You Can Watch Augmented Reality Porn on a Meta Quest 3

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Some friends from cyberspace dropping in. Credit: Sexlikereal/Stephen Johnson

The Meta Quest 3 is the best virtually reality headset for watching augmented reality pornography. Its array of front-facing color cameras allows for better pass-through video than the grainy, black-and-white of the previous generation, and that means a new kind of porn. While the technical specs of the Apple Vision Pro are superior to the Quest 3, its price is way higher ($3,499 versus the Quest 3's $499.99) and its design is porn-unfriendly.

But AR-porn genre is in its early days, and like any early innovation, it can be fairly complicated to get right. You may have to spend a little money, too. Below is a step-by-step guide to watching augmented reality VR porn on a Meta Quest 3 headset.

How to watch virtual reality porn on a Meta Quest 3

There are basically three "levels" of porn-viewing on a VR headset. The first two—simply streaming video, and streaming "immersive" 3D video—work the same on the Quest 3 as on any other VR headset. I covered the basics of how to stream VR porn here. Below is how the new kind of porn—mixed reality, or augmented reality porn—works on a Meta Quest 3 and other VR headsets with decent front-facing cameras.

Get the right VR headset: I have a Quest 3, so this guide is based on that that, but the general ideas apply to any headset with cameras out front. Scroll down for some suggestions on headsets.

Make sure you have a fast connection: In order to work, streaming VR video requires huge data transfers to your headset. I have a cable modem and it works great, but a slower connection will require you to down-rez the content or result in buffering (probably at inopportune times).

Download and install DeoVR. You can download this app either directly from your headset or through the Meta Quest app on either Google Play or Apple's app store. This free VR video player and browser can be used for any type of content, but the largest creator of pass-through porn uses this for streaming its videos. Which brings me to:

Sign up for a membership to a site producing pass-through porn content. At the time of this posting, there aren't many companies creating this kind of content. The industry leader in this niche is Sexlikereal, which requires a subscription. I realize that paying money for porn is very 2003, but for something as new as this, you have to shell out for a monthly subscription for the full experience. You could try some other free sites; there might be dribs and drabs available, but it will almost definitely be lower in quality than smut you pay for.

Use DeoVR to navigate to the website of your choice.

Click "Pass Through" on the search panel to your left.

Select a video and start streaming.

Congratulate yourself: You are now on the cutting-edge of porn-viewing.

If you've had the patience to jump through these hoops, you should now have a virtual version of a your porn of choice in your home. But to really get the most out of your experience, you have some work to do.

How to get the most out of augmented porn

If you were hoping that pass-through enabled pornography would instantly make it seem like your porn-star-of-choice was actually in your home, you are no doubt disappointed. Convincingly integrating live video and pre-recorded 3D content is so technologically difficult, I give producers props for even trying, but my results have been mixed at best. Still, I gave this the best shot I could, and here are some tips.

Have a wide open area: You'll need a fair amount of open space to make this work.

Make sure it's brightly lit: Pass-through cameras work better with more light.

Assume the correct position: VR porn is generally shot from a static camera, so the POV is standing, lying down, or sitting. If you're not in that same position it will look wrong. Clicking the pass-through button (it looks like an eye) to see the scene without the blue screen being stripped out can help. It will look like this:

Align the video content: Try to connect video elements with real-world furniture and body parts. This content, generally, involves simple items like tables and chairs, so have some ready to put in the right places. I found that videos of a person standing in front of the viewer look more like they're actually in your home than videos of people in different poses.

Work with the settings: DeoVR allows you to mess with all kinds of settings, from the size of images to their position, pitch, hue, and more. How these should be set depends on your device, your house, the video that was shot, and too many other factors to tell you how these setting should be, so the only thing you can do is experiment. DeoVR's guide is helpful, but ultimately, it's a trial-and-error thing.

Avoid the floating sausage effect and giant people: Much pass-through porn is shot with a blue-screen suit covering one of the actors (with the exception of a body part). If your video isn't positioned in the right place, said part will appear to float in space. This is low-key hilarious, but can be avoided by lining up the video and jiggering with its size and position until the sausage is where the sausage belongs. Another problem: scale. Get it wrong, and you'll have a giant on your dining room table.

Is augmented reality porn worth it?

Your mileage may vary, but I found this experiment in cutting-edge porn to be mainly a chore—a lot of effort for little result. Part of the issue is that the content itself must be rigidly controlled to work within the narrow parameters needed for VR porn. The camera has to be locked down in only one of a few positions, and one half of a coupling (almost always the male half) has to stay perfectly still most of the time. The result is a static, lifeless feeling made worse by the fact that the "action" doesn't really fit together with the setting.

Any change in camera position requires you to change positions physically to try to get the "you are there" effect, and you'll probably have to monkey with 15 menus to try to match everything up again. Trying to make it "look right" is an interesting challenge, but it's about as far from "erotic" as you can get, if you ask me. On the other hand, if you have a free afternoon, and want to try something new, give 'er a shot.