How VR Porn Has Evolved
Three years past the commercial launches of the original Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, virtual reality firmly is established as a sought-for platform in the porn industry.
VR Porn Production Studios
There are now thousands of quality porn videos available to consumers across a range of different adult tastes. Studios like Virtual Real Porn, CzechVR, and BaDoinkVR have been producing content for years and now have catalogs of hundreds of videos. Many of the top-tier studios have mastered the techniques of filming and directing to make virtual reality experiences seem genuine and immersive. Along the way, new studios have established themselves broadening the selection to gay, trans, and lesbian virtual reality offerings.
Niches like Cosplay, MILFs, BDSM, Solo, and Glamour are now available from dedicated sites. There is also a very large selection of virtual reality porn from Japan, along with topics and situations popular with their culture.
While it is true that new studios still often struggle with common virtual reality filming issues like scale, lighting, and direction (this is particularly true for smaller, independent studios), best practices are established and now available on Reddit and other industry forums. Virtual reality porn is unique because it favors POV over third-person perspective.
VR Gear For VR Porn
Due to limitations of the headset technology, VR requires the performers to be near the camera in order to avoid losing details to the ‘screen door effect’ or SDE. Additionally, hand-held or quick camera movements can often result in the user becoming motion-sick and thus feeling nauseous.
Many high-end studios now offer 5k videos which require newer cell phones or a PC with a high-end graphics card. Anything above 4k requires HEVC (or h.265 decoding) rather than the common h.264 video codec. Higher resolution videos help the virtual reality experience because along with the additional detail the clarity enhances the 3D effect. Rather than the 360-degree mono VR videos you’ll find common on YouTube, the virtual reality porn industry has focused on offering 180-degree experience in 3D.
Of course, there are many more options for virtual reality headsets in the years since the Oculus Rift and the Vive first launched.
You can still purchase a Google Cardboard headset which can fit practically any smartphone–which now have faster processors and don’t get hot or burn battery power as quickly as the phones that were around when Cardboard was first introduced. The GearVR is still around and active.
Sadly recent news suggests that Google’s support for its Day Dream platform is flagging as recent phones like Pixel 3A and Galaxy S10 were launched without support. The most exciting news for VR porn users who prefer a mobile platform was the launch of the Oculus Go in 2018, and the arrival of the Oculus Quest in 2019. The Oculus Go is widely thought of as an ideal platform for experiencing virtual reality porn (especially for those on a budget) as the screen and software are outstanding, it can be taken anywhere, and doesn’t require cables or an expensive PC. The recently launched Oculus Quest offers even better colors and improved controllers.
For those consumers with high-end PCs, recent months have brought headsets that finally show a distinct improvement from the Rift and Vive. The Odyssey+, launched in late 2018 shows off a pixel diffusion technology from Samsung that basically eliminates SDE. Watching VR porn with an Odyssey+ you can marvel at performers skin and expressions which at last no longer look pixelated.
8K VR Gear and 180°
Other headsets like the Pimax’s 8k and 5k+ headsets have improved vastly on the field of view (FOV) from the Vive and Rift increasing the immersion when watching a virtual reality scene. Unfortunately, porn studios filming in virtual reality have established on 180 degrees, and with the wider FOV headsets, it is very easy to notice the frame on which the scene is filmed.
At some point in the future studios will have to start offering content filmed with a wider field of view. Lastly, we still have several exciting headsets to come out this year including the high pixel-density HP Reverb, the first headset from Valve, and the Vive Cosmos.
Things are looking good, and they are only going to get better!