At Meta Connect 2023, most people who tried Meta Quest 3 were shocked by the next level of mixed reality. I tested it myself and appreciated the wall-breaking demo and high-resolution passthrough. But what I’m most excited about is how developers are using Quest 3 to make his VR fitness training much more doable than before thanks to mixed reality.
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In his weekly column, Senior Wearables and Fitness Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness technology related to running and health in his quest to get faster and fitter.
One of the most popular use cases for Quest 2 is home fitness. It will take you to a world of fun without getting tired of burning calories. Meta literally had to fight the FTC to acquire Supernatural, an amazing VR workout app. That’s because officials felt it would give the company a monopoly on VR fitness, leaving competitors scrambling to sell headsets without it.
I personally tested the Quest 2 as my primary fitness device for a month earlier this year. As it turns out, it didn’t work for me. That’s because running or power walking can burn more calories than swiping a controller or moving quickly in tight circles. Plenty of space for VR.
Meta Quest 3 has already solved that last problem. We tested the new MR mode of one of our favorite Quest exercise games, Les Mills Bodycombat, at the demo booth at Meta Connect. It essentially maintains a 180-degree FoV at the front of the VR experience, but lets you see the back, sides, and ground via passthrough, so you can recognize nearby furniture and people at a glance.
As my head and hands drifted toward the front edge of the Guardian’s perimeter, the booth and Meta employees in front of me were immediately clearly visible. When I unsubscribed, I was immediately returned to a VR-only view. The new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 and additional RAM make Quest 3 games look much better and passthrough responsive. As a result, working out in VR is safer.
The early wave of Meta Quest 3 games and enhancements, such as Les Mills’ exclusive MR and FitXR’s VR-only Zumba studio, are the current limits on how far the Quest 3 can go to improve games designed for VR. is shown. Game design must create immersive worlds that: block MR cannot be naturally incorporated into areas other than those that are not normally seen.
But a brand new mixed reality fitness experience is one type of MR software that I really hope will outperform its VR equivalent.
why? Because when it comes to home workouts, there’s only so much you can do with VR without floor spatial awareness and free hands. His basic HIIT moves, such as burpees, won’t work if the headset can’t track where the rest of your body pops out of the guardian barrier. If you drop it at the wrong time, you may break something or injure yourself.
Since it is virtually invisible, it cannot safely hold or lift heavy objects, even small ones. Either way, you’re probably holding a Touch controller.
Quest 3 is equipped with a depth sensor that improves hand tracking and gives you a visual sense of how close or far you are to something. Crisp, full-color pass-through lets you see where your yoga mat is before you go down to do push-ups (as long as you’re careful not to break the headset) into the Place it on the floor or walk to the weight rack and pick up the appropriate size. It also has better ventilation than the Quest 2, which helps prevent your face from sweating too much.
My main question is whether the Quest 3’s built-in accelerometer or camera has the ability to recognize workout movements at a certain weight, like a fitness smartwatch. But in theory, you could follow a fitness training video on the headset and see real-time heart rate data and your current score in the corner as you switch between punching targets and performing planks or crunches.
Second question: What do developers do? make Is it just a mixed reality experience? The Quest 2’s black-and-white passthrough doesn’t come close to the Quest 3’s at 1/10th the pixel count, making MR exercise apps nauseating, less secure, and defeating the purpose. In other words, no MR exercise app could target 20 million Quest 2 owners.
So, in reality, whether Quest 3 can fully realize the potential of MR as a cross-training tool depends on whether Quest 3 It all depends on whether it sells. For now, my hope is that the meta has already taken advantage of Supernatural’s ownership to Own MR workout exclusive to Quest 3.
Meta Quest 3 outperforms Quest 2 in important ways. It’s 40% slimmer, with twice the graphics power, 30% higher display resolution, 25% more clarity, 10x more pass-through resolution, and a more comfortable facial interface with more space. air circulation.
