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visionOS 2.2 Beta Adds Wide and Ultrawide Modes to Mac Virtual Display

WilliApple said:
Let me guess...
M4 required

This is essentially acting like 3 displays, isnt it?
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Well, having just loaded it up and connected to my mac … no. The default is one potentially really huge screen …. The entire field of view … sort of like sitting in the front row of an imax theatre but without the neck pain (well, depending on how I position the virtual screen).

Choices include 5120x2880, 3840x2180, 2560x1440 (default) and a ton of lower resolutions.

Aside from that huge mac display, all the visionOS native apps still have their own windows.

I haven’t read the documentation yet, so there’s probably a lot of other knobs to turn. I’ve previously not been a big fan of curved screens, but when it fills the entire field of view … it may grow on me.
 
DarthDon said:
I don't have to. My family works and teaches about computers for many years; even mainframe computers - is that enough "substance"?
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…No if your family is well versed in human- computer-interaction (HCI) computer science and the very distinct differences between spatial computing and traditional computing.

Years of experience with traditional computing isn’t a clutch to not evolve to learn more about and better embrace spatial computing similar to quantum computing compared to tradition computing as well.

The beauty of tech and HCI computer science in particular along with design is often needing to continuously learn to grow and retain towards not being able to over depend on past experience lbs and regurgitation of them that you’re suggesting.

In order words, you sound like you’re complacent with your experience with traditional computing platforms that you’re naively extrapolating to computing you’ve computing very little experience or expertise of.

I recommend overcoming your stubbornness and experience these kind of new HCI computer science progress not resting on your laurels with traditional computing.
 
menithings said:
I have an iMac Pro and only get a new slightly curved screen but the same resolution. No ultra wide screen. I'm on MacOS 15.1. I assume that's because it's not using an M series chip.
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I’ve not tried my non M series Mac yet, but don’t you have to be on 15.2 for the new virtual display features?
 
Excitedly downloaded the 9GB update late last night. Patiently waited while I went through some immersive video I’d taken on a day trip out somewhere the day before.

I was blown away by the upgrade! The resolution of the display is much improved. I was really impressed with both the wide and ultrawide. But then I took the ultrawide up to 10k and while it was super impressive, I’m not sure I’ll be using it too much. The OS becomes too small and fiddly to use. It’s a sight to behold though.

It would be nice if Apple could introduce a bit more variety and titration in the resolution choice, but apart from that, this is - by quite a way - the best feature upgrade that we’ve had on AVP so far, and is making it seem, again, like a new piece of tech. It’s going to be a boon working on projects where you need 15 windows open at the same time. Well done, Apple!;)
 
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I just tested it out and was blown away. It’s insanely amazing. It even works great for ultra wide gaming. I was playing Bioshock on an ultra wide where I was fully immersed with the screen wrapping around me further than I could even see. 🤯 Tried it with Mad Max as well, it completely blew me away.

If you haven’t tried it yet, the ultrawide is something I can’t even describe in words. For about 10 minutes I was just laughing to myself in amazement repeatedly saying out loud how insane and amazing it was. This is a huge game changing feature for the Vision.

Also to note with this update, audio now plays in the Vision from Mac and visual fidelity is increased.
 
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lilkwarrior said:
…No if your family is well versed in human- computer-interaction (HCI) computer science and the very distinct differences between spatial computing and traditional computing.

Years of experience with traditional computing isn’t a clutch to not evolve to learn more about and better embrace spatial computing similar to quantum computing compared to tradition computing as well.

The beauty of tech and HCI computer science in particular along with design is often needing to continuously learn to grow and retain towards not being able to over depend on past experience lbs and regurgitation of them that you’re suggesting.

In order words, you sound like you’re complacent with your experience with traditional computing platforms that you’re naively extrapolating to computing you’ve computing very little experience or expertise of.

I recommend overcoming your stubbornness and experience these kind of new HCI computer science progress not resting on your laurels with traditional computing.
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The good thing is - you can explain it relatively easily... Do you walk around with such glasses all day? No. It is much easier to work on monitors (plural). For ergonomic reasons alone... Of course, there are advantages in terms of electricity consumption; However, I don't yet see how this will prevail in general. It is and remains a solution to the gap. Something like this might make sense for simple work. Games, endoscopies, watching a movie. But if you really do work on the computer, you will prefer a monitor. After the minaturization of the technology, I see more of a replacement for the Iphone or maybe Facetime - nothing more. Studio work such as sound production, film editing, programming or technical development work cannot be carried out in a really meaningful way. By the way, I also think that the level of technology of these glasses today corresponds to that of computers and the early 80s.

And there is another important point: before (if you go by what you write) all this would happen, the development of AI would already be so far along that it could take over large parts of this work.

I myself asked myself in the 90s why Ram drives have no battery support and different controllers (today's SSD) and I will be right even this time. Let's wait and see...
 
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High resolution, ultra-wide screen with Mac is HUGE (literally and figuratively). I come from long-term iMac 27" usage as main Mac to 40" ultra-wide and I could never go back. It's just farrrrrrrrrr too useful to have all that horizontal screen space. It simply must be tried to fully "get it." Mac is (more) amazing with expansive screen R.E.

THIS is offering the same kind of very tangible benefit when "on the go," away from our big physical monitors and big screen TVs: on the plane, on the train, in the hotel, etc... places & situations where it's completely impractical to bring along big monitors or TVs.

For anyone who is more productive with more screen R.E., the alternative is a relatively puny and nearly square 16" laptop screen at best. I feel the productivity plunge immediately when I "have" to switch to a laptop screen. It is frustrating when it is the only real choice in various situations.

THIS is basically a different crack at folds/rolls & projection MOBILE screens... and is probably the BEST option for that since it works anywhere. Next best is probably projection- which could deliver a screen just as big but it needs a blank wall/screen of big size and dark room so that surrounding light doesn't wash out the view (the light shield avoids this commonplace issue... which would also be a big issue with they hypothetical "regular glasses" with light easily entering on all sides). THIS also delivers the giant screen WITH complete privacy vs. a projector which is visible to anyone in the room.

No fold/roll concept seems likely to ever deliver this much screen in some kind of mobile package. Either would weigh too much to carry along and/or be sized too large even when folded up to be practical for mobile. But THIS remains the same physical size & weight no matter what size screen(s) one wants to summon. That's the utility of THIS solution vs. the competing options.
 
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Oreb said:
Running at 7680x2160 is kind of useable, but only if you make the ultrawide virtual display truly enormous. You have to rotate your head almost 180 degrees when going from the leftmost part to the rightmost part of the screen.
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Haha that's nuts.

Nuno Lopes said:
View attachment 2447039
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Sorry for the dumb question in the context of this thread, but, that's a real-life monitor yes? Is that the 57" widescreen? Or are you somehow AVP'ing that onto your regular work situation?
 
Quick thank you to everyone in this thread adding their actual experience with the feature!

A Mac mini with Mx Pro plus a future Apple Vision (Pro) sounds like an interesting setup.
 
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Oreb said:
It's exactly like when using a high-resolution physical display like the Apple Studio Display. You can choose to run a native resolution of 10240x2880 if you want, but it's kind of ridiculous, because everything will be too small to read. Running at 7680x2160 is kind of useable, but only if you make the ultrawide virtual display truly enormous. You have to rotate your head almost 180 degrees when going from the leftmost part to the rightmost part of the screen. The default 5120x1440 is the highest practically usable resolution, if you ask me.
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What if you had a chair that rotates and can host your keyboard and mouse/trackpad?
I think it would be best to work on 180° display
 
khbkhb said:
Choices include 5120x2880, 3840x2180, 2560x1440 (default) and a ton of lower resolutions.
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Just had the chance to test it - a bit disappointing that it’s not 2x 4K but maximum 5120x2880 - works fine on my M1Max MBP but stopped working on my Intel iMP - guess Apple is concentrating on their SoC for now in the betas.

That said - the 5120 x 2880 is definitely very fine - an iPP should easily be able to drive that too being able to drive the 6k display - with all the manually authorized company APPs on my iPP that would be amazing ( for me )
 
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jo-1 said:
Just had the chance to test it - a bit disappointing that it’s not 2x 4K but maximum 5120x2880 - works fine on my M1Max MBP but stopped working on my Intel iMP - guess Apple is concentrating on their SoC for now in the betas.

That said - the 5120 x 2880 is definitely very fine - an iPP should easily be able to drive that too being able to drive the 6k display - with all the manually authorized company APPs on my iPP that would be amazing ( for me )
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Make sure to update your intel MBP to 15.2 Beta 2 and also do the usual:
- Reset SMC
- Zap the PRAM

If you have an antivirus or third-party software firewall, disable it during your test.
 
dasjati said:
Quick thank you to everyone in this thread adding their actual experience with the feature!

A Mac mini with Mx Pro plus a future Apple Vision (Pro) sounds like an interesting setup.
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There's a good Reddit user post about this (they're using a Mac Studio rather than the new M4 Mac mini but the experience will be similar) showing it in a co-working space. Scroll through the photos to see the setup:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VisionPro/comments/1gkc62q

Personally I bought an Apple refurbed M3 MacBook Air recently just to go with my Vision Pro and this update makes that purchase amazing. The foveated rendering appears better for the mirrored MacBook Air and I think is what people are referring to when they say it looks sharper.
 
DarthDon said:
My family works and teaches about computers for many years; even mainframe computers - is that enough "substance"?
Click to expand...

In my job during when things were exploding in the computer/internet era there was a 50% rate of attrition. 50% of what you knew was completely replaced by new stuff every years. The situation is now worse. It is no longer even possible to cover all areas of computing. You have to be a specialist in A.I., networking, security, etc. all of which require specific skill sets.

Even if you have worked with virtual reality for years the VP is a game changer. In many ways it is like no other computer I have worked with over far too many decades. It requires a lot of new learning. If you can't explore this wonderful new computing world if you don't have a VP.

Amazing Iceman said:
If you really would love to read his post you will read it.
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1. Zooming does no good. I need contrast between the characters and the background
2. I read hundreds of pages a day. There is no time to copy/paste just to find out if it is a subject of interest
3. There are standards for printed material and web material. MacRumors has chosen a default font which is the standard. Deviating from the standard is just bad practice. If you want to highlight something you say standard tools are there to do that.
 
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