boxing one) that already existed have simply removed their backgrounds to show your environment instead. We need more experiences and I'm confused as to why this was launched without any.
I have the Apple Vision Pro and am working on a review to launch this fall! The AVP's passthrough is undeniably 'better', but it also has more motion blur when you move and still isn't great like you'd expect (I'll go more in-depth in my review). However, there aren't any experiences for it that really make it worth using outside having your virtual screens/windows around you. I managed to come across a mixed reality drawing app that lets you draw on a canvas, but that was about it and the rest were cheap/bad games. I haven't even found a great app that just lets me plop in even a 3D model and have fun with it. The F1 racing app just released and is the only real implementation I've seen to date - it's actually pretty awesome; the issue is simply I don't really have an interest in F1 racing to that degree outside maybe wanting to see it for a few minutes.
Great video. I was Meta-disappointed in the quality of pass-thru. It was basically awful!! I had nothing to compare with, coming from Vive Pro 2, but I was expecting better. I think a lot of peeps are going to be pretty pissed at the quality. All hype, no substance!
Thank you! And yea - I'm still keeping up with the complaints/confusion across many forums, and there are literally thousands with the same experience and disappointment.
I just got mine today and I to was surprised how grainy and blurry pass through was compared to what youtube videos show... But the in game graphics are great!
the experience was awful, the passthrough was very blurry, poor quality, although i had headaches and I had disoriented feelings, finally it is good for some VR’s experience and it’s not good for many reasons!
Once more a well researched, calmly and likeable presented video. Lots of facts, and opinions are clealry marked as such. What blessed relief in comparison to all those overly-loud, pretentious, "personal opinions are facts" channels. Thank you, sir!!
PS. I share the same experience with my Q3 - thanks for confirming that that´s the current state and not my noobish attempts to find the right settings. ;)
Appreciate that! Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a thoughtful comment. =)
And haha, hope I was able to save you some time looking said settings and missed plastic. I think I spent like 2-3 weeks trying to "fix" it - which was the primary driver for making this video.
@@aline.tech.reviews Thanks for your reply, and thanks again for your videos. I have to say, that Virtual Desktop makes it possible for me to actually read something on the screen, but I also know that this is not really pass-through/mixed reality. However it does look good. :) Unfortunately, it also means I have to upgrade my Wifi network at home, as 5G provides me only with 40Mps, so 6E or even 7 it is....eventually. ;)
I would REALLY appreciate your thoughts, experiences and hints for setting up a usable VD environment. Any chance? ;)
Keep up the good work!!
Ps. the link to view your gear does not work for me
1:20 THIS right here. All of the footage made me think that's what I would see! I thought my headset was defective. It's terrible that all of the footage made me think that's what it would look like.
This is the first video review I've found that has discussed this and has shown an idea of what we see
Yea, the footage showed pre-sale was definitely misleading 😔
Thank you for this video! You approached the subject/problem absolutely perfectly and described it honestly in very useful detailed clear way. Well done!
I look forward to more of your reviews of VR tech.
Yeah you know what, this is a huge L . I kinda feel used and lied to by reviewers. I’m going to return it .
Might it be that parts have different levels of quality? My passthrough srsly isn't much better than my quest 2,just coloured. Even the distortions are there as much as on my quest 2. Even though they don't show as much in most reviews. My passthrough isn't usable for a good mixed reality experience. It's nice for the original uses tho. The pancake lenses are by faaaaaar the best upgrade. And what will they remove on the quest 3 light? The pancake lenses😢.
@@DeltaNovumcan you read your phone through pass through? Mine cannot, maybe couple lines of text, rest of them are blurry
@@omoributadonliner2173I can if I close one eye and get very close
Yeah I can see my surroundings okay. It's grainy as all get out. And anything bright like my phone is impossible to see unless I turn the brightness all the way down. Even then it's rough. But weirdly enough, I can mostly see my 4000ansi lumen projector screen?
What's weird is watching the dirty dirty using AR. 8k resolution ultra clear people in a grainy background. It's trippy.
@@omoributadonliner2173 not at all!! It's one blurry mess. I've returned my Quest 3 and am back on my quest 2. The money just isn't worth the upgrade with the very short battery life, that will only degrade.
It’s super grainy for me. Adjusted ALL settings. It’s NOTHING like UA-cam videos portray. It’s simply grey scale pass through from quest 2 with color.
Same
It is bad, don't get me wrong. But an optimistic view on this could be... quest 2 pass-through. It was a black and white migraine and lighting was as scary as freddy sleeping with your mom. The fact that you can actually read texts in any way with pass-through on the quest of the next generation (not several like phones which take multiple generations for changes to be added nicely) is astounding. Even further than that is the concept of Vr itself. It is still in its infancy, tell someone 40 years ago and they would find it absolutely amazing that vr even exists, tell someone 40 years before that and they would be asking what vr is let alone a computer. False advertising is extremely awful and they do it way too much for devices and video games (ex. Halo and kerbal space program 2), but the technology itself is still worth diving into even just a little bit. If Noone does, then it won't improve and eventually the concept of VR will become a failed invention. I hope if it continues to push the envelope, we'll see tech like what is shown in Sword Art Online on day. Thank you:)
Yea, I definitely agree with both your positives! The execution here by Meta is a great step forward. This video was more to help set expectations for those who may have been tricked by advertising.
I was worried that i had gotten a defective product. But now i know that its normal. Passthrough is a cool gimick, but its trash.
I bought a quest 3 a few days ago but one of the controllers came defective, I went back to Best Buy and they gave me a new one, unfortunately my new quest the passthrough is significantly worse then the first one I bought. I will now be returning it again, if I don’t get a good unit this time I am getting a full refund and not touching it again. What a shame because I really do like them
i just purchased mine, when setting up the VR headset it starts in Mixed mode the only thing i can say is that this thing is better then the Q2 because it has color but the clarity is not you can at least ready your computer and see your room. my room is fuzzy as hell and i cant even read my phone other then the massive clock on the Samsung phone. fist time user of the 3 and i HATE IT if i cant even see my environment then i will return this tomorrow when BestBuy opens back up. Such a lame purchase again your video here is showing that your times are 1000 times clear then my MQ3 is showing me as it processed it. am i doing something wrong on the setup?
I don't think you're doing anything wrong - keep in mind that what you see in this video is *recorded from the camera directly* and is NOT what I see in real life. I tried to make that super clear in the video; what I see IRL is much worse (similar to how you are describing).
It's unfortunately just normal. There are things you can do to help visibility.. 1) make sure you have even, cool lighting - most older rooms have like a single ceiling light which has a light spot high up that doesn't reach all the corners of the room.. if that's the case, put in some lamps or something to light up the other areas, 2) make sure you've updated the headset to the latest version, as the latest 2 releases pushed some updates that make the colors look better, shadows less dark, and light areas less noisy, 3) for your phone situation, turn down the brightness on your phone - I found that helped me a lot and I can read text.
Otherwise, what you're seeing is fully normal and is just how it is. Don't expect to see what you see from my video here.
Is it better now after updates? Please reply 🙏 😭. should i buy it for 700$ India. I want a vr 😭😭
Not enough to where my opinion in this video has significantly changed!
It has definitely been improved, though - they fixed some of the exposure issues (example: a black pillow or my black cat on the couch used to just be a large black blob, but now I can see some texture on the blacks), they turned down the contrast so everything looks more neutral colored (like the Apple Vision Pro's colors), and they've "optimized the pipeline" which I believe just means they're processing more pixel data effectively and quicker - which gives you a "perceived resolution" boost - which makes some things a bit sharper (example: it's a bit easier to see text on screens, like your phone, without turning down the brightness as I suggested you had to do in this video - and I can read smaller text a bit better now from notifications).
So: 1) Definitely improved, 2) Still not to a level their advertisements made it seem - so just go in with that expectation. I'd recommend going to look through the lenses of one at a Best Buy or something, and 3) It's still good enough for what it's for; just don't expect high-res quality in passthrough; it's more of a secondary feature that allows you to move around without taking the headset off (check your phone, grab a drink, or play some games where the focus isn't on your environment like placing a board game on a table in your room - because when you're focused on the table top you don't notice the poor resolution as much).
And yes, I think the device is still worth it. I don't think you can find a better headset for the price. It's unmatched currently. If you're buying it just for the passthrough, then don't - it's a secondary feature, not a primary one.
I totally agree, very bad quality, purchased mine and had high expectations put the pass through is grainy as 😢
The hype was real. Fresh out of the box my headset was very clear in most of my lighting situations. But after the battery improvement update it's now grainy no matter the lighting. I have video of it before and after and the difference looks like two different headsets. I tried factory reset and nothing. Still grainy.
Sorry to hear that - did you go into the settings and disable the battery performance / graphical reduction? I don't know whether it affects passthrough or not, but if it was that update then maybe that will help.
As a confirmation, mine has always been grainy - before and after the update.
Just returned my meta quest 3 bought on amazon, i was so disappointed from the grapichs quality, so much disappointed.
in my sitatuon i can't even accept the passable, becouse the room when i was going to use it, is not high illuminated.
A bad experience, my hype was huge
Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. Do you have a Quest 2 or are you just out of the VR space until something better comes out?
Another great video on what for me is one of the most important features for AR applications. Currently in my opinion only Varjo headsets do an excellent job regarding passthrough, but they cost a lot, are not standalone and are really for professional use. I have the pico 4 and its not worth replacing with a Quest 3. I think when the XR3 chip comes out, hopefully later this year, it will be the real game changer for standalone headsets - true 4K and more per eye, 35 ppd, eye tracking etc…👍
Appreciate that! I haven't gotten to test one of the higher-end Varjos (XR-3 + 4), unfortunately. However, I did just snag an Apple Vision Pro and its passthrough is better quality than the Quest 3's; I wouldn't claim that it's miles ahead, but it is surely a decent step up. I believe SadlyItsBradley compared it to the quality of XR-3 passthrough.
I hope that I get a chance to look through an XR-4 once they get it fully settled! But yes, the 4k screens + higher PPD + eye tracking will hopefully become the new standard. I'm super impressed with the AVP so far + the OS with ability to overlay apps has restored faith that we're heading in the right direction.
I'm with you there and super stoked for the next-gen devices with XR3 + Samsung's incoming refreshed micro OLEDs.
I actually had to replace my Quest 3 because I noticed it had some dead pixels, and I feel as if that one had much better MR passthrough quality in comparison to the one I'm using now.
Agreed. In the workspace option it would be far better if the passthrough was ditched in that area in favour of an overlaid a keyboard and mouse on the actual board. Sadly they only have a few boards as part of the recognition software. You could map in the various %age versions of the various boards though. It's certainly not usable as it is. They've effectively wasted an option to create a really good office screen environment. They should look to apply the overlay for the keeb to make is usable whilst they perfect the tech.
Yea, I'm not sure how well the tracked keyboard functionality works as I haven't tested it directly yet. I did just get a Apple Magic Keyboard to use with the Apple Vision Pro and that is on the Quest 3 tracked keyboard support list.. so I'll definitely try it for my 6-month review coming up.
I'm also a bigger fan of how ImmersedVR does the passthrough windows. If you haven't tried that then it's worth a download - it's the same concept, but you can set the size and location of your keyboard area + can create other windows (for instance, I like to a window where I sit my drinks so I can see myself reaching out for them). The passthrough quality isn't improved any, though.
Even if they had little markers or stickers we could place on our keyboards to help it track - that seems like it could work based on general layouts (even if it wasn't 100% aligned it seems like it could be close enough to trick your brain).
Tbh my lighting is great and i can't use pass through it looks really bad. That bad it makes me feel sick
Its basically quality of watching a battered vhs tape on a old crt tv thats not been turned correctly
Your description of the passthrough is quite good and accurate 😆 . Sorry to hear that it makes you sick; I luckily don't get sick from it, but it does look bad.
The most intelligent, balanced video I've seen on Quest 3's passthrough quality, and I've seen a lot. A monitor light bar definitely helped me see my keyboard much more clearly, but it's white so I need to prop it at an angle to reduce glare. But overall, Quest 3's passthrough quality is as you said - bad.
I truly appreciate that - thanks for taking the time to watch and comment!
I had the same issue with the glare on my keys; my light has a dimmer switch so I was able to reduce that a tad and also angle it like you mentioned to get decent visibility. I also have RGB keys so I turned those down a bit to reduce the blowout the camera gives all sources of light.
I just got the Quest 3 today, and like you said, it was a blurry mess. The only thing nice about it is that it was emitting images in colors versus the ones I used in the past which were black and white. Also, I noticed the virtual objects that I played with during the setup, the image quality is slightly better than previous gen. For anyone new user, keep your expectation low, the pass through world through the quest 3 lens seems like you are wondering in the dream, like that unclear dark fuzzy world that you often witness yourself in your dream. Other than that games are better looking than previous gen, at the moment, I am checking out videos and tips n tricks to optimize my experience.
Appreciate you sharing your experience! I like your dark fuzzy world dream comparison.
RE: optimizing your experience, if you haven't yet check out the Quest Games Optimizer. It's $10, but allows you to force increased resolution for games that run (and they have a ton of pre-built profiles for all the popular games so you don't have to fiddle around with settings much). This boost to the cpu/gpu and redering resolution will come at the cost of decreased playtime as it will suck up battery. I'm compary batteries for a video now but so far the BoboVR S3 is coming out on top with nearly 5 hours of play time.
@@aline.tech.reviews Just in time, I bought this today and noticed that battery was running out way sooner than it's supposed to. :)
Yeah mines so grainy and dark even with ok lighting, but when I record it on my device, the recording is much better quality. Nothing like pass through live. Anyone else have or had this issue.
Yes, that is normal (per my video explanation). The images are binned down + go though a lot of processing to get mapped to your viewport in real time with your controllers/menua/gane/etc. which is why thr degredation exists.
It will be some years still before we can expect clearer images on a Quest
Just bought the Q3 and I am extremely disappointed at the poor quality pass through. I can’t read my phone or computer screen. Other than that, I really like the Q3 so far.
Yea, sorry to hear that =( Try a couple of these things that got me to reading my screens:
- Make sure you're updated to the latest v64 / v65 firmware which were just released. They made some changes to the camera feeds that reduce the crazy saturated blowouts and neutralize the colors a bit.. which makes it easier to see your phone (and is what made me finally be able to read my computer monitors). Overall, the passthrough is better in these versions than the launch versions (but still not great).
- Turn down the brightness of your phone/computer monitor. I noticed it's mostly the brightness of them that causes the sensors to blow out. This is how I got to reading my phone screen.
Im still impressed with the device, but pass through is definitely an eyesore due to lack of sharpness. Its only good for navigating around an area with safety. Can’t wait for what Quest 4 will come out with. I hope they focus on passthrough and multitasking!
Same, and fingers crossed! 🤞
I feel like Meta is giving people the runaround about the pass through. "Get's better as the AI learns" is hyperbolic nonsense. Yes, SLAM tracking improves with time as it learns the environment, but this is not that. If this was the case it should have been mentioned from the beginning and it still does not account for the massive out of the box variation in peoples experiences. I've tried two headsets and one is sharp as a button and one is horse manure. This is on top of the abysmal USB connectivity. Sure hope I don't need to RMA it.
Interesting that your headsets were different! I haven't heard many accounts of that. It really was that big of a difference?
I have currently run into the USB connectivity issue.. trying to get videos to the headset and off the headset has been a nightmare when wired.
My speaker volume is set to 30%. I can watch most videos without having to adjust the volume. For this video of yours, I have to increase to 60% in order to hear you speak. When the advertisement came, it was very loud. Your content may be good, but few people will want to watch videos which require turning the volume up and down.
Truly appreciate you pointing this out! I have been following guidelines for sound levels, but they seem to get quieter aftrr I upload. I will go a bit louder with the next iteration.
I have similar experience. I also had to take off the headset to install meta app on phone but it was at night with maybe not enought light. I'll try with you tips :)
😆. Definitely let me know how it goes - turning down the brightness on my phone was the key.
Also, be sure to update the firmware if you haven't already. There were a few updates there between like v63-v65 that made improvements to the coloring and highlights/blowout from passthrough. It's not going to increase the resolution or anything magical, but it does look better.
I’m giving the passthrough quality a big L myself. Is it better than quest 2? Yes. I wouldn’t use it for anything that requires precision though.
The getting better lighting argument is funny. The cameras just aren’t very good, that’s just the bottom line.
Definitely agree with that.
It's surely an "extra feature that's nice to have"; I wish they hadn't positioned it as a "primary feature" for the state that it's in.
MR graininess is not so significant a problem for me as the distortions caused by nearby objects, such as your hands. I could read the Wi-Fi password from the screen of my iPhone through the Q3, I can see my keyboard, and even read most of the text on the monitor while wearing Q3.... but those distortions are bugging me.
Yea, I can definitely see that! I luckily dont put my hands close often, but when I do, the warping is intense.
Meta just released an official statement, yesterday, saying that the passthrough quality will improve and they should be able to reduce warping as their software improves and AI has more user camera data to process for all lighting conditions.
The passthrough quality is beyond terrible and would be my only complaint so far. I doubt a software update will significantly fix it to a degree that it's viable.
I guess we'll have to wait for the Quest 4 unfortunately...
No, meta dropped the ball. Never buy a product from them again. Look at their competitors for future purchases