It’s an often talked about concept, especially in the spaces that I find myself in. It’s something out of a sci-fi movie, ala ready player one, and it’s a technology that’s actively being explored by companies like Meta. I’ll be honest and say the concept of the Metaverse seems rather silly to me, and I think something like Ready Player One is a long way off. If you’re in the spaces I’m in, the Metaverse just seems like a shoddy corporate attempt at something like VRchat, with such programs having existed for years already. But evidently, it is successful, as they’re continuing to look into it. So, naturally, my curious mind has it that I should give Virtual Reality work a try, after all, if it’s a good enough idea to invest so much money into, I must be the one that’s wrong, right?

Working with the Meta Quest 3

To begin my observation of this concept, I’m starting with what seemed to be the easiest to access, being the Meta Quest’s desktop streaming feature. I started by acclimating myself to moving about my office with the Meta Quest on my face, which I got used to pretty quickly as the Passthrough feature that allows you to see through it’s three Cameras is quite good. I find you can even look at screens decently, although it’s not perfect, with text sometimes difficult to read due to the Screen’s glare on the cameras, the same issue also causes a mouse cursor to be pretty much invisible.

Next, I went to the feature to go and set it up. 

Setup and I hate Meta Accounts

It seemed simple enough, at first, I had to install the streaming app to my computer, and the headset and the computer have to detect eachother. I did as instructed, but, of course, as with all meta products, you can only get so far without having to use your facebook account. The annoyance, though, was that my provided headset was using an account that I didn’t have the credentials for, so I had to go in and make a profile to access my own Meta account, which itself took almost 30 minutes of email verifications and codes, which, to my frustration, ate up a decent chunk of my actual experience time, which is why I am supplementing that by writing this article with the headset on, but I’ll get back to that in a second.

Once I managed to get logged in on the headset and get through the mandatory 5 Minute tutorial video, I had to do the exact same goose chase on the meta app on my laptop in order to get the Headset and the Computer to recognize each other, thankfully, I managed to get in with less wasted time. Once i was finally able to get the thing working, it proceeded to crash twice before it would work. Delightful.

The Program Itself

So, as I’m doing this in a rather unorthodox way by sampling during the article creation due to my sample time being eaten up by ridiculous account setup, I’ll have more direct thoughts as I am experiencing these things actively as I write this Article.

The First thing that I noticed about the Meta Quest desktop link is that the connection breaks if you move the window in the virtual space. I tried it about five times and it would consistently throw up the error “Device disconnected” whenever the virtual window was moved. So, to remedy this, I took the window and placed it roughly where my computer screen is, and then connected it, which seems to work. How well does it work, though?

The Program presents a normal meta quest window bubble while still on the meta home screen, in my case, passthrough, so that I can see my hands, keyboard and mouse, however a glaring issue that I notice is that every few minutes, the screen lags and stutters. This makes moving the cursor a pain, and the words that you’re typing will be delayed. I’m not having any internet problems, so this seems to just be the nature of the wireless connection, which is frustrating. I haven’t used Virtual Desktop in a little while, but I don’t remember any serious stuttering issues in that program compared to Meta’s official one. Other than that, it works fine, although I can’t say I see the need for this. It’s not really better than just looking at my computer screen, there’s not much I do actively in the Meta Quest menu anyway, so being able to access both just seems like a pointless convenience.

Wearing the Headset while working

To continue to be cynical about the concept, I find wearing the headset itself to be not super comfortable for a very long extended period, while it doesn’t squeeze my head too much or give me a headache, I can see how others might have this problem, and it does strain my eyes. There isn’t really a way to look away from your screen and stop receiving light, as the Quest is giving your eyes an LCD Light Injection at all times. The Bigger computer screen is nice, I suppose, but feels kind of irrelevant and confusing to my eyes, Especially when the physical objects seen through the camera are so much duller than the bright white screen in front of me. Working with the headset on feels like working while wearing a sleeping mask with an LED Strip on the inside, I don’t really feel more productive while wearing it, I just feel like I have to squint harder. Additionally, I’ve been on the headset for about two hours and the battery life is almost already at 30%, which is a considerable issue on the Quest already during games, but it doesn’t seem like the battery can survive long hours. I remember when I was younger and playing around with the Oculus Quest 1, there were battery mods that would give it a longer life, perhaps something similar exists for the 3, but I imagine that more weight on this headset would only make it more of a slog to wear during work. 

Conclusion

I think that this concept needs a lot more exploration, both on the technical side and on the consumer end. I personally find the Meta Desktop Link feature to be lackluster and pointless, and it has not given me hope that this concept is anything more than a silly novelty feature. Perhaps, if sometime in the future, I can have a nice virtual office with a Giant Computer, I might consider the prospect a bit more, but as it stands, Meta Quest Virtual desktop is gonna be a no from me. I will still try other solutions, such as Virtual Desktop and any other working solutions I can find, and those will receive articles as well.