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Comment by a7b3fa | Hacker News Reader

The full quote is:

> This is because sub-par VR technology (e.g. the Quest 2) is simply not good enough for someone wanting to work several hours per day in a VR Computer instead of their laptop -- even if most people don't realize this yet.

Do you mean that the Quest 2 is good enough to do, say, programming work on for several hours a day, or just that it's a decently good gaming headset?

The last VR headset I tried was the Oculus Rift, and that was nowhere near being usable for work. I'm really curious about the SimulaVR, but it's a bit outside my price range. So if you use the Quest 2 for work, I'd love to hear about your experience with it -- what software do you use, is the resolution good enough for working with text for hours at a time, etc.

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I use the Quest 2 almost exclusively for my day job as a programmer (any time I don't have to be on camera in meetings), and have been using VR to do this for years - I'm the guy behind this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678041

The Quest 2 is remarkably capable for its form factor, but has some significant limitations and requires a lot of babysitting to get it tuned "just so" to make it that productive. Reaching that flow state, or even making it more productive than a traditional physical screen layout, isn't particularly accessible, certainly not yet on a mass appeal level. So yeah, it can work, but there's a LOT of room for improvement.

I work in VR when I'm not in meetings. I use Immersed for it. I love it.

The text readability isn't perfect, but it's fine and usable. (Others don't consider it very usable, which can mean either they didn't spend the time to figure out the ideal setup for them or it's simply not usable for everyone yet.) There's a lot of after-market customization that help tremendously: better headstrap, upgraded facemask, prescription lens covers.

We're definitely in early adopter territory. It takes tinkering to find the best setup for yourself. Some people don't have the time or desire for that, some people just don't find something that works after trying it out. It's not sustainable for widespread adoption yet, but it'll get there.

It's improving every day as the Immersed team is adding new features along with the Quest opening up APIs. For example, right now you cannot see your keyboard. Most users get by with touch typing. You can bring in a VR version of your keyboard that is calibrated to the position, but it's pretty finicky. Quest is opening up an API soon for what is called "passthrough", which will allow the user to see the camera view outside of the set. Once a passthrough keyboard feature is implemented in the Immersed tool, I believe it's going to be a significant feature that will make it even easier to work in VR.

I used a Quest 2 for work for a few weeks while my monitor was being repaired. My biggest problem was not being able to see the keyboard. The display was not a problem for me. I was quite glad to have my monitor back anyway. For that matter, for all of the PCVR games I was so excited to play, I've gone back to playing them mostly on the monitor. I'm quite happy with the Quest 2 visuals, but the comfort (for longer periods) and controls are inferior for anything more complex than beat saber and golf.

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