Carmack: VR pinball on Quest 3 beats real tables, as Pinball FX's Unreal switch costs frames
ID_AA_Carmack · x · 2026-10-01
John Carmack and Trista revisited VR pinball on Quest 3 after playing on a physical Polycade cabinet, and both found VR meaningfully better and more fun.
He highlights an interesting wrinkle: Pinball FX long used an efficient custom engine but switched to Unreal Engine for newer games to support a wide range of platforms. The new app is 40x larger and adds tons of customization and environmental effects, yet most tables drop frames even on Quest 3, while the older version kept as PinballFX Classic runs at a low locked resolution but feels more solid.
He notes Quest Game Optimizer can adjust resolution and frame rate to improve the new version.
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