The Vision Pro Starts to Come Into Focus
We're starting to cook with fire.
I'm writing this about the Vision Pro, in the Vision Pro. Which I really only did for a post or two for the novelty of it right after the device's initial release. But now I'm doing it because it's actually a good way to write. And to use a Mac in general. Because Apple finally gave us an expanded canvas to match the Vision Pro's capabilities.
I speak, of course, of the new "Wide" and "Ultrawide" modes for the Mac Virtual Display which are available to test as a part of the latest visionOS betas. Honestly, "Wide" might have been enough and it's what I think I'll use most of the time. But "Ultrawide" is fun.1 It's like wrapping your head in a computer UI. It's like you're wearing a computing visor. This is especially true if you use Spaces within macOS. Swiping between them now feels like a full-on carousel. It's a pretty amazing effect. Like the computer is spinning around you.
Why Apple didn't launch with this, I don't know. It again speaks to Apple pushing the device out there before they really should have. It was less than half-baked. Now I think it's about half-baked.2 Still not good enough to fully come out of the oven, but almost edible.3
Beyond this new Mac Virtual Display element, it's clear that the content itself is starting to figure out its narrative on the Vision Pro. Submerged, the first actually scripted bit of cinematic content made for the device was good. Very good, even. Flawed in ways, but more than compelling enough as a first attempt. This week, Apple released a collaboration with The Weeknd which was really just a music video, but it shared some of those same cinematic compelling elements. In particular, tracking shots are really interesting when viewed on the device. The scenes where you're chasing the ambulance are awesome.
I wonder if in these early days if filmmakers shouldn't do what they did (and actually still do) with IMAX. That is, use those special cameras to film certain parts of a project, but not the entire thing. Imagine watching a movie or show in Vision Pro and all of a sudden, it opens up to go fully immersive? I distinctly recall a scene in one of the Mission: Impossibles (though I humorously don't recall which Mission: Impossible – I think Ghost Protocol?) where Tom Cruise and company are in a room in Burj Khalifa. He's about to scale it. He opens the window and looks down and the screen expands into full IMAX format. It was awesome. They can and should do that here.
I think they key point though would be that it may not make sense to shoot everything in Apple Immersive format. For certain types of content, it feels more distracting, or almost like a home movie. I would mix and match. Submerged hinted at this, but The Weeknd project drove it home.
Tangential to this, 3D content remains fantastic on the device. It's too bad that it seemingly has proven to be a fad for the fifth or sixth straight time in cinemas because it's awesome on Vision Pro. I just dropped in to watch a bit of Deadpool and Wolverine which is one of the rare recent films to still use the format, and it's just great on this device. Far better than it is in theaters. Apple should figure out a way to convert "regular" movies to 3D if at all possible.
Anyway, kudos to Apple for whittling away at the problem. This is close to being enough to overcome the inconvenience problem with the device. I've used the Vision Pro more today than I have in months. Notably, because after testing this new functionality and watching the new content, because I wanted to use it. After doing some work, I stuck around to catch up on Foundation. Of course, then the battery ran out. Baby steps.
1 At times, it's annoying because it takes some effort to move your mouse cursor that distance if you want to go from one extreme to the other. Still, it's an awesome option to have.
2 Oddly, I still have quite a few connection issues when using the Mac Virtual Display -- with my trackpad on my MacBook in particular. Feels like these should have been ironed out quite a long time ago...
3 $3,500 edible? Probably not. But given the monitor canvas here and the cost of Apple's own monitors, we're inching closer...