Every year, just a few XR products manage to impress me. Braindance VR has succeeded in this mission: keep reading to discover why I think it could be a revolution in adult entertainment.
[Disclaimer: this blog post talks about an NSFW topic. I will handle the topic in a professional way, and there will be no strong images and no strong sentences, so it is safe to read even in your workplace. But still, if the topic hurts your sensitivity, maybe this is not the right article for you]
[Disclaimer n.2: The company gave me access to their library of content so that I could write this review. I had to watch many of them to ensure I was doing a good review. It’s been hard work, but someone had to do it… I took this one for the team!]
Braindance VR
Braindance VR is a startup offering AR/VR porn experiences. Its peculiarity is that instead of proposing 180 VR videos like its competitors, it hosts volumetric videos of performers. Basically, it lets you see just the actor/actress doing their thing as if they were in front of you in real life. They don’t provide the whole environment, just the volumetric videos of the actors, and you can see them either in VR or in passthrough AR.
The company likes to use terms inspired by Cyberpunk 2077: in the game, “Braindance” is a technology that allows one to record and play back someone’s experience. That’s why the adult performances are called “memories” inside the application and are represented by a cartridge: it is like you are buying that memory of someone else and reliving it in front of you.
Gaussian Splat Videos
Braindance VR offers its experiences as Gaussian Splat videos, or, as some people like to call them, 4DGS (4-Dimensional Gaussian Splats).
Gaussian Splats have seen wide usage in recent years because of their ability to represent a digital element in a realistic way. One of the advantages of splats is that they can, for instance, render transparent elements, or hair, or reflections, which are very hard to do with other methods (like mesh reconstruction, for instance). I’m pretty sure you have already heard about Gaussian Splats, so I won’t go into further details here.
Most products focus on the reconstruction of static environments with Splats: Meta Horizon Hyperscape is one of these, and the results are impressive. When I tried it, I had the impression of really being teleported into another room.
A few companies are focusing on something even more interesting: dynamic Gaussian splat content. Using a lot of cameras (Braindance uses 165!), recording a certain element for some time, and then fusing all this data together, it is possible to create a volumetric video of that element with a photorealistic quality. There are many difficulties with this approach: currently, it requires expensive rigs, a lot of computing power, and the resulting videos are pretty big, but the results can be pretty impressive, as we’ll see in a while.
Braindance VR specializes in creating Gaussian splat videos for adult entertainment. It creates a high-quality reconstruction of actors doing their 18+ performances and offers them for a subscription price. I think it’s a game-changer for the adult entertainment sector. But the same technology can really be a revolution for other forms of entertainment, and also for human connection and socialization in general. Let me explain to you why.
How Braindance VR works
Let me tell you how to use Braindance VR, for instance, on your PC.
Once you pay for your subscription, you download the executable Braindance app from the website. The app has a very stealth icon and name, so it doesn’t look like an adult app installed on your computer, in case someone sneaks into your Start menu. Once you open it, it shows a 2D window where you can log in and then choose the content you prefer among the list of memories. The weird thing is that, while the content is in XR, the app can’t be operated from inside the headset, so you have to constantly take the headset off, choose the content, then put the headset on, and so on. This is not great from the usability side.
Anyway, once in the app, you choose the “memory” that you want, with the memories visualized as cartridges. Once you click on one, you can put on the headset and have access to the content. The videos show one or two actresses recorded while they do their performances. The performances are usually composed of a sequence of a small number (usually 5-7) of short videos (usually 1-2 minutes each). I don’t know why it is not just one long video; I guess for technical reasons, but I haven’t asked.
In the experience, there is nothing else besides the performers and a few props. If you see them in traditional VR, you just see a completely black space with a person in the middle.
The only thing the app shows in XR is a simple 2D UI that lets you:
- Change the current scene
- Seek the video to a different position
- Modify the volume
- Choosing some options (e.g., if you want to see your hands as 3D models)
- Close the current video
The UI is ok-ish, it just does its job and nothing more. It can be moved in space, so that you can move it to a position where it doesn’t disturb your vision of what you want to see (at least as long as all those videos don’t make you become blind, but that’s a topic for another day).
You can use either your hands and your controllers to both move and scale the actors, so that you can put them in a position that is more comfortable for you (e.g., moving them in front of you while you are seated) or that fits better in your space (e.g., putting them in an empty area of your floor).
The best setup for Braindance VR
The best way to enjoy Braindance VR is on PCVR, using the Meta Quest Link runtime. Steam is also fine, but you lose the passthrough feature.
I suggest PCVR because the quality of the splats is much higher on PC, as the GPU can handle much more complex reconstructions. This ensures that the actors are replicated with the highest quality possible. You must have a gaming computer, though, with at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card.
If you are using Quest Link, you can activate passthrough over Link in the Developers feature, so that the application enables passthrough for you. Doing this, you make sure that you can see the actresses in your real room, as if they were there. Having the performance happen in a completely black room feels a bit isolating, while if it happens in front of you, it looks more real. I highly suggest you do this.
Also, my suggestion is to download the “memories” and not stream them. Yes, they are huge (some of them are like 20GB), but this ensures you don’t have streaming compression and artifacts when watching the videos.
You should also start from the latest memories. Braindance has improved a lot in recent times, and the last memories have a much superior quality compared to the previous ones.
Hands-on impressions
(“Hands-on” when speaking about these topics always sounds weird, but… anyway…let’s go on)
If you go with the above settings, the experience is nothing short of mindblowing. The actresses are… just there, in front of you. The realism is really next-level: it is literally like having one other person in front of you in your room doing a sexy show.
There have been many moments in which my brain “clicked,” and I had the true feeling of having a real person in front of me. There have been interesting telling signs, like when I once stood up and tried to walk around the scene, and I took care of dodging the elements that were in it, as if they were really on the floor, and I had to avoid hitting them. The quality of the video is really impressive, and the actress are reconstructed with all their details: you can, for instance, clearly read all the text of their tattoos or see the wrinkles on the skin.
Talking about walking around, the thing that makes this kind of content more believable is that it is fully volumetric. You can stand up and walk around it, get closer, get more distant. You don’t have a fixed point of view; it is like having it in your room. The perception of depth of the elements is much better than with 360 videos. Everything feels more 3-dimensional, I guess because beyond stereoscopy, the brain can use other cues (like parallax) to estimate depth.
Not everything is perfect, though. First of all, the splats do not perfectly reconstruct the people or the objects in the scene: there are always small artifacts in every recording. There are scenes in which the actresses have been mostly recorded from one point of view, and if you go to the other side, you see a lot of artifacts. In general, if you get too close to the people or the objects, you start seeing “the brushes” of the splats. My suggestion is to keep yourself at around 1m from the virtual elements, so you are close enough to feel them there with you, but distant enough to hide most artifacts.
The brain is amazingly good at detecting everything that feels unnatural about people, and that’s why we have the “uncanny valley” effect with the avatars. Here we are far beyond the valley, but still, you can perceive that the person is slightly less fluid than a real person, and their illumination is not coherent with the rest of the room, so you can still feel it’s not a true person. But, as I’ve said, the illusion is very close, and there are special magic moments when the brain truly “clicks” and gets immersed in the scene as if it were a real one. It’s crazy good.
The problem of artifacts is that when they appear, they can be disturbing: for instance, when two elements get too close but without touching (e.g., a hand of one actor getting close to the body of another), you may start seeing some weird red web-like connection between the two, as if the meat of one starts to fuse with the meat of the other. It’s like those horror movies where there are aliens/monsters that can appear like humans, but then there are some small telling signs that they are not truly humans.
Talking about audio, it is spatialized, so you can hear it come from the direction of the actresses, and this helps a lot with immersion.
The Quest experience
Braindance has also developed a very cool technology that lets you stream the video splat. This has huge advantages:
- You can start watching the video immediately, without having to wait for a full download
- You can enjoy the experience on every device, regardless of the graphics card.
This is, in my opinion, the preferred way to enjoy the content on Quest: you open up the Quest browser, go to the Braindance website, log in, and then you can start streaming the content in the catalog. After that, you can watch the videos in full freedom, everywhere you are, with high-quality passthrough. And considering the data that Meta collects on Quest Browser, probably Zuck is watching the video together with you, so you have the added advantage that you don’t feel alone.
This is a truly impressive technology: I tried it, and it works fairly well. I could see the same content I tried on my PC also on my Quest. It allows you to bypass the biggest problem of splats, democratizing their fruition and expanding the market of Braindance beyond just PCVR users.
There’s no free lunch, though. While this is a technical wonder, there are visible limitations to it. The videos appeared a bit less fluid, and especially, the artifacts were much more than on PC. I have a very fast internet connection, but I was still able to see “brush strokes” and “small transparent holes” in the virtual people and the objects in my room. There is also a sort of grid, a screen door effect, over the avatars. Don’t misunderstand me, the quality is still good, but once you try the PCVR version, you notice immediately that this is a worse experience. My brain “clicked” definitely less on Quest: the magic was easier to break.
There is a thing in which the Quest offers a better experience, though: you can change the illumination of the virtual elements. You can choose among some presets like “daylight”, “indoor”, etc, until you find the right illumination that blends better with the environment around you. This is very useful, because, for instance, if you watch this content during the evening, you don’t want to see the girls appear as very bright, because they would feel unrealistic. You want them to be a bit dim and maybe a bit more yellow-ish to simulate artificial lighting. On Quest, you can do that, and it helps a lot in making the virtual elements blend with the real ones, increasing the realism.
(Just to be clear: in the last two paragraphs, I told you about the preferred modes on the two platforms, but you can do as you prefer: you can also stream on PC, and download the splats on Quest using the custom Braindance app. But IMHO, these are not the best choices)
The type of content
Braindance offers mainly content featuring a single female actress. Occasionally, there is content with two actresses. And that’s it. There is no single male (or even a part of him!) in the whole experience. I found this a bit weird, so I tried asking Braindance why, but I got no answer.
Most of the time, the girls look at you and speak with you while they do their things. This is good and bad at the same time, as we’ll see in the next paragraph.
It’s also interesting to follow the evolution of content over time to appreciate the huge work that Braindance did. The first memories are literally stills with just some audio playing over them. Then there were the first very short videos, usually with an ok-ish resolution. The last set of memories is instead made of short videos with impressive quality. 4DGS is a new field, and the company is continuing to experiment and evolve it. We’re literally speaking about the cutting-edge of the use of this technology for video recording of people.
This also means that the next generation of content will be even better than the current one. I can’t wait to see these ones…
A new type of “language”
Every time there is a new technology, it introduces a new language of expression that we should discover to create proper content with it. Everyone always mentions that when movies came, people tried basically to replicate the theater experience with them, until slowly, movies found their own language. The same when we switched from radio to TV. Splats will have a similar path, IMHO: we need to find a way to properly use them.
Currently, what Braindance offers still feels like a “radio in the TV” situation. The content is very similar, most of the time solo experiences with the girl speaking with you and having fun by herself. It is “ok”, but it feels a bit limiting considering the huge possibilities offered by splats. After a while, all the videos start looking the same.
The actresses also don’t react to your actions; they are not aware of the environment when in passthrough; so they’re there with you, but they really only feel like a “memory” you can’t interact with. Also, all content is in AR; there is no VR content, even if splats could also replicate environments very well, as we saw with Horizon Hyperscape.
The experiences are mostly about looking at someone else doing something, however you prefer it. While in a traditional adult movie, the director chooses what to show to elicit sensations in you, here you are totally free to roam around and do what you want. This breaks many rules of traditional filmmaking, and that’s why the directors have to find different and new ways to express themselves. Also, in traditional filmmaking, the video changes points of view to offer some variety, while here, this is not possible, so something else is needed to make it feel less monotonous.
One issue I noticed a lot of time is eye contact: the girls usually try to speak with you by looking at you, as it often happens in 180 VR videos. But there is a big problem: while in videos, it is obvious where you are (you are the camera, after all), here you can move all around the scene, so it feels a bit weird when they try to acknowledge you by looking in one direction, and you are in another. The fun thing is that even if you try to stay in the preset position and so the girl looks in your direction, you notice that her eyes are looking towards you, but not looking at you… She’s a bit like looking into the void. This is a true immersion killer, and probably some AI magic may help with that: for video calls, NVIDIA invented a system that makes your eyes appear as if you are always looking at the camera, for instance.
We’re at the beginning of this technology, so it is normal that the content type may feel a bit underwhelming. Braindance already did a fantastic job on the technical side; now it’s time for them to start doing more creative experiments to understand what the best way is to offer adult entertainment using 4DGS.
We also don’t have to underestimate the role of users to make the field evolve: we now have passthrough AR porn because some people started experimenting with removing the background in videos, and then companies like SLR started implementing it. I think we can have something similar happening here, with users inventing new ways to enjoy this type of content. Just to make an example about my experience: I started putting the virtual performers on my physical floor as expected, but soon I realized I could do much more. For instance, I could move the person closer to me to have a more intimate experience, a bit like in 180 VR POV videos. This had the drawback that she looked like she was flying, but I could be at the center of the action again. Maybe, reading this post, someone from the company will think about shooting some content using this modality.
Volumetric videos vs 180 VR videos
The most popular type of adult content in VR is currently represented by 180 VR videos, which can occasionally be enjoyed in passthrough AR if you remove their background. But what is the best type of content? As usual, it depends.
As my friend Ash wrote in his detailed article, 180 VR videos have the huge advantage that they can use the already existing video pipelines. 180-360 videos in VR have been with us for more than 10 years, and it is already clear how to shoot them. And if you know how to optimize the production, you can do them for a reasonable cost. That’s why they are still the most popular type of adult content.
When you use them in VR, videos can also bring you completely to another place: if you want to live a fantasy in a hospital, you can be there, for instance. They can have a very high resolution, and they show no artifact. You see the people around you very clearly.
But the moment you move your head, the video moves with you, and this completely breaks the magic. This is where splats instead add a lot of realism: you can move your head, you can go around the scene, and it keeps feeling real. This makes it much more immersive. I’ve also noticed that objects feel more “3D”, probably because, beyond stereoscopy, splats can add more depth cues, like, for instance, parallax, while videos can not.
But splats come with a lot of other problems: they are still experimental, so they are expensive to shoot; they result in big, bulky files; there are no clear processes to shoot them. It all feels like a work in progress, like the history of Braindance’s content shows.
Also, visual artifacts on the bodies of people may ruin your experience, and in some cases, may also feel creepy. This doesn’t happen with videos.
They currently offer a different experience. Videos are usually more POV, where you are at the center of the action, and the people around you do something with you. Splats are more like having people doing something in your room, and you just watching.
There is no clear winner. I was impressed the first time I tried an adult VR video in 2014, and I have been impressed trying for the first time an adult splat video in 2026. Probably, I see more potential in Splats long term. The fact that you can not move in a video is a bit of a turn-off: if you move your head, the content stays still, and this can also make your eyes cross a bit. Splats solve this problem. Or alternatively, videos should employ some AI magic to make the content react to users tilting their head.
A game-changer technology
I said in the introduction that Braindance is a game-changer for adult entertainment, and I reiterate it. It offered me an experience for which, for the first time, I could feel that there was an adult performer in the room with me. VR videos are great to put me into the action, but the magic is broken as soon as I move. Here, the immersion is very high, the details of the actress are all visible, the depth cues are realistic… and I really had some moments where the brain was like, “Is she really here with me?”
Also, it allows everyone to focus on the parts of the scene that they like the most. You are not forced to any point of view, so if you want to focus on a particular part of the body you enjoy, you can just move around the scene and look at it. You become the director of the adult movie, in a way, and this is something pretty new.
It is really disruptive technology for the adult entertainment sector. Imagine what this can enable: remote strip clubs may become a thing, because you could really feel like you have a woman or a man dancing for you without having to leave your home. Things like OnlyFans may also evolve to offer a new type of content that feels more intimate and personal. The same holds for Cam girls/boys. Sure, now it is too cutting-edge and expensive, but when prices go down, all of this may become feasible. We are talking about a technology worth many millions of dollars here.
The type of connection this technology can provide is huge and is not only valuable in the adult entertainment sector. Imagine having the opportunity to put your K-pop idol in your room, singing for you. Imagine being able to record an immersive message to leave to your children for when you’re not there anymore. Imagine saving an immersive memory of a great time you had with a friend of yours. Imagine being in another country, but still being able to see your family in the room with you. My head is spinning, and there are dozens of use cases that come to my mind beyond just pr0n.
Memories of the past
If you have been in VR for a long time like me, you may remember that this is basically what Ela Darling tried to do with Kinects in the DK2 times. She was trying to create exactly this, but the technology was not ready at that time!
Prices and availability
You can head to braindancevr.com to find what I’ve just described you. The latest memories also have a sort of short video trailer of them, so you can have a taste of the technology for free. I suggest you have a look, because it’s really impressive.
If you become a fan, you can then pay for a monthly (25€), yearly (€80), or lifetime (€190) subscription.
Final impressions
Gaussian Splats are a game-changer technology in many fields, and Braindance proved that they can bring huge innovations also in adult entertainment. Its cutting-edge 4DGS technology enables, for the first time, to see an adult performer in your room, as if she/he is really there. This is a game-changer for the whole sector, and I believe that when the technology becomes less experimental, it could become much more widespread and find many use cases.
Currently, there are still issues, though. The videos show artifacts, and they all kinda look a bit similar. But it is great to see that there has been an impressive evolution over time, and this makes me very positive about the future.
There is a huge untapped potential about this, so I’ll keep an eye on it… at least until I become blind…