Dispatches from VR Dispatches from VR

Letter from the Author

Why Virtual Reality?

VR could easily be dismissed as a fad. Companies like Meta went all-in on a vague concept they called the “metaverse,” creating sterile worlds for people to sit around virtual conference tables at work. Apple made a heavy, extremely expensive yet fragile headset that barely acknowledges that VR games exist, focusing instead on “spatial computing.” VR advertising is slick, corporate, and often about “productivity” or invasive AI features.

So why make a series of zines about VR?

My name’s ela (she/her), and I’m disabled. My chronic illnesses cause symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and post-exertional malaise (PEM). I’m also higher risk for COVID. My ability to get out of the house for events and socializing was limited and unpredictable even before the pandemic. But COVID turned outings from something that risked a flare-up into something that risks worsening my disabilities, maybe permanently. And that’s still true in 2024.

As a result I’ve been interested in VR for quite a while, wondering if it could make socializing more accessible for me. My partner had an Oculus Quest headset that I tried a few times, but it was too heavy for me and only one of us could be in VR at the same time. By the time we started looking seriously at getting into VR together, investing in a full VR setup for the PC seemed pricey, especially considering how many of the options were getting older.

Luckily, Meta announced the Quest 3. Despite our major qualms about the company, the headset itself seemed like the most affordable way to get me into VR with my partner. We bought it when it came out in October 2023, and I’ve been slowly trying things out and experimenting ever since.

I want to know — what games or experiences do I find fun? What features help make things accessible for me as someone who’s easily fatigued? What’s it like socializing in VR?

Virtual reality is so much more than what tech companies can imagine. It can be DIY and punk as hell (like zines), and I’m excited to dive in! This zine series will chronicle my VR journey, and I hope you’ll join me for a disabled perspective on virtual reality.

Hardware

Meta Quest 3

As much as it pains me to say it, the Quest 3 has been a pretty great headset so far. (You just have to ignore the company that makes it.) It has newer pancake lenses and higher resolution screens which are a major improvement in visual clarity over prior versions. It’s more powerful for standalone VR, and with Wi-Fi 6 you can also stream games from a VR-capable PC with no issues — no USB-C cord to get tangled up in!

There’s also a decent library of Quest-exclusive VR videos and experiences to try (many of them free!). I’ve enjoyed several of these and plan to try out more and review them in this series. (Check out “Space Explorers” on page 8!) The selection of games and apps in general seems larger than many other VR stores, although I’m mostly using my headset to play games on my computer.

There are also accessibility features that I’ve found quite helpful. The first is the ability to adjust your height when sitting down, which fixes issues with being too low to the ground when playing games. (This is found under mobility accessibility in the Quest settings.) Unfortunately you have to turn this feature on every time you reset your play area’s boundary, which is easy to forget. I wish that there was a way to indicate that if I’ve chosen a “stationary” boundary, that means I’m sitting down and I want this feature to be activated automatically. I imagine full-time wheelchair users would appreciate streamlining this, too.

Another accessibility feature I will definitely be checking out going forward is the ability to adjust the horizon so that you can use the headset reclined or lying down. This feature used to exist but was removed, and I was very disappointed when I got my headset and saw that it wasn’t included. Certain games and applications let you do so (like VRChat and Bigscreen Beta), but others don’t — so a native method is very handy. As I was writing this section, however, I learned that it returned in April of this year! I hadn’t realized because the option is hidden away in the “Experimental” section of the settings rather than in Accessibility.

Prior to its return, I saw forum posts from many disabled folks who primarily used VR lying down and could no longer use their headset, so it’s an important feature. I’m a bit worried that it’s still considered experimental; I really hope that it sticks around and becomes a standard accessibility feature.

But even with these accessibility features, the Quest 3 isn’t without its downsides. For starters, it’s still quite heavy compared to something like the Bigscreen Beyond. It is more comfortable than the original Oculus Quest because the slimmer form factor keeps it closer to your face, but I still feel the weight on longer play sessions (even with the addition of an aftermarket strap). I don’t think I could use it for much longer than a couple hours with my wobbly neck.

And while I jokingly said to ignore the company behind the curtain at the start of this review, it’s not really possible. Even though I mostly use my headset connected to my desktop computer, Meta is inescapable. When I turn my headset on, I’m greeted with ads for games I will never play, Meta software I can’t uninstall, and suggestions to follow complete strangers in the social app. I don’t even want to think about the data Meta has gleaned about my house from the depth sensor and passthrough cameras. (They say it isn’t stored, but who really knows.) Plus, Meta as a company is not a net positive for the world.

I definitely have guilt about buying a Meta headset, but since the world isn’t safe for me, it’s a compromise I will have to live with. I look forward to future headsets from less-problematic companies... and maybe to a time when I’m no longer isolated at home due to COVID. For the moment, however, the Quest 3 allows me to experience so many things I wouldn’t be able to otherwise, and it’s exhilarating.

App

Virtual Desktop

There are two ways to play games on a Quest headset:

1. Use the headset to run them.
2. Use it connected to a VR-capable PC.

Option #2 allows you to play more graphics-intensive games such as those bought on Steam, and there are a few ways to do it. Meta has an app that allows for connecting over Wi-Fi or with a USB cable, but I found it finicky. Steam now has their own free streaming software, which I’m very interested in trying. But when I first got into VR, Virtual Desktop was what most folks online recommended.

Virtual Desktop involves two apps, one that you install on your PC and one that you buy and install on your headset. It allows you to connect to your PC wirelessly and view its screen in a variety of virtual environments, such as floating in a nebula or sitting an auditorium.

This is great for watching videos, and I’ve used it to mess around on my computer while lying down on my bed. Combined with Talon, voice command software I have for arm pain flareups, I can even chat with people in messaging apps via speech-to-text using the Quest 3 microphone.

Virtual Desktop truly shines, however, when you load into a VR game. My desktop computer is in an office downstairs, but that doesn’t matter! I’ve played VRChat sitting on the living room couch, and I regularly play Walkabout Mini Golf upstairs in my bedroom. (See page 6 for more info!)

This freedom is wonderful; as long as you have a fast and stable Wi-Fi connection, you’re no longer tethered to your PC with a USB cable, stumbling over it if you try to walk around.

(Fast Wi-Fi is a pretty big caveat, though. My partner and I invested in a router capable of Wi-Fi 6, and both of our computers connect to it via Ethernet cables.)

There is the occasional hiccup. Once or twice I’ve tried to connect from my headset only to be told my PC can’t be found. (Restarting the desktop app seemed to help fix that.) Sometimes things stutter a bit over Wi-Fi. And it could be that if I was used to tethered VR, I might notice the latency more.

Even so, I highly recommend Virtual Desktop! The convenience is worth any minor flaws, and my VR sessions are USB cord-free!

Social Game

Walkabout Mini Golf

My favorite VR game so far is mini golf, which caught me totally by surprise!

Almost every Friday, my spouse, brother-in-law, and I hop into VR, boot up Walkabout, and travel to a distant place — a Japanese garden with cherry blossom trees, a tropical island with pirate treasure, or a space station orbiting Saturn.

The graphics of Walkabout Mini Golf aren’t particularly realistic. They’re what one might call “low-poly,” usually with flat colors and relatively simple, angular shapes. But they don’t need to be realistic; the sense of place the developers have created is amazing. When I’m standing on a course, cliffs towering above me and birds wheeling in the bright blue sky, I feel like I’m actually there. The mini golf courses wind through the environments — paths take you from one hole to the next, often with vertiginous drops a step or two away. Waterfalls roar in the distance, and a themed tune plays in your ear.

As someone who rarely leaves my house except for doctor appointments, it’s honestly magical.

The gameplay is also fun, of course; it’s very satisfying to swing your club and watch the ball wing its way to the hole. At times it can be infuriating (in the way that mini golf in-person can be!). But the missed shots are made up for by the thrill of a rare hole-in-one, the fun of attempting trick shots, and the camaraderie of playing with friends.

On the accessibility side of things, playing mini golf in my bedroom is definitely less taxing for me than riding in a car to a local course. The developers say it’s possible to play sitting down, but I opt for a hybrid approach; I stand up for my turn, and I sit while other players take their turn and when I’m navigating the course. This helps keep things less tiring, although I still have to listen to my body; I’ve had to skip a couple Fridays because I was feeling too sick to play or recovering from surgery.

Another feature I appreciate is the option to play just half the course (the front or back 9). With three people we can usually finish 9 holes in about an hour, with plenty of time to mess around, check out the amazing environment, and look for the collectible hidden ball on each hole. When we first started playing, I did try to play 18 holes in one session, but I was utterly exhausted afterwards, so I’m very glad there’s an easy way to play shorter games!

Walkabout Mini Golf also seems extremely re-playable. The base game comes with 8 courses, each with a daytime version and a harder nighttime version that you can unlock. For me, that means 32 weeks of golf before I have to pay for downloadable content (DLC) — but the DLC courses look super cool and are reasonably priced, so I’m actually looking forward to that!

The developers also seem to be regularly adding new DLC levels and free game modes, so I’m excited to have even more fun environments to golf in!

All told, Walkabout Mini Golf manages to a lot of the things I’m looking for in a VR game. It’s social, which allows me to hang out with people in totally different states (or countries!), helping combat my COVID isolation. It’s also relatively feasible for me to play despite my fatigue. And perhaps most importantly, it makes me feel like I’m going somewhere new. For an hour every week, I can travel to beautiful worlds from the comfort of my bedroom. Bon voyage!

360 Video

Space Explorers

At first you hang in a dark and endless void. But then a faint arc of light forms in front of you. It brightens and lengthens, and at its center a bright orange ball appears. This fiery ball expands and rises above the arc, turning into a white starburst. Light spreads below the arc, illuminating what you realize are clouds and the ocean. You turn your head, and behind you the solar panels and modules of the International Space Station (ISS) catch the new light.

This is a sunrise aboard the ISS, orbiting Earth. And you can experience it with a VR headset!

Hidden in the TV app of Meta headsets are spectacular 360 videos by Felix and Paul Studios called Space Explorers. In the Blue Marble Trilogy you watch a sunrise and 15 to 20 minutes of the Earth turning below you; in The ISS Experience series you follow crew around the space station, watching them in their day-to-day life and listening to them talk about being astronauts. And since the videos are fully immersive, you can look all around you as they play in 3D — even behind you!

It’s hard to explain why these videos feel so special to me, but I find them intensely emotional and meaningful; I ration them, watching only one or two at a time so that I don’t burn through them.

The first one I watched was “Blue Marble Orbit 1.” From the start I marveled at the beauty, but it was partway through the video when it fully clicked for me. As gentle music played, I watched the clouds. I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t see more of the land or coastlines, but suddenly I realized that I could see the texture of the clouds in 3D. Some of them were puffy, extending further up into the atmosphere than their surroundings. In that moment it felt like I was actually looking at the Earth below me, not just an image of it. I burst into tears.

Many astronauts describe the Overview Effect: experiencing awe, strong emotions, and a connection to humanity upon seeing the Earth. I know I’ll never go to space, but I think these videos may have let me feel a small portion of that, if only for a few minutes.

Who knows whether you’d feel the same way; maybe I’m a weirdo! But if you ever have a chance to try a Quest headset, check out the TV app and search for Space Explorers.

It might just make you cry.

Event

Smartphone Astrophotography Exhibit

Towards the end of May I saw a post on Mastodon about an upcoming virtual photography exhibit. It was part of “Dark and Quiet Skies,” an outreach project about needing to protect our skies against light pollution from cities and radio interference from satellites. Put on by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO), it showcased the winners and honorable mentions in the smartphone category of an astrophotography competition.

I wouldn’t say that I’m super knowledgeable about astronomy, but I did want to be an astronomer when I was a kid and I’ve kept that enthusiasm. I’ve dabbled with astrophotography, albeit with limited success (it’s hard!). During the recent solar storm, I told everyone I knew about the auroras, which even helped prompt a few folks to go outside to see them! I also enjoy visiting a nearby dark sky park with my spouse; during our last trip we caught the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, which was stunning against the backdrop of the Milky Way.

Needless to say, this exhibit was already my jam, but what really caught my attention was the possibility to attend it in VR. The IAU OAO worked with The Future of Meetings to create a virtual art gallery in an app called Spatial that people could visit using their phone, their computer, or their Quest headset.

I miss going to galleries and museums so much. I didn’t get to go frequently before the pandemic because it was very tiring, but now that I have a power wheelchair I’m certain I could enjoy them more often. But the risk of COVID further damaging my health is too great. It would be a great irony to get sicker from going to see art, sending me back to a state where art and media are too cognitively draining to experience.

So I was very excited. In preparation I tested out the Spatial app a few days before the event. It seems to be a social/event app, with the ability to make your own spaces and invite others. I made an account and poked around, getting used to the interface.

I must admit, compared to other games and similar programs, the graphics of Spatial in VR left something to be desired, even compared to the Spatial smartphone app. It also didn’t seem to integrate well with VR — in order to join a specific space with a link, I had to first open it on desktop or mobile to save it to my account, then open it in VR from the “Recent” tab. But it was doable!

On the day I was quite nervous; I honestly don’t mingle much with strangers anymore. But I hopped into the event space and began to look at the beautiful photographs while I waited for my partner to join me.

Not long after I arrived, the Director of IAU OAO, Dr. Kelly Blumenthal, introduced the exhibition. Then several of the photographers spoke a little about their pieces featured on the gallery walls. When the introduction concluded folks began to circulate again.

It was amazing to feel like I was at a real event, to move through the space from one photograph to the next and to walk up to conversations with photographers and listen in. I even spoke to several people, including the author of the post that had sent me on this journey!

In some ways, the experience was almost better than an in-person exhibition. I didn’t become exhausted traveling to and from the gallery, and I could sit down the whole time without worrying about wheelchair accessibility. I was also able to mingle with people from all over the planet, such as Japan (where IAU OAO is based), China, Australia, and the US.

It was such a fun experience, and I can’t wait to attend similar events in the future — I’ll be on the lookout for more virtual exhibitions!

Accessory

Quest 3 Head Strap

One of the things you realize after using the Quest 3 for a little while is that the head strap it comes with is pretty uncomfortable. It seems fine at first, but the pressure against your face slowly increases the longer you wear it.

When I searched for reviews of head straps, I encountered 3 common pieces of wisdom:

1. Yes, it’s worth buying one.
2. The official head straps, however, aren’t worth the price.
3. A head strap with a battery is best because it helps create a counterweight (and prolongs battery life).

The only one I wasn’t sure about was number 3 — a counterweight sounds useful, but I experimented with makeshift weights and found that lighter is better for my fatigue. I also don’t have the stamina for longer play sessions, so an extra battery isn’t as crucial; if I need to I can easily plug it in to charge when I’m sitting down to play.

A few brands get mentioned often, like KIWI Design and BOBOVR, and there are many straps with similar designs from letter-soup brands on Amazon. I felt stuck trying to choose one.

In the end I opted for a DESTEK head strap recommended by an online friend. I’m not sure how it compares to the recommended ones, but it was half-off. The two straps ratchet tighter with knobs, and the top strap goes from one side of my head to the other, rather than front-to-back like the original. This helps relieve some of the pressure on my face, although it can be tricky getting it situated. (Perhaps I’ll try a different brand in the future?)

In the end, I think the first bit of crowd wisdom is the most important. What works for you, your play style, and even the shape of your head might be different than me. But assuming the original head strap isn’t working for you, it’s worth trying something different!