New Quest 3 update improves passthrough, but Meta says they've only just started

Greetings, AR enthusiasts.

Quest 3’s passthrough is improved now, but Meta still believes there is room for improvement

Remember the viral AR vacuuming app demo? Dyson has just made it real.

In today’s Phantom Thread, we will look at:

• Quest 3 passthrough gets an upgrade, but there’s still room for improvement

• You can now vacuum in AR thanks to Dyson

• Horizon Worlds gets an instant replay feature

• Calibrate a Quest 3 headset

• 3 New AR Tools

WEEKLY THREADS

META QUEST
Quest 3 passthrough gets an upgrade, but there’s still room for improvement

The weave: Quest headsets received the v64 update which improved passthrough but it is still not in a state where it could be called final.

The strands:

• The v64 update rolled out which brought better resolution and color reproduction, and Meta says you will be able to read your phone’ screen better while in passthrough.

• The image does appear a bit darker with a tint, though, but it is a tradeoff Meta has made for better readability.

• The update claimed to also reduce image distortion, but testing did not reveal if this was true. 

The fabric: Quest 3’s passthrough feature needs more work, but the Vision Pro’s feature is way more accurate and higher resolution than Quest’s solution. Meta has an uphill battle if they ever want to match Apple’s headset anytime soon.

^DYSON
Dyson makes vacuuming fun again but only if you’re on iPhone

The weave: Late last year an AR vacuuming demo went viral on social media, and you could soon start using it courtesy of Dyson. But its only for iPhones.

The strands:

• Dyson’s CleanTrace gamifies the chore that is vacuuming and shows you an AR overlay that shows the areas you have covered with your vacuum.

• It does not use a headset though  like the original demo, but has the AR overlay on your phone.

• Your phone then attaches to a specific Dyson vacuum (one of the expensive ones) and guides you through your vacuuming job.

The fabric: While a vacuuming AR app doesn’t seem like a big deal, it is great that AR is moving beyond simply looking at something in VR, or the productivity aspect of having virtual screens floating in the air. 

^{META HORIZON}
Horizon Worlds gets an instant replay feature

The weave: All Horizon worlds experiences are getting an instant replay feature that lets you record and watch what they just did without needing any external tools.

The strands:

• Meta hopes this could help with the virality of any funny clips users capture while making the recording process seamless for creators.

• The feature is set to record all the time so that you can capture and save clips whenever you want, but you can disable it.

• They hope to compete with established platforms like VRChat and Roblox, both of which have seen content on that platform go viral.

The fabric: Meta is still trying hard to fit in with the rest of the VR communications platforms, but instead of trying to carve out a niche for themselves, they’re looking at emulating what other platforms do well.

^{AR TUTORIAL}
Calibrate a Quest 3 headset

The weave: Do you have a Quest 3 headset that was used by someone else? Before you starting using the headset, you should adjust the fit and feel of it.

Here’s our step-by-step guide:

1. Loosen the straps on the back and top and place the headset against your face.

2. Pull the straps tight enough so that the headset doesn’t slip off but not too much.

3. Adjust the angle of the headset by tilting the headset arms with your hands.

4. Use the lens wheel on the bottom of the headset to make the image in the headset as clear and visually comfortable as possible.

5. Take the headset off and use the depth buttons on the inside of the headset to adjust the distance from the lens to your face.

WEEKLY AR TOOL ROUNDUP

Featured AR tools:

• Spatial 1.0 - A great alternative to AR or VR video chat apps that is platform agnostic and works with Quest, Hololens, MagicLeap or even a web browser.

• RealityMAX  - A no download web based 3D modeling tool for AR experiences that also has collaboration features.

• Moon Locator - Moon tracker that can overlay the current path of the moon in AR using your phone.

FLASH FRAMES

The Quest 3 also gets a lying down mode along with a slew of new feature improvements

MagicLeap 2 now has a spectator app amid news of them switching to OpenXR for development.

Steam reported an increase in VR users on their platform after rumors emerged that the VR userbase was dwindling.

Vision Pro app Supercut brings an almost native Netflix app for the AR headset by adding playback and audio format controls to the current web version of Netflix.

THAT’S ALL FOR THE WEEK