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  • Let's discuss passthrough (not a yay or nay thread)

Hi all, I wanted to start a thread focusing on passthrough and specifically what works, what doesn't and what could be added. Let's keep the debate about whether SLR should should shoot passthrough and how often for some of the other threads though 🙂

So I got my Quest 3 today and I finally got to see some of the new and improved alpha passthrough in 8K (I sold my Pico 4 quite some time ago). First of, it improved a lot since I last watched it so kudos for the team on that! Apart from that I though it was really cool when it worked well and there is huge potential for this to evolve. It was also frustrating as hell a lot of the time. Having angles that are not alignable to your body, or finally aligning a shot right only to have the camera position change shortly after it.

I immediately had a lot of ideas about what I would like to see improved and I'm sure a lot of you have too (or have already talked about this on the forum). I thought why not start a thread specifically about this topic and give SLR some good input to get this passthrough thing even better. The future is now 🙂 I'll get the ball rolling:

  • Few positions - I think at this point in the tech, where aligning yourself to the male talent is still so difficult we would be much better off if passthrough vids had far fewer position changes similar to a VR Edging scene. With fewer changes and a focus on positions that work well in passthrough I think these vids will get far more immersive.
  • Focus on getting the shot lined up - I image this is very difficult but I watched several scenes today that where simply impossible to align up correctly. When you have a scene with a green suit this will result in a dick being in some random place or the girl being in a completely different perspective. Maybe this can be checked in a VR headset during shooting like the Japanese do? This one is hugely important to nail.
  • Male not fucking back - Nothing wrong with a guy taking charge in a VR scene every now and again in my book but in passthrough you'll end up looking at a floating dildo going at it. Completely immersion breaking.
  • Edges - So the alpha passthrough is already so much better than the green halo and missing eyes we saw before. However, it's still very soft (feathered) and harsh whit hair. Apart from that my biggest issue is how there is a black outline around the base of the dick. Would be great if we can get a clearer line with less background.
  • Sex toys - Haven't tried passthrough whit a handy yet but I image some positions, acts work better than others (as in hiding the toy by her body etc.). Not sure, what will work here but it would be cool if we could somehow hide the toy.

Curious to see how this thing will evolve and feel free to share your own passthrough thoughts and ideas

    Im totally new to passthrough and it looks reallly cool. I think its a game changer tbh. The apple vision pro could be insane for this.
    Is it possible to make the woman bigger or smaller. sometimes they dont fit my room somehow. Also zoom is pretty nice if u wanna get closer.

      I think torso dolls might end up being a good use case for passthrough. Custom backgrounds should help take care of a lot of people's issues with it "not being VR".

      BYOJ/Compilations with automated position detection and/or voice commands will help a lot with the position changes. Just repeating the position automatically altogether could help (but obviously not perfect). A CV approach is probably overkill here, really all you need is a VR tracker attached to the torso/fleshlight/etc. to determine position and orientation.

      Lots of potential to weave in the 6DOF stuff they got going on with this and do some auto-detection and alignment.

      fenderwq Focus on getting the shot lined up

      Fully agree. I recently checked out a few of the latest PT scenes and I noticed that in all of them in (standing) missionary the dick was approx. on the same height as my belly button. I suppose the dick could be lowered by zooming out but then the scale would be messed up. This may not be a big issue in VR but in PT it definitely is.

          albertleder Is it possible to make the woman bigger or smaller

          The horizontal offset setting in DeoVR can be used for this. Use - for lowering the scale. You probably don't have to go further down than -2.

            The hardest thing is it’s hard to tell if it’s ever scaled correctly. They seem either too big or too small. Wish there was an algorithm that could detect your space with the depth sensors and adjust the scale automatically to your environment. I’m sure in due time.

            Yeah the camera aligning really sucks on like 90% of videos. A lot of times the male body is just way too zoomed out and so you can’t really angle it to match. Zooming ruins scale and quality and while horizontal offset helps it can’t fix the angle enough for it to matter. Not sure how to fix this but should be looked into. You kind of have to spend a lot of time for each video to get it to work. You may have to change rooms entirely to get certain PT videos make sense. Try and match the room and the body as closely as you possibly can. For us that are stuck in one room all he time, you’ll be limited with what videos can work.

            Laying CG always works best because you can just lie down on any bed and try to match…still thigh most camera angles have the girl/dick too far away, especially on reverse cowgirl.

              Hurto11 Would be easy with LIDAR. According to a quick google search, Quest 3 appears to have a "depth sensor". Now whether or not that is LIDAR and whether or not that information is accessible to app developers is another story. Still possible with camera + CV, but harder to do (and performance hit might be too high). Tesla self driving uses cameras and not LIDAR as an example.

              Edit: That's just for stitching it into your view, specifically for something like a missionary position. There is still the challenge of figuring out the depth on the video as well.

                Hurto11 yeah exactly, also totally agree about the quality loss of zooming in. It might help a little to have a quick semi/50% passthrough to help you align for the alpha vids. Or a passthrough on off that can be mapped to a key. Still the actual position must be alignable

                  There are a number of PT threads, but I'll mention my first review of pass-through porn here. Granted, I've only had one day with my Quest 3, but I experimented for 1-2 hours with PT porn and overall, it did not meet my expectations, or perhaps it was just too over-hyped. Here's why:

                  The technology is not there yet, not even close... The problem is, EVEN IF, the pass-through cameras were incredible and as crystal clear as real life, it won't matter. PT porn looks like an obvious 3D projection in my room... It's like I'm playing a video game, but not in a believable way. There is no sense of realism there. I can see the outline of the body, the hair, I can see the pixels and the keyouts... the lighting doesn't match, there are no shadows cast from the performer. The performer is just a projected 3D image in space, and it's very hard to unsee it.

                  And then, getting them to align to my body after every position, it's a hassle and takes a lot of work and "suspension of belief." With VR, the entire picture is "whole." We are transported to a VR location, and we are there. There are no distractions, no weird glitchy behaviors. VR is much easier to be immersed in. PT takes A LOT OF imagination, which isn't exactly what I'm looking for in a porn experience.

                  Also, the scale... my oh my, it's so glaringly obvious now at how big or small the models look in PT. IMO, nearly all the new Canon R5C PT scenes on SLR, the women are scaled too small, because when they are in my room, sitting on my desk or on my bed, they look 80% of their actual size. It's very off-putting. In VR, the new Canon R5C scenes look fine in terms of scale. Everything in PT would have to be completely utterly "perfect" for it to be somewhat believable. The scaling (which depends on my room, the objects around me, my IPD), the lighting, the keyouts, the stunt cock location, the alignment... It's just not there yet for something truly immersive.

                  The best part of PT for me were probably just the intros and stripteases. It's kinda cool to see them walking around and dancing in my room. It doesn't require my body to be aligned, etc. And it's a cool "demo" that I could show my buddies or something. Also, I enjoyed the first part of Britt Blair's SLR PT scene, where she's sitting on a table. Lining that up was entertaining, and for a few brief moments it was believable she was there on my desk. But for a hardcore PT experience... I don't know, it is not at all what I was expecting.

                  The headset itself is very nice, I don't think it was a waste of money. I will use it for gaming (very excited to play Asgard's Wrath and Lone Echo), and for some fun non-porn AR experiences, and for traveling. Good to have a spare headset around, but for my dedicated VR porn viewings, I will stick to my PC + Pimax 8KX.

                    g2kbuffetboy

                    You went in with way too high of expectations. No one here overrated it, the issues and problems have been discussed thoroughly. It’s far from where it should be no doubt and yes it requires a ton of time and work to get it to work correctly. It takes hours of experimention on individual videos to figure it out. Once you have a system of getting there though it gets much quicker. I can dial in a good PT now on 95% of videos within a couple of minutes.

                    It’s best if you can find a room or area thay matches the lighting of the video andcwheee you can align your position. It also looks the best on the most recent videos that have the highest quality (Milfvr, povr, vrbangers and badoink. Those studios have the best quality rigs, lighting and scale and it looks the most realistic. You can also change the brightness/saturation within deo to get the skin to better match the lighting. Your settings save so if you’re willing to spend time on your favorite videos you can eventually have a library of them that require little work. Agreed though most people will not want to deal with that and until it becomes more universal and easier to set it it won’t become mainstream

                        Yeah, so I think it's cool when it works but it so hard to get it working right. That's also why I think having fewer positions and really putting effort into really nailing those positions is the way forward for the time being.

                          fenderwq
                          Agreed. I think the SLR PT specific videos should be way simpler. Like others have said, just one position or like just a striptease/lap dance type video where you can much more easily dial in and align the body. Also should have a feature to delete the male body/dildo. You need to have it there so you can align and reference to get the settings right but then once that’s done you should be able to just erase it from the video and enjoy:

                              Hurto11 Yeah or just have a passthrough toggle button or a opacity you can use to align.

                                Hurto11 Fair response, there must definitely be a learning curve, and doing adjustments on every video and saving those settings to DeoVR will definitely help the cause. But it is definitely "a lot of work" scene by scene (sometimes shot by shot). Is it worth it in the end? After you dial it in, do you find it more enjoyable than traditional VR scenes? Or are they two separate categories for you and just depends on your mood?

                                Hurto11 No one here overrated it

                                Not sure about this part though.., It's been the talk of the town here in the forums and on the PT scene comment pages. Also, 40-50% of all of SLR Originals lately have been PT scenes, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Everyone's saying how much of a game-changer PT is, but I just don't see it, figuratively and literally.

                                Anyways, not here to rain on folk's parades, but I'm starting to see why this is such a divisive topic. I could not weigh in before as I hadn't tried it. But now that I have (granted, only for a few hours), I am not sure how I will feel if SLR double downs (no pun intended) on PT as a priority. I'll give it more time though, and do what you suggested with the color settings, etc.

                                      fenderwq Yeah, for me, cowgirl (both seated and laying down) were the only penetrative positions that were somewhat enjoyable for me. But that's because I could really just stare at their upper part of the body and face and not focus on the alignment as much.

                                        g2kbuffetboy they look 80% of their actual size. It's very off-putting.

                                        The easiest way to adjust the scale in DeoVR is using the 'horizontal offset' slider. Increasing from 0 to +0.5 or +1.0 may already be sufficient.

                                          Basically, my dick doesn't change positions so in PT vids the same rules should apply. Have a real system for ensuring the stunt cock is in exactly the same place in the frame. When you play a scene, there should not be a weird disembodied cock floating in front of the viewer's face, which zips up down and sideways all through the scene. Lock that shit down.

                                          g2kbuffetboy

                                          Also fair response and I totally get why people wouldn’t like it. When it’s dialed in do I enjoy it more than normal vr scenes? 100% yes. It’s way better when it’s working properly. It’s the realism factor that gets it for me. Just how like sometimes a crappy iPhone filmed onlyfans video is hotter than a high budget produced porn because it looks more real..like they’re just a normal hot chick that’s having sex. Same applies here. It’s “what if” this chick was actually in your room and you could bang her and while it’s not perfect it’s enough of an illusion to trick your mind and it just feels more immersive even Knowing full well that it’s not perfect. Sometimes the scenery/background of these Vr scenes make me feel LESS immersed after comparing it to a bar not because of how it looks but because of the “realism” factor.

                                          Some videos are impossible unfortunately based on the scenery. When there are too many objects in the background or way too many varying colors, you’re not going to get it work.

                                          Just do this for every video right off the bat and if you don’t get a fairly clean PT and the girl gets cut off or see through, then you know that video is off the table:

                                          Hue 50
                                          Sat 100
                                          Brightness 100
                                          Range 450-700

                                          Those settings will get you 90% there on majority od videos

                                              Hurto11 Great tips! Thank you =)

                                              And what you describe does sound like it would be ultra immersive by concept (them in my room). And I agree with 2D porn in particular, I don't really like the super glamour / over produced videos (like the Vixen aesthetic). So let me try to rewire my perspective when I try PT again. Hopefully it'll be better next time.

                                                Had an interesting PT idea for the SLR studio. I wonder what it would look like if the male model used a colored condom that could also disappear with pass through. Probably a dumb idea but thought it might be interesting if it was only your dick in the video instead of another models.

                                                My experience with passthrough so far has been that when everything lines up it can be incredibly immersive, more immersion than I've ever got from VR. However, getting everything to line up is pretty tricky and time consuming. I feel like the best parts of many of the passthrough videos are before the stunt cock comes into view and suddenly there's this annoying floating dick getting in the way. I would like to see more WankItNow style JOI vids with no stuntcock. I feel like that would work well in passthrough and the third wall could be broken with the actress acknowledging the viewer.

                                                  TimeEntity

                                                  1000%. It works best for solo vids and In vids where the chick is standing in the room before anything sexual happens. Also laying CG. Most other positions the Angles aren’t very realistic—too far away. I think it’s because they don’t film with PT in mind.

                                                    I am in the minority but I dont really like passthrough.

                                                    I want some fantasy, involving some fancy rich persons house, or by the pool or in a tropical, lush garden or resort. Perhaps by the beach, at an art studio, or slithering around in oil

                                                    I dont need to pretend someone is actually in my own dreary abode

                                                    I really liked that one video where the passthrough was used to create a sci-fi type background. That is the best of both worlds- A passthrough version for those that like it, and an exotic imaginary scene for the role players amoungst us

                                                    Personally I love PT. makes VR look boring.

                                                    I don't get the problems everyone is having lining it up. Just hold both triggers down and move the dick onto yours. Works 90% of the time for me. And the other 10% of the time when the dick is in a odd position or the girl is in a position you don't want to duplicate just move the girl to a good position for you and concentrate on her. Or maybe I'm just easily pleased?

                                                    Absolutely love PT. And the more vids they make the better it will get. Remember VR porn when it first came out? If you don't go back to the first vids here in SLR, they are complete garbage compared to VR vids now.

                                                    Give them a chance (your support and good feedback) to get it right...it's only going to improve.

                                                    I can image a time where they use your room scan to have girls walk into your room, around your bed, climb onto to it and bang your brains out....that maybe a long way off...but were on the road.

                                                      Diggler

                                                      Depends. If you're talking about laying CG or sitting CG it's much easier to line up but everything else is very difficult. Even if you do line it up, then the girl is like not even or parallel to your floor, so it doesn't look natural. And the cameras change with every positition so you have to constantly adjust throughout the video which annoys people.

                                                          I feel obligated to mention that Passthrough + Virtamate might also be a game changer.

                                                          By the time I got everything working correctly my headset was running low so I only had about 15 mins of testing things out...but wow...it seems pretty insane in the greatest possible way 🤯

                                                          Now I just need to wait for daytime lighting tomorrow haha

                                                            Diggler Personally I love PT. makes VR look boring.

                                                            AR porn is definitely a lot more boring than VR porn. It's pretty much always the same with zero creativity involved. No storytelling, no fantasy, no taboos, not fetishes just mechanical sex in your own boring bedroom every time. But then again, some people are indeed easily pleased.

                                                                Hurto11 Yeah, I get that, but like I say - it's early days. Give them a chance hopefully it'll get better.

                                                                But also, most of these videos are over an hour long, when your having actual sex with a girl, you don't lay in one position for the entire time - you move and change positions. I'd expect VR/AR porn to be the same really.

                                                                I don't think it's practical to expect an entire hour long video to be setup for one single position - and not to expect the viewer to also change positions, unless AR settles into shorts - maybe that's where we are heading.

                                                                    LordCrash I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably caught up in the novelty of AR at the minute. Right now, today, I keep going back to the AR stuff. but I'm sure that'll change, and maybe even-out I guess.

                                                                    But one thing I have noticed is I'm getting bored with a lot of VR videos - apart from the location a lot of them are the same - I find myself seeking out the 'unusual' VR videos for something different - and that's what AR is at the minute...for me, this is a welcome addition - even if it is clunky at the minute.

                                                                    But I'll keep saying it - it's early days - it'll get better ( hopefully!!).

                                                                      And actually, what I would like to see is some of the Live CAM girls using AR - I think that would be interesting to be able to interact with these girls that feel like they are in the room with you.

                                                                      Diggler

                                                                      Well the idea would be that if it was a one postition video it'd be way shorter than current VR porn. You could do more 15-20 minute vids of just one position specifically designed for PT...OR what would be better is if they could have some kind of AI or algorithm just automatically shift the PT positioning and settings when the camera angle changes in the video itself. That would be most ideal. Like it should get to a point where all we need to control is the colors/level of PT we want..the tilt, pitch, angle etc. should all be automatically controlled and set to the best possible alignment to your own eyes.

                                                                        If you're ever being accused that the relationship sex is suffering because of your porn watching habit, here's your defense 😃

                                                                        LordCrash is definitely a lot more boring than VR porn. It's pretty much always the same with zero creativity involved. No storytelling, no fantasy, no taboos, not fetishes just mechanical sex in your own boring bedroom every time. But then again, some people are indeed easily pleased.

                                                                            So one thing I haven't seen before that would be pretty cool is to have a scenario that plays into the fact and highlights that you see your own house when watching a passthrough movie. There are millions of things that can be done here. Just some examples on the top of my head (keep the amount of positions to a minumum though and easy to align):

                                                                            A scenario where this friend hired a new maid for you that turns out to do much more than cleaning. Your working from home that day and it starts out with her getting you a drink and doing some chores. She's wearing one of those sexy maid outfits which you totally didn't expect. She could clean some stuff on the floor which requires her to bend over properly. Spill something on you. Etc. Do some buildup and things that would work in any room. You could start of from the perspective of a regular chair. She could comment about your place, ask where things are, ask you when your home, etc. To ground the experience.

                                                                            Or a simpler scenario where you bring a girl home for the first time to your place. You have a bit of build up on your couch. Then things heat up and she's like, hmm why don't you show me your bedroom? There are a million ways to ground the scene by highlighting that your at your place.

                                                                            Or your girlfriend asked you if her foreign friend could stay over a few days. Turns out she is super sexy. At night she comes over to your bedroom where you lie with your girl and invites herself in the bed. She could say something, thanks so much for letting me stay here but it's lonely there all by myself though. You guys mind? Etc. 🙂

                                                                            A girlfriend scenario. Like a really intimate and realistic setup. Could be something simple where you wake up in the morning and you still lie in your bed. She could be getting ready and ask about what you wanna do today and chit chat for a bit. She could be wearing something simple and not too much makeup (as in hot but realistic, not full make up and sexy lingerie). She comes back to bed cuddles against you for a bit and things go from there.

                                                                            Or a morning after scenario where you had a fun night together ans she wakes up in your bed. Could be all kinds of things to ground the experience. Like hey do you have some coffee? Her finding something in youre nightstand, whatever.

                                                                            Or something like the scenario above, but you had a wild night with friends and some stayed over at your place. You wake up and this really cute girl lies next to you...

                                                                            Your doorbell rings and you have the girlsscout kind of scenario. Maybe your girlfriend/wife opens the door and brings her in the living room where you're sitting and sits next to you. Like you sit on the couch, the doorbell rings your girlfriend and the girlsscoht come back in. So you would have a consistent angle that is also easy to align.

                                                                            I would also love some VR edging like vids in passthrough. Like a private massage but at your place, in your bed.

                                                                            If no one has mentioned this yet (because I haven't read everything in this thread. It's so many words)...
                                                                            This Madison Wilde passthrough video looks really great on Quest 3.
                                                                            https://www.sexlikereal.com/scenes/notes-of-affection-37756

                                                                            The scaling is a lot better and also the passthrough chroma key is better ...than older passthrough videos on SLR in my opinion. And I was completely sober when I was testing this. Please keep it up.

                                                                            I have a thought... I've noticed a lot of new people have been asking about VR Porn on Reddit recently, because they are new owners of a Quest 3. I feel like maybe SLR should have trailers again like they used to for non-subscribers. Or at least a few trailers for people to try out. Especially a free trailer for the Madison Wilde passthrough scene. I feel like more people would subscribe if they could see what that passthrough video looks like.

                                                                            ...I only noticed that there are no free trailers for non-subscribers recently, because my friend asked me how to try VR Porn after I told him about it. He is also a new Quest 3 owner.

                                                                            I would use it as a novelty now and again if it was a convincing effect (i.e. I really believed she was there) and not so fiddly to use in practice. As others have said, it is so restrictive that it’s only really doable if you don’t have to change positions like the VR Edging example.

                                                                            Then there’s the issue someone said about having the guy not fuck the girl back as it breaks the illusion. That sounds fine on paper but it wouldn’t be much fun for the performers involved or give any kind of intensity or passion to the scene. It would just be very mechanical.

                                                                            I’m not a toy user but how does it work with that? Surely you’d see the toy in passthrough which would totally break the illusion.

                                                                            I understand the concept of it and why it’s attractive to people but I just think we’re a long way off it being slick enough to be great to watch and not look amateurish. I don’t think we’re in a position with it yet that it should be up towards 50% of the new scenes. Keep experimenting with it yes but let’s not have it take over the site.

                                                                              petermc it's not that bad with toys really. You sometimes see it but mostly in blowjob parts or handjob parts that are from the side. You just need a good hands free setup and a small toy like the handy

                                                                                fenderwq Focus on getting the shot lined up - I image this is very difficult but I watched several scenes today that where simply impossible to align up correctly. When you have a scene with a green suit this will result in a dick being in some random place or the girl being in a completely different perspective. Maybe this can be checked in a VR headset during shooting like the Japanese do? This one is hugely important to nail.

                                                                                So, Quest 3 has renewed my love of pass through videos -- it's so much better than the Pico 4 (my PT experience of Pico 4 went downhill after one of the SLR updates a few months ago, and I never figured out how to get it back).

                                                                                And you are correct that being able to get the right position is EVERYTHING. When the performers are in the right position, it seems like the girls are lying on my couch with me, or standing next to it, or sitting on top of me! But when the position is off -- not nearly so good.

                                                                                One idea I had -- I'm not sure it's possible, but -- What if the viewer could use a controller to "locate" his dick and then the scene would automatically adjust? That is, you point the controller at your crotch, hit a button, and now the stunt dick is always placed where your dick is. Or maybe the user puts one of the controllers on his crotch for a moment, like when setting the floor level.

                                                                                I think that might help.