Quest 3 Passthrough VS Quest Pro Passthrough

The new Quest 3 headset has incredible mixed-reality capabilities. But how does AR passthrough compare to Meta’s powerful Quest Pro? The DeoVR team has conducted detailed tests to show how passthrough on the Quest 3 compares to Meta's 2022 headset. 

The image above shows quite clearly how much bigger and better the Quest 3 resolution is compared to the Quest Pro: 4128x2208 (Quest 3) vs 3648x1920 (Quest Pro). 

New: v64 Update April 2024

Passthrough on the Quest 3 is even better than ever thanks to a recent update from Meta. The Quest v64 update makes passthrough much better than before, meaning it's now possible to read phone notifications and other small text on the device. You can check your phone messages without removing the headset. This is a huge leap forward. Meta has said the v64 update is designed to "improve the perceived resolution for passthrough by optimizing the passthrough pipeline." This update has also delivered improvements to color, exposure, contrast and dynamic range in passthrough. You'll see a reduction in grain in low-light conditions, and color fidelity will be closer to real life. 

This doesn't change the information below - the changes in comparison to the Quest Pro remain largely the same, but it's worth keeping in mind that DeoVR and passthrough are now even better on the Quest 3 headset. 

Check out all the awesome AR passthrough content on DeoVR!

Hugely improved AR visual quality on the Quest 3

But it’s not just the resolution. Many more elements about the Quest 3 are an improvement on the Quest Pro as this video below demonstrates. The colors look more crisp and realistic, and the image is less blurred and sharper - it looks better on practically every possible metric. 

The simple video below shows this even more clearly. Look at the leaves and grass on the ground to show the level of detail. The Quest 3 image is brighter and more vivid, with less bleeding - you can see individual blades of grass, while the Quest Pro is much murkier and hard to distinguish. 

This was a quick experiment but clearly shows the superior AR passthrough power of the Quest 3 over Meta’s previously most-powerful headset, the Quest Pro. Going back to older generations of VR headset, it’s safe to say that mixed reality on the Quest 3 will blow the Quest 2 out of the water. 

Conclusion: 

If you’re a VR user who loves the idea of blending together the real and virtual worlds, the Quest 3 will be a game-changer. Similarly, VR creators will be able to use this to make incredible new forms of augmented reality content. As one of our Facebook users stated: "The Quest Pro was a proof of concept, they refined it with the Quest 3."

DeoVR will be at the forefront of this technology, showcasing the very best AR passthrough content on the DeoVR platform for all to enjoy. Want to know how to create passthrough content yourself? We currently have a guide to alpha channel passthrough but keep checking back to the blog - we are working on a series of guides that will look at creating AR passthrough content in more ways, for both beginners and advanced users. 

Join the discussion on the DeoVR Facebook page, and on the DeoVR forum.