The Apple Vision Pro is one heck of a machine, though the price tag is far too much for most people to justify. Fortunately the Meta Quest 3 is set to get a software update that promises a bunch of improvements to its mixed reality features, and while the $499 price tag is still pretty high it’s still a fraction of what Apple has been asking people to pay.
Obviously the price difference means there are a lot of things the Apple Vision Pro can do that the Meta Quest 3 can’t. But this new v64 update should make the headset’s pass through features better than they were before. Maybe not Apple Vision Pro good, but still better than Quest 3 owners were dealing with before.
According to the release note, the passthrough feature is set to benefit from improved resolution and improved image quality. Those aren’t normally the things you’d expect to be improved by a software update, but Meta claims that this is exactly what has happened.
Apparently the company has improved “perceived resolution for passthrough by optimizing the passthrough pipeline.” This should make it easier to see the finer details and smaller text in passthrough mode, with the example of a smartphone screen used in the release notes.
Image quality
As for image quality, Meta says it has “fine tuned the camera processing pipeline to improve color, exposure, contrast and dynamic range in passthrough”. This is supposed to make color passthrough more lifelike which can only be a benefit to your experience. Meta also promises to have reduced the amount of graininess and image noise in low light, which ensures a “more comfortable passthrough experience in a range of lighting conditions.”
Other changes coming to the Quest 3 as part of the v64 update include the ability to use the headset while lying down, an option to connect to an external microphone, and to continue a casting session once the headset has been removed. So you can take it off to answer the door, or grab a drink without interrupting the stream.
Anyone who plays Horizon Worlds with their friends will also be able to directly join friends from the people app. So long as your friend is online, in a public world and has their location sharing switched on.
The Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 are still leagues apart, regardless of this update. But it does show that the Quest 3 will be getting better as time goes on. While it’s unlikely to ever hit the same technological heights as Apple, it is still a seventh of the price and may even go on sale again as we get closer to Black Friday.
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