For the last week I have been using my Meta Quest Pro to work in the metaverse.
Every morning, I put on my VR headset, started Horizon Workrooms, and traded my home office for a very fancy cabin overlooking a lake. My personal computer screen was projected before me on huge floating screens, and I had a meeting with my boss while watching virtual waves crash against the shores of a beach, a considerably more enjoyable experience than watching a Google Meets call screen .
And when it was time for lunch, I could get up from my desk and easily start Walkabout Mini Golf to play eighteen fast holes like a true businessman.
Before embarking on this experiment, I wasn't sure if I would love or hate the experience of working in virtual reality, but even within half a day I had my answer: it's completely terrible.
VR: where reality is the limit
Setting up Horizon Workrooms is pretty straightforward: just download the VR app to your Quest headset, whether it's a Meta Quest Pro like the one I picked, or an Oculus Quest XNUMX, and install a plugin on your PC. Connect to the companion software and the VR app will have the ability to connect to your computer, allowing you to view your desktop in VR, with your screens displayed on giant screens floating in front of you.
This is where I ran into my first downside when working in VR: the experience is annoyingly limited by my actual hardware. I don't mean my PC's CPU and RAM, that would make sense, I mean the number of virtual displays is limited to the number of real world monitors I have connected to my PC.
So while Horizon Workrooms can support up to 3 virtual monitors, I'm limited to two as that's all I have on the real world; Since VR experiences can take me anywhere on Earth or transport me to fake lands, I don't see why it can't conjure up a third screen.
What makes this particularly annoying is that if, like, you have two displays, Horizon Workrooms arranges the virtual displays just as if you had 3, rather than reconfiguring your two displays into a more desirable layout, leaving the empty space as a constant reminder of your limits.
Also, while large screens give you plenty of screen real estate for each and every window you have open, it can be quite difficult to make out what's on it. Due to the screen door effect, which can make VR displays appear to have large intersecting black lines, I had trouble knowing if I had punctuated sentences or syllabicated words correctly; the black marks in the Google document I was writing were obscured by the spacing between the pixels.
Along with making sure you have enough monitors, I also advise selecting a VR-enabled keyboard to take full advantage of Horizon Workrooms.
Devices like Logitech's MX Keys keyboard can appear in virtual reality with a virtual representation seamlessly mapped onto the actual device. This makes typing in VR much easier, even if you're not a touch typist and have to look at the keyboard as you press it.
If you're using a Quest Pro, you can get away with a normal mouse and keyboard setup looking through the intentional gap under the headset's lenses, but for completely closed-back headsets, the VR keyboard is a must. Pass-through (which lets you see the actual planet while wearing your headphones) isn't the best, and figuring out which key you're pressing can be a bit tricky.
Beats Google Meet
One thing I liked about Workrooms was its ability to take me to new places, allowing me to work from the beach or from the aforementioned lakeside cabin. Hopefully there are more options. In assemblies, you have a wide variety of spaces, but for your virtual home office you only have four: the lakeside cabin, a full catwalk (showing you only a cloudy image of your real-world office), and light and dark versions. dark. of the same empty void. The last two are weirdly fun: you're sitting there with a desk, lamp, and houseplants looking at a virtually empty expanse, but the novelty wears off after about 5 minutes.
Speaking of virtual reality assemblies, they are one of the best parts of the service. Because TechRadar's team is spread across multiple continents and cities, I spend a lot of time on Google Meet calls, video chats that are pretty impersonal. In contrast, Horizon Workrooms assemblies allow you and others to appear with emotional avatars that mimic your facial expressions and hand movements. With these elements and realistic spatial audio, Workrooms makes it seem like the other person is right there with you, instead of on the other side of the screen. Even meetings where the other person is on a video screen, like the one I had with my boss, were more active and engaging than just a video chat.
But whether I was in my virtual home office or in a boardroom, I couldn't escape the instability of Horizon Workroom. Multiple times a day, for no apparent reason, it would reboot or crash, forcing me to sit and wait before I could return to work. I've never waited very long, but these short breaks add up over the course of a session, again making me feel less productive than if I were usually working at my desk.
And not only would I feel more productive if I were at my desk in the real world, but I would also be more comfortable. While the Meta Quest Pro is more comfortable than many other headphones, its XNUMXg weight becomes familiar after hours of wearing it. By the end of the work day, instead of embarking on a more relaxed VR experience, I was overwhelmed by
A nightmare I could return to
Horizon Workrooms isn't the best app on the Quest platform, but it's also far from the worst, and its flaws may be acceptable to some. After all, the software is clearly labeled as a beta program that is still in development, so glitches and hiccups are to be expected.
However, Meta makes and sells a €XNUMX / €XNUMX / AU€XNUMX headset developed to prove to companies that they can work and be productive in VR, and in my experience, that's not really possible with the Workrooms application that Meta has developed. To that end, of course it can work, but in many ways it would be much better to just use your computer without a headset.
Despite its flaws, I could see myself working in VR in the future, though I'd surely like something along the lines of what an Apple VR headset would be. This ultra-premium device is rumored to pack an M2 chip, the same one found in the best Macbooks and Macs, allowing it to work like a laptop; laptop you carry). And if and when it does arrive, it's surely going to be designed as a standalone productivity device from the ground up, not a large add-on constrained by an accompanying PC.
If the workplace of the future is going to be truly virtual, we will need new hardware and better software, because working in virtual reality is not working at the moment.