Quest blended actuality apps can disable the annoying security boundary, however solely a handful of whitelisted builders can ship this on the Quest Retailer and App Lab.
Boundary, previously referred to as Guardian, is definitely helpful in digital actuality so you do not depart your playspace and stumble upon furnishings and partitions. However in most blended actuality apps it is superfluous, since you possibly can already see the surroundings round you, and downright annoying as a result of it means you possibly can’t make the most of your full room as a playspace.
Within the v57 system software program changelog Meta stated “some apps with blended actuality” will now not have Boundary. However the firm did not say which apps this included, nor the mechanism for this occurring.
UploadVR has now realized that any Quest app can disable Boundary when utilizing passthrough by together with a CONTEXTUAL_BOUNDARYLESS_APP flag within the manifest. Nonetheless, the add system for the Quest Retailer and App Lab will routinely reject any app construct utilizing this flag until the developer is on a particular Meta whitelist.
At the moment whitelisted apps embody:
Digital Lode tells UploadVR that the boundary present in blended actuality mode was the #1 criticism from Espire 2 consumers earlier than this replace, leading to many 1-star evaluations and refunds.
Why Not Let All Apps Do This?
So why not let all builders use this flag and eliminate the annoying boundary in blended actuality? We requested Meta’s VP of VR Mark Rabkin an identical query on X round a 12 months in the past.
Yeah, we’re determining how to try this in follow. MR experiences range and individuals are beginning to circulation fluidly between MR/VR, which is hard. I completely agree that if you happen to’re in a mode the place you possibly can see throughout you, Guardian needs to be much more chill.
— Mark Rabkin (@mrabkin) March 9, 2023
Rabkin identified that some apps circulation rapidly between VR and MR, blurring the boundary between the 2 content material sorts. And he does have some extent. If an app makes use of passthrough because the background however is overlaying most of your view with digital objects such you could’t see your partitions and furnishings, should not the Boundary kick in?
Nonetheless, Rabkin did agree that “if you happen to’re in a mode the place you possibly can see throughout you”, Guardian needs to be “much more chill”.
Meta’s answer for now’s reviewing apps on a case-by-case foundation to find out whether or not it is secure to disable Boundary. This appears deeply unscalable, nonetheless, and the corporate must discover a higher answer if it is severe about making Quest a mainstream blended actuality platform, and particularly if it hopes individuals will at some point put on its headset passively all through the day.
That answer will possible embody changing Boundary with one thing higher altogether – as was seen in clips discovered within the firmware within the months earlier than Quest 3 launched.
Quest 3 ‘Sensible Guardian’ Room Scanning Setup Leaked
Clips showing to point out room scanning setup for Quest 3’s blended actuality and ‘Sensible Guardian’ present in firmware:
In distinction, Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional’s method to this downside is to fade all digital components to clear in case your head strikes additional than 1.5 meters from the place you began or will get close to real-world objects. This avoids a visual boundary, however limits you to a 3-meter diameter circle.
