In order for a planet to even be disk shaped gravity would have to function differently. But no if a planet was disk shaped with the current gravity rules, and something else was able to keep it in that shape against the force of gravity trying to round it back out, you wouldn’t uniformly feel the force of gravity at different points on the surface. Even the slight imperfections in the current round shape of the earth has an effect on surface gravity at different places.

They are generally not as good for playing VR.

The headset is like a pound or something, people wear much heavier hats. My neck is just as weak as it always was, lol. My nieces have been doing VR since they were 4 and 5. They never had issues. Would just be heavier than a pair of glasses would be.

The monitor is not quite full 4k, but it is more clear than 1440p, so still worth setting to 4k anyway. I mainly just play computer games on it, but you can do anything you want, your computer screen is just a floating window you can put wherever you want.

I do have 2 monitors in VR, only one in real life. I mostly use the second one for like a browser window, if I need resources for a game, or I want to put a streamer or Vtuber on in the background. If you press ‘Y’ on the controller, the monitors swap places, so I do that rather than looking over at it or positioning them in a way that I can see them both. Rather have the one I’m focused on be a 2000 inch TV at 20 feet away. Big enough that it’s still like 80 degrees field of view. Just the right size so I can see it all while holding my head still, don’t have to turn my head to see corners.

My real life computer monitor is a TV, it’s 4k, but old enough that it only does 60hz. The first virtual screen is a representation of that one, so also stuck at 60hz. But the second virtual screen is 4k 120hz. So for any easier to run games, I play them on that one. Unless my sister wants to watch, she of course can only see the 60hz screen.

People have wiresharked it, only data that goes back to them is in their first party games, the headset doesn’t send anything. Always subject to change of course. They have mentioned plenty of plans over the years, but so far nothing implemented, most concrete plan was using the eye tracking to confirm to advertisers that an ad was watched, but the only headset they have done with eye tracking wasn’t targeted at consumers. So hasn’t come to fruition.

Virtual desktop is just 20 bucks, the only knowledge you need is how to make sure your home router doesn’t suck, or if you don’t want to know that, buying a bespoke single device USB router specifically made to stream a VR headset, like a puppis S1. Basically the big version of Steam Frames dongle.

And having a computer worth streaming to the headset. Depending on what you want to play, the hardware requirements vary quite a bit. Most stuff made for VR is relatively accessible. But if you want the really good games, those currently mostly come from good VR mods for good games. And they will generally have a higher hardware requirement, as they weren’t optimized to run well in VR.

If you just want a VR headset to stream flat screen content to, like a 4k steam deck that you don’t have to either hold your hands up to your face, or look down at your hands… then even a super entry level computer is plenty for most games. Anything you can already run on your computer will play and look nearly identical streamed to the headset with Virtual Desktop. VR headset hardware is extremely optimally designed around low latency. So it’s one of the lowest latency options for streaming flat games. I generally am reclining in a real comfy recliner when just playing flat games or watching TV, and putting the screen at a nice comfortable viewing angle and height for that. Not to mention putting the monitor 20 feet away and making it huge, so it’s comfy for my eyes. No staring at a screen 2 feet from my face anymore. Even though the screen is actually one inch from my eyes, lol. Doesn’t feel like it to them, and that is the part that is important.

And, if you don’t have a computer, Quest 3 still has decent stand alone games. The operating system is mostly only annoying in that they constantly change stuff without making it better, just different, and stuff breaks alot, cuz they fired most of their humans and the few humans left are mandated to generate everything with AI. Same goes for firmware. Frequent broken features that can last for months. It sucks, but still hasn’t gotten to a point where it can literally be called unusable… but it sure can figuratively and hyperbolically be called that. As many people will demonstrate.

It’s my computer monitor, my TV, and where I also happen to occasionally play VR games. When not in full VR games, my computer or TV are just floating windows wherever I want them to be. And I’m in full color and 3D passthrough. So basically using them like as if they were already glasses… just super big heavy ones, lol.

Oh, and the practicality of how I physically keep it running 14 hours a day, bobovr infinite hotswap battery system.

And why it isn’t 16 hours, I often take it off to eat still. Not all the time though.

Yeah, out of the box, though color passthrough is already confirmed as an accessory. They just figured no sense making everyone pay for it if it can be done through the accessory slot. Some people don’t need color passthrough. And some people will want to buy a higher end one than what would have been included if they did include color passthrough. This way, everyone can be satisfied. And even a color passthrough module that uses 2 cameras and does stereo reconstruction uses 1/4 of the lanes and less than 10% of the bandwidth. So you could still daisychain other accessories too.

I mean, I definitely get the paranoia, but people have wiresharked it left and right, and every day… it doesn’t. They do harvest what you do on the metaverse, but that is basically gone now anyway, and was always optional. They collect data from any first party products, but like the headset itself, no. It doesn’t send anything. And that isn’t something you can hide. Like the signal literally has to be sent, and it would be detectable.

They definitely have over the years kept mentioning things they would like to do, like using eye tracking to confirm to advertisers that ads were actually watched and shit, but that never actually came about. The only eye tracking they made so far was on the headset they didn’t target at consumers. I’m sure they still have future plans to achieve some of their horrible goals, but as of yet, hasn’t happened.

If it helps, the meta account is just a renamed oculus account, uses all the underlying systems from back then. I didn’t have to make one, my oculus account worked.

The Quest 3 hardware is awesome. It’s all the rest that sucks. But using it as a box that launches Virtual Desktop, it’s been completely fine… still getting a Steam Frame as soon as the lottery picks me to be allowed to pay them money.

Comparable in a sense, each component that they actually share. But still all individually upgrades. But for all the components the Steam Frame has that a Quest 3 doesn’t even have… literally no comparison. Not to mention functional firmware/operating system. And the community features, and the cool stuff we’ll be able to get for the expansion port. And the controllers are much more useful. Not just for VR games, but as actual controllers too.

And they have actual spatial anchoring, you put something at a representative physical point in space, it’ll stay exactly there. So you hang a screen on a wall in your house, or in your bathroom, or above your stove… it’s there every time, doesn’t need to constantly be adjusted, or re-opened. That part of it was such an important feature of the headset that they literally named the headset after it, the Frame system. Quest 3 is so annoying trying to use it that way, not only does stuff subtly shift throughout the day, but you put the headset on tomorrow and it’s either in a new random place, or it’s gone and you have to put it up again…

Yeah, I use a Quest 3 for 14 hours every day. I will definitely be getting Steam Frame even if this is the price. Or at least I will sign up to get one, up to the lottery if I do, lol. Speaking of… I should stop trying to convince people how awesome it is… no… yeah… Definitely too expensive, you wouldn’t even like it… please don’t sign up for the lottery.

Ah who am I kidding… it is very much worth that price for anyone that knows they are gonna put it to good use.

And the Steam Frame has alot more value added features, not to mention all the components they do have in common are at least a little step up from Quest 3. Other than color passthrough, which will be an add on accessory for those of us that want it. But, nice for the people that don’t, they don’t have to pay for it. And kind of nice for those of us that do, cuz we’ll get to pick which one we want, and I want an expensive one, cuz it’s important to me.

Even Meta has said they will never subsidize again. So there will be no good and cheap VR systems anymore. Only good or cheap.

They grew up in a time when People with Autism were called retarded. While also first hand experiencing people with Autism being way smarter than them… hehe.

Technically it doesn’t “make” people motion sick, they are motion sick either way. But VR offers a very accessible way to train away your motion sickness. Since you can actually stop early enough to reinforce that your brain doesn’t need to protect you. A car ride or boat is much harder to stop at a moments notice.

If you keep reinforcing that you don’t need motion sickness, your brain stops doing it to you. It thinks it’s helping.

Similarly, the medication for car ride or boat motion sickness works for VR too. So they can help you be able to spend more time in each session while training it away.

Are they making some sort of corellation between testosterone and propensity towards violence? Like a cartoon would?

Hehe yeah, that is sort of what I meant. Gaming isn’t what changed. Affordability changed.

Simpsons created it. In the episode where jebediah springfields quote “a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man” is scrutinized for “embiggens” not being a word. They say it’s a perfectly cromulent word. Which itself was not a word, but given the context has a clear meaning. And people decided to start using it as a joke, and then enough people used it, it eventually became real.

Technically all words work that way, but this feels just that little bit more artificial. There wasn’t really a need for it, we have words for that context already, so it wouldn’t have naturally spread. But it’s still fun to have watched it happen over time, knowing it was probably gonna happen even though it shouldn’t have.

Edit: the details may not be exactly right, it’s been nigh-on 30 years now since I’ve seen that episode, but that’s the gist of it, from what I recall.

Gaming, is joining everything else at becoming harder to afford.