Following information that Meta’s Quest 3’s getting some big blended reality upgrades including an AI that can recognize furniture and improved passthrough quality, there’s yet another enchancment on the way this time for one of my favorite Quest apps: YouTube.
That’s due to the fact the VR version of the video-sharing platform now helps 8K video playback on Quest 3 – up from the preceding max of 4K.
To turn it on make sure you’re walking YouTube VR app model 1.54 or later, then boot up a video that helps 8K, tap on the tools icon, and where it says Quality you want to exchange the decision to 4320p – or 4320p60 if you want 8K at 60fps as a substitute of the normal 30fps. If 4320p isn’t an option in this listing lamentably the video you favor to watch isn’t streaming in 8K.
There are a few greater caveats. First, you’ll want a sturdy net connection, due to the fact even if the video helps 8K playback you’ll combat to stream it over susceptible WiFi – unless you like waiting for it to buffer. Oh, and one other vital detail; the Quest three doesn’t have 8K displays. But that’s no longer as big a hassle as it might seem.
Method in the 8K madness
The Quest 3 has two shows (one for every eye) that boast 2,064 x 2,208 pixels each; 8K decision is 7,680 × 4,320 pixels. Even if we mix the two shows they nevertheless boast solely just over 25% as many pixels as an 8K display.
So is 8K streaming pointless? Well, no longer entirely.
For flat YouTube videos, playing them in 8K probable is nugatory on Meta Quest hardware. The only advantage you might locate is that you’ll be seeing a downscaled video – the contrary of upscaled, where a greater decision supply is played at a lower decision – which can on occasion lead to a greater precise photograph than actually streaming a video at the lower resolution.
The real enchancment can be discovered alternatively with immersive 360-degree videos.
To explain things simply: when you see a flat video you see the entire decision in that 16:9 frame. In 360 videos the resolution is unfold throughout a a great deal large image, and you only see portions of that picture based on where you’re looking. That’s why – if you’ve watched 360 videos in VR – 4K content material can appear greater like HD, and HD content can look like blurry messes.
By bumping things up to 8K you’ll find that immersive 3D video ought to look a lot greater crisp – as the sections you’re searching at are now efficaciously 4K. So while you are not seeing 8K, you’re nevertheless getting a greater resolution.
This update can also also be a proper future-proofing replace for the next Meta hardware. With rumors that a Meta Quest Pro 2 may want to up the display recreation for Quest hardware, there’s a hazard that it’s going to get closer to having authentic 8K displays, though we’ll have to wait and see.
