#Playing wilds.ai in VR

Most wilds.ai worlds are VR-playable from any WebXR-capable browser. No app to install, no SDK to download — open `wilds.ai` in your headset's browser, sign in, click a world, hit Enter VR. You're in. (Some creators opt their worlds out of VR; those still play flat. See *Creator opt-out* below.)Most wilds.ai worlds are VR-playable from any WebXR-capable browser. No app to install, no SDK to download — open wilds.ai in your headset's browser, sign in, click a world, hit Enter VR. You're in. (Some creators opt their worlds out of VR; those still play flat. See Creator opt-outCreator opt-out below.)

This guide walks the setup for each major headset, the controls, the comfort settings, and what to do when something doesn't work.

#Quick start

1. Open https://wilds.ai/ in your headset's browser.
2. Sign in (or create an account in 30 seconds — guest accounts work too).
3. Browse the explore feed for a world with the VR Ready badge.
4. On the world's page, you'll see an Enter VR button below the title (if your browser supports WebXR).
5. Click it. The browser will ask permission for the immersive session. Approve.
6. The screen fades and you're inside the world.

#Per-headset setup

#Quest 2 / Quest 3 / Quest Pro

The Meta Quest browser ships with WebXR enabled by default. Just open wilds.ai in the Browser app and you're set.

• Best for: realtime-3d worlds (combat dungeons), board games, cinema-mode for everything else.
• Performance: Quest 3 holds 90Hz comfortably. Quest 2 holds 72-90Hz; expect lower visual fidelity on dense scenes.
• Controllers: Touch controllers are auto-detected. Left thumbstick moves, right trigger is your primary action.
• Hand tracking: Available but not yet wired for gameplay — controllers required for combat.

#Apple Vision Pro

Safari on visionOS supports WebXR through the Immersive Web. No extra setup.

• Best for: narrative + visual-novel + crawler worlds (cinema mode reads beautifully on the Vision Pro's high-resolution displays).
• Performance: Holds 90-120Hz on most worlds.
• Input: No controllers — gaze + pinch only. The ray cursor follows your gaze; pinch to confirm. Wrist menu is summoned by raising your left palm.
• Hand tracking: First-class. Gameplay that requires fast button presses (realtime-3d combat) may feel awkward without controllers; choose narrative/cinema-mode worlds for the best Vision Pro experience.

#Valve Index / HTC Vive (PCVR)

Use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome on the connected PC with SteamVR running. Both browsers support WebXR via SteamVR.

• Best for: anything. PCVR rendering quality is the highest of the supported tiers.
• Performance: 90-144Hz depending on PC + headset. Index hits 144Hz natively.
• Controllers: Knuckles auto-detected. Full finger tracking surfaces as gestures.
• Hand tracking: Optional; not required.

#Pico 4

The Pico Browser ships with WebXR support. Open wilds.ai directly.

• Best for: parity with Quest 3.
• Performance: 90Hz.
• Controllers: Pico controllers auto-detected via the standard WebXR mapping.

#Chrome Desktop (no headset, for previewing)

You can preview VR mode without a headset:

1. Install the WebXR API Emulator Chrome extension.
2. Open Chrome DevTools → WebXR tab → simulate a Quest 3.
3. Reload your world page. The Enter VR button appears.
4. Click it. The emulator opens a windowed VR view you can pan around with your mouse.

This is useful for creators testing their world. It's not a substitute for real hardware QA.

#Controls

#Touch controllers (Quest / Pico) + Knuckles (Index)

Active in realtime-3d worlds. Mappings:

#Hand tracking (Vision Pro)

Active in any mode but optimized for cinema + narrative. The wrist menu summons by raising your left palm facing up. Pinch to confirm any selection. The ray cursor follows your gaze.

#In-VR HUD (realtime-3d)

Three floating panels mounted at fixed playspace positions:

• Lower-center floating — HP bar + coins + keys + active status badges (poison / burn / stun)
• Top-front floating — Boss name + boss HP + sub-boss bars + threat ticker (enemies engaged, grouped by kind)
• Right-front floating — Minimap (12m × 12m centered on you; rooms you've discovered show full, undiscovered show as dashed outlines)

Panels stay anchored to the playspace — they don't follow your head. Turn your head to look away and the HUD stays where it was.

#Comfort settings

The platform defaults are tuned for the median player. If you get motion-sick or want a more immersive experience, your per-persona XR defaults override per-blueprint settings:

• Locomotion — Teleport (default, most comfortable) / Smooth (more immersive, higher sickness risk) / Auto (both, pick from wrist menu)
• Vignette intensity — Off / Low / Medium (default) / High. Tunnel-vision on motion; higher = less sickness.
• Snap turn — On by default (30° discrete turns). Turn off for smooth rotation if you don't get sick.
• Sitting OK — On by default. Turn off only if your space requires room-scale.

Your XR defaults live at /app/settings under VR Preferences. Once set, they follow you across every world you play.

#Cinema mode (most worlds)

11 of the 12 game families render in cinema mode in VR — the flat 2D viewport projects onto a curved screen at a virtual seat. The Quest browser, Vision Pro Safari, and PCVR all render this identically: 1.8m × 1.2m curved panel at 1.5m forward, with the HUD floating to the left of the screen.

What you'll see:

• Arcade / Platformer / Roguelike / Crawler / TTRPG / Survival / Strategy-Sim — Phaser or canvas viewport on the curved screen, HUD on the side panel.
• Narrative / Visual-Novel / Point-and-Click — DOM-based viewport rendered through a Drei <Html> portal; text + choice buttons all readable.
• Board game (non-chess variants) — same cinema treatment; chess specifically has a native 3D mode (see Native mode below).

You play with whatever input device you have — controllers point a ray cursor at the screen, hands pinch on Vision Pro. Same controls as flat mode, just projected on a virtual screen.

#Native mode (3D presence)

Two surfaces ship native VR (full 3D scene inside the headset):

#Realtime-3D (combat dungeons)

Walls + floors + boss + enemies + character all render in 3D around you. You can walk around enemies, dodge boss AOE patterns by physically stepping back, swing your right controller at melee range. Cinematic cameras (combat zoom, death cam) clamp to subtle world nudges (≤0.3m) so head pose stays under YOUR control — the camera never yanks you.

#Board game — chess

A wood-pedestal table at seated height (~0.9m) with the 48cm × 48cm chess board. 32 low-poly pieces. Point a ray cursor at your piece, click to select; legal-move squares glow cyan (capture squares glow red); click to place. Other board games (hex-settlers, deckbuilder, council-table) stay cinema mode.

#Common questions

The Enter VR button doesn't appear on my world's page. Three possible reasons:

1. Your browser doesn't support WebXR. Open DevTools and check navigator.xr — if it's undefined, your browser isn't capable. Use one of the supported headsets/browsers above.
2. The creator set the world to opt out of VR. xrSettings.mode: 'off' on the blueprint hides the button. Pick a different world.
3. The capability probe failed. Hard-refresh (Cmd+Shift+R) and check the browser's <html> tag — it should have a class of xr-vr or xr-ar. If it's xr-unsupported, your browser doesn't have the right capability.

I get motion-sick in smooth-locomotion mode. Switch to Teleport in your per-persona XR defaults at /app/settings. Bump vignette to High. Snap turn should stay on.

I'm hand-tracking only on Vision Pro and I can't tell what's selected. The ray cursor follows your gaze; whatever you're looking at + pinch = confirm. The wrist menu summons by raising your left palm with fingers facing up; cancel by lowering your palm.

The character looks 2D / flat. That's the default portrait mode — a curved billboard following you at shoulder height with a mood ring + voice ring. The creator may have generated a 3D avatar for the character that hasn't fully rigged yet, or may have set the world to characterMode: 'portrait' intentionally. The 2D portrait is the supported default.

My save game from flat mode loads when I enter VR mid-run. Yes — autosave is shared. Quit a dungeon mid-fight from flat mode, re-enter the same blueprint on a Quest 3, and your run picks up where you left off (HP, position, kills, pickups, all of it).

Performance is choppy on Quest 2. Some realtime-3d worlds with dense scenes push Quest 2's limits. The platform automatically drops resolution + halves particles when it detects frame-time breaches. Try a less-dense world, or upgrade to Quest 3 / Vision Pro.

My character isn't speaking. Check that you've enabled audio for the wilds.ai site in your headset's browser settings. Some Meta Quest builds default audio off for browser tabs.

#Where to get help

• Bug in a specific world's VR mode: comment on the world's page so the creator sees it.
• General VR setup issue: post in the wilds.ai Discord in the #vr channel.
• Want to be among the first to test a new VR feature: opt into the beta program at /app/settings → Beta features.