Gamer hacks Palworld onto Apple Vision Pro, plays game on 300-inch virtual screen — makes 115-inch 4K projector look puny

News
By Mark Tyson
published

Experience claimed to be responsive, too.

Apple Vision Pro
(Image credit: Apple)

An AI evangelist has been quick to illustrate the gaming potential of Apple’s newly released Vision Pro headset. Alex Volkov rhetorically asked his Twitter / X followers “Who said Vision Pro is not a gaming device?” Then he demonstrated gaming in Palworld using his $3,500 device, Steam Link, and Bluetooth controller. In a follow-up video, Volkov contrasted the gaming experience offered by Apple’s latest consumer tech venture to the modern 115-inch gaming projector in his den. He indicated that the Apple headset was far superior, making the projector experience feel puny.

Click 'See more' to watch the Twitter video

Apple Vision Pro users interested in gaming are steered by Apple towards its Apple Arcade. There are over 250 titles available via that portal according to Apple, but a quick look through the list of ‘experiences’ reveals a significant crop of what we might call repurposed mobile games. Titles like Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, and Jetpack Joyride are hardly ground-breaking however many dimensions you might try and add to them.

Enter Alex Volkov, the self-professed AI Evangelist who decided to enjoy some PC gaming on the Vision Pro. His setup included the expensive new Apple gizmo, a Microsoft Xbox wireless controller (paired via Bluetooth), and a gaming PC with TeamViewer, the TeamViewer iPad app, and Steam Link.

After apparently being surprised that this elaborate jigsaw of tech hardware and software worked together, an overjoyed Volkov got (somewhat controversial) game of the moment Palworld to fire up. The AI evangelist quickly followed up with another video, as the first one didn’t show much of the actual gameplay experience.

Click 'See more' to watch the Twitter video

In the second video shared by Volkov, he made it his mission to boast of the fun to be had gaming on Apple’s Vision Pro. One of the biggest attractions, he indicated, was the huge virtual screens you could create in the Apple VR environment. Volkov is lucky enough to have a 115-inch gaming projector in his basement den. However, he walked down to the room to show a direct comparison between the projector and the virtual display. Apple’s game world viewing experience was far richer.

The virtual Apple display was a cinch to expand to up to 3x what Volkov could enjoy using his projector. Moreover, the AI evangelist flanked his game with a large Twitter feed and could have added even more multitasking apps. Lastly, the image quality was a noticeable improvement on the projector experience, and the latency was minimal (we think the gaming PC was in the same room).

Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
Freelance News Writer

Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rluker5
    Maybe he can hack in VorpX? I don't use it much because VR gaming is more hassle than it is worth imo, but there is conversion software to "go into" that fake screen he is looking at. Apple could probably buy VorpX for peanuts (on an Apple scale at least), polish it up and have a better selling point for games.

    Also the guy is exaggerating with that 300" screen. Here's my old 168" setup that cost less than $800 including 3 sets of 3d DLP glasses 7 years ago by comparison: 4R6iZFQBM8sView: https://youtu.be/4R6iZFQBM8s

    It isn't 4k though, and I don't use it enough to get 4k. I mostly just use it for 3d movies and there aren't a lot.
    Reply
  • jkhoward
    “Hacks”? Wut lol
    Reply
  • Baywoof
    $3500 for that? No.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Baywoof said:
    $3500 for that? No.
    Nah cheap! Suits well with $3500 5090 next year ;)
    Reply
  • mac_angel
    I'd also point out that BenQ does NOT make a native 4K projector. All of their 4K projectors use lens shifting.
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    Just about every VR/AR headset can have a huge virtual flat screen. And e.g. the Pimax Crystal has nearly the same resolution as the Apple Vision Pro, at less than half the price and with higher max. refresh rate. (And Pimax is currently developing the Pimax Reality 12K QLED.)

    So... nice that someone is happy about the Apple Vision Pro. But having a virtual home theatre screen e.g. for 4K movies, that is also possible with a lot cheaper headsets. And VR gaming works fine as well.
    Reply
  • mrv_co
    DavidLejdar said:
    Just about every VR/AR headset can have a huge virtual flat screen. And e.g. the Pimax Crystal has nearly the same resolution as the Apple Vision Pro, at less than half the price and with higher max. refresh rate. (And Pimax is currently developing the Pimax Reality 12K QLED.)

    So... nice that someone is happy about the Apple Vision Pro. But having a virtual home theatre screen e.g. for 4K movies, that is also possible with a lot cheaper headsets. And VR gaming works fine as well.
    But can you make blue bubbles with it? :grinning:
    Reply
  • JTWrenn
    Nothing about this requires that headset. Absolutely nothing. Any vr headset can do that, the hype is idiotic.
    Reply
  • emike09
    Dumb post. Click bait and tiktoky. We've been able to do this since the first Rift came out many, many years ago. Except our headsets, not including apple in particular, are much higher resolution that in the past. You can do this with literally any game or movie, or even standard desktop experience.
    Reply
  • HopefulToad
    Lastly, the image quality was a noticeable improvement on the projector experience, and the latency was minimal
    I highly doubt this.

    His setup included the expensive new Apple gizmo, a Microsoft Xbox wireless controller (paired via Bluetooth), and a gaming PC with TeamViewer, the TeamViewer iPad app, and Steam Link.
    All this, multiple layers of indirection and wireless communication, is a recipe for really bad input lag. This guy must be very insensitive to input lag to report the latency as "minimal."
    Reply