#3778 Meta Quest 3s
#3778 Meta Quest 3s
#3778 List the first 10 apps I should try within Meta Quest 3s to learn its capabilities
Getting started with your Meta Quest 3s can be an exciting experience. To help you learn its capabilities, here are 10 apps that offer a great introduction to the world of virtual reality and mixed reality.
First Contact: This is an essential starting point for any new Quest user. It's an iconic introductory experience from Meta that helps you get familiar with the core features of VR and how to use your controllers by interacting with a friendly robot.
Google Earth VR: Soar like a bird and explore the world from a new perspective. This app allows you to visit famous landmarks, natural wonders, or even your own home in VR, showcasing the immersive potential for travel and exploration.
The Blu: Dive into the depths of the ocean and have close encounters with massive sea creatures. This educational and relaxing experience is a great way to see the cinematic visuals and atmospheric sound design that VR can offer.
Waltz of the Wizard: This app transports you to a magical world where you can cast spells and interact with various mystical objects. It's an excellent way to experience VR's physics-based mechanics and rich interactivity.
I Expect You To Die: This game is a fantastic way to experience the problem-solving and puzzle-based gameplay that is unique to VR. You play as a secret agent using an ocular implant to solve puzzles and avoid traps.
Cubism: This puzzle game is a great example of a mixed-reality experience. It's a simple-to-learn but difficult-to-master puzzle game that you can play with virtual blocks in your real-world environment.
Bigscreen: This social video-streaming app lets you watch movies and TV on a massive virtual screen. It highlights the potential of the Quest 3s for media consumption, allowing you to watch videos from various sources alone or with others in a shared virtual space.
Les Mills Bodycombat: If you're looking to explore the fitness capabilities of your headset, this is a must-try. This app offers martial arts-inspired workouts with virtual coaches and can be played in both virtual and mixed reality, allowing you to see your surroundings while you exercise.
PianoVision: This app demonstrates the potential of VR for creative and educational pursuits. Using hand tracking and augmented reality, it teaches you how to play the piano with a visual, immersive interface.
Virtual Desktop: This productivity app allows you to connect wirelessly to your computer and use it on a large virtual screen, showcasing the potential of your headset for work, web browsing, and streaming content from your PC.
How about Gen-AI generated environments?
Generative AI for creating VR environments is an exciting and rapidly evolving area for the Meta Quest 3, although it is still in its early stages for general users. Here’s a breakdown of what's currently available and on the horizon:
Tools for Creating Environments
Moon VR Home: This app is a great starting point. It allows you to use AI to generate 360-degree skyboxes for your custom Quest home environment directly from the app. You can use text prompts to create the visuals you want, and the app will generate a high-quality 360-degree image that you can set as your virtual background.
Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor: For creators, Meta is making significant strides. The Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor now has "Environment Generation" as an AI-enabled feature. With a simple text prompt, creators can generate a themed environment complete with 3D meshes, textures, and other assets. This tool is designed to significantly reduce the time it takes to build a new world.
Research and Development: Meta's researchers are also exploring more advanced generative AI. They've showcased technology that can create a navigable 3D environment from a single image or text description. While this is currently a research project and not available to the public, it shows the direction the technology is heading.
Third-Party Tools: There are tutorials and guides for more advanced users who want to use tools like Stable Diffusion and Blender to create their own 3D environments and then transfer them to their Quest headset. This process is more complex, but it offers a lot of creative control.
Current Limitations and Future Potential
Real-time Generation: While you can generate static environments and skyboxes, the real-time, on-the-fly generation of complex VR worlds is not yet possible on consumer-level hardware. The current process involves generating the environment first and then loading it into the headset.
Level of Detail: While AI-generated environments can be visually impressive, they may lack the intricate details and optimized performance of a professionally designed VR game or app. The technology for generating highly detailed, interactive 3D assets is still maturing.
Meta AI: The built-in Meta AI assistant on the Quest 3 is a powerful tool for hands-free control and information gathering, and it can even use its vision to identify physical objects in your real-world surroundings. However, for now, it cannot interact with or generate virtual objects within VR or mixed-reality apps. This functionality is expected to evolve over time.
In summary, while you can't yet say "Hey Meta, create a hyper-realistic forest I can walk through," you can absolutely start experimenting with generative AI to create and customize your VR home environments and even full-scale worlds if you're a developer. The technology is rapidly advancing, and it's a great time to explore these new capabilities.
How about architectural design apps?
The Meta Quest 3 is a powerful tool for architectural design, offering a new way to visualize, create, and present projects. The headset's capabilities in both virtual reality and mixed reality make it a game-changer for architects, interior designers, and hobbyists alike.
Here are some of the best architectural design and visualization apps you can try on the Meta Quest 3:
For Professionals and Advanced Users
These apps are often used in conjunction with traditional 3D modeling software like Revit, SketchUp, and Blender.
Arkio: This is a top-tier app for collaborative design. It allows architects to quickly sketch, model, and review designs in a shared virtual or mixed-reality space. Its focus on a seamless workflow between desktop and VR makes it a powerful tool for professionals.
Gravity Sketch: While not exclusively for architecture, this is an industry-standard 3D design app.
It allows you to create detailed 3D sketches and surfaces with your hands in VR. You can import and export files, making it a great tool for a variety of design workflows. The Quest 3's improved resolution and passthrough make it even more effective for creating and reviewing designs in a real-world context. Enscape: Widely used in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, Enscape is a real-time rendering and VR walkthrough software.
It creates an immersive 3D experience from your design files, allowing you and your clients to "walk through" a project as if it were already built. Unreal Engine / Unity: These powerful game engines are now used extensively in architectural visualization.
They allow you to create incredibly detailed and photorealistic environments. While they have a steeper learning curve, they offer the highest level of realism and customization for showcasing projects.
For Interior Design and Home Planning
These apps are more user-friendly and great for anyone looking to design a room or plan out a home.
Home Design 3D VR: This app is perfect for interior design and home planning. You can easily draw floor plans, add walls, doors, and windows, and then furnish and decorate the space with over a thousand customizable objects. The mixed-reality feature allows you to place virtual furniture directly into your real-world environment.
Live Home 3D: While primarily a desktop application, Live Home 3D allows you to export your home designs into 3D models that can be viewed with a VR headset like the Quest 3.
This gives you a stunning, immersive view of your project.
For General 3D Creation and Sculpting
These apps are great for exploring your creative side and can be used for conceptual design.
ShapesXR: This is a prototyping tool for creating 3D designs and user interfaces. It's great for quickly blocking out a scene or creating a low-poly model. Its collaborative features make it an excellent choice for a design team.
SculptrVR: If you're looking for a more free-form, artistic approach, SculptrVR is a fantastic choice.
It lets you create complex 3D models by "sculpting" with your controllers. You can create everything from detailed objects to entire worlds and even export your designs for 3D printing.
If I want to display my computer monitor work documents in Meta Quest 3s, how do I also see my real keyboard?
To see your physical keyboard while working on virtual monitors in the Meta Quest 3, you'll need to enable keyboard tracking.
How to Enable Keyboard Passthrough ⌨️
Open Settings: From the universal menu, select Settings.
Navigate to Devices: Go to the Devices menu.
Find Keyboard Settings: Select Keyboard.
Turn on Tracking: Enable the toggle next to "Show my keyboard".
Once this is turned on, the headset will automatically detect your keyboard in your line of sight. When you place your hands over the keyboard, a small, dynamic passthrough window will appear, allowing you to see your hands and the keyboard itself, even within an immersive virtual environment.
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Think hard. Think innovatively. What is the future of the application of Gen-AI within-VR?
The future of Generative AI in VR is not just about creating new content; it's about making VR experiences truly alive, personal, and responsive. It's a shift from consuming pre-made worlds to inhabiting dynamic realities that evolve with every interaction. This is a profound change that will affect everything from entertainment to education and professional training.
Here are some innovative and forward-thinking applications of Gen-AI in VR:
1. Real-Time, Infinite Worlds
The current VR content pipeline is a labor-intensive process of manual 3D modeling. Gen-AI will shatter this barrier. We are moving toward a future where a VR world is not a fixed asset but a constantly generating stream of content.
Prompt-to-World: Imagine speaking a prompt like, "Create a bustling cyberpunk city with flying cars and neon-drenched streets," and having a full-scale, navigable 3D environment rendered around you in real time. This goes beyond static panoramas to generate physically accurate, traversable spaces with objects and textures that make sense.
Procedural-Generative Synergy: Current procedural generation in games creates landscapes from rules, but they often feel repetitive. Gen-AI will infuse these worlds with novelty. A single prompt could generate a unique mountain range, a detailed ancient ruin, or a forest with flora and fauna that have never existed before, all while maintaining a consistent art style and logic.
2. Intelligent, Adaptive Experiences
Gen-AI will turn passive VR experiences into personalized journeys that cater to the user's emotions, needs, and behavior.
Emotional and Physiological Adaptation: Headsets like the Quest 3 have built-in eye-tracking and can infer user intent and emotional state. Future headsets may incorporate bio-sensors (e.g., heart rate, skin temperature). Gen-AI will process this data in real time to adapt the VR experience. For example, in a horror game, the AI could increase or decrease the frequency of "jump scares" based on your heart rate, or in a meditation app, it could adjust the visuals and soundscapes to calm you.
Adaptive Learning and Training: In a training simulation, an AI-powered virtual coach can analyze your performance and dynamically adjust the difficulty, provide personalized feedback, and create new scenarios on the fly. If you're struggling with a complex surgical procedure, the AI could simplify the steps or provide a virtual expert to guide you. If you master a skill, it could introduce new variables and challenges to ensure you're fully prepared for the real world.
AI-Generated Storytelling: Narrative in VR is currently linear and pre-scripted. Gen-AI will enable dynamic, branching storylines. AI-powered NPCs (Non-Player Characters) could have their own motivations, memories, and personalities. They could engage in free-form conversation, remember your past interactions, and their actions could affect the world in unpredictable ways. This would turn every narrative experience into a unique, personal story.
3. Hyper-Realistic Characters and Interactions
The current state of AI avatars is often limited to a few canned expressions and movements. The future of Gen-AI will bring characters that are indistinguishable from real people in their behavior.
Multisensory Experiences: This is a big leap forward. Beyond sight and sound, Gen-AI could influence haptics, creating virtual objects that feel real. Imagine touching a virtual surface and a Gen-AI system generating the haptic feedback of wood grain or smooth glass. This could extend to smell and even taste, with specialized hardware that releases scents or stimulates the tongue.
Real-Time Avatars: Gen-AI will create avatars that mirror your every nuance. Facial expressions, subtle gestures, even your body language will be translated into a hyper-realistic virtual representation. This will make social interactions in VR feel more authentic and intimate.
AI-Assisted Collaboration: In shared virtual spaces, Gen-AI can act as a silent partner. It could auto-transcribe meetings, generate a summary of a collaborative brainstorm, or even conjure up 3D models and mockups in real time based on a team's verbal discussion. This will make virtual co-creation faster and more intuitive than ever before.
Challenges and Considerations
While the possibilities are immense, the road ahead is not without obstacles.
Computational Scalability: Generating detailed, interactive 3D worlds in real time requires immense computational power, often exceeding what's available on a standalone headset. The future will likely rely on a hybrid model of on-device processing and cloud-based rendering.
Ethical Concerns and Bias: As AI systems create virtual worlds and characters, they will inherit the biases of their training data. This could lead to a lack of diversity, unfair representations, and other ethical issues that need to be carefully addressed.
Data and Privacy: The more personal and physiological data the Gen-AI system collects, the more important privacy becomes. Developers and platforms must establish clear guidelines for how this sensitive information is used and stored.
In essence, the future of Gen-AI in VR is not about making VR content production more efficient; it's about fundamentally changing the nature of virtual experience from a static artifact to a living, breathing, and deeply personal reality.
How can I as a low-budget solopreneur develop industrial and military simulations for Meta Quest 3s and its successors?
Developing industrial and military simulations as a low-budget solopreneur on the Meta Quest 3 is a challenging but very achievable goal. The key is to leverage free and low-cost tools, focus on a niche, and be smart about your development and business strategy.
1. The Right Tools (Low-Cost and Free)
The most significant cost for any VR project is software and assets. As a solopreneur, you can minimize these costs by using powerful, free-to-use platforms.
Game Engines: This is the core of your project. The two major players are Unity and Unreal Engine.
Both have robust, free-to-use tiers that are perfect for a solopreneur. Unity: Often considered more beginner-friendly with a huge community and a vast asset store.
You can get started with the free Unity Personal plan. Unity has a toolset specifically for Meta Quest development that simplifies the process of integrating features like hand tracking and passthrough. Unreal Engine: Known for its stunning photorealistic graphics, which are ideal for high-fidelity simulations.
Unreal Engine is also free to use until your project reaches a certain revenue threshold. It offers a powerful visual scripting tool called Blueprint, which allows you to build complex logic without writing a single line of code.
3D Modeling and Asset Creation: Creating 3D models from scratch can be a major time and cost sink.
Blender: The gold standard for free 3D modeling. It's a powerful and versatile tool for modeling, sculpting, and texturing.
Quixel Megascans: If you need realistic, high-quality assets, Quixel offers a massive library of scanned objects and materials. It's free to use with Unreal Engine.
Asset Stores: Both Unity and Unreal have asset stores with pre-made 3D models, environments, and even complete systems (e.g., weapons kits, vehicle controllers). While these cost money, they can save you hundreds of hours of development time. It's often more cost-effective to buy a high-quality asset than to build it yourself.
2. Focus on a Niche
Instead of trying to compete with a massive military sim like Onward, focus on a highly specific, underserved niche. Industrial and military simulations are often about a single, repeatable task.
Industrial Niche:
Maintenance and Repair: A VR simulation for a specific machine or piece of equipment, such as a turbine, a factory robot, or a specialized vehicle.
Safety Training: A simulation for navigating a dangerous worksite, practicing fire safety, or a specific emergency procedure.
Logistics and Operations: A simulation for training new warehouse workers on how to efficiently use a forklift or a complex inventory system.
Military Niche:
Procedure Training: A simulation for disassembling and reassembling a specific firearm, a communications procedure, or medical first aid.
Vehicle Familiarization: A simulation that teaches a user how to operate the controls of a specific military vehicle (e.g., a tank, a drone).
Tactical Drills: A small-scale simulation focused on a single tactical problem, such as clearing a room or setting up an ambush.
3. Business and Monetization Strategy
As a solopreneur, you can't rely on massive contracts. You need to find a sustainable business model.
B2B (Business-to-Business) over B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Instead of selling your app on the Meta Quest Store, consider a direct-to-enterprise model. A business may pay a recurring subscription fee for a small number of licenses for your training app, providing a more stable revenue stream than a one-time purchase.
This can also allow you to charge a higher price per user. Monetization Models:
Subscription: Offer your simulation as a service with monthly or annual fees. This is ideal for training apps that require frequent updates or content refreshes.
Perpetual License: Sell a one-time license to a business for a fixed price.
Consulting and Customization: Once you have a base product, you can offer consulting services to customize the simulation for a specific client's needs. This can be a very profitable way to grow your business.
4. Leveraging Meta Quest 3's Capabilities
The Quest 3 has features that are a perfect fit for these types of simulations.
Mixed Reality (Passthrough): Use mixed reality to blend virtual objects with the real world.
For example, a virtual control panel could be overlaid onto a real-world desk, allowing the user to use their physical keyboard while seeing the virtual interface. This makes the simulation more immersive and practical. Hand and Eye Tracking: Use hand tracking to eliminate the need for controllers in a simulation, allowing for more natural and realistic interactions.
You can use eye tracking to measure a user's focus and attention, providing valuable data for training. Spatial Anchors: These allow you to "pin" virtual objects to a real-world location. This is great for a factory training sim, where a virtual machine can be locked to a specific corner of a room, and the user can walk around it as if it were there.
By combining the right free tools with a focused business and monetization strategy, a low-budget solopreneur can realistically enter the industrial and military VR simulation market and build a sustainable business.
From <https://gemini.google.com/app/> Google Gemini 2.5 Pro
https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/videos
https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/videos/creating-a-custom-skybox
https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/get-started/install-desktop-editor
https://www.meta.com/experiences/meta-horizon-hyperscape-preview/7972066712871980/?srsltid=AfmBOoqUBs372xLNX1n6bXyaby-jRAM4oQ9Jm8IK05mZqug1JJqIwcVM
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