VR on a Plane / Air Travel / In-Flight Entertainment

Cadder · 13 Sep 2022 at 07:48

Thread named so as not to be confused with flight simulators.

Has anyone here used VR for in-flight entertainment?

If so, what was your setup?

My last in-flight entertainment was my phone with downloaded movies/series from various streaming services, paired with my wireless earphones (not noise cancelling).
Whilst away a friend was showing us their Quest 2 and I learned that it has a cinema feature/app where you feel like you're actually at the movies.

So my thinking is that the ideal setup would be a nice standalone headset with some noise cancelling headphones. Id hope it would be so good I'd forget I was on a plane.

Craig R · 13 Sep 2022 at 08:37

Planes are already uncomfortable enough without having a VR set strapped to your head, IMO.

Haze · 13 Sep 2022 at 09:18

Craig R said:
Planes are already uncomfortable enough without having a VR set strapped to your head, IMO.

Kinda this, but I was more think about motion sickness, I would be throwing my guts up, and are they even allowed on planes?

chroniclard · 13 Sep 2022 at 09:26

Shouldn't get motion sickness watching a movie. I have watched a few on the Quest 2 at home and while its pretty good its not great sitting for multiple hours with it on your face so I have watched a movie in two goes.

Also its big and bulky to carry around. Maybe once headsets become glasses sized it would be practical.

Tykey · 13 Sep 2022 at 09:43

i've seen pics of people using quest 2's on flights so it's do-able.

Ravenger · 13 Sep 2022 at 09:54

It apparently works very well. Great for watching movies i would imagine, or playing games that don't need your hands to move much.
Being able to escape to a much larger virtual space away from the cramped confines of a plane would be a godsend.

Cadder · 13 Sep 2022 at 10:04

Ravenger said:
It apparently works very well. Great for watching movies i would imagine, or playing games that don't need your hands to move much.
Being able to escape to a much larger virtual space away from the cramped confines of a plane would be a godsend.

This is what I'm thinking.

I couldn't find much online, but the few experiences I read (of people who have watched movies in VR cinema mode in-flight) were generally positive.

Apparently no issues with airport security either.

Ravenger · 13 Sep 2022 at 10:08

Hand tracking also makes it possible to view media without having to have controllers out.

I do almost all my movie watching in the Quest 2 now as it's resolution is high enough and it works great for 3D movies. I can watch movies on an I-Max sized screen which really adds to the experience and also stops me checking my phone!

Unseul · 13 Sep 2022 at 10:13

I was on a flight a couple of months ago. Spent about 3 hours in VR playing puzzling places with the passthrough mode enabled. If there's turbulence, or the plane is constantly making slight adjustments, it's problematic, as your play space flies away from you, but it's as simply as a long hold on the oculus button to recentre yourself usually. On some occasions I had to remake my playspace. Mostly though it worked well.

If there's a movie watching app that allows it to be used without tracking enabled, that would probably work well too I suspect, but I liked the passthrough option of puzzling places a lot, it was useful to be able to see the stewards etc passing through with drinks.