Any adult content lover is drawn to virtual reality (VR) porn’s promise to turn viewers into active participants in immersive erotic experiences.
As the pandemic has kept many of us homebound, the thrill of using a headset to escape isolation and frustration has increased interest in the technology. Because it’s a new technology, dominated by new players, and using new terminology, many are hesitant to enter virtual reality porn. Learning can seem overwhelming.
The introduction of VR porn in the mid-2010s was absolutely true. Years ago, gear was costly, content was scarce, and experiences were inconsistent. While VR technology has advanced rapidly, the porn industry has invested heavily in making its content more reliable and accessible. Tatyannah King, a sex tech blogger, emphasizes the ease of access to VR porn compared to previous years.
How do VR porn viewers watch? King and other virtual reality porn experts told Mashable how to get into the exciting, if still developing, world of immersive smut.
Gear for VR porn
In theory, VR content doesn’t require heavy-duty equipment. You can create a 3D illusion with a smartphone in a headset you can wear. A cardboard headset is easy to make. Stylish setups with padding and straps typically cost between $10 and $50. These VR headsets democratised and popularised VR.
However, SexLikeReal’s Alex Novak warns that “no smartphone experience is any good.” According to Kacper Zieliński of VR Bangers, these budget-friendly options only offer 20% of VR porn’s potential.
Most smartphones lack the power and battery life to run the longest or most creative VR content. To pause, fast forward, or do anything on them, you have to take off the whole rig, grab your phone, and fiddle with the screen. VR content requires special apps, which Apple is known to be hostile to, requiring users to navigate through additional steps to access the content. Major companies like Google, Oculus, and Samsung have discontinued phone VR production and support due to limitations, with PC Mag declaring it “effectively dead.”
Dedicated VR device required. Over $1,000 high-end devices with many features often need to be connected to even more expensive high-powered PCs to work properly. VR porn can be enjoyed without one of those setups. Everyone Mashable interviewed for this article recommended the $299 standalone, wireless Oculus Quest 2 device. Just plug it in, open its web browser with its hand controllers, navigate to a porn site, and start watching. Easy-peasy. “It can play the highest resolution videos,” says POVR’s Dan Holmes.
Oculus is a Facebook brand, so Quest 2 requires a Facebook account to start.Before leaving Facebook, consider creating a temporary account due to its controversial data handling practises. If you’re not interested in Oculus, Zieliński suggests exploring other wireless standalone rigs.
Investing a few hundred dollars in VR porn may seem excessive. Novak says it’s worth it because you want your first VR porn experience to be good, and cheaper setups can’t run the highest-resolution videos on the market and may have lagging and glitches with older content. This device can also be used for gaming, SFW content, and other activities. Zieliński suggests testing a demo to assess VR motion sickness risk and potential mitigation before purchasing.
Downloading vs. streaming VR porn
Once your device is set up, choose streaming or downloading your smut. Downloading VR porn files, which can exceed 10GB, requires patience and ample storage space. If you go this route, consider an external storage drive. Though most Americans lack a strong internet connection, streaming can result in a less smooth viewing experience with skips and lags. Many experts say downloaded VR porn is smoother and more immersive. This choice comes down to your preferences, glitch tolerance, and internet resources.
Before exploring VR porn content, VR arcade owner and porn buff Kevin Campbell recommends setting up a good space. Staying in the moment in VR porn, especially with a popular POV experience, may require movement to follow the action. Most of the time, you’ll be zoned out and need a safe place to crash. Lockable doors are also important for privacy.
You can also explore the world of VR experience-integrated sex toys. However, that’s not necessary and the field would need its own guide. After preparing your setup, decide what to watch. The obvious choice is Pornhub, which has over 3,000 free VR clips. Due to VR files’ size and bandwidth intensity, free clips on general porn sites are shorter and heavily compressed (about 100 of Pornhub’s VR porn videos are over 15 minutes long; the vast majority run around 5 minutes). Thus, most VR porn experts Mashable spoke to recommend a paid VR porn studio.
Finding a VR porn site
With dozens of studios offering $10 to $50 monthly subscriptions, choosing where to start can be difficult and a big decision. Again, personal preferences determine this choice: Want a high-quality content site? Want a deep, broad, but uneven content library? Finding a VR studio that specialises in a fetish you’ve been dying for? Guides from other outlets provide detailed analysis of the pros and cons of top sites on the market. You can find what suits your needs with those guides and their preview content.
Once you have the right setup,” Novak says, “you are on top of it.” You may need to adjust your video settings depending on your device, site, and preferences. Today, most sites automatically adjust their content to work best with viewers’ gear, Campbell says. If not, start with “VR 180 / 3D Side-to-Side.”
Campbell warns, “It may take a little patience to learn to properly view—and navigate—videos.” All new devices have a learning curve. VR porn may not be for you in the end. However, your time and effort in VR porn should not be wasted.
As Campbell notes, VR porn is evolving quickly. If you have the equipment, you can check back occasionally to see if future innovations meet your needs. As Campbell says, “VR porn is only going to improve.”
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