How to Work in Virtual Reality, and Why You’d Even Want To – Gizmodo

Several apps will give you a working environment in VR.Screenshot: vSpatial

Think of the Oculus Quest 2 and you naturally think gaming: flying through virtual reality worlds, shooting down virtual reality enemies, and so on. But Oculus has been updating its software recently and new features suggest its keen to help you get some work done, tooeven if were still in the early stages of that potential being realized.

The main appeal of a virtual reality environment for work is that you can set up as many screens as you like, of whatever size you like. You can at last get the triple 32-inch monitor setup of your dreams, and your VR desk will always be clean. Youve got a number of options for setting this up on your Oculus Quest 2, and well take you through them here.

Theres an ideal hardware setup for the Oculus Quest 2 when it comes to working, and thats to buy and install the $60 Logitech K830 keyboard, which has an integrated trackpad. Right now, its the only keyboard that youll actually be able to see in front of you in full, glorious VR, though were expecting more keyboards and more software options to arrive in the future.

You can actually add any keyboard and mouse combination you like right now, though the feature is still marked as experimental inside the Oculus Quest 2 settings. Open up Settings via the apps list, then choose Experimental Features. Click Pair and then Pair a new device, put your mouse or keyboard into pairing mode, and you should be able to link the two.

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Youll see there are also Bluetooth mouse and trackpad and Tracked Keyboard settings, if you happen to have the Logitech K830 (or some other compatible device, once we see more of them). Theres also a Bring Your Desk Into VR option: select Add/Remove next to this and you can tell the headset where your desk is. When you get close to it, you can use this as an alternative to your standard playing area, so youll see your controllers sitting on the desk, for example.

The fact that this is all labeled as experimental, and only one keyboard is currently supported, tells you that its early days. We should see plenty of improvements in the future, and no doubt plenty of tweaks to the settings and options weve mentioned so far. Facebook is apparently working on a pass-through window to see any keyboard, though its not here yet.

Unless youre using the Logitech K830 or are a very gifted typist, youre probably going to want to see your keyboard. You can do this by replacing the virtual background behind your apps with the pass-through view from the cameras on the Quest 2. Open Quick Settings (from the left of the home menu), then select the Pass-through Home option.

The obvious place to start to get some work done is the built-in browserits at the top of the main apps panelwhich can get to you Google Docs, Outlook on the web, or wherever you need to be. Select the three dots up in the top right of the browser interface and you can change the size of the window youre looking at; above the browser is a + (plus) button for opening up adjacent windows.

For perhaps an even better option, give Firefox Reality a try. Its more flexible and versatile than the bundled browser, and it can also open up multiple windows side by side for that really immersive feel (you can surround yourself with web apps, if you want). Unfortunately, for the time being at least, Firefox Reality doesnt support the VR desk or pass-through background features.

The productivity apps youll find in the Oculus Quest 2 library at the moment are mostly related to virtual meetings and graphic design, and well have to wait for the productivity features that weve mentioned to be fully integrated and supported before office and messaging apps start showing up. That definitely seems to be the way Facebook wants to go in the future, though, as this demo video shows.

Theres another option here, which is to have whatevers happening on your Windows or macOS computer beamed over to a VR space that you access through your Oculus Quest 2. Your hardware setup stays pretty much exactly as it already is, but you can access it (from the same room or the other side of the world) through your virtual reality headset. You get to play around with multiple displays and more.

Youve got a few choices to pick from. Immersed is one of the most impressive, and its free if you stick to two virtual monitors, with plenty more options (like a shared whiteboard and customizable workspaces) available for $15 per month and up. You need a desktop client on your laptop or desktop, and the app on your Oculus Quest 2, and then youre ready to mirror whatevers on your computer in a VR space.

Virtual Desktop runs along similar lines, and is also available for Windows and macOS. You only get one screen to work with at a time, but you can resize and position it however you like, and choose from a wide variety of scenarios and backgrounds. Both the apps for your computer and your Oculus Quest 2 are simple to set up and use, and Virtual Desktop will set you back $20.

Finally theres vSpatial, which packs in a whole host of features to help you collaborate with others, including screen sharing, chat functions, and plenty more. Like the other two tools, you need to run one program on your headset and one program on your computer to start the remote desktop access on your local wifi network, and you can take it from there. You can get started with vSpatial for free, with features like group meetings and remote access over the internet costing from $10 a month.

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How to Work in Virtual Reality, and Why You'd Even Want To - Gizmodo