Meta Quest 3 Update Adds Cinema Mode and 3D Movies

Meta Quest 3 update introduces native cinema mode, restores classic environments, and brings 3D movies to the platform

Meta Quest 3 is receiving an update that changes how users watch videos, navigate the headset, and interact with their virtual home environments. The update brings back some previously removed environments, introduces a cinema mode for watching content, and adds support for 3D movies. The navigator interface also changes, though some features are currently missing.

The new cinema mode isn't an environment you need to select and enter separately. Instead, it works directly from wherever you're watching something on the Quest platform. When watching a flat-panel video, you can open the menu at the bottom of the window, where the brightness, curved mode, and immersive mode options used to be. The menu now includes a theater button.

Meta Quest 3 Gets a Native Cinema Mode for Watching Videos

Selecting the button places you inside a cinema room, where you sit in front of a large screen. Instead of showing a window in your virtual living room or placing you in an empty void, it creates a cinema environment with seats and a screen in front of you. This is the first time something like this has been available natively on the Quest platform, making it easier to enter a cinema while watching content.

Cinema mode also includes reactive lighting, letting the room respond to whatever is playing on the screen. Other applications, such as Bigscreen VR, have offered similar functionality for a long time. However, building it directly into the Quest platform makes a difference because you can activate it with one button without closing your current app and launching a separate experience.

The feature works with the media player, browser, YouTube, Disney Plus, and Prime Video. It will likely support most videos that you watch through a panel on your Quest headset. However, one feature that would make the experience better is multiplayer or multi-viewer support. Being able to invite others into your theater and watch together would add another level to the experience.

Cinema mode is currently part of the Public Test Channel, so it isn't available in the stable public version yet. However, it is expected to arrive for everyone in a future update. A cinema environment is only useful if there is content to watch, and that is where another development comes in. 3D movies have started appearing on the Quest platform, and they are no longer listed as coming soon.

3D Movies Start Appearing on Meta Quest Headsets

A limited selection is already available to some Quest 3 and Quest 3S users. The movies are not appearing for everyone yet. The information is from an UploadVR article, as the feature hasn't appeared on every headset. However, the movies are not limited to the Disney Plus app. They also appear in the TV app on Meta Quest.

Open the TV app and check whether the available movies have appeared on your headset. Most of the current selection consists of Disney-owned movies. Users can purchase them directly through the Horizon Store without requiring a Disney Plus subscription. This also gives people who don't want a subscription an option to rent or buy individual 3D movies.

Disney Plus is also receiving an overhaul this month, bringing a spatial interface, 3D support, and different environments. This creates some questions about how the movie experience will eventually be organized across the Quest platform.  At Connect, Meta said that Quest owners in the US would be able to rent or buy hundreds of movies by the end of this year.

3D movies have long been something users can enjoy in virtual reality.

Proper support through a native cinema environment on a headset many people already own makes the experience easier to access. You also no longer need to load your own 3D video files to watch this type of content. Movies are not the only part of the update. Meta is also bringing back some of the old home environments, including Desert Terrace and Space Station.

Returning to Desert Terrace is still a welcome change, although the environments are not necessarily identical to how users remember them. They have been moved to the new engine, so some elements look different. Depending on the environment, certain parts have changed in appearance, while others look better or worse than before.

The environments now also support free locomotion, letting you move around instead of staying in one position. This feature is available to everyone in the latest stable update, so you don't need to join the Public Test Channel. To access the returning environments, go to Settings and then Home. From there, you can select and explore the available environments.