How to watch VR porn: Everything you need to know

The promise of virtual reality (VR) pornography, to transform users from passive observers of sexual fantasies on screens into active participants in immersive erotic experiences, is enticing to anyone with even a passing interest in adult content. p>

Over the past year in particular, when the pandemic has kept most of us confined to our homes, the prospect of putting on a helmet and slipping into an orgiastic escape from our isolation and frustration has made it even more

potential users

towards technology. Yet many are hesitant to jump into the world of VR porn simply because it's a new technology, dominated by new players, using new terminology. It may seem like a lot to learn.

And when VR porn

began to unfold

in the mid-2010s, it absolutely was. For many

years

, gear was extremely expensive, content was scarce, and experiences were hit or miss. But VR technology

evolved rapidly

and the world of porn has dedicated a

tonne

time and money creating its more reliable and accessible content. “Exploring VR porn is much easier today than it was a year or two ago,” the sex tech blogger points out

Tatyannah King

.

So how exactly do you watch VR porn? Mashable recently sat down with King and other VR porn experts for this guide to entering the exciting, albeit still in development, world of immersive smut.

The right equipment for VR porn

In theory, you don't need to buy heavy new equipment to watch VR content. All you need is a smartphone suspended in a helmet that you can attach to your own to create an immersive 3D illusion. It is not difficult to

build a cardboard helmet

. Even the

the most sophisticated configurations

, with comfortable padding and straps, usually cost between $10 and $50. These helmets

helped to democratize and popularize

VR.

But Alex Novak of VR porn platform SexLikeReal warns that "no smartphone experience is good". Kacper Zieliński of VR porn site Bangers agrees, adding that these options can be cheap, but they will "really only give you 20% of the potential of VR porn."

Most phones just don't. have the power, or battery life, to run the longest or most inventive VR content. It's also hard to control anything while playing on it; to pause, fast forward, or do whatever else you typically need to pull off the entire deck, grab your phone, and play with the screen. You also need to install special apps to view VR content - and

Apple in particular

is notoriously hostile to porn-specific apps, which sometimes means phone users have to take a few steps. to access the content they are looking for. These and other limitations have led most major companies, such as Google, Oculus, and Samsung, to halt production and support for their VR hardware and services for phones over the past couple of years, and

outlets like

p>

PC Magazine

@alcatelmobileus Can I use my VR headset to watch 3D Movies on my TV? Can my Idol4S download VR/3D movies? I have Windows 10

— Seymoure Fri Dec 07 21:50:59 +0000 2018

to declare phone-based virtual reality “effectively dead.”

You need a dedicated virtual reality device. High-end devices, with lots of bells and whistles, can cost well over $1,000 and often need to be hooked up to even more powerful PCs to reach their full potential. But you don't need to have any of these setups to get the most out of VR porn. In fact, everyone Mashable spoke to for this article immediately and exclusively recommended the new

Oculus Quest 2

, a standalone wireless device that costs $299. It's a simple, plug-and-play system - just turn it on, open its web browser using its included hand controllers, navigate to a porn site, and start viewing the content. Peasy easy. "It can play the highest resolution videos out there," says Dan Holmes of VR platform POVR.

The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset.

Credit: oculus

Facebook is a controversial company

these days, with a spotty record on data management, you might want to create a burner account before going down. But if Oculus isn't your brand, Zieliński notes that there are plenty of other wireless standalone platforms to explore.

Dropping a few hundred dollars might seem like an excessive investment to get into VR porn. But Novak insists it's worth it, because you want your first VR porn experience to be good, and cheaper setups just can't run the highest resolution videos that now define the market, and may struggle with lag and issues even with older content. It is also a versatile device that can be used to display SFW content, games, and many other distractions. Zieliński simply recommends using a demo to determine if you are

prone to motion sickness in virtual reality

, and if your nausea can be alleviated, before making a purchase.

Streaming versus downloading VR porn

Once your device is set up, all you have to do is decide if you want to stream or download your smut. Files for VR porn are

massive

, often reaching well over 10GB, so downloads require patience and a ton of storage space. You might want to invest in an external storage drive if you go this route. But unless you have a great internet connection, which most Americans don't

, streaming can lead to a more difficult viewing experience, with skips and lags. Many experts argue that the VR porn experience with downloaded files is much smoother and therefore more immersive. But that choice ultimately comes down to an assessment of your desires, problem tolerance, and Internet resources.

Before you start exploring VR porn content, VR arcade owner and porn lover Kevin Campbell recommends making sure you have a good space set up for the experience. In order to stay in the moment in VR porn, especially if you've opted for a popular POV experience, you may need to

move

to follow the action of a scene. Since you'll be locked out of the real world in most cases, you'll need a space where you won't bump into anything dangerous or fragile. You'll also want to make sure you have a door that you can lock, if privacy is an issue.

If you wish, you can also explore the world of

Sex toys integrated into the VR experience

. But that's hardly essential to the experience, and the field would need its own guide to navigating it. So, once your setup is fully prepared, all you have to do is figure out what you're going to watch. The obvious choice would be to look to Pornhub, which offers over 3,000 free VR clips to explore. But thanks to the size and bandwidth intensity of VR files, free clips on general porn sites tend to be shorter (around 100 of Pornhub's VR porn videos are longer than 15 minutes; the vast majority last about 5 minutes) and highly compressed, limiting their quality. As such, most Mashable VR porn experts recommended turning to a studio that specializes in paid VR porn.

Related video: The best sex toys to buy during quarantine

Finding the Right VR Porn Site

There are dozens of studios to choose from, most of which sell subscriptions for $10 to $50 per month. big step. But that decision also comes down to personal preference: do you want a site that specializes only in the highest quality content? Do you want to choose from a particularly deep and wide, but perhaps uneven library of content? Are you looking for a studio that specializes in a particular fetish that you've been dreaming of seeing in virtual reality? Other points of sale

have created

very detailed guides, outlining the pros and cons of the best and most established sites on the market today. Between these guides and a bit of time spent looking at their preview content, you can find what best suits your wants and needs.

“Once you have the right setup,” Novak says, “you're on top of it.” Admittedly, depending on the exact nature of your device, the site you have chosen and your personal preferences, you may need to change your video settings a little. (Most sites automatically adjust their content to work best with a viewer's gear these days, Campbell notes. But when that's not the case, he suggests starting with the "VR 180/3D settings." Side-to-Side.")

"It may take some patience to learn how to view and navigate videos properly," warns Campbell. As with any new device, there is a learning curve. And in the end, it's entirely possible that VR porn as it stands today might not be for you. But that's no reason to despair of the time and energy you've put into VR porn.

As Campbell points out, the world of VR porn is changing rapidly. So, as long as you have the equipment, you can check from time to time if future innovations work better for your wants and needs. As Campbell says, "VR porn is only going to get better."