XReal Air Virtual Desktop with Nebula

August 2nd, 2023 Update

  • Nebula for Windows Beta V2 has been released with additional performance and stability improvements. This guide has been updated to reflect that.

Most VR and AR glasses tend to focus on gaming or entertainment. As of now, the XReal Air is the first pair of glasses that is actually viable as a monitor replacement. Imagine being able to travel with just a laptop, tablet, or even phone and put on glasses and have multiple monitor configurations from an ultra-widescreen to a dual/triple monitor setup with near-perfect text quality and 120hz support.

This article will primarily focus on setting up the Windows Beta and providing solutions to common issues. The glasses are currently compatible with a wide variety from phones and laptops to gaming consoles.

If your having issues with the Windows Nebula Beta, skip down to the troubleshooting section.

MAKE SURE TO TRY RESETTING SAVED MONITOR SETTINGS!

Nebula Setup on Windows

Prerequisites

  1. You laptop needs to have a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort output. These tend to have a lightning symbol or the letter D next to them. Otherwise you will need an adapter. The XReal community has compiled a list of community-tested adapters.
  2. Windows Nebula Beta client. You can request access to the Windows Beta client in the XReal Discord. It usually takes 12–24 hours. (Which can be downloaded from here as well: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C7a3eMzAJwftBwmNuY1V444m9zc1Akel/view?pli=1)

Running the Nebula for Windows Beta

To run Nebula for Windows, open the beta folder and run the file named “Nebula for Windows” or “Nebula for Windows.exe”. You can then pick the virtual monitor setup above and click the start button.

Troubleshooting Performance and Stability

General Recommendations

  • Make sure to have the latest Windows / Driver Updates
  • Reset Windows Monitor Settings ← ****************
    —     In my experience, most issues are resolved by resetting External Monitor Settings in Windows. This is because the beta does not do a good job of configuring/editing existing monitor configurations which sometimes causes the virtual displays to be recognized as a display that they are not (like maybe an old monitor you had used before).

How to Reset Windows Monitor Settings

1. Disconnect the XREAL Air and make sure Nebula is closed.
2. Press Windows + R
3. Type regedit and hit ENTER
4. A window called “Registry Editor” should show.
Locate this three registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\ScaleFactors
4. After finding them right click on each folder and select delete than yes.
5. Open Nebula and re-connect the Air

Mouse Lag

  • Make sure the primary physical monitor (in my case it was my laptop’s monitor) is set to 60hz or 72hz.
  • Try disabling/enabling the integrated GPU on your laptop.

Screen Tearing / Stutter

  • Try to keep an eye on task manager because this could be caused by hardware constraints. If it seems like a hardware bottleneck, try less virtual monitors and/or lower resolutions.
  • Make sure the refresh rate of the physical monitor matches that of the virtual monitor(s) (60–72hz).
USB C Thunderbolt and Displayport Icons
  • If using USB-C, make sure you are using one that supports display out (look for a DisplayPort icon or a Lightning icon)
  • Set Vertical Sync to FAST in NVIDIA Control Panel
  • Adjust other settings in NVIDIA Control Panel. I will share my full list of settings but keep in mind they might not be applicable to everyone:

NVIDIA Control Panel → 3D SettingsImage Scaling: On
Aniostropic Filtering Application-Controlled
Antialiasing – FXAA Off
Antialiasing – Gamma Correction On
Antialiasing – Mode Application-Controlled
Antialiasing – Setting Application-Controlled
Antialiasing – Transparency Off
Automatic Display Switching Off
Background Application Max Frame Rate Off
CUDA – GPUs All
Low Latency Mode Ultra
Max Frame Rate Off
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) Off
OpenGL GDI Compatibility Auto
OpenGL rendering GPU Auto-Select
Power Management Mode Prefer Maximum Perforance
Texture Filtering – Anisotropic On
Texture Filtering – Negative LOD Bias Allow
Texture Filtering – Quality High Performance
Texture Filtering – Trilinear On
Threaded Optimization Auto
Triple Buffering On
Vertical Sync Fast
Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames 2
Vulkan/OpenGL Present Method Auto

NVIDIA Control Panel → 3D SettingsScaling Mode: Aspect Ratio
Perform scaling on: GPU

Virtual Display Color Improvement

  • Some people find the default settings for the virtual monitors to not be as good as when they are in mirroring mode.
  • Virtual Display color settings can be adjusted by going to NVIDIA Control Panel → Adjust Desktop Color Settings
  • Configuration depends on personal preference and whether or not you’re using the lens cover. For me, I prefer to just increase the Contrast and Digital Vibrance sliders from 50% → 60%.

If problems persist:

DOUBLE CHECK

These are the official instructions:

Installation Steps @everyone

➤ 1. Download the package from the Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C7a3eMzAJwftBwmNuY1V444m9zc1Akel/view?usp=sharing

➤ 2. Unpack the file and click the exe ‘Nebula for Windows’; Then double click the ‘Nebula for Windows.exe’. (Please do not delete or edit any file in the unpacked folder.)

➤ 3. Please insert the Air glass according to the guide, and set the glass as an extended screen;

➤ 4. Wait for the software to be launched well. Select Virtual Screen mode(five different modes) and click ‘Start AR Desktop’;

Please note: (1) If you encounter white screens during use, please check if the screen is set to extended screens under the current virtual mode; (2) Please try to reconnect the glass if the image just follows your head.

Recommended Configuration Before Start

  1. When you double-click the .exe, it may request Admin permission, please select ‘Yes’;
  2. After inserting the XREAL Air, please check if it is connected to the discrete graphics card through the USB-C port;
  3. Set the Vertical Sync function of the discrete graphics card to ‘Fast’ through the Nvidia control panel. Also, make sure that it is running in High-Performance mode.